November 9, 2014

"Nothing and no-one can stand in the way of freedom."

"We're the happiest people in the world and we're thrilled that you brought the Berlin Wall down 25 years ago."

Festivities at the site of the wall. The music played was Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."

20 comments:

rhhardin said...

Ode to Joy was what set of the nuclear bomb in Get Smart (2008).

Acoustic triggering.

rhhardin said...

Bermont Club notes the absence of Thatcher, Reagan, and assorted players from the memories.

It was all just about being nice, in today's memory.

rhhardin said...

Iowahawk said that the fall of the Berlin Wall shows the need for infrastructure spending.

Wince said...

Berlin Wall: Thousands of balloons released to mark fall

Some 8,000 helium balloons have been released into the night sky over Germany's capital at the culmination of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Thirty years ago, the Nuclear Freeze "movement" and...

99 Luftballons (1984)

This was one of the songs in the '80s to make a point about the brinkmanship and paranoia/hysteria surrounding the issue of war. The song talks about Nena and the listener buying 99 Balloons in a shop and letting them go, for fun. These balloons show up on the radar as unidentified objects and both sides scramble planes and go to full alert to counteract a perceived nuclear attack, when in fact it is the most childlike of things, a bunch of balloons.

Unknown said...

Mr Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!!!

Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul freed the enslaved people of Eastern Europe. Lefties, think what made them slaves.

Laslo Spatula said...

Germans do not actually understand freedom, never have. There is only 'East' and 'Less-East' Germany.

Laslo Spatula said...

People in the future will be quoting me on this line. It is 'Laslo' with an 's' not a 'z'. Thank you.

Drago said...

The lefties are not going to like this thread.

Which is why they continue their (typical) rewriting of history to whitewash leftist support for totalitarian communist governments.

http://www.redstate.com/2014/10/21/rewriting-berlin-wall/

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/11/07/berlin_wall_fall_25_anniversary_reagan_bush_germany_merkel_cold_war_free_market_capitalism?utm_content=buffer7abad&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Drago said...

Laslo is occupying the Betamax Chair for Advanced Humor this evening.

RecChief said...

no pictures of Truman and the Berlin Airlift in that article? Or Kennedy at the Wall? Thatcher? Or Reagan?

Did Ezra Klein Voxsplain this?

Darrell said...

Of course, good Americans rewrote Nina's lyrics as "99 red balloons...Couldn't hold the air that's in my head."

Darrell said...

They honored Gorbachev today, of course. The guy that was still trying to keep the Soviet balls in the air. The fucking Europeans were too stupid to save.

chickelit said...

Gorbachev should have egg on his face and forehead for not mentioning Reagan and Thatcher.

richard mcenroe said...

Well, Salon's apparently not to thrilled about it, given that "mandatory patriotism" snivel they published today.

Achilles said...

Only progressives could think honoring Gorbachev and omitting Thatcher, John Paul and Reagan on the day the wall fell is appropriate. It isn't old enough to be forgotten yet. They will not be allowed to rewrite history.

rcommal said...

There's no accounting for historical revisionism, and that includes for everything.

George M. Spencer said...

I was there and rented a sledgehammer from a gypsy (?) to strike off chunks of the thing. A good feeling.

On about the same day Billy Graham spoke in the mist as evening fell at the Brandenburg Gate.

David said...

People stand successfully in the way of freedom all the time. Freedom is not some nice state that happens because it should happen. Mostly it has required immense effort and sacrifice to keep the bad guys from winning. And that is in times when it's reasonably clear who the "bad guys" are. Nowadays we seem to have trouble figuring that one out.

David said...

Note that Merkel was not the person to say that no-one can stand in the way of freedom. She knows better.

Why is it that England and Germany have produced Thatcher and Merkel as political leaders while we have produced with Hillary Clinton? The difference is profound. Bad on us if we elect Hillary.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

David said...
People stand successfully in the way of freedom all the time. Freedom is not some nice state that happens because it should happen.


Yes, most of recorded history shows people successfully standing in the way of freedom--the fact that this is not the default for a large part of the world today is only so due to relatively recent work and sacrifices. It is a shame those struggles are so soon forgotten (and deliberately slighted).