PEOPLE CONTROL

[Roy]

https://news.yahoo.com/5-u-tourists-died-dominican-210746982.html

From the [above linked] comment section.....

"Please make sure to visit our natural wonder in our homeland, such as...

Las Vegas and staying at 15 different Casinos in one month"

Lots to see, including riding the various monorails and Doppelmayr cable cars.

[HONDO74]

Las Vegas and staying at 15 different Casinos in one month

Lots to see, including riding the various monorails and Doppelmayr cable cars.

Roy, I think you have me confused with someone else. I haven't said anything about Las Vegas. The last time I was in Vegas was 1967

[sarge]

A different view for what its worth.

I have enjoyed living in and visiting other parts of the world and wouldn't trade the experiences. For every violent place (and I've been compelled to visit a few) there are a hundredfold wonders to behold and the most delightful people to meet and, if you are lucky, live amongst. In many cases one returns to the US with a real appreciation of how fortunate you are to live here. And yes, in other cases one comes back for an appreciation of how others do things and can't help but think the same idea could be brought here if only we just got out more.

I sometimes wonder whether people avoid it simply because they are afraid to discover there are other countries that can compare in spite of the patrio-rhetoric served up since birth in America, an educational and social doctrine that does a great dis-service by stifling curiosity about the world and peoples around us. Live in another country, with mouth shut and mind open if you can, and the rewards are legion; what you learn of others is a gift readily proffered and very rarely accepted, and you carry that enlightenment for life.

Some of the best experiences were off the tourist path. I do not enjoy Paris for example, but Normandy is fantastic especially visiting the sites of the D-day landings (having been in the 101st myself didn't hurt. Grin!) For every obnoxious Parisianne there is an honest cheerful Norman. A starry night in the Karoo, you've never seen a three-dimensional sky to match it. Guatemala City on a Sunday morning when the boulevards are closed to motor traffic and the whole city is out for a promenade after church. Oh, just the street food! The Bavarian mountains on a snowy day, going up to the monastery atop the Kreuzberg where the monks have just tapped the Christmas beer. They brew some of the very best beer in the world there and raise St. Bernards. Any tourist can see the Pyramids, but to fly low around them in a Blackhawk sitting with your legs out the door is a vision you carry for life.

It's not to say there aren't places of beauty in America, but Vegas? Really? How about walking the Antietam battlefield on a misty August morning. Nothing spookier. Being lucky enough to be out in the Mojave near Barstow the morning after one of the very rare rains. Flowers everywhere but only for the briefest time. Taking a ship up the C&D canal to Philly, then spending the night of July 4 hitting the little waterfront bars. Travel down the Mississippi, or a three day canoe/fishing/camping expedition on the Tennessee. The Berkshires in the fall. Sorry, New England absolutely trounces Florida. Just going where the tourist bureaus have the money to tell you to visit with everyone else isn't exploring.

Last random thought. Have you ever taken notice of the beauty or interest near you? I can take a Triumph Spit (with the tent down) out my drive and in five minutes be deep in the ridges, mountains, narrows, and bottoms just to my west, turkeys, foxes, deer to see; the apple orchard roads, little twisty things just a joy to shoot round. Look up and a couple bald eagles are soaring about. The trees of the Micheaux remind me of the Ardennes, a parallel you wouldn't draw if you have never seen the Ardennes, and of the forests on the slopes of the Berks in Western Massachusetts. The Appalachian Trail goes through here, just indescribable beauty only five minutes from my own home. How many of us live near such places yet never appreciate the wonder just outside our own door?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Last random thought. Have you ever taken notice of the beauty or interest near you? I can take a Triumph Spit (with the tent down) out my drive and in five minutes be deep in the ridges, mountains, narrows, and bottoms just to my west, turkeys, foxes, deer to see; the apple orchard roads, little twisty things just a joy to shoot round. Look up and a couple bald eagles are soaring about. The trees of the Micheaux remind me of the Ardennes, a parallel you wouldn't draw if you have never seen the Ardennes, and of the forests on the slopes of the Berks in Western Massachusetts. The Appalachian Trail goes through here, just indescribable beauty only five minutes from my own home. How many of us live near such places yet never appreciate the wonder just outside our own door?

You know I have family property just the next county over from you. I drive over the Timmons on 641 periodically just for the view and scenery.

[sarge]

And another thing!

Aren't you guys falling victim to a bunch of hype to make the Americans feel good about themselves here? Five tourists since April? Five out of how many thousands of rich fat tourists bitching at poor Manuel because the WiFi in the hotel is down and they can't post pictures of themselves on effing Faecesbook?

Hardly a statistically dangerous place justifying a mass cower behind the US borders in fear. I guess the number of tourists killed in accidents on the highway into Orlando since April makes Disney a "third world" shithole, and I'm sure more than five have gotten hauled out the alleys of Vegas on a gurney with their face covered over since April.

Five since April. What a frightening crisis. Thank God the media has brought this to our attention!

Oh, by the way, some of the best five star hotels are found in "third world" countries. Grin!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

..............bitching at poor Manuel because the WiFi in the hotel is down and they can't post pictures of themselves on effing Faecesbook?

Reminds me of my last visit to Sarasota,

[sarge]

You know I have family property just the next county over from you. I drive over the Timmons on 641 periodically just for the view and scenery.

Absolutely! It constantly amases me how people get so used to where they live they can't see the opportunities right next door. I'm just as guilty; we only just visited the new Gettysburg Battlefield visitor centre last year for the first time. Eisenhower's home is fifteen minutes away, and I've never seen it.

I drive these little sportscars around here on almost a daily basis, and I never tire of my surroundings. Years now of the same three or four circuits out from the house and it never gets old, neither the cars themselves nor the surroundings.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Eisenhower's home is fifteen minutes away, and I've never seen it.

Walked by it for 4 years,

[rogruth]

What Sarge and Rufus said above is why I have never felt any need to travel outside the U.S.

[Roy]

The Battle of Rio San Gabriel took place in my hometown. The closest I've gotten is Legg lake. They used to run the steam locomotive from the Venice Miniature Railway there. There are really a lot of historic places in Southern California, which I've never seen. You could literally spend a lifetime exploring such places. KCET's Huell Howser did.

[E7]

I drive over the Timmons on 641 periodically just for the view and scenery.

Do it in the FALL!!!

[HONDO74]

The Hong Cong protestors are in for a big surprise in the near future when the communist party in Beijing sends in the troupes and tanks like they did during the pro Democracy protest in 1989 Tiananmen Square. These people are misguided in believing they have any freedom. If China lets them get away with it they will look weak and then others with protest.

They will be sending these people to those re-education centers.

And what will the world do about it. Not a damn thing. China has become way to powerful with their military. And no I don't want us to be involved in it. I have said several time we need to stop being the world police force.

[rogruth]

The Hong Cong protestors are in for a big surprise in the near future when the communist party in Beijing sends in the troupes and tanks like they did during the pro Democracy protest in 1989 Tiananmen Square. These people are misguided in believing they have any freedom. If China lets them get away with it they will look weak and then others with protest.

They will be sending these people to those re-education centers.

And what will the world do about it. Not a damn thing. China has become way to powerful with their military. And no I don't want us to be involved in it. I have said several time we need to stop being the world police force.

Isn't this type of thing why we "fought the spread of communism" in Vietnam ?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The Hong Cong protestors are in for a big surprise in the near future when the communist party in Beijing sends in the troupes and tanks like they did during the pro Democracy protest in 1989 Tiananmen Square. These people are misguided in believing they have any freedom. If China lets them get away with it they will look weak and then others with protest.

Well, yes & no, and we'll see what happens in Hong Kong. Things are a lot different than in 1989. Last thing China likes to have the world watch when they decide to send in troops and tanks anywhere - they like to deny it ever happened, yet now everyone sees everything.

If they send in the troupes however we can only hope that they do not send in the jugglers and acrobats along with the clowns.

One reason that they tolerate HK is that is remains a major financial center.

Isn't this type of thing why we "fought the spread of communism" in Vietnam ?

Not really, but that was the song & dance that was sold. There has yet to be a true communist country on the planet. There have been a lot of dictatorships and oligarchies; only problem with these is that they were not "ours".

[rogruth]

Rufus,
That's why I used " ".