What were they thinking?

[Napoleon]

I just read that as part of getting Beijing ready for the Olympics, China hired to design the grand boulevard that runs to the “birdsnest” stadium none other then Albert Speer Jr.

I mean WTF! Didn't they figure that would raise comparisons with 1936?


http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/the-starting-line-from-jacques-rogge-to-albert-speer-jr-to-leo-messi-to-nude-britons-the-olympics-are-almost-here/

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article876227.ece

[cameraman]

Oh please, he was born in 1940, he isn't a Nazi. It would make no more sense to ban the entire German team because their (grand)parents may have been Nazis too.

[Napoleon]

Oh please, he was born in 1940, he isn't a Nazi. It would make no more sense to ban the entire German team because their (grand)parents may have been Nazis too.

No joke, that is not the point. By hiring a guy whose father was tasked with giving Berlin broad boulevards and huge public buildings to, well help give your authoritarian country with, nominally, a form of government often compared to the Nazis, to help build broad boulevards and great buildings is something only a PR moron would do. They are just inviting pictures like this in Olympic coverage.

Here is an Albert Speer plan for Berlin.

http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/images/Bild%20146III-373%20copy.jpg

Speer on the right

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_yYouOz2C4C0/R6vlVE7vHtI/AAAAAAAAAmY/00QCXalPpwA/allies-bomb-northern-nazi-germany-44.jpg

[Napoleon]

A PS, for those not familiar with Speer. He became the minister of armaments in Germany during the war and some feel that he may have single handedly keep the German effort afloat for several years beyond which the other Nazi’s could have otherwise done. Slave labor was used in the effort. His sentence at Neurnburg was perhaps the most controversial, only getting 20 years instead of hung, as many thought he should have.

[emjaya]

Nina Khrushcheva's view. (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2008/08/04/2003419333) :\

[cameraman]

This is idiotic beyond words you have the granddaughter of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev slagging the son of Albert Speer for the sins of his father and complaining about the design of this:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii35/Cynops/oly7800183.png

which is about as far from the design of Berlin as you can get.

[oddlycalm]

You just can't make this stuff up. :gomer:

oc

[TravelGal]

This is idiotic beyond words you have the granddaughter of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev slagging the son of Albert Speer for the sins of his father and complaining about the design of this:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii35/Cynops/oly7800183.png

which is about as far from the design of Berlin as you can get.

Irony hangs heavy in the air. As does just about everything else in Beijing. That shot doesn't look much like the area surrounding the birds nest--at least not the way it looked a year ago when the roads and multi-lane highways encroached.


You just can't make this stuff up. :gomer:

oc

Aint dat da troot. :gomer:

[Indy]

Clearly this is a spurious thread, as the Chinese government is as far from a tyrannical national socialist system as one can get. :laugh:

[Sean Malone]

They left out the smog in that picture.

[Michaelhatesfans]

Nina Khrushcheva's view. (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2008/08/04/2003419333) :\

I wonder if she beat her shoe on the desk while she typed that?

[Napoleon]

I wonder if she beat her shoe on the desk while she typed that?

. . . With Tricia Nixon

[Gnam]

Hijack... but in the "what were they thinking?" category:

Russia vs Georgia: Invasion at 11. link (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-08-08-question-answer_N.htm)

The US State department should send the Georgians a copy of Red Dawn. Are their athletes competeing against each other at any of the events? :awkward:

[G.]

Hijack... but in the "what were they thinking?" category:

Russia vs Georgia: Invasion at 11. kill da link

The US State department should send the Georgians a copy of Red Dawn. Are their athletes competeing against each other at any of the events? :awkward:What's with the virus-y link? Scans your computer and won't let you say no.

Do I need to douche the puter now?