On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 13:12:37 GMT, "Blueskies" wrote:

:
:.
wrote in message ...
: On Sat, 06 Dec 2003 21:40:49 -0600, Rich Ahrens wrote:
:
: :Eric Miller wrote:
:
: :Ronnie?
:
: He worked his way up. 16 years as president of a large, powerful
: union before he ran for office. Popular governor, successful
: President (unless you think the end of communism was a bad thing.)
:
:
:What is China, a republic? The only thing that Ronnie did was out-spend the USSR, a good thing don't get me wrong, but
:certainly not the end of communism...

Outspending the USSR was a big part of it, but not the whole thing.
Being willing to use the military was another. Invading Grenada seems
like nothing in retrospect, but we were coming off Carter, who's only
use for a military was... well basically nothing. And Reagan was
only 5 years removed from the fall of S Viet Nam. We were cowed by
everyone at that point, we wouldn't even defend our people in Iran.
Reagan turned our national outlook. He was the one who walked away in
Iceland.

China's a dictatorship, with a LOT of state owned businesses
(especially the People's Liberation Army - it's unbelievable how much
of the stuff you buy in Toys R Us is made by the PLA) but they're no
longer communist. They say so themselves.

The only countries that are still communist are Cuba and North Korea.
A bunch of SEA countries are wierd mixes - Viet Nam, Laos, Burma (we
still offically call it Burma). They're like China - one party
dictatorships, with a lot of the production and property belonging to
the government. But they no longer teach Marx, Lennin and Mao.