Reply #42: I was in Prague 3 weeks ago. [View All]

[onager]

And happy that I missed Condosleeza's visit. I was on vacation from my job in Egypt, as a lot of you know.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Prague's very direct experience of Russia extending fraternal socialist greetings to the Czechs--spring 1968, when comrades from Poland, East Germany and Russia visited the city. In tanks.

The American radar (NOT missile) system does not seem to be very popular in the Czech Republic. But being ordered around by Russia is a hell of a lot less popular.

More than one citizen expressed it to me in words like this: "We spent seven years under the Nazis and 40 years under the Communists. We don't like being told what to do."

They recently told the Pope to take a hike, too. The Vatican would like to take over the gorgeous, ancient St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle. The Czech Republic, one of the most atheistic nations in Europe, told the Vatican that the Cathedral is currently operated as a museum and they would like to keep it that way, thank you very much.

If you go to Prague, don't miss the Museum Of Communism. It's located above a McDonald's, beside a gambling casino, and across the street from a Bennetton. In case you wondered how that whole "historical inevitability" thing turned out.

The Communist propaganda posters altered by local artists are a real hoot:

You couldn't buy laundry soap. But you could get your brain washed.

It was a time of shiny, happy people. The shiniest of all worked in the uranium mines.