Comments by "etherdog" (@etherdog) on "Sabbatical" channel.

  1. Fact of the matter, the Mongols were not genocidal. If you broke your word or rebuffed their advances, they would wipe out your city. But they also nurtured artists, artisans, and scientists, and people of all or no religions, and economically the distribution of wealth was pretty flat.
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  2. If you actually get to where you ought to go, I will be very surprised. I lived in Turkmenistan for 8 weeks and got "arrested" (detained) twice even though I had a "Get Out of Jail Free" letter from the Foreign Minister because we were developing a curriculum to teach Turkmen.
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  3. My wife is part Ukrainian, part Russian. I met her in Ashgabat. I was "arrested" in Kona Kassir, Turkmenistan, on the border with Iran and held under "house arrest" for two hours, even though I had signed papers from the Foreign Minister giving us permission to be where we were, which happened to be near an air force base that was heavily used during the Afghan war. To-date, I've never paid a bribe in any country, but I haven't been as inconvenienced as you were. Don't let the fuckers win, Tommy!
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  4. Most people in the US might consider this as a parody. Oriental Pearl went to some of the same neighborhoods and Alyssa found basically the same 'threat level". To answer your question why the US can't be as safe, it is because the Supreme Court majority skipped school when grammar was taught about the difference between dependent and independent clauses. Properly, if you are a member of a "well regulated militia" (meaning you train frequently, review safety, exercise restraint, and do so under the purview of your state), you can bear arms as you have proven you can do so safely.
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  5. I liked this--you went to some cool places (open apartment, etc) but here is the the thing that needs addressing (as someone who has worked on a couple of language projects). The equivalent of "jozu" in any language is NOT an expression of admiration for how well you speak the language, but that you made an ATTEMPT to speak and understand the language. The polite response would be "I am trying to get better" rather than calling them out for lying about your ability. It has been 3 full years since any foreigners have ventured very far from their locked-down neighborhoods, so of course the locals are going to be curious.
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