My favorite Swimming Hole Now a Stagnant Cesspool

I just read an update on my once-favorite swimming hole. It was a spring located far in the mountains behind a Raglai minority village called Phan Dung (east Binh Thuan Province). Apparently the new dam is now 'finished' and they've discovered the water has all gone stagnant and undrinkable--and don't think it will get better. Along the way a whole pristine jungle valley was destroyed, villagers displaced, and I suspect ancient Cham archaeological sites destroyed. Progress in Vietnam...

What they have now (above): stagnant water source, unsightly dam with shitty construction, destroyed forest and crumbled hillsides.

What they had before (above): pristine jungle, pure water source for drinking (and swimming). Heaven. Gone forever.

Thanks commies.

Endowed by Their Creator: Thoughts on Ho Chi Minh's Independence Declaration

Ho Chi Minh's Crypt. His preserved corpse has been on display there in a glass case since his death in 1969. Occasionally it comes off the shelf for touch-ups, with rumored trips to see Moscow specialists in embalming.

"All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

An insect collection with a bat

So Ho Chi Minh began his Declaration of Independence Speech for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 2 September, 1945 in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square.

A salmon mounted on a plaque

His choice of opening statements is profound, not only because he quotes the Declaration of Independence of the United States, a future mortal enemy, but also because it betrays his own ignorance and incomprehension of the values expressed in America’s founding document.

A poorly taxidermied squirrel

The profound importance of this line from America’s declaration is not, as Ho Chi Minh misunderstood it, the establishment (or the bestowing by the government) of these three fundamental rights.

A frozen Butterball Turkey

Rather, the unprecedented significance of this statement is the acknowledgement of the very source of these rights—almighty God—rather than any man or ideology.

Frozen fish in a supermarket

Ho Chi Minh’s communist behemoth rations these rights (or rather ‘privileges’ since the regime believes they can be abused by the common masses) in proportion to one’s obedience to Marxist institutions and their ideology. In contrast, the founding fathers of America believed that no man has the power to bestow or rescind these rights. They are endowed by our Creator.

A jar of pickles

Ho Chi Minh’s blind ignorance to this glorious principle is evidenced by the fact he omits the opening refrain of this statement: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” The writers of America’s declaration of independence were acknowledging the pre-existence of these ordained rights as a gift from the Almighty. Marx, Lenin and Ho Chi Minh himself can no more grant Life, Liberty or the Pursuit of Happiness than Jefferson, Adams or Franklin. The wisdom of the latter three is that they knew this. 

A macaque in a jar of rice wine