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The only copper you find 'just lying around' is copper being used for power or data transmission.

What about monuments? http://www.infoukes.com/shevchenkomuseum/Monument_Theft.htm

You can stubbornly call it Ukraine in all cases, but I prefer to follow the spoken english aid of adding a definite article to precurse the yoo sound, for instance, after a preceding oo as in "to the Ukraine". Per proper English pronounciation, the 'the' in this case is with a long 'ee' as with 'thee'. ...

Great, I will take your suggestions into account the next time I go to the Utah or to the Uganda.

Regarding your other examples, they are all correct except Yucatan. The article is used for the Yucatan Peninsula, but not for the Mexican state.

Other posters have mentioned a very good reference on why Ukraine mistakenly got an article, why the use of the article is going away, and in when it is correct to use the article in the name of a country: http://www.infoukes.com/faq/the_ukraine/.

Sometimes it helps to give a reference: http://www.infoukes.com/faq/the_ukraine/

you haven't given good counterexamples of socialist economic policies equalling millions of deaths

What are you talking about?! The forced collectivization of farms in the Ukraine --- an economic policy dictated by the socialist principle that the means of production should be owned collectively, rather than by individual wealthy owners, and an integral part of the first "Five Year Plan" for the Soviet economy -- directly causes a famine in which conservative estimates suggest five million people starved to death in a few short years, perhaps as much as 25% of the population of the Ukraine. Here's an account with grim eyewitness accounts and some statistics for you, but I'm sure if you Google around you'll find much, much more. This is very well known 20th century history, for God's sake.

I don't recall mentioning National Socialist Germany, so Godwin's Law says you lose the argument I guess, ha ha. But with respect to your assertion that the USSR was not a socialist country -- I'm not sure what to say. This is a pretty unusual opinion. They certainly said they were good socialists. They used the word "socialist" a lot to describe themselves. They spoke the same principles of social good over individual freedom as any other socialist. Why not take them at their word? I realize one doesn't want to give any individual who calls himself a "socialist" credit for really being one, because some people are nuts. But you can't be saying an entire 240 million people are nuts, can you? So if they called themselves socialists, who are you and I to disagree?

Maybe what you're saying is that socialism has evolved or something, or that there are other brands of it that aren't quite as poisonous as what was practised in the USSR or China. Fair enough. I'm just pointing out, though, that the label has an evil sound for millions of people. If I believed in New, Improved Socialism(TM), with extra whitening power, I'd probably just change the name or something. It's a terrible legacy to live down. You might as well open a steak restaraunt and advertise it as the "Freshly-Slaughtered Animal Eatery."

perhaps the evidence is obvious because the cheaters in the Ukraine are used to a heavy-handed lack of sublety

Perhaps. But the point stands -- there is no credible evidence of substantial election fraud in America. But there is plenty of it in Ukraine.

BTW, the name of a country is written without the "the"...

You forgot the Chernobyl disaster

I totally agree with you on the danger stigmatism, but the suffering of the Chornobyl disaster was definately a LOT worse than you claim (for a large part due to the utterly stupid reaction of the USSR government...). I suggest you'd read this to find out that even the lowest estimates on the death toll are at least 3 times those 3000 people.

Anyone up for recording this and making it available?

Back in 1990 I caught a photo exhibit by Igor Kostin in Baltimore, MD. He was the first photographer in the area after the accident and toured it afterwords, taking many pictures which are still very disturbing to remember.

It's remarkable how optimistic he is on nuclear power, even with his concerns of safety above finanancial or even political concerns.

Many people probably don't understand from her broken English, but she took this picture IN FRONT OF THE SARCOPHAGUS OF CHORNOBYL!!!!
Man. I cannot even begin to imagine.
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