Emperor's lock of hair anyone?

@Tall:

By the way,….this is reported as the World’s Tallest Flagpole, and it is so large,….

Actually this is North America’s tallest flagpole. I believe the tallest in the world are in North and South Korea.

Either way, very impressive and inspiring. Thanks for the read Paul.

Fantastic.
I like how HG Wells was not bothered what happened to his soldiers.  How very WW1General of him!

Yeah, look at that Jesus fellow: He had a beard and was a layabout, beatnik and rabble-rouser.  They had to execute him to keep the peace.

Beards were banned in Albania altogether under Communism.

In 15th century England facial hair was considered effeminate; it was only introduced by Henry VIII who copied the beard worn by the King of France. His courtiers all copied the fashion, and he then promptly introduced a Beard Tax on anything over 2 days growth.

Another type of beard coming back into fashion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsO7u0iZWCU

BUMP

LMAO

I think most of the backing came due to two facts:
(1) the USSR needed reforms, that was obvious.
Still, they probably wanted a long term leader that could be influenced => a younger one, after the two short reigns of Andropov and what-was-his-name… Probably, the influentials wanted some change, but surely not that much that it would threaten their power-base, one of the reasons for the coup that failed due to Jelzins help for Gorbachev.
(2) The general secretary and all the other positions he fills made him the most powerful man in the USSR. Probably, whoever put Gorbachev into place, underestimated him. Pretty much the same underestimation that Hitler faced when he was appointed Chancellor, but luckily Gorbachev used that to reform positively, and i consider the new freedom of information, the right to ask wether the party is right and that the crucial reform.

So, I don’t think that there was “real” backing, i believe Gorbachev was kind of a compromise candidate, kind of a makeshift. Of course, once he was into power, you ccouldn’t remove instantly, that would have meant that the party made a mistake (which was not “allowed” before Gorbachev). And he was clever enough to stay into power, and use his popularity at the beginning (which soon, after the economy started to collapse openly, was reduced to more or less nothing) to enforece the reforms.

IL, this is 2002.

Well apparently bringing old threads back is in vogue.