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On April 02 2010 03:00 Trowabarton756 wrote:
Sure we could use some(like...a lot) of reforms to education/systems that were established in the 1950s/1960s(The welfare system, education, etc.) but comparatively to the rest of the world we're well enough off we don't really have as much to worry about.
So once we're 'good enough' there's no reason to get any better? Once we reach D+ on ICCUP, there's no need to practice any more?
So long as there's a possibility for improvement, people will (rightfully) bring attention to it. Saying that 'hey we're doing pretty ok, actually' is not a good attitude for self-improvement.
And here I am, being the ultimate hypocrite talking about the US improving itself, and I moved to Canada.
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I would agree with you on a lot of points, but the fact that America actually subsidizes the defense of foreign nations (like the European nations), leads me to believe that America, even though is very militaristic, and in many ways imperialistic, some nations should be thankful that we actually provide for "the common defense".
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On April 02 2010 04:38 Boblion wrote:Show nested quote +On April 02 2010 04:13 sctechie wrote:On April 02 2010 03:56 nAi.PrOtOsS wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On April 02 2010 03:14 sctechie wrote:Show nested quote +On April 02 2010 03:09 Boblion wrote:On April 02 2010 02:59 BlackJack wrote:
I'm no history buff but I would wager that the last 100 years have been some of the most peaceful years of all of mankind's existence. Spot on bro. Someone else who doesn't know what they're talking about. http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006259.htmlIt's a shame I had to stop lurking at TL after all these years to post in some stupid 'blog' forum post with a bunch of uneducated fools. I don't really think you can come to a conclusion that the last 100 years have been more peaceful then any other 100 year time span throughout history. In the article you linked the author for the most part only talks about a decrease in violence in regards to capital punishment, he mentions Darfur and Iraq but fails to mention WW1, WW2, the Holocaust, the genocies commited by the Ottoman Empire/Turkey, and many many many other violent events. All this article concludes is that there is a decrease in violence with regards to capital punishment. Not that there has been a decrease in violence in the last 100 years. Edit: Also learn some fucking respect, if you don't like blogs or conversing with people who post on blogs dont fucking read it. Here, I did your work for you. Another piece that has an opposing viewpoint. http://mises.org/resources/2674BTW, I wasn't drawing any conclusions. I was responding to some guy that posted a couple of inflammatory pictures as evidence of some larger point that we live in the most violent time in the history of the world. What I was trying to point out, is that the issue is a lot more nuanced than a bunch of pictures from 60 (yes SIXTY) years ago. You want a list + pics of the genocides and wars in the last 15 years ?
That's a good point you make. Is there some amount of violent, graphic images you could link that sway my thoughts... probably not. Was death not just as graphic 500 years ago, what about 1000, 10000? Obviously, I can't show you photographs of the Romans flaying people alive.
I think we can both agree that genocide is never warranted. 
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i like hollywood movies, even if some of the war movies get supported by the us army and change historical facts or at least try to deny the "bad" facts.
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On April 02 2010 02:59 BlackJack wrote:
What do 9 out of 10 people enjoy? A gang rape. Imagine if we just took all of the money from the richest 10% of the country and gave it to everyone else, then 90% of our country would be better off and we would probably score better on polls that rate "happiness" which seems to be the litmus test for how great a country is. It's a shame that the bottom 90% allows the top 10% to keep their money.
Also, everybody knows the oldest and most well known rule of the world is that as long as you are neutral and stay out of everyone's business, then nobody will want to go to war with you. Why do you think nobody ever bothers Canada? Especially in a time with modern democracies, and the United Nations, and great communication, nobody really goes to war anymore. I'm no history buff but I would wager that the last 100 years have been some of the most peaceful years of all of mankind's existence. When is the last time a modern democratic nation has outright invaded another nation without any provacation whatsoever? Over 6 years ago now, right?
Also, this guy was being sarcastic. It was pretty obvious in case that guy who decided to link the pictures of genocide couldn't tell >.>
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Nobody on this forum understands my sarcasm even though I try so hard to make it obvious =[
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On April 02 2010 05:10 BlackJack wrote:
Nobody on this forum understands my sarcasm even though I try so hard to make it obvious =[
I got it BJ. It's ok.
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On April 02 2010 05:10 BlackJack wrote:
Nobody on this forum understands my sarcasm even though I try so hard to make it obvious =[
I thought the gang rape was a dead give away 
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On April 02 2010 05:01 DefMatrixUltra wrote:Show nested quote +On April 02 2010 03:00 Trowabarton756 wrote:
Sure we could use some(like...a lot) of reforms to education/systems that were established in the 1950s/1960s(The welfare system, education, etc.) but comparatively to the rest of the world we're well enough off we don't really have as much to worry about. So once we're 'good enough' there's no reason to get any better? Once we reach D+ on ICCUP, there's no need to practice any more? So long as there's a possibility for improvement, people will (rightfully) bring attention to it. Saying that 'hey we're doing pretty ok, actually' is not a good attitude for self-improvement. And here I am, being the ultimate hypocrite talking about the US improving itself, and I moved to Canada.
I'm right behind you.
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On April 02 2010 01:55 Louder wrote:The charts in this article sum it up nicely. We're a nation so obsessed with war and conquest, even while claiming to adhere to a pacifistic religion and to hold freedom and liberty as tantamount human values. We're a nation so unwilling to care for the sick and the poor that the soldiers we spend so much money on while they're in service are impoverished and without adequate mental or physical care once they're no longer active. We will spend such vast sums of money on what we call defense - which is, quite literally, maintenance of an empire (50,000 troops in Germany? excuse me, is it still the 40s?) - yet bicker over spending fractions of the same amount on keeping American citizens healthy. We let our national infrastructure crumble, we let special interest groups literally buy our elected officials, we allow the wealthy to continually reach new heights of wealth that exceed any ethically justifiable. Our poor and middle class are even convinced by the wealthy that they, too, can some day have a piece of that pie, and so they should protect the interests of the wealthy first, since some day they might join the club. To top it all off, Americans have a superiority orders of magnitude beyond what Napoleon was said to have. Anything European is bad, ignorant, socialist, and we just flat out always know better. I hear people in other countries say things like... we just hate America's leaders, not Americans. I have news for you. About half of the people in this country are JUST LIKE those leaders. So thanks for the generosity of spirit, but it's not justified.
Dude, everything you posted is wrong, countries are a lot worse than us such as North Korea, China, and Russia.
Plus, if we wanted to take over the world, I believe that we could have done the majority of that a long time ago!
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On April 02 2010 03:37 Louder wrote:
Nonsense and assumptions. Who are we protecting Japan and Germany from with 100,000 troops between the two, for example? The notion that if we don't occupy the entire world nobody is safe is fallacy
Defense planning is based on capability, not intent - threats can appear as quickly as they can disappear, as the Soviet Union collapsed. There's also a political meaning to stationing troops overseas as well - any attack on the host country necessarily draws the US into the fray, which can be a significant deterring factor, so it serves as reassurance of US commitment. In any case, having overseas bases allows us to react to any crisis that may or may not develop. You'll also note that we are in Japan and Germany with the consent of their governments, so obviously they feel like they're getting something out of it.
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On April 02 2010 05:19 Housemd wrote:Show nested quote +On April 02 2010 01:55 Louder wrote:The charts in this article sum it up nicely. We're a nation so obsessed with war and conquest, even while claiming to adhere to a pacifistic religion and to hold freedom and liberty as tantamount human values. We're a nation so unwilling to care for the sick and the poor that the soldiers we spend so much money on while they're in service are impoverished and without adequate mental or physical care once they're no longer active. We will spend such vast sums of money on what we call defense - which is, quite literally, maintenance of an empire (50,000 troops in Germany? excuse me, is it still the 40s?) - yet bicker over spending fractions of the same amount on keeping American citizens healthy. We let our national infrastructure crumble, we let special interest groups literally buy our elected officials, we allow the wealthy to continually reach new heights of wealth that exceed any ethically justifiable. Our poor and middle class are even convinced by the wealthy that they, too, can some day have a piece of that pie, and so they should protect the interests of the wealthy first, since some day they might join the club. To top it all off, Americans have a superiority orders of magnitude beyond what Napoleon was said to have. Anything European is bad, ignorant, socialist, and we just flat out always know better. I hear people in other countries say things like... we just hate America's leaders, not Americans. I have news for you. About half of the people in this country are JUST LIKE those leaders. So thanks for the generosity of spirit, but it's not justified. Dude, everything you posted is wrong, countries are a lot worse than us such as North Korea, China, and Russia. Plus, if we wanted to take over the world, I believe that we could have done the majority of that a long time ago!
Saying there are examples of worse behavior is not an argument, it's deflection.
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On April 02 2010 05:14 Louder wrote:Show nested quote +On April 02 2010 05:01 DefMatrixUltra wrote:On April 02 2010 03:00 Trowabarton756 wrote:
Sure we could use some(like...a lot) of reforms to education/systems that were established in the 1950s/1960s(The welfare system, education, etc.) but comparatively to the rest of the world we're well enough off we don't really have as much to worry about. So once we're 'good enough' there's no reason to get any better? Once we reach D+ on ICCUP, there's no need to practice any more? So long as there's a possibility for improvement, people will (rightfully) bring attention to it. Saying that 'hey we're doing pretty ok, actually' is not a good attitude for self-improvement. And here I am, being the ultimate hypocrite talking about the US improving itself, and I moved to Canada. I'm right behind you.
You could start with moving out of Texas. We do agree on the Canada thing though, beautiful country. Vancouver is my first choice if we're moving.
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I live in vancouver and I hate it.
I always feel...wet here. The grey sky is so depressing. Go to victoria every vancouverite wishes he could live there.
edit: I don't even know if Canada is better than America...purely because of geography. Highly socialist countries like Switzerland own everybody.
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Come to Saskatchewan if you're jumping the sinking ship that is the USA. I swear everyone here is so far left its insane.
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On April 02 2010 05:36 ShaperofDreams wrote:
I live in vancouver and I hate it.
I always feel...wet here. The grey sky is so depressing. Go to victoria every vancouverite wishes he could live there.
edit: I don't even know if Canada is better than America...purely because of geography. Highly socialist countries like Switzerland own everybody.
Well, I live in South Carolina. I'll trade you a bit of cloudy, cool weather for our blistering summers.
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Today was a good year and you could see the sun 20 days outside of summer lol.
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Whatever this article is supposed to be, the answer is : cause humans suck - no matter if you are American, Asian, European. I figured that people will never fix something like world famine, destroying tropical forests, innocent people dying even if it was in our power. yeah that's right. Only thing i would add to the US thing is that americans seem little bit "brainwashed" to me, especially young generation. When 15 year old guy tells me that no country should fuck with the US or they can fucking blow it with nuclear weapons- doesn't seem ok to me.
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Epic April 1st troll. GJ man.
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On April 02 2010 05:30 Louder wrote:Show nested quote +On April 02 2010 05:19 Housemd wrote:On April 02 2010 01:55 Louder wrote:The charts in this article sum it up nicely. We're a nation so obsessed with war and conquest,even while claiming to adhere to a pacifistic religion and to hold freedom and liberty as tantamount human values. We're a nation so unwilling to care for the sick and the poor that the soldiers we spend so much money on while they're in service are impoverished and without adequate mental or physical care once they're no longer active. We will spend such vast sums of money on what we call defense - which is, quite literally, maintenance of an empire (50,000 troops in Germany? excuse me, is it still the 40s?) - yet bicker over spending fractions of the same amount on keeping American citizens healthy. We let our national infrastructure crumble, we let special interest groups literally buy our elected officials, we allow the wealthy to continually reach new heights of wealth that exceed any ethically justifiable. Our poor and middle class are even convinced by the wealthy that they, too, can some day have a piece of that pie, and so they should protect the interests of the wealthy first, since some day they might join the club. To top it all off, Americans have a superiority orders of magnitude beyond what Napoleon was said to have. Anything European is bad, ignorant, socialist, and we just flat out always know better. I hear people in other countries say things like... we just hate America's leaders, not Americans. I have news for you. About half of the people in this country are JUST LIKE those leaders. So thanks for the generosity of spirit, but it's not justified. Dude, everything you posted is wrong, countries are a lot worse than us such as North Korea, China, and Russia. Plus, if we wanted to take over the world, I believe that we could have done the majority of that a long time ago! Saying there are examples of worse behavior is not an argument, it's deflection.
Dude, why did you even come to America in the first place (or your parents)???? Even if your ancestors we born here, I need to ask you a question.
IF America is so bad, why don't you just move.
Also, if we were a nation "so unwilling to care for the sick", what about all the nursing homes across America, the 988 (or something like that) billion dollar health care plan we just passed.
Also, "vast amounts of money to make an empire," every country wants to spend its money on protecting its citizens are ensuring that they are stronger and tougher for all the threats that they face.
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