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Which direction are things headed in?

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If Iran nuked a US city it would take far longer then 20 minutes to deliver a missle payload.
The amount of arms needed to level a semi VERY-mountainous country would produce enough fallout to poison the northern hemisphere's food supply and massive relocation of urban zones to the comparitivly underdeveloped southern hempisphere along with massive relocation projects of the majority of the worlds industry.. Starting with insects that pollinate (bees+ambient radiation do not mix.) all the way up the food chain life would begin to wilt becasue of our stupidity.
Very sad how little knowledge people have of the consequences of nuking ANYTHING.
Our current bombs are nowhere in the league of what we dropped on Japan those things were a sneeze compared to the sheer destructuion of our current lineup of warheads.
Hopefully the ignorance on this subject does not get us all radiated someday.
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Good point. I think the current US stock pile is somewhere in the 5+ Gigaton range. At any rate the average yield of a nuclear weapon in the US stockpile today seems to be about 200 kilotons:

http://books.nap.edu/html/fun/appb.html

That's over 10 times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
 
Originally posted by: Locut0s
In which direction do you yourself feel politics have moved both in the US and in the world at large over the course of the past 4 or 5 years?
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Obviously in the right direction, at home. 😉

We lead, the world follows. It has been that way for quite some time. If we do things that embrace that tradition, it will remain that way for quite some time to come.

The last 4 or 5 years is just an appetizer......

 
Originally posted by: Ozoned
Originally posted by: Locut0s
In which direction do you yourself feel politics have moved both in the US and in the world at large over the course of the past 4 or 5 years?
Click to expand...
Obviously in the right direction, at home. 😉

We lead, the world follows. It has been that way for quite some time. If we do things that embrace that tradition, it will remain that way for quite some time to come.

The last 4 or 5 years is just an appetizer......
Click to expand...

I can't remember a single time in our history that we've managed to piss off so much of the world so badly as we have in the last few years. I would be willing to bet most of the world doesn't see us as "The Leaders of the Free World" as has been the case in the past. If you think the world is going to follow whatever we do the next 4 years, I would suggest you either put down the crack pipe or we change direction. Because they don't seem to happy right now...
 
Originally posted by: Ozoned
Originally posted by: Locut0s
In which direction do you yourself feel politics have moved both in the US and in the world at large over the course of the past 4 or 5 years?
Click to expand...
Obviously in the right direction, at home. 😉

We lead, the world follows. It has been that way for quite some time. If we do things that embrace that tradition, it will remain that way for quite some time to come.

The last 4 or 5 years is just an appetizer......
Click to expand...

Well if the world really does follow our lead from these past 4/5 years, then our world will be one really fscked up place. America's dominance throughout the world is starting to crumble, economically we are losing jobs to the cheap foreign labor markets of China and India. The dollar is falling fast, with little hope of recovery. And to make matters worse, we've just regressed socially by electing a right wing evangelical nuthead as president.
 
Originally posted by: Locut0s
A while ago I made a post in which I questioned if America was starting to show some fanciest elements in politics and general political atmosphere.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...2&threadid=1430596

Understandably that ruffled a few feathers, though I made it clear I wasn't making a comparison to Nazi Germany or anything close to that. Anyway I'd like to ask a different though related question this time. In which direction do you yourself feel politics have moved both in the US and in the world at large over the course of the past 4 or 5 years?

Two things that have surprised me both in their sudden onset or flareup and in their scope have been the vocal growth in the Christian right and the negative views espoused by many of Europe.
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I think we made a great deal of progress back toward democracy when we prevented the Clintonestas from putting the puppet Kerry into the White House this time. The liberal/socialist bent Canadians may disagree with that, but they didn't have to live through eight years of the Clinton Administration. Think bact to Ruby Ridge and Waco. Say what you will, but Bush hasn't declared war on Americans like that during his tenure. Oh, and please read the histories of those before commenting.

 
Originally posted by: slurmsmackenzie
Originally posted by: Zebo
We hav'nt rounded up too many semites yet only about 5000 between FBI, DOD, and offshore prisions.

Plus our secret death "trails" for them have'nt even started yet. nor have we gased them yet.

Not even comparable to NAZI germany on size and scope.
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seen any full blooded indians lately? smoke signals from your neighbor "mows with a rider's" house?

no, cuz they're all but gone. sure we don't gas jews, but erradicated the indians in a short period of time. oh and systematically killed the buffalo so as to starve them. find me one of each.... just one.

death trails? am i the only one that remembers 7th grade history? let me march your kin from fertile southern land to a hunk of desert in the midwest (not with uhauls, mind you) then find oil and boot you even further down the line!

i'm sorry, are we talking about sports records or human atrocities?
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OK, I am part Cherokee as are many people in the south. Been to any casinos on the reservations lately. There could be a full bloodied indian or two there. You will know them by the limos. Buffalo, have you driven through the midwest and west in the last 20 years. They no longer have free range, but they are there and in large numbers. I got caught in a herd of them on a backroad in Montana (I think) in 1985. They were killed out to serve commercial interests in America and Europe. Whales were nearly killed off to run lamps. How about the Japanese and they way they are fishing the Grand Banks completely dry of fish? Seen any herds of wild cattle grazing free lately? I didn't think so. Cattle would be extinct if we didn't protect them as a food source. Seen any chickens in the wild lately? Nope, just at the colonels. Same reason. I wish I could prove my indian blood and get the tax break. Unfortunately, my great grandmother didn't write so good. Keep in mind that the people who killed the indians were Europeans, recently in America. How about the Maya in South and Central America. Anything in your seventh grade history about the way the Aztec and the Spanish killed them off. That is history. History is full of wars and more wars. With every war, there are losers and winners. In history, there are survivors and those that didn't. I think I am glad that my ancesters were the ones that did, even if they had to marry into the survival. Slavery, isn't that something that still happens in Africa these days? The word itself came from the word slavic, where the first slaves were in bondage. Slavery was the standard a mere 150 years ago and now hardly exists. I think we have come a long way in a couple of hundred years and some change. If the rest of the world were at par, I think it would be a pretty great place.

 
Originally posted by: Zebo
We hav'nt rounded up too many semites yet only about 5000 between FBI, DOD, and offshore prisions.

Plus our secret death "trails" for them have'nt even started yet. nor have we gased them yet.

Not even comparable to NAZI germany on size and scope.
Click to expand...

I think the last time anything like that was done was at Waco.

 
Originally posted by: slurmsmackenzie
Originally posted by: Zebo
We hav'nt rounded up too many semites yet only about 5000 between FBI, DOD, and offshore prisions.

Plus our secret death "trails" for them have'nt even started yet. nor have we gased them yet.

Not even comparable to NAZI germany on size and scope.
Click to expand...

seen any full blooded indians lately? smoke signals from your neighbor "mows with a rider's" house?

no, cuz they're all but gone. sure we don't gas jews, but erradicated the indians in a short period of time. oh and systematically killed the buffalo so as to starve them. find me one of each.... just one.

death trails? am i the only one that remembers 7th grade history? let me march your kin from fertile southern land to a hunk of desert in the midwest (not with uhauls, mind you) then find oil and boot you even further down the line!

i'm sorry, are we talking about sports records or human atrocities?
Click to expand...


Well my grandmother is a full blooded blackfoot indian, does that count? And as for Buffalo, they aren't extinct by any stretch. As a matter of fact there is a restaurant about 10 miles from where I work, called "The Buffalo Inn", where you can actually BUY Buffalo Burgers (and man are they good!)

Jason

 
Originally posted by: daveshel
Yes, we have shifted farther to the right than at any point in our history. Apparently, some of you think that the absence of the same manifestations that presented in Nazi Germany (killing Jews and taking over our neighbors) mean that we are not drifting toward fascism. Somebody at one point had a link to some resources that defined or listed signs of fascism - anybody have that handy now?
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fas·cism Audio pronunciation of "fascism" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (fshzm)
n.

1. often Fascism
1. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
2. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.
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Though poster-child idiots like Michael Moore like to scream Fascism at any turn, we aren't even CLOSE. This conversation is very reminiscent of the IGNORANT 1930's, when Americans thought that the only two options were to be a Communist and "save the world" or to be a Fascist and "Conquer the world."

You'd think that by now we'd realize that Communism and Fascism are two sides of the same coin, and that the TRUE alternative is Liberty.

Jason
 
Originally posted by: Locut0s

Two things that have surprised me both in their sudden onset or flareup and in their scope have been the vocal growth in the Christian right
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Totally agree with this point and totally pissed about it.

I don't want to hear the word "god" out of hte mouths of any of my employees damn it. How is it that i n the workplace, the general rules is not to talk about 3 things:

1) sex
2) politics
3) religion

OK, I guess politicians have to talk about politics and sex is off topic. Why the hell do politicians feel the need that the have to SPEND MY MONEY TALKING ABOUT RELIGION AND LOVE OF GOD ON MY DIME! if I ranted like this Bush a-hole about god at work, I'd probably get fired.
 
Originally posted by: DragonMasterAlex
Originally posted by: slurmsmackenzie
Originally posted by: Zebo
We hav'nt rounded up too many semites yet only about 5000 between FBI, DOD, and offshore prisions.

Plus our secret death "trails" for them have'nt even started yet. nor have we gased them yet.

Not even comparable to NAZI germany on size and scope.
Click to expand...

seen any full blooded indians lately? smoke signals from your neighbor "mows with a rider's" house?

no, cuz they're all but gone. sure we don't gas jews, but erradicated the indians in a short period of time. oh and systematically killed the buffalo so as to starve them. find me one of each.... just one.

death trails? am i the only one that remembers 7th grade history? let me march your kin from fertile southern land to a hunk of desert in the midwest (not with uhauls, mind you) then find oil and boot you even further down the line!

i'm sorry, are we talking about sports records or human atrocities?
Click to expand...


Well my grandmother is a full blooded blackfoot indian, does that count? And as for Buffalo, they aren't extinct by any stretch. As a matter of fact there is a restaurant about 10 miles from where I work, called "The Buffalo Inn", where you can actually BUY Buffalo Burgers (and man are they good!)

Jason
Click to expand...

ok..... i didn't say extiction for either the indian, or the buffalo..... go to the zoo and read about the buffalo and the systematic killing done by the u.s. army in hopes of alieviating this great nation of savages like your grandmother.


pacific southwest, jason???? that'll be about the only place
 
Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
Yep, we've become a fascist state, from what I remember about the top secret plans I was shown, we're planning a takeover of Canada, then Mexico.

Of course, one could see that this was a natural progression after 9-11, we'll over react, hose our economy for a while, stomp on the Democrats for a decade or 2, and then swing back a bit more liberal. Ever seen a waveform?
Click to expand...

Ever try to understand and free yourself from the unconscious factors that drive the masses of individuals?
Click to expand...

Ever stop to think that you're the one that is brainwashed?
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A little intuitive understanding of human nature should tell you that those who pose original questions have some insight into the subject of inquiry, though doubtlessly this remark if baffling to you too.

Edit: Note that Pliablemoose at least recognizes that the question comes to him from out of the blue.

 
Originally posted by: DragonMasterAlex

Though poster-child idiots like Michael Moore like to scream Fascism at any turn, we aren't even CLOSE. This conversation is very reminiscent of the IGNORANT 1930's, when Americans thought that the only two options were to be a Communist and "save the world" or to be a Fascist and "Conquer the world."

You'd think that by now we'd realize that Communism and Fascism are two sides of the same coin, and that the TRUE alternative is Liberty.

Jason
Click to expand...

I completely agree with you that Fascism and Communism are two sides of the same coin, and I agree that America is no where close to the fascism that most people think of, e.g. Nazi Germany. This is why I said that I am in no way comparing the current situation in America to anything like that, nor am I saying that I hate Americans or anything like that at all. What I am saying is that the political environment, around the world and in the US, has unquestionably changed in the past 4 or 5 years. What I'm questioning is whether this change has been for the worse. In my case I definitely think it has been. When I talk of fascism I am talking of certain elements of US politics such as increasing nationalism, militarism, suppression of freedoms, dismissal of opposing views etc... That doesn't mean I think that America is going to start rounding up Muslims and putting them in camps or anything close to that. Never the less these trends still worry me.
 
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