HeyYou

Trouble is, if Russia sees itself backed into a corner via a trade war, the answer to that will be: Start Shooting.

Humanity is indeed doomed. We are NOT doing 'great', in fact, I wouldn't even say were are doing "fair", more like "poorly". There is not plenty of anything for a significant percentage of the world. Some folks do well, but, most are not even scraping by. I suppose it all depends on what your yardstick looks like.... But, from my point of view, humanity is going down the toilet, and we are on the last swirls before finally going down the tubes. Surviving a nuclear war? *snicker*, a lot of that depends on the scale of war. Number of weapons involved, and who all is shooting them off. Now, if we get into a WWIII scenario, where everyone fires off everything they have, the human race is highly unlikely to survive more than a decade thereafter. There will be nowhere on earth that won't be affected by higher radiation from fallout, stripping of the ozone layer will also increase radiation levels, once the sun can get thru the layers of dust kicked up by megatons worth of bombs..., food production will be pretty much halted, as 99% of arable land will now be radioactive.... Surface water will be undrinkable... and technology will have taken a step a six backward. No more electricity, no mass transportation of anything, the ONLY resources you will have are those that are within walking distance. And there will probably be competition for those resources as well.... so, after millions, probably billions die in the intial war, the secondary kill will be the death knell of the human race.

That seems to be the way of it though. "If you don't agree with me, you must be insane." After all, it is so much easier to simply dismiss the opposition as crackpots, and whiners, than to actually debate with them. (when there is a very good chance they have a valid point, and you are, in fact, wrong.......) There is no cooperation anymore. THAT is probably what Obama is going to be most remembered for. His polarization of the different sides, and their absolute refusal to compromise. At All. But then, Washington hasn't had 'the best interests of the country' in mind for quite a while now. Their main interest is in getting re-elected, lining thier pockets, and making sure the 'other guy' doesn't score any points. Doesn't seem to matter whether that idea is 'good for the country' or not. Not to mention, they sell us a bill of goods, telling us "This action IS good for the country." But, what they are REALLY saying there is: "This action is good for our major campaign contributors, and puts money in my pocket, and makes sure my contributors are happy with me, and will help me get re-elected....." Most of the 'social' issues that we are seeing in the news on a daily basis is simply fodder for the masses, to keep them disctracted for what is REALLY going on. The fleecing of america, by the very people we elected to run it.

They call it a 'movement' for a reason. (I would insert the term "bowel" in front of that, as it concerns progressives, but hey, that's just me.) They are trying to move society in a specific direction. Trouble is, as is typical with the human race, not everyone wants to go the same way. So, what we end up with, is those that scream the loudest, end up getting their agenda moved to the top, and society moves in 'their' direction. No society stays the same for very long, they change over time, mostly gradually, sometimes dramatically.... not all change is 'good' for the society, but, they don't figure that out until AFTER it becomes patently obvious that "hey, maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all." I just wish our politicians would learn to recognize a 'bad idea' when it slaps them in the face with the consequences. But no.... they will repeat the exact same behavior, and expect different results, and then act all surprised when the exact same consequence occurs again.....

I dont' think that part matters any more. It's more about 'winning', and satisfying that sense of entitlement than anything else.

In this case, they seek what they percieve as "equality", which means, if you run a business that provides a service, and you refuse that service to someone based on YOUR rights, they can scream discrimination, take you to court, and either FORCE you to do it anyway, or get a pile of money from you.

Everyones motivations are different. Some seek power, some just seek to get along in life, and many variations on both themes. Its the power mongers that are trouble. Unfortunately, they tend to be the loudest, most outspoken, and most visible representatives of their proffessed veiwpoint. They also tend to be the most annoying.....

Guess some folks are just more equal than others. When exercising MY rights (which have been defined for generations) is overruled by someone else screaming dsicrimination, there is something basically wrong there. Trouble is, there isn't a fix for it. Someone is going to lose. What troubles me about that is, the MINORITY wins that one. I think we have become far too politically correct.

You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile......... Yeah, I hear ya on that one. You either agree with them completely, or, they have a string of somewhat less than complimentary adjectives for you.

Break up with your girlfriend. It isn't up to other people to make you happy. You MUST be happy in and of yourself first. Get your own place (if you don't already) conentrate on getting YOUR life together, and being happy being yourself. If you aren't happy with yourself, you are never going to be happy with anyone else.

The ideologues don't scare me nearly so much as corporate america pretty much owning our government. With the advent of contribution limits being removed for many types of campaigns..... the supreme court has just handed the 1% the keys to the kingdom. Not to mention the deed.....

Society is going to hell in a handbasket. :D

From where I am sitting, it appears that the minority groups are asserting themselves far more of late, than they have in the past. Various issues are now more openly brought up for discussion. The only trouble is, if your opinion isn't in line with what these minority groups think they should be, you are a hater, a bigot, "stuck in the past", etc. They tend to respond to anyone with a different opinion than theirs with bile and anger. Personally, I find it abhorrent. Now, it has become a contest of who has more 'rights'. Seems that if your religion dictates that you shouldn't support some activity that whatever minority group thinks you should, it immediately becomes 'discrimination', and the lawsuits start flying. What's even worse is, our government sides with the minority, against the religious. Personally, I think a serious economic collapse, or major world war, would be doing us a FAVOR. Things would change dramatically, it would be important issues that were being talked about, not the fluff we see today.

That is what elections are all about. Voting for someone to make decisions for you. A referendum is expressing your own opinion DIRECTLY. Should you choose NOT to express it, why should anyone worry about your opinion?

My bad. SSME

EnbBoost, and SIMM work really well together. Might try adding that too.... (alters how memory is handled.) Also, is your anti-virus running when you fire up the game?

Still, a majority voted to join russia. I am not all that familiar with the situation on the ground. I would just like to avoid a war here, no matter who is involved.

I think there was something in their constitution about seccession, that make it pretty much impossible under normal circumstances.... and that is contributing to the west having issues with it. Personally, I think Putin did exactly what he thought he had to, to protect not only the people in that area, but also, their naval base..... Given that (apparently) 90% of the residents there voted to join russia. I don't see a problem with that.

I gave up expecting anything that even remotely resembles 'intelligent behavior' from the american government. They have more than adequately demonstrated (many times...) that when it comes to foreign policy, they don't have the first clue. We overthrow a government, so that we can fight al-queda in one country, and then supply them arms in another. We overthrow legitimate, if distasteful... governments, that actually provided some semblance of stability, install our puppets, and mayhem, and sectarian violence ensues. In EVERY SINGLE country we have 'intervened' in, chaos and violence have followed. We give billions of dollars to countries that hate us. We spend billions on weapons systems that don't meet the design criteria, and the pricetag more than doubles before they are even half-way thru the initial testing phases. (and more often than not, they are failing most of the tests.) We have economic policies that favor the top 5%, at the expense of the rest. They outright refuse to deal with actual problems, and only poke around the periphery, dealing with symptoms, while ignoring the disease itself. We are so politically divided, that one half of the country considers the other half dimwitted morons. At best...... And the most depressing part? The american people KEEP ELECTING the SAME crooks. And those crooks are getting filthy rich, and laughing up their collective sleeve at the stupidity of the american people. We have a few intelligent individuals here, but, taken collectively, americans have got nuthin' on a box of rocks. Yeah, and we are supposedly "the leaders of the free world'.... If that's actually the case, my thoughts are: The world is in deep feces.

Don't recall bringing the american government into it, or stating that I thought they were 'intelligent'. The fact remains, that Putin is using the same arguments Hitler did in the late 30's to justify his annexation of various neighboring states. Do I see Putin rounding up jews, and putting them in gas chambers? Certainly not. He has successfully added Crimea to the Russian Empire. (or, maybe more accurately "Re-Added".....) Now he is making noises about Estonia. Will he repeat the same exercise? We shall see. The actions of the american government could have their own thread, though, I don't think it would really be much of a 'debate', as I think most of us are on the same page on that score. :D

When Americans compare Putin's actions to Hitler's, it is ridiculous. Where was America in WW2? For Americans no myth is more cherished than their awesome military brilliance and fighting excellence, and never is this pseudo-history more celebrated than in World War II. We were the Sleeping Giant, Americans pridefully note, and we cleaned everyone's clocks! In reality America exercised a fair bit of discretion in World War II, and when they did enter the fray they had the advantage of fighting enemies who were drastically overextended, caught up in multi-front engagements, and lacking crucial resources with which to wage an extended conflict. American troops were virtually always in a state of lavish oversupply, and had the big luxury of being too far away to counterattack. (When the Japanese attacked a couple of vacation islands a few thousand miles away from us, Americans were traumatized and still shudder about it like it was the most diabolical thing in history, until 9/11 of course.) I understand that playing the Hitler card is a pretty traditional American thing to do---Noriega was Hitler, for a while? And of course Saddam, and Milosevic, Gaddafi, and Karadzic, and Saddam again. The thing you have to understand, though, is that for Russia, Hitler is a pretty big deal. For most of the 20th century, Russia pretty much got handed the dirty end of the stick. Collapse of empire, that whole Soviet thing, the civil war that made us look like pikers. But the fight against the fascists, they could stand up and be proud of that. They were brutalized by the Wehrmacht, and kept standing . . . and then they hit back. Maybe one American in a hundred could tell you when VE Day is. Every Russian can tell you when Victory Day is. Playing the Hitler card is stupid, provocative and pointlessly inflammatory. It is also reasonably accurate. Resorting to insults doesn't do you arguement any good either. If you can't debate in an adult manner, I suggest you find someplace else on the site to hang out.

What I find amusing is all the folks that poo-poo the comparison to hitler, simply because hitler did some truly vile things later in his reign. He started out as the "benevolent dictator" as well. Why do you think everyone was so happy to just let him do his thing for so long? What's even MORE amusing is the articles I am seeing on various news sites now..... Mainly about how woefully unprepared the US military is to take on Russia, and the predictions of the "new cold war". The first part is quite true. Our military changed its focus from set-piece, large scale warfare, to counter-insurgency. We don't have the material, or manpower for a protracted, large scale engagement any more. Nor do we have the 'edge' in technology we once had. Sure, we are still somewhat ahead there, but, not so much as we used to be. Do I want a war with Russia? No. Not even remotely interested. Do I think we will see one anyway? That largely depends on what happens next. Currently, it is a war of words. Let's hope it doesn't escalate beyond that.

And now Russia is making the same noises about "protecting ethnic Russian speakers" in Estonia....... which IS a member of NATO. Is Putin this generations Hitler? He is using the same justifications for annexing territories......

informed democracy? What country you live in?? Certainly not America, land of the politically indoctrinated...... :D

Yeah, "tone of voice" (type?) doesn't really translate well in text. :) Should have seen the look of surprise on my face when the FCC actually APPROVED the sale of Al Gore's television station to Al-Jazeera...... That one just floored me. Al-Jazeera America.... isn't that an interesting contradiction.