HeyYou

I guess I just lumped Pakistan in with Afghanistan. :D True, at present, China has zero motivation to 'start something' with the US. In fact, it is really in their (current) best interests to keep us happy. Of course, that works both ways. Now, with congress passing a tariff on imported chinese goods, that get government subsidies..... things may change. Certainly not overnight.... Maybe I am just paranoid, but, I just see a lot of potential problems with having most of our manufacturing OUTSIDE of our country. In the event of a global conflict/catastrophe, EVERYTHING will get rather expensive. Given the direction things are going with Israel and Iran, and the other assorted players..... such an event really isn't so far fetched.

It changed in the welfare reform act of 96. I'm not aware of any of the alcoholics I know getting social security benefits for being alcoholics. In fact in the two states I'm most familiar with it's extremely difficult to get disability (for any reason) and you usually have to keep going back to press your case and prove it's valid, even if you have all the forms right the first time. http://www.ssa.gov/p...10029.html#a0=1 I live in michigan. Unfortunately, I am all too aware of what it takes to get SSD...... as I am on it. (multiple sclerosis.... yep, we are indeed having fun...) I am personally aware of 4 people right here in my home town that collect SSD for alcoholism.... So, it isn't impossible to get, merely difficult.

Fifth country.... We are already at four, and working on number five. (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, and soon, Iran.) China is indeed attempting to expand their sphere of influence..... claiming rights to the entire china sea, and everything in it, even though other countries 12 mile limits extend into it. Claiming waters over 500 miles from their coast, but, only 50 from some island nation. Etc. I don't think a shooting war with china is that far-fetched...... Consider: the american economy is currently stumbling along..... very little if any growth, spiraling debt, a government that seems to think that jobs in other countries equates to jobs in america...... supporting outsourcing, and free trade, etc. The poor here are getting poorer, the middle class is rapidly disappearing, the rich are getting richer at a greater rate than ever before..... That is just no sustainable. It isn't going to be too long before there is no one left in america that can even afford to buy those imported chinese manufactured goods.... and china's economy will follow shortly after the US..... As for US citizens suddenly deciding to stop buying imported chinese goods.... never gonna happen. We have gotten to used to our cheap, disposable, lifestyle to give it up now. It ain't the 50's any more.

It used to be having another baby would get you a 'raise'. That changed in the 80's or 90's.... Don't recall which...... What disgusts me is, DHS (the folks that administer welfare...) allows you to have SOME assets.... like, a home....... So there was the case of the family in Washington state, (I think) that was collecting welfare, yet living in a million dollar home...... Something that REALLY disturbs me though is, Alcoholism being ruled as a "disability"....... and folks being on Social Security because they are drunks......

Check for it under "other devices".

How long did they test it? Longer than your PC lasted with it? It sounds for all the world like a PSU issue to me.......

Just looking at the numbers (dollars) doesn't tell the whole story. China sends as things like toys, cookware, etc. Not really high dollar items. (aside from the diesel engines they will soon be producing.....) Mexico builds cars..... and a fair number of them at that. Take a wander thru any department store, and have a look at where products come from. You will find that most do indeed come from china. Should china ever decide to STOP shipping us 'stuff'..... sure, we can get it elsewhere, but, it won't exactly be easy, nor will it be a smooth transition. No matter how you slice it, china has more power over the US government, than US citizens do.

I agree with most of the points made here.... I am more into the first person, real time, sandbox flavor game though. Results of actions should be based on character skills, not player skills. Combat, Spell Casting, lockpicking, etc. (no minigames thankyouverymuch.) Character development should make sense.... (I liked the morrowind system fairly well.) NO hand holding. I DON'T want a quest compass. I DO want a comprehensive journal. Give me directions, mark it on my map, whatever, don't give me a big arrow pointing the way. Actions should have consequences. (as stated above.)

Okay a claim like that needs evidence. A few simple words. "We are calling your loans due." Dumping all their US treasury bonds. Shutting off exports to the US. (considering most of our manufacturing has moved there, this would be devastating. of course, it wouldn't do wonders for THEM either......)

I would point out that China enjoys "healthy" relations with the US as well. At the moment....... Trade with the US, and Europe, is what is driving their economic boom. Not to mention trade with countries that the US will NOT deal with..... That will last so long as it is advantageous to the Chinese. Currently, they are using the cash they get from us to develop weapons to FIGHT us. (missiles that can track, and destroy, carriers at sea....) Should push come to shove, China can destroy the US without firing a shot. The US government knows this. The Chinese government knows this. Hence, the Chinese government has more control over the US government than the american people to. (the scrapped sale of fighter jets to Taiwan springs immediately to mind....)

The biker gangs that MAKE THE NEWS are the ones that cause problems. We have no less than seven different 'gangs' here where I live. Two of them most folks would probably cross the street to avoid, but, guess what? NONE of them have been in the news for years. The rest of the 'gangs' are older folks that happen to ride motorcycles together. The most illegal thing they do is speed....... (and even that only 5 over the limit, maybe....) You cannot outlaw an organization because of a what a few of them do. Otherwise, we would have outlawed corporations, after Union Carbide killed tens of thousands in India........

Good points. (excellent points...) China is the problem here. For a supposed "ally", they sure are a funny one. And given that we are SSSSoooooooo dependent on China now for a pretty good percentage of our manufactured goods..... (not to mention the money our government borrows from them....) we can't really afford to annoy them. I think China has more sway over the american government than the american people do at this point.

I fully expect the new kim to be exactly the same as the old kim. After all, his policies worked great. He has the advantage. Absolute power over his people, control of any media within his state, so, his people are left with just HIS side of the story (about how the US is evil, and is making every effort to keep the N. Korean people in poverty.....). The army is pretty happy, and are unlikely to toss him out on his ear..... The whole "pretend you are giving them what they want, until I get what I want, and then going off and doing exactly as I please" formula has worked perfectly. They made numerous promises, and have kept none, they have attacked S. Korea, at least twice.... and completely gotten away with it. All the other parties involved are oh so careful about using diplomacy, sanctions, etc, when the only thing that is going to actually WORK, is military action. Kim knows the world has lost it's taste for the US invading small countries, so they pretty much have carte blanche. I am sure they would also have zero issues testing one of their nukes on some targets in S. Korea, or, even in their own territory, if they felt it would give them an advantage.

Tell that to the folks in Libya....... Tell them what? Not seeing what you mean here. In Libya, NATO was indeed involved, and the muslim brotherhood are the guys that are, for the most part, the ones in power..... not that anyone has really consolidated things there... still mostly warlords controlling their bit of territory. Are we having fun yet? And let's not forget Egypt, where the muslim brotherhood was VOTED into power.......

Tell that to the folks in Libya.......

Better the devil you know....... I would agree with you. A predominately muslim brotherhood controlled middle east would not be good for anyone.

I think is came along more as justification for international action to prevent such occurrences. Not that changing governments is going to make the least bit of difference on that score......

The major flaw in your scheme though, is STILL human nature. Get a large enough group together, and you WILL find those that are more than capable of working within the system to further their own interests above those of everyone else. You will never be rid of it.

Actually, something akin to the spanish flu epidemic would be even more devastating in this day and age, given the ease of travel. If a new strain popped up, it would spread over the world within days. As it takes months, if not years to develop a vaccine..... it would be way to late. Regardless of the form of government.

Elaboration is Bliss, especially to one that did not get the Sarcasm/ Joke/ Serious Fact. Probeer is die beste geweer ... @ Tidus44 ... honestly, I don't know where it was supposed to break down ... it was all uprising everywhere and whoever could tumult did so ... What started off against corruption and favoritism - Tunisian government money spending in the north of the country where all the tourists were and the failure to address lack in the rest of the country and it's overthrow soon became an excuse for the radicals to run with their vision. As much as I hated Gadaffi - so many reasons - it was so incredibly obvious what was to follow, see this quote four days old: This pretty much sums it up for me. Is that opposed to amateur beer?

I Understand. On the recent Rumors of another :wallbash: War that might break out Right here :ohdear: , Why do the western Gov's always have to make War on Peace (moderate) to keep Peace(less moderate)???? :unsure: Ideals can be important, but i don't believe that's the case with these Guys. Because war makes their campaign donators big bucks. Peace isn't nearly so profitable for them. To me, it looks like the various western governments, and israel, are just LOOKING for an excuse to pull the trigger, and start yet another war. Granted, the Iranian government, with their various actions and statements, are making it REALLY easy for them....... Were it left up to me, I would drop all the sanctions against Iran, start buying their oil, so our prices would go down, and maybe our economy could improve some..... and if they develop nuclear weapons.... all well and good. Just so long as they don't USE one of those weapons, or, give it to someone else to use as their proxy. (hezbollah, hamas, whathaveyou.) I would like the think that the powers that be in Iran have a REAL good idea what would happen if they nuked ANYONE, not merely Israel.........

Some folks on a military base burn some korans, and the muslim world is up in arms, declaring jihad, and wanting heads to roll. Some muslim folks burn bibles, american flags, call for "death to america", etc..... and pretty much nothing happens. It makes it into the news for a day or so, then it's gone. Does america get an apology? Anything at all? Nope. Nada. If you want to hold folks accountable for their actions, according to YOUR individual rules, then by gosh by golly, you had best be prepared to reciprocate. Which I am not going to hold my breath waiting for........ The major trouble with the west is that they DO think they have all the answers. (at least, the governments do) and wish to enforce their view of 'how things should be' on everyone else, even if it is at gunpoint. We are trying to affect change, on peoples that have lived the same lifestyle for centuries. We can't expect to waltz in, kill some folks, and have everything now be how we think it should be. NOTHING changes over night. Certainly not social values. You CANNOT FORCE CHANGE on a people. It simply doesn't work. All we are succeeding at doing is pissing off yet some more people, and adding fuel to the fire. We find ourselves in a place where doing NOTHING would actually be better...... In my opinion.

One point that I agree with is, that when a ship runs aground on a reef it is moot to argue who was steering at the time. First priority is to see what you can salvage and then you let history decide who to assign blame to. Disengagement in the Middle east is not an option for either the US or the Europeans. In a conflict in which either side is diametrically and antithetically opposed to the other there is little choice but to pick sides and hope you picked the right one. For better or worse the option of which side to pick has long since sailed. Just an old pragmatist's point of view. Why is disengagement not an option? It seems that one of the major complaints in the middle east is US meddling in what they see as internal affairs. (overthrowing governments, supporting "freedom fighters", etc.) In my view, simply pulling out of the middle east, would remove one their major reasons for jihad against us. I am sure they would come up with some other reason though...... extremists are just like that. We don't have a very good track record there...... Iraq is descending back into sectarian violence. Afghanistan is a mess. Obama yet again apologizes to a muslim country, we have yet to see if he is going to bow to their demands that the Koran burners be prosecuted. (you realize the sentence for desecrating the koran is death, right?) It seems that we can't turn around without annoying someone there. So, let's pull out. Bring our troops home, stop giving away billions of dollars to people that hate us, (and that we borrow from china.....) Stop spending money on useless wars that are actually doing us more harm than good.

Instincts. See, even you admit that this isn't something that can just be turned off with a switch. Human nature is our biggest problem for ANY form of government..... Greed, Envy, pursuit of power for powers sake, etc. You will never rid the human race of such things. Just not gonna happen.

Quite frankly Granny, I think you hit the nail squarely on the head. The US still suffers under the illusion that we are "The" superpower in the world, and therefore, have the right/duty to enforce our views of 'how things should be' on the rest of the world. While that may work in D.C. it sure as hades doesn't work in the real world. Which really doesn't come as a surprise...... Maybe Ron Paul has a point..... Have america take care of AMERICA, and let the rest of the world sort itself out......