I would agree with the gist of this: the F-22 is a true air superiority fighter and is worth every dollar it costs. The F-35, however, is one of those planes that tries to be everything for everybody. This has been tried before (F-111, F-4 Phantom) and has ALWAYS failed.
It would be better, as some have said on here, to keep producing new F-15's and F-18's. These would be much cheaper and would be able to handle almost all threats. Those that are beyond their capabilities could be taken care of by the F-22's.
The F-35 is too expensive for the quality edge it has over our current planes. Better to stick with our current planes and plan the next fighter/attack aircraft as a pure drone.
Because, oh I don't know, the US created a nuclear weapon in 1945? So the Iranians are 67 years behind (and they're not there just yet)?
Yeah, I think we're safe in ridiculing them when they beat their chests over their technical prowress. Or maybe we should just pat them on the head and give them a gold star.
A Muslim society, as the religion is currently practiced, will NEVER outproduce a Western-style economy when it comes to technology. The Muslim world will have to go through its own Renaissance before something like that could happen.
"might eventually lose"? Um, no. Iran would be toast in a matter of months. Naturally they would turn to an insurgency, but I think the US would learn its lesson regarding that and just be happy with taking out the current government without an occupation. A new government would form organically as the Iranians fight it out for power. It would likely not be the super-democracy we would support, but at least one that would keep its place and be too busy rebuilding infrastructure to waste money (and another possible invasion) on building nuclear weapons.
You have a pretty low bar for facts. No way we killed anything close to 150,000 to 600,000 Iraq civilians. That number is just pure fantasy.
As for driving people out of their homes, that was done by the Iraqis themselves, Sunni, Kurd and Shia. We tried our best to get them to work together and to stop the civil war, but our success was partial at best.
Despite the chaos and killing that resulted in Iraq, it is ALWAYS a good thing to remove a dictator. Dictators are NEVER a good thing for a country or a people. Your support for them and your absurd lies regarding civilian casualties caused by US forces disqualifies you from being taken seriously.
Hahaha... yeah, right. I'm sure if you took a survey of immigrants, the US would be WAY low on the places they actually wanted to immigrate to.
Seriously, do you just make this stuff up or do you actually believe it?
The Europeans shipped all their heavy industry to America? Orlly? You might want to tell the Germans that. Or the Russians. Or the Czechs. Or the French. Or the Italians. There are plenty of European nations that still make plenty of "heavy" stuff.
The ignorance is all yours.
You feel guilty every time you start your car?! Wow. That's a lot of guilt to be carrying around. Sounds like an early ticket to a heart attack to me.
You wouldn't be Catholic, would you?
Here's the problem with that: ban the import of IPhones, say, because of their questionable labor practices, and guess what, China now bans the import of American cars! Wha? Cars have nothing to do with IPhones!?! Correct, but other countries are not going to sit idly by while you pick and choose which of their products meet your standards. They will retaliate by closing off their markets to goods made here. End result: trade wars and likely another Great Depression.
And those people are idiot, armchair generals who think themselves qualified to pronounce their silly judgments as they sit in their recliners in their very safe homes. World War 2 was total war and the fact that such fury was visited on the Axis homelands was completely justified by the brutal methods employed by the Axis powers in their early, successful prosecution of the war.
EVERY German city was a military target, as the Allies could not know where all military production was occuring because of German dispersal and camoflauge. It's not like the Germans put up a sign that said "Manufacturing aircraft here!"
Dresden itself was certainly a military target, as detailed in Andrew Robert's "The Storm of War":
"For as the foremost historian of the operation, Frederick Taylor, has pointed out, Dresden 'was by the standards of the time a legitimate military target'. As a nodal point for communications, with its railway marshalling yards and conglomeration of war industries - its pre-war industry based on porcelain, typewriters and cameras had been converted into an extensive network of armaments workshops, particularly in the vital optics, electronics and communications fields..."
Underwriters buying the stock is not "maniuplation", it's firms buying a stock that they believe they can make a profit off of. Financial firms are not in the business of purposely engaging in losses to save face. They're only interested in making money (as they should be).
Any financial firm that continuously employed the strategy that you're pushing (buying a falling stock in an attempt solely to stop the falling price of that stock) would be out of business pretty quickly.
Ah, yes, zerohedge. THAT'S where we need to look for dispassionate, measured analysis.
If you can somehow wade through the gold bugs and Aryan Nation-types, you might find a few nuggets (eh, eh?!) of valuable information. But in the main, zerohedge is just a bunch of Chicken Littles thinking they're smarter than everybody else by predicting how we're all heading for armageddon. Yawn. This is exactly what fringe Christians have been doing for hundreds of years. I pay attention to their ramblings about as much as I do to those on zerohedge.
The way you can tell who won the console wars is to see which console your friends are playing. Do you know ANYONE who, if they have a WII, actually plays it?
The WII was a novelty item that was surpassed by Kinnect and was never a real threat to the "serious" gaming consoles.
Ah, isolationism. That one always works out well.
And it was the Republican Congress of the 1930's that led the charge on that. Roosevelt, if he had his druthers, would've had us in WWII in 1940 at the latest!
Those evil Republicans... doing what you advocate. How could they?!
You do know that it was Eisenhower who, upon his departure from office, warned the nation about the dangers of a military-industrial complex (well, obviously not)?
Here's a little quote for you:
"A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be
tempted to risk his own destruction...
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together."
It's very easy to have lofty morals when you're not in danger of extermination as the Russians were. If you were in the same situation, I have no doubt that you would use every tool available to you to help you survive. If not, then you'd end up dead and there'd be nobody to feed the dog.
Yes. I only went to private (Catholic) school for 2 years, in the 5th and 6th grades. Those two years were the best of my intellectual life! I can only imagine how smart I would've been if my parents had been able to afford to continue to send me to private school for the rest of my primary education. I think it would've radically changed my life.
Instead, for the 7th grade I was sent back to public school. The horror, the horror! The schoolwork was dumbed down to the point of absurdity, the pace was glacially slow, there was little discipline in the classroom... it was truly a nightmare for any kid who had a passing interest in actually learning.
And let's not forget the anti-intellectualism of the public school students themselves. Just try and do a good job in a public school and not be labeled as a nerd or a freak.
Now I understand people who say that maybe the public school I went to just wasn't that good and that it's not fair to have that particular public school represent ALL public schools. And to some extent, this is true, as future public schools I attended were better. But for overall quality of education, there really was no comparison: private > public. That is why, when I have children, they will most definitely attend private schools.
Everyone in the world is going to die. I don't really see the crisis here.
To say our current economic system is unsustainable seems flat out wrong to me. Never underestimate human ingenuity.
I'm not convinced the consequences of global warming are so dire. To me, they seem to be a mixed bag, good for some areas of the world (Siberia/longer growing seasons) and bad for others (sorry Maldives).
Above all, humans have proven to be highly adaptable to a changing world climate throughout the history of the species. I think we can handle a warmer world just fine. As we could also handle a colder world. We're handy like that.
So yeah, if I have to choose whether or not to retard economic growth now and into the future in order to prevent the bogeyman from coming out of the closet, I'm gonna say "no", because I don't believe the bogeyman is all he's cracked up to be.
Slashdot Mirror
I would agree with the gist of this: the F-22 is a true air superiority fighter and is worth every dollar it costs. The F-35, however, is one of those planes that tries to be everything for everybody. This has been tried before (F-111, F-4 Phantom) and has ALWAYS failed. It would be better, as some have said on here, to keep producing new F-15's and F-18's. These would be much cheaper and would be able to handle almost all threats. Those that are beyond their capabilities could be taken care of by the F-22's. The F-35 is too expensive for the quality edge it has over our current planes. Better to stick with our current planes and plan the next fighter/attack aircraft as a pure drone.
Because, oh I don't know, the US created a nuclear weapon in 1945? So the Iranians are 67 years behind (and they're not there just yet)? Yeah, I think we're safe in ridiculing them when they beat their chests over their technical prowress. Or maybe we should just pat them on the head and give them a gold star. A Muslim society, as the religion is currently practiced, will NEVER outproduce a Western-style economy when it comes to technology. The Muslim world will have to go through its own Renaissance before something like that could happen.
"might eventually lose"? Um, no. Iran would be toast in a matter of months. Naturally they would turn to an insurgency, but I think the US would learn its lesson regarding that and just be happy with taking out the current government without an occupation. A new government would form organically as the Iranians fight it out for power. It would likely not be the super-democracy we would support, but at least one that would keep its place and be too busy rebuilding infrastructure to waste money (and another possible invasion) on building nuclear weapons.
You have a pretty low bar for facts. No way we killed anything close to 150,000 to 600,000 Iraq civilians. That number is just pure fantasy. As for driving people out of their homes, that was done by the Iraqis themselves, Sunni, Kurd and Shia. We tried our best to get them to work together and to stop the civil war, but our success was partial at best. Despite the chaos and killing that resulted in Iraq, it is ALWAYS a good thing to remove a dictator. Dictators are NEVER a good thing for a country or a people. Your support for them and your absurd lies regarding civilian casualties caused by US forces disqualifies you from being taken seriously.
Hahaha... yeah, right. I'm sure if you took a survey of immigrants, the US would be WAY low on the places they actually wanted to immigrate to. Seriously, do you just make this stuff up or do you actually believe it?
The Europeans shipped all their heavy industry to America? Orlly? You might want to tell the Germans that. Or the Russians. Or the Czechs. Or the French. Or the Italians. There are plenty of European nations that still make plenty of "heavy" stuff. The ignorance is all yours.
You feel guilty every time you start your car?! Wow. That's a lot of guilt to be carrying around. Sounds like an early ticket to a heart attack to me. You wouldn't be Catholic, would you?
Here's the problem with that: ban the import of IPhones, say, because of their questionable labor practices, and guess what, China now bans the import of American cars! Wha? Cars have nothing to do with IPhones!?! Correct, but other countries are not going to sit idly by while you pick and choose which of their products meet your standards. They will retaliate by closing off their markets to goods made here. End result: trade wars and likely another Great Depression.
Yes.
And those people are idiot, armchair generals who think themselves qualified to pronounce their silly judgments as they sit in their recliners in their very safe homes. World War 2 was total war and the fact that such fury was visited on the Axis homelands was completely justified by the brutal methods employed by the Axis powers in their early, successful prosecution of the war. EVERY German city was a military target, as the Allies could not know where all military production was occuring because of German dispersal and camoflauge. It's not like the Germans put up a sign that said "Manufacturing aircraft here!" Dresden itself was certainly a military target, as detailed in Andrew Robert's "The Storm of War": "For as the foremost historian of the operation, Frederick Taylor, has pointed out, Dresden 'was by the standards of the time a legitimate military target'. As a nodal point for communications, with its railway marshalling yards and conglomeration of war industries - its pre-war industry based on porcelain, typewriters and cameras had been converted into an extensive network of armaments workshops, particularly in the vital optics, electronics and communications fields..."
How wonderfully misanthropic of you.
I'm glad you're content in your slowmobile. Personally, I have a need. A NEED FOR SPEED!
Except "suckerborg" is not even remotely witty or funny... so meme FAIL.
Underwriters buying the stock is not "maniuplation", it's firms buying a stock that they believe they can make a profit off of. Financial firms are not in the business of purposely engaging in losses to save face. They're only interested in making money (as they should be). Any financial firm that continuously employed the strategy that you're pushing (buying a falling stock in an attempt solely to stop the falling price of that stock) would be out of business pretty quickly.
Ah, yes, zerohedge. THAT'S where we need to look for dispassionate, measured analysis. If you can somehow wade through the gold bugs and Aryan Nation-types, you might find a few nuggets (eh, eh?!) of valuable information. But in the main, zerohedge is just a bunch of Chicken Littles thinking they're smarter than everybody else by predicting how we're all heading for armageddon. Yawn. This is exactly what fringe Christians have been doing for hundreds of years. I pay attention to their ramblings about as much as I do to those on zerohedge.
The way you can tell who won the console wars is to see which console your friends are playing. Do you know ANYONE who, if they have a WII, actually plays it? The WII was a novelty item that was surpassed by Kinnect and was never a real threat to the "serious" gaming consoles.
Ah, isolationism. That one always works out well. And it was the Republican Congress of the 1930's that led the charge on that. Roosevelt, if he had his druthers, would've had us in WWII in 1940 at the latest! Those evil Republicans... doing what you advocate. How could they?!
So we can produce more dopes like you who don't want their own species to survive.
Sucks to be you.
You do know that it was Eisenhower who, upon his departure from office, warned the nation about the dangers of a military-industrial complex (well, obviously not)? Here's a little quote for you: "A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction... This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together."
It's very easy to have lofty morals when you're not in danger of extermination as the Russians were. If you were in the same situation, I have no doubt that you would use every tool available to you to help you survive. If not, then you'd end up dead and there'd be nobody to feed the dog.
Instead, for the 7th grade I was sent back to public school. The horror, the horror! The schoolwork was dumbed down to the point of absurdity, the pace was glacially slow, there was little discipline in the classroom... it was truly a nightmare for any kid who had a passing interest in actually learning.
And let's not forget the anti-intellectualism of the public school students themselves. Just try and do a good job in a public school and not be labeled as a nerd or a freak.
Now I understand people who say that maybe the public school I went to just wasn't that good and that it's not fair to have that particular public school represent ALL public schools. And to some extent, this is true, as future public schools I attended were better. But for overall quality of education, there really was no comparison: private > public. That is why, when I have children, they will most definitely attend private schools.
Everyone in the world is going to die. I don't really see the crisis here. To say our current economic system is unsustainable seems flat out wrong to me. Never underestimate human ingenuity.
I'm not convinced the consequences of global warming are so dire. To me, they seem to be a mixed bag, good for some areas of the world (Siberia/longer growing seasons) and bad for others (sorry Maldives). Above all, humans have proven to be highly adaptable to a changing world climate throughout the history of the species. I think we can handle a warmer world just fine. As we could also handle a colder world. We're handy like that. So yeah, if I have to choose whether or not to retard economic growth now and into the future in order to prevent the bogeyman from coming out of the closet, I'm gonna say "no", because I don't believe the bogeyman is all he's cracked up to be.
I think "Kill them all" covers it.