This it isn't an obscure fact. The US Defense budget has been bouncing around 4-5% of GDP for more than 10 years. There are pleny of place to find the numbers. Here is one. I refer you to page 6.
During World War II, the nation truly had a defense economy. In the war's last year, 1945, over 39 percent of the nation's GDP was devoted to defense. By 1948, less than 4 percent of GDP was spent on defense. (Ibid., p. 140.) Defense spending in 1945 was $714 billion in 1987 dollars; by 1948, it was under $65 billion. Thus, in only three years, defense spending had fallen by 90 percent. (Ibid., p. 128.)
Outlawing Islam isn't going to happen, but some sort of controls on Islamist parties seeming to rule the country could be possible. The Shah held them in check for quite some time. With the recent experience of being subjected to their rule it may be possible to get enough popular support to do it.
And where did you get that 4.5% nonsense? That might cover the toilet paper, if that.
Although you may have a source to "prove" otherwise, I'm pretty sure that the US defense budget doesn't take 100% of GDP. I think someone would notice.
You have your history confused. The Shah was in power prior to all of that, beginning in 1941. Mosaddegh came later, became PM, and overthrew the government. The UK and US helped restore the Shah to power in 1953.
Actually the culture of Slashdot has moved somewhat in a better direction over the last 10-15 years, so you're wrong about it not changing. And there have been some procedural changes that help limit the abuse somewhat, but more is possible. I hope to foster additional improvement at Slashdot. Frankly I think it would be a pity if Slashdot were to be a place where ignorant hostility is preferred to civil discussion, where name calling and trolling is preferred to evidence. That doesn't really go with the supposed respect for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math that people like to claim alliance to here, does it?
And you are quite wrong about why I am generally modded down. It isn't so much because my answers are bad somehow but because they are often in conflict with various popular but mistaken views, or are otherwise uncomfortable to consider. Lots of people have mod points, but no counter-arguments. Facts are stubborn things, but many on Slashdot resist them. That makes people uncomfortable and angry. You seem angry. Why?
Only Poland this year joined the four other countries, out of 28 total NATO members, that are meeting the alliance’s goal of spending 2% of their gross domestic product on defense. The other four are the U.S., Great Britain, Greece and Estonia.
One other thing - national defense is a Constitutional responsibility of the US Federal Government. And that other stuff....?? Allowed, but not required.
Perhaps if you didn't spend all you time trolling/shilling, you wouldn't get modded down.
In other words you want me to mouth the opinions you like instead of my own. Typical fascist.
It's not whining to point out that substandard and abusive moderation is too common. With any luck some of my suggestions will be used and that would really suck for you.
But on the other hand, maybe I need to start posting more actively again to help you recalibrate. You've apparently gone out of kilter.
No, what Iran needs is for our Right Wing politicians to stop meddling in their politics. They were well on their way to modernizing until we decided they were just a little too 'commie' for our tastes and disposed their democratically elected gov't.
I can help you with that point of confusion. The person that overthrew the democratically elected Iranian government was the Iranian Prime Minister. He dissolved parliament, was ruling by decree, faked an election, and caused the legitimate head of state (the Shah) to flee. The US and UK assisted in restoring Iran's legitimate head of state to power. It's history, I suggest you look into it.
As to being "too commie", most of the world has rejected that. It sucks as a form of government and delivers substandard results, usually with great loss of life and enormous oppression. Communist regimes were pretty much environmental horror shows with poisonous legacies that will last for decades or longer.
I'm willing to go so far as to agree that Obama is currently the greatest American president currently in power. He isn't a great American president. The true miracle is that things haven't turned out worse given his close relationship with the man that wrote Prarie Fire .
Your ideas about "pointless war" so "they could line their pockets" and "use fear to control America" doesn't stand much scrutiny. If the "mighty" MIC was so powerful, how did it go from 40% of GDP at the end of WW2 to only about 4.5% GDP today? What other institution would you consider super threatening if it lost 90% of the resources it used to control?
Don't worry, the Iranians are smart enough that they won't revolt against the Shah twice in a row. The next revolution will be against the current government.
Admittedly it would have been better for them if the Obama administration hadn't left them in the wind to dangle.
So where is the crime wave coming from that then? Hmm?
Misusing laser pointers pretty much has been a crime of opportunity to be stupid.
Disassembling and rebuilding an existing device for nefarious purposes is taking things to a new level in multiple respects. If you're right in a meaningful way you should be able to provide examples.
My goodness, and that is such an important issue, isn't it? The American republic prospered for hundreds of year being led by people that believed in God and creation. But you've got the proper litmus test to "make things right," eh?
Tell me, how much better off do you think the US would be if its head of government openly held values oppsed to those of the vast majority of its citizenry? (And perhaps mocked them to boot?)
The US left South Vietnam in 1972. North Vietnam successfully invaded in 1975 after a previous failed attempt. The North Vietnamese were the invading army.
Being a client state or ally says little or nothing about the legitimacy of the government.
The circumstances leading to US trooops in South Vietnam aren't really the same as those leading to the Soviet invasion, are they?
You also left out the coup in Afghanistan which put the Communists in power.
You've got this one wrong even if it is the popular answer.
There may be many products with lasers in them, but how many of those products emit actual laser beams outside the casing in such a way that they could be used like this? Not many.
Require every cheap hand-held laser emit a unique modulated signal. Note the name and address of everyone that buys such devices. Shouldn't be too hard to track down.
It might do to set a minimal price on these things too to get them out of the "kids toy" price range.
Slashdot Mirror
Gee, I wonder why the moderators didn't like this?
This it isn't an obscure fact. The US Defense budget has been bouncing around 4-5% of GDP for more than 10 years. There are pleny of place to find the numbers. Here is one. I refer you to page 6.
Defence Expenditures of NATO Countries (2008-2015)
I will refer you to page 320 of this document:
BUDGET OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT - Historical Tables
Supporting the Force: The Industrial Base and Defense Conversion
The Defense Drawdown After World War II
During World War II, the nation truly had a defense economy. In the war's last year, 1945, over 39 percent of the nation's GDP was devoted to defense. By 1948, less than 4 percent of GDP was spent on defense. (Ibid., p. 140.) Defense spending in 1945 was $714 billion in 1987 dollars; by 1948, it was under $65 billion. Thus, in only three years, defense spending had fallen by 90 percent. (Ibid., p. 128.)
Outlawing Islam isn't going to happen, but some sort of controls on Islamist parties seeming to rule the country could be possible. The Shah held them in check for quite some time. With the recent experience of being subjected to their rule it may be possible to get enough popular support to do it.
And where did you get that 4.5% nonsense? That might cover the toilet paper, if that.
Although you may have a source to "prove" otherwise, I'm pretty sure that the US defense budget doesn't take 100% of GDP. I think someone would notice.
You have your history confused. The Shah was in power prior to all of that, beginning in 1941. Mosaddegh came later, became PM, and overthrew the government. The UK and US helped restore the Shah to power in 1953.
Actually the culture of Slashdot has moved somewhat in a better direction over the last 10-15 years, so you're wrong about it not changing. And there have been some procedural changes that help limit the abuse somewhat, but more is possible. I hope to foster additional improvement at Slashdot. Frankly I think it would be a pity if Slashdot were to be a place where ignorant hostility is preferred to civil discussion, where name calling and trolling is preferred to evidence. That doesn't really go with the supposed respect for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math that people like to claim alliance to here, does it?
And you are quite wrong about why I am generally modded down. It isn't so much because my answers are bad somehow but because they are often in conflict with various popular but mistaken views, or are otherwise uncomfortable to consider. Lots of people have mod points, but no counter-arguments. Facts are stubborn things, but many on Slashdot resist them. That makes people uncomfortable and angry. You seem angry. Why?
Stop comparing GDP to spending. The USA isn't a communist nation and therefore the GDP has no basis on government spending.
Go tell it to NATO. (Really, you can't do the conversion / math?)
Just Five of 28 NATO Members Meet Defense Spending Goal, Report Says
Only Poland this year joined the four other countries, out of 28 total NATO members, that are meeting the alliance’s goal of spending 2% of their gross domestic product on defense. The other four are the U.S., Great Britain, Greece and Estonia.
Defence Expenditures of NATO Countries (2008-2015)
One other thing - national defense is a Constitutional responsibility of the US Federal Government. And that other stuff ....?? Allowed, but not required.
Drones fly in Somalia.
So where are the incidents from people taking apart DVD writers?
You should have given a "trigger warning" that you would use the word "problematic."
Perhaps if you didn't spend all you time trolling/shilling, you wouldn't get modded down.
In other words you want me to mouth the opinions you like instead of my own. Typical fascist.
It's not whining to point out that substandard and abusive moderation is too common. With any luck some of my suggestions will be used and that would really suck for you.
But on the other hand, maybe I need to start posting more actively again to help you recalibrate. You've apparently gone out of kilter.
No, what Iran needs is for our Right Wing politicians to stop meddling in their politics. They were well on their way to modernizing until we decided they were just a little too 'commie' for our tastes and disposed their democratically elected gov't.
I can help you with that point of confusion. The person that overthrew the democratically elected Iranian government was the Iranian Prime Minister. He dissolved parliament, was ruling by decree, faked an election, and caused the legitimate head of state (the Shah) to flee. The US and UK assisted in restoring Iran's legitimate head of state to power. It's history, I suggest you look into it.
As to being "too commie", most of the world has rejected that. It sucks as a form of government and delivers substandard results, usually with great loss of life and enormous oppression. Communist regimes were pretty much environmental horror shows with poisonous legacies that will last for decades or longer.
I'm willing to go so far as to agree that Obama is currently the greatest American president currently in power. He isn't a great American president. The true miracle is that things haven't turned out worse given his close relationship with the man that wrote Prarie Fire .
Your ideas about "pointless war" so "they could line their pockets" and "use fear to control America" doesn't stand much scrutiny. If the "mighty" MIC was so powerful, how did it go from 40% of GDP at the end of WW2 to only about 4.5% GDP today? What other institution would you consider super threatening if it lost 90% of the resources it used to control?
Don't worry, the Iranians are smart enough that they won't revolt against the Shah twice in a row. The next revolution will be against the current government.
Admittedly it would have been better for them if the Obama administration hadn't left them in the wind to dangle.
If surveyors are misusing their equipment we've got big problems in store.
It might be a while. The Obama administration left the last big attempt at reform to twist in the wind.
I wonder if it can be extended to avoid bad moderators? They are kin I think.
Well, certainly nothing could go wrong there, including power cord lenth. @@
So where is the crime wave coming from that then? Hmm?
Misusing laser pointers pretty much has been a crime of opportunity to be stupid.
Disassembling and rebuilding an existing device for nefarious purposes is taking things to a new level in multiple respects. If you're right in a meaningful way you should be able to provide examples.
My goodness, and that is such an important issue, isn't it? The American republic prospered for hundreds of year being led by people that believed in God and creation. But you've got the proper litmus test to "make things right," eh?
Tell me, how much better off do you think the US would be if its head of government openly held values oppsed to those of the vast majority of its citizenry? (And perhaps mocked them to boot?)
The US left South Vietnam in 1972. North Vietnam successfully invaded in 1975 after a previous failed attempt. The North Vietnamese were the invading army.
Being a client state or ally says little or nothing about the legitimacy of the government.
The circumstances leading to US trooops in South Vietnam aren't really the same as those leading to the Soviet invasion, are they?
You also left out the coup in Afghanistan which put the Communists in power.
You've got this one wrong even if it is the popular answer.
There may be many products with lasers in them, but how many of those products emit actual laser beams outside the casing in such a way that they could be used like this? Not many.
Require every cheap hand-held laser emit a unique modulated signal. Note the name and address of everyone that buys such devices. Shouldn't be too hard to track down.
It might do to set a minimal price on these things too to get them out of the "kids toy" price range.
Summary judgement based on only an accusation is not in the code. Go read it, it's not there.
Just like with the police, anyone can make a complaint, but that's just the start of a process.
If due process isn't documented it isn't in there.
Seriously? Do they send them to a neighboring school for the hard subjects?
I don't think they did in the past, but the future just seems to have become wide open to that possibility.
So you're saying that no true Republican isn't a creationist?
There seems to be something wrong with your argument. Can you guess what it is?