The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[sleepyjeff]

Originally Posted by wendybeth

Well, I don't don't about how this helps us (stateside) over all, but I do know that the guy who got the Pentagon contract for body armor (David Brooks) gave his daughter a $10,000,000 bat mitzvah and provided employment for such illustrious groups as Aerosmith, Don Henley, 50 Cent and the like. Of course, this was before his defective armor was recalled and he got in trouble with the SEC and investors started filing lawsuits......

I'm just sure that's gonna trickle some direction to us. Really.

See this just proves my point. 10 million dollars on a bat mitzvah that may of not have happened had the pentagon not spent that money. I am sure that most of those working the mitzvah were middle to lower class. Some of that money would make its way back to the feds thru taxes......all I am saying is that what looks like an incredible amount of money is not just being flushed down the toilet.......

[wendybeth]

Originally Posted by sleepyjeff

See this just proves my point. 10 million dollars on a bat mitzvah that may of not have happened had the pentagon not spent that money. I am sure that most of those working the mitzvah were middle to lower class. Some of that money would make its way back to the feds thru taxes......all I am saying is that what looks like an incredible amount of money is not just being flushed down the toilet.......

You have got to be kidding.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Motorboat Cruiser

This breaks down to approx. $231,481.00 per minute.

Wow ... and here I was complaining (in one thread or another) that the Exxon CEO was making $150,000 a day.

Kinda puts things in perspective.

[Alex]

Well, the total U.S. budget outlay for 2006 is $3,026,000,000,000 ($3.026 billion) which works out to $5,761,035 per minute. Or $96,017 per second. So maybe you can see why scaeagles gets upset.

Seems kind of hard to believe that the United States received $96,000 worth of benefit from the government every single second.

[innerSpaceman]

Exactly who do you suppose would invade our country if we dismantled the Department of Defense and went back to calling it, and using it as, the Deparment of War ... i.e., no having no significant military power unless and until a time of war (war being declared, per that pesky Constitution thingy, by the Congress and not the president)?????


I think we could get things down to spending only $50K per second, and still pump up our vital infrastructure, our health services, our education services, our justice systems, our energy futures, our economic picture, our disaster response capabilities, and our internal & border security measures. All for less than what we are currently spending on "defense."

Is our military really protecting us from invasion? Note I say "invasion," and not "attack." It's been proven that petty criminals can mount a fairly credible attack. I mean a true military threat to our country? Where exactly would that be coming from???

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Is our military really protecting us from invasion? Note I say "invasion," and not "attack." It's been proven that petty criminals can mount a fairly credible attack. I mean a true military threat to our country? Where exactly would that be coming from???

It depends on what you mean by military attack. Do psychotic leader such as North Korea's Kim Jong (mentally) Ill and Iran's whatever-the-heck-his-name-is scare me? Absolutely. N. Korea already has nukes (I won't bring up how they got them, as that might be seen as slamming previous administrations, and who cares about history). Iran is closing in on them.

China scares me a bit in that they have nukes, and now have ballistic missile ability (please see previous parenthetical comment), have puppet governments in their neck of the woods, and are most likely going to invade Taiwan at some point. If we protect Taiwan, our ally, then we will basically be at war with China, who is quite formidable.

So.....yeah. There are true military threats to our country.

[innerSpaceman]

But, insanity aside, what would be the economic or military motive for invading the United States?

Though there have been cases of insanity-wars, most military adventures throughout history have been economic in nature. Would someone want to enslave our population? Would it be our vast coal resources? Colonization of a land with lots of water and agriculture? What are we so in danger of?

Saying we are in danger of kooks with nukes is like saying you are in danger of being hit by a bus today.

It's possible, but I wouldn't advise spending half of your weekly paycheck on avoiding that bus accident.

[Nephythys]

I find it sad that when there is a group out there who want us converted or dead- who kill gay men for the act of simply being gay- who want to impose their religion on those who claim to want freedom from such things- who want to subjugate women-the response is "we don't need the military, we're the bad guys, and we need to just stop defending ourselves"

Sad......and blind

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Nephythys

I find it sad that when there is a group out there who want us converted or dead- who kill gay men for the act of simply being gay- who want to impose their religion on those who claim to want freedom from such things- who want to subjugate women-the response is "we don't need the military, we're the bad guys, and we need to just stop defending ourselves"

Sad......and blind

Islamic radicals are not my friends.

Neither are Christian radicals who bomb abortion clinics, who want us converted or dead, who kill gay men for the act of simply being gay- who want to impose their religion on those who claim to want freedom from such things- who want to subjugate women.

Yup Nephy, I can take your entire statement and apply it to Christian radicals as well. Can we use our military against them too? Pretty please with sugar on top? Heck, they're already in our country, it will be cheaper then going overseas.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

Yup Nephy, I can take your entire statement and apply it to Christian radicals as well. Can we use our military against them too?

Repeat after me....."posse comitatus".

I realize your comment is tongue in cheek, but just for the record, someone who bombs abortion clinics is no Christian.