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Author Topic: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O  (Read 14856658 times)

Aseaheru

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66300 on: December 29, 2014, 04:24:59 pm »

Or have a few old helis we gave them decades before.
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Graknorke

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66301 on: December 29, 2014, 04:27:56 pm »

-snip-
Yeah, I know that. That's why I mentioned it.
I'm thinking maybe some of the better off countries could maybe put together a fund to put up an army and let America fight it. Like the Make-A-Wish foundation, but with more casualties.
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EnigmaticHat

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66302 on: December 29, 2014, 04:36:25 pm »

Dying UN soldier: I... hope... you're happy... America.
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Lord Shonus

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66303 on: December 29, 2014, 04:41:52 pm »

It's pretty important to remember that most of the US's more notorious military actions consisted of small Special Forces groups.

The US military is built around the "fleet in being" principle, where the very existence of the military means it will never be needed. There's a very good argument to be made that the US's "10,000 lb gorilla" status is why there hasn't been a major war since Vietnam, Korea or WWII (depending on your definition of a "major war"), and that the latter two (Vietnam was a French colonial war that the US felt they needed to clean up when France got kicked out) would never have happened if the US had bothered to maintain a real military in the first place.

The world of 2014 isn't much different in terms of trade patterns, international movements, and such (all the reasons why people claim there will be no longer be a threat of real war) from the world of 1914, with the only real difference being the rise of the EU (the long term effect of which is too soon to tell) and the complete lack of an international armaments race.

The idea that "conventional warfare is obsolete" very well stem as much from the fact that most of the US's allies shelter under the US umbrella (rendering an arms race unnecessary and allowing them to restrict military spending to just enough for immediate self defense) and that most of the US's potential enemies are so far behind the power curve that there's no way to catch up (rendering an armaments race impossible). There's at least a dozen areas where full-scale regional warfare could easily break out due to serious tensions between neighbors at any given time, and there's been a few situations over the last few years where I still am not sure how war didn't break out.

Meanwhile, the Pax Atomica has flaws, as no nation is going to resort to nuclear weapons unless they're involved in a total war to begin with (the things are just too nasty), which is why the US abandoned the "nuclear army" mindset during Vietnam. Now, the rise of laser weapons and super-accurate ABM missile systems means that even the "unstoppable" ICBMs are no longer guaranteed to get through, weakening the deterrent effect further.
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MonkeyHead

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66304 on: December 29, 2014, 04:43:43 pm »

Dying UN soldier: I... hope... you're happy... America.

There - the last 50 years of history summed up in one sentence.

Jervill

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66305 on: December 29, 2014, 04:49:56 pm »

Holy shit.  Gasoline prices at the pump are now under 3 bucks.  Hallelujah.  Now if it can dip back under $2.50...

Heh.  heh.  Heh.

Some stations here are under $2.00 a gallon.
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Eric Blank

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66306 on: December 29, 2014, 05:08:54 pm »

Its only 1.95 here. Idaho has much lower gas taxes than Washington or Oregon. If we eliminated federal gas taxes it could fall even lower. But taxes only go up, so...
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Aseaheru

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66307 on: December 29, 2014, 05:24:07 pm »

My god, someone important must be really worried...

Gas here is still over $3.00 tho...
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Orange Wizard

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66308 on: December 29, 2014, 05:28:13 pm »

Petrol here is just under $2 per litre. Which also happens to be the lowest it's been in a long time. Like, multiple years long time.
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Lord Shonus

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66309 on: December 29, 2014, 05:32:18 pm »

For reference, that translates to around $5.89 a gallon based on the current exchange rate between USD and NZD. Which isn't as bad as I thought it would be.
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MonkeyHead

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66310 on: December 29, 2014, 05:38:43 pm »

Here I am paying £1.19p per litre. That is the cheapest petrol has been for at least 5 years, maybe a bit more. That works out to be about US$8.40 a gallon. You guys have no idea how good you have got it, not being taxed about 70% on fuel.

SealyStar

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66311 on: December 29, 2014, 05:39:40 pm »

$1.85, beeyotches.
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Lord Shonus

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66312 on: December 29, 2014, 05:43:33 pm »

Here I am paying £1.19p per litre. That is the cheapest petrol has been for at least 5 years, maybe a bit more. That works out to be about US$8.40 a gallon. You guys have no idea how good you have got it, not being taxed about 70% on fuel.
~$7.00, actually. A gallon's only 3.78 liters, and the pound's currently at 1:1.75 vs the dollar. Still extremely high, of course.
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MonkeyHead

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66313 on: December 29, 2014, 05:45:20 pm »

Here I am paying £1.19p per litre. That is the cheapest petrol has been for at least 5 years, maybe a bit more. That works out to be about US$8.40 a gallon. You guys have no idea how good you have got it, not being taxed about 70% on fuel.
~$7.00, actually. A gallon's only 3.78 liters, and the pound's currently at 1:1.75 vs the dollar. Still extremely high, of course.

I was working on £1 to $1.85... but yeah, I had no idea that a US gallon (3.78 ish L) was not the same as an Imperial gallon (4.54 ish L). You guys like to fuck up systems of measurement, don't you?

Putnam

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Re: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O
« Reply #66314 on: December 29, 2014, 05:53:28 pm »

...says the person who lives in a country where they use units equal to 14 pounds to measure people's weight but still use kilometers for distance and reconcile liters for petrol and pints for alcohol.
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