There's the problem....

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Comments

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

in before someone argues you can't expect to win a war by throwing books at the terrorists.

[library-chair.livejournal.com]

man, books are surprisingly heavy, they'd probably make good projectiles

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

naaa children are cheaper to make

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Stray dogs and cats are even cheaper. It's time to start throwing animals.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

The CATapult is a great idea!

[pacotelic.livejournal.com]

We could SOLVE the social security problem if we started throwing the elderly, and shuffled the SS tax income to the general fund.

Just don't let anybody know.

[pacotelic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but the aerodynamics are crap

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

I'd just like to spend enough so the fodder is at least aware there exists another use for books...

[david-deacon.livejournal.com]

You don't fight a "war" against terrorism. That's like fighting a war against stamp collecting.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

I know, just expecting some knee-jerk defense of military spending and contempt for public education that's all

[drivebyluna.livejournal.com]

Also I question the second graph based on population size and GDP. India is the only country with a larger population than ours but only accounts for 5% of the world's GDP (as opposed to the US's 22%)

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Is there some formula I don't know about here where you need to protect one GDP with one tank or something?

[pacotelic.livejournal.com]

This is just the discretionary budget, there are several other elephants in the room.

[fleaplus.livejournal.com]

Indeed:



http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/12/who-benefits-fr.html

[pacotelic.livejournal.com]

Re: the second graph: Can we just invade every other country, take their money, and be done with it? Seems plausible, right?

[spencer-mato.livejournal.com]

Ugh, how disgustingly large our military is. One of the senators suggested closing the military bases in Germany, Russia, and Japan since we aren't fighting Nazis, or Russian Communists. It sounded like a marvelous idea to me, but apparently the GOP still thinks that's a bad idea.

Also, there was another amendment to keep us from paying our UN dues (in effect, withdrawing the US from the UN) because 62 million to keep on good terms with the other first world country is bad, and we should instead keep them in fear with our massive (unconstitutional) standing army.

I fucking hate the GOP more and more every day.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

After Clinton's ludicrous display this week, the rest of the world would probably be glad if you would leave the UN... It's not like the US does anything their except ignore it or fuck up good ideas...

[xforge.livejournal.com]

We're not really *fighting* anyone at all; we're blowing the holy f*ck out of a couple of countries in the Middle East, but that's probably not going to go on forever. The harsh reality is there isn't anybody left *to* fight, pretty much everybody else on the planet (except a few assholes and other people who thought it'd be cool to shoot all their own countrymen) decided fighting over shit was a stupid f*cking idea about 50 years ago and we just apparently haven't gotten the f*cking message yet.

[red-pill.livejournal.com]

im pritty sure you guys dont want to leave germany and jappan at least, becous a bunch of costs are paid over there. i think its cheaper to station troops to hangout over there then it is to have them hanging out at home

also on jappan, i suspect the troops there are a kind of spring board should anything happen in tiwan/north korea, who the jappaness are pritty paranoid about

why you need so meny large bases in germany and russia tho is anther question enterly.

Reminded me of this...

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Feel free to make this into your own metaphor:

[terminator44.livejournal.com]

Enrich the army. Scorn the rest. :(