The tactics the Soviets used were more dangerous that all the money and guns the US ever threw at anything. Go watch his videos. You have no idea what you are poo-pooing. It's not about guns and money, it's about dissolving the fabric of a society from the inside over a generation or two before you create a crisis and move in. The soviets not only had offensive plans, they were enacting them. The Soviets were invading South Vietnam and South Korea, using the northern counterparts to each to provide the muscle. The Soviets were attempting to conquer the world with a poison ideology. Why? Because that's what they did. The Soviet Union was 1984's Eurasia, but they had no Oceania to prevent their expanse.

I'm not saying the United States never backed the wrong people or got involved with something we should have avoided altogether. I am not denying that evil was done by our government and military. But the evil done by the Soviet regime far out-weighs that, and even the fact that the US supported the Tzar's cannot negate this imbalance. Further, the potential for evil the soviets represented post WWII adds even to the rest. They were a massive threat to the world, far greater than we were.

By the time Russian tanks rolled into the capital of a newly conquered nation, that nation had been under invasion for at least a full generation. Soviet expansion worked in the following way: The KGB would send agents to bribe or persuade educators, politicians, media personalities, anyone of influence to spread socialist propaganda. Any who refuse, any idealists who really believe din a socialist or any who vocally oppose soviet ideals are carefully noted and tracked over 15 or 20 years. The idealists because they will oppose the realities of the socialism that will come, the rest because they opposed it from the start and will continue to do so. Any opportunity is taken to devolve political discourse into shouting matches is taken. This is not hard as people have strong tendencies towards it anyway. Once things have progressed far enough, a crisis is instigated and soviet forces roll in welcomed as saviors while simultaneously rounding up and executing everyone on their list as they are all potential dissidents or insurgents. This is gone into in much greater detail in the interview and lecture given by Yuri Bezmenov. This is essentially how North Vietnam became communist, how can you say that the Soviets had no hostile intentions. I'd say that is pretty damned hostile. It is in this light that I say the Soviets always represented a greater danger in the world than the United States did.

This is not revisionist. This is information to the contrary and it doesn't even come from US intelligence. It comes from one of the men who did it. He was a KGB station cheif in India. This has been publicly available for at least 25 years now.

I repeat: The evil perpetrated by the Soviets outweighs the evil perpetrated by the United States, but I will not speculate on the narrowness of the margin.

As far as faked intelligence, David Kay, the very man who finally said Iraq likely did not have WMD's said also that invading Iraq was the proper course of action because Hussein had weapons programs ready to be started up on short notice. Also I cannot find a record of David Kay admitting Iraq likely did not have WMD's before the invasion. What was found would be consistent with Saddam hastily moving stockpiles over the border into Syria. It cannot be disputed that we still do not know conclusively whether or not Iraq had any stockpiles of chemical weapons. Even if the circumstantial evidence indicates he did not, Saddam still had the pieces to start weapons programs as soon as the UN stopped looking for them. US soldiers found executed nuclear scientists at various places around Iraq. The only reason I can think of to kill nuclear scientists is that if captured, they would confirm the pretense upon which your country had been invaded.

I can understand the points you make, but more arms, defense spending and a more belligerent foreign policy still did not make the US more dangerous than the USSR. There is a whole side to the history of this issue that has been ignored. Money and guns simply do not settle the issue.

There has been this meme going around that the evil United States has been just ruining the day for all the other countries of the world, if it weren't for the US we'd have a utopia. It's just not true.

Fry's has an annual "Come dump your old crap here for free" day. Of course it's also an annual "buy replacements while you're here" day.

Really, the other guns don't get jealous? Or do you rotate them out night after night? Gun safe = harem!

Dude, look at a map of Russia, and then look at a map of the USSR. All of those countries that are the difference between the two had their governments overthrown by the Soviets and literally thousands of people executed in a single night in a wash-rinse-repeat cycle all through Europe. Go watch the Yuri Bezmenov videos and remember while you watch them that he was one of the people orchestrating the process. With all of the bad things the US has done, the Soviets were always more dangerous.

It also implies that the charges cannot possibly have any basis in reality. A line McCarthy did not cross.

Household level power in the middle of the Afghan Desert?

If the people dying have no respect for others, yeah.

Hell, the rounds are almost more expensive than the drones you'd be shooting down. Taken into consideration how many rounds it might take to actually hit an RC plane with a rifle it might actually cost more.

I can see a new round for the m203 grenade launcher (or any grenade launcher) with a proximity fuse, much like those developed in WWII to shoot down Japanese planes.

Actually, the Korean, Vietnam and all the cold war related skirmishes are related to defense. The soviets were actively engaged in subverting governments and taking them over and we were the great big prize target for them. When you picture the scenario i describe and think to yourself "there is no way the threat the soviets posed to us was that sinister and involved," know that in fact i was that sinister and convoluted and involved. The soviets were truly trying to take over the world in such a manner that if one understood it they would no longer believe in any way that the US had ever made any attempt to do the same.

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan are related to defense as well. Iraqi intelligence has been giving aid to Al Qaeda since the early 90's as they have waged a war against us. The Afghanistan Taliban gave them safe haven from which to plan and conduct this war. Is that enough reason to go to war? That's were the debate starts, but to say that there has been no provocation on any level since WWII is naive. Though i can see claiming that since a lot of it has not been direct provocation it doesn't count, but i would disagree on that point.

Since the end of World War II the US has faced some form of constant threat. Whether or not these threats have been severe enough to warrant the actions we have taken is a separate discussion, but the threats have been there. Those parties that have threatened us have always tried to conduct themselves in such a way that they could always claim any retaliation was unwarranted.

All in all, I think we should have given up Global Super Power status when the soviets fell. It's just not worth it anymore, but I think we were needed while they were standing.

We should stop bothering with foreign entanglements, but there are a lot of people who aren't going to like the fact that that would mean no help for Darfur, or Haiti, no more aid like we gave after the tsunami.

Iraq-Al Qaeda stuff: http://www.amazon.com/Connection-Collaboration-Hussein-Endangered-America/dp/0060746734

Soviet stuff: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-RS8LA-5fmrs/g_edward_griffin_interview_of_yuri_bezmenov/
Yuri Bezmenov was one of the guys doing it until he defected. There is also a series of 7 videos where he gives a university lecture and goes into detail on this process. He is wearing a powder blue blazer in that series.

I know people want to believe the US is some big bad boogey man ruining the lives of innocent foreigners, and we have done some really nasty things. But if you look back at all of the nations that have been the big superpower through history, the US really does set the gold standard for benevolence in global politics.

It's not a bad idea to have some notion of efficient evacuation before the blueprints are done, just to be sure that the finished design does not hamper evacuation, making it a deathtrap. Much like mandating outward opening doors before pen hits paper.

Communist infiltration and subverstoin was a real phenomenon. McCarthy rected with far less finess than he should have, but he wasn't making up the danger.

Heating the water drives it into the rice faster, surrounding it with water provides more available water for rice to soak up. Rice will absorb moisture, that is why it is fatal to birds. The rice expanding from absorbing moisture in the birds stomach (gullet?). Room tempurature air would not contain enough moisture or propell the water mollecules with enough heat to truly cook rice. Sure there are better things for the job, but people have rice handy. The absolute best thing would probably be severely refrigerated air that was then dryly heated back up before passing over and through the device. The cooling would lower the vapor pressure, removing the moisture, the heat would allow it to evaporate the moisture from the device more readily.

It's real.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mateba_Autorevolver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0zxgyim_g4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR26h-7ZBCM

Think of what those words mean, what they refer to. Historically, profane is anything that's outside of the church. Grocery shopping is profane, because it's not part of worship. Now notice that all the topics they refer to are things that have little place in church services. Fuck, shit, bitch. You can talk about sex during a church service, you can mention feces, even female dogs but it would be done in a mature and respectful manner and done in relation to God, Jesus and the Gospels. However, referring to these topics in such crass and crude terms, such as talking about fucking, shit or referring to women as bitches, would really never have a place in church services and therefor would always be profane. Couple that with the puritanical roots of the United States and you can see how they are considered 'bad.'

To be fair though, excessive use of such words is a sign of immaturity, gratuitous and generally pointless. I do quite like the way many of them sound, their abruptness...they are like little verbal gunshots to my ears, and i do like to go shooting. A sentence filled with profanity is likely to be devoid of thought as well. I do approve of them being considered "bad" words at least for children as i would rather my children (when i have them) learn to express themselves thoughtfully over using expletive filled tirades.

As far as not being allowed to use profanity stifling "free expression," well that is totally false. You can invariable express your thoughts more accurately and clearly without the use of profanity. Consider the following phrases: "Fuck you pal!" and "Sir, if i ever gained the approval of a man such as yourself, i would hang myself in shame." Which is more expressive?

In fact, a ban on profanity does not infringe upon ones first amendment rights. Even if profanity is illegal you can still advocate any political view legally, one may have to achieve a higher level of eloquence however. I am vehemently against such a ban as that is not a power granted to the Legislature (federal i know for sure, pretty sure about CA state, and yes i do know this is not a ban). As far as the problem with allowing profanity on daytime TV, ask instead what would really be gained by allowing it. Are you really missing out on anything because of the FCC's ban? Likely not. I do not mean to dismiss the question you pose, however it alone is not sufficient to properly illuminate the topic.

Now:
"Hell, Damn Fart. Boobs Fart Boobs!"

Good point. So officially the Higgs Boson is still cheating at twenty questions?