China was a struggling third world country before they wisely began to adopt capitalism, It's far from a free market, operating more like a nation sized corporation, but to call it communist is off the rails. It still has a caste system for example. It's operating pretty much along the lines China has operated for quite a long time, except without an obvious emperor.

Imperial Rome was sort of similar, but it's worth noting that the public had a strong voice in politics, as indicated by the bread and circuses they were provided to keep them happy, a fully operational social welfare system that existed thousands of years ago.

Nazi Germany was never capitalist, for example Hitler in 1927: "We are socialists. We are enemies of today's capitalistic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions." Goebbels: "The worker in a capitalist state - that is his greatest misfortune - no longer a human being, no longer a creator, no longer a shaper of things. He has become a machine."

  In 1941, former Nazi boss of Danzig, Hermann Rauschning, wrote that the last part of the German Revolution was Nazism, which was just as much a realization of Marxist as of nationalist ideas, and he notes that the only ones who refuse to admit this are supporters of Marxist theories and Nazis themselves. Rauschning also writes in his book that Marxism itself was part of a single great revolutionary movement which included Marxist Socialism, Nazism, Communist Bolshevism, Fascism and nihilism. Rauschning knew Hitler well and repudiated him and his movement at great risk before the rest of the world recognized the full danger of Nazism.

Much the same could be said of fascist Italy.

The only group in your list that could credibly be called capitalist were the British Empire, and during its height (mostly mid 19th century to the start of the 20th century) liberty and democracy did indeed bloom, culminating in universal suffrage and the outline of what we today call a modern democracy appearing. Not so much in the colonies of course but that was the Imperial part of the equation

That's probably why you've never seen a reason to learn jQuery.

He pretty much called the pope a moron: http://io9.com/5839933/did-gal...

As far as I'm aware he brought many of his troubles more or less on himself due to his unfortunate habit of insulting a medieval absolute monarch.

Yes some people like to exercise their imaginations outside of textbooks that will almost certainly be rewritten by this time next century, depressing stuff indeed. I've even heard that some of the cretins even enjoy such flights of fancy!

The horror.

If Yellowstone goes boom it will almost certainly wipe out most complex life on the planet, and we'll be very fortunate not to count ourselves among the casualties. I'm afraid some balloons just aren't going to cut it.

I'm not sure underground is such a great idea - underwater now, that might be a different story.

Seems a bit like chopping off your foot to fix an ingrown toenail.

By that rationale the CIA has jurisdiction in Beijing.

Jusrisdiction does not mean what you think it means.

GCHQ has no jurisdiction in Ireland. Different country, not part of the UK and all that.

You maggots are like little fat marxist daleks waddling around the place shrieking "deconstruct! deconstruct! deconstruct!" even if you lack the self awareness to know this yourselves. The irony is that your entire assemblage is being deconstructed as we speak. The future does not look bright for you.

Tell me, if a woman said "But if a man makes a pass at me or gropes me, I have no problem decking them," would you then respond with "Are you afraid you might like it?"

Not edgy, not cool, and mostly just another gormless attack on male heterosxeuality. The vast majority of dudes aren't gay. Deal with it.

Software patents aren't recognised by the EU as far as I'm aware.

It was pretty clear what you meant and you weren't making a point about farming. This kind of econut proselytising is why people are not inclined to listen to environmentalist activist groups.

Not even showering less. Get the memo, the lifestyles of the citizenry aren't the problem.

One of the most interesting posts I've read here all year.