How long till we discover dinosaurs discovered nukes and wiped themselves out?

The question at that point is whether the world's latest little dictator will be satisfied with Ukraine (and perhaps former Soviet possessions in Eastern Europe like Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, etc.) or whether he will proceed to invade Germany and France. If he does invade any country besides Ukraine it would obligate a NATO response but I'm unsure if Obama would follow treaty obligations (direct war with Russia) or if it would be the effective end of NATO. Anyway there's a ceasefire until Mar 21, so the nuclear holocaust will likely not occur until at least this weekend.

Also coincidentally a Russian nuclear submarine was on fire in the north of Russia http://barentsobserver.com/en/...

The problem is Putin may think he can wage conventional warfare across Europe without having to worry about a nuclear response.

So that means that if a subset of "the community" wanted to take their own percentage of the network and run it themselves they would just send an email to the larger community and then they could choose what rates, etc. to charge, right? Right?! No? Okay, so how is that not a monopoly?

Money's one thing, physical resources are another. Since all the major economies of the world are using fiat currencies that are not guaranteed by a physical resource, the value of the currency is at best determined by the strength of the governments/militaries behind it. Whether there's enough of it to go around has more to do with how those in power choose to distribute it or allow it to remain distributed. As far as resources go (including money), you are right that wery often shortages are created artificially in what are on the larger scale petty squabbles to gain power for one's own government, corporation, or self.

It is basically a scientific certainty that there are other habitable planets out there. Eventually this planet will be destroyed. That doesn't mean humans should be irresponsible, but there is something to be said for harnessing resources in a responsible way with clear goals so we can get off this rock. Then we'll ony have to worry about brane collisions destroying the fabric of the univerese. And there are always going to be unknown consequences; even not taking action will result in unknown consequences, it's just the nature of life.

It's the smallest of defense-related agencies (including VA) but considering the blated defense budget in the US that's not really saying much. Not to mention that the US is now ruled via secret courts, secret laws, and presumably secret employees who go uncounted.

Well you're right, it isn't the only way, but the economic incentives are a big part of why people join the military. I wouldn't characterize the military as 'volunteer' because almost every soldier is being paid to fight. In fact conscription, without any deferments, in some ways comes closer to a volunteer force because the cop-out that the war must be justified because people are choosing to fight it disappears. But if we had conscription suddenly the wars would become much less popular, and leaders would have too think a liitle more before making idle threats.

Choice is a matter of degree. If there wasn't as much poverty as there is, a lot of people wouldn't 'choose' to join the military because it's the only legal path to improving their lot in life, getting an education, etc.