HoKr: Thing is, this would still be fine by me, if it weren't for the hicks in threads like this beatig the "US#1" drum on every occasion they can think of.

see, you are right there will always be a small percentage beating their chests like that, what you may not realize is that you are coming across as the antithesis to that...the "irrational US Hater" who complains about everything the US does or doesn't do.

phillydrifter: phillydrifter: Gee, maybe if the US didn't strong arm almost every other nation on earth into outlawing cannabis, people wouldn't be starving to death because they could grow hemp (it does, after all, grow just about anywhere, in any climate, in any soil) and make food from it.

hasn't stopped many countries in the past.... Hemp doesn't sound too tasty. I'm pretty sure that if they grow cannabis, they're going to need pizza franchises.

maybe the OPEC guys could chip in a bit? Most of the inflation in the US is caused by the currency traders devaluing the $ and "forcing" the OPEC guys to raise their prices accordingly (Mercedes, Ferraris and tall buildings ain't cheap you know)... There is that supply & demand thing going with oil also (China anyone?)...

samimgreen: okami36: Cornered Beef: Top 10 per capita contributors to the UN regular budget, 2005

Country ($amount)
Luxembourg 3.49
Switzerland 3.31
Japan 3.06
Liechtenstein 3.03
Norway 3.01
Denmark 2.69
Iceland 2.38
Qatar 2.14
Austria 2.13
Netherlands 2.10

Of course, Luxembourg is at the top of that list. There's only 12 people living there...

and they're all rich and the country is the size of a postage stamp...

Luxemburg actually has the highest per capita GNP in the world.

So basically this stat is about rich people giving a lot of money to one corrupt organization.

FYI - Switzerland is #3

US is #6

Full list (new window)

Rakishi: samimgreen: I call shenanigans. It's the priest's fault that the people choose which rules to abide by or is it the people who want to have premarital sex with no condom because it feels so good? Hmm?

/no Catholic, but tired of that fallacy also
//Never the fault of the person doing it, always someone else's...

So if two people come to you with an odd device on which you have no outside information. One is a friend and community member who you trust and says the device does nothing and may actually kill you, and that the other person is a liar. The other is a random stranger who says it will help prevent the spread of evil spirits that cause sickness and will also prevent the stork from bringing you a baby. Which would you believe?

Wow, let's just make up all kinds of stuff for the hypothetical here and completely ignore what is actually happening.

/people like sex before, during, after, and outside of marriage
//people like sex without condoms
///try refuting the truth without making stuff up...

HoKr: Well, mr Fascist (or just high blood-pressure),

Ah the name calling already, I think I'll add that one to the list of what I've been called right after socialist, hippy, liberal and communist. God I love being a moderate.

I believe that if your country is giving less money to the UN than other developed nations, you shouldn't put your country on a piedestal of goodness because of how much more they contribute to that institution than other countries.

Most people aren't doing that, they're talking about all contributions not just to one institution.

What happens here? The developed world decides on a way to do something, funds it out of (my pocket much more than yours), then the US decides to give less than others. How is this not arrogance? How is this not sticking a finger into other's faces saying 'We just know better than you fools, so screw you all'?

Why are you forcing other nations to give their own money to something they don't believe in? It's not my fault that your country is forcing you to give your money to some organization. It's like saying that just because you jumped of a bridge I must do the same.

Thing is, this would still be fine by me, if it weren't for the hicks in threads like this beatig the "US#1" drum on every occasion they can think of.

See previous point about how the UN is not the only metric and how most people aren't using donations to it as a metric.

I don't hate the US at all.

I think you guys do not function well around others and I also think you need to chill out with the torture, the human rights violations and the scaremongering, but these are all relatively new things to come out of the US, so I would much rather blame the current administration than the whole country.

Your country is so unpopular here, that I am actually considered very pro-american. Which I am.

HoKr: I don't hate the US at all.

I think you guys do not function well around others and I also think you need to chill out with the torture, the human rights violations and the scaremongering, but these are all relatively new things to come out of the US, so I would much rather blame the current administration than the whole country.

Your country is so unpopular here, that I am actually considered very pro-american. Which I am.

Wow, you are completely collectivist. The government isn't the same thing as the people, but given the state Britain's in, I'm not surprised you don't understand that.

samimgreen: Wow, let's just make up all kinds of stuff for the hypothetical here and completely ignore what is actually happening.

/people like sex before, during, after, and outside of marriage
//people like sex without condoms
///try refuting the truth without making stuff up...

You may try understanding the issue before posting next time. The problem isn't that people have sex without condoms. The problem is that when some group tries to have them use condoms for their own good (prevent spread of AIDS, fewer children, etc.) there is another group working to do the exact opposite. Are you saying that the other group is totally not at fault for the consequences of it's actions? Those consequences being that a lot fewer people are convinced to use condoms.

logictwisted: samimgreen: okami36: Cornered Beef: Top 10 per capita contributors to the UN regular budget, 2005

Country ($amount)
Luxembourg 3.49
Switzerland 3.31
Japan 3.06
Liechtenstein 3.03
Norway 3.01
Denmark 2.69
Iceland 2.38
Qatar 2.14
Austria 2.13
Netherlands 2.10

Of course, Luxembourg is at the top of that list. There's only 12 people living there...

and they're all rich and the country is the size of a postage stamp...

Luxemburg actually has the highest per capita GNP in the world.

So basically this stat is about rich people giving a lot of money to one corrupt organization.

FYI - Switzerland is #3

US is #6

Full list (new window)

Ahhh, there we go, now we can take the first chart and multiply it by the second chart and see just what that dollar figure is that is being given....

/doesn't feel like doing it...
//Look at allll those African countries with some of the richest resources in the world way down there at the bottom of the list...
///yeah, it's because the US isn't giving them enough food and money. Sure it is...

YixilTesiphon:

"so I would much rather blame the current administration than the whole country"

Also, I'm not British. I live in Britain, but I'm not British. English is a second language for me.

YixilTesiphon: We tried that once. It's called Liberia. It is a big pile of fail.

It is now, but only because of a (typically African) military coup in 1980 that's sunk them into three decades of civil war. Previously the Africo-Liberians were responsible for one of the longest periods of social and economic stability in African history. See William Tubman especially.

The U.N. "NEEDS" to teach the poor how to farm their own lands and hunt squirrels and grasshoppers for vitamins.

Captain_Kris: How about mandatory birth control for starving millions so in 20 years we don't have requests for food for starving billions?



No wai!

bunner: Can't we teach these cats to farm?


Yes wai!

Happy birthday, Dr. Borlaug. You are the real saint.

Rakishi: samimgreen: Wow, let's just make up all kinds of stuff for the hypothetical here and completely ignore what is actually happening.

/people like sex before, during, after, and outside of marriage
//people like sex without condoms
///try refuting the truth without making stuff up...

You may try understanding the issue before posting next time. The problem isn't that people have sex without condoms. The problem is that when some group tries to have them use condoms for their own good (prevent spread of AIDS, fewer children, etc.) there is another group working to do the exact opposite. Are you saying that the other group is totally not at fault for the consequences of it's actions? Those consequences being that a lot fewer people are convinced to use condoms.

Me understand. Catholic church think condom bad. Catholic church thing sex outside marriage and to more than one person bad. Ugh. Me get. Me no get why slut puppy ignore one rule and obey other. Me think Catholic church no has influence you say Catholic church has else there be no AIDS in one generation. Ugh.

Kanemano: The World Food Program, which feeds about 73 million people worldwide.


What have you done today?

I didn't make any unwanted babies I can't and won't support. Oh, and I made snark just now.

Overpopulation is such an ugly, tired myth.

YixilTesiphon:
Wow, you are completely collectivist. The government isn't the same thing as the people, but given the state Britain's in, I'm not surprised you don't understand that.

Our people allow our government to do unpopular things.

ManicParroT: A sunny September morning should have made it obvious to you that it matters very much what the rest of the world thinks. But you prefer to live in an American box and repeat the mistakes of the past.


Now, we especially don't care what they think. Jesus nukes > Allah nukes. Perhaps they failed at learning from history by attacking us, and we should remind them! Fat Man and Little Boy FTW!

highendmighty: The U.N. "NEEDS" to teach the poor how to farm their own lands and hunt squirrels and grasshoppers for vitamins.

Agrees to help:

Fecacacophany:
I didn't make any unwanted babies I can't and won't support. Oh, and I made snark just now.

Oh, wait, wait, I get it. This is just another Welfare Momma thread... but on a global scale!

Why should we have to pay for those nig... underachievers?

/k

HoKr: I don't hate the US at all.

I think you guys do not function well around others and I also think you need to chill out with the torture, the human rights violations and the scaremongering, but these are all relatively new things to come out of the US, so I would much rather blame the current administration than the whole country.

Your country is so unpopular here, that I am actually considered very pro-american. Which I am.

Hmmm...I travel extensively. Most recently in the Pacific area, previously in the middle east and europe. In general people are at best unsure of America's policies, many times in disagreement with them (without a doubt, Bush is the face of policy so he takes the hits, but that's ok..) However, with regards to our country and our people, almost without fail the impression is overwhelmingly positive.
As with all things, the views on Fark have to be taken with a grain of salt and in perspective..people like Gash no more represent the views of the ROTW thatn I represent the US viewpoint.

sendtodave: Fecacacophany:
I didn't make any unwanted babies I can't and won't support. Oh, and I made snark just now.

Oh, wait, wait, I get it. This is just another Welfare Momma thread... but on a global scale!

Why should we have to pay for those nig... underachievers?

/k

Wow, you are such a bigot to think it is black women are the only people on welfare. What a farkin' neanderthal bigoted comment that is. Obama was right.

One of the biggest problems for the hungry in much of the world is a lack of suitable seed stock. The seed they have is only marginally suited to the conditions they're planted in. In some cases, you would need to go literally up the road a couple hundred miles to get better seeds. In other cases, only choice is to get something out of a lab. Sadly we have people who prefer people to starve to death than let them have engineered seeds.

Of course they don't. And what I said was never about any one person in particular, I have great friends living here from the US.

Still, people I'm around most of the day are fairly well-read, intelligent, opinionated people whom I have to remind on a weekly basis how the US practically installed democracy into the most of Europe and how it helped to restore our economies after WW2.

People tend to forget things which are not on the news, and what are on the news are nothing to be proud of. That is never anything personal, until you start with the aforementioned flag-waving and chest-thumping.

The U.N. food program only has a $500 million shortfall this year. Next year, demand should level out.

keypusher: the US military costs the US $600 billion a year...It would be hard to spend $600 billion on anything and not do some good, but the US military comes close...If you don't recognize you've been sold a bill of goods about the US military and its "protection," you're a fool.

After WWI, "the war to end all wars," we scrapped a lot of our military materiel. Then WWII came and we were caught with our pants down.

I believe we maintain an expensive state-of-the-art military because we learned a lesson the hard way, and most of Europe nearly learned a lesson permanently.

As for "not do[ing] some good," military R&D is much like space R&D. Putting robots on Mars doesn't make directly put food on your table, but some spiffy technology is invented that improves life for civilians.

keypusher: Surpheon: keypusher:
Protect the world from what? Martians?

Surpheon, the US military costs the US $600 billion a year. Our contribution to piracy surpression is minor.

BULLSHIAT. If you look back, I certainly argue the US military is pissing away money faster than a Republican Senator buying teen whores at an all-male Las Vegas revue, so talking as a percent of that bloated beast is stupid. But in absolute dollars the US is primarily responsible for maintaining the safety of the US-Europe and Pacific rim shipping lanes for everyone. Our contribution to piracy suppression exceeds every other nation on the earth combined, even if half of it is just a side product of schlupping forces back and forth to give Europe/Japan/Korea/Taiwan/etc a free security blanket.

And you are woefully ignorant of the situation South Korea faces if you think they do not benefit from having the US 'tripwire' between them and the world's fourth largest military, which is controlled by a nationalistic government on par with Nazi Germany. Perhaps you also think that Taiwan is just hunky-dory on its own too? And of course the US would never have to wade in to deal with Europe's dirty laundry in the Balkans after WWII.

tekmo: bunner: Can't we teach these cats to farm?

Yes wai!

Happy birthday, Dr. Borlaug. You are the real saint.

Oh shiat, it's Norman Borlaug's birthday??? *checks calendar* OMG it is! Awesome. That man is almost single-handedly responsible for preventing a worldwide famine that would have killed hundreds of millions of people.

Borlaug is a real hero. People like Mother Theresa can DIAF.

Fark-the-Fnord: I wonder if a country has ever closed its borders and work totally on itself to fix itself and not worry about anyone else, Oh yeah there was this one country one time that did that, I think it was called China.

North Korea

samimgreen:I'm sorry, I was just trying to talk down to your level.

I'm not sure if you realize this or not, but resorting to ad hominem attacks really just looks silly. In no way does it address my arguments or support your own.

...

I have continually asked to discuss how you intend to do things for the future...

Impeaching Bush is a position I support, and it has not yet happened. Therefore, if it were to occur, it would be in the future. I do not understand how this is unclear.

...

Okay, you want to start putting murderers into jail? Maybe I get it now. Let's get the McCahillama to go out there and start rounding up all the murderous leaders of past and present that are still alive. Is that where we are going? Okay, develop the thought.

I think we should put our own house in order before dictating terms to other countries. Or, to quote from Matthew 7:2-5:

For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Until we deal with the murderous leader in our midst -- the one whom we have the constitutional tools to deal with -- what moral authority can we hope to wield abroad?

UN is worried about not getting laid.
No food to offer means no sex to be extorted.

Link (new window)

A CLASSIFIED UNITED Nations report prompted Secretary General Kofi Annan to admit that U.N. peacekeepers and staff have sexually abused or exploited war refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The worst of the 150 or so allegations of misconduct--some of them captured on videotape--include pedophilia, rape, and prostitution. While a U.N. investigation into the scandal continues, the organization has just suspended two more peacekeepers in neighboring Burundi over similar charges. The revelations come three years after another U.N. report found "widespread" evidence of sexual abuse of West African refugees...

tekmo:
After WWI, "the war to end all wars," we scrapped a lot of our military materiel. Then WWII came and we were caught with our pants down.
Not likely to happen again. Hippies be damned, but nuclear weapons has changed the calculus a great deal. Sure we could get our visiting rights to foreign nations repealed, but the first country to drop as much as a grapefruit on US soil from Hawaii to Guam is going to be glowing. That's known and, historically, it does have a deterrent effect.


As for "not do[ing] some good," military R&D is much like space R&D. Putting robots on Mars doesn't make directly put food on your table, but some spiffy technology is invented that improves life for civilians.
Military R&D pales in comparison to the government kicking that money - never mind the enormous human capital - out for civilian R&D. The $1 trillion dollars (conservatively)(pun intended) or so spent on Iraq? How'd you like to build a coast to coast interstate network of maglev trains? The same organization and payroll that created and runs Nimitz class aircraft carriers could pimp out the ol' homeland enough to make Japan look old school.

samimgreen
Damn those evil capitalist Americans... oh wait...

/that's hilarious!

Not so much if you have to live in the surveillance state he made fashionable.

The really hilarious/ironic thing is that this fan of a police state originally started his career in the Green party (anti-surveillance, pro civil rights) and became famous for being a lawyer defending several of leftist Red Army Fraction terrorists.
How people can change or: why it might be a bad idea to put seniors (73 when he left office) in charge of interior security; old folks usually like having police (and doctors around).

Oh well, Germany has learned:
His job of turning Germany into a police state is now being done by a 65 year-old law-and-order freak who sits in a wheel chair due to an assassination attempt on him in 1990.

A law-and-order guy, by the way, who needed several months and the inquiry of a parliamentary fact-finding commission to finally remember that - against previous claims - after all he really must have met that shady, police-sought weapons dealer known for bribing officials.
But he really, really, had no idea that those envelopes he got from Schreiber once (or twice..?) contained 100,000 DM in cash that somehow got lost in the books.
Sadly, he couldn't remember what happened to all that cash.
He - honestly, I promise!! - didn't look at those envelopes before handing them to his party's treasurer.


The consequence was, of course, that he was appointed Minister of the Interior and thus head of law enforcement by chancellor Angelalala Merkel five years later.

*sigh*

So Ral I guess the spectrum goes

Norman Borlaug > Mother Teresa > Average person > Bush > Ral?

tekmo:
After WWI, "the war to end all wars," we scrapped a lot of our military materiel. Then WWII came and we were caught with our pants down.

I believe we maintain an expensive state-of-the-art military because we learned a lesson the hard way, and most of Europe nearly learned a lesson permanently.

As for "not do[ing] some good," military R&D is much like space R&D. Putting robots on Mars doesn't make directly put food on your table, but some spiffy technology is invented that improves life for civilians.

We emerged from WWII a superpower. The lesson should be the same one Jefferson espoused: Build your army in wartime, dismantle it in peacetime. Who needs a standing army if the people actually support the war effort?

And robots on Mars? NASA's budget is, what, less than 1% the US budget?

Gotta love Fark....entertaining as hell, but I also almost always learn something. Until this thread, I am sorry to say I had never heard of Norman Borlaug.

thanks tekmo

MrGumboPants: It's not our problem the US has a chronic problem with overspending on the military.

Well then stop asking for help every time someone on the other side of your border sneezes.

Your friend,
The US DoD

johnny_vegas: Gotta love Fark....entertaining as hell, but I also almost always learn something. Until this thread, I am sorry to say I had never heard of Norman Borlaug.

thanks tekmo

I highly recommend reading up on Dr. Borlaug. He is virtually unknown in the mainstream, but his name should be a household word and it should be taught in school.

The dollar has fallen a lot against the world's other currencies, so this would be a great opportunity for those other countries to kick in the extra money to the UN. It won't even cost them that much. What's $500 million, like 12 Euros these days?

Did anyone else mention that the UN can blow me?

*checks upwards*

No, I mean blow me, specifically.

jshine: We had to invade Iraq in order to assure a sufficient supply of corpses to feed to keep Darth Cheney fed.



/when he tries to shoot his own food, he screws it up

Added that little bit. LOL That is one DAMNED funny picture!

jjorsett: The dollar has fallen a lot against the world's other currencies, so this would be a great opportunity for those other countries to kick in the extra money to the UN. It won't even cost them that much. What's $500 million, like 12 Euros these days?

Not to mention, that $500m could go towards funding the war in Iraq for two, maybe even three days!

We need it!

Rakishi: samimgreen: Wow, let's just make up all kinds of stuff for the hypothetical here and completely ignore what is actually happening.

/people like sex before, during, after, and outside of marriage
//people like sex without condoms
///try refuting the truth without making stuff up...

You may try understanding the issue before posting next time. The problem isn't that people have sex without condoms. The problem is that when some group tries to have them use condoms for their own good (prevent spread of AIDS, fewer children, etc.) there is another group working to do the exact opposite. Are you saying that the other group is totally not at fault for the consequences of it's actions? Those consequences being that a lot fewer people are convinced to use condoms.


I have to agree, you're full of shiat.

Rule 1: No condoms

Rule 2: No sex before marriage

You want to crucify the church on rule 1 and give Africans a free pass on rule 2.

Your argument there is extremely biased. If the church really had so much power over Africans as you claim they wouldn't be pissing all over rule 2. I guess the church is also telling them they need to fark little prepubescent girls to cure their AIDs as well, right?

adrienne barbeaubot: Kentucky Fried Children: Here is your solution, freerice.com - improve your vocabulary, and give rice to the needy! (pops)

Your long sideburns... show them to me.

/pretty please?
//with slashies?
///threadjack OFF

Fan of sideburns? Clickity on my profile right... about... meyow. Not the longest I've had them, I got a haircut a while back...

/reverse-threadjack OFF


Back on topic, I'm not too suprised this thread turned into a U.N. flamewar / burninate Africa for not having enough food type deal. Sad...

OK, how about this?

We, the US, close all of our NATO bases in Eurpoe and pull out all of our troops and hardware, then give half the savings to the UN for food and technological aid?

The EU can fend for itself now. You're as technologically advanced as we are, with a robust economy and a strong currency. Hell, you've even got your own space program, and a nuclear deterrent with the arsenals of the UK and France. Come on, you don't need us and our redneck ways anymore.

Deal?

Darth Invictus: OK, how about this?

We, the US, close all of our NATO bases in Eurpoe and pull out all of our troops and hardware, then give half the savings to the UN for food and technological aid?

The EU can fend for itself now. You're as technologically advanced as we are, with a robust economy and a strong currency. Hell, you've even got your own space program, and a nuclear deterrent with the arsenals of the UK and France. Come on, you don't need us and our redneck ways anymore.

Deal?


Fark the UN. Would rather conduct the food shipments ourselves and use that equipment to blow the piss ant dictators out of the way so it can be distributed.

Darth Invictus: OK, how about this?

We, the US, close all of our NATO bases in Eurpoe and pull out all of our troops and hardware, then give half the savings to the UN for food and technological aid?

The EU can fend for itself now. You're as technologically advanced as we are, with a robust economy and a strong currency. Hell, you've even got your own space program, and a nuclear deterrent with the arsenals of the UK and France. Come on, you don't need us and our redneck ways anymore.

Deal?

Can we add the suspension of all foreign aid as well? To all those countries who only put down their burning effegies long enough to cash the cheques? Since we aren't contributing much it should be easy for Luxemburg and Belgium to pick up the slack. That should really improve our "world reputation"

Does Not Matter: Darth Invictus: OK, how about this?

We, the US, close all of our NATO bases in Eurpoe and pull out all of our troops and hardware, then give half the savings to the UN for food and technological aid?

The EU can fend for itself now. You're as technologically advanced as we are, with a robust economy and a strong currency. Hell, you've even got your own space program, and a nuclear deterrent with the arsenals of the UK and France. Come on, you don't need us and our redneck ways anymore.

Deal?

Can we add the suspension of all foreign aid as well? To all those countries who only put down their burning effegies long enough to cash the cheques? Since we aren't contributing much it should be easy for Luxemburg and Belgium to pick up the slack. That should really improve our "world reputation"


Also need to require a new license in order for an individual to wire funds out of the country.

/can hear them screaming bloody murder over that one

Hey guys can you just start this thread over again please. I just got here and it feels like I missed something.

Thanks in advance,