mcarchangel

It started with us both in California. Then I got stationed to Hawaii. Then she got stationed to Virginia. At that point it went away. Two plane trips= too much. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Two things I'm wondering about. First is that arguing in the alternative is something my law professers talk about quite a bit. Also, what if the evidence points to the fact that they were both there, but you don't actually know who struck the fatal blow. Since they are likely to implicate each other, what do you do? Charge the guy who doesn't lie as well as his buddy? You can charge both as murderers or both as accomplices, which is better for public policy and safety. Plus remember California is one of the few states to still have felony murder on the books. In most states the choice is murder or a lesser crime. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Taiwan has 150 F-16s, 60 Mirage 2000s, and 120 indiginous fighters similar to the F-16 in performance. Japan, which is likley but not certain to enter the conflict, has 200 F15s and more than 120 indiginousally produced fighters again similar to the F-16. Plus the USAF would in all likelyhood respond to a war massivly operating out of bases in Japan, Okinowa, and likley in a limited amount Taiwan itself. 2-3 hundred aircraft would be just for starters. That sole aircraft carrier postulated would hardly be alone. (It's full fighter complement includes an additional 24 or so F-18s.) China has no viable anti-submarine capablity, making that a very cost effective way of closing the strait. And don't get me started on the whole China as a superpower possiblity. People have been listening to the CIA too much. Manpower and the ablity to use it are two massively different things. The ability to launch massive stikes to take advantage of their massive numerical superiority in the air requires a capablity in logistics and information systems the Chinese do not have and will not soon. All aircraft numbers courtesy of globalsecurity.org ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Absolutely, if you go to Walmart and take away everything made in China I would bet 50-60% of the stuff in the store goes away. We and China have entered into a symbiotic relationship economically that is probably a Really Bad Idea. Nevertheless it is the world we live in. But they would be just as bad off, probably slightly worse if the trade were cut off. Countries generally act in their self intrest. That's why I think a war is unlikly, especially if we remain behind Taiwan. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Two things about the overwhelming size and power of the Chinese Army. One, it isn't really real. The troop and training quality is unbelivably low compared to even European standards. Two, we're in the US and so we're used to having relatively secure borders. That's not the case for China. They are ringed by enemies and cannot just strip those borders to regain one wayward province. Also once you get those troops over to Taiwan they will have to be resupplied as they fight the Taiwanese ground forces, probably backed by Marines and some American Army units. All under hugely unfriendly skies for the Chinese. Not happening. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Who said anything about a surface fleet? All that is required for Taiwan to remain independant is to destroy any Chinese ground forces attempting invasion. They can only go in two ways, by air or by sea. Both can be blocked without use of surface forces. And for that matter the idea of calling the Chinese military modern, now or twenty years from now is ludicrus in the extreme. The Chinese are at least two full generational cycles behind us in weapons employment and use. Also the analogy with Germany in WW2 is a bad one. The training and technology there was balanced generally in favor of the Germans. At least till the end when training slipped. The Chinese would be lucky to get one of our planes for every dozen they lost. Their troops crossing the strait would be much worse off. And we were willing to put up Detroit for possible destruction to save Birmingham before, I'm not so sure we would shrink away from the table today. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

The killing of Taiwan would involve China using the missles and nukes that they ahve hamed at Taiwan. If that happened we would be in a nuclear war with China. One they know would go pretty badly for them. They are not the Soviet Union, or even Russia. It's called deterrance. It allows them to rattle their sabers, and even lose a conventional war, but knowing that if they go too far the outcome is unlikey to favor them. BTW we did the same thing in Europe with the Soviet Union from the 40s to '91. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Actually the warplans for aiding Taiwan against China are pretty advanced. We have guarenteed Taiwan's independence since 1949. That guarentee is pretty much the only thing that has kept Taiwan from joining the nuclear club. Plus, let's face it, if we reniged on that promise when the the chips were down no one would ever trust us again. And for good reason. Since we finished breaking just about every treaty we signed with the Native Americans we've been pretty good about sticking to the ones we do agree to. If we think it's a bad idea we just don't join ie. Kyoto, the ICC, and the Land Mines treaty come to mind. China can attack Taiwan, but probably on her own Taiwan could prevent an invasion. With the help of the US and Japan, China would have no chance. They can kill Taiwan, but they cannot take it. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

My Magic Eight Ball says "NO". ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Metal detectors will only detect two kinds of metal. Iron/steel, and nickel. Nickel is the only other ferrous metal that alters a magnetic field. So only those two will set off a detector. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Too many Republicans want somebody else's kids to do the fighting, and too many Democrats want us to lose the war and want sombody else's kids to do the fighting. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

I spent 13 years in the Army and can't stand the look of camouflage any more. Now I'm a law student and wear nothing but Hawaiian Shirts. Just another type of camouflage. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Well I read the case. And there are a few problems with the reasoning. First off they make a big point that because of the switch of five states now a majority of states do not allow execution of juviniles. But in actuality 12 states do not have the death penalty. If the 38 states that do think capital punishment is acceptable, a thin majority 20 to 18 are inclined to execute 16, 17, and 18 year olds who have commited particularly henious crimes. But the change of five state laws is enough to change the meaning of the US Constitution. So Kennedy knows where he wants to go and will use any means to get there. He also mentions that since very few exicutions of juviniles take place this will not change tthings much. But isn't that an example of the law being properly applied it this exception is so rare that tells me it is being used only with the worst offenders.(There have been six in the last 15 years.) Then he goes on to mention that the United States has not signed treaties on this subject because if the way Congress fells about it but because the people of Europe think it's barberic we should definately get rid of it. Funny, but I don't think a Supreme Court justice should be basing his opinions based of what the governments of other countries are doing. We are the "City on a Hill" and Europe has had a lot of really bad ideas over the last 250 years. I'm not so sure we should be taking our cues from them. And to quote from Justice Scalia's dissent: "Unless the Court has added to its arsenal the power to join and ratify treaties on behalf of the United States, I cannot see how this evidence favors, rather than refutes, its position. That the Senate and the President “those actors our Constitution empowers to enter into treaties, see Art. II, §2–have declined to join and ratify treaties prohibiting execution of under-18 offenders can only suggest that our country has either not reached a national consensus on the question, or has reached a consensus contrary to what the Court announces." As they say in law school, "A sympathetic case makes for bad law." ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

How about making a financial killing off the work of others with Bill Gates. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

0:3:0 AFF 3 pass, AFF 4 fail, AFF 4 pass. My first stand up landing. My first uh, problem with a level. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

To quote Jack O'Neil "I find Guinnes is a good substitute for ... food" ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

This is mostly a shakedown attempt against South Korea, Japan, and the United States by Kim and his cronies. They need food, fuel, cash and they figure if they can put out an even semi-viable threat then especially the South Koreans and Japanese will give it to them. That was origionally the plan and it's what they are still trying to do even though it hasn't worked too well. Bush hasn't wanted to buy them off like Carter/Clinton and the Japanese are more likley to go the missile defense and own nuclear stockpile route then give in. Probably the best thing that could happen for all concerned right now is a Chinese invasion and conquest of North Korea. It sucks to live in China, but it's a paradise compared to North Korea. Thye could create their own buffer state/puppet, and we would ahve to worry about South Korea a little less. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Even the detonators and precise explosives are not enough. You need the lensing material to focus the blast. The extreme difficulty of getting is right is what prompted the Trinity blast. They wanted to know that when Bockscar dropped Fat Man we were going to do more than shower a square block of some Japanese city with plutonium dust. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Having once worked as a store manager for a certain video rental chain one thing most people don't realize is in rental the profit margins are so incredibly low from regular rentals that the stores would go out of buisness if they didn't have another way to generate revenue. So they soak the stupid/timid people. I guarentee you if you make enough fuss with managemnt they will give you back your money regardless of policy. Very few of the managers are willing to stand up to an angry customer for any length of time. But a lot of people don't do this, and they get to keep their money. What they will charge you for the video is much more then they actully paid for it. So in the long run they make their money. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

I hate to say this, but you only need about 16 pounds of plutonium (PU239) to make a bomb. The more material you have past that the more likely your bomb will not go off or will fizzle (a partial explosion). And plutonium is not somewhat dangerous. It is quite simply the most poisonous substance known to the human race. In comparison sodium cyanide is practically healthy for you. And TNT doesn't explode evenly enough to get the precise compression you need. The remote control hopefully will not be on the same frequency as the one the kid down the street uses, and you have just built a nuclear weapon, not a thermonuclear one which requires a couple of different types of hydrogen, and another whole new level of hard. You know if you just want a nuke easy just get about 18 pounds of U235 and building the bomb is MUCH easier. You probably won't even die during the construction. And yes, I have no life, why do you ask? ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

So now I'm a liberal huh? I thought I was an agnostic liberatarian hawk. If this guy is a friend of his wife for their entire lives he's not just "some fucko". ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Truthfully I think there are three things. Fists, from personal experiance, ultimatems are bad, they quicky get to be the preferred way of doing things once introduced into a relationship. Second, do you trust her or not? If you do, what's the big deal? If you don't then why are you married? And third, I think it's pretty acceptable to say that you love your friends and sign off that way. I'm too cold hearted to do it, but I have had female frieds do it to me, and I was never intended to be more then a sign of friendship. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Nope, sorry. No matches for the song or the artist. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

I can look it up for you. What's the song? ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."

Good Hunting. IEDs are the biggest problem, so I'm sure you will here this a million times, but don't bunch up, wear your gear, and stay the hell away from anything that doesn't look right. Assuming of course that you're not EOD yourself. ------------------------------------------------------- "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left, and I'm ready for war."