[PenultimateManStanding]

So we're all going to ration the oil? We're all going to sing koombaya and be good boys and girls, hold hands and help each other while billions of people die? A lot of talk about the Iraq war lately. Guess what, it's only just beginning. Which country has outspent the rest of the world combined in the Art of Warfare for a generation or two? China has been building DVD players, the US has been perfecting the Art of Killing. It's only the political side that restrains the machine. What do you think will will happen when the political side of things is irrelevant? Can you spell DEATH? That's what faces every popuation on the face of the Earth. Morals are a regulatory system based on the innate tendency of humans to feel guilt. Peak Oil will erase guilt faster than the Sun evaporates the Morning Dew. Makes no difference what I or You think about it.

[rogerhb]

Maslow's Hierachy of Needs.

[sampo]

or at least, they appear to have been building DVD players....but that is just the sideshow. in reality, they have been accumulating the high tech capital production goods while using their access to state sanctioned slave labor to prevent any meaningful capital expenditure in manufacturing outside of china...soon they will have all the machines that matter...

also, the chinese coastal navy is now larger than our coast guard...now look at the amount of coast they have in comparison and then sit back and ponder...

not that i really disagree with you or anything...

[Schweinshaxe]

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Future.

1. Massive doses of cheap read wine. Wrap yourself around a bottle or two and a challenging programming problem.

2. Stop caring. I don't even pay my bills anymore.

3. If you work, use your workplace as a training camp. Read Sun Tzu "On the Art of War" and try out the principles at work. Conspire against your enemies (your colleagues) and find ways to defeat them. The nastier the better. Be evil. Redicule people who try their best and keep a positive attitude at work and haven't understood that success at work is about politics anyway.

4. Listen to the Canadian rock band Rush.

5. Don't take a shower unless it's absolutely necessary.

God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural fluids. God bless you all.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Schweinshaxe', 'H')ow I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Future.

1. Massive doses of cheap read wine. Wrap yourself around a bottle or two and a challenging programming problem.

2. Stop caring. I don't even pay my bills anymore.

3. If you work, use your workplace as a training camp. Read Sun Tzu "On the Art of War" and try out the principles at work. Conspire against your enemies (your colleagues) and find ways to defeat them. The nastier the better. Be evil. Redicule people who try their best and keep a positive attitude at work and haven't understood that success at work is about politics anyway.

4. Listen to the Canadian rock band Rush.

5. Don't take a shower unless it's absolutely necessary.

God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural fluids. God bless you all.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')shihara says U.S. can't win war with China, calls U.S forces incompetent
Japan TOday
WASHINGTON — Tokyo Gov Shintaro Ishihara used a speech in the U.S. capital Thursday to convey his views on China, arguing that economic containment is the best strategy because the United States would "certainly" lose a war with China, which he said would not hesitate to sacrifice its people on a massive scale when fighting against an enemy.

"In any case, if tension between the United States and China heightens, if each side pulls the trigger, though it may not be stretched to nuclear weapons, and the wider hostilities expand, I believe America cannot win as it has a civic society that must adhere to the value of respecting lives," Ishihara said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that was primarily focused on China.

The governor, an outspoken politician known for his nationalistic views, also said U.S. ground forces, with the exception of the Marines, are "extremely incompetent."
"Therefore, we need to consider other means to counter China," he said. "The step we should be taking against China, I believe, is economic containment." ...

[DamienJasper]

Yep, because lord knows the US is the only country that has ever done anything bad. And who else to be an expert on the US military than a Japanese national? This wouldn't be the same Japan that was allies with Hitler, oh no! That would be...uncivic?

Also, China's entire navy is the size of our Coast Guard. Whoppee. Now how about our navy?

[PenultimateManStanding]

My assumption, DJ, is that we must have gotten something for all the megabucks we've been spending on military R&D. Isn't the global scheme something like this: they send us the oil and money to keep the World's Only Superpower Machine well oiled and we prop up their crooked regimes, patrol the sea-lanes, keep commerce functional, etc.? People say 'The US isn't the World's Policeman!' Wouldn't it be more accurate to say, 'The US is the World's Policeman?' Sort of a Rent-A-Superpower.

[PenultimateManStanding]

And BTW, DJ, I think I know what you are thinking. You're worried about the future. Perhaps you are thinking that the mighty US Military Machine will keep us safe here in the US. You've told us all about your gloomy fears. Maybe those kick-ass GIs with the most sophisticated killing technology ever devised will keep us safe when the world starts to fall apart. We'll see, won't we?

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'P')erhaps you are thinking that the mighty US Military Machine will keep us safe here in the US.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rogerhb', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'P')erhaps you are thinking that the mighty US Military Machine will keep us safe here in the US.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'T')hey don't take deaf old guys. I can't speak for DJ. Who knows, maybe there is a fierce warrior inside of him just waiting to bust out of the feminized cultural smog.

[orz]

So what exactly are we fighting again?

[Battle_Scarred_Galactico]

I think it's pretty clear he's correct, but what's to say it wouldn't go nuclear ?