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christo-f

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Posts posted by christo-f

    Ron Paul Revolution!!!!

    in News

    Posted

    This is hardly a reasonable comparison to make. Paul advocates non-interventionism, not isolationism as China did in the era you speak of. As I'm sure you know, the Chinese state considered itself the centre of the civilised universe and grossly underestimated the the power of these western barbarians who were skirmishing on the coastline trying to secure port space and trade networks. By comparison, Paul is pro free-trade, which eliminates much of the source of this conflict to begin with.
    There was so much more to the conflict between the European powers, the US and Japan and the Chinese nation. Trading rights was barely even it, to be completely accurate. Imperialism and colonialism based on access to resources along with security concerns were at the heart of conflict in China. Even if China was trading with the British the Japanese would have attacked, for starters.

     

    Secondly, trade interests have increased international war, not reduced it. Two countries who's resource supply and markets have little relation to each other have less chance of going to war as they are less of a potential threat to each other. It doesn't mean they won't go to war, just that there is one less point of friction or fear that can spark conflict.

     

     

    You often accuse people of sounding like chicken little, I think you have now demonstrated a propensity to the same behaviour. This line of argument would suggest that no other nations bar the US and perhaps some of their allies benefit from trade. This idea is patently untrue.

    What?! I think you misunderstand me. It's not that aggressive powers will block all trade, they will block the weaker naval power in order to gain concessions out of them (whether that be cheap access to their resources, fee access to their market, tribute, whatever). I mean there are ample historical examples of this that one can point to but the two world wars are the easiest places to start in both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

     

    However, focussing purely on the cost to US citizens, even if transport became more expensive in absence of US gov naval protection, this increased cost would be offset by the dramatic decrease in government spending paid for through taxation.

    I simply don't understand your reasoning here. it's not that the transport would become more expensive it's that it could become non-existent.

     

    It is one of the great fallacies of a statist position that looks at the current role of state actions and argues without any particular gov institution there would be chaos and disorder. There is very little that a government can do that can't be replicated by private action in a more efficient way. Wholesale theft and oppression of a citizenry may be one exception, leading an entire nation to war may be another.

    If a nation were to have a private military establishment other nations wouldn't even have to fight against it to conquer their territory. They'd just have to pay it 5% more and tell it to turn on its own people.

     

    Under your paradigm of market principals it would be irrational for a military not to turn on its own people when offered more money. That means you'd have to ally with a number of other nations in order to balance against the richest nation.

     

    Or you could just trust in their good nature and hope for the best......

    Ron Paul Revolution!!!!

    in News

    Posted

    Since returning to my own country and finding it turning in to a ridiculous nanny state where politicians and lobby groups want to save us from everything (seriously, the Health Professional Association is trying to have happy hour banned. They are banning happiness....), I can certainly see the value in the argument of over-regulation and allowing people to live their own lives. After living in China for way too long I can also see the value of competition and the benefits of a strong market based economy where rationality is the decider.

     

    That being said Ron Paul is a fruit loop and left to his own devices he would destroy the USA with his ideas on foreign policy alone.

     

    Even 65% of the living standards that the US enjoys requires the US to be interconnected with the rest of the world in economic behaviour alone. Were economic activity exists so must military power or some one gonna come along and take your economic from you. It is painfully clear to me that RP simply doesn't understand the threats in the world and how geopolitics works. The argument 'if we just left people alone they'd leave us alone' is so naive it's astounding. If that were the case there would be no war in history, everyone would just be leaving each other alone.

     

    History quite clearly shows that there are many reasons for aggression, irrationality, mistrust, fear, resource security, greed, prestige/ego, etc. A leader is responsible for protecting the nation. For a leader to think that isolationism or even passive engagement is a form of defense is to open your nation to massive risk and to be irresponsible.

     

    I think Ron Paul the Messiah would be an irresponsible president based on his foreign policy alone.

    • Like 1

    News International

    in News

    Posted

    he is such an Australian succes story he ditched his aussie citizenship to become American, Fuck Rupert Murdoch, I dont care about his newspapers or the impact (or lack of) if they shut them down.

     

    Not that I'm defending the turd but he got US citizenship as it was required for some of the media ownership in the US he wanted.

     

    For me I just look at some of his stuff: Fox News, Sydney Telegraph, News of the World and so on and I know that I'm not a fan. He may have a bunch of regional and other publications but that does not rule out the fact that he has a lot of sensationalist, gutter and conservative media.

     

    As I said, FOX NEWS!!

    News International

    in News

    Posted

    News LTD. don't own the Fairfax press and when it comes to daily news on the east coast the Age and SMH are big raters. Then there is the Australian Financial review, again a Fairfax publication. Australian Geographic, ACP publication. Then you have other stuff like Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and the Economist, not Australian but also not News LTD. I hear you on the regional papers though.

     

    I'd also call the Telegraph tabloid. Sure, not to the length that the English and some US press are but compared to the broadsheets in Australia it's as close to sensationalist gutter press as it gets.

     

    Also, I wouldn't say Rupert came from nothing, his dad did but not him.

    News International

    in News

    Posted

    I don't think the issue of digital records being changed is a great leap from what we have now. Static/physical archives can be changed, replaced or discredited anyway and regularly are. "History wars" happen all the time.

     

    When reading I find it a lot easier to concentrate/focus on a paper page than a computer screen.

     

    Murdoch? Yeah, what a dickbag. I've been in the US for about a month now and it seems to get a decent amount of coverage here. I just wish people would stop reading that kind of tripe and render it irrelevant and unsellable.

    Alpha-Battle!!

    in Paper Chase

    Posted

    Damn, N was epic, Dec would've gotten my vote with Serif and Mone coming in a close second.

     

    I'm on the road for a while and will be back in around R.

     

    Check y'all then.

    Burners and Style!

    in Brick Slayers

    Posted

    Yeah, that new technical style stuff is great to look at, must be hard to paint (well I assume so anyway, I'm old and don't even know what these new caps and anything other than paint from the hardware shop, Tuxans and Touch Ups even is!). But I think it's served its purpose, which is an interesting tangent off from the core. It gets to the point where what I'm looking at is more like graphic design than graffiti. Not to say I don't like it but if I want to see that over and over again I can see a mountain of computer generated stuff online any day.

     

    So respect and all, but the new way has now become fashionable.

     

    ....and fashion is for those with no style of their own.

    • Like 1
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