I want these shirts…

[TheTwisted1]

Retropolis Transit Authority

I want these shirts. Especially the Certifiable MAD GENIUS and
Back Off, I'm Doing Science ones.

--
"If you
wish to converse with me, define your
terms."

--Voltaire

[robkelk]

Nifty!

Although I'd prefer the http://www.printfection.com/retro-futur ... /_s_165063]Klaatu Barada Nikto tee, myself...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Bob Schroeck]

Oooh, very cool. All of them.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Star Ranger4]

I prefer the Retropolis Ladies' World Domination Society, or Tell it to my Giant Robot myself....
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Bob Schroeck]

Allow me to add that I also like http://www.goats.com/store/item/tshirt_rfv-1.html]this T-shirt, and am, in fact, waiting for the one I ordered to arrive. I hope to wear it come election day in November....
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[DHBirr]

 

Edit: Comment withdrawn, with apologies for veering off topic. 
2nd Edit:

-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[Bluemage]

On the Voldemort shirt, I seem to be missing something. Why is this funny?

---

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.

I've been writing a bit.

[Bob Schroeck]

The perception that Republicans favor an elitist agenda that has strong echoes of the Pureblood agenda, specifically the "rich and white vs. poor and non-white" economic/racist divide that, while certainly not representative of all Republican candidates and officials, certainly has characterized many of them over the last few decades.

The T-shirt is a specific reference to a http://www.goats.com/archive/030808.html]Goats strip from the time of the CAlifornia governor's election a few years back.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Star Ranger4]

I dont think you were that off topic DH. I think you chickened out, just like with the tshirt itself.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Bluemage]

Ah, thank you. That explained it quite well.

While we're dealing with perceptions, maybe there should be a "Democrats for Fudge" line of merchandise, working off of the equally non-inclusive
perceptions of Democrats favoring government expansion at any cost, being willing to do anything to get into/keep office (notably truer in the case of the
Clintons than in the majority of Democrats), and taking advice from people who don't have the best interest of the people in mind (Really, how can the Dems
work with anti-Semite and anti-white leaders like Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan, and still be called 'tolerant'?).

Sorry for the rant, but as a libertarian, I identify most with the Republicans. I come from a family of Republicans, and that perception of racist, anti-white
elitism certainly doesn't apply to anything I've seen, heard, or discussed. It's been a major irritation to me for years, especially since I
can't understand where it came from- I see most of the policies that the left calls 'elitist' as populist, instead.

I won't go any deeper into it, as this is not the Politics board, except to say that none of this was meant with any hatred or vitriol. I tried to
restrain myself to a level of civility equal with the rest of the discussion, and a level of truthfulness equal with that all-too-common perception of the
Republican agenda. If I've failed to do so, delete my post, but I just had to respond to that idea.

Thanks for being polite and non-dogmatic with your phrasing of the explanation, by the way.

---

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.

I've been writing a bit.

[Bob Schroeck]

You're welcome, Bluemage.

I've heard it said that in the American system, there are two political parties, out of which one is evil and the other is incompetent; which one is which
depends on the party you favor.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Jinx999]

IIRC, there are two American political parties (that aren't small cults of oddballs), and they are both coalitions:

The Not Democrats - a coalition of groups with absolutely nothing in common except that they are not members of the Democratic Party.

The Not Republicans - a coalition of groups with absolutely nothing in common except that they are not members of the Republican Party.

Who exactly these "Republican Party" and "Democratic Party" are is a mystery. I believe they are mythical.

[DHBirr]

I think you chickened out, just like with the tshirt itself.

"Chickened out" is such a harsh phrase. Perhaps you'd care to continue the discussion through seconds?

Actually, considering the low level of most Americans' knowledge of international affairs, I'd've probably spent more time explaining
who Zhirinovskiy is and why voting for him would be bad than I would actually fighting people who objected
to the idea that I'd done so.
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[ECSNorway]

Have to agree with Jinx99 on this one.

Most of the people I know, who consider themselves Republicans, are actually Libertarians who favor a strong, proactive defense.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Bluemage]

You're both right, but there's a bit more to it, in my opinion.

The difference between Republicans and Libertarians is usually that the Reps favor military strength/activity and/or moral guidelines enforced by government
and/or a moderately big (as opposed to the Democrats' really honkin' big) government. Libertarians think the government has no business doing
anything.

So, politically aware Republicans are some combination of moderates, the 'Christian Right', the war hawks, and the people who don't like either
side, but like the left less than the right.

Like Jinx said- a coalition.

---

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.

I've been writing a bit.

[Bob Schroeck]

I'm beginning to think it's time to move this thread over to the Politics forum...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Star Ranger4]

Geee... What would EVER give you that Idea????


Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Black Aeronaut]

-WARNING-

Meandering ranting ahead!

*Sighs* Really... I do kinda get tired of BOTH parties. I mean, seriously, it is starting to drive our nation apart. And while there will (hopefully)
always be a democratic process in America, I'm starting to wonder if there will be any unity left in our Nation at all.

What I mean by that is that the population is allowing themselves to be driven apart and polarized. It just seems to get worse and worse with each election
year.

Another thing that annoys the piss outta me is how the current economic situation is being handled. Everyone is treating this as something that is very
delicate and complicated... That is only the case if you are filthy stinkin' rich and want to stay that way. Lemme break it down for you guys: a
capitolist economy relies on cash flow, much how an automobile's engine relies on the flow of lubricating oil. Now, over the last couple of decades
(I'm at least old enough to have noticed over the last twenty years) the upper class has definitely been siphoning off more and more of that precious
lubricating substance we call money. What do you think is going to happen to our economic engine when the upper class has nearly all the lubricant to
themselves? Therefore, I propose a simple, if a bit drastic, measure that would slowly but surely put our economy back on the right track.

That would be to put an earning cap on all corporate executive jobs and earnings from stock holdings.

Think about it. There's quite a few people out there making more than a million USD a year. If you limit these people to a mere million a year then they
can still live as comfortably as they like (they'll just have to trim the fat here and there), and it would force their companies to spend the money on
other things. Like new equipment. Or paychecks. Seriously, it pisses me off whenever I hear that a company is cutting x-thousand jobs instead of cutting the
pay of the idiot responsible for their position.

If that seems unconstitutional, then explain why and how. After all, if an American is trully willing to work for a living and has the skills, knowledge, and
ability to perform a job then shouldn't they be entitled to said job and fair, sustaining income?

Getting back to our political camps... I could care less about democrats and republicans, the left and the right, libertarian and conservative... As far as
I'm concerned, I'm everything in between. I dislike it when people think that they're just one or the other. If you don't know what it means
to stand up with your neighbors at your sides and cry out that you refuse to be torn down by people who think we should be cleansed from the earth, then you
don't trully understand what it means to be part of a true United States.

Here's another thing that ticks me off: the problems with our military and how it is used. We are in an age where diplomacy does indeed play a much
larger role than it used to, however that does not really mean that we should cut back on our military. At least to ridiculous extents. The Navy in
particular strikes me as something you want to keep in fighting trim. This is not so much because of threats of terrorists (though that certainly does matter)
but because things like pirates do exist in todays world and you can't really count on all the other nations in the world to have a navy strong enough to
fend them off. And also there is how the other branches of the service rely on the Navy for its support.

For one thing, I would like to see a more assertive war-fighter's attitude in the upper command structure. I want to see someone who has some of the
old Navy salt in them. We need someone who can look at our fleet, know without a doubt what we need and what we don't without spending too much or too
little. One thing I feel that would benefit our ships at this time would be better automation and computer systems. We still use tape-drives for crying out
loud! I don't care if they break less, that's what redundancy is for! Hell, I bet that for a decent price you could have a couple of high-end
mainframes with several, equally capable redundant mainframes, running a ship's automation for a reasonable price. Of course, this doesn't happen
because military contractors like to pricegouge the government. It was only after repeated head-butting that Lockheed-Martin decided to eat the costs of
botched work they did on on of our new ships.

So yeah, that'd be another thing that I'd like to see fixed - declaring such contracts a 'service to your country' that, while the government
will certainly pay for it, will be only just a littlebit over at-cost. And you get to fix botched work yourself.

And again, the old tech... Private mariners seem to do just fine with the more modern stuff, and they seem to pay less for it, too. Even when it breaks. So
why are we still using the outdated stuff? Anytime there is an incident at sea, nine times out of ten, it is due to human error rather than malfunctioning
equipment (and in that case it's usually old or poorly maintained -anyways-).

Also, all the fancy new stuff... Stealth ships? That new gun system? Puh-leeese! We're more worried about guys running up to our ships in little
powerboats loaded with explosives. Gimme a battery of Vulcan cannons mounted a deck or two above the water-line and tie them into the ship's radar system.
They'll pretty much chew up anything that gets close enough to be a threat, as the current CIWS does now. Best of all, being mounted inside the ship
they'll be able to carry plenty more ammo than they do now, and they can be protected from the weathering conditions that gives them such bad breakdowns.

Zumwalt class... It's a waste. It's going nowhere, fast. The Arleigh Burke class DDG's are going to be stuck in service for a much longer time
than they should be, so I think it would be much more practical to look at refit programs instead. At the very worst you can gut the hulls and go from there,
and I still think and in the long run it'd be the better and cheaper option.

Another thing people fail to realize is just how potent our Naval hardware is compared to the other guys. If someone managed to get ahold of just -one- of our
carrier groups, then they would be among the top five strongest navies in the world. We just need to manage things a bit better. No more
Admirals-with-MBA's trying to run our fleet like it was a corporation. We're a military organiztion. You don't cut back the Navy unless the
conditions in the world demand it. Ever.

I know that sounds a bit paranoid of me, but until the only real threat out there is just some pirates, I'd rather keep this Navy in full fighting force.

Comments, flames, raves all welcome. Just come ready to back up your point.