Post by David MitchellPost by Peter TreiPost by David MitchellPost by Dorothy J HeydtPost by David MitchellPost by Lynn McGuirePost by Dorothy J HeydtPost by Lynn McGuirePost by Dorothy J HeydtPost by Lynn McGuireQuestionable Content: helping out
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3472
Bubbles armor is removable ? Who knew ?
Certainly it would be necessary to take off at least parts of it
from time to time to make repairs to her interio. If she has
something like a skin she can run around in, within the armour
... she is becoming much more confident with meat people.
I just figured that her armor was bolted directly to her chassis with
just her innards underneath.
Well, in a day or two we may find out.
After Faye gets the pry bar out from under her bed.
But we mah just see her one day wearing armour, and the next day
wearing a jumpsuit or something.
OK, who keeps a pry bar under their bed ?
I am given to understand from popular American culture that many people
keep a weapon near their bed. I believe a baseball bat is a popular choice.
This is because you are all savages. ;-)
Or because other people are.
This is a serious question - just difficult to ask because it tends to
be thought of an insult - but: do most Americans realise how.. different
their culture is from European and Canadian ones?
You have a massive army, more people in prison than most other western
countries, and you kill each other with great abandon.
You *do* know how odd all this is, don't you?
I think you need check your assumptions as to what is reasonable.
European countries have been able to get away with underspending on military
only *because* the US has been protecting them - The only a handful of NATO
countries meet their promises on spending, expecting the US to protect them
at it's expense, was a major issue during the election.
Stil it's "the highest total military budget in the world by a hefty
margin". Don't you think that's excessive, given that it hasn't been
invaded since 1812 (Alaska doesn't count ;-)
Well, someone has to be highest, and it's unsurprising that the country with
the absolute highest GDP has the absolute highest spending. If you go by % of
GDP, the US is 11th. IOW, we can afford it.
http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?v=132
Many of the other NATO countries are free-riders on the US defense budget,
spending a fraction of what they've promised. If they lived up to their
commitments, the US could reduce its spending.
You might want to look at what Britain was spending prior to the 1990s
http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/past_spending
Post by David MitchellPost by Peter TreiAs for homicide rate, the US rate is currently near a 100-year low. Its simply
not as dangerous here as you think. The rate is about the same as Eastern
Europe, and much lower than Russia. Most Americans do not spend their days in
fear of being murdered - dying in a traffic accident is much more likely.
And yet you're way above most western nations, (from a brief look at the
Wikipedia entry, only Russia, Ukraine and Turkey are worse).
IIRC you also have a school or workplace shooting every 21 days, on
average - it's so common you drill for it, and most are no longer reported.
You missed a couple - Latvia, Lithuania, and Albania.
But seriously, we're arguing over "very low" vs "very very low". Most Americans
simply don't worry about being murdered on a day to day basis. In nearly 60
years, not a single person I know by first name has been murdered, though
two have died in car accidents.
[Caveat: The US murder rate is very unevenly distributed. If you look at the
homicide victim rate for non-Hispanic whites, it drops to about 2/100k (much
more within the Western European ballpark), from about 3.9 for the population
as a whole. The truly appalling numbers are among young black men:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/black-americans-are-killed-at-12-times-the-rate-of-people-in-other-developed-countries/ (as always, check the dates,
since things change).]
Post by David MitchellC'mon, don't you think that's odd? I can only find three for the UK in
30 years. Yes, I know we don't usually have access to guns; but a
machete is about as dangerous to unarmed civilians as a gun, and they're
easy to get.
Access to guns isn't the issue; ever looked at the rate of gun ownership in
Switzerland? Britain had a lower homicide rate than the US long before it
banned guns.
Odd? No. The current European situation is odd (and laudable). The early
21st century is *very* odd when looking at the sweep of history:
https://ourworldindata.org/homicides/
pt