27-01-2005 19:26									#121
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote: Originally posted by GhengisFarb I agree that that is more effectively a result of the average Frenchman running for the hills at the sight of a militant poodle ...

I can't believe this childish anti-French stuff is still being mouthed.

I just finished watching the BBC's excellent 60's series on The Great War. GF, maybe you should open something called a history book and read about what the "surrender monkies" endured at Verdun, to choose just one example.

	27-01-2005 19:48									#122
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by mindseye I can't believe this childish anti-French stuff is still being mouthed. I just finished watching the BBC's excellent 60's series on The Great War. GF, maybe you should open something called a history book and read about what the "surrender monkies" endured at Verdun, to choose just one example.

History is punctuated by great sleeps and forgettings.

One might have expected, for instance, that the American military would have learnt from the epxeriences of the French military in Viet Nam, especially as the French had been good enough to write about it.

And we all know how that particular adventure panned out.

Still, kneejerk Francophobia is always a great substitute for any kind of cogent analysis, isn't it?


Vive la France

	27-01-2005 19:58									#123
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

quote: Originally posted by lord of the mark without the Soviet takeover, the Taliban would probably never have emerged. You are aware of the chronology, arent you?

Something similar to them would have. The original mujahedeen revolt which broght the Soviets into Afganistan was due to the communist government's liberalizing the status of women.

	27-01-2005 20:01									#124
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

OTOH, without Soviet support, there hadn't been a commie gov't in the first place.

Let's just blame Elphey Bey for losing Kabul in 1842.

	27-01-2005 20:02									#125
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by Kidicious There's actually quite a conservative backlash against Bush's speech. Interesting. An editorial in the WSJ, called the speech dreaming but disturbing. Bush went way over the top.

A man who thinks he's God's instrument on Earth is dangerous to all.

	27-01-2005 20:05									#126
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

quote: Originally posted by Last Conformist OTOH, without Soviet support, there hadn't been a commie gov't in the first place.

There was a commie government before the Soviets got involved. With the exception of Eastern Europe, all Communist-led governments were the results of internal politics, not Soviet manipulation.

	27-01-2005 20:07									#127
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by chegitz guevara A man who thinks he's God's instrument on Earth is dangerous to all.

I'm inclined to think he's more of a tool than an instrument....

	27-01-2005 20:09									#128
	Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by Oerdin More often then not private businesses out perform nationalized businesses and that leads to greater economc growth and lower unemployment over time. There are other factors at play as well (some we can control and others we can't) but this one is a no brainer.

Europe's unemployment rate isn't that much higher than ours, when they are measured in the same way. Basically, we worker harder, are deeper in debt, have more things, and less time to enjoy them, than our European cousins. Our growth comes at a very high price and dosen't deliver a better quality of life. On top of that, we aren't even growing faster than Europe, as el freako has repeatedly shown. I don't know why you keep trotting out this canard.

	27-01-2005 20:14									#129
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote: Originally posted by Chemical Ollie (I suppose that's a pun, because their etnic group is called Slave. The english word slave comes from the Vikings bringing home Slaves from the East as slaves)

Actually, it comes from the Southern European slave markets, which took the Southern slavs as slaves: Venice, Bari, Constantinople, etc.

	27-01-2005 20:26									#130
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: A man who thinks he's God's instrument on Earth is dangerous to all.

Especially the hearts of women.

	27-01-2005 20:44									#131
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

quote: Originally posted by chegitz guevara There was a commie government before the Soviets got involved. With the exception of Eastern Europe, all Communist-led governments were the results of internal politics, not Soviet manipulation.

Soviet support didn't play any role the commies' victory in China? Yeah, right. Not to speak of Mongolia - I suppose sending an army there doesn't count as manipulation.

The Afghan commies had Soviet support long before the Soviets invaded. Hadn't they, it would have been a pretty damning indictment of the SU's foreign policy.

	28-01-2005 01:00									#132
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by chegitz guevara There was a commie government before the Soviets got involved. With the exception of Eastern Europe, all Communist-led governments were the results of internal politics, not Soviet manipulation.

	28-01-2005 01:03									#133
	Increase the size of your Attachments

The reason the EU has a lower economic "growth" rate is because the Euros arn't as obsessed with conspicuous consuption as the US is.

	28-01-2005 01:08									#134
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Last Conformist Soviet support didn't play any role the commies' victory in China? Yeah, right. Not to speak of Mongolia - I suppose sending an army there doesn't count as manipulation.

Actually, no, the Soviets had little to do with Mao's victory in China-the most they ever did for Mao was turn over captured Japanese material.

	28-01-2005 01:13									#135
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

That's already something, and they were providing money, moral support and more-or-less daft advice from the '20s on.

	28-01-2005 12:14									#136
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

quote: Originally posted by mindseye I can't believe this childish anti-French stuff is still being mouthed. I just finished watching the BBC's excellent 60's series on The Great War. GF, maybe you should open something called a history book and read about what the "surrender monkies" endured at Verdun, to choose just one example.

It's GF's gimmick in the OT. If you remove that from him, his contributions to the OT will be almost entirely empty. Love thy neighbour, man

	28-01-2005 13:22									#137
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

quote: Originally posted by Last Conformist That's already something, and they were providing money, moral support and more-or-less daft advice from the '20s on.

The liberation of Manchuria by the Soviet Red Army from the IJA is actually more a boom for the KMT than for the CCP. Even though the CCP got there first, the KMT squeezed them out from the big cities with US support. Seeing that Manchuria was (still is) an important manufacturing centre, retaining control of the area gave quite a boost to the KMT war efforts.

I don't think the Soviets provided much to the revolution, especially after Mao regained power during the Long March.

	28-01-2005 13:51									#138
	Increase the size of your Attachments

quote: Originally posted by St Leo This level of polarization is unwise. We are reacting to the US extremists, not the US Jane Sixpacks. When the gulf between us and the US is seen as unbridgeable, Bush will have won.

, more or less.

	28-01-2005 13:53									#139
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

quote: Originally posted by Agathon quote: LOTM - we welcome foreigners by the thousands every day. Or is this another knock on Gitmo? Cheese eating surrender monkeys anyone?

So, the reactions of a minority of Americans justifies your and the authors' prejudices about America and Americans?

Real slick there, comrade.

	28-01-2005 14:12									#140
	Inflate your Upload Space

quote: Originally posted by Odin The reason the EU has a lower economic "growth" rate is because the Euros arn't as obsessed with conspicuous consuption as the US is.

Actually the real reason is differences in measurement.

The EU's GDP was 109% of the US's in 1990 when converted using PPPs

With the reported growth rates since then it should have fallen to 97% by 2002.

However using the latest PPP data (which is for 2002) the EU's GDP was actually 107% of the US's in 2002

So the vast majority of the difference between the US's and EU's growth rate is due to measurement differences, and the real gap in growth between the US and EU is not 1% a year, it's more like 0.2%

You can look at the data here

	28-01-2005 15:34									#141
	Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by Oncle Boris It's in the shareholder's interest - the government - to have a profitable business.

True but it is also in the politician's interests to not take actions which will maximize efficiency. Lay offs are always unpopular so politicians try to prevent them in nationalized companies most of the time even when they are clearly needed. Latin America has a great history of politicians forcing state owned companies to hire workers they don't need because the politicians needs to quickly lower the unemployment rate. The end result is companies, on qaverage, are better run when politicians can't meddle.

The best way to do that is to privatize.

	28-01-2005 15:36									#142
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Freako, is there data for just the continental powers? I ask because the UK's system is much more dynamic then the mainlands so the effects should be clearer once the UK and Ireland are factored out. Also we shouldn't include the eastern countries since they also don't fully use the same model as old Europe.

	28-01-2005 17:36									#143
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by chegitz guevara There was a commie government before the Soviets got involved. With the exception of Eastern Europe, all Communist-led governments were the results of internal politics, not Soviet manipulation.

Pretty big exception I say!!!

	29-01-2005 00:00									#144
	Suffering from ads?

quote: Originally posted by Oerdin Freako, is there data for just the continental powers? I ask because the UK's system is much more dynamic then the mainlands so the effects should be clearer once the UK and Ireland are factored out. Also we shouldn't include the eastern countries since they also don't fully use the same model as old Europe.

If you care to click on the link you will see that every single country has seperate data for it (and many more besides) - I have also attached a spreadsheet showing the breakdown of individual OECD countries to this post.

Anyways the 'undercounting' of growth in the UK and Ireland is roughly the same as in continental europe (0.7% a year for UK and Ireland and 0.8% a year for the rest of the EU15)
However the inclusion of France (which uses a 'hedonic' deflator like the US does) in the continental figures skews this a bit as it lowers the 'undercount' of the combined total of the continent.

The 'undercount' for France is only 0.4% a year, but that for Italy is 0.7%, Germany is 1.0%, Spain 1.1% and Greece a massive 1.5% a year (which when you consider that Greece has been reporting growth rates of 4% a year for the last few years is impressive)