what is the beggining of philosophy?

When he punched out Patton?

In a relative kinda way.

I communicate with apes, such as you, and they communicate with their relative species.

The choice is - whether to join the military in the first place.

That's a choice freely made by thousands of young men and women. I was in the military for four years, and I told my son he needed to volunteer into the military. He spent over 12-years in the US Air Force, and served twice in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War. He ended his career in the military as a Major, earned his graduate degree at the University of Texas in Austin after his resignation, and now works for the university.

People who think they don't have a choice do not think.

I think what you must mean is that there is no good (or better) choice, Not that there is no choice. We sometime do say that "we have no choice" when what we really mean it that the choice is between evils, and that one of the evils is clearly so much greater than the other evil, that there is no rational choice. But not that there is not choice.

If nobody volunteered into the US military, we will not have a defense to protect our country.


You can't have it both ways; many men still volunteer into the military for many reasons. Sometimes it's the only choice open to people without jobs or any income. Some do it to gain the GI bill for education. Many do so for patriotic reasons. Your "choice" is meaningless to the many who still volunteer and are now in the military serving our country.

Are you a coward?

Are you an idiot... Our method of defense has always been expensive and lackluster... If we were a democracy we would not spend so much time ticking off the rest of the world... Defense would mean both the defense of something tangible, and defense as it has always been, the most efficient defense of home and family... Our idiots have picked the battle fields we have fought on as though they have no choice... No good general would give interior line, and no good general would bring a fight to some god forsaken hell hole requiring a supply line from heaven... Every mistake possible to make, our formally trained military has made, and only survived at great expense in men and materials... How could the Afghans have gotten to us if we had not went to them; and now they can bleed us till we leave having done nothing to improve our situation with them... We welcomed them in for 911, and as if that were not enough we go there and lay our balls on the chopping block...If we were a democracy we would see our interest as here at home, having rights which would mean having a piece of the commonwealth which would mean having something really, to defend...

Tiberious Grachus said it better than any man alive: They ask you to fight for the graves of your ancestors, but where are they??? Those people had been driven from their own land by slave labor, and in the words of Grachus had not the shelter of birds or animals... With rights follow wealth, and we have neither, so any man who volunteers to fight for this situation unless out of desperation is an idiot...

Serving our country is simply cant... The military serves the interest of the rich while the poor pay the price in ruined lives and higher taxes... An official military; a Regular Army has always been a foolish idea... The worst politician of the bunch, Douglas MacArthur, and also the best general pointed out the many errors we made... He did not lose as many as Eisenhour did in the single battle of the bulge. and in the end, Eisenhour entangled Kennedy in vietnam so deeply that he could not get out, and he was not the only president trapped by politics in dead end wars... It is all so pointeless when the men who ask the grunts for courage have not the courage to explain to the politicians what the true cost of foreign war is, which is ruin...

Our government decides on the size of our defense department; you help elect those folks who make those decisions.

Both democrats and republicans support our defense departments.

Complaining about it will get you nowhere.

Alright, Debbie Downer... I get your point, and it is easy enough to do: Nothing will do any good, so why do anything??? I will continue to complain and to abuse the government every time they forget that good is the only reason they exist, andthey choose to mislead to people in order to preserve their positions... They use their positionwhich they have over time used to make themselves powerful in relation to the people... They should know that a good defense does not mean a good offense, and that offense overseas is expensive and seldom justified... I don't help elect anyone to act stupid, and the fact that you do it for free shows how common such behavior is...With the parties in power as they are, and with us unable to get rid of one without suffering the other, we find ourselves in the North, acting as the South has always done, and voting against all and voting for nothing... And we have no choice, but that is no reason to shut up and bend over...

Your use of 'mysticism' implies that you disapprove of mysticism. Is this correct?

No. I was thinking of the origin of philosophy in ancient Greece... and suggesting it's a recurring theme.

"The difference between a philosopher and a mystic is that the philosopher tries to explain it. The mystic doesn't." -- stray quote

Or maybe it should be that once the mystic starts trying to explain it... he's become a philosopher.

Mysticism is having a mind like a bag that is closed at both ends, nothing good gets in or out...

Why do you tell me this?

You obviously care, but I don't.

Mark...

If there were no armies - There would be no wars.

Fido, You must learn about the real world; no politician or government does all the rights things for their citizens, and we're talking about countries where the people select them through their votes.

I'm always frustrated with how our government makes decisions that are destructive to our country, not only domestically but internationally. I voted for Obama, but if I knew how he would increase our deficit with sloppy spending, I would never have voted for him. He's accomplished most of what he promised during his campaign, but he also lied about transparency and helping wall street more than main street where the jobs are needed.

His bailout of car companies, banks and finance companies, is unfair to "all" Americans. As I've mentioned many times before, the bailout of banks and finance companies were necessary to rescue our economy, but he was sloppy in how he gave out those monies. That's not good management of our money.

Will I vote for Obama again? Depends on who runs against him, and what their message and past history is concerning issues that are important to me.

I want smaller government, more stimulus spending towards infrastructure; roads, bridges, transportation, and communication, and a better handle on how the money is spent to minimize waste. Our country needs jobs; fighting wars half way across the world is not our 100% responsibility; that belongs to the world community if they have any interest in defeating terrorists.

Many people around the world see us as imperialist pigs and occupiers where we don't belong. It creates more hatred and animosity against us.

Even our local and state governments struggle with their annual budgets while tax revenue continues to drop. That's because our domestic economy isn't being helped by our governments; they do most things half-ass backwards.

When I served on the grand jury in Santa Clara County in 2003-2004, we told the city councils and the county supervisors that they were spending too much on safety officer pay and benefits. They didn't listen, and now they are going to include it in our next election to give local governments more control over their pay and benefits - especially their retirement benefit which they earn after 30 years service at 90% of the highest pay. Most of these people get more benefit during their retirement years than when they worked. The potential taxpayers will be paying on their benefit is from 50 years old to about 80 years old - or more than the 30 years they have worked. Most now earn over six figures in wages. Most workers work much longer at less pay, and they don't get 90% retirement pay. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it's not only unfair to taxpayers, but local governments need to cut back on on other essential services. When they were recently asked to take a 8.25% pay cut to save 65 firemen's jobs, they said no. That's unmitigated greed; they don't give a **** about our safety.

mark, I can assume then that you have never heard of al Qaida or the Taliban. They are not considered an "army," because they are not supported by any country. They meet the true definition of "terrorists." FYI, they are a terrorist organization that attacked many countries around the world.

I grew up with a father that served in the RAF, the Paras and then the SAS.
I understand what you are saying CI, but You have to consider the reasons why such groups exist. Both these groups have links with the US, through the oil barons in Saudi - The Us govt depends on the public to be in an eternal state of doubt and fear - That which is uncertain is simple to control. You can figure the rest out - You're a clever guy.

Does one not require the other?

Mark...

We in the Uk percieve, as does most of the non-american world, the US, as the greatest force of terrorism that ever arose on this earth.