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It's sad to see how a great society like the America's one is rotten by people that believe in their "supremacy" because they like to invest in the militar industry (while infrastructures are a mess, but you can't realize it since probably you haven't ever put the nose outside your country village).

Well, Jordi, I don't know where you are from (I'll assume somewhere in Europe), but I was speaking of our military supremacy and nothing else.

What, you thought I was talking about racial supremacy? Sorry, pal, Germans and Frenchmen and Arabs seem to have the market nearly cornered in that kind of thinking.

As far as us liking "to invest in militar [sic] industry," it is true that we rather uniquely took our NATO and SEATO commitments seriously and spent heavily on defense so that we could meet those obligations, while many (not all, mind you) of our so-called allies stood back and let us carry the heavy load both economically and militarily. Meanwhile, these putative friends spent lavishly on their cherished welfare states, and yes, on some flashy infrastructure here and there as well (but the lion's share of it was and is crap . . . Yes, I've been to Europe and I have NO idea why we bothered rebuilding it after WWII).

I wonder how the vaunted infrastructure (a bullet train? . . . Gimme a break) of Europe and Japan would look if either had 4,000 miles of it from coast-to-coast to keep up, whilst defending nearly single-handedly a bunch of cowardly freeloaders from the menace of Sino-Soviet totalitarianism for 50 years? Not to mention the cost to us of regularly kicking some of those "friends'" butts each time they decided to deliriously goose-step off toward the nearest border to a symphony of martial music played by the latest insane, mustached lunatic they'd fallen in love with, and who's barking something in their ear about their racial superiority and purity?

Go*****ed gutless cowards, in Europe at least (I'm not counting Britain among them), NEVER appreciated democracy, or liberty, and certainly wouldn't fight -- much less die -- defending it. Our Cold War alliance with them was a big farce. Thank God we never had to rely on them to come to our defense. They stabbed us in the back at every opportunity for, as far as one can tell, being fool enough to save their bacon repeatedly in the last century. They appeased every tyrant, every communist regime, every murdering arab barbarian who raised his head, and shrieked like frightened little schoolgirls each time we proposed to stand up to the thugs.

Yeah, sure, you'll get to the stars, Jordi -- in about a million years. A thousand steps forward, 999 back. So go off and study the thermodynamics of reactors, a subject we gave to you, while enjoying your freedoms, which America secured for you at great expense to her in blood and money (but nonetheless which you do not appreciate, and would NEVER defend), and your prosperity, which we handed you on a silver platter, while amusing yourself on the internet (another gift from us).

I think we won't spend another dime on your defense. So go ahead, do your thing. Knock yourself out. Just don't do anything stupid . . . Like join with the Arabs. We do have military supremacy. We are going to keep it. And we will defend ourselves. Unlike you, I think.

Thanks. A little notice. When you are talking about "reaching the stars" I hope you are not referring to space exploration. After some 25 years without sending a manned mission on the moon, a dozen or more nations have reached space capabilties. I don't give you a link in particulary, just visit space.com, you will find plenty of news about non-US space missions. But that's not the point. The point is that when you scream about restoring justice around the world, you just aim at Iraqi oil (a lot of freepeers say that simply and plainly.). I know and you know that Saddam is a threat only for his own people, like tens of other dictators around the world are, in Africa for example. But Iraq has a lot of oil. Talk of highly idealistic goals and aim at small potatoes. I agree that spending public money conquering oil rich foreign countries is more lucrative than building hospitals,public schools and giving pensions. (But...where's the far more advanced American technology? Still relying on petroleum? What about alternative energy sources? Oh, I understand. When you colonize Mars you will do it moving on Chevy Trucks.).And what about mobile telecommunications infrastructures? At least two years behind that of Japan and Europe. Your credibility around the world his hovering at historical low levels (like the Nasd.),at least in two fields:moral/culture and finance/economics. Forgive me if I can't take you much seriously.

I was going to ask you if you enjoyed your trip to europe. It is true, that Europeans have, seemingly weaseled out of the hard earned responsibilities endowed to Americans who are afraid to suffer for them. Sadly the financial institutions of Europe are older than history is capable of recording. The European continent with all of its aristocracies, attention on aesthetics, history, and intellectual "movements" was incapable of producing the atomic bomb even when Hitler ruled it. That does not, in my opinion, automatically mean that Europeans are without virtue and honor.

In my above post I describe the type of war I like to fight. It is a European paradigm, and it is the oldest one, and ultimately they are the human equations which dictate wars begining and end. The question you have to ask is when do we crawl into the protective frog suits. I'll tell you what. You may not feel the heat from the flames, but that is only because war is efficient for the sake of those who do! When the infra-red/infra-green intelligencia fails to download to the VR in the protective headgear what is the frogman going to do. Those are seven foot tall leatherbound mooslims and what they really want to know if the frogman bleeds red blood! Frankly, jig, I have to wonder myself what color is the frogman's blood!

As I reflect on all the coddling I recieved as a child, which made me a better physicist, it was the raw suffering that made me a man. No frogman could ever convince me that Americans are willing to die for their freedom, and on the University Campus I see a lot of really scared boys. I think they'd go off to war in tomorrow's fervor, but not without nightvision goggles, and thermo retardant frogsuit. In fact, let's go play nintendo.