Need some help replying to a freeper

[sakabatou]

My message was a quote from Mike Malloy: "A nation that holds 5% of the world's population, yet spends 50% of its budget on defense, has no intention of peace."

His reply: Get educated please. The reason we spend so much money on defense is because of zealots from abroad who think God is telling them to kill Americans. Our current government is only interested in protecting it's citizens from such whackos.

So how should I reply to this creep?

[democracyindanger]

1. Punch in the nose, inferences about the size of his penis and

a link to Army recruiting.

[sakabatou]

2. Oookay...

Any other way?

[CanuckAmok]

No, there is no other way.

If you're a Paramedic, you can use your defib pack as shock-paddles.

Beyond that, I'm all out of ideas.

[Floogeldy]

3. How many dollars is that, per Zealot?

;)

[sakabatou]

4. good one!

[Crazy Guggenheim]

5. Tell him to go join up.

:popcorn:

[SofaKingLiberal]

6. Zealots who think God is telling them to kill us?

Like Saddam Hussein?

[northzax]

7. why bother with the Mike Mallor quote?

it's really irrelevant to anything at all. you can't compare world population to national spending, it's apples and oranges. If a nation with 10 percent of the world's population spent 25% of it's budget on defense, would that be as bad? How about a nation with 14% of the world's population (say, China, for instance) spending 20% of it's budget on defense? That's actually MORE.

See? don't mean a thing. So yes, I agree with him, get educated, and don't send out non-sensical quotations.

[sakabatou]

8. Here's the link to the pic:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/27841405/

[northzax]

19. great, it's still an irrelevant quote

and a poor use of numbers. Malloy has a point, but this quote doesn't do anything about it.

[SofaKingLiberal]

11. Perhaps the fact that we spend more than every other country in the world

combined would have been better?

[northzax]

20. yes, it would have been

but comparing the US population to the rest of the world, and then the percentage of the US budget is meaningless. Tell me that the US has 5% of the population but spends 50% of the entire GLOBAL budget for Defense (which is true) and you have a point. The fact is that we also spend more on health care than every other country in the world combined (or damn close to it) More on medical research and more on education. We simply spend more than everyone else does, of the richest countries, we have the largest economy and the greatest deficit spending. But that's not the comment Malloy made, according to this graphic, he said we spend 50% of our budget on defense (which isn't quite true, unless you don't count Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or debt service as part of the government's spending, this year, those summed to over 600 billion dollars, greater than military spending all by themselves)

[TimeChaser]

9. I noticed that

I also noticed the "I like GB..." comment by the person with the Roy avatar.

Someone was *not* paying attention when they watched Fullmetal Alchemist :rofl:

[sakabatou]

12. Or has only seen it on Adult Swim

[TimeChaser]

14. True

But the AS version still has much of the anti-war sentiments.

But then, a lot of freeps thought Colbert was on their side, so you never know...

[NMMNG]

10. Ask him about the zealot right here

who thinks God is telling him to kill Iraqis.

[sakabatou]

13. Used your way.

[Whoa_Nelly]

15. Ask him what the government HAS DONE to "protect" its citizens

And ask for details and non-partisan links to verify his statements.

Make sure he tells you why spying on Americans ans breaking the law doing so is okay.

Make sure he tells what the REAL reason is that the US invaded Iraq.

Make sure he tells you what Saddam and 9/11 have in common. :sarcasm:

Make sure he explains why ditching strengthening our infrastructure and superstructure is less important than killing people in Iraq.


DON'T let his responses be without non-partisan verification.

Basically, the freep needs to be able to back up his claim that our government is "protecting" us. Tell him "Prove it!"

Then also send him the link about the history of the PNAC from formation to its current status today. The PNAC plan is in action, and is not for our citizens at all.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

16. Ask him what happened to the terrorist alerts after the 04 Elections.

:popcorn:

[Common Sense Party]

17. Is that 50% of discretionary spending? Wow.

Absolutely amazing.

[sakabatou]

18. It's, I think, I quote from Syriana

[northzax]

21. only if you include 'past military spending'

basically, the figure demands that 80% of the debt is military related, so 80% of the debt service is military related. It also includes Homeland Security, Veterans' Affairs and Intelligence. So it all depends on how you classify spending. But it's still too high.

[Common Sense Party]

22. Does all Homeland Security spending qualify as "military"?

That doesn't make sense.

I'm all for spending for our veterans. They deserve better than what they're getting.

[northzax]

23. I was just trying to figure out how to get to 50%

of the US budget. So you have to massage the numbers a little bit. But heck, if it's 40% or 50%, it's still too much.

[Common Sense Party]

24. It IS too much.

But make sure you clarify that that's 50% of the discretionary budget, not the total budget. Medicare and other "guaranteed" expenditures aren't counted in the discretionary side.

[northzax]

25. I don't count Medicare and Social Security at all

since they aren't really part of the federal budget (that's another accounting trick to make defense spending seem smaller, it dates to the Vietnam era) If you have earmarked, defined contributions coming in and then going out, they don't count as your budget. Say you get a new job, and are making a budget for the family. If your takehome pay is $2000/month, and your rent is $1000 a month, then your rent is half your income, right? So you budget for it. Now say that your job comes with a housing allowance of $1000/month, paid directly to your landlord. That doesn't even go on your books, since it was never your money to spend on anything else, your budget is still $2000/month, but now you don't have rent included at all, it's off your books. That's what's going on with Social Security and Medicare.

[sakabatou]

27. The quote is from Syriana...

[sakabatou]

26. Here he is, at it again

"What has the government done to protect us? Thousand of Terror plots have been ended before they even got off the ground in the past 5 years. You don't hear about them in the newspaper when they never happen.

how many dollars per zealot? Who cares. money means nothing when you're talking about saving lives. It's sad that people like you are more concerned about how much money is being spent than about saving lives."

... baka...