You are accusing me of spinning things, when you post a partial table with a title that is vague at best (downright misleading at worst)?

What your table really lists is the 29 countries with the largest military budgets, and percentages of the total of the top 55, something that I had to do some digging to discover. If you want to see all 55 countries, hit the link I posted, which has a lot of other information about how horrible the United States is for spending money on a military. Everyone knows that if nobody had a military the whole world would sit around campfires and sing happy songs, and there would never be any wars, because all that money could be spent for The Children (TM) .:rolleyes:

How is that percentage meaningful in any way? I am honestly sorry the data you chose to post sucks, but pointing out that it sucks does not mean I am "spinning" anything. I posted the real percentage of global military spending from the Congressional research service, and it isn't much better. We spend a lot more on military than anyone else, but comparing what we spend with others is essentially meaningless because there is nobody else on the planet that has the need or the ability to spend as much.

Lots of people have pointed out that private schools get better results with half the money per student. A local public school in Oakland made the news last week for the outstanding results they are getting with a minimal budget. The biggest problem for education is and always has been parent participation, and that is something throwing more money at schools is not going to fix. If the parents do not value education enough to get involved, then the kids will not value education.

Back to Davis-Monthon AFB. Looking at the photos you posted, and the link I posted to aerial photos of the place, all of the aircraft I see are essentially leftovers of the cold war, with the newest plane in there probably 25 years old (F-16s, entered service in 1976)and with a background in military aviation, I know what I am looking at. Making the assertion that we have don't spend money on education because we bought a bunch of airplanes 25 to 50 years ago is absurd.

What do you think we should do with them?

Tom

Military waste well, you have us there, we do waste a lot of money protecting ungrateful socialist countries like canada.

global warming , yea, but why is it so cold and been getting colder the last few years?? When I was young, the same morons who are hyping global warming were telling us the earth was going to heat up until it would be to hot to support life. Mother earth goes through cycles, and actual research backs that up. Hell, common sense (something liberal have no clue about) and 8th grade science class tells you that if the polar ice caps melted, it would cool the earth, it would also create clouds & rain, again, bringing the temperatures down. But 2 things history has shown us, Mother earth temps go up, and then go back down, then go back up, then back down, almost like clock work, the second, weathermen can't predict the correct temperature or rain from day to day, so what kind of idiot thinks they can predict what will happen in 100 years (other than the cycles we already know about) from now.

illegal govt wiretaps you should brush up on history, the dems did it in W.W. II to those they felt might be threatening our national security, like what is being done today, but not to our citizens, but those with terrorist ties, unlike when the dems & Clinton had the FBI spy on Republicans when he was in office.

Liberals have had control of education since the early 60s, and it has done nothing but go down every day thanks to liberal, feel good BS and dropping standards and the nea. I use to serve on the Government Affairs Board at my local Chamber of Commence, the schools in our area are one of the least funded(the state formula benefits South FL. to a huge degree)
than 1/2 per student than most of the rest of the counties in the state, yet our schools have some of the best test scores in the state. BTW, I live in one of the most Republican area of the state, proof that good old tradional family values, self responsability and respect go much father to help our youth than just thowing money at the problem. Socialist demacrooks created the problem, and it is going to take Republicans to fix it correctly.

Interesting, Supply URL please.

I don't think that is a causal relation. The first paragraph is true no matter which school a child attends. Your ability to take your child to school of like minded parents does not lead to your conclusion. It just leaves public schools with kids whose parents don't have the desire as you.

"Military waste well, you have us there, we do waste a lot of money protecting ungrateful socialist countries like canada."
- Our democratically elected government currently has combat troops deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"global warming , yea, but why is it so cold and been getting colder the last few years??"
- The most dominant characteristic of global warming is not average temps. It is inclement weather. I find it interesting that so much peer-reviewed scientific research takes a back seat to partisan "science" from a handful of quacks that are warmed over by Madison avenue and special interest groups and made to look scientific.

"illegal govt wiretaps you should brush up on history, the dems did it in W.W. II to those they felt might be threatening our national security, like what is being done today, but not to our citizens, but those with terrorist ties...."
- I agree with the above reasoning for eavesdropping - within the law. Warrantless surveillance within the United States for national security purposes was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972. The wiretapping being carried out currently is illegal and ineffective. By their own admission the illegal wiretaps have generated thousands of false leads and identified laughably few terrorist/bad guys that the FBI didn’t already know about from other sources.