On Thu, 23 Nov 1995 09:09:59 -0600 David L Finet said:
>	While you make some good points, I still think that the ability
>to blow up the planet once should have been enough.  My question is why
>didn't it stop there?

for the same reason that the stone axe didn't stop there, on the bronze
sword wasn't enough for the Romans, and the muzzle-loading musket wasn't
enough for the U.S.Army in the Civil War: the human desire to overdo
things.

>I'll gladly conceed on the VW point, and add that Hitler's demand for
>easy troop movements gave Eisenhower the idea for our interstate highway

if you'd check your history, you'd find out that it's wasn't Hitler ...
it was Pershing in WWI, who got Eisenhower to make a trip from New York to
San Francisco (on what was back then non-existant "roads") to test the
ability of the army to move troops across the u.s. ... it took Ike and
his trucks THREE MONTHS to make the trip. this was back in the 1920's ...
way before Hitler got to power. Ike had the bug about a national highway
system since them. it wasn't until other people had seen the Autobahns in
WWII that Ike could convince the right people (after he became president)
to go ahead with the project.

and the railroads have hated it ever since. the interstate program has
effectively created the trucking industry in this country.

>And I guess that back to the military spending question, why did this
>congress try to give the military more money than they had even asked for
>while advocating cutting social programs?

because it's all politics. doesn't have a damn thing to do with right or
wrong. the same reason congress tacks on some stupid pork barrel program
on every damned appropriations bill that passes.

we get the government we deserve ... because WE are not willing to put our
own lives into that sort of "service" to the country. if WE really cared
about changing the system, then WE would get our butts elected and actually
do something about it. but we don't ... and traditionally, the Great
Unwashed Masses don't.

>"Those who forget their mistakes are bound to repeat them" (or something
>close to that)

that was George Santayana (1863-1952) who said:
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
(from The Life of Reason, Vol. 1)

but the only thing that we seem to learn from history is exactly that:
how to repeat the same mistakes. cause we think: THIS time it'll work!

and remember the words of (i think) W. C. Fields:
"Don't take life so seriously. You aren't going to get out of it alive
anyway." :)

joel