WARNING! BORING ECONOMY BELOW!

Originally posted by GarryB
the US has plenty of money… they could afford 10 Iraqs for several years). He just wants someone else to go in and foot the bill… but hands off HIS oil contracts… even the British didn’t get a look at them.

I think you are wrong here Garry. The US’ is rich because other countries still pay for America’s wealth, by accepting the US dollar as the dominant international currency. Because of this, the US is the only country in the world which can maintain a large and increasing trade deficit. Basically they do this by exporting money.

But this desirable dollar is quickly loosing it’s eager customers. The trade deficit of course also generated some inflation, but this was not much of a problem since it kept international trade easy (cheap dollar = easy international trade). But at some point, the trade-deficit induced inflation will cause the dollar to become no longer a reliable and stable currency for international trade.

Now let’s look at Bush Jnr. as a president. Financially, his administration is absolutely moronic: a massive decrease in income due to tax cuts, combined with an increase in spending mostly due to the War on Terror and Operation Iraqi Anarchy. “Hey, we can do that, we simply export more dollars,” seems to be the thought.

So now there’s a larger budget deficit in the US government now than there ever was, and this directly translates to the American trade deficit growing. While this is partly compensated for by a growing American economy (GWB’s tax cuts actually work with tax-paranoid Americans), part of it is not.

To make matters worse, the US itself is frustrating international trade (equals to dollar circulation, which equals to the rest of the world paying for the US’ deficit) by trade sanctions. To make matters worse, GWB’s foreign policy brought the popularity of his country in the world to a new low. To make matters worse, with the Euro a new currency has popped up which proves to be long-term stable and is supported by a well-established banking and economical basis (even when France and Germany are screwing around with the Stability Pact).

If you ask me, the war …uhm, sorry, ‘new freedom’… in Iraq shouldn’t last a decade. The US can’t afford it, and by that time the rest of the world will no longer be ready to pay it for them.

That’s the way Australian Neptunes look. They are white squares with red X-es.

Hey, of course Kim Jong Il looks silly. But he always looked silly, even back in the days when he was married to Priscilla, lived in Graceland, Memphis, Tennesse, and especially when he wore jumpsuits to please the crowds in Vegas. When he himself sobered up, so did his outfit.

I have to say he did a great job though. Creating a personal cultus around both your personalities/incarnations must be a first in recorded history 😀

Hey, at least Sauron is doing whatever he can to stop North Korea. Calling their leader by silly names really is an effective tool to counter that country’s evil ambitions.

No, they weren’t target tugs. For that, they operated Broncos, G91s and Sabres back in the days when they did it themselves.

Officially, the Canberras were used for meteorological research and weather recconaissance. This was BS though – they carried radars and eavesdropping gear to check what the German and Soviet comrades on the other side of the Iron Curtain were doing. The orange paintjob was simple camouflage: nobody would every believe a brightly-painted aircraft was involved with such dark missions 🙂

So the French engineers went to Toulouse when the FD2 was there, took a lot of pictures from the FD2 with their secret garlic-string-cameras and bouteille-de-vin telelenses, then travelled back in time and started developing the Mirage with the same wing planform? Sorry DHfan, it’s a lovely conspiracy against those perfide French but it’s impossible. The FD2 flew for the first time about half a year before the first MirageI took to the skies, while the whole record-breaking stuff only occured later. The dates just don’t support your theory.

Also, apart from German data by Lippisch obtained by the French, there was also some local experimenting work done on delta wings. French engineer Payen had been experimenting with delta-ish wings (more like very low aspect ratio wings) from the 1920s on.

Ant,
The MD550/Mirage I was a way evolved Mystère with a solid nose and delta wings. While you correctly say that the Fairy FD1 and FD2 flew prior to the Mirage I (the latter only by a few months), this doesn’t mean they were using British research on the delta wings. Just like the US (XF-92) and Brits, the French used German data by Dr. Lippisch. The Mirage does not have British roots.

The advice i always give people, is not to do as i do.

Times spent not giving that advice, is used backing up that piece of evidence.