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U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan

Didn't read the thread, but has anyone pointed out that this was well-known since the Soviets occupied the country? Because this isn't news, it's an attempt by the Obama administration to justify the occupation of Afghanistan by presenting this old news as a new discovery.

It's not.

Another fact that is ignored is that they would have to destroy half of their mountains in order to retrieve the, so called, riches.
 
I had no idea that some of this was already known, which is fairly surprising (and depressing).

Say what? Afghanistan has $1 trillion in untapped mineral resources? | FP Passport

Markets shrug off Afghan minerals 'discovery' MarketWatch First Take - MarketWatch

FWIW, it sounds like the early surveys knew about the bulk of the more common minerals, but it was only the most recent ones that uncovered some of the newest stuff. Still, those were back in 07.

Yes, this was reported by Rachael Maddow on her show last night.
 
Are you saying that when I critisize my country I am whining? Conservatives love to wave the flag and talk about freedom of speech except when it conflicts with their beliefs then they call it whining.

Someone doesn't know what Freedom of Speech is it appears.

You have freedom of speech. You don't have freedom from criticism. If your speech is dumb people have the freedom to use their speech to say it as such. Freedom is a bitch, and your whining in the above post is no different than what you're accusing "Conservatives" are dong. They're exercising their freedom of speech and you're then complaining about it.

Show me where you have freedom to speak your views without criticism. At that point I'll happily appologize for saying you're whining.

BTW, the statistics quoted above are open to debate because there is no credible sources to back them up.

At least he provided something. You've provided a sum total of zilch to back up your point other than emotional platitudes and things that have nothing to do with the quality of life of the country. The one thing you claim that could even remotely be related, the unemployment rate, is in and of itself a statistic which you just bitch about in the above post. And even in that case we're less than 2% points away from other countries ranked lower than us in quality of life such as England, Canada, and France who are all around 8% themselves. Not to mention while people have shown you a variety of more complete measurements such as median incomes and actual quality-of-life measurements and all you point to is a number that is but a small portion of the quality of life and well being of people in the country.

Here's a wild idea for you. Actually present an argument rather than shouting out a baseless comment and then floundering about attempting to say "Nuh uh" when people throw out repeated things showing you're wrong while providing absolutely nothing of actual substance to support your opinion showing its made completely out of ignorance.
 
"A disadvantage of the median is the difficulty of handling it theoretically"

I'm not sure where you're going with this.

You claimed that success in America was limited to the top 1% while the rest struggled. I showed you evidence that 50% of American households earn more than $50k/year. There are no theoretical issues involved in understanding that.
 
I'm not sure where you're going with this.

You claimed that success in America was limited to the top 1% while the rest struggled. I showed you evidence that 50% of American households earn more than $50k/year. There are no theoretical issues involved in understanding that.

your implcation is that a $50,000 annual household income is an acceptable benchmark for "success"
appears we disagree on that as a "success" indicator
check out this graph and hopefully recognize the position you attempt to criticize is actually quite valid:
2005_income_distribution-2.gif
 
I'm not sure where you're going with this.

You claimed that success in America was limited to the top 1% while the rest struggled. I showed you evidence that 50% of American households earn more than $50k/year. There are no theoretical issues involved in understanding that.

I was quoting from the article cited.
 
Someone doesn't know what Freedom of Speech is it appears.

You have freedom of speech. You don't have freedom from criticism. If your speech is dumb people have the freedom to use their speech to say it as such. Freedom is a bitch, and your whining in the above post is no different than what you're accusing "Conservatives" are dong. They're exercising their freedom of speech and you're then complaining about it.

Show me where you have freedom to speak your views without criticism. At that point I'll happily appologize for saying you're whining.



At least he provided something. You've provided a sum total of zilch to back up your point other than emotional platitudes and things that have nothing to do with the quality of life of the country. The one thing you claim that could even remotely be related, the unemployment rate, is in and of itself a statistic which you just bitch about in the above post. And even in that case we're less than 2% points away from other countries ranked lower than us in quality of life such as England, Canada, and France who are all around 8% themselves. Not to mention while people have shown you a variety of more complete measurements such as median incomes and actual quality-of-life measurements and all you point to is a number that is but a small portion of the quality of life and well being of people in the country.

Here's a wild idea for you. Actually present an argument rather than shouting out a baseless comment and then floundering about attempting to say "Nuh uh" when people throw out repeated things showing you're wrong while providing absolutely nothing of actual substance to support your opinion showing its made completely out of ignorance.

I disagre with your viewpoint of me
 
Are you saying that when I critisize my country I am whining? Conservatives love to wave the flag and talk about freedom of speech except when it conflicts with their beliefs then they call it whining.

BTW, the statistics quoted above are open to debate because there is no credible sources to back them up.

How can you say the country is in such great shape when the unemployment rate is so high and the gulf of mexico is being poisoned by a corporate entity?

Compared to the rest of our world residents, everyone has here has power in their home, clean water in their home, general comfort and access to inexpensive food.

Everyone who was born here should be thanking their lucky stars that they were because being born anywhere else is likely to bring with it mass poverty and a short life, comparatively.
 
Compared to the rest of our world residents, everyone has here has power in their home, clean water in their home, general comfort and access to inexpensive food.

Everyone who was born here should be thanking their lucky stars that they were because being born anywhere else is likely to bring with it mass poverty and a short life, comparatively.

Inexpensive food? When was the last time you were to a supermarket? ****ing cucumbers, 90 yents a cuke. ****ing onions $2.29 per pound and that's at walmart.
 
Inexpensive food? When was the last time you were to a supermarket? ****ing cucumbers, 90 yents a cuke. ****ing onions $2.29 per pound and that's at walmart.
Shop around you can normally find deals. Also inexpensive food not really but every now and then there are good deals.
 
Inexpensive food? When was the last time you were to a supermarket? ****ing cucumbers, 90 yents a cuke. ****ing onions $2.29 per pound and that's at walmart.

Yes it is inexpensive, unless you want to get off of petroleum based fertilizers, then we can see $5 cucumbers.
Try living on a $2,000 a year, that is what most of the rest of the world lives on.
 
Compared to the rest of our world residents, everyone has here has power in their home, clean water in their home, general comfort and access to inexpensive food.

Everyone who was born here should be thanking their lucky stars that they were because being born anywhere else is likely to bring with it mass poverty and a short life, comparatively.
I do thank for being born here but I don't have clean water. Our water comes from a well so its not clean to drink. Also clean water is available in Western Europe and they have general comfort and access to inexpensive food they just can drive to Poland and stuff where things are inexpensive.
 
your implcation is that a $50,000 annual household income is an acceptable benchmark for "success"

That's not just an implication, that's a direct statement. You're free to characterize that as a failure, but given that there is only one nation with a higher median income, I think that's a bit ridiculous.

appears we disagree on that as a "success" indicator
check out this graph and hopefully recognize the position you attempt to criticize is actually quite valid:

Taking facts that are already well understood and putting them in a colorful graph doesn't affect whether the position asserted is more valid. Are you saying that a median household income of $50k is something to be ashamed of? Are you saying that we should be angry that 98% of people make less than $250k? What percent would make you happy?
 
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I do thank for being born here but I don't have clean water. Our water comes from a well so its not clean to drink. Also clean water is available in Western Europe and they have general comfort and access to inexpensive food they just can drive to Poland and stuff where things are inexpensive.

I just see a lot of people bitch about how had they have it, when most of the rest of the world is generally a **** hole, comparatively.
The 1st world has it good, after that things go down pretty quick.
 
Yes it is inexpensive, unless you want to get off of petroleum based fertilizers, then we can see $5 cucumbers.
Try living on a $2,000 a year, that is what most of the rest of the world lives on.

The rest of the world has a different standard of living than we do. That sure is a stretch to say that a lack of oil based fertilizers will makke cukes cost five dollars. Proof?
 
I was quoting from the article cited.

And I'm asking you what you think that means, because it's certainly not a rebuttal to my point.

Inexpensive food? When was the last time you were to a supermarket? ****ing cucumbers, 90 yents a cuke. ****ing onions $2.29 per pound and that's at walmart.

I buy my groceries online and have them delivered to the door of my Manhattan apartment. I pay 69 cents/cucumber and 99 cents/lb for onions. I find it hard to believe that you're paying 90/2.29 at a Walmart.
 
I just see a lot of people bitch about how had they have it, when most of the rest of the world is generally a **** hole, comparatively.
The 1st world has it good, after that things go down pretty quick.

I agree. I have been to India and lots of nations in Europea and Mexico. And I can say that Americans' are shocked at the poverty in Mexico they should go to India and see what really really poor people look like. I will never forget the ugliness of India such a chithole.
 
The rest of the world has a different standard of living than we do. That sure is a stretch to say that a lack of oil based fertilizers will makke cukes cost five dollars. Proof?
Right the rest of the world has it worse then we do. If we want to go about fixing things the first thing would be to limit the government authority and put money where we will benefit the most from having expenditures in. Like funding for science, military tech, and smart welfare.
 
The rest of the world has a different standard of living than we do. That sure is a stretch to say that a lack of oil based fertilizers will makke cukes cost five dollars. Proof?

It's the point that people here have it hard, they don't by and large.

If we have the money to house and feed morbidly obese people by calling them "disabled" we are not in a position to cry about how hard we have it.
 
It's the point that people here have it hard, they don't by and large.

If we have the money to house and feed morbidly obese people by calling them "disabled" we are not in a position to cry about how hard we have it.

You should see some of the people at my heart failure clinic
 
I agree. I have been to India and lots of nations in Europea and Mexico. And I can say that Americans' are shocked at the poverty in Mexico they should go to India and see what really really poor people look like. I will never forget the ugliness of India such a chithole.

I'd like to visit the place, even with the abject nastiness that many of their people have to live in.

I'm not a "we are the world" type but at the same time, I hate the lame excuse of "we have it hard."
That is absolute nonsense.
 
I'd like to visit the place, even with the abject nastiness that many of their people have to live in.

I'm not a "we are the world" type but at the same time, I hate the lame excuse of "we have it hard."
That is absolute nonsense.

Just be very careful in India and be prepared to be bothered whenever you go out of your car or hotel and walk around by beggers and people trying to sell stuff. Some of the sellers will get in the way of your car to prevent you from driving. And remember outside of the airport there will be many taxi drivers following you around wanting your service I even got pinched by one. If you do go I suggest you take tours with other tourists they seem to have it easier. Also remember don't let the water get in your mouth if you do you will have travellers diarreah for two to three weeks after you leave India. And you may or may not like to food I didnt like it.
 
Just be very careful in India and be prepared to be bothered whenever you go out of your car or hotel and walk around by beggers and people trying to sell stuff. Some of the sellers will get in the way of your car to prevent you from driving. And remember outside of the airport there will be many taxi drivers following you around wanting your service I even got pinched by one. If you do go I suggest you take tours with other tourists they seem to have it easier. Also remember don't let the water get in your mouth if you do you will have travellers diarreah for two to three weeks after you leave India. And you may or may not like to food I didnt like it.

Ouch!

Did you mostly stay with in the major cities or did you travel to more remote areas?
I'm more interested in the country side and less inhabited areas.
 
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