Now if they were just going to do a low flyby and drop the coont out the bomb bay doors and then continue on to the correct destination, I could maybe get behind that.



Miley Cyrus Dating 22-Year-Old Backup Dancer

Miley Cyrus may be one of the richest 15-year-olds in the world but the decisions she's been making the past few months have the word poor written all over them..

Not only has the Britney-Spears-in-the-making star been caught partaking in lesbian-like behaviour on-camera, posing naked on film and caught posing provocatively with unknown men (also on camera) but she's also reportedly dating a much older man.

Editor Coment: C'mon now. We all know that Hollywood isn't held accountable to the same moral standards as the rest of us.

I bet she's in love. Did you guys ever consider that?

Even Roger Clemens was 28 when he first hooked up with 15-year-old Mindy McCready

Man, Bill O' Really is gonna have something to bitch about for a month. I mean fuel prices and a tanking economy aren't a problem, a problem crops up when a 15 year old fails as a role model and hits the sack with a 22 year old.

What does her dad Achy Breaky Heart feel about this whole situation? Probably something along the lines of "as long as Miley brings in the cash, I won't have to work at the Car-X in Nashville."

She's with Disney, it's to be expected.

Better start collecting the "before" pictures of her now.
These are the pictures that people will remember after the train wreck hits.

It's all hype to get more publicity.

Like there's even a slight chance that the guy in those photos isn't gay.
They're most likely just BFFs.

I still don't think he could identify a pussy in a police line-up.

Let the little hooker do what she likes. She can afford rehab in a few years anyway. Plus, that backup dancer will need some cash once they break up and she kicks him off the tour.

In all seriousness, how is this strange?

Girls that age like older guys, its not rocket science. In my mind, it'd be news if she was doing the normal 15 year old dating game.

In the past, and in other cultures, fifteen is just about marriage age. In fact, you all better get used to it because the Quinceanera, is a big deal in Mexico, That is the fifteenth birthday debutant for young girls, the age they are women.

So get used to it because that will soon be the dominant culture in the USA.

I've dated people my age, and dated people all other ages.

If you find someone who is intelligent, shares your interests, and is fun to hang around with, then age really isn't as much a factor as people think.

Just some general numbers pertaining to this headline, though not necessarily dating (I could just be throwing out random numbers, after all)...

Me 27, Her 18
Me 26, Her 17
Me 28, Her 21 (and her friend 19)
Me 31, Her 18
Me 34, Her 22
Me 33, Her 19

They all knew my age, and went for me, anyway.

Now, I don't think I'd go for anyone that young anymore. I kind of got sick of it-- People under 24 have different priorities these days. I find few that I can really get along with, now, because I'm just not interested in putting effort into their melodramatic, short-attention-span lifestyles anymore. I'm surrounded by hot college students, and I couldn't really give a damn anymore.

They're nice to look at, but I can't deal with their company. I guess that means I'm getting old, huh?



70�s Ice Cream Commercial (video)

Enjoy the heat with the most suggestive ice cream commercial from the 70's you will see today Click here to watch the video

Editor Coment: Does that qualify as child porn?

No.

It qualifies as people eating ice cream and you having a perverted mind.

How else does one eat ice cream cones? With a knife and fork?

An interesting point of view. In my opinion, the makers of this commercial are saying:

"Yes, we are using sex to sell our product, and doing so in a very obvious, frank and straightforward manner. Yes, we're comfortable with that. And yes, we're comfortable with alternating tape of the hottie with tape of little girls doing the same thing. Got a problem with that?"

You know, I'd like to pretend that there was a time, before we all became so conditioned to seeing hardcore porn everywhere online, that we, as a society, could have watched that video and seen nothing but young girls in their prime, enjoying a delicious, cold snack sold, apparently, by penguins. But it's hard to imagine that such a time ever actually existed.

This made me hot, therefore I need cooling down such as an ice cream... So I deem this an effective commercial.

You want suggestive?

Do a search for Flake on Youtube, its from Cadbury in England. Talk aobut Softcore porn for Friday night, and this is from ads in the 60s and 70s.

kind of on topic:

Little Johnny was sitting in class doing math problems when his teacher picked him to answer a question. "Johnny, if there were five birds sitting on a fence and you shot one with your gun, how many would be left?"

"None.", replied Johnny "cause the rest would fly away."

"Well, the answer is four," said the teacher. "But I like the way you are thinking."

Little Johnny said, "I have a question for you now. If there were three women eating ice cream cones in a shop, one licking her cone, the second biting her cone, and the third sucking the cone, which one is married?"

"Well," said the teacher nervously, "I guess the one sucking the cone?"

"No," said Little Johnny, "the one with the wedding ring on her finger, but I like the way you are thinking."

I've always liked that one.

My personal favorite is the one where he says "FUCK THE JAPS!," the teacher says "WHO SAID THAT?," and Dirty Johnny says "Douglas MacArthur, 1945. Where's my fucking jelly bean?"



Things you can�t do... as a Stormtrooper (video)

You can do a lot of killing, pillaging, and rebel-crushing as a Stormtrooper. However, thanks to that protective armor, there are also some fairly basic things you can't do. Click here to watch the video

Editor Coment: That was the fucking dumbest thing I've seen today.

One of the worst stormtrooper costumes I've ever seen.

Could have been so much better

Things you can't do as a stormtrooper:

Comedy

Conspicuously absent from this list:

Get laid.
Aim a gun.
Drive a speederbike.
Think independently.
Beat up small koala like creatures.
Be relevant to a film you are in.

I am on a different computer than usual, so I have no fail pics on hand, but would post one otherwise. This was awful and not funny.



ME TELLIN YOU MOTHA FUCKAS OFF (video)

Kids with Down Syndrome are really expanding their vocabulary. Click here to watch the video

Editor Coment: That's the funniest thing I've seen today.

I thought she was a burn victim.

So this is who my tax money is going to take care??

I think that video made me change my stance on abortion to pro choice.

Apparently, using profanity like a Hungarian immigrant who was taught to speak phonetically while sounding like you have a sinus infection increases ones street cred.

I didn't know you could get the Internet on welfare...

It will be funnier when she sees this again as a grown up, maybe even a mother!

I suspect motherhood is just around the corner.

Does anybody have her Myspace?

This kind of attitude/mentality has already ruined the black "community".

Seeing it seep into and permeate impressionable white youth is even sadder.

That's what we're looking at here...

Not amusing in the slightest, just heartbreaking.

High school is full of these suburban white kids who try and act as if they grew up in the hood and are gangstas. I tell them that if your mommy is dropping you off and picking you up from school chances are you aren't a gangsta.

Some kids will come out of this generation ok. Not all kids, but the ones who have parents that give a damn. Doesn't matter what generation you're from, parenting is what matters. What kinda asshole do you think is raising that girl? Based on how she acts, I'm going to bet her parents aren't any less stupid.

Kudos to her for learning Mad Gangsta. She's getting a good grasp of the language.

Unfortunately, I hear this language all the time on the streets where I live. Coming from young girls just like this one.

She's saying "a'ight"...a contraction of "alright"...Though why our gangstafied youth would contract a single word into a word one letter shorter is beyond me.

The only thing more ridiculous than a black person speaking "Gansta" slang is a white person speaking it.

I guess they watch too much HBO...

Maybe I'm just a square, but when did it become appealing to wake up in the morning and say to yourself, "I'm going to be as obnoxious and stupid as humanly possible for the rest of my life.

America's Children Are America's Future

We are so doomed :(

After watching the video again, it's pretty sad. She's clearly been crying and is close to tears near the end.

Although at first I found it funny and just a tad ridiculous, it seems there's probably some troubles in this one's life.

This is a kid that need's help, not scorn.

However, the way she handled it was... inelegant, to say the least.

If she's being picked on now? Just wait till her classmates see this video.

I hope she gets some help... and friends.



NO reason to buy bottled water

With increasing prices people are now being forced to drink water - from the tap.

Editor Coment: Wow, people have finally noticed that bottled water is a rip off.

I sincerely doubt they've come to any such realization, they just can't afford their excess anymore.

Realization would involve them admitting to themselves that they made a mistake, and we live in a blameless society where nobody makes mistakes.

Sadly enough, many Americans buy bottled water. Just like most things, it has to do with susceptibility to marketing and trends, which many dumb americans can't or don't see. (I can't impress strangers by drinking out of a non-labeled bottle of water).

It's funny how this "struggling economy" forces a lot of people to do things they should have been doing in the first place.

And there's so many stories about "new things people are doing"... which poor people have been doing for ages. I'm broke, and you have to be creative to get by.

I wish I got some kind of extra reward for doing these things already.

I'm really enjoying these stories of gross overconsumption being curtailed by an increase in prices.

FTFA "Tap water is making a comeback"

No, it's been there all this time and normal boring people have been drinking tap water.

It's the dumbasses and the trendy who think tap water is unhealthy who have been drinking bottled water...

Hey, idiot, you are STILL drinking tap water.

Bottom line: there is absolutely NO reason to buy bottled water

If you drink bottled water at home, unless your tap water is unsafe, you're an idiot.

It's sad that Americans have enough money to blow on something that is free and a privledge. We love to waste money!

When the bottled water business began expanding 20 years ago, I wondered how easy it would be to sell people tap water. I was surprised at how easy it was.

There must have been some weird marketing meeting over in France. Some French guy's sitting there, like "How dumb do I think the Americans are? I bet you we could sell those idiots water." "Look, Pierre, the Americans are pretty dumb, but they're not going to buy water." "Oh yes they are! Let's just tell the Americans the water's from France."

Last week there was this report on Belgian TV showing that tap water is actually healthier than bottled water. Not to mention the ecological implications.

I heard on the radio today that it takes twice as much water to make the plastic bottle than will eventually fill it. Talk about accelerating entropy. That's just stupid right there.

The Pacific Institute estimates that producing the bottles for American consumption in 2006 required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil.

Just think of how much oil we could have not been using to make those plastic bottles if people just used refillable bottles to begin with.

We live in far too wasteful a society. It makes me sad to think about.

I think it's less likely that spending a dollar for a bottle of water is what is putting you in financial peril. Maybe you shouldn't spend $250 on your cell phone so you can walk around having pointless conversations.

Next thing you know people will stop drinking $6 cups of coffee.



Elton John - Nikita (video)

"Nikita" is a song by English singer Elton John about the Cold War from his 1985 album Ice on Fire.

In the song, Elton John describes his crush on a Russian borderguard whom he cannot meet because he is not allowed into the country. It features George Michael and Nik Kershaw on backing vocals. Click here to watch the video

Editor Coment: Shouldn't this song be called NIKOLAI???

Nikita is of course a Russian man's name- like the Soviet President Nikita Krushchev... I guess that is part of the irony in this song..... one can see where he was leading with this before he fully came out and admitted his orientation.

However if some gay people want to have wet dreams with Nikita Krushchev, well go ahead! As an heterosexual (homophobic) man, I will consider it as a woman's name.

They wanted it to look like they where in Russia. Too bad the signs in the video are written in German.

And why are they passing the passport upside down???
If you look at the spine - it should be on the left, but it is on the right when they pass it back and forth!

I bet when he's trying to take the picture he's all like "I wish that bitch would move so I can see the dudes"

Did some research on the actress who played Nikita. For those who really care her name is Anya Major she lives in England with her husband and 3 children. She is also the female athelete that threw the sledge hammer into the screen in the 1984? Super Bowl commercial about Big Brother's Apple computer. She looks hot in the russian uniform. Nuff said.

The guy that check Eltons passport plays bad guy "Necros" in the James bond movie The living Daylights, featuring Timothy Dalton as James Bond.

Elton John is a great singer who has sung many great songs; however, I think we need to show Bernie Taupin (the writer of not only this song but most of Elton John's songs) a little respect.

I love Elton John's music so don't send hate mail my way.



Gas-saving tips - fact or fiction?

At roughly $4 a gallon, many people are desperately trying to squeeze more miles out of each drop. The best ways are usually the most obvious: reduce your load, resist the urge to drive aggressively, and cut the number of trips you make, for starters. However, there are some unusual tips that might surprise you.

Take our short quiz, and find out which tips are true energy savers and which are merely gas station myths.

� Stephanie Peters, Boston.com Correspondent

Editor Coment: In other news, I'll take the Mythbusters over Stephanie Peters, Boston.com Correspondent any day of the week.

Seriously, 24 pages? I could see 2, but this is just stupid.

My God, can't they just put all the answers in the back? You know, like the bible?

Nothing mentioned was really news to me. However, this one is wrong:

Higher the grade of gas, better the fuel economy

False. While premium grade is a higher-quality gas, that doesn't mean your car necessarily needs it, according to Consumer Reports. Most cars are designed to run on regular gas, and many cars that recommend premium can also use regular because modern sensor systems automatically adjust to prevent engine knocking, a pinging noise caused by premature fuel ignition. Make sure you read your vehicle's manual before making any changes to the products you use.

Notice that their "answer" answers a different question: whether or not your car needs premium gas to prevent engine knocking. it makes no mention of whether or not premium will give you better mileage. that's some nice editing there.

If your engine should run on 89 octane, you'll get better mileage with 89.

If your engine doesn't need 89, it won't.

Another myth busted -- pickup trucks are designed to operate with the tailgates up.

Driving with the tailgate down, with them off, or with some tennis court net hanging off the back of your truck does not improve your gas mileage.

I do wish I had that episode of Mythbusters on my computer (the tailgate issue one) so I could burn it to 50 DVDs and put them under the wiperblade of every truck I see in the parking lot with their tailgates down.

Another old urban legend was if you put your windows down to keep cool instead of running the A/C would save you money... which turned out to be the opposite. Actually, A/C with windows up uses less gas.

How does having the AC on or off affect gas mileage.

Your auto A/C runs on a compressor which is powered by the belt on your engine.

The compressor doesn't run off electricity, If it did, it would put a load on the alternator about equal to what the mechanical pump does.

Turning the compressor is what takes most of the power from the motor.

Power from the alternator is not use-it-or-lose-it. The more power you suck from the alternator, the harder it gets for the engine to turn the alternator pulley and the more load it puts on the motor.

However, even the slightest crack in your windows creates a lot of drag, and knocks your mileage down more than the AC.

The real way to super efficiency would be if you could change the gear ratios for your most optimum speed.

Higher RPMS require more fuel because it takes extra energy to spin the engine more often.

However, the biggest thing overlooked is wind resistance. The wind resistance created by the higher speed increases as the cube of the velocity. In other words, a doubling of speed quadruples the amount of drag.

Wind resistant builds exponentially as speed increases. Your engine is working quite a bit harder to fight the wind at 80 than at 70.

A car cruising on a highway at 50 mph may require only 10 horsepower to overcome air drag, but that same car at 100 mph requires 80 hp.

At some point increased speed results in increased drag to the point it doesn't matter what your top gear is.

Want to minimize your gas usage?

Slow the fuck down. I don't care if you are late. That's piss-poor planning on your part, not mine.

Try to buy gas that has the minimum amount of ethanol in it, preferably none. If your gas has 10% ethanol, your mileage will be about 3% less than it would be with straight gas.

Walk more often. Come on, seriously.

If it's less than a mile away, it won't kill you.

I don't care how 'ghetto' you think it looks to walk and carry a grocery bag.

Buy an econobox, rent truck when needed.

My local Home Depot rents trucks for about $20 for 4 hours or something. Owning one for that 2 times a year you actually need it is asinine.

One of my friends drives a 2004 Kawasaki ZX-10R Ninja

The motorcycle cost 3K

It covers a quarter-mile in less time than it takes to read this sentence.

Gets around 60 mpg, depending on how you drive it.

Even $4 gas isnt that big of a deal when the tank is only 4.5 gallons.

It just doesn't get any better than that, sports fans.

Motorcycles really are the gas sipping way for personel transportation.

No one can disagree with this.

The problem is that personal safety is still worth more than fuel efficiency to most people.

An interesting psychological study would be to determine at what gas price people begin to discount safety.

Some peoples solution for lower gas prices... DRILL FOR MORE OIL.

Oil on the continental shelf will run out eventually, and we'll be in the same position we are now. Better to let the price rise so we decrease our usage and, hopefully, eliminate the need for fossil fuels altogether.

Focusing everything we have on moving away from oil ASAP is not the answer. The best solution will be having multipule engery sources for cars that compete with each other. Electric cars work best within the city, gas/hydrogen / bio fuels for longer distance travles, etc.

Depending on one fuel source to power all of our cars is what got us in this mess to start with.



Drivers putting less gas in tank, then running out

With gas prices hovering at $4 a gallon, motorists are putting less fuel in their tanks - then coming up empty on the highway.

Though national statistics on out-of-gas motorists don't exist, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that drivers unwilling or unable to fill 'er up are gambling by keeping their tanks extremely low on fuel.

Editor Coment: Well obviously if it's more expensive you'll need less of it. Buncha dumbasses.

Years ago, I worked with a woman who's car had a broken gas gague. She frequently had to get it towed because she let it run out of gas, costing untold amounts of money.

My suggestion was to just fill it up every day. This was rejected as "it would cost too much"

From then on I rejected any possibility she had a brain.

I really and truly don't understand the people who don't completely top up their tanks when they go to the gas pump, unless tight finances prevent them for doing so for whatever reason.

If you have a 15 gallon tank, and gas goes up 10 cents per gallon, you're looking at $1.50 extra in your tank. This is a big deal how?

Thinking that putting less gas in your car at any one time means you'll use less is idiot logic.

Maybe the gas is running out so quickly because you bought such an incredibly stupid gas guzzling SUV/Pickup.

It's not gas prices, it's your poor decision making skills when it comes to what kind of car you drive around town.

I agree with the Exxon CEO. If you don't like the price of gas, stop using so much of it. It's only worth what you are willing to pay for it. You are not required to drive a car that gets 14 MPG to work every day.

We're just balancing out with the rest of the world's gasoline economies, the prices they're paying in Europe are still astronomically higher than here.

If you can't read a gas-gauge don't blame it on high gas prices you dumbass.

This sounds like more of an excuse for people to cover for their stupidity.

wtf could "E" possibly mean?

'Effort'. As in the Effort you will soon spend pushing your car to the gas station.

'Emergency tank'. That's the tank some people seem to think their car has that just has an extra gallon or two in their car to get them to where they need to be.

'Entertainment'. You pushing your car to the side of the road provides entertainment for passers-by.

"Ehhh, there's still some left."

It's only getting more expensive people - and that's not going to change. Not in your lifetime.

/Doesn't Iraq owe us some free oil for liberating them?
//fill up my tank every day. That way it costs less!
///Will gladly pay more if that means less cars on the freeways



Army reviewing complaints over bullets

The military is reviewing soldiers' complaints that their standard ammunition isn't powerful enough for the type of fighting required in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Current and former soldiers interviewed by The Associated Press said the military's M855 rifle rounds are not powerful enough for close-in fighting in cities and towns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Editor Coment: Soldiers in Iraq are complaining that they need ammo that has more stopping power at close range

Do you mean our soldiers, or their soldiers?

I've never known anyone who has been in a firefight that didn't instantly wish they had a bigger gun.

US soldiers have been complaining about this since Somalia.

They used to complain the same reason about the M14s too and the M1 Garands when they came out as being underpowered. You could issue every soldier a .50 calibre rifle and they still be some complaints about the stopping power.

The neverending "right caliber/cartridge for infantry" debate, it will pop up every year because there is no right answer.

Russians with 7.62 complain about ammo weight and can't carry nearly as much ammo as US soldiers using 5.56, but like the stopping power. US soldiers complain 5.56 doesn't have enough stopping power but they can carry a lot of rounds and therefore can use considerably more supressive fire.

For a bullet to be effective it needs to penetrate adequately. Given equal penetration, a bigger bullet is better than a smaller one, but you can carry fewer of them. Then there's the issues of trajectory, accuracy, penetration through barriers, and so on. There's no solution that will please everyone.

I'm marching eagerly past the boundaries of my knowledge here, but it seems logical to conclude that there's a tradeoff between penetration and stopping power. Something that can penetrate body armor, a cinder block, or an armored vehicle is going to rip right through a person. That might leave him with a mortal injury, but you'd much rather give him a huge shock that knocks him down, disorients him, and/or kills him instantly.

I.e., if the man stops the bullet, then the bullet probably stops the man. If the bullet keeps going, then the man might keep going too.

So the problem is that the 5.56 round that goes through steel helmets at hundreds of yards tends to bounce off kittens at urban combat ranges?

The current 5.56 rounds don't splinter like they should, they just pass right through to be "more humane". Just make the current rounds shatter or spread better (make bigger holes) and I'm sure they'd be fine. It's hard to keep fighting after a bullet rips a half dozen tunnels through your chest.

With regards to the 7.62vs.5.56/. 5.56 has a much better accuracy at range, is lighter to carry packed in magazines, and is less affected by wind at range. Not to mention it goes through things like cinder-block rather cleanly while the 7.62 tends to shatter the suckers without any allowance for penetration (I.E. you can shoot someone on the other side of a cinderblock wall with a M-16/4 but an AK is just going to shatter the crap out of the block.

It's a trade-off. The 5.56 has less blowback power, but it's easier to control. If you're firing in burst or on full auto, the M4 is much easier to keep on target than an AK-47. But with all the CQB (Close-Quarter Battle) in Iraq, the ability to plink off a guy at 200 yards isn't as valuable as being able to knock back the guy who just came charging at you from around a corner.

The M4 does what it was designed to do, when you hit an enemy that is 200 - 300 yards away is going to have a hard time returning fire at that distance and hitting anything. But when the person you shot is laying on the ground 10 feet in front of you, they are going to damn sure to return fire. An AK-47 fired at that distance on full auto does not have to be accurate. You just have to point it in the general direction.

If some guys shootin an AK-47 at me! 350 round burst from an AC-130 is the correct response!

The REAL reasoning for the 5.56 was since most shots are misses, if you give a solider more rounds of ammo, he will get more hits. With a lighter recoiling round, a solider could get off two or three shots at an enemy instead of one with a full power round, increasing the chance of at least one hit. A hit with a intermediate power round is better than a miss with a full power round.

When the 5.56 is going fast enough and fragments inside the body it works great and is often fatal. The velocity needed is about 2700 FPS with current ammo. When it DOESN'T fragment, it is a glorified 22 magnum. This wasn't a problem with the M-16 because the fragmentation range is well past 200 yards. With the shorter barrels we are seeing now, that velocity is greatly reduced to the point where it just goes in and out without fragmenting.

The 5.56 62 grain round when fired from an M16A2 with the original 20" barrel screamed out at a muzzle velocity of well over 3100 feet per second.

Now with these gay little 14" barrel they are using the round loses a couple hundred feet per second and therefore MUCH impact energy is sacrificed.(around 2800-2900 fps)

If you are going to cut down the dimensions to a standard rifle more and more, what is the point? May as well just go back to a sub machinegun.

Any 5.56 with a barrel length less than 16" is stupid. Your cutting all ballistic potential from the cartridge and so why not just use a SMG with pistol rounds?

Without high velocity the 5.56 is just a .22.

.45 would be a superb CQB weapon as it doesn't require a high velocity rifle sized cartridge.

If they haven't been destroyed, it may be worth looking into refurbishing some Thompsons. They may be old, but history shows that they are one of the best close quarter weapons ever made for defeating an unarmored target.

The Thompson is a heavy fucker. I had the chance to shoot a friends full auto M1A1. For the first 3 mags, I was grinning like a kid in a candy store. By mag 10, I was thinking, "damn, my arms are killing me". But then I switched to the MP5 and all was right with the world (the Uzi is a lot of fun too, but still pretty heavy like the Tommy).

There are a few changes that could easily be made to the current ammunition without having to completely rearm the military. We're already sending out MK262 cartridges with 77-grain rounds for designated marksmen and special ops guys (as opposed to the 62-grain steel-core bullets referenced in the article).

The 77-grain rounds are Sierra Matchking bullets, which are full metal jacket, and so meet the requirements of the Geneva Convention, but have a hollow cavity in the front between the jacket and the lead core. Meets the letter of the law, but not the spirit. Fragments like a hollow-point up close, and the heavier round has better long-range accuracy for the Army brass that still likes to think of us as the superior marksmen we were during the American Revolution.

Another good option would to make a transition to the M4 chambered in .308. The soldiers would still be familiar with the weapon (how to strip one, clean one, etc.) but it would give them a round that's arguably more powerful than that of the enemy's, and will stop a horse in its tracks:

Some of the other rounds would be pretty good, like the 6.8 or 6.5 Grendel. But that might be overkill in a city environment.

Considering the vast array of deadly weapons that are employed in warfare, I find it amazing that our army is not allowed to use things like hollow-point bullets.

The Hague Convention 1899, not the Geneva Convention. (Same section: Declaration III) banned expanding bullets as being "too inhumane". The US never signed that treaty, but we do adhere to it.

The legality of shotguns under the Hague Conventions is questionable, for whatever that's worth. Germany actually protested our use of them in the Great War. Our reply, as I recall, was roughly, "Mustard gas, flamethrowers, you've got no room to talk. STFU."

The Geneva Conventions really only cover prisoners, the wounded, etc. Acceptable methods of warfare are all in the various Hagues.

Yeah, good thing the insurgents are following the Geneva Conventions too!

For those of you who have always wondered why we don't just issue AK-47s to all of our personnel.

Yeah.

Though you'd think they wouldn't be too hard to find in the markets in Baghdad or Kabul.

I made a list of reasons why we wouldn't use them.

Because using soviet-designed weapons would hurt our national pride.

Because AK-47's are the international symbol of insurgency and guerrilla tactics and we are supposed to be the civilized superpower bringing light and freedom to every corner of the globe with our technologically advanced weapons that the invisible hand of the free market produced. If we started using AK47s, we'd have to admit that another country did something better than we did. Soldiers have been picking up AK47's ever since Vietnam, and they've been yelled at for doing so just as long.

Because the AK-47 is a great weapon for poorly trained conscripts, 12 year old boy-soldiers, criminals, illiterate third-world terrorists, and for use in penal battalions.

The AK47 assault rifle is the preferred weapon of your enemy, and it makes a very distinct sound when fired at you, so remember it.

(It is likely beneficial to not have your buddy sound like the enemy).

While reliable, has issues with accuracy at longer distances.

My experience with the AK-47, it is effective with the first aimed shot. After that, it is all over the place so you would not shoot from far away. It's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot with, but I'm not sure I'd want one in a combat situation.

Hah - listen to me talking about combat experience. The only combat experience I have is in Double Dragon. :)

Unlike most AK-47 users, we train our soldiers to aim.

Professional soldiers who want a weapon that is versatile and accurate? Not so much.

Also, if the AK-47 and its 7.62x39 are so great, one would wonder why the Soviets got rid of it in '74 for a more accurate version with a 5.54x39 bullet.

No money to be made (Cheney and Bush don't own stock in that company!)

Ding! (We have a winner) No decision is made by anyone in the U.S. government without first figuring out who is going to get rich off of the decision.