The Goat Pen

"And congrats to France winning the World Cup. Good for them. They haven’t won anything since Napoleon, so they were overdue."

They won the World Cup in 1998...

The French de-nutted Germany with the Treaty of Versailles. Big win for the Frogs. Yuge.

Pay backs are hell.

The only reason there WAS a de-nutting of Germany and Versailles was the US entered the war and broke the stalemate in France's and Britain's favor. Without us, German would have become the official language of France. Twice.

Q: You know why the Champs Elysees in Paris is lined with so many tall trees?
A: So that the German infantry can practice their marching in the shade.

10ac wrote:Pay backs are hell.

Like this...

[youtube]AerUaQQjtPQ[/youtube]

Professor Tiger wrote:The only reason there WAS a de-nutting of Germany and Versailles was the US entered the war and broke the stalemate in France's and Britain's favor. Without us, German would have become the official language of France. Twice.

Reading is fundamental. France won the Treaty of Versailles, not WW1 ...Wilson and George wanted few reparations, their thinking was a stable Germany would keep the peace for generations to come. France still had the red ass from losing Alsace-Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian beatdown 40 years earlier, so Clemenceau demanded that Germany be gutted and he got his wish. A win for France; albeit temporary. Of course Germany's post-war prostration gave rise to the right-wing fascism that followed - duh. Great find, Clouseau.

Ad taken out in 1946 by the French government in major newspapers worldwide:

FOR SALE:
100,000 FRENCH ARMY RIFLES
NEVER BEEN FIRED
ONLY DROPPED ONCE

Buy one. Then I can advertise it being dropped twice.

I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I'm giving it a solid B+ anyway...

B+ ? You are being merciful to your pupil. Is this”everybody gets a trophy day”?

Pupil? Funny.

If I had a chance to start over again at 20, I'm convinced, at least with my current state of mind, that I would dedicate myself to cleaning up the plastic debris field in the ocean that is the size of Texas. I'm not sure why it bothers me so much but it also seems like its a relatively straight forward problem to solve - granted it might take hundreds of people a lifetime to correct.

That said, I read this article that should make Americans a little more guilt free while questioning the extreme actions we seem compelled to take in doing our part to save the planet

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There is nothing wrong with trying to cut down on waste. There is nothing wrong with trying to cut down on the amount of straws we use. But when you use fake statistics to whip up hysteria, and you indulge in extreme exaggeration and blatant falsehood, and especially when you use these exaggerations and falsehoods as the basis for unnecessary laws, then it becomes incumbent on honest people to step in and correct the record.

In reality, your straw usage has almost no impact on the ocean whatsoever. That's partly because the "500 million straws a day statistic" is invented, and partly because the United States as a whole contributes very, very little to the plastic waste problem. About 60% of the plastic in the Ocean comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand. Indonesia's Citarum River, the most polluted river on Earth, is essentially a massive trash heap on a giant aquatic conveyor belt. Every day, 20,000 tons of waste and 340,000 tons of wastewater are dumped into it and then ferried to the ocean. In places like Vietnam, plastic in the water is the least of anyone's concerns. Raw sewage is discharged directly into water ways, turning the rivers toxic.

In all, and speaking just of plastic pollution, Asia and Africa account for 95% of the problem. That leaves only 5% of the ocean's plastic debris to be split between the continents of Europe, North America, South America, and Australia. According to this chart, Brazil is the worst plastic offender outside of Asia and Africa. 23 European countries, collectively, are 18th on the list. The United States comes in 20th. America, with its population of 330 million, is dwarfed on the plastic pollutant list by countries like Sri Lanka with 310 million fewer people.

We could collect all of the straws in North America, bundle them together and shoot them into the Sun, and the state of the ocean would hardly be improved at all. Indeed, we could stop using plastic altogether and it would barely make a dent in the problem. Does that mean we should be totally unconcerned about our own waste? No, but it does mean that our waste is, comparatively, not a significant problem. The ocean is being destroyed by Asia and Africa. Until they get their acts together, only minimal progress can be made.

And, as far as straws go, it's a near total non-issue. The United States accounts for a tiny fraction of the plastic in the ocean and straws account for a tiny fraction of that tiny fraction. Go ahead and refrain from straws if you wish. More power to you. But you are accomplishing very little for the environment. That's just the reality, in case anyone cares about reality anymore.

Leave my fucking straws alone

If you take all the straws away, only the criminals will have straws.

They can have my straws when they pry them from my cold, dead fingers.

hedge wrote: “I’d like to watch them take your straws... immediately.”

Hedge smokes penis

We need common sense straw safety legislation.

lets take a straw vote

All straws must be registered with the police.
Prohibit semiautomatic straws, which can deliver multiple gulps with a single straw.
No military style straws that have pistol grips or bayonet notches or look scary in any way.
Abolish high capacity straw boxes.

We need to ban these semi-automatic straw dispensers right now!!!!!