Article

2005-05-10 Europe

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Posted by anonymous2u 2005-05-10 01:17|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 But evidence is mounting that the EU does not only aspire to be a counterweight to the United States in global affairs; it has already become one.

and like the DI said in 'Full Metal Jacket:' The Euros don't have the common courtesy to give a reach-around.

Posted by badanov">badanov 2005-05-10 01:26|| http://www.rkka.org]">[http://www.rkka.org] 2005-05-10 01:26|| Front Page Top

#2 I wonder what they'd do if the Coca-Cola Co. simply made 2-quart bottles and labeled some "2 litres" - litres, mind you, not liters...

Stop drinking coke?

Posted by mojo">mojo 2005-05-10 01:57|| 2005-05-10 01:57|| Front Page Top

#3 "From dictating the size of Coke bottles to dissuading Iran from pursuing its nuclear ambitions, the EU has arrived as a force to be reckoned with."

Huh? WTF????? You mean the MMs have actually given up their nukes? When did that happen??? Oh, it hasn't happened yet, but you're sure it will, any day now... OK, never mind.

You should have posted the entire article; it's a rich Mother Lode of vapid, mindless, delusional claptrap like the above, singing the praises of European "soft power" and explaining why Europe will eclipse America in the 21st century:

"Europe, with its emphasis on communalism rather than rugged individualism, is increasingly seen as the model to emulate by nations seeking to integrate traditional culture with the forces of globalization."

That's a bug, not a feature: that "emphasis on communalism" has given us one totalitarian horror after another for the last two hundred years.

Feh. Read the whole thing.

Posted by Dave D. 2005-05-10 06:52|| 2005-05-10 06:52|| Front Page Top

#4 I recall the arguments for decimalisation and metrification back in the 60s and 70s. Prominent amoungst them was 'computers won't work unless we decimalize/metricize' - the standard Leftist argument that what ever they want is by definition 'progress' - required for the brave new world (irony intended). Guess who didn't metricize and got to dominate the global computer industry. I'll leave it to the Americans to comment on whether Coke is sold in liter units. I don't drink the stuff and I suspect the whisper of a boycot will get CocaCola to change its packaging something that costs it next to nothing.

Posted by phil_b 2005-05-10 07:28|| 2005-05-10 07:28|| Front Page Top

#5 What would the EU do if the Coca-Cola Company announced plans to produce enriched uranium?

Posted by Matt 2005-05-10 08:21|| 2005-05-10 08:21|| Front Page Top

#6 Offer them free Coke plants in every member state in exchange for delaying enrichment for three months.

Posted by Tom 2005-05-10 08:28|| 2005-05-10 08:28|| Front Page Top

#7 Heh. Maybe Rantburg should announce plans to produce enriched uranium to see if we could get Fred a new server and free bandwidth. TGA could sell the deal:

"Trust me, Monsieur Chirac, these are very serious people. 'Mucky' by himself represents a serious theat to world order..."

Posted by Matt 2005-05-10 08:44|| 2005-05-10 08:44|| Front Page Top

#8 the Seattle "dumb as a post" intelligencer strikes again

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-05-10 08:44|| 2005-05-10 08:44|| Front Page Top

#9 "Trust me, Monsieur Chirac, these are very serious people. 'Mucky' by himself represents a serious theat to world order..."

And if that doesn't get him, we'll escalate to Jos. Mendiola.

Posted by too true 2005-05-10 08:58|| 2005-05-10 08:58|| Front Page Top

#10 If you go to Tehran (Iran), if you go to Ankara (Turkey), if you go to the Balkans, if you go to many Middle Eastern countries and North African countries, it is the European Union that is delivering change
Huh? What change has been delivered to Iran or Turkey? What stability came to the Balkans without US troops? About the only change I've seen in North Africa is Libya giving up nukes, which was a direct result of US policy in Afganistan and Iraq. The only power the EU has is that it's a common market, period. As for sustainability, let's revisit in 20 years and see if we're not talking about the Eurabian Union.

Posted by Spot">Spot 2005-05-10 09:04|| 2005-05-10 09:04|| Front Page Top

#11 phil_b, I don't drink Coke, either. I know what's in it. That said,If the greatest thing the EU has done is force Coca Cola to sell their product in litres instead of quarts I'm not too worried. Now if beer starts to be sold in metric instead of English I will start to worry.

Posted by Deacon Blues">Deacon Blues 2005-05-10 09:06|| 2005-05-10 09:06|| Front Page Top

#12 I heard that everyone in the EU has a pony too!

Posted by CrazyFool 2005-05-10 09:08|| 2005-05-10 09:08|| Front Page Top

#13 Prominent amoungst them was 'computers won't work unless we decimalize/metricize'

Because computers work in base 10?

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2005-05-10 09:20|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2005-05-10 09:20|| Front Page Top

#14 Typical liberal media glorifing the socialist governments. They will cry in their soy milk when the EU falls apart like the Soviet Union did.

Posted by mmurray821 2005-05-10 10:20|| 2005-05-10 10:20|| Front Page Top

#15 I figured it came from the SPI or SF Chron, neither one is smart enough to see the train wreck ahead for the EU. The EU collective has yet to celbrate a single victory in Europe let alone project political will outward. If Iran stops processing nuclear material it will be fear of U.S. bombs and not EU paperwork. Also the 2 Liter size bottles are a hold over from a ill-fated attempt to convert the U.S. over to metric, not some European strong arm policy. Where did this reporter get his info? Pravda, or some leftwing euro rag?

Posted by Cyber Sarge 2005-05-10 10:28|| 2005-05-10 10:28|| Front Page Top

#16 From dictating the size of Coke bottles to ***snip OH PLEASE! ***, the EU has arrived as a force to be reckoned with.

Yup, when it comes to enforcing sh*t that Americans don't care about, the EU is da bomb. Personally, I don't care if they bottle Coke in units of 50 megabloobies. But if it gives the EU a stiffy to think they've had some major effect on a global product, just pat their head and say "oh, what a big girl you are!".

Posted by BH 2005-05-10 10:39|| 2005-05-10 10:39|| Front Page Top

#17 Oh, this guy is really grasping at straws to find an example of this "power" by using a 2-liter bottle. I'm sure Coke could just as easily make a 2-quart bottle and sell it over there as the "1.9-liter" bottle. How pathetic.

Or does the EU mandate everything must be sold in whole-number, metric quantities?

"Sorry, sir! You can't buy only 18.4 liters of petrol! You must buy either 18 or 19!"

"But the tank's full!"

"Then pump another 0.6 liters onto the ground! You're not leaving until you do!"

Posted by Dar">Dar 2005-05-10 11:17|| 2005-05-10 11:17|| Front Page Top

#18 phil_b:
Prominent amoungst them was 'computers won't work unless we decimalize/metricize'

Which shows how stupid or mendacious they were. If you look at the liquid measures:

1 gallon = 4 quarts
1 quart = 2 pints
1 pint = 2 cups
1 cup = 2 gills
1 gill = 4 ounces

Notice how they are all powers of 2? I'm not smart enough to force a fixed-pitch font in the comments, but you could lay out a binary word to exactly fit the liquid measurement system. The standard measurements couldn't fit modern binary computers better if you designed them to. Whereas if you use litres, everything is decimal, so you either have to do conversions in and out, or store it in BCD.

Besides, as Frank J. said: "If Americans have to learn the metric system, the terrorists have won."

Posted by Jackal">Jackal 2005-05-10 12:28|| home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html]">[home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html] 2005-05-10 12:28|| Front Page Top

#19 Ummmm, we've been using liters for our soft drink sizes since I was a kid...

Posted by Damn_Proud_American 2005-05-10 12:37|| 2005-05-10 12:37|| Front Page Top

#20 Damn_, you must be fairly young. I remember when one could get a 6 oz drink in a bottle from a machine for nickle.

Posted by Deacon Blues">Deacon Blues 2005-05-10 12:43|| 2005-05-10 12:43|| Front Page Top

#21 I had one of those machines in college Deacon. Made a great fridge.

Posted by 3dc 2005-05-10 12:55|| 2005-05-10 12:55|| Front Page Top

#22 Relatively young I guess... but old enough so that when I was a kid the EU was tiny and completely inconsequential... yet somehow according to this writer they "forced" coca cola to use liters...

Just actually read this article... besides the blatant lies in the article (like the EU having a lower crime rate than the US, the higher foreign aid of europeans vs americans, that turkey's political climate isn't governed by the turkish military not it's politicians, longer European lifespans... which they measure completely differently, etc...) the writer cites a bunch of jokers who laughingly believe Europe is ascendant!!! Are they freaking blind?!?

Let's see... aging populations... check.
decreasing populations..... check.
decreasing relative economic output.... check.
increasing cultural conflicts... check.
bankrupt pensions.... check.

Not a very good formula for "supremacy" in the 21st century...

Posted by Damn_Proud_American 2005-05-10 12:55|| 2005-05-10 12:55|| Front Page Top

#23 RC Cola and a little bag of salted peanuts. Drink a few ozs and dump the peanuts in. Childhood's Gatorade after mowing the lawn under the Texas sun.

Posted by .com 2005-05-10 12:58|| 2005-05-10 12:58|| Front Page Top

#24 Who was it that said "There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't"?

Posted by Fred 2005-05-10 12:59|| 2005-05-10 12:59|| Front Page Top

#25 ROFL! Purrfekt, Fred, lol!

Posted by .com 2005-05-10 13:00|| 2005-05-10 13:00|| Front Page Top

#26 from coke bottle to nukes - WTF??? This guy is really stretching it. I vote to send Mucky lose on this asshat!

Posted by Yosemite Sam 2005-05-10 13:00|| 2005-05-10 13:00|| Front Page Top

#27 Saw a post on another blog that stated England was going to start taxing horse manure. They were going to base it on metric units, so I guess you could say that the metric measurement system is sh!t.......

Posted by USN, ret. 2005-05-10 14:48|| 2005-05-10 14:48|| Front Page Top

#28 Does that mean that a sh!tload will be an official unit of measurement?

Posted by BH 2005-05-10 14:51|| 2005-05-10 14:51|| Front Page Top

#29 EU is the new €€€P

Posted by Ebbavith Ebbereting9742 2005-05-10 14:54|| 2005-05-10 14:54|| Front Page Top

#30 Metric system has little to do with EU. Has been adopted by continetal Europe at the time of Bismarck, or around. When a teenager, my primary concern were girls, not physics. But thanks to the internal consistency of the metric system, I could derive a lot of stuff myself and pass exams.

To see how US imperial units system is really easy, here is an example:

12 inches = 1 foot
144 sq. inches = 1 square foot
3 feet = 1 yard
9 sq. feet = 1 square yard
220 yards = 1 furlong
4840 sq. yards = 1 acre
8 furlongs = 1 mile
640 acres = 1 square mile
5280 feet = 1 mile
1760 yards = 1 mile
36 sections = 1 township
1728 cu. inches = 1 cubic foot
27 cu. feet = 1 cubic yard
...etc, etc.

Posted by Sobiesky 2005-05-10 15:53|| 2005-05-10 15:53|| Front Page Top

#31 I live for furlongs.

Posted by Carryback Barbie 2005-05-10 15:59|| 2005-05-10 15:59|| Front Page Top

#32 Sobieski, we all know that stuff, what's your point? By the way, you left out that a rod is 16.5 feet (wow!) and there's four rods in a chain.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2005-05-10 16:41|| 2005-05-10 16:41|| Front Page Top

#33 Don't forget Rods and Stones...

Posted by mojo">mojo 2005-05-10 16:52|| 2005-05-10 16:52|| Front Page Top

#34 Mrs.D!

Posted by Daisy 2005-05-10 17:00|| 2005-05-10 17:00|| Front Page Top

#35 Mrs. Davis, the point is very obvious...
When I was a teenager, my primary concern being girls, I would have never figured out the the conversions between US Imp. units. You have to admit that I have a big beef here. ;-)

Rods and stones? Never heard of it.

I grew up with metric system. So, it is hardwired. When I see "nn Fl.Oz", I just look puzzled and mutter under my breath something like: "whatever...".

Posted by Sobiesky 2005-05-10 17:22|| 2005-05-10 17:22|| Front Page Top

#36 Sobiesky, I had imperial hardwired into me. So despite 30+ years of living metric, when someone asks me how tall are you or how much do you weigh? I just shrug cos I have no idea in centimeters and kilos.

Posted by phil_b 2005-05-10 17:44|| 2005-05-10 17:44|| Front Page Top

#37 Your volume units lesson for today:

Heres good luck to the barrel
good luck to the Barley Mow
Jolly good luck to the barrel
good luck to the barley mow
Here's the barrel
the half barrel
the gallon
half gallon
quart pot
pint pot
half a pint
gill pot
half a gill
nipperkin and the brown bowl
Here's good luck, good luck to the Barley Mow!

Posted by Alaska Paul">Alaska Paul 2005-05-10 17:57|| 2005-05-10 17:57|| Front Page Top

#38 :> AP!

Posted by Shipman 2005-05-10 20:06|| 2005-05-10 20:06|| Front Page Top

#39 Coke sells bottles in liters and US cars have KilometerPerHour markings because in the late 70s there was a short-lived drive to convert the US to metric system. Just another successful Carter initiative. A liter is close enough to 2quarts that it was a wash. But you will notice that Coke is still sold in 12 OUNCE cans and smaller bottles in 10 and 16 ounce sizes.

Posted by Stephen 2005-05-10 20:22|| 2005-05-10 20:22|| Front Page Top

#40 Europeans celebrate collective strength

They ain't got jack. And whoever wrote this piece is higher than a kite.

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2005-05-10 21:35|| 2005-05-10 21:35|| Front Page Top

23:59 Sobiesky
23:56 Atomic Conspiracy
23:34 Whutch Threth6418
23:29 SC88
23:23 mojo
23:10 Frank G
23:06 Stephen
22:58 Spoluper Hupenter1939
22:52 Kevlar ID
22:36 Jackal
22:32 blackhorse
22:32 Anonymoose
22:25 .com
22:18 Jackal
22:10 jules 2
22:10 jules 2
22:09 jules 2
22:01 Sobiesky
21:54 trailing wife
21:54 Frank G
21:39 Sobiesky
21:39 Mrs. Davis
21:36 Sobiesky
21:36 Frank G