>Luckily everybody plays nice in the world.
>
>http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/20/railgun-laser-weapon-lose-senate-funding-face-uncertain-future/
>
>I guess if nothing else, the UN and NATO can protect us.
>
>Or we could buy advanced weapons from China after we give them the west coast to pay down some of our debt.

I don't think many of us are against defense. There is just some resistance to giving the military and military contractors a blank check for progressively more exotic toys. Which countries exactly are these proposed new weapons supposed to defend us against? Can you name a single nation on earth that poses a credible military threat to us given the weaponry we already have?

Everyone should stop worrying so much about China. They've got one foot in the modern world and one foot hundreds of years in the past. Check out their GDP, their literacy rate, the amount of basic infrastructure like plumbing outside the big cities.