It depends on the kiwis you meet.

In general, kiwis are a bit like the Irish in that they won't swear at you, but will swear with you.

You'd have to be a real asshole to get your average kiwi to be aggressive towards you, but there are plenty of them who will happily swear like a trooper in general conversation.

An example
https://www.facebook.com/thomas.barrettwalker/videos/559204527613940/

Mutually assured destruction I think is often woefully overlooked as a stabilising force in the world.

I don't think it's at all a co-incidence that since nuclear proliferation we have only seen wars vs non nuclear nations. You can never really win meaningfully vs a nation that has the thermo-nuclear trump card in their back pocket.

When superpowers come to blows now, proxy wars are the only realistic option. That may still suck for the poor bastards that get caught up with it, but it does mean a world war is somewhat off the table (even if they like to rattle the sabres from time to time).

Also Starship troopers is an oft misunderstood book I think. Some people get so hung up on the underlying idea of a Military dictatorship that they miss much of the nuance and wisdom woven into it.
I'm not even sure Heinlein was even necessarily advocating such a world, but rather using it as a narrative device to explore how our societies really work once you drop the wishful pretences (especially the stable ones).

It seems like there is perhaps some intrinsic relationship between peace and the capacity for effective and controlled violence. There are few people as calm and non aggressive as the ones who truly know they have nothing to fear from you in a fight.

Here is the problem, Mr. Schlosser is a journalist, not a Nuclear Scientist. He does not understand, or has chosen to ignore for propaganda reasons, that an unarmed warhead is EXTREMELY unlikely to perform the exact sequence of events that need to take place to have a nuclear reaction happen.

Yes, he is fully correct in that we have had numerous 'butt-clenching' moments in which we could have started WW3 due to a malfunction or human error. But in the other cases he mentions, such as the bombs that landed on Spain, the lightning bolt on the tower, and the wrench on the rocket, the chance of the warhead going up while being unarmed is infinitesimal. They simply don't go 'boom' because of a collision or explosion. Now you could have a 'dirty bomb' type incident where the radioactive materials could be spread and come into contact with humans, but that is about it.

The cases that have been officially listed as Broken Arrows were because they involved an active bomb, like the one in Florida. Everything else he mentions in this video is his 'belief' and is conjecture.

Now, before I get unloaded on, I wish we didn't have nuclear weapons. I don't agree with Trump that we should renew the arms race, I think he is nuts since we have more than enough weapons to blanket the cities of the world more than a couple of times. If you add all the nukes from the Big 3 (USA/Russia/France...yes, France) there are enough to cover every single inch of the world.

The problem is, who bells the cat? If we give up all of our weapons, we are at risk. I wish we weren't, but we would be. If we bring down our numbers gradually, there are still other countries that may not, like North Korea. How do we trust the other country is actually following through? In a perfect world, we would all lay down our weapons and sing kumbaya, but as Heinlein wrote: "...Anyone who clings to the historically untrue and thoroughly immoral doctrine that violence never settles anything I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms."

PS...Yes, I know Starship Troopers is a controversial novel with overtones of Militarism and Fascism. However, there are quotes that ring true no matter what 'ism' people attach to the overall story. If you doubt that, look at the utter disbelief and depression that overcame liberals when Trump won. "He simply was supposed to, it was impossible, not like this, we have no hope, etc" were the feelings of the people who gave him no hope of winning. I, having lived and read enough to get a fair picture of how fucked up we are as a species, had little doubt he could pull it off. We elected a former Wrestler as governor, a former actor as governor, and a former actor as President. We overlook mass genocide in other countries. We ignore climate change. We spend hundreds of billions on defense and less than 10 on space exploration, all the while living on a planet that is already critically overpopulated (and is growing almost exponentially).

DEATH!!! TROOPER!!!

\m/ qO.op \m/

Anyone else remember stealing the plans for the Death Star in Dark Forces? It seems to be inspired by that game, including the titular dark troopers. . . hehe hehe, titular.

http://moviepilot.com/posts/3859966

Karl Rove has whiteboards - plural - detailing her health situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqAiRRVLdHc

I've never understood what this gambit is supposed to pay off in. Do whackjobs believe that Democrats will think - 'well, Hillary might not be long for this world, so I'll vote Trump'? Any president is better than a corpse?

Or do they just want to bolster Trump-trooper spirits? Are they afraid the grass roots will lay down their arms if they don't have at least a remote hope of winning?

Bob - you speak for the whackjobs of the world; what do you say?

So let me get this straight, bobknight, for me to carry out this "call to action" I would need to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and then divorce my wife who isn't of European descent, remarry a white Christian woman and then have 9 children?

You truly live in very small and superficial world filled with fear and hopelessness, don't you?

*light bulb*

You're like the brain bug at the end of Starship Troopers!

"It's afraid... IT'S AFRAID!"

*cheers*

You better be afraid.

Well I haven't seen Ghostbusters yet, but remember when everyone was pissed off because the new Star Wars had a woman and a black storm trooper as the lead characters?

Do you also remember when the film succeeded on its own merits and no one gave a shit any more because the film was actually good?

Releasing a film where the four principle characters are 3 intelligent white scientists and a streetwise sassy black woman is hardly a fucking exercise in equality anyway. And we're talking about a remake of a comedy that was popular and successful in the 80s - it's not like they're taking big risks and giving the women a chance to shine on their own, is it? How about an all-woman written and directed original film, or can't they spare the money? Because they seem to find enough cash for Seth Rogen or one of the other comedy clones to vomit out another catastrophe every year. Or maybe the people with the money are all men and prefer jokes about farts and masturbation.

That's the worst thing that seems to get ignored - this is Hollywood's lazy way of brushing a few crumbs from the table and saying 'See? Women have just as much power and prominence in the movies! By the way, do you know any girl who's turned 18? We need the new love interest for a 50 year old in the latest action flick. We need someone who looks just good enough that we can photoshop a huge pair of tits on her. We're going to take it in turns to take her to dinner and try to bed her before filming starts.' Hello people? There is enough sexism to deal with in Hollywood without worrying what IMDB rating Ghostbusters got and why.. Treat the disease, not the symptoms.

Two Troopers Relieved of Duty in Police Beating of Car Chase Suspect
http://abcnews.go.com/US/troopers-relieved-duty-police-beating-car-chase-suspect/story?id=39064200

Why not just stick to the formula? It looks like The Edge of Tomorrow crossed with Starship Troopers.

Wilkens was awarded more than $180,000 in total damages.

Jurors additionally determined that Edwards acted with negligence when his police car rear-ended Wilkens’ motorcycle, but ruled that the veteran state trooper did not violate Wilkens’ rights by pointing a gun at him and using force to handcuff and then pull Wilkens to his feet.

Wilkens suffered a broken left clavicle, a fractured rib and other injuries in the Aug. 3, 2012, incident.

http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/33955359-75/federal-jury-rules-in-favor-of-speeding-motorcyclist-against-oregon-state-police-trooper.html.csp

Some other nice bits in the article, the officer was driving an unmarked chevy camaro, was unaware that it was equipped with a dash cam, and blamed the rear ending of the bike on 'brake fade' (which a brake expert testified was rare in modern brake systems).

It's a fun read, also the cop was later promoted to captain.

I love Iron Maiden and mary jane! Oh, Michael Jackson. Yeah, he's cool. (I was just wearing my Trooper shirt last night!)

This works well, but I don't think it messes with your head quite as well as http://videosift.com/video/The-Trooper-Believer.

Some good mashups are fun or interesting, some are great tunes in their own right, but some... you know it's wrong, but it feels so right.