lostfan

QUOTE (Kenny_Powers @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 03:04 PM) omg yes, we refer to those people as "that guy", you dont want to run into "that guy" because he will correct your appearance and make you look like an idiot in front of your wife and kids if he has to. just to make himself feel like a sergeant major. Haha yeah... I just got off a convoy once and I had my buttons on my sleeves undone and my trouser legs pulled out of the boots (because it was f***ing 125 degrees and I was sitting in a gun turret for 2 hours) and as I was getting out of the vehicle unloading some E7 had the nerve to make me stand at parade rest while he asked why I wasn't wearing my uniform according to regulation. I wanted to say "the f*** is wrong with you, have you ever left this comfy basecamp? I was about to fix it when I got settled in here in the next few minutes, sorry that's not fast enough for you, please go play around fast moving buses" but I just said "yes sergeant" because it got him to shut up faster. Sergeant majors have nothing to do in a combat zone, or most of the time for that matter so they just run around telling people what to do to make themselves feel important.

QUOTE (Kenny_Powers @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 03:01 PM) its all a matter of where you get placed at overseas. my two deployments i was stuck on a tiny fob in the middle of the iraqi "ghetto". but we would convoy to the nice camps in iraq and see air force and navy guys swimming in olympic sized outdoor swimmng pools, eating taco bell and talking on cell phones. I was way out damn near isolated on a s***ty FOB. We'd have USO shows and whatnot coming and I'd always miss them. Going to one of the big bases with all the shopping and Pizza Huts and whatnot felt like a vacation. Oh and the free food at those places is AWESOME.

Also you have to develop a high tolerance for BS. I'm not sure how much this applies to the Navy or Air Force, but in the Army and Marines there is an asshole around every corner who gets off on bossing people around. These people are usually losers who truth be told couldn't make it outside of the military, because once you're in no matter how fat, stupid, lazy, or incompetent you are, short of committing a crime, there's always a place for you. Because they need numbers they are loath to have to put anyone out unless they really have to. The people who don't fit this description start thinning out at the higher ranks just leaving the assholes which becomes sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. At the same time, if you have a problem and it isn't something related to the quality of your leadership, there is ALWAYS somewhere to go to help you with your problem.

The idea that only combat arms soldiers ever see danger is false. In Iraq or Afghanistan, as soon as you leave the base camp anyone can get lit up at any time if it's a bad day. The only difference between combat arms and support types in those situations is that combat arms units actually go looking for the enemy, and support units try to avoid it. Obviously I'm not saying that everyone who goes to Iraq sees combat, but it's definitely not just combat arms. That's why the Army created a badge just for non-combat arms soldiers who've been to combat. Having said that, if you pick a job, yes, absolutely find one that is of use when you get out (I did). Combat arms guys used to talk s*** to me about how I wasn't a "real soldier" etc. (despite the fact that I've actually seen combat, just not as often as them) or that I should STFU and do paperwork, but I'd ask "hey, what exactly are you going to do with your skills on the .50 cal you keep bragging about when you leave the Army, dumbass? As if firing a 50 is really that complicated to begin with?"

If the government ever got oppressive to the point that the military was involved against the populace I think you'd see mass defections and it (the military) would fall apart. At the same time the military should never be led to believe it's in charge of anything besides what it's told to do.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 12:39 PM) Pat Buchanan is a fairly intelligent completely blatant racist SOB. He was the guy who came up with the GOP's "Southern Strategy" of tongue-in-cheek appeals to White racists that helped the Republican party to 30 years of dominance. Man I listen to Buchanan on MSNBC sometimes and I'm like "how in the hell did this guy manage to get a large following, and basically to subtly repeat white supremacist rhetoric on TV? WTF?" It's like no one notices.

That doesn't make him stupid, it just means he supports some dumb ideas. Even dumber that he tried to link it to fighting terrorism. lol. There is no reason for the average American to have a machine gun or any automatic weapon, honestly, and I'm a big 2A supporter. The only reason you'd need to use one is if you need to spray on a crowd and kill as many people as possible as fast as you can, that's what they're used for in combat. How many people need to do that? Military, sometimes police. And also people whose houses are getting stormed by like 12-15 terrorists close together, which is pretty much... nobody. So yeah, dumb idea.

I think that's the article I read.

I ain't no OX-MORON

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 12:16 PM) I can fire back some data in to this discussion. Not exactly on the CEO question, but occasionally (and conveniently enough, 2 days ago) people put out surveys of the political leanings of the educated. At least out of active members of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (actual working scientists). They're Democrats by a 55 to 6 margin. Is this expanded? I'd be curious to see the rest. % of people with political science degrees, % of doctors, lawyers, and so on. I read somewhere that economists are mostly liberals.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 12:12 PM) I personally think that economic freedom is less important than social freedom, so im a liberal. I actually think that TOO MUCH economic freedom (e.g. America around 1885) actually erodes social freedom. Instead of the government controlling you, the corporation you work for controls you. Where we are, is somewhere in between and that's where I want it to be.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 12:04 PM) (Liberals) do, but that doesn't make them "stupid", IMO, it makes them uninformed, perhaps lazy, depending on the individual. But that's not what Tex was talking about. (Note: ETA - most of the "liberals" around here are informed and understand their decisions. As a whole, I don't think many do. Just throwing that out there). It's like nailing jello to a tree.

My friend's great-grandmother just died a couple days ago, she was 106. This means she was around for for the first flight, the end of empires, 2 world wars and a depression, the rise of automobiles, the entire Cold War and fall of the Soviet Union, the Civil Rights era, election of the first black president, etc... And it would have made her about 5 when the Cubs won the World Series.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 12:00 PM) No, I'm not. Read what I said again. Liberals want the government to do everything for them and they hate freedom because they are stupid, conservatives are enlightened, clear thinkers and therefore they're the intelligent ones.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 11:43 AM) Who says that? Really, kap? Cmon. You're refining the conservative narrative and doing the exact opposite for the liberal one and turning it into a caricature.

kap you somehow managed to assimilate hyperbole and dramatic oversimplification into the same post. Good job.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 10:52 AM) I'd let Richard clear his head over the break and give him another start before considering a move. If he got hit hard again, I'd probably go with Colon or possibly Poreda. I think that Poreda is highly-overrated as a starter on this board. He hasn't even started a major league game yet, so who knows how he'd fare over a month or two in that role. I might feel better keeping him in the 'pen for the remainder of the season. We don't know if Poreda is overrated or not as a starter until he does. If he's not going to start, at least use him more in the pen. It's almost like he's a garbage time arm right now.

QUOTE (Nixon @ Jul 10, 2009 -> 10:03 AM) If by political instincts you mean to say that she sexually arouses the old white republicans who make decisions at the GOP then yeah, I suppose you'd have to grant her that. Maybe she'll raise an army of zombie christian voters for the next election cycle. It's been so long since we had a fundamentalist s*** bag in the white house so that'd be a nice change of pace. That was a diplomatic way of saying she has boobs and I don't. Sure it sounds sexist but it's true, I've seen people come out and say it (in the same places where I saw people saying they wanted a Palin-Bachmann ticket in 2012... no really)

Where do people get the idea that she is intelligent? After reading and watching her I'm 100% convinced I could run circles around her on international affairs, I'm no economics expert by any means but I know she would probably have trouble keeping up with me in a discussion, and I'm pretty sure I know the Constitution better than she does. Oh, and I can construct consecutive sentences in English. She obviously has better political instincts than I do and that's about it. And I'm nobody special. She gets around this by mocking intellectuals, and people buy it.

lol that's f***ing awesome.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 9, 2009 -> 10:36 PM) I need to. I'd have a better chance of winning the damn lottery then finding a job right now. If I win the lottery you can have a job managing whatever businesses I pick up and managing my finances. So, yeah, winning the lottery, that'd be pretty awesome right about now.

I bought a lottery ticket today.

f***ing hell Tex I almost just baptized my keyboard

Holy plagiarism Tex

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jul 9, 2009 -> 09:52 PM) oh man, you're missing some AMAZING posts. this probably being one of them. There are times when you come out of the blue with something and I just start cracking up.