Smokin

She might be able to get away with the fact that it was not in a condition that could be "readily restored to shoot" since someone would have to fix whatever they found broken in it and manufacture new ammunition or convert it to modern ammunition.

I get your point, but the government can only control its income to a certain extent. If the tax rates are all doubled, the total revenue will not double because people will make and spend less, the economy will slow down, and the national taxable income will decrease. Quadruple taxes and you will have either a revolution, a completely failed economy, or both. So, if you attack my simplification, don't over simplify in your counter-argument. Apparently my idea of a general principle in civil government participation was taken alternately as a 'this is a law we should pass' and a "softball" approach. I said nothing about combat zone tax exclusions; obviously if you are risking your life for your country, you should have a say in how the country is run. But contrary to Joe's swing and a miss at my softball pitch, I also never said anything about amount of taxes paid other than zero or greater than zero. It just pisses me off that we currently have people in this country who are physically and mentally capable of work yet chose to instead live off the the government. If unemployment went back to how it started under King FDR where people who wanted an unemployment check were put to work building roads and such, I bet we wouldn't have to extend unemployment benefits to TWO YEARS. You want a check? Here's a shovel, get to work. Strange, unemployment claims just dropped by 90%. All I'm saying is that people should contribute to the governance of their country before they're able to vote themselves more benefits at someone else's expense. If you break into your rich neighbor's house and steal his wallet, you're a criminal. But vote for a politician who does the same thing with taxes simply because the rich guy is successful and works harder and it is perfectly fine.

Complicated or interesting? I think the latter. The real issue here is that the federal government spending has grown so much that any reasonable tax rate increase still won't cover the expenses. They seem incapable of passing and adhering to a budget. Consider this example; your friend told you that he makes 50K a year and spends 90K a year. He realizes he can't pay his credit card debt and asks you for advice. How many of you are really going to tell him that it's not his spending that's the problem, it's the fact that he only makes 50K a year and he should go find a job that pays 100K a year, then he'd have 10K extra to spend. You make a budget to match your income, not the other way around. Once they can pass and stick to a budget, then they can talk income but to talk about raising revenue by X% while the deficit is 10 times X% is absurd. For sidebar consideration: the protests that started the American Revolution used the phrase 'no taxation with out representation'. In my opinion, the reverse should also be true. If you don't pay federal income tax, you don't get a say in what those tax rates are and you don't get a say in what the government does with those taxes. Same for state taxes.

As an idiot, I find that offensive. I will take a screenshot of this and hold onto it for 10 more years in case I get passed over for Lt Col and then non-continued. Then you will hear from my lawyer.

I don't pretend to know everyone's deployment schedule. That's why I said "who deploys for 4 months?" rather than "no one deploys for 4 months."

So how many of you actually list your firearms by serial number and caliber in the TMO forms like you're supposed to? When I move I just happen to have an 800 lb gun safe that is closed and locked when the movers show up, but it has no firearms inside. And, no Mr Mover, you cannot look inside.

Who deploys for 4 months? Everything I've heard of for the last 2+ years is six months or more. And there seems to be an assumption that when you're at home, you're actually at home. In reality, most fighter guys are working 55-60 hours a week when we're home and have TDYs that vary between 2 and 5 weeks every couple months. I'm not trying to compare deployment histories or say 'woe is me', but just because I'm 'home' doesn't mean I always see my kid during the week. I don't think that we're overpaid and I bet the vast majority of my squadron agrees.

The thing that pisses me off the most is that she is going after fighter pilots for creating a hostile work environment but didn't go after guys who sexually assaulted her. Her failure to report and prosecute the sexual assault downrange likely caused other sexual assaults. When that guy realized he got away with sexual assault, how many people really think he became a model soldier after that? If (probably not even an if) that guy sexually assaulted another woman later, this chick is indirectly responsible because she may have been able to put him in jail where trash like that belong. She allowed an environment that basically encouraged sexual assault by not reporting it but drew the line at hearing there might be porn in the vault?

Bishop- That's kinda of what I'm thinking about for the 2.5 gal. Most of my batches would still be 5 gal, so I could just use two kegs, but I like to have options. That way, I don't have 10 gal of beer tapped at once and I can try small batches of different recipes to see if I like it before I commit to a full batch. Also, the 2.5 seems like it would be easier to take to parties, camping, etc. -day man For the oatmeal coconut, I've had oatmeal beers (makes sense since it isn't too different than barely or wheat) but never heard of coconut. Does the coconut flavor really come through in the beer like a fruit lambic type?

Andech's Doppelbock is one of my all time favorites and is one of the biggest reasons I got into homebrewing.

Coconut oatmeal porter? Did you run out of things to make your beer with, opened the pantry, and grabbed the first things you found? I just got a new lager freezer on Black Friday so I can turn my old lager fridge into a kegerator. Next up, a Dopplebock. Anyone tried 2.5 gal kegs like this? I think I could fit four in my future kegerator...

According to Field and Stream this month, the good ol' 10 gauge is making a comeback...

I was under the impression that the HOR move was not a one time shipment, but rather a one time weight allotment. As in whatever weight you had left over from your very first move from your then weight allotment was available for the rest of your time in. I actually used this once already to ship some stuff from my parent's house to Europe. TMO said then that I had another 2K worth of shipments available from my first move.

They don't make them anymore. I bought mine about 10 years ago at a gun show; I think they were just finishing production about that time since the military contracts didn't materialize. The trigger is pretty bad, worse than a standard Bushmaster AR. I would not buy a bullpup to be a sub 1 target rifle, but as a plinking gun, it is forgivable. I may also be a little harsh on the trigger criticism as most of my shooting lately has been hunting rifles with <4 lbs breaks. I've also never shot the AUG, so I'm just projecting my Bushmaster bullpup experience to all bullpups. That being said, due to the mechanism required for a bullpup trigger, I just don't see how the trigger would ever be able to compete with a conventional trigger. Don't get me wrong, it is a fun rifle to shoot, just wanted to make sure you were aware of the drawbacks of bullpups. The trigger and the brass hitting a lefty shooter in the face are the two reasons I see not to buy one. But it is fun to shoot, virtually indestructible, and the considerably shorter length would make a bullpup a good choice for home defense as well.

I have a Bushmaster M17 bullpup. Shoots .223 and uses standard AR mags. Fun to shoot and easy to maintain. The biggest drawback to bullpups is generally poor triggers since the trigger is usually more than 6-9" from the firing pin. Only 30" long and still has a 21.5" barrel.

I'm pretty sure the F-35 was not designed for day 30 permissive airspace. Our 4th gen jets work just fine for that. But this gets back to the question I asked previously. The AF has put too many eggs in the F-35 basket to let it get dropped now, but I don't see the Marines needing the real capes of the F-35 in a stand alone MEF. Instead, something like the AT-6 with some JATO seems like it would be a fairly good fit. We as a military need to stop thinking that we can make a single $200M+ tool that will fix every problem.

I completely understand the need for organic airpower in a MEU. But do they really need the F-35? I just don't see a MEU counting on organic airpower for 5th gen air superiority and deep strike against double digit IADs.

Anyone catch the "correction" at the bottom? Some stellar reporting. "It was Sergeant Smith — not her husband, who is an enlisted man in the 20th Fighter Wing." So, apparently she is also a man?

Remember the stuff Hoss was talking about in the JFTR is only up to the cost of staying on base. If there's space, there's no reason the AF should pay you more than it would cost them for you to stay on base. However, I did better than breaking even. We would have paid ~$1200 out of pocket for the pet friendly TLF and only ended up paying about $200. As far as documentation for the AF, you should keep all your receipts because if you can only prove $20 of averaged expenses per day, that's how much you'll get. As Hoss alluded to, all your utilities and necessary expenses get added in to that. One gotcha is to make sure you give your 30+ days notice in writing; might even be a good idea to get a signed copy back saying they received it when you turn it in. I walked into the apartment office one day, told them I was leaving in about 45 days and asked if they wanted any documentation from me to stop the auto-lease renewal clause; they said no. When I went in to schedule my final out appointment, they flipped out and were talking about billing me for another month. Ended up working out, but technically I did not provide a written notification IAW the lease (and had no proof that they said to not worry about it), so they would have had a good case.

Correct. Your best bet, if it is a long TDY enroute, is to take the $39/night and go find a furnished apartment that allows pets. I did that for a 4 month TDY enroute and saved about $1K versus staying in the pet-friendly TLF where you pay an extra $10 per night out of pocket.

Why buy individual stocks? Index funds with extremely small expense ratios will almost always outperform individual stock purchase plans like that one. And $12 a month actually does sound like a lot compared to $0 per month with companies like Vanguard where you can set up the same system for free. And to second Noonin's advice, if you haven't read The Investors Manifesto, I suggest you go to the library ASAP. I won't go into all the math he does, but he goes through a hypothetical situation where an investor uses a brokerage for 40 years that charges a 3% fee. If the brokerage turns around and invests their 3% charge in an index fund like most of them at Vanguard, the brokerage will have actually made more money over the 40 years than the investor. That is pretty eye opening and could/will have a huge impact on your retirement savings.

Good to know. I knew about the verbal orders thing, but that is a joke (at least at my base) as CTO requires a written MFR for verbal orders. What part of verbal do they not understand? But the self-approval thing may be an option, I did not know about that. I was thinking more of a normal route that allowed a military only chain of approval during squadron TDYs when everyone in the squadron is there but the civilians are enjoying their weekend.

I would like to see a system where two SrA and a civilian who only work 730-1630 don't have to approval orders for last minute TDYs. Maybe an alternate route that goes through the flight commander or the first O-5 in the chain to approve so I can actually get orders made during a 3-day weekend.

FYI: My biggest question was if Roth TSP contributions would affect my Roth IRA. The answer is no. I don't see any reason why this isn't a far better deal for the vast majority of the military. Changing my contributions first thing tomorrow. www.tsp.gov: If you are eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA, making Roth contributions to your TSP account will not affect your Roth IRA contribution limits.

You don't get to just say you're sorry for pre-planned actions. Like a kid sneaking a cookie, I would bet that he's not sorry he did it, he's sorry about the consequences. If the only reactions were supportive comments on his youtube account, he'd be singing a very different tune.