busdriver

Regular is up to $5 in Vegas. And I get 13mpg. Driving to Cali in two weeks is gonna get pricey. Vidal Junction is up to $6.59 (it's in the middle of nowhere) Feel my pain!

Point of order: The first amendment protects the people from the government. Free speech is a concept, and as the bill of rights are only an enumeration of natural rights the conceptual framework can stand as a point of argumentation. One can argue that social media is effectively the public square based on how politicians and the press treat it. A conceptual argument for free speech would be applicable. God help us that the youtube comments without the youtube is now considered public discourse by people in positions of power........

People should read "The Law of Self Defense: A Guide for the Armed Citizen" It's by Andrew Branca, a lawyer that specializes in self defense. If you carry a weapon you MUST read it.

It's hard to stir up controversy when the Georgia law that was the only thing those three were attempting to stand on was changed before the trial even started, and everyone who looked at that case thought they were guilty as sin.

Once a member submits a religious exception request, their status should be changed to "admin refusal" and they are no longer bound to the current requirement timeline. The exception process from start to finish takes about 6 calendar months, including an opportunity to appeal AF surgeon general if denied at majcom level. Ref: AFI 52-201, 48-110 DoDI 1300.17 Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Mea culpa. 618% is what I should have wrote if I hadn't F'd up in excel.

About 6-9 months ago I was curious about this debate and dug into average annual pay on manual labor jobs in 1969 compared to the 2007. Those years didn't have any real significance, other than having data that was easy to grab. The average annual pay of all manual labor jobs had risen very slightly in real terms (43k to 44.5k). The average cost of healthcare had risen 5.5% to 22% of that annual pay. The median home value had risen from about 400% to 3500%. An average college degree has gone from 22% to about 100%. Average car cost had gone from 60 to 69%. Everything else stayed the same cost or got cheaper. So there is a real something in medical costs, home costs, and college costs. Any discussion about addressing those needs to actually look into the root cause of why the cost went up. Throwing government money around doesn't inherently do that.

I got the first back then and a booster 3ish years ago. The young'ins are also befuddled with the number of Anthrax shots I've had.

Her credentials sound like they're in line with the topic. However, she bit off on the polyethyleneglycol is anti-freeze thing. The poly part makes a big difference. Ethylene glycol kills your pets. Polyethyleneglycol is in your toothpaste. Different than injecting it, but it's not anti-freeze. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I bet you're fun to be around.

So you're mad that more generals didn't resign in protest because you don't like the political decision that the elected president made?

harrumph!

deuce.

Nothing, but that wasn't what I or Negatory were talking about. Pay attention. Are they covering it up yet? Have we crossed that line? Beats me. News moves faster than the bureaucracy.

Any reason to believe that the process under a different administration, under a completely different operational scenario, after a massive explosion killed a bunch of people in a very public way? - I don't know. Big public failures like the VBIED at Abbey gate have resulted in relaxed ROE before (Blade 11). I would imagine the intel sources on the ground were a bit constrained as compared to a couple years ago. Does another VBIED escalate our withdraw more or less than a bad hellfire? What is the political/public/strategic impact of another attack and more dead Marines? Does that make it more likely that the NCA would end up pressured to "do something?" I do think that the operations surrounding the evacuation were not business as usual. For what it's worth I get the anger, I've picked up a lot of broken people there.

You don't know who signed off on the strike, or what the approval level was, or what the ROE was, or what the intel was, or anything really. You're looking at an outcome and demanding... something. What, a public debrief and root cause analysis? War is messy, innocent people die, mistakes are made, people do horrible things. This has always been. There is no fancy all knowing technology that will make it something else. There will never be a process that will satisfy a libertarian sense of due process prior to engagements. It will always be fucking terrible. The answer is to not engage in it when it isn't absolutely necessary. I'm not saying accountability and transparency isn't important, or that simple admission that a mistake was made (when a mistake was made) isn't the ethical thing to do. I'm saying the urge to cut off people's heads says something about the people demanding it as much as the act that draws the mob's ire.

Some of you guys are hell bent on demanding someone's head. Doesn't seem to matter who however.... Do you think the Generals were the ones saying "yep that's a secondary, good strike" or that maybe it was some folks sitting in a box? or imagery analysts? or nerds on a staff? Those at the top can be ultimately responsible, but the guillotine won't fix any of the problems.

Estimates of R0 for the delta strain have wide variation, depending on where the study is conducted. https://academic.oup.com/jtm/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jtm/taab124/6346388 The estimates for England are 5-8 per the above link, and the lower end of that spectrum (5.2) with a secondary attack rate of 4.3%. There are CDC studies that show a much higher secondary attack rate in some cases, but not others: (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7028e2.htm) so there's still quite a bit of "who knows?" Probably safe to say it's still bad, so more contagious is more badder. I am curious where they got their efficacy of masking percentages and how they broke that out from social distancing efforts and the various lockdown strategies.

This was the underlying message in the ACLU position from just last year stating that vaccine mandates were not a good idea. Ironic that their twitter monkeys have been preaching about mandates of late.

I assume it's mostly US gov requirement and task specific. But, Kabul (obviously now gone) and Korea (for an exercise) have recently required it. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Multiple locations are requiring a COVID vaccination. Who knows how long that will last.... Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I suspect most people on the anti-abortion bandwagon in this regard weren't aware of how widespread the fetal cell line usage is. As far as kicking people out, for flat out refusal of course. I meant for a successful religious accomodation request, that person will likely be useless for deployments since they won't meet entry requirements. May or may not result in discharge, depends on job. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I would guess it will make you non deployable. With all that potentially comes with that. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Here's some fun math: Assuming an infection fatality rate of .4-.7, and going off reported deaths, the virus has penetrated into the US population in the neighborhood of 30-45%. The population write large is ~53% fully vaccinated. Obviously neither natural or vaccine immunity is 100% (thanks mutations). A recent initial study indicated the Delta variant R0 mean was 5 (range 3.2-8) which would mean we'd need somewhere around 80% (range, 69-88%) immunity for herd protection. Doesn't take into account state by state vaccination rates, or area under the exposure curve (NY got shellacked initially, CA/FL not so much). Maybe my cynical prediction of another year of this shit was too cynical......

Polio/TB: much much worse than COVID. Measle/Mumps/Rubella/Chickenpox: Not nearly as bad as COVID normally, disproportionately affects kids however. A COVID vaccine requirement for public schools/military, is perfectly in line with normal practice in America. Mandatory vaccines generally is less common. Smallpox the last time? I honestly don't know. Question for the "anti-vaxxers," something I've been thinking about a bit: If the Faucis of the world had been completely transparent instead of shaping their comments to the public to get a desired behavior. If the politicians hadn't been completely hypocritical. If the public had reimbursed businesses for loss due to public action. Etc. Would you be as vehemently against the vaccine? a mandate? In other words, how much of your position is based on "not one more fucking inch" vs opposition to this specific thing? Being honest with myself, I don't think I would have sneezed if all that went away, and this was solely about a mandatory, free vaccine.