viper154

Ha! The government doesn’t force you to to buy a gun, force you to get a drivers license, force you vote, or force you to immigrate here. And for fucks sake, you tried to argue that immigration is right!! Article one, section 8, US Constitution gives the authority of immigration law to Congress!! I see why they keep you in the back of jet. I also see why you got passed over the first time, makes perfect sense now.

Completely irrelevant to any point. Nice attempt at deflection though. If you would like to have a productive conversation about vaccines, in particular the covid vaccine, and the governments role in that, I am happy to have a healthy debate. If you want to deflect any productive conversation into a keyboard warrior pissing match, I’m not interested. Based on all your previous responses to other people, I’m guessing you will be choosing the later route. I encourage you to take a step back and attempt constructive conversation instead of deflecting any post that differs from your opinion. Edit to add-Immigration isn’t a right btw, Constitution specifically grants Congress the power to make immigration law.

I think revisiting the Constitution and Bill of Rights is worth a look. I’m no constitutional lawyer but it seems our government was founded on protecting citizens from the government. To your examples vs a vaccine, driving is a privilege not a right. (Or at least that is what the government aka the people have decided). To retain that privilege certain requirements must be met. As far as requiring the general public to get a experimental vaccine (forcing someone to put a foreign substance in their body) that has no long term health data, and possible long term health side effects, I would say fundamentally goes against “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” which can be found in our Declaration of Independence. As far as the military is concerned, once you sign the paperwork you are kind of fucked. They can order you to die in combat, they can order you to get a vaccine.

Sweet, no pointless deployments to 3rd world self imploding shitholes, sounds good to me. *To be clear, that’s sarcastic, I would guess that would get you on the non deployable list and kicked out or something.

It was his first pass, I was actually surprised , he had a decent amount of time left on his commitment.

I know guy that passed over last year, submitted a palace chase app, got hired by a guard unit, and was out of AD pretty quickly.

I was equally as shocked. It was 4 or 5 years ago, things were a little calmer in the firearms market. I believe the ATF wait time page was 9-10 months at the time. Like I said, the store had some sort of extenuating circumstance with changing their license or something, but their were several us that were picking up our cans at the same time all equally shocked/happy.

I enjoy mine. I think it was a worth while investment. I used silencer shop and their app/kiosk set up, made the paperwork a super simple for a dummy like me. i also used their pre canned trust (pun intended) I just needed something simple so it worked out well. I also got lucky, something about my local dealer needing to change their FFL license or something (I don't remember the details) but I was expecting a 9-12 month wait, I was shocked when I got a phone call after 3 months my tax stamp was in and I could pick up my can. I guess they needed all pending transactions off their old license and were able to expedite all their paperwork.

I think the key there is hospitalized patients. Most patients that are hospitalized are elderly and/or other have health conditions, so they probably weren’t exactly fit to begin with. Small sample size, but I have several friends/co workers that have had the COVID, all either didn’t know they had it (except for a mandatory test coming back positive) or had mild symptoms and were back exercising within a week. To me, it just again emphasizes that people and businesses need to make the right choices for their situation. I’m in the camp of living as normally as possible. No one in my immediate family is anywhere near high risk, and we are not near elderly family. Our family engages in plenty of other “high risk” activities that are more likely to cause harm than COVID. Life is to short for us to hide in the house for something that most likely a non factor. I am all for the government “advising” what they think is best, but telling people (making laws/orders) how many guests they can have in their house is a step way to far. I have been to the hospital/doctor many times in my youth for injuries, every time the sky is falling and they want you to sit in bed until you are all better. From a medical stand point, sure, but from a practical/life stand point that isn’t always realistic. Unfortunately the medical field has been making policies for the law makers, with out to much of that common sense being intertwined, and a heavy dose of fear being thrown in. if the doctors had their way, no one would ride motorcycles, drink, play contact sports, etc. Do what’s best for you and live your life as you see fit.

If we run into each other walking out of the bx, ya, you salute, it’s the rules and you are in public for everyone to see. Dude runs to grab something out of his car after we brief up and we meet him in the squadron parking lot to step, no I don’t expect a salute. The rules say one thing, on the other hand our job is to be a crew to accomplish the mission and all come home alive, I am not going to bust someone’s balls over a salute, especially after working/living/eating/ etc together for weeks or months on end.

Wow, that was amazing. I really wish the History channel/Discovery channel did stuff like that and not the reality show bs they have evolved into the last 10-15 years.

I would recommend Garmin for smart watches. GPS capability is nice and they are more durable than Apple if you are a active person. Depending where you go they are issued in some operational squadrons. Most the things you need for OTS and UPT are going to be issued to you or aren’t really the best gifts. Booze is always a good go to. Once your graduate UPT there are a lot of cool things out there for gifts. Custom airplane models, custom watches, squadron/airplane posters and gear etc.

There are a lot of levels to this, but it’s overall culture problem in the Air Force and in society in general. As the article said, military service isn’t as appealing as it once was, and a lot of American youth aren’t even eligible for service. A lot of the motivated type A, willing to learn inner city youth dedicate a lot of their time to sports, as culturally that is viewed as one of the only ways out. These kids are smart, motivated, athletic, we need to find a way to reach these populations. (Not just the athletes, but I think they provide a larger pool). You hit the nail on the head with the chess club bs. We need to change our recruiting and our officer training programs. Trying to convince any youth to spend 4 years at the academy or in ROTC marching in circles wearing blues and folding shirts into perfect squares to (maybe) get a opportunity to fly is a tough sell(and that’s assuming we give them scholarships). Ya, there is OTS, but in the context of low income youth they probably aren’t going to have a 4 year degree. I don’t have all answers, but trying to only get 4.0 GPA “smart” cadets isn’t the best strategy to me. I get we aren’t the Army, but their ROTC program seemed to be a lot better structured than ours. While they were out in the field doing land nav, building shelters, learning weapons/tactics, we were in Blues marching in the gym and doing retarded GLPs bouncing balloons around and formatting Memos. I don’t give a shit how your memo is formatted, I’m probably not going to read it anyway. 99% of our force isn’t going to be on the ground running and gunning, but I think there is a lot more to take away from that training than marching and memos. When I’m flying around bum fuck no where, and everyone on the ground wants to kill me, I want a diverse crew/team (not talking skin color, I don’t give shit how much pigment is in your skin or what set of genitals you have). Having the 4.0GPA person brings something to the table, but so does the country boy who can live off the land and fix anything, the inner city kid that fought tooth and nail and has “street smarts”, the athlete, the immigrant, etc. Filling the rated ranks with people that checked the “chess club” box is a major contributing factor to the cultural/bureaucratic nightmare of a organization we have become.

As a tax payer I would be way more concerned with plenty of the other shit we waste money on before I got to flyovers. I’ve never done a flyover, but I’m willing to bet a paycheck I would learn 10x more from planning and executing one than I learn from the 69 million mandatory down days we take to talk about our feelings.

Both George Bush’s. You can debate “well regarded” but they both were President of the United States. John Glenn

Never had any bad experiences, I think I said this in here before, but I cut my rates in half going to Geico. USAA was charging me $150 a month for full coverage on two vehicles for myself and wife, both with clean driving records. Geico charges me $70 for the same coverage. USAA wouldn’t even attempt to match them so I left. I do have boat insurance through USAA who uses Progressive, they beat all the other competitors by far.

More of a debate than 3 people yelling at each other like last time. I think they both made some strong points and also had some short comings. I’m biased as well, but Biden has trouble speaking. I’ve never paid attention to any unscripted public talking he has done, (exception being the last few months) so I can’t say if it’s his age or he just always has struggled on the spot. He saved himself from saying anything to crazy but there were a lot of mumbles, pauses, and stutters. Trump did his standard 3rd grade level vocabulary stuff, “very great, very good, best ever” type stuff, talked about himself a bunch, and toned down his aggressiveness a bit. He did call Biden out about changing the topic to dodge a question and looking to the camera to do his “it’s about you Americans” bit, as well as being a career politician and never getting much done. I really wish Trump would take a public speaking class/expand his vocabulary and reference supporting documentation/sources/evidence more. It would make for stronger points and take his debating/speaking to the next level. Nothing really ground breaking on the topics discussed, pretty much “as filed”. Trump took a softer approach on climate change and backed Biden into admitting he wanted to eventually shut down the oil/gas industry. I thought it was a good move with some of the potential swing states oil/fracking industries, but at this point I don’t know if it was enough to change a vast majority of voters minds My best at a unbiased opinion, most people have decided who their voting for awhile ago, this debate didn’t come out with one clearly crushing the other. No major blunders, blows, or ground breaking policy announcements on either side, at least not enough to sway decided voters into the opposite camp. For the undecided folks, they are probably left picking a couple issues that matter most to them and going with the candidate that aligns with that. Edit to add, I don’t know how the timing was working out, but it seemed the moderator was giving Biden more opportunities and time to rebut Trump. Trump had to fight to get time to counter Biden, seemed like Biden was always just handed the opportunity.

I think it’s a safe bet he will do his best to implement more anti gun regulation. How successful he is will depend on several factors. Team blue will have to take both the Senate and Congress. If they succeed at taking the Senate they are going to need all of team Blue to vote the party line. In some swing states and highly contested areas this might not be a smart play for a future reelection. I would predict at least few members might not vote the party line depending on the bill. Next factor would be the Supreme Court. With a pending confirmation in the next week leaning the court to the right, I would predict the court would strike down any extreme anti 2A legislation. Caveat being, if team blue can pack the court. Biden/Harris ticket has refused/dodged to answer if they will pack the court, but that combined with this confirmation being “shoved down their throats” I would assume it’s a safe bet that’s their plan. There is also the standing law (1930s? I forget the name of the top of my head) that heavily restricted automatic weapons, suppressors and explosives requiring the tax stamp and all the other BS. That combined with the 1994 expired AR ban sets somewhat of a precedent. Ya, that statement is pretty misleading. No law requires shotguns to only hold 3 rounds. The act of bird hunting with a shotgun requires it to be plugged to only hold 3 rounds. (sts) There is no federal law prohibiting the amount of rounds a shotgun can hold for non hunting purposes. (At least that I’m aware of) Last I checked, shooting any person (not trying to cause life threatening harm to you or others) is illegal regardless of how many rounds your firearm has.

To your point of low income and food quality, it’s an excuse. It’s easy to eat unhealthy and cheap, no argument there, but it’s also not that expensive, or really that time consuming if you plan. The cleanest diet I ever had was in college getting into competitive body building and living with whatever my ROTC stipend was ($400-$500? I don’t remember) for food, gas, beer and whatever else I was buying. Buying food in bulk, looking for sales, coupons, finding different seasonings, etc, it’s very doable. I was eating a very healthy (2500 ish daily calories) high protein diet for a $200, maybe $300 a month (it was while ago) and only cooking once a week, for about a hour to meal prep. Cut the proteins down for average Joes nutrition requirements and substitute in healthy carbs and there is some more savings. With different seasoning and flavors a lot of what I made was pretty tasty too, not greasy pizza or Chik Fil A good, but we still try to cook healthy ish using some of my old recipes and my young kids eat it without protest. As to the rest of the health care topic, I think it’s one of our most complex and totally messed up issues we face. A lot has been addressed here, but the American diet and our activity levels are a major player. Our insurance scam of system is totally f’d up. You ever look at those statements of what Tricare is billed and what they actually pay? (It’s not just Tricare, it’s all the insurances) How medical practices bill seems criminal to me. Price gouging and over inflated costs in the medical field absolutely blow my mind. The sociology/psychology/economics is absolutely fascinating to observe as modern medicine has evolved. The human nature in us wants to keep our loved ones and ourselves alive as long as possible. But at what point is fiscally irresponsible? It’s not a easy topic to talk about, it’s easy to jump right to “money doesn’t matter, do whatever it takes” and that’s not necessarily wrong to think that way. It’s pretty understandable to think that way. On the flip side, does it make sense to keep yourself or grandma alive a extra couple years if it means it will take several generations for the family to fiscally recover? If you go down the socialized/mass subsidized route, how much can the tax payer coffers cover before it cripples the economy/government? Which leads to the discussion above about when Uncle Sam writes you off and wishes you luck. Regardless of who pays the bill, healthcare isn’t cheap. Even if we fix the “glitch” and get overall costs lower, they still are going to be expensive. Much like aviation, the operators are expensive, the equipment is complex/expensive in both initial cost, operating cost, and maintenance cost. Society as a whole is going to have to come to general consensus on this. In a lot of countries it seems government funded has been decided upon, and that works for them (there seems to be some regret depending on who you ask, example being the wait times in places like Canada and the EU) unfortunately the US system seems more jacked up than some of our first world friends. Disclaimer, I’m not here to start a internet fight, tell you my ideas are right and yours wrong, I have all the answers, or change your mind about your views (except the healthy eating one, totally doable on a budget). Just points/thoughts for everyone to ponder as we discuss the issue and move forward. 🍻 Cheers

Fair enough. I forgot people owned those 😎🍺🍺

How do you take a selfie in space suit gloves? Kinda sarcastic but I’m actually curious. Assuming they got some touch screen gloves as we have been transitioning to IPads for pubs?

It’s more about the back and forth. I have a decade worth of tan t-shirts, that are now essentially garage rags. (I’ll save some of the good squadron/morale shirts for the gym). No good reason for the change, besides some desk jockey needed a EPR/OPR bullet, and some general needed a job hook up at a supply company after his retirement.

I’ve just continued to wear the sand ones. Not a word has been said.

If Goose had det cord he would still be alive 🤔

I would not quit a well paying job without something else lined up. It’s going to take some time to get hired, and the pay at O-1 isn’t exactly cosmic, especially if you are accustomed to a QOL associated with a cushy engineering paycheck. Keep adding $$ to the bank, or make some smart investments, or fuck it, buy your own plane. Don’t over hype the pilot thing, don’t get me wrong, I love my job as a pilot, but on average I spend about 4-6 hours a week flying and 30-60 a week doing office work or someone else’s job that’s to incompetent or lazy to do it themselves. Granted, that’s on AD, I hear the grass is greener on the other side. My last piece of advice- “Money can't buy happiness But it could buy me a boat, it could buy me a truck to pull it, It could buy me a Yeti 110 iced down with some silver bullets“