viper154
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Posts posted by viper154
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2 hours ago, pawnman said:
So reaching into things that are rights...do you support background checks on gun sales? ID laws for voting? Selective service? Restricting immigration?
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.-
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1 hour ago, pawnman said:
Same as the reason I think the government can mandate DUI laws, require airbags in vehicles, require drivers to wear seatbelts... the primary job of a government is to protect its citizens.
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.
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2 hours ago, Motofalcon said:
Actually, what he said (from the article you linked) was:
"Every federal government employee will be asked to attest to their vaccination status. Anyone who does not attest or is not vaccinated will be required to mask no matter where they work, test one or two times a week to see if they've acquired Covid, socially distance, and generally will not be allowed to travel for work,"
So the vaccine is NOT mandatory, but if you don’t get vaccinated you will still have to mask and be tested regularly, along with no work travel/TDYs. Which is already how some bases were operating before this statement was made.
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.
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2 hours ago, droptime said:
Was that after being passed over twice? Or was he granted PC after the first pass?
It was his first pass, I was actually surprised , he had a decent amount of time left on his commitment.
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5 hours ago, droptime said:
Looks like I'll have 6 months after the next board results before I'm kicked to the curb or offered continuation. At this point I'd rather not get promoted, just to have some certainty on how to proceed. But I don't know how declining promotion would affect future guard/reserve prospects. Probably doesn't look good
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.
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6 hours ago, M2 said:
Not doubting what you overheard, but gun store employees are notorious for being full of shit sometimes...
I will ask around. I was already extremely surprised it was only three months for Viper154, but 18 days in simply inconceivable!
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.
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On 1/16/2021 at 4:23 PM, brabus said:
Any guys with suppressors on here? I keep waffling on it, mostly wondering is it worth it...
- cost (meh, not that big of a factor, but do I do this or get another rifle?)
- All the NFA bullshit with the ATF (timeline, paperwork, etc.)
- Paranoid about becoming a “registered” gun owner on some NFA list. Though obviously I’ve been background checked by the FBI many times for gun purchases, so maybe this isn’t any different?
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.
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39 minutes ago, pawnman said:
From the article:
One group in Italy found that 87% of a patient cohort hospitalized for acute COVID-19 was still struggling 2 months later. Data from the COVID Symptom Study, which uses an app into which millions of people in the United States, United Kingdom, and Sweden have tapped their symptoms, suggest 10% to 15% of people—including some “mild” cases—don’t quickly recover. But with the crisis just months old, no one knows how far into the future symptoms will endure, and whether COVID-19 will prompt the onset of chronic diseases.
I mean...I can show you a bunch of people that smoked their whole lives and never got cancer. That doesn't negate the fact that smoking is highly correlated to cancer rates.
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.
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2 hours ago, KPPV1 said:
Is it ok for enlisted aircrew like loads, booms, etc.. to not salute an officer when outside? Seen this consistently among the TSgts, senior instructors, also one of those dudes put pilot wings on his name patch and wore them?
Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile appIf 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.
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5 hours ago, Stitch said:
Here's something that's well worth the time, 90 year old P-47 driver tells his story. Kind of long but well worth it. Living history from someone who was were there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo_irQ9bjzU&feature=youtu.be
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.
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2 hours ago, Metalhead731 said:
Good suggestion. I'm looking into an Apple watch myself.
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.
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19 hours ago, di1630 said:
I’m all for diversity in the ranks but I doubt we are suddenly going to find a ton of missed high-end recruits in the inner city.
I’ve said before, I could find better recruits by stopping the BS academic and chess club qualifiers that get kids into UPT.
I’ll take medium-intelligence type A recruits any day over the super-high-intelligence weenies I see filling the cockpits.
Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile appThere 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.
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1 hour ago, Mark1 said:
Um, John Q. Public here. I love a flyby as much as the next guy, but sorry, I'm not paying taxes so that you can go out and have a unique joyride in the jet. I pay taxes to maintain a competent fighting force. Training (or recruitment objectives) damn well better factor into every flight you take.
You want to go joyride? Buy your own $200M jet and offer services to the NFL on your own time.
And yeah, a flyover might be light on legitimate training objectives, but if you can't learn something from one, you're doing it wrong. Based on some of the atrocious TOTs I've seen on TV over the last few years, most of the guys flying them need the training.
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.
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On 10/24/2020 at 1:29 PM, Danger41 said:
Has there ever been an aircrew member turned politician that was well regarded? I’d say Duke Cunningham but he didn’t exactly have a successful political career.
Both George Bush’s. You can debate “well regarded” but they both were President of the United States.
John Glenn
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5 hours ago, mightymighty said:
I hate to sound like a commercial here but seeing this post peaked my interested and got me to call Geico - and now I'm switching.
I had some bad experiences with USAA, most recently with my car buying experience last February - and the insurance policy I just got with Geico is $80/month cheaper with all coverage's remaining the same as I had with USAA.
I've been with USAA for over a decade - feels weird to change things up.
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.
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2 hours ago, Guardian said:
I realized I’m bias. So if just like to hear from others. How did tonight go?
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.
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48 minutes ago, Sim said:
Here's a topic. 2A will go away under Biden. Also he is under impression that children can be murdered under federal law. 🤣
https://joebiden.com/gunsafety/
Ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Federal law prevents hunters from hunting migratory game birds with more than three shells in their shotgun. That means our federal law does more to protect ducks than children. It’s wrong. Joe Biden will enact legislation to once again ban assault weapons. This time, the bans will be designed based on lessons learned from the 1994 bans.
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.
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1 hour ago, slackline said:
I get it, you don’t want to subsidize the healthcare of fat people. It pisses me off as well. The military has destroyed my body, back and neck are 10 kinds of jacked, but I take care of myself. I believe a lot more people should and could do a lot of the same thing. I eat right, and I exercise a ton. That takes care of a lot of my issues and keeps my QoL higher than it would be. If I can do that, they can do that... to an extent. Food that is healthy is waaay harder to get for low income families. Not just the prices (healthy food is more expensive than garbage food) are messed up, but there’s the time aspect. People working multiple min wage jobs often times have very little free time, so popping in the microwave dinner is faster than preparing healthy food.
That doesn’t excuse a gross neglect of your own health on the part of many fat people. I’m simply making the point that it isn’t as simple as “fat people should all die of diabetes because they’re lazy” which seems like what you’re advocating (heavy on the sarcasm there in case you were unsure). Oh, and guess what, there’s tons of fat people in the military driving up our healthcare costs. Fix that problem for us while you’re on your high horse (again, sarcasm meter should be in the ON position).
BL: we can do better, and if fat people get to go along for the ride, so be it... Again, people other than fat people need healthcare.
Sent from my iPad using TapatalkTo 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
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2 hours ago, Spoo said:
Fair enough. I forgot people owned those 😎🍺🍺
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On 10/19/2020 at 7:14 AM, ImNotARobot said:
So many cool pictures from the U-2
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?
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1 hour ago, drewpey said:
When they forced us into green boots and tan shirts everyone was howling. Now that we have the option to swap back to brown shirts and comfortable boots everyone is dragging their feet. I feel like some of my fellow aircrew have stockholm syndrome.
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.
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I’ve just continued to wear the sand ones. Not a word has been said.
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2 hours ago, HuggyU2 said:
Why can't a side-opening canopy use a traditional jettison? Here's four examples.
If Goose had det cord he would still be alive 🤔
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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 happinessBut 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“
COVID-19 (Aka China Virus)
in General Discussion
Posted · Edited by 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.