bfargin

No shame in knowing you'd rather not serve in the military if stuck with drones (my feelings exactly if they had been around when I went through), but I wouldn't necessarily say it out loud. Just stress your desire to fly military "fast" jets and stick with Guard/Reserves.

Def not "light" on education (GA Tech BS and MS in Physics and PhD in Math) but perhaps a little light on advanced responsibility work experience. But, any ad hoc/think tank type experience gives you great visibility and has varying degrees of responsibility attached to them. He must have excelled where he was planted.

Steve yeah, I meant the tall one. My bad (not sure whether to apologize to the Scots or to the gentleman from Lancashire). It's been a while since I lived in Scotland (1994-5) but in my memory, he sounded like the Scots I hung out with (slurred and muddy sounding). I had to listen pretty closely to understand 1/2 of what they said for the first couple of months. I spent a semester in Manchester adjacent to Lancashire but that was back in the Fall of 1992 snd don't remember that type accent (but I was in school at MBS so maybe the master's degree students I interacted with weren't quite as British "redneck" sounding).

Leftist not liberals

If so, it will be leftist for both occasions. I can't imagine any conservative rioting. Now as Brick said, if they come for us we'll stand firm and kick their teeth in, but we won't riot because it's not in our DNA.

The sad thing is many of our amendments that "better" or "fix" the constitution were/are terrible (and utter disasters when interpreted wrongly). So even with a difficult bar to get over, we still have some turds that made it. Think 14th (somehow interpreted that if you illegally or just tourist visit the country (either one) and have a baby on US soil it is somehow a citizen. YGBSM the most ridiculous interpretation ever! Everyone knew the intent and that was solid, but comeon. Nobody can argue reasonably that is what that Amendment meant/means. The 16th is unethical at best. Tax consumption, but for the government to tax/charge someone to work is completely unethical. Passive income might be game, but not a persons labor! The 17th basically took away tons of state power and rights and pulled us slightly away from a representation democratic government and more towards the mob rule democracy. Our elected officials are supposed to be there for a short time and then come home to work again. The present system allows them to sit in DC for 8 years plus sucking gov teet and screwing us all. They are also supposed to show some restraint and wisdom with their decisions and not fall prey to the mob mentality (but that ain't happening either). The 18th - yep it was a thing once 21 - because of 18 22 should have been a part of 20 and should have included all elected officials. I guess FDR did one thing right and made us realize we don't want numbnuts in office more than 2 terms 23 unnecessary. draw the district lines so that DC didn't have any residents but was just the land around the white house and capital buildings and have the white house residents assigned to one of the surrounding states for voting purposes. Not convinced 24, 25 or 26 was needed but I guess interpretation/clarification might have been needed to prevent idiots from proposing laws that would restrict voting rights/access etc.

I've read a couple of opinion pieces from fellow NFLers as well as an interview, and they all said basically what B.L wrote. He's good enough to be a third stringer at most teams (maybe even second at some) but the top/big pay he is demanding and the drama he would bring to the team aren't worth it to any team.

I have tons of "frame of reference" for college experience. And since you are a self proclaimed left leaning person, of course you didn't see any bias when you were in school because you were probably in total agreement with the sentiments expressed. I stand by my BS flag in it being possible to get through a US university program without being exposed to tons of left wing bias. I'm in a conservative part of the US, and it's still prevalent in all public universities here. Maybe the pew study showed just how influential college professors, who lean far left, can be on young unsuspecting people. As to the end of your paragraph ... so you're saying there are lots of educated dumb asses running around?

Waving the BS flag at this one. I am a business professor at a state university and most of my students tell me tales from across campus. Thankfully most business schools are grounded in reality unlike most of the liberal arts departments. I've spoken to many of my colleagues across campus, and it is a rare bird that doesn't lean hard left (further than the few left leaning flyers on here) and most make sure their students know about it. I stay away from topics other than information systems and accounting unless a student comes to me and specifically wants to discuss political or social issues.

Does DOR mean the same as an SIE (self initiated elimination)?

Yeah, definitely better than that. The French just make me think "light in the loafers" when I hear them speak.

Scots always sound inebriated, even when stone sober. I'm 1/2 Scot, thanks to my mom, but holy shit they sound like they have marbles in their mouth when they speak.

I think a way better response than what other senior AF officials have put out there. No solutions offered if you're looking for that, but it does end with a call for dialogue. Sorry, I didn't see another place to put this yet, so I kept the thread off topic.

Its the typical reaction we see with bureaucracies, someone shits the bed, everyone wears diapers. A couple of states allowed shenanigans to happen so we decided to edit sound procedure (intended to give states power in the Senate (to appoint and to immediately recall if they failed in their duty) and the general population the power in the House). I'm surprised it got through the rigorous process to become an amendment but from 1913-1919 they ratified 3 poorly thought through amendments (XVI - income taxes, VXII - senators, and XVIII - booze). Also: someone needs to break trumps thumbs so he can't tweet

The population statement isn't false and votes are still redistributed based on census populations every 10 years. The total number is capped at 435 but states can and do lose votes as populations change. It's still based on population counts in each state. For example my home state of TN has seen a high of 12 electoral votes and a low of 10 electoral votes and right now we are at 11. We are a republic, and hopefully will remain so and not transition into a direct democracy. Also, repeal the 17th amendment! Another example: CA has grown from 13 EV in 1928 to 55 currently

The ACE program was a great program for getting young SAC crews great experience and confidence with minimal expense compared to paying for hours in their primary jet. I wore out the Tweet when I was in ACE back in the mid to late 1980s. Flew that sucker to all four corners of the US in my time in ACE (Loring AFB, Homestead AFB, NAS Miramar, and NAS Whidbey island (t&g and RONed at Fairchild)). All different trips with different Co's planning and flying it all. Not much better experience to be had for young pilots and once we were off station we flew VFR at times as well as the official IFR flight plans that were "encouraged". It would still be a great inexpensive way to build hours and experience for today's MAF and even crewed CAF pilots.

I thought we booted out of training all of the saudi douchebags

It's always Boston, Kansas, Bad Company, the Eagles, Head East, Doobie Brothers, CCR, and Three Dog Night

The democrats are hell bent on keeping Trump as POTUS. I can't believe they are dicking this up again so badly, but they continue to slide further and further left and can't help themselves. Welcome to 4 more years of the "orange man". He wasn't my pick, but I'll take him again any day over the dems top two.

If I had ever had a cup of joe from that coffee maker, there would be some serious non-judicial punishment administered to said airman that would potentially get me thrown in jail.

I'm surprised y'all were able to get licensed in AL. I heard you had to have proof of marriage to a sister or first cousin to be licensed there.

That's my issue with what we are doing ... "civilized" warfare. Screw that, warfare isn't civilized and sending fighters/warriors in with dangerous rules of engagement is ridiculous. Use diplomats to talk and work with each other to come to a resolution. If that's impossible use the stupid UN which we pretty much fully fund to "monitor". And if that still gets us no satisfaction and it's worth a bloody fight, then fight. Once the decision makers make the call for war, it should be war. If it's not worth fighting, don't start kinetic action and don't send our people into harms way. I don't know all of the facts in any of the three most recent cases (I've read the news but there are always 2 or more sides to every story) but still think the bar should be incredibly high to prosecute someone for war crimes. Dumbass stunts like posing for pictures with a dead guy aren't war crimes even if they show a lack of sound judgement. And, overzealousness in shooting who you think are bad guys, doesn't translate to a "reprehensible" crime to me.

The whole situation with sending our men and women into harms way, and then judging them like we would a police officer here in the US, is complete feces. I'll side with the American soldier having to make a judgement call under duress every time. It would have to be so egregious that there was no doubt for me to even consider holding someone accountable to the extent of jail time (or even a reduction in rank). Don't send warriors into situation where you really want police or social workers. Note: I'm not talking about the obvious war crimes like rape or simply killing everyone you come across for "fun".

I tried for about 5 years to buy one of the Tweets in the boneyard. Contacted my Senator, some other DOD folks I know, etc with absolutely no luck. Even contacted the State Department about the possibility and it was pretty much a no-go unless the US eventually decided to sell them as scrap.

As soon as I saw that dude I wondered what his thought process was. "Hum, lets see, I'm a goofy looking bastard and I'm not having any luck finding a girlfriend, I wonder if I turn myself into a heinous looking woman if I'll have any luck?" And, yes I know I'm a big goofy looking bastard myself, but I know better than to imagine myself as a woman.