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TreeA10

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Everything posted by TreeA10

  1. Funny thing about sports. Google the highest paid public state employees. IIRC, you will find that in 46 of 50 states, the highest paid individual is a football or basketball coach. The other 4 states are medical or law school deans. What does the Academy deem important? Follow the money. What caliber of person is being recruited to play at the Academy? Is the selection process aimed at producing a future AF leader or biased towards sports? I would guess the latter which leads to the problems targeted by the OSI.
  2. I lean towards agreeing with your assesment that someone would have been washed out before SUPT. I was a T-38 IP when everyone went through the T-38 but those on the heavy track did more Instrument/Cross Country while the fighter track did 4 ship formation. Students of both tracks (decided in the T-38 phase) soloed the T-38 and nobody was sent out the door that couldn't hack the jet.
  3. The F-35 helmet comes with a HANS device. That might work.
  4. Damn, never thought of that. I need a new tax guy.
  5. From what I usually heard, I was donating to a college fund. I'm good with that.
  6. More than a few years back, at the Shaw O'club, we were deep into an evening of fighter pilot wilding. Crud, a broken door, a few broken tables (one of the F-16 squadron's table mysteriously ended up on the golf course....on fire), lots of choir practice, got invited then dis-invited to a retirement party in another part of the club when they didn't approve of our re-enactment of the formal dining room scene from the Great Santini, and other Friday Night Bar Olympics type events. Finally the crowds started to ease off. We settled into a friendly game of 4-5-6 on the crud table. With about $1,200 on the table, we aren't bothering anyone when this older gentleman comes up to the table and says, "Are you guys gambling?" A Lt. replies, "No, we are just rolling dice and we are using money to keep score." We thought that was hysterical. He then says, "Should you guys be doing this?" Someone comments, "Look, if you are going to join us, you have to get at the end of the line." More laughter. Then this older gentleman produces an ID card...... dead silence until someone says "General Nelson....welcome to Shaw, sir!" He had just taken over 9AF a couple days prior.
  7. I was working TFI (A-10, F-16, F-22, F-35) at 10AF and all I kept thinking was "This is going to suck in the future." But if you want to stay in the game and you are loosing your hardware, the AFRC didn't have much of a choice.
  8. Sort of, I think you could use this but with dollar bills. Get volunteers to be judges, give dollar bills to those deemed attractive and at the end of the day, the chicks with the fewest dollars win as the average women the Army wants, the chicks with the most dollars also win and are allowed to keep the cash. A win-win.
  9. Who is going to judge this? This is confusing as a HWCM. First, we are told to judge women based on looks, then we are told not to judge women based on their looks, and now we are back to judging women based on their looks.
  10. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/11/today-obama-repeated-the-five-percent-lie.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+powerlineblog%2Flivefeed+%28Power+Line%29 The Federal Register, dated June 17, 2010, beginning at page 34,552 (Vol. 75, No. 116). It includes a chart that outlines the Obama administration’s projections. The chart indicates that somewhere between 39 and 69 percent of employer plans would lose their “grandfather” protection by 2013. In fact, for small-business employers, the high-end estimate is a staggering 80 percent (and even on the low end, it’s just a shade under half — 49 percent). This is the next shoe.
  11. Make any generalized statement regarding any other group other than HWCMs and you would be the guest of honor at the end of the a rope. So, if you are a HWCM, better keep your mouth shut, if you aren't a HWCM, feel free to see every problem you encounter in the framework of racism and sexism because I'm sure that is the reason you have a problem.
  12. Language. It is just an article without audio but I'm not sure what the state of sensitivity is these days regarding the F word which Wahlberg uses with great enthusiasm. Lord knows someone might be offended, get their knickers in a twist, and accuse some poor dude of infringing on their sense of security and happiness thus forcing said dude to endure some CBT penance for daring to read literature offensive to someone else. But I could be wrong....
  13. Mark Wahlberg weighs in on the verticallly challenged DB with a very nice NSFW rant. https://www.ijreview.com/2013/11/94328-mark-wahlberg-calls-out-hollywood-privilege-defends-honor-of-american-soldiers/
  14. How long does it take to get everyone suited up to take that picture?
  15. Looking to drop benefits for miitary retirees is nothing new. I think Hagel is just taking up the task desired by his boss who would rather you just share the pain of Obamacare. https://www.ijreview.com/2012/06/9466-mugging-soldiers/
  16. (Reminds me of the Play Piano in a Whorehouse song but I'm sure that would offend Liquid.) A ragged old derelict shuffled into a down and dirty bar. Stinking of whiskey and cigarettes, his hands shook as he took the "Piano Player Wanted" sign from the window and handed it to the bartender. "I'd like to apply for the job," he said. "I was an F-4 pilot, flying off carriers back in 'Nam, but when they retired the Phantom all the thrill was gone, and soon they cashed me in as well. I learned to play the piano at O-Club happy hours, so here I am." The barkeep wasn't too sure about this doubtful looking old guy, but it had been quite a while since he had a piano player and business was falling off. So, why not give him a try. The seedy pilot staggered his way over to the piano while several patrons snickered. By the time he was into his third bar of music, every voice was silenced. What followed was a rhapsody of soaring music unlike anything heard in the bar before. When he finished there wasn't a dry eye in the place. The bartender took the old fighter pilot a beer and asked him the name of the song he had just played. It's called "Drop your Skivvies, Baby, I'm Going Balls To The Wall For You" he said. After a long pull from the beer, leaving it empty, he said "I wrote it myself." The bartender and the crowd winced at the title, but the piano player just went on into a knee-slapping, hand-clapping bit of ragtime that had the place jumping. After he finished, the fighter pilot acknowledged the applause, downed a second proffered mug, and told the crowd the song was called, "Big Boobs Make My Afterburner Light. He then launched into another mesmerizing song and everyone in the room was enthralled. He announced that it was the latest rendition of his song, "Spread 'em Baby, It's Foggy Out Tonight and I Need To See The Centerline", excused himself and headed for the john. When he came out the bartender went over to him and said, "Hey fly boy, the job is yours, but do you know your fly is open and your pecker is hanging out?" "Know it?" the old fighter pilot replied, "Hell, I wrote it!"
  17. Let's see.....fighter assignments were plentiful, not a UAV in sight, I was flying my ass off, the bar was a free for all, and everyone was focused on the potential Communist hoards coming through the Fulda Gap or the NODAKS. Yeah, it is now history but it was a hell of a good time to be wearing nomex and strapping a jet to your back.
  18. How can you get your very own F-16? Buy a couple of acres of land near Luke and wait.
  19. Why are A-10 pilots issued oranges prior to oceanic deployment flights? To prevent scurvy.
  20. What do Tiger Woods and baby seals have in common? Both were clubbed by Swedes.
  21. That is all well and good but it appear that he and many others knowingly lied with the goal of re-election and selling a program. The result of that lie is causing mental stress and financial instability for millions of people. But despite this, at the present time no changes are going to be made to the program because they need customers to get a taste. Usually if someone tells a half truth, gives rosy projections, and outright lies so they can steal from people, they are running some type of Ponzi scheme, investment fraud, or other con and they are referred to as criminals.
  22. I agree on the wealth redistribution. Obama and Reid have said in public they want single payer healthcare, i.e. full government control of healthcare. Destroying the current system of insurance and healthcare leaves the possibility of government stepping in to fix the problem. The fact government created the problem is irrelevant. So you may not be the only one hoping it fails.
  23. I agree with Helodude. I don't think we have seen the end of the tsunami of the individual mandate but that shock wave will pale in comparison to the employer mandate. Nsplayr, so lying to 4-5% of the population is okay? What is that percentage of the population not okay? 6%? 10%? When should I worry that the president of our country is lying to us and how will I know he is only lying to a percentage of the population that we are okay with throwing under the bus?
  24. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24823846 Saudi Arabia saying they are ready and could buy nukes from Pakistan to counter an Iranian threat. With such a successful leading from behind policy in the Middle East, I do not understand why they would be worried.
  25. All those motivated progressive young people that voted for "Hope and Change" need to be thanked for the generous donation of their economic future to all the old folks. Carl Schramm: How ObamaCare Rips Off the 'Young Healthies' When ObamaCare is under attack, its defenders retreat to several well-worn claims. Among them is a provision that compels insurance companies to allow parents to keep their "children" ages of 21 to 26 on their family policies. Yet this part of the Affordable Care Act was not engineered in response to any noticeable interest group. Instead, political considerations are responsible for the provision—which is an unnecessary and a deceptive ripoff of the "young healthies." The first consideration is that young adults facing chronic unemployment—thanks to government policies that have retarded economic growth—commonly return to their parents' home. Understanding that this is what the economic "new normal" looks like, the Obama administration sought to avoid a potential political storm by providing a benefit normally connected to holding a job for one of its most reliable support groups. Second, government's actuaries are well aware that this much-touted benefit basically costs nothing. Actuarial and other research suggests that the average male sees a physician six times between the ages of 21 and 35. The parental coverage provision seemed like a "freebie" for the administration's universal coverage sales pitch. Third, ObamaCare's financing won't work unless "young healthies" (or their parents) pay through the nose for coverage under parental plans or via the individual mandate. The 18-26 age group is the lowest user of care, the least costly to cover and the most profitable of all health-insurance coverage. Yet the group faces extraordinarily high ObamaCare rates. A Manhattan Institute analysis of Health and Human Services numbers notes that a 27-year-old male will pay 99% higher premiums under ObamaCare than he would under previously prevailing market rates. One reason is that the law now limits insurers to charging the sickest seniors no more than three times the amount they charge their youngest customers. Given that 64-year-olds use on average six times as much health care as 19-year-olds, the Affordable Care Act forces young people to pay considerably more than the cost of their own care. Young men and women who pay a fine instead of buying coverage are not making an irrational choice. They know how little care they need and use. They also may be beginning to understand that the high cost of their plans reflects the redistribution of their wealth to older people and a bunch of mandated services that don't make sense for them. Still, young healthies might see it in their interest to purchase a more affordable health policy that provides simple preventive care (check ups) and major medical coverage in the event of an accident or costly (and rare) episode of disease. There is such a cheaper alternative; I helped to devise it. In 1993 I was president of Fortis (now Assurant AIZ +1.50% ) Health Care, a major health-insurance company. Sam Shriver, one of our brokers, noted that students graduating from Loyola College in Baltimore (he sold these students their group health-care coverage) were without health insurance before they landed their first jobs. We devised a "transition" product to provide graduates with two years of affordable coverage. The product became very successful because it provided catastrophic coverage, including for things like motorcycle accidents, and was inexpensive. It became one of the company's most popular products and was copied by many carriers in the individual market. Health policies that cover catastrophic care may still be sold to individuals up to age 30—but buyers are likely to be subject to an annual fine for nonconforming coverage. Suppose the federal government simply provided everyone under the age of 26 with a voucher to buy simple primary care/catastrophic plans that many companies could provide tomorrow. The number of uninsured would be greatly reduced at a fraction of the cost of covering them under ObamaCare. A similar approach might have been used for those who do not qualify for Medicaid because they make too much money but not enough to purchase a plan, perhaps because of pre-existing conditions. The government could provide them with a voucher enabling them to buy a private health plan. This approach—coupled with federal legislation limiting medical malpractice claims and permitting carriers to offer more efficient multistate products—would provide health reform without the current drama of incompetency and injustice that will inevitably deny us all affordable care. Mr. Schramm is University Professor at Syracuse University. He was president of Fortis (now Assurant) Health Care.
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