Banzai

Oh really? Where? The content of your post isn’t what’s riling. It’s that your argument has no effective warrant.

Go with source, study, or evidence to back up your conjecture that fighters are less important. I would concede that you could make a case we didn’t need fighters from 2001-2021, but how exactly do you do implement doctrinal concepts of “air superiority” or “air supremacy” against peer threats in 2027 or 2035?

You know what else has unique DNA and survives purely based on the hosts body? Cancer.

Hey Occam, thanks for the response, but I still disagree. I fundamentally truly believe that killing a sperm, egg, or using an IUD or birth control to create a prohibitive environment that won’t allow a zygote to adhere to the uterine wall to all be the same outcome as stopping a zygote a few weeks to months later. I do not see why you get to make an arbitrary point that is way too early in the pregnancy the moment life begins (and therefore, the moment you gain control over women’s bodies). To me and many of my friends, an 8 week zygote is little more than a bad sneeze that a woman should be able to decide whether to carry or not. Sorry if that’s too graphic for you, but not everyone agrees with your opinions. Cue outrage. As someone who has had multiple children with my wife (and two “abortions” by this definition), I will say that my personal cutoff is around 20 weeks when I consider life to exist and the gradient to shift where abortion should not be allowed. Actually, if you consider her iud and birth control usage, we’ve probably intentionally killed dozens of zygotes. Finally, I leave you with this. You posit that a human exists at sperm+egg. Let’s go down the developmental path, I’m happy to do it. Is a sperm+egg human if it doesn’t have eyeballs? Is a sperm+egg human if it doesn’t have a functional brain? Is a sperm+egg human if it doesn’t have lungs? Is a sperm+egg human if it’s in your wife’s uterus, but she has an iud (or some forms of birth control) that makes it impossible for the zygote to adhere to her uterine wall? Ultimately, this all comes down to your own opinion as to the value of bodily autonomy vs potential to develop. You believe there should be almost none for a woman (or a man, to be fair, as we have a say in a relationship) even when potential to develop hasn’t been proven. I believe individuals should be able to make financial, emotional, non-emotional, career, life, and pragmatic future decisions in their best interest if it deals with their body much longer than you.

What is life exactly? Do you think sperm is alive? It moves on its own, and it can die if not kept in the right conditions. It has a life span. We develop spermicide to kill it. To die, mustn’t it have some degree of life? It also has genetic makeup and dna of its creator. You’ll see your line is actually arbitrary, even if you wanna call people who disagree with you dumb asses.

My wife and I planned to not have a baby. We used a condom. Condom broke. Never intended on having a baby, so why should it be forced upon me by happenstance? Used plan B the next day. Didn’t and still don’t feel like a murderer. What I did was the exact same outcome as if the condom had worked. Which, by the way, is why I earlier pointed out the arguable fallacy in you guys saying that you care about life above all else, while at the same time actively preventing it from occurring in your own lives via birth control, family planning, condoms, IUDs. Yes, we can all take arguments to the extreme. The point is your definition of when you care about life is laughably arbitrary. It’s impossible to say who is right. Have children now that were planned. Don’t see how any of your guys’ religious viewpoints should be involved one bit in these personal decisions.

To play devils advocate, how many kids do you have and why isn’t it 10+? We can get into never ending debates about what valuing life looks like. I can claim that you not creating life when you could have proves hypocrisy. How is denying life through family planning not just as bad as abortion, or why is it different? You’re gonna say “zygote,” but looking pragmatically at reality: you have personally denied potential life from existing by using birth control/family planning, have you not?

Legitimately though, why do you care? It really actually doesn’t affect you whatsoever. A more pointed question along this line of morality: why should it ever be legal for a man to pull out?

Here’s a question for you, then. Should IUDs be illegal? Because part of their purpose is to intentionally stop fertilized eggs - zygotes - from implanting on the uterine wall. Some forms of oral birth control do the same. Should we charge any sexually active woman who intentionally creates a less than ideal uterine environment with a crime? Because lots of people on birth control create zygotes that simply can’t implant. Honestly, why not charge men as well? If you’re a sexually active male and you do something to endanger the zygote’s chance of viability or implantation after conception - perhaps you damage your sperm and therefore the zygote by exposing your body to industrial chemicals, heavy metals, x-rays, or you just straight up let your balls get too hot (look it up) - why is that not a crime?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut I didn’t realize it, but you can go down this rabbit hole of trying to control reproductive rights pretty far. Did you guys know that in the 60s we actually had a Supreme Court case to stop the government from criminalizing the use of contraceptives. I’m looking forward to this getting overturned next, wonder what the fine for a vasectomy will be??

Nah, don’t think this is a widely held opinion (72% of Dems don’t support third trimester abortion) https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/06/25/majority-of-americans-support-abortion-poll-finds---but-not-later-in-the-pregnancy/amp/ I think the majority of women don’t want to go through pregnancy for a baby they don’t want to care for.

You don’t have to tell your parents, in-laws, or anyone else about an abortion. Adoption, not so much.

Is it moral to ever use birth control? You’re unfairly denying a potential life from existing. Is it moral to even abstain from sex if you and your partner have the capability to create life? You’re unfairly denying a potential life from existing. I for one think we should go full catholic and ban masturbation. Every sperm is sacred!

If you haven’t read this, it’s an interesting read: “The only moral abortion is my abortion” https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/15/1857976/--The-Only-Moral-Abortion-is-My-Abortion-an-article-by-Joyce-Arthur

Yeah, probably true. The other hard part in pushing a lesser known system is just that only a few people will know about it. And then those few people that do know have to work through security hurdles to get their message all the way up the staff, up the chain, to the folks in charge of the budget to change their mind. Whereas everyone already knows what the E-7 is. It’s easy to understand and debate and you can do it at a relatively unclassified level. I think it’s probably similar to why we are still using L16 in 2022. Just can’t convince everyone it’s feasible to commit to one of the many significantly better options to upgrade it.

I’m not, you’re right. Maybe SOCOM is better, I hope so. I would guess that’s because SOCOM literally by law doesn’t have to go through the same acquisition processes as traditional Air Force. I’m not saying AGILE can’t work - it has been demonstrated in multiple industries so I agree with you there. My issues with AGILE or Open Architecture are all related to big Cat 1 programs like F-35/F-22/EPAWSS/B-21/KC-46/etc. Personally, my perspective is that it hasn’t done much for America or these programs except in name. Almost all test PMs and pilots I know on these programs have said we are agile in name only. I would be curious to hear where it worked well, if you can say. I agree with you here. I guess my perspective is different because all of the programs I mentioned earlier are run by some combination of the big 5. There are tons of smaller companies that could do it if big defense contracts weren’t effectively controlled by a monopoly. Can you give an example? I’ve flown on the E-7 and in the link with them which is why I feel like it would be good, but I don’t have a good idea for high TRL alternatives. Would love to be better informed about options.

A couple of questions from someone looking at options towards the end of my commitment. Background is fighter test, so only got about 1300 hours. Does an R-ATP do anything actually useful for you? Is it worth it to just pay 30k to get the other 200 hours in private rentals?

Since you’re purportedly in the rooms where AoA for advanced systems is happening right now, do the higher levels of government actually believe that MOSA or AGILE actually work for acquisition of anything beyond just airframes? Because I don’t think it has been proven to work worth a damn for any mission systems hardware/software combination in the last 10 years. In fact. I think our faith in those two constructs is really biting us. I would argue that those are buzzwords that make the O-6+ community feel good and give the SPO plausible deniability, but don’t do anything to actually improve the process. Often, with our contracts, it makes it worse. I and all my colleagues in the developmental test and acquisitions world have only seen hollow promises from contractors that make program managers feel good! - but they don’t work and result in unimaginable 5-10 year slips to promised capabilities. Additionally, Lockheed and Boeing have done a smashing job the last couple of years of stamping AGILE and “Open System Architecture” on proprietary development and then software locking a critical portion of the code base so that they are still involved in future changes. But as long as they call it “open,” the SPO and requirements branches don’t do any more digging. We are getting our lunch eaten by contractors. Cases in point: T-7, Hypersonics. Wanted to list a ton more but I’ll be conservative on this forum. More to the point, I think buying the E-7 as is with minimal purchased upgrades is probably literally our only hope of not extending the timeline for this combat capability by years. As a fighter dude, I am excited about getting current E-7 capes for present and future relevant conflicts. Unfortunately, out acquisition system from requirements to test is fundamentally flawed, so while there are definitely better options of upgrades, are there better options/upgrades that also deliver on a relevant schedule? And I don’t mean the glossy brochure schedule.