Donward

Color me SHOCKED that an organization that relies heavily on recruiting 17, 18 and 19 year old kids out of high school has a lower overall percentage of college graduates than the population in general. That is seriously the silliest argument that I've heard all year.

Awww... Does he always look like he's been scolded?

I haven't seen the blue prints (duh) But with the current tech, couldn't you just take a screw driver to the electronics to a stolen gun, pop it out and jury rig whatever needed to be done to disengage the safety?

Sets explosive devices... Texas declares ‘Chris Kyle Day,’ as Medal of Honor petition drive launches http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/02/texas-declares-chris-kyle-day-as-medal-honor-petition-drive-launches/ Walks away...

I REALLY liked Xthetenths comment up above by the way. I don't have the time to respond to it properly. Nor do I have the time to dig up more information which deflates the myth of the US military dredging up the dregs of the socioeconomic underclass as Zin is suggesting. However, since he's relying on fonts of reputable journalism like Salon, I guess it's fair to use this (admittedly dated) study by the Heritage Foundation (conservative think tank alert) which came out back in 2008. http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2008/08/who-serves-in-the-us-military-the-demographics-of-enlisted-troops-and-officers Also Zin, I'm not trying to pile on you here. I'm having a debate with a friend as I see it. I don't really care if you're conservative or liberal and I don't think any of us are trying out calling people names based on their politics. This pretty much jives with the information I was gathering for a cover story I was going to do once upon a time back when I needed to worry about writing newspaper articles (i.e. rewriting press releases that my editor kept shoving at me )

For people that spent their time worrying about reprehensible behavior, the Victorians sure did have a lot of kids, hmmm? Personally, I feel modern revisionists have given the Victorians a bad rap. For a people who didn't have a lot to go on, they sure did build a lot of neat things, ended a lot of bad things and left us a lot of good literature, artwork and architecture.

I see this is a Starship appreciation thread. Good. Good! GOOD!!!

Even though we have a separate "smart phone" page, I feel a "smart gun" topic doesn't deserve anything more than a mention here at the moment. My home state of Washington has an initiative process. I'm not sure how you can legislate smart gun usage - although that doesn't seem to stop folks from trying - but given the fragile and complicated nature of firearms even its current state, is a truly "smart gun" feasible? Here's the article in my former newspaper... http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/956555-129/the-smart-gun-debate-comes-to-washington

Bow-chicka-wow-wow http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/brass-cock.html

Again. I'm not going to defend or attack Chris Kyle. The umbrage I take is this comment. "When you go "volunteer" military, you actually get the dregs for the most part" which is rather demonstrably untrue considering that most recruits are high school graduates who come from suburban and rural locales who then use their GI Bill to go on and get a college education, learn a trade or settle down to raise a family after their enlistment is up. Nor do I disagree that there are individuals in the military who are "neo-Nazis". In a governmental bureaucracy that employs hundreds of thousands of individuals, there are bound to be some bad apples that slip through. Hell, they let a damn radical Muslim shoot up Fort Hood, for Christ's sake. So how many neo-Nazis are in the military? One? Four? A dozen? A hundred? Statistically that number falls rather well below the "Dregs for the most part" number. I also keep track of hate groups on the Southern Poverty Center website and "for the most part", these are organizations that are marginalized and irrelevant and who are lucky if they are able to scrape together a dozen guys to hold a "parade" or hand out flyers. That these groups somehow then have the wherewithal to infiltrate the U.S. military in a Hydra-like plot where "most" of those who serve are secretly neo-Nazis who are one order away from staging a military revolt stretches the imagination. But who knows? Maybe this is actually the case. But given the absurdity of the claim, it behooves the person making that assertion to back it up. And I'm talking more than just a a book whose sole source seems to be a dude who has some pictures of a bunch of guys in their early 20s acting stupid. I hate using the term Occam's Razor but in this case it seems rather more likely that there are a group of folks with a political leaning opposite that of the majority of troops who enlist and who have little actual real contact with military culture. And given that the majority of those who enlist come from congressional districts that are conservative or at least lean Republican, it's no wonder that a large number of (rich) liberals in New York or San Francisco have a loathing of the military and its culture. At any rate, is far easier to throw around terms like "racist" when confronted with someone who has a different opinion. I suppose the real question is why more liberals don't enlist in the military?

What makes that scene so funny is how multi-dimensional the humor is. Everyone is focused on the guy talking about pussies and dicks or the twangy country music song that is being reprised. What really goes unnoticed is the hammer sitting on the bar next to Gary. And that's because Gary has hit rock bottom and is considering ending it all and that hammer was given to him earlier in the movie in case he needed to commit suicide if he ever got captured by the terrorists.

So one book we are supposed to disregard but another book claiming that the US military is overrun by Neo Nazis and gang members is gospel. I'm presuming it is this book featured in a DailyBreast article. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/13/how-neo-nazis-and-gangs-infiltrated-the-u-s-military-matt-kennard-s-irregular-army.html

My nickname for smartphones and devices of that sort is "Electronic Monkey Feces" because of the visual image of what we look like when we're playing with one. Sadly, I finally succumbed to the forces of peer pressure and technology and finally got one a year or so ago. They are handy. However, that doesn't excuse all of you yahoos who insist on sticking your phone up in the air in order to record live performances.

Yeah. I'm not here to defend Chris Kyle. There are quite a few folks who are infinitely better paid than I am who can do that. I haven't watched the movie yet. I probably will sometime in the next week or two (things have been busy in the Ward household). My opinion is that folks aren't going to the movie to specifically learn about Chris Kyle and his complicated life. What is happening is a lot of projection from families who have invested a LOT into the Iraq War, the soldiers and their families. The Chris Kyle in the movie is <insert your loved one's name here> who went to Iraq, fought and generally fought well, saw a lot of bad things, was forced to make some tough decisions and who came back changed, wounded or dead. Also I've been assured that this is really the first movie that accurately portrays the rather heinous actions of the enemy that Coalition forces were fighting in Iraq, a foe who felt no compunction about suicide bombing little kids, blowing up mosques and murdering their co-religionists whether they were Kurds, Shiites or Sunnis.

Refractory period? If you're breeding horses, you don't want your stallion rubbing one out before he has to meet one of the mares. Even though I was the president of my high school FFA club and had a dad who was a useless horse racing addict, I'll admit that this is not a problem that I'm overly familiar with.

When you're talking about nuclear rocket cycles, my first thought was whether they could be used in another Heavy Metal movie introduction where a scantily clad female protagonist rides the nuclear rocket cycle onto a desert planet full of barbarians.

Pretty much. Although I'll risk the caveat that I can't think of that many John Wayne movies where he relies on trick shooting. I guess the most egregious is the one-handed Winchester cock.

Chester isn't taken to "Cowboy Action Shooting" competitions where fat idjits in cowboy hats treat grandpa's lever gun like a squad automatic weapon. Nor do I try to hand-load rounds that are on the cusp of its tolerance. Nor do I live in a swamp with Yoda. Quarter of a century and everything seems good.

This is Chester. He is my first rifle which I got on my fourteenth birthday. He is a Winchester Ranger Model 94 chambered in 30-30. For years I dreamed about having a Winchester rifle, looking longingly at the printed advertisements in the Big-5 flyer that came in the mailbox once a week, tracing my finger of the pixilated photo that advertised Chester for just $199.99. He has been with me on multiple adventures including each of my trips up to Bristol Bay, every hunting trip, my honeymoon and multiple instances when something went bump or howl in the night. After nearly a quarter of a century that he's been with me, I can think of few circumstances where Chester wouldn't be more than a match for what I'd need to ask of him. Also Bonus Book-aki

I generally don't approve of dachshunds, given that my mean German grandma taught hers to growl at us whenever we moved on the couch and to yap whenever someone approached the front door. But as a member of the male species, I have to admire the spirit and gumption of the sneaky dachshund who was able to nut up and breed a bitch five times his size, thus ensuring that his DNA would be passed down at least one more generation.

I wonder about indirect fire from bows, a technique that is really never used anymore. I assume archers practiced it? Did they have ranging marks on their bows to tell if the arrow will drop 75, 150, 200 yards away? Or was it just Kentucky windage with archers just shooting by feel? I'm sure the medieval texts have instructions.

And thus set the precedent for taxpayer funded sports stadium, convention center and concert hall since...

Limes are a complimentary fruit. They're only good when combined with another product such as mixed drinks, nachos or pies. In effect, they are the Ringo Starr of the citrus world.

So I'm the kid who was in high school in and around the Seattle area who didn't really care about grunge. I mean yeah, some of the songs are OK and Nirvana came from Aberdeen and whatnot. But what was annoying was all of the out-of-state grunge fans who moved to Seattle and started messing with the way things were. Worse they stayed. Worse yet, they made Seattle "cool" which attracted the rich Californians looking for cheap real estate after they had swindled their investors in some dot.com. Worse they stayed. Worse yet they started hiring hipsters and white collar douches to work at these companies, driving up real estate even more, clogging the highways, paving over and destroying all the good old places and making Seattle totally lame. If I could go back in time, I would show Kurt Cobain the destruction that he helped bring upon Seattle. Or perhaps, someone already did travel back in time but got there five years too late. *A shotgun blast is heard* *Roll credits*

*Waits for thread to be Locked and poster perma-banned* ... *Waits* ... Oh yeah! We're in a forum where we can have a nuanced and grown up discussion about potentially controversial topics. Great find Super.