You are SO politically incorrect. You're not supposed to notice that the retarded kid is retarded, and you should NEVER notice crippled kids! You must be some kind of bigot - my progressive friends say so.
Oh - wait. I don't have an progressive friends. Forget I said anything.
No one is "forced" into purchasing a Windows machine of any type, let alone Win8/8.1.
New Egg and other places sell all the hardware a person needs to build his own desktop. There are several vendors for Linux laptops, and there is always Apple. Mobile devices free of Windows are all over the place.
It's more than a decade since I have paid for a Microsoft license. That was Windows ME - my worst and last mistake with Microsoft.
The party had been half lost in bad weather, and stopped when they realized that they weren't where they expected to be. It was an unplanned, emergency camp site. The tent was knocked down and partially buried. That seems to indicate that they believed that they were in imminent danger of being swept away when they exited. They were pretty obviously NOT in a "safe place". If they really wanted to be in a "safe place" they never would have gone hiking into the mountains in the winter time. As a group, the party believed itself to be capable of meeting life threatening challenges.
"Paradoxial undressing doesn't explain why someone would be wearing SOMEONE ELSE's clothes for example."
Sure it does. Let's say that I'm freezing, and as a result, I'm losing any semblance of rational thought. I throw away one or more articles of clothing. You may or may not be close enough to see me throw it away, but you do find that article of clothing. You're also colder than hell, but you have retained the ability to think rationally. Do you pick up the abandoned clothing, or walk past it? I suspect that you will pick it up, and put it on. Reverse our positions, and I know damned well that I'll pick up YOUR shirt, or whatever you have abandoned.
The avalanche is perfectly reasonable. Remember, the party got kinda lost in the bad weather, and when they realized where they were, they set up what might be called an emergency camp site. They were resting up after a strenuous day, and making plans for the next day. An avalanche need not be extremely massive. A few mere tons of snow breaking loose at a higher elevation, and sliding down to an area with little snow on the ground is hardly noteworthy. There is no reason to assume that an avalanche must contain thousands of tons of snow, or rock for that matter. Enough snow to knock over a half dozen people, and to stun them, won't necessarily bury the tent - they were likely lying down, resting.
Tanning - I don't have any explanation for. That's kind of left field for me.
Even more confusing, is why the entire group abandoned the camp site. I can understand that one or more of the party took a bump to the head. But, it's not reasonable to believe that ALL of them were knocked almost senseless. If I were awakened in the middle of the night to find myself half buried in snow, I think that I would take the time to grab my boots, and a coat. Certainly my boots. I know that much from experience with being awakened from a sound sleep to deal with an emergency. Of course, to be fair - the tent has been flattened, and the boots may be difficult to locate - fear may move me out of the tent before I locate my boots.
I suppose that you are in good company. Gnome and Unity also fail to understand. So does Ubuntu. And, Microsoft. Basically, all of them expect to be able to guide human behavior, and won't make the effort to understand. Meanwhile, the numbers are what they are. Most of us refuse to make the switch to a tablet interface when using a desktop computer.
Call it lazy. Another view is, time is valuable. Why should I waste time re-learning things that I don't benefit from? There is exactly zero gain in trading hours or days of re-learning ways to do what I have always done. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Unity and Gnome 3 and Metro have a product to sell. We ain't buying. Obviously, there is a failure somewhere, but you can't blame the customer. The customer is always right. Trying to change the rules of marketing to "The developer is always right" simply will not work.
A wise person will go to great lengths to avoid ever being trapped in the median. That is, never pull off to the left. Once stopped, you are a sitting duck between two fast lanes, each moving in opposite directions. I have NEVER pulled off into the median. Pulling off to the right gives you room to drive right off of the road, then for you to move your person further yet away from traffic. That parallels cops being taught to never approach a stopped car on the driver's side. A smart cop goes to the passenger side window, where passing traffic can't clip his ass while he is talking to you.
Fair enough - we can agree to disagree. I think that speed limits between 55 and 70 make good sense in a lot of highly populated areas. But, I am very much aware that higher speed limits make sense in a lot of America.
Are you also aware of the highway engineering rule of the 85th percentile, for setting sensible speed limits? In effect, you build the highway, open it to traffic with no speed limits at all. Observe traffic for a period of time, and record the speeds. Traffic engineers say that you set the speed limit to accomodate that 85th percentile, and almost all of the remaining 15 percent will slow down to that speed limit. That method has real science behind it!
Personally - I have driven at some very high speeds, but there are places where I believe the posted speeds to be to high. The stretch of I-30 going west from Texarkana is now 75 mph - and I believe it to be to crowded to drive that fast. Once you get past New Boston, 75 becomes reasonable, but the roughly twenty miles between New Boston and Texarkana should only be 65 - it stays crowded, day and night. If I sat, and searched my memory, I could probably list another twenty places where the speed limit is to high.
What year did Zummie step down from that office? I served in Zummie's Navy. Remember the bus driver uniforms? I resented that inanity more than any other policy, doctrine, regulation, tradition, or law which I was made aware of. The damned fool fucked with military tradition and custom to no good end.
The first of July this year will mark the beginning of a period which will see great changes in the Navy uniform. Inasmuch as All Hands Magazine and the Navy Uniform Affairs Office have received a number of questions on this subject, the Uniform Affairs Office has provided us the following answers:
Q. Why was the enlisted men's uniform changed?
A. Mainly because Navymen indicated that they wanted a change. In December 1970, a poll was taken among 4000 Navymen of all ranks and rates. Those queried were scientifically selected so their views would represent those of 95 per cent of the entire Navy. Results of the questionnaire showed that 80 per cent of all enlisted men E-6 and below preferred that the dress blue uniform be replaced by a coat and tie style. Since 92 per cent of the officers and chiefs who were queried had a favorable opinion of their dress blues, the Navy decided to use it as the basic uniform to symbolize a united organization striving for common goals.
There is half a page of more Q. and A. at that link.
Those medians can be tricky. I witnessed an accident in Alabama one night. The driver apparently fell asleep, and drifted over the berm, into the median. I watched him jerk the wheel away from oncoming headlights, back toward his own lanes. He reached the top of that incline, and jumped over the highway into the grass on the other side. He continued rolling at an angle, into a huge briar patch before the car came to a stop. Several of us ran to the car, to find his seat belt still fastened, the radio still playing, the key still on with the engine stalled - and no sign of the driver. We searched for about twenty minutes, before finding him lying in the briars.
Cops arrived, ambulance arrived, he was loaded up, and all of us passers by dispersed. I never did learn how badly he was hurt, or if he survived.
And, you are right about guard rails, as well. They don't always have the intended results when a vehicle smashes into them either.
We're about even. I call BS on your post as well. You have used bandwidth to bash me, and to question my own anecdotal evidence, with nothing more than opinion.
1. My vision is corrected to 20/20 with lenses 2. I am not easily distracted, and in fact, I have nearly 100,000 miles on motorcycles in addition to a couple million miles in tractors to demonstrate that my situational awareness is far superior to the average motorist's. 3. I can drive at night just fine - but I am getting more sensitive to lights being used improperly. The quest for ever brighter lights leads to the results sought by a "dazzler" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D... 4. I am aging. Fuck you very much. 5. Nowhere did I state that I drive fast in bad conditions - you have made an invalid assumption. Hydroplaning a truck on a dark rainy night only indicates that I misjudged how bad conditions were in a low spot between two inclined surfaces met. 6. I drive big trucks - you got one out of seven right. 7. I can and do drive a lot faster than 80 mph, thank you very much. The Yamaha 600 outside my door exceeds 150 mph quite easily. I've not found it's top speed, but it is well over 150.
Citations that directly support my position are hard to find, and they seldom address the issue directly. But - that little paradoxical article should catch your attention.
Driving at high speed fatigues a driver in less time than driving at low speeds. But, the distance covered before fatigue begins to set in is considerably greater. Feel free to do your own research. More than 40 years of real life experience convinces me that I am right. You simply don't find speed freaks falling asleep at the wheel. You find them involved in completely different types of accidents - if you find them in accidents.
I've already answered the question of beards a couple posts up.
Regarding racial integration, blacks have never had any special accomodations that weren't strictly health related. Specifically, when I was in the Navy, you were required to be either clean shaven, OR to grow a proper beard (only if you were a petty officer, junior ranks were required to be clean shaven). Black guys, however, often sported facial hair that couldn't be called a beard by any stretch of the imagination. The reason? A lot of black guys develop bumps on their faces from ingrown hairs when they shave. Wait - said "a lot of black guys". More accurately, SOME black guys develop those bumps. I don't know the percentage - some of them shaved and had no problems, some had problems - and I'm sure that some who COULD shave just decided that they weren't doing that stupid shit with the razor every day.
You seem to have misunderstood my point. I am perfectly well aware that facial hair has no bearing on discipline. Facial hair is an indirect measure of a leader's ability to lead - "If you can't tell a man how to wear his hair, how can you tell him how to die?"
Fact is, the US military made it policy that no service member will be permitted to wear a beard while in uniform, right around 1985 or so, soon after I left the Navy. I wore a beard while in uniform. Suddenly, beards were outlawed. It remained so for about thirty years. Suddenly - beards are alright, because politicians want to recruit more Muslims. That is some stupid shit, IMHO.
Oh - the gas masks. Gas masks seal along a very specific line. Gas masks will seal if the hair is short. You won't make a seal with long hair all over your face, but you can trim your beard to conform the lines of the seal. I know, because I did it. Along with my shipmates, I donned my gas mask, adjusted it to ensure that it was sealed, entered the gas chamber, sat for a few minutes, then was ordered to remove the mask. I felt no effects from the CS gas until I removed my mask.
The FACT is, beards are now permitted for political reasons, NOT for any good military reason. Beards were prohibited in the first place for political reasons, NOT for military reasons.
Again, I disagree. Today, the internal structuring of the military is being tampered with to accommodate various special interest groups. Those groups begin with women and gays, and continue with Muslims, atheists, and ends God knows where.
A recent article shows that the Pentagon is reconsidering uniform requirements to permit beards and turbans for Muslims. Now consider that beards have been outlawed by our military for decades, based on "discipline" considerations. No redneck, no Jew, no mountain man has been permitted to display a beard while in uniform. Suddenly - we are courting Muslims, so out of the goodness of our hearts, we are going to allow them to wear beards and turbans.
A number of highly decorated professionals have been drummed out of service for the crime of failing to wholeheartedly support the gay agenda. The numbers published regarding sexual assaults on women are alarming no matter how you view them - but often enough, accusations of sexual harassment and/or assault are political tools used against good soldiers. It is impossible to even guess at the numbers of such instances, but I know for a fact that it happens. Other times, a female soldier who is busted for drugs or other infractions tries to turn the tables by accusing supervisors and investigators of sexual harassment. Again - it's impossible to even guess at the numbers, but it happens.
The internal structure is being eroded. We no longer have the military that we had thirty or forty years ago.
While a liberal or a progressive may feel that to be a "good thing", the fact is, our military is being improperly used to advance a number of political agendas. The effects on efficiency are all bad.
The US government needs to learn a few more lessons on building roads. If you would inform us of the aspects of roadbuilding in the US that impress you, maybe some of us could disillusion you.
For starters, our interstate highway system is demonstrably unsafe, compared the Autobahn. Have you ever noticed that nothing separates oncoming traffic? It has been pointed out to me that the Germans have double guard rails separating oncoming traffic. What do we have? A grass filled median. I have observed vehicles going out of control, and rolling, flying, coasting, skidding, or otherwise finding their way into the oncoming lanes. In view of the physical laws of nature, it is safer to hit ANYTHING other than oncoming vehicle. Steel guard rails, concrete dividers, trees, bridge abutments, ANYTHING.
There are a large number of places in the United States where the engineers flubbed. Dead Man's Curve, in Cleveland Ohio has lots of optical warnings that the curve is unsafe at speeds over 35 mph - but they seem to fail, as year after year, idiot manage to wipe out in that curve.
Bridges in various places during rainstorms become very unsafe. The crown of the road, couple with the incline of the road surface when it meets the incline of the approach ramp often just dams water up on the road way. I have hydroplaned fully loaded tractor trailers in these areas, while driving the posted speed limit or less. If I can float 80,000 pounds, you can rest assured that you will float your 3,000 pound personal vehicle in these areas.
Lighting. I have rather sensitive eyes. As I age, they are becoming more sensitive to bright lights at night. I can be blinded by lights pretty easily. Truck stops, restaurants, and other businesses often put very bright lights near the highway to attract attention. Billboards often have bright lights that are aimed improperly, so that they shine into motorist's eyes. The cops themselves are on a quest to find the brightest possible lights to mount on their patrol cars. I was very literally blinded as I came around a curve in Memphis late one night, by a police car stopped at the scene of an accident. Only luck, or the hand of God, prevented me from running into the survivors and the emergency workers.
Speed limits? Those are set by politicians, for the purpose of extracting revenues from the motoring public. When Eisenhower specced the interstate, it was intended that the interstate sustain 80 mph traffic. The human body has physiological reactions to traveling. On an open highway, with little to look at, the sound, vibrations, and general motions of the vehicle tends to lull people into relaxation and sleep at speeds around 55 mph. At speeds approaching 80 mph, everything about the vehicle tends to key the occupants into full alertness. Except for known unsafe areas, the interstates would be much SAFER with higher speed limits.
I'm sorry, but we are merely mediocre road builders. Leaving the interstate highway system behind, the US Highway system gets worse. State and local highways are oftentimes abysmal failures.
We CAN actually build superb highways. We have the technology, we have the knowhow, we have the materials, and we have the money to do so. We simply choose not to. Any movement to force the issue will be defeated by politicians. The courts will side with the politicians, because they love their cash cow. America will not be building any incredible highway systems in our lifetimes.
You seem to get it, somewhat. A Mexican is a Mexican, and if he's in the US, he is either here with legal papers, or he is an illegal alien. An American citizen is here by right. It doesn't matter if that citizen has a Mexican heritage, or Russian, or Ethiopian, or French, or Vietnamese. He is an AMERICAN, either by birth, or by naturalization. A Mexican is a citizen of Mexico. Get legal, or go home - that is my stance.
I'd rather have a.270, thank you very much. Ye Olde Elephant Gun is highly over rated. That little old.270 can be wildcatted to take on the biggest of game, or it can be light loaded for squirrel hunting. And, the.270 is amazingly accurate at long range, no matter how you load it. My second choice is the.308, but it's less versatile as a varmint gun. Squirrels, rabbits, and prairie dogs just go splat when you hit them.
I don't believe that meat eaters are as flatulent as herbivores. Not to mention that the saurians spend a lot of time sleeping, conserving energy, instead of running frantically about 365 days out of each year, searching for another meal.
Even nerds and geeks need a little laugh now an then. Don't worry your little head - we'll all be back to the task of designing the next quantum computer as soon as we've had a chuckle, and another Mountain Dew.
I'm sure glad that Russia warned the FBI about those Boston bombers, and that the FBI took them off the streets before they could kill anyone!
What's that? I got that wrong? Russia DID warn us about those boys, right? But, you say the FBI totally fucked up? So - you're saying that the idiots can't recognize intelligence when it bites them in the ass?
Well, I have to agree with you then. That really IS how the game is played. Your intelligence community isn't protecting anyone - it is preying on the sheep!
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You are SO politically incorrect. You're not supposed to notice that the retarded kid is retarded, and you should NEVER notice crippled kids! You must be some kind of bigot - my progressive friends say so.
Oh - wait. I don't have an progressive friends. Forget I said anything.
No one is "forced" into purchasing a Windows machine of any type, let alone Win8/8.1.
New Egg and other places sell all the hardware a person needs to build his own desktop. There are several vendors for Linux laptops, and there is always Apple. Mobile devices free of Windows are all over the place.
It's more than a decade since I have paid for a Microsoft license. That was Windows ME - my worst and last mistake with Microsoft.
The party had been half lost in bad weather, and stopped when they realized that they weren't where they expected to be. It was an unplanned, emergency camp site. The tent was knocked down and partially buried. That seems to indicate that they believed that they were in imminent danger of being swept away when they exited. They were pretty obviously NOT in a "safe place". If they really wanted to be in a "safe place" they never would have gone hiking into the mountains in the winter time. As a group, the party believed itself to be capable of meeting life threatening challenges.
Sometimes, shit happens.
"Paradoxial undressing doesn't explain why someone would be wearing SOMEONE ELSE's clothes for example."
Sure it does. Let's say that I'm freezing, and as a result, I'm losing any semblance of rational thought. I throw away one or more articles of clothing. You may or may not be close enough to see me throw it away, but you do find that article of clothing. You're also colder than hell, but you have retained the ability to think rationally. Do you pick up the abandoned clothing, or walk past it? I suspect that you will pick it up, and put it on. Reverse our positions, and I know damned well that I'll pick up YOUR shirt, or whatever you have abandoned.
The avalanche is perfectly reasonable. Remember, the party got kinda lost in the bad weather, and when they realized where they were, they set up what might be called an emergency camp site. They were resting up after a strenuous day, and making plans for the next day. An avalanche need not be extremely massive. A few mere tons of snow breaking loose at a higher elevation, and sliding down to an area with little snow on the ground is hardly noteworthy. There is no reason to assume that an avalanche must contain thousands of tons of snow, or rock for that matter. Enough snow to knock over a half dozen people, and to stun them, won't necessarily bury the tent - they were likely lying down, resting.
Tanning - I don't have any explanation for. That's kind of left field for me.
Even more confusing, is why the entire group abandoned the camp site. I can understand that one or more of the party took a bump to the head. But, it's not reasonable to believe that ALL of them were knocked almost senseless. If I were awakened in the middle of the night to find myself half buried in snow, I think that I would take the time to grab my boots, and a coat. Certainly my boots. I know that much from experience with being awakened from a sound sleep to deal with an emergency. Of course, to be fair - the tent has been flattened, and the boots may be difficult to locate - fear may move me out of the tent before I locate my boots.
Tentacles? LET'S MAKE CALAMARI!!
For the uninitates, no, it does NOT "taste like chicken".
" I do not understand human behavior."
I suppose that you are in good company. Gnome and Unity also fail to understand. So does Ubuntu. And, Microsoft. Basically, all of them expect to be able to guide human behavior, and won't make the effort to understand. Meanwhile, the numbers are what they are. Most of us refuse to make the switch to a tablet interface when using a desktop computer.
Call it lazy. Another view is, time is valuable. Why should I waste time re-learning things that I don't benefit from? There is exactly zero gain in trading hours or days of re-learning ways to do what I have always done. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Unity and Gnome 3 and Metro have a product to sell. We ain't buying. Obviously, there is a failure somewhere, but you can't blame the customer. The customer is always right. Trying to change the rules of marketing to "The developer is always right" simply will not work.
A wise person will go to great lengths to avoid ever being trapped in the median. That is, never pull off to the left. Once stopped, you are a sitting duck between two fast lanes, each moving in opposite directions. I have NEVER pulled off into the median. Pulling off to the right gives you room to drive right off of the road, then for you to move your person further yet away from traffic. That parallels cops being taught to never approach a stopped car on the driver's side. A smart cop goes to the passenger side window, where passing traffic can't clip his ass while he is talking to you.
Fair enough - we can agree to disagree. I think that speed limits between 55 and 70 make good sense in a lot of highly populated areas. But, I am very much aware that higher speed limits make sense in a lot of America.
Are you also aware of the highway engineering rule of the 85th percentile, for setting sensible speed limits? In effect, you build the highway, open it to traffic with no speed limits at all. Observe traffic for a period of time, and record the speeds. Traffic engineers say that you set the speed limit to accomodate that 85th percentile, and almost all of the remaining 15 percent will slow down to that speed limit. That method has real science behind it!
Personally - I have driven at some very high speeds, but there are places where I believe the posted speeds to be to high. The stretch of I-30 going west from Texarkana is now 75 mph - and I believe it to be to crowded to drive that fast. Once you get past New Boston, 75 becomes reasonable, but the roughly twenty miles between New Boston and Texarkana should only be 65 - it stays crowded, day and night. If I sat, and searched my memory, I could probably list another twenty places where the speed limit is to high.
What year did Zummie step down from that office? I served in Zummie's Navy. Remember the bus driver uniforms? I resented that inanity more than any other policy, doctrine, regulation, tradition, or law which I was made aware of. The damned fool fucked with military tradition and custom to no good end.
http://www.history.navy.mil/li...
Coming Soon The New Uniforms
The first of July this year will mark the beginning of a period which will see great changes in the Navy uniform. Inasmuch as All Hands Magazine and the Navy Uniform Affairs Office have received a number of questions on this subject, the Uniform Affairs Office has provided us the following answers:
Q. Why was the enlisted men's uniform changed?
A. Mainly because Navymen indicated that they wanted a change. In December 1970, a poll was taken among 4000 Navymen of all ranks and rates. Those queried were scientifically selected so their views would represent those of 95 per cent of the entire Navy. Results of the questionnaire showed that 80 per cent of all enlisted men E-6 and below preferred that the dress blue uniform be replaced by a coat and tie style. Since 92 per cent of the officers and chiefs who were queried had a favorable opinion of their dress blues, the Navy decided to use it as the basic uniform to symbolize a united organization striving for common goals.
There is half a page of more Q. and A. at that link.
Those medians can be tricky. I witnessed an accident in Alabama one night. The driver apparently fell asleep, and drifted over the berm, into the median. I watched him jerk the wheel away from oncoming headlights, back toward his own lanes. He reached the top of that incline, and jumped over the highway into the grass on the other side. He continued rolling at an angle, into a huge briar patch before the car came to a stop. Several of us ran to the car, to find his seat belt still fastened, the radio still playing, the key still on with the engine stalled - and no sign of the driver. We searched for about twenty minutes, before finding him lying in the briars.
Cops arrived, ambulance arrived, he was loaded up, and all of us passers by dispersed. I never did learn how badly he was hurt, or if he survived.
And, you are right about guard rails, as well. They don't always have the intended results when a vehicle smashes into them either.
We're about even. I call BS on your post as well. You have used bandwidth to bash me, and to question my own anecdotal evidence, with nothing more than opinion.
1. My vision is corrected to 20/20 with lenses
2. I am not easily distracted, and in fact, I have nearly 100,000 miles on motorcycles in addition to a couple million miles in tractors to demonstrate that my situational awareness is far superior to the average motorist's.
3. I can drive at night just fine - but I am getting more sensitive to lights being used improperly. The quest for ever brighter lights leads to the results sought by a "dazzler" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...
4. I am aging. Fuck you very much.
5. Nowhere did I state that I drive fast in bad conditions - you have made an invalid assumption. Hydroplaning a truck on a dark rainy night only indicates that I misjudged how bad conditions were in a low spot between two inclined surfaces met.
6. I drive big trucks - you got one out of seven right.
7. I can and do drive a lot faster than 80 mph, thank you very much. The Yamaha 600 outside my door exceeds 150 mph quite easily. I've not found it's top speed, but it is well over 150.
http://www.motorists.org/press...
Citations that directly support my position are hard to find, and they seldom address the issue directly. But - that little paradoxical article should catch your attention.
Driving at high speed fatigues a driver in less time than driving at low speeds. But, the distance covered before fatigue begins to set in is considerably greater. Feel free to do your own research. More than 40 years of real life experience convinces me that I am right. You simply don't find speed freaks falling asleep at the wheel. You find them involved in completely different types of accidents - if you find them in accidents.
I've already answered the question of beards a couple posts up.
Regarding racial integration, blacks have never had any special accomodations that weren't strictly health related. Specifically, when I was in the Navy, you were required to be either clean shaven, OR to grow a proper beard (only if you were a petty officer, junior ranks were required to be clean shaven). Black guys, however, often sported facial hair that couldn't be called a beard by any stretch of the imagination. The reason? A lot of black guys develop bumps on their faces from ingrown hairs when they shave. Wait - said "a lot of black guys". More accurately, SOME black guys develop those bumps. I don't know the percentage - some of them shaved and had no problems, some had problems - and I'm sure that some who COULD shave just decided that they weren't doing that stupid shit with the razor every day.
Regarding gays in the military - AC posted a link above that you might find interesting: http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/mil...
Excellent point that I left out. Male on male assaults do seem to have increased disproportionately.
You seem to have misunderstood my point. I am perfectly well aware that facial hair has no bearing on discipline. Facial hair is an indirect measure of a leader's ability to lead - "If you can't tell a man how to wear his hair, how can you tell him how to die?"
Fact is, the US military made it policy that no service member will be permitted to wear a beard while in uniform, right around 1985 or so, soon after I left the Navy. I wore a beard while in uniform. Suddenly, beards were outlawed. It remained so for about thirty years. Suddenly - beards are alright, because politicians want to recruit more Muslims. That is some stupid shit, IMHO.
Oh - the gas masks. Gas masks seal along a very specific line. Gas masks will seal if the hair is short. You won't make a seal with long hair all over your face, but you can trim your beard to conform the lines of the seal. I know, because I did it. Along with my shipmates, I donned my gas mask, adjusted it to ensure that it was sealed, entered the gas chamber, sat for a few minutes, then was ordered to remove the mask. I felt no effects from the CS gas until I removed my mask.
The FACT is, beards are now permitted for political reasons, NOT for any good military reason. Beards were prohibited in the first place for political reasons, NOT for military reasons.
Again, I disagree. Today, the internal structuring of the military is being tampered with to accommodate various special interest groups. Those groups begin with women and gays, and continue with Muslims, atheists, and ends God knows where.
A recent article shows that the Pentagon is reconsidering uniform requirements to permit beards and turbans for Muslims. Now consider that beards have been outlawed by our military for decades, based on "discipline" considerations. No redneck, no Jew, no mountain man has been permitted to display a beard while in uniform. Suddenly - we are courting Muslims, so out of the goodness of our hearts, we are going to allow them to wear beards and turbans.
A number of highly decorated professionals have been drummed out of service for the crime of failing to wholeheartedly support the gay agenda. The numbers published regarding sexual assaults on women are alarming no matter how you view them - but often enough, accusations of sexual harassment and/or assault are political tools used against good soldiers. It is impossible to even guess at the numbers of such instances, but I know for a fact that it happens. Other times, a female soldier who is busted for drugs or other infractions tries to turn the tables by accusing supervisors and investigators of sexual harassment. Again - it's impossible to even guess at the numbers, but it happens.
The internal structure is being eroded. We no longer have the military that we had thirty or forty years ago.
While a liberal or a progressive may feel that to be a "good thing", the fact is, our military is being improperly used to advance a number of political agendas. The effects on efficiency are all bad.
The US government needs to learn a few more lessons on building roads. If you would inform us of the aspects of roadbuilding in the US that impress you, maybe some of us could disillusion you.
For starters, our interstate highway system is demonstrably unsafe, compared the Autobahn. Have you ever noticed that nothing separates oncoming traffic? It has been pointed out to me that the Germans have double guard rails separating oncoming traffic. What do we have? A grass filled median. I have observed vehicles going out of control, and rolling, flying, coasting, skidding, or otherwise finding their way into the oncoming lanes. In view of the physical laws of nature, it is safer to hit ANYTHING other than oncoming vehicle. Steel guard rails, concrete dividers, trees, bridge abutments, ANYTHING.
There are a large number of places in the United States where the engineers flubbed. Dead Man's Curve, in Cleveland Ohio has lots of optical warnings that the curve is unsafe at speeds over 35 mph - but they seem to fail, as year after year, idiot manage to wipe out in that curve.
Bridges in various places during rainstorms become very unsafe. The crown of the road, couple with the incline of the road surface when it meets the incline of the approach ramp often just dams water up on the road way. I have hydroplaned fully loaded tractor trailers in these areas, while driving the posted speed limit or less. If I can float 80,000 pounds, you can rest assured that you will float your 3,000 pound personal vehicle in these areas.
Lighting. I have rather sensitive eyes. As I age, they are becoming more sensitive to bright lights at night. I can be blinded by lights pretty easily. Truck stops, restaurants, and other businesses often put very bright lights near the highway to attract attention. Billboards often have bright lights that are aimed improperly, so that they shine into motorist's eyes. The cops themselves are on a quest to find the brightest possible lights to mount on their patrol cars. I was very literally blinded as I came around a curve in Memphis late one night, by a police car stopped at the scene of an accident. Only luck, or the hand of God, prevented me from running into the survivors and the emergency workers.
Speed limits? Those are set by politicians, for the purpose of extracting revenues from the motoring public. When Eisenhower specced the interstate, it was intended that the interstate sustain 80 mph traffic. The human body has physiological reactions to traveling. On an open highway, with little to look at, the sound, vibrations, and general motions of the vehicle tends to lull people into relaxation and sleep at speeds around 55 mph. At speeds approaching 80 mph, everything about the vehicle tends to key the occupants into full alertness. Except for known unsafe areas, the interstates would be much SAFER with higher speed limits.
I'm sorry, but we are merely mediocre road builders. Leaving the interstate highway system behind, the US Highway system gets worse. State and local highways are oftentimes abysmal failures.
We CAN actually build superb highways. We have the technology, we have the knowhow, we have the materials, and we have the money to do so. We simply choose not to. Any movement to force the issue will be defeated by politicians. The courts will side with the politicians, because they love their cash cow. America will not be building any incredible highway systems in our lifetimes.
You seem to get it, somewhat. A Mexican is a Mexican, and if he's in the US, he is either here with legal papers, or he is an illegal alien. An American citizen is here by right. It doesn't matter if that citizen has a Mexican heritage, or Russian, or Ethiopian, or French, or Vietnamese. He is an AMERICAN, either by birth, or by naturalization. A Mexican is a citizen of Mexico. Get legal, or go home - that is my stance.
I'd rather have a .270, thank you very much. Ye Olde Elephant Gun is highly over rated. That little old .270 can be wildcatted to take on the biggest of game, or it can be light loaded for squirrel hunting. And, the .270 is amazingly accurate at long range, no matter how you load it. My second choice is the .308, but it's less versatile as a varmint gun. Squirrels, rabbits, and prairie dogs just go splat when you hit them.
I don't believe that meat eaters are as flatulent as herbivores. Not to mention that the saurians spend a lot of time sleeping, conserving energy, instead of running frantically about 365 days out of each year, searching for another meal.
Even nerds and geeks need a little laugh now an then. Don't worry your little head - we'll all be back to the task of designing the next quantum computer as soon as we've had a chuckle, and another Mountain Dew.
Whatever. No rationalization can justify the dramatic failure obvious in this case.
I'm sure glad that Russia warned the FBI about those Boston bombers, and that the FBI took them off the streets before they could kill anyone!
What's that? I got that wrong? Russia DID warn us about those boys, right? But, you say the FBI totally fucked up? So - you're saying that the idiots can't recognize intelligence when it bites them in the ass?
Well, I have to agree with you then. That really IS how the game is played. Your intelligence community isn't protecting anyone - it is preying on the sheep!
And, you don't think that exposing an all-seeing police state has any bearing on peace?
LMAO - that's just awful - and so politically incorrect!