Guard Dog

Ditto what Enoch & Monte said. I would not use an e-reader for textbooks or manuals, or even cook books because I write in them, post-its etc. But I did buy a Kindle a few weeks ago and I must admit I do like it. I have over 2000 books in my house, two whole rooms have bookshelves for wall decorations (and they don't look that good). Something had to give. If I'm going to keep buying books at least the ones on the kindle don't take up space.

I did a final walk down on a new cell site we built for Sprint today. It's on Mud Island, a little tourist attraction just west of downtown Memphis. How the heck that little ball of dirt became a tourist attraction is beyond me. But I did have lunch at the Rendevouz which is really the only reason to go downtown unless you're going to a Grizzlies or Redbirds game.

Knob Creek mmmmmmmmmm good stuff Life is too short to not drink from the top shelf!

I went fishing in the Hatchee river today. I caught three smallmouth that were big enough to fillet. Very shortly I'll fry them up with some steamed white rice and sauteed zuchinni. After that I'll sit on my front porch with a glass of Knob Creek bourbon poured straight up and neat and look at the stars. Life is good!

Good luck Shryke, I hate moving. I'm a little hung over this morning. I stopped at the VFW on the way home for a short libation then got bloody serious about t when I got home. I had a 12 pack of guiness draft in the fridge and now all I have to show for it is a box of empty bottles.

True enough Wals; my apologies Enoch, I had a few too many before I started surfing the web last night. Heck I probably should apologize to somone over at the OOTP boards too, I was a little nasty there too.

I was in high school in Daytona FL when that happened. I saw it, but I did not realize what had happened until we went back inside. I thought they had just cut the rocket boosters loose too early. Very sad. I can't believe it's been so long, it does not seem that way.

I'd rather be dead than live in a human stew like that. Heck, Memphis is too doggone big for my tastes.

Guys, call me a pessismist here but there is no grand Jeffersonian republican democracy on the other side of this. I suspect Iran is up to it's neck is stirring this up. Cui bono? The MB. I suspect the government that rises from this will be far fare worse if Mubaraks regime does not survive.

I see, speaking of intellectually lazy, are you actually using the title of a book that I'll wager large you have never read to cast aspersions on it's ideas? Your use of the terms "Sowell and his ilk" makes your opinions of the man pretty plain. You know what bugs me about the left is the smug certitude that economic (and therefore human) behaviour is something that can or should be tightly controlled. The folks who think that way are often the same ones who entertain the hubristic notions that they know better than everyone else how everyone should be living their lives. Speaking of reading you should take a look at Hayeks masterpiece "The Road to Serfdom". It was published in the '40s but is frighteningly relevant now in the age of Obamanomics. It can be had for free on google books.

I bet you are, the Sox are LOADED this season. Barring injury or complete pitching breakdown I'm guessing you are going to have a happy October this year.

Watching football and making spaghetti and drinking beer. Thats what I'm doing today!

I should imagine he's far too excited to sit down and write it out. He's like a kid at his birthday party on this one. Tearing around his flat shouting "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee". The amusing thing is that LoF hasn't actually said a word in this thread. Maybe he has, hmmmm?

I hear you about the real estate situation Hurlie. I've come to the conlusion thet there is no way I can accept the job I was offered in Maryland. I can't afford to buy a new place (at least not one I'd want) and not sell my house here in TN, and I can't afford to sell this place because the most generous estimates of what i can get are about $50k under what I owe. In short, I'm trapped... like a rat....squeak squeak. But it's ok though, I really did not want to lose this place, I'm just now getting everything just the way I like it. This spring I'm going to clear some of the woods behind the house and plant peach trees. I have not formally tuned down the job yet and I alsmost hate to do so because it will be the second time I've done that, i doubt there will be a third. But it's ok, I'm happy where I'm at for the first time in many years. You know Hurlshot, you live in the most expensive part of CA bar none. Have you ever thought about moving? Sacramento, Modesto, or someplace like that might be a lot easier for you,

That is just not how it's done here Wals. And I seriously doubt it's going to change. Women can do anything they want to do except serve in the Infantry. Literally every other field is wide open and they can climb from Private all the way to Commandant of the Marine Corps. It's not because women don't make good Marines, it's because 99.99999% of WM (who I'll goon recod and say are the fittest women in America as a group) simply are NOT physically able to do the job. That is just how it is. Men and women are physically different for those of you who have not noticed yet. BTW, if you haven't figured that out you REALLY need to talk to Shryke or Slug, cause you need to get laid.

I don't think anybody here is suggesting that women can't serve in war zones on active service. This is a role-related issue. With respect you are missing the point slightly. And in most western armed forces bayonet technicians (inf) are usually on the lowest payscales. The technical roles (like Guard Dog working in aviation tech) tend to get articifer NCO status and higher pay increments to recognise their training and skills. The role we're talking about is infantry and armour. The pointy bit. It's just different. Like Shady said, you are paid according to your rank and time in service, your MOS has nothing to do with it. In many ways, having a MOS like I had works against you. It is a small field and it is very hard to make rank. You need to wait for someone to die, get discharged or transfer to get promoted. I was a Lance Corporal for almost four years with excellent PFT scores, Pros & Cons (Proficiency & Conduct scores) and I shot expert every time I qualified. If I was in the infantry I'd have made Corporal in half that time. I've always told everyone interested in the USMC, if you think you might want to make a career of it, do your first tour in the Infantry. You can make rank quickly and you have your choice of jobs once you re-enlist. Plus having that experience gives you the inside track on making Warrant Officer boards or later on selection to ranks like First Seargent or Seargent Major.

Things have changed then. When I was in they were exempt. Of course I turned my rifle in almost seventeen years ago. That is an eternity in the Corps, a lot has certainly changed. Do they (WMs) have to go to MCT now? They were exempt from that too.

@Wals, Di, Orogun & Thorton, Yes if women can be held to the same physical standards as men I see no reason why they cannot serve in the infantry. However, you need to understand something about how the military works that I think none of you know, there is no seperate standard for infantry and any other MOS (job). The same physical standards apply to ALL Marines. I was in the Air Wing, my MOS was 5953, I was an electronics tech who worked on Air Intercept radar. I was not a grunt but every Thursday of every week of my whole service (except when deployed) I did infantry training just like every other male Marine, I still went to the rifle range four weeks a year for qualification and countless hours for regular training. I still qualified with the Beretta and SAW. I took and passed the regular PFT (women do this too) & the Combat PFT twice a year. Every male Marine is trainied to fight as infantry if the need arises. Not to the extent of actual 0311's (infantry MOS) but not far off. If Women were to be held to the same standard it would not just be for women in the 03's, it would be for ALL WMs in the entire Corps. Last I read there were from 15000-20000 women in the Corps. How many of them would lose their careers if they were expected to meet male physical requirements? How many of them who are good at and love their jobs and give excellent service to their country would we force out simply to satisfy some ridiculous political notion that women are men are the same and interchangable in all things? To get a few hundred women into the infantry you would lose thousands of pilots, armorers, drivers, aviation tech, administrators, supply & intellegence personell, etc. Do any of you call that a bargin?

Yes there is a lot more to it. Including running fast for long distances while carrying very heavy loads. Being able to run without stopping until told, then fighting without stopping until told. Infantry is a VERY physically demanding business. I knew a lot of Women Marines during my time in and many of them were excellent marines in that they could do their jobs well and with professionalisim, but not one, not a single one of them could have hacked it as a grunt. Just as an example, you are a Marine platoon commander. You have been ordered to double time (that means run to those of you who have never served) over six miles of rocky terrain to relieve another platoon that is pinned under heavy fire. A Marine Rifle Platoon is roughly forty Marines and keeping with the percentages if it was integrated five of those would be women. Every platoon has one heavy weapons team (in my day it was the M-60e3 don't know what they use now) and every squad (three in every platoon) has a SAW team. Everyone in the platoon from the commander down to the newest boot private carries their own gear, their own weapons with ammo for them, plus a spare battery for the radio or 1000 round belt of ammo for the M-60 or two 500 round drums for one of the SAWs. The women would be expected to do this too. Now they will have to carry all of this while running six miles over rocky ground then at the end of that they will be expected to engage the enemy in a firefight. Every male marine can make that run, they do it in training ALL the time. That is the Combat PFT I told you guys about. Every male Marine has to pass it twice a year. What would you do as the commander if your five women can't complete the run? What do you do if even one of them can't? Not only do you lose her but whatever assets she is carrying. You can't stop because there is a besiged platoon waiting for your aid. You guys see the problems here? I'm sorry but there are some things that women just can-not-do. Failing to realize that is just politcally correct foolishness. Don't take this the wrong way guys but 99% of you never served in the military. And unless I'm wrong, Gfted1 and I are the only ones on this board regularly who have ever served in combat. You just don't fully understand what you are talking about. I do not say that to be confrontational or nasty, it's just how it is.

Steelers win in a big comeback. What a great game. Turnovers just kill you in football.

Most voter studies I've read (admittedly only see them in newspapers who all seem to have an ax to grind these days) seem to come out along the politcal lines of the groups behind the studies. For example, the 2010 election was a complete and total repudiation of the left, not so much a statement of dissatisfaction on the economy as has been reported everywhere. Most pro-democrat news organizations (which IS most of them) seem to ignore or gloss over the voters dissatisfaction with Obamacare and the conduct of the congress in general under Pelosi-Reid. My evidence of this is the near complete devastation of the democrats in the state office elections. Congress can change hands over and again but a loss change at the state level such as 2010 brought has not been seen since the depression. As for public anger at the 111th Congress, their attitudes towards their constituents and the public at large was, and I'll be kind, one of condescedning arrogance and contempt. And then Congressional leaders had the gall to wonder on Sunday Morning news shows why everyone was so angry. But anyway, this is not a politcal thread and I really don't want it to become one. Those politicians who sought to make politcal hay out of this have been pretty well humiliated. As for the crack-downs that was a little dramatic wording on my part but since the shooting there have been three new gun control bills promised, another promised to silence some politcal speech and a new all out attempt at dragging the fairness doctrine out of it's grave. None of it will see the light of day however. and none of it has anything to do with this shooting. It's just cynical people trying to capitalize on a tragedy to get their will imposed.

No surprise I guess. I just found it by accident, had not heard of it yet but from what I saw it did not get the juices flowing.

I just heard about this one, a new NWN Type game called Neverwinter. It's made by Cyptic & Atari & it's got the WOTC endorsement so I guessing it's D&D. It looks like an MMO which is a big turn off for me at least but it might not be. The descriptions are pretty vauge. Anyone know anything about this? http://www.playneverwinter.com/

Just got back from a trip to DC/Virginia. That was a real eye-opener.

No.. do not answer that if the answer is yes Gorgon, I do not want that image in my head!