Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats

So, seeing as we're on a Babylon 5 thing right now.



TWENTY YEAR cast reunion. TWENTY FREAKIN' YEARS....

Huh, for some reason, I thought that Peter Jurasik had passed away. I was happy to see that I was mistaken.
 
Jesus, Walter Koenig AGED like 30 years in the last 5. The death of his son is my guess on that. Or his age just caught up with him. He couldn't stay looking as young as he did forever.
 
If the current hats serve their function well enough, then I don't see the need to change them.
If they need to be changed, then so be it, it's just bad timing.

--Patrick
 
If the current hats serve their function well enough, then I don't see the need to change them.
If they need to be changed, then so be it, it's just bad timing.

--Patrick
My guess is it's just in the exploratory stage as the 'memo' was what was used as a source. This is just like in a company when someone says "What would it cost to do X, what are the benefits, what are the negatives."
 
We only accept National Enquirer or higher news stories here! Unless they're about a former Democratic Senator from NC, then we'll sit on the story for 6 months before picking it up.

Now in all seriousness, whats wrong with the current Marine Cap? Why is it considered masculine? Why is the proposed new cap considered unisex? Aren't the marine dress uniforms unisex already (even with a "masculine" cap)?
 
Don't be a tool. I commented and explained that it was just a memo. You're getting over excited because of something which was simply suggested by someone. Hell, it doesn't even say Obama said to change the hats. RTFA.


You want an excuse to hate Obama. There are plenty of real reasons to hate this administration rather than trumped up, stupid flailing over non-issues.

Edit: Ok, Stienman's article never mentions Obama and says the Marine Corp Board is responsible for this. Wow, I'm totally convinced, FUCK OBAMA for this!

Want to know why the NY Post didn't link to their source? Cause they're a shitty fucking rag of a paper which isn't even good for toilet paper.
 
Want to know why the NY Post didn't link to their source? Cause they're a shitty fucking rag of a paper which isn't even good for toilet paper.
Yes. Wiping should remove shit, not add more.
(Disclaimer: I'm not particularly happy with any mainstream media right now)

--Patrick
 
Search for "Obama unisex military"

I was made aware of it via my marine brother in law who is none too happy about the proposal from a style and history perspective, but there's plenty to be unhappy about for the financial cost such an unnecessary change will have.
While it's bad timing on his part, the uniforms in the military are generally money wasted anyways. Each branch wants it's own uniforms, does it's own research for said uniforms, then refuses to share said research with other branches. All have different patterns, despite the Airforce not really needing blue camo when working from military bases or ships. This is because the Army, Airforce, Navy, AND Marines are too busy fucking each other over for budget to work together.

Don't even get me started with the US Airforce. Their hard-on for the latest tech is grounding the perfectly serviceable A10 groups in favor of the untested F-35 variant entirely because they have to justify it's existence. This is despite A-10s costing around 13 million a plane and F-35's 100 million... and being entirely inferior to the A-10 at it's role.

tl;dr? Most military spending is a joke and I'm not really going to get upset about 8 million for hats when the Airforce is spending 400 billion on a plane that doesn't outperform the planes it's supposed to replace.
 
I'm suggesting I want to see the story on how he wants unisex uniforms so I can discuss this informed. Gee wiz, settle down man.
 
Their hard-on for the latest tech is grounding the perfectly serviceable A10 groups in favor of the untested F-35 variant entirely because they have to justify it's existence. This is despite A-10s costing around 13 million a plane and F-35's 100 million... and being entirely inferior to the A-10 at it's role.
I thought they were unhappy that the A10 was essentially a slow, single-mission aircraft, and they wanted to replace it with something a bit more versatile?

--Patrick
 
I thought they were unhappy that the A10 was essentially a slow, single-mission aircraft, and they wanted to replace it with something a bit more versatile?

--Patrick
Yes, it's a solo dedicated ground support aircraft and the only one in the Airforce. It's also the only aircraft we have that does it's job and everything that has tried to replace it has fallen way, way short of the mark. It's slowness is also an advantage in it's job, especially considering it's engines don't use a ton of fuel.

The problem is that the Airforce is trying to prep for a war with China while it's still fighting engagements in the Middle East. Yes, a stealth, fast multirole is great when you are trying to take out hardened targets on the coast. However, it's much to fast to provide close air support and it's cannons are small with little ammo. It just can't do the A-10's job. Only the A-10 can.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I just want to go on the record and say I love the A-10 and if they dared leave me alone with one for 30 minutes I would find a way to have sex with it.
 
a) the military constantly orders ridiculous-to-insane studies on all kinds of insignificant crap. It's away to funnel money wherever.
b) 8 million? Honestly? Even the *Belgian* military spends more than that on crappy useless studies. We managed to spend over 2 million (yeah it's less, but it's an example I happen to remember) on doing a study to see how many more inventory space would be needed on cargo planes if we flew engineering troops out with male and female bathrooms instead of unisex ones. The fact that we didn't have any women in our foreign engineering department at the time, and those female engineers in the army working in Belgium were all perfectly happy using unisex bathrooms didn't matter. Study had to be done, yo!
c) no matter who's in charge, we're slowly evolving towards more unisex uniforms all over. It may go slower or faster, but Star Trek Dress Uniforms will be around eventually. Of course marines/army/etc won't be happy with it - they look less masculine. Which is also the point of being more unisex. I do'nt care one way or another.
d) the study may be based on recommendations by a committee basing themselves on policy set by someone who's acting on higher authority and this may be a logical path based on policy as set forth by someone higher-up. I sincerely hope the President of the United States has more important things to do than order $8m studies on wardrobe changes. I highly doubt Obama was aware of this before it become media news.
 
I thought they were unhappy that the A10 was essentially a slow, single-mission aircraft, and they wanted to replace it with something a bit more versatile?

--Patrick
The last time the air force did that it was an unmitigated failure for the troops on the ground.[DOUBLEPOST=1382714716,1382714636][/DOUBLEPOST]My phone back ground is a close up of an A-10.
 

North_Ranger

Staff member
The NSA spying on Angela Merkel and accused of tapping millions of calls a month in Spain? Wow.... That's frickin' sick.

Just google for now, okay? The iPad is being a bitch with formatting and linking.
 
And apparently Obama was clueless throught the whole ordeal. He didn't know he says. I'm sure that'll make our allies feel better about the whole thing.
 
My favorite part is how the GOP talking heads this morning opened with:

-The NSA says the spying has been going on for 10yrs.-

then followed with

-Obama is a double talker, on one face he says he wants to bring the Nation into a better light with foreign policy, then he starts spying on our allies-

That's impressive, I didn't realize Obama was in his third term :rofl:
 
My favorite part is how the GOP talking heads this morning opened with:

-The NSA says the spying has been going on for 10yrs.-

then followed with

-Obama is a double talker, on one face he says he wants to bring the Nation into a better light with foreign policy, then he starts spying on our allies-

That's impressive, I didn't realize Obama was in his third term :rofl:
He certainly had the opportunity to put a stop to it, or curb their abilities. He expanded it and made it more invasive.
 
I know I sound like a broken record, but are we ready to disband the NSA yet?
Not 100% sure that would be necessary. Leashed, though...they definitely need to be leashed. They're acting a lot like the 5yr-old kid who runs around the cereal aisle dumping boxes looking for toys while his mom just yells, "Stop that this instant! You put down those boxes!" but doesn't actually move to stop him.

--Patrick
 
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