Free Republic

It was always such a joke to say we are at war with somebody, and yet do nothing about choking their revenue streams especially when they relate to making illegal drugs!

I always thought the same thing. The military was prohibited from destroying the poppy fields in Afghanistan because the politicians didn't want to alienate the poppy farmers. To me, alienating drug growers is not a problem when you consider that the profits were being used to kill Americans and the drugs were going into our inner cities.

I had a female “problem child” that worked for me many years ago. She managed to get her previous two supervisors fired by alleging that they came on to her. We had a policy that no men would be allowed to go into a room alone with her. Whenever she got reprimanded we made sure we had plenty of witnesses.

The A-10 is single mission, but it is a mission with high demand and no good substitutes. We have air superiority options - a variety of aircraft. We have pre-planned target power projection options - various aircraft plus land-attack missiles. Until they can replace the A-10 for its close air support mission, and helicopters do not count, we need to make sure the A-10 is funded.

Friends (including a very close relative) who have been supported by an A-10 say there is no alternative that is anywhere near as capable. Those of us who are safe at home because of our men with boots on the ground have a moral obligation to fund a platform as capable as the A-10. It only has one mission, but it’s the mission that counts for Marines and soldiers in the sand and the mud.

I agree. I think the A-10 is very valuable in the type of conflicts that we're engaged in. There's no doubt that it does a great job at supporting ground troops. I think Congress needs to figure out how to fund it.

Sometimes I wonder if threatening to kill that A-10 is just a ploy to justify higher taxes. It seems to come up every year about the time they're working on the budget. They never threaten to cut Congressional pay, farm subsidies, or Welfare. Just popular defense programs and Social Security.

Then the Army should be given the opportunity to pick it up as an Army-sponsored weapons system ...

That would be one option. I don't see it happening, though. There's a lot that would have to be changed in order to make this work.

The A-10 is a single-mission aircraft. It's very expensive when you considered the fact that it's 40 year old technology and the requirements for maintenance and range support. Although it's very capable at performing close air support, shrinking budgets mean that the AF has to get rid of some aircraft types. Since an F-22 and F-35 are stealthy and can do multiple mission-types, while the A-10 is a one trick pony, the logical choice is to get rid of the A-10.

I was assigned to the 23rd TFW Flying Tigers when they transitioned to the A-10 from the A-7. I respect the airplane and the people who fly and maintain it. Given a choice the AF would keep it, but the manning levels in the AF are at their lowest since the AF was created in 1947. There's not enough money to support all the projects.

I think they should just build the wall around their property and put them on the Mexico side. Problem solved - everyone is happy.

Another stupid example of bad research.

Yep. Since there are no standards for marijuana, you can't do any reliable research. If a person got sick from it, was it the marijuana or was it a pesticide? How strong was the marijuana? How did they get their long term data?

I've been trying to find reliable information about it and every source I've found has an agenda. They're either strongly pro marijuana and are throwing out bogus studies to support it or they're strongly anti and are relying on old, discredited information.

I would just like to know the unbiased truth.

I wonder if they will explain why lately I am seeing Jeeps like this, with Scuba gear attached that looks like a factory stock vehicle with this extra apparatus.

I've seen a few running around, too. The old Military models had water tight ignition and snorkels. They were a pain in the butt to maintain. The seals on the ignition were always going bad and parts were expensive and hard to get. Unless you plan on fording rivers that are 3 feet deep or more they're a waste.

I don’t know specifically about the US Army but if any institution tends to get filled up with, as the author contends, ‘low quality of recruits’ and ‘mentally challenged’ then it becomes a much less appealing career choice for those who do not fit into those categories.

I was in the AF at the end of Vietnam and supervised a lot of these types. They joined the AF to keep from getting drafted and going to Vietnam. They didn't want to be there and it was a full time job just keeping them at work.

The new warfighting systems are much more complex than they were 40 or 50 years ago and it takes someone with an average IQ or above to operate and maintain them.

The Navy took in a lot of folks as a Democratic social experiment and made them Non-Rated. They weren't assigned to a specific career field. They spent their time painting and working as an assistant in the mess hall. One of the problems this created was that once a guy has been in for 5 or 10 years, there's no slots to promote them to. They aren't skilled enough to supervise anything and they can't get promoted.

It’s gotten to be a pretty common ploy. They wait until just before an election and make allegations of crimes committed years ago. There are no available witnesses and no one can really tell you what they were doing on a specific day 29 years earlier. When the election is over the accusers disappear into the woodwork.

I don’t try clothes on in the stores so do return stuff every now and then. At some stores they take the high priced stuff and do a check on the tag to see if it matches with the merchandise. I asked why they did it and they said that people switch tags. It would never occur to me to do something like that and there needs to be a punishment for someone who does that, intentionally stealing from the store. And a ‘don’t do that again’ is not enough. This attitude is what has emboldened the moral decay in our society

I can't tell you how many times we were cleaning up the shoe department and found someone's old sneakers in a shoe box. They come in and put on the new shoes and stuff their old ones in the box and leave the store.

My ex worked as a manager at one of the big stores. She once caught a woman doing something similar. The woman went to the toy section and picked up a big box that had a trike in it. She took the trike out of the box and filled it with DVDs and CDs and tried to check out and pay $29 for it. My ex caught her at the register, but security let her leave the merchandise and walk out without calling the police.

Four years ago I hiked six segments of the trail, starting in NC and ending in Massachusetts. I was a “Reebock Hiker”. I would drive my RV to an area and then hike for a couple of days and then take a few days off before driving a few hundred miles and doing it again. There’s no way I would tackle the whole trail. I was 56 years old at the time and it was much harder than I remembered from my boy scout days.

The definition of racism that I was taught was:

“prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior”

The new definition of racism is:

“Any time a white person argues against liberalism.”

As long as you can redefine a term to mean anything, there’s never going to be a meaningful dialog on it.

I think it would be funny if someone put a “MAGA” patch on her silly clown hat.

Just a guess, but I’m thinking that she won’t get an apology any time soon. If she does, it will be like a liberal apology, “I’m sorry you’re too stupid to understand.”

I saw a copy of his grievance on line and he describes himself as “a top tier NFL Quarterback.”

I would like to find out more about this issue. I’m wondering if the 100 F-35s are going to be used as trainers and don’t need expensive upgrades. We used F-15A/B models as trainers when most of the operational squadrons had upgraded to the F-15C/D models.

Is it possible that these aircraft are destined to be Nuke certified and wouldn’t carry conventional weapons? The SALT treaty limits the number of Nuke certified aircraft, so the verification process would need to differentiate between Nuke Capable and Non Nuke capable.

Maybe they’re destined for foreign sales or training foreign students who wouldn’t need access to some of the technology.

Maybe they’re going to be used as recce aircraft or other special purpose missions, like signal intelligence, or jamming.

Every fighter aircraft acquisition contract that I’m aware of includes the upgraded software. I think there’s probably a good reason for not upgrading these particular aircraft.

With temperatures expected to rise by a quarter of a degree over the next century, this will become a HUUUGE problem. I think this guy needs to take the obvious first step in fixing it. Tell his clients to quit breaking the law.

I’m still toting my BELOVED 2-1/2” S&W Mdl.66 in .357.

I carry a Ruger SP101 357 when I go hiking. It will stop anything I would encounter in Florida with proper shot placement and the stainless steel isn't going to rust.

My primary light-clothing carry is Glock 42 and heavy-clothing carry is Sig Sauer P320SC. Using L.A.G. holsters for both.

I just started carrying a Glock 42 this summer. It's a good compromise between concealability and size. Many of the smaller 380s are hard for me to grip. My winter carry is a Sig P239.