You’re assuming facts not explicitly stated. The way I read it, an offer to attempt to salvage part of a finger was declined. For all we know, he was told he had a 5% chance of keeping one third of the digit. Maybe he didn’t like those odds. My take: Some news agency got wind of it, and sensationalized it.
Based merely on your assumptions from a sketchy story, you’re saying really nasty things about a young American soldier in a war zone, and calling for the pitting of a physician carrying out his duty in a war zone.
I took the ASVAB three times. Why did I do that, you ask? Because I aced it. Every time. It’s not like it’s a hard test.
Why do you assume that he’s lying? What did you get, a 50 or something?
And one other thing. In the few posts I’ve seen from you you’ve been trying to pick fights, for whatever reason. If you’re looking for one, there will be lots of people here to oblige you, but I would recommend against that. In most cases you’ll be hopelessly outmatched, if the post quoted above is any indication.
Well, no, I didn’t ask, but now that you mention it…if I took a test and passed it, no way do I do it again! I got better things to do than take tests, and nothin’ is one of them.
My bad. I neglected to mention that I took it once in high school, then I had to take it again for my enlistment because too much time had passed, and then I had to take it yet again because they thought that there had been a mistake because my scores were so high. I kid you not.
That’s kinda scary, if you ask me. I thought the test was one of the easiest tests I had ever taken, and yet there are people that get scores as low as 40. I’d ask how people can be that dumb, but that’s just disrespectful. I’d rather just assume that they had the disadvantage of poor education. At least, that’s what I hope, anyway.
Yeah, the ASVAB is rather easy compared to most aptitude tests. I took the full-length practice ASVAB on Military.com as part of my research into the Air Force linguistics package I’ve been offered, and I aced it. I’ve had to create a seperate folder just to hold all the damned recruitment emails they keep sending me. I can’t help but wonder exactly how rare it is that people score this well on it…I mean, I’ve always done well on standardized tests, but the test just plain isn’t that hard. You’d basically have to have never passed fifth grade in order to outright fail it, and even then you’d have to have spent the next ten years living in a hole with nobody around to tell you what it means to take 10% of something. I did miss about 20% of the utterly bizzare section of the test that consists entirely of a barrage of questions about engine operation, but apparently that section isn’t weighted very heavily. Still weird, though.
In regard to the OP: file this under “Personal Decision -> None of Your/My Fucking Business -> I probably wouldn’t have done it, but it was his call and I’m not going to judge him for it”. You’d be surprised just how big a file folder that is. Quite handy, too.
Easy, Killer, no one’s attacking you. Although I am starting to think maybe you should’ve changed your name to “Case Hypersensitive”?
My post was one of those odd, offhand, “degrees of separation,” stream of consciousness things. I obviously overestimated you. Won’t happen again.
Re-read this line: … a play inspired by a hubris-driven, failed military invasion.
Humans have been fighting pointless wars since… well, as far back as anyone really cares to look. And yet, as in the time of Aristophanes, we “intellectuals” still squabble over petty little things, like soldiers’ rings, or words in a play. Or song lyrics.
Beautifully fucking illustrated by your bitter overreaction.
Given that **Bear Nenno **has been here five years, and some of us have met him personally (and been given MREs for the pleasure ), he has what’s known as “credibility.” IOW, we take his words for things like this because we trust him.
We’d trust you, too, if you were to stay here that long. Somehow, I don’t think that’s likely.
I lost a finger almost a year ago to this date to a malignant lesion. I would not hesitate to buy anyone on this board the diamond ring of their choice to have it back. It still fucking hurts. I’d rather lose a nut than lose a finger.
Ah, I’m sorry for over-reacting, Cid: it was late, I was touchy after a bad day at work, and I just read your post as a snide dig. Memo to self: do not post in the Pit when tired and grumpy. Apologies, anyway.
Given those immediate circumstances, and what my girlfriend has gone through over the past two years, I would treat anything she gave me as a religious relic too. And I say that sitting here, with all ten fingers and toes. She damned near lost her life, and I’m worried about a finger?
Tripler
You might need to learn a thing or two about devotion.
Maybe. I can vouch that he’d feel a lot better about six months from now if he had. You can always get a prosthetic nad like Lance Armstrong and go on about your business. Adapting to a missing digit on my dominate hand has been quite a challenge for me. Oh, and did I mention that it still fucking hurts?
So she’d also have to go through the pain of seeing her partner lose one of their fingers, and the subsequent disability/disfigurement? As well as the guilt of knowing they did it for her? Nice.
And it’s not like the ring would have been lost (well, even though it was, in this case). Jewelry can be soldered together to look just like new, I had to get a ring downsized once and there isn’t even a mark where it was joined together. So yeah, IMO this guy is a total idiot. If he would have cut the ring off and saved a nub, at least he could have worn the ring on the nub. Now, he can’t wear it at all.
Regardless of the fact that a surgeon might not cut a ring as delicately as a jeweler: Sometimes a romantic gesture is even more valuable then the physical objects it involves.
Don’t you think it’s a bit unfair to characterize someone as a “total idiot” based on a decision that:
[ol]
[li]Many people view as rational, even if you don’t.[/li][li]Was made under extreme emotional duress.[/li][li]Was one of many, many, decisions this gentleman will make in the course of his life?[/li][/ol]
I am considered “right wing” because I voted for Bush and I support the war and our troops, but you have that wrong…I would save the hand, not the ring. Why bother, she’ll probably dump him for the guy she’s screwing behind his back while he’s away anyhow.
Kind Sir, if you are about to tell me that a girl, who went through multiple chemotherapies and a stem cell transplant is not worth a single engagement ring, then, I would like to introduce you to my girlfriend and myself. Furthermore, I would invite you to the sacrifice I have willingly made to many a doctor, only to be turned down because I “wasn’t completely compatible”.
I invite you to consider other points of view before you make other opionated statements.
Furthermore, if you would happen to decline any invitation or any thoughs of the situation thereof, I would be happy to oblige you with an erect middle finger, simply to tell you that your life ain’t all rosey and happy, and that sometimes, strong men need to make strong decisions.
And that includes you.
Tripler
Stronger men have done stronger things, solely to keep your personal life intact.
pkbites, I think we are making different assumptions based on the article.
My assumption is the finger in question is already mangled, hence the “tried to save most of it” part. I saw it as a choice between a mangled stump of a digit and a missing digit, but he got to keep the ring that meant something to him.
Not all rings are replaceable. If it was a heirloom, passed down through generations in his family… Now, such things don’t mean much to me, but I can see that they mean a lot to others. My wife, for example.
BTW, laughing they lost the ring was very bad form.
), he has what’s known as “credibility.” IOW, we take his words for things like this because we trust him.
