You disbelieve that? Have you ever been a student at a military academy?
I never was a regular undergrad, so maybe I’m wrong about that.
But you know we spent a lot of time studying, sitting in class, hanging out at the library et cetera.
We also had pretty strict rules about how we looked and acted, and had assholes come in and inspect your room and how you had it kept pretty freaking often. I guess that’s the kind of stuff you wouldn’t see at a regular undergraduate school, but seriously the day-to-day focus during the school year is on providing a college-level education, not indoctrination or military affairs (though there are certainly some of those. . .)
I don’t think the mods can do this, even if I wanted them to do so. I’m pretty sure after the TubaDiva affair one of the admins/mods said that they can’t get that information.
And if the mods did go snooping in my personal info and running queries like that I’d definitely consult my attorneys.
Furthermore I did not use my real name as my user name for a reason. The internet isn’t a place one goes about spouting their real life information or anything else.
Maybe I was, maybe I’m actually a 14 year old who lives with mom and dad and says all of this stuff just because I get off on it.
All we have to go on here at the dope is, faith. You can accept me for who I present myself to be, or you can hold me to be a charlatan and a liar. That’s entirely up to you, and however I’m perceived by you or anyone else it won’t change the real me or the real life that I’ve lead one way or another.
My integrity exists quite independently of your acceptance of it.
So . . . I’d say the thesis of the OP has been amply supported, even proved, and has achieved the status of an SDMB Law. At this point we’re just cleaning up the footnotes, right?
Martin Hyde, three of my friends attended U.S. Military Academies. Two graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1965 and one graduated from West Point in 1964. I know what their summers and their day-to-day lives were like. I have been to West Point because my friend, Capt. Black, was buried there after volunteering for a second tour of duty in Vietnam. Your lies would desecrate that ground if I thought that you were more than just a child.
I have also been to the Naval Academy.
Your description of the routine at West Point could not be farther from the truth. You have gone too far this time.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
*
This is what the First Amendment says. Congress, by my interpretation, will not set up or establish an official state religion. It does not say Congress is forbidden from providing religious councellors, priests, rabbis, druids, or anything else for soldiers. Simply put, Congress will not set up a state religion and compel anyone to convert to it. If anything, by providing chaplains, Congress has provided for the “free exercise thereof”, to a very large group of people who would otherwise have been denied that right, due to circumstances. As long as it is not only one religion, and as long as no one is coerced, I see no violations.
When I went through Army basic (Fort Dix, June 1973), the drills did not force anyone to go to any church. The worst they did was to give a few phony “hard looks”, but they wanted to keep their stripes (I guess), so it never went any further. After basic, nobody seemed to care at all.
See, that’s the key. These are people who are taken up and moved around the world, away from the necessities of home. If your government takes you away from your house of worship, then I don’t see the conflict in remedying that, as long as they do it within the spirit and letter of the First Amendment.
Amen to that from yet another atheist. From what y’all who’ve been there have to say, it’s clear that military chaplains provide much needed services without attaching a quid pro quo of evangelizing.
I can think of a lot worse things for my tax money to go towards.