# Obama does his best to degrade a couple of Marines. Next episode: Wipers! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 16, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538 "2013-05-16T18:51:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/381 "2013-05-27T06:34:29Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > If anyone runs into **Sicks Ate** in another thread _please_ ask him to come back here and comment on the pictures of Republican Presidents humiliating Marines. We know he’s not a racist, because he told us so. If he has any integrity at all, he’ll come back, if only to claim he was experimenting with new dosages for his meds that day. Not likely. By running away Sicks Ate has shown himself to be a pathetic crybaby. I imagine when he comes back he will pretend this never happened. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/382 "2013-05-27T15:37:22Z")
Can we forever link Sicks Ate with umbrella marines, as we now link Starving Artist with cardboard tube fucking? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/383 "2013-05-27T16:08:44Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Can we forever link Sicks Ate with umbrella marines, as we now link Starving Artist with cardboard tube fucking? I’m planning on it. Of course, now that the game is afoot, that will just increase the odds of a complete bail out. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/384 "2013-05-27T16:31:57Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Can we forever link Sicks Ate with umbrella marines, as we now link Starving Artist with cardboard tube fucking? I don’t read Mr. **Artist** ’s posts, but it’s my sense that he has never publicly indicated regret about having brought that up. **Sicks Ate** , in contrast, has done so, right here in the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/385 "2013-05-27T16:41:40Z")
Has he? I must have missed it during all my Obama kool-aid drinking. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/386 "2013-05-27T17:43:09Z")
And why do you think Mr. Kool-Aid busts through your walls? To get your guns and force your kids into gay marriages! Wake up, America! ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/387 "2013-05-27T22:32:36Z")
To be fair, I think the OP gradually came to his senses about this thread. Here’s a recap of the evolving attitude: > [@Sicks Ate in the OP](#): > > Fuck you, you arrogant, condescending fucker. There’s no reason that you couldn’t just suck it up like a score of press attendees are doing, and towel off and change your fucking suit later. Or move the goddamn thing indoors. Nope, you decided instead to look around and find a couple of what you must consider peon scum to trot over and hold your umbrella like fucking servants. > > **Post #15** > I roll my eyes at most ‘outrages’. This one just pushes one of my particular outrage buttons. > > **Post #29** > Of course it doesn’t rise to the level of a scandal; it’s just disgraceful and pisses me off. > > **Post #55** > _[About the Marine pushing George H. W. Bush’s wheelchair at a recent ceremony:]_ Also degrading and shameful, and makes that Marine look just as awkward as they ones holding the umbrellas. The chair should have been pushed by someone else. > > **Post #66** > And while the incidents are similar there are differences. In the Bush case, there had to have been deliberation and a conscious decision by somebody to use the Marine to push the wheelchair. In Obama case, what bothers me is that his first instinct was to grab a couple of Marines who are, yes, largely there to stand and bee looked at. > > **Post #81** > Piffle…replace it with any service member in ceremonial dress, in a ceremonial capacity and the critique stands. > > **Post #85** > Trying to decide why I’m more comfortable making myself look very, very stupid intentionally, as opposed to accidentally. > > Blaming it on my phone.. Actually, this entire thread has been one long bad auto correct. I’ve been trying to post a thread about Duck Dynasty the whole time. > > **Post #183** > I’ve noticed a correllation…I only get myself into these ill-advised threads when I post from my phone. Why the hell is that? I’ve only done it about twice, and ended up getting hammered both times. New rule: No phone 'Doping. > > **Post #187** > To be clear…precipitating a war in the Middle East to put a hurry-up on the Biblical end-times is, like, lots worse. > > **Post #194** > Then allow me to clarify: War is much worse than umbrellas. > > **Post #198** > Just to clarify: I’m not _[i.e., not racist]_, war is bad, and umbrellas are not, in hindsight, as bad as they were yesterday. > > **Post #225** > Well damn, I kind of wish I was an attention whore troll, cuz this thread would have fit the bill perfectly. > > Unfortunately, I’ll be spending the next ten days with pretty much all of my internet access limited to my phone…and I’ve no intention of playing this game via Swype. > > So farewell for now, and I love you all. Mwah! Mwah! Mwah# And that was the last we heard from **Sicks Ate**. I think that by Pit standards, this arguably counts as a retraction and apology of sorts. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/388 "2013-05-27T22:44:48Z")
Whatever it was, him calling it a “game” means he doesn’t take it seriously, so I feel no compulsion to take anything he says seriously, including what might be generously interpreted as a passive-aggressive simulation of apology. Short of a one-sentence unambiguous admission of “I have shamed myself by starting a thread with such a moronic complaint and reinforced my shame by trying to defend said complaint and will withdraw from the thread”, as far as I’m concerned, Sicks Ate forever bears the Mark of Lame, or at least until something more interesting comes along. ---
**Author:** ![Apollon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@Apollon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollon)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/389 "2013-05-28T22:04:55Z")
Why are the marines rubbing their bellies? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/390 "2013-05-28T22:07:40Z")
Keep fucking this chicken. Obama’s administration has good reasons to be pitted, it’s better if we keep this irrelevant abortion at the top of the thread list though. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/391 "2013-05-28T22:22:19Z")
Won’t somebody _please_ think of the chicken? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/392 "2013-05-29T00:24:03Z")
And, sure enough, right on schedule, the right-wing hate radio hosts are condemning Obama for not saluting the Marine guards at the presidential helicopter. Can’t link to the exact clip, but it was Roger Hedgecock (San Diego) 5/28/13 (today.) Just exactly what we said (above) would happen. If he salutes…he’s wrong, and if he doesn’t salute…he’s wrong! Gotta love these guys (assholes of the wettest variety!) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/393 "2013-05-29T02:42:54Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > And, sure enough, right on schedule, the right-wing hate radio hosts are condemning Obama for not saluting the Marine guards at the presidential helicopter. > > Can’t link to the exact clip, but it was Roger Hedgecock (San Diego) 5/28/13 (today.) Just exactly what we said (above) would happen. If he salutes…he’s wrong, and if he doesn’t salute…he’s wrong! Gotta love these guys (assholes of the wettest variety!) That moron “radio host” must’ve conked out from, what?, perhpas vapors when President Obama failed to salute the Marine. Immediately after realizing that he hadn’t, the President got out of Marine Corps One and apologized to the Marine. The Marine looked a bit surprised by that. After all, the regulations regarding saluting require the junior person to maintain the salute until the senior person _either_ returns the salute or passes by. You have to love it when a bunch of non-military bozos get all flustered and whine about the Prez not doing a military thing in a military manner when said non-military bozos don’t know what the heck they’re talking about! Failing to return a salute when you’re actually engaged in something–such as being the freaking President of the country–isn’t a big deal. Failing to return one in a ceremony, on the other hand, is. This sentiment brought to you by an actual military type, me. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/394 "2013-05-29T03:47:03Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > And, sure enough, right on schedule, the right-wing hate radio hosts are condemning Obama for not saluting the Marine guards at the presidential helicopter. > > Can’t link to the exact clip, but it was Roger Hedgecock (San Diego) 5/28/13 (today.) Just exactly what we said (above) would happen. If he salutes…he’s wrong, and if he doesn’t salute…he’s wrong! Gotta love these guys (assholes of the wettest variety!) IIRC, Reagan was the first president even to think of saluting the Marine guards. So if Ronnie did it, the right wingers will take it as gospel it must be done or else. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/395 "2013-05-29T05:19:42Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > IIRC, Reagan was the first president even to think of saluting the Marine guards. So if Ronnie did it, the right wingers will take it as gospel it must be done or else. IIRC, Reagan got flack for that, but I don’t have a cite. Maybe it was said earlier, but traditionally, Americans have never been comfortable with the idea of an active service member being a president. Too banana-republican. But then again, Reagan got away with a lot of stuff (Iran-Contra comes to mind) that would have destroyed other presidencies. Americans loved the guy. I don’t believe a president should return a salute–you’re a civilian, not a military person. Case in point: If anyone in 20th Century was entitled to return a salute it would be Eisenhower (who was a retired five star General of the Army)–but he never did. I be willing to bet he would have been appalled at Reagan’s actions–again, because of the banana-republican appearance. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/396 "2013-05-29T08:22:05Z")
I don’t have a problem with presidents saluting or returning salutes, because they are the commander-in-chief after all. But I certainly wouldn’t think twice if a president didn’t do it. I wouldn’t think twice if he did. It’s a total non-issue with me, except the righties whining about it looks pathetic to me. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538/397 "2013-05-29T10:01:05Z")
In Mr. Ates’ defense, we see that [the 76-year old Vicar of Christ braved the rain yesterday](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/05/29/pope-greets-crowds/2368499/), without trying to humiliate any deacons or archangels into holding an umbrella for him. Then again, Pope Francis is obviously not a baby-killing Islamo-atheist from Kenya with a peculiar skin color. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-does-his-best-to-degrade-a-couple-of-marines-next-episode-wipers/658538.md?page=19)