Gee, your kind of a dick, huh? Well ,I did excel in all of my shop classes. Any kind of metal in my hands is a match made in heaven. Does this make a difference somehow? You know, maybe I’m missing something here, because I’m not really sure what your on about. Maybe your not a dick. Maybe your just a lot smarter than me. Please enlighten me.
Maybe the way to go is to ask what he means instead of calling him a dick first?
I’m pretty sure he was saying that avoiding war in the first place and letting soldiers stay home would be better than serving them steak while they’re overseas.
Well I took it as a poke at me for trying to show a little compassion. When I grew up you didn’t talk shit about someones mom. Bottom line is somebody is going to have to do it. If there aren’t any volunteers our country will reinstate the draft. I don’t doubt that for a second. Be sure that I would prefer that no one has to lose a loved one over the stupid shit our fearless leader has gotten us in to, but that’s not going to happen. So as far as I’m concerned the soldiers that we send to do our shit work deserve every bit of support and respect I can muster.
Yup. Sounds to me like what he was saying - Omegaman, calm down. 
Look- he should have said “their moms,” but I’m confident he wasn’t saying soldiers should have dinner with your mom and then sleep with her. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense.
I think the “at your Mom’s house” may have triggered the response - it certainly did with me. It IMPLIES that if they weren’t soldiers, they would be living with mom. This IMPLIES that they would not have achieved anything else in life.
It comes across as a slam, it it fits in with the usual rhetoric that flies about that the US military is a large welfare program, only caters to the poor and minorities, is for the guys in shop class, etc.
We have a choice, you know. Bring them home.
I’m all for it. This is just about the some of the stupidist shit I’ve ever seen. It fuckin’ works my nerves. :rolleyes:
…
Fuck, that’s a stretch. Reading between the lines is one thing; this is just assuming what somebody is talking about without listening to what they said - as proven by the fact that you needed two big "IMPLIES"es.
How does that interpretation jibe with that elucidator said about the wisdom of leaders who wouldn’t send them to war? There wasn’t any criticism, explicit or implicit, or people who join the military. He said they should get to spend the night at home instead of going to war. And not to bring you any shocking news or anything, but a lot of young people live at home.
Well, that’s the thing with not dealing with people in RL. People don’t talk shit to me because I’m ugly and scary. Here? Who knows. I’m not saying I’m a bad ass but be sure when someone speaks to me they choose their words carefully. When they don’t I can tell they want to fight. Which lately I really am trying to avoid.
All the guys I know who went through USAF basc in Lackland fondly recall being asked “DID YOUR MOMMA SEND YOU ALL THIS WAY JUST TO PISS ME OFF?!”
Never “pliates instructor” or “personal financial advisor.”
Somehow I can’t hear in my mind’s ear:
IT Manager, IT Manager can’t you see
What this army’s done to me?"
Having served made me a much better person than I would’ve been: tougher physically and mentally, self-discipined, willing to get onboard, ready to bond with others easily, able to solve a problem by visualizing the objective and planning backwards from that goal, etc. Shit, I’d be my kids best recruiter on earth, you better believe it.
I just won’t do it for these sons of bitches, though.
It isn’t that much of stretch, again, when this board is full of people who seem to think that the military is full of losers with no other choice.
I did the big IMPLIES because I didn’t know what he meant by it - and I gave the poster the benefit of the doubt that he was wishing a safer life than living in a war zone. I didn’t even initially respond because I figured I was just being a bit more sensitive than necessary. I recently held a celebration when a friend returned from the war, the third such celebration I have been at in the last couple of years. In each case, however, they returned to their OWN homes and had steak with their wives.
That said, I have no problem pointing out that the statement can be taken negatively by many a person in the military.
yes - many young (and old) people live at home after becoming adults. It is also a common insult (“maybe you will get it when you move out of your parent’s house”). Telling an adult that if not for their military career they would be living at home does not come across as a nice, complimentary thing.
As for the idiots in charge - I agree completely. I thought that this exercise, like many, was a foolish and poorly thought out operation. I welcome soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines home. I would like to bring more home.
I just react to the comments of others regarding who is in the military today (or even 20 years ago when I got my government issue utes & boots). Often their broad brush is rather off the mark, and comes across as a slam. I have heard plenty of anti-military comments in my life, including my favorite “I didn’t know we had THOSE kinds of people here.” This speaker was horrified to find out that it was my truck with the USMC sticker she was referring to, and it is now a topic of humor between us. She came to understand that ALL types are in the military.
Bah - too much drivel on my part based on what was hopefully a simple misunderstanding of a turn-of-phrase.
Well that is because you just don’t have the right cadence.
You need two syllables, not five there!
Another vote of thanks to Tranquilis for having the patience to fight this ignorance. I’ve been in too many arguments about this topic, with people who really ought to know better.
I laugh, because I was a college grad with a huge sense of entitlement several years before I matured enough to join the military. I have a much, much higher opinion of the people I met in the military than the people I met in college.
You know, I’m home now and reading this again I can see what the other guys are saying. Please excuse my ignorance. I don’t believe you were attempting to insult me at all. Marley23 was absolutely correct. I should have asked before I took offense. I hope you will accept my most humble apology.
Gracefully offered and happily accepted.
That, or “Army strong ! Army kill Superfriends !”
I recall hearing that one of the major obstacles to recruitment these days has been parents. They simply don’t buy the idea that it’s good to sacrifice their kids on the altar of Bush’s ego, I guess.
“Army strong! Army walk long way to crush enemy! Army no fall down!”
Simplicity is a virtue in a slogan, but this one comes across as maybe a little TOO simple.
Still, I like it better than the Navy recruiting poster at the local library: “Life… Liberty… and the Pursuit of Those Who Threaten It.” Oooh, what an intimidating reworking of a cherished national epigraph. Presumably it just beat out “Land of the Free and Home of the Ass-Kickers!” Too bad “America-- Fuck Yeah!!!” wasn’t available.
And what’s with the other Navy slogan in that poster, “Accelerate Your Life?” Is that really a good idea? Doesn’t that mean your life would be over that much quicker? Or maybe I’m overthinking this.
just for shits and grins, I Googled “George Bush” with “Tophet” and came up with 812. That may be a respectable number of allusionists, but then consider that 178,000 hits came back from smartasses who though “Hugh Manatee” was a clever construction