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break the wrist, walk away

No, I don't believe it would work.

The church community gives our society a lot more than just religion. I see that in my family. My wife needed a circle of friends after our last move. She found that in our church’s small groups and their women’s group. It is where we go to spend time with people that hold our same values even if we aren’t in the same place in our religious journey. And that ties directly into the war on the nuclear family. Families used to spend time together in church. It is a place to grow together, to learn together and to work in service towards others together. Most families don’t even eat together anymore. There is absolutely no doubt that our society would be in a much better place if more people were involved in church. Not just sitting through service on Sunday but involved in church even if it’s not solely for religious reasons.

People who do crimes should face justice and be arraigned, tried and convicted as necessary. Anyone and everyone. This goes for murdering little children at school, shooting a rival gang member, running over protesters with you car, looting during a riot, being an insurrectionist & storming the seat of government, being a member of Congress who unjustly profits off their positions, or being a former Presidents who seemingly broke quite a few laws in numerous and colorful ways. No one is above the law.

Am I involved in this conversation at all? Super confused by tagging me here. @FourFans do you have any idea what my beliefs on this topic are? Do I attend church regularly with my family? Do I think that religious groups on the whole are a positive influence on society? What are my views on loneliness, social connection, or the importance of unifying goals and values to a group? Why don’t you go ahead and tell me Mr. Smart Guy, because you’re such a fucking wise student of history and I am but a smooth-brain simpleton 😂

What Lloyd said. The church was our society’s meeting place and source of morals and values (specifically the ones that transcend religion). Now social media and the MSM has replaced the church, both packed with anti-family and anti-moral garbage. And there in lies Pandora’s box - were never going back from SM (which is probably the worst thing to have ever happened to us in the modern era). So the only course correct now is parents need to sack up and actually work at maintaining a stable family and raising their kids correctly. They need to also help their local communities do this by being involved/aware about school issues. All the millions of people who hate all the BS going on, but are too big of pussies to stand up and say/do something, need to sack up and stop being weak candy asses. Some of you reading this right now are those pussies, I guarantee it. Do some introspection, then get off your asses and do something about the BS. How can you be willing to get in a gun fight, but you won’t speak at school board meetings? Why aren’t you or your spouse running for school board, city council, etc? Why do you complain to your neighbor over beers about all the trans mental health issues being pushed on kids, but you say nothing about your kids “celebrate trans or you’re a bigot” homework? If these describe you, even indirectly, you’re fucking up. But the good part is you can recognize it, and fix it.

Did you eat a lot of paste as a child?

A ten inch long missile? Are we sure it wasn’t just BQZip’s mom’s vibrator?

Army is now having to do a pre-boot camp fat camp for a chunk of their recruits.

A little late, but funny!

Much like California being a great place except for alot of the Californians, I see the same thing in the church. There are a ton of Christians that miss the forest for the trees and use certain verses as a cudgel to push shitty ideology. My brother was a drug addict that literally nearly killed me as a baby and would have killed himself if not for our churches youth pastor, pastor, and my dad (no shit talked him off a literal ledge with a gun in his hand). They got him in recovery, helped him along the way, and he became a very successful person. He also relapsed twice and the church family helped him. Conversely, I know families where the parents divorce and they are excommunicated from the church. I don’t want to get into a dogmatic argument about all of that, but that kind of thing does more damage to the church than damn near anything.

Absolutely correct. All of that works as advertised & is well worth the time & investment. But it still misses the mark somewhat when it comes to the wider community. I’ve talked & interacted with a lot of interesting people I would have otherwise never met at cycling, car enthusiast, aviation, country club, and other events/clubs. But at the end of the day, the kinds of people that are interested in the things I’m interested in tend to be somewhat homogeneous (Biff, look that word up before you pass judgment 🤣). I think there is probably some utility in casting a wider net & putting people with disparate interests together on a semi-regular basis.

For a heavy unit tdys are constant and non-stop. You can easily go weeks or months between crossing paths with another dude in the unit. Theoretically our sq could keep everyone on mission critical 24/7 but the reality is we go tell RA if we need it and then it's done.

It's called a club. There are millions of them. Pick an interest and go. The problem isn't finding a group, the problem is showing up. Religion has always had the advantage of threatening you with eternal damnation if you don't go, and the social pressure from other parishioners if you skip out. Conversely, you don't get the same judgement or shame if you miss the pickleball meeting on Tuesday night. You gotta show up. That's all it takes. Put the same group of people in proximity to each other repeatedly and regularly, and the community and all the associated bonds will form. But you have to miss other things. TV shows, concerts, other parties, rest at home, etc. The internet has let us form more homogeneous groups, which is bad for diversity (mental, not skin color), and all the biological forces that build community are negated because they only work in person. Our brains need it. This is why impoverished cultures don't have the same suicide rates that the West is contending with. We are hyper-connected, yet all alone.

Because it's being peddled like crack to our society, especially the children. My best friend is a drug addict with mental issues. He decided in November that, he's adding becoming a woman to his list of stupid things he's done since his life has spiraled out of control. I can't do anything to help his kids. I visit him several times a month. On several occasions, he has answered the door tweaking out of his mind looking like a man version of Cruella De Vil. We've (my family, his parents and his ex wife) tried to help him so much throughout the last few years only to see him do this to himself and his family. It's not some innocent game of dressup we're playing when we push this crazy shit onto society, especially to people with mental health problems. That's why it's an issue for me. After watching our leaders fumble through the Covid pandemic, I have zero faith in what they consider is medically safe. If I just sit back and say everything about the trans movement is OK, I'm not helping my friend. I know that one day, I'm going to find him dead from suicide or a drug overdose. I'm also thinking about a child 20 years from now who decides that maybe cutting off their dong or tits at age 12 wasn't their best idea. I'm tired of stupidity. That's why I can't get behind (sts) the trans movement. I have no faith in out government's ability to tell us about medical issues, especially when it comes to permanently disfiguring our bodies. Thanks for being concerned though.

I see. That makes sense. The question becomes then how do you get back to those morales without forcing religion? I’m not religious but I have those morales because I was raised to be a good person and treat everyone with respect. The question is how does that become widespread? There’s a huge lack of taking responsibility going on right now and how you turn that ship around is a great question. I think the only people living in la la land are the ones saying things are going great. I think it’s pretty obvious if we keep the current course the history books will talk about the fall of the US.

I've been using Trivium's online test I paid for AFOQTAcademy's online test and I've been using AFOQTpractice test.com I've done both the Trivium and Baron tests in their books as well as the short AFOQT PDF from the Air Force website. Are all of these tests good? The only sections I still really struggle with are Arithmetic and Math. (I've never taken college Algebra or Geo. I took Stats and Finite Math). Is there any other practice test I should know about? If I take this test at the end of this month, I want to be ready and ace this ing thing.

Sounds like you are well on your way and got most of the bases covered. One thing I would recommend that helped me a lot is your local library. Just search for afoqt and they usually have a couple solid books including the officer candidate one. Should have a couple full length practice exams available in each one. Best of luck!

I recently interviewed "Hacker" Haskin about his time as a UPT student, UPT IP and IFF IP (amongst other things!). He shared a range of advice and thoughts across about four hours of chatting. Those looking to go to UPT might find it interesting:

Been a few months, but maybe my experience can help. LOR are very beneficial, especially when coming down to the wire on a interview or hire basis. Having someone of significance in an industry or who can attest to your piloting and/or professionalism is great. Thankfully I was and am fortunate enough to have met some very helpful people within the community (prior/current military aviation). If you can get a hold of someone who flew (or currently flies) in the AF and build a great relationship with them, then ask for a LOR. Being an older candidate doesn't make it more difficult, in fact, I think it's been beneficial to network and build relationships with people who may lead me in their flight formation someday. Key take-away: Don't let the age thing be a looming factor, especially with letters of recommendations, just get yourself out there. @SLeon_17 Agree with what @N730 stated, unless it was asked otherwise, I kept a generic "Dear Sir/Ma'am," so I didn't have to request a signed copy from my recommenders every time I applied to a new squadron.

The Left has started utilizing the judicial system to attack its opponents. I feel like we have seen this happen in other countries before...

The scary part is they have no idea what comes next. I mean; 1. Wreck Trump 2. Disenfranchise all the right-wing flyover rubes 3... 4. Paradise This isn't much of plan as history shows. And the Revolution always eats its own.

I didn't insinuate anything. I made a statement. I agree that both sides should be prosecuted if guilty of crimes. We haven't seen anything on Biden or his son, Nancy Pelosi's infamous insider trading, or anything on Hillary Clinton pushed forward. Didn't we have a former President of the democratic variety lie under oath about an affair while in office? Is that not worse than what the Left is seeking to currently prosecute Trump for? The Left is doing this to defeat their political counterparts is what I am saying, they are not doing it out of some morale high ground.

-edit to stop derailing this-

Lol is the insinuation here that trump is squeaky clean and this is nothing but a baseless witch hunt? Like a KGB style targeting of a political dissident? It's a fun narrative for the right to rally around for sure. Except it doesn't jive with reality. Reality is that trump has likely been getting away with crap his entire life due to money, power, and status. His, Biden, and Pence's classified document debacles would be enough to land any of us normies in prison for a long time. But of course none of them will face consequences for that blatant recklessness. Personally I'm glad the left opened this door. Hopefully the right retaliates and prosecutes crimes committed by prominent leftists. As long as the prosecutions have solid evidence, more politicians going to jail on both sides is an extremely good thing. I cannot think of a single group of people who deserve it more.