Smokin

HeloDude - I agree that you should put it somewhere out sight, but you make it sound like your average hooligan breaking into your house while you're gone is going to be able to break into or carry away your gun safe. If you drop more than $500, it should defeat the average thief and I doubt pros capable of defeating it are targeting my house. My gun safe was only $800 (bought it as an Lt and it was all I needed), but it is rated to an hour and weighs over 400#s empty. It is considerable work to move it empty with a dolly and someone helping me. With my guns and ammo inside, there is just no way someone is hauling it away without a hydraulic lift on a truck and some serious moving equipment. Not saying it couldn't happen, but I bet it is close to 1K full. On a related note, anyone built or seen a safe room in their house? Not a crazy auto closing panic room, but basically a super storm cellar enclosed in concrete with a gun/fire safe door to get into it? I figure it'd be nice to be able to double the room up as a storm cellar and gun safe where I can hang the guns on the wall rather than have to dig through my safe to get the one I want.

They failed to show significant credibility issues because her past was basically excluded. For all the jury knew, she was a pure as the driven snow virgin when she arrived at that party. His past, on the other hand, was dealt with in detail to drag his character through the mud by cherrypicking examples from his life; just like you got upset at me for doing from your post. There are multiple letters that show up in the FOIA that were excluded from the trial that bring her credibility into question. I don't know what her reason was for lying, but she did. Maybe her contract on base was about to expire and she was worried she was going to get the boot. Maybe she just hated pilots, who knows, who cares; but she did lie. She lied about when she passed out, she lied about how she got out of the house, she lied about what the room looked like, and I'm sure she lied about what actually mattered that night. All of that is part of the evidence that I mentioned and it all was in favor of the accused. Do I expect DNA type evidence like there should be in a rape case when she only accused him of severe groping? No, but I do expect evidence like the above and it seems to have largely been excluded from the trial. I don't blame the jury; they were not given all the information. I blame our court system that allows exclusion of relevant information. Thankfully, we have a backup oversight that the civilian courts don't.

Yup, as if. Gen Franklin decided that there was reasonable doubt, as the jury should have. That means he is innocent. Not 'as if he was', but actually innocent. And your 'perfectly innocent' already betrays your bias. The wording should be perfectly guilty, because if he is not perfectly guilty, then he is innocent. If you can actually read the material available on that FOIA website and still think beyond any reasonable doubt that he is guilty, then I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. Her story just does not add up and contradicts multiple other people, including her friend who should have a natural bias in her favor. One - You cannot walk into a court case and NOT think that everyone is possibly a liar. You have two completely different stories as to what happened, so someone is lying. If you start out with the assumption that the victim cannot possibly be a liar, you might as well not have a trial and just execute the accused on the spot. A complete lack of evidence in itself should put some doubt in your mind. Yes, you will have people who are actually guilty go free, and that is terrible, but less terrible than innocent people in prison.

Pretty sure actually spending time in a federal prison is not untouchable.

Perhaps I misread Gen Franklin's letter, but it seemed to me that his JAG originally told him to uphold it, but after his extensive review, even the JAG changed his mind. As has been said but is worth saying again, good on Gen Franklin. He took a big risk and it may cost him his 4th star. I hope not, but when the next list goes to the Senate, I'm sure there are some feminazis who will remember this and hold it against him. Either way, he has re-instilled a little bit of my faith in the AF.

I'm always shocked when I see the copy of the tricare statement of how much the doctor billed versus how much tricare paid. What surprises me is that it has taken this long for health care providers to start making a fuss.

Not just one band, but two! Effects based music is really making progress. I expect this new medium of warfare will drastically shorten whatever we're calling the war on terror today. In fact, we should probably make a separate command, Music Combat Command, to make full use of the potential lethality. And what was with a dude framing his own ABU shirt? When I retire, I'm going to frame my entire flight suit. And my boots. A six foot by three foot single piece shadow box homage to himself in the living room is exactly what every retiree needs. A perfect centerpiece to the 'I love me wall.'

From drudgereport.com: EMPIRE: BLOOMBERG FINGERS CUOMO... Gross.

Oh, good. Yet another example of baseop's favorite pastime of contorting words beyond all recognition of the original statement. Did I say we should start a war because of the horrific oppression of their people? No. I said "IF THIS WAR STARTS BACK UP" then ending a government that still uses massive Holocaust style concentration camps is a more important reason for me to fight than supporting Samsung and Kia. That is a big difference from your implication that I advocate starting a war over it. A second Korean War would likely kill hundreds of thousands if not millions and is not something that any rational person should want.

Agree that $25K/year won't make you rich, but it is a considerable increase in pay that makes some think twice about jumping ship. On the other side, I could see myself staying in but not taking the bonus so I could have the option to say FU when they send me on a 365 to asscrackistan. You make the bonus $35K/year, then a 40% take home pay increase makes it tough to turn down, which locks me in for 20. Or, the AF could just collectively pull their nugget out of their cornhole and stop 365s which offer little to no benefit to the US, needless deployments simply because a unit is up for their AEF, and other quality of life crushers. Suddenly you don't need to offer extra money to keep guys from walking away from a job they've worked for years to get into.

Have you read or watched Camp 14? Some things in life are worth fighting for, even if it is not a direct threat to our country. The RoK's economy is not what I would fight for if this war starts back up.

True, but the first half of billy's post would be a serious problem for NK should they attack. The areas directly south of the DMZ in the most likely attack routes are not that wealthy and would probably not be too impressive, but it as they get more than 6-9 miles from the DMZ that rapidly changes. Although, it won't look quite as nice by the time they get there with the hundreds of thousands of rounds per hour landing in Seoul on opening day...

Passing over 6/10 guys at Misawa compared to the overall 89% promotion rate is crazy. Any fighter pilot getting passed over for major at an ops base is mildly surprising and disappointing, but six?!? Was there something strange going on there, like a group of guys getting paperwork for something? The WG/CC's DP allocation alone should have prevented that unless he gave most the DPs to non-pilots. That sure won't help the fighter pilot shortage...

I went from a 4.25 to a 3.25 (both VA), so a little more of an advantage, but my principle only went up the amount that my interest payment would have been during the month I skipped the payment due to the closing. NBoKC gave me enough credits that not only did I not pay any closing costs, but they actually contributed to my escrow account. So, yes, I would refi if you're going to keep the house. Unless the fed starts actually paying banks to take their money, rates can't get any lower. The economy is going to recover sooner or later and everyone will be wishing for rates like this.

And he truly means "your" freedom. He will still have body guards armed with weapons that he wants to make illegal for anyone else to carry.

Sprint generally keeps your original date. So if you have a two year contract, go to Korea for a year, you should only have a year left when you get back. Also, if you're going to cancel and are worried about your phone number, try transferring your number to an online phone service, then transferring back when you get back to the states.

If you read the original story of his conviction in the AF times, it sounds like complete BS that he was convicted in the first place. The article specifically said that there was zero physical evidence, it was he said she said. That by itself should raise some eyebrows; how do you come to a conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt when there is zero evidence? Then you add on the fact that his wife was sober and agreed with his story so it was actually a 2v1 including a sober wife against an admittedly drunk woman. BS flags are all over this case, yet this guy was still put in prison. Sounds like a witch hunt to me. General Franklin is one of the good guys and I'm glad to see our leaders stick out their necks for what they know is right. I just hope it doesn't cost him (and us) his future in the AF. Finally, how are our elected leaders so ignorant? “I just think the system is messed up if a general can overturn a case like this with a stroke of a pen,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill. Do you think she knows that she and her peers are actually in charge of the laws that allow this?

True, but there were also a significant number of M1 Carbines and 1911's issued, among other weapons that use magazines. I see it as really more of a trivia thing than something to get upset about. Like the difference, as mentioned above, between the terms rifle and gun; a slightly less than interesting fact but not really important as long as you don't time travel back to Marine basic training in 1942.

It doesn't really matter what your lease says as far as a military clause; the previously mentioned federal law trumps your lease. That's why they passed the law. Since you gave them the requisite 30 days notice, you cannot legally be charged a penalty for leaving early. If they try to charge you, they are violating federal law and their lawyer probably knows this. However, if you have not had written or electronic proof that you gave this notice, I would do that ASAP so they can't try to claim you didn't give notice. From what you're saying, it sounds like the landlord is not the most reputable, so I would also make sure you take pictures or video of the apartment as you're leaving in case they try to claim damages from your deposit.

Once Green... Anyone know if the River Rats have started a fund?

Pulling money from an IRA of any type should be a last resort. I just refinanced my VA loan at 3.25%. That is .25% above historical inflation. Average for the stock market is ~10%. That means that you're pissing away 6.75% per year of whatever you withdrew from your IRA for the down payment. An adjustable rate will be the best right now, but if you're planning on selling when you move, you'll probably lose money anyway after realtor fees, taxes, etc anyway and would likely be better off renting. If you need to pull money out of your IRA to buy a house, maybe you should re-evaluate why you are buying a house, especially if you're going to sell it in three years (that's generally not a good investment). Rent now, save up your money, and buy a house at the next base when you can afford it.

We've had women in the military for years without having to sign up for the draft, why would that change now just because a few more jobs open up? Double standards are only bad when white men benefit from them; as long as minorities or 'oppressed' people benefit, they're fine.

A bunch of those say desk drawer or similar areas where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy and was specifically excluded from search by the SecDef letter. Sounds like OSI should be investigating the inspectors as well.

Once the second amendment is gone, the rest are free for the taking.

Masking the masters for promotion boards is great, but we've been through this cycle before. The story ends with good dudes getting screwed because they trusted big blue to not change its mind a year prior to their board meeting. I think it would take something drastic, like stopping TA, to make it stick.