FourFans

Clearly you've not spent time in Detroit.

@nsplayr Hopefully by now you know that I appreciate your viewpoint and I enjoy sparring. So, as you responded to statements I made and questions I addressed to prozac.... You've been kind enough and polite enough to explain what you believe. I greatly appreciate that. It takes courage to express an unpopular opinion so in a public forum. Expression of deeply held beliefs is generally terrifying at a cognitive level. Specifically because it is exclusive. Embracing one set of beliefs excludes others and thereby puts a person in a specific and sometimes isolated class. Thankfully, doing so also exposes truths that have convinced a person to change their way of living based on a line of reason (hopefully) and should therefore be shared with others. If you have changed your way of living based on a line of reason, I am actively curious to hear the why behind it. You have shared the what you believe. You and others have actively refused to share the 'why'. The state of our cities are a great example. I've been to Portland, Dallas, Seattle, Anchorage, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Memphis, Miami, Honolulu, Chicago, Sydney, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Cologne, London, Tokyo, and Seoul multiple times in the past 24 months. I walk around when I'm there. A lot. I can attest to the fact that major American cities have declined excessively in their safety, quality, and general habitability, especially when compared to their international cohort that is not experiencing the same woke agenda applications. (Cologne would be the an exception as it is full woke, and rapidly becoming more dangerous and drug ridden). Yet you declare you're willingness to ignore the decline of humanity's densest population centers based on your own personal observation of one city...that's not rational, reasonable, or intellectually honest. I've spent very little time in Nashville, though my few experiences have been good. I digress. If someone disagrees with me based on their values, my default is to question my own opinion and figure out what I've got wrong. I think that asking them what they value and why they value it is a rational and respectful thing to do. I want to know the WHY behind what people believe. When they actively refuse to respond, I'm going to call that out as cowardice...because that's what it is. Not having the courage to demonstrate, explain, or stand up for what one claims to believe is a demonstration of exactly that: cowardice. I've been addressed before here for using the word "coward" and I will continue to use it correctly in context. To those who don't like it, I'm not going to apologize. So in my view, @Prozac is displaying cowardice on an internet forum by refusing to answer questions concerning why he believes what he believes. I'm calling that out. Doing so doesn't make me mean or a bully. It makes me honest. The emotional responses to my questions is not my responsibility, they are the product of someone else's maturity. If you disagree with that, please re-examine the definition of a bully. Next, this gem: Stop being childish. You should know by now that's not my style. If I issue a threat it's direct and usually rash...and usually retracted. Threats on the internet are stupid. Most people I've encountered start tearing up the first time they feel how bad a punch hurts their own knuckles. I know I did. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of the guys here are doughy dudes who've never actually been in a real fight. Hopefully your cute online insults serve you well in the real world. I asked a legit question based on legit science. If the body is in shit shape, the brain isn't going to work as it should. I still haven't gotten an answer from prozac. If you are unacquainted with the association of physical and mental health, you should be. If not, don't feel bad. It's a common problem in American society. Oddly enough, a lot of the rest of the world clearly understands it and almost takes it for granted. For example, the Japanese have culturally inculcated physical activity as a daily requirement for their salaryman class. They've even got walking tracks on the roofs of their skyscraper office buildings. Yet Americans think someone is being a meathead bully if they ask someone else if they exercise or physically train. It's rather weak minded...which is rather appropriate, all things considered. If you haven't noticed, I don't imply questions. I ask them directly. Sometimes I get drunk and ALL the filters get bypassed, but my core belief remain the same. I have yet to have one person answer me directly as to why they believe that the current agenda is good for our country. I've heard lots of what. Very little Why. For clarity: My one and only core belief is that I am broken and need a savior, which was provided by God in Jesus. He lived, died, and rose again specifically for the purpose of reconciling me to God. Nothing that I did, nothing that I am. Who he is, and what he's done saves me. My relationship with Him is the ONLY thing in this life that's worth anything. I was built to relate to him. I am highly imperfect. But it's worth the work to try and be better. Politics, religion, money, relationships, family, morality...all of those things are subservient and I poorly understand them. So when I ask pointed questions, it's because I want pointed answers. Living a coherent and intellectually honest life in view of origin, destination, morality, and meaning is the best I can try for. Which is why I ask direct questions. So. Soft on China. Transitioning of children without parental approval. Active celebration of non-straight sexuality. Advocacy of teaching sexual agendas to kids in school. Mandates of politicized public health agendas. Legalization of drugs. Incentivizing fathers to leave the home in low income families. Celebration of biological men oppressing of biological women. Not being able to clearly define what a woman is. Suppression of freelance workers in the economy (go look up the Pro Act and the 70 MILLION freelance workers it would crush). Egregious excessive spending the likes of which you would NEVER approve in your own person budget. Suppression and elimination of the cleanest energy sources human kind has ever created. Enforcement of a 'green' agenda that is not only disastrous for ecosystem, our economy, and our country's defense, but is literally physically impossible. Should I keep going? Claiming that our country's and community's stances on these issues to be sound is intellectually dishonest. All those agenda items are not only endorsed, but ACTIVELY ENFORCED by our current American leadership. Yet you insist that voting for the current version of the democrat party that endorses ALL of the above is sound because they are the party that represents your values. Values which you and your liberal peers refuse to explain. I'm not asking you to change. I'm asking you to explain why you believe what you believe. All I asked prozac, and now I'll ask you again: Why do you believe what you believe. I used to vote democrat. I'm an independent now. I am a parent who has a world that I'm going to leave to my kids. I know what it's like to have a world dumped on and passed on to me by my parent generation. I'm not going to do that to my kids. That means WE ALL need to work to preserve our community and get back to it's foundational principles. If we've gone down the wrong path, progress has to look like backing up and returning to the right path. It seems clear to me that our country is going down the wrong path. We need to back some things up. I guess that makes me conservative. You know what's never happened? A liberal supporter asking me what I believe, not to mention why I believe it. TLDR: Please question your premises about being a "Democrat" or "Republican" because the Democrat or Republican party represents your values. You might find that it actually doesn't. I'm not asking you to vote for my guy. I'm asking you to stop supporting causes that are bad for our community and our country. If you can't see the bad impacts, please get out of the echo chamber and actually inspect our country. Those bad causes have started to impact our personal lives, and more personally our kids. That I'll defend.

So, other people should be shut down for mis-understanding your values, but you won't share what those values are. You - "You don't understand me!" Them - *ok explain yourself* You - "You wouldn't understand!" Why should we ever take your opinion seriously? Honestly dude. Find your balls, decide what you believe, and take your stand. If not, don't complain when you get choked out by rational arguments. Curious question: do you train in any martial art or physical fitness event? If so, do they endorse excuses as to why you lost or why you couldn't complete a movement/lift/event/pose? Because that logic crosses over.

Fair points. So what candidate represents your values? What are your key values?

A fair point. But that's what's surprising to me. People can highlight what they like about a candidate, but still stanchly say 'no' based on a political bias which is founded on a position or on assumptions that wouldn't hold water for 5 minutes when put to actual logical scrutiny. Is disheartening. Just like people who voted for President Obama based solely on his skin color, then had the audacity to declare someone else "racist" for questioning that decision process...which I got to experience firsthand. I feel like critical thought and self-examination are completely extinct these days.

For those who've read their Robert Heinlein, I can thoroughly envision a near future where the veterans in society have to save it from itself.

That's a great drop! Granted it's SPS...but they've not been immune to horrible drops

Something about these two comments being right next to each other rings of cognitive dissonance. She's a good pick, but she's conservative so it's a no? That makes no sense. You're saying that just because someone is conservative, even if they're the best a good person for the job, you wouldn't vote for them? By implication you're saying that you would vote for a worse candidate who was more liberal just based on...what? The excellent results that the liberal left has given us?

I think I'm gunna need that soon...

Knock it off. I let the lid off online. That was wrong. I had a severely grating experience with a virulently entitled older CA who decided to aggressively inform me that I need to work harder to pay 'my fair share' into social security so it doesn't bottom out on him. It's not the first time I've been shit on by these older guys, and I lost it, and it came out via whiskey, a keyboard, and the airline forum. Seriously bad form on my part. Post deleted. @HuggyU2, apologies for the hitting a sore spot. Thanks for the sage words of direction. I'm sure young huggy never shot off at the mouth or had the mayor throw a pool ball his way for buffoonery. The fact that, of all people in all the demographics, a select set of older airline pilots decide to dump on anyone younger than them in the work force has been seriously rubbing me the wrong way. But that's not an excuse. I'll get back to leaving the drunken posting to others. Oh the irony: ...an inappropriate and aggressive expression of frustration at getting generationally cornholed is met with "go fuck yourself". I guess there's solace to be had. I don't have to do it myself when someone else is already elbow deep.

Guessing Putin will soon say something to the effect: "His last words to me were..." and then he takes over Belerus.

If only it were that simple. These things are very often tied to congress and getting promotion approval through committee. This year, our congress is virtually incapacitated by it's own doing. Hell, some of our Senators are actually physically incapacitated yet are still somehow making decisions that direct our nation. They can't even figure out how to keep functioning as an organization. Good luck getting anything so proletariat as a military officer promotion list authorization out of them. It's not like our military can go on strike or stop showing up to work. All the while, the AF gets stuck holding the bag, and god save you if you blame the person who isn't doing their job for not doing their job.

This can't be understated. FAIPing is a disservice all the way around. Most make the best of it, but FAIPs simply should not exist.

Uh-oh. Hopefully this illness doesn't go viral. I've heard it results in brain hemorrhages roughly 9mm in size.

Nuts to think that the 'old man' in that video was probably around flying the first jets in the 50's as a shiny new butter bar, then cut his teeth in 'nam, and finished up flying the jets we STILL fly today.

Thanks for solidifying my decision to retire.

...assuming they weren't getting requal'd with an instructor...

Thanks, I prefer the pronouns the/she/it.

I'll just point out for perspective: It's really sad this conversation is even happening. Men are men and should compete athletically against men. Women are women and should compete athletically against women. I don't know when that changed, but the change is wrong. The end.

Yes, it definitely is.

Indeed. He couldn't be more the polar opposite of Rat. Glad he's the boss down there.

Fired it at the range alongside the Glock 43X and 48. I liked the Macro the best. Smooth action. The compensator built into the slide is nice. Grip size is absolutely perfect for a mid-large hand owing to the semi-double stack. Trigger is smooth with a very consistent break, while a bit heavy, but that's expected out of a conceal carry pistol. The price, however, was not ideal ($850 before tax at the time), which led me to get the G48 for nearly half that price. The Macro is definitely high on the wish list.

So you honestly believe that if someone with Lebron James skill and body type were to start hormone therapy, post puberty, and then displayed the same hormone levels as a women, he could be allowed to compete with women and that would be fair? You're willing to ignore the massive muscular build that occurs during puberty, the kinematic differences (specifically in the hips and shoulders) that allow a male frame to generate higher force levels, and the significant aggressiveness that is innate to the human male brain that onsets during puberty? None of those things, which are permanent and scientifically proven changes to male anatomy, factor into your understanding? This isn't about trans hate. This is about lack of acknowledging facts. Beyond that, jumping from "that's not fair" to "you're a trans hater" is completely disingenuous. Turn off CNN and go go listen to people that disagree with you with the intent to learn, not respond.

So if you have a pulse you can be the best rest of what's left...

It's significant. Thankfully we never have, but that's 100% because we opt to do our fighting on the other sides of the ponds. As a graduate of the Army's airspace control course...this is entirely accurate. They understand joint airspace so well that they assume they'll get a coord altitude up the flight levels during a near peer conflict so they won't have to decon counterbattery fire with the USAF. It's so far beyond laughable as to make one cry tears of grief for both the blue air they're going to shoot down, and the ground troops who won't get the air support they'll need.