TreeA10

Tac Airlifter, I want an A-10!!! Not sure my neighbors will approve and I can't afford the gas but it would look cool in my driveway. Regarding bans on magazines, etc. I'll agree to whatever limitations are placed on the POTUS, FLOTUS, VPOTUS, and SOH security details, including what is in the escorting Suburbans. If they don't need it for their safety and well being, then I don't need it. But if the experts deem a particular weapon or capability important, I don't see why my familys safety is inconsequential and entitled to less security.

https://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/02/23/gaining-momentum-now-42-gun-companies-have-stopped-selling-to-law-enforcement-in-anti-2nd-amendment-states/# Looks like some of the gun and ammo companies have decided not to sell to law enforcement within states that impinge on the 2nd Amendment rights of their citizens.

Did a Southern Watch out of Al Jaber, Kuwait back in the mid 90s. Middle of the desert, summertime, the airfield still a bombed out mess for the most part following the first fracas there, exceptionally bad food, UXOs scattered about, and just a high general suck factor. There were 6 or 8 Navy F-18s flying out of there with us for a couple weeks and then came the time the Naval Aviators were supposed to go back out to the boat. You would have thought somebody shot their dogs, ran off with their wives, and told them cold beer and strippers were outlawed back home. We are talking serious unhappiness and borderline depression. I think their boat, the Roosevelt, ended up putting into port with a mechanical problem so these guys get another week with us. And they were thrilled to be there which leads me to think the boat must really, really, really suck.

Rahr Brewing out of Fort Worth is pretty good. Their brewery is located south of downtown Cowtown and they host "tours" on Saturday and Wednesdays with live music. https://www.rahrbrewing.com/ All their stuff has been good.

Some sort of line has been crossed here. I'm offended....not by the breastfeeding, BTW.

Got a 95% on my last PT test. First time I didn't score 100. Promotions aren't a factor since I retired a year ago so I'll need to find some other form of harrassment and abuse to fill in the deficit. Conversing with liberals who use illiberal logic seems to be working.

Damn, I made an error and was only correct 3 out of 4, or 75%. Guess the political professor does not believe in partial credit. 75% of rounds on target is still a kill so I'll take it.

I'm wondering if the SEALS jumped on the bandwagon since someone else was taking all the credit for their work. From accounts, they thought they had high odds of failure and prison and/or death in Pakistan. But taking all the risks and getting none of the credit was fine with them in the past. Yet someone....who was that guy?....kept claiming he was a credible candidate because Osama was dead because of Him, The One. That would surely piss me off and I would want to set the record straight. Regarding classified, "The rules do no apply to me because I'm important" may have happened here. Unfortunately, she isn't important enough, like Senator Patrick Leahy when on the Senate Intelligence committee, or politically connected enough, like Sandy Berger, National Security Advisor, to dodge whatever prosecutor arrows are thrown her way.

The Democrats in the Senate have not passed a budget since The One took office. They have "let it ride" using the baseline budgeting rules to get increases in spending without having to actually vote thus gaining plausible deny-ability regarding the debt. Republicans have been beat over the head with blame at every opportunity by Obama and Democrats since Obama took office and have done a piss poor job at getting any traction to get anything done. The sequestration was Obama's idea despite his lies to the contrary. Woodward wrote a great article on it, Google it. This might be the only play the Republicans have and I'm good with it. I'm hoping on March 2nd, when the country realizes it didn't explode overnight, that cuts can actually be made and we'll be okay.

It's either classified or it's not. Borderline is not a classification that I'm aware of. Neither is "might be considered." Prosecution decision tree probably takes into account level of classification and probability (i.e. evidence) of scoring a kill but I'm not a lawyer nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Wouldn't want this to be like the F-16. Old joke: How to you get your own F-16? Buy an acre of land near Luke and wait.

It appears the movie Idiocracy really is a documentary from the future.

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is normally used to define insanity. And most people have apparently lost their minds. Up to this point, please name any and all restrictions, limitations, etc. on Government spending. I agree the Government needs flexibility but Gumby could not compete with the "flexibility" in spending to date. I'm also for the budget pendulum swinging but it appears to have been propped up, nailed, glued, bolted and chained to the "on" position regarding spending. I'd like to try something different. Anything different. You know, just get crazy, and decrease the rate of programmed increases, i.e. baseline budgeting but, from the sounds coming from Congress, this would entail the sacrifice of the first born, stopping the rotation of the earth, and other bibilical doom and gloom implications. Everything we spend money on is "must have" or planes will fall from the sky, millions of children will starve to death, and old people will die and be eaten by dogs according to The One. Okay, I embellished that last comment but not by much.

Glad to know going Smurf isn't severe. Severe sounds like a good Friday night at the bar so it is a benchmark I'm familiar with.

So if you have a DCS incident, that means you are more susceptible to future incidents therefore you are a higher DCS risk and thus out of the high altitude business?

I guess it depends on how you define the budget and requirements to get the dollars to fund it. Do you set a tax rate and spend what you collect or do you you set a spending level and tax at a rate to get it? The latter reeks of the Soviet 5 year plan which certainly was not based on a rational understanding of human nature and failed miserably. The former requires the ability of our Government to adjust spending to live within our means as the economy fluctuates. The lack of the ability to live within our means is also going to cause miserable failure.

Stakeholder? I don't care what we call it as long as everyone is under the same umbrella, threat, tax, penalty, inconvienience, etc.

I think we need something like a flat tax. Everybody needs skin in the game. With 70,000 pages of tax code, billions spent on calculating your taxes, billions more on collecting your taxes, the idiots in Congress have created a monster. It just should not be so difficult to pay your taxes.

Yes, American did forgo bankruptcy and the employees gave up a lot (something like $10 billion since) to avoid a bankruptcy in 2003. That give back was squandered. The corporate playbook seems to be declare bankruptcy, strip pay and benefits, outsource as much flying as possible, repaint the airplanes, declare success, and the management walks out the door with millions. Horton, soon to be ex-CEO, is going to walk with almost $20 million for a couple years work. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

Yeah, I see your point. The military would be so much better if we had a cadre of warriors who were open to any trendy ideology, a sliding scale of relative morality, and lack of confidence in their education or decision making skills. Oh, and add in some sparkly TIB puffy shirts.

Throw my no vote in for the new paint job. I've seen the 737 and the 777 several times now. The large American written across the windows has a Swiss cheese look. Just for a sense of where priorities are, I offer this: American started down the paperless road using iPads to replace paper Jepps. By their own calculation, this would save $1.2 million in fuel costs. Looking at other cost savings include time to distribute the paper updates in mailboxes, time to do a page by page update, any injuries caused by heaving 30lb+ bags into awkward cockpit locations. Future savings will probably include paper, printers (WTF is up with BRAND NEW dot matrix printers???), and printer ribbons. So all of that is dependent on installing RAM mounts in the cockpits to hold the iPad. 600+ jets means 1200+ RAM mounts and this was supposed to done by December. Well, that deadline was missed. However, the new paint job rolled out to much fanfare, video, updated computer log-in screens, colorful brochures, floor to ceiling posters, and phone apps. New paint costs $80,000 per narrow body and $200,000+ for a wide body. So, which is more important? Operational advantage or pretty colors with song and dance? (This explains why TIB will not die, also.) Looks like new management...eventually. The level of stupidity since 2003 almost killed the airline. The same stupidity was proposed going forward out of bankruptcy which would have killed the airline. And you can't fix stupid even with a Wharton Business degree.

Did these same guys design the MiG-28?

Stumbled across this: https://www.science20.com/science_2_0/jurassic_beer_how_long_does_it_take_to_get_a_good_brew More articles linked at the bottom.

Is it against their morals?

And finally, you are right. Pregnant women can't deploy. 900 women were unable to deploy in the same 2008 study. Those positions went unfilled and the excess workload picked up by those that could deploy or that position was filled by someone else who might have stayed home. Either way, someone got hosed, Is this fair? Is our nations defense so desparate that we need to even worry about this? From a liberal point of view, it is fair if we hose others, the non-protected class, in the name of fairness. Your point regarding pregnant fighter pilots or Rangers is absolutely correct. Both are useless. Pilots are and Rangers would be immediately removed from operations.