DraconisRex

Leaders... I've heard of leaders.... Wasn't that what was supposed to have replaced the quart in our English Measurement System...? The Green Berets have a motto: "Lead, follow, or get the hell out of my way!" I feel the same thing about the United Nations, which is no more than a set of regulations put upon the United States -> The land of the free? If the UN wants to be a world power, then its members need to start acting like adults, not assinine children who want their way, only their way, and they'll take your candy bar ah-way if you don't keep an eye on them.....

More like gag me with a pitchfork! I spent about 2 minutes scanning it, and decided it was biased and very long-winded. Yuck! To all of our Allies: I'm telling you, when the bombs start falling, you'd best duck and cover! quote:Freedom in America is back! Saddam will be leaving Iraq! So, if if he wants to play 'god-of-war,' Takin' him out won't even be a chore! Cuz We won't tolerate his [bEEP!] no more! - Noel Christopher, 9/11/2002 [ 11-07-2002, 04:49 PM: Message edited by: DraconisRex ]

quote:Originally posted by Race Bannon IV: Bush is potentially the most powerful president. It's going to be interesting , I mean the Repub's were pretty successful as a minority party during Clinton's administration , let see what some fresh blood can do since Gephardt is gone. It's like the old Chinese curse," May you live in interesting times" Ooops .. that was a political post...but this is really my last one...really.The Democrats screwed up with that Wellstone fiasco.... To the Democratic Leaders: You don't ask vote for my vote, then insult the purpose of a funeral, then expect me to vote for you. You get elected first, then do something so utterly unethical and just plain wrong, so that We the People can vote you out. Always wait until after you're elected to do something stupid. Everyone's saying how powerful Bush is. He's only as powerful as Congress, the "Several States," and The People let him be. There's still a series of checks-and-balances (that barely work) to keep him on a leash. Still, it's what we got working. The Democrats were focusing so hard on anti-war with Iraq, that I don't believe many of them realized the full potential of what a single 50 Kilo-Ton atomic bomb could do to a major city. Yeah, it only wipes out a few miles of downtown New York City, but then you have fallout, radiation problems for decades, and it would mess up the weather patterns on the East Coast for several years (look at what Mount St. Helens did to us for 8 years.) Let's say New York City, Los Angeles, and Denver were all hit, destroying basically just the cities. Fallout from the blasts could still affect people all over the Western Hemisphere, because weather doesn't just stop for the heck of it. Cancer would be the most common side-effect, but there are others. As for "interesting times," we're already there.... (Until I was 30, I really didn't understand that phrase, although I learned it at a fairly early age. My life got very interesting from 23 to 36, and I don't want a repeat!)

Chavik: quote:I'm very flexible on this. The govt could put it in the bank too and earn interest. Republicans oughta love that idea! [big Grin] It would have to be self insured or something so a crash wouldn't take it out but it could work. I don't have all the answers but something could work. Like I said before, until they get rid of the deficit, that's throwing money out the door. If you're paying 3% on a trillion dollar debt, and somewhere you have a billion dollar surplus, even if it's paying 9%, you still gotta pay the interest on the other 999 billion dollars. That's definitely in the red. Once they get the budget balanced, and then they want to hold onto extra funds earning interest, then we can talk with them about it. quote:I could almost go for a federal sales tax but I'd like to see some figures on what it would generate. But you'd have to close the loopholes for big business so that they would pay their fair share. Then prices would rise accordingly. Ughhh. If they had a 5% flat federal sales tax coast-to-coast, and eliminated state sales tax, that would be a tax savings to the people in most cases. But most of that money would have to go directly to the states, and be regulated on what the states could spend it on. If we eliminated the 70% of the federal government that is pure waste, it would reduce taxes by far. Money in the people's pocket is all the people care about. Our Senators and Representatives on both federal and state levels should realize they are our managers, and think before they act. quote:If by privatizing Social Security you mean completely turning it over to a private corp no way. The govt started it they should finish it. And it ought to be sacrosanct. The govt should not be able to dip into it for whatever reason. I'd let the government run Social Security if there were a law stating that that money could not be touched, and anyone who did would be held criminally accountable to the people. History has taught us that Congress will do what Congress wants to, but Social Security strictly belongs to the people. That's a retirement account -- From my vantage point, what politicians have done in the past is nothing short of treason.... Based on Enron and other 'fun' corporations, we can't trust big business to run it either. It seems a Swiss bank is the only company we can trust these days. But I'd not trust the funds out of country, for obvious reasons. The only way that would work is if the government set up a private bank, entrusted with running Social Security, in which Congress had no power to do anything with except set the rate at which SS was collected. It would also have to be stated that courts (which have proven themselves to ignore basic democracy, which is why you can't have prayer or pledges of allegience in schools) would have no impact on that bank either. This would need to be done with an unvoidable Amendment. Congress would have to put enough excess funds into it to offset what they have spent in the past, to make it viable. All funds collected from SS withholdings would have to be directly deposited into the bank, and investments of the bank would have to be coordinated by the Treasury Dept. Other than that, it would not exist as far as the government is concerned. The only ones who this bank would listen to are their customers: The Citizens of the United States of America. Now, if an individual could not resolve a problem with this bank, they could sue it, of course. However, at that level of banking, I don't believe any court level except the US Supreme Court should be permitted to hear the case, and that would be after the Treasury Dept. had audited the bank for any alleged transgressions or errors. 80% of the time, going this route, it should be resolved before it gets to court. I'd put a minimum requirement of $5,000 for the Supreme Court to accept the case; anything less than that could be settled by private arbitration council.

quote:It isn't really a surplus until all the federal debts are gone. But let's say we are running a "surplus". I have seen political commentary that the govt should take just enough to run and give the rest back. I can agree with that but I can be flexible too. Let's say we can have something reasonable like 5% - 15% surplus and it goes into a hedge fund for deficit years. It would balance over the long term and if it ever grew too big it could then be refunded. You're forgetting something. If I put money in the bank or use it for investments, I can get a return on investments. The government, on the other hand, just holds onto it "for a rainy day," and I make no money from that effort. Since the cost of living tends to increase, and the cost of paying the current deficit is considerably higher than any interest they may earn from a temporary surplus, then it's still a negative number. I call that a Lose-Lose Proposition.... Once they have the budget actually in control, and it looks like it's going to stay that way, then the extra funds they hold onto will earn a little money, which can be used to pay future bills, and keep our taxes lower. That is a much better proposition than paying, and repaying it for several years thereafter....

Government has this bad attribute called "Spend." They think, "If we have a surplus, we're supposed to spend it." I don't know about you, but if I bought something at the store at $17, but hadn't used it yet, and found the same thing at another store for $12, you can bet I would be buying the lower-priced item and returning the higher-priced one. In good times, government just spends away, never thinking that 2-years down the road we just might need that extra money. They should refund to the people any monies they didn't use for the reasons we voted on. Period. Hanging onto it, and using it for whatever purposes they want to is called "theft" -- if I were to personally do the same thing to a victum, I would be called "prisoner." Spending within your means is yet another subject. If I write a dishonored check for $20 that I don't cover, the District Attorney's Office will be pressing charges against me for "Theft by Check." But Congress, in its infinite wisdom, has been issuing bad checks for Billons of Dollars for the past 50-years. The debt has exceeded One Trillion Dollars, which is over $3,700 for every man, woman, and child legally living in this country. Assuming the averages of 2.5 people per household, they've racked up your debt to over $9,000 just for your family. In my experience, that's called "Bad Management." However, as I said in my original post, retraining starts at home. Let Congress know exactly what you want them to do, what you will tolerate, and how they are to go about pleasing you. As a share-holder, you have to keep a close eye on the management. That's why voters must be responsible, as they are the owners, and are at-fault if there is a long-term problem. I would start by reworking the education system, and teaching how rights, privilieges, and responsibilites go hand-in-hand. You cannot manage a company without being responsible for your own actions, and answerable to someone. The same thing applies to us, as share-holders in the greatest nation on Earth. The legal system needs a serious look-over by the people, starting with Federal laws that only help certain people or special-interest-groups. That type of thing is strictly in the powers of the States, and shouldn't be handled on a Federal level. Federal laws that do not fairly apply to everyone should, quite simply, not exist, and be made null and void. At no time should the Welfare issue be handled by the Feds. A friend of mine once told me, in reference to the "War on Drugs," that they should legalize them, and let the Feds run it for a few weeks -- it would then be bankrupt, and no longer a problem. History has taught us that this is true of the welfare system, in general. As a Free Enterprise society, there is no reason that some companies couldn't help support getting the homeless homes, jobs, etc. We are the richest nation on Earth, and it is not acceptable that any man, woman, or child should go hungry, or be without a place to live. We could hanlde this like the old farmers did -- if they could use someone with the right skills, or be trainable, they'd set them up under implied contract for services, and take care of their actual needs, and give them a little spending money. Businesses need to quit considering the homeless an assault on their income -- any apparent liabilty that you can change into an asset increases profits. Money spend on those in-need is tax-deductable -- use whatever assets you can to help society (and help improve your bottom line.) There are risks involved in every venture, but our greatest threat actually comes from the "United States of Europe." Most of those nations are pulling away from us as they improve their own systems. The US only has a few dozen actual allies -- the rest of the world wouldn't mind if we fell off the face of the globe. Improvement starts at home, folks. We cannot continue policing an ungrateful planet without something being shown as a Return on Investment. If the United Nations wishes to be a world power, it needs to equally start acting like one, or be abolished. If I were President, I'd use all my resources to give them a deadline on its own resolutions, and if they failed only one, we'd be out of the UN. Nothing to discuss here. While the Middle East may start the next World War, understand that a few thousand warheads would make the entire area become quiet and serene. They would quit fighting over a piece of dirt I wouldn't give you 5 cents for, and stop being a threat to the rest of the world. And, finally, the relious argument would stop assaulting my ears, which don't care if God's name is Yaweh or Allah. I know that the Buddhists would be happy if that argument was settled. I don't want war. I want peace. If the rest of the world shared my views, we'd have a happy place indeed. At the same time, I believe in justice. If we had a nuclear bomb, a dirty bomb, or other weapons of mass destruction used on one of our cities, then whoever did it would be wiped off the face of the Earth. When our allies complained, "What are we supposed to do?" My advice: "Duck."

Dear Mr. Politician: Now that the Elections are over, I can tell you a little bit about how to get my vote. In the past few months, I've heard more mud-slinging on the radio than I've heard songs, or good ideas. Some marketing advice -- In advertising products, it's generally considered bad form to directly attack your competition. The objective is to sell your product based on its merits, what it will do for its users, and why the purchaser would should buy it. If you were Burger King, you would be ill-advised to advertise that eating a Whopper won't make you as sick as eating a Big Mac. But you guys haven't learned that lesson yet. Good taste is a another thing ÔÇô if you are trying to sell a product or service, it needs to be done tastefully. The Democrats having a political rally and Republican-bashing contest at Wellstone's funeral was perhaps the most tasteless thing I've ever seen. You don't use the death of a colleague to gain votes. To me, that's party genocide, and questions the participants' upbringing. Now, I keep seeing some of you guys ÔÇ£pull out the race cardÔÇØ and using what your opponent's views will do to the voters' children. Both of these attacks are idiotic. This is the 21st Century; all Americans, regardless of color, have the same rights. This country is owned by the people ÔÇô if a politician does something that will harm our children, then we, as responsible owners of this corporation, can have the laws changed by our votes. Apparently, some of you Candidates have forgotten this, or don't want to put too much emphasis on the fact that ÔÇ£We the PeopleÔÇØ own you..... I'm not a Party member, because I don't believe in overly-sensitive ÔÇ£political correctnessÔÇØ or ÔÇ£Hyphenated Americans.ÔÇØ To be politically-correct, you have to believe that people that don't come from white backgrounds need to have a hyphen in their American name, such as American-Indian, African-American, Japanese-American, or whatever. I consider a hyphen in one's American name as saying that they are sub-standard. That is a boldface lie, because you're either an American, or you're not! Every American, except for Indians, is an immigrant to this country. Blacks are pretty much the only people that didn't come here by choice. What the white man did to both the African slaves and the Indians was very bad, but that was at least 100 years ago ÔÇô which generation of taxpayer will finally atone for the actions of their forbears? (Of course, the IRS was founded to pay for World War II ÔÇô when will that be paid for again???) Aw, but the political machinery works like this ÔÇô every government office that makes it past the first 72-hours is more or less permanent. It's like a cancer ÔÇô the body (as in The People) think that any growth is good, but if the cancer spreads to the wrong places, the body will die. The government, regardless of what you have been taught, is our employees, spending our money. We, as share-holders, don't need our corporate employees spending 40% of our money before we ever see it. Over-taxation reduces what we can spend on other things, which in turn reduces our ability to compete with other nations in the world market. Responsible citizens with smaller government is the key. Corporations have learned that down-sizing increases profits, which lowers prices, and increases sales. However, all of this starts on the home-front. It's up to people at home to start changing their ways and voting to change their government. Instead of shelling out billions of dollars a year on welfare, why not temporarily shell out just a little extra to train those that can work to do so, and further reduce the welfare rolls? (It's a vicious cycle ÔÇô if someone can't earn enough money, they qualify for welfare. If they can't get trained, they continue to qualify. It's time to end that cycle.) Set up child-care for qualified parents so that they can work. This would be cheaper, by far, than paying for food stamps, welfare, etcetera. The United States is not Communistic, but you couldn't tell it by me looking at The Projects. We need to take education away from the government. Current statistics show that private education costs about half what the US is paying to teach our kids. Take that money and pay it to the private schools. Statistics also show that privately-taught students have scholastic scores 35 to 60 percent higher than pubic schools. (Cheaper, with better results... You'll never catch a Congressman voting that in!!!) It works like this -- you want to be a manager working for me? Do everything you can to reduce my expendatures, or I will replace you. Get government, in general, out of my life, and out of my affairs. To be a free country, that also means free of needless regulation that reduces the ability of the people to be free. Sell me on what you can do, what you think is needed to better this country, how much money I'll have in my pocket at the end of the year, and what it will cost to accomplish this. If I like what you have to say better than your competition, I'll vote for you. But, if you slander the competition in these efforts, you lose my vote. It's unprofessional and unethical. And, I, as a share-holder in this corporation, won't hire unprofessional and unethical employees. I'd rather hire an employee with the wrong ideas, and retrain him (by my votes), than hire anyone whose values are already corrupted. If you can't do these simple things, don't bother applying for the position.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: nah, don't worry about those gits. I just like winding them up. They're pathetically harmless.Understood, and acknowledged, Sir. By Thursday, the Odyssey should be ready to finally leave spacedock. She's getting a computer upgrade, and several other refits, but the repair team is almost finished. Then I'll be able to run the new RC24 Simulation through its paces. I'll tell my marines to leave those gits alone, even though some of them are itching for a good fight, and those gits are just asking for it. Mildly unreltated question -- have you considered the possibility of a Linux port of the game? While Microsoft has a 43% share of the O/S market, Linux has 18%. And is gaining annually. Just curious. Let me know if there's anything you need or any villians to kill, Sir. Odyssey out.

Supreme Commander: I just read those flames that losers at the VE3D site posted. If you'd like, sir, I can take an elite team from the Odyssey and show some of them just exactly what kind of flames a Battlecruiser can exhale.... But, to do that, I'd be messing with the timeline, since this is the 31st century. In the early 2000's, they just didn't make many people with brains, huh? From history, that seems such a rarity. I'll await your orders in spacedock, Sir. Odyssey out.

I can do layouts like it's nobody's business, in terms of letters, forms, newspaper/magazines, etc. However, I couldn't actually draw if my life depended on it -- I've have to pull the trigger myself.... [ 10-30-2002, 02:09 AM: Message edited by: DraconisRex ]

quote:Originally posted by Dragon Lady: (besides, it matches with my ideas of religion).Yeah, methinks me Grandma agreed with you....

quote:Originally posted by Dragon Lady: Diplomacy? Yea, I know all about diplomacy. It's divided up into four branches: Annexation, Destruction, Usurpation, and Domination.I misread your quote and almost didn't catch the difference. I read it as "Democracy..." Oh, that's nothing... When I was 10-years old, and still learning to read, I glanced to the side of the highway, and told my Grandma I saw the "Ridiculous Book Store." She glanced up, and died laughing.... It said, "Religious Book Store..." Okay, back on topic, guys...

quote:Originally posted by Kiran: anyone wanna guess what happens when a machine gun gets muddy and the mud freezes??Don't have to guess too much, Cadet. Imagine the fall of 1988, Grafenwohr, West Germany.... A little history is required so that this story makes some sense. Grafenwohr is pronounced "Graf-in-veer" for the unitiated. quote:HISTORY OF GRAFENWOHR ( THIS IS WHERE THE 553d AND 18TH ARTY WENT FOR TRAINING IN GERMANY ) This article was provided by Jim Fry from Texas and Hal Holland found it in some old Newsletters from Feb. 1996 The training camp was first established by Prince Luitpold of Bavaria. It was to be the training area for the Reichswher or also know as the 100,000 man army. It became operational in 1911 with 37 square miles of training area. Bavaria was an autonomous monarchy during this period, however, during the first world war it was taken control of by the German High Command in Berlin. 1933 saw the emergence of Adolph Hitler as chancellor of Germany and by 1935 the Reichswher had been totally forgotten along with the treaty of Versaille. Hitler created the Wehrmacht and the area grew to 50 miles by evacuating the residents the SS or Leibstandarte(Hitlers Personal body guards, and General RommelÔÇÖs Africa troops, trained in this area, as did some Italian troops and Russian.) After WW2 Grafenwoher was closed until 1947 when it became the training area for the 370th and 371st infantry Battalions of the First Infantry Division. It exploded to ninety-nine square miles and has been used extensively by the US Army since. It has been known as a sub station of Vilseck Germany. Trainload after trainload of sand was imported by the SS into Grafenwohr, to make it a better training camp. This sand was spread across a 100 square mile area, and was used to toughen the SS and advanced military units. All that sand, mixed with regular dirt, seemed perfectly normal in clear, dry weather. However, when mixed with rain or melting snow, it made walking very difficult, and very sluggish. In ice, the sand/dirt mix made the ground 5-times harder than normal -- you didn't want to fall down on it! Period! Late August, 1988 -- Regimental Command ordered us to Grafenwohr, for 3-weeks of R&R (NOT!) I had just then gotten my BDUs dry-cleaned, so I looked pretty good coming back to my unit from the Rear. I was hopping into the back of a Deuce-and-a-Half (2 1/2 ton truck), and lost my footing, good and proper. I feel down into that sticky mud.... Me with me great-looking new clothes in the field, all covered with mud.... The other guys laughed at me, but it was pretty funny. The not-so-humorous part was that my weapon, an M-16A1, was plunged a good foot or so into the mud, and then landed long-wise on top of it. That weapon got more guck in it than I thought was possible. It took me 2-days to clean it enough to trust firing it, which was good since we had live-fire exercises from time-to-time. I'm just happy it didn't have ammo in it at the time... They didn't trust Artillery personnel to run around with live ammo -- on this occasion, that was perfectly okay with me. We had to bug-out in Early September, because the snow had already hit 2-feet, and the tracked vehicles tended to get stuck. That was fine by me -- I hated that place. Anyway, back to your question. Water is an odd substance, compared with normal science. It is the only known substance that EXPANDS when it freezes. A machine gun, filled with cold muddy water, would tend to crack the insides when it freezes. My guess is that it made the safe use of the weapon negatable. Hence the reason it was pulled off the line... Suggestion: Don't let your weapons fall into cold, muddy water, without cleaning heck out of them before nightfall... Unless you like to write-off military equipment...

quote:Originally posted by Litvyak:

quote:Originally posted by Litvyak: (One drill sergeant in another platoon actually made up a wonderful cadence about me going to prison and had his platoon recite while I waiting to be yelled at by the company CO one time, though). One of my Drill Sergeants made a cadence about me, and had the whole platoon sing it to the general companies in the area.... quote:Stone, Stone, don't feel blue, Frankenstein was ugly too! He had a wife, her name was Fran, Gave their son the name of Dan!

quote:Originally posted by Wolferz: <--- Former military. I also pulled a stint as the unit NBC NCO. Speaking of NBC, when they issued our gas masks in boot-camp, they ordered us into this room with tear gas. I elected not to follow the order. Some may think this unusual, but... This sergeant comes up to me and yells, "What do you think you're doing, general?!?" "Get your [edited] into that room, now!" I said, "No, Sergeant, I can't do that." He looks at me, then hollers for my Drill Sergeant, who comes up, and badgers me about following orders. "Not a lawful order, Drill Sergeant!" I said. "It will damage property of the United States Army! Namely, me!" He looks at me funny, then I explain. "I've been trying to get this piece to fit inside this piece here, but it just won't seal." (I've slept since the last time I dealt with the nomenclature....) He looks at it, his eyes get real big, and exclaims, "It doesn't have the @$&* filter!" It was fun, it was real... I've never used NBC gear in a live exercise.... Talk about fun...

In 1988, I entered the Army as an E-1 (Private No-Chevrons), and barely made it through boot-camp. I wasn't a bad soldier, but I did have bad luck. Field artillery was my MOS, and I took boot-camp at Fort Sill, OK... I tripped and sprained my ankle during a Platoon run. Got 7-days light duty for my trouble, since ankles aren't supposed to be the size of small watermellons. Also wound up with crutches. Trying to lose weight is hard enough, but this made it basically impossible, since I could barely walk, much less run. The day they taught throwing grenades, I had an 09:00 hours appointment to get rid of the cruthces. I did that. I arrived on the field to learn tossing grenades at the enemy at 12:30 hours. Everyone else had been there since 08:00 hours, so they had a good 4 1/2 hours on me. I found the first Sergeant I could, and asked him what I was supposed to do. He looks around, and points to this wooded area. He says, "See that 3rd tree from the right?" "Yes, Sergeant," I said. He tells me, "I want you to guard it -- it hasn't been acting right here lately. Do that until we can figure out where you're going." I followed the order, but.... Once I got to my unit, they rushed me through the training in 30 minutes. I got it down. They super-emphasized that I had to "pick up the pin" no matter what. You don't argue with Drill Sergeants.... Now comes the live excercise. I go out with my helmet and flak gear, pull the pin.... And drop it. I've got a grip on that grenade that would crush rocks, as I know the thing will kill me if I don't. I reach down, pick up the pin, toss the grenade past the wall with all my might. As I'm dropping down, the Sergeant standing next to me plows me into the ground. After it explodes, he's calling me every name in the book (including some new ones.) This is an E-5, who doesn't know what little training I just got, and he's just there to make sure we practice safety. My Drill Sergeant comes up, listens to his side, then mine. Then laughs. He then explained to the E-5 that they didn't have time to train me to use my brain in only 1/2 an hour. In the 13-Weeks I was at Fort Sill, I went from 220 to 185. Maybe I should do that again... NOT! My Assigned Unit after boot-camp was Fort Hood. I've never seen the place. A week before MOS completion, they TDYed the whole bunch of us to Germany, because the Russians were considered a major threat (as if that was news.) ----------- When I first got to Giessen, West Germany, my paperwork had been misplaced, and, for all intents and purposes, USAREUR had no idea that I existed. I also didn't get paid during that time. (The catch-up pay was great!) I told one of my Sergeants, "Hey, you can't prove I'm here, or even assigned to this unit. Maybe I'm supposed to be in Guam, for all I know!" I was having trouble with 13B -- Cannon Crewmember, so about 2 months after I got to my unit, I was transfered to Battery Supply. They noticed I could do paperwork, and seemed to be pretty good at it. So there I was until I exited. During a Battalion Run, I lost my footing. It was a 5-mile run; no big deal. However, I stumbled in formation; just lost my footing. Instead of knocking over the other soldiers in formation, I fell out, and landed on a pile of asphalt just to the side of the path we were running on. (You know how they have extra asphalt when they pave a road -- they made a small hill out of what I landed on.) After saying a few choice words, I caught up with my unit, and continued the last mile or so, no problems. Back at the unit, we're all at attention, and then the Colonel orders us to "At Ease." The guy in front of me is looking around, and looks down at my sweats, and exclaims, "Geez, Stone! What the hell happened to your leg?!?" I was unaware there was a problem. He calls out to my sergeant, who comes up, takes one look at me, and orders me to report to the Medical Section immediately. I finally look down, and see my sweats are drenched with blood. That rock I had landed on had cut through my knee, and tore hell out of a tendon. Fourteen stitches and 8-weeks later, I was back in the game. (Be that as it may, I've won sizable bets on what the weather is going to do because of this injury....) I was 3rd in Command of Battery Supply, and I've stated such on resumes. Of course, readers of that resume have no idea that there was only me, a Specailist, and my Supply Sergeant.... During this time, there was this General who came to the Supply Office looking for a certain record. I pulled out the requested Disposition Form, and noticed that it was not signed by the Captain. My Supply Sergeant hadn't really seen the DF yet, so he didn't know that it was *NOT* an order yet, although he was about to obey it. I told the General, "Sir, we don't have an order for that yet." He says, "It's in your hand, Private. Follow the orders on it." I said, "No, Sir. This DF is not a lawful order, and can in no way be considered such." My "Chief," namely the Supply Sergeant, yells at me, "Private, follow the General's orders!" I look at him, and say, "Certainly, Sergeant, but I need one of you to sign a DF to that effect so that the order is valid. Understand, Chief, that if you sign it, it's by your authority alone." He grabs the DF from me, looks at it, and notices that the order is unsigned. Since this particular order deals with items only the Captain can authorize, had he acted on the order, a court-martial would have been in his future. Had I followed the General's order, which was only verbal, I could have faced the same fate. Unlikely, but 'CYA' is a great idea in the military. The General was impressed with my standing up to both of them, and said so. That was the last time I saw him. The next month, when I was expecting to go from Private to Private E-2, I got a surprise -- I had been promoted to Private First Class, or E-3. I just figured S-1 had screwed up again. My Company tried for months to get my promotion "corrected," but the Judge Advocate General got involved when the Battalion kept being hassled by my Company. The JAG officer told him (and me), "Unless you outrank a General, Captain, no amount of [edited] is going to change his promotion. Do you wish to pursue other legal venues against this Private First Class?" The JAG officer handed my Captain a piece of paper, that clearly stated my name and what my new rank was. I heard nothing else about it from my unit... Ah, Army life... I miss Germany, but very little of my funky little Battalion. Our Colonel was about to be promoted to Brigadier General, and he didn't give a crap. That attiude went right down the ranks, and got worse the lower you went. As an E-3, I got a lot of the worst of it.

Thank you, Commander. I will assist Command to the best of my ability.

AOL is okay, but I use Comcast for my high-speed connection. I'm changing that soon, as they are limiting my up uplink to 115K, which is slow for cable. So, I'm changing to 960K up/down through a local DSL, and spending only $40 for the service, which is 8.35 times faster for $5 less... I run a BBS server, with POP/SMTP, Finger, Gopher, and NNTP - although I can receive at 1.5MB/second, sending speed through Comcast is too slow.

quote:Originally posted by Jaguar: Geez, we need to get lives, here we are arguing over the fine points of Star Trek!! "Lives? Don't talk to me about lives..." Not quite Marvin, but close enough for argument's sake... I guess I'm bored. Mixing Hitchhiker's with Trek - although that may make the best comedy yet....

quote:Originally posted by Blerm: Jolene Blalock without her ears...Now, explain to me again how one goes about getting one of those (without the wife over-reacting...)? (This is a joke. This is only a joke. The Nimwit in your area has designed this joke to be funny only to a select group of people. This concludes this joke from your neighborhood Nimwit.) [ 10-06-2002, 11:17 AM: Message edited by: DraconisRex ]

quote:Originally posted by ShoHashi:

quote:Originally posted by Race Bannon IV: er..do you guys even watch Enterprise? talk about going off topic..start a new thread ya bums!Yeah... I watch it... Even talk about it... quote:I got into computers because of Star Trek Dr. Zefram Cochrane made First Contact with the Vulcans on April 5, 2063. That's 61 years away from the here and now (a term that it is entirely relative and possibly irrelevant to time-travelers.) The Enterprise begins mission begins on Apr. 16, 2151. So, that means there were 88 years of having to put up with the self-serving Vulcans, listening to them chastise and distrust the humans at every turn. I guess they had trouble with the fact that most humans could walk and chew gum at the same time. I can relate with Captain Archer. He's no Kirk, but he has many of the same characteristics, albeit lighter in nature. (Beware the silent ones - you have no idea what they are thinking...) So, yeah, I'd say this is staying on-topic. I just need to go get my BS in Computer Science, so I can be ready when Dr. Cochran approaches me in about 50-years or so...

Uhm, actually, I do believe it...

I was wrong... It wasn't ICFOS, it was Plan 9 From Outer Space. My bad... So was it!