TMF

I'm all for free speech. While free to do so, having an effigy of a man that has committed suicide on the side of the road is just in poor taste and inappropriate. Children shouldn't have to see stuff like that. I don't see how this does anything productive or positive or furthers any cause towards financial reform. It just marginalizes an already marginalized group as a bunch of lunatics and whack jobs.

I've seen hundreds of resumes by former Servicemembers after separating. Believe me, not everyone should do their own. When it comes to your future I don't see the benefit of being "thrifty". I'll spend more on ammo in a year than what it costs to get a professional to do a resume.

Saw this on Yahoo. People lack common decency nowadays. This is very, very inappropriate.

Well, I agree that the devisive tactics of the administration have really polarized the country more than I have ever seen. And you're right, this is probably what it felt like in the years leading up to Lincoln's election. I just don't quite think we're there yet, and I believe the pendulum will swing in the minds of the voters before we do get there. As far as this article goes, the odd thing that sticks out is the mention of the tea party movement as a uniting belief structure that gets this ball rolling. Every scenario I've ever been involved in during exercises are involving an enemy of a made up country or terrorist organization. I couldn't understand why this Colonel would use a popular political movement to build this scenario as it would detract from the actual scenario he would want his students to think through. But then I read one of the comments on Small Wars and it made a little more sense to me. The comment points out that while it is sensitive to use an existing organization, it was probably done in order to be more thought provoking for his students. If it was a made up organization, or an existing radical organization like the KKK or NBPP it might make the answers a little "too" clear to the students as an extremist organization, even if they are American, would be easily dismissed and viewed one dimensionally in the scenario. However, a popular political movement that is not rooted in violence or extremism such as the tea party movement would cause the students to look at the scenario less as an "us versus them" and rather "us versus Americans" and consider that into their planning. The article goes on to highlight the laws which military officers cannot violate in such a scenario, and so identifies capability gaps that wouldn't exist in full spectrum operations conducted outside our borders. For example, doing something as simple as an overflight to collect imagery of insurrectionist road blocks would be illegal for the military to do. Any imagery used would have to be open source such as Google Earth or Map Point. All in all, the scenario itself is quite silly. It omits so much in terms of what would reasonably happen if such an event ever took place. That is why I don't take it as something of concern, just something that a professor was trying to use to get his students to consider what their left and right limits are on our soil. Perhaps he is regretting using the tea party thing now that this has become a big deal, or maybe he is pleased that it was so thought provoking and added that much realism to the project. Of course, he probably shouldn't have submitted it to Small Wars to be published on the internet. He should have figured that something like this would happen and folks might take it out of context.

I'm certain that the Corps has a similar program to what the Army has for Servicemembers preparing to ETS. Resume writing classes should be available to him. However, if he is not experienced in it, I would suggest getting the training, assembling a resume, then taking it to a professional. It can be difficult for civilian resume writers to understand jargon that is relevant on a resume to a contractor like Lockheed, but a combination of his knowledge of jargon and the expertise of the writer should give you a good product. Some folks are not "resume inclined" and need help. It is worth the money to invest a few hundred dollars into a professional, trust me.

Nobody's planning to do anything. It was a ficticious story made up by a retired 0-6 and a history professor. I bet if I sent an email to one of my field grade buddies and asked them to make up a story about a modern day insurrection they could do it. That doesn't mean that "Washington" is planning to do anything. This article is simply to highlight the unique scenarios that would be presented in the event of a State wide insurrection in modern times and what the powers of the government would be to restore order. As far as I'm concerned, if a State secedes the government has every right to use the military to crush the revolt. I am a proud Southerner, but I also recognize that secession was a poor choice in a pissing contest in which both sides were to blame. If cooler heads would have prevailed perhaps we wouldn't have had the bloodiest tragedy in American history. To get riled up about this goes beyond tin foil hattery. The only thing in this article I find 'red flag' worthy would be his mention of the tea party movement. But who knows, maybe that was thrown in there by this commie chick professor, or perhaps the retired Colonel is a Democrat. I dunno, but I know that it means nothing at all in regards to our Armed Forces. For crying out loud, are we to get spun up every time a retired coot says something to the media or writes fiction?

Yeah, this was posted in another tin foil thread. So, if an O-6 makes up a fictitious scenario about the tea party it is cause for concern? Officers do this war game stuff all the time. As I understood it the point was to poke holes in domestic policy, something that is normal. Our military should have every contingency planned for and constantly be exposing flaws in policy. That is why we have the best military in the world. We have plans to invade countries that we have to intentions of ever invading. That doesn't mean we're gonna up and invade Portugal tomorrow just because there is a plan to do so.

I've been thinking the same thing... I have a lower with no home and I want something cheap and easy. Been keeping my eye on the classifieds.

Maybe he'll link up with a better class of losers while he's serving time.

I'm thinking "165" was either misinterpreted by the author or the old man just can't range stuff as well as he may have in his younger days. Either way, I'm guessing it was a challenging shot based on two assumptions: 1. The perp obviously didn't see him until he shot, suggesting that there was some distance between him since he didn't notice. 2. I doubt the old man was wanting to get that close to a guy that's shooting at police already. He said that he was using some kinda "magnum" in the article, so based on the guy's age it probably was a .357 or .44 revolver... I'm guessing he wasn't sporting some new fancy caliber. I can't hit a damn thing with any of my 9mm/.40/.45 autoloading pistols at anything past 50 yards, but I'm pretty good out to at least 100 yards with my dads .44 mag w/ 6 inch barrel.

True, it is all how you say it I guess, but it is also how it is interpreted by the LEO. I get the concern here about what happens later on. I have an uncle that was involved in an SD shoot in Florida a while back and he was very cooperative. The police commended him on his actions, having shot the assailant 3 times, and he had no problems.... until the liberal DA took a go at him later on. The shoot itself was justified, but since he had admitted to first firing warning shots from his vehicle while attempting to flee the assailant he was charged with some kind of BS endangerment crap. It was later dropped, but I guess it shows that having a lawyer's advice before giving a statement makes sense. However, I would still want to be cooperative as I could with those officers when they first get on scene and not give them any indication that I have something to hide.

I was gonna give it less than 3 posts before it went that direction.

I'm not an LEO, but if I showed up to a homicide and the shooter had already contacted a lawyer before my arrival and said they don't want to talk to me I would be assume they have something to hide and will change the way I interpret information going forward. You live in Tennessee. As long as you have nothing to hide you'll be fine. I dunno, LEOs?

There is a difference between having some tats and having tats that are generally associated with gang/convicts. Unfortunately for neck tattoo enthusiasts, it is now a part of thug culture much in the same way that spider web tattoos historically were. While it is a right of folks to do what they want, you can't get upset for folks passing judgement on something that has obvious connotations. When I'm conducting an interview for a babysitter and she shows up with a neck tattoo of some guys name across her neck I'm going to make the assumption that she doesn't make great choices in life and possibly has some drug convictions on her record. I won't leave her alone with my kids. That doesn't make me a bad person, it makes me a smart person. I don't think tattoos in general are an immediate cause for concern in today's society. The soccer moms with 2.5 kids are sporting ink now. However, there are certain things that put people off. Kinda like open carrying a pistol. Anyone here wouldn't be uncomfortable sitting next to someone with an exposed weapon in a holster, but we accept that there are people who do. No amount of will is going to change that, so if you decide to OC you accept that some folks are going to be put off by it.

Plus it attracts unwashed Europeans... yuck!

Women's tennis and women's volleyball. Other than that, my interest has not been held by the games.

That rule changed a few years ago. It looks incredibly unprofessional in uniform.

I meant no offense, but it's one of those things where it might not be 100%, but it's pretty darn close. And I didn't refer to tattoos in general, just the ones on the neck. Kinda the same way that the tramp stamps are seen as slutty. I welcome you to look over our county arrest mugshots for a couple days and you will start to notice a common denominator with drug/domestic/assault arrests. Like it or not, neck tattoos are the new trend in the criminal tough guy community. I could go get a swastika tattooed on my forehead because I believe in what it stood for before Hitler hijacked it, but nearly everyone who sees it is going to think I'm a white supremacist despite being a peacenik. Is it their fault they see it that way? Most of the people I know are tatted up. I got nothing against it, but certain tats come with connotations attached to them and I'm not apologetic in recognizing them.

Ha!

Wait, you were surprised when they pulled the health care thing? This has been the goal of the Dems all along. They haven't been hiding that.

I pay property taxes and I buy my kids their own stuff. I know damn well that the majority of other parents do neither. They can pound sand if they think they're getting another dime out of me. I really do feel for the teachers, but it isn't my fault that the money is so mismanaged.

In the wise words of Mellencamp: "Ain't that America?" I've been trying to get Zen lately in a combined effort to lower my blood pressure. Not that I don't believe in doing my part to stop the libs from eroding my rights and all, but every time the left wins a battle I think of the Zen story about the Farmer's Luck. Sh#t happens and it don't mean it's the end of the world, just like if tomorrow I win 10 million dollars it doesn't mean that solves all my future problems. http://obaitori.typepad.com/obaitori/2010/03/the-farmers-luck.html

I used to drive one of those creepy 15 pax vans back and forth from El Paso... nothing super secret... just a bunch of drunkards being transported back from the gutter.

I got nothing against folks with tattoos, but it seems like the new trend of neck tattoos is the easiest way to identify if someone has felony convictions on their record.

To get their attention you need to be littering..... littering and.... littering aaannd.......