TMF

I just can't believe there are cops out there just looking to harass an otherwise law abiding citizen. Isn't the reason folks go into law enforcement to catch bad guys?

The only people who take these elitist windbags seriously are people who have already made up their minds and are just looking to be validated. We got the same nonsense on the conservative side of issues. Don't worry, it'll be summer soon and they'll be back to global warming with some kind if El Niño, La Niña, polar vortex, heatwave-mageddon, unprecedented temp nonsense.

Meh, my dad was a cop and as a kid I rarely recall him carrying his pistol with him. It usually stayed in the car. Maybe that isn't what most of us do, obviously, but if we'd had been robbed I don't see how he'd be negligent for not having a pistol on him. Not everyone carries a firearm on them all day everyday. In fact, an overwhelming percentage of the population doesn't.

That one on Madison is a little dodgy the few times I've been in there, though. I was a little surprised to see that. Still, no comparison to the creatures you see in a Walmart.

Yeah, anyone that threatens the lives of innocent people deserves to die. Not just in the moment, but that should be a sentence doled out by the court if such a person is taken alive. Violent criminals who prey on the innocents of society don't deserve a second chance. They deserve to die.

The hell are you talking about? I buy nothing but vidalia and sweet yellow onions from there and they are super cheap and I peel them myself. They're delicious. And I love my plus card. Just filled my wife's car up for $2.80 a gallon.

I usually get 10% off my bill at Krogers using my plus card and I don't have to deal with Walmartians. On another note, it's a private business. They are under no obligation to give discounts to specific classes of people. I don't think that makes them "greedy". Operating a business right now is tough. Everyone is having to cut back here and there to deal with the crushing weight of our bloated gov. I'd say it's more greedy to feel entitled to someone else's money. If they offered a veteran discount then recanted it, I wouldn't have heartburn. It's up to them. If they can afford it then great. If they can't it isn't my place to say they "owe" me anything.

I always compare it to being punched in the face or kicked in the nuts. Neither is pleasant but one is less pleasant than the other. I'm certain that Americans deserve more than lining up to pick their punishment.

That makes sense. This guy stands out like a red d##k in a snow bank so they likely already knew he was gtg based on history.

But if are running a global device you're still limited by view of the sky. Same issue if you had a PLB or sat phone. I'm familiar with the SPOT, which uses globalstar infrastructure as opposed to Iridium, and they can be temperamental under canopy. I think that has more to do with how powerful the transmit antenna is and less about the satellites. They run off of AAA alkaline whereas iridium based PLBs I've seen run off rechargeable lithiums and transmit at a higher wattage.

In Clarksville we have an insane man who wears desert camo pants, walks from one side of town to the other each day yelling at traffic. Used to honk and wave at him each day on my way home from work before I moved. Saw him a few weeks ago after dropping my kid off at preschool.

We are, which is why our military prosecutes cases like this while the enemy does not. They, in fact, encourage this sort of thing at every level. I don't think you fully appreciate the situation they were in during the retake of Fallujah. Taking a dump was a movement to contact exercise. Enemy was everywhere and they were active. I can't remember the body count, but I do know it was in the thousands. It isn't as easy as just picking somewhere else to strongpoint or moving dozens of bodies to a different building. If higher says to occupy a series of structures which are riddled with rotting corpses I'm not going to expose my guys to any increased risk moving those bodies offsite. I'm gonna just tell them to pile them up and torch them. I'm just trying to point out that, based on the circumstances, the probability of their intent being innocent is higher than the probability of them just wanting to burn Hadj. And yeah, we sure do get mad when we see enemy dragging around bodies of our fallen brothers. It is infuriating. From their perspective I suspect it is equally infuriating to see a Marine posing with the charred head of their fallen. But, if we sit back and look at it objectively we could argue that the circumstances on both sides are so emotionally charged that acting in such a manner, while wrong, is understandable. At any rate, our military does a good job of preventing stuff like this and prosecuting it when it happens. I'd say that alone makes us the good guys. If the enemy showed such honor I would probably care more about this.

I don't think the Idiocracy we are devolving into is necessarily IQ related, but cultural. Certainly there are extremely smart dirtbags. The problem is when kids of scum bags are being reproduced at a much higher rate than kids of productive members of society it changes our culture into one of self serving, lazy, morally/ethically bankrupt wastes of oxygen. Surely there are some basic intelligence issues related to this, as entitlement sucking leeches tend to be lower in intelligence, but I don't think it is so severe that these people lack the intelligence to be productive and take care of themselves. It's cultural.

Problem is we haven't been engaging in war. We've been engaging in nation building and everyone starts shooting at us. There's no military in the world better at crushing foreign armies than the US military. We can't win hearts and minds by killing everyone. It's maddening that we keep doing this. When we go in we need to have clear cut goals that are reasonable. Crush the enemy and leave. Warmongers send us there then the bleeding hearts won't let us leave. It makes no sense.

Yeah, that's why they have leaders to keep an eye on lower enlisted. Of course, in that environment you had very extreme circumstances. I'm sure most 18-20 year olds are too immature to be in a combat zone without supervision, but that's why there are NCOs. As for the disrespect of corpses and posing with body parts, I think that is a part of war in those extreme circumstances. I mean, it's hard for me to put it in context by simply typing of the Internet. Obviously, if you walked into a Joe's barracks room and he's playing with a human head he is obviously a psychopath. But when you have an 18 year old who has been killing people for days and has seen many brethren in his company killed and severely wounded things get a little blurry. In that environment it's hard for young people to value the life or body of the enemy when he's in constant contact. I recall a mission where two of my Iraqi counterparts were killed. When we finally got to the last bad guy and killed him, after exchanging fire and getting frags thrown at us, the Iraqis took out their anger on his body. I didn't feel the emotions they were having but I can empathize. Combat is very intense and we expect a lot out of our guys to act appropriately in all situations, but sometimes they don't. When they don't I think we need to consider the totality of the circumstances before passing judgement.

And I think we're the only ones in the world who don't use Celsius. 'Merica!

I had an M-16 made by FN a long time back.

Works a hell of a lot better over there than here. Better coverage.

Yeah, that's another good point. You'd need to use commo windows or the damn thing will just die.

And you must consider the amount of data being transmitted. I don't doubt that vegetation has some effect on signal, but I've had no issues communicating through veg. Just terrain, buildings, vehicles.... things made of rock, metal and cement. I always find it funny when I'm watching some sooper spy movie and dude is on a windowless cargo aircraft talking on a sat phone. Not happening.

I'm with you, but I also remember what it was like to be 18. If I found myself in such a situation at that age I can't say I wouldn't have been getting some skull photos too. I'm not saying that makes it okay, I'm just saying that I understand. I thank God that they didnt have Facebook, MySpace or YouTube when I was that age.

I don't need the media to convince me, I already knew it.

Well that's the thing, are we certain they "desecrated" the dead? It comes down to intent. If the PL said, "hey Boot, get some mogas. We're gonna have a Hadji BBQ", I'd say you're right. But if the intent was combat hygiene they did nothing wrong. Just because burning them denies them the proper Islamic burial rights doesn't mean it's a crime if the circumstances dictated otherwise.

Signal should be fine through vegetation. We're not talking a triple canopy jungle. It's the rocks that are the problem.

Gotcha. That's a real tough one, since my experience with Iridium in the states has been spotty. Up in the mountains, especially in those cuts where the streams are, you have steep terrain on both sides, so you're limited by the percentage of the sky you can see. Where we went fishing that one time I'd estimate you only had 20% of the sky. If your iridium can't see the satellite it can't communicate. I'd research reviews for people in that part of the country and their experience in terrain. I don't think a sat phone is going to be very reliable for the type of areas you're talking about unless you are at a higher elevation, but even then if you're on one side of a mountain and the satellite is on the other, you ain't gonna be able to talk. They work great in the desert though. I remember there being a website where you can see the current location of iridium satellites and their coverage area, and from what I recall there was usually only one over the eastern US at any given time. Maybe they have more now, I dunno. I do know its way more reliable on the other side of the planet. Congrats on the baby, by the way. I miss our kids being babies. Good times.