Nice to see what Congress is occupied with

[Shadowwolf]

http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,167090,00.html?ESRC=marine.nl

Because thats OH SO IMPORTANT compared to the struggling economy and housing market. Im a woman, so porn...im not a huge fan...but being prior service, for some of these guys its all that keeps em sane. In established permanent military bases I dont see why this is even being talked about. These people are defending the nations values and interests around the world and yet again the government wants to remove another "freedom" they stand to protect and restrict them again.

Im not advocating porn by any means, and theres always a limit to things, but Maxim and FHM? Good god, wth, Ive read both of those and while it contains mostly stupid and inaccurate information about women and advice to men, its not porno.

Welcome to the Socialist State of the US...

[Nixphire]

I remember my first duty station someone got caught looking at NSFW content he had to give a little class afterwards.
Basic "does and don'ts." I asked the logical question. So if it's ok to use the internet for moral, and looking at pr0n boosts our moral, why can't we look at pr0n. My gunny was one of those hard charging former DIs didn't find it too funny, but as I was pushing I could hear others laughing.

[usonian]

I think the U.S. is generally flawed in its thinking that pornography, or even just nudity is somehow damaging to behavior and the "family structure".  Plenty of other countries have nudity on basic television, in magazine ads, at beaches, etc. and they aren't spiraling downward into a self-destructive hole of immorality.  If anything I believe the act of making nudity taboo or 'wrong' in any way is helping to breed the kind of behavior that causes the sexual assaults they're talking about in this article.  The people in our military are in foreign places away from their husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends and getting into some hairy situations in some cases.  Who is the government to restrict the kind of leisure magazines they choose to read?

[Shadowwolf]

Exactly, making porno and sexual material and topics "taboo" and deemed "wrong" only further harms how its used in bad ways. Theres reasons you dont get to see it on the internet on government machines, first, its not right in a work setting, youre there to work and while checking personal email, browsing the news, hell even this site is ok because no one can be expected to work constantly, we all need a breather for a few, porno kinda crosses the line there. Additionally, porno sucks up bandwidth, big bandwidth usually because its imagery and videos and in many places, bandwidth is a premium so bogarting it with porno only slows things down for people who need to use the line for work purposes. For example, when I used to run networks out in the field for deployments, our internet pipe was maybe 128k, which is basically double the speed of a 56k modem. Thats not a whole lot so if someone were downloading pictures of Jenna Jameson, it would use that up pretty quickly =P

I just find this ridiculous as when you are in the service, as sad as it is, you actually have fewer rights than the public you are there to defend and protect. Now they are looking to take even more away from the service people with this little gem of a bill amendment.

[JohnnieRat]

This recently raised a bit of a stink here at Ft. Benning where a few months ago they allowed the sale of adult magazines in the little shopette stations (where soldiers go for their tobacco needs... it's really all they are good for).
In all honesty, and without getting graphic, in the Infantry, we can literally go for months and literally not see a single female. And anyone who has ever been in the military will /agree here. You're average soldier is fueled by very few things. It's a short list 1) Alcohol 2) Tobacco 3) Caffeine 4) Women. That's it. Being told" job well done" means nothing to them if they can't get their drink on after, hit on women at bars, have a good smoke. The caffeine is mostly to prevent falling asleep at work. Now, there are many times when we aren't allowed to partake in some of our natural fuels. General order 1A (what deployed soldiers fall under for new rules they have to abide by) basically says that they are not allowed to fornicate or imbibe alcohol. This leaves only caffeine and tobacco (and LOTS of it). The Army figured out a way to give us fuel #4 (or as close as they can get) but infortunately, people in congress who still haven't served their nation in any reasonable fashion (Congress is 100% self service, they do not actually serve America) don't get the hardships that we put ourselves through. For example, this whole Ranger School bit that I'm working at getting (this is not a unique story, thousands of soldiers do the same thing). I went on Monday with a pre-existing injury which was my fault and shouldn't have. I naturally could keep my body healthy enough through 23 1/2 hour days and constant physical exertion. I had to volunteer for extra night duties, weekend shifts, and every menial detail between now and the 25th of May and for what... I essentially begged and pleaded to go somewhere, have every creature comfort availble taken away and even some of the things people consider vital to survive (food and sleep) so that I could report to my platoon and lead them better. Almost every soldier does something along these lines... and for very little pay. What has congress done? They work for 2 weeks out of the year, get paid outrageous salaries and listen to baseball's plan to ban steroids or let a soldier read what he wants in his little free time (freedom of speech violation anyone?)

[LastDyingBreath]

For what it's worth, our government should sit down for a bit, and read the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independance.  A lil' reminder of A) what they're supposed to be doing B) what they cannot take away from us and C) what they stand to lose.

We're having a big to-do here in ohio over marc dann, the attorney general of ohio.  He basically turned his office into a party, complete with drinking on the job, use of public property for private gain, and a trend of younger female staffers being pressured into unwise decisions by senior, married assistants.  Even after it has been outed that all that has been taking place since his term began, and that he's had relations with a younger staff member, he refuses to resign his post.  Meanwhile a county commisioner (I'm not really sure what they even do, besides spend my money to buy property for private developers who kick back into their campaign funds) Jimmy dimora kicked two reporters out of a meeting after they asked about a woman on his payroll who had a $50k a year, 30 hour a week job with no duties.  Meanwhile a city councelman is being investigated by the FBI for funneling liqour liscences to felons.

While corruption in politics isn't new, it really seems to have hit a bold new level.  I'm not even going to touch on the mind-blowing amounts of money given away to KBR as they profit from dick cheney's war, enron fueling gray davis' getting the boot in california, and the gall of congress to keep voting themselves raises while ignoring minimum wage. 

America is thigh-high in shit, and our government is a failure.

[JohnnieRat]

Dick Cheney did beat Tila Tequila in Comedy Central's The Root of All Evil. Quite the feat.
It's also a sign of bad times when a nation consider's its #2 in command one of the top evil people in the world.

But isn't it an effective use of time for Congress to have hearings about steroid use in baseball... i mean its AMERICA's pastime amirite?! oh wait... its a F-n sport. We don't pay over $3.50 for gas, have a sliding economy, mass housing forclosures due to irresponsible lending practices, single women supporting 2 kids and daddy don't wanna pay support (I have rather strong feelings on deadbeat dads... don't get me started) because he's an irresponsible F*cktard and should be given as a gift to Al Qaeda with a note stapled to his face saying "Infidel... and I support the Westernization of Muslim Lands"... and I digress...

I hereby announce my candidacy for the Presidency. My platform motto is "Don't be an Idiot" and I would preach to people to sit back and think about their next action "would an idiot do this?" if the answer is yes... than do the opposite.
Ted Nugent will be my Vice Pres... he would kick Congress' ass into gear and make them work.


Edit: I <3 the rants thread

[Nixphire]

My platform motto is "Don't be an Idiot" and I would preach to people to sit back and think about their next action "would an idiot do this?" if the answer is yes... than do the opposite.

Priceless

[Grendeel]

I read that yesterday and just laughed because of the ridiculousness of it    Especially when this issue has been going on for years.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46vYZFU1Dew[/youtube]


Video was done by a concerned parent of a soldier who just returned to the base and it truely makes u wanna cry.  At least it does show us what the power of utube can do.  248M dollars has been allocated to fix the barracks.

[Shadowwolf]

Yea, Pendleton in CA is bad too. I worked in a building that was an old Stable from the 1920's when they still have calvary units which was converted to be an "office" for us. The floors were dirt, and the building had "CONDEMNED" stenciled across all 4 sides of it in big red spray paint and it was so unstable, it was actually held up by a telephone pole with a steel cable attached to it and the opposite end of the building so the building wouldnt collapse in on itself. Talking to a friend of mine, that building is still in use as an office now.

Its seriously disheartening to see how we treat our soldiers. For a time, I was afraid to even admit my service in the Marines because in California, a VERY liberal and what could be called "hippie" state in many respects, service members arent exactly welcomed with open arms in many areas, especially now. I remember poor treatment and being hassled when I went to try and buy my first car and the salesman laughed at me when I showed him my pay stubs and told me to go down the street to buy a used Hyundai which he said would be "more suited towards me", and this was a Volkswagen dealership =P I was making more than enough to purchase a new car, but he made it clear I was beneath him when he saw I was a service member with other comments as well.

Its not just the government that pays little respect to these men and women, its a large majority of the public too.

[Telfurion]

Little people with little minds

[Luise]

It's interesting because in Australia I have seen a growing increase in respect for our soldiers. More people each year are turing up for ANZAC day and more students I teach are thinking about joining the army, airforce or navy.
Our school actually took a group of students to Gallipolli for ANZAC day- they slept under the stars in the cold to be there for the dawn service.

My nephew couldn't join because of his colourblindness.

I'm curious, do they allow colourblind soldiers in America?

[Shadowwolf]

Yes but not as pilots or other color critical jobs. I had a guy in my platoon who was color blind but he worked with computers where it wasnt really important.