Sturgee

Reply to Turn Left No in Blogging JoeUser Forums

I always thought a Korean had painted the damn things! Now I finally understand! Thanks Chip!

Reply to Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity in Politics JoeUser Forums

Gideon, I absolutely agree. I think that the growing number of minorities (especially black Americans) in sports is a clear indicator of what "equal opportunity" is supposed to be. They excel at sports, and are the best choice for the team. You can argue as to why black athletes are often superior to other races. Athletes are athletes, and the fact is that those individuals put their mind to it, and excelled at it, period. If they had chosen to pu

Reply to Candidate Hillary Clinton - Not "Anybody But Her" in Politics JoeUser Forums

Kingbee, I agree that the Bush machine is similar in many ways to the Clinton machine. I think that the GOP has better candidates within the party as well (Sen. McCain would have been a great choice in my opinion). I'm interested to see who the Republicans will come up with in 2008. Jeb Bush has already denied that he'll pursue the nomination, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see him in 2012 or 2016, depending on how the 2008 elections turn out.</

Reply to I Want to Increase Wealthy Refunds in Politics JoeUser Forums

These aren't the rich folk that I'm talking about. These are the middle class, who are having a difficult time getting to the "upper" middle class or higher levels of the economic food chain. There is less incentive to bust your ass for more money when you know that the government is going to take a significantly larger portion of it. As their income slowly goes up, the tax burden increases from 15% or so, to 18%, then to 25%, and eventually, if you

Reply to I Want to Increase Wealthy Refunds in Politics JoeUser Forums

I have to disagree with Fazz. I would say that there is plenty of incentive already for the "poor". But, I've seen people turn down raises or jobs with higher salaries, because the added percentage of tax that they would incur for the added income would drop their take-home income to levels lower than what they currently have. It's like the saying: "A fine is a tax for doing bad, a tax is a fine for doing well". This discourages people from excell

Reply to Candidate Hillary Clinton - Not "Anybody But Her" in Politics JoeUser Forums

I've also noticed that Hillary has amazingly come much further to the right over the last couple of years. I firmly believe that this an attempt to be viewed as more of a centrist, in an attempt to gain more of the centrist vote in America. She already has the base liberal Democrats, but needs to bring moderates into her camp in order to win. The thing to remember is that she was a pretty dedicated liberal for decades. She didn't really become a ce

Reply to Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity in Politics JoeUser Forums

okay, I have to ask...what exactly is "compassionate equality"? When we are talking about doing your job as a soldier, the Army teaches you pretty much everything you need to know. It's up to the individual to excel or not. Everybody gets the same training. No difference in background. The Army also provides MANY opportunities for all soldiers to improve themselves via correspondence courses, tuition assistance for college attendance, as well as d

Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity in Politics JoeUser Forums

In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I am no longer in the Army, and that this article is based on the policies of the Army such as they were throughout the 90s until I got out. As far as I know, these policies are still in place, but I don't know this for sure. I remember going through the Primary Leadership Development Course, and learning a

Reply to Prison Reform (or not?) in Politics JoeUser Forums

Dave...now THAT was a witty post.

Reply to Prison Reform (or not?) in Politics JoeUser Forums

Dave...we didn't miss your point. Your "point" is that Greywar too could be arrested and jailed, and as such, should have a more humanistic and merciful view of what poor convicts go through. Unfortunately, you prefaced this point by making farfetched and erroneous assumptions (about Grey being a southern, drunk, gun-toting war monger) to strengthen your argument that he would be "likely" to be arrested. Got news for you: ANYBODY could be arrested.

Reply to Prison Reform (or not?) in Politics JoeUser Forums

St. Hubbins, It's rather obvious that you come up with your own conclusions without evidence. Some of your "assumptions" about Greywar are correct, but others are quite off-base, and clearly a manifestation of your own belief system of what a "red-stater" or "conservative" are. Yes, Greywar lives in Texas. The military sent him there. He did not move there due to an overwhelming desire to live in the south. In fact, he's from a

Reply to Prison Reform (or not?) in Politics JoeUser Forums

Greywar, I absolutely agree with you. I am appalled sometimes to think of how much money we spend to provide comfort items for hardened criminals. I fully support rehabilatative efforts for first time, misdemeanor type offendors, but your hard core felons and multiple time losers should get no slack. We've got working poor in this country who live in worse conditions than our convicts. That's unacceptable. I also totally agree with your

Reply to I Hate Pan Handlers in Misc JoeUser Forums

We have promoted and largely become a society of entitlement. Many people, from many walks of life, believe they are entitled to help, entitled to better pay, entitled to higher education, etc. I'm all for helping those who need help, as long as they are really trying to help themselves first. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way....Thanks Pidge.

Reply to Another MRE Story in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Holy crap! Those stories are SO true, and so hilarious. Some of the guy's other stories sound disturbingly similar to events that occurred in Korea over the years... kinda scary.

Reply to There Is Another Stinkin' Tree On My Lawn in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Bro, I'd drag that thing to the middle of the street, saturate it in lighter fluid, and creating a burning roadblock in protest. I'm sure whoever did it would get the idea that you weren't happy....

Friends Don't Let Friends Walk Drunk (Part II) in Humor JoeUser Forums

Upon finishing up the case of beer at the playground, the four of us headed down to the clubs in town. I don't recall where all we went that night, but if it was a normal night, we probably bounced around between the Oasis, Top Hat, and Duffy's clubs. We spent the evening nursing the drunk that we acquired by pounding excessive amounts of beer. At some point in the

Reply to Citizenship Services Update in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

Good news... B's work permit came in the mail Friday, and she got her license renewed Sat. morn, so she's all legal again.... This episode is finally over, and now the next episode (Immigration Wars, The INS Strikes Back), we get to struggle to get her green card processed (it was supposed to be done about 2 months ago). Updates to follow....

Reply to Adopt a Sniper Today! in Current Events JoeUser Forums

Typical liberal university. A good friend of mine was an ad hoc professor at Marquette for one semester. He was let go because the students complained too much to the dean about him. Apparently they didn't appreciate his belief that only those who do exceptional academic work should get exceptional academic grades. The students (or at least a fair number of them) wanted everybody in the class to be able to get an A. The professor explained that af

Reply to State of the Union 2005 in Politics JoeUser Forums

I agree that Social Security should be reformed in some manner, to ensure it's solvency and ability to provide benefits indefinitely. However, in fairness, an editor at US News, Mort Zuckerman, wrote a very good article Link articulating some facts about the issue. His argument is falls into the "If it ain't broke...." category, but at least he backs up his argument with a lit

Reply to The Road To Hell Part 11 in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Sorry I haven't mentioned anything earlier bro. Thanks for sharing all of the story, and I applaud your courage to open up this way. I hope all else is going well for you. We're doing pretty good, and had a surprise call from K a couple of days ago. She's doing well, and Boo-ya makes sure she practices her Korean. See ya later this year bro!

Friends Don't Let Friends Walk Drunk (Part I) in Humor JoeUser Forums

Thanks to Greywar for inspiring me to relive the joy and pain of some wonderful and horrible nights in my mind. I've been inspired by him to share a few with everybody. I've changed all the names to protect the guilty (as there were no innocents in these events......ever...). Feb. 19, 1996 was Seol-nal, which is the Lunar New Year holiday in Korea. To cel

Reply to Deadly Charisma (Out of Sequence) in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Greywar.....Just discovered the treasure trove of stories in this string of tales. Thanks for sharing. Some of these stories remind me of similar events from many moons ago in VOB. In fact, you have somewhat inspired me to share a few of these tales. I will have to try to remember all of the facts and faces, and I'll start regaling everybody with some "no-shit, you won't believe this" stories. Thanks for the inspiration brother.

Reply to International Breaking and Entering in Humor JoeUser Forums

whoops...looks like I mighta got you in a little trouble brother....sorry...

Reply to Reflections of the First Week of Student Teaching in Misc JoeUser Forums

Well Pidgey, we may be shafted in the short run, but I'm hoping that some teachers (hopefully like you seem to be) can recognize the problems, have plans to to try to address them, and eventually change the culture in our classrooms that has created this travesty. Good luck amigo!

Reply to International Breaking and Entering in Humor JoeUser Forums

Yours or not initially...they resided in YOUR house and destroyed YOUR furniture. I seem to remember YOU feeding them and cleaning up after them as well...... You might not have initially acquired them, but they were all yours at that point brotha....