Recent content by rapaz

From what I've read, the military is fairly strongly opposed to a draft--they feel that their all-volunteer force is superiour to the draft force of the Vietnam era. It's a funny reversal. In the vietnam era, they didn't call up the reserves because they thought it would be too unpopular. Now...

His math doesn't really add up, either. 40,000 in Rio in one year, but 100,000 in Brazil in twelve years? There is an extra zero or two in that number, I think. Rio and Sao Paulo have exciting crime rates (not up to Columbia's standards, but orders of magnitude higher than anywhere in the...

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Honest question: What happened to the "powell doctrine"? You know, overwhelming force + clearly defined success + exit strategy? Has it been officially discarded? Or was it tried, and something went wrong? Another honest question: What is "success" in Iraq? Meaning, even if every Democrat...

This is a good example. Call me wrong, misguided, or dumb. Suggest that I'm informed soley by communist alien voices speaking through my fillings. Hell, even call me a stooge for the oh-so-lovely democratic candidates. But just lay off the unpatriotic/happy about dead soldiers crap. Tarring...

Excellent criticism of the Democrats; fortunately or unfortunately a lot of it applies to the repubs, too. Somalia, for example--Clinton pulled out... in large part because of intense criticism from republicans about "nation building," "sending our boys into harms way for nothing", blah blah...

I don't know if you should have carried or not--that is a different question--but I did have a story. A few years back a friend of mine was mugged, on halloween night, by a group of men wearing costumes and masks. He went to report it to the police, and they basically laughed him out of the...

You'd really think so, wouldn't you? But sadly, most of the complaining posts in this thread are variations on "I wanted to buy a gun, but they were rude, so I took my money elsewhere." Strange business model, turning away customers, if you ask me.

You're right--Bush makes me see red. Interestingly, it's the same for an awful lot of people I know, many of whom are VERY conservative and feel betrayed by that man. You know, deficit spending, standing in the world, etc. I actually believe (tax cuts for the rich aside) that Bush has honest and...

Is that what it's about this week? ;) But really, the US already had "force projection" footholds in the middle east--we had bases in Saudi and other countries. From this link : Now, of course, we have been forced to accede to one of Bin Ladin's top demands, and get out of Saudi Arabia. Man...

I'm glad that no one was hurt (well, besides your pride). Some years back I was coaching a first time shooter with an old winchester 30-30 (no safety). Me standing behind and to the left, no one else at the range. We went through every step dry (no ammo) a few times--muzzle control, using...

Funding works differently in different countries, so adjust accordingly. Here in the US, there is far more $$$ available for phd studies than for masters. One way to leverage that is to get into a phd program (with the nice full funding) and then leave after getting the masters. Just don't tell...

I think we basically agree, except for one fundamental point. If you want to "hurt the other side," I assume you mean al quaeda, right? If so, what the hell are we doing in Iraq????? Al Quaeda is in saudi, kenya, yemen, malasia, all sorts of places... but never had a home in Iraq. There are all...

I'm not too worried about whether the dealers with poor customer service skills stay in business. I am VERY worried about the future of firearms ownership in this country if (some) gun dealers keep trying their hardest to support anti-gun groups. By support I mean not inviting and welcoming new...

Sounds great... if we were actually fighting al quaeda. Instead, we are fighting taliban remnants in Afganistan (or more accurately, no longer fighting them, having pulled out almost all of the special forces who were looking for bin ladin) and some odd combination of Baathists, nationalists...