RopeaDope

Your link isn't working for me so here is a link to The Army Human Resources awards branch https://www.hrc.army.mil/tagd/purple%20heart Examples of injuries or wounds which clearly do not justify award of the Purple Heart are as follows: -Frostbite (excluding severe frostbite requiring hospitalization from 7 December 1941 to 22 August 1951). -Trench foot or immersion foot. -Heat stroke. -Food poisoning not caused by enemy agents. -Chemical, biological, or nuclear agents not released by the enemy. -Battle fatigue. -Disease not directly caused by enemy agents. -Accidents, to include explosive, aircraft, vehicular, and other accidental wounding not related to or caused by enemy action. -Self-inflicted wounds, except when in the heat of battle and not involving gross negligence. -Post traumatic stress disorders. -Airborne (for example, parachute/jump) injuries not caused by enemy action. -Hearing loss and tinnitus (for example: ringing in the ears). -Mild traumatic brain injury or concussions that do not either result in loss of consciousness or restriction from full duty for a period greater than 48 hours due to persistent signs, symptoms, or physical findings of impaired brain function. -Abrasions and lacerations (unless of a severity to be incapacitating). -Bruises (unless caused by direct impact of the enemy weapon and severe enough to require treatment by a medical officer). -Soft tissue injuries (for example, ligament, tendon or muscle strains, sprains, and so forth). -First degree burns.

I'm not even sure how to properly word my thoughts on this one. To the OP, I vote no. The Purple Heart is awarded for being wounded in combat by an instrument of war by direct action of an armed enemy engagement, that requires medical treatment. The PH is already abused quite often by people who end up getting it for scrapes and bruises. We refer to those as "John Kerry wounds" or "cheap" Purple Hearts, and it degrades the value from those who earn them with sacrifice of life, limb, or eyesight. However, severe TBI, or service connected PTSD are not to be taken lightly. Any soldier who has helped clean up the aftermath of a suicide attack on a crowded market or had an IED strike on their convoy is going to have some level of PTSD. For some though, Chronic PTSD with multiple contributing events and different components such as bearing whitness to carnage, experiencing extreme guilt (real or imagined), or having violence vested upon yourself by the enemy, the PTSD can be debilitating. It can affect your ability to maintain relationships, employment, manage finances, make you vulnerable to substance abuse. Treatment is vital, and perhaps even a medal of some sort, but not a PH. In order to maintain the integrity and prestige of the PH, I'd suggest coming up with an alternate type medal, one precedent below the PH for the people who's lives have been permanently affected or "disabled" by service connected PTSD or TBI. Or something to that effect maybe.

I didn't read the whole story, just saw the video. But looking at the video, it looks a lot worse than it really is. That little desk on a tile floor? If the officer grabs her arm and tries to pull her up out of the desk, the desk if coming with her, especially when she was resisting and clinging to the desk with her legs. I'm not saying just give cops a pass to act however they want, but I think the girl got what she needed to get. Maybe she will change her attitude. (Probably not, she will be the victim and it will embolden her to act like even more of an ass)

This isn't so much a reply to you, cvfd1399, but a general post. Something had to give in that situation, and by that, I mean with the kid. If my son did something like that, I'd have his ass right back in there apologizing to the officer, to his teacher, and to his classmates. The officers actions may not have been the most appropriate, but the girl wasn't hurt physically, only her ego was shattered. I would have disciplined him, privately, but let him save face with the students so as to avoid further undermining the authority of law enforcement among the upcoming generation. Something should also be done about the fact that the school officials completely mishandled the situation as well. The cop should not have been brought into the room unless a crime was committed. This was a student/teacher issue. If he teacher couldn't handle her student, then the principle should have stepped in. Obviously none of them wanted to be the "bad guy". They wanted the resource officer to come in and do their job for hem, and he ended up getting fired over it. So what happens to the student who was being a fuck up in class, and the teacher and principle who can't handle their students? Nothing? Just another shitbag officer gone. I sure hope the resource officer in my son's school can dominate a situation like that if there is ever an active shooter incident there.

Agreed. My reference to Nam was off the cuff. I am not well studied in the political strategy of that war, or Iraq/Afghanistan, or the analysis of the woulda, coulda, shoulda, and what if scenarios. So please put no stock in those comments. War is a game of kings and it is played out by pawns. Whether you were drafted, or naive and trying to escape a small poor farming town and start a life for yourself, if you are the pawn you have to fight over something you may not fully understand or even believe in, against another young man who feels the same way and does not want to face you in battle either. Yet there you are, fighting will all your heart, because the more brutal the fight, the faster it is over. You want to win your platoon's battles so you and your platoon are the survivors of the shit show. At the end of it all, you try to rationalize it. You want some kind of closure for why your friends are dead, or paralyzed, or missing limbs. You need to find some kind of way to live with yourself, because the road to hell is paved with good intentions, so even though you are a young soldier trying to save the world, you begin to realize how life really works. You can do everything right and honorably, but when you learn that some of your "enemy" are misguided youth, that are easily manipulated by their religious beliefs, and being paid to fight the evil crusaders when their family is poor and starving, it's not an easy pill to swallow. I'm not religious myself, but I know the basic jist of the bible stories. If you skim through the Qoran, it is remarkably similar to the King James Bible. Their religion is actually quite beautiful, but more than 80% of Iraqis are illiterate. That means they can't even read their own Qoran for themselves. The only thing they know about their religion is what they are told. So when a charismatic extremist cleric starts manipulating the wording they can be easily misled. I really like what was said earlier in this thread, about the countries of the Middle East being lines drawn in the sand 100 years ago by some westerners who had no notion of the thousands of years of religious and tribal boundaries in that area.

I know the officer could have exercised better judgment, but I think the whole situation is kind of awesome. Here is little miss badass being disrespectful and showing everyone how tough she is because nobody gonna be tellin her what to do, then, SURPRISE! Instant attitude adjustment. She probably didn't have a good contingency plan for that type of reaction to her little show off stunt There is also, as always, a silver lining. Every kid in that classroom most likely made a decision right then and there that they were going to behave in class from now on. I mean, was the girl innocent? No, she wasn't. Was the officer innocent? No, he was guilty of one of the sickest take downs ever unleashed on an unruly teen

You ARE aware that the CIA warned Bush that the intelligence was unreliable, but he went ahead and sold it to the Congress and the American people anyway? Right? Yes, I am. At one point I was reading everything ever written about OIF and watching every documentary trying to make sense of why I was there. Then after multiple deployments it just didn't matter anymore. I was there because I belonged to the military through a binding contract and they kept sending me there. All that mattered was trying to make some kind of good out of it and coming home alive. I don't care if I die doing something awesome, but I did not want to leave my ghost in that shit hole country. By being there I did not have the luxury of seeing the big picture unfold on the news. I only saw what was right in front of me. But what I saw was unadulterated uncensored and not second or third hand info from biased media outlets. My life became much more simple when I stopped trying to figure out the war and started learning Arabic, studying Iraqi culture, and learning about Islam and the quaran, and just did the best I could do with the jobs I was given

Who's a sock puppet? Me? I'm really not trying to be anyone's poster child, so sorry if I came off that way. Just sharing my perspective Larry does not endorse, finance, or lend the Larry name to any outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, or prestige divert Larry from his primary purpose.

Well for honesty sake, I must confess, I did walk around with an unlit cigar in my mouth squinting at everyone calling them Punk. But only to establish my credentials as an authority figure. I never abused ant of Clints lines for personal gain.

Really? No WMD, just chem & bio. Really? Mass destruction wipes large cities off the face of the earth in the blink of an eye and makes the land uninhabitable for generations, and millions more die from radio active fallout. Chem and bio kills off a small neighborhood and then the damage is done. Soldiers have anthrax vaccinations and carry MOPP gear and atropine injectors that render chem and bio attacks ineffective on them (civilians still suffer) but nothing is going to save you from a nuke. The instructions for a nuke are lay down flat on the ground, head toward the flash, don't look at the flash, cover your head with your hands, after the shock wave get under cover of some type to avoid fallout

Bwahahaha, good one - John Wayne in one of his first color movies? BTW: No longer a scout, rope a dope? Actually I'm not up to speed on John Wayne movies. I was quoting "End of Watch". Normiss- the koolaid is strong, strong as a mofo, but I'm not trying to defend the war or Bush's choices. I was agreeing with Blair, no more no less. Whatever the reason for the war, whatever the outcome, I had no say in it. "I'm just a wheel man, man". I just tried to explain what I saw. I'm not making a case for it. Believe me that I saw what I say I saw, or believe I'm telling fascinating war stories

So what you are saying is, the US Government lied to it's people and the world. Started a war because of supposed WMD. The whole world thinks there are none because apparently nobody found jack shit, the US government has an absolute low in foreign relations and is the laughing stock of the world. Yet here you are, a lowly soldier, telling us that for some strange uncomprehendable reason the US did find lots of WMD's and decided to keep it quiet. All the while knowing that showing the world these weapons would have legitimized the war!?! Yeah, that makes sense. No turbo, not WMDs, that was false intelligence. There were chemical and biological weapons there. Don't try to church it up into anything more than that. I'm simply saying that in regards to the comments about finding jack shit, Jack wasn't there, but there was in fact some scattered shit. It's all a matter of how you want to spin the wording. Google the shit. I don't know what info is out there. I don't care. What I've said isn't a secret. I was never told to "not talk about it". It just never really mattered to me. I was there and that was that. America. Women want to be with us and men want to be us. Sorry you were born in the wrong country.

*[Got it. But I'm pretty sure you'll never see 100% humidity in southwest Asia.]* - scratch that, I just read a news article about what you are talking about. Maybe it will wear down ISIS and they can dehydrate and die of heat stroke in the name of allah. Dry ball temps are high 120s and low 130s in some places (island effect from Baghdad), but it is extremely arid there. It's worse than Eloy, AZ in that beyatch. It's like Eloy in August, then 20 degrees hotter.

Can you clarify what the threshold temp is, it copied over as goble-de-goop followed by a (degree symbol) C. And can't I get that in Fahrenheit since I'm a narrow headed American?

Thank you for that, but selfishly, I did it for adventure, a paycheck, and that GI Bill. I'm not trying to paint myself up as anything special. I just ended up over there, and it wasn't all blood and guts gun fights. I don't know if the war was the right or wrong thing to do. Given the number of people killed in the Iran-Iraq war (over 1 million Iraqis), the number of Kurds killed, the people killed in his invasion of Kuwait (the literally killed every male and child, and raped every woman they came across), I think something needed to be done. I just think our postwar plan was fucked, like Tony Blair said.

It's interesting, what with some of your posting history that I've observed, that you put so much stock in what the media says. Journalist go to Iraq, a platoon is tasked to drive them around and show them stuff. Since we are told by our superiors what to show them, they see what the brass wants them to see. Then a public affairs officer checks all footage, photos, tape recordings, and notes to ensure their is no "sensitive" information contained therein. Then they go and read a report from a study that the US government conducted, turned in to the state department or whomever for editing, and then released to the public. I don't care if you think I'm brainwashed with propaganda, or if I'm making it up to impress people. I stood there on the ground and looked at it, I pulled guard on it, I sat in over watch positions to ambush people trying to gain possession of it, I've been tasked with security escort for EOD and task force rocketeer to dispose of it. Makes no difference to me what people believe about Iraq, know about Iraq, or think about the war. I have my own opinions about the war, but I didn't have a say in it. All I could do was survive, keep my guys alive, make sure our morals and humanity remained in tact, and complete the little missions I was given in my small little part of the big war. I joined in 99'. We were doing peace keeping in Bosnia and Kosovo. I thought it would be an adventure and pay for college. Irregardless of my thoughts on the war, it felt good to see thousands of kids get their first text books for school, or to see women at the Baghdad University for Women going to school and not being tortured or raped on a regular basis. I really enjoy our Med-Cap missions where we took a PA to a local medical clinic with a butt load of supplies and meds and people came from all over to get free treatment, diagnosis, medications. On the flip side, it enraged me when an IED blew up one of my hmmwvs, or when civilians were slaughtered by AQI or JAM. It also enraged me to be put into positions where my morals sometimes had to take a back seat to my survival.

Indeed. I only speak for myself, but I'm fine with whatever new wave of restrictions gets drummed up, BUT, like the assault weapons ban from 1994-2004, grandfather the stuff that people have already legally purchased. You add new laws, I'll comply with them when I go buy something, but if your new laws retroactively makes legally purchased guns sitting in my safe become illegal with the flick of a pen, then I'll be just one more outlaw among society. This is an excerpt from an article about American gun culture, written by a retired Australian General after living in the USA for 20 years. It's an interesting read, but I like the quote in this paragraph. The intensity of pro-gun passion creates another problem for legislative solutions to gun violence. It is a truism, also traceable to Edmund Burke and the Enlightenment, that no laws should be made that the people are bound to break: “People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law.”

I'm not opposed to it. Just be honest about it and stop trying to make everyone think gun shows are a free pass on the law. I've actually never bought a gun at a gun show. It's more of a hassle there than at the store. One time I took a handgun to a gun show with the intention of selling it to buy something else, and one of the dealers stopped me and warned me against it. He said if you haven't know the guy your whole life, don't sell him a gun, you never know what you're getting yourself into. That was 15 years ago when things were a little calmer. If someone buys a gun private sale because they can't pass a background check, then they just committed a felony. If the person selling it knows about it, then they are committing their own felony. It is against the law. It is as much against the law as any crime they may commit in the future with that gun. Background checks on private sales would make it more difficult for people to break those laws, just like bullet proof glass cages at the gas station make it more difficult for someone to break that pesky old armed robbery law.

I try to stay away from the opinion and theory arguments and just point out what the laws actually do or do not cover. Most people obey the law and there is now issue. Some people break gun laws and the public gets upset because the laws were able to be broken. People break the law. I don't know of any law that will effectively stop someone from breaking a law. Murder, rape, robbery, arson, theft, drunk driving.....these are all illegal and have harsh punishments, but people break hose laws and do it anyways. All you can do is punish them for breaking the law, but people think I'm crazy for thinking that way, so when I get caught up in these conversations, I try to just talk about what is and what isn't which can be physically proven. (such as this is the law regarding this, or this is how many criminals were convicted of a crime where they used an illegally obtained firearm in the commission of that crime)

Yes kallend, I can find you via craigslist or whatever kind of local yard sale site available and we can meet in the parking lot of all those places you just named and make the transaction. For me to sell you a gun, you have to show me photo I.D. for proof of age, complete a generic bill of sale that I use to cover my ass, and write a little statement saying that you are not in any way prohibited from purchasing or possessing a firearm, again, just to make me feel better about the sale. That way, when you use the gun you bought from me in a drive by in retaliation from being banned from the DZ, and they find you had a history of violence, I'll show simple evidence that I followed the law and took steps to ensure you were doing the same, but since you didn't, you broke the law all on your own, and I'll testify to it and watch your charges pile on.

I read that there is at least one know death caused by weed. Dude had several tons and a stack of bundles fell on him and killed him. That's some dangerous stuff

You can, if at said gun show, you find a fellow patron of that gun show who is not a licensed dealer and is willing to make a private sale to you. Again, the gun show really has little or nothing to do with it. A better phrasing is, "if you want to buy a gun without a background check, you can't go to a gun store, but you can go absolutely anywhere in the 32 states that don't require background checks on private sales and do so." There is not a "gun show loophole" trick to skirt the law. There are states that don't require background checks on private sales, which makes it possible for people prohibited from purchasing firearms to buy them from unsuspecting people just selling an old gun to buy something else, or receive them through gift, trade, or purchase from friends and family without the friends and family being held accountable for their role in it. If you get caught intentionally making straw purchases, or knowingly sell to a prohibited person, it is, either 5 or 10 years (can't remember off top of my head) in federal prison, and a $10,000 fine.

In that particular picture, Mr. Hadj poj McDoge was poking around at it after the fuel, payload, and guidance system were removed. After a while, we just worried about the important parts and let them dispose of the scrap metal. But hey, don't take my word for it. I'm just some dude, who spent a little time over there, then used my GI bill on a trade school, and now I make my living swimming around in municipal water towers.

This is what I learnt in school. Nixon was planning on going through with it thinking he could beat it, and then the "smoking gun" tapes were revealed and he knew he was screwed, so he promptly resigned and in exchange for a Presidential pardon from his Vice President/successor, Gerald Ford. Therefor he had resigned and been pardoned of any wrong doing before an impeachment could be completed. To wit, the argument came about betwixt Quade and I as he challenged my claim that Clinton was the second Prezzy to be impeached, and not the third. A thin line between semantics I suppose.

Close. All GUN sales, period. Not handgun sales. It needs to cover rifles and shotguns as well. I was simply pointing out that so much of the argument is dependent on misconception. Why do we keep using the term "gun show loop hole"? Obviously to make people take it at first glance and believe that any criminal can walk into any gun show and buy anything they want from whomever they want. Just be honest about it. In some states, private sales do not require background checks. A gun show has nothing to do with a private sale in that situation whatsoever. Surveys of inmates show that less the 2% obtained a gun at a gun show. 20% from friends or family through straw purchases. Stop trying to mislead people with this gun show jargon, and state the case that background checks on private sales would reduce the availability of guns for these criminals by 22%. I think that is a pretty good start on reducing "gun" crimes. I don't know if this deceit is done intentionally to manipulate people into supporting the gun control efforts, or if it is a genuine lack of understanding, but this is a big reason why one side will never trust or cooperate with the other. (IMHO of course)