**** the debates

[Al B. Sure!]

Army doesn't train with them anymore in BCT. For officers, it would probably depend on your ROTC unit. The Army still has knives though obviously, and as far as I know they'll still attach to your rifle. The Master Sergeant of my cadre referred to it as a "bayonet" so I guess it's a bayonet.

What about pugil sticks? You do that yet? The technique for it is bayonet technique: Jab and then butt stroke.

[regexcellent]

I'm pretty sure at some point when it's cold outside we'll play with pugil sticks. I saw them in the supply building when I was in there last week.

I figure fighting with a bayonet can't be all that complicated, since they never spent more than a day on it and really it's just a sharp thing on the end of a stick.

[Al B. Sure!]

Here's a cool video:




Pugil sticks are a lot of fun but surprisingly tiring.

[regexcellent]

Haha that actually looks pretty awesome, something to look forward to

Am I right in thinking that bayonet fighting is pretty simple?

[Al B. Sure!]

Haha that actually looks pretty awesome, something to look forward to

Am I right in thinking that bayonet fighting is pretty simple?

The Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, which is mandatory, includes bayonet training. To move up in belts, you have to qualify in bayonet technique at increasing levels. I'm not in the Corps so the MCMAP we did was only the most introductory.

I imagine Black Belts in MCMAP demonstrate better control of a bayoneted rifle than the simple stab stab stab you are imagining. There's probably also an emphasis on quickness and efficiency of action.

[Al B. Sure!]

New world opinion poll out, especially for all those people who believed it when Fox told them how Obama was ruining America's image abroad..

[ATTACH=CONFIG]172784[/ATTACH]

Pakistanis must not be big fans of drone strikes

[regexcellent]

Funny how the list doesn't include Israel

[-Jrabbit]

I haven't read the thread but why do I get messages on facebook like this?



It's like I'm from another planet! I don't go around asking people why they support Obama!

It's a social media strategy. Romney is buying ads those as a means of extending secondary reach. Inducing people to post comments about Romney boosts the "number of people talking about this" and, they hope, likes. Plus, more comments generate even more ads.

It's a little forced, but not a bad FB strategy.

[Zevico]

Pakistanis must not be big fans of drone strikes

Wrong metric. Correct metric is US popularity past and present.

[kittenOFchaos]

Pakistanis must not be big fans of drone strikes

They also don't like that Obama killed their pal OBL.

I'm amazed by Republicans. They ignore that Bush presided over 9/11, an invasion of Iraq that was based on the WMD lie and then presided over the biggest financial crisis since 1929 which was triggered by American debt. The Republican talking heads are proven liars, fanatical and probably only peddling their nonsense because it makes them rich.

Thank goodness there are Democrats and as this poll suggests, most of the World agrees!

[Tuberski]

They also don't like that Obama killed their pal OBL.

I'm amazed by Republicans. They ignore that Bush presided over 9/11, an invasion of Iraq that was based on the WMD lie and then presided over the biggest financial crisis since 1929 which was triggered by American debt. The Republican talking heads are proven liars, fanatical and probably only peddling their nonsense because it makes them rich.

Thank goodness there are Democrats and as this poll suggests, most of the World agrees!

Yes, Democrats tend to make a more benign idiocracy.

ACK!

[Hauldren Collider]

Did KoC just endorse a 9/11 conspiracy theory, or am I reading that wrong? There appear to be several conspiracy theories in that post, all overlapping each other. Make sure your foil cap is attached firmly to your head, kitten. Don't want those jackboots to get into your brain.

[DinoDoc]

Yes, you read it wrong. He's saying that Dubs was in charge when 9/11 happened.

[Hauldren Collider]

How is it a criticism of Bush that he presided over 9/11? I also think it's hilarious, by the way, that he thinks Republicans run for office only to get rich, as if businessmen like Mitt Romney could get richer by doing something other than business.

[DinoDoc]

I haven't read the thread but why do I get messages on facebook like this?

Stop being such a whiny *****. Here's a reply you can give if you are stuck:

Reasons why I am not voting for Obama:

Unemployment rate

http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet

7.8%
He got us back to where he was when he started... that's great. Now, there's a problem... see the next graph.

Percent of adults in work force

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/US_Labor_Participation_Rate_1948-2011.svg

STEADY DOWNWARD under Obama

Median Income (note, I don't use 2008, I use 2009, the WORST year of problems)
2009 - $52,000 (in today's dollars that is $56,160)
2011 - $50,054

http://www.mybudget360.com/how-565-million-households-live-52000-median-household-income-in-2009-crushed-by-a-decade-of-debt-a-decade-of-lost-wages-and-financial-debt-servitude/

http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/12/news/economy/median-income-poverty/index.html

Americans living in poverty
2009 - 43.5M
2011 - 46.2M

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=6d1d8f5f-3d3b-4759-afbd-e42aea77cc34

http://www.census.gov/

National Debt
2009 - $9T
Today - $16T
Almost 100% increase

http://home.adelphi.edu/sbloch/deficits.html

America's Credit Rating
2009 - AAA
Today - AA-

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49037337/US_Credit_Rating_Cut_by_Egan_Jones_Again

Crony Capitalism/Failed Green Companies = $7,657B

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/10/18/president-obamas-taxpayer-backed-green-energy-failures/

The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:

Spoiler:

1.Evergreen Solar ($25 million)*
2.SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
3.Solyndra ($535 million)*
4.Beacon Power ($43 million)*
5.Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
6.SunPower ($1.2 billion)
7.First Solar ($1.46 billion)
8.Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
9.EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
10.Amonix ($5.9 million)
11.Fisker Automotive ($529 million)
12.Abound Solar ($400 million)*
13.A123 Systems ($279 million)*
14.Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($700,981)*
15.Johnson Controls ($299 million)
16.Schneider Electric ($86 million)
17.Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
18.ECOtality ($126.2 million)
19.Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
20.Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
21.Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
22.Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
23.Range Fuels ($80 million)*
24.Thompson River Power ($6.5 million)*
25.Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
26.Azure Dynamics ($5.4 million)*
27.GreenVolts ($500,000)
28.Vestas ($50 million)
29.LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($151 million)
30.Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
31.Navistar ($39 million)
32.Satcon ($3 million)*
33.Konarka Technologies Inc. ($20 million)*
34.Mascoma Corp. ($100 million)