During my 14 years in the Army I always heard about how great two nation’s public transit systems were: Korea and Germany .        I heard how wonderful the subway system of Seoul was. I heard stories about the train system that would “take you anywhere easy!” in Germany . I heard these stories from soldiers who had lived there and used the system but strangely almost all of these soldiers lived in the barracks while the...

You get what you pay for…   Note: Of course it is always better to have people who want to work for the sak of the cause, but I already covered that here .        Everyone is familiar with this adage and yet they often try to ignore it. Employers wish they could ignore it and those that try usually end up paying in other more painful ways than simple currency. This even applies to the modern military. You get what you pay for and...

     Want to annoy a Sergeant? Tell them that it is their soldiers who hold most of the power and the majority will lose their freaking minds… Here is why.        The army has mounds of information and advice regarding leadership and the application of leadership theory. A great deal of this is badly written, overwrought, or simply outdated but there are a few keepers amidst the hogwash. One of the things that always stuck with was ...

    I have no idea who authored the original... I still like it though... *Update: SSG Geezer has pointed out that it looks like Mark Baker is the name in the lower corner of the 1st panel.  

    I have no idea who authored the original... I still like it though... *Update: SSG Geezer has pointed out that it looks like Mark Baker is the name in the lower corner of the 1st panel.  

When you turn 18 in these United States we recognize you as an adult with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities attendant thereon.   We expect that you learned to read over the course of a 12 year publicly funded education .   We expect that you will be responsible for things like balancing your checkbook, trying to find employment, and not committing crimes against the rest of us.   We expect that as an adult with t...

     No one forces you to sign things unless they have a gun. You can however be forced by the sheer synergistic power of your own stupidity, laziness, and ignorance though. This is the case with many homebuyers and folks who take out debt consolidation mortgages.      CNN just did a fairly long piece on the folks who have signed up for loans that they haven't got a prayer of paying off ever. Of course CNN's AnchorDweeb fawned over the...

     Frankly I admire the restraint of Tony Blair in a way. I don't know how long it will hold out if these sailors are not returned but the Neaderthal in me simply doesn't tolerate the taking of women as prisoners. UK officials are waiting to be granted access to the HMS Cornwall staff, who were seized on Friday, and have not been told where the group are held. ... The navy personnel, who include one woman, were seized at gunpoint by forces said to be Iran...

     I will post some of the photos from this link later as Photobucket is blocked by Websense here at work. The pictures are of "patriotic" protesters burning troops in effigy, burning the flag, and sporting a "Fuck the Troops!" sign.   From LGF  

     You can't take a normal goose, tell it "Lay Golden Eggs!" and expect it to magically gain the ability to actually lay Golden Eggs. You also can't tell someone : "This part of your work is the number one priority, and this part, and this part, and this part... well all the parts are my number one priority." and then expect them to be able to prioritize anything from those instructions. Nonetheless, the U.S. Intelligence community has been attempting to do both thi...

       This is nothing but a listing of my intelligence related articles. Keeps them handy for reference and will likely grow into a Table of Contents sometime in the future of the blog. Mostly from newest to oldest:   Lost in translation *intentionally*   Military Standards: IQ vs. Work Ethic / Altruism   US Intelligence Collection Flaws and Fixes   How I Became an Intelligence Analayst (Pt. 1)   ...

     Sugar-High Elf asked what the problem would be with gay folks being in the military in this article . Rather than glom up her commentary with a long post I just decided to write a response.      The problem is not "gays in the military" as there are plenty already serving. The problem tends to come about when gays (particularly gay men ) "come out" to their unit. I have seen this several times over many years and most of the time the scenario...

Fact 1: There are very few Warriors who actively fight the enemy in armed combat in the Army. I would put this percentage at 15% or less of the active duty force and I frankly think that is an overestimation. Fact 2: The Army is full of pogue retards who desperately want to be thought of as Warriors. they often seek to associate themselves with the Iraq or Afghan Wars by using lots of jargon like "Battlespace", "Warfighter", and give their pogue staff titles like "Battle Captain". &nb...

     I am a gamer and my wife is decidedly not. Nonetheless she makes an effort to play a few games with me. Lately though it seems as though game developers are going out of their way to keep her from finding any appeal in their products.      Our favorites are games that support local multi-player in cooperative mode. The most notable of these in recent days has been Gears of War. Gears has a simple split screen coop view and a solid system of ga...

    I was a pizza driver. I am not ashamed of this fact but I have hidden it on occasion. Why? Because allowing the fact to be known in these situations would have placed me at a massive disadvantage. Let me explain:      When the company I know work for called me back and scheduled a sit-down to talk about making me a salary offer I knew that I needed to do a few things:           1. Get a new set of clothe...