Why is there no maximum wage?

[WACF]

But if the internet fell apart tomorrow...how would we share Van Halen bootlegs? I'm all for the zombie apocalypse...but living without sharing Van Halen boots??? Fuck that!

I hear ya.

The web has brought the music world to us in a very different way...

[DONNIEP]

I hear ya.

The web has brought the music world to us in a very different way...

For me it's still the same kinda thing as when I was in 8th grade and somebody had Hit Parader and we passed it around...When I burn a DVD for a brother or sister here at the Army it's the same feeling I used to get when I passed that magazine off to one of my buddies...

[binnie]

Quite happy to admit that I don't have an iphone/smartphone.

I hate cell phones - it's just another way for people to annoy me at their leisure.

[Nitro Express]

The iphone is too bulky and heavy. I probably would break the thing. I'm hard on cell phones. One time I left one in my cargo shorts leg pocket and washed the thing. It was not water proof. LOL!

[ashstralia]

it's an amazing bit of gear, nitro. i just show it the same respect i show all my valuables.

[baru911]

The minute you suggested BlacKKKwater as a "career option", you pretty much outed yourself as a paid shill. (Of course having 911 in your username was a dead giveaway too)

Funny how your list of "career opportunities" left out "You can post right wing talking points on internet websites for minimum wage, like I do"

Fuck off, KKKochbot.

911 is in my username and has been on a large number of boards for years. I used to live at a street address that had the numerals 911 when I first started posting on the internet years ago.

Right wing talking points? Dude, working harder than other people to get ahead isn't a right wing talking point. It should be your mantra. Work harder than your competition and you move forward during tough times. You don't sit around and whine about the hand life dealt you. Whining leads to quitting. In my life quitting hasn't been an option.

Whining about something doesn't change your reality. You have to go out and change it for the better. I have friends who have had their limbs blown off that don't whine about the the hand they have been dealt. They don't whine at all compared to many of the Americans I get to see on the news, on clips on the internet, or on message boards who have never faced any type of adversity but want society to "understand" it was their crappy childhood that caused their lot in life. Guess what? You can change your lot in life. Great example of that is the current President of the United States.

No idea how many of the people that post here have traveled and been to third world countries. If any of you had you would realize how easy life is here compared to life there. A day in many of those people's lives is truly about survival. It isn't sitting in a climate controlled house in front of a computer whining about the bullshit that politicians (no matter what party) feed us to keep us divided so they can stay in power.

Eating from the crap that Washington feeds you (again, no matter what party) to keep us divided as a population is pretty stupid. A divided population is a weaker population. It is a population that "the politicians/power brokers" can control.

Examples:

1) The crap both side throw out about abortion. Last time I checked it was legal. If it is legal why worry about it? It ain't gonna change no matter which side of that fence your views lie. Its there to keep people divided and distracted. Just like a magician the politicians use it as a flash-point to keep you distracted from what they are really doing.
2) The 2nd Amendment. Its in the Constitution. Not gonna change any time soon. Again, Just like a magician the politicians use it as a flash-point to keep you distracted from what they are really doing.

Dividing people is about power. Its how you obtain it and keep it. In the Middle East you divide through religion. In the US you find 3 or 4 talking points that poll a hard left or hard right. You feed it to your "followers" and guess what? They divide themselves and the power brokers/politicians get to stay in power.

Ummm, times are economically tough in the World right now. A really nice flash-point is to get people to talk about how much that person or this person is making. People get pissed, divide themselves, and the people that threw or use that "talking point" or some other "talking point" get to stay in power or capture more power. BTW, they will do NOTHING to change your day to day existence once you elect or reelect them. They don't give a shit about you, me, or most of the general population.

Lastly, calling me a name does nothing to strengthen your points. In reality it is a childish action that allows others to see how shallow your arguments are and what type of character you have within yourself.

[baru911]

Also as an aside to (1) do you think it's a good thing if you as a taxpayer spend millions of dollars training soldiers so that they can then leave the military, join a security/mercenary company which then charges you the taxpayer 10 times as much to provide the same guy you already trained just so the government can claim less military involvement?

The soldiers that have been trained through US taxpayer dollars have the option to leave once their hitch is up or they can stay within the unit and re-up. If they leave and go work anywhere else they still have been trained via taxpayer dollars. Most aircraft mechanics and pilots that work for the airlines learned their trade in the military - They get paid a lot more to more by the airlines than they do by the military. Its why they leave. Shouldn't everyone have to ability to weigh their options and move in the direct that is better for themselves and their families? Taxpayer dollars fund the airlines and your local airports to keep them flying (Not saying it is right nor am I saying it is wrong - It is our system).

Most guys who work for security outfits do security protection for US Department of State personnel or train the locals in the countries they pull a contracts in. It might surprise you to know that a large amount of those "contracts" are in Central and South America now. They aren't being paid to claim less US military involvement. The Special Operators Community within the US Military is stretched to the breaking point. There are too many theaters that the US is currently involved in to send an ODA team to Peru to train the locals. Those guys are way too busy at the tip of the spear to do that now-a-days. That's where older retired operators that work for security companies fill the gap within our system.

(I am NOT saying that I agree that the US should be tangled up in many of the theaters/countries it finds itself. Many of those places we shouldn't be in. However, it isn't the boots on the ground place to question why they are there. Their job is to have a high mission commitment level, finish the job at hand, get your team home safe, and move forward to the next one.)

[WACF]

For me it's still the same kinda thing as when I was in 8th grade and somebody had Hit Parader and we passed it around...When I burn a DVD for a brother or sister here at the Army it's the same feeling I used to get when I passed that magazine off to one of my buddies...

When we made it to the city I live in now we would just go to a record store...poke around...as a group each buy something different that someone from the store would recomend or something we read about in Hit Parader or Metal Edge.

Go to one of our houses and put it on...then proceed to record the LP so we all had a copy.

Or explore a buddie's big brother's record collection....that is how I first hear Women And Children First for the first time....talk about a defining moment....I could not get that sound out of my head.
Same goes for ealy Maiden and Judas Priest.

Now it is instant....very easy....and to a degree...not as rewarding.

[DONNIEP]

When we made it to the city I live in now we would just go to a record store...poke around...as a group each buy something different that someone from the store would recomend or something we read about in Hit Parader or Metal Edge.

Go to one of our houses and put it on...then proceed to record the LP so we all had a copy.

Or explore a buddie's big brother's record collection....that is how I first hear Women And Children First for the first time....talk about a defining moment....I could not get that sound out of my head.
Same goes for ealy Maiden and Judas Priest.

Now it is instant....very easy....and to a degree...not as rewarding.

Ah, the good old days. Back when you'd go to the record store and ask when a band's new record was coming out and they actually knew. Now, it's picking through the CDs at the local Best Buy or Walmart. Or, God forbid, downloading it onto your iphone. I miss Camelot and Record Bar. Spent a lot of time in those stores with my buddies...good times, good times.

[Nitro Express]

I liked the record stores when they were like head shops. They had the bins of the records and tapes, they had T-Shirts, and posters. Then the glass counter at the register was full of bongs and hash pipes. The place smelled like incense. It was always a stoner behind the counter but he knew his shit. He knew when things were coming out and what bands were coming to the nearest venues. You could spend hours there and the dude didn't care. The cost of going to see a show was about what an album would cost you. $8-10. The department stores had their record section but it didn't have the atmosphere. It was a good place to burn time as your mom spent hours trying on clothes upstairs. With my mom I dreaded shopping. It was going to take all day. I spent hours in the record section just because of that.

[Nitro Express]

The soldiers that have been trained through US taxpayer dollars have the option to leave once their hitch is up or they can stay within the unit and re-up. If they leave and go work anywhere else they still have been trained via taxpayer dollars. Most aircraft mechanics and pilots that work for the airlines learned their trade in the military - They get paid a lot more to more by the airlines than they do by the military. Its why they leave. Shouldn't everyone have to ability to weigh their options and move in the direct that is better for themselves and their families? Taxpayer dollars fund the airlines and your local airports to keep them flying (Not saying it is right nor am I saying it is wrong - It is our system).


(I am NOT saying that I agree that the US should be tangled up in many of the theaters/countries it finds itself. Many of those places we shouldn't be in. However, it isn't the boots on the ground place to question why they are there. Their job is to have a high mission commitment level, finish the job at hand, get your team home safe, and move forward to the next one.)

Most people join the military because it's a stepping stone to another career. My nephew went in to become a helicopter pilot but he was too good of a mechanic and ended up working on them. He flys them on his own time. I was going to go in if I could get a pilot's slot because I wanted to be a commercial airline pilot but couldn't pass the color blind test. My dad signed up to get the GI Bill. It's been that way since the end of World War II. The US military could save you a lot of money or open doors that were normally closed to you. That's not so much of a problem as the politicians misusing the military. Sometimes I think kids would be better off serving two manditory years in the military. Not to fight in some dumb war for oil but to get the discipline that they never got at home. I'm to the point I won't even bother to job interview anyone under 30 years old because the younger people have a discipline problem. Serving in the military would fix a lot of that attitude.

[Seshmeister]

It might surprise you to know that a large amount of those "contracts" are in Central and South America now. They aren't being paid to claim less US military involvement. The Special Operators Community within the US Military is stretched to the breaking point. There are too many theaters that the US is currently involved in to send an ODA team to Peru to train the locals. Those guys are way too busy at the tip of the spear to do that now-a-days. That's where older retired operators that work for security companies fill the gap within our system.

You should go and do some reading on the 'School of the Americas' one of the the most vile bits of US foreign policy ever...

[Seshmeister]

Most people join the military because it's a stepping stone to another career. My nephew went in to become a helicopter pilot but he was too good of a mechanic and ended up working on them. He flys them on his own time. I was going to go in if I could get a pilot's slot because I wanted to be a commercial airline pilot but couldn't pass the color blind test. My dad signed up to get the GI Bill. It's been that way since the end of World War II. The US military could save you a lot of money or open doors that were normally closed to you.

The pilots thing has been going on forever here too, no one objects to that in fact it was comforting back in the day to know that there was a good chance the guy flying your plane had been trained to deal with all sorts of shit in the military.

My complaint is the use of mercenaries that they have already trained by the US government which is an entirely different thing.

[Nitro Express]

My dentist practiced dentistry in the US Air Force. He went in after he got out of dental school and it paid for part of his education. He loved being a dentist in the Air Force because they provided the work space and equipment and he just had to show up and be a dentist. He would have stayed in but his wife and family hated living on the bases. Now he's running his own practice and has to run the business and hates it. He's made some horrible business decisions too. He's a great dentist but not much of a businessman.

I would say the mercenaries are a very very small group. Most people who serve in the US military are like that dentist. They want to be something but money is always the problem; especially now. In a way I sometimes think they are intentionally jacking the price of tuition to drive more people into the National Guard and military so they can be used as war fodder. Clearly the agenda now is to just have non stop war.

[DONNIEP]

I liked the record stores when they were like head shops. They had the bins of the records and tapes, they had T-Shirts, and posters. Then the glass counter at the register was full of bongs and hash pipes. The place smelled like incense. It was always a stoner behind the counter but he knew his shit. He knew when things were coming out and what bands were coming to the nearest venues. You could spend hours there and the dude didn't care. The cost of going to see a show was about what an album would cost you. $8-10.

I'm sitting here looking at my David Lee Roth ticket from '91. 21 bucks, 3rd row. Triple bill show and only 21 bucks...I don't have any of my other old tickets from other bands and shows in the 80s but I know they were way cheaper than that. And I don't care what anybody says about inflation - 15 or 20 bucks back then wasn't much money even to me and I was only making like 5 dollars an hour. It's hard to believe bands made any money off those tours back then...