A Number Oddity
They arrive every week. They are stupid and scared, eyes wide and so poorly trained they can barely tell the difference between the position of Parade Rest and the position of Attention. They wouldn’t know which of the two to stand at if one of my squad leaders didn’t remind them.
We don’t have time to train them.
They went from being beaten by their alcoholic parents to OSUT. From OSUT to us. They have just enough time to be rushed through processing. We will issue them a weapon they don’t know how to use.
The Russians buried over 10,000,000 mines in Afghanistan.
There have been more than 100,000 civilian casualties in Afghanistan since this war began. 80% of them are the result of mines.
That doesn’t count victim operated IEDs, command wire detonated IEDs, snipers, accidents, surface to air missiles, mortars, rockets, EFPs (explosively formed penetrators; an anti-armor weapon capable of punching through an Abrams), ambushes, or suicide.
That leaves approximately 9,900,000 ways for these poor, dumb kids to die.
Support the troops.
That is just how it goes, irregardless of how much of a dick you are as an LT with rehearsals and training. Young men will perish. Plans will go to shit. Trust your NCOs. Good luck.
It’s amazing how much more you can do with quality over quantity, and how little of a shit the system gives. On the other hand, a lot of those kids respond really well to being held to high standards by somebody who actually gives a shit about them as a human being for the first time in their lives. It’s like antibiotic responsiveness in jungle tribes-they’ve never been exposed, so when they are, it works really well.
The teachings of Srila Prabhupada on women and anti-feminism
http://prabhupadawomen.wordpress.com/
The purpose of this essay is to address the issue of feminism and misandry (hatred of men, the opposite of misogyny) and how it has destroyed modern society. We will be analyzing many of the statements made by Srila Prabhupada about women, their role in society, and the anti-feminism stance of his teachings.
I studied the Gita under a student of Prabhupada. I wasn’t convinced. Aside from spamming my site, was there something you wanted to address, specifically? Here’s Max on men, women, feminism, and pretty much everything: We’re all guilty. Everyone deserves eternal fire.
Bravo and agreed to the “first time somebody gives a shit about them” part.
I taught a GED course for incoming recruits for two years. So many of my students were stunned, astonished, when a teacher went to bat for them to get things they needed at the school. They’d never had a teacher defend them.
By definition all of our students were dropouts. I have a Master’s Degree and learned more from them than I taught. I left convinced that somewhere in every dropout’s education (read, “schooling”) some teacher alienated them from the concept of learning.
I was career Navy. The NCOs who baby-sat our school were Army. Astrum would enjoy noting that my fellow educators were constantly “surprised by the professionalism” of the NCOs.
I had to bite my tongue every time I heard it. These NCOs and the military were making graduates of students who were failed by the education system across the nation and the teachers were “surprised”. Some of the brightest kids I have ever seen were these dropouts.
Like Max, I often wonder what became of them.
Support the troops.
Somehow, coming out of my mouth, “Support the Troops” sounds like an insult.
It should.
I mean it that way.