The general decline in standards today

[sheeplady]

To be quite frank about it, many men currently serving in combat would not be able to meet some of the standards that have been suggested. Sheeplady to the contrary, for the most part the men and women serving in the military are fairly average people. They're not all in top physical shape, especially those Guard and Reservists who do not have the benefit of having physical training as part of their duty day. But they still manage to deploy and do the job, and do it very well.

I wasn't referring to physical shape, but I can see how that got mixed in there given the topic for discussion. I was referring more to the fact that just "average" people don't sign up for careers defending their country given the high costs/ occupational hazards involved with service. I'd say the same for reservists. I think it takes an above average person to do so. People may disagree, but that is how I feel about our troops and veterans.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

God bless you, Lizzie. You always know just what to say.

Gonorrhea has always been with us too. Doesn't mean we have to embrace it.

I have to agree with this. I've watched more Beavis and Butt-Head than I care to admit thanks to friends. The sillyness leads to some laughs, but mostly I'm sitting there thinking that this stuff is brain-melting rubbish.

Now, King of the Hill is one of my favorite shows on television (I'm actually missing it right now!) There is plenty or silly to enjoy, but you have Hank who I feel is a more relatable character than most of the white male fathers portrayed in TV, cartoon or not. He works an average job, loves his country, loves his son (despite his many shortcomings), he is always faithful to his wife, and is always a good friend. Hank Hill is a lot like a lot of people that I know. He has his flaws and is human, but does his best to be a good person. We need more Hank Hills in TV Land.

I will say there's one writer in comedy today who I really respect, and that's Mike Judge. He understood that mass culture was being packaged and written for Beavis and Butthead twenty years before most people understood that. And with "King Of The Hill" he proved that he understood how to do subtle character comedy in a way that hadn't been seen in a very long time -- while continuing to critique what mass culture was becoming. He would have been a Sturges-like figure in the Era, but today his films struggle to get a release.

The man should have been tried for war crimes, himself....

"War is Hell" William Tecumseh Sherman

 

[Viola]

Those time zones are something else. I have to call friends that are in London and one that is currently working on finance for his company that is based here in the USA, but they send him to China all the time. I get so confused about all that, I just leave them a voicemail and tell them to call me when the rooster crows!

Yeah, its an aggravation. My folks are East Coast USA and I am fourteen hours ahead... so its' 2:30 PM here, and its....12:30 AM there. We have to schedule phone calls pretty carefully, but in our case at least its a consistent who-is-where.

 

[Pompidou]

I don't know what the standards are to be a soldier. I only presumed they were insurmountable because the earliest counterarguments amounted to "Women can't meet the standards". Then it was proposed that so long as standards are in place, anyone who can meet them, no matter how high, should get the same opportunity. Now it seems there aren't really any standards for being a soldier - full of average Joes, for the most part. All the better for my argument, I think. It's no longer a matter of lowering standards or not - the standards are either low or unobserved. Just drop the gender mandate and let the chips fall. I suppose my general argument kind of remains the same - anyone who can do the job should be able to. The only difference is, that photo-op will be a lot more diverse than the theoretical army of Ripleys and Rambos that was being tossed around before. Makes a lot of sense. Now I see even less of a reason for the silly regulation.

I wasn't referring to physical shape, but I can see how that got mixed in there given the topic for discussion. I was referring more to the fact that just "average" people don't sign up for careers defending their country given the high costs/ occupational hazards involved with service. I'd say the same for reservists. I think it takes an above average person to do so. People may disagree, but that is how I feel about our troops and veterans.

 

[Travis Lee Johnston]

So Beavis and Butthead is more intelligent than SNL. Got it.

 

[rue]

Travis.... you crack me up!

 

[Pompidou]

So Beavis and Butthead is more intelligent than SNL. Got it.

The only TV I watch is The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and both of those shows have enough brilliant moments to match intelligence with any show of decades past. I suppose the Onion News Network might count as well. The fake news is far superior to the real news in most every measure.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

If you can look past the layers of crude. Family Guy has more to offer than a lot of shows, too. Granted the veneer of idiocy is hard to get past. If you can, there's a lot of reference that often takes a higher amount of brain capacity than most others I know that watch the show have, to comprehend.

 

[Travis Lee Johnston]

Travis.... you crack me up!

Then my job here is done.

If news networks did more actual reporting, it'd be watchable. Faux news comes to mind?

 

[Travis Lee Johnston]

Family Guy and American Dad are gems. Comedy is good when there's little to no elitism envolved. Some comedy dies out cause it's simply not funny... Like Billy Crystal..

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I like Family Guy, because it doesn't take sides. All points of view are covered. The Simpsons used to be great and then it got a political agenda and it ruined the show.

 

[Travis Lee Johnston]

The Simpsons got political? I must have missed that, but I haven't seen the newer episodes.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I stopped watching a couple years ago and I was watching over at my parents' house last week, during my vacation. We had to turn it off because it has such an agenda that it was nauseating. If I want to get political, I'll turn on the news. I watch TV shows to be entertained, not lectured.

The Simpsons got political? I must have missed that, but I haven't seen the newer episodes.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

So Beavis and Butthead is more intelligent than SNL. Got it.

I do know that there are some sort of cartoon shows about these two fictional characters, yet to date, I have not one time watched them. SNL I lost interest to watching years and years ago. The one time greats that were on the show are long gone from it, and it lost it's luster for me.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Yeah, its an aggravation. My folks are East Coast USA and I am fourteen hours ahead... so its' 2:30 PM here, and its....12:30 AM there. We have to schedule phone calls pretty carefully, but in our case at least its a consistent who-is-where.

I have a watch that was designed for telling the time around the world, and to aid in setting locations for using a sextant. However it is a really older vintage watch and everything on the watch face is so small I need a magnifying glass to view it, and actually it needs to be serviced now as it stopped running about a week ago. I have some bad luck with watches lately, have no clue why, either?!? My trusty dependable rolex stopped and they want a arm and leg to fix it, my Wife purchased me one online to sort of replace it, and I doubt it worked before it was even shipped and had to fight to get a refund and then my one vintage watch stopped working!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I wasn't referring to physical shape, but I can see how that got mixed in there given the topic for discussion. I was referring more to the fact that just "average" people don't sign up for careers defending their country given the high costs/ occupational hazards involved with service. I'd say the same for reservists. I think it takes an above average person to do so. People may disagree, but that is how I feel about our troops and veterans.

I have wanted to state this in a way that can give you some indication as to the nature of my "position" on women in combat.

I joined the service and honestly did not wish to die in combat. I joined hopeful that to join rather than to be drafted may help me. But as it was, I had fooled myself and eventually was sent to combat.

A small part of what I can share about war. If I wanted to post some of the pictures I have, they would perhaps ban me from this site. The pictures are that horrible.

The very first time you take a life in combat, you recall it later, well at least I did. You recall everything from the smell, the taste, the panic, the fear, you do not even know if you have wet yourself as you are ducking and dodging projectiles being fired at you from enemy troops, and you wonder what the life of the person was all about that you just took. How is their family going to react to the news of death? You think of those fellow service men, some of which you became close to, that died that day as well. The sorrow and hardships of what their family will have to deal with. You pray (don't tell me you don't believe in God) because I have not yet met anyone that did not at least whisper "help me oh God live through this day" while in combat. You hope to be able to spare your own family the pain they would feel if you happen to be the fellow that got hit or walked into an ambush, and got to come home in a body bag. And you do all this while trying to eat, sleep, maybe clean yourself up every few days, and try to keep your wits about you and follow what your mission was. And I have to add to this, in a sad way, I had no idea about war until I went to combat. I was too young to be there, but was there anyway. The only lucky part of any of it, when I served the war was coming to and end and I felt in my own mind, that is perhaps the only reason I survived it.

I could write a thousand pages as to what the horrible events you face while in combat, but the bottom line is, on it's own merits, I take my viewpoints that combat is NO place for a woman.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

On the subject of Beavis and Butthead, there were a couple of guys at my high school that, I swear, had to have been the inspiration for the dim duo. Strangely enough, one of them became a cop because he was mentioned in a news story some years later and I knew it had to be the same person because his name is not a very common one.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

On the subject of Beavis and Butthead, there were a couple of guys at my high school that, I swear, had to have been the inspiration for the dim duo. Strangely enough, one of them became a cop because he was mentioned in a news story some years later and I knew it had to be the same person because his name is not a very common one.

I just have to ask was his name Beavis..or the Butthead?

Odd that you have that experience as in one of my classes while attending University, there was two what we call, "stoners" that would have reminded you of Jake and Elwood. Always clowning around. They remained good friends far after those days and seemed to stick with each other like a pair of shoes and became very successful in a co owned business. And like Jake and Elwood, on more than one occasion, they had the police looking for them on Campus, but they seemed to always be one comical step ahead of them. We never knew exactly what the police wanted with them, and oddly they never got "busted".

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I have no idea why but I always tend to think of comedy as to individuals that lived a long time ago, such as Laurel and Hardy, or even W.C. Fields. They had it going on as far as comedy.

I recall a article written about W.C. Fields, he had a partner in a way in some of his "skits" if you want to call it that, Little baby Leroy, a child that seemed to always cause him trouble. He made the appearance that he hated children while on screen in his skits. So during an interview he was asked if he hated or liked children? His response was, "Children, why of course I love children, specially when they are well done".

We do have many greats that have performed comedy. Some more into our own time era, but if you sit and watch Laurel and Hardy, I myself tend to think they were the masters of it all.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

For some unknown reason my computer made the same post twice! It must be haunted...call in the priest!