FrankJL

MENSA is nothing...try the Giga Society now that is some smart people.

What's "boy voting"? Elphie Boy voting is what we do in Pittsburgh Our Mayor Luke Ravenstall is only 27.

Thats not just unique to Utah, here where I live in we have very liberal state assemblyman (PA's equivalent to the house) who keeps on getting reelected as Republican because people don't pay attention to such small political figures, and usually vote straight party lines anyways. It's always sad when I feel I have to vote for the lesser of two evils. But that is what it has all come down to over the years isn't it? Or you could vote third party, knowing your vote won't count for much. Or you could do what I did at last years election, I though all 3 candidates for state senator were terrible, so I did a write in vote for "Jon Stewart"

You go for the lesser of the two evils... Sadly situations like yours are a fundamental reason why our two large party dominated system is so flawed.

I've heard your mayor in SLC is a total nut job too?

I figured this was going to be the answer, but felt obliged to ask. This is is pretty much a mirror statement of the same flawed logic and generalizations that says: "your not voting your faith if you don't vote for Republicans, because they oppose abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, or whatever the social issue du jour is" Also isn't Provo in district 2? The same district that has elected a Democrat since the early 90's, the only Democrat in congress from either The House or the Senate from the state?

Apology accepted.. Though I don't want anyone to feel any pity for me, these things have only made me stronger as a person and the military has afforded me many good opportunities, both growing up in the military, and serving myself. I don't know many people that have lived on 3 different continents by the time they are 18, or have visited nearly every country in Europe, seen the DMZ in person, ate Gaegogi (not knowingly of course!), and many other intresting experiences. Oh and that $2300 (tax-free) that gets magically deposited into my bank account on the first of every month for school, heck thats more then I'll make a month when I do start teaching... Where is PC at...I'm curious if he's ever had Gaegogi..??

Your right, I have no clue what its like to be on 3 deployments (twice Iraq, one Afghanistan), and facing the ever present threat of going a fourth time. Nor do I know what it was like to be 10 years old living with a mother who just gave birth to twins, a month after her husband deployed to Desert Storm as a tanker serving on the front lines. Also toss into this mix being stationed in Germany at the time and having no family support at all, and postpartum depression. Now granted the 10 year old didn't even know what this was, he just knew mommy was really cranky and started smoking again for some reason. Nor do I know what its like when dad finally does come back from Desert Strom to be deployed to Bosnia less then a year later. Though being only 12 at the time and not understanding why dad wasn't wearing a US flag on his uniform anymore, and was wearing some baby blue flag and hat instead. Nor do I know what it is like to see my fathers twin daughters not recognize and even be fearful of their father when he finally does return home from Bosnia. Nor do I know what it is like to grow up for the 18 years I lived at home to see my father go on 8 deployments during that time, and an 18 month hardship duty tour to Korea. Nor do I know what it is like like to deal with a mother that had both her son and husband in Iraq in 2003 during the real ground war. So I obviously don't know a thing about what these families are going through. I was going to reply to some of your other responses, but that little remark really ticked me off... You know I've been deployed several times, and I'm pretty sure I told you once my father recently retired from the army, so for you to make that kind of a comment seemed far too crass of you.

Care to explain in more detail what exactly you mean by this comment?

Or Matalin's. How those two got married will go down as one of the mystical mysteries of the 20th Century. Elphie Ya they seem like quite the odd couple... Now Ann Coulter and Al Franken now that would be great.. On the substance of the issue.. I honestly think there are some dems that don't understand, Bush can't run again in 08, so what exactly are they running against?

Is there something specific you have in mind?

Nice... Glad it was short though, can only stand Carville's voice for so long..

Thank you, I'm well aware of that. As I'm sure Elphie and others knowledgeable about this issues does. However I don't think most people / media institutions that are referring to this are referring to the printed paper report, which will be bent and twisted to no end, as expected. I think what most people are looking forward to is the actually testimony of Petraeus before the Senate Armed Services Committee two days from now. Though I can understand where you are coming from with this remark. This has been a hot topic in the media in the last few days in the media, all stemming from an article in the LA Times last week.

An aber wo hast ich sie? I think thats right...its been years since I lived in Germany.

Ok I'll bite finally... I've been gone a few days, was at a lecture series, with some other poli sci students from PSU, at Dickinson College on the EU constitution. I was actually quite proud of going, I was the only undergrad from PSU that was invited. On to a few points on each topic from the OP... Before getting to the meat of his analysis, I thought liberals opposed "preemptive strikes"?? Considering the Pretraeus report isn't even out yet, would this not be a "preemptive strike" on it? 1. Extending deployments to 18 months. - maybe feasible for active duty, but that would create a nearly 2 year deployments for reservists. I assume they are counting just time in country, not ramp up time. Reserve units usually need about 6 months of training prior to deployment. 6mo training + 18 mo in country = 2 years total deployment. 2. Draft - horrible idea, nobody is giving any serious thought to this. In 2003 a few house Democrats (the main push though came from Rangel in NY) introduced legislation to bring back the draft, they claimed it was to spread the burden of the war to all young people regardless of their SES background. The final vote came in 2004 a month before the election, a whole 2 out of the 436 members voted in favor of it. All of the original sponsors of the bill even voted against it. Personal opinion though, if they are going to give serious thought to this, they need to amend the selective service to include women too. P.S...why did the video cut out before Kristol was allowed to specifically answer the draft question? Why we don't have enough troops - Combination of two things. First reenlistment / enlistment numbers are pathetic right now, and the only real thing the military is trying to do to solve this problem is throwing out more money for bonuses. Second Clinton pretty much ruined our military, with his downsizing. If we still had the number of soldiers we had in the early 90's this wouldn't even be an issue now. 3. Discharges - This is still a commanders discretion as to how to handle soldiers on initial entry contracts. Just kicking someone out isn't an easy choice, the military spends thousands of dollars training each soldier that comes in, to kick out people for minor infractions would be a huge waste of money and resources. Also many of the things he's listed doesn't affect job performance in most cases. Waivers - Waivers are nothing new, the army has a lot of little things that would normally disqualify people from enlisting. I think in most cases the waivers are a good thing, if someone wants to serve they should be allowed to. From my understanding a lot of waivers are for weight, which is something that is easily correctable while they are in basic. though they may be recycled a few times. Also a lot of waivers are for people with asthma, which is also not that big of a deal if they take care of themselves.

For the Colts fan... Who was the Steelers 2005 season MVP? Nick Harper's wife

I learned something today... I guess we don't have earwigs out here in PA?, or I never noticed / heard of them. Pretty little critter eh ?

no...I run about a 6.5 to 7 MINUTE a MILE pace on longer runs like this. :) I seem stuck on my 2mi time though, I can't seem to get it below 11:45 no matter what I do, and this frustrates me to no end.. There is a female in my unit that runs 12:30-13:00 2mi (which is amazing for a female) said to try yoga, the flexibility gives you longer strides... I think its just that I'm short (5'5), and she's 6'2. Or I could be because when I was 16 till I was 20, I was a 2 pack a day smoker...but its been over 7 years since I quit, I still think that is coming back to haunt me.

I really doubt this is going to do him any good, too many people in his own party have already thrown him under the bus. The only person kinda supporting him has been Arlen Specter, and he already backing down some.

I wanna apologize to my feet. I've been on a running binge lately, usually do about 5mis for 4 days a week, to doing about 7-8mi for 5 days a week lately. Though this tread does remind me kinda of when rappers get awards... "I wanna thank my momma, and I wanna thank Jesus" announcer, "that was p-diddy accepting the award for his hit track "smack my hoe" I'm sure Jesus is proud of you for that song..

That sounds about right (or is it left?) Fence sitter

What is libertarians position on the death penalty? Elphaba Very against. I'm for it in most cases.

I just have a long ignore list Though I do think it is rather sad that I've even put some mods on my ignore list at times. Also I don't think I've ever put a non-LDS poster on ignore, shouldn't we be setting the example? Just my 2 cents. I only have a few posts and I'm still kinda new, so I'm not even sure if my thoughts count..

Personally I'm pretty much a straight libertarian, the only thing I really disagree with the hard line libertarians is the death penalty. So depending on what issue you speak of I could be seen as either a conservative or a liberal extremist. In regards to LDS in general though, I'd say about 80% are ultra-conservative.

Interesting information. Perhaps it would be better to make this a sticky in the general discussion forum.