Puppylink

In other words, a weiner dog.

Air Force Veteran Relieved of Duties [Possibly] for Disagreeing with Homosexuality

Now THIS is a rant!

The Air Force Veteran is an idiot. And it is plainly dishonest to try to suggest that he's being punished for "having an opinion." Wrong. He's being punished for expressing his opinion in the workplace, creating a hostile work environment. Perhaps his CO overreacted, but that's the very reason you keep your opinions out of the workplace.

What if there was someone in his class who happened to be in a same-sex marriage as this pompous windbag announced that he was against gay marriage and gays in the military, but bigly promised to teach everyone just the same, despite his opinions? (Opinions that he just couldn't keep out of the workplace.)

And the workplace is, by law, a non-free speech zone. There are all kinds of speech, most conspicuously sexual harassment, which are not permitted in the workplace. The workplace is protected from comments that create a hostile work environment because of the unique reliance people have on their jobs.

If he was off-duty (although whether there is truly an "off-duty" as far as military personnel are concerned is debatable), and speaking to his friends who were similarly off-duty, then by all means, let him say what he wants. If his friends don't like his opinions, it is their right to walk away.

In the workplace, however, you have a captive audience. And if you don't realize that, then frankly you're an idiot and you deserve precisely what you get.

I'm reminded of a time when I had first arrived at my duty station at Ft. Bragg. I was assigned to work in S2, the Intelligence Section. A female soldier whom I had first met at Jump School at Fort Benning, was also due to arrive. (By coincidence, she and I had followed each other to AIT and language school ever since Jump School and we got to know each other very well. And now, we would be assigned permanent party together, which suited me fine.)

She fell in love with, and eventually married, another soldier whom I ended up going everywhere with. I had actually known these two longer than they knew each other (although I had nothing to do with their meeting each other).

Burney arrived after I did, because she took leave after completing AIT. I went directly to Ft. Bragg.

In any case, my NCOIC (non-commissioned officer in charge) was talking to another Sergeant about his newest arrivals, including me. (I was referred to as "another WOP.")

"You're getting another one, too," said the other sergeant. "Her name's Carlson [the aforementioned female soldier]. She's a black girl."

I chuckled to myself. "Sergeant," I said, "I've known Carlson since the day I got out of basic training. She's not black. She's paler than I am."

"Oh, I must be thinking of someone different," he said to me. "I was thinking she was Burney's fiancee."

"She is Burney's fiancee," I said, struggling against laughter. (Yes, Burney is black; they were an interracial couple.)

Days later, Carlson arrived and my NCOIC, as he had done with me, had taken her out for her initial counseling to explain her duties.

I had only heard about this from Carlson, since I wasn't there.

"I want to get something out in the open," SSG Leonard (my NCOIC) said.

"And this is..." said Carlson, somewhat apprehensive.

"I want to say something off the record." Boink! Huge mistake. There is no such thing as "off the record" in the military.

Carlson waited, and SSG Leonard continued, "I don't feel that blacks and whites should marry."

Dumbass. Someone give me some extra arms. The two I was born with are not enough for the necessary facepalms to cover this act of stupidity.

Her first day meeting the person who is supposed to be her boss for the rest of her enlistment and already he felt the need to weigh in on something that was really none of his business, but objected so strongly to it, that he just had to tell her. Talk about creating a hostile work environment.

Moral of the story: if you have a controversial opinion, you keep it out of the workplace. It is not worth your job!

He was shortly removed from our office. I hadn't heard anything from him since that day, although some months later, my First Sergeant announced at the morning formation that our former boss was soon to be getting married.

"I didn't know he even had a sister," I remarked dryly. And I got in trouble for being disrespectful...something that happened to me a lot in the military.

I didn't care. The roars of laughter from the morning formation was worth every push-up.

"I didn't know he even had a sister" is such a priceless line that I fully intend to steal it at the first opportunity. If I had been drinking coffee at the time I read that, my keyboard would have been kaput.

I'm kind of a "Liveleak.com" junkie, because it airs raw footage that doesn't get much attention from the mainstream media, and you get unedited video from both sides of every conflict.

There is home made video from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, pretty much anywhere there is conflict. Here's the thing that really puzzles me: on both sides the vast majority of the dialogue is "Alahu Ackbar". Rebels knock out a tank, everyone yells "Alahu Ackbar". Government starts firing into the crowds, the soldiers are all yelling "Alahu Ackbar", the people being fired upon are all yelling "Alahu Ackbar". Both sides look the same, if you switched uniforms nobody would know the difference.

Great societies have moments of sheer madness, i.e. Japan and Germany, where social and prosperous peoples lose their collective minds, but in those cases there was a sort of evil logic to their motives. Then there are places like Somalia, Rwanda, Cambodia, where the crazy has no underlying motive, just chaotic evil.

I guess in the Middle East I just don't see any goals, no end game. It puzzles me.

Here's a good one:

Pistol Packin’ Wife Drives Off 6 Armed Robbers

And one more . . .

Tennessee elementary school bans pork [possibly] to avoid offending Muslims

Just because human beings are natural vegetarians, it doesn't follow that every animal we bring into our household is a vegetarian, too.

These morons nearly killed their cat by feeding it an all vegetarian diet.

/faceplant

America's judges: models of ethical behavior and completely qualified to mete out justice on ne'er-do-wells.

Here's one banging someone else's wife then getting the staties to frame her husband for crimes he never committed.

Sorry Patrick I know you are ignoring me and all that, but I never let blatant stupidity pass by.

Humans are NOT natural vegitarians

Indeed. Why would people do so well on the Atkins diet if we were natural vegetarians?