Here’s what is unquestionably the Red Pill Quote of the Day. Well, to be perfectly honest, of two days ago, but I only saw it just now. It comes courtesy of the FeMRADebates subreddit.
H/T — TheBluePill
“I wonder if there’s a single person writing on ‘toxic masculinity’ who could out deadlift a certified alpha,” Red Piller wonders
@Pavlov’s House – Thank you! And thank you for your service, both past and present.
Oh, man, it sounds like you were at Campbell around the same time as my husband (he was either there or Korea at the time, can’t remember which off the top of my head). If you ever did anything with the 160th you might have run into him. The Army is such a small world.
I was out long before they phased in the ACU’s and I’m pretty sure Mr. FM never wore the current issue ones, either. How are they? They’ve always looked stiff and stuffy to me.
BDU’s? How passe. Haven’t you hear MTP is the new black? 😉
http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/Alan_Robertshaw/media/WP_20141104_14_07_02_Pro-Copy_zps2c0eebc5.jpg.html?o=5
Lol. How does one become a certified alpha?
Pffft, why would anybody pay attention to British soldiers? Y’all salute weird and you wear your berets funny. 😉
@ Flying Mouse
Yeah, but at least we know how to pronounce lieutenant. 😉
Hey, why aren’t I Alan anymore?
Anyone know how to fix that?
In Pratchett’s “Unseen Academicals”, the character Mr.Nutt is very concerned with acquiring what he thinks of as ‘worth’. What he does in pursuit of this is generally admirable, but it’s never enough and the worth he acquires is in constant need of replenishment.
These clotpolls appear to think of masculinity in much the same way, except the things they do to acquire and maintain it are typically horrible. It seems very unrestful, always having to police your own behavior and seek reassurance from your fellow sufferers.
A good friend once referred to my “overwhelmingly masculine household”, despite that not being a concern for me, my husband and our two sons. Funny how that works.
@Alan
This is probably due to confirmation bias, but you look so veddy British in that photo.
It’s the bowler hat isn’t it? Always such a giveaway. 🙂
LBT,
I hadn’t realized you’d recently gone public. Hang in there. I hope it turns out well.
Terry Crews. Kthxbye
@Flying Mouse – yeah, we might have been there at the same time but I was with the rigger unit that was attached to the 101st itself. I think the 160th had their own riggers. I know 5th Special Forces Group had their own riggers. We rigged personnel chutes for the handful of units in the 101st that were still actually airborne (and not air assault like the division) and rigged heavy-drop for the division. I think we might have jumped with guys from the 160th at some point. I don’t remember for sure. You know how it is with riggers – we jumped all the time (have to – can’t rig unless you’re on jump status and make qualifying jumps every so often.)
Yeah, about the ACU’s….the velcro for nametapes and patches looked stupid to me at first but I got used to it. Apparently you have the option of removing the velcro and sewing all your stuff on if you don’t mind paying for it. I did because I think the pin-on rigger wings look stupid. I’ll be damned if I’m going to go to all this trouble to come back and not have my triple-stack sewn on my uniform. I’ve been to the field twice in ACU’s now. The pockets are awesome. They all close with velcro. I love the shoulder/upper arm pockets because you can put a flashlight and your notepad and pen in there and get to it easily. There’s also more pockets on the pants – more than just the old BDU cargo pockets.
And get this….in garrison, apparently you don’t iron ACUs! Remember ironing BDU’s? Good God. And nobody polishes boots in the Army anymore either. The ACU boots are that rough leather that you don’t polish.
Yeah, different Army. You should see all the new equipment. Last radio I had was the old PRC-77. People hand me stuff at drill and I’m like “I have never seen this before….” and one of our old E-8’s goes “oh yeah, you would have had the old such-and-such….” Pretty funny. Still, this old soldier has a 2-mile UNDER 15:00 and that’s at 45 years old. Can get over 50 reps on the push-ups and over 50 reps on the sit-ups on the APFT.
(But…..but….is my airborne self as cool and as manly as Rooooooooooshhhhh?? ‘Cause, you know, he “would be” a soldier, you know, if he had lived in a different time. “Would be…”. Weak little f*#$-er.)
@kravekernow What Flying Mouse said, heh.
But you Brits seriously do need a period of instruction on the correction pronunciation of “lieutenant.”
We join forces though and make fun of the Commonwealth countries’ armies. Good grief can those guys get some crazy-looking headgear going when they have half a mind to…..
Seriously though I wouldn’t mind trying MTP’s instead of ACU’s at least once. Different wars we’re getting ready for these days. BDU’s were made for running around in the West German woods in getting ready to be overrun by the 2nd Guards Tank Army….
The news freaks me out sometimes because I wonder whether we’re back to old Cold War rivalries. But the German battlefields we trained over and planned for wouldn’t be battlegrounds this time.
There was a Satanic sex abuse panic, Ross Cheit’s claim to the contrary notwithstanding. Read this rebuttal to his book: http://ncrj.org/resources-2/response-to-ross-cheit/the-witch-hunt-narrative-rebuttal/
@ Pavlov’s House
Ironically, most of my SF friends prefer US Digital (but then again they do like to be ‘different’)
And whilst not underestimating Soviet forces if the war had come in Winter we’d probably have been ok as the opposition would have drank all their anti-freeze. 🙂