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youbedead wrote:
I'm now wondering what mussel tamales would taste like

I've always assumed there was a reason seafood isn't frequently used in tamales, it may not mix well with the mounds of pork fat you use in the base ingredients. The next time I make tamales though I'm going to stuff a couple dozen with curried chicken, I think it will be quite the fusion. If that works I'll probably do a keema mater tamale with mint chutney. I should probably start a food thread...

The pork fat would probably overpower the mussels, yeah. Also, there may be an issue regarding cooking time, its easy to overcook mussels.

No need to perpetuate long quotations, which is quite spammy. Thanks! ~Manchu

Dude you just won the Dakka record for longest quote. oh wait I just quoted you. Frazzled uber alles!

Do we have to post a counter story for each of those in which a soldier recounts a hilariously grisly moment that not only didn't make them cry but still makes them laugh? Or just one? If it is just one matty has it covered, but if we need more I know a few Infantry and special forces guys who aren't emotionally compromised and tell a good story. I remember there was a Colonel that got in trouble becuase his soldiers said they liked their jobs and that doesn't fit the narrative we have set up for ourselves that it is all grim and angsty and they should hate what they do.

Blaming the US for sectarian violence? No, it's not the United State's fault. This is a continuation of a civil war that has lasted for over a thousand years and consumed unmeasurable amounts of human life and wasted countless generations. All for what? Over a disagreement about the Prophet Muhammad? This will bring more misery and shame than any foreign occupation. They cheer about the end of problems from outsiders, when the real problem lies within.

Ahtman wrote:Do we have to post a counter story for each of those in which a soldier recounts a hilariously grisly moment that not only didn't make them cry but still makes them laugh? Or just one? If it is just one matty has it covered, but if we need more I know a few Infantry and special forces guys who aren't emotionally compromised and tell a good story. I remember there was a Colonel that got in trouble becuase his soldiers said they liked their jobs and that doesn't fit the narrative we have set up for ourselves that it is all grim and angsty and they should hate what they do.

I know some good ones.

Practically all of my memories of being in the Marines are positive, and even the ones that aren't don't seem to fill me with the shame, regret and angst that some of these guys exhibit.

biccat wrote:

CT GAMER wrote:

biccat wrote:
threatened its neighbors, used chemical weapons on its own people, and fomented religious bigotry I'd actually be pretty happy with another country coming in and taking him out.

These have happened recently in the US, not to mention religious bigotry is an American staple...

One needs only to look to the Dakka forums to find evidence of the latter.

As to the former, I'm pretty sure we haven't "recently" used chemical weapons on Americans. Unless you're talking about chemtrails, of course.

Fellatio joke?

'It'll make your eyes water.'

The stiff upper lip will do that.

Pah, she's American.

'No fellation without representation'.

Lol the Davis spray incident? What the picture doesn't show was students harassing the cops well before the pepper spray was used. True, pepper spray was probably not the best idea, BUT the students were not just peacefully protesting either.

In the Marines we would take off our gas masks inside the chamber, which was full of CS gas, and sing the Marines' Hymn. I remember at one point my buddy's eyes started bleeding for some reason during this event, and he was somewhat put out that we were all laughing too hard to help.

Pepper spray doesn't impress me.

Monster Rain wrote:

Ahtman wrote:Do we have to post a counter story for each of those in which a soldier recounts a hilariously grisly moment that not only didn't make them cry but still makes them laugh? Or just one? If it is just one matty has it covered, but if we need more I know a few Infantry and special forces guys who aren't emotionally compromised and tell a good story. I remember there was a Colonel that got in trouble becuase his soldiers said they liked their jobs and that doesn't fit the narrative we have set up for ourselves that it is all grim and angsty and they should hate what they do.

I know some good ones.

Practically all of my memories of being in the Marines are positive, and even the ones that aren't don't seem to fill me with the shame, regret and angst that some of these guys exhibit.

I have been wanting to reply to Ahtman for two days but was sucking on the teat of the ban-hammer again.

Anyway.. my reply may warrant a thread of its own, but I was discussing this at length with the missus last week following a story about some feth head who got drunk and kicked the gak out of his wife. Here it goes.

Following numerous tales from the past couple of years of military men having "issues" when they leave, I have decided that PTSD is the new "race card" to be played by anyone who feths things up in their lives following their military careers.

In the same way that the victims of genuine racism have their own tales tarnished by the drug dealer with 500k of heroin in his trunk who bleats "it's cos I am black!" when they get hauled off to jail, I propose that the angsty, shame ridden types are in the minority. A huge minority, and a minority that feel safe to play the PTSD card because polticians universally praise the military, and it is expected from our society as a whole. I mean, no MP is willing to call some veteran a bum when he himself never went to Afghanistan, but lets have it said right here, they should be.

I note that nobody seems to just go and get help in the first place. Its always "Oh I beat my wife up, and it was PTSD so I finally got some help" or "Oh I got drunk and smashed my car into an ambulance and it was PTSD so I finally got some help" or "Oh I started dealing drugs and it was PTSD so I finally got some help". When I left the military I had the same interviews as that guy above who complained that he just "lied" to the doctors. How then is it not his fault? How is the post tour medical assitance unsatisfactory if they offer you help and sit you down to talk about it and you choose not to? If you have an issue, you raise it.

Sure, some people have genuine issues with PTSD, I don't deny that. But I believe that the majority of people in these sort of testimonials don't have a real problem, and simply fall back on the fact that they were in the military as an easy get out clause. Its typical of our blame culture.

Its never your fault.

The overwhelming majority of people that serve come home, have no issues, and crack on with their lives. Another issue is that civilians know nothing about military organisation, and I note that many of these people that claim to suffer are from major REMF units that are so far back from the enemy they have to send their fething laundry forwards!

We need people to be willing to stand up and say "Ok, you went to Afghanistan a few years ago, but big deal. You got drunk and beat your wife up because your a dick, not because you once saw a helicopter fire a hell-fire missile at a compound"

I know literally hundreds former combat soldiers and SF operators. Not radio operators or clerks or engineers or aircraft technicians or naval intelligence guys. I mean actual combat soldiers. And it is extremely rare that those people have genuine issues. You know exactly what you are going in for, you are an adult, what excuse do you have? I didnt join the army to go to a war?

I found a guys ballbag on the road in Kabul once, it was hilarious, when I pointed it out to the rest of my multiple, everyone else thought it was funny as well, and we all took pictures and pointed and laughed, and then we all went home happily ever after and nobody needed to see a shrink, and I don't believe that 95% of people that leave the armed forces have a genuine issue. As MR said, even if someone does have an issue, it doesn't give you an overwhelming urge to get mashed on PCP and beat the gak out of a police woman. Its a minor thing, go see your MO, chat about it. Talk to your mates. They are really good mates that you form a genuine bond with, and the idea that you "have" to be macho and not talk about it is nonsense as well.

If you have an issue, you can talk about it with your comrades, I have no doubt about it. The main reason we don't talk about it, is because we all really love seeing Taliban fighters get blown apart in an immensely gratifying hail of gunfire!

I am scared by Matty... i suppose that's a good thing.
I do tentatively agree with him however.

purplefood wrote: I do tentatively agree with him however.

That's because Matty talks the sense yes?

Seriously though, there are some bad eggs in the military, there are some people who display criminal tendencies from the get-go, particularly in the run of the mill regiments, If they then leave the military and go back to being a bad egg, why on earth should a few operations excuse their anti-social behaviour?

mattyrm wrote:

purplefood wrote: I do tentatively agree with him however.

That's because Matty talks the sense yes?

Seriously though, there are some bad eggs in the military, there are some people who display criminal tendencies from the get-go, particularly in the run of the mill regiments, If they then leave the military and go back to being a bad egg, why on earth should a few operations excuse their anti-social behaviour?

It is...
Terrifying, gut wrenching sense...

King Pariah wrote:Lol the Davis spray incident? What the picture doesn't show was students harassing the cops well before the pepper spray was used. True, pepper spray was probably not the best idea, BUT the students were not just peacefully protesting either.

Yeah I heard this Granny was on a rampage, it took twenty cops with tazers and spray to take her down:

So now we know cops don't discriminate by age. You face the riot lines along with the anarchists, you get equal opportunity treatment.

At least she had the gumption to face the riot lines.

Monster Rain wrote:In the Marines we would take off our gas masks inside the chamber, which was full of CS gas, and sing the Marines' Hymn. I remember at one point my buddy's eyes started bleeding for some reason during this event, and he was somewhat put out that we were all laughing too hard to help.

Pepper spray doesn't impress me.

Monster Rain was a marine? I had no idea.

I've been sprayed with pepper spray. It's bad, and it makes you hurt, but not that bad. When my family bought pepper spray for all of us to carry around, my dad (a Marine, who also happened to be an MP) made us get sprayed in the face, so we knew what it felt like to have it used against you, and what to do when it's all over you and you're in pain. I was choking and stuff, but it could've been worse. I don't carry around pepper spray, but at least if I had it used against me for some reason, I'd know what to do.

Samus_aran115 wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:In the Marines we would take off our gas masks inside the chamber, which was full of CS gas, and sing the Marines' Hymn. I remember at one point my buddy's eyes started bleeding for some reason during this event, and he was somewhat put out that we were all laughing too hard to help.

Pepper spray doesn't impress me.

Monster Rain was a marine? I had no idea.

Everyone in the military goes through pepper spray training. It's bad, and it makes you hurt, but not that bad. When my family bought pepper spray for all of us to carry around, my dad (a Marine, who also happened to be an MP) made us get sprayed in the face, so we knew what it felt like to have it used against you, and what to do when it's all over you and you're in pain. I was choking and stuff, but it could've been worse. I don't carry around pepper spray, but at least if I had it used against me for some reason, I'd know what to do.

What military are you in that everyone goes through pepper-spray training? CS gas chamber sure, but not pepper spray.

You can build up a resistance to CS from over exposure...then use it to feth with privates.

AustonT wrote:You can build up a resistance to CS from over exposure...then use it to feth with privates.

I feel bad for your privates.

I prefer just puncturing all their "But my Drill Sergeant said," stories as a way to feth with privates.

Sgt_Scruffy wrote:

Samus_aran115 wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:In the Marines we would take off our gas masks inside the chamber, which was full of CS gas, and sing the Marines' Hymn. I remember at one point my buddy's eyes started bleeding for some reason during this event, and he was somewhat put out that we were all laughing too hard to help.

Pepper spray doesn't impress me.

Monster Rain was a marine? I had no idea.

I've gotten sprayed with pepper spray. It's bad, and it makes you hurt, but not that bad. When my family bought pepper spray for all of us to carry around, my dad (a Marine, who also happened to be an MP) made us get sprayed in the face, so we knew what it felt like to have it used against you, and what to do when it's all over you and you're in pain. I was choking and stuff, but it could've been worse. I don't carry around pepper spray, but at least if I had it used against me for some reason, I'd know what to do.

What military are you in that everyone goes through pepper-spray training? CS gas chamber sure, but not pepper spray.

Never mind. That thing. Forget that part of the quote. In fact, it's not even there!

Samus_aran115 wrote:Monster Rain was a marine? I had no idea.

Was? Semper Fi, mack!

But yeah, I left active duty (Honorably, mind you) in 2004 so I could be around my kids while they grew up. The idea of being away from them for a year at a time during their formative years didn't work for me.

Samus_aran115 wrote:

I've been sprayed with pepper spray. It's bad, and it makes you hurt, but not that bad.

People (some of them public officials) also claimed that waterboarding was simply "mildly uncomfortable" and thus no big deal...

biccat wrote:

AustonT wrote:You can build up a resistance to CS from over exposure...then use it to feth with privates.

I feel bad for your privates.

You probably should, both the anatomical ones and the grown men and women who frequently act like God did not gift them a brain, even though I know better.
Have forgotten to wash hands before urination, and screamed without cessation until all of the air was expended form my lungs.

Sgt_Scruffy wrote:I prefer just puncturing all their "But my Drill Sergeant said," stories as a way to feth with privates.

While inflicting pain and hardship is probably my least favorite part of being an NCO, but necessary. Seeing mucus pouring from the eyes, nose, and mouths of soldiers, but especially MY soldiers, warms the cockles of my heart. And when the cockles of my heart are warmed I throw another capsule on the burner and say "WHERE THE feth DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING LINDSEY?!"

As a new CDR, one of my PSGs was pretty worthless. We had the CS chamber and associated training on the training calendar and he came up with a 'No MOPP IV' profile two days prior.

My 1SG blew a gasket and wanted to lynch him. I kept calm and told top it was no big deal and had Top bring the PSG in with all his MOPP gear.

We then discussed the MOPP levels, and I made him turn over his gloves and informed him he would conduct the training in MOPP III.

The PSG turned bright red and Top almost pooped himself laughing. Folks forget the levels...