[OT] Personal hoody-hoo

BTW, I just passed the promotion board with 146 out of 150 points. When they
take effect, I'll be nearly 30 points over the cutoff score.

I've already heard rumors 1SG wants to pin me corporal to fill out his duty
roster. We're sucking on E5s.

> On Wed, Sep 11, 2002 at 11:03:19AM -0700, John Atkinson wrote:

Congratulations!

Outstanding score, congratulations welcome to the duty roster........)

> BTW, I just passed the promotion board with 146 out of

[quoted original message omitted]

Geeze, John, I thought you were Master Sargent Atkinson already. ;->=

Congrats from the token card-carrying liberal of the list!

Oh, and I knew the Narn Bat Squad never 'gave up' to Chris; they'd risk
re-deployment to John.

Douglas J. Evans, curmudgeon

> Oh, and I knew the Narn Bat Squad never 'gave up' to Chris; they'd risk

It *was* suggested that the next step (after the KV gave up) was to assign
JohnA to my place. But the Army didn't cooperate with that plan.

And the next step after JohnA was supposed to be to nova-bomb the
planet, but I pointed out that the person making this recommendation lives on
the same planet. I usually say "there's no such thing as 'too much firepower'"
but nova-ing your own planet would, I think, qualify.  I gather the Narn
Deployment Committee is debating what to do next.

> On Wed, 11 Sep 2002 15:06:03 -0500, devans@nebraska.edu wrote:

> Congrats from the token card-carrying liberal of the list!

Congratulations, John. Uh... The score sounds good, but could you let us have
an idea of the level of this accomplishment? How hard was the test, etc?

And, Douglas, I thought _I_ was the token card-carrying liberal on the
list...

G'day John,

> BTW, I just passed the promotion board...

Way to go!

Used to be you had a hard time spelling NCO, soon you be one:)

Michael Brown

[quoted original message omitted]

> --- Michael Brown <mwbrown@sonic.net> wrote:

Heh.

I can now say with confidence the difference between an NCO and an "efreaking
escumbag"[1] is not ability to do one's job, dedication, leadership ability,
or any other factor but this:

The amount of time, effort, and money one is willing to expend in the quest to
look good on Monday morning at work call formation.

[1]Puertorican First Sergeant

Congratulations John!

I feel safer already.

Seriously. Just that much more.

Congrats John.

> John Atkinson wrote:

> BTW, I just passed the promotion board with 146 out of

> On Wed, 11 Sep 2002, Allan Goodall wrote:

> On Wed, 11 Sep 2002 15:06:03 -0500, devans@nebraska.edu wrote:

Congratulations again, John.

And as another list-liberal, it's good to know we're not actually that
rare here! (Card-carrying? Dunno... I am a card-carrying union member,
and on my local's Executive Commitee... close enough.)

Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -
- http://wind.prohosting.com/~warbard/games.html -

> [quoted text omitted]

Allan Goodall schrieb:
> On Wed, 11 Sep 2002 15:06:03 -0500, devans@nebraska.edu

How come that several people think they are the only liberal on the list?

Greetings Karl Heinz

[quoted original message omitted]

> --- Robin Paul <Robin.Paul@tesco.net> wrote:

> > How come that several people think they are the

It's a common misconception that liberals hate wargaming as much as they enjoy
cutting military budgets down past the point where their nation's military
can't defend against a determined Girl Scout troop with sticks (see: Canada,
Most of Europe).

This is not true--I've gamed with political viewpoints
running that gamut from an actual card-carrying member
of CPUSA all the way to Ghengiz Khan's conservative cousin (hi, Don!).

It's just 1:1 scale wargaming that liberals don't like.

Many Liberals in the wargaming community (though not me!). Jack Radey (Peoples
Wargames), Frank Chadwick (GDW) just to drop the names of some I've met.
 I
think a lot of it had to do with the fact that most of them were in college
(or at least Berkeley) in the '60s. Wargaming has usually been the province of
the educated, look at the demographics that SPI and Avalon Hill used to
publish.

Michael Brown Grognard

[quoted original message omitted]

> > BTW, I just passed the promotion board...

Congratulations. Not before time, you've deserved it for awhile IMHO.

Now the question is.. care to go for OCS? IMHO some of the very best

> On Thu, 12 Sep 2002, John Atkinson wrote:

> --- Robin Paul <Robin.Paul@tesco.net> wrote:

CPUSA = Communist Party of the USA? Actual card-carrying? wow...

> It's just 1:1 scale wargaming that liberals don't

We could start a wildly OT debate that would probably rapidly degenerate into
a flamewar on this topic, and on your opening paragraph... Never mind.

Wargamers tend, as a very general rule, to be more conservative than some
other groups.

However, like all very general rules, that one has very broad exceptions!

Regardless of political stripe, most of the wargamers I've met are more
thoughtful about military matters than non-wargamers from similar parts
of the spectrum.

***
We could start a wildly OT debate that would probably rapidly degenerate into
a flamewar on this topic, and on your opening paragraph... Never mind.
***

Absolutely; and, we've not discussed the fact I was speaking from a US
perspective, whereas the first two responses came from list members from other
countries where 'liberal' can have a totally different political meaning.

However, I would like to go back to my first statement. Back when 'liberal'
became a bad word in the US, both from the left (see Phil Ochs 'Love Me,
I'm a Liberal') and the right, the term 'card-carrying liberal' took on
special meaning, and there were actual cards printed up stating such.

So, unless some of those folks are carrying or ever have carried id's from
actual Liberal Parties, I still assume I am the list's 'card-carrying
liberal'.

If no one else has or had such a card, end of story.

The_Beast

> --- Brian Burger <yh728@victoria.tc.ca> wrote:

I believe so. I know she was a communist.

> Wargamers tend, as a very general rule, to be more

Yeah--it's an expensive hobby.  It attracts people
with jobs. It also generally requires at least a little historical knowledge.
That's a conservative.
:)

> However, like all very general rules, that one has

That pretty much goes without saying.

--- Alan and Carmel Brain <aebrain@webone.com.au>
wrote:

> Now the question is.. care to go for OCS? IMHO some

Hell, no. I like doing a job rather than sitting behind a desk making power
point presentations to show to some drone with oak leaves. Which is what most
captains do after their brief tour as a company commander.

Besides, I'm no good at office politics.

On Thu, 12 Sep 2002 19:48:34 -0700 (PDT), John Atkinson
> <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com> wrote:

> It's a common misconception that liberals hate

There's also the question of how you define a "liberal". There's a difference
between being fiscally liberal and socially liberal. This is the thing I hate
about "liberal" and "conservative" labels. You can believe in one political
party's foreign policy, their fiscal policy, and their military policy, but
believe in another party's health care policy and civil rights policy.

I consider myself a "liberal" on this list only because my social and
religious beliefs would probably shock some of the more conservative members
of society. I'm still pro-military and pro-history (and military
history). I'm generally in favour of free trade, but that's hard to pin you
down (free trade
started as a pro-liberal thing, then pro-conservative; now it's
pro-whoever's
in power/anti-whoever's not in power).

> It's just 1:1 scale wargaming that liberals don't

Really? I really enjoy skirmish gaming...

Or are you talking 1:1 as in military service? The conservatives being seen as
pro-military is actually a fairly new phenomenon in the US. Historically
both
liberals and conservatives have been pro-military. Even the military
spending increase that's associated with Regan began under Carter.

> >It's just 1:1 scale wargaming that liberals don't

If you're talking of military service, then one of the recent Lib - Dem
leaders in the UK (Paddy Ashdown) was ex Royal Marine, if I remember right.

> --- Allan Goodall <agoodall@att.net> wrote:

> Or are you talking 1:1 as in military service? The

Well, what it really comes down to the in the United States is regionalism.

New England Yankees (and the 'Greater New England' linguistic area spreading
through the Midwest and the
Left Coast') are historically anti-military and have,
along with Jews, provided the vast majority of the
anti-war and anti-military sentiment in the US.

Southern Cavaliers and the Highland South Scots-Irish,
along with the Catholics that came over tail end of
19th century/beginning of 20th, tend to be far more
violently inclined.

There's a lot of sound historical reasons for this, but it's a bit complex for
a SF gaming list, even under and OT label.

> John Sowerby wrote:

FWIW, Liberal Democrat ex-leader The Right Honourable Captain
Jeremy "Paddy" Ashdown served with the Royal Marine Commandos and the Special
Boat Squadron.

> On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 10:21:30PM +0100, David Brewer wrote:

> FWIW, Liberal Democrat ex-leader The Right Honourable Captain

He also had the only sensible response to a newspaper digging up details of an
old extramarital affair: "And?" (His wife: "Oh, her? I've known for years.")

[quoted original message omitted]

> > He also had the only sensible response to a newspaper digging up

IIRC about 40 years ago the KGB showed a French official a set of compromising
photos; the Frenchman asked if they had any copies so could show his mistress
that he hadn't been with his wife.

> That reminds me of another example of English wit.

I believe the same woman said "Winston, if you were my husband, I'd poison
your coffee" to which he replied "And I would drink it."

[quoted original message omitted]

> On Sat, 14 Sep 2002, Roger Burton West wrote:

> On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 10:21:30PM +0100, David Brewer wrote:

<grin> As stylish as the French! When the ex-President of France died a
few years ago (blast, I can't remember the man's name!) there was a seat
reserved at his funeral for his wife, of course. And another reserved for his
mistress.

> Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 02:45:44 -0500

> So, unless some of those folks are carrying or ever have

I've got my nice orange and black Liberal Party Membership Card.

And I've stood as a candidate in UK Local elections for them.

I'm not sure but there is a story going round that I was actually delegated
for my first Party conference, which I attended at the age of eighteen months.
Me Mum was on Reading Council as a Liberal for years.

> <grin> As stylish as the French! When the ex-President of France died

The French are very civilized about such things...

From: "Adam Benedict Canning" <dahak@dahak.free-online.co.uk>

> I'm not sure but there is a story going round that I was actually

Ye Gods. What years was she active in politics?
It's just that I spent my early years in -er- Earley. 36 Silverdale Rd,
in fact.

I thought it was a "more liberal than thou" attitude...

> On Thu, 2002-09-12 at 20:11, Robin Paul wrote: