re: This gif is very telling-discuss

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I would prefer that the people making laws actually have law degrees.

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You don't need a law degree to make laws. You need one to cover your arse when laws are interpreted and enforced.

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Either a washout or couldn't hack it in the military -- it's cool, man. Sitting comfy in your home like most politicians who think it's okay to invade because, hey, it's not THEM that has to do the fighting, right?

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Nah, you've got me pegged wrong. Try again.

I'm not trying to characterize the military as a whole either way, but the idea that in order to be a good leader one needs military experience is probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I applaud everyone who serves for the right reasons, and I know a lot of people who have, but likewise, there are a lot of people who enlist because it's their only passable option.

There are good and bad people who work in law and in the military. But, as a whole, I'd say that the skills needed to be a good lawyer are more related to being a good lawmaker than the skills needed to advance through the military.

The idea that veteran politicians would be less averse to starting wars isn't something that's borne out in any tangible evidence. Andrew Jackson sure understood the costs of war, eh?

I'll take a crack at this Gish Gallop.

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I'm not trying to characterize the military as a whole either way, but the idea that in order to be a good leader one needs military experience is probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I applaud everyone who serves for the right reasons, and I know a lot of people who have, but likewise, there are a lot of people who enlist because it's their only passable option.

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I'm not trying to characterize the military as a whole either -- I'm saying that if you want to lead the country, you should be willing to die for it. Even if you serve 2 years, you at least show some commitment. I never said all people in the military were fantastic men and women.

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There are good and bad people who work in law and in the military. But, as a whole, I'd say that the skills needed to be a good lawyer are more related to being a good lawmaker than the skills needed to advance through the military.

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Have you not seen the last decade and a few years? We haven't been under good leadership when dealing with lawyers -- although I'm certain you think President Obama was a fantastic leader.

President Bush is one of those guys who skipped going to war, wasn't a real soldier at all and we saw what happened.

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The idea that veteran politicians would be less averse to starting wars isn't something that's borne out in any tangible evidence. Andrew Jackson sure understood the costs of war, eh?

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Here, have some straw for that dragon you're slaying -- I didn't say every soldier. I said that they have a better grip on what's necessary and what's not and a lot of what President Jackson did was brutal but for the most part necessary.

You can go ahead and name our first President now and the one President who actively acknowledged the Military Industrial Complex (a little more contemporary).

Anyway, you can continue to pick but I digress: Want to be President? Should be willing to die for your country.

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What's really dumb is the unjust criticism of the military.

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It isn't unjust criticism.

The best thing most military age men could hope for in a war is just to survive in one piece. To romanticize playing Russian roulette for someone else's purposes is a bad thing.

Wars are bad. People die. People's things get broken/destroyed. Families get broken up or destroyed. Parents bury their children.

War is awful. Welcome to any vets reading this but in a real way I'm not really glad for their service.

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but most wars are a necessary function in life.

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I call bullshite. At least in most of the wars the US has fought in since WWII.

We need to quit being Team America: World Police.

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I call bullshite. At least in most of the wars the US has fought in since WWII.

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The Middle-East strategy has worked very, very well. There hasn't been a massive Al-Qaeda backed attack on our soil since.

Lone Wolves from Kurdistan are a different beast altogether.

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We need to quit being Team America: World Police.

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Easier said than done -- if you think these countries will just leave us be after this you're wrong. It's okay, though, you're strategically ignorant and have no concept of the world as it exists.

You probably think the United States is the only one who spies because Snowden told you to as well.

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The dollar is what the world sells their oil with, this is why we're able to print off so much money (QE3 was 85 billion a month, it's now down to 50ish).

We must maintain this standard or suffer an economic collapse.

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This is if we don't make an adjustment for value here soon. The current economic climate is completely untenable and will have to be addressed at some point in the near future.

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The point of the gif to to highlight the career politician issue, which is a big problem, but one that everyone should already be aware of.

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Anyone suggesting that's a recent development isn't a student of history.

I suspect it's just a matter of subjective categorization.

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This is if we don't make an adjustment for value here soon. The current economic climate is completely untenable and will have to be addressed at some point in the near future.

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Um, well, yeah, of course. The economy is going to fail regardless, but why did you sidestep what I said?

If it's understood that the military is fighting in the name of protecting a criminal and unjust economic system instead of fighting for freedom, peace, and democracy.. then shouldn't ones perception of the military change?

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Preventing another 911 has nothing to do with why we're in the Middle East, literally nothing at all to do with it.

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I call it Battlefield Transference. What happened is fairly simple: Instead of hunkering down and expanding programs like the NSA's Prism -- we sent our troops overseas and had the Al-Qaeda groups converge on them.

So instead of them bombing our buses, they fight people who are trained to fight. It worked brilliantly, and with ISIS shifting its focus to Syria and Al-Qaeda rapidly losing support (including that of ISIS) it's been an unbelievable success.

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Anyone without an agenda will tell you that our involvement in that region has caused more young men to turn to militant organizations.

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It would have been phantasmagorically worse if we had just left the Middle-East alone and allowed Al-Qaeda to take over larger areas and gain more influence. Like in Northern Mexico, a poor person with little future will fight for whoever can pay them and provide them with one.

Especially if it's religiously motivated.

I should have prefaced that last block by saying: We can't know the alternative, but I think there's reason to believe that Al-Qaeda would have grown if we hadn't been droning the frick out of Al-Qaeda #1's and 2's.