Grass Roots Fundamentalism and YOU!

Red Tape, An Effective Means to Halt today's War Machines!

2005-06-20T09:06:00.000+02:00

Ok, so I know I haven't updated my blog in a while but I'm just frustrated with the whole bloging thing. It's become so trendy, and I usually try to be on the outside of trendiness. Anyway lets get the show on the road.

*FLASH* News update, So about my transfer. It has become very apparent to me the amount of red tape in the army. I'm talking about some crazy thick extremely red tape too.
The paper work for my transfer has been delayed. This is after being told that is has been quit, and that I'm not going to get my transfer. This put me into damage control mode with the wife. There is nothing like having a wife worry about you going to Iraq again for a year, telling her your getting a platoon and then, being able to crush her hopes and dreams by telling her your going, and finally telling her your not. At this point I have been promised by no less than 3 LTC's that I will get my transfer. Personally after my last discussion with the individual who submitted all of my paper work two levels above *insert favorite deity* that It just needs to filter back down to me.

I would like to get a feel for how many people actually read my blog, so if you stop by please leave a comment.

2005-05-20T16:27:00.000+02:00

Well, I realize its been about a week since my last post. The key word in that last sentence is "MY", so if you want a blog that's updated every day, look elsewhere.

Well things are really looking up for me, I got my letter of acceptance from the 12th Chemical Company today. What does this mean? Well it means I'm going to be moving to Kitzingen, Germany. I'm also going to get a platoon leader slot in the only chemical company in USAREUR. Ok, so maybe it doesn't seem like a big thing to you, but I really excited. I will have to receive additional training for my job, which also means there is a good chance I will be going to Missouri for a couple weeks.

This is a very exciting time for me and my wife, but also a sad time. I will have to leave my current unit on the cusp of a deployment, I will have been to war once with the majority of individuals, and would be going a second time. I did not seek this transfer for the purpose of getting out of going to Iraq again, I have been once already. While there I filled a position that I was not ranking enough, or qualified. But I filled the position with honor, and competency. This transfer is partly due to that fact. In Closing on this subject, I get to go to a unit and basically invent the future "doctrine" of the Chemical Corp, and I look forward to this adventure.

On a side note, a good friend of mine Sweet Butter Jones, recently pulled my coat to the pimp game, dig. So if your hoe's aint out there humping their dirty whore-asses off to make you that scratch, so you can get a new vine, I suggest reading Iceberg Slims book "Pimp, the story of my life".

--Big-Daddy-Too-Tall.

The Army's self inflicted recruiting woes....

2005-05-09T12:20:00.000+02:00

I've decided to stray from my usual gripes/bitches of being an outsider in and insider country. I promise that someday I will touch on the issue of being a Angler, in the Aryan Nation.

One of my hobbies if you will is trying to keep up on the military's recruiting woes. In the past few months the army has missed it recruiting goals by about 1200 personnel a month. In order to mitigate these losses and attract additional recruits they have increased the amount of sign on bones from 15K to 20K, and increased the maximum age for enlisting from 30 to 34.

First the Sign on Bonus for many Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) being increased from 15K to 20K for certain jobs, ones we are currently experiencing shortages. There are usually stipulations to such contracts such as mandatory 8 year contract (6 Active, 2 IRR), by accepting these contracts future soldiers are placed into usually an undesirable job, field artillery for one. At the moment Infantry, Field artillery, and many "dangerous" jobs are getting the full 20K bonus. Probably the biggest, and most misunderstood by soldiers at the time they sign their contract, is the fact that if you sign the contract you are locked into that MOS until your 6 year active duty time is up. So if you get into a job, and hate it you are required by law to continue with that job, the only loophole being that if you get hurt and are unable to complete your duties, they can then assign you to a different job. I don't think this in paticular is hurting the army's ability to attract new recruits, but what it is doing is "tainting" the pool for people who like their job. By forcing a soldier to do a job he is unmotivated to do, you are essentially sucking the motivation out of good soldiers. Basically you have one bad apple ruining the batch..

Second by upping the maximum age to enlist to 34, you essentially open the doors of the military to almost 3 million additional Americans. The army doesn't ask why a 30-34 year old adult would want to essentially start over, in a new career. Now don't get me wrong I don't think there is anything wrong with starting over, sometimes life hands deals bad cards! Upon enlisting your average 34 year old private would begin his career by attending Basic Training with roughly 30 other recruits who are in their "prime" (18-25), These soldiers will be quantatively stratified based on many physical activities. Sure the older soldier would have experience and possibly wisdom 0n his side, but in many cases that soldier is going to be rated, punished, and controlled by someone whom is 8-10 years older than. I personally think that the Army has done this to allow soldier who "got out" of the Army the ability to rejoin the service.

Rand institute (http://www.rand.org) is where i get much of my infomation.

For anyone who likes to do some interesting reading I highly suggest checking out the above site. They have studies on everything from how the US is going to apply lessons learned in Iraq to future operations to studies on how to help a Palestinian state succeed. seriously check it out.

Wild Game, Tasty morsel or too much hassle?

2005-05-07T11:41:00.000+02:00

Ok, today I'm going to deliver on my promise of yesterday and leave it to the 3 people who read this.

Like any good person of white trash heritage, I like to go out in the woods, drink and hopefully shoot something to cook. Living in Germany has made this next to impossible, so I have to get my meat like most suburbanites i.e. buy it from the store complete with potassium-chloride for color. I think that what they but on the butchered meat to give it that nice vermilion color. For those of you that don't know "fresh" meat is naturally a brownish color, but that doesn't look that appetizing to the general populace. Some of my pastimes, besides drinking and playing video games, are fishing and hunting. It costs about 1000 Euro to take a hunters safety course, in Germany. The curriculum includes general anatomy on basic species of game, proper shooting techniques, and very in depth look at German's hunting laws. Once you have that license under your belt you can then invest in hunting property, this is usually done by hunting clubs with many members. Once you have all the requirements including your hunting permit for a specific game, you can finally go hunting with the oversight of a guide. This guide sits with you in a stand the main hunting technique in Germany, and tells you what you can shoot based on the populations of game in your hunting area. Lets say you have a tag for a stag, low and behold a stag, and boar, and a fox come into your firing lane. Logic would dictate that since you have a permit for a stag that you would take him. Hold on not so fast.......You first have to confer with your guide, he doest the quick math, and tells you you can shoot the boar. Well that as they say is that, you will get to shoot a pig, but the meat does not come with the permit. The permit entitles you to the Cape(hide) and the Skull/rack. The Meat comes at a cost, you have to pay the person who owns the land, for the meat. Lets say for simplicity reasons your a shitty shot like the flat-head, and you end up shooting the pig 3 times before it dies, this ruins a lot of meat. The guide can tell you, Because your a shitty shot you just bought the meat as well.

Fishing is not as bad, but still a pain......I will get more into that later.........

A little while after the beginning......

2005-05-06T10:21:00.000+02:00

Well this is my second post, Today Im going to tell you about the way the German's work, or at least those that I've had to deal with.....

First let me say the Germans are a very industrious, and clean people (for the most part). Germany currently has the highest unemployment rate in Europe, and its holding stable at right around 15%. Compare that with the overall rate in the US of about 5%. IM sure everyone know how the US unemployment works. You get fired, you apply you get X amount of money for Y amount of months. In Germany you get 3/4 of the monthly salary of your last job. That's right there is no time limit on how long you can pull unemployment. All medical facilities in Germany are also government subsidized. So where is the incentive to get a job? Getting a job in Germany is also very difficult, you graduate high school move on to either College, or a technical school. You go to college to get a professional degree, you go to technical school to do anything else, seriously anything. If you want to work in a Beauty salon you have to go to technical school for at least a year, then you have to apprentice with a shop. Its no wonder this country has a 15 % unemployment rate.

I don't want to come off as being very negative about living in another country, I really like it here! The food is awesome, the Autoban is amazing, and the rail systems in Europe are seriously the best way to travel. The people have their quirks, and the law is the law....Seriously the police rule. Seriously you just cant sue the cops over here, with out a huge grip of evidence. They have cameras that will send you tickets for speeding in town, and they have these cool collapsibility batons, that have a spring in them. I've seen bruises that people swear were one strike, but there are about 3 bruises. I really think that the US needs to look at adopting the police as the standard......Tomorrow, I will go into excruciating detail about the hunting/fishing laws over here, wildlife management in its truest form, or a pain in the ass? You decide

IN THE BEGINNING.......

2005-05-05T19:35:00.000+02:00

I think, that I will start my first posting by giving you all a little stoy about me in the historic country of Germany. Famous for its court systems, and Christmas trees. I spend a day there just before I went touring Iraq, one mortar blast at a time.

Ive been in Germany for over a year, and I think ive pretty much finished my composite-theory-of-quantum-dynamics. It can directly correlate to the year America was around 15 years ago. So in 2005 the Germans are stuck in 1985, with a twist. They take all the good American music from that era, they then contact Deeter to disco-tech it up. The clothes are pretty much the same, girls wearing tight sparkle tee-shirts, and capree' pants. Unfortunately the guys wear the same pants, and tight black-sleeveless shirts, regardless of the size of their gut. I come home from work to get lunch from my loving wife, and I pass by the bars filled with school aged kids drinking and smoking while eating from their lunch boxes. This is not a joke, they have vending machines at about waist level, perfect for kids.

The things that I do like about Germany are the people, minus the language barrier. There is a good reason that Germany is famous for its bier, it has helped me have many a fun night, and painful morning. The Ice cream here in Germany is awesome, there really is no way to describe it. They will take ice cream and put Egglikor, or another assortment of booze on them and let you dig in. Overall I love the food here in Germany there is a plazafest in a close town just about every weekend a year, with food, rides, bier tents. The food in Germany is all made out of pork, bratwusts, schnitzel, salami, you name it and theres pig in it. The only thing is Ive driven from Paris to Belgium, to Berlin and never once seen a pig farm. Im not complaining, because the food is awesome.

I think that's a good introduction to Germany from an outsiders perspective, I will write more later.