Re-election nightmares (courtesy of calligrafiti)

[azurelunatic]

She doesn't trust Dubya to leave us free of the military draft. I hadn't thought about that, since I'm not accustomed to living in a state of uncomfortable and (by all measurements I can see) losing war. (Anyone remember "out of there by June 30"?)

And she brought up the "snog-your-buddies" approach to avoid being drafted (hell, if they want to make being queer a disqualification, I know a few guys who I suspect would suspend their homophobia for the greater good) and that left me with nice, nice mental images.


Fuck you, Dubya, for making me worry about the health and safety of my bondmates above and beyond the usual levels of everyday danger that they're in.

Bless you, calligrafiti, for bringing to my mind the diverting image of my bondmates snogging, for any reason whatsoever.

Comments

[wibbble]

An idea I've always liked would be to limit the legal ownership of firearms to only those who've gone through voluntary two years national service.

Then you could give gun-ownership a new justification: in time of need, all those with firearms could be recalled to active duty, and would have had sufficient training to use their weapons in a safe manner.

Well, it works for Switzerland (only it's not optional service there, of course).

[crisavec.livejournal.com]

Not a completely bad idea...but what do you do about someone that didn't take up shooting(or had no interest) until later in life when they are too old to participate in any sort of service?

[wibbble]

I'd say that you're never too old - there's a 'youth culture' in a lot of the west that seems to imply that once you hit your 60s you're suddenly good for nothing.

Someone that old could be put through an alternate basic training, and put to work teaching people whatever it was they spent their life doing. If you've managed to survive to that age, you must have /some/ skills.

I suspect it's the same in the US, but here at least we're facing a massively ageing population, and a lot of the previous social prejudices about older people are going to have to change, since it's not going to be optional: people /are/ /going/ to have to work until they're older, and older people are going to comprise a higher percentage of the workforce than before. Companies need to adapt and see where they can use people with more experience.

If it's good enough for the corporate world, it'll do for the military. Sure, 60 year old (or even 50 year old) recruits aren't going to do much good on the battlefield, but that guy who spent his working life as a mechanic might be useful when it comes to servicing tanks, and the 50 year old school dinner lady will fit in just fine at the canteen.

[azurelunatic]

and the 60+ old school hacker can maintain legacy code probably better than some of the young punks right out of college.

[azurelunatic]

If someone is too old to even do desk work, I have doubts about their ability to handle a firearm safely.