The B12 (XII) Forum, home of the 'Front Porch, y'all' at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

it's not 'programs' that benefit some off the funding of others... at all.  not even a little.  it's the systematic abuse of 'programs' that is the issue.  

i recall getting out of the Marine Corps and going to the unemployment office as i was being encouraged as a place to find a job, and them straight up pressing to go on various 'programs'- saying as much as "why do you want to take a minimum wage job topping at (then) $9k/year when you can pull $24k on these programs?"... meaning the 'system' is often arranged to trap those already distressed by offering something that's too good to be true.  

I know a lot of guys who pull 100% VA unemployable income at $3200/mo and then SSID at another $3k a month and pay taxes on only a portion of the SSID, and clear more than mid level managers in mid/late career when they're still in their 20's.  what is their incentive to find work, even though they're fully capable of working (and would likely hugely benefit mentally by doing so.. idle hands and all that). 

i don't want to type anymore... just leave it at "it's not the 'programs', it ABUSE of 'programs', and it's the people who think access to these programs is they're somehow 'entitled' to them even though they have to cheat to get them". 

That's all I want as an old grumpy conservative....

just don't allow lampant abuse of well meaning programs

also, there is no reason for inefficiencies and corruption from the government agencies in charge of these programs 

simply do the right thing with tax dollars

Unfortunately, there is a reason for inefficiencies and corruption in government agencies.  There are human beings in there pulling the levers and transferring the money from Point A to Poing Z.  And some of them will manage to transfer some of that money to themselves or their friends.  It's very hard to form a government program that incentivizes efficiency--does the right thing with tax dollars--because what that would do is get that program's budget cut the following year.  The natural tendency of a government program is to grow its budget and the number of people it serves, including the people who are not the official beneficiaries.  Efficiency gets in the way of that.
That's not just welfare programs; it's the military (Air Force buying $500 hammers and $300 toilet seats? Army reinventing camouflage uniforms every 3 or 4 years?), it's the Secret Service (paying for whores on government credit cards, anyone?), and every other sort of government program, at every level of government, as well.  Highway construction, for example, is a particular state-and-local boondoggle, and the fact that the roads don't ever last long before they need to be re-constructed is part of the boondoggle.  And highways supposed to be are a common good, not an overt handout to a particular entitlement group.

while a FAST Marine we would often 'borrow' equipment from squeal team six, now called DevGru... that one singular unit in Dam Neck had a budget larger than the entire Marine Corps.  They had all kinds of toys- i mean ALL kinds.  atop that, every operator had a credit card 'impact card' in his pocket and authorization to use it to buy equipment COTS they felt would assist them in whatever job they were up to... there is a joint called London Bridge in VaBeach that has made a fortune off those guys making web gear and such, as a singular example... i bought a ghillie suit from them once- top quality.   

anyway... we went out there one day to 'bum' some plain ol' M998's (standard HMMWV's) for some training and those guys were in a little cove adjacent their compound with carpenter belts on.. driving nails.. we were WTF?'n and were told "we have $40k to blow from the rec fund, else we lose it- and decided to take a break and build a proper pavilion down by the water here... want a beer?".  

must be nice.  the entire USMC is funded by hand me down's.  When in Somalia, we 'borrowed' 150 brand new M-4's from JSOC when they were popping smoke... We never gave them back- they literally wrote them off.. meanwhile, in the Marine Corps, if you lose a friggin' sling off a rifle your ass is grass and you'd think it a congressional investigation to find it or replace it- complete with page 11 entries or NJP's in SRB's.  freak show.  

punch line? there is another unit in the military with a budget larger than DevGru.... once in Qatar aboard As Saliyah a group passed us by in their little tricked out nissan p/u's missing glass and with mount in bed and tires i've never seen before or since- had knobbies the size of your fist not only in normal tread area but all the way up the sidewalls and with two piece steel rims.  we knew the squeals and we knew pretty much all of the JSOC guys there... this wasn't them.  when the question was asked "who was that?" i knew right off the bat, because even the squeals and CAG/ACE lust after those fella's gear.  I bet one of those tires alone was $50-75k after inflated mil prices.  I wish i were kidding or exaggerating. 

by the way.. they used those vehicles to chase down republican guard and then insurgents through the desserts of western Iraq... who were using toyota landcruiser RJ45 variants 20~30 years old and with tires likely ordered off of tire rack's 1990 closeout sales.... and couldn't catch them for the most part, until they upgraded that is.    

heheheheee- i live in between MCAS Camp Lejeune and MCAS Cherry Point, where a lot of embark takes place (embark in this case meaning shipping, loaded up at the Beaufort docks).  I see massive convoys on at least a monthly basis pass within a half mile of my house.... you wanna know what every fifth or so vehicle is?  A recovery vehicle.  Those things, no matter what variation, are always broken down for some reason or another.  

"if you can't astound them with knowledge, baffle them with bull spit" is alive and well, sir.  A little make-up and a little paint, will make her something she ain't being a descendant of that lead cliche.  

funny story: i got into mountain biking heavily a few years back.  at the time, the trail on Camp Lejeune was "the brig trail" which cut behind the brig (duh).  it was a decent trail with some decent obstacles and inter-wound between tank training trails.  They didn't mind if we 'moved dirt' to make more obstacles... which we did. often.  

we found a depression in the ground and decided to dig out a likely 20' long 10' wide 8' deep 'scoop' and tossed the sand/dirt removed on one end of it making a decently functional launch... we had to do it with shovels.  we, uh, found something in that hole. 

a freakin' fully intact jeep.  glass, body, decayed seats and frames, engine- complete. tires were on it- decayed and rotten, telling us it had been subterranean for a good while.  

after some digging around (this time through records) we think we figured it out.  back in 'the day' and when MotorT was facing a Commanding Generals Inspection, the practice was to 'hide' broken equipment.  we're thinking that jeep was buried using another piece of equipment the motor pool had, and simply to hide non-functional equipment and 'passing' inspection.  

as i said... freak show.  

we ended up actually running some dimensional lumber over that thing and riding right over top as a 'skinny' obstacle before the burst climb and launch... it made a pretty unique 'obstacle' when we had regional mt.bike races there in the years following, and before they kicked us off that patch of ground.   

The Auburn-Florida game was a "defensive slug fest", or competitions by two inept offences.  I'm curious how well LSU can move the ball on UF, I suspect pretty well.  Auburn has a pretty good D but their offense is spotty and the turnovers in that game were epic.  One DL scooped and tripped on the 35 yard line.

UGA is playing decent defense.  They have some injuries, but so does everyone else.

y'all should play the group of 12

I've been doing well and I'm certainly not the smart guy here

Man, thats stings a little cincy.  

But as usual, ol Bear has it wrong.  If there is a trick and I'm not disputing the existence of a trick, the trick would be adopting a persona void of self awareness.   Drive all conversations to the cutcliffe/FULMER/chavis era or to three seasons out when UT will make their next appearance as MNC's.