Randomness

[Elessar]

Okay something random... so I'm downloading SGA and on the number of seeds it says 1812. And of course this is what jumps into my mind:


1812

I want a pet DRD.

I thought war of 1812 as well

[Alelou]

I'm curious. I notice in TNG one calls a female senior officer "Sir."

I don't remember that being done in Enterprise but perhaps I just didn't catch it.

How is it done today in the military branches?

[CX]

It's gender specific, unless you're in the Navy and the commander of a ship is a woman. In that case, she is addressed as "sir".

[Elessar]

I'm curious. I notice in TNG one calls a female senior officer "Sir."

I don't remember that being done in Enterprise but perhaps I just didn't catch it.

How is it done today in the military branches?

In the Marines, it's "sir" only, always, for officers.

Marine recruits have to call all NCOs and COs, "sir", officer candidates have to call all officers "sir" and all NCOs by specific rank, "Gunnery Sergeant", or "Staff Sergeant". If someone is out of uniform, or are in combat gear and no insignia is present (and you're still an officer candidate), we're told to default to "sir", but typically NCOs will take exception to (and sometimes offense) being called "sir".

In the field, officers will generally call a Gunnery Sergeant "Gunny", and all other sergeants "Sergeant", from Sergeant up to 1st Sergeant. Sergeant Major commands a different level of respect and we call them specifically "Sergeant Major".

Same for females. In the Marines, basically, there is no distinction between men and women with regard to address.

There seems to be some dispute as to whether senior level NCOs or even COs can address higher level COs than themselves by rank. This came up when we went to Ft. McCoy and I overheard our Gunnery Sergeant complaining to our Captain (the recruit staff, they work together in Springfield so they're buddies) that someone there had given him a hard time for addressing another Captain as "Captain", instead of "Sir".

[CX]

That would be entirely appropriate in the Air Force. I've seen Marines address females as "Ma'am" as well, so you're not exactly gender-neutral yet, which was the point of them doing it that way in TNG in case anyone was wondering.

[Elessar]

That would be entirely appropriate in the Air Force. I've seen Marines address females as "Ma'am" as well, so you're not exactly gender-neutral yet, which was the point of them doing it that way in TNG in case anyone was wondering.

Really? Things are always done a little differently in the Fleet than stateside, so, what they're telling us may not be the word of God.

I know for one that they drill into us how important it is to get a PFT in the 260-300 range even though in the Fleet, the standards drop and if you're getting a 260 you're either a hotshot infantryman/officer or just a hardass PTer, just to enhance the discipline you start with so that if you slide, you're sliding from a higher standard. It's probably to some degree the same attitude with regard to courtesies.

[CX]

The thing that always irritated me about it was that it was surprisingly easy to frak up, especially when there were multiple instructors chewing on you. Naturally this resulted in "gender-benders", which were in fact push-ups where you would have to sound off, "Sir/Ma'am you're a sir/ma'am, not a ma'am/sir, sir/ma'am" before it would count as one gender bender, and usually they made us do 10 (which was actually the maximum number of reps we could do for any one exercise for physical discipline). Needless to say, it could take a while.

[Escriba]

I can't believe it! Today we've received the ballot for the Ibarretxe's illegal referendum (that, in fact, isn't one.) To know what I'm talking about, read this: Spanish Government says "no way" to Ibarretxe

This is the ballot:



Stupidest questions ever.

[Alelou]

Lo siento, pero no comprende....

[Escriba]

Sorry, the questions are so stupid that I didn't see the need, but...

Question numer 1: Are you in agreement in supporting a negotiated end to the violence, if ETA beforehand and in an unmistakable way, undertakes to abandon violence for ever?

And I wonder, if ETA announces its end, what do we have to discuss? Weather?

Question number 2: Are you in agreement that the Basque political parties, without exclusions, start a process of negotiation to reach a democratic agreement on the rights of the Basque people to decide, and that such an agreement be subjected to a referendum before the end of 2010?

Try to understand this one, because I can't. It has no sense. It's like the hypothesis of the hypothesis of the hypothesis.

[JadziaKathryn]

Question number 2: Are you in agreement that the Basque political parties, without exclusions, start a process of negotiation to reach a democratic agreement on the rights of the Basque people to decide, and that such an agreement be subjected to a referendum before the end of 2010?

Try to understand this one, because I can't. It has no sense. It's like the hypothesis of the hypothesis of the hypothesis.

So basically they're asking if you want all the Basque political parties to start talking about talking about letting people talk about what they want, to come to fruition with a referendum. Hmm. Sounds like a lot of talking is involved.

Interesting about the gender issues in the military. Now, I am in no way shape or form military material (for so many reasons, but in general I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat), but I wouldn't want to be called "sir." To me, I'm a woman, and expect to be viewed as one. But some women would want to be treated exactly the same as their male counterparts, down to the title.

Reminds me of Janeway. She never wanted to be called "sir" and "ma'am" was only acceptable in crunch time. Otherwise she preferred "captain."

[Linda]

In the U.S. Coast Guard women are called "ma'am". I think this is also true in the rest of the branches of the military, right CX, Elessar, Rigil? Otherwise, the Coast Guard was the first U.S. military organization to have complete gender equality. Star Trek is perpetrating a misconception again. I love Star Trek but it is full of things which don't track with how things are really done in military organizations.

Oh, and to explain one which REALLY bothers me, Captain Kirk made a big mistake in TOS. He said "over and out". They would kick me out of the Coast Guard Auxiliary if I said that over the radio! You don't use those two words together.

These are the proper useage of the terms:

OVER - said when you are finished talking and expect the person on the other radio to say something back to you.

OUT - said when you are finished talking and do not expect the person on the other radio to talk back. The conversation is done.

[Linda]

Oops, I noticed CX and Elessar already answerd the "sir/ma'am" question. I'm a day late and a dollar short as usual, not having quite mastered "board talk" yet.
.

[justTripn]

I was called "sir" a lot in Thailand (like by hotel staff, taxi cab drivers, etc.), because in Thai, the gender of the SPEAKER determines the choice of certain words. You get used to it. Who knows what customs will evolve in 150 years?

[Alelou]

Sorry, the questions are so stupid that I didn't see the need, but...

Question numer 1: Are you in agreement in supporting a negotiated end to the violence, if ETA beforehand and in an unmistakable way, undertakes to abandon violence for ever?

And I wonder, if ETA announces its end, what do we have to discuss? Weather?

Question number 2: Are you in agreement that the Basque political parties, without exclusions, start a process of negotiation to reach a democratic agreement on the rights of the Basque people to decide, and that such an agreement be subjected to a referendum before the end of 2010?

Try to understand this one, because I can't. It has no sense. It's like the hypothesis of the hypothesis of the hypothesis.

I can't imagine that the results of a vote on questions this vague would mean a damn thing. What's the agenda here? No doubt it will turn out to be as meaningless in practical terms as Puerto Rico's various referendums on independence.