UPDATED! There’s lots of great US Army Memes out there, some funny, some serious, some sad. Whatever you like, I put some all in the same place for your viewing pleasure. This is the VSW collection of the Best US Army Memes you will find anywhere!
This is just a quick collection I threw together tonight for you guys to get a kick out of.
Feel free to leave comments below about which ones are your favorites!
You can run…
Battle Buddies
See The World they Said
Not sure where I found this one, but it’s kind of funny.
I don’t really watch much TV, but I ran across SNL last night and figured I’d give it a go since I haven’t seen a funny episode of Saturday Night Live in years. When it comes to SNL, I’m in the old-school club of the golden years of SNL. However, Dwayne Johnson “The Rock” is pretty funny… then I saw the opening skit and I laughed my ass off.
Regardless of your politics, seeing Obama lose it like The Incredible Hulk was a good chuckle. And there is even a little bit of a twist at the end, so watch it and decide for yourself!
The Rock Obama on Saturday Night Live
“As a president, Barack Obama is typically calm, collected and cool-headed. But after Rep. John Boehner (played by Taran Killam), Sen. Ted Cruz (Bobby Moynihan) and Sen. Tom Cotton (Kyle Mooney) push The Rock Obama’s (Saturday Night Live host Dwayne Johnson) buttons, he gets a little angry and reminds everyone that he’s commander-in-chief.” (source: Tech Investor)
St.Patty’s Day has a proud tradition in the USA and around the world of people who don’t know how to handle their liquor getting out of control and doing stupid shit. Let’s hear it for Beginner’s Drinking Day! Better known as St. Patty’s Day.
Here is a small collection of St. Patty’s Day Fails for your enjoyment. So grab some cheap beer, add enough green food coloring to give you intestinal problems and let’s have some fun!
It’s An American Tradition
Drink Too Much And You Might Find Yourself Doing Some Irish Yoga!
The End of Rainbow Is Where You May Find Yourself
Everything Looks Great With A Splash Of Color!
Watch Out Or You Might Take A Spill And Get “Cheifed”
Watch Our For The Authorities And May The St.Patty’s Day Force Be With You!
There is a common thread behind so called “homegrown extremists” in France, England, and even in the USA. Surviving family members and friends who had no idea their children, friends or even siblings had become radicalized.
There the mother who had no idea that her child or children met extremists online. The wife who thought her husband was just taking the day off from work, or the sister who realized she had never met her brother’s new gang of friends. Transformations, especially in young people can be subtle, taking place over months and eluding relatives along the way.
Mia Bloom of the University of Massachusetts says groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda go after young women in the West by using other young women as online recruiters. The tactics they use are similar to that of an online sexual predator: establishing a rapport and building trust.
“It’s another woman. She’s cool. She’s just a few years older. And so this is how they will initially approach,” Bloom says. It’s an attempt to dupe unsuspecting young women in places like the United Kingdom, France and United States into joining. But it begs another question: Are the young women who end up being recruited victims or terrorist masterminds?
Countries in Europe, like the England, are often arresting “fighters” who return from Syria or Iraq and sentence them to prison trying to avoid more home-grown terrorist attacks. When their families cooperate with authorities and their children are imprisoned, it could discourage other families from working with police or security organizations to bring their kids back home.
“In the same way that we have former gang members talking to high school students to prevent them from entering gangs, we may be missing out on an invaluable resource to have these girls speak to other young women not to get involved,” she says.
[Tweet “Is ISIS Learning Recruitment from Online Sexual Predators? #isis #vsw”]
20-year-old Aqsa Mahmood from Glasgow is a case in point. She traveled to Syria in 2013 and married an ISIS fighter. She then starting promoting terrorism back home via Twitter. Dr. Bloom says they try to recruit others by selling an idealized version of what life will be like in Syria.
“She’ll be online extolling the virtues of living in the Caliphate and how wonderful it is to have this sisterhood, especially if you are the second or third wife,” Bloom says.
Some of the other tactics used to recruit young men and women to ISIS and al-Qaeda resemble those used by cults or online sexual predators who prey on children. One technique is ironically called ”love bombing.” They attempt to influence a person with continuous and lavish demonstrations of affection and attention. Expecially to people who already feel alienated in their local city, town or culture. They also can work by putting some kind of prize in front of potential recruits in exchange for an agreement.
In many cases, ISIS themselves could be considered sexual predators as many of the women recruited to marry ISIS fighters are under the legal age of consent. Some of the “officers” in the ISIS military groups take multiple wives, many of them as young as 14 year of age.
People drawn to both terror groups, online predators and cults tend to be seeking something missing from their lives. ”They’re not necessarily going to be damaged individuals,” Bloom says. “But I do think that the terrorist organizations do prey upon a certain kind of individual, especially converts to Islam who, because they converted, tend to overcompensate.”
Sometimes that compensation, especially for Western recruits, is for a lack of success in life. ”They are tired of being objects of history and want to be agents of history,” Bloom says. “Being in the caliphate is a way of being someone important. You’re making a difference — even though it’s a terrible difference.” (Source: OPB)
Radio Interview with Dr. Bloom:
As crazy and it sounds, these people are going to be coming back from Syria, Iraq and other countries and in some cases, there is no way to know who they are. In Europe, some experts are suggesting there could be potentially thousands of extremists who were fighter or conspirators of ISIS. Without programs to “de-radicalize” these people, the potential for acts of terrorism is a matter of “when”, not “if” it will happen.
A representative from France (unidentified in the radio interview) said, “the [government] is starting to realize they cannot capture or kill them all. IS Fighters could be coming back tomorrow or a year from now, but they are returning. And when they return, they have the will, the training and the contacts to coordinate attacks. Our best hope may yet lie with de-radicalization programs, like those currently used in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.”
Regardless of the consequences, the increasing threat may be slowed or stopped by using tactics that are currently employed to fighter online sexual predators. The US government and many local police forces already have programs in place to find online predators and these programs may be able to be used to track ISIS recruiters because they are taking their game plan from existing tactic used by online pedophiles and predators.
On January 30th, 2015 in Portland, Oregon, Webmaster Matt went to see Star Trek (2009) with the Oregon Symphony playing the soundtrack live and it was fantastic! But did you know that Star Trek was based on the US Air Force? And that Gene Roddenberry was both a police officer and has flown combat missions?
Here is a short clip from the end of the show.
Gene Roddenberry Was A U.S. Combat Pilot
“In 1941, he joined the United States Army Air Corps, which in the same year became the United States Army Air Force. He began training at Goodfellow Field (now Goodfellow Air Force Base) in San Angelo, Texas with other Civilian Pilot Training alums and graduated as a second lieutenant in September 1942, Class G.[11] ”
“He flew combat missions in the Pacific Theatre with the “Bomber Barons” of the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, of the Thirteenth Air Force and on August 2, 1943, Roddenberry was piloting a B-17E Flying Fortress named the “Yankee Doodle,” from Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, when mechanical failure caused it to crash on take-off. In total, he flew eighty-nine missions for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal before being honorably discharged at the rank of captain in July 1945.” (Source: Wikipedia)
After his military service, he joined the Los Angeles Police Department (Feb. 1, 1949). He became a Police Officer in 1951 and made Sergeant in 1953. It is widely believed that his experience as a combat pilot and police officer molded his vision for the future where “The Federation of Planets” would be a combined exploration, military and police force and later doing diplomatic and scientific missions. He original sold the series as a “Wagon Train To The Stars.”
Rank Structures In Star Trek Based On United States Navy
“According to Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, Roddenberry’s original idea for the organization of the USS Enterprise was that the ship would be based on a merchant marine type organization with a Captain and various mates overseeing a large crew. In the pilot episode “The Cage”, the only ranks spoken of were Captain, Lieutenant, Chief and Crewman. All officers wore a single rank stripe and, according to Roddenberry, everyone aboard the Enterprise was a qualified astronaut making rank titles a formality since all crewmembers basically had the same type of training.
When the second pilot was being developed (TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”), Roddenberry shifted focus from a merchant marine vessel to a military ship very clearly modeled after the United States Navy. The ranks of Lieutenant Commander and Commander were both spoken of and the Captain (James T. Kirk) wore a “two stripe” insignia to differentiate him from the rest of the crew. When Star Trek: The Original Series came into full production, Ensign and Lieutenant Junior Grade were both either seen or discussed and the concept of staff versus line officers was introduced, most predominately in “Court Martial” where an officer of the Judge Advocate General Corps is seen and Starfleet is referred to as “the service”.” (source: Ex Astris Scientia)
In the end, Star Trek may not have been completely based on the US Air Force, but we will never truly know. It is known that Gene’s Combat Pilot training and missions were a large factor in his choices of space combat in Star Trek shows. Also his knowledge of the US Military led to help with ship designs, ideas and naming conventions and the military structure of The Federation in the show.