But this is one of the few times when the article is actually more interesting than the comments here. Worth reading, even if that is breaking the unwritten rules around here.

That is right. I was in during the middle 80s when it existed, but was still rare.

No, it was called a Senior Airman. Very few Sr.Amn went to NCO school and took the rank of buck sgt. before just going for staff, so the majority of E4s were Airman tier, not NCO tier. Sr. Amn and Buck paid the same, both being E4, with the only difference being NCO school and tier, plus some advantages (priority) if you wanted to separate rats and quarters and were single. Oh, and the star on your sleeve was silver instead of blue, although that isn't a perk, just an indication you were an NCO.

Note that most of the "exceptional" airmen back then would simply go below the zone (make E5/Staff Sgt. in less than 4 years) rather than seek buck sgt. Bucks were fairly rare for a variety of reasons, including the above.

Yes, I was in the Air Force. So was most of my family.

Sure, it can also cook dogs unit they're hot.

The community-organizer-in-chief is intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Frequently the bank forces the user to use exploitable means just to communicate with the bank.

IE6+ActiveX required, anyone?

If your bank requires you to use that steaming pile of fail, why haven't you left yet?

Wells Fargo used to throw up warnings when you used a browser they hadn't yet evaluated, but I think the rapid-release schedule taken by most browser vendors put a stop to that. Even then, it was just a warning...it didn't affect functionality.

Dammit, I was going to go with "Popplers"

Already taken.

If you told me someone was selling draft beer supplies (or whatever this crap is), my first assumption would be that it was for bars and taverns, not for home use. Thanks for taking time to point out the obvious.

I take it you don't know any homebrewers, then. Kegging is a hell of a lot easier than bottling. That said, the usual insurance against a keg running out is...wait for it...having a second keg on tap. Cheap and low-tech.

The Republicans have blocked every good treatment so far so why should we expect their kind to allow this?

Choke on the barbed cock of Satan, asshole.

It's funny, you speak of "no meaning" as if you have a scientific basis for this. Unless you do, your opinion is no more valid than the guy strapping a bomb on himself to get 72 virgins, and no less dogmatic. Not everyone defines "meaning" is as narrow a manner as you.

For starters, deism isn't a religion, which makes the rest of the comment not worth bothering with.

My wife just died of breast cancer this week -- she did not live to be 40 -- so articles and research like this give me hope that, when our child grows up, cancer will not be something that takes people's lives away from them so quickly and so young.

Mine passed a year ago last Saturday of uterine cancer; she was 33. You're probably feeling absolutely gutted right about now. Things will improve slowly, but they will improve. Just yesterday, I was looking through photos for something to illustrate a fundraising page for a run benefiting cancer research. I got a bit choked up on an engagement photo, but that only served to tell me that was the picture to use. Those kinds of things will most likely keep happening for a long time to come...probably forever, at some level. They'll come along less frequently, though, and mostly around things like birthdays and anniversaries. Keeping busy—with work, friends, hobbies, etc.—might help; it seems to have helped me out, at least.

I've been deistic for decades. It discounts the idea that god is an old man on the mountain, but maintains the idea that there is purpose and meaning to everything, not just man.

As you point out, not all birds of a feather stick together. I'm not a Tea Party guy. I'm just not closed minded enough to judge a friend by their politics. If you only have friends that agree with your politics, you are probably narrow minded or take politics too seriously.

Has the United States of America become a member of The Totalitarian Club ?

Yes. Each President has been moving in this direction more and more, but Obama has managed to overreach even more than those before him. Take the IRS, for instance. I personally know of people who have been getting involved with Tea Party politics and now are getting audited. Like their politics or not (it doesn't matter), that is totalitarianism, which means the next time a GOP'er gets in, he can do the same thing. It isn't a good time to be an American.

However, it takes a really fast car to stay on the other side of the planet.