Charlie Rangel, still a moron

[King]

He's right...

[King]

Suggesting that the nation ought to pay for a war should it to choose to go to war is a perfectly reasonable suggestion. Doing things the George Bush way is what was moronic.

No, the George Bush way was good. The US charged the Arab states money and froze defense spending in Europe and Africa to pay for the first Gulf War as part of his PAYGO plan.

The George W. Bush way was moronic.

[King]

AGAIN, the military IS a near perfect cross section of the US at large.  It's full of "average" people.

No it's not. It IS poorer, more religious, more white, more male, and slightly shorter than the population at large, especially the 18-29 population at large. It is far from average. Your comparing it for averages of everyone, but only the youth are military eligible.

One thing to keep in mind, most people (75%) of fighting age aren't able to join for various reasons.  Too dumb or too fat/out of shape are the...ahem...big ones.

So, then you agree we need to shake Americans out of war apathy, which is what Rangel is saying?

[King]

National average male height is estimated at 5'10" for whites, 5'10 1/2" for blacks while this powerpoint slide from soc.mil says average Army ranger is 5'9"--who knows if that can be a trusted statistic, but that's all I can find.

My common sense would think very lanky people 6'4"+ would struggle with obstacle courses and not make it out of basic training or even sign up, driving down their average.

[King]

I'm more pro-war taxes than pro-draft with what Rangel said. Young people are already anti-war. It's the elders that need to feel some sort of burden.

[King]

Yeah Rangel blows, but he's got a point here imo