I hope they practice how to deal with PTSD and having your leg blown off.
That and destroying countries for their precious resources, of course. I'm sure that will be covered, in between the flag waving and fawning at all things military.
The military is becoming more and more integrated in every aspect of day-to-day life. It is extremely disturbing.
Oh I just figured out what the title is supposed to mean. So this is "celebrity's" go to basic training?
“'Stars Earn Stripes' is about thanking the young Americans who are in harm’s way every day. This show is not a glorification of war, but a glorification of service,"
You want an accurate military simulator? Give them an eight hour power point presentation, every day for a week. If they aren't hating life and trying to gouge out their eyes 2 hours into the first presentation, they're doing it wrong.
Death by power point.
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tuxkamenreally took this picture.Registered Userregular
You want an accurate military simulator? Give them an eight hour power point presentation, every day for a week. If they aren't hating life and trying to gouge out their eyes 2 hours into the first presentation, they're doing it wrong.
Death by power point.
If you want to get really worried: This isn't nearly the most complicated Powerpoint slide I've been exposed to.
And here I thought this "Honey Boo Boo" atrocity was America's low point to the world... Nah, someone had to go and show that we're still on a downward spiral of depravity.
I just remembered something: there is a serious lack of PT Belts in that trailer. WHERE ARE THE PT BELTS NBC!? How will they know how to be safe without the PT belts?!
You want an accurate military simulator? Give them an eight hour power point presentation, every day for a week. If they aren't hating life and trying to gouge out their eyes 2 hours into the first presentation, they're doing it wrong.
Death by power point.
If you want to get really worried: This isn't nearly the most complicated Powerpoint slide I've been exposed to.
You want an accurate military simulator? Give them an eight hour power point presentation, every day for a week. If they aren't hating life and trying to gouge out their eyes 2 hours into the first presentation, they're doing it wrong.
I mean look at that screen cap of the youtube, just some dumb ass in military garb sighting down a rifle with a big ole yokel grin on his face. Fuck you! Especially since last week afganistan was its deadliest in a while and at least three US servicemen were killed, but god damn Nick Lachey gets to be a big man with a gun.
I used to kind of tune out the "deadliest week since x" dialogue about Afghanistan, but one of the three killed was a guy I went to high school with and knew personally - 1LT Todd Lambka of Shelby Township, MI, Eisenhower High School, class of '06. Went on to West Point, class of '10, deployed after. Convoy hit an IED. His twin brother Jordan accompanied his body home. Having actually known somebody who died brings the gravity of it home. I might've watched an episode or two for shits and giggles, but I have no desire to tune it on now.
EDIT: Further pissing me off: "This isn't hollywood, suck it up." Yeah, and Joe 11B doesn't run around with a fucking SCAR, either. I remember a guy in Afghanistan posting on another board I lurk at, talking about how the rifles they have are beat to shit with no spare parts and no available armorers to take a look at them.
SummaryJudgment on
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
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BigBearIf your life had a face, I would punch it.Registered Userregular
Honestly, there is a way to express the challenges of current military personnel combined with celebrities in conjunction with the USO that has a charity angle that could be engaging. That potential exists. A reminder of what is still going on for an unfortunately large number of Americans as presented by celebrities that would engage a larger portion of the population.
Seriously though, who the fuck came up with the idea for this show? What the fuck has happened to this network!?
I swear to God, once Community and Parks and Rec are off the air I am so done watching anything on NBC. Can't believe they'd stoop this low.
Until they release another show you like. Thanks for sticking to your guns.
This is a quote from Nick Lachey;
Selfishly, it was for me it was once in a lifetime opportunity to do something and be a part of something that I probably would never have the chance to do again and to be part of missions that I couldn’t even possibly imagine and do again. So I wanted to do it for that reason.
I know right? If only Military service had some kind of volunteer option for people ages 18 to 35 offering a wide range of contract options.
Selfishly, it was for me it was once in a lifetime opportunity to do something and be a part of something that I probably would never have the chance to do again and to be part of missions that I couldn’t even possibly imagine and do again. So I wanted to do it for that reason.
I know right? If only Military service had some kind of volunteer option for people ages 18 to 35 offering a wide range of contract options.
But if Nick Lachey had joined when he was within that window, the world might have missed out on his One Tree Hill guest appearances! And...well, this show! How tragic would that have been?
Once in a lifetime, what the fuck. He had that opportunity every fucking day from the time he turned 18 to the time he turned 35, and his showbiz career was more important to him. What a load of condescending bullshit. But...but...doing it for realsies might have meant real commitment!! Oh noes!! Much easier to handle a season of reality TV than an 8-year contract, and a couple deployments. It's not like you can't pursue a career in showbusiness while enlisting in the reserves, either. Might occasionally be hard to balance the two, but then again that goes for any fucking job out there period. Believe me, I know.
Unless there's something I don't know, like Lachey being turned down for asthma as a teenager or something, I hope Rob Riggle hunts him down and beats him to death.
Really, that quote and this whole fucking show just cements in my mind what I think the problem is: military service in this country is something "other people do."
I mean, why would an actor, or for that matter any other professional who doesn't need the money, join the military? Eeew.
Military are praised like mans best friend but are treated like strays with nary a scrap of real support given to them, save for the regurgitated praise of thanks and saturated images of troops used to market shit products and services that have no foundation in the reality of our U.S. Troops.
It's too bad the focus is on army kind of stuff. It'd be more useful to put these people out on a carrier for a few months worth deployment, replete with 16 hour sentry duties, a lot of staring at ocean, and a bunch of terrible food.
I think at this point, as dramatic as it may come off - my faith in the American people to legitimately care about their Veterans and Defenders is all but lost.
They have been given gifts beyond measure at the cost of young blood and they sacrifice them on the alter of greed and selfish proclivity. The few that are drawn into service by compassion and circumstance are forced to suffer the indulgences of the rotting breath of mistrust and abandonment that exudes forth from every 'thank you' echoed in his lifetime. To be welcomed home and find yourself in an unfamiliar land, a place distinctive in its color, but the curtains have been drawn to those unfortunate enough to truly comprehend the essence of the cost of those things which are simply taken with no humility or reverence for the source from whence they came. Their cries fall on deaf ears as they scream into the night for any tangible response until their throat has unraveled, raw, and now void of purpose. And for those poor souls who are overwhelmed by the only sound in the world being an echo of their pleas, they tear loose their mortal coil as a last resort to end the suffering only to become a fresh new statistic, a number on a piece of paper in a cycle of injustice that is only mourned by those who knew them closest.
Americans do not deserve the men and women, who from their ranks stand for them, sacrifice for them, live and die for them. Americans know the secret though. They know. There will always be those who rise from the dark to face the wolves knocking at the door because we are all blessed to be called to such a service, to retain that spark of honor and valor given to us by our creator and let it fuel the love for their nation and the worlds people with the hopes that when they too return home, their efforts will have not been in vain.
This television program is an accumulation of the lost. Human beings frantically desperate to reach out and place themselves among those who will be remembered, pouring their personality into a socially engineered mold of what they think they should be and burying deep the definitive characteristics that make an individual who they are.
Honor. Valor. Duty. Respect. Loyalty. Strength. Conviction. These words are a dead language to the majority of this country and I weep for any soul who does not know them.
If it really is truth, there is nothing to handle. What is, simply is. Nothing more, nothing less.
Military movies from that era always amuse me compared to the films we see now. The accuracy of the uniform has been shifted so heavily on film - you see people wearing crazy ass shit now-a-days.
Ah, there we go. Colbert pretty much summed up this thread. Thanks, Colbert.
Also, during that clip every time one of them kept saying "real" (and yes it was definitely italicized every fucking time) I wanted to shoot them. Because "real missions" are incredibly boring right up until they aren't, then sometimes real people really don't come home. You want to act in a war movie, I'll munch popcorn and watch it just like everybody else, and enjoy it even as I try to push down the emotions it sometimes brings back. But for fuck's sake, don't try to pretend it's "real."
I think at this point, as dramatic as it may come off - my faith in the American people to legitimately care about their Veterans and Defenders is all but lost.
Can you blame them? War in this modern age, especially the last few, have been specifically crafted to shield the populace from the actual effects of the war.
Beyond the general smallness and voluntary nature of armed forces these days (which, while a factor in this, is not deliberately so), the whole aim of those who started the wars has been to minimize losses and aggrandize gains. Because war is a political tool for political ends and the actual nature of war is politically unpalatable to the vast majority of people.
Corpses and injuries and PTSD are messy and expensive and make people feel bad. And so they are hidden and avoided. People want to imagine wars as victorious and full of upright, healthy, righteous men who come home heroes and go back to a normal life. And so many in the government encourage that to sustain support for war-based political goals.
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GoslingLooking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, ProbablyWatertown, WIRegistered Userregular
For the record, someone brought up Boot Camp earlier. I remember watching Boot Camp.
It was a pre-9/11 show (for what that's worth), used civilians, treated itself as a boot camp (with marches and haircuts and screaming drill instructors and everything) instead of a combat simulation, only blew something up once the whole season, and one finalist lost the game because the explosion wasn't conducted properly and they lost a piece of equipment in the blast. (The final had seven physical challenges and six votes from a jury; first to seven overall won. The guy who lost won six of the challenges, but didn't get a single vote, largely due to the blown explosion, which was pinned on him.)
So... compare.
I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
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darklite_xI'm not an r-tard...Registered Userregular
It's like Soldier of Fortune: The Real Life Version
I am not sure why people are mad. All of the countless war movies and first person shooters do more to glorify war than a silly reality show.
Grey Paladin on
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
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KageraImitating the worst people. Since 2004Registered Userregular
They should drop them in hostile countries with little supplies and a weapon when they're done training, hell I bet Todd Palin would be right at home in Somalia - no socialism.
It's all amazingly stupid, yes, but why the anger?
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
You want an accurate military simulator? Give them an eight hour power point presentation, every day for a week. If they aren't hating life and trying to gouge out their eyes 2 hours into the first presentation, they're doing it wrong.
I just remembered something: there is a serious lack of PT Belts in that trailer. WHERE ARE THE PT BELTS NBC!? How will they know how to be safe without the PT belts?!
This guy knows what's up.
Also, they want real military?! They want something like...
For the record, someone brought up Boot Camp earlier. I remember watching Boot Camp.
It was a pre-9/11 show (for what that's worth), used civilians, treated itself as a boot camp (with marches and haircuts and screaming drill instructors and everything) instead of a combat simulation, only blew something up once the whole season, and one finalist lost the game because the explosion wasn't conducted properly and they lost a piece of equipment in the blast. (The final had seven physical challenges and six votes from a jury; first to seven overall won. The guy who lost won six of the challenges, but didn't get a single vote, largely due to the blown explosion, which was pinned on him.)
So... compare.
Yeah I wouldn't compare with Boot Camp. It's a reboot of another post 9/11 Mark Burnett production: Combat MIssions. It was...kind of an interesting show actually. Rather than use celebrities as contestants, they used former service members and off duty SWAT team members. There were a couple of mild problems with it:
1. It was still obviously about the glorification of war.
2. Putting that many Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces operators in a single place and then making them compete against one another is bound to produce a lot of egos whom you're just going to eventually despise. Which might have been part of the point -- this was immediately after Burnett had struck gold with Survivor. But it ended up being kind of a bad idea, which you will see when you get to point #4.
3, It ended up being the case that because this show was aired almost immediately after 9/11, the service members, while extraordinarily well-trained, hadn't yet experienced any of the op tempo that our special forces operators have been subjected to over the past ten years. The SWAT team members, by contrast, had been consistently kicking in doors every day for 20 years. So there were more than a few episodes where Dallas PD SWAT ended up putting our entire military to shame.
4. It ended up being a huge Debbie Downer for the prospect of a second season when the show's number one reality TV villain ended up being one of the four Blackwater contractors who were hung from a bridge in Baghdad.
Posts
That and destroying countries for their precious resources, of course. I'm sure that will be covered, in between the flag waving and fawning at all things military.
The military is becoming more and more integrated in every aspect of day-to-day life. It is extremely disturbing.
Death by power point.
If you want to get really worried: This isn't nearly the most complicated Powerpoint slide I've been exposed to.
Games: Ad Astra Per Phalla | Choose Your Own Phalla
pleasepaypreacher.net
What did that poor chart ever do to you?
I love that Murphy had to tone his life down for the movies to make it more realistic.
Maybe a healthy dose of this, as well:
http://www.theonion.com/video/ultrarealistic-modern-warfare-game-features-awaiti,14382/
I used to kind of tune out the "deadliest week since x" dialogue about Afghanistan, but one of the three killed was a guy I went to high school with and knew personally - 1LT Todd Lambka of Shelby Township, MI, Eisenhower High School, class of '06. Went on to West Point, class of '10, deployed after. Convoy hit an IED. His twin brother Jordan accompanied his body home. Having actually known somebody who died brings the gravity of it home. I might've watched an episode or two for shits and giggles, but I have no desire to tune it on now.
EDIT: Further pissing me off: "This isn't hollywood, suck it up." Yeah, and Joe 11B doesn't run around with a fucking SCAR, either. I remember a guy in Afghanistan posting on another board I lurk at, talking about how the rifles they have are beat to shit with no spare parts and no available armorers to take a look at them.
Seriously though, who the fuck came up with the idea for this show? What the fuck has happened to this network!?
I swear to God, once Community and Parks and Rec are off the air I am so done watching anything on NBC. Can't believe they'd stoop this low.
Instead, we get this. Welp.
SteamID: devCharles
twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesewise
Until they release another show you like. Thanks for sticking to your guns.
This is a quote from Nick Lachey;
I know right? If only Military service had some kind of volunteer option for people ages 18 to 35 offering a wide range of contract options.
But if Nick Lachey had joined when he was within that window, the world might have missed out on his One Tree Hill guest appearances! And...well, this show! How tragic would that have been?
Once in a lifetime, what the fuck. He had that opportunity every fucking day from the time he turned 18 to the time he turned 35, and his showbiz career was more important to him. What a load of condescending bullshit. But...but...doing it for realsies might have meant real commitment!! Oh noes!! Much easier to handle a season of reality TV than an 8-year contract, and a couple deployments. It's not like you can't pursue a career in showbusiness while enlisting in the reserves, either. Might occasionally be hard to balance the two, but then again that goes for any fucking job out there period. Believe me, I know.
Unless there's something I don't know, like Lachey being turned down for asthma as a teenager or something, I hope Rob Riggle hunts him down and beats him to death.
I mean, why would an actor, or for that matter any other professional who doesn't need the money, join the military? Eeew.
/rant
Then, I noticed that the would-be subject of my attention was wearing an ascot that was in fact an American flag.
SteamID: devCharles
twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesewise
They have been given gifts beyond measure at the cost of young blood and they sacrifice them on the alter of greed and selfish proclivity. The few that are drawn into service by compassion and circumstance are forced to suffer the indulgences of the rotting breath of mistrust and abandonment that exudes forth from every 'thank you' echoed in his lifetime. To be welcomed home and find yourself in an unfamiliar land, a place distinctive in its color, but the curtains have been drawn to those unfortunate enough to truly comprehend the essence of the cost of those things which are simply taken with no humility or reverence for the source from whence they came. Their cries fall on deaf ears as they scream into the night for any tangible response until their throat has unraveled, raw, and now void of purpose. And for those poor souls who are overwhelmed by the only sound in the world being an echo of their pleas, they tear loose their mortal coil as a last resort to end the suffering only to become a fresh new statistic, a number on a piece of paper in a cycle of injustice that is only mourned by those who knew them closest.
Americans do not deserve the men and women, who from their ranks stand for them, sacrifice for them, live and die for them. Americans know the secret though. They know. There will always be those who rise from the dark to face the wolves knocking at the door because we are all blessed to be called to such a service, to retain that spark of honor and valor given to us by our creator and let it fuel the love for their nation and the worlds people with the hopes that when they too return home, their efforts will have not been in vain.
This television program is an accumulation of the lost. Human beings frantically desperate to reach out and place themselves among those who will be remembered, pouring their personality into a socially engineered mold of what they think they should be and burying deep the definitive characteristics that make an individual who they are.
Honor. Valor. Duty. Respect. Loyalty. Strength. Conviction. These words are a dead language to the majority of this country and I weep for any soul who does not know them.
SteamID: devCharles
twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesewise
Military movies from that era always amuse me compared to the films we see now. The accuracy of the uniform has been shifted so heavily on film - you see people wearing crazy ass shit now-a-days.
Ah, there we go. Colbert pretty much summed up this thread. Thanks, Colbert.
Also, during that clip every time one of them kept saying "real" (and yes it was definitely italicized every fucking time) I wanted to shoot them. Because "real missions" are incredibly boring right up until they aren't, then sometimes real people really don't come home. You want to act in a war movie, I'll munch popcorn and watch it just like everybody else, and enjoy it even as I try to push down the emotions it sometimes brings back. But for fuck's sake, don't try to pretend it's "real."
Can you blame them? War in this modern age, especially the last few, have been specifically crafted to shield the populace from the actual effects of the war.
Beyond the general smallness and voluntary nature of armed forces these days (which, while a factor in this, is not deliberately so), the whole aim of those who started the wars has been to minimize losses and aggrandize gains. Because war is a political tool for political ends and the actual nature of war is politically unpalatable to the vast majority of people.
Corpses and injuries and PTSD are messy and expensive and make people feel bad. And so they are hidden and avoided. People want to imagine wars as victorious and full of upright, healthy, righteous men who come home heroes and go back to a normal life. And so many in the government encourage that to sustain support for war-based political goals.
It was a pre-9/11 show (for what that's worth), used civilians, treated itself as a boot camp (with marches and haircuts and screaming drill instructors and everything) instead of a combat simulation, only blew something up once the whole season, and one finalist lost the game because the explosion wasn't conducted properly and they lost a piece of equipment in the blast. (The final had seven physical challenges and six votes from a jury; first to seven overall won. The guy who lost won six of the challenges, but didn't get a single vote, largely due to the blown explosion, which was pinned on him.)
So... compare.
Movies and games don't constantly advertise themselves as 'real missions, real bullets, real danger'.
Or have celebrities talk about this being a 'once in a lifetime opportunity' despite being an otherwise able candidate for military service.
This guy knows what's up.
Also, they want real military?! They want something like...
...THIS??
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
Yeah I wouldn't compare with Boot Camp. It's a reboot of another post 9/11 Mark Burnett production: Combat MIssions. It was...kind of an interesting show actually. Rather than use celebrities as contestants, they used former service members and off duty SWAT team members. There were a couple of mild problems with it:
1. It was still obviously about the glorification of war.
2. Putting that many Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces operators in a single place and then making them compete against one another is bound to produce a lot of egos whom you're just going to eventually despise. Which might have been part of the point -- this was immediately after Burnett had struck gold with Survivor. But it ended up being kind of a bad idea, which you will see when you get to point #4.
3, It ended up being the case that because this show was aired almost immediately after 9/11, the service members, while extraordinarily well-trained, hadn't yet experienced any of the op tempo that our special forces operators have been subjected to over the past ten years. The SWAT team members, by contrast, had been consistently kicking in doors every day for 20 years. So there were more than a few episodes where Dallas PD SWAT ended up putting our entire military to shame.
4. It ended up being a huge Debbie Downer for the prospect of a second season when the show's number one reality TV villain ended up being one of the four Blackwater contractors who were hung from a bridge in Baghdad.