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alwaysbigllama · 2 years

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Precious Tips to Help You Get Better At 700+ credit Score in Dallas, TX

A 700+ credit score is the goal for many people. Achieving this score can bring a lot of benefits, such as lower interest rates on loans and better terms on credit cards. If you're looking to improve your credit score, here are some valuable tips to help you get there. By following these tips, you can make improvements that will be reflected in your credit score over time. Implementing these suggestions can help make getting to a 700+ credit score much easier!

Are you working on getting your credit score up to 700+? It can be a lot of work, but it's worth it! Here are some precious tips to help you get better at 700+ credit score in Dallas, TX.

1. Understand what a 700+ credit score means for you

What is a 700+ credit score? How can you achieve it? And what rewards does it bring? These are important questions to ask when you’re looking to improve your financial status. Your credit score is one of the most important indicators of your financial health, and a 700 score is widely considered to be excellent. Here, we will explore what makes up a 700+ credit score and how you can achieve this coveted rating. We'll also look at some of the benefits that come with having a good credit history.

A 700+ credit score is usually considered to be a good or excellent rating and can result in being approved for loans at the best interest rates. It's important to understand what this score means for you and how you can maintain it or improve it. By understanding your credit score and its components, you can make informed decisions about your finances and protect your credit rating. visit our website today learn more!

Credit Repair Ease understands that every individual has their own unique story. So, whether you are just starting out on your own or have been managing personal finances for years, our blog provides information tailored specifically to you. Visit often to learn helpful tips about improving your credit rating, saving money, and more!

2. Check your credit report for errors and dispute them

It is important to check your credit report for errors and dispute them. Sometimes inaccurate information can be reported, which can adversely affect your credit score. By correcting any errors on your credit report, you can improve your credit score and boost your financial standing. There are several ways to check your credit report, including through the three main credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. You can also use a free online service such as Credit Repair ease. Be sure to review all the information listed on your credit report and dispute any inaccuracies immediately. Dispute letters can be sent directly to the bureau that reported the error. Following up with the company that originated the mistake may also be necessary.

3. Pay your bills on time to establish a good payment history

establishing good credit is important for several reasons. A high credit score means you're likely to get approved for loans and other lines of credit at favorable interest rates, which can save you money in the long run. What's more, a good credit rating can also help you rent apartments and homes, and even get jobs. While there's no one-size-fits-all answer to achieving a perfect credit score, paying your bills on time is a key factor in building up your credit history. By setting up automatic payments or reminders so you never forget to pay your bills on time, you can start establishing a solid payment history that will improve your credit rating over time.

4. Keep your credit utilization ratio low by not maxing out your credit cards

It's no secret that having a high credit utilization ratio can hurt your credit score. But what many people don't know is that you don't have to max out your credit cards to get into trouble. Even if you're not using your full limit, simply having a high balance compared to your limit can cause your score to drop. So how can you keep your utilization ratio low and protect your credit score? One way is to pay off your balances every month. Another is to spread out you’re spending over several cards instead of putting all of your eggs in one basket. Whatever method you choose, make sure you stay mindful of how much debt you're taking on and keep those utilization ratios as low as possible.

5. Use a credit monitoring service to track your progress and get alerts for suspicious activity

If you're working to improve your credit score, it's a good idea to use a credit monitoring service to track your progress and get alerts for suspicious activity. This will help you stay on top of your credit situation and quickly address any issues that arise. Credit monitoring services can also help you identify identity theft early on, so you can take the necessary steps to protect yourself. choosing the right service can be tricky, so here are some tips to help you make the best decision for your needs.

When considering a credit monitoring service, think about what features are important to you. Some services offer free credit scores and reports, while others offer more in-depth analysis and tracking tools. You may also want a service that offers identity theft protection.

6. Make sure you have a positive mix of debt types - installment loans, student loans, etc.

If you're like most people, you have a mix of debt types - installment loans, student loans, credit cards, etc. But is your mix positive or negative? Having too much of one type of debt can hurt your credit score and make it harder to get approved for new loans. So, make sure you have a positive mix of debt types! A good way to do this is to use a balance transfer credit card to pay off your high-interest debt. This will help keep your interest payments low and improve your credit score. Check out our blog post for more information on how to create a positive mix of debt types!

If you are interested in learning more about how to get a 700+ credit score, call us now at (888) 803-7889. Our team of experts will be happy to help you achieve the credit score that you deserve. Alternatively, visit our website creditrepairease.com for more information on our services and how we can help you improve your credit score.

#credit repair services #Debt Settlement #Credit Restoration #Tax Problem Resolution #Creditor Negotiations #Tax Debt Assistance #credit consulting #Financial Planning #Debt Problems #business credit #credit counseling #Credit Reports #Credit Rating #Fix Your Credit Score #credit monitoring service #credit repair attorney #credit repair affiliate program #fixing my credit #Fix Credit Score

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desmoinesposts · 1 year

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The Positives and Negatives of Filing for Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is one of those crises you wish you didn’t ever encounter in life. But if you’re not careful enough with your finances, there is a big possibility that you’ll have to go through it. When the time comes that you have no choice but to face bankruptcy head-on, tax problem resolution in Des Moines, IA, is always a great way to help you go through this distress.

The first thing that you should do when you’re facing bankruptcy is to file for bankruptcy. Filing one can help you in many circumstances. But remember that when you file for bankruptcy, it’ll not only have pros, but you can also experience its cons, which is normal because, in the first place, bankruptcy is not a good thing.

#tax problem resolution des moines ia #personal tax assistance des moines

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zandatax11 · 2 years

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Zanda Tax | Best IRS Problem Resolution Service in Houston, TX, USA

Businesses nowadays face issues with the IRS. This can be a quite hard task to get relief from the IRS authority once you get the letter from them. Zanda Tax is the organization that offers the most pre-eminent IRS problems service in Houston with the help of our experienced and professional team members who knows how to balance the situation under the circumstances. We also offer ITIN renewals and ITIN applications for clients. We are considered one of the best firms for the IRS problems services in Texas. Contact us if you want the Best IRS Tax Problems Resolution.

#IRS problems service in Houston #IRS problems services in Texas #Best IRS Tax Problems Resolution

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thydungeongal · 7 months

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D&D is actually pretty good

Unless you're trying to do something that it actually sucks at

This is part 3 of my big post about why D&D, structurally, works for a very specific type of gameplay and actually resists other types of gameplay. As I have pointed out in previous parts, none of this is to say that D&D is a bad game, but that it's a very bad fit for gameplay outside of its specific niche and might not produce meaningful or desirable gameplay when twisted into other types of narratives.

In the first part I discussed the terminology that I'm using, namely the two different playstyles of Challenge Mode and Story Mode, and in the second part I talked about what it is about D&D's structure that makes it a good fit for Challenge Mode. In brief, D&D has many parts that allow for meaningful gameplay to emerge simply from developing system mastery, allowing players to make meaningful assessments of risk and reward. You can find the previous posts here:

Part 1: Terminologie

Part 2: What is it that D&D actually do?

This third part will be covering what it is about D&D's mechanics and structure that make it not great for Story Mode gameplay. Once again I will be tagging this as #the big damn post for easier finding.

Part 3: Mismatched Expectations

D&D is fun as a game. It has a very clear gameplay loop of going into a place where there is danger, overcoming that danger, being rewarded with better abilities, and thus being able to overcome greater dangers, rinse and repeat. That gameplay loop can be in and of itself fun and rewarding.

Problems arise when that gameplay loop is placed on top of an extended narrative with greater stakes. D&D's rules are a great fit for narratives about some fellas going into a dangerous place and engaging with that danger for the sake of reward. It is very good when placed in the hands of players for whom the gameplay loop itself is its own reward and who are thus willing to engage with the gameplay on its own terms.

But okay, what is it specifically about D&D's rules that clashes against Story Mode gameplay?

Firstly, resource management and the adventuring day does not model rising action very well. Rising action refers to the rising narrative tension leading up to a climax when the tension is finally resolved. In a way the D&D adventuring day (which can be variable in length depending on edition but let's be fair even though 5e claims it's supposed to be 6 to 8 encounters long it doesn't actually work out like that in actual play lmao) represents rising action: tension rises throughout the adventuring day as player characters have their resources taxed, and thus the gameplay becomes more risky. However, this rarely leads to a satisfying climax because players will either choose to rest and recover their resources. DM's can of course always arrange for a narrative contrivance to take away the players' ability to rest, but more often than not this won't actually achieve the desired result. It will result in greater tension, yes, but it comes with its own dangers.

But by default, the game expects players to be able to make the meaningful decision to rest and recover their resources, although this often comes with its own opportunity costs as well as the risks inherent in either resting in a dungeon or returning to home base to recover. By default players have access to a method of resolving rising action themselves. This is intentional, which is why I refer to denying players access to this as a contrivance.

As said, the DM can arbitrarily deny access to recovery to amp up the tension until the last encounter of the adventuring day, a type of "boss fight" if you will. Here once again D&D's structure butts heads with the desires of the narrative: while a boss fight that resolves the tension can be narratively satisfying, it is a very risky proposition for a group that has been denied access to rest and recovery. This easily risks a total party kill due to the inherent swinginess of D&D's resolution, which can jeopardize the story.

The easy solution to making sure the players have a chance of surviving the boss fight at the end of a long adventuring day as a means of resolving tension is to make the boss fight easier than the previous fights. Which runs counter to the demands of the narrative. The boss fight should be more of a challenge, not less of a challenge than the guards posted outside of their chambers.

This is where we see D&D's challenge game, soft sim nature butt heads with story structure: D&D has an inbuilt story structure of players being able to take on challenges on their own terms, taxing their own resources, the tension rising naturally due to their resources being taxed, and with players having access to the pressure release in the form of choosing to rest and recover.

You may have noticed that all of my examples thus far assume that the ultimate cost of failure is death. Now, while D&D does have the tools for representing consequences other than death, all of the meaningful consequences amount to the loss of resources that relate to Challenge Mode. D&D does not quantify the emotional impact of the loss of their loved ones, nor the sting of being rejected by the one you love, but it does model the loss of spell slots and hit points and torches throughout the adventuring day. Taxing resources like hit points is the most meaningful way the game provides for modeling defeat, so players will be losing them, bringing them closer to 0 hit points and thus risking death.

I say risking death because while 4e and 5e allow for the blow that sends you to 0 hit points to be a nonlethal one and thus only render you unconscious (but in 5e it is only allowed for melee attacks), the default assumption is that a blow that takes you to zero hit points is potentially a lethal one. Enemies may have their reasons for not immediately killing characters that fall unconscious, but they would have very little reason to stabilize characters that are already dying. Outside of narrative editing, character death is always a real possibility in D&D.

Now, death being a consequence isn't in and of itself a bad thing. It's a great way to add tension. But the way D&D models death, as the default consequence for accidentally going into a fight you weren't expecting to be that tough while not at your full resources, produces narratives that most people playing in Story Mode generally don't want. And that's also why arbitrarily denying players access to their resources also produces an extra risk of death and is, like, actually pretty Bad and Not Good.

D&D's model of death always being on the table runs counter to the expectations of Story Mode. Deaths can happen even in the most incidental encounter, which can be frustrating. However, beyond a certain point in D&D death simply becomes a temporary obstacle. As long as the group has a character who can cast Raise Dead and enough gold (and in most editions of D&D characters have less to spend money on than they have money available) players have a rules-mediated way of removing death. Thus, the only meaningful consequence for failure in the game is robbed of narrative weight.

The only option is the dreaded total party kill, which is not desirable because it completely breaks narrative continuity. Outside of narrative editing it forces the group to create a whole new cast of characters, thus breaking whatever personal continuity the story thus far had.

To reiterate: D&D doesn't model meaningful consequences for failure beyond losing combat, because it is a combat-centric game. Losing in combat is often lethal and there are no guardrails to protect characters from meaningless death in a low stakes fight. The DM can not effectively build tension with multiple combats that then gets resolved in a climactic fight without risking a total party kill and the loss of narrative continuity. This leads to a story structure where the party has to keep on winning in order for the narrative to continue.

And that is supremely narratively satisfying. If players can't ever meaningfully fail (because the only meaningful rules-mediated consequence of failure is death) then every twist in the narrative has to be extrinsic to the player characters. This risks giving off the impression that the player characters are hypercompetent and the world around them is constantly getting into trouble that only the player characters can fix. Which can often feel contrived.

None of this is to say that satisfying narratives can't emerge out of D&D gameplay, but those narratives will emerge almost incidentally, without actual help from the game itself. For every story of the rules coming to save the day by sheer providence you will hear another story of accidental TPKs that ended up bringing the campaign crashing down or a group ignoring the rules themselves or fudging the results for the sake of a satisfying narrative. Which, again, goes to show that the rules themselves resist satisfying narratives, because if the rules themselves produced the types of narratives the group desires they wouldn't need to ignore the rules, right?

Anyway, that's it for now. The next and final part will discuss what can be done to resolve these issues. Warning: my advice mostly boils down to "accept that D&D is a challenge game and play it to its strengths" or "play another game that better supports your desired narrative structures," but like idk you can also house rule D&D all the way to hell if you like, I'm not your boss.

#long post #the big damn post

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seafoamreadings · 4 months

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week of december 31st, 2023

happy new year~!

these are written predominantly for the *rising* signs but they are also intuitively "channeled" enough that they should work for any dominant energy you have! (try your sun if you don't know rising, or more advanced readers can try moon, anywhere you have a stellium, etc and see what works best for you!)

aries: the first week of the year is fairly calm, although mercury ends its little retrograde to kick off the new year. likewise you can start your year off by focusing on reinvigorating an academic or spiritual practice.

taurus: the astrological weather is fairly quiet at the moment which may well bode nicely for your upcoming 2024. proceed through the week with care regarding shared resources or taxes, and be careful not to push any romantic or commitment situations. although mercury stations direct, hold off on signing contracts or verbal agreements for a little while longer.

gemini: celebrate your ruling planet mercury ending its retrograde! seriously, don't let the day (new year's day!) go unmarked. while you may not be entirely out of the woods until he makes it into capricorn, a major milestone is here achieved.

cancerians: mercury direct is good news for fitness, health, and daily routines. it's like a lingering fatigue lifts at last. then mars into capricorn makes any ongoing romantic relationships a little more, let's say, sizzly. maybe a lot more. if you're seeking a commitment, it's almost time to get that ball rolling.

leo: it's a great week to be a leo. mercury direct lightens and brightens up your romantic and creative life. meanwhile mars heads for capricorn, which helps you stay looking the way you want to look, doing the things you want to do, at a level others only ever dream of attaining.

virgo: mercury resumes direct motion, helping to relieve any problems you've been having at home. then mars heads into his exaltation in your fellow earth sign of capricorn. create something new and follow your bliss, be that a person or a project or cuddling up under some covers alone.

libra: if you want to make your own good omens for yourself, wait until about january 2 or 3 and decorate your home with some mountainous imagery. but not impassable obstacles of mountains, rather mountains that have been successfully scaled, the view of the earth from up there on the peak if you can.

scorpio: for the most part you can forget mercury retrograde ending. that direct motion fixes some finances for you but the big deal really is mars into capricorn. mars was your ruler of old, actually even less than a hundred years ago pre-pluto. he is exalted in the sign of the sea goat. the animalistic side of that sign comes out. it suits you well. it is very raw, honest, primal... make the most of it.

sagittarius: been waiting for mercury's retrograde to end? arguably, it's affected you most of all. the new year kicks off with the direct motion at last beginning. it doesn't reach the end of its shadow period for a couple more weeks but things ease up for you big time. for best results, don't get hasty about any new year's resolutions. you can save them as long as you want. maybe until mercury is well back into capricorn and you can see more clearly?

capricorn: mercury goes direct to start 2024 and then mars promptly enters his exaltation in your sign. if you're doing hustle culture, it works, but it does best if you also use this vibe to defend your rest periods, your fun and play, and peace. but you win the battles you enter.

aquarius: if it seems like mercury retrograde took away some friends or social circles, they are likely to pop back in from new year's day on. at the same time mars into capricorn means it's good to get a little gung ho about your spirituality, especially in terms of integrating the shadow.

pisces: this is a good week to spend time with old friends you haven't seen in a while. helpful people abound if you just put yourselves in each other's paths. also be a helpful person to others! if you have networks or support systems to build, this is especially easy from the 5th onward.

#weekly horoscopes #weekly horoscope #horoscopes #horoscope #astrology #signs #zodiac #aries #taurus #gemini #cancer #leo #virgo #libra #scorpio #sagittarius #capricorn #aquarius #pisces

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sameersomanica · 2 years

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If you are looking for a corporate accounting service for your business? Then we tell you some points in our blog, here you can check all details. For more details visit our website or call us at 1-403-250-5587.

#Corporate accounting services #income tax #tax planning #Tax saving #tax problem resolution

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renthony · 2 months

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Tax-funded libraries in Kenosha County could be required to place books with “obscene” language or descriptions of sex in “adult-only” areas under a proposal coming to a vote this week. The resolution calls for the creation of a “secure adult-only” sections for material containing “adult content.” The plan was approved by a 3-2 vote at the committee level. It moves to a full vote of the Kenosha County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday. Kenosha County Supervisor Tim Stocker introduced the plan. It calls for a secure section within libraries for materials with obscene language, descriptions of sex acts or pictures of sex. In his address to the county’s Finance/Administration Committee, Stocker claimed pornographic books are accessible to children in public libraries throughout the county. “I’ve become aware of what I think is a serious problem within the library,” Stocker said. “All we’re asking is that (books) be put in a section that children don’t have access to (them). To me, that just makes sense.” Kenosha County’s library system includes the community libraries in Salem Lakes and Twin Lakes, along with the Kenosha Public Library, which currently has four branches and a fifth opening later this year. Barbara Brattin, director of the Kenosha Public Library, said the libraries have designated sections for different age groups. She said there is no pornography in the library. And, she said, obscenity is subjective. “I think that’s each person’s decision about what that is, [but] certainly not in children’s books,” Brattin said. She said books are purchased based on merit after being reviewed by industry professionals and recommended by publishers and professional journals. Brattin said books are placed in designated sections of the library, organized by age, based on reading level and subject interest.

#libraries #censorship #wisconsin news

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dustofthedailylife · 4 months

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Happy New Year 2024! 🎆💕

2023 has been a year of a lot of ups and downs for me. Especially the past six months have been incredibly taxing for me and my health. And even though I'm getting better again, I feel that it took a toll on my body. I get tired super easily and still need a lot of sleep - but slow and steady wins the race, right?

As for New Year's resolutions - I have a couple of plans or goals I'd like to realize in the upcoming year. ⭐ start my own manga/webcomic series. ⭐ write more fanfic again ⭐ draw more and generally make more time for my creative hobbies ⭐ finish university ⭐open my own sticker shop

And last but not least, I'm thankful for what I accomplished this year. I may not be satisfied with how a couple of things have turned out or hoped for more and there were tears of joy, anger, and sadness. But at the end of the day - I did it, and that's what matters.

I'm thankful to finally have been able to travel to Japan for the first time and hope for many many more travels just like it.

I'm thankful for the friends I have made and the time I spent with loved ones. How I tackled problems and grew when I faced them (what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, am I right?).

And ultimately, I'm thankful for all your support. We may all just be random internet strangers but just know that every single ask or comment went a long way. Especially this year. I know I've been super inconsistent this year and I want to get out of that slump again. Therefore I'm all the more thankful for everyone who took some time out of their day to talk to me, read my works, reblog, or support me in any other way. Truly, I'll never take it for granted.

Happy New Year to you all! XOXO Dust 🍁

#🍁 dust rambles #happy new year!#may the new year be a happy healthy and prosperous one for all of us #sending many internet hugs out to you all #hoping to become more active again in the next year as well

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canonicallyobserving911 · 1 year

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Buck & Eddie: Growth S5 vs. S6

Since 6x15 “Death and Taxes”, I’ve been trying to figure out why Buck’s growth in season 6 felt like it was unfinished but then I finally realized why it felt different when I compared it with Eddie’s growth from season 5.

Eddie’s growth started in season 5, it appeared to be linear and it continued through the beginning of season 6. He was happier after he clawed his way back from the depths of a mental breakdown.

Shooting➡️Panic attacks (x3)➡️Breakup➡️Panic attack #4➡️Chris’ nightmare and his comment about Eddie possibly dying➡️Quitting the 118➡️Made to feel like an outcast at dispatch ➡️ Isolation ➡️Yelled at Bobby ➡️Therapy➡️Mental Breakdown➡️Buck asks what he was afraid of and he admitted he was afraid he was never going to feel normal again➡️ Return to therapy➡️Waited for a sign to return to the 118 and Linda told him God has spoken ➡️ Worked on being better for himself➡️Reconciliation with Ramon➡️Return to the 118 ➡️Happier Eddie at the beginning of season 6

His path to being better for himself is easily identifiable.

Buck’s growth was choppy and the audience NEVER saw how he progressed from one stage to the next so there’s no clear way to illustrate his progress unless question marks are included.

Wanted to be interim captain ❓Wants to be happy❓Read self-help books ❓Asked to be a sperm donor and he accepted❓Probably should have had a self-discovery journey to ask himself if he should have done this while considering his whole “defective parts” comment from season 4 but...❓He only talked to Hen about it❓He donated and stopped at nothing to do it❓He’s told there’s a baby on the way ➡️He tells his parents he’s a donor ➡️He gets struck by lightning and dies but he didn’t deal with it and he didn’t learn anything about himself in his coma dream especially since Bobby told him to STOP being concerned with the way people see him ❓He become distraught and searched for answers ❓Tried to process his death ❓Special math skills acquired and he was happy ➡️ Special skills disappeared and he was back to square one❓Met the death doula and she asked him out to discuss his death and she thought it was cool that he died❓He tells Eddie, “she sees me”❓Eddie asks what changed in him ➡️ He admitted he was different and pretending for everyone else’s sake❓He contacted the doula for a date and they went out but they kept getting interrupted ❓She left after learning he has a full life❓Kameron stayed in his loft which made him responsible for someone else’s wife❓The 118 was involved in a bridge collapse, he handled the rescue and exhibited some leadership qualities but nothing came of it❓He delivered Kameron’s and Connor’s baby and after a brief look at him with watery eyes, he let go and gave the baby to them ➡️ The doula says she likes him and he likes her too but they don’t know each other❓He assumes this new relationship (for the fourth time) is going to fix him and they decide to buy a couch together

Ok... so clearly there are differences between their growth but the biggest difference is Eddie’s growth appeared to be linear while Buck’s just wasn’t. It was all over the place and the number of storylines he had going at one time didn’t help. The audience didn’t see how Buck got from point A to point B but viewers were able to clearly see Eddie’s progress.

Hopefully season 7 will be better because these choppy storylines with no resolution was a HUGE PROBLEM for a lot of the mains in season 6.

#buddie #eddie diaz #evan buckley #911onfox #911 fox #911 on fox #911 abc #911 meta #911 on abc #911 s6 #911 season 6 #911 season 6 speculation #911

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 6 months

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by David Hume Kennerly

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PLEASE DON’T THANK ME FOR MY SERVICE THIS VETERAN’S DAY

NOV 11, 2023

Please don't thank me for my "service." I was in the military, not the "Service." Service is doing something good. Service is what the person does who fixes your car. When the word "service" is applied to the military, it helps to justify violence as a method for conflict resolution. Like "defending our freedom," or "bringing democracy," the word "service" is used to lower the barriers of aggression. The military solution to conflict is death and destruction. That's not "service." Call it what it is - the military. If you have to hurt someone to solve a problem, you are the Problem. -- Arnold Stieber, US Army Veteran, 1970

I have absolutely no problem understanding exactly what Mr. Stieber wrote above, “back in the day,” with the white-hot heat of youth and the thorough pissed-offness of someone who had seen the side of life nobody ever wants to see. It’s the attitude I came home with from that same war, five years before he did.

I’ve never really gotten used to the new tradition of the past 30 years, for civilians - on discovering they are in the presence of someone who served in the military, - to say “Thank you for your service.” I have very mixed emotions about that. On the one hand, it’s nice that maybe a fourth of them have a clue why they’re saying what they are, that it isn’t merely the mouthing of polite words. On the other hand, I’m not sure why anyone would want to thank someone who served in the war I served in, or the ones that followed.

The war in Vietnam made everything in America worse. For just one thing, it harmed the economy when the government adopted a policy of both “guns” and “butter,” which led to the severe inflation of the 1970s, which gave companies looking for any way to reduce costs to start taking a hard line on employee compensation, which leaves us in the condition where the average American working stiff now makes less in terms of buying power than they did 50 years ago, I don’t know about you, but I’m not up to thanking anyone for that.

Of course, thinking further on this leads one to the obvious conclusion that it wasn’t the kids who got drafted who did any of that. They weren’t sitting in the halls of government thinking about how to distract the citizenry from the fact that this particular imperial war was going bad in all ways, and coming up with the idea of keeping taxes down in a period of increased government spending for things that go “BOOM!” while making sure they could get that new car every three years like they always did. Those decisions are the ones that led to the situation I mentioned above. Made by guys who mostly never got shot at, even in the war they did serve in.

In my experience during my time in the Navy and the years after knowing other vets and working with them, there were very few of us who “wanted” to go to war. Most of my fellow sailors were in the Navy because they figured joining the Navy and getting trained for a good job and “seeing the world” beat the daylights out of being in the Army, so much so it was worth a couple extra years over the two years a draftee served. Ditto the Air Force. Even the Marines were forced to start taking draftees after 1966, when they ran low on guys who believed what John Wayne told them in “Sands of Iwo Jima.”

As close as anyone got to “wanting” to go was when those of us who had joined before the war received the first orders sending us to the war. As my friend Phil Caputo wrote in “A Rumor of War” (a “Vietnam book” you should read), when he learned he and his fellow Marines were headed to DaNang in South Vietnam in 1965, “I thought to myself that when it was over and I went home, I’d be able to look my Tarawa-veteran father in the eye.” I know many others - including me, son of the guy who survived the Kamikazes - the sons of the “greatest generation” who had grown up with all the stories about our father’s “good war,” who “played war” with the cast-off gear from that war, who had similar thoughts.

Vietnam was the last war fought with draftees, and you can bet your bottom dollar today’s leaders will never go back to that system. The draft made everyone think about the war, whether they had to worry about getting drafted out of whatever working class job they had (or didn’t have); even the kids with student deferments had to think about the war when they didn’t work hard enough to keep their grades up and maintain their 2-S status. Mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters and friends all had to worry about someone they knew and loved going off to that war. Whether they “supported the president” or came to understand that the war wasn’t worth the loss of that life they knew and loved, they came in the middle of the night to hate the war. And eventually that made itself known in politics. The makers of war became constrained in the war they could make by the lack of support from those who gave them their jobs with their votes.

I’ll tell you something. After I came back, I did all I could to end that draft. But I would be very happy to see it brought back today.

No deferments. The sons and daughters of the rich serve right alongside the sons and daughters of the poor - like they did in World War II. It’ll make the entitled little shits into something better. And it really does unify - it’s hard to hate people you know by name.

But mostly I’m in favor of that because it makes it almost impossible for “They” to decide to fight a 20 year war in Afghanistan, or Iraq. They can’t do it because too many people will be paying attention. And getting pissed off at them. And voting.

But no, for exactly the reasons I am for the draft, the “all-volunteer” army is here to stay. You can’t fight 20-year wars in hellholes nobody knows without it. That way, only about 1-2 percent of the population ever has to think about the war - the kids who join up because they don’t have a future that looks better than what the military offers, their families, their friends - not a big enough group that if they got upset they could muster any political changes, unlike all those folks 50 years ago.

Most of all, if you’re going to thank me or any of us for our service, don’t try to honor us as “heroes.” For one thing, most of us aren’t, and for another, if you haven’t been in the military you really have no idea what being a hero in that context actually is.

It’s not what you think it is.

An old Navy Chief once explained “being a hero” to me: “When you’re so terrified that your brain is so frozen you can’t think, and you’ve pissed your pants and shit your drawers, and you just know you’re going to die, and you still do your job - THAT is being a hero.”

Not the definition too many in our society nowadays want to hear.

“But, Tom,” you say, “don’t you write all these best-selling books about wars and heroes? You must really love war to think about it so much.”

If you have gotten anything even remotely like that from reading any of my books, you really need to reconsider that decision not to take that remedial course in reading comprehension.

Yes, I do honor those out there in the mud and the blood and the ooze. And I appreciate knowing the ones who were out there in the mud and the blood and the ooze and survived to come back to the world of the living. That’s because their willingness to do that has a lot to do with why there is that world of the living to come back to.

Or at least that’s true in the World War II books. That’s the last war that could be divided into the Good Guys and the Bad Guys.

Except it kind of can’t. I’ve known too many guys who served on “the other side” who are just as nice - if not nicer - than anyone I have met from “the good side.”

In fact some of them must be better than anyone who served on this side. That’s a small list. But every guy who served in Vietnam and then had the opportunity to later meet the people they were trying to kill at the time, has met people who have been willing to forgive them for My Lai and Agent Orange and Rolling Thunder and all the rest of it, and offer friendship. And the ones on that side who I have been privileged to meet are definitely honorable men.

A late friend of mine who was a leading ace in “the good war” once told me when we were at a convention of those guys and the honored guests at the event were the guys who they’d been out to kill: “The secret nobody knows is, we always thought the guys we were fighting were the only ones who knew what we were going through. We actually thought we were closer to them than to the other people who were on our side.” I’ve heard similar sentiments from former infantrymen as well as former fliers, so it’s not some “guild of the elite” or “honorable brotherhood.”

Although it probably is an “honorable brotherhood.” The brotherhood of people who were willing to do what it took to defend what they loved - and believe it or not that even applies to the Germans; most of them knew as much about the “larger issues” going on, the terrible things, as any young guy in the US military did in the war I fought. And when they did find out, they were shocked too. The people who did the terrible things tried to keep them secret from everyone else, because they knew they were doing terrible things.

My friend Jim Wright, who’s become well-known in social media in recent years for some straight-shooting talk from a retired Chief Warrant Officer, wrote:

“Mostly we veterans are just people who came when called and did our best under terrible circumstances.”

I’ll end with a quote from a guy who did know what it took to do all that stuff:

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

― Dwight D. Eisenhower, Soldier, General, President

[TCinLa :: Thats Another Fine Mess]

#war #the draft #history #Vietnam #soldiers #veterans #thank you for your service #the military #the military industrial complex #Dwight D. Eisenhower #TCinLA #Thats Another Fine Mess

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zandatax · 4 months

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sunriseverse · 1 month

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@justheretolurkabit replied to your post “i have not known PEACE since my prof talked about...”:

Can you explain the repeated name penalty? (I googled it and just found a bunch of other terms I would need to google.)

yeah, of course! okay, so the repeated name penalty is actually fairly simple. if i remember correctly, the original research comes from a paper titled "Pronouns, names, and the centering of attention in discourse" (Gordon, Grosz, & Gilliom, 1993). essentially, what was found was that sentences with repeated names used rather than pronouns were read more slowly in comparison to sentences which used pronouns instead. it's therefore been held that the usage of a repeated name when a pronoun would "work better" (ie, the subject is salient enough that using a pronoun suffices well enough, as opposed to sentences where the subject is unclear or where there are multiple subjects and the name serves to specify and reduce ambiguity) causes a delay in processing.

i can't remember if it's a surprisal effect (such as an N400, the usage of "wrong"/unexpected words in a sentence) or more related to the garden path effect (which is related to ambiguity resolution, ie "the horse raced past the barn died"), and i don't have access to the slides our prof was lecturing off of anymore, so i can't confirm either way off the top of my head, but i would think it's a surprisal effect, since with a repeated name, there's not actually any ambiguity (that's part of the problem).

where this comes into writing is in something a lot of experienced writers probably subconsciously employ—using a pronoun rather than a name or an epithet, because it "feels better". it makes a sentence flow better and read more naturally when you use the "correct" form of reference—for example, here's a sentence from one of my recent fanfics:

“Move in with me,” Ruan Nanzhu says, dressed prim and proper and smiling as he pets Lizi, who is a traitor and a fiend and, utterly, entirely, understandable, because who wouldn’t want to be under Ruan Nanzhu’s affection, under Ruan Nanzhu’s easy, fluid care? He stares at Lin Qiushi unblinkingly, and, not for the first time, Lin Qiushi finds his gaze tracing those features, fine as if carved from jade, as if meant for a god. His fingers, long and slender, are half-buried in Lizi’s fur, skin fading into it. “Lizi will pay attention to you if you do.”

here, (most of) the he/him/his pronouns clearly refer to ruan nanzhu, even though both of the characters included in this section are men. additionally, the "his" that does refer to lin quishi is clear on who it references, because it follows right after lin qiushi's name. on the other hand, if you alter the pronouns to instead be a name, it sounds clunky and strange, like so:

“Move in with me,” Ruan Nanzhu says, dressed prim and proper and smiling as Ruan Nanzhu pets Lizi, who is a traitor and a fiend and, utterly, entirely, understandable, because who wouldn’t want to be under Ruan Nanzhu’s affection, under Ruan Nanzhu’s easy, fluid care? Ruan Nanzhu stares at Lin Qiushi unblinkingly, and, not for the first time, Lin Qiushi finds his gaze tracing those features, fine as if carved from jade, as if meant for a god. Ruan Nanzhu's fingers, long and slender, are half-buried in Lizi’s fur, skin fading into it. “Lizi will pay attention to you if you do.”

as you can see, a paragraph that was previously read quite easily, with a high level of comprehensibility, becomes taxing as you are forced, over and over, to repeat a character's name. you probably didn't really register the pronouns in the first example, but i would bet you definitely noticed the names in the second one. (also, you'll notice, even in the second sentence, there's one pronoun that cannot be replaced—due to how close "Lin Qiushi" and "his gaze" are, replacing the pronoun with the name not only makes the sentence clunky, but makes it borderline unreadable.)

overall, it's a delicate balance—and there are definitely scenarios where a name can be repeated to effect, rather than in a way that incurs the repeated name penalty; after all, that first sentence, even in the original, repeats ruan nanzhu's name twice at the end of the sentence.

this post got a lot longer than i intended, but i hope it is, at least, interesting! if you have further questions about terminology used, i can do my best to explain.

#13 #c.txt

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