President Obola

Somewhat off topic, but...
Personally, I don't understand why so many folks in the media are outraged lately about the secret service lapse in security. A terrorist wiping out Obama would be the best thing ever to happen to this country.

Oh and here's a fun fact you might not know that is partially related to my previous post, Obama was chairman of the Federal Reserve branch in Chicago before becoming president.

Very interesting.  Did you find a link that discusses this?  This is surprising since Obama's background is a law degree and community organizer.  Fed chairmen usually have Ph.D.'s in economics.

Wait, I'm not sure what you're trying to say here, but I hope you aren't implying that Bay Watch isn't real.

I know you don't live in the USA but here in the USA they have dumbed down the standards to allow women into jobs like the military and police and firefighter. They have separate fitness standards for men and women. Just like on written exams to become police officers or firefighters, minorities get points added for being a minority because they know most minorities wouldn't be able to compete with whites. So, they either give the minorities more points or they dumb down the entire exam process which ends up hurting everyone in the long run. 

Awww...someone has their panties in a wad! I would like to see all these women who can run circles around men because I never saw them. You take the best male athlete and put them up against the best female athlete and the man will crush the woman 100 times out of 100. I know criminals like to see women cops because they know they can easily take them out.

I guess you can't deal with the truth that standards have been dumbed down so that women can make the grade. For the record, I am also against dumbing down the standards because of age also. If a 20 year old man has to do 50 push ups and 100 sit ups and run the mile and a half in 8 minutes then so should a 50 year old man and a 25 year old woman.

To illustrate what I am talking about the military has allowed overweight people to enter the military on a waiver by using their BMI...the recent study has found that almost 90% of the people that got the waiver couldn't meet the physical fitness standards. If you are right that women can run circles around men then you would agree with me that both men and women should have to pass the highest standards of physical fitness and not have tests dumbed down for women.

Here are some articles about the military dumbing down the fitness standards for women...



www.funker530.com/marines-lower-fitness-standard-for-women-to-0-pull-ups/

Women are only required to perform a “15 second hang” to pass the pull up test now, as the Marines continue to lower their physical standards for women.

“Sorry guys, we have to re-route the patrol down that IED infested road because somebody can’t make it over this mud wall.”

QUESTION: If this trend of lowering standards continues, how do you see this affecting the military as a whole 10-20 years from now?

Here's another one...

www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/feminist-lies-feminism/as-expected-physical-fitness-standards-lowered-and-delayed-again-for-female-us-military-members/

As Expected: Physical Fitness Standards Lowered and Delayed Again for Female US Military Members
December 28, 2013 By Michael Conzachi 66 Comments

While writing this, I just got an email update that the Military Justice Improvement Act has been passed in congress and is on its way to being signed by the President as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. I am going to have to do some digging to see exactly what changes and amendments have been made. Initially, it looks like the worst case scenario. MC

As we have seen so many times before, military standards for females are reduced in order for them to be “equal.”

The United States Marine Corps quietly announced recently on social media that the current requirement for female Marines to do a minimum of three (3) pull-ups as part of their training by January 1, 2014 has been delayed for another year. Currently, females are not required to do even a single pull-up, but rather a test called a “flexed-arm hang” in which they can score points based on the amount of time that they can hang from a pull-up bar absent any gear. A maximum score can be obtained if they hang for 70 seconds with their chin over the bar.

cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-boland/female-marines-not-required-do-1-pull

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2530172/Women-U-S-Marines-SPARED-new-physical-fitness-requirement-wont-three-pull-ups-pass-muster.html

www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/12/pc-insanity-female-marines-cant-do-pullups-but-will-be-allowed-to-serve-on-front-lines-anyway/

U.S. Marine Corps spokesman Captain Eric Flanagan stated that 55% of female recruits tested at the end of boot camp were unable to do three pull-ups as compared to 1 percent of male recruits. Off the record, Marine Corps Officers stated that mandating the three pull-up rule at this time would risk losing new recruits as well as current female Marines who could not pass the test.

Three pull-ups? Really? I’m an old guy with two rotator cuff surgeries and can still do 15-20 during a routine workout. Hell, I can do three with just my nose hair. Who in their right mind; in any branch of the military would want anyone, male or female, who could not do the basic minimum in order to pass boot camp? Even three is not sufficient for combat operations and I wouldn’t want a male next to me who could only do the minimum.

This just goes to show you that despite the vast preparation programs afforded to prospective military recruits, especially women, the knowledge ahead of time of the physical fitness requirements that well over half of all women, at the end of boot camp still can’t perform the minimum. So much for equality. How are they going to perform under stressful combat conditions wearing 20-30 pounds of body armor, 50-60 pounds of gear, helmet, weapon and ammo, while bullets and RPG’s are flying?

Author Walter Williams in a 1999 article entitled “Feminization of the Military” reported on a study conducted at the women’s boot camp at Parris Island South Carolina which found that nearly half of all female recruits didn’t have sufficient strength to throw a hand grenade with enough distance to keep from injuring themselves.

Take a look at this video.

I once had a boss, a former Marine tell me that fighting (in a war) is a young person's thing. He said that people over 30 for the most part (always some exceptions) aren't cut out for the infantry.

Oh...and here is the article about the BMI tests in the military...what a joke that is...

www.airforcetimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2014306050063

PT test checkup: Tape test fail rate down; run is still a struggle



Six months after the service changed the rules for the waist measurement portion of the PT test to give airmen with thick middles a second chance to pass — by having their body mass index and body fat measured — not one airman has qualified, according to data provided by the Air Force.



The new PT rule was the result of an eight-month study into the tape test, called the abdominal circumference by the Air Force, amid outcry from airmen that the test unfairly targeted large-boned people and didn’t take into account height and age. Some airmen said they were physically fit and scored well enough on the 1.5-mile run, situp and pushup portions of the test, but could not meet the waist maximums of 39 inches for men and 35.5 for women.



Airmen who fail the the tape need at least a 75 out of 80 points on the remaining three components to qualify for the BMI or BFA test.



Many airmen said they hoped Air Force leaders would ditch the tape test altogether. The size of one’s waist, they said, should not have career-ending consequences. But fitness leaders held fast to their contention that airmen whose waists exceeded the maximums were unlikely to score well enough onthe other three components of the test.



They can now back it up with numbers: Even though no airmen have been sent for a BMI screen, the pass rate for the waist measurement is 93 percent — 3 percent higher than it was from October 2010 through March 2013.



Neal Baumgartner, the exercise physiology and fitness consultant to the Air Force and program director for fitness at Air Education and Training Command, said that with no airmen in line to take the alternative test, it shows the Air Force’s strength in the tape test because it proves the waist measurement is still doing the job.



“It’s extremely rare — for males with a waist circumference higher than 39, and for females higher than 36 — to do very well on most any other physical fitness test, but we are giving airmen that opportunity, that slim slim chance, but with the odds of that happening, we know it’s extremely slim,” Baumgartner said. “Scientific data, both outside and inside the military, shows that the higher your abdominal circumference, the slower your run time, and vice versa,” he said.



There’s no plan to change the BMI maximum of 25, regardless of gender or age, or the body fat limit of 18 percent for men and 26 percent for women, said Lt. Col. Ernie Mata, chief, promotions, evaluations and fitness policy.



“It was added to not be used on a regular basis ... we knew it would be a very small percentage of people who would get to use it,” Mata told Air Force Times. “We’ll continue to look at all aspects of the [test] as we move forward, but it’s up to leadership to decide based off the statistical data how they want to proceed.”



Biggest challenge: The run

The overall pass rate for active-duty Air National Guard and reserve airmen was 86 percent — or 90 percent if waivers aren’t counted — from Oct. 21 through April 30. The pass rate has hovered around 90 percent for the past few years and spiked to 94 percent at the end of 2012.



And while the waist measurement is, by far, the PT test component with the highest pass rate, the highest fail rate is for the 1.5-mile run, or alternatively, the 2-kilometer walk. The run counts for 60 percent of the test, while situps and pushup are 10 percent each and the waist tape the remaining 20 percent.



Since October, the pass rate has dropped to 70 percent for the aerobic portion of the test, compared with a 75 percent pass rate since the test was updated in 2010. Of the 350,289 tests taken by active-duty, Air National Guard and reserve airmen from Oct. 21 through April 30, 5 percent — or 17,514 — resulted in a failure for the run. Another 25 percent of test takers — nearly 87,572 — were exempt from the aerobic portion, primarily for medical reasons.



Baumgartner said airmen should maintain their workouts throughout the year so they are ready for the run at test time. And a better score on the run can help airmen whose scores for their waist measurement are on the lower end of the passing range.



The same can be applied to airmen’s lives.



“You can mitigate some of that additional fat by having higher aerobic fitness,” Baumgartner said. “[The test] is to encourage them to think, ‘What are you doing the other 363 days of the year?’ Because we want them to carry out a healthy lifestyle with exercise and balanced nutrition.”



If you can’t run, make an effort to “go as fast as possible” on your walk test to show an effort toward staying fit for duty, Baumgartner said.



In October, the Air Force eliminated the complicated calculation called VO2 max, which factors weight, age, gender, heart rate and walk time because the formula was confusing for airmen, and leadership wanted a simpler test, Baumgartner said. Now airmen who are exempt from the run must walk 2 kilometers and meet the minimum time for their age group. They do not receive a point score, they receive either a pass or fail.



Some airmen applauded the change. Others said cardio work deserves a point value to help boost the overall PT test score.



“[The Air Force’s] biggest mistake was making the walk a pass or fail score,” a reader posted on Air Force Times’ FlightLines blog. “Taking a point value from a cardio portion of the test leads to more failures of members recovering from an injury who are reasonably trying to participate in what they can physically.”



Airmen who once scored in the 80s on the 100-point test now fail because they are only receiving scores for three of the four components, she said.



Waivers: A handout?

Overall, the number of waivers handed out to airmen who must skip taking the entire test was 6 percent, or 18,463 test takers, from Oct. 21 through April 30, according to the Air Force’s data. But waivers for individual components range from 25 percent for the run test, to 16 percent for the pushups and situps, to 6 percent for waist measurement.



Some airmen have complained that the waivers are handed out too easily, and that slackers know they can escape the test by complaining about a sore back or knee the week of their scheduled test.



In previous years, the numbers were even higher: In October 2011, 14 percent of test takers received waivers.



The numbers started to come down in May 2012. At the time, the Air Force Surgeon General’s office attributed the decline to airmen being in better shape and less prone to injury.



Mata said the waivers, referred to as profiles, are handed out by the Air Force’s medical team for legitimate reasons.



“It’s pregnancies, deployments — there are multiple reasons as to why somebody can be exempt at any one given time, and we’re not going to tell a doctor how to do their job,” he said. “If somebody’s injured and can’t take the test, what we don’t want to do is hurt airmen more.”



But some airmen disagree.



“The PT test is fine if individuals actually take all components of it,” wrote Robert Earl Payne on the Air Force Times Facebook page. “The problem lies in the med group where profiles are handed out like candy to anyone that walks in the door ... The individual needs to have some integrity by not going to the clinic in the first place, but it also falls on the doctors to send people right back out the door. Give them a profile for lack of heart instead of a hurt toe nail,” Payne said.



'You have answers' to the test

Mata said help is available for airmen who continue to struggle with the PT.



“Not only are you given medical support, the Health Awareness Center, there’s different avenues for them to get better and time provided to conduct fitness assessments, and get the training they need prior to taking the next test. We want the airmen to pass, and there’s a lot of support out there for them,” he said.



The Air Force’s message is clear: Airmen have the individual responsibility to get fit and stay fit.



“There’s no science to it, there’s no secret to it, we tell you, ‘Here’s what you need to do,’ since day one,” Mata said.



PASS/FAILS SINCE OCT. 21

The overall pass rate for the PT test for active-duty, Air National Guard and Reserve is 86 percent for the 350,289 tests taken. Here’s how airmen are doing on each of the four components of the test:



Component----- Pass % -------Fail % --------Profiles %

Pushups ---290,740 83% ----3,503 1% ----56,046 16%

Situps -----283,734 81% ----10,509 3% ---56,046 16%

Abdominal 326,769 93%---- 7,006 2% -----17,514 5%

Aerobic ----245,202 70% ----17,514 5% ---87,572 25%