Grrl Power #860 – Sydney shoots like old people drive
I’m not sure why Sydney didn’t know the time limit before she started the course. I guess Peggy wanted a “pure” run, just to see what would happen. Well, now we know. Honestly there are worse things than Sydney erring on the side of caution.
As far as Peggy snapping at Sydney, part of it is simply a Lieutenant losing patience with their celebrity recruit. There is also an understanding among her superiors to very gradually wean her of some of her more egregious behavior. Hopefully without her figuring what they’re doing.
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Why would a drill sergeant push a green recruit into an active course with live ammo without a full walk-through will examples and explanations? “After this block of instruction you WILL be able to effectively engage the enemy as represented by my course and you WILL exit this course with an acceptable time. FIRST you will…”
It isn’t a test of what she already knows. It’s called “training” for a reason. It includes things you will NEVER DO on MY COURSE and things that should require no explanation, because you never assume the soldier has ever pulled a trigger.
Yup, agreed with John here. Dave, the comedic value of this panel is pure gold, and Peggy’s face on panel 8 had me laugh like an idiot. BUT: Every recruit put through live ammo training is given at least a walkthrough and basic instructions such as when to have the weapon out and ready and when to put the safety back on.
Because it’s funnier this way, lol
And we can assume that this is Sydney.
With her ADHD, especially when she is being unmedicated or undermedicated, even if Peggy did everything she was supposed to do and gave all necessary instructions, probably little or nothing registered.
And TBF to Peggy, ADHD (+certain criteria) is usually an medical disqualifier to recruitment. Since Sydney is still taking ADHD medications currently (“Prescribed ADHD medication in the previous 24 months”), she would be currently medically disqualified from recruitment if this was the normal US military. {DOD INSTRUCTION 6130.03 MEDICAL STANDARDS FOR APPOINTMENT,ENLISTMENT, OR INDUCTION INTO THE MILITARY SERVICES\SECTION 5\5.28A [https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/613003p.pdf]}
True, when I was told OCD, ADHD and Tourrettes were disqualified for service I did my best to learn to live without meds, I stopped when I was 18. I wouldn’t call all of them controlled to the level of mild until I was mid twenties though.
For most people meds are a crutch. Yeah, it takes time to learn but you can’t while you’re medicated. The meds get you to a baseline; you have no reason to learn if you’re already at baseline.
Inb4 an idiot says “some people need meds!” Yeah – that’s why I said “most.”
Maybe where you live. And yes, I am responding to ‘most’ not misunderstanding it as ‘all’.
I’m aware that in the USA there’s a serious problem with over-prescription. In the rest of the world though, the stigma associated with taking medication (and having a mental illness in general) is a much stronger factor.
I am both someone who is getting counselling for mental illness and has provided support to others with mental illness on a long-term basis. I have friends in public health, social work, and medicine. And frankly this trope that meds are just a crutch is extremely harmful. People with mental illness have enough difficulty getting recognition for their symptoms and are often dismissed as exaggerating or doing it for attention.
So please, let’s move on from this ‘the meds get you a baseline’. Meds don’t fix anything, they just make it more manageable. You have every incentive to improve from there because most of us don’t want to just survive – we want to actually suceed in live, be able to enjoy it and find satisfaction with it.
Even though living with meds is easier than living without, that doesn’t mean that living with mental illness isn’t painful, challenging, or constantly pushes you. It does. And bullshit about people with mental illnes leaning on it so they don’t have to do any work is toxic.
I’d like to mention a point against the argument of overpharmacation in the midnorth mesopelagic jurisdiction. My severe attention deficit is patent, but I’ve been clever and disciplined enough to work around it. My problem is that most doctors, afraid of the controlled substances act, assuming that my successful (relative to other persons) career doing intellectually demanding work at a prestigious company precludes my symptoms, won’t prescribe me stimulants. Eventually, I found a decent prescriber. Since, I’ve been thrice as productive.
Are you a dolphin?
Can’t be a dolphin. Has a thesaurus.
It must have plastic pages, since he lives under water.
Mental illness is rather murky “A psy is it’s first costumer”
In France psychoanalysis had denied any research about autism – asperger to – it’s all due to childhood traum according to them.
It’s the lacanian mafia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan
I’ve an asperger syndrome and a IQ of 132, not to slouch
Having a mental illness don’t make you a morron and you jugement is also valid
I’m not on med and can interact normaly enven it’s rather tiring,I’m like many geek socialy clueless reliing more in sentence analysis than micro-expression…
Megalomania and sociopathy seems to me to be socialy acceptable mental illness, a necescity to begin a political carrer.
Our president is a former investisement banker with a megalomaniac tendancies…
Calling french worker illiterates and making a big mistake about french military history about WWI the 11th november.
I’ll not speak of your’s… it will be rude.
If you mean the US president, feel free. It can’t possibly be anything I haven’t said about him myself, and I won’t take it as being rude in any slightest way.
The way I see it, insulting the president is a time-honored American pastime, and we all get our turn eventually.
some people need meds!
Sorry, you said “inb4” so I had to be the one to say it, otherwise I wouldn’t have :P
I’m not about to enter a debate on mental health medication and training ’cause that’s a lot more complicated and nuanced than what can happen without a minimum of 3 pages of bibliography and an extensive review of each line but I’ll just say that if you start from the premise that using them prevents you from training to mitigate the issues on your own… a crutch is one of the worst analogies you could have found.
I’d swap your “some” and “most”, but sure.
OCD and ADHD are not total disqualifiers as they can be waivered so long as they will not affect your service and are well controlled. Source: I served 8 years in the Army with Trichotillomania and adhd.
I suppose it depends on the recruiter.
Granted, I also have asthma, so that nixed airforce and navy for me.
I’m really surprised that Frix didn’t cure Sydney’s ADHD on the way back to Earth. I think Sydney was off her meds then and likely was showing the symptoms, possibly even withdraw from them by that point.
The thing with ADD/ADHD/Autism Spectrum Disorder is that curing something like that should not and should never be a goal. Anyone who goes on about finding a “cure” for those should be viewed in the same manner as someone who would be on board with wiping a person’s memories to the point of everything that makes that person “them”, because THAT is what a “cure” would mean, the utter death of that personality.
To put it in computing terms, a “cure” isn’t just patching a few OS bugs, but outright installing a completely new OS that has little to no similarity to/compatibility with anything that came before, if not changing the base code structure from binary to trinary.
I frelling hate curebies.
So your saying that a mental illnesse is a part of someone and should never be worked on? Ya no your analogy doesn’t work. A know a fair few bugs that break entire programs, Source? I’m a programmer… You can fix the “Game breaking” bugs without overhauling code. Usually it’s just a semicolon that was missed… You also come off as one of those people who doesn’t have the problem themselves and are simply getting offended for other people to make yourself feel better. Let’s let the people who actually suffer from these problems get offended and defend themselves, ya? I’m almost certain that if you presented a magic button that would solve their problem for them they’d press it instantly.
I’d almost certain press a button that made me less lazy, less easily distracted, and gave me a body like The Rock’s. I’m not saying these people have those as specific problems but my point here is that when you have a problem and you can work to fix it then you should always strive to fix it… Self improvement is a universal goal. Calling someone a “cureby”? because they think the totally natural reaction of “Let’s find a solution” when seeing a problem is the height of arrogance my friend.
Good god I wish I could fix my typos I didn’t notice till just now… Oh well. I guess I’ll just let them stand as a testament to my point. Always try and improve oneself kiddos, I clearly need to work on my proofreading more…
Hi, I’m someone who “suffers” from some form of Aspergers/ADHD/ASD/etc. (Inconsistent diagnosis from multiple doctors. It’s definitely *something*, but beyond that, I have no idea what.)
F*CK YOU AND YOUR “CURE”.
If you had that “magic button” device, I would SMASH it. (And, to make it perfectly clear, I mean DESTROY, not use.)
I have absolutely no desire to destroy everything that makes me “me” just so that I fit into the so-called “normal”. Calling me a “problem” and something that needs to be “fixed” is despicable. Equating my mental differences with laziness or bad fitness is a clear sign that, no matter how many people “on the spectrum” you have interacted with, you never empathized with them as *people*.
Once again, FUCK YOU.
There, is *that* “getting offended and defending myself” enough for you?
For a third and final time, FUCK YOU AND THE REST OF THE CURBIES.
With all due respect, then you’re just being spiteful due to your own personal experiences, accomplishing nothing but getting in your own way.
You’re not your condition, the experiences you’ve had, good and bad because of such a condition are not just gonna go away simply because your condition is no longer there. Your personality is not defined by these conditions either.
Assuming that the condition you are afflicted with is in any way debilitating, specifically to you, not anyone else, then not getting rid of it is the height of, to be honest, idiocy. I don’t know you, the person you are replying to doesn’t know you, whether or not you have the condition is literally of no consequence to basically anyone here reading your comment, and most importantly, none of us bare any ill will either. Nobody’s trying to “fix” you because, quite frankly, you’re not our problem.
No, the only person your condition is potentially causing problems to is you and maybe, by extension, your family. If that were in fact the case, denying a possible cure or alleviation of the symptoms exclusively out of spite would be harmful to no one but you and yours, therefore I’d advise you to rethink your opinion on the subject.
Sorry if this comes off as rude, I just dislike people wilfully harming themselves just to spite someone who, if malicious, literally couldn’t care less whether or not you treat your condition or, if sincere, simply wishes to provide you with helpful advice. Either way, your response here harms none but yourself.
Like the proposal, of performing brain surgery on Transgender people, it would be like death to the patient.
Sasha having a feeling is not the same as Autism. There’s nothing wrong with being Transgender it’s how the brain is working and by all accounts working well aside from the stress incurred. This is why some organizations no longer recognize it as a mental illness.
ADHD, Autism and so on is not a personality trait… it is quite literally a defective brain (so sayeth the APA, WHO and the DSMr…what are we on now.. 6? and various other leading experts in the field) that is refusing to fire properly and otherwise miss-configured. Some may not want to cure this… much like having a quirky house that has stairs that don’t lead anywhere, windows that are bricked up but still have curtains, furniture on the ceiling instead of the floor and doors that don’t swing open but that you have to push like a boulder to open and close. However there are plenty on the spectrum that would love said cure as it would make life so much ruddy easier than having to figure out what the social code is every three darn seconds.
I disagree that a cure would get rid of the personality because a personality is not our illnesses, it is how we approach a situation and how we deal with the consequences. To take the position that curing Autism is like the death of a personality is akin to saying that someone who gets a new leg grafted on has just killed their old self, whether it was their own leg or not.
Whether you as an individual want to be cured is up to you, just because someone wants to help and cure people doesn’t make them bad people as long as you have the right to choose.
As for others using ‘cureby’ as a pejorative… well they’ve never met a doctor, engineer, teacher, police officer, shop keeper in their lives. All of them are seeking to ‘cure’ something around them, whether people, machines or houses, children (form lack of intelligence depending on how you define that), crime or even people not having the stuff they need. Anything can be ‘fixed’ or ‘changed’ or ‘improved’ it simply takes imagination and effort. Whether it ‘should’ is a personal choice but that is not a choice that should be inflicted on other people because one individual might not agree.
This is where and why I think Sydney hasn’t been ‘cured’, she probably looked at them sideways as she doesn’t see her ADHD as something that needs to be fixed. She likes her quirky house. Though she might very well be tempted by something that makes ADHD easier to manage for example more time before needing her next round of medication. (No i don’t have ADHD I have no idea how that works or the treatments used for it… except snake weed, lots of it).
Easy, there. It’s worth remembering this thread started with the assumption that they/you would be using futuristic space tech (or the magical equivalent) to fix whatever problem is being considered, and I find it entirely possible they’d have a way to fix most problems without being too invasive/life-altering. That said, if you don’t think it’s worth the risk, then by all means, do what you feel is best.
As a transgender myself, however, I would absolutely jump at the opportunity for a new, more fitting body. That’s something we’ve already seen Sciona do with magic, and we’ve seen Peggy have a new arm grown, so I fully expect it’d be possible in such a universe. My physical/mental disconnect contributes nothing I’d miss if I no longer had that problem. Being in the wrong body is absolutely a ‘problem’, and it’s one I’d get rid of in a heartbeat, risks of personality drift be damned.
I bare them (coder65535) ill will, but that’s part of my illness. I don’t value anyone’s life unless i have a connection to them. Anyone here think I shouldn’t try and cure that? Because going from “Wow, what a nice day i’m having, I hope others are enjoying their time like this.” to “Wow, you must want to die as much as I want to kill you. Good News, I cAn HElP!” doesn’t seem like it’s the proper response to everyday troubles. But what do I know. I’m neither a doctor, nor am I normal.
Most of what I say about him, is unprintable.
My being cured would keep me from killing you if we ever met so maybe think about that before you act like a jackass next time. Of course, with this being the internet, you won’t. I hate lower forms like you. Hope we meet soon then. I want my count to go up and the world needs one less waste of space on it.
I’m glad that you’re happy with who you are with ADHD and Aspergers. Not all of us are so fond of our conditions. Especially those of us who have a number of other debilitating medical conditions.
I’ve struggled with ADD and Aspergers for my entire life. I never knew I had them until after my son was diagnosed. I had just assumed that I was lazy, unmotivated, and usociable like my parents told me, even though I had tried my best. Once I was diagnosed, the meds made my life less of a struggle, for a while. Later, a debilitating accident and a brain tumor both added to my health problems, and made my ADD and Aspergers a pain in the everything to deal with.
I would gladly take a cure, if it would make my life even slightly more tolerable.
If you don’t want a cure, should one become available, then don’t take it! If someone tried to force you to take a cure, then I’d support your resistance to it 100%. So, please consider supporting those of us who would greatly benefit from a cure.
There are, as you say, “missed semicolons” in human physiology, generally things like missing/malformed enzymes, which can be fixed with a simple intervention. My asthma is like that: without meds, I’m a wheezy invalid, my life totally dominated by avoiding exertion, cold, and dust; with them, I live a normal life.
Then there are design faults, built into the very structure of the program. My boss is 4’10”, but if something hadn’t gone wrong in the womb she’d probably be at least 5’6″. There is no way to “cure” her congenital dwarfism. Even radical surgery would probably not make her healthier, happier, or better looking. Just taller.
Mental conditions come in both types. The fact that Sydney’s ADHD can be controlled with medication suggests it might be of the “missing semicolon” type, although I worry about side effects. Asperger’s is the sort that requires a complete redesign from the specs, which means you no longer have the same program/person. I, too, would like to be less lazy, less distractable, more socially aware and better able to relate to society. But if the same “cure” also made me less observant, less rational, more narcissistic, and more easily influenced (all of which are part of Asperger’s Syndrome) then thanks but no thanks. I like who I am, faults and all.
Stop.
Just stop.
This is a *FAR* more nuanced subject matter than that.
Some things there are no cures for. Medication, therapy, and *the patience and understanding of others* are the only things that can help with those.
Self improvement is always an option, but one can only do so much with what they havve available to them.
Neurodivergent people have always been around. We just have names for the diagnoses now.
Neurodivergent people don’t only “have mental illnesses”, for those that even have mental illnesses in the first place. A lot of us operate on a different level, with different responses to the same stimuli. It’s not better, it’s not worse, it’s different. “Curing” difference is a massive red flag.
ADHD, for instance, poses issues with standardised learning and controlling what you focus on, but the resulting focus when it occurs is very deep, and what we do learn can usually be called upon a lot more easily. There’s bad and there’s good, and the only way to view it as a definite net negative is to consider that divergence from the norm has to be quelled rather than accommodated.
Being gay used to be widely considered to be a mental illness. Being trans is still considered by many to be a mental illness. If there were ways to force people to be cishet, they’d have been used. Currently, there are no ways, but some children are still being tortured in the name of “curing” them. Because their divergence is taken to be illness, and “no cure is worse than the ailment”. You have to be extremely careful about what “can” and “should” be “cured”, because the people who torture children? They think they’re helping them. Certainly some Chinese people currently indoctrinating/torturing/sterilising Uyghurs think they’re doing them a service. Probably some ICE members maintaining inhuman conditions in their facilities are deeply convinced they’re doing a great deal of good.
Whenever “let’s change things for good” mixes with “how should people be?” there’s a more than even chance of slipping into eugenics, potential genocide, the worst of what humanity has to offer itself. There is NO room for “it’s obvious that” even if to you it’s obvious that neurodivergent people are ill and would be better off “cured”, because it’s obvious to some that Mexicans are rapists and should be kept in cages separated from their children if they try to cross the border.
Logically it’s impossible to cause death. Without birth, death cannot occur, and once birth happens death is inevitable. No action can change it: it’s either impossible or guaranteed. You can’t cause something that was already a certainty. All you can change is DURATION and QUALITY of life.
I knew a fellow with the inheritable type of diabetes, who hooked up with a woman with the same defect, and produced three equally defective offspring. He and she knowingly inflicted a lifetime of suffering on the children.
Some people are too stupid and selfish to be left in charge of loaded testicles.
Are you certain eugenics is always the wrong answer?
Yep – eugenics is still the wrong answer. Human reproduction is hard enough to keep above replacement rate without handing politicians a well-oiled machine for mass sterilaztion. There should NEVER be a legal method for denying someone the choice of children.
Making it simple and easy for someone to steralize themselves on the other hand? Some good arguments for and against that. (Anything temporary AND reversable AND cheep is hard to argue against) As for your stupid friend? You have the same moral right to lecture them as you would a smoking friend.
You say Eugenics is the wrong answer but then we breed cattle, dogs much along the very same principles. No I don’t see the difference because we are all living beings. Still I’m not going to stand here and advocate the deprivation of liberty but Eugenics is not about the deprivation of liberty, Eugenics is about genetic purity and breeding out defective traits. We use this already with people who have genetic diseases such as Huntington’s Disease and we have been known to forcibly sterilize (yep even in the so called free world) people because they’re not capable of making an informed decision or a quite unable to deal with the responsibilities.
Lots of bad notions come to mind when we think of Eugenics and we instantly associate it with the Nazi’s and authoritarianism. It’s actually as old as Plato… but breeding out genetic deformity (that makes life harder for the person or people that would otherwise suffer from it) is a good thing imo. That said maybe I’m an odd ball as I approve genetic experimentation that would potential wipe out HIV….
No, it really is more like patching a software. It’s just that you’d have to patch it so much that it’d cease being the same software. But not really. That’s a very limited conception of what a cure would entail. A cure would entail a negation of the bad effects. Sure, a cure might negate the good effects, too. Don’t assume that a cure necessarily negates all effects.
Also, it’s ternary.
Aspergers and Autism spectrum disorders specifically are actually neurodevelopmental conditions. The person with the condition is born with it and it can’t be altered. As the condition effects how the brains neural pathways develop you would literally be rewriting the persons brain to “cure” the condition.
It may be that the cause was early in his mental development, maybe before birth, maybe genetical, but because the mind in the brain is a pattern of pathways of various facility, made of links of neurons, any change is going to be composed of some changes of some links’ facilities (neuron link facility change may be severing or connecting). So the patching or rewriting metaphor are effectively the same. (Note: each patch is a rewrite, each rewrite can be made to be a patch.) The important difference is that for a change that is too large, done all at once, autoïdentity might discontinue; if each part that is done all at once is sufficiently small, with enough time between changes, his autoïdentity adjusts, continues. (See the “Ship of Theseus” Gedankenexperiment.) With a fine enough technique, it can be changed. (Always starting with the general case, proceeding to the special case that is our existence, allows clarity of the thing relative to our existence as one of many possibilities; if our existence, as it often does, changes, this clarity allows us to easily correct our would-be errant understanding of the thing relative to our existence.) I was impressed that the concern was about the change being a bad change.
Maybe the negation of the entirety is a big change that cannot be composed of sufficiently small changes, or that would entail negating parts of him that he would rather keep. Maybe there is no change that would keep the parts that he would rather keep, and negate the parts that he would rather negate. Maybe there is change that he would rather have applied to him. His preferences about changes to him, are his choice. Which changes are available?..
Very small changes to the brain can have a huge impact. People with brain tumour or who have brain surgery often change personalities. Small changes very easily could be changing who the person is. Not the mention some of the “negative” traits could well be linked into important neural pathways such as breathing, messing with those could lead to death. Brain surgery is considered a last resort based on the major impact it has on someone, why is it suddenly ok to mess with the brains of those who are considered undesirable simple because they don’t fit in.
Besides it is actually possible to inherit neural pathways. There’s experimental proof of this on rat models. Rat 1 (male) is exposed to the scent of cherry blossoms and then given an electric shock. This is repeated until rat 1 associates cherry blossoms with being shocked. Rat 1 is the bred, the babies are allowed to grow. They are then exposed to the scent of cherry blossoms. The babies show signs of fear despite never being shocked or interacting with their farther who experienced the shocks.
Some neural pathways we are born with, a person with autism spectrum disorder will already have some of the pathways society dislikes just the same as any “neurotypicals”. There is never a safe age to do such a surgery even if the brain was understood enough to do such a thing.
Maybe “neurotypicals” would express similar horror to the idea of such things if it was suggested that all are to have their brains changed to that as someone with autism spectrum disorders.
The mind is an abstract entity that’s embodied in the brain. You seem to understand that a small change of the brain is not necessarily a small change of the mind, but we’re not talking about the size of the change in the brain, but in the mind.
Whatever mind he has, if you propose to negate the bad parts in such a way that keeps the good parts, the only reason to be horrified at that idea is that some tasks might seem too easy. (e.g. What if it’s a trick?) My guess is that the concern is that negating some bad parts the mind might entail negating some good parts. It may be that that’s the only potential way. It may be that that’s not the only potential way. Even if it is the case that negating some bad parts entails negating some good parts, there’s no problem about the negating of the bad parts. He can choose whether he wants it done to him. Or are you suggesting that it be done to him without his consent?
Right, I’ve got Asperger’s and a three sigma IQ. I have to say I’d probably have been a happier *different person* without the Asperger’s, it really made it difficult to make friends, and I didn’t go on my first date until I was in my 40’s. Was going on 50 when I finally found someone who liked me the way I was, and finally could say I was happy.
OTOH, it probably did make me a better engineer.
But it’s such a fundamental aspect of my personality at this point, that it would be hard to say I was the same person if you could fix whatever caused it. It’s a sunk cost at this point.
There are deviations from “neurotypical” that have costs AND benefits that we could probably manage better as a society, like my Asperger’s, or my son’s AHDH. Then there are deviations that are basically all cost and no benefit, like my friend’s Downs syndrome kid.
We need to be able to tell the difference.
Wow, some people get really rallied up about things. If I didn’t have to take my meds because the chemical imbalance was being regulated and my body produced what I needed automatically I would be thrilled. Not having to take pills anymore would not change anything about me. Well, maybe it would as I have a horrible time remembering to take them on time now and I would love it if I never had to worry about it again. So, yes I would love to have this fixed, if you don’t that you, but I would. Not, going to say nasty things about you that you don’t though. I did love that Frix fixed her glasses, too bad they didn’t fix her eyesight. Another thing I would have loved not to have to deal with. Wore thick glasses my whole life, then had years of being near blind. Surgery fixed this somewhat, but I would love to have it fixed totally. Guess some people feel different about repairs than others, that’s what makes the world go round.
“Curing” ADHD involves mucking about with a combination of altering brain structure and altering brain chemistry. It would literally change who you are. I could see the case with a literal newborn, a person who doesn’t yet have a full identity/personality, but as a personality develops there is an ever growing quandary about altering the “who” of a person if you do that.
How would a cure that does no more than remove the need to take the pills be the same as killing the personality? Do people with ADHD die every time they go on or off their meds?
You’d think that wouldn’t you, but… you might be very wrong, in practice. Some people still get in who shouldn’t.
I know someone with ADD who joined the US Army about 25 years ago. Not only did they take him, they told him ADD was a childhood disease and, since he had turned 18, he automatically no longer had it. Took him off his meds and sent him to Boot.
Near the end of Boot, a Sergeant gave him and order and he said: “Can’t do it, Sergeant, I have three fused thoracic vertebra and my back won’t bend that way. It’s in my medical file.” It was. Medical had not only missed it in the induction exam, they’d missed it in the documentation. This is also a no-no, but they gave him a waiver and sent him to Cosovo.
About 3 years later they brought him up on charges for failure to carry out orders. Turns out his untreated ADD had gotten worse and he wasn’t retaining them (or most of the rest of his duty hours). They FINALLY sent him back stateside and gave him a medical discharge.
He goes to the VA for treatment for various problems. About ten years ago they refused home treatment and told him not to come back, as he was Dishonorably Discharged. He took a copy of his discharge papers in and it took 6 weeks to get reinstated. They’ve tried this twice since, but he now carries his discharge papers in his glove compartmen so it never gets very far.
So, yes, stuff that’s not supposed to happen or be done still occurs – on a regular basis by some people’s accounts.
And, yes, I’m sure this is true. I’ve known him most of that 25 years. I’ve seen the discharge papers. I’ve seen what he takes for ADD and what he’s like if he skips a dose (or two OR three). Can’t imagine how he functioned for anything like three years… can’t imagine how no one failed to notice something wrong after a week.
Whenever anyone in America screeches about nationalized healthcare, I love providing the VA as an example of what they’re going to get. Other, smaller countries may have had success with it, depending on who you talk to (I’ve heard good and bad examples), but it’s going to be like flying a kite in a hurricane when/if we implement it here, and it’ll make VA healthcare look like a kiss from a care bear by comparison, at least in the begining. XD
We have nationalized healthcare already. Except that it’s only for people below a certain income. It’s called Medicare. The VA is a poor example, btw. They’re chronically underfunded & understaffed. Which has more to do with the political invisibility of disabled vets, than the viability of the system.
Thank you.
The US VA is a shit show for political reasons.
The GOP desperately doesn’t want it to work well, because an example of competent government run health care would be a disaster for them. So they won’t fix it, despite being the ‘military party’.
The Democrats won’t try and fix it, because they’d have to fight the GOP for it, and the military overwhelmingly votes Republican anyway, so why waste time and political capital on people who won’t vote for you?
The VA suffers from the same thing that the Conservatives in the UK do to public service they want to privatize.
Cut staffing and funding, so it preforms like shit, and then use the bad performance to ‘prove’ government sucks at running things private industry will do it better.
Don’t need to “prove” it. Already glaringly obvious. I think the very best federal service is the post office, in terms of value for cost. Admire our military, but I don’t necessarily consider them cost-effective. (Nor necessarily think they should be) Not saying the post office is great, mind you-just a better value money wise than any of the others. Why would anyone think that involving government in ANYTHING would make it better or cheaper? Absolute best possible outcome-comparable to the post office.
“Why would anyone think that involving government in ANYTHING would make it better or cheaper? – me
Perhaps because they’ve been to places where a service is nationalised, and been to similar places where it’s privatised, and made the comparison.
I just assume Peggy *did* tell her all the important information and Sydney zoned out through it.
#Artistic License
Quite likely she was given the full walkthrough and requirements but was not paying attention
Her instructions were two pages ago, panel 3.
“Sydney! Go for speed and accuracy. Always control your weapon and be aware of your surroundings! DO NOT FUCK AROUND!”
There was also “Sydney! You are being timed! Start over and stop screwing around!” on one page ago, last panel.
Anything about 4 minutes was off-comic, therefore completely speculative (means it may — or may not — have been said.)
Good Morning,
I never served, (it wasn’t the right choice for me at that time,) so hearing that from you is really informative and reassuring.
Thanks
Still, this page is funny AF!
Or even has the brainpower to remember what they had for breakfast. The phrase “dumbing down” had to have come from the military. If not ours, then some military, sometime, somewhere.
Sydney is not a green recruit at this point. She has been in combat multiple times, I expect she has killed people. There is a world of difference between how things are supposed to be done and how they are done in practice. It appears to me that “elite: people are much more likely to do this, in part because they get away with it. Arc on is the epitome of elite and it is constantly shown that they ignore rules. Peggy reports to Max, and probably no-one else besides generals and the POTUS. They don’t have time to know about, much less care about it, maybe if Arcon was running hundreds of people though per day but the don’t.
Ummm, no. Syddles is a green recruit. Let’s leave her ADHD out of this for now.
Syddles has been “in combat” just once. She killed one (count it) Vogon, and severely wounded another. We won’t count the swarm of attack fliers, there is reason to believe they were only drones.
Many people here are appalled at how lax Archon is and has been, BUT. This is a comic, so Rule of Comic.
Syddles is a civilian trying to get a grip on a world she never visualised, never knew existed a few months ago, and at the same time she is trying to get her head around the concept she may well be one of the most powerful people in it.
Let’s put Syddles’ life-experience clearly: neither Joel nor Sydney saw anything wrong with taking the comic-shop takings to the bank unescorted. BUT, Rule of Comic.
I mean she and the other did heavily push for caution without the insinuation of time or situation just heavy handed push that safety is king over all else. common sense may imply one thing but they were being heavy handed and she without realizing it or purposefully enacted malicious compliance. Go Sydney go!
I figure it’s best to start by creating a large, stable base of “DON’T KILL ANYONE” and then work back from that towards the “It’s okay to attack these people”, etc. etc. than to start with “This is how you slaughter people like John Wick!” and having to then teach restraint afterwards.
Especially with Sydney.
Her main weapon cuts and explodes metal. You really want her to learn restraint first.
Nonsense there is no such thing as overkill there is only open fire and reload.
Exactly and thats why peggy being frustrated is hilarious was she really expecting anything its all gradual.
I fell this first exercise should be with wax or rubber bullets as a first time live fire course, and move up from there considering the person.
Panel 1 has me thinking she may still be dinking around – I’m hoping they go back and review her shot placement to find every hit was on a weapon and non-lethal.
Also, as mentioned somewhere in the last few pages’ comments, it’s probably time for Archon to get some less stereotyped targets on the shooting range.
Slow and steady is not gonna work in a combat situation, unless you’re the Juggernaut.
Tele-presence orb in one hand, pistol in other. She could zip through the course, teleport to a few feet from each target and instantly shoot them in the head. The slowest part of the entire course would be reloading. Depending on how fast she can move the tele-presence image, she could probably finish within a minute or less.
If she’s going to be allowed the orbs, tele-presence orb would let her see the pop-ups before they pop up, whereupon she could shoot them through the plywood they’re “hiding” behind before they pop up. Like Leon with the computer simulator, only with live ammo.
She’s trying not to show off the teleport power to keep an ace up her sleeve in case of mind-control/evil teammate/stolen secrets.
Mind you, under pressure she might forget her resolve and do it, but…
i would presume that initial training is graded with the recruit using minimal to no powers (minimal here assuming there may be powers you can’t turn off)
later run throughs would involve bringing powers into play to get the hang of using them.
I’m unclear – what’s the idea with using super powers while completing this course? Someone like Maxima or Math or any of the speedy supers would have to consciously slow her/himself down to not zip through it, right? With Dabbler, you’ve got a reasonably obvious restriction of not summoning a huge mass driver, but she would have to only use 2 arms/hands. Specs maybe can’t use some sort of cheat vision to see around/through targets, but… at some point it would have to be considered artificially nerfing of someone’s abilities to not use powers, and if they’re allowed to use powers, why can’t Sydney use her telepresence/teleportation, etc…?
And since Math doesn’t technically “have” “powers”, how would they nerf him in any way?!
Math’s superpower is toxic masculinity. To nerf that, you’d have to order him to make everything about his lifestyle entirely unmasculin (whatever that means to him).
How *would* Sydney use her powers to help her? She can’t use the ppo because it would burn everything down. She has to use the gun to shoot them. The gun requires two hands to use, which means she can’t also be using the flight orb which is the only one which would be applicable in a live fire run.
The solution is obvious. Discharge Sydney (honorable under medical conditions, with pension) and hire her as a contractor, just like Dabbler. It’s what they should have done from the first – hire her as a contractor, I mean.
They may end up with that by the end, but getting Sydney through basic is a good idea on several levels regardless of how they eventually use her. the point about the ppo is a good one, and if she hadn’t had this training, she probably wouldn’t have thought about it until after she totaled her first building.
Dabbler is demonstratively combat capable and experienced, if not disciplined during combat. We are currently watching Sydney demonstrate she is NEITHER experienced, capable nor disciplined in combat. Dabbler qualifies to be hired as a consultant; Sydney not so much.
Which, of course, is PRECISELY how we come to find Sydney falling off the climbing tower and flailing around in the course. Sydney has to have had a walk through of the course. Otherwise she wouldn’t have brought the cupcakes. She just retained all the wrong things about the course.
It’s also why she’s doing these things without her powers. Because you have to know how to do them before you can START adding complications to your field team from the members powers. It’s not like they’re going to willingly let her do this kind of thing solo after all…
As Arianna says in https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-363-where-are-they-now/ , “There’s no such things as power dampers” in the GP universe, so nerfing is not an option.
Was sure she said ‘no such thing as universal power dampers’ (read or heard that somewhere), meaning each case has to be personally tailored to the individual (which… they kinda did, in a round about way: sticking Opal in a pressurized chamber {without letting her know in what way} and Kevin in a Perpetual Purple Haze :D )
People seem to be ‘complaining’ that Pegs didn’t give Sydney a run-through of what is required, the same (or different) people would be bitching if she did because it would be dragging the stupid out longer than they would like and would be demanding DaveB get straight to the ‘action’ (he did, people are still complaining)
well the people that would complain story dragging are just fools and their is nothing that can be done about that.
but the people complaining about Syd being chastised for information she didn’t known have a legitimate complaint about the story telling.
Rule of Comic.
I mean, I cried a bit when he _didn’t_ spend 200 pages of negotiating Syndey’s supersoldier contract. That would have been loads of fun.
Shh, you’ll make Pander all sad about it again.
Heh. I got to try the Hogan’s Alley at the LAPD academy in la years back…not quite as bad as Sydney…but I did end up drilling a little old lady right through the forehead…and had EVERYONE laughing. But it was worth it.
Anybody else remember the pit from modern warfare 2 with Sydneys results shes not on easy she is on baby, whats easier than baby?
I once got a talking to in cadets because I put on the safety on a bolt action rifle after firing the shot once.
That’s so dumb to me, okay I get that my gun is already safe but rather than teaching me to reflexively turn on the safety on every gun I use you want me to go through a decision making process to only turn on the safety when needed? That’s asking for user error incidents.
In basic I got failed (in a pass/fail exercise) for putting the safety on after the exercise was over. The Lt who failed me said I hadn’t put the safety on before applying SPORTS (an acronym for the process of unjamming your M-16), which I hadn’t. I put it on after clearing the jam and firing until he told me to stop. In other words, when I was no longer going to be firing the weapon. Which is when you should put the safety on a firearm. I said something like “Sir, can you tell me where in SPORTS the safety is supposed to be applied?” (hint: it’s not in there at all) but he was having none of it, even though (or maybe because) I’d made him look like an idiot.
Along with all the other nitpicks, pistol brass does NOT look like the round ejected in frame one. Looks like a rifle round to me. Also, many pistols don’t have safeties that you flip anymore.
Actually, it does look like that. When they picked out the pistol to be Sydney’s firearm, it was stated to use the FN 5.7x28mm Round.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_5.7%C3%9728mm#History
It’s a small bottlenecked round known for its low recoil and high penetration used in Personal Defense Weapons like the P-90 and certain pistols, like the one Sydney was issued.
So, in this instance, it’s actually a case of DaveB showing his work.
As for the safety type, well, fictional gun, fictional safety placement.
I think it’s 7.62 brass. I made a brush for my art program that can scatter a lot of them about with a few taps of the stylus. You’re right that it’s probably not the right brass for that gun, but differentperspectivejoe is also right, 5.7x28mm rounds for the Five-seveN are kind of weirdly long looking.
Given whos gun it is, they likely machined a large obvious safety for her.
Also for differentperspectivejoe
Non-fiction gun, non-fiction safety.
I like that you said “the round ejected” because to me it looks like a complete, unfired round.
As for a rifle round vs a pistol round… BAHAHAHAHAHA… *snicker*
Sorry, um… first of all, there are even pistols that will fire 5.56 and .223 rounds. I have a revolver in the house that fires .22LR, and it has a separate cylinder for loading .22 Magnum rounds. The magnum rounds have less mass but strangely have more energy when they impact so I prefer it.
Point is though, I personally have experience with at least 3 different types of rifle rounds for which there are actual off the shelf pistols that fire. The previous 2 though, the 5.56 and the .223, the pistols (that I know of) that fire them are AR-15 in a pistol format. Basically it’s an AR-15 upper and lower, but with a pistol barrel and pistol grip.
They physically resemble a CZ Scorpion Evo-3 or the gun that Enzo Matrix (Big Enzo) had in Reboot, that he referred to as just “Gun”. They are DEFINITELY not a pistol you want to single hand unless you’re Enzo Matrix or someone like Maxima, Anvil, Heatwave, or one of the other muscly types in the comic.
Oh and while you CAN technically modify any AR-15 to be a pistol, it’s HIGHLY ILLEGAL TO DO SO. For it to be legal, it has to have been manufactured like that… And… it’s possible to modify those to be rifles… but it’s HIGHLY ILLEGAL TO DO SO…
So before anybody gets any ideas, just remember, the ATF doesn’t mess around if they find out you’re futzing about with illegal modifications of high powered, semi-automatic firearms.
At least DaveB remembers to take the bullet out of the fired cartridge. I recently saw a comic where the artist had the gun firing entire cartridges instead of just the bullets.
Fairly common mistake in fanart too. Example: https://gelbooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=47794
A little reminder, but Sydney’s sidearm isn’t even in her Top 3 methods for Lethal takedowns. Her top 3 are, in order of least to most, Crushing someone with the lighthook(If it can lift multiple tons, it can squeeze a person like a tube of toothpaste), Blasting them with the PPO(Pretty obvious), and Flying at top speed into somebody with her shield up(Bug-On-Windshield Effect).
They’re VERY lucky that Sydney’s probably too squeamish to employ those methods.
No. SHE’S very lucky she’s too squeamish to employ those methods. Because if she did, Max would be duty-bound to snap her neck like a twig. At that point, it would be obvious that she is not qualified to handle the responsibility that should be required to wield that much power. She’d be a threat to humanity and would need to be put down as quickly as possible.
I just hope there is somebody at ARC-SWAT that can do that to Max WHEN she decides to become a global threat as well. But I doubt it.
As a wise (ass) man once said “You’re so dark. Are you sure you’re not from the DC Universe?”
What are the odds that Sydney doesn’t qualify and ends up on desk duty or a low level administration assignment?
Well we know from the beginning that she makes corporal. So she does eventually pass
Peggy’s Peggy’s expression in panel 8 is so relatable
Lighthook can also be gentle, can’t it? Force field up. Grab gun. Lift and shake until target lets go. Or, if delicate possible, grab fingers and detach from gun.
Once upon a time I saw Worcester Police chasing a suspect. Weapons were drawn. Finger was very clearly off trigger. Weapon pointed skyward. Officer running very fast. No shots were heard.
UK I presume. I’m no native, but aren’t there strict regulations about police and firearms? Strict enough for Monty Python to sketch on it.
They’re more common than they were back in the Pythons’ heyday, but still unusual. I’ve only ever seen them deployed as part of the security on high-value locations such as power stations or Parliament, for which they tend to carry rifles/carbines* rather than the handguns of a USA policeman. The other time firearms units are deployed would be in response to a ‘live’ high-threat incident, which sounds more like what George Phillies describes
*I’m aware that there is a difference, I’m not sure I could describe what the difference is, and I didn’t get a good enough look to tell which they use.
Where be are the Peggy tattoo!
You be make a weird did.
Nice to see an old friend join the comments section. I haven’t seen you since that visit to your house on Dagobah.
Explain it to you I will. Peggy just got back from a trip on Cora’s ship. Either they gave her image inducer to hide her tattoos when she wants to go out in public incognito, or they gave her skin chromatophores so she can turn her tattoos on and off at will (and make new ones on the fly).
Or it could just be DaveB missing a color overlay. Forgertful he is.
This is where all the training actually meets the road so to speak. Lot of guys don’t understand that your trigger finger is the safety. Takes a lot and I mean a lot of practice to get used to that. That and a Drill willing to jump your ass every time your finger got near the trigger. On a said note today will be the last official day of Schlock Mercenaries, 20 years good run sigh need to find another online comic to fill the daily requirement.
20 years!?!?!? Damn skippy!
I’ve never been able to get into that comic. It’s not that I dislike it it’s just that I didn’t like it enough to add it to my already long list.
Takes about a year into it when his art starts to get better. The stories are solid as well, I will keep an eye out for what Howard does next because it will be good.
Management unclear on the concept of ADHD. Some kind of accomodation is required, or they’re going to have to do without Sydney’s abilities. No matter how hard they bash her, the ADHD isn’t going to go away, though there may well be other approaches that work.
I admit I’m not patient enough to read all 200 something comments.
Having AD(H)D is not a ‘get-out-of-a-butt-reaming’ card either
If (when) she fucks up, she can’t just blame it on the AD(H)D or whether she did or did not remember to take her meds that day
Hoh about, reading the entire comics, more than once?
I typed, “How” in there.
$20 bucks Sydney gets frustrated and uses the PPO to Robotech the entire course both ending the training and failing the qualifications. All the while screaming “This is how I took out an entire space armada last week!” Earning herself a oven mitt timeout visit to the shrink.
That WOULD be hilarious.
I don’t want to see her locked up for being a hazard to others, but a standalone oven-mitts-on-the-couch scene would be a fantastic vote incentive.
In Fallout 4 there’s a tiny little shooting course in the vault the Gunners originated from. The top score sheet reads like
High Scores:
+————+———————+
| Name / Completion Time |
+————+———————+
|ToppedYaAll!! / 25.32 Seconds
|1NJ3CT0R! / 28.46 Seconds
|AAAAAA / 37.29 Seconds
|Bob / 45.16 Seconds
+———————————-+
In Fallout 4 VR, my score is 11.2 using just a bog standard 10mm pistol.
Sydney’s sort of right though. Peggy should actually tell her what to do on this BEFORE chastising her about being ‘too safe.’ She made her forget all the cool stuff, and stressed safety…. then when Sydney does everything very safely, it’s wrong.
Also she really should have told her what the time limit was first. If I take a test, first thing I want to know is how much time I have to take it in. :)
I also love both Peggy’s and Seneca’s reactions in panel 8. That’s just PRICELESS :)
DaveB, that was awesome and hilarious. :)
Sydney knew there was a time limit, she forgot what the limit was, so there is a high chance she forgot everything else people are accusing Pegs to not have done
I’m betting Sydney did pay attention during the boring instructions and missed part of them. Those instructions were off screen to save time, but I’m sure they were given. But, this is pure bliss, I’d be laughing too.
Who’s Seneca laughing at,Peggy or Sydney or both!?
…Yes
My only problem with the page was this “Sydney shoots like old people drive.” I’ve been with some older drivers that are slow, but I have also been with some that scare the hell out of me. They drive like they think if they don’t go the max speed possible they will die before they get there. I think I would like the slower ones better, at least I can read a book on the way, I might even finish it. The others I might not, even if it was a really short one.
I pulled many triggers, while growing up, we could all shoot.In NH, there are very few gun control laws, they are not needed here! Up where I live, most children learn about gun safety, u8sually, by the age of 12. Many peop[le around her have 30-40 rifles and pistols. s0me of them are black powder.
When I enlisted, I was asked by some people, to go to West Point.
It’s a stereotype, a bad one, just like “All Asian drivers are terrible drivers, females are worse”
And, like all stereotypes, there are exceptions, and they should always be taking in the intent meant, in this case, humourously
I wonder if “how old people drive” isn’t more a comment on generations than it is age?
Like, “old people drivers” might be how Baby Boomers thought of the 60+ers who were on the road when they were younger and trying to get to work (the generation who lived through WW2 and dislikes taking risks)… except right now, it’s the Baby Boomers who are in their 60s; the “old drivers”.
I am 40: I am either a young Gen-Xer or an old Millennial, depending on who’ s drawing the lines. I’m not a very reckless driver, and I always use my turn signal, but I DO consider 10kph over the posted limit to be the “normal speed”, and 20 over the limit best suited for large highways after I check around for cops.
One day, not so far into the future as I’d like, *I* will be considered the “old man driver”, and the younger generation on the road will consider “like old people drive” to mean driving 20kph over the limit and switching to collector lanes to drive through just because I see traffic bunching up in the through lanes. …and they will consider that stupid and annoying because they’re all sitting back watching Youtube on their phones while their auto-driven cars take them to work at exactly the posted speed limit.
I am on old person, 68, 69 in Nov. “speed possible they will die before they get there. ” I have emphysema, and That is a distinct possibility! :)
shooting mrs daisy
Hang on, I just noticed something. Is Sydney aiming at the bad-standee’s guns? Like shooting them out of their hands? Rather than trying to hit their center of mass and possibly “killing” them?
No wonder Peggy and Seneca are underwhelmed by Sydney’s performance.
So, I was reading the snippet of Wearing the Cape book 9 at MarionHarmon.com and ran across, backed up, and ran over it again, this:
Okay, DaveB, inquiring minds and all that. What’s up?
Someone needs to teach Sydney she only needs to holster her sidearm when she is finished clearing the objective! Which, in this case, means securing the building
If she can’t run while holding her weapon, she should just resign, pay what ever penalty is in the contract, and see if Cora can remove her balls
Eh, just tell her that if her time is low enough she can submit it to SGDQ as a speed run or something. That should put some pep in her step. Although, she’s more of a comic nerd than a gamer, so maybe that won’t make a difference.
On an unrelated note, it took me until looking at the “who’s who” and noticing that Peggy’s hairstyle is different to realize that you changed your art style.
An unnervingly accurate parody of what will happen almost two years later in Texas. Not your fault of course Dave, just reality mirroring fiction sadly.
Uh… She’s training to use a gun, not shooting up a school, which is what I assume you’re referring to?