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[Montague]

Only land war that might happen in Asia would be North Korea. Any conflict with China or anybody else will be nothing but naval power and possibly airforce based from allied countries, there is no point in a ground war there. Really, the brass doesn't see any political will to enter into any large-scale ground conflict at all for the indeterminate future. There will be no WWIII or massive land war, at least no land war the restructured Army could'nt handle. Who the hell has the money or ambition for that anymore? This need for massive manpower was for fighting counter-insurgencies and occupying countries. The brass has decided nation-building counter-insurgencies suck and the US is through with trying to start them, wage them or win them.

Anyways, the Army downsizing isn't that bad. They have had retention control or "up or out" forever, they just lowered the years you can serve before you are considered for discharge. You used to beable to stay as E-5 Sergeant for 20 years, untill you retire, now its 15 years and it honestly does not take 15 years of active duty service to make E-6, some soldiers do it in 6 years. They are just kicking out the marginal performers and the guys that don't really want to be in the Army anyways. There is always the National Guard or Reserves for these guys if they still want to serve.

 The brass really expects to meet the new reduced quota mostly from kicking people out for misconduct- drug/alcohol problems, DUI, criminal offenses, ect. They used to do rehabilitation and non-judicial punishment for that, now it leads to a discharge 99% of the time.

The Army has all the people it needs and recruitment is very easy with the shitty economy. It is only taking the best people anymore. The other services have downsized already in the last few years, since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven't justified a military need for too many jet fighters and warships. Now with Iraq over with and Afghanistan coming to an end, there isn't much military need for soldiers and Marines either.

[Nadaka]

http://news.yahoo.com/low-iq-conservative-beliefs-linked-prejudice-180403506.html

I am not quite sure how to approach this article because I dislike the idea of dismissing peoples views by saying they are "dumb" even if they are in fact dumb. Though I know I am guilty of this myself.

[Vector]

I thought the uncomplicated, extremist views linked to low IQ part was far more persuasive, myself.

(This is not getting into the issues with IQ testing in general, but just as a general idea, I wouldn't be surprised about low IQ corresponding to extremist viewpoints)

[Telgin]

I would suspect extremist viewpoints are more associated with ignorance than a lack of intelligence, but I suppose IQ measures both in some degree.  No matter how hard you try to separate it out and just test intelligence, it's not strictly possible.

[MonkeyHead]

Could be true that the lower your level of "intelligence" (however the hell you define and assess such a thing), the less likley you are to see through the bullshit justifications used by those that hold "extreme" opinions. This isnt to say that extremists cant be highly intelligent mind you, and its 100% the case that you find dumb people on all sides of an argument.

[DrPoo]

I live in a cave and what is this?

[Andir]

It depends on what questions you are asking.

[scriver]

IQ is completely obsolete and stupid anyway. I did a mensa test (while not the real one, it is thwir own "take yhis to see if you got what it takes to do the real one" test) and scored in the top 3%, yet I can hardly do basic math. Intelligence is way too complicated to be measured by such a simplistic system. So yeah, I think we cab rather soundly assume that it's sensationalistic pandering.

That said I'm going to continue viewing everybody who are not of the same opinion as me as unenlightened simpletons, of course

[Virex]

http://news.yahoo.com/low-iq-conservative-beliefs-linked-prejudice-180403506.html

I am not quite sure how to approach this article because I dislike the idea of dismissing peoples views by saying they are "dumb" even if they are in fact dumb. Though I know I am guilty of this myself.

All they're measuring is that prejudice is easier to hide if you're smarter and if you're not conservative apparently. Maybe the ones that made the test were liberals?

[Canalan]

There will be no WWIII or massive land war, at least no land war the restructured Army could'nt handle. Who the hell has the money or ambition for that anymore?

China.

[Tellemurius]

IQ is completely obsolete and stupid anyway. I did a mensa test (while not the real one, it is thwir own "take yhis to see if you got what it takes to do the real one" test) and scored in the top 3%, yet I can hardly do basic math. Intelligence is way too complicated to be measured by such a simplistic system. So yeah, I think we cab rather soundly assume that it's sensationalistic pandering.

That said I'm going to continue viewing everybody who are not of the same opinion as me as unenlightened simpletons, of course

It tests logic not intelligence.

[G-Flex]

"Intelligent" also does not mean "educated in mathematics". Supposedly, anyway.

[ECrownofFire]

Intelligence is supposed to mean your capacity to learn and be educated.

[Montague]

There will be no WWIII or massive land war, at least no land war the restructured Army could'nt handle. Who the hell has the money or ambition for that anymore?

China.

They won't do a damned thing. They can't invade anything we care about without crossing some body of water, and they can't do that with their 5th rate navy and 4th rate airforce. If they want to invade North Korea or Afghanistan or, I dunno, Mongolia? I don't think we'd be the ones supplying the ground fight in defense of those countries.

IQ is completely obsolete and stupid anyway. I did a mensa test (while not the real one, it is thwir own "take yhis to see if you got what it takes to do the real one" test) and scored in the top 3%, yet I can hardly do basic math. Intelligence is way too complicated to be measured by such a simplistic system. So yeah, I think we cab rather soundly assume that it's sensationalistic pandering.

That said I'm going to continue viewing everybody who are not of the same opinion as me as unenlightened simpletons, of course

I think IQ tests are designed to be better at evaluating dumb people. If they struggle with a simple test then that's probably a good indicator. I imagine they don't work too well in people of average intelligence who understand everything they are being asked about in the test, I don't give much weight to IQ scores for that reason.

[alway]

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory
Another This American Life episode really worth listening to. It's primarily about Foxconn and the stories of those who create our electronic devices.