To the person who wrote that people in the military are lucky if they make $1000 a month, they are lucky, even making close to $1000 is a lot of money to me. You should consider yourself lucky if you make $700 a month. I have autism, and it's not easy for me to get as good grades as a lot of other people and get a decent job because of my autism and my lack of skills. I make around $120 a paycheck every two weeks at my only job I can get. I am lucky if I make $140-$160 a paycheck for two weeks. Which means I make around $240 a month, sometimes less(I live with my parents. I can't afford a house). Actually more times than not, it's less. I am not married or in a relationship, so I can't rely on someone else's money to help me pay for things.

My ultimate goal is to make $400 a month. If I can achieve this goal, I will be ecstatic. I don't know what I'm going to do when my parents die. Even if they leave me the house(If they don't, I don't know what I'll do), I won't be able to pay the electric, heating, water, or phone bills. I will have to cancel all of those services as well as the mail service, the newspaper delivery service, the trash pickup service, and the recycling service(I'll just have to start a compost heap in the backyard). I don't have that kind of money. I'll probably onlybe able to buy food each month and that's it. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll be able to buy a crossword puzzle/circle the wordbook once a month andif I'm really lucky and good about saving money and findinggood deals,I'll be able to buy a paperback bookas long as it's under $10 once every 1-3 months.

Obviously, Ill only be able to buy foods like sandwich stuff(not meat, because that can spoil, but jumbo size peanut butter jars, because that costs less), cookies, hostess snacks, chips, peanuts, small amounts of fruits and vegetables that don't spoil easily(if I buy too large amounts of fruits and vegetables, they might spoil. Might even buy some canned fruits and vegetables, since they're usually cheaper, I think), donuts, bottled water or soda(whichever's cheaper), stuff like that. I obviously won't be able to buy meat, dairy, frozen foods, or ice cream, since they will spoil/melt. Maybe on occasion I will take advantage of the 5-5-5 deal at Pizza Hut, since $5 each for three medium pizzas isn't too bad when you consider if I'm living on my own, three medium pizzas will last me a while, and it's a hot meal for a good price. How long does pizza last without a fridge before it becomes stale anyway? Does anyone know?

When is it going to time for the autistic people of America to get a fair break? It's not fair that we have a harder time finding jobs that pay decent money just because we're autistic. Autistic people should have the same opportunities at finding jobs, making a decent amount of money, and getting promoted at any job we try, without other people trying to hold us back in life just because we're autistic. This is not a joke topic. I really am autistic and I really do make that little money at my job. It's the only job I have too. So think about that the next time you complain about being lucky if you make $1000 a month, because I will most likely never make anything close to that.

Okay, this is again a long read, but I have some new arguments, so please read them. Oh, by the way, my replies were not just me joking around, in case anybody thought that. I was being completely serious.

Seriously, the people who voluntarily join the miltary are most likely either, A:Mentally Retarded or, B: Losers who couldn't get a job/college scholarship any other way so they had to join. Seriously, if I had trouble paying for college, or getting a scholarship, I would sooner recycle cans for money, volunteer for paid labratory tests, and get a full time job near the college campus, and only take classes every other year, working all year the other years.

At least if I paid for college these ways instead of joining the army so I could afford college, at least I could take pride in myself. I would take pride in knowing that I paid off college the correct way instead of being a lazy piece of s**t who just gets a free handout from the U. S. Military instead of working hard at a full time job and making an honest living. LOL, I bet people who voluntarily join Military Academies mostly just sit around drinking beer/smoking all day, sleeping all day sometimes, or shooting at squirrels/empty cans/bottlesfrom a lawn chair(they have so many guns around, it wouldn't surprise me.) while other people are hard at work at a full time job making an honest living so they can feed their families/pets, and afford to pay for their house and pay all their bills. I even heard that people who join the army get free housing or something like that. Lazy bums, too lazy to work hard at a full time job so they can pay off their own house. Have to get free handouts from the military instead. Also, I heard people who voluntarily join the military get free healthcare. Lazy, good for nothing jerks. I have to pay for my insurance if I want it, and as a result, I can't afford to have insurance(it's not fair they get free healthcare while I get nothing since I can't afford it). The government never gave me anything for free. It's not fair.

Also, as someone else said, the military gets paid a lot of money to do what they do, too much money in my opinion. For all the money that is wasted by sending it to the military, that money could have instead gone to fund schools, hospitals, museums, libraries, youth groups, help disabled/laid off workers, parks, animal shelters, environmental groups, improving road conditions/public transportation, churches, outreach centers, homeless shelters, nursing homes, preserving national landmarks/forest preserves,go to farmers who are struggling, go to helping to fix the problem of some people possibly not getting any money when they retire, and many more useful things. But nooo, a lot of these things aren't nearly as good/helpful as they could be because so much of everyone's money has to go to fund the stupid army instead of all the other useful things it could go towards. The army takes money away from people who need the money a lot more.

Seriously, the only good things I can see about voluntarily joining the U. S. Military is that you get a huge parade where you ride around in a vehicle while everyone whistles, cheers, and claps for you and the confetti and balloons rain down on the street while you wave to all your fans. The only other good thing would be that you would be able to see firsthand all the aliens/spaceships the government/military tries to hide from the Americans who have a right to know, but nooo.

Well, these are my new arguments. Just try to dispute those arguments. You said yourself that the military gets paid a lot of money, so there.

Okay, this is kind of a long read, but I think I made some good, valid points and arguments in the paragraphs I typed up, so please read them. Especially the topic creator, since that's who these articles are mainly directed towards(though they are also directed at anyone who voluntarily joins or would join the U. S. Military on purpose).

No, because unlike some people I actually have a brain and know how to solve my problems through communication and problem solving instead of mindlessly killing everyone who disagrees with me. And consider this. The militaryclaims that by doing what they are doing they are "protecting" us Americans, but they're actuallyhurting us. All the tanks, planes, boats, and jeeps they use I'm sure useup tons and tons of gasoline,probably even more than a hummer uses(well,maybe not the jeeps), which cause alreadyoverly inflated gas prices to skyrocket even higher,thanks to you morons.Also, gas prices probably wouldn't haveshot up nearly as much as they did if you hadn't bombed the H*** out of othercountries, thus p***ing them off and giving them no reason not to inflate the prices even more. And before you say something like, "Why don't you do something yourself instead of complaining about us?" or something stupid like that, I walk everywhere I go, and if it's toofar to walk, I takepublic transit, which is still rare for me to do(not a polluting taxi which only holds one person though). I'm thinking about maybe buying a razor scooter soI won't have torely on public transit asmuch

Why can't people just try to live a peaceful life, not hurting or insulting anyone, checking your mood rings, smoking marijuana, being at peace with nature and animals(just got two parakeets a little over a week ago named Angel and Sweet Pea, one green and yellow, and one light blue with a yellow head), looking at your tye dyed wall rainbow colored yin and yang wall covering while reclining in your tye-dyed beanbag chair, volunteer at your local animal shelter to try to save/help all the poor little doggies and kitties who might be put to sleep because some heartless jerk abandoned them just because they couldn't be trained, or stopped being cute(one time I saw this commercial on TV for an animal shelter saying you should donate money to save dogs like this. They were showing this dog that got run over by a truck and it's leg was all bandaged and bleeding really badly. I just about cried.), or giving money to associations like PETA and local animal shelters so maybe you can do some good in the world and possibly save a life or two instead of cruelly ending one.

All these seem like better uses of your time then going around murdering everyone like a dumb jarhead. I believe in the policy of live and let live. Peace and love and all that. The only way I would ever do anything that some dumb jarhead would consider a "good" thing by killing the "enemy" would be if they(never could tel those two countries apart, LOL)broke into my house/assaulted me on the street and said they were going to kill me personally. Even then, I would try to see if we could talk it out, or try to escape before I would murder somebody.

If I ever did join a military(which I never, ever plan to), it would be either the French military, the Canadian military, or the Antarctic military. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe any of these militaries would be fairly lenient in the training compared to America's military, since those countries aren't exactly well known for being very warlike or starting wars or anything like that. I'm not trying to insult these countries or anything like that, and I respect these countries, I was just saying is all. Maybe they could teach me to perfect my favorite military maneuvers, surrendering, holding up the white peace flag, and working outa comprimise/treaty agreement(not the main person who might get yelled at while working on the treaty, but one of the people in the background who adds my signature to the treaty, and occasionally nods in agreement at certain things). Remember, comprimisingis not the same as losing, it's just a smarter way to work out your differences so that both sides can win instead of having more senseless murder continue.

And guess what, jerk? The United States stopped drafting random citizens into the military, so you can't make me join either. And if the United States ever did start stupid stuff like drafting people into the military, I would just buy a plane ticket so I could go live in another country, or get a passport so I could go live in Canada, so Nyah Nyah na nyah nyah to you.:P :P :P :P . What are you gonna do about it jarhead? Nothing, that's what. You can't do anything if I decide not to join since the United States doesn't draft anymore. Even if they did start drafting again, you can't stop me from deciding to live in another country as long as I have the money for the plane tickets(I'll just to worry about getting a job/money once I arrive at my new destination).

It's stupid to join the military anyway, since you become the property of the military once you do anyway. If I ever became the property of someone else, I would rather become the property of either PETA or some other animal rights group running the printing press that prints the comics about why you shouldn't murder/eat animals, or become the property of some Martian/other ET as their pet kept in a cage and fed strange alien food. But I doubt I can get a dumb, brainless jarhead like you to ever change your mind and realize the error of your ways.

Oh well. You just keep on encouraging impressionable youths who don't know any better what they're getting into to submit to a lite of mindless killing, being yelled at by idiots, and just all around being tortured by pushy jerks, sometimes for no good reason, such as a uniform not being exactly perfect(Really, is that really something worth having a fit over and yelling about when there are poor, harmless puppies and kittens being euthanized(that means killed to you, jarhead) for no good reason at all? And it's so stupid too. It's not like your uniform not being 100% perfect is going to save anyone when they're being shot at. I mean really, what's the point?) . Well, whatever. It's your life, and I doubt I can change your mind, so you go, G. I. Joe. LOL :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Oh, and please don't delete this response or tell the mods/admins. The topic creator did ask for our opinions on the U.S Military after all and I gave them to him. He wanted our opinions, so yeah. It's not like I just wrote this to randomly flame the military for no reason at all.

I got two parakeets from two different pet stores recently. I got a blue hen with a light yellow head from Petland who had no metal bands on her feet(although my mother told me the day after we got her that Petland clipped her flight wings so she couldn't fly :evil: . She was in fine health though, so I guess it doesn't matter.) She had no metal band around her leg.

The other parakeet I got from Petco. It is green with a yellow head and a blue tail feather(we think it's a boy, but we're not certian. The color above the beak isn't dark enough blue or brown for us to tell, although we think it's starting to turn blue.) This one has a metal band around one leg. Should that metal band be removed or does it not matter if it's on there? What does the band mean anyway? Is it something that parakeets caught in the wild have put on them or is it a way for the pet stores to tell the sex of the bird?

Okay these are the four pets that I have owned/currently own. My first pet was a hamster that my Mom bought me in grade school(male). Then I got a yellow labrador retriever named Maize(female). She died this summer. :( . My most recent pets are two parakeets, both under a year old.

The older one is a blue female with a light yellow head named Angel. The younger one is a green parakeet with a yellow head and a blue tail feather. We think the green one is a male but we're not sure yet. The only way to tell the sex of the parakeet without a blood test is by looking at the color of the things above their beaks. If it's brown, it's a female or hen. If it's blue, it's a male or cock The female's is already a dark brown, so it's easy to tell. The male's looks like it's turning blue to me and my mom, but we're not sure yet. We should know for certain when the green parakeet gets a little older and the color starts to become more prominent.

We might get another dog next summer, but we can't get another dog untilnext summer when my Mom is home more often to train it. My mom is a teacher, so she doesn't work in the summer. I'm thinking I should get a small lap dog this time so the birds aren't scared of it, since a lot of larger dogs are bred to be hunting/fighting breeds. Does anyone know some breeds of small dogs that aren't bred to be bird dogs/hunting dogs?

Guess what? Because of something bad I did in my neighborhood, I might not be accepted into any colleges anywhere. While when I first heard this I was sad, I later realized that there was something good that would come out of this. See, there's this crazy lieutenant b**** who would always try to convince my parents that I should be sent to military school against my wishes. But if colleges won't accept me because of what I did, then she can never send me there, since I assume military school would be similar to college(It was during my college years that she tried to convince my parents to send me there against my will).

So that's good news that at least some good came out of all this. I have to go to court on Sept. 5. My mom and dad hired a private attourney and we dismissed the court appointed lawyer andpushed the court date,so that's good.