Serving as an 11B doesn't provide any more promotion points then serving as a 25U, 35M, 92Y, or anything else. Points are based off your actions, not your job. Or at least that's been my experience.

I would say SGT Hester is the exception, not the rule for what the average combat women are facing in today's conflicts.

I'm not saying there aren't women qualified to fill those positions.

women are already serving in combat, just without receiving the requisite benefits and honor that are supposed to follow.

Are you really not going to call out parents for being just being paranoid when buying back pack body armor in this story and just use to hammer on guns again? Really? Because honestly this is what the story is about that more then anything. Some parents are reactionary and don't think rationally.

I know it's not in Gawker media's playbook to let silly things like facts stand in the way of a good moral outrage, but:

Yeah it's not like sports have any kind of benefits. I mean do High School students really need a good way to build social skills, build confidence, and stay healthy? Seriously when have those things ever been important in life?

Alright, want to hear the the no BS reasons why women in combat positions aren't a good idea (right now)? Here's a few, and I'm not even going to go into the stupid subjective reasons like unit cohesion.

Actually, the violent crime rate is 3.5 times the US violent crime rate at per 100,00 of 1361- the use is 386. Now the murder rate is 4.7 per 100,000, which is higher then the UK murder rate of 1.2 per 100,000. But here's where the numbers get interesting:

Except Adam Lanza didn't legally obtain the weapons he used.

Want to know how much of that time is spent conducting weapons training? Almost none of it. They're either in selection or attending various schools for the majority of that time learning the myriad of skills SEALs are required to know. Also it's not taking a year between getting to the teams and going on…

Do you even know who CAG is?

Almost all of our engagements take place in densely populated environments at this point. In fact they have been like that since the start of Iraq. Not to mention that Rangers are working alongside SEALs and conducting the same kind of missions they are in Afghanistan.

It does not take three years of training and a year in combat for a soldier, or any service member to become effective in combat- SEAL or otherwise. I say that as a Ranger, and all we do is specialize in gun fighting, to the point where we're even better at it then the SEALs. It doesn't take anywhere near 3 years…

Holy sensationalistic journalism Batman! Can you guys at least try and show a little bit of neutrality? How about a nice: "Shoppers seek to buy rifles they fear soon may be banned"?

It doesn't matter if the US had employed vaccination workers or not. Pakistani Taliban were rallying people against vaccinations even before that. They don't want people to be vaccinated and they sure as hell don't want aid workers around.