Freaking Mormon missionaries

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Lost power at my house today around 5:30 PM.

Went outside to check out my neighborhood and see how far the outage extended. Walked for a couple of minutes and saw about four Mormon missionaries.

One called out to me and asked how I was doing. As annoying as these people are I'm usually polite to them. Since I was already in a less than pleasant mood because of power being out I responded, "None of your damn business."

As walked on I became even more incensed. These people decided because it was Halloween night people would be more inclined to answer their doors thinking it was trick-or-treaters.

[FreeState]

1. Actually it's the opposite

Former missionary here, holidays like Halloween we rarely tracked because it was rude. However most days your required to track from 9:30am to 9:30pm every day but Monday and Sunday (Monday’s you do laundry etc in the morning and Sunday’s your at church).

Sorry they pissed you off, they are 18 year old boys in a cult (most likely sense birth).

[Hortensis]

10. Thanks for the info, FreeState. I'm nice but brisk,

explain I'm not a person of faith but have a nice day. Boring, forgotten before they're back to their cars.

Now, a neighbor in L.A. often used to strip off his clothes if he saw them coming and answer the door naked. Even if he didn't have time for that, whatever came next was the good part anyway. A born comic as talented as anyone making a living at it, and I'm sure all who knocked on that door never forgot, ever. A nice guy's wicked gift to overly earnest people.

(Mikey, where are you these days?)

[yortsed snacilbuper]

2. Rmoney was a moron missionary in France,

it got him out of the Viet Nam War.

I wonder who took his place?

[Paka]

3. It's still a better excuse than purchased "Bone Spurs."

nt

[stopdiggin]

4. but many Mormons do serve

no fan here, but I just think it's only fair to point out (repeatedly if necessary) that MANY varieties of religious faith and belief have fought for the American cause (and ideals).

Back to the OP .. I too, try to be polite (or failing that, at least civil) .. but I find any type of solicitation or evangelism to be annoying, unwarranted, and generally counterproductive. You're turning more people OFF of religion entirely than you are swaying any towards belief.

[braddy]

6. Probably no one since most of us who served during the war were serving outside of Vietnam.

Who takes the place of the vast millions of males who don't serve today, and for the last almost 50 years?

Unlike WWII, Vietnam was fought mostly by volunteers, not draftees, the dead in Vietnam were about 70% volunteers while the dead in WWII were about 70% draftees.

The Mormon religion did issue it's own deferments though, so you are right about Romney being excluded from the draft by the Mormons.

I am curious though in an America where the men almost universally avoid military service, why only not being drafted is a stigma, and why only during the Vietnam war since the draft ran continuously since about 1940 to 1973 (except for 1948).
Not serving in the military is fine, except for during the Vietnam era, for some reason. Also no one seems to know that the boomers are our last warrior generation, producing about 10 million vets.

Today although we have a massive 330 million population, the military is small and always desperate for people, even though today we even take females and all kinds of categories and ages that we didn't a half century ago.

As Cool Hand Luke said, Where are you now?

[yortsed snacilbuper]

9. Draft policies were applied unequally to different classes of Americans

Selective Service could have raised standards during the Vietnam War because the draft pool, born in the Baby Boom, was so large. It could have set a higher minimum grade on the Armed Forces Qualifying Test, the basic intelligence test, and still easily met military manpower needs. Instead it lowered that requirement. Under rules promoted principally by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara — to the opposition of most military leaders — local draft boards across the country were required to call up scores of thousands of men with IQ scores below the minimum standard.

Those men came overwhelmingly from poor, low-status backgrounds. Drafting more men from the bottom of the socio-economic ladder meant fewer needed to be called from the top steps, so the policy left intact the many escape routes for more privileged young men while penalizing the most disadvantaged.

[braddy]

13. Actually that stuff isn't true for the American draft and the Vietnam total war dead, and yes

McNamara and his "project 100,000" was a mistake but still our Vietnam war dead were mostly of quality volunteers and America was well represented from all classes.

For the last 50 years the vast pool of American males have refused to serve, but they seem outraged at any male who didn't serve during the Vietnam era. They also always name it as "serve in Vietnam" as though the majority of our military was resisting Communism only in Vietnam rather than globally with a massive standoff in Europe and in Korea, and massive numbers in the states of course, not to mention the rest of the planet.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

11. those born in 1950, being drafted in 1970 was a very real prospect.

In today’s all-volunteer military, the idea of someone being forced into that lifestyle change can seem very bizarre. Most of the men who rotated through the country were volunteers, but a significant
number were not.

Of course, that didn’t stop some of those who were called to service from further avoiding Selective Service. Some went to college or graduate school or faked medical conditions, while others fled to Canada. In all, half a million Americans dodged their Vietnam War service.

[braddy]

15. Going to college or not being fit mentally or physically is nothing to be ashamed of, and not being

drafted is like not paying taxes that you aren't legally required to pay, so what.

The question for a man is did you enlist to serve our country, and since the boomers, American men won't do it themselves but they sure attack those who didn't from 65 to 75 for some reason, they even attack those who served in the Guard and Reserves back then.

Modern American men send their girlfriends and moms, and sisters, anything to avoid serving themselves, yet they still attack men of the past for not serving.

[TlalocW]

5. A friend of mine

Once visited Salt Lake City. I don't if this is true or not, but to shop in certain Mormon stores, you have to show an ID card you get from the church. Like I said, not sure this is true. She is a good story teller. Anyway, she convinced the people working she had left her ID at home and made some purchases including...

A pair of men's magic underwear which was my Christmas gift one year. Saturday mornings I tended not to do anything so I wore them around the house hoping some missionaries would knock on my door so that I could grab a beer bottle (I actually don't drink) and a Playboy and answer the door exclaiming, "Ah, it does my heart good to see little Mormonettes out spreading the good word!" just to see how they would react.

Never happened. That t-shirt though was one of the best quality shirts I've ever owned.

TlalocW

[braddy]

7. That was probably the Temple Recommend I.D. required to enter the Temples and which

requires re-investigation every 2 years. The magic underwear is required to be worn day and night as one of the requirements to pass that investigation, as is giving a minimum of 10% of your income to the religion.

[whistler162]

8. Shouldn't that be a bottle of super caffinated

drink of some type?

[Buckeyeblue]

12. I always talk to them and ask how they are doing

I had a good friend who was excommunicated from the LDS church because he divorced his wife and married a non-LDS. But his kids remained in the church. These kids are just doing what they were taught since birth. And most are good people.

So I preface my talk with them letting them know I'm not interested in talking about religion. Then I ask them how they are being treated. And if they are getting enough to eat. Then I tell them who in the neighborhood they should avoid.

But I do encourage them to visit the Jehovah Witness family a couple of blocks away. Just because I have a since of irony.

[marlakay]

14. My mormon neighbors treat or treated

With their kids, cute outfits. I wondered if they changed the rules as I didn’t know they were allowed this holiday.