If You Can't Win, Just Change the Law

image via AceShowBiz

On September 24th, 2012, the underdog Seattle Seahawks faced the powerful Green Bay Packers. Down 12-7 in the game's final seconds, Seahawks quarterback Russel Wilson lobbed the ball blindly into the endzone praying for a touchdown. It was ruled one, but the call proved highly controversial, with many Packers fans feeling cheated.

So cheated that one sore fan tried to change the law to prevent it from ever happening again.

Major General Jim Butterworth: Taxpayers Worst Nightmare

image via PoliticsBlog

Abuse of power is not a new problem in the military; Army General Ron Lewis was recently caught charging strippers to his government-issued credit card. But at least he had the common courtesy of trying to hide it -- it's not like he paraded the strippers around The Pentagon. It takes a special type of officer to abuse their power publicly on a repeated basis. And that's where Major General Jim Butterworth comes in.

In 2011 he was made the Adjutant General of Georgia and was in charge of the Georgia National Guard. What followed was four years of shenanigans that would make Peter Parker's uncle cringe.

The UH-72, the US Army's F-35

image via BizJournal

By this point, the public is widely aware of the F-35. A jet that sucks so much Canada has pulled out of the project due to a  $115 million price-tag per aircraft (the US plans to buy 2,400 of them, or about $276 billion). High cost withstanding, the F-35 loses badly in dogfights against older "inferior" aircraft like the F-16, despite the opposition being handicapped with external fuel tanks. And when the pilot ejects after they're inevitably shot down (or a software error occurs), they're liable to have their neck snapped by their half a million dollar helmet. The same half a million dollar helmet that's too bulky to allow a pilot to turn their head enough to see behind the aircraft, and is so complicated that its operable only half the time. A leaked Pentagon report has called the F-35 "flawed without redemption" and the F-35's reputation is so tarnished the Air Force released a secret memo on how to defend the F-35 to its critics (i.e. everyone).

image via Pinterest

"Step 12: When all else fails, distract with cool photos."

But surely this is just one weapons system right? It's not like this is a systemic problem that is sewn into the US military? Wrong.