Instructions For Level Of Care Variance Request Form: Fill & Download for Free

Numerous times, I have seen people ask questions about entering one of the service academies and many have answered, both graduates and non-graduates. Personally, I have been a USMA admissions representative for the State of New Hampshire for 19 years and have seen candidates who I thought were shoo-ins not get in and others who I didn’t feel were as strong get in. What’s the secret to getting in? I’m about to tell you something right from “the horses mouth”.A few years ago, the Northeast Regional Commander sent all of the admissions reps in his area a letter titled “Tips fpr Getting Into USMA”. I’m going to share this with you now.The application process for West Point or any of the Service Academies can be daunting. There are 2 processes that you must negotiate simultaneously – The West Point Admission Process and the Nomination process. There are some overlapping requirements for both processes, but you must submit separately to each. The purpose of this paper is to assist you in getting the right requirements to the right place on time and to make you as competitive as possible for an appointment to West Point.West Point seeks the best candidates. WP internally ranks candidates using a Whole Candidate Score (WCS). The WCS comes from 3 areas: Academic, Leadership and Physical Fitness. 60% of your overall score comes from Academics with the focus on the national standardized test scores and your class standing, 30% on your leadership (extracurricular activities, leadership positions held and includes your participation in sports activities as well as Teacher Evaluations) and 10% on your Candidate Fitness Assessment (you must pass the CFA). I cannot stress the importance of doing well on your national test scores (more below). WP understands that there are only 168 hours in a week. Most is taken with the high school curriculum. So the rest of your week is important (the extracurricular activities); getting physically fit and maintaining a certain level of fitness is your responsibility and you are expected to prioritize getting yourself in shape.To be competitive for the leadership portion: You should participate in extracurricular activities that provide valuable leadership experiences and responsibilities. This will help you prepare for the leadership development training you will receive at West Point. The following high school experiences will develop and demonstrate your leadership potential:• Class, club, or student government position.• Awards in academic societies, such as the National Honor Society.• Participation and achievement in athletics. Team sports are better.• Varsity Letters and being the Captain of a Team.• Participation and success in public speaking and other nonathletic activities.• Participation and achievement in Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Civil Air Patrol, or Jr. Reserve Officer Training Corps.• Membership and leadership in community or church organizations.• Boy’s State/Girls State (if your are not aware of this program, don’t miss this opportunity)The United States Military Academy considers it more valuable for you to achieve a leadership role and distinction in a specific activity rather than participation in a number of activities without any evidence of leadership achievement. If you have to work to provide financial assistance for your family, West Point views that working experience as a demonstration of your leadership potential even though it will limit participation in school activities.The last accepted SAT/ACT scores for your West Point Candidate file are the SATs taken late Jan, Mid December or early Feb ACTs. The Senators and Congressmen have different cutoffs depending on their interview schedules. Be aware of the dates required by each nominating source. If you have new scores after the congressional deadline, bring your new scores in an official form to the nomination board interview. They may allow the new scores to be included into their process.Steps to Success1. Start Admissions Candidate file by filling out the Candidate Questionnaire online at http://westpont.edu/admissions. You should do this in the early spring of the Junior year or as soon as possible thereafter. Candidate Questionsaires are open to Juniors mid January.2. Apply for a nomination to Congressional Representative, Senators, Presidential (if eligible) and JROTC/ROTC (if eligible) and Vice President. You should do this in the spring and summer of the Junior year or as soon as possible thereafter. For Congressional and Senatorial nominations, the process may vary slightly. Their process, deadlines and/or informational contacts are on their websites. All require letters of recommendation and an ACT or SAT score. Additionally, the candidate must submit resumes/list of accomplishments and a list of activities in which he/she has participated. All require the candidate to submit essays to questions they propose. Submit as early as possible and follow up to ensure submission of all required documentation by their deadline. For the military related nomination – the West Point candidate file software preprints a sample letter. The candidate must print, sign, and mail with the supporting documentation to WP. I encourage each of you to go online to the appropriate website and read the requirements and use the online application and print outs. Read the requirements carefully. Some want it paper clipped and some want it stapled while others don’t want you to do anything to it. “ATTENTION TO DETAIL”.IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A NOMINATION, YOU CANNOT GET INTO WEST POINT.3. I strongly encourage you to attend an Academy Day in your area. You are not required to attend, but information on all academies is available in one location. You will also get a chance to meet some of the congressional staff people that handle nominations. This is a great place to have your face associated with a name even though your meeting these people will have no bearing on the outcome of getting a nomination, but might make the communications between you and the congressional office a bit easier. The best information they will provide at this point will be a nomination packet and when their requirements are due.4 Go to the link below on occasion and see if there is an event scheduled that will give you an opportunity to ask questions about the admissions process.http://www.usma.edu/admissions (select the link to “Admissions Events in Your Area”)5. Complete ACT and/or SAT testing. List USMA as one of the colleges on the registration form as well as the Senators and Congressman (go to their websites and get their codes). West Point’s codes are 2976 for the ACT and 2924 for the SAT. I recommend taking both the SAT and ACT at least one time, but as many times as the schedule and budget will allow. Some students find the ACT test easier to take. Remember that if you take the ACT, you must sign up for the writing portion when you register. Also, each time you take one of the tests, WP will take your best score in each category. Studies show that the more times you take these tests; you usually improve by a few points. After 3 or so tests, your scores will level out. The best way (increase your individual test score by ~100 points) to improve is to take a one-on-one tutored prep course. A less effective alternative is to go to the bookstore and find a prep book for the ACT or the SAT with practice tests or take similar programs online, but the results are less dramatic (individual scores may be improved by ~30 points). Test dates are on the testing service website. Some candidates ask “what score is considered competitive by West Point”? Target standards derived from recent class profiles, indicate that a 650 in Math and 650 in Verbal are competitive scores. Significantly lower scores put chances of appointment at risk.6. Candidate Fitness Assessment (CFA). Must be completed and score submitted by February. Candidates can download a test form and instructions. A physical education instructor normally administers this test. Candidates should practice during the summer and take shortly after school starts. It is the candidate’s responsibility to schedule the test with an instructor. Most JROTC and ROTC cadre know how to administer the test. In some special cases, Field Force Reps. can administer the test. Practice each event separately and then start combining the events in the order you will have to perform them for the test. START EARLY!!7. Qualifying medical exam. When the admissions portal reopens (end of Jul) in the form of the Second Step Kit (SSK), and if the candidate is deemed competitive, he/she will receive instructions from the Department of Defense Medical Examination Review Board (DoDMERB) and will schedule an exam at an appropriate facility. West Point has been using the completion of the required SSK essays as a measure of your seriousness. No completed essays, no early DoDMERB authorization. If you can, get the medical done during the summer or early fall. If DoDMERB requires additional testing or copies of medical records, they will request them. Get completed as soon as possible or by their deadline. Getting medically “qualified” as soon as possible is recommended. Getting evaluated early permits the system the time to grant waivers of certain medical conditions that are not military service restrictive.8. Request for School Transcript. Ensure the contact information for the school official submitting transcripts to include transcripts for the 7th semester (1st semester Senior year) is complete in the candidate file. Candidate needs to make sure that transcripts are sent after the end of the Junior year and the first semester of the Senior year.9. Candidate Statement – These 3 essays need be completed online before your file will be evaluated. DO YOUR ESSAYS FIRST!! I recommend you do them in conjunction with writing your essays for the Congressional nominations. Instructions come with the opening of the SSK.10. School Official’s Evaluations. Four required – math instructor, English instructor, lab science (physics or chemistry), and Physical Education Instructor. Sometimes Biology will qualify, but ask for the variance before assuming it is OK. I recommend contacting the instructors during the 2nd semester of your Junior year and give them a heads up that USMA will contact them so they can complete the form online. You submit the email addresses for the 4 teachers through your candidate electronic file. West Point will send the evaluation link to each of the 4 teachers. The candidate should reconnect with the 4 instructors in the summer or early in the new school year and ask them to do it ASAP.11. Employer’s Evaluation. Candidates must print off from the website and fill out the top portion and give it to the employer to complete and submit. This will not be available until your SSK is open. If you work in the summer, have your summer employer fill out one evaluation. If you work in the school year, have that employer fill out an evaluation.12. Interview. You may be asked to have an interview if the Admissions Officer deems it necessary, but interviews are not required for an appointment. A cadet at Summer Leadership Experience (SLE) can do this if you attend. A Field Force Rep. can also do interviews. Contact me to schedule an appointment. Moms and Dads may attend. The first part of the interview will be with the family. The second part will be with the candidate only. I have access to your candidate file. I can see what you have completed and what is missing. WP is seeking those who have a burning desire to attend.13. Summer Leadership Experience (SLE) is a one-week session at West Point given in June (there are two sessions). If you apply, you may receive an offer based on your SAT or PSAT performance. This is a competitive selection process. Apply early, the deadline is April 1, but the offers usually go out in February and March. Going to SLE is not essential to receiving an appointment.14. Download a copy of the Admissions Timeline from the admissions website. Make sure you go to each Congressman’s or Senator’s website to get all of their requirements and to your candidate file to make sure you have completed everything. I have tried to simplify the process for you. The Admissions Timeline can be used as a checklist.15. Even if you have your West Point candidate file completed by 15 Sep, YOU ARE NOT DONE. I cannot over emphasize the importance of updating your file constantly. Every time you take a College Board exam, send the score. Every time you receive a special honor, send it to the NE Regional Commander in an email to be entered into your candidate file. If you start a new job, add it. If you obtain a new leadership position, add it. UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE UNTIL THE 28 FEB.16. Letters or Recommendation. They are not needed for your WP file. They are required by Congressmen and the Senators. Can you send letters of recommendation to WP? Yes. They will not count toward your overall candidate score, but if you are tied with another candidate or you are borderline acceptable for an offer of an appointment, they might help get you the appointment.17. West Point Admissions recommends that you do a one-page resume that covers all that you have done in grades 9-12. West Point will provide you with a simple format. This resume can be a tiebreaker and also tell things about you that are not part of the application process. Do the resume with others, like your parents. They will remember things that you think are insignificant.This is information that I provide to all of my candidates who have opened a file at USMA by February of their Junior year. I send them this information by e-mail. Try to guess how many of them have read it by the time I contact them for an interview in the fall? Not many.What are the issues I encounter? I’ll tell you……None of the essays have been submitted. These are the first things you should do. Everything follows from the essays.Lower than average SAT/ACT scores. With all the practice books and classes you can obtain on how to prep for these exams (it isn’t cheating), it’s inexcuseable for a candidate not to pursue them. Whenever I talk to a candidate with lower than average test scores, I ask them if they’ve prepped for the exam. To a person, they say no. BTW, take both exams. The SAT tests a student’s potential for higher learning. The ACT tests what you know. Some do better on one than the other.Constantly update your file. USMA wants you to show them some love. Keep in close contact with them regularly. I provide the name and contact information for the Northeast Regional Commander to all of my candidates. I encourage them to contact him and to stay in touch. HE WILL BE THE ONE WHO EVALUATES YOUR FILE! Ask for the one who covers your area from your admissions rep. Inactive files that are not constantly updated are closed. You’re dead in the water!I have never had candidates who had asthma get in. It’s a killer. DODMERB will give you a DQ (disqualified) status. When I heard the word “inhaler” in the question, I started to cringe.Try to go to Boys/Girls State. You’d be surprised how many candidates don’t even consider attending it and it can be a big plus for your file.If you’ve stuck with me a read this far, I’m going to give you one last bit of truth you may not want to hear. Like many colleges, USMA has a “quota system” of sorts. They want the Corps of Cadets to reflect the composition of the people they will be leading. This doesn’t mean that they will accept people who are not qualified. The academics are too rigorous for that. It means that they want candidates from every state and every type of ethnic group to represented in the Corps.

NDA examination is conducted twice a year by UPSC. Basic requirements as obtained from UPSC website:CONDITIONS OF ELIGIBILITY :(a) Nationality : A candidate must either be :(i) a citizen of India, or(ii) a subject of Bhutan, or(iii) a subject of Nepal, or(iv) a Tibetan refugee who came over to India before the 1st January, 1962 with the intention of permanently settling in India, or(v) a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka and East African Countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire and Ethiopia or Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India.Provided that a candidate belonging to categories (ii), (iii), (iv) and (v) above shall be a person in whose favour a certificate of eligibility has been issued by the Government of India.Certificate of eligibility will not, however, be necessary in the case of candidates who are Gorkha subjects of Nepal.(b) Age Limits, Sex and Marital Status :Only unmarried male candidates of age between 16-1/2 - 19–1/2 are eligible. (Confirm the exact dates on UPSC website: UPSC)The date of birth accepted by the Commission is that entered in the Matriculation or Secondary School Leaving Certificate or in a certificate recognised by an Indian University as equivalent to Matriculation or in an extract from a Register of Matriculates maintained by a University which must be certified by the proper authority of the University or in the Higher Secondary or an equivalent examination certificates. These certificates are required to be submitted only after the declaration of the result of the written part of the examination. No other document relating to age like horoscopes, affidavits, birth extracts from Municipal Corporation, service records and the like will be accepted. The expression Matriculation/Higher Secondary Examination Certificate in this part of the instruction includes the alternative certificates mentioned above.NOTE 1 : Candidates should note that only the date of birth as recorded in the Matriculation/Higher Secondary Examination Certificate available or an equivalent certificate on the date of submission of applications will be accepted by the Commission and no subsequent request for its change will be considered or granted.NOTE 2 : Candidates should also note that once a date of birth has been claimed by them and entered in the records of the Commission for the purpose of admission to an Examination, no change will be allowed subsequently or at any subsequent examination on any ground whatsoever.NOTE 3 : The candidates should exercise due care while entering their date of birth in the respective column of the Online Application Form for the Examination. If on verification at any subsequent stage any variation is found in their date of birth from the one entered in their Matriculation or equivalent Examination certificate, disciplinary action will be taken against them by the Commission under the Rules.NOTE 4 : Candidates must undertake not to marry until they complete their full training. A candidate who marries subsequent to the date of his application though successful at this or any subsequent Examination will not be selected for training. A candidate who marries during training shall be discharged and will be liable to refund all expenditure incurred on him by the Government.(c) Educational Qualifications:(i) For Army Wing of National Defence Academy :—12th Class pass of the 10+2 pattern of School Education or equivalent examination conducted by a State Education Board or a University.(ii) For Air Force and Naval Wings of National Defence Academy and for the 10+2 Cadet Entry Scheme at the Indian Naval Academy :—12th Class pass of the 10+2 pattern of School Education or equivalent with Physics and Mathematics conducted by a State Education Board or a University.Candidates who are appearing in the 12th Class under the 10+2 pattern of School Education or equivalent examination can also apply for this examination.Such candidates who qualify the SSB interview but could not produce Matriculation/10+2 or equivalent certificate in original at the time of SSB interview should forward duly self-attested Photocopies to ‘Directorate General of Recruiting, Army HQ, West Block.III, R.K. Puram, New Delhi-110066’ and for Naval Academy candidates to ‘Naval Headquarters, DMPR, OI&R Section, Room No. 204, ‘C’ Wing, Sena Bhavan, New Delhi-110011’ by date mentioned in the respective advertisement failing which their candidature will be cancelled. All other candidates who have produced their Matriculation and 10+2 pass or equivalent certificates in original at the time of attending the SSB interview and have got the same verified by the SSB authorities are not required to submit the same to Army HQ or Naval HQ as the case may be. Certificates in original issued by the Principals of the Institutions are also acceptable in cases where Boards/Universities have not yet issued certificates. Certified true copies/photostate copies of such certificates will not be accepted. In exceptional cases the Commission may treat a candidate, who does not possess any of the qualifications prescribed in this rule as educationally qualified provided that he possesses qualifications, the standard of which in the opinion of the Commission, justifies his admission to the examination.NOTE 1 : Candidates appearing in the 11th class exam are not eligible for this examination.NOTE 2 : Those candidates who have yet to qualify in the 12th class or equivalent examination and are allowed to appear in the UPSC Examination should note that this is only a special concession given to them. They are required to submit proof of passing the 12th class or equivalent examination by the prescribed date (i.e. 24th June, 2017) and no request for extending this date will be entertained on the grounds of late conduct of Board/University Examination, delay in declaration of results or any other ground whatsoever.NOTE 3 : Candidates who are debarred by the Ministry of Defence from holding any type of Commission in the Defence Services shall not be eligible for admission to the examination and if admitted, their candidature will be cancelled.NOTE 4 : Those candidates who have failed INSB/PABT earlier are not eligible for Air Force.(d) A candidate who has resigned or withdrawn on disciplinary grounds from any of the training academies of Armed Forces is not eligible to apply.(e) Physical Standards:Candidates must be physically fit according to physical standards for admission to National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination as per the following guidelines:GUIDELINES FOR PHYSICAL STANDARDS FOR ADMISSION TO THE NATIONAL DEFENCE ACADEMY.NOTE : CANDIDATES MUST BE PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY FIT ACCORDING TO THE PRESCRIBED PHYSICAL STANDARDS. THE GUIDELINES FOR THE SAME ARE GIVEN BELOW.A NUMBER OF QUALIFIED CANDIDATES ARE REJECTED SUBSEQUENTLY ON MEDICAL GROUNDS. CANDIDATES ARE THEREFORE ADVISED IN THEIR OWN INTEREST TO GET THEMSELVES MEDICALLY EXAMINED BEFORE SUBMITTING THEIR APPLICATIONS TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT AT THE FINAL STAGE.Candidates are also advised to rectify minor defects/ailments in order to speed up finalisation of medical examination conducted at the Military Hospital after being recommended at the SSB.Few of such commonly found defects/ailments are listed below :(a) Wax (Ears)(b) Deviated Nasal Septum(c) Hydrocele/Phimosis(d) Overweight/Underweight(e) Under Sized Chest(f) Piles(g) Gynaecomastia(h) Tonsillitis(i) VaricoceleNOTE : Permanent body tattoos are only permitted on inner face of forearm i.e. from inside of elbow to the wrist and on the reverse side of palm/back (dorsal) side of hand/Permanent body tattoos on any other part of the body are not acceptable and candidates will be barred from further selection. Tribes with tattoo marks on the face or body as per their existing custom and traditions will be permitted on a case to case basis. Comdt Selection Centre will be competent auth for clearing such cases.Civilian candidates appearing for all types of commission in the Armed Forces will be entitled to out-patients treatment from service sources at public expense for injuries sustained or diseases contracted during the course of their examination by the Selection Board. They will also be entitled to in-patient treatment at public expense in the Officer’s ward of a hospital provided—(a) the injury is sustained during the tests or,(b) the disease is contracted during the course of the examination by selection board and there is no suitable accommodation in local civil hospital or it is impracticable to remove the patient to the civil hospital; or,(c) the medical board requires the candidate’s admission for observation.NOTE : They are not entitled to special nursing.A candidate recommended by the Services Selection Board will undergo a medical examination by a Board of Service Medical Officers. Only those candidates will be admitted to the academy who are declared fit by the Medical Board. The proceedings of the Medical Board are confidential and will not be divulged to anyone. However, the candidates declared unfit will be intimated by the President of the Medical Board and the procedure for request for an Appeal Medical Board will also be intimated to the candidate. Candidates declared unfit during Appeal Medical Board will be intimated about the provision of Review Medical Board.(a) The candidate must be in good physical and mental health and free from any disease/disability which is likely to interfere with the efficient performance of Military duties.(b) There should be no evidence of weak constitution, bodily defects or underweight. The Candidate should not be overweight or obese.(c) The minimum acceptable height is 157 cms(162.5 cms. for Air Force). For Gorkhas and individuals belonging to hills of North-Eastern regions of India, Garhwal and Kumaon, the minimum acceptable heights will be 5 cms. less. In case of candidates from Lakshadweep the minimum acceptable height can be reduced by 2 cms. Height and weight standards are given below :HEIGHT/WEIGHT STANDARDS FOR ARMY/AIR FORCETABLE-IHEIGHT/WEIGHT STANDARDS FOR NAVYTABLE-II“Individual’s weight is considered normal if it is within ±10% departure from average weight given in the table I and II”. However, in individuals with heavy bones and broad build as well as individuals with thin build but otherwise healthy this may be relaxed to some extent on merit.NOTE 1 : Height relaxable upto 2.5 cm. (5 cm. for Navy) may be allowed where the Medical Board certifies that the candidate is likely to grow and come up to the required standard on completion of his training.NOTE 2 : To meet special requirement as a pilot in the Air Force the acceptable measurements of leg length, thigh length and sitting height will be as under :(d) Chest should be well developed. Fully expanded chest should not be less than 81 cms. The minimum range of expansion after full inspiration should be 5 cms. The measurement will be taken with a tape so adjusted that its lower edge should touch the nipple in front and the upper part of the tape should touch the lower angle of the shoulder blades behind. X-Ray of the chest is compulsory and will be taken to rule out any disease of the chest.(e) There should be no maldevelopment or impairment of function of the bones or joint.Spinal Conditions-(f) Past medical history of diseases or injury of the spine or sacro iliac joints, either with or without objective signs which have prevented the candidate from successfully following a physically active life, is a cause for rejection for commissioning in IAF. History of spinal fracture/prolapsed intervertebral disc and surgical treatment for these conditions will entail rejection. The following conditions detected radiologically during medical exam will disqualify a candidate for Air Force service:(i) Granulomatous disease of spine(ii) Arthritidies/spondylosis— Rheumatoid arthritis and allied disorders— Ankylosing spondylitis— Osteoarthrosis, spondylosis and degenerative joint disease— Non articular rheumatism (e.g. lesions of the rotator cuff, tennis elbow, recurrent lumbago etc.)— Miscellaneous disorders including SLE, , polymyositis, vasculitis.(iii) Spondylolisthesis/spondylolysis.(iv) Compression fracture of vertebrae.(v) Scheuerman's disease (Adolescent kyphosis)(vi) Loss of cervical lordosis when associated with clinically restricted movements of cervical spine.(vii) Unilateral/Bilateral cervical ribs with demonstrable neurological or circulatory deficit.(viii) Scoliosis more than 15 degree as measured by Cobb's method.(ix) Degenerative Disc. Disease.(x) Presence of schmorl's nodes at more than one level.(xi) Atlanto-occipital and atlantoaxial anomalies.(xii) Hemi vertebrae and/or incomplete block (fused) vertebrae at any level in cervical, dorsal or lumbar spine and complete block (fused) vertebrae at more than one level in cervical or dorsal spine.(xiii) Unilateral Sacralisation or lumbarisation (Complete or incomplete) at all levels and bilateral incomplete sacralisation or lumbarisation.(xiv) Any other abnormality if so considered by the specialist.(g) Mild Kyphosis or Lordosis where deformity is barely noticeable and there is no pain or restriction of movement will not preclude acceptance.(h) In case of noticeable Scoliosis or suspicion of any other abnormality or spinal deformity, more than mild, appropriate X-rays of the spine are to be taken and the Examinee referred for specialist’s advice.(i) The following conditions detected on X-ray examination will be disqualifying for entry to Armed Forces :(i) Granulomatius disease of spine.(ii) Arthritidies/spondylosis(iii) Scoliosis more than 15 degree as measured by Cobb’s Method (10 degree for Army and Navy).(iv) More than mild Kyphosis/Lordosis(v) Spondylolisthesis/Spondylosis/Spondylolysis(vi) Herniated nucleus pulposes.(vii) Compression fracture of Vertebra.(viii) Sacaralisation Disease(ix) Cervical ribs with demonstrable neurological or Circulatory deficit.(x) Presence of Schmorl’s node at more than one level.(xi) Atlanto-occipital and atlanto-axial anomalies.(xii) Incomplete Sacaralisation Unilateral or Bilateral(xiii) Spina Bifida other than SV 1 and LV 5 if completely Sacralised(xiv) Any other abnormality, if so considered by specialist.(j) A candidate should have no past history of mental breakdown or fits.(k) The hearing should be normal. A candidate should be able to hear a forced whisper with each ear at a distance of 610 cms. in a quiet room. There should be no evidence of present or past disease of the ear, nose and throat. Audiometric test will be done for AF. Audiometric hearing loss should not be greater than 20 db in frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz. There is no impediment of speech.(l) There should be no signs of functional or organic disease of the heart and blood vessels. Blood pressure should be normal.(m) There should be no enlargement of liver or spleen. Any evidence of disease of internal organs of the abdomen will be a cause for rejection.(n) Un-operated hernias will make a candidate unfit. In case of Hernia which has been operated, a minimum of 6 months must have passed prior to final medical examination before commencement of the course.(o) There should be no hydrocele, varicocele or piles.(p) Urine examination will be done and any abnormality if detected will be a cause for rejection.(q) Any disease of skin which is likely to cause disability or disfigurement will also be a cause for rejection.(r) Visual standards:- The distance vision (corrected) should be 6/6 in better eye and 6/9 in worse eye. Myopia should not be more than 2.5 D and hypermetropia not more than 3.5 D including Astigmatism. Internal examination of the eye will be done by means of opthalmoscope to rule out any disease of the eye. A candidate must have good binocular vision. The colour vision standard will be (CP-III) for Army. A candidate should be able to recognise red and green colours. Candidates will be required to give certificates that neither he nor any member of his family has suffered from congenital night blindness. Candidates who have undergone or have the evidence of having undergone Radial Keratotomy, to improve the visual acuity will be permanently rejected for all the Services. Candidates who have undergone Laser Surgery for correction of refractive error are also not acceptable to defence services.Vision standard for Naval candidatesVisual Standards for Air ForceCandidates who habitually wear spectacles are not eligible for Air Force, Minimum distant vision 6/6 in one eye and 6/9 in other, correctable to 6/6 only for Hypermetropia. Colour vision CP-I Hypermetropia : +2.0 D Sph Manifest Myopia : Nil Retinoscopic Myopia : 0.5 in any Meridian permitted Astigmatism : + 0.75 D Cyl (within + 2.0 D.Max) Maddox Rod TestHand held Stereoscope–All of BSV grades Convergence–Up to 10 cm Cover test for distant and near–Lateral divergence/convergence recovery rapid and complete Radial Keratotomy, Photo Refractive Keratotomy/laser in Situ, Keratomileusis (PRK/LASIK) surgeries for correction of refractive errors are not permitted for any Air Force duties. Candidates having undergone cataract surgery with or without IOL implants will also be declared unfit.Binocular vision must possess good binocular vision (fusion and stereopsis with good amplitude and depth).Candidates who have undergone LASIK surgery are not considered fit for permanent commission in flying branch in IAF.(s) USG abdomen examination will be carried out and any congential structural anomaly or disease of the abdominal organs will be a cause for rejection in Armed Forces.(t) The candidates should have sufficient number of natural and sound teeth. A minimum of 14 dental points will be acceptable. When 32 teeth are present, the total dental points are 22. A candidate should not be suffering from severe pyorrhoea.(u) Routine ECG for Air Force candidates must be within normal limits.(v) Physical conditioning : Prospective candidates are advised to keep themselves in good physical condition, by following the undermentioned routine :—(a) Running 2.4 km in 15 minutes(b) Skipping(c) Pushups and sit ups (minimum 20 each)(d) Chin ups (minimum 08)(e) Rope climbing 3-4 metres.ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE RESULTS OF THE WRITTEN EXAMINATION, INTERVIEW OF QUALIFIED CANDIDATES, ANNOUNCEMENT OF FINAL RESULTS AND ADMISSION TO THE TRAINING COURSES OF THE FINALLY QUALIFIED CANDIDATES :The Union Public Service Commission shall prepare a list of candidates who obtain the minimum qualifying marks in the written examination as fixed by the Commission at their discretion. Such candidates shall appear before a Services Selection Board for Intelligence and Personality Test where candidates for the Army/Navy wings of the NDA and 10+2 Cadet Entry Scheme of Indian Naval Academy will be assessed on Officers Potentiality and those for the Air Force in Computerised Pilot Selection System (CPSS) and Pilot Aptitude Test (which forms the whole PAB Test) and for Officers Potentiality. PABT applicable to candidates with Air Force as First choice would also be conducted for all SSB qualified candidates with one of the choice as Air Force subject to their eligibility and if they are so willing.TWO-STAGE SELECTION PROCEDURETwo-stage selection procedure based on Psychological Aptitude Test and Intelligence Test has been introduced at Selection Centres/Air Force Selection Boards/Naval Selection Boards. All the candidates will be put to stage-one test on first day of reporting at Selection Centres/Air Force Selection Boards/Naval Selection Boards. Only those candidates who qualify at stage one will be admitted to the second stage/remaining tests. Those candidates who qualify stage II will be required to submit the Original Certificates along with one photocopy each of : (i) Original Matriculation pass certificate or equivalent in support of date of birth, (ii) Original 10+2 pass certificate or equivalent in support of educational qualification.Candidates who appear before the Services Selection Board and undergo the test there, will do so at their own risk and will not be entitled to claim any compensation or other relief from Government in respect of any injury which they may sustain in the course of or as a result of any of the tests given to them at the Services Selection Board whether due to the negligence of any person or otherwise. Parents or guardians of the candidates will be required to sign a certificate to this effect.To be acceptable, candidates for the Army/Navy/Naval Academy and Air Force should secure the minimum qualifying marks separately in (i) Written examination as fixed by the Commission at their discretion and (ii) Officer Potentiality Test as fixed by the Services Selection Board at their discretion.Over and above candidates for the Air Force, and all the SSB qualified candidates as per their willingness, eligibility and preference for Air Force, should separately qualify the PABT.Subject to these conditions the qualified candidates will then be placed in a single combined list on the basis of total marks secured by them in the Written Examination and the Services Selection Board Tests. The final allocation/selection for admission to the Army, Navy, Air Force of the National Defence Academy and 10+2 Cadet Entry Scheme of Indian Naval Academy will be made upto the number of vacancies available subject to eligibility, medical fitness and merit-cum-preference of the candidates. The candidates who are eligible to be admitted to multiple Services/Courses will be considered for allocation/selection with reference to their order or preferences and in the event of their final allocation/ selection to one Service/Course, they will not be considered for admission to other remaining Services/Courses.N.B.: EVERY CANDIDATE FOR THE AIR FORCE IS GIVEN COMPUTERISED PILOT SELECTION SYSTEM (CPSS) AND PILOT APTITUDE TEST (WHICH FORMS THE WHOLE PAB TEST) ONLY ONCE. THE GRADE SECURED BY HIM AT THE FIRST TEST WILL THEREFORE HOLD GOOD FOR EVERY SUBSEQUENT INTERVIEW HE HAS WITH THE AIR FORCE SELECTION BOARD. A CANDIDATE WHO FAILS IN THE FIRST PILOT APTITUDE TEST CANNOT APPLY FOR ADMISSION TO THE NATIONAL DEFENCE ACADEMY EXAMINATION FOR THE AIR FORCE WING OR GENERAL DUTIES (PILOT) BRANCH OR NAVAL AIR ARM.Candidates who have been given the Computerised Pilot Selection System (CPSS) and Pilot Aptitude Test (which forms the whole PAB Test) for any previous N.D.A. course should submit their application for this examination for the Air Force Wing only if they have been notified as having qualified in the Pilot Aptitude Test.The form and manner of communication of the result of the examination to individual candidates shall be decided by the Commission at their discretion and the Commission will not enter into correspondence with them regarding the result.Success in the examination confers no right of admission to the Academy. A candidate must satisfy the appointing authority that he is suitable in all respects for admission to the Academy.THOROUGH MEDICAL EXAMINATION WILL BE CONDUCTED FOR THE SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES AFTER SSB INTERVIEW AND BEFORE DECLARING THE FINAL RESULT.SCHEME OF EXAMINATION1. The subjects of the written examination, the time allowed and the maximum marks allotted to each subject will be as follows :—2. THE PAPERS IN ALL THE SUBJECTS WILL CONSIST OF OBJECTIVE TYPE QUESTIONS ONLY. THE QUESTION PAPERS (TEST BOOKLETS) OF MATHEMATICS AND PART “B” OF GENERAL ABILITY TEST WILL BE SET BILINGUALLY IN HINDI AS WELL AS ENGLISH.3. In the question papers, wherever necessary, questions involving the metric system of Weights and Measures only will be set.4. Candidates must write the papers in their own hand. In no circumstances will they be allowed the help of a scribe to write answers for them.5. The Commission have discretion to fix qualifying marks in any or all the subjects at the examination.6. The candidates are not permitted to use calculator or Mathematical or logarithmic table for answering objective type papers (Test Booklets). They should not therefore, bring the same inside the Examination Hall.B. SYLLABUS OF THE EXAMINATIONPAPER-IMATHEMATICS(Code No. 01)(Maximum Marks-300)1. ALGEBRAConcept of set, operations on sets, Venn diagrams. De Morgan laws, Cartesian product, relation, equivalence relation. Representation of real numbers on a line. Complex numbers—basic properties, modulus, argument, cube roots of unity. Binary system of numbers. Conversion of a number in decimal system to binary system and vice-versa. Arithmetic, Geometric and Harmonic progressions. Quadratic equations with real coefficients. Solution of linear inequations of two variables by graphs. Permutation and Combination. Binomial theorem and its applications. Logarithms and their applications.2. MATRICES AND DETERMINANTS :Types of matrices, operations on matrices. Determinant of a matrix, basic properties of determinants. Adjoint and inverse of a square matrix, Applications-Solution of a system of linear equations in two or three unknowns by Cramer’s rule and by Matrix Method.3. TRIGONOMETRY :Angles and their measures in degrees and in radians. Trigonometrical ratios. Trigonometric identities Sum and difference formulae. Multiple and Sub-multiple angles. Inverse trigonometric functions. Applications-Height and distance, properties of triangles.4. ANALYTICAL GEOMETRY OF TWO AND THREE DIMENSIONS:Rectangular Cartesian Coordinate system. Distance formula. Equation of a line in various forms. Angle between two lines. Distance of a point from a line. Equation of a circle in standard and in general form. Standard forms of parabola, ellipse and hyperbola. Eccentricity and axis of a conic. Point in a three dimensional space, distance between two points. Direction Cosines and direction ratios. Equation two points. Direction Cosines and direction ratios. Equation of a plane and a line in various forms. Angle between two lines and angle between two planes. Equation of a sphere.5. DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS :Concept of a real valued function–domain, range and graph of a function. Composite functions, one to one, onto and inverse functions. Notion of limit, Standard limits—examples. Continuity of functions—examples, algebraic operations on continuous functions. Derivative of function at a point, geometrical and physical interpretation of a derivative—applications. Derivatives of sum, product and quotient of functions, derivative of a function with respect to another function, derivative of a composite function. Second order derivatives. Increasing and decreasing functions. Application of derivatives in problems of maxima and minima.6. INTEGRAL CALCULUS AND DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS :Integration as inverse of differentiation, integration by substitution and by parts, standard integrals involving algebraic expressions, trigonometric, exponential and hyperbolic functions. Evaluation of definite integrals—determination of areas of plane regions bounded by curves— applications. Definition of order and degree of a differential equation, formation of a differential equation by examples. General and particular solution of a differential equations, solution of first order and first degree differential equations of various types—examples. Application in problems of growth and decay.7. VECTOR ALGEBRA :Vectors in two and three dimensions, magnitude and direction of a vector. Unit and null vectors, addition of vectors, scalar multiplication of a vector, scalar product or dot product of two vectors. Vector product or cross product of two vectors. Applications—work done by a force and moment of a force and in geometrical problems.8. STATISTICS AND PROBABILITY :Statistics : Classification of data, Frequency distribution, cumulative frequency distribution—examples. Graphical representation—Histogram, Pie Chart, frequency polygon—examples. Measures of Central tendency—Mean, median and mode. Variance and standard deviation—determination and comparison. Correlation and regression.Probability : Random experiment, outcomes and associated sample space, events, mutually exclusive and exhaustive events, impossible and certain events. Union and Intersection of events. Complementary, elementary and composite events. Definition of probability—classical and statistical— examples. Elementary theorems on probability—simple problems. Conditional probability, Bayes’ theorem—simple problems. Random variable as function on a sample space. Binomial distribution, examples of random experiments giving rise to Binominal distribution.PAPER-IIGENERAL ABILITY TEST(Code No. 02)(Maximum Marks—600)Part ‘A’—ENGLISH (Maximum Marks—200)The question paper in English will be designed to test the candidate’s understanding of English and workman like use of words. The syllabus covers various aspects like : Grammar and usage, vocabulary, comprehension and cohesion in extended text to test the candidate’s proficiency in English.Part ‘B’—GENERAL KNOWLEDGE (Maximum Marks—400)The question paper on General Knowledge will broadly cover the subjects : Physics, Chemistry, General Science, Social Studies, Geography and Current Events.- The syllabus given below is designed to indicate the scope of these subjects included in this paper. The topics mentioned are not to be regarded as exhaustive and questions on topics of similar nature not specifically mentioned in the syllabus may also be asked. Candidate’s answers are expected to show their knowledge and intelligent understanding of the subject.Section ‘A’ (Physics)Physical Properties and States of Matter, Mass, Weight, Volume, Density and Specific Gravity, Principle of Archimedes, Pressure Barometer. Motion of objects, Velocity and Acceleration, Newton’s Laws of Motion, Force and Momentum, Parallelogram of Forces, Stability and Equilibrium of bodies, Gravitation, elementary ideas of work, Power and Energy.Effects of Heat, Measurement of Temperature and Heat, change of State and Latent Heat, Modes of transference of Heat. Sound waves and their properties, Simple musical instruments. Rectilinear propagation of Light, Reflection and refraction. Spherical mirrors and Lenses, Human Eye. Natural and Artificial Magnets, Properties of a Magnet, Earth as a Magnet. Static and Current Electricity, conductors and Non-conductors, Ohm’s Law, Simple Electrical Circuits, Heating, Lighting and Magnetic effects of Current, Measurement of Electrical Power, Primary and Secondary Cells, Use of X-Rays.General Principles in the working of the following:Simple Pendulum, Simple Pulleys, Siphon, Levers, Balloon, Pumps, Hydrometer, Pressure Cooker, Thermos Flask, Gramophone, Telegraphs, Telephone, Periscope, Telescope, Microscope, Mariner’s Compass; Lightening Conductors, Safety Fuses.Section ‘B’ (Chemistry)Physical and Chemical changes. Elements, Mixtures and Compounds, Symbols, Formulae and simple Chemical Equations, Law of Chemical Combination (excluding problems). Properties of Air and Water. Preparation and Properties of Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbondioxide, Oxidation and Reduction. Acids, bases and salts. Carbon—different forms. Fertilizers—Natural and Artificial.Material used in the preparation of substances like Soap, Glass, Ink, Paper, Cement, Paints, Safety Matches and Gun-Powder. Elementary ideas about the structure of Atom, Atomic Equivalent and Molecular Weights, Valency.Section ‘C’ (General Science)Difference between the living and non-living. Basis of Life—Cells, Protoplasms and Tissues. Growth and Reproduction in Plants and Animals. Elementary knowledge of Human Body and its important organs. Common Epidemics, their causes and prevention. Food—Source of Energy for man. Constituents of food, Balanced Diet. The Solar System—Meteors and Comets, Eclipses. Achievements of Eminent Scientists.Section ‘D’ (History, Freedom Movement etc.)A broad survey of Indian History, with emphasis on Culture and Civilisation. Freedom Movement in India. Elementary study of Indian Constitution and Administration. Elementary knowledge of Five Year Plans of India. Panchayati Raj, Co-operatives and Community Development. Bhoodan, Sarvodaya, National Integration and Welfare State, Basic Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Forces shaping the modern world; Renaissance, Exploration and Discovery; War of American Independence. French Revolution, Industrial Revolution and Russian Revolution. Impact of Science and Technology on Society. Concept of one World, United Nations, Panchsheel, Democracy, Socialism and Communism. Role of India in the present world.Section ‘E’ (Geography)The Earth, its shape and size. Lattitudes and Longitudes, Concept of time. International Date Line. Movements of Earth and their effects. Origin of Earth. Rocks and their classification; Weathering— Mechanical and Chemical, Earthquakes and Volcanoes. Ocean Currents and Tides Atmosphere and its composition; Temperature and Atmospheric Pressure, Planetary Winds, Cyclones and Anti-cyclones; Humidity; Condensation and Precipitation; Types of Climate, Major Natural regions of the World. Regional Geography of India—Climate, Natural vegetation. Mineral and Power resources; location and distribution of agricultural and Industrial activities. Important Sea ports and main sea, land and air routes of India. Main items of Imports and Exports of India.Section ‘F’ (Current Events)Knowledge of Important events that have happened in India in the recent years. Current important world events. Prominent personalities—both Indian and International including those connected with cultural activities and sports.NOTE :Out of maximum marks assigned to part ‘B’ of this paper, questions on Sections ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’, ‘E’ and ‘F’ will carry approximately 25%, 15%, 10%, 20%, 20% and 10% weightages respectively.Intelligence and Personality TestThe SSB procedure consists of two stage Selection process - stage I and stage II. Only those candidates who clear the stage I are permitted to appear for stage II. The details are :(a) Stage I comprises of Officer Intelligence Rating (OIR) tests are Picture Perception * Description Test (PP&DT). The candidates will be shortlisted based on combination of performance in OIR Test and PP&DT.(b) Stage II Comprises of Interview, Group Testing Officer Tasks, Psychology Tests and the Conference. These tests are conducted over 4 days. The details of these tests are given on the website Join Indian Army | Government of India.The personality of a candidate is assessed by three different assessors viz. The Interviewing Officer (IO), Group Testing Officer (GTO) and the Psychologist. There are no separate weightage for each test. The mks are allotted by assessors only after taking into consideration the performance of the candidate holistically in all the test. In addition, marks for Conference are also allotted based on the initial performance of the Candidate in the three techniques and decision of the Board. All these have equal weightage.The various tests of IO, GTO and Psych are designed to bring out the presence/absence of Officer Like Qualities and their trainability in a candidate. Accordingly candidates are Recommended or Not Recommended at the SSB.(For more details, check UPSC website: UPSC)SSB interview is the world's toughest army test and typically these TOP 15 OFFICER LIKE QUALITIES (OLQs) are tested during the entire interview process:Effective Intelligence.Reasoning Ability.Power of Expression.Self Confidence.Determination.Organizing Ability.Initiative.Courage.Cooperation.Sense of Responsibility.Stamina.Group Influencing Ability.Liveliness.Social Adaptability.Speed of Decision“Origin of this type of testing belongs to first world war era. In the First World War, large numbers of casualties on battlefields necessitated recruitment of best fighting talent in armed forces. For this need, psychologists designed some scientific tests which assess candidate's Officer Like Qualities (OLQs). Over the years SSB testing has been improved based on feedback and has been proved to be an effective and accurate way of selecting candidates who are capable of being at least an average officer after training.”

Do American conservatives hate feminism?I feel this question, and the way it is worded, is why people are abandoning feminism. I’m going to lay out many of the arguments social conservatives like me have against modern feminism. A few notes before we get into it, disagreeing with feminism is not synonymous with a hatred of women. Furthermore, disagreeing with the arguments of modern feminists isn’t disagreeing with all feminists, all over the world, for all time. Saying I disagree with abortion isn’t the same as saying we should rescind suffrage. I can disagree with your views without hating you as a person. Conflating “disagree” with “hate” is one of the behaviors we are getting disgusted by. Let’s not do it here. What you’ll see throughout this answer are some of the basic conservative arguments against feminists. You’ll have to ask yourself at the end whether what you read in them is hate.I say that people are abandoning feminism because that’s what the numbers indicate. Despite massive narratives to the contrary, only somewhere between 18[1]–23[2] percent of Americans identify as feminists. Those numbers weren’t composed by right leaning think tanks, either, but by Vox and Huffpo, both organizations with a demonstrably anti-conservative bias. What both found was that most Americans support “equality between the sexes”, but that Feminism and its advocates no longer appear to be the ambassadors of that ideal. While I know many women believe that too, it’s the behavior of so, so, so many others that is no longer something that people want to be associated with. Be honest with yourself, and I’m laughing right now, but this is the nicest photo I could find demonstrating feminist misandry. You all know I’m telling the truth.Despite these low numbers for feminism, 82% of Americans believe in gender equality. Pretending that there isn’t a palpable vein of hatred towards men is an issue. To put it bluntly, feminism, to the rest of us, no longer looks like advocating for equality, or even women’s rights. It looks like the second and third generation after major victories have been won, but the young have no enemies left to fight. They compensate for this by creating ever more questionable claims to victimhood, wherein the result seems to invariably be a quest not for equality, but to bash men, or more to the point, anyone who disagrees with an extremely narrow vision of what feminism means.For example, the point where I realized that modern feminism wasn’t what I heard in college happened immediately after the election of President Trump. Why’s that? Because I paid attention to the Women’s March. What was remarkable, to me, wasn’t how many women showed up to that event, but that the event organizers specifically shunned Pro-Life women, banning pro-life women’s groups from marching with the other women[3] (they were still included in the total numbers of “women against Trump,” though.) It seems that there was a very clear message being sent, “If you don’t agree with our feminism — we declare you not real women.”It was gross, and spoke a great deal to many Americans who watched how the feminists acted as opposed to just listening to what they said.Remember, most people are for gender equality, and given how only a handful of extreme feminists are now driving what it means to be a feminist this seems to suggest that people don't see the feminist movement as being the best way forward for gender equality. There are several reasons for this. First of all, we could look at how most of the mainstream feminists clearly ignore when inequality hurts men.We know that men die more often than women in the workplace. [4]We know that men are more often the victims of violence. [5]We know men who are victims of domestic violence are usually ridiculed, and by law do not receive help from most shelters. [6]We know that divorce settlements unfairly favor women, particularly with child custody.[7]We know that men are more likely to experience homelessness.[8]We know that while women attempt suicide more often, the majority who die from it are men. [9]Furthermore, we know that the wage gap, when accounting for factors such as choice and hours worked, shrinks to the point of statistical error [10]and even, flips in the cases of many young millennial women.[11]But when these figures are brought up, they aren’t acknowledged in the gender equality debate. It’s just flat out ignored as the conversation immediately shifts to a topic where women’s inequality is the center. This is done in casual debates and on the larger scale, where a particular group of women and their causes get the vast majority of media coverage, where all other groups, both men and women, get none. The net effect of this is that most feminists go into feminism completely well intentioned, but come out with absolutely no understanding of the other side — of any of the other sides. Worse, over time they inherit a toxic view of anyone who in any way veers from the current mainstreamed branch of feminist ideology. Whether it is feminists who disagree on key issues or the phrase “men’s rights”, they hear it and immediately see that as anti-woman.This was the main subject of a documentary by a women who spent her career as a feminist activist, the type seeking to empower women and push girls into the STEM fields, Cassie Jaye’s The Red Pill.Cassie Jaye’s now famous TEDx Talk, outlines the process she went through interviewing men’s rights activists for her documentary. Most notably, she saw in herself while recording these men that she would hear what they said, and try to transpose a “sexist or anti-woman spin”, a subtext or hidden meaning to what they said. It happened not during the interviews, but while transcribing them, where you must painstakingly type out every word said during the interviews. She said that was the moment where she first heard what the men said, and realized that they weren’t wrong.I don’t think she was ever a man-hating woman, even when was a die hard feminist. She actually demonstrates a remarkable degree of self-awareness that few other people have. I believe that, like most, she was a naturally good person who flocked to some battle which needed to be fought. For many women, feminism fits that narrative, but where they lose people is the conflicting narratives that don’t sound anything like “gender equality”, but more like a palpable hatred towards men from the “most feminist” people in the room.This comes into play most clearly by watching the ideologues of various feminist groups attack one another for not subscribing to the correct brand of feminism. I’ve already spoken about how women were rejected from the Women’s March because they were from pro-life groups, but this affects even more mainstream feminists, such as 2nd Wave feminist activist, Professor Christina Hoff Sommers.Sommers has been advocating for feminist issues for decades from positions of the political left. She would agree with all the mainline policy recommendations of the left from abortion, healthcare, and gay rights. But she has been the target of unrelenting abuse for breaking from the post 3rd wave feminism of today. Her belief, from personal experience in the heart of the movement, is that the ideology of intersectionality has corrupted feminism into a never ending struggle against an ever expanding list of oppressors which the oppressed must fight against. Her work, as host of The Factual Feminist, shows this to be a pure ideological stance void of real evidence and which misses the main point — in the West, most of the battles of feminism have been won, but that elsewhere in the world, there remain cultures were there remain many battles where women specifically still suffer in conditions which are unacceptable.For that, her organization has been labelled as an “anti-women” and a “male supremacy” hate group under their “extremist file” by the Southern Poverty Law Center after vigorous campaigning by other feminists. [12]There are no words. But when mainstream feminists eat their own in this way, and the rest of the world sees that rational and diverse opinions within the feminist community are attacked, excuse me, labelled a men’s supremacy hate group, then the rest of the word no longer views feminism as for women, but against anyone who has even the slightest source of disagreement with them.I’m a social conservative. There are many issues that most liberal feminists will disagree with me about. That’s fine. I can weather that storm, but when I see good nice feminists who say they only want equality remain silent as feminism silences other women — women who happen to have been fighting for women’s rights since before many of us were born — it’s hard for me to keep faith with them. Seeing that, feminism fails the step of addressing self-criticism, a necessity in determining what the reality a situation is and what to do about it. Furthermore, the ideology seems uninterested providing real solutions that improve all people’s lives, so long as a few unscrupulous women are made very, very powerful. It seems many feminists are going along and not challenging the most toxic ideologues in the room whose ideology seems to resemble the supremacist movements they rail against.While we’re on that, my despotic social conservative reactionary ideology doesn’t even have the room for the hate that many are attributing to it. We still just disagree.Let’s take something light, just to illustrate a few points. The other day, I had a rather tongue-in-cheek answer about the MS Monopoly board game. It seems telling when you argue against institutionalized sexism and specifically write in rules that start girls off with $1900 to a boy starting off $1500 and where girls get $40 more than the boys every time they pass “GO”. It’s like we’re watching a real life version of Smosh’s Woke Games.I made the arguments that games like this are a parody of many advocacy programs more than a solution to any kind of social problem. To overcome supposed sexism in the world, it literally writes sexism into the game.I also argued that girls who try to play this game are going to have a rude awakening when no one will play with them. Not only will boys turn and go play something else, but so will the other girls who don’t feel an ingrained desire by their blue haired aunts to play games where they are given an unfair advantage. So the only ones left will be girls, nullifying any advantage. But when you program in that idea that some sort of systemic bigotry and socioeconomic coincidence of birth is the reason why you lose, rather than ability, they’ll be bickering between one another about who has greater disadvantage and deserves more in compensation. Rather than having a (one-sided) discussion on gender economics, they’ll start treating victimhood as a virtue in itself. Eventually, these little girls will be at each other’s throats as to why they deserve more of an advantage. Meanwhile the girls who like playing with boys will be outside having fun.It’s truly toxic messaging which we conservatives can laugh at (as well as many others), but it needs to be clear, I will never let my daughter play this game.If feminists thought like conservatives, they would see a world where absolutely nothing is fair. Everyone has specific advantages and disadvantages, and these traits are what make each of us unique and specifically made to contribute to society in a way no one else is. For some, that’s as Marines, for others, it’s as CEOs, doctors, mothers, and board game designers. Some things women are specifically better at, and others, men are better. One of those, you’ll notice, is specific to women, however. This is an inequality. As a man, I can’t be a mother. Even if something were to happen to my wife, I can’t transition into raising our daughter the way a mother would. I can be a good father, but I can only be mediocre at the parts of being a mother I even can do. This is just part of what conservatives mean about fairness — nothing is fair, nor should it be.Instead, we should be special. I know, like “special snowflake,” right? No, not like that. It isn’t just celebrating us for our existence and railing against anyone who has ever made us feel bad, but celebrating and encouraging the things that make us unique. Specifically, it’s encouraging that uniqueness that makes us specifically suited to solve particular problems for others that others can’t.But when we raise our daughters to think that the world should be fair, particularly by writing rules that are intentionally unfair, we deprive them of a necessary lesson that no matter what their situation is, they have the power to improve it themselves. Did I say each and every person is capable of pulling up their bootstraps and building a fortune 500 company? No, you want limited safety nets, sure, we can talk about those, but too many of the people suffer from learned helplessness; being told that they can’t so long that they believe it. That’s a tragic waste of life, but one far too common today to do nothing about. But for my daughter, I won’t give her that lesson. “Life’s not fair — and shouldn’t be” will be a lesson I teach her. I will say that life isn’t fair, so she has to always be working towards something better. I’ll also teach her the most dangerous thing she can do is wait around for someone who isn’t as equally committed to her as she is to them to reach out and save her, or write the rules just so that she can win through an advantage she didn’t deserve.While we are talking about uniqueness, I might as well cross that bridge — men and women are different.… and that’s okay.It’s important, actually, because the ways in which women are better, they complete some necessary holes in a man’s wholeness; and where men are better, they do the same for women. No one is perfect, but we are more perfect when we find someone committed to us just as much as we are committed to them. Women can survive just fine on their own. By the lifestyle that I described earlier, many thrive. Men can live just fine on their own, too. But we’re better together.What would you call that? “Marriage,” yes, I’m sure you were thinking of that, but something else is formed when two people join in holy matrimony — a family.While the two of us can come and go our separate ways and live just fine apart, the two of us in that union of differences are most obviously brought together for children. When we review the data, it’s clear that children who do best are those raised by their biological father and biological mother who are married together in their home. The evidence is clear that children raised in traditional families fare better on a host of measurements for success [13], and that children raised in single parent arrangements suffer the most.[14] It’s enough to make one realize that marriage was never invented for two people to celebrate their love or declare it to the world. Marriage certainly wasn’t meant to be a perpetual honeymoon, a childless sexual bliss of two best friends with benefits who live together. Marriage was invented for children.For that reason, marriage isn’t a union of identicals. If the purpose is raising children, it involves roles — a father acting like a father and a mother acting like a mother. You’re free to disagree, and argue for variance. Fine, but children aren’t a social experiment in how far can we deviate before something breaks. Women are naturally better at certain roles as a product of their biology. Men see this but can’t fathom this when they look at the bond a mother has with her children, a product no doubt related to nearly a year of carrying the child and more in the intimacy of nursing. This makes us different and for that reason, these roles need to exist. If you care about children, then the traditional family structure is clearly the best we have yet come up with.This is why I see part of my job as a father as I raise my daughter as not just to raise her to be empowered, but to teach her what a good husband looks, acts, and thinks like, and to save herself for only him — because that will be how I help my grandchildren best.There are other major differences between men and women, and if we love women, we need to acknowledge them.Men are more dangerous.There, it’s been said. Men are more dangerous. Their physical build, muscle mass, and the aggressive parts of our brains were engineered to be strong enough to survive the weeks long hunts our species had to endure for food. More than that, we were selectively bred by countless prehistoric wars that specifically targeted for execution those men who couldn’t fight. Men are far stronger, larger, and more physically dangerous than women.I wrote an answer a while back about women in the US infantry failing to pass the difficult training requirements. Some looked at the statistical disparity as evidence of sexism, as in the willing act to filter women from passing the tests. The simple fact was that there wasn’t. Statistically almost no women could pass some of the tests, but they were the same tests designed for average troops. But average troops — were men. A test that was created to measure physical fitness and the ability to overcome challenging obstacles, those which may be encountered by a Marine infantry unit in combat, one which never asked if you were a woman or a man at the beginning, was insanely good at filtering men from women. These were extremely well done scientific studies and they pointed to the indisputable fact that most male Marines can complete the tests while most female Marines, a remarkably physically fit sample of the female gender already, can’t. Add to this any other proofs you need, such as what we learn from sports, and it becomes clear in some regards, equality is impossible.This one stuck out to me the most in my studies. A study of grip tests between men and women. The name says it all — nearly every man is stronger than nearly every woman.That spells out certain realities, particularly when it comes to sex. It says that women are extremely vulnerable to men. No matter how angry I get at feminists who make some of the irrational, or frankly hateful claims some of them do, things like like arguing that men’s rights is a joke, sexism against men is perfectly fine, men should suffer to level the playing field, or that due process should not be granted to men if one claims rape… I think to myself, “I bet there is history there. There must be a reason that someone could hold these beliefs, and that that reason has a high probability of being extreme trauma at the hands of a man.Men are more dangerous than women — but only a very few will be dangerous to women.If it hasn’t been said enough before, it needs to be said again — telling men not to rape won’t do a thing. There is a small minority of men who are simply predators.They feed on women’s insecurities and their vulnerabilities. They’re the first to say things like, “I care so much about protecting women.” You can’t “teach men not to rape”. Sexual liberation failed because it made it a thousand times easier to put more women in bed with more of these men, which is why so many of them like to strut around their “This is what a feminist looks like” shirts.Mind you, I’m not happy about any of this. If I had a magic wand, all these men would be either castrated or killed. That’s not a real solution, as we can’t know who these men are until after someone is victimized. That’s why there are things women can and should do beyond tweeting about teaching men not to do things 99% don’t do anyway. First, stop being reflexively afraid of guns as the tool of bad guys. They’re just tools, and can be yours too. The greatest feminists in the world were the two men who did more to level the playing field between men and women than anyone in human history. Their names were Smith and Wesson.But beyond this, what women can and should do (since simply telling men not to rape won’t do anything to the small percentage of men who will regardless) is surround themselves with good men. Part of this is the ability to pick good men you can trust who can both be someone you can like… no matter who they become later on in life, as well as be the obstacle other men stay away from. From a conservative standpoint, I feel good men like that are hard to find. They aren’t just made that way through education or from clever social media campaigns. They are chiseled out of the raw stone from whence they came by social processes like the family, church, a strong community, and mostly, by their own fathers.All of these are in decline today, so I am afraid for women as much as anyone, being that someday my daughter will leave our own home, and I have no idea what the world will look like if “progress” continues.I know. All of this is abhorrent speech for our 2019 America. It’s toxic masculinity, I’m sure. But let me ask women, in 2019, do you feel happier? Do you feel more liberated? Do you feel safer? Did #metoo or that actually toxic Gillette ad make you empowered? No? But it’s pretty clear that there’s been a rise of misandry, the hatred of men, and hatred towards the very institutions best suited to make the kind of masculinity that keeps women safe, happy, and loved.Since we’ve covered the hard part, let’s move on to something easy.Let’s talk about abortion.You say that no one should withhold reproductive rights from women. I think it’s a human baby and killing her is murder. Yes, I chose “her” in the last sentence because the word “it” doesn’t convey the point that I believe these babies to be people, and that half of those people are girls.A point must be made. When I say that I view abortion as murder I don’t view the women who have abortions to be murderers. This is often a talking point used to attack pro-life candidates. While there have been politicians who suggest punishing abortions, it isn’t a mainstream notion that the women are murderers.What I and many others believe is that many women who have abortions are under a severe state of duress brought about by conflict between ending a life or the perception that by going through with it, they’ve ended their own.There is a very narrow band of what a “good life” appears to be to many in the modern day, and for many women, that is limited to being a powerful career woman on a fast track to more power, wealth, and independence from anyone. Motherhood obviously complicates that. So the modern narrative of, “you’ve ruined your life” by having a baby is a belief that I can see many, many women suffering from. I don’t believe having a baby equates to a ruined life. It’s just a different life than the one you envisioned, or more to the point, the one that others prescribed for you. Most importantly, motherhood is a lifestyle where you’re not at the center of your own priorities. For many feminists, those seeking power by pushing women into places of power, a future where women aspire to be mothers first is contradictory to the mission of their feminism. So we’re left with a view of motherhood not as something difficult, but something that “ruined” a young woman’s life.It must be said, entering into motherhood outside of marriage does make life harder on the mother and the child. Having a child before graduating high school makes life harder on both. The statistics on this are extremely clear — but ending the life of the baby is not better. I don’t view, as many seem to suggest, that having an abortion will put that woman’s life “back on track”. You’re not on a track. There is no track. It’s just life. Abortion is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. But this value we indoctrinate into young people that success looks only a certain way, and that for girls, having children will ruin your life — it creates that sense of duress that affects decision making should they follow through with the consequences of sexual liberation.I say that because I’ve met several women who had abortions and regretted it. One was a woman in the Marines, a military police officer. We were on a cycle of working in a guard duty together during my first deployment to Iraq. She liked working with me because, as a married Marine, I never tried to get her to sleep with me like the other desperate young Marines. We would be alone and isolated on far off parts of the base all night long, so I understand now what a frustration that could be. We got close and talked a lot to pass the hours. We were on post one night and for reasons I can’t remember, she confessed to me that she had an abortion. She then started to break down and cry. I just reached over and held her as she cried on my shoulder from something that happened years before.Here was what would have been the quintessential feminist icon, a sexually liberated powerful young woman breaking gender stereotypes as a US Marine, completely broken by the decision to have an abortion. I held her and I loved her through that until she stopped crying. I never made her feel judged for that, but I never forgot either. People who say that having an abortion didn’t affect them, that they are glad they did it, I sincerely don’t believe most of them after that night.No, I think that most abortions make decisions under duress, something that is only compounded when the first people some of them reach out to push abortion reflexively as means to provide a quick fix, many with no concern for how it could affect them later on in life, but just to validate their own beliefs and ideology.Speaking with regard to the people we turn to, many years ago there was a study done called the Milgram experiments. Milgram tested how far someone could go if told to do something by someone they trusted. In the experiment, an actor with nothing more than a labcoat, a superficial show of authority, instructed a volunteer being studied to administer what they believed to be an electric shock to another actor. What they found was that when a person wearing a lab coat told them to do it, many people administered the shock to the point that they “killed” the actor. [15]I think about this when I think about a young woman entering an abortion clinic, or where their mother, aunt, sister, or friend tell her “have it taken care of” until they have a “real baby”. Worse, I think about how many do it at the behest of their boyfriends. I think about that and I think about the Marine I served with that night. I think about that and I wonder how many women struggle with decisions they made, the life that isn’t, and how they got there. I worry about these women, especially considering how many would face criticism or hate for admitting that they feel regret.I say this because I look at how far abortion has gone since I was a child. When I was a child the Clinton doctrine was that abortions should be “safe, legal and rare.” Abortions are usually safe (though some exceptions should be bigger news[16]) and we are pushing back on making more and more extremes in abortions more and more legal, but what about rare? There are upwards of 1,000,000 abortions in the United States a year. [17]What happened to rare? At least under Clinton there was an acknowledgment that grief is involved. Grief over what? No one would acknowledge that consequence, but it was at least acknowledged that women were suffering. Today, however, we see women from podiums celebrating the fact that they had an abortion, multiples even, to the applause of the crowd. Rather than “rare”, abortion has become a rite of passage among hard-line feminists.[18]It’s “empowering” and it’s the “compassionate” thing to do to end a baby’s life who can’t live a full life (see my complaints on “ruined your life”.) And because of this, we have a push to push back abortion later and later, to where some Democrats have argued that living breathing born babies could be aborted after a discussion between the provider and the mother. [19]And finally, one needs to see this from my perspective. I feel that many women who have abortions are spiritually damaged forever by that decision, far more than a biased media let on for fear of angering progressive activists. More so than this, I think that the ultimate consequence is killing a human being. When we think about the numbers involved, around a million a year — it’s a holocaust. I’m allowed to be against that. I’m allowed to fight that. I’m allowed to say we should stop abortion as a practice.It’s not simply a matter of your body; your choice. Normal people don’t have a right to kill other people. I’ve made clear that I don’t believe that most women who have abortions are knowingly murdering them ( a grace I don’t confer to abortion providers), but I do believe abortion is murder, and it is wide scale. If this was something like tattoos, whatever — your body; your choice, but it isn’t. Whether you agree or not — to me and millions like me — it’s about a human baby. Saying I don’t have a right to protest this is in no way different than saying to Americans in World War II that they have no right to protest the treatment of the Jews in Germany because they weren’t Germans. As has often been said to us, the right to deny other people’s rights is not a denial of your rights.Now, I want objective readers to read all of that and ask yourselves one thing. Even if you disagree with everything I shared, a summary of all the conservative arguments of mainline modern feminist views — did you see any hate?I’m very critical of modern feminism. I feel that it’s won whatever battles were necessary, and some were. It may have started as a movement but then became an ideology. That ideology has gone so far beyond the aims of the original suffragettes it now seems to be an ideology looking for enemies. It creates in its members a sense of both victimhood and moral-superiority, part of that, being the belief that people who disagree with them hate them. Nowhere in any of the beliefs I shared did anything I say provide evidence that I, as a representative of at least my brand of conservatism, hate feminism, women, or anyone.Conservatives don’t actually hate feminists — we disagree with many of their views about what the most important problems of today are and the proposals meant to solve them. Maybe some have crossed that point that they do hate feminism as a toxic ideology with a nice slogan, but produces only toxic mindsets trying to empower women only by punishing men. I’m sure some believe that, but the vast majority believe what I just said. Treating conservatives as if all of them hate you just because they disagree or because a very small number probably do by this point is “painting with broad strokes”, which we’re told so often is wrong when we do it. Furthermore, it feels as if disagreeing with feminists is being treated as hate crime, as if our motivations for disagreement is some mysterious hatred synonymous with the Holocaust or black lynchings. That so many on the left seem to either lack the ability to distinguish between disagreement and full blown hatred, or perhaps an unwillingness to, is what is losing them support among everyone, not just conservatives.I doubt my arguments changed any feminists’ minds. That’s fine, but why I wrote it is that many people, feminist or not, will have to deal with a reality that hate doesn’t explain our views, and that falling on hate as an excuse for why our arguments must be ignored won’t work anymore.Relaxed. Researched. Respectful. - War ElephantFootnotes[1] Most Americans don’t consider themselves feminists[2] Poll: Don't Call Me This (Even If It's True)[3] Women's March in Washington shuns pro-life groups[4] 97% employees who die at work are men (2009-2014 figures) - insideMAN[5] https://www.cbc.ca/radio/the180/why-louis-ck-is-wrong-to-police-ticket-sales-diversity-in-the-judiciary-and-domestic-violence-against-men-1.3775006/men-are-victims-of-domestic-violence-more-often-than-you-think-1.3776182[6] National Parents Organization[7] Are Divorce Courts Unfair to Men? - The American Interest[8] Homelessness is a gendered issue, and it mostly impacts men[9] Suicide Statistics[10] Harvard Study Confirms the Gender Wage Gap is Just a Myth[11] A Different Kind of Gender Gap: Seven Places Where Women Earn More Than Men[12] Southern Poverty Law Center Hits At 'Factual Feminist' Christina Hoff Sommers[13] Column: Why family matters, and why traditional families are still best[14] The Negative Effects of Single Parent Homes on Children[15] How The Milgram Experiment Proved Everyday Humans Are Capable Of Evil[16] Abortion Clinic Requests No Lights and Sirens for Ambulance to Hide Botched Abortions[17] Number of Abortions in US & Worldwide[18] Activist Brags About Her Abortion at Democrat Convention: It Was a “Compassionate” Decision[19] Virginia governor under fire for endorsing 'post-birth abortion'