Diabolus Ex Machina: Difference between revisions

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== Newspaper Comics ==

* In ''[[Funky Winkerbean]]'', Wally (nephew<ref>Or younger brother or younger cousin. Their relationship depends on which reference you check</ref> of the title character) had just returned from a trip return trip to Iraq, with his new bride and newly adopted orphaned waif in tow. The future looked bright for the young Winkerbeans... until Wally got a letter from the Army telling him that he was technically A.W.O.L., because his discharge was issued ''one day too early''. As a result, Wally was ordered back to active duty to serve a full year's tour of duty. The readership was pretty sure that [[Did Not Do the Research|discharges don't work like that]] (even the ones incorrectly filed) and could've fought the order if he wanted (and almost certainly won). [[Honor Before Reason|But he fought the war instead.]] As an extra kick in the metaphorical nads, Becky finds out she's pregnant just in time for Wally to get shipped off. [[Deus Angst Machina|An extra EXTRA kick]] was administered when the second [[Time Skip]] came about and Wally was nowhere to be found. Turns out that for the entire second [[Time Skip]], Wally was held captive by insurgents (which, frankly, could merit it's own [[Did Not Do the Research]] entry).

** Which is of course nonsense. Your term of service is what are you obligated to serve ''unless excused''. The government can discharge you from military service at any time it wants, for any reason it wants, and shazam, you are legally discharged. They just usually ''won't'' because they went to all the trouble of training you, so are they going to get their full use out of you. But if they fill out your discharge papers one day early, sign them, stamp them, and put them into effect... that simply means that you have been excused from one day's worth of military service. Pack your seabag and go home.

** Ironically, the author's [[Did Not Do the Research|complete ignorance]] on military discharges was such that he overlooked an entirely ''legal'' way to suddenly recall Wally to service. All initial enlistment contracts are for ''eight'' years of service obligation, not four. The typical arrangement is only four years of active duty and then four more years of 'Individual Ready Reserve' status, the practical upshot being that short of medical disability, Bad Conduct Discharge, etc., you can be yanked back in entirely at their discretion up until eight years have passed since your initial enlistment. The recruiter is required to make durn sure you understand this before you sign.

* If you're going into the funny pages, [[Peanuts|Charlie Brown]] learned that the demon of heartbreaking sports losses can attack ''after'' the end of the game, when he had a rare win stripped from him over a "gambling scandal" (Rerun betting Snoopy a nickel that they would win). [[Gretzky Has the Ball|Can they do that? No, seriously, can they?]]

* [[Curtis|* GULP!* ]] [[Kids Are Cruel|It's Derrick and]] [[Only Known by Their Nickname|"Onion"!]]

== Professional Wrestling ==