While I'm not a veteran, I game with friends who are retired and active-duty combat vets, including infantry types with multiple tours in current wars. On the rare occasions when we've talked about this topic, they say that first person shooters are so incredibly unlike actual combat that they really don't draw any…

I know that I'm risking a massive Jezebelian flaming for saying this, but I think "Her claim is valid until there is overwhelming proof supporting the contrary" is dangerous and wrong.

I'm a Red Cross disaster volunteer in Detroit. (We go inside these houses after DFD's done with them, and help residents with emergency food, clothing, shelter, etc.) I can't begin to describe how much respect I have for Detroit firefighters after spending time around them, and how much I think their stories deserve…

Y'all need to update your GM HQ stock photo. The Ren Cen's had snazzy digital signage for months.

Game's postponed until tomorrow.

Holy crap. My, what, fourth comment on Jalop and it gets a COTD?

This reminds me of a parable I use all the time in business situations:

One option: Pick one charity. Make it one that's meaningful to you for some personal reason. Do real due diligence on it. Then funnel 100% of your personal/family charity budget to it — financially, as a volunteer, as an advocate, etc. You'll make a real difference, you'll get much more personal satisfaction from…

There were a number of points in that pilot that were creepily close to a documentary of my experience as a stay-at-home father whose wife returned to a full-time job fairly soon after birth. ("Don't just sit here and play video games all day." — Actual quote.) I agree that they need to decide whether or not they're…

People in Houston were without power for up to two weeks after Hurricane Ike, and they're far from unprepared for hurricanes there. Assuming everything will be back to normal in 24 hours after a hurricane or other strong storm in any major city is overoptimistic.

They're American F-15SGs of the USAF 428th Fighter Squadron, which has the mission to train RSAF pilots and ground crew on long-term deployments. Hence the USAF squadron, wing, base and command markings — since they're still USAF-owned aircraft — but the RSAF lion.

"Only a dynamic relationship between theology and science can reveal those limits which support the integrity of either discipline, so that theology does not profess a pseudo-science and science does not become an unconscious theology." — Pope John Paul II, 1988

The Civilization games and the Sims.

Fuck yeah, Magnapop. Of all the concerts I've seen, they're still the only band to have a bass player dislocate his own shoulder onstage through excessive rocking.

Concussions, like other sports injuries, happen. They're a natural outcome of how we throw our bodies around in many games.

@bondjunkie: We don't have enough people left here to put together a good riot.

@RyanXP: Don't forget Drew Stanton. When your 2-6 team would rather play Shaun Hill with a cast on his broken arm than let you into the game, you've defined "bad quarterback."

@Sheed's Bald Spot: Every team would benefit from a Rasheed Wallace.

Jack Buck replaced Brent Musburger in the CBS baseball booth. This is like replacing a root canal with a catheterization.

"I am a HUGE pussy."