Panasonic Auto-Shop, I thought Officers could in fact get court-martial'ed, like this scumbag:

Panasonic Auto-Shop, I thought Officers could in fact get court-martial'ed, like this scumbag:

PensiveFeast, that's a better and more heartfelt remembrance than what he got in the show.  Same the characters can't do a pierce-the-4th-wall moment and say something like that…

PensiveFeast, that's a better and more heartfelt remembrance than what he got in the show.  Same the characters can't do a pierce-the-4th-wall moment and say something like that…

Good point.  In the military they're called PAOs or Public Affairs Officers, and they along with very senior officers are typically the people you see in front of the mike at press conferences.  They're basically exactly the same sort of people you find doing PA work anywhere except they wear a uniform to work. …

Good point.  In the military they're called PAOs or Public Affairs Officers, and they along with very senior officers are typically the people you see in front of the mike at press conferences.  They're basically exactly the same sort of people you find doing PA work anywhere except they wear a uniform to work. …

Just like the US military today, if the aliens' objective is to kill people and break stuff, they can achieve that in no time.  Vastly superior force gets you the ability to do that, but only that.  If the objective is different, then you find yourself in the same position the US finds itself in: trying to achieve…

Just like the US military today, if the aliens' objective is to kill people and break stuff, they can achieve that in no time.  Vastly superior force gets you the ability to do that, but only that.  If the objective is different, then you find yourself in the same position the US finds itself in: trying to achieve…

Pairesta, we must be similar ages because that was exactly my reaction to the guinea pig / face ripping scene in V that I refuse to watch now because I really don't want to know how cheesy it really was; I want to remember it as it was seared onto my eyeballs and kept me awake for a month as a child.

Pairesta, we must be similar ages because that was exactly my reaction to the guinea pig / face ripping scene in V that I refuse to watch now because I really don't want to know how cheesy it really was; I want to remember it as it was seared onto my eyeballs and kept me awake for a month as a child.

No one will probably read this since it's been a couple weeks since the US release and by now hopefully America is ready to pick itself up and soldier on after the indignity that is the Battleship release.  However, I must give voice to my feelings on this film, which I gave a D- because I don't think it worthy of the…

Sacrelicious, I caught a brief on the idea behind the digital camo patterns, and the basic idea is the little dots will appear at a distance to be larger than they are when you're standing in front of a background of the same color.  So, if you have a dark brown background and your uniform has some dark flecks in the…

I think that's about the size of it; everyone else had a digital camo pattern, and the Navy picked blue probably more for contrast with the other services and because someone thought they looked cool than due to any practical value.  Which is OK with me, except when you travel a lot you have to pack the full load of…

In the 90's, all the services had standardized on the good old green woodland cammies as a work uniform.  Durable, inexpensive, and when you get out and grow a beard to go with your dreadlocks, all you have to do is cut them off below the knee and you've got some shorts to go with your flip flops with nice big pockets…

Actually, we don't have any more battleships.  I'm guessing since they filmed this in Hawaii, they used the USS Missouri as a set since it's now a museum in Pearl Harbor.  Pretty sure it's not a coincidence they picked the ship the Japanese signed the surrender papers on to end World War II to be placed next to the…

I'm wearing a set of the hated "blueberries" right now on board a Navy ship in the Pacific.  The fact that they blend in perfectly with the ocean when viewed from above has been thought of by everyone in the Navy except, evidently, the geniuses who picked them out.  The official explanation for the pattern is that…

Also, strip clubs.  I can't stand anything about strip clubs.  I can't figure out who has it worse in a strip club: the objectified and harassed strippers or the desperate and delusional customers.  I spent four years in an incredibly awkward place where the girls thought I was pathetic (high school) and am loathe to…

Is this thing broken?  Why aren't there any comments here?  Damn DISQUS…

For the record, I think the column's a great idea.  On the topic of comparing YA to other genres, do you ever get the feeling calling these books YA is less an indicator that the writing is targeted at teenagers or more a marketing thing to keep these books off the Fantasy & Science Fiction shelves?  

Agreed on the 'smug asshole' assessment of Mr. Stein of the above referenced article.  I plan to read what my kids are reading when they're old enough, both to encourage their literacy and to help them deal with the pants-shitting terror they may experience if the standards of acceptable violence in current YA books…