Came across this comment thread months too late in my kinja journeys. You post some wonderful comments. I spent 12 months in Afghanistan with the Army back in '10-'11 during the "Afghan surge" in Kandahar Province. I can echo a lot of what you say, esp. stars in the sky and some of the wildest storms I ever saw. I…

To be nitpicky, nobody goes to Leavenworth for tickytack UCMJ violations. In fact, the only people who go to Leavenworth (other than MAJs trying to be LTCs) are serious offenders who have received longer sentences (roughly 5 years or more). Everyone else gets sent to regional confinement facilities in places like…

Bravo. I’ve handled my fair share of sexual assault prosecutions, and this is, IMHO, the purest and most rational reason to report (which is not to denigrate or devalue other more personal or “inward-looking” reasons like, wanting justice/retribution/punishment). False reporting is extremely low precisely because…

This is an invitation to disaster for most folks, particularly women, who in most of if not all of these Muslim societies should never be roaming around alone looking for drugs.

Goat shit dip? The morning coffee of southern Kandahar province, other than weed/hash, which might be the morning bacon and eggs over there. The joes I deployed with procured small hits of black tar heroin mixed with any number of local ingredients pretty easy. You could dip it (most common use), or try to smoke it…

The “by accident” advice is terrible. While being oblivious is great for not looking suspicious, when a screener feeling particularly sleuthy that day decides to ask you to open up your bag and they find that dime bag, UH OH. That whole “I had no idea that was in there, I SWEAR” works real well, as in never. If your…

I’ve never understood why so many people think Maggie Gyllenhal is attractive, by Hollywood standards. IMHO, she's made a decent enough acting career with her slightly above average looks and the limited range of her acting abilities.

#7 - So damn true. I went through adolescence in the early 90’s, during which I discovered grunge and Dave more or less around the same time. Dave was the only serious reason to be watching non-cable TV that late (no Skinemax in my house). He pretty much embodied the slacker resentment and cynicism towards everything…

Just a great flick. Nothing really makes sense, as in most Besson films, but it is a vision you wont see anywhere else in cinema. Natalie Portman’s best performance. After this film, she tried to act with mixed results, but here she just channels a zany NYC girl on the cusp of puberty without even really trying to…

So true on all counts. Freedom is an unbearable mess. That it was so acclaimed says much about the sorry state of contemporary American "literature" and literary criticism. American Beauty has not aged well, IMHO. It's not awful, but compared to how hailed it was at the time it won Oscars, it is a glossy, overrated,…

All I can say is, after reading him for years, I developed a specific notion in my head about he might be like in person. Then the first time I saw him talk on TV was a WTF moment. Really reinforced the sense that he's basically just a 13 y/o boy who got gray hair, spawned, and got a fat paycheck but who mentally…

I liked Simmons' Page 2 pieces during the "golden era" of Page 2, mostly just because Hunter S. Thompson was there as well. I didn't read SI, avoided old man columns like MMQB, and Sports Guy seemed to capture the right zeitgeist for a 23 y/o with time to kill at work and an obsession with fantasy sports. But I jumped…

Isn't Brooks basically the NYT/PBS version of MSNBC/WSJ's Peggy Noonan? Both wander the world in a foggy, overly-ponderous haze and see the universe's great ills in every little meaningless moment of their self-important daily lives. Self-proclaimed conservatives who are too liberal and elitist to live anywhere but…

Reading this, I'm surprised at how much "edgier" the comedy was in the 90's, tackling serious subjects in a subversive but still funny way. Today, Macklemore writes a cheesy song about how we should all not be dicks to LGBTs and it's deemed a towering feat of pop culture activism and courage. ILC first aired when I…

Not disagreeing with you, but goddamn all that didn't amount to shit when Manziel took over as QB. You'd think the Browns were in full blown rebuild mode right now, which they might as well be given how much Manziel negated all the positives of the team.

Ray only does La Liga I think. Thank God. If Twellman and Hudson got paired up to call EPL games for US audiences, would that cause mass rioting?

I bought a new Sonata for my mom last year without financing. I consider myself a relatively well-informed car buyer and did what this post advises the 2 previous times I bought a car. None of the 10 or so dealerships I dealt with offered any benefit to me for paying up front. In fact, a few offered an additional…

When I got a Honda Odyssey (after a couple years of doing the 2-sedan caravan so that my wife, 2 kids, and 2 in-laws could all go to church together on Sundays), it was amazing. I hadn't bought a new car in like 10 years, so I had none of the many awesome features that cars got standard after 2004 (aux. input(!),…

Shitting on Greggggg is just too easy. Anyone other than the cast of Jersey Shore should be prohibited by law from doing it. Giving Greggggg a "football" column on a major media outlet is like giving a loaded Tech-9 to a morose 15 y/o kid who just got teased by a girl for being gross and ugly. Only bad things happen…

As a Niners fan, I am totally resigned to the fact that firing Harbaugh was such a bad decision it merits a Red-Sox/Cubs-like Curse of the Harbaugh, which is basically what the next 10 losing seasons will be in miniature form. Niners will win enough games to never get a #1 pick, or get the #1 pick in a year with crap…