And another link to an interview with Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, stressing how important realism was to the project:

Who said I approach every movie with such a literal point of view?

You make some good points, not all of which I agree with. I think Bigelow was shooting for realism — why shoot in Jordan and recreate Baghdad and hire Arab extras if you're just going for metaphor and not realism? It does not need to be a literally true story to be realistic and actually draw the viewer into the world…

My comment was admittedly perfunctory and negative, so I can get why you seem so antagonistic in your reply. I, and other people who have served, are not really that critical about The Hurt Locker because it's "drippy." It's because it was unrealistic and while purporting to give "the public at large" a glimpse into…

OK, that's a fair point. I personally didn't like it because of that, but you and I probably approach a movie like that differently.

Wait, what? Military veterans have direct experience in the subject matter and can comment directly on how realistically the movie depicted its subjects. I just can't agree with your premise. Like the movie all you want for its entertainment value, it's just not a realistic war movie.

IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW, FREEDOM ISN'T FREE, BARAMOS. Hope you like the terrorists winning.

Yeah! Let's hear it for the law degree-havin' unemployeds!

What in the wild blue fuck…

I haven't met a single Iraq or Afghanistan veteran who didn't think that movie was a steaming pile of shit.

I see someone sort of answered this below, but most companies have an Employee Assistance Program that is usually confidential. Like another poster said, though, check the confidentiality rules. The EAP at my old state agency was pretty strictly confidential (unless you were planning on harming yourself or others) to…

Proactive? Isn't that just a buzzword that dumb people use to sound important?

Yeah, when I was in the Army we had mounted Surefires on our M4s, and I knew a few street cops and people in my agency who had mounted weapon lights, but you had to get special permission for that and then get permission for the tac light-compatible holster. And even those guys would go old-school in some situations…

Ha! I definitely yelled "pedestrians have the right of way!" to a cyclist who almost creamed me and my wife as we were crossing at a crosswalk on 17th St. in DC. (He yelled "fuck you!" and flipped us off). Your response is much more clever.

My wife had nearly identical experiences numerous times while a pedestrian in downtown DC — she had the right of way in the crosswalk and a cyclist blew a red light and almost hit her.

Gang way for footcycle!

My wife walked to work in downtown DC and almost got creamed by asshole cyclists at least half a dozen times. I think it's a different breed down there.

Ha! I saw that, too. Why do you have to double-cuff Alec Baldwin? Is he cultivating too much mass?

Wrong kid died!

Aww, that hurt my feeling. :(