I'm going to start off by saying that, on principle, I support the concept of striking/protesting/and demonstration. If you have a problem with what the government or an organization is doing, then do something to let your dissatisfaction be heard.

So long as two aspects are considered:

1)you have a clear goal/message you want conveyed.
2)you have a relevant and productive means in which to convey it.

The Occupations have neither.

You can ask any two Occupiers and get three reasons why they're protesting that have nothing to do with one-another. Look at the reasons for yourself. Is this about income disparity between the 99% and the 1%? Is it about campaign financing? Debt? Bail-outs? Taxes? Nobody knows. And so the "movement", such as it is, has failed to meet the first requirement. What's worse is that this seems to have been a conscious and intentionally made decision on their part. The Occupiers revel in not having leadership or an "agenda".

Then there is their means. Camping out in city streets waving signs for months at a time.

What have they thus far accomplished with this tactic? Well, directly, they have reduced foot traffic to numerous shops and cafes, which has lead to hundreds of people getting laid off. So, if the target of this movement is waiters and latte barristas, then I guess it was a success. If they were after the wealthy owners and corporations that employed them...not so much. The wealthy coffee shop owner is already wealthy. Lowering his cafe's sales won't hurt him. The employees that he fires due to the lack of business however...

So yeah, failure the second.

Thus I have little to no sympathy when they are "brutalized" as they fail to dispersed as instructed. They have done nothing but make the situation worse for the very people that they claim they are trying to champion. If they want to "help" the 99%, they can go home and let these people they are getting laid off go back to work to support their families. Enough people are unemployed without adding to it in the name of "fairness".

Like any Michael Bay film, T3 was cinematic brilliance. I don't want to think about how long it took to design and animate all of those characters, they outdo themselves with every movie it seems like.

Now if only they could hire on a few of the writers that BioWare uses...

My single greatest gripe has got to be the stupendous plot-hole they created with regards to their plan to rebuild Cybertron. Oh, and "spoiler alerts", btw. I'll give them a pass about how they were collecting the pillars in the 60's, when Megatron and the Matrix wouldn't be found for another forty years. Maybe the bridge was the plan all the time, and that was why they were coming to Earth. Fine, I can buy that. So...

Why did the plot of the second movie revolve around blowing up the sun? I mean, if the whole reason you came to Earth was to enslave its population to rebuild your home, then why would you try to wipe them all out?

My second biggest gripe is the cast. Not the human cast, though Shia was a bit of a screamer in this one. Nor was it the voice actors. In fact, I love that they brought in yet another Transformers voice actor veteran(Nemoy vis a vis Galvetron, anyone?). That was a nice bonus for those of us who knew the show as kids. I'm actually more curious about the autobot team members.

Where did all the new faces come from, and where did the old ones go? RC and a few others were noticeably absent, while the "wreckers" seemed to come out of nowhere. And before you bring up the ship, I was under the impression that that explained where RC et al had come from in the second movie. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see them flashing as many characters as they can, seeing as how there was quite a menagerie across all of the series they made. I'm just asking for a little exposition or a handwave.

I'm also curious about how much money Cisco put into this movie. Seriously. It should have been Cisco Systems Presents: Transformers: Dark of the Moon. They were at least able to justify the car placements, since, you know, they're cares.

Bottom line, it is a fun movie. The action is great, they have a couple good zingers, just don't expect anyone to walk away with an Oscar for it outside of special effects.

Now this has to be one of the more interesting articles that I've come across as of late.

Turns out that life wasn't so much some great cosmic coincidence, as it was a cosmic mistake! I guess that shouldn't really be so surprising, since for all intents and purposes, natural evolution is do to mutations that occur in genetic code during meiosis. Why shouldn't life advance for the same reasons it came about in the first place?

The greatest criminal in American history has been slain after a decade long hunt. His most recent safe-house? A building not more than a couple blocks from the Pakistani's equivalent of West Point.

On the one hand, the chances of this being a mere coincidence are impossibly slim. The most wanted and recognizable man in the world, and he's been living for years right under the noses of an "ally"? An ally who had, prior to now, been trying to convince Afghanistan to drop its support of the US, and side with our growing rival, China? An ally who has been in more or less a state of war with India for the last...forever, who has been on favorable terms with the US for quite some time. An ally who has protested and hindered our efforts to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda at nearly every turn. In fact, they were none too happy that we didn't CC them on our recent raid.

At what point again, did we decide that such a nation was either "friendly" or even "sympathetic" to us in any way, shape, fashion, or form? Heck, with all of that on the table, why shouldn't they have been sheltering Bin Laden?

Yet, on the other hand, the Taliban and Al Qaeda are responsible for well over thirty thousand Pakistani deaths in the last few years. Of course, any skeptic will tell you that if Pakistan had been getting away with their "fight" against terrorism without losing people, that'd raise all kinds of suspicion. However, totaling in both military and civilian figures, that's nearly four times the number of US dead that they have caused. The Taliban are killing four Pakistanis for every American. Even die-hard skeptics would have to admit that's a bit of a stretch. And a decent argument for Pakistan being genuinely ignorant. It's certainly the evidence of their innocence that the Pak government is going with. Just about the only evidence though...

Is it out of character for Muslims to be willing to both die and sacrifice others for their cause? Heck, it's damn near standard operating procedure for these radicals. They use child suicide bombers for crying out loud! Add to that that they're fighting for some ambiguous ideal that I'm not even certain I've really heard them state outright. Do they even really want anything? Other than to kill people and die as martyrs? It can't be about getting Islam to dominate the world, since they fight with each other more often than they fight with anyone else!

But, let's assume that Pakistan is honestly innocent and sincere...and while we're doing that, we'll also assume that US Politicians only have the American people's best interests at heart when they pass a bill in Congress. Since, you know, they seem to be equally as likely...So, yeah, if Pakistan wasn't harboring Bin Laden, then that means that their level of incompetence is staggering. A man who was presumably the focus of the entire ISI's efforts to locate, and he is camped out right in their back yard. No, in fact, it wasn't even their back yard. He was lounging on their porch, sipping a Mike's Hard Lemonade that he took from their fridge. That's how close he was.

And we want their help?

Coming up on my eighth year in the military, as well as the point where I can begin putting in the paperwork for my second extension on this tour.

Up until this point I've been juggling the two main options I see myself as having. I can call it quits after this third year overseas and head back home, picking up my life where I left off. Or, conversely, I can go for the even longer haul and just finish out my 20 years OCONUS. It wouldn't be that hard to do, I guess. I've basically assembled a comfortable life over here, and it's nice to see my savings going up at a consistent rate. If I did indeed remain here until I was 40, then I wouldn't have to get a job in the States. I could retire right then and there with enough money in the bank to see me to 90. Assuming I live that long.

The cost? Well, frankly I'd be giving up a significant chance of having a family of my own. Marriage and kids after 40 is a long shot, at best. Marriage and kids before thirty is the norm, and heading home after this next year would give me that chance. The trade off there is that I would need to spend what money I have saved on school for my degree and get a full time job. Oh, and a girl. It'd be a lot more work than the first option, but wouldn't be without its rewards.

Easy verses fulfilling.

Hopefully I'll have made my decision before I need to file for a fourth year over here.

Hard to believe that there are places in the US where gun ownership is forbidden. Fortunately, they are becoming more rare these days. However, until the day that any and all citizens can freely go anywhere with a firearm in their possession, our nation will continue to be plagued with problems that cannot be solved through any amount of legislation.

Mobilization clock that it. Went from two weeks left in theatre to twelve months. Best news I've gotten all year.

Yay for getting orders cut!

That's the only way that I can really describe the proposed "International Burn a Koran Day" gala that's going to happen in Gainesville.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for freedom of expression. I may not like that people want to burn flags and such, but I won't stop you. Sure, if I see a bunch of Phelps groupies at a funeral I'll run them over with my car, but that's because I've served in more than a few funerals, and the families of the soldier don't deserve the harassment they're directing at the service member. Certainly not at that moment. And certainly not in ear shot.

But, yeah the Koran thing:

The only thing that this will serve to accomplish is instill further resentment in all Americans by Muslims. Validate the claims of the Taliban and Al Qaeda that the US government is "attacking Islam". And it encourages people who may have been on the fence before, to go all the way over to the "dark side". Then of course there's the violence and enemy morale boost. As if they needed another after we announced plans to withdraw from Afghanistan...

The only thing I can't see is any possible good that this could do!

You want to express yourself, fine; but you should at least hope to foster something with it besides hatred and violence! Especially when you claim to be part of a religious organization!

You know who else uses religion to incite violence? The Taliban! Great going, Terry, you've become exactly what you claim to hate. Here's your free jar of Awesome Sauce&trade

It's enough to make me honestly suspect that this preacher is being paid off by Muslim militants to do this to help them recoup their losses from the last few years. From where I sit, it's the only thing that makes rational sense.

Other than the fact that he could just be another crazy moronic Christian Fundy crusading for "truth, justice, and Armageddon at all costs"...

"Repent, for the end isn't quite near enough, so I feel the need to usher it on by pouring nitroglycerin on this bonfire!"

It always starts small. That's how people let it happen. It starts out as just a little thing that only applies to a select few who's little minority objection is either glossed over, or never existed.

Then it grows.

First, it was "Unemployment". Using tax dollars to give people who had no job a salary to help them until they found work. Of course, this has since been grossly exploited by people who have found a way to live off said salary indefinitely by working "just often enough". A week at a 7/11 here. A month as a stock boy there...with a six month break of paid laziness in between. Footed by people who actually do work and thus pay the taxes that fund their sloth.

Then we have "Social Security", a government established Ponzi Scheme that was doomed to fail from the start. The Baby Boomers just killed it quicker than it would have otherwise. Heck, it would have failed even sooner if they didn't keep raising the age where you finally start to collect. This probably only slipped by because when it was proposed, nobody had to wherewithal to ask why it made sense to be forced to pay into something for 40+ years, if you'd only be able to collect from it for maybe 10?

Now, of course, the big one is "Healthcare Reform", whereby people are having what is ostensibly a fee levied against them for breathing. The kicker? If you don't want to pay that fee, they'll hit you with a special "tax". All of this in the interests of providing better health care to Americans by bankrupting the health insurance companies and overtaxing the doctors by suddenly making every hospital in the country a 'free clinic'.

All of these have, or will, come to pass. From where I sit, it's just a matter of time before the next logical step is taken. I mean, they've already redistributed our wealth. Now our health. What's left? Why, our property of course!.

That's what Venezuela did "to reverse long-standing injustices". They siezed private property and doled it out to the "less fortunate". That's the only logical continuation of any socialist economy.

I'm just curious about two things: what's the cutoff between "poor" and "perpetrators of injustice", and are the leaders subject to this same redistribution of wealth and property?

My apartment is run by lowlife bastards.

I'm eight thousand miles away, and my lease is expiring. Five months ago I started emailing them, asking how to renew it from Kuwait. Their response? Nothing. No messages. No calls to my folks back home. Nothing but silence.

So, a couple months ago I had a friend stop by their physical office and talk to them. He sent me a renewal form. I filled it out, sent it in. Their response? Nothing. No messages. No calls to my folks. Nothing but silence.

My conclusion? It didn't go through. Whoever coined the phrase "no news is good news" never worked in the military, so I don't buy it. No news meant nothing has changed. Fine. I wrote off the apartment as a loss, and had my father move out my stuff.

New lease term starts today. Know ho I know? The apartment owners called. They miraculously "found" the renewal. Now they want to talk about it. What's more? They want the whole year's rent at the end of the month.

My reaction? F.U.C.K. N.O.

They had their chance. Screw 'em. They should have said something to me when I submitted the renewal.

The best part? They don't have any legal claim that will hold up in court. Know why? My own ignorance saved the day. When I sent in the renewal over email, I didn't know a few things at the time: exact dates of the lease, exact rent rate for this year, etc. Things that I really didn't care about at the time. In fact, it was little more than my name, signature, and that day's date. I bet they filled those in though.

Know what it's called when you alter a legal document after it's been signed? Forgery.

Worst case for me? My otherwise untarnished credit rating gets its first nick. Worst case for them? Having committed a felony?

Sweet, sweet karma...