Overnight Open Thread (27 Dec 2014)

According to Max Blumenthal: American sniper Chris Kyle was just a popular mass murderer.

Some of these tweets woule be bizarre even if Blumenthal was commenting from the point of view of having seen the film.

"I haven’t seen American Sniper, but correct me if I'm wrong: An occupier mows down faceless Iraqis but the real victim is his anguished soul," Blumenthal wrote smugly on his Twitter account. "[T]he whole film's appeal seems to derive from the latent racism that led America into Iraq."

OK, Max. I'll correct you because you're not only wrong, you are insanely wrong.

Those "faceless Iraqis" were trying to kill American soldiers. No doubt you would have devoutly wished them success in that endeavor, but the military takes a dim view of people trying to kill their men. Kyle's job was to kill them before they killed his fellow soldiers and countrymen. It was, after all, a war where the object is to kill more of the enemy than they kill of yours.

Farts On Planes

Danish doctor believes you can fart less on airplanes.

he studied the science of human gas, which includes a 1969 study warning that astronaut farts could cause fireballs, research that men actually don't fart more than women, and a look at why farts are so reviled (an anthropologist says they are "invisible" and "we cannot actively avoid them," reports Smithsonian).

Best News Bloopers Of 2014

Female Commandos

Pakistan has an all-women commando team.

Beaching A Ship Like A Boss

Guardians Of Valor

Military posers are 'an epidemic', says soldier who outs them. Guardians of Valor does good work and good on them for doing this.

In 2013, Guardian Of Valor made headlines when American Idol contestant Matthew Farmer admitted that his tale of suffering from a life-threatening war injury "was all lies" on Anderson's website.

"He told the judges his stutter was caused by a grenade explosion, but some guys who served with him in Iraq reached out to say it was actually caused by an overdose of acne medication and alcohol," explains Anderson, who has a backlog of "thousands" of potentially bogus soldiers that he hopes to eventually look into.

Robotic Bartender

Somabar, a compact robotic bartender.

Cat Video

Tonight's ONT brought to you by delivering a computer in 1957:

Top cat pic courtesy of Daily Pics and Flicks.

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posted by CDR M at 10:00 PM

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