"Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1399" ;-)

As an annual tradition I exchanged emails yesterday with a college roommate. He has a heck of a lot more in common with John Baird than he does with me but we have shared experience in common, which may be the ultimate bond. We have been friends for 36 years now. His latest adventure is in Afghanistan. Obviously he can't tell me everything, nor have I probed for it, but he said his job is to identify targets to be killed. He said if he left the base he would be killed. This is speculation but my guess is he is there for some specific technical expertise. He's an engineer whose GPA was barely qualifying for a degree, something like 2.03. Obviously the GPA was to him "bogus," to use one of his favorite words. In terms of pure intelligence he was the smartest of our whole group, and it was a pretty smart group. He was inundated with job offers and went to work as a rocket scientist, literally. He worked on radar missile systems at Hughes and then a couple of other "aerospace" companies in southern California during the Reagan days.

What I have always admired about him is he doesn't compromise his principles, ever. Most of us do even if we don't like to admit it. I have given up trying to convince him to just be happy, find a nice woman, marry her, have some kids. Enjoy yourself a little, it's not a crime. It was like talking to a stone wall.

He said he ships out of Afghanistan on Dec. 12 and will then be in one of the other Stans.

>"Welcome to Kabul. Remember to set your clock back 500 years and 15 hours."
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>>...you marry your rapist: http://www.nationalpost.com/Afghan+rape+victim+sentence+reduced/5759399/story.html
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>>No doubt that "family" would live happily ever after.
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>>The article claims Afghan "prosecutors" offered her the deal. Maybe that's a typo, and they actually meant the Taliban.