Cuba is not the hellhole you might think.

To be fair, in Three Kings, I'm pretty sure the point of the characters arguing about what racial epithets you can use in the beginning of the movie was meant to illustrate how dehumanized they view the Iraqis as being. Then they go on to decide that these are people worth giving up their treasure and potentially their lives for them, later in the movie.

Whereas American Sniper...

Oh I didn't mean that at all. In fact, I'll be on the first plane to Cuba if I can; I've always wanted to go there. I could've just as easily said Kim Jong Un instead. And you're right about Three Kings, but I assumed there had to be some scene where there's the "good" Arabs vs. the "bad" Arabs resulting in a redemption story. But I've heard conflicting things about Kyle: in the movie he says something like "My only regret is that I didn't save more of them" (ostensibly his SEAL team) and another that said something like "My only regret is that I didn't kill more of them."

I'm not surprised that a lot of idiots are seeing the movie. It's just like Call of Duty to them. I'm actually surprised that they didn't do some sort of tie-in, the way Gladiator did with WWF. Yeah you can see American Sniper as "Boom boom boom headshot yeah" just like you can see Gladiator as "ooh sick takedown yeah" but those people are not watching the same movie as I am, even if they're sitting right next to me.

But again, I'm not about to defend a movie that I haven't seen or a book that I haven't read, but it sounds like nothing more than a Tom Clancy popcorn movie that just so happens to be (probably) true.

Does the American military have some sort of strict burden of proof for enemy kills? Or can a pathological liar just say "yep, killed 150 guys. shot em right in the eye!" and the propagandists are more than happy to go along with it?

The only proof that counts is a witness to the kill (for a confirmed kill) which, for snipers, is typically their spotter.

Yeah that's interesting. I'm not an expert or anything but I think you have to fill out the paperwork and everything for any confirmed kills, in a sniper's case the estimated distance as well as the usual things like what the suspect was doing, a general description of the person, and time, probably among other things. Hot Fuzz makes a good joke about that when they're watching Point Break within the movie, and Simon Pegg's character can't let himself go and enjoy the movie because of all the paperwork that'd have to be filed afterwords. But in your own country (one that you're not at war with) it's pretty easy for a forensics team to come in after the fact. Not so easy on the battlefield, or so I'd believe it to be.

I believe Kyle's first confirmed kill was a woman with a child in one arm and a grenade in the other. And I don't think he's lying because you'd have to be one hell of a psychopath to embellish on that.

Three Kings came out two years before 9/11, and was marketed on Desert Storm nostalgia.

The fact that Desert Storm nostalgia was even a thing should give you a clue to the fact that the film belongs to a different era.

Here's the thing you have to remember: the film does NOT make the usual biopic claim of being "inspired by true events" or "based on the life of X." It is officially said to be "based on the book." They made this distinction because the book is pretty notoriously full of lies. But so long as they're officially "just adapting the book," not portraying real events, they're legally in the clear. Not even the people who made this movie think the story is legit.

For the record, though, "my only regret is that I didn't kill more of them" is the original line in the book.

Oh, so after that "different era" line I switched over to talking about American Sniper, not Three Kings. Probably could have made that clearer, huh?

I guess I was only 17 when Three Kings came out, but it didn't feel like nostalgia for me, probably because the Gulf War was the only war that I remembered. And at least when the war was going on, I associated "The Gulf" with all Gulfs, so I was scared of the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of Alaska, and probably other Gulfs. And a lot of my friends in the neighborhood were children of the early 80s Iranian Diaspora after Khomeini took over. So watching Three Kings was quite literally like me looking at my friends and the people I was supposed to be scared of at the same time. I consider myself fortunate that I was able to make that distinction at a pretty early age.

The more I read about American Psy-- uhh Sniper the more it's pissing me off. I still want to see it based on SolRo's comparison to it being a Rorschach test, but every time I look it up I see more shit that makes me angry, including tweets like "JUST WATCHED AMERICAN SNIPER WANNA KILL ME SOME MUSLIMS #AMERICANSNIPER" and articles like this:

http://tinyurl.com/o4qrd53

and wonder where we're headed.

Whoops. I mean SolRo's referencing to an NPR review, from the fake baby vid. :)

Except Bill Maher himself.

and that PUA stand-up comedian

err, MRA comedian

Bill Burr is great, I don't know if he's smarter than Maher, but I definitely think he's funnier.

I'm not crazy about Bill Burr but in this clip he sounded smarter than Maher.

Everyone is smarter than Bill Maher, period.

We're shitting on Bill Burr now?

The guy's probably the funniest thing in stand up now that parenthood has finally caught up to Louis CK.

Probably because he says stuff like this:

http://youtu.be/onNBxynagXE

THAT'S all it take to be branded by the scarlet M these days? Making a joke how women and children first is outdated? Jesus christ. Rodney Dangerfield would be tarred and feathered as a MRKKKA nazi shitlord if he was alive today.

Louis CK is barely tolerable at best. All of his jokes seem to have the same punchline: "I am an unpleasant person and I swear a lot." You don't have to be so mean all the time, Mr CK! You are a comedian, your job is making people laugh and smile, not being a jerk!

That joke Mr Burr told was insightful and at least somewhat tastefully done; however, I have to question how The Feminist in Mr Burr's hypothetical house fire could twist her hair up into pigtails, when it's already been established that her hair is cropped short and close to the head? That makes no sense to me. If she had a stereotypical "lesbian" haircut, then she would not have enough hair to put into pigtails. (I can confirm this from experience)

I'm not saying I find it offensive, but this clip is pretty much all I know of him. And unless you want to stay in the safety-zone of stand up, you're gonna have to break a few eggs, whether it's religion, equal rights, or other hot topics. Someone going on stage and basically repeating why flying on a plane sucks so much or drivers in Los Angeles probably won't get very far.

I know about as little about Burr as I do about Louis CK, but I did like the "fat girls" clip from the show because it deconstructs a pretty offensive part of his act. Burr's the same way. He's paid to be kind of a dick but in reality I don't think he is.

I agree, having not seen the film but know the story of his return home some, I'm glad movies that show some of that issue for veterans gets some exposure. It's too bad this erupted in a red/blue "he's a hero/not a hero" debate. As you put nicely, that isn't the point of the story or film as I'd imagine or hope.
That being said, "Fray" was a huge disappointment.