Oh man. My first IED was very strange. We were driving on what we called route kill zone, and there was some traffic. And then we came to an overpass and seemingly everyone else took the off ramp. Came out the other side and just blammo. I saw the vehicle in front of me get pushed a lane over and then disappear into smoke and dust. I locked up the brakes so I wouldn’t smash into them.

Turned out there was a sniper down the road and a can full of guys with RPGs on the bridge behind us. But we had no casualties or significant vehicle damage, so they apparently dipped. We hightailed it to a rally point that was literally 500 meters from where the attack happened. Front vehicle thought we were the ones that got hit.

I was scared when I was a 19 year old doing a patrol through Sadr City in 2003, while manning the .50 cal and having dozens of kids suddenly show up and throwing rocks at me. Did I waste them even though I would have been justified because it wasn’t uncommon that patrols would go through markets and peopled start throwing produce and mix a grenade in?

No. Because I was well trained and realized that life is precious. And I was dealing with those rocks a lot longer than 1.6 seconds.

We order dominos kinda regularly. Check their coupons next time. I can tell you that I’ll get a large 5 topping, stuffed cheesy bread and wings for that price or cheaper. And I’m your friendly neighbor to the west, not in a major or midsized area.

My favorite to use: “not gonna lie to you.”

Isn’t it the most recent major color?

I keep a jar of pickle juice at work so I can keep cramp free on hot days. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Or aliens

Man, if I find something I could describe as a “space trunk” you’d better believe I am not going anywhere near it, let alone using my mower to pull it out.

As a landscape professional, I can assure you that we will very often blow things into centralized areas to make it easier to bag/can up and haul off.

I’m also in a small town and used a local bank.

It was 2006.

I’m not denying that I got very lucky with my timing. But also I chose a very low cost of living area.

I joined the army before I was 18. I saved money while I was in Baghdad. My first house was 40k in 2006. I live in a small town in the middle of corn and soy fields. I have a union job. My wife and I are good about not blowing money. I put $20 bucks a week into different savings accounts to help pay for big expenses.

I bought a house when I was in college. It was a shitty 900 square foot 2 bedroom for 40k. My mortgage was $109 a month. After I graduated and moved away, I tried two rent to own contracts. First one was a disaster. They paid for a few months and then after a couple of court appearances, they got evicted and owe me several thousand dollars.

The second contract was “successful.” It was a professor of mine that went through a nasty divorce and had credit problems. Dude took the full term to pay me off even though I suggested that he take a loan in an attempt to rebuild their credit. Nope. Just gave me money each month.

Three months after paying me off, he left the house and moved into on campus housing for adults. Let someone buy it at a tax sale or something.

I don’t get it. I know I’m probably more aligned with boomers than I am with my millennials, but why wouldn’t you want to own your house that you’ve been paying for? Renting is nice because it’s not your problem if something breaks, but the vast majority of rental owners are shitty and are going to fix things the cheapest way possible.

I was in the same boat, but for not nearly that same amount of money. After I talked to a lawyer I realized it was going to cost me more to recover the money so it wasn’t worth it.

Also, at no point in that article does it say libel.

Libel - letter Slander - spoken Defamation - something else.

Libel needs to be written and published. Slander needs to be said and broadcast. And depending on who it’s against, there are different levels of evidence needed. Like if you are a public figure, the person doing it needs to be doing it with the expressed purpose of injuring you name/actual malice.

He has the judgement against her, so he could try and garnish wages and such. But it’s a pain in the ass to jump through the hoops.

Not libel.

Is that Frankie MacDonald?