"Stop 'Whining' About the Salad Bar!"

Off topic and on a lighter note, yesterday Josh Rogin reported on shortages in the U.S. embassy cafeteria in Baghdad.  Apparently, some State Department employees have been complaining to the New York Times about the decline in quality of the salad bar and the (horror!) rationing of chicken wings on Wings Night.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland was asked: "Does the State Department consider, you know, not enough arugula to be a hardship in Iraq?"  Nuland replied that "it looked like some whining that was inappropriate."

I can relate.  While stationed in the International Zone in Baghdad in 2006-2007, I used to hear Foreign Service Officers complain about the food all the time, i.e. "This is the same chicken they used last night!" (Yeah, it's called leftovers, Kissinger!)  The IZ's dining facility was ridiculous by war zone standards (i.e. prime rib and lobster every Sunday), and it galled me to hear that kind of bitching considering what guys out at the Forward Operating Bases had to make do with.

Some things never change, I guess.

"Bin Laden Hunter" Gary Faulkner Jailed

Gary Brooks Faulkner is not having a good year.

Don't remember the name?  Well, Faulkner is the man who in June 2010 was picked up by police in Chitral, Pakistan, carrying various night-vision devices, a hand gun, a knife, a samurai sword, and Christian literature, claiming he was on a one-man mission to capture Osama bin Laden.

On May 1st, the SEALs beat him to bin Laden. 

On September 1st, he was arrested in Greeley, Colorado for possession of a weapon as an ex-convict.  He apparently hasn't been able to make bail, and has been residing in the Weld County Jail for over three months.

Hopefully he doesn't have plans for New Year's Day, since he doesn't seem to have much luck on the first of the month.

Gary Brooks Faulkner, the man who hunted bin Laden with a samurai sword.