“I can sum up the Jodi Arias trial in one word: Boring! What’s worse is that they’re trying to make it scandalous (and making a lame attempt at making her seem like a victim) by talking about sex and religion, which only makes it more boring. Watch ‘Criminal Minds’ instead. It has better plot lines and better-looking people.”

It appears that President Obama, Leon Pinetta (Def.Sec) and Gen. Dempsey (JCS) are excited over instituting a Combat Infantry Roll for our Women in the military. I certainly hope these men did not make their their decision on “Band Wagon Appeal” only?

“What happened to global warming?”

About Will Durst’s mistaken column about gun control and Senator Diane Feinstein’s rants about assault rifles — what does the 2nd Amendment have to do with hunting or target shooting? Nothing. What does it have to do with citizens defending themselves against a government-controlled militia? EVERYTHING! Just ask the successful Viet Cong, the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, the Taliban, and lots of other grassroots insurgencies. The Founding Fathers knew that, and so do a high percentage of US voters.

Capt. Joanie Baca remembers looking up at the picturesque, mountain terrain during her 11-month deployment in Afghanistan last year near the Pakistani border.

In these days when American political partisans are obsessed with making sure their political team wins, and when Justin Bieber’s hair is the subject of thousands of well-read articles on Google, politics and celebrity are momentarily overshadowed elsewhere by the tale of a brave Pakistan girl whose only wish was to go to school — and is battling for her life because of it.

In reference to the article “Rights Come from God,” when I hear terms like “divine-inspiration politics,” “God’s Plan” and “the Constitution,” all in one line of thought, I become very afraid. What if the divine inspiration of one person of power is diametrically opposed to that of another person of power? Or even my beliefs? Do we have a divinity contest? Such examples of inspiration are what brought us into a war in Iraq, energizes and directs the Taliban and has generated many other conflicts both past and present. Any potential governmental leader who believes his religion’s dogma to be divinely inspired and/or his decisions also to be divinely inspired and part of God’s plan is obligated to inform the electorate that this will be a guiding principle in his decision-making process, so that believers of other divinely inspired religions and those who expect leaders to simply make educated decisions will be prepared to make a wise choice at the ballot box.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — His re-election in doubt, President Barack Obama conceded only halting progress Thursday night toward fixing the nation's stubborn economic woes, but vowed in a Democratic National Convention finale, "Our problems can be solved, our challenges can be met."

I take issue with Mr. O’Malley’s letter in Wednesday’s edition. Primarily, I contest his statement that there is an undefined mission for the United States military in Afghanistan.

The government we installed in Afghanistan after overthrowing the Taliban is hopelessly corrupt.

As Eric Griego prepared to retire from the military service with a 100 percent disability, one of his main concerns for his family was not knowing where they were going to live.

Do you know Scott Dickinson? Richard Rivera? How about Greg Buckley? Matt Manoukian? Heard of Ryan Jeschke? Sky Mote? Ever run across Greg Trent? What about Tom Kennedy? Did you meet Kevin Griffin? Bump into Walt Gray? How about Ethan Martin, Clayton Beauchamp, or Dan Linnabary?

LOS ANGELES — Taylor Kitsch struck out twice this year in the failed films "John Carter" and "Battleship," spoiling the "Friday Night Lights" actor's hopes to leap from TV to big-screen star.

LOS ANGELES — Taylor Kitsch struck out twice this year in the failed films "John Carter" and "Battleship," spoiling the "Friday Night Lights" actor's hopes to leap from TV to big-screen star.

“Republicans: Trillions could be cut from budget if we eliminate empathy.”

“Republicans: Trillions could be cut from budget if we eliminate empathy.”

Unable to unilaterally kill a federal anti-terrorism law, state legislators have settled for the next best thing: threatening to send those who help enforce the law to jail.

“Now that Mr. Pat has explained the Taliban, perhaps he would tell us why candidate Santorum constantly tells us about former President Reagan? Personally, I think he was too young to remember the ‘wonderful changes’ he made while president. Number one, he immediately fired all the air traffic controllers. Why? Because they were unionized. In my estimation, unions are necessary evils. And what about the law he passed called Fair Reporting? One could say or write about someone you didn’t like without punishment. That law helped the Fox stations.”

So, I learned through the Vent that someone’s dictionary correlates intolerance with a “right-wing” Republican political view. As “right-wing” is a vague description, how does the dictionary define that term? While focused on this idea, I thought I would look for descriptions of intolerance. I found plenty on the same page of the newspaper, but they don’t seem to agree with that “dictionary” definition. For example:

“The city of Mesa built brick enclosures around the down town dumpsters. Now the homeless and drug addicts have more privacy when they decide to make them a home. How dangerous is this, not to mention a complete waste of money!”

“It sure is sad day in our society when an old man, who can walk, wants to take a disabled parking space from a young boy in a wheelchair, who can’t walk. And no, my son will not have the opportunity to be old some day.”

It appears that it is the singular attention-grabbing incidents that prevent many from being successfully oblivious to the turmoil that has beset Afghanistan. Reports that Marines were depicted urinating on Afghan corpses rocked the decency of many. The inadvertent burning of Qurans resulted in the Taliban’s killing of over 30 of their countrymen and injuring more. Yet, to date, protests over an Army soldier allegedly shooting 16 Afghan civilians has not provoked protests comparable to those resulting from the burning of the Qurans. Is one to deduce that human life is not as sacrosanct as the Quran?

“Danica Patrick must be a Democrat. If Ross Shimabuku had said those things about a Republican woman, he would be in the clear.”

“The wanton annihilation of Afghani civilians by American personnel is one more reason for us to get our act out of Afghanistan and the entire Middle East, and stop trying to be the self-appointed policemen of the world.”