mcketten

A real man would step aside for Col Hadfield...

You, sir, just won the internetz.

This AMA has the best answers.

Kevin: not a question but finally a chance to thank you.

In 2008 I deployed to Iraq. With me was quite possibly the largest concentration of MST3K and Rifftrax fans I had ever met in one single area. I wrote you an email about it and you had your "people" send me a bunch of signed stuff, including a Plan 9 poster signed by the entire crew, some t-shirts, etc.

The stuff arrived when I was in theater and by then I had lost your email address. I have never properly thanked you. So I wanted to do so right now.

Thank you so much: as a lifelong fan it was an awesome surprise to get so much stuff. The biggest fans in my unit also got their T-shirts and I still have my DVD cases and posters that were autographed. Huge treasures for me!

General Petraeus had similar ideas. It was one of the reasons he was so successful in the Northern Sector while others were having difficulty - he went into counter-insurgency mode right away, meeting with the leaders of the local communities on a regular basis and allowing some self-policing by the locals - he also made heavy use of existing leaders from the Iraqi Military and political arena.