I am an able-bodied member of the American work force. I come to work every day. I create wealth. I pay taxes. Our army needs these things, just as much as it needs soldiers. I don't buy that only soldiers can discuss military matters. There's a damn good reason why we put civilians in charge of the military. I don't buy that only soldiers know the horrors of the battlefield well enough to know when it's time to fight, and when it's time to surrender. I say that it takes a certain a...

For those of you wondering if there's anything more to the story than Phoenixboi's Italian video footage , I recommend the following jumping-off points for additional information: Ablution Exclusive: Weapons Expert Challenges White Phosphorus Claims and Willie Pete!!!! I'm not endorsing either of these sources as accurate or unbiased, but I do think they make a good beginning for anyone sincerely interested in learning more about White Phosphorous, the policies surrounding it...

MONKEY: Wait a minute. If Truth is unknowable, then why do you hate President Bush? PANTS: Because of all the evil things he's done! Duh! MONKEY: Yes, but how do you know he's done all these evil things? Have you witnessed them yourself? Even if you had, can you really trust your own senses? PANTS: Stop trying to hide behind the oppresive logic of The Man! You know as well as I do that Bush has done more evil things than Hitler! MONKEY: Hold on there, Sparky. That's your ...

Okay, so Bush is Evil. Iraq was about the oil. Or about delivering beatings to poor brown people. Or maybe it was just stupid. Whatever. I'll accept any claim you might make about Iraq. Heck, let's even allow that maybe--just maybe!--9/11 was engineered by Evil Zionazi Neocons as an excuse to put U.S. troops in Iraq to make it easier to nuke Iran's peaceful uranium processing facilities. I'll grant you anything. But let me ask you a question or two. Who is doing more to rebui...

Current Katrina death toll in Louisiana (see paragraph two): 579 (approximately) Death toll from European heat wave in 2003 : 35,000 ("In France alone, 14,802 people died from the searing temperatures...") The body count for Katrina will go up, of course, as the recovery work progresses. If we find sixty times more bodies , it will match Europe's tragedy. Could somebody please explain to me why we listen to Europe about anything having to do with good government, humane ...

"Pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans," said Cindy Sheehan today. Never mind that up until this morning, her own faction's position was that we didn't "occupy" New Oleans enough . Or how about this, from the same essay : "If I had a store with an inventory of insured belongings, and a tragedy happened, I would fling my doors open and tell everyone to take what they need: it is only stuff." Note that it's not her generosity or sacrifice that she's proclaiming: It's the ...

I am cranky, JoeUser. This post, expressing the crankiness, may be safely dismissed as a troll. So let me get this straight: For over a generation now, a central message of the Democratic party has been that Republicans hate the poor and wouldn't mind seeing them all dead (or enslaved in concentration camps, or both). For at least that long, "everybody" has known that New Orleans was in severe danger of catastrophic flooding, due to an inadequate flood control system. So the poo...

More evidence that the the French suck: New Orleans. Now, I'm not saying it's a bad idea to build a city below the water line of the nearest large bodies of water. I mean, the Dutch managed to put an entire country below the water line, once, and they've been doing just fine ever since. But note the key difference between Holland and New Orleans. Holland was set up by the Dutch. New Orleans was set up by the French. Moral of this story: We Americans need to stop taking advice ...

So it looks like soldiers are reenlisting in greater numbers than ever, but less civilians are choosing to enter the military for the first time. I think this is pretty interesting. What it tells me is that the people who have the best, personal, first-hand information on what it's like to be a soldier, and what it's like in Iraq, are quite willing to sign up for more of the same. Meanwhile, those people who get their information about the military and about Iraq secondhand, from the...

So it looks like I was wrong about the whole Able Danger thing (my article ). The issue is a lot more complex and inconclusive than I thought, and the implications aren't really clear yet. I apologize for mouthing off when I should've kept the ol' pie hole shut. That is all. Carry on.

So let me get this straight: The Department of Defense had solid intelligence on the 9/11 hijackers, including names and photographs, well in advance of the hijacking. The DoD tried to communicate this intel to the FBI, but were prohibited from doing so by a Justice Dept. regulation. The FBI was never notified, and (obviously) no action was ever taken. The 9/11 Commission was briefed on this, but did not include it in their report. One of the 9/11 Commissioners was the author ...

One of my favorite LiveJournal communities is Customers Suck! . It's often a fun and exciting read. It's also really helped me to better understand, respect, and help the clerks who handle most of my real-world business transactions. I strongly recommend it to anyone who works in customer service. Or anyone who sometimes needs customer service. Seriously. Anyway, if there's one thing I've learned from the C_s community, it is this: If the customer is wrong, but refuses to...