Hammer Mill Days

What is this - another citation? Third one today. What? You mean there's a stack of them downstairs as well? Jesus H. Jumping Christ! What kind of a squat house is this, anyway? Yes, friends, we're back home in Indiana... I mean, in upstate New York again. Back at the fabled and storied (actually, three stories, plus the roof and basement) Cheney Hammer Mill. We arrived on the redeye late last night... and by "redeye" I don't mean an overnight flight from Andrews Airforce Base; rather, an eye-popping super-light speed journey through the outer solar system with a drunken mad scientist at the controls, half-empty quart of redeye clutched in his left paw. Weaving? Yes, we had that. Sudden drops in altitude? Most def. And what about those dramatic gravitational variances? Well, we endured our share, clinging to the exposed plumbing of the upper deck (some of which emitted an eerie green glow - uuuuhhhllll), rolling with the turbulence as our inebriated navigator snak...

I am probably the millionth blogger to comment on Major Hasan's alleged massacre of 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, and I'm sure it won't stop there. I have to say, though, that the rhetoric I've been hearing over the past week has made it impossible for me not to toss my screed onto the growing pile. Commentators pretty much across the mainstream spectrum of opinion have latched onto this idea that Hasan was given the chance to do this heinous act by virtue of a culture of "political correctness" within the military, i.e. the Army being over-sensitive to Muslims within their ranks and overlooking Hasan's failings. This strikes me as wildly off the mark and - worse - an attempt to utilize an unspeakable act of murder to make political points. It's also part of the very common practice of mainstream commentators to avoid the elephant in the room when discussing matters related to our two simultaneous wars; namely, the true costs of such extended conflict...