USA

Veterans Day

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Thank you to all who have served in America’s wars, living and dead.

Thank you to the ones who came back in one piece, and the ones who did not.

Thank you to all who bear wounds, visible and invisible.

Thank you to the families of all who served.

Thank you to all serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places around the world today.

God bless America.

UPDATE:

Scene from Black Hawk Down where Gary Gordon and Randy Shugart die in their attempt to rescue Michael Durant and the others on his downed helicopter:
 


 

UPDATE 2: Here is the story of a French woman who appreciates America’s veterans better than most of its citizens do.

A Great Find

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Blogfriend Eddie (who credited Abu Muqawama) sent in a link to a Mother Jones issue that has a veritable roundtable of experts commenting on withdrawing from Iraq. I was very impressed with their selection; below are a few links to some of the experts who would be of the most interest to the readers here:

Colonel T.X. Hammes
Colonel H.R. McMaster
Lt. Colonel John Nagl
Dr. Andrew Bacevich
Dr. Bary Posen
Dr. John Pike
General Anthony Zinni
Dr. Anthony Cordesman
Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski

Give it a look.

Cross-posted at Zenpundit

Subsidized Light Rail and Reactionary Politics

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Jim Miller has an excellent post on Portland, Oregon’s mass-transit boondoggles, and on the religious zeal and overarching intrusiveness of the Pacific Northwest’s political class in support of wasteful programs that most local citizens don’t want:

Some may wonder why I call Seattle reactionary. That seems obvious to me, but may not be to others, especially those on the left. On the whole, the political class in Seattle wants the races to be treated differently, is fond of 19th century technology, such as trollies and light rail, and generally wants to manage every detail of a citizen’s life. All of these, especially the last, are very old ideas. In fact, the last idea goes back to ancient Sumeria. I think it is fair to call their support for outmoded ideas, ideas that have not met the test of time, reactionary.

Worth reading in full.

Kennewick Man Update

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Moira Breen reports.

UPDATE: In the comments, DanTdaxp flags two posts (here and here) on this topic from Catholicgauze.
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Quote of the Day

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Asian-American women have a life expectancy of almost 87 years; African-American men, 69 years. We have these facts on the authority of Eight Americas, a 2006 study by number crunchers at Harvard’s School of Public Health. Women in Stearns County, Minnesota, live about 22 years longer than men in southwest South Dakota, and 33 years longer than Native American men in six of that state’s counties. The gap between the highest and lowest life expectancies for U.S. race-county combinations is over 35 years. Some race-sex-county groups typically die in their nineties, others in their fifties. Some are healthier than the norm in Iceland, Europe, and Japan, others sicker than Nicaragua and Uzbekistan.

–Peter Huber