My grandparents and great aunts and uncles were all more or less working class intellectuals.

But, then, they were Jewish immigrants, which made it virtually automatic. My grandfather, who escaped from a Tzarist prison camp, spoke seven languages, for example. My parents were the first in their respective families to go to college. But, in reality, they were raised in college.

Glenn:

Sophie Brown:

I have been heartened by jessica lynch's willingness to speak the truth here. She did so fairly early, as I recall, when she spoke out against the fact that she was treated much better than the others from her unit who had been injured. She doesn't speak to the big picture, but she has been pretty insistent about telling her piece of the truth.

Exactly. She was quite uncomfortable and increasingly vocal -- very early on -- about how all the reports being circulated by the Pentagon were false. I actually recall that being the first sign that suggested these stories were false -- the fact that she basically said they were. That was actually heroic.

What's striking about Jessica Lynch is her fundamental decency. Obviously, telling the truth as she did and when she did was heroic. But it was heroic the way that most true heroism is--as a mere byproduct of human decency under pressure. The further product of that decency is that those who act heroically automatically reject the notion of their own heroism--"anyone would have done the same thing" is their common refrain. And they're absolutely right: anyone decent like them would have done the same thing. Such decency is the bedrock of our nation.

It's just that sort of decency that cannot comprehend the bottomless lying of the Bush Admninistration. I'm not saying she was stupid or a patsy or any of that. It was not her faults, but her virtue that let her be used. And that, argubly, is the worst thing about the "war on terror"--that all the evil it does depends on a vampire-like feeding on the common decency of the American people, who, like Jessica Lynch, simply cannot comprehend the evil that now rules over us. Sociopathy is the center of the BushCo world. And it as alien to Jessica Lynch as extra-terrestrial lifeforms from the Andromeda Galaxy.

It's one of the oldest battlecries in the conservative's culture war, dating all the way back to the 60s. "Whatever happened to shame?" And, like virtually every complaint they've ever come up with, it's at least ten times more applicable to them than to anyone else.

Does Vernon Loeb feel any shame at having failed as a reporter? (There's really no other word for it. He failed. And can never really learn from his failure until he admits to it.) No, of course not.

Does the press, collectively, feel any shame at having failed every step of the way in Iraq--from 9/11 onward? No, of course not.

Does shooter, or any other member of the 101st Keyboard Brigade feel any shame for their undying allegiance to an unending parade of lies? No, of course not.

Does the Bush Administration, caught repeatedly in lie after lie after lie after lie, feel any shame at all for killing more Americans after 9/11 than bin Laden did on 9/11. No, of course not.

Shame is for folks who have a conscience. For folks motivated to do better. Folks who can learn. Folks who need to learn, in order to look themselves in the face in the morning.

It's not for sociopaths. You've got to be kidding!

sysprog"

When they were selected as the bloggers of the year by Time Magazine, in 2004, the Powerline guys said, "We try to provide something that brings people closer to reality," but their alleged love for reality was over-rated.

Over-rated? Not so much.

Shtick, baby. Pure shtick.

Bush was clearly AWOL with Guard, and could have even been charged as a deserter. He also failed to complete his service, despite an apparent falsification of his records to give a different appearance. (This gets very technical, but is quite clear-cut, once you understand the applicable rules and regulations, which, of course, have long been documented online.)

However, it's misleading to say that "all actual records relating to Bushes supposed service have been scrubbed." There was certainly some sort of scrubbing, as well as possible some innocent record loss. However, enough remains that it clearly shows the wrongdoing I mention above.

Furthermore, it's simply not true that "as unlikely as it man seem, there doesn't seem to be anyone who even remembers serving with GWB."

This is only true of his time outside Texas. The Texas record, while severely muddled, is at least partly corroborated by people who served with him. However, their numbers are surprisingly thin, particularly considering how well-connected he is. One can only presume that if they could have produced a more solid record, and it benefitted Bush to do so they would have.

In short, you are very right to bring this issue up in this context. But we must be on guard against contributing to the muddle of facts in the process of critiquing it.