You do have at least two heroes...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_York

And yes, danielsn, my standard for a "hero" is really high. Not everyone who simply fights in a war is a hero. If everyone is a hero, no one is a hero. The word is not a superlative for nothing. My father spent six years in the North Atlantic during WWII fighting NAZIS. He objects very strongly to being called a hero. He says he just did his job, that he did what he had to do.

I think that Vietnam was an illegal, immoral war. America entered the war after the ruse now known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident - which never happened. After WWII the United States and it's allies agreed that the "I was just following orders" line was not a defense against war crimes. Any attack on civilian populations is a war crime. 3 million Vietnamese died in that war. The fact that the orders McCain was following were "legal" in America at the time means little to me. What is important is that that war and those orders were immoral. It is the duty of even an American soldier not to follow illegal or immoral orders. There were many who fought alongside McCain who did refuse to follow illegal orders and suffered for it, they were heroes. Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr., a 24-year-old helicopter pilot who intervened to prevent the massacre of civilians at My Lai was a "hero" too. Scum, like the liar Colin Powell, who later tried to cover it up, were not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson%2C_Jr.

I do sympathize with the young men in America who naively believe that everything there government tells them is true, and that all your wars are just, but it does not make what they do right. Their intent is good, but their actions, such as the killing of 151,000 Iraqi civilians, are bad. I am sure that there are many instances of SS soldiers acting heroically to protect their comrades during concentration camp riots, concentration camps which were of course "legal" under German law, but those acts are now considered illegal and immoral nonetheless.

Was McCain "brave", yes, I think so. Was he a "hero"? Well that depends on your definition and yours differs from mine.

What if they had a war and nobody came?

She is gaijin. The otaku must love her though.

Otaku no jinsei ha yabai na!

The real prize is the helium 4 - a form of unobtanium.

And guess what?

Cheney says it's in IRAN!

What does it take? Weeks and weeks of overwhelmingly negative reviews and the editors refuse to shut this thing down. I read it ever week - the way I look at roadkill, and still it sucks.

Why do they do this? Where is the respect for readers?

Is this guy for real? I mean Benjamin. He must have wanted this story BAD. So many red flags.

Mr. Benjamin had better hope that the Nigerians never, ever, get his email address.

"Miraculously less glamorous" indeed.

He could have at least given the idiot a good tolchock to the gulliver.

Complicit is the word Glenn, not weak.

Glenn, you now use the word "oligarchy" quite often. You posit that the explanation for the dems lack of action on anything of substance, is that they are worried about looking "weak on terror", despite "empirical" evidence that this is not the case. I am certain the dems are well aware of that evidence, yet choose to support bsuh anyway, so fear is not a good explanation. Is not the existence of an actual oligarchy/tyranny a better explanation for their lack of action? Do you not at least admit the possibility that democracy has virtually ended in America?

A lot of people here got peeved at me around your last FISA article, when I asked, "Why are you people so happy?" just because Dodd got up on his hind legs for a couple of hours? I was not optimistic then and still less now.

Impeachment is off the Democrat table despite a long list of buhs war crimes, lies, et al. The dems were expressly elected to end the war and then approved a surge! The list of atrocities committed upon your Constitution and Bill of Rights, is long and growing. Where is the representation? Where is the democracy? I don't see it. It's simply not there!

FISA will pass and pass just the way the bsuh/cheney junta wants it to!

FISA is needed to shut down whats left of "freedom" in America. If you don't believe me, give Gore Vidal a call. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4336.htm

And if you really need evidence for the coming gloves off tyranny, please explain how democrats could sponsor legislation like the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act" of 2007 - a bill sponsored by Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA). Some, myself included, believe that it will be used to criminalize political speech. Just watch.

And in answer to today's question, which I assume was itself rhetorical, no they won't. Why should they, it's not like a unitary President is accountable to the peasants - or anyone.

There is a case before the courts right now about this issue. The accused had a laptop that border agents suspected had child porn on it. Problem was it was encrypted. The accused refused to supply his password. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/15/AR2008011503663.html

And enough with the freaking iPhones Farhad. I am sick unto death with the freaking iPhone. Obviously these cases refer to data storage devices. Someone could have a USB drive, a portable hd or any number of other toys.