This convention says less about the Democratic candidates than it does about the liberal Blogosphere. Having stormed the gates of power and edged the Dems into slight majorities in Congress, they are now loath to do anything that might upset the apple cart.

Democratic Washington hasn't changed. They are still the same craven group of people who have the guts to stand up to only one group of people, their voter bases. They caved on Iraq. They're caving on FISA. They're letting Executive criminality off the hook.

Two years ago, the "Netroots" would be howling for blood. Now they have been allowed to have a seat at the kiddie table and hold their fire. To cheer Clinton and boo Kucinich only shows how much the "netroots" has been bought out.

My best friend used to tell me my asthma was all in my head. You know what? He was totally wrong.

The NYT OpEd states that Sgt. Murphy is expected to survive. It doesn't say he's expected to recover. A head wound very likely involves brain damage, which is something from which is is very difficult to recover. Perhaps he was lucky, and only had part of his face shot off.

The military people of the United States get only one choice, stay in, or get out. They can't pick the conflicts they are sent to. They can only gear themselves up emotionally to complete the mission they are given. They don't have to believe in it, but they are bound by so many reasons to give it everything they've got, right up to the loss of limb and life itself. That's more commitment than civilians are asked to do in any normal aspect of their lives.

I think you are perfectly right to be mad at the civilians who let down the military by not stopping the drive to war. Those of who tried to stop it could have done more. We could have had a general strike, broken the law, tried by any means necessary to stop the war. But so could the soldiers.

The soldiers could have refused. It's happened before in history and even in American history. It happened in Vietnam. It happened in WWII. It happened to the French in WWI, and the Russians too. When the German troops finally refused to fight anymore, the war ended.

As long as the soldiers continue to fight, they bear responsibility for the war. If they refused, there would be no more war.

To say that the soldiers must obey orders, must go to war, even if they disagree, is to condone the actions of the Wermacht in WWII, the Japanese in WWII. To agree to perform an illegal act because you are honor bound does not make you honorable. It makes you a criminal.

What a wonderful and momentous event it would be if the entire military said "NO!"

The problem of extra humans is not one of baby farts, but the adults those babies grow up to be. They will grow up to be meat eating, SUV driving, air conditioning using adults. So the fewer children we have, the fewer adults there will be in the future to cause problems.

My wife and I chose not to have our own biological children partly for that very reason. We will adopt already existing children who need parents, instead of creating new human beings to fulfill our own needs.

I actually make that mistake a lot myself.

MadTom,

Modern humans arose in East Africa some 200,000 years ago. Those tribals walking around were homo sapiens sapiens (not to be confused with homo sapiens idaltu).