Good Morning.

Today is our 2,806th day in Iraq and our 3,334th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do, with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing wars, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4429
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4290
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3570
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 201
Since Operation New Dawn: 11

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,399
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 828
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,487
Journalists - Iraq : 348
Academics Killed - Iraq: 448

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 111, 398, 650, 000 .00

This week, America prepares to celebrate Thanksgiving. While I could probably write an entire blog about the holiday alone, I won't be doing that today. The US Military takes great pains to make sure our troops around the world have some semblance of a Thanksgiving meal, even if they are thousands of miles away from home and family, photo ops and plastic turkeys notwithstanding.

Today's story is not technically a veteran's story. But it is a story of war, and family, and friends, and what a simple meal can mean to those who have been there.

Presented in its entirety...originally published in the Boston Globe Magazine.

Continue reading...

32 comments (Latest Comment: 11/24/2010 02:28:54 by TriSec)

For now, I am going to resurrect a blog we posted a few weeks ago. I can't talk TSA today, and I can't seem to find anything else going on in the world. That said, this was an afternoon post, and some may not have seen it. I believe it's worthy of a Monday re-post.
Continue reading...

24 comments (Latest Comment: 11/22/2010 20:56:07 by TriSec)

Good Morning.

Heading out to the store early today...

So I was skimming the internets looking for anything worth the palaver this morning, and I ran across a curious story from the North Shore of Boston. With security theater in the headlines over the past 2 weeks or so, I don't know where to rate this one. On the surface, it sounds like it might be a good idea, and the story goes on to note that they use it at Disney World...what could be more American?

Continue reading...

15 comments (Latest Comment: 11/21/2010 06:25:34 by livingonli)

Census data shows that the gap between men’s and women’s earning widened between 2007 and 2008 (annual wage data is not yet available for 2009) from 77.8 percent to 77.1 percent. Women who work full-time still earn, on average, 77 cents for every dollar men earn for performing the same work. Source
Congress is back in DC and they got right to work dealing with this issue: Pay Equity. Specifically, denying the right for women to be paid equally as men for the same positions. If you have a vagina, you get the privilege of not just the ability to propagate, and be the primary caregiver, work a job and save for your retirement -- you now have the right to earn 23 cents less than a man for a job. Now -- I know math is hard, but that's less than a quarter. How hard is it to cough up that extra 23 cents?
Continue reading...

32 comments (Latest Comment: 11/19/2010 01:42:07 by livingonli)

Good Morning.

Today is our 2,799th day in Iraq and our 3,327th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do, with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing wars, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4427
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4288
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3568
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 199
Since Operation New Dawn: 9

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,385
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 824
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,487
Journalists - Iraq : 348
Academics Killed - Iraq: 448

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 108, 128, 250, 000 .00


We're just past Veteran's Day....and over the course of the past week quite a few new stories have popped up about what it means to be a Veteran in these United States. One of the hardest things a vet has to do once he gets out of the service is find work...a task not made any easier by the current state of the economy.

Continue reading...

35 comments (Latest Comment: 11/17/2010 01:53:31 by trojanrabbit)