Wow, Paul! Just let me get out my checkbook . . .

Hannah had a funny one, and I don't know where it went-- she said "All their children would be decoys." I can just picture that! (Maybe the server move ate her comment.)

I think Alex did his best to try to open up a political subject in a nonpartisan way (by including graphics from both sides of the issue) but in today's climate, it is just extremely difficult for even the most innocuous political post to avoid ruffling someone's feathers. I'm a teacher of rhetoric and argumentation at a major university (so I'm supposed to be an expert) and when I post anything even vaguely political on my blog, I have to work extremely hard at wording it, and then I have to sit on top of it from minute to minute to keep the discussion from turning nasty in one way or another. Even then, I often don't succeed in keeping everything friendly and making everyone happy.I would ask those of you who are unhappy about this thread not to blame Alex for anything any one else said that might have annoyed you, and those of you who just hate politics (like me) to shake it off and go read the vast majority of the posts, which do in fact deal with the neatest stuff on the web.

They aren't supermen, but they are people, they have feelings, and the ones I know are intelligent and dedicated. Whichever way you take the joke, whether it makes fun of the troops or the war itself, I don't think it's very funny when people are dying for what many of them believe is a good cause, whether someone agrees with that assessment or not. I don't think the joke was appropriate whichever way it was intended.

I don't care in the least what either of the political parties think about it, but all my soldier friends felt insulted.

And I love Miss Cellania!

That's great! Good thing they didn't go to the same Halloween party.

Thanks so much, Alex. I'm delighted to be here.