The New Republic and Scott Beauchamp’s article

Just to let you know I'm paying attention, but I reject most of the so-called Right Wing blog reasoning. Why? Because their posing and preening about dishonesty, conservatism's holy ethic, and their "I'm above all this" bullshit has me bored out of my skull. First, who among us hasn't sat around with the guys had a few beers and started joking about other races, various sex practices, and/or disabilities in a crude fashion? In private? Especially during tours of duty overseas? I know that if some jerk off reporter listened in to all my private conversations he could paint me as anything he chose because I said shit like that. Add to that the almost unbearable tensions of combat and what the fuck do you expect? Then there is the factor of hate. When your enemy is eating children, slitting throats of prisoners, setting roadside bombs off anonymously hate is in play on both sides. Only a saint could restrain himself from behaving very badly. Just ask the guys who fought the Japanese during WWII; hate dominates. But when some draft dodging asshole with an agenda of hate toward his own country picks up bits and pieces of conversations he may have heard joins with a paper that shares the same views you have the TNR piece.

That's life. At least life today. We have a huge section of our population that has no intention of EVER putting on a uniform for anything. If the Talaban set up shop in downtown Memphis all the "progressives" in every other city in the U.S. would debate about the rights of the terrorists rather than stand up and fight.

That's today without the bullshit. The rules are clear: anything goes.