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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Solon who wrote (41205)	11/13/2005 4:34:58 PM
From: SiouxPal	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 90947

This is a repost from CalculatedRisk: Knock on the Door, a Knock on the War The knock came just after 6 a.m., way too early for visitors at the neat two-story home in the hills of Castaic. "I remember my wife wondering who could be at the door at this hour," says Loren Farell, thinking back on that day in July 2003. It was to have been a big day for Farell, a Los Angeles native and Vietnam vet who was being promoted to lieutenant in the LAPD. His daughter, Ashley, had just graduated from college and was staying with her parents while looking for a teaching job. Ashley's husband was in Iraq, fighting a war the Farells supported and believed in. Farell went downstairs, looked through the peephole and saw an Army sergeant. "You remember how you got butterflies as a kid?" Farell asks. "I got that tenfold. I opened the door, and she asked me, 'Does Ashley Ashcraft live here?' I said, 'Yes, she's my daughter,' and the sergeant asked if she could speak to her." Farell knew what was coming. His daughter's husband, Evan Ashcraft, 24, was with the 101st Airborne Division. He was a smart kid who played classical piano and wanted to join the LAPD after the war, just like his father-in-law, Mr. Farell. "You know how cops say a shooting is like slow motion?" asks Farell, who was one of the first two officers on the scene of the harrowing 1997 North Hollywood bank heist. "That's how this was. I stepped outside, shaking like a leaf. I said, 'I'm her father, are you here for what I think you're here for?' She started crying, and she said, 'Yes.' " Now Farell tried to figure out how he was going to break this to his daughter. "I aged 25 years. I started to walk up the stairs and my legs weighed a million pounds each. All I could think of was, 'How can I sugarcoat this?' My wife asked who was at the door, and I must have been all white. I said, 'Evan is dead.' She started screaming, and then Ashley bolted out of her room.' " <MORE> latimes.com

To: Solon who wrote (41205)	11/13/2005 4:58:13 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

It is supposed to be a wonderful thing for young kids to sacrifice their lives for fat cats on the golf course. Is that what those guys at Vimy Ridge did? BTW, what WERE you doing in that war? Germany didn't attack Canada. Isn't that the only justification for war? Or were those poor slobs fighting for something else maybe- -say, the preservation of representative democracy? BTW, I think the deeds of our soldiers will speak for themselves and require no defense by me or anyone else. The LORDS will always manipulate the serfs. How would you organize society? I think some guys named Lenin, Mao, Pol Pot, tried the collectivist approach. We know where this led. Provided these contracts are democratically initiated they are voluntary. I hate to tell you this, but the United States, in spite of claims by Soup, et al, to the contrary, is a democracy. Why are our agreements seemingly exempted from that blessing? The game of subsidies and whining is another matter. ........................................ It is a failing of democracy which is perhaps best remedied through Constitutional legalese... We have the legalese. Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.