On this election day in Columbia, here are your top stories:

1. Turnout looking “heavy” — for a city election in April — I’ll update this when I have something more substantial.
2. Southwest spurns Columbia, might land in Upstate — Which is not good for Columbia. A lot of us were driving to Greenville to catch flights already. This is why, in case you forget, Mayor Bob tried to start his own airline.
3. Apple’s Net Jumps 90% as iPhone Sales Surge — Bad news for us PC-Verizon-Blackberry users, as the cool phone triumphs. But just to show you an underdog can bounce back, Yahoo profits more than doubled because of its partnership with Microsoft. Meanwhile, Google continued to demonstrate it’s bigger’n any gummint.
4. Chaos persists as Europe flights resume — Europe still has a way to go to get back to normal. Not just people have been left in the lurch, but critters, too.
5. U.S. Charges 14 Reputed Gambino Family Members — Just ’cause I’m into Mob news. Gambino is a pimp; he could never have outfought Santino. But I didn’t know until this day that it was Barzini all along.
6. School Lunches Called a Threat to National Security — Just to get a featurey talker on the front…

Adam Beam has provided a public service by posting the following:

If there’s any doubt that moving the city’s municipal election to November would increase turnout, take a look at how many city voters voted in the Nov. 2008 presidential election versus how many voted on April 6:

NOTE: Numbers don’t include absentee or fail safe ballots.

It has become so axiomatic that this election affords Columbia the chance to make a clean break with the past, sweeping out the tiresome old, replacing in with the promising new, that a lot of folks have been disappointed at the accusations the two mayoral campaigns have hurled at each other in these last days.

First, there was the last-minute discovery that there were irregularities in Kirkman Finlay’s payment of taxes.

Then, there was grumbling on the part of Finlay supporters about Steve Benjamin’s “Party Bus.”

And the reaction that I’ve seen on the part of more than one smart person who hopes for better for Columbia is to grimace. This is not what the optimistic, right-thinking person wants to see in the last minute of a campaign, and especially in the last minute of this one, a campaign climaxing right at the moment that Spring has burst forth in all its eye-watering splendor, a campaign that made so many hope for more.

But fear not. It’s over today, and this last-minute unseemliness will be forgotten, and the victor will be forgiven.

We can still hope.

I knew that Johnny Depp wasn’t a big fan of the US of A’s role in the War on Terror, but I didn’t know he was actually an al Qaeda leader.

Or at least, that was my first thought when I saw the picture of the key guy killed by Iraqi security services…

On this B-A-YOU-tiful Monday, here are your top stories:

1. Top Iraq al Qaeda Leaders Killed — The top two guys in the organization are whacked by Iraqi security forces.
2. With Profit of $4.4 Billion, Citigroup Turns a Corner — This double ofprofit after two years of red ink is seen as another firm sign of recovery.
3. Hopes rise of easing Europe flight chaos — The continuing saga of the volcano no one can pronounce (Eyjafjallajoekull).
4. Hodges endorses Sheheen — The former governor, who had stayed out of the primary until now, adds to aura of Vincent’s inevitability.
5. Another Columbia youth found shot to death in car — Just another sad crime story, you think? Well, I think the trend argues that there’s more here. One of my daughters was actually saying yesterday that it’s dangerous to be on the street at night because of this — an event which we Dads can attest is rare.
6. Pew Poll: Trust In Government Hits Near-Historic Low — The nattering nabobs of negativity (which these days means “Tea Partiers”) must feel a sense of accomplishment at this news.

Today, we take an ambitious step forward at bradwarthen.com. Putting my own crude attempts at video commentary aside (not that I’ll give them up altogether), we’re inaugurating a new feature: The Brad Show. (Suggestions for a better name are welcome.)

What do I hope this will be? Nothing short of the 21st century version of “The Dick Cavett Show.” I’m hoping for intelligent, in-depth conversations that give you something you can’t get anywhere else — certainly not on local soundbite TV, and not, alas, in your local newspaper.

I think this show, taped Wednesday afternoon at the offices of ADCO, is an excellent example of what I’m aiming for. I had invited Steve Morrison to join me, thinking it would be excellent timing since he was expected to endorse someone in the mayoral runoff on Tuesday. But he decided not to endorse, and so we talked about that — among other things.

The great thing about the talk with Steve is that he came armed with tough questions for ME, such as:

• As someone who constantly presses for greater civility and nonpartisanship, why didn’t I endorse him in the race? (OK, he was sort of kidding on that one — but he was serious about the next two questions…)
• Why did I keep saying he got into the race so late?
• What in the world was I thinking intruding into his headquarters on election night, then using private information gathered by his campaign to report to the world on Twitter that he had lost — even before his campaign had told HIM he had lost? Shouldn’t I have been more forthcoming about why I was there? As he puts it, “How do you get away with that?”

Good questions all, asked by a guy who knows how to ask them. You might even call this interview “The Griller Grilled.”

Here’s hoping future shows can be as interesting as this one.

There’s an interesting contrast between the approaches of the two candidates in the 4th District race to replace Kirkman Finlay III.

Tony Mizzell, as a former county council member and advertising executive at Chernoff Newman, works the phones, checks in with local party leaders and makes savvy media buys — such as being the first to advertise on bradwarthen.com, not to mention his geotargeted ads at The New York Times and on YouTube.

Leona Plaugh, on the other hand, keeps to the retail approach, knocking on door after door, hearing individual voters’ concerns, asking them to put up a sign for her. That’s how she got the support of my friend (and semi-relative — we share a granddaughter) Hunter Herring, who put one of her signs in his yard when Leona knocked on his door and asked him to.

As a former city manager, her approach is that of looking at specific service needs of specific city dwellers. She told me, when we met for coffee yesterday at her usual place (the Starbucks at the Shoppes at Woodhill), that she keeps meticulous records of specific requests from voters, as well as exactly where all her signs go (so she can get them gathered up after next Tuesday). Sometimes this pays off in unexpected ways — one voter thanked her because the very day after she told Leona about wanting a new water line, the city crew showed up and started work. Pure coincidence, in that case.

She feels like this prepares her for being a councilwoman, because she knows, for instance, where all the stormwater drainage problems are. Her approach seems to have won over one former opponent — Walter Powell Jr. She said she doesn’t expect any further such endorsements, because both are concerned it would be a conflict — Kevin Fisher is returning to being an award-winning columnist in the Free Times, and Mary Baskin Waters is soon to be president of the citywide council of neighborhood associations. (Not sure why those considerations would prevent them from endorsing, but there it is. I don’t understand why Steve Morrison wouldn’t endorse, either.)

It will be interesting to see which approach prevails. Leona’s personal touch, or Tony’s media savvy (of course, I have an economic incentive to root for the latter). Of course, the division isn’t that cut and dried. Tony was out there washing pollen off voters’ windshields at the corner of Old Woodland Road and Garners Ferry.

And of course, Leona was savvy enough to take out her own ad on this blog.

But there’s still a difference in styles that is interesting. I have no idea which approach will win out next week — or even which one should.

As you know, I hate it when politicians — especially ones I like, such as Lindsey Graham — interfere in other people’s elections, which are none of their business.

Well, Jim DeMint, in his quest to be Godfather Without Portfolio to the Tea-flavored wing of the Republican Party — or to put it another way, a national political boss, like a Tillman or Tweed or Crump writ large — does it all the time. This case back here, in which he is telling a GOP candidate in Florida what he should and shouldn’t do, was typical.

Here’s another example:

Jim DeMint: Leading the conservative revolution?

1. South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint (R) threw his endorsement behind Weld County prosecutor Ken Buck (R) in the Colorado Senate race, the latest in a series of moves by DeMint to buck the Republican Party establishment in contested primaries.

DeMint called Buck “an authentic conservative” who has “rapidly gained momentum” in his primary fight against former lieutenant governor Jane Norton among others….

DeMint’s endorsement of Buck marks the fifth time he has backed a Senate candidate via his Senate Conservatives Fund PAC this cycle. His past endorsements include: former representative Pat Toomey (Pa.), former state House speaker Marco Rubio (Fla.), state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (Calif.) and Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams (Texas). In all five races — including Colorado — faced candidates with varying levels of support from the party establishment. (Williams’ bid ended the day Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison announced she would not resign from the Senate after losing a gubernatorial primary last month.)

“Senator DeMint is helping strong conservative candidates around the country who have been overlooked by the Washington establishment,” explained Matt Hoskins, an aide to DeMint.

DeMint’s increased endorsement activity has riled some within the party who believe he is, at times, backing the more ideologically pure candidate even if that person simply cannot win the seat.

“Many in Republican circles are still waiting for Jim DeMint to explain how, in the real world, having only 30 Senators who agree with him on every issue rather than 60 Republicans who might not, would do anything to stop the Democrats from steam-rolling their agenda through Congress,” said one senior party strategist upset with DeMint’s decisions.

What’s clear is that — like him or not — DeMint has rapidly built himself into a forced to be reckoned with in conservative circles. That heightened profile — and the fact that DeMint is from the early-voting state of South Carolina — have led some to speculate that a 2012 presidential race might be in the offing.

Not so, according to one longtime Republican DeMint observer. “This has nothing to do with running for president,” said the source. “Jim DeMint doesn’t want to lead a government he wants to lead a revolution.”

That’s our boy, all right.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we could just have a senator who would represent us in Washington?

Well, I really hate to see this. We have so few nonpartisan elections, so few respites from the partisan nastiness, that I really hate to see it when the parties butt into them.

I was concerned that Tony Mizzell was seeking the endorsement of the Richland County GOP (even though that does, technically, mean reaching across party lines, since Tony was a Democrat on county council). Now, local Democratic Party boss Boyd Summers has put this out:

Richland County Democrats!

Don’t forget to vote in the important upcoming mayoral run-off on Tuesday, April 20, 2010. In this non-partisan election, former Richland County Democratic Party Chair Steve Benjamin is running against an ultra conservative Republican opponent. If you care about a diverse, environmentally conscientious community with safe streets and a government that is accountable to all of its citizens, it is imperative that you get out and vote on Tuesday, April 20, 2010.

You don’t have to wait until Tuesday, April 20, 2010 to vote in the run-off. Absantee voting is open from 8:30am- 5pm at the Richland County Board of Elections, 2020 Hampton Street. Also, you don’t have to have voted on April 6th to vote on April 20th.

Thanks,
Boyd

I know Boyd means well. But we could do without this.

I see that Jim DeMint is gettin’ all Vogon on Charlie Crist, saying essentially “SUBMIT! We are too powerful for you! Resistance is useless!“:

Washington (CNN) – Sen. Jim DeMint said Wednesday that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist should abandon his Senate bid and endorse his Republican primary rival.

DeMint was asked about chatter that Crist, trailing badly against Marco Rubio in the primary, might decide to run as an independent instead. “I hope that won’t happen,” he responded.

“That is a sour grapes approach – when you find out you can’t win, you bail out just like Arlen Specter did in his [Pennsylvania Republican] primary against Pat Toomey,” DeMint said of a possible independent bid by Crist. “I hope that doesn’t happen in Florida.”…

But — and this is not an unusual occurrence — I’d like to see the opposite of what ol’ Jim wants. I say, go ahead and run as the UnParty candidate, governor! Follow Joe Lieberman’s lead. C’mon in, the water’s fine. The grapes are sweet. Other encouraging metaphors…

Three or four more, and we can call it a movement.

Yesterday I was trying to remember what we always said in that boilerplate footer on editorials, telling folks how to contact their legislators. It was this:

To find out who your legislators are and how to contact them, go to www.scstatehouse.net and select “Find your legislator” on the left. Or call Project Vote Smart at 1-888-VOTE-SMART.

I thought I’d go ahead and put it here on the blog so that it will always be there when I need it.

Yes, that was an ironic headline.

Fact is, Anton Gunn is one of the most impressive legislators I’ve seen elected to the General Assembly in the past decade. His positive approach to working with other members of both parties toward nonpartisan, nonideological solutions is remarkable. There’s no question that he’s a Democrat — he was a key player in Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries in 2008 — but he has an open-minded, thoughtful approach that would be worthy of an UnPartisan.

So it is particularly strange to hear him condemned in the strong tones Sheri Few used in her speech to the Tea Partiers today.

It’s additionally interesting because, while her zeal for her causes has never been in doubt, the way she speaks to this crowd of True Believers — the kind of folk who would pull the Republican Party in the direction she would like to go (far from the direction of the Republicans we always endorsed over her in primaries) — presents an interesting contrast to the way she speaks in an editorial board meeting. Not so much in substance, but in tone, and word choice.

You can hear the Sheri Few I’m used to back here. See the Tea Party Sheri Few above. Sample: “This is the group that pushes propaganda for the socialistic Obama agenda.” Really. This is what is increasingly passing as an acceptable way for certain people in politics to characterize people with whom they disagree.

One of the interesting things about this sort of gathering is the utter lack of a sense of irony on the part of participants. Maybe they consider irony to be socialistic, or far left, or one of those other names Ms. Few uses to describe Mr. Gunn. Yet there is unacknowledged irony in abundance — such as when our speaker says “I have been a grass-roots activist for over 15 years,” and then almost immediately invokes hoots and boos from the audience by characterizing Mr. Gunn as a community organizer, “like his mentor, Obama.”

But you know, it never does get to be quite what you’d call “funny.” It’s a little too disturbing.

There is more in that vein…

I’m running a bit late on this this evening. I had to run out Two Notch to a furniture repair place in the late afternoon. They’ve had some pieces of ours for several months, and I was afraid they’d give them away if I didn’t run out there and redeem them. Here are your headlines:

1. Europe flights could be grounded for 48 hours by ash — OK, so you weren’t planning on flying over Europe today. Still, a big deal.
2. Former N.S.A. Official Is Indicted in Leak Case — I guess ya gotta watch what ya say to a reporter these days.
3. NASA’s Flight Plan Gets Small Course Corrections — Sounds like Obama didn’t curtail space travel as much as had been rumored. Which pleases me, being a Rocket Man myself. Or a fan of space travel, anyway.
4. Cranky White People Gather at State House to Bitch — What, that doesn’t sound like a news headline to you? Well, it states the case, so get outta my face. Here’s some more stuff from someone who stayed longer than I did.
5. Google’s Profit Jumps 37% — This is touted as further evidence of recovery. I see it also in terms of the company being strong at a time when it’s engaged in heavy-duty private foreign policy.
6. Rex posts low Q1 campaign contributions — The headline for this one could also read, “Sheheen’s status as front-runner further cemented.”

Am typing this on the Mac laptop with which the kind folk at ADCO have provided me, because my own trusty Dell (which has served me wonderfully well, in spite of the dire warnings of the Geek Squad) is too busy for me at the moment. It’s primping.

I don’t really know what it’s doing or why it’s doing it. It’s making me feel a little like the proverbial clueless guy wondering what women do when they go to the “powder room” together. Or baffled the way Dagwood was when Blondie just had to buy a new dress, and he didn’t get why.

(Not that I’ve ever been Dagwood in my own life. I’ve never been that husband who has to guard his wallet from the shopaholic wife. That is competely alien to my experience of life. First, my wife handles the money at our house, because I’m the one who can’t be trusted with it. Second, she never spends money on herself. She’s the level-headed, sensible person in the house. Which, frankly, I think is more typical of women. Maybe it’s the time and culture I came up in, but I actually think it’s more universal than that. I’ve read that the people who make microloans in the Third World have learned that it’s best to make those loans to women, because they will actually spend the money on improving their families’ economic situations. Whereas guys, well, you know — beer is not cheap… But I digress…)

What I’m ranting about here is that I had a meeting this a.m. with Leona Plaugh over Starbucks, and that put me late getting into the office, so I sit down eager to get to work, and as soon as I wake the laptop up (I never shut it down, but merely put it into sleep mode), it tells me it needs to shut down in order to install unspecified “updates.”

OK, so I let it do that — a process that can take 10 minutes, or so it seems. And then, just as I’m about to start gettin’ down to bidness, I get another dialogue saying that Adobe wants to install some critical updates. Adobe WHAT, it doesn’t say. Acrobat? PhotoShop? It doesn’t say. It just needs to go to the powder room, and it’s really tacky of me to demand why…

Why can’t the blasted thing do this when it’s in sleep mode, when I don’t need it?

Mutter. Fume. Sputter. Cartoon smoke rising from the top of my cartoon head…

Here are your top six stories (the proper number for a self-respecting front page):

1. Hundreds die in west China quake — How many more of these are we going to have this year?
2. Bernanke Sees Moderate Recovery — I love it when any public figure from South Carolina makes news without making a complete ass of himself — and of us. He says it might be awhile before jobs are restored. Duh. He also said we need to start reining in the deficit.
3. Last American Soldier Leaves Afghan ‘Valley of Death’ — Just to kind of remind you that there actually IS a war going on.
4. The $60 million mistake — Which will necessitate additional cuts in the state budget with only three months left.
5. Benjamin, Finlay joust on vital Columbia issues — This is old now (last night), but I want to keep the mayoral contest in front of my readers.
6. New York City To Begin Charging Homeless Rent — Just a little something to talk about around the water cooler.

Reach for the skies, podner -- we're fixin' to slap leather!

Andy Devine as "Jingles"

The other night when I was visiting with The Shop Tart, summit facilitator Kathryn Fenner made fun of my two-gun approach to photography — I had my Canon camera clipped to one side of my belt, and my Blackberry to the other. Not the way the Tart would accessorize, I’m sure.

I muttered something about being Wild Bill Hickok — something I’m sure neither of those ladies understood.

That’s because they’re too young to remember my favorite TV show in the days when I lived in the house almost directly across from the Tart’s house, back in 1957 — “The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok,” with Guy Madison in the title role and the immortal Andy Devine as his sidekick, “Jingles.” Brought to you by Kellogg’s Sugar Corn Pops.

But y’all remember it, don’t you? Come on, some of y’all are as old as I am; I know it…

Someone in state gummint didn’t do his (or her?) sums right, which means state budget cuts will have to go deeper than previously thought:

By Mike Fitts
[email protected]
Published April 14, 2010

The state budget for the current and next year must be cut by almost $60 million because of an accounting error.

The state Board of Economic Advisors disclosed Wednesday that the money had erroneously been counted as part of the state’s general fund. According to a special proviso in last year’s budget, the money should have been set aside in a separate fund earmarked for numerous uses.

That means that estimates of revenue were incorrect for the current year and for next year. The state closes its books for the current year June 30, so almost $60 million in new cuts must be found with less than three months left to go. It also means a further cut to the $5 billion budget the S.C. Senate is poised to debate….

Whatever the reason, the error means that new budget cuts must come at a time when state revenues for the current year are actually close to what was projected, BEA Chairman John S. Rainey said.

The state’s economy seems to have leveled off, Rainey said.

“We do believe we’re bumping along on the bottom,” Rainey said. The economic evidence implies that unemployment will remain stubbornly high for months to come, he said.

Thanks for the head-up on that, Mike!

OK, smart guy, YOU come up with a better caption for this picture of Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy at the nuclear summit.

In a brief exchange with Steve Morrison yesterday, I got the feeling that this would happen.

Today, he announced that he would not endorse either of the remaining candidates for mayor of Columbia. He cited his own humility, which I believe is completely sincere, knowing him:

We have always wondered at the hubris of losing candidates endorsing winners, but have come to understand the demand for unity in traditional party politics.  But, we were attracted to this race precisely because it was a non-partisan race among neighbors, a race not burdened with the extreme divisions of contemporary party politics.  Ours was a noble, some say naïve, cause to overcome the divisions of race and political party.We have no political “machine” with the ability to “deliver” votes to any candidate.  We have deep respect and extreme gratitude for our wonderful friends and neighbors who supported us with their time, energy, money and votes.  They are intelligent, independent thinkers who will vote their conscience on April 20 after considering each candidate.

Trouble is, sometimes humility is unbecoming, and this is one of those times. Almost a third of those who voted last Tuesday looked to Steve Morrison for leadership in this city, and he just declined a unique opportunity to lead them toward a clear conclusion in this hard-fought race. He didn’t have to have a machine, he didn’t have to lift a finger to “deliver” votes. He just needed to use the power he had to lead.

Now, this race remains a big question mark, and I think Steve Morrison could have tipped it pretty clearly one way or another. No, I’m not saying his voters were sheep who would vote, each and every one, for his designated successor. But enough of them, torn over the choice, would have taken a cue from him to make the difference.

I think I can identify with one reason why he didn’t endorse, though:

Columbia is blessed to have two candidates for Mayor with winning qualities.  One is a traditional Republican, the other a traditional Democrat.

That’s the clearest statement I’ve seen from him as to why he called himself a unifying figure — because he saw the other two in such partisan terms. And he doesn’t want anyone to see him in those terms.

I can dig that. Now that I’m no longer with the newspaper, I’ve been tempted to get involved in politics at long last — if not in my own behalf as a candidate, then in support of another. But the very first person I back, my readers will say, “See, he was a (Democrat, Republican, whichever depending upon whom I’m supporting) all along.” And I cherish my independence too much to encourage that sort of misinterpretation. I think Steve does, too.

Tomorrow, I’ll be sitting down with Steve Morrison for a video interview that I’ll probably post the next day sometime. At that time, I’ll explore his thinking on this further, along with other issues. Don’t touch that dial!

Yesterday on NPR I heard this discussion of the now-infamous video of some civilians, including two journalists, being killed by Apache helicopters in Iraq three years ago. What distinguished the conversation is that it involved people who actually knew what they were talking about, along these lines:

Mr. GALLAGHER: I have. You know, at first glance, it looks terrible. The fact that WikiLeaks labeled it collateral murder certainly doesn’t help. But being there, having been in Iraq as an armored cavalry officer on the ground I wasn’t a pilot but still, the video begs the question of context. You know, why were the pilots flying in that area? They were clearly looking for something. What were the current rules of engagement on the ground?You know, Wikileaks does a great jobs of marking the two journalists, but they don’t point out the fact that they’re down – the insurgent with an AK-47 or the one with an RPG launcher.

You know, those are the questions that I have the benefit of looking for, given my experience, but an average civilian doesn’t. You know, they just see the video itself.

CONAN: And as you say, it looks terrible. Somebody, well, I got an email from somebody: How could people do that?

Mr. GALLAGHER: That yes, and in by itself, in that vacuum, it is, but unfortunately, you know, war, terrible things occur in war. That doesn’t necessarily make it a war crime. And, you know, I’m not going to personally, I’m not going to rush to judgment until the entire report is given the context that it deserves.

Several calls were taken, and most of what I heard was in the same vein, displaying a reluctance to condemn the shooters. And it made perfect sense. The Wikileaks clip shows a horrific incident in which men died needlessly. But as propaganda it is rendered much more powerful by foreknowledge of who was about to be killed, and convenient labelling. I suppose the viewer is supposed to think, or rather feel, “OhmyGod, how could those awful American soldiers open fire on those men who are so clearly marked as being innocent journalists?” And because what happened is so gut-wrenching, as irrational as that is, it is precisely the feeling induced by watching.

As I said, the NPR discussion goes a long way toward pulling the conversation back in the direction of considering what it’s like to be behind those gunsights in a combat situation.

But being an honest and open discussion, and being open to callers, it did lead to a call that showed just what can happen to a man when he goes far enough into the heart of darkness. This statement by a caller made perfect sense, helped us sympathize with the combat infantry soldier, right up until the end of the comment when it goes over the edge into the indefensible:

DAN (Caller): Yeah. I’d like to add something. I was captain in Vietnam, and I think it’s quite oxymoronic to say that we have rules of engagement. I hear some of the other men at combat. When you are there and they’re shooting at you, mortars are dropping all over the place, nobody’s thinking. You’re just thinking of your buddy or your chance to survive. If we’re walking forward and we see a group of people, if we hesitate for a second, we were going to be dead. It is absolutely absurd to talk about rules of engagement.

I don’t know where they ever came from. You put men in the hell of a situation killing other men, and then on top of that you try to put rules onto it to – what? Legitimize it? (technical difficulties) into born killers, you’re giving us the authority to kill, and then you’re telling us we have to obey certain rules. I’ve watched men die obeying those rules. I think it’s absurd. This conversation is absurd.

You put men in harm’s way. Their job is to get out of it. My job was to bring those men home. I brought them home. I didn’t give a damn about rules of engagement. I brought my men home safely. I did what I had to do, whether I was throwing napalm on a village or not. My men were coming home. They were Americans.

To engage in war, even the most just of wars, is to wander in a universe of moral ambiguity, in which extremes of honor and horror and courage and atrocity overlap and interweave, and it’s very easy for even the best of men to get lost in it.

Some react to this reality by being against war, all wars. I don’t. But don’t think I ever lose sight of the moral ambiguity, the slippery slope into horror. It can’t be denied; and moreover one shouldn’t try to deny it.

At the same time, I can’t admire the folks with WikiLeaks who congratulate themselves so heartily for rubbing our faces in this. Without the context of a discussion such as that which I heard on NPR, and with the inflammatory commentary and arrows and labels imposing a false sense of clarity upon the fog of war, the cause of truth is in fact ill-served.