First of all, democracy via the ballet box in this country is fragile. Look at this mess in Washington State. A friend caught this on NPR this morning. Some King County election official disqualified a number of ballots because their local computer did not have electonic copies of signatures for all those voting stored.

From my perspective, Donald Rumsfeld had some good ideas on technology and modern war at one time — and his and other’s notions on modernization and the revolution in military affairs made some sense to me.

Check out the New York Times Magazine this Sunday (page 96). Jason Zengerle has profiled my notion of “Stock Options for Soldiers.” I like the entire article — which ran among many in the annual New York Times Magazine ‘The Year in Ideas: A to Z’ issue.

I am in Chestertown, Maryland this weekend where I have a place situated in some back woods. I am at one of those points where I have two feet of articles and papers to plow through and want to comment on lots of what I’m reading.

Down at Cary Christian School in the Raleigh-Durham area, students are (well, WERE until yesterday) reading a book suggesting that slaves lived “a life of plenty, of simple pleasures.

Since the several posts I have written about how important it is to help those soldiers returning from America’s Iraq and Afghanistan operations, I have been flooded by notes from those wondering where they can send checks. Some soldiers’ familes are economically undermined because of the long-term deployment of the man or woman deployed abroad….

Any long-term readers of this blog will know that I am a great fan of Bill Condon and his masterful work on Gods & Monsters as well as his latest thought-provoking film, Kinsey. My previous posts on this are here, here, and here.

Christian Bourge at UPI is reading the legislation he is reporting on even if Members of Congress are not.

UPI’s Mark Benjamin adds a dimension to an already high pile of concerns I have about how the Bush administration is neglecting the plight of soldiers fighting this war in Iraq. The link to the UPI story is here, but the first bit of the story reads: U.S.

I have never been invited to a Hanukah Party until today thanks to Matt Dallek. But Hanukah parties have been on my mind lately because I am hosting a “holiday party” at my home on December 17th, and several of my friends cannot make it because of competing Hanukah soirees.