A Greeley native who says he's an Army lieutenant colonel says he won't go to Afghanistan until President Obama provides his birth certificate showing he's eligible to hold office.

Bob Herbert wrote an excellent column in last Sunday's NY Times comparing it to our involvement in the Vietnam war.

For the Vietnam war, the Left was identified mightily with forces that were trying to end the war. There were street demonstrations.
There were student demonstrations. People were threatening to refuse to pay the portion of their income taxes that went to the war.

Today, the war in Afghanistan is not even a topic of discussion for the left. Neither is the war in Iraq.

There was a bit of a populist uprising in 2006. It was about the war in Iraq. The republicans were swept out of leadership positions in both houses of congress. But the democrats betrayed the electorate by agreeing to an increase of forces instead of the withdrawal for which people had voted.

And of course, we have a Democratic president in Mr. Obama who repeats the same talking points as his predecessor. That does make many democratic party loyalists hesitant to criticize what has now become a democratic party war.

During the Vietnam era, there were daily reports from the front from the likes of CBS news. It helped keep the war in front of the American people and helped to generate disgust among us for the war and increased the pressure to end it. Today, the war(s) are seldom even mentioned.

"I Don't Need a Warrant, Ma'am, Under Federal Law"

Modulr is coming out with a neat looking wall mount in the summer. I will be getting that for the kitchen.

 I ordered the case from Apple and it comes tomorrow. It serves as a stand too. I may not need the photo easel after that.

Jeralyn was also asking about apps. So far I've mostly used the web browser, mail, and different news readers like USA Today and NY Times. Both were made for the pad and use it very effectively.

I'll try out more apps tonight. I was too busy yesterday to play much.

• Lack of a draft means there is a certain feeling that those who are there have chosen to be there, and lack of fear from those who aren't there that they will be sent.

• American casualties are far far lower, which means we don't feel it as much at home.

• The reasons for being there are vastly different.  We invaded Afghanistan after we were attacked on home soil.  Afghanistan is not directly responsible, but the greater perception is there that we are defending ourselves from a very real attack.  And that the people responsible were being trained and/or supported by the government in Afghanistan.

• Iraq.  In a lot of circles, Iraq was the wrong war, and Afghanistan was the right war.  But whatever you feel, they are clearly not the same war, so comparing the responses to the two is not necessarily relevant.  I don't assume all of the opposition to Iraq was knee-jerk anti-war sentiment.  There was a logical assumption that we were misled into that war and lied to, and that we never should have been there to begin with.  That's not the case for Afghanistan.

The latest tawdry celebrity couple news in the air pertains to Bruce Springsteen. Remember the woman whose husband claimed she had an affair with The Boss when the two got friendly at a New Jersey gym? He's filed court documents claiming she did have an affair with Bruce

(Metaphorically) join Sandra Bullock wherever she is, sensibly not letting a few dim-bulbs appear to be of a higher wattage by connecting to a stronger power source.