One soldier thinks so:

Soldier: Honor troops like Va. Tech dead

An Army sergeant complained in a rare opinion article that the U.S. flag flew at half-staff last week at the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan for those killed at Virginia Tech but the same honor is not given to fallen U.S. troops here and in Iraq.

In the article issued Monday by the public affairs office at Bagram military base north of Kabul, Sgt. Jim Wilt lamented that his comrades’ deaths have become a mere blip on the TV screen, lacking the “shock factor” to be honored by the Stars and Stripes as the deaths at Virginia Tech were.

“I find it ironic that the flags were flown at half-staff for the young men and women who were killed at VT, yet it is never lowered for the death of a U.S. service member,” Wilt wrote.

Well, not necessarily.  The article notes that some states lower their flags for soldiers from that state, but his point is well taken.

But I can’t agree with him.  The death of the VT people was an unexpected shock to the community and the nation because it involved non combatants, civilians going about their daily lives who had every reasonable expectation of going to class and going home.

Soldiers in combat have a completely different expectation.  We know there will deaths reported.

Now the larger point of his, that the people here in the states treat the soldiers deaths as blips on the news is very well taken, and yes, I agree that not enough respect is given the troops.

But the troops killed in battle are honored.  They are given honor guards, military burials and other honors not conferred to the civilians, so to say there is a lack of respect by granting the civilians a flag at half staff is, in my opinion, not supported.

And not to be cynical, but if the nation lowered it’s flags for a day for the troops killed, not too many days would the flags be flying full staff.  That is the grim reality of war.

Well, as in all good confrontations, it all depends on who you ask.

The players:

• Karl Rove, Deputy White House Chief of Staff
• Sheryl Crow, singer
• Laurie David, environmentalist and producer of An Inconvenient Truth

The place: The White House Correspondents Dinner

The bare bones:  David and Crow were introduced to Rove, and engaged him in an impromptu debate on Global Warming.

According to Crow and David, who blogged this at HuffPo, this is what happened:

Karl Rove Gets Thrown Under the Stop Global Warming Bus

The “highlight” of the evening had to be when we were introduced to Karl Rove. How excited were we to have our first opportunity ever to talk directly to the Bush Administration about global warming.

We asked Mr. Rove if he would consider taking a fresh look at the science of global warming. Much to our dismay, he immediately got combative. And it went downhill from there.

We reminded the senior White House advisor that the US leads the world in global warming pollution and we are doing the least about it. Anger flaring, Mr. Rove immediately regurgitated the official Administration position on global warming which is that the US spends more on researching the causes than any other country.

We felt compelled to remind him that the research is done and the results are in…

Well, no it isn’t but never mind.  You get the gist of it.

Rive has not commented, but this witness has (via Bryon York):

The eyewitness says the person who introduced David to Rove was the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd.  I want you to meet Laurie David, Dowd said to Rove.  (These are all approximate recollections, so no quotation marks.)  Dowd said David would like to say hello.

…Immediately after Dowd’s introduction, the witness says, David began lecturing Rove about global warming.  This administration has done nothing on the issue, she told Rove.  We face a crisis.  The time to act is now.  This administration has done nothing…

In my blog this weekend about Alec Baldwin, I mention that frankly both sides of this ugly divorce need to be slapped.

In Baldwin’s case, the phone call is a good example of why.

And in Basinger’s case, this should do:

Basinger ‘hires bodyguard for daughter’ after Baldwin phone rant

Feuding Kim Basinger hired a bodyguard to protect her daughter Ireland after her ex-husband left an angry message on the girl’s phone, it has been claimed.

The star is said to have arranged 24-hour cover for Ireland after her father labeled the 11-year-old a “thoughtless little pig” on the voicemail, which was leaked to the media.

Mother and daughter were seen in Los Angeles over the weekend - accompanied by the burly security man.

This is pure foolishness.  The implication is that She is afraid Baldwin will hurt the child, and while others have echoed this sentiment, I don’t think he was speaking literally or physically threatening to the kid so this is just posturing.

There is another explanation however, perhaps she is concerned about all the publicity the kid is now getting since this is all front page news.

And frankly that could be a valid concern, after all the press is not very discreet.

But then again, if that is the case, then it is Kim’s fault for releasing or leaking the damn phone call.  If she is concerned about the child, she should have left the matter to the court, not the court of public opinion.

Baldwin has had this to say:

“I am sorry for what happened,” Baldwin wrote on his web site. “But I am equally sorry that a court order was violated, which had deliberately been put under seal in this case.

“Although I have been told by numerous people not to worry too much, as all parents lose their patience with their kids, I am most saddened that this was released to the media because of what it does to a child,” he wrote.

I am a rocker, but I enjoy most styles of music, opera being one exception.

But there is something about Country Music that always intrigues me.  It is not just that it is fun and easy to play, there is something else that gives it a strong connection to people.  Where rock music seems to energize and connect to the youth, Country energizes the whole middle class family.

And it has a sense of patriotism not quite as common in some other forms of music.

Jeff Foxworthy sums it up nicely here: