COMMENT: A Mr. William Arkin, who earns his bread commenting on national security matters for the Washington Post, a well-known scandal sheet, described American soldiers in a column in that newspaper recently as mercenaries. This is very odd, or at least I think it is, since the National Catholic Reporter reported only last month on the efforts of some Dominican nuns to donate canned goods to Air Force families that cannot otherwise afford canned goods. Since the goal of a mercenary soldier is to make money at his chosen trade, the American mercenaries responsible for protecting Mr. Arkin and his low opinion of them seem to be making a complete hash of it and should probably go into some more remunerative line of work, like bloviating for liberal newspapers. They would then be able to hurl cans of lima beans, chili con carne, and sliced yellow cling peaches in heavy syrup through the Washington Post’s front windows and still have enough left over to feed the family until payday. Maybe it’s just me, but somehow or other I don’t think that Mr. Arkin believes his local fire department are mercenaries, or if he does, he has the good sense to keep this opinion to himself, lest the men whose service he denigrates so dismissively decide that saving his life or family or property is not worth their sacrifice.

In unrelated news, the FDA has approved the use of a female contraceptive as a treatment for acne. It has been many years since I was a teenager, but if I remember right, which is hard to do with almost anything regarding the 1970’s, in those days most teenaged boys considered acne as a highly effective female contraceptive. It almost always worked and had the added benefit of being free.