Friday's various links and comments

Minnesota Army Reservist is charged with desertion. She says she is deserting because she thought she'd be assigned to do a job she wasn't trained to do. That is just false. She really decided to desert because she thought the worst punishment she faced was some brig time. Deserters during time of war should be lined up in front of a firing squad. That would impact the decision making process.

This announcement was very surprising.

Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner had been touted to be the moderate "anti-Hillary" candidate in the 2008 Democratic presidential mix, but now his stunning exit has created an opening for another would-be Clinton-slayer: John Edwards. After raising $9 million and assembling a campaign team, Warner called it all off in Richmond yesterday, telling reporters he needed to spend more time with his family. "While politically this appears to be the right time for me to take the plunge, at this point I want to have a real life," he said.

Out of the various Democrats considering running in 2008, Warner was the one I thought would make the strongest opponent. He is perceived as a moderate and I suppose next to Russ Feingold he is moderate. But his strongest attribute was zero legislative experience. Not serving in the legislature means he doesn't have years of votes to come back and haunt him. There is a reason we have only elected two sitting senators to the presidency in the past hundred and twenty years. Additionally, only one man has ever gone straight from serving in the House of Representatives to the presidency.

Donald Lambro has a column in Townhall.com today opining that this election will be about security and the economy. Republicans better hope he's right.

There is a saying from the mainstream press that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Along the same lines, according to the Dalai Lama one man's terror is another man's mischief.

The Dalai Lama said after meeting Pope Benedict on Friday that "a few mischievous Muslims" should not be allowed to give the Islamic faith a bad name.

While I don't think everyone of a particular faith should be judged by the actions of a few, this Lama dude loses credibility when he labels mass murder of innocent people as mischief. Mischief is when teenagers throw toilet paper into trees after a high school football game. Mischief is when a school kid shoves something into the water fountain so the next kid to get a drink gets a faceful of water. Cutting someones head off for refusing to convert to your religion is many things but mischief isn't the right word.