Wow. Or, In Which I Stand Amazed.

When you live overseas and you don't get the news in English on tv, you have to rely on things like World Radio Switzerland or online news to know what's going on at home. It was with sadness that I read yesterday about the men and women at Fort Hood who were attacked and killed by one of their own. I've been reading some of the coverage this morning in the Washington Post and these two paragraphs, in particular, struck me:

Within moments of the [exchange of gun]fire, [Police Officer Kimberly] Munley and [Major Nidal] Hasan lay on the ground near each other bleeding badly. Hasan's pistols and several magazines of ammunition lay splayed near his body. A soldier rushed up to Munley and fashioned his belt into a tourniquet to stem the bleeding from her thigh before an ambulance ferried the officer to the base hospital.

Medics stripped off Hasan's camouflage top and began to treat his bullet wounds and pump plasma into his body to keep him alive. (Emphasis added.) Hasan and three other badly injured soldiers were flown by helicopter to Scott & White Hospital in nearby Temple, Tex.

It's that highlighted sentence that blew me away. It didn't matter that Hasan was the man who wreaked carnage, a comrade in arms who betrayed his brothers. He was, in that heinous instant, a fellow solider who was wounded and down and others stepped in and followed through on their duty.

They could have left him there to die.

They could have picked up one of his guns and shot him dead.

They could have done any number of things, but instead they fought to save his life.

*****

My thoughts are with the men and women at Fort Hood and with all our brave men and women who stand at post every day. And my thoughts are with Major Hasan and his family, too. What a sad day.

Sarah Palin and Other Redundancies

This woman just will not go away. And if she's the hope the of the Republican Party, they're doomed. From yesterday's Sketch Book by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post, here is Palin: 'Just Getting Started'.

Continuing on a Rhapsody on a Theme of Palin in G-minor (as in "Go away already"), Jonathan Capeheart in the Post's PostPartisan round-up also mentions Sarah Palin's Next Act and, in a follow-up, begs someone, anyone, Beuller, to please Make Her Stop.

Moving away from that now, as if there isn't enough divisiveness in the world, a Catholic priest in South Carolina has told his parishioners, if you voted for Obama, forget taking communion. Hm. I don't seem to remember Jesus saying political choice was a prerequisite for partaking of the Last Supper or any subsequent iterations of his final act before his crucifixion. For your amusement (or head shaking. Whichever) here is SC Priest: No Communion for Obama Supporters.

Finally, I'm hesitant to highlight this one, but as I find this kind of sentiment has no place in our great country, I'm going to include this piece. It's a collection of recent news stories about racists who are gunning for our new president-elect. The most disturbing stories are the ones involving kids. A note to those who would espouse these kinds of sentiments: you're fomenting treason and terrorism, which makes you no different than bin Laden and his band of criminals. Think about it. Here is Racists React to Obama Victory.

Not wanting to end on that sour, sad note, today is also Friday, which means a photo is in order. How about this one?



Happy Friday, everyone.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential