Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Joe has landed. He should have arrived at Dulles airport around 6am or so, and should be getting home any minute. We'll see how he feels about blogging today. I posted a poll about Obama's Afghanistan speech last night, you can find the poll in the next column, top of the column - vote if you haven't.

Otherwise, I'm back in DC. Had an interesting, and somewhat sad, discussion with a young guy while in line at airport security at O'Hare. He said he was heading to basic training. Looked all of 18. Said he applied last year, but had to wait to finish high school. I asked him why he was joining the military, now of all times (meaning, with two wars on). He said, in America, you need an education to get anywhere - he was joining so they'd pay for his college.

I know the GI Bill is a good thing, and it's helped countless men and women go to school who couldn't otherwise. But this kid has to risk his life to go to college. Noble, to be sure. But I'm having a hard time feeling that this is the way things should be.