Well Matt, the illiterate DO serve these days, (if serving is what you call it). Just because one has a HS diploma or the equivalent doesn’t mean they can read or write.

People with criminal records aren’t supposed to be allowed to enlist either, but the Pentagon has been handing out waivers for that all over the place.

I could same the same thing about the citizenship requirement. But the border between here and Mexico is a favorite hang-out for the Army recruiters. They promise the poor souls the sun and the moon, PLUS a good one with the INS folks, and there you have it.

So take it from me, NOT all US Army personnel can read. I’ve had to tell far too many of them how to find the bathroom in an airport, or loan them money when they either lose their tickets, or can’t read them well enough to know that they’re going to Salem, Oregon or Salem, Massachusetts. (and those tickets are always written by Army personnel, so they obviously don’t know the difference either).

And don’t forget about the young earnest fellow being served tea by some kind Iraqis a couple of years back, who didn’t know who Donald Rumsfeld was, when the Iraqi asked him what he thought about Rummy getting fired. The soldier asked, Who’s Donald Rumsfeld?

Now, maybe he COULD read, but apparently not much.

Nothing that Stephen King has written, or ever will write, could even begin to equal the horrors and misery visited upon the World by the Bush mis-administration in the name of “Freedom.”

There’s a particular price to be paid for all of this, and right now the bill is in the mail…..

I really like what King says.  Since there are millions of people in this world who are paid to kill other human beings, I’ve always felt that I should be paid for reading.

I remember a time (and not so long ago) when we did the same thing here. For first and sometimes 2nd time offenders, the judges gave them a choice..prison or the Military.

These days, there’s no way they’re gonna empty the prisons, considering how much the Prison Industrial Complex makes from it.

Prof. Somebody Q. Wilson denied the existence of such in a lecture I attended earlier today, claiming that there were no industries dependant upon or connected to the prison system, but at best, he is HIGHLY out of touch, and at worst, he’s a denier or a liar.

But then, he also denied any negative impact of corporations as well. So, he’s apparently missed the fact that American Exceptionalism in the 21st Century means that the sole superpower of the world is a fascist enterprise, and becoming worse by the day. Or, maybe he doesn’t know that corporatism is one of the many components of an authoritarian system. He still thinks we’re a democracy.

Sort of like the way Castro did in 1980.  Send them to Iraq.