We’ve always had music and musicians to propagandize war, mock war, cheer the troops, provide succor to the masses, cherish the lost, and remember all things “war.” Over the last century here’s a couple to notice – and undoubtedly you have more to offer in comments.

On November 11, 1918, the armistice to end World War I went into affect, on the eleventh hour of that day. The 11th minute of the 11th hour was never officially recognized, but many Americans use that to extend the “eleventh” number pattern. On November of 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11th as the day to commemorate Armistice Day.

It wasn’t the intention of the White House to only pass the veterans hiring initiative; it was folded into a broader bill that offered tax credits for all hires. But the practical effect of offering a big sum of money to a company to hire a veteran is that a veteran will get privileged in hiring decisions over a non-veteran, when a position needs to be filled. I can’t see how this would boost employment in any way, just favor one type of applicant over another. That’s decent news for veterans, but bad news for anyone who didn’t go into the military.

Bunch of defeatist isolationists who don’t believe in American exceptionalism.

As Thomas Jefferson School of Law professor Marjorie Cohn notes at CommonDreams, “Today marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the chemical warfare program in Vietnam without sufficient remedial action by the U.S. government.” More than 3 million people, including Vietnamese, Vietnamese-Americans, US veterans, and their children have either died, sickened or been disabled, and their children may, too, as the result of the wide-scale use of chemical agents by US forces during the Vietnam War.

Rather than dwelling on those who have given their lives in wars in the US (I am fortunate that for all the members of my family who have served in the military over the years, I think only my Great Uncle Will died while serving during war time and his death during the Spanish-American War was from disease), I want to discuss the folks who always seem to get lost, the veterans who return from war breathing but damaged in soul.

This was a previously scheduled event to posthumously award the Medal of Honor to two US soldiers who died in the Korean War, but given the timing, many expect President Obama to add remarks about the operation that killed Osama bin Laden.

On this day as we pause to remember our soldiers, airmen, midshipmen and Marines, remember that Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson want those men and women to get paid less, spend more for their health care and have their houses and workspaces left to rot.

Dana Milbank comes up with some compelling logic to indemnify Alan Simpson for his comments about Social Security: he’s been biased against the program for 20 years, so what’s the problem?

I got a phone call last night from a seminary classmate. An old college friend of hers had just committed suicide. Sadly, calls like this are far too common — whether related to military service, the economy, disasters like the Exxon Valdez or Katrina or the BP spill, or a hundred other causes.

More than ever, tough times call for us to care for one another.