last night

"When someone says that they love you, and you know that they mean it to their very core, that there is no doubt in any cell in your entire body that they are unconditionally sincere then you are wealthy. There is no question that, for a time, financial wealth can secure the placebo of love, but it cannot create it. It cannot manufacture true love, just as it cannot ensure or secure happiness. To give ourselves to others openly and honestly, and to conduct ourselves with integrity and concern for the feelings of others, even if complete strangers, represents the sum total of our riches. "

-Matthew Good, 'Wealth', August 4, 2006.

This entry brought tears to my eyes. I urge everyone to read it in its entirety.

Harpers.

A marine sniper who has killed as many as 60 insurgents in Iraq said of his work, "It's like hearing classical music playing in my head." It was reported that Private Steven D. Green, who is charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, then killing her and members of her family, had said that, in Iraq, "killing people is like squashing an ant, I mean, you kill somebody and it's like, 'All right, let's go get some pizza.'"