This just in: Irony is ironic

You'll have to forgive the simplistic nature of this post. It's a sort of digression back to the ESPN ethos. At the same time, I think it also offers a little (very little) in the way of insight to the mindset there.

There is a palpable sense of distrust in- and antipathy towards the US Military and it's civilian overlords at the Department of Defense at the ESPN board. The members of the left there are vocal about their dislike for nearly all things military, their explanations about hating the war in Iraq but supporting the troops not withstanding.

One in particular appears to take great satisfaction in repeated proclamations that the US spends 27-times more on defense than any of the nations that we would consider 'enemies.' He falls off the tracks though when he tries then to argue that the $400 billion in defense appropriations can begin to address things like the unfunded liabilities that hang out there in Social Security land.

He and his ideological cohorts represent, in a microcosm, all the worst of the Daily Kos-Nation-reading-Chomsky-worshiping left. They, in fact, put the blue in Blue state.

So when I see this, I can only laugh. Just so I've got it right, lets review: you get your money-savings (less money in the hands of the military-industrial complex is always a good thing) and a smaller military but at the bottom line the bases of your idealogical thinking and power are the ones who have to take it on the chin.

Defense Department data show that "blue states," those that voted for Democrat Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, are slated to lose a combined 24,289 military jobs while their "red state" counterparts, those states carried by President Bush, will gain nearly 12,000 jobs.

Rich. Truly rich!