In the wake of the gruesome revelation - and grievous metaphor - that veterans' remains were for years dumped in a Virginia landfill, a reminder that Veterans' Day began as a celebration to end, not glorify, war and its lies. After World War One, writes Sherwood Eddy, "We told the soldiers that if they would win we would give them a new world." It has yet to happen, not that way, and it never will. More from David Swanson and poet Wilfred Owen, who died proving it.

"If in some smothering dreams you too could pace/ Behind the wagon that we flung him in...My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/ To children ardent for some desperate glory/ The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est/ Pro patria mori."

The documentary "Where Soldiers Come From," airing tonight on PBS, follows a group of childhood friends from a small town in Michigan who heedlessly join the National Guard and end up serving as "accidental soldiers" in Bush's Afghanistan. Back home, they struggle to find meaning in their service where little seems evident.

“I told myself I was never gonna join the military,” says Cole Smith, pounding cough syrup to stay awake through bomb disposal patrols. “Dropped out of school. Quit my job. Didn’t have any money. I figured, ‘Twenty Gs, National Guard, one weekend a month, two weeks a year, fuck, friends already there. Let’s do it.’.... I-diot!”

If you can spare the time, last night's "debate" in 100 seconds and Rick Perry's mind-freeze, which takes up almost half of it. And as proof of the class act that is the GOP enterprise, some shockingly ugly "jokes" by GOP "leaders" that emerged from it.