Once upon a time in America...

...it was believed - at least we claimed to believe - that a person released from prison had paid his (or her) "debt to society" and should be given another class. The caveat is there because, yeah, I do suppose the sentiment was not always scrupulously carred out in fact. Now, though, it seems the sentiment itself has pretty much vanished, as witness the some states who deny convicted felons the right to vote, not to mention the scarlet-letter laws, proliferating. Which is to say that TChris, at TalkLeft, strikes the right note, IMHO, on the story that the US military is raising the number of "moral waivers" it makes for recruits, allowing people with past criminal convictions to join.

Desperation breeds forgiveness. Enlistees with conviction records made up almost 12 percent of the Army's recruits in 2006. It's unfortunate that the only opportunity to obtain employment available to many of these ex-offenders is in such a dangerous occupation.

Speaking of which, or not, the Feb. 12 New Yorker magazine includes a review of a new book entitled "The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare As We Know It" (Houghton Mifflin), by David A Bell, which advances the premise that the concept of total warfare grew from the Enlightenment notion of total peace. If you're at all interested in military history, this sounds to me like one you might put on your list.