I was in a bar after work on Friday. They had a television tuned to CMT, and it was showing Son in Law, a shitty movie from the 1990s starring Pauly Shore. Do not worry, this is not a review of Son in Law. Yes, I will watch any movie, no matter how bad, for a long enough time to write a review, but there was no sound on in the bar, and I wasn't watching the movie anyway. I mention it merely for context, because it gave me an idea.

Last week, President Obama made a bold move. By making four recess appointments, including naming Richard Corbray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, while the Senate is still in pro forma session, Obama is directly challenging legislative shenanigans designed exclusively for obstructionism.

This past weekend, the last American troops crossed the border from Iraq into Kuwait. It has been almost nine years since the invasion of Iraq commenced in March of 2003, much of it passing through the same spot on the border the troops crossed on their way home. The costs of the war have been measured and reported, to the point they have become abstractions: 4,800 American and coalition dead, somewhere around 30,000 belligerents dead, over 100,000 civilians dead, and $800 billion drained from the national coffers. It was a war of choice begun on false pretenses. We toppled a toothless dictator at enormous cost to ourselves in the form of lives, treasure, moral standing, and freedoms at home. We de-stabilized a region of the world hardly known for its rigidity, and emboldened Iran, one of our more consistent enemies.