Stone Cold John Kerry

You would think that it would be impossible to write satire about the fact that, having already metamorphosed into the party of fiscal responsibility more than a decade ago, the Democrats have now also become the party of military service, too.

You'd be wrong — if you like your satire dark, wild, and cold. I offer you Ken Layne's essay God of War, Death, and Madness.

Kerry was in Vietnam, taking lives like your boy eats cookies. Killing people, saving people, holding Life & Death in his hands like a savage gift. He kills the Viet Cong or anybody else he chooses, he saves a U.S. sailor who fell out of the boat, he walks the halls of the Senate deciding who he'll kill or who he'll save. In Vietnam, Kerry is a death's head of gruesome power, while your Bush hides in Alabama, a scared little girl.

It's definitely a read-the-whole-thing kind of thing.