21 gun salutes and Scooby Doo

Perhaps the line of the day in the cornucopia that was Sunday's LA Times is this: "You dressed for Toys for Tots or a funeral?"

In one of the eight million ways the war has affected the world beyond the immediately obvious, the Toys for Tots program is hard pressed to distribute donations to poor children. Normally, Marine Reservists run 179 of the programs, but they, of course, are currently off getting killed. The LA Times (registration required) has the story:

Amid the public's clamor for holiday help, Coates and the remaining Marines also have had to wrestle with the grim realities of war.

In October, the battalion had its first casualty. In November, six were killed in one week. Another died on Thanksgiving Day. Two more were killed last week. The funerals are tentatively set for this week, a day or two before Christmas Eve.

As Coates walked through the center's gymnasium, winding his way through towers of toys nearly 10 feet tall, he greeted two Marines.

They were wearing formal dress uniforms. "You dressed for Toys for Tots or a funeral?" Coates asked.

One Marine showed Coates a tightly folded American flag and replied, "Funeral."

The pair left and changed into their fatigues. Within a few minutes, they returned to the gymnasium and started packing Scooby Doo blankets and hula hoops into boxes.

Andrea has decided we need a new word to describe people who think this war is a good idea. She suggests "wartarded," as in "You can't listen to a word he says about the Middle East; he's wartarded."