Sunday. On Parkway Brewery, Lone Survivor, and Political Capital

Good morning Sunday and the readers located therein. I'd like to start off with a note to self--don't end Saturday night with a handful of Get Bent IPAs if you hope to be up and at it early the next day.

First off a quick shout out to the folks at Parkway Brewery. The make a great IPA, and have a very cool hangout in which you can drink it. It's the same warehouse where they brew it. A bar made of plywood, a stage made of plywood, and lots of tables and chairs, some plastic, some wooden, some

Parkway Brewery

leather. Looks like the entire place was decorated with purchases from several yard sales. I love it, and the people jammed into it love it.

Secondly, I want to throw out a couple of groups on Lone Survivor. Not a review, just thoughts. The movie was authentic, Peter Berg (The Kingdom) did a good job of depicting the SEALs as men, just men. Unfortunately, the pacing felt a bit off. Basically the guys prepped for the mission, dropped into the mission area, and were discovered by some goat herders. After that there was 50 minutes of loud noises, and then the credits, which were designed to either honor or jerk tears, depending on your point of view.  So in the long run, I guess the movie was okay. Of course what isn't okay is that we have troops dying in Afghanistan simply because politicians can garner more political capital by ignoring the war and focusing on gripping issues such as gay marriage, marijuana, taxes, standards of learning, or harassing their interns, all of which seem insignificant when you are bleeding out on some God-forsaken mountain in a country that has never known anything but war, and never will.

See you tomorrow.

Mark H. Walker is a retired U.S. Navy Commander and author of over 40 books, including the acclaimed World at War: Revelation, a novel of a twisted third world war. You can read more about Mark/me at my personal website thing.