Critics of the Iraq War will mark today with angst, protests, and solemnity. This is probably not proper, but neither is celebration. Instead, I shall offer a veteran’s reflection.

Five years ago tonight, I sat on my bed studying for a final exam in my diplomatic history course (at the time I was a junior in college). I recall President Bush’s address announcing the consummation of hostilities we all knew were approaching. I thought to myself, Man, I wish I were with them.

The following day, I took my exam and dashed off to buy that engagement ring I had thought about in the days before the first shots were fired. Two days after the war began I headed off to Florida for Spring Training/Break with my then-girlfriend. While there, I asked her father for her hand in marriage and, of course, entered the engagement period.

One more year of school passed, pushing me up to my last term. It was at this time that I was married. During that year-plus, two of my best friends, as well as the hundreds of other people I served with from 1997-2001 in the Army, fought in my stead.

Returning from our honeymoon, we found a Western Union telegram that put the uniform on my back once again. Some eighteen months later, it was all over. I had completed my tour of duty, which oversaw great progress in the aftermath of a rough 2004, but which was also the beginning of the next great upheaval that spanned parts of 2006 and 2007.

In June of 2006, I finally finished my degree, and after six months home with my wife, we vacationed as sectarian violence raged. If the war was a business cycle, this was the recession and trough.

Two new jobs and a securities license later, America’s warriors “surged” ahead again (another expansion, if you will), making conditions on the ground as good as they’ve been since the post-invasion war began. Despite the thousands of tragic deaths and injuries, the American soldier had persevered. Since then, our first child was born, and, to add to it, baseball season kicks off in less than two weeks.

We have railed against progressive sex education a great deal in these pages; therefore, we won’t beat a dead horse. However, a new study only reinforces our argument.

A new CDC study found that 1 in 4 teenage girls has a sexually-transmitted disease.

Nearly half of the black teenage girls interviewed for the study have an STD. Whites and Mexican-American teens contracted STDs at a 20% rate.

To quickly review the case against progressive sex ed, which teaches our youngsters to do whatever their urges tell them to do but only to do it carefully: Ever since sex ed became more progressive, there has been a positively correlated increase in teenage pregnancy, single parenthood, and divorce, resulting in an eroding family structure nationwide.

There is also an economic correlation that makes (common) sense. If one is single, teenaged, without a college education or a job skill, and raising a child, one tends to have a lot less money, resulting in financial struggle. Furthermore, single parenthood is correlated with other maladies such as crime and poor academic performance.

For years now, our children have heard a constant barrage about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases, yet the alarmists are the same advocates of free sexual behavior. Consequently, there has been a spike in STDs. These same folks will undoubtedly advocate more progressive sex ed.

Moreover, think about the American black community, particularly in urban areas. Black children are born out-of-wedlock at a 70% rate. Crime rates are higher. Urban school districts are atrociously poor despite record spending. Now, black teenage mothers even have more STDs than their white and Hispanic peers.

These are hard facts, but a wise people would allow them to be instructive. The very people who taught American children to have “safe sex” have simply taught them to have more sex with more single pregnancy and more disease. Perhaps it’s time for health teachers in, say, the Dayton Public Schools district rethink their approach to sex ed. For the sake of their students, I hope they do so soon, because with the current approach, they are killing the local cultures.

The Cuyahoga County, Ohio (that is, Cleveland) Board of Elections is investigating Republican voters who crossed over during the March 4 Ohio Primary to vote on the Democrat side for criminal violations.

As for the criminality: Crossover voters were asked to sign a pledge card denoting their loyalty to the Democrat Party (touches of fascism in Cleveland?). Some voters were noted as having written remarks such as “for one day” at the bottom of the pledge cards. According to the Plain Dealer, lying on the pledge card is a felony (a felony for disloyalty to a party—touches of fascism in Cleveland?).

Ohio law also holds that precinct workers may challenge the veracity of a crossover voter he or she feels is not sincere. It should also be noted that not all polling places asked crossover voters to sign a pledge card on March 4.

Despite such a subjective, unenforceable law, the BOE intends to persist in its investigation.

Unfortunately, the Democrats have little reason to harbor much anger and suspicion. Crossover voting is a rather common practice that the Democrats have perfected.

The last crossover hubbub involved Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who, after revealing that she believed 9/11 was an inside job, was booted out by Republican crossovers. But McKinney herself, a verified kook, held her seat for so long thanks in part to Democrats crossing over to vote for the least-electable Republican in GOP primaries.

Even this year, Democrats have moved across the aisle to vote. During the Michigan GOP primary, Daily Kos leader Markos Moulitsas urged his blogger army to vote for Mitt Romney. There, Democrats constituted 7% of the Republican primary vote.

In New Hampshire, John McCain won in part thanks to Democrat crossovers. McCain himself urged Democrats to crossover (different sentiment, but crossing over, still). Even back in 2000, Democrats constituted 20% of the vote in Republican primary.

A law about lying on a pledge card seems specious at best. Despite the large proportion of GOP crossovers in Cuyahoga County, there is little evidence to suggest that the grand crossover plan delivered the state to Hillary Clinton (she won by plenty). So, if we are to prosecute voting, perhaps we should begin with other voters, such as the dead who somehow vote or the buses from Massachusetts showing up to vote in New Hampshire.

We’ve heard a lot about global warming, or its other moniker “climate change” (which allows our alarmist friends to relate any weather phenomena to whatever they like). The winter is too hot, summer is too hot, and so on.

Well, I beg to differ: I live in Dayton, Ohio and I just spent two hours digging my way out to the mailbox. My poor cousin nearly had her wedding ruined, too.

So, if driving cars and using incandescent light bulbs causes the planet to warm, then I have a proposal: Let’s get together and warm this darn planet, because I’m cold and tired of snow.

All we have to do is drive more and more and use incandescent light bulbs and we won’t have to worry about snow for many years.

For those of you who rail against global warming—I’m sorry, climate change—we the people of snowy southwest Ohio implore you to stand down. If you do not shut up, you shall be dubbed “misery deniers” much as you have dubbed us “holocaust deniers,” I mean “global warming deniers” (oops).

I know we the people can make a difference. We can save our local municipalities millions of dollars in salt and beet juice costs. We can make this a better place to live.

Now that John McCain has officially crossed the finish line with enough delegates to claim the Republican nomination for president, I felt it appropriate to take an initial look back at how the Arizona senator won.

Recall that for most of 2007, Rudy Giuliani was the inevitable nominee based on polls. Fred Thompson also polled well. McCain seemed a mere afterthought.

As voting began, experts abound chose various candidates for different reasons. Romney would win because he embodied all three legs of the conservative stool. Mike Huckabee would win due to his superior speaking abilities and his dedicated base. Rudy Giuliani would win because he was such a darn good leader.

Not really on anyone’s radar was John McCain, left for dead months before the polls opened in 2008. Even after an Iowa loss, few experts thought McCain had a shot, though he was expected to at least do well in New Hampshire.

But as the primaries unfolded, voters forgot about Rudy Giuliani as a result of his campaign strategy, which called for ignoring early states where he was not likely to do well. Likewise, voters turned away from Fred Thompson because of his largely campaign.

Furthermore, conservatives, already somewhat demoralized and/or unmoved for a number of reasons—mostly the deafening defeats in 2006, years of a not-so-conservative George W. Bush and GOP Congress, and poor prospects for 2008—didn’t vote en masse. Instead, moderates and independents flocked to certain GOP candidates (e.g. New Hampshire) and handed some early primaries to John McCain.

Voting conservatives seemed to be split early on between Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. A smaller number of conservatives and a significant portion of moderates and independents formed a winning bloc for McCain.

When the time came for Giuliani to come into play, he had lost before the first vote was cast in Florida. So the race effectively became McCain v. Romney v. Huckabee. Voters then became divided, very roughly, into two groups: moderates and conservatives. The former backed McCain; the latter was split between Romney and Huckabee.

Later, Mitt Romney made a sound economic decision to cut sling load and drop out, leaving Mike Huckabee to carry the banner for the more conservative voting bloc; however, a significant number of such voters joined the McCain camp while others were not sufficiently satisfied with Huckabee. In other words, people began backing the winner. Within weeks, John McCain was a blowout, runaway winner. Today, he is the Republican nominee for President of the United States.