Everyone in the Village and media felt like they had to condemn Chris Hayes for questioning the use of the word ‘hero’ to describe everyone wearing a uniform.

I have a news flash for the people who think over-using the word is ‘supporting the troops’ – as veteran, from a line of veterans that goes back before the founding of the United States, the troops understand that it is a bullshit throw-away compliment that means less than nothing.

You normally hear ‘hero’ in the military coming from the mouth of someone with more stripes than a zebra that is millimeters away from your face in the form “DO YOU THINK YOU’RE SOME KIND OF HEEEE_RO!!!” Such things never end well.

There are people who do things in every walk of life that are truly heroic, and the word should be reserved for them, not debased by casual use. The military has known for centuries what people really think of them. Rudyard Kipling summed it up in a poem, Tommy. The truth of the poem is readily perceived as reality by those wearing camo BDUs as it was by the red-coated infantry of Victorian Britain.

“As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They’re not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” – Donald Rumsfeld

If people really respected and supported the troops, they would insist that: pay was raised to point that the lower ranks didn’t qualify for food stamps; benefits weren’t constantly being cut or changed; there wasn’t a half-millon person backlog for VA assistance; and other problems and indignities that the troops constantly face.

The use of the word ‘hero’ is a free replacement for actually spending money on the people who get sent to war.

So the jury in the John Edwards case acquitted him of one charge and couldn’t make up its mind about the other five, and a mistrial is declared. Now the Department of Justice has to decide whether to waste even more tax dollars with another trial on the other five charges.

This whole thing was a waste of time and money involving a guess as to the intentions of the defendant in order to justify a claim of a violation of the campaign law. None of the money involved ever saw a campaign account, so the whole thing was beyond weak.

Not one single person has been put on trial for blowing up the world economy, not one single bank has been charged for forging documents in foreclosures, but they have resources to waste on prosecuting John Edwards for acting like John Ensign.

No mistake – John Edwards is a real jerk for what he did, but justice and judgment was the right of his family and friends, not the Federal court.