Perhaps if I typed more slowly.

Warning: Joel Johannesen densitude alert ahead:

Apparently, Joel's just tail-waggingly thrilled about the following nifty development:

U.S. Army meets re-enlistment goal? Tells us something.
Posted by Joel Johannesen

Here’s what else “tells us something”: the fact that you have to stand on your head and search to find this news. Yes that also tells us something. It tells us that the liberal media doesn’t want us to know about this. So I think it’s actually two extremely important facts, neither of which the liberal media wants us to know about.

Joel's got a point. That's not something you'd ever hear from that gosh-darned liberal media ... hello ... what's this?

Thank God for Blogger archives. Otherwise, I'd have to do actual work.

I DON'T GET PAID ENOUGH FOR THIS. It's one thing to disembowel wankers' arguments but, really, I think I have to draw the line at doing their research for them.

At Joel's eye-rollingly gullible piece above, commenter "parem" writes:

Here’s the truth about the composition of the U.S. military, a study that refers to a politician’s proposal to reinstitute the draft based on typical leftist misconceptions. I suggest people who expect to debate leftists to file this:

Who Bears the Burden? Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Military Recruits Before and After 9/11
by Tim Kane, Ph.D.
Center for Data Analysis Report #05-08
http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/cda05-08.cfm

Ah, yes, the right-wing Heritage Foundation -- an unimpeachable source of objective analysis, to be sure.

It took about 15 seconds with Google to learn that Mr. Kane's views on the subject of recruiting data are about as useful as a platoon of Blogging Tories in actual combat. The eighth hit for that Google search:

In short, NPP and the Heritage Foundation agree on the numbers. The crux of the dispute is what the numbers mean. The implication of Dr. Kane' report is that the income range of $25,000 - $54,999 does not constitute low and middle income. However, the federal government uses various definitions of 'low income' when creating eligibility criteria for particular federal programs. The range may include families with income levels up to 200% of the poverty level or $34,058 for a family of four.*

Recruits from zip code areas with median household income levels of $25,000 - $34,999 are over-represented in the armed forces. NPP stands by its conclusion that youth from low and middle income areas are being heavily recruited.

File that, baby.

MUST READ: As commenter Edwin suggests, you really should check out Billmon. And follow the links. Then, unlike the wanks over at PtbC, you will actually know something. Doesn't that make you feel special?