A rare semi-political post

First of all, I hope all you Californians are doing fine :(

Two links:
Soldier's Angels is a non-profit, volunteer run organization that, among other things, sends care packages and letters to deployed soldiers and helps to provide financial aid to injured soldiers and military families. They accept online donations and people can buy care packages online as well to have them shipped to deployed soldiers. Maybe something to think about for the holidays.

I found this article about one Marine general's approach to rebuilding Iraq very interesting. An extract:
With a combination of vocational education, religious "enlightenment" courses, and more carrots than sticks, Stone is working to send detainees captured in U.S. raids back into society with a mission of building a unified Iraq, rather than tearing it down.
My thanks to miss_porcupine for the link.

Next up, Jane Sheppard and Teyla. UST! Femslash! But still PG rated!