A very cool Mac OS X "Tiger" way to remember the cost of the war we're fighting - new Dashboard widgets to show you the number of soldiers who have been killed or wounded in the current Iraq war.

(That's a static image, though it would be nice if the site would keep a URL that has a live count so people could link to it - I'll ask for that. In fact, the realization that the Bush Administration never did the same thing for the current color-coded "terror alert" or provide a Web service to let people get it was one of my strongest clues that it didn't mean anything at all, but was just pure politics. If something's important, you let people get at it and display it easily.)

The US Casualties widget came first, just a few days ago, complete with a chickenhawk comment calling it the "most flagrant disrespect for the American soldiers fighting in Iraq" to, you know, remember how many of them have given the ultimate sacrifice for this cause. Remember, to today's 101st Fighting Keyboarders, remembering those who gave their lives for their country in Iraq "dishonors" them and is "anti-American."

And they wonder why we call ourselves proud to live in the "reality-based community."