When Warren Buffett was acting as financial advisor to The Candidator (now The Governator) he took the position that California's property tax system, as distorted by Proposition 13, was completely out of whack, and needed to be reformed to actually tax the current value of property (especially commercial property), rather than the last-sale value. That was the last we heard of him advising Arnold.

He seems to be very principled about these issues.

OT, but going back to the Mercenary Issue - Kos and NN comments have been right on the mark - and i would add this.

The Mercenaries (standard name throughout history for 'civilian contractors' who perform combat functions) LIKE their work, PREFER these careers. This is their CHOSEN field of endeavor.

This is what these guys are GOOD at! And they willfully - for $350 - $1,000/day - accept both sides of the coin - they deal out death, so they can take it.

There's another little bit to this story, too. Talk to any of these guys and you'll find that they usually like to do procedures. The killing and the firepower and the bevy of weapons - all are talked in about the same language of a mechanic explaining the reason for your tune-up.

Except they're not fixing engines. They are killing people often outside the laws of the Geneva Convention - and killing civilians.