Terrence Lakin: A Shmuck is born -- make that "birthed"

Thousands and thousands of U.S. military personnel are spending the holidays far away from their families, many of them in hostile territory. They are there to serve and protect their homeland, the country where they were born.

But one soldier -- now a former soldier -- will spend the holidays behind bars because of his obsession with homelands.

Lieutenant Colonel Terrence Lakin, part of the so-called "birther" movement, was sentenced by a jury on Thursday to six months in a military prison. He was also dismissed from the Army.

Lakin, a seventeen-year Army doctor from Greeley, refused to deploy to Afghanistan last year, publicly demanding on YouTube and elsewhere that President Barack Obama first prove that he was born in the United States and is therefore eligible to be president. The nutty group refuses to believe that Obama's Hawaiian certificate is real.

Very patriotic. Too bad the entire birther movement can't be court martialed as well.

For more Shmucks, visit our Shmuck of the Week archive.