“You got to think about O.J.’s situation: $25,000 a month [in alimony], another man driving around in his car, f**king his wife, in a house he’s still paying the mortgage on! Now, I’m not saying he should have killed her. But I understand.” – Chris Rock on O.J.’s plight, posted by Mickey Kaus, who has an excellent column today on Quindlenism (although he disagrees in some measure with yours truly – not exactly a rarety).
GONE FISHING: Latest stats for this site: 180,000 unique visitors last month. Another record. Just you wait till the redesign – courtesy of your donation dollars. Thanks again. Now, I really must get to the beach…
ADDENDUM ON MILITARY GAYS: A left-over thought from recent debates we’ve been having. On gays in the military: if unit-cohesion is so important, why is the gay ban suspended in wartime? It’s the oddest paradox. The policy to keep gays hidden or dishonest in the military is routinely abandoned in wartime. No-one was discharged during Desert Storm. Plenty of gay soldiers who served in the Gulf, however, were thrown out on their return. Charming, huh? Whatever the rationale for this – some argue that it’s more important to keep the military ‘cohesive’ in peace time than in war – it certainly belies the notion that admitting gays openly would put our military capacity at risk. In the only test that matters – war – the military tells us what it really thinks: that gay men can be great soldiers and we need them badly.
I REPRINT, YOU DECIDE: Three emails presenting completely different views on gays in the military. Self-explanatory. But they add some new dimensions to the debate:
“Sorry but I do think unit cohesion would be negatively affected by openly gay men and women in the military. In your military, I would be forced out because I just couldn’t stomach having a Christopher Lowell/Will&Grace type person as a co-pilot on a long mission. It would affect my flying and my professional mission accomplishment abilities. I couldn’t get past the nauseating thoughts I would have knowing the guy lets other guys have anal sex with him, not to mention the annoying voice. I’m just funny that way, and yep it is my problem that would be detrimental to mission accomplishment, so out I would have to go. Yep, I’m just a damn homophobe and I know a whole lot more homophobes like me who wouldn’t be able to get past it either. We would then be the one’s in the closet, if we wanted to keep serving our country, trying all the time not to think about the kinds of things we really do not like, do not approve of, and do not want to put up with. In addition, we don’t want a 27 year old Harvard PhD teaching us at annual, mandatory Diversity Training classes how to be tolerant of such behavior when us homophobes think that it’s wrong and not a “richness in differences.” And, because of deeply entrenched homophobia and right wing Christian Coalition extremist hate, we will never think it is anything other than wrong, even when it’s shoved down our throats, no pun intended.”
“I am a West Point graduate (Class of ’89), former Infantry Captain (with all the requisite Ranger and Airborne training) and I am a heterosexual. There is absolutely no legitimate reason to keep gay soldiers out of the military. We had soldiers that were gay in our Battalion in the 24th ID and they ranged from one of the worst soldiers that I have worked with to one of the best. It did however, make a difference (at least in the Infantry) if that soldier acted effeminate. But that is no different from society at large. Just one man’s thoughts, keep up the good conservative work.”
“In between watching Premier League and Series A soccer and various rugby games, I fell behind in reading the Daily Dish. I think there’s another vantage point from which to consider when debating gays in the military – those who, because of the Pentagon’s policy decided not to enter the armed forces. In an admittedly egotistical vein, I offer myself as an example. In high school, I participated in Junior ROTC and was very successful. The staff could not understand my reluctance to enter ROTC in college or to even apply for admission to one of the service academies. For someone of working class origins, the financial advantages of simply continuing in ROTC in college were significant. Fortunately, at the tender age of 17, I knew I was gay and I also knew that “gay” and “military” did not mix very well. I made it through college and even through law school. One of my professors had been in Army JAG and was then in the Reserves and had numerous contacts. My high school experience was duplicated; during my last year, he urged me several times to go into the JAG corps, and he could not understand my reluctance to do so (especially because he thought I would be very successful). In retrospect, I don’t regret having remained a civilian, and I managed to become more than successful (but not wealthy) in my line of work. But every time I hear about gays in the military, I still wonder …”
The Dish 