The reaction to the death of Michael Jackson. Seriously? With everything going on in the world, THIS is where our attention is focused? I know, I know, circus provides distraction when times are tough, but can we find something less creepy? Also, the hypocrisy of some networks (COUGH–Fox News–COUGH). They basically crucified the man during the child molestation trial and now “Shep” is all broken up and O’Reilly is concerned about the manner of his death? And the guy from NBC who said with great gravitas, “Michael Jackson will never die again.” Wow…that was so…wow.
The sign on the fence of a propane gas business near our house: “Tank heaven for little grills.” It cracks me up every time.
The new SyFy show, Warehouse 13. Decent writing, but come on, how about an effects budget? Video feedback? Really?
And while we’re at it. What’s with the “SyFy” thing? This is an improvement…how?
When I read about what’s going on in Afghanistan. Okay, maybe not giggle, chuckle cynically maybe. Does anyone else remember what happened to the Soviets when they tried to go heavy back in the 80s? What. The. HELL?
“Humanizing” Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Look, either leave the gays and the lesbians the hell alone, or ban them from serving. Quit pretending that it’s anything more than a majority of Christians in the military who simply think, “It’s gotta be wrong, it’s in the Bible.” You know it. I know it. Stop pretending. Stop it. It’s over. No one buys the “Good order and discipline.” thing anymore. We’ve all served with gay and lesbian people. No one lost their minds over it. No one started over-decorating the barracks and the girls didn’t all flock to the softball team or start starring in “Girls gone wild.”
Top 40 radio. There’s just nothing with any substance there. I’ll give you Black Eyed Peas, but when Michael Jackson is back on the charts with songs from the 80s and 90s, the industry has GOT to be wondering where the new music is.
Al Franken is a U.S. Senator. Deeply funny, deeply deeply disturbing.
Sarah Palin resigning. Not funny, kind of sad really. The poor lady honestly believed that she could make a difference while bucking both the entrenched liberals and Republicans. I didn’t agree with her on everything, but I really liked her. She was about the only interesting person in the last election and they destroyed her for it. I was surprised she didn’t fold up her tent and head home after the Presidential race. After the beating she and her family took, I’m laughing at the shocked politicos who are wondering, “Why?”
yup
We are still a mostly civilized society. With some exceptions on both the right and left most people do not want to speak ill of the dead. I see nothing wrong with that. I liked MJ’s early work, but I was not a fan of his later music. It simply was not my style. It is amusing to watch hysteria.
Recent Democrats don’t have a good record in military conflicts. Carter in Iran, Clinton in Bosnia and Ethiopia, and now Obama in Afghanistan. I hope for the sake of the men and women serving there it turns out well, but I am afraid it won’t.
The military by it nature is conservative, but when ordered to it will salute and march on. I see no reason why gays should openly serve. There will be adjustments and new rules and regulations, just as there was when women were integrated in the service. At the moment I see it as more of a political issue, on both sides, then a military one.
As for Al Franken, at least half of Minnesota is now represented.
I also liked Sarah, but there is no room in today’s politics for a true independent. She scared people in both the democratic and republican parties. With luke warm support at best from her own party, she simple cannot survive the media intent on destroying her.
Timmer: There is a principle expressed by IIRC John Derbyshire (who is not religious, BTW): any institution which is not explicitly heterosexual will eventually become homosexual.
There will be no immediate “morale and good order” problems. But over time…
For instance – major college women’s softball is almost exclusively lesbians. It’s very uncomfortable for straight girls. They get hit on by other girls (and coaches). They see PDAs and more. Other people think they’re lesbians. And so they leave. Lesbians of course flock to the sport, as players and spectators.
Let’s say the armed forces drop DADT. Sooner or later, some base, unit, or branch of service will randomly accumulate a critical mass of homosexuals. Unit commanders will become reluctant to suppress overt behavior (i.e. sex in barracks) because no one’s being raped and it might cost them key personnel. The unit will become known as homosexual-friendly, attracting more homosexuals, and driving out straights. That’s a positive feedback loop.
Now, you say that you’ve served with homosexuals and this didn’t happen. That’s because so far, homosexuals in the services are at most tolerated, not protected. If they get out of line they can be removed immediately under explicit rules.
If those rules go away, the process will start. It will take several years to have noticeable effects, but they will come.
The comparison to integration of women is an important one. There have been substantial costs to the services from that: personnel separated for pregnancy, sexual harassment issues. And issues of trying to use women in roles they are physically unfit for (which is not an issue here, to be sure). I don’t say that these costs were unacceptable, or that there haven’t been benefits as well. But there has been a deliberate blindness on the part of feminist ideologues to these costs, and the costs have been increased by failure of some service leaders to take appropriate (by un-PC) precautions. (The Marines had the good sense to keep basic training gender-segregated, and avoided a lot of problems the Army had.)
Rostrom–Of course the Delmar Simpson case was in AIT rather than basic. At some level, it suspect that the end of DADT is comming, but you’re right, it won’t be without cost, and it IS a good idea to think about dificulties and how to deal with them up front.