TheHeretic
Posts: 19100
Joined: 3/25/2007 From: California, USA Status: offline
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I won't be watching the Maher link, we've covered my attitude towards bigots like him before, but to the larger issue, gays in the military are exactly as big a problem as we choose to make them. Military society is not just like civilian society, with more standardized haircuts. Order and discipline come first, and the military is a very prudish organization. You can go to jail for heterosexual activity with the wrong person. I think the fear is that openly gay servicemembers are going to interfere with the order and discipline, that issues will develop of the "rainbow-flag" wing of the barracks, and that homophobia will rear its head, and cause still more problems. I have read somewhere (I don't feel like hunting it up) that more people have been thrown out of the military for homosexuality since the Clinton policy was put into effect, than when there was an outright ban. I served before Don't ask - Don't tell came along. At that time, nobody's sex life was anybody else's business. There were gay people on my base, and in my barracks, and there were heterosexual guys who fucked the wives of every crew chief who deployed, and everybody understood that we didn't talk about who put their dick where. It had nothing to do with accomplishing the mission. It's completely non-scientific of course, but I have noticed that a higher percentage of my gay friends are veterans than my straight friends. All from before Bill Clinton tried to make it better, but made it worse, the first time.
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If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced. That's why people with no sense of humor have such an inflated sense of self-importance.
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