Tuesday Cartoon Fun: Gay Jobs Edition

Wednesday Bonus Cartoon Fun: GOP Policy Guide Edition

Tuesday Bonus Cartoon Fun: It Must Be A Cold Day In Hell Edition

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Make It Go Away

The Boston Globe reports that the forthcoming issue of Joint Forces Quarterly seeks to determine a link between openly gay servicemembers and unit cohesion, the prime argument against allowing such service. Conclusion:

 “After a careful examination, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that unit cohesion will be negatively affected if homosexuals serve openly,’’ writes Colonel Om Prakash, who is now working in the office of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. “Based on this research, it is not time for the administration to reexamine the issue; rather it is time for the administration to examine how to implement the repeal of the ban.’’

It would be nice to say we can consider this shameful chapter of American history closed, but first Secretary Gates, President Obama and Congress have to actually close it. There are no excuses. If there ever were. And there weren't.

h/t Attackerman

I assume most of my readers are on the same page as the Colonel mentioned above. We have heard from gay soldiers and their buddies that gayness is not an issue, not should it be an issue, in the military. We have known this for a long time.

This is also one of the things President Obama could fix right now. He doesn't need a law created. He is the Commander in Chief. It is his military and he can direct Gates to end all inquiries into teh gay. He can suspend DADT with a swipe of his pen. That he won't, or hasn't, is to me very predictive of how his presidency is going to be. I am not encouraged.

The Military Is So Gay

So, we have homoerotic craziness in Kabul, and now this:

A Youth Radio investigation has found that between 2004 and 2006, sailors in the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain Military Working Dogs Division, or "The Kennel," were subjected to an atmosphere of sexual harassment, psychological humiliation, and physical assaults.

It was inside that Bahrain kennel in July 2005 that Petty Officer Joseph Christopher Rocha, then 19 years old, says he was being terrorized by other members of his own division. "I was hog-tied to a chair, rolled around the base, left in a dog kennel that had feces spread in it."

Rocha says that beginning six weeks into his deployment, he was singled out for abuse by his chief master-at-arms, Michael Toussaint, and others on the base, once Rocha made it clear he was not interested in prostitutes. "I was in a very small testosterone-driven unit of men," Rocha says. "I think that's what began the questioning-you know-‘Why don't you want to have sex with her? Are you a faggot?’"

I am starting to get the sense that DADT was instituted in the first place because there is a lot of latent (and not so latent) homosexuality in the military, and the homophobes, who drink vodka from each others' butts, don't want to be exposed as gay, because they are not gay; they just like to put their faces in each others butts and drink deeply. That is so not gay! Not gay like "Clinton did not have sex with that woman". Not gay like, "I'm not gay, butt I wouldn't kick Mick Jagger out of bed".

Like I said before, gay is fine with me. No problem. Gay marriage? Awesome. Gays in the military? They're there, secretly, but there (not enough of them, obviously)! Gays in my house or my family? Again, good! Or even better, who fucking cares? Clearly, our macho military is actually pretty gay, and they kill people very, very well! Let the gays kill too!

What I find problematic is denying gays the right to kick the shit out of these wimps who use sexual intimidation on subordinates. I know some gays who would not take kindly to that kind of behavior in their military, and they are big, hairy, beary, ass-whooping gays. The military clearly needs some gay grownups around.