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February 09, 2009
Should the military choose a felon over a gay guy?
Posted by: Andoni
"And to choose a felon over a combat-proven veteran on the basis of sexuality is defeatist. Ask any squad leader," counsels Owen West, a straight veteran in an Op Ed in today's New York Times. His piece lays out one of the best lines of reasoning I have seen on repealing the 'don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) policy enacted by Congress in 1993.
He advises Obama not to make repealing DADT into an argument about civil rights and equality, as President Clinton tried to do in 1993, but rather concentrate on helping the military and advance a line of evidence that repealing DADT is what's best for the military. He cites the example of after the integration of the military in 1948, during war time (the Korean War) even the generals acknowledged that recruiting across America's socio-economic specturm produced the best force.
I hope the White House reads this piece. Maybe we should send it to them.
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Comments
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I'm surprised the comment above wasn't typed in all caps.
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Back to the topic at hand...
this Paragraph in the Times piece stood out:
"Most military jobs are office-based and provide sufficient individual privacy. Even in Iraq many of our fighting forces are comfortably housed with compartmentalized showers."
Funny how it all seems to come back to the showers.
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Come on man. Dont use another group of people as your cannon fodder.I don't see how thats any different then what you are complaining about.Felons are people also. Grouping all felons into one group with murderes and child molesters is wrong. This country has the highest incarceration rate
for NON VIOLENT crimes then the whole world, except Iran.
The comments to this entry are closed.
RJ Petrucci on Feb 9, 2009 2:33:14 PM:
Hey Chris are you going to do a story about how you used the much needed local independent gay press as your own personal toy - because you had an itch up you ass that the gay media was too liberal.
Bought it all up - consolidated it - then increased the risk of failure by selling it off to some investment group.
Gay Media Investment Fund in Receivership
Avalon Equity, the investment fund which is the major shareholder in Window Media, which owns the Washington Blade, Southern Voice, Houston Voice, South Florida Blade, Genre Magazine, David Atlanta and The 411 Magazine, has been forced into receivership by the federal Small Business Administration (SBA), Gay City News reports:
"Avalon, which owns a stake in the company that publishes the New York Blade and HX, was licensed by the SBA as a small business investment company (SBIC) in 2000. Through 2007, it borrowed just over $38 million from the federal agency to invest in gay media properties and a range of other ventures. As part of its contract with the SBA, Avalon was required to have private money or assets in the fund from sources, such as individual investors, that had a value equal to half the amount it borrowed from the SBA or just over $19 million. In 2007, the SBA wrote Avalon that it had a 'condition of capital impairment' because the value of its private assets had fallen below the required level. In its 2008 lawsuit seeking to force the receivership, the SBA wrote that the 'capital impairment' was 61 percent in August of 2007 and that it rose to over 134 percent by December of that year...The percentages cited in the lawsuit suggest that Avalon had little or no capital left as private investors were pulling their money out, businesses owned by Avalon were losing money, assets in the fund lost value, or some combination of the three."
Great job - you will always be one of the seriously bad gay guys in America for contributing to this mess - and for stealing local community control of these once great LOCAL papers and publications. Another Republican Bastard.
http://www.towleroad.com/2009/02/gay-media-inves.html
R J