Thursday, November 29, 2007

Blame the Gays!

It's been a while since my last blog. Actually, truth be told, I am supposed
to be leveling my roommates priest on World of Warcraft right now, but decided
to ramble on for a bit on my blog.




I came across a hilarious video on Youtube entitled "Blame the Gays"
Basically, this video takes the religious right's arguments against gay marriage
and exposes them for the ridiculous lunacy that they are. Of course, I
don't expect this will have any impact on the minds of the fundamentalists,
after all, these are the same people who try to convince atheists of the
existence of God by threatening them with going to hell.


While the video may be light hearted fun, the reality of the matter is
much more serious. Hoping over to onenewsnow.com, the religious right's answer to mainstream journalism, one can find a commentary on their front page that supports a book that claims that same sex marriage will criminalize religion and bring down society as we know it.



On an unrelated note, the Youtube Republican Debate was the other day.
One of the questions submitted was from a retired Army General who is gay.
He challenged some of the candidates on DADT (Don't Ask Don't Tell).
The religious right types are up in arms now because, apparently, the
General is connected to Hillary's campaign. Regardless of who he
supports, or even if he works for a campaign, by virtue of the fact that he
served this nation his entire adult life with enough skill and devotion to
become a General, means he has earned the right to ask presidential
candidates why they feel that his presence in the military was detrimental
to morale and discipline. The candidates that responded - Hunter, Huckabee
and McCain all beat around the bush, and gave responses that were all
somewhat insulting.




The worst, and absolutely most absurd response came from Duncan Hunter, a
man who I sincerely hope to see unemployed in the near future, who said,
"General, thanks for your service, but I believe in what Colin Powell said
when he said that having openly homosexual people serving in the ranks would
be bad for unit cohesion. The reason for that, even though people point to
the Israelis and point to the Brits and point to other people as having
homosexuals serve, is that most Americans, most kids who leave that
breakfast table and go out and serve in the military and make that corporate
decision with their family, most of them are conservatives. They have
conservative values, and they have Judeo-Christian values. To force those
people to work in a small tight unit with somebody who is openly homosexual
goes against what they believe to be their principles, and it is their
principles, is I think a disservice to them.
I agree with Colin Powell
that it would be bad for unit cohesion. "


One also has to wonder of Rep. Hunter would apply this logic to anyone
with whom a "Christian" may be uncomfortable with. Shall we ban Jews,
Muslims, Atheists, Hindus, Wiccans, etc from the military? What about
denominations that the others don't like? If the majority of the Army
is Catholic, should Baptists be banned? Of course, we also have the
good "christian" people who think that non-whites are evil as well, do we
ban them too?


What Congressman Hunter does not get is that there was a time where the
majority of the military came from families and backgrounds that believed in
segregation, yet, we did them the "disservice" of desegregating the
military, something that Hunter would have probably opposed if he had had
the chance.


In related news, 28 flag officers (Generals and Admirals for those
unfamiliar with military terms) sent a letter to Congress calling for an end
to the ban on gay service members. These voices are added to the
voices of a majority of American's who believe that this ban, which costs
our nation thousands of skilled soldiers in a time when are military is
stretched to the limit, is contrary to the best interests of the United
States and the military.

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