Why DADT Needs to Be Kept

Allowing homosexuals to serve openly would be highly detrimental to the armed forces. If the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is changed there are two possible results. The first is that some men (women) will be forced to room and shower with men (women) who are attracted to men (women). The second is that homosexuals will have separate living quarters/latrine facilities. There are problems with both results:

Result 1: Homosexuals are fully integrated
In this case there will be a dramatic increase in sexual tension, sexual harassment, and sexual assault (and accusations of such). The military already has a problem with this between heterosexual men and women, and they are separated to some extent (living quarters/latrines). If you assume that homosexuality is natural (if you don't then my arguments are only stronger), then it must also be assumed that the strengths of their desires is the same of that of heterosexuals (to say otherwise would imply the homosexuals are somehow better). Now ask yourself what would happen if men and women were not separated in the military, if they had to share rooms and showers? The same thing will logically happen if homosexuals are allowed to serve openly. The only reason men and women are separated is sexual attraction, why would it not be the same for homosexuals? Which brings us to result 2.

Result 2: Homosexuals are separated from other members of their sex
The reason this is a bad idea is quite simple. How much money would this cost (new rooms, possibly barracks, new latrines, ect.)? ALOT Would the small increase in new soldiers outweigh these costs? Probably not. There just aren't enough homosexuals who would join the military if DADT is changed to make up for the costs. Keep in mind that DADT does not bar homosexuals form serving, just from being openly homosexual while serving.

North Korea Pushing It

North Korea seems quite intent on pissing off the rest of the world, especially America. We've had news of their up-coming test firing of what is believed to be a long-range missile for a while and now they apparently plan on indicting, quite likely for BS trumped up charges, the two US journalists they detained under suspicious circumstances. Perhaps Kim Jong-il is hoping for a war to rival his father's?

AFP Article on Journalists

Reuters Article on Missile

Apparently I Spoke to Soon

I posted earlier that I thought Obama might be moving in the right direction with car companies, but after hearing they chose to force GM's CEO out, it no longer looks promising. Apparently the Obama administration thinks the government should be deciding who heads private corporations. At first it was looking like his policies towards car companies wouldn't be as insa... socia... far-reaching as they were with the banks, but now with this latest intrusion of big government I can't help but think the taxpayers will wind up owning their very own car company.

WSJ Article

President Obama Is Taking a Step in the Right Direction wtih Carmakers

According to this article from the AP, the Obama administration may actually be heading in the right direction with GM and Chrysler. He has said that the companies need to make progress themselves before receiving more government aid, which, really, should be common sense. Throwing money at a failed system will just waste money and prolong its inevitable failure. I'd rather not see them (or any other company) get more of the taxpayers' money ever, but at least he's making them make some progress on their own.

The highlight of the news in this article for me was this:

"GM and Chrysler are pushing the UAW to accept shares of stock in exchange for half of the payments into a union-run trust fund for retiree health care. They also want labor costs from the union to be competitive with Japanese
automakers with U.S. operations."

Amazing idea! Be competitive! Because whatever else you may blame their problems on, the fact that the UAW has forced them to compensate their employees well beyond that of rival (Japanese) companies operating in the US. I'm all for people getting fair pay and benefits, but it has to actually be fair. You get payed for your work; if you are getting paid so much that your work no longer helps achieve profit for the company, your pay is no longer fair. It may make you feel better to get paid more, but if it's so much that your company goes bankrupt, well...

Good News on DADT

According to this article from the AP, Secretary of Defense Gates has said that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy will stay in place for a while. Unfortunately a change to this policy is apparently still in the works.

AP: "Sources: More US troops for Afghan war"

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama plans to dispatch additional U.S.
troops plus hundreds of civilian advisers in hopes of turning around a faltering
war in Afghanistan and will recommend increasing aid to neighboring Pakistan so
long as leaders there confront militancy, people familiar with the forthcoming
plan said Thursday...

link

This is probably a good idea. At the very least it shows that Obama can learn from history (Bush surge). It'll be interesting to see what liberals think about this after what they said about the surge in Iraq.

New Blog

I set up this blog so me and some of my conservative friends could discuss politics and current events. Hopefully you will enjoy reading it.