Oh, and here's another thing!

Gays In the Military Cartoons, and the Rant du Jour

You're out of the Army, Mr. Jones From the Repubble Presidential Candidates' Quiz Show on CNN Tuesday, June 5, 2007:

Scott Spradling, WMUR-TV:
Congressman Paul, a question for you. Most of our closest allies, including Great Britain and Israel, allow gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military. Is it time to end the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military?

Ron Paul:
I think the current policy is a decent policy and the problem we have with dealing with this subject is we see people as groups-- that they belong to certain groups, and that they derive their rights by belonging to a group. We don't get our rights because we're gays or women or minorities, we get our rights from our Creator as individuals, so every individual should be treated the same way. So if there's homosexual behavior in the military that is disruptive, it should be dealt with. But if there's heterosexual sexual behavior that is disruptive, it should be dealt with. It isn't the issue of homosexuality, it is the concept of individuality and individual rights. If we understood that, we would not be dealing with this very important problem.

Wolf Blitzer, CNN:
Governor Huckabee, I want you to weigh in as well. Do you believe it's time to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the United States military?

Mike Huckabee:
Wolf, I think it's already covered by the Uniform Code of Military Conduct. I think that's what Congressman Paul was saying. It's about conduct, it's not about attitude. But I'd like to ask you, you said a moment ago that you were all going to give us a chance to deal with the issue of immigration.

Blitzer (crosstalk): We're gonna come back to that.
Huckabee (crosstalk): I hope you'll do that.
Blitzer (crosstalk): We will. We'll, we're gonna come back to that.
Huckabee (crosstalk): You hold us to it, we'll hold you to that.
Blitzer (crosstalk): We're gonna come back, we're gonna come back to immigration. But right now we're talking about allowing gays to serve openly in the military. But you're opposed to that.

Huckabee:
I just said, I think it's a matter, it's not, you don't punish people for their attitudes. You punish them if their behavior creates a problem, and it's already covered by the Uniform Code of Military Conduct.

Blitzer:
So you wouldn't change existing policy.

Huckabee:
I, uh what?

Blitzer:
You wouldn't change existing policy.

Huckabee:
I don't think that I would. I think it's already covered by the existing policy that we do have.

Blitzer:
Mayor Giuliani, recently we've learned that several talented, trained linguists -- Arabic speakers, Farsi speakers, Urdu speakers -- trained by the U.S. government, who learned those languages to help us in the war on terrorism, were dismissed from the U.S. military because they announced they were gays or lesbians. Is that, in your mind, appropriate?

Rudy Giuliani:
This is not the time to deal with disruptive issues like this. In 1994 we went through this and created a tremendous amount of disruption. Colin Powell, I think, was still the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before he left at the beginning of the Clinton Administration. He came to the view that this was a good policy, and I think in a time of war, a time when we're trying to deal with this kind of transition to a new kind of warfare that we have to be fighting (and I don't think we've gotten all the way there yet) that we need a hybrid army, we need to look at nation-building as part of what we have to teach our Army, I don't think this would be the right time to raise these issues. I think we should rely on the judgment of our commanders in a situation like this. They know what's disruptive and what's not. At a time of war, you don't make fundamental changes like this.

Blitzer:
Thank you, Mayor. Governor Romney, the Mayor referred to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy which was implimented during the Clinton administration after Bill Clinton became President. In 1994, you were quoted as saying that you advocated gays being able to serve openly and honestly in our nation's military. The question to you is, do you still feel that way?

Mitt Romney:
No, actually, when I first heard of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," I thought it sounded awfully silly; I didn't think it would be very effective. And I turned out to be wrong. It's been the policy of the military for what, 10, 15 years, and it seems to be working, and I agree with what Mayor Giuliani says when he says that this is not the time to put in place a major change, a social experiment in the middle of a war going on. I wouldn't change it at this point. We can look at it down the road. But it does seem to me that we have much bigger issues that we as a nation have to be talking about than that policy right now.

Blitzer:
Senator McCain, you've been involved in military matters virtually your whole life. What do you say?

John McCain:
We have the best trained, most professional, best equipped, most efficient, most wonderful military in the history of this country. And I'm proud of every one of them. [Applause] There just aren't enough of 'em. So, I have to rely on our military leadership in whom we place the responsibility to lead these brave young Americans in combat as we speak. So I think it would be a terrific mistake to even open the issue. It is working, my friends, the policy is working. And I am convinced that that is the way we can maintain this greatest military. As much as I revere the greatest generation, as much as I love my own generation, this is the very best. Let's not tamper with it.

Blitzer:
Is there anyone here who believes gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the United States military? If you do, speak up now. [Silence] .

# # # # # # # #

"Retired Coast Guard Rear Admiral Al Steinman, M.D., a hypothermia researcher, has just talked me through the rectal probe insertion process. Now he snakes an attached wire to a nearby computer console, flips some dials, and announces that my core body temperature is just over 100°F. In three minutes, I'll be taking a late-autumn dip into the cold broth off Washington's Cape Disappointment Coast Guard Station..."
--from a May, 2002 article on hypothermia research by Jim Thornton for Boating magazine.
Throughout the article, Thornton admirably resists all temptation to make a pun on gay Rear Admiral Steinman's rank.