Showing posts with label General Peter Pace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General Peter Pace. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Hillary Clinton Unwilling To Make Moral Judgement On Homosexuality
Political Punch via Kos:
"General Pace has clarified his remarks, but let's not lose sight of the fact that 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' is not working," she said. "We are being deprived of thousands of patriotic men and women who want to serve their country who are bringing skills into the armed services that we desparately need, like translation skills. And one can argue whether it was a good idea when it was first implemented, but we know have evidence as to the fact that we are in a time of war -- when we really need as many people as we can to recruit and retain in an all-volunteer army -- we are turning people away or discharging them not because of what they've done but because of who they are."
But is it immoral?
"Well I'm going to leave that to others to conclude," she said. "I'm very proud of the gays and lesbians I know who perform work that is essential to our country, who want to serve their country and I want make sure they can."
I have held my tongue actually about Hillary Clinton for almost a good month now. This is absolute crap. It is a character flaw of many politicians to be weaslesque, but Hillary Clinton apparently wants to be the master/mistress of triangulation.
I have less of a problem if she says that she personally finds homosexuality icky than refusing to actually say anything which might offend a key demographic. Her refusal to back down on her war vote was a good example of this as well.
Then there is the whole flag burning, violent video game crap she has been involved with as an obvious clumsy attempt to appeal to the NASCAR voter crowd. It's time to give it a rest. Just say what you believe and let the chips fall where they may. If the American people don't like your views, they won't vote for you. Or, they may vote for you anyways if they like the other candidates less. Trying to trick the voters into not knowing your opinions, or refusing to state them is not the best way to achieve the highest office in the land.
I often hear religious conservatives discuss the sanctity of life, but more often than not their actions tell a different story. That is why I call them the right to birth movement. For many (not all) once the baby is born, then tough shit they are on their own. Don't you ask for welfare, government schools, day care, health care or any of that socialist garbage. Who do you think we are anyways?
As General Peter Pace presides over millions of refugees, hundreds of thousands of dead, of torture in Abu Ghraib, of rape and murder of Iraqi civilians, he has declared that homosexuality is "immoral". He wasn't being sarcastic. Millions of people have lost relatives in Iraq to this war, and he declares that two people having sex is what is actually disgusting.
So, all you cafeteria Catholic right wingers, I mean you Bill O'Donohue and Michael Novak, continue to scream for bloody pre-emptive wars, the death penalty, cuts in social services, and capital punishment the more gruesome the better. Pardon me while I vomit a bit in my mouth.
I will keep on giving your views the attention they deserve; scorn, disgust, and ridicule.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Senior aides to the chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday that Marine Gen. Peter Pace won't apologize for calling homosexuality immoral — an opinion that gay advocacy groups deplored.
In a newspaper interview Monday, Pace had likened homosexual acts to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces. "General Pace's comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now serving in our armed forces," the advocacy group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said in a statement on its Web site.
I hate to do it, but I am taking Peter Pace's side on the apology issue. The whole dance of making bigots apologize for something they genuinely believe is absurd. The only way people apologize for being bigots is if they feel enough pressure to backtrack from remarks they genuinely believe.
I don't expect aryan supremicists to apologize for hating jews and blacks, I don't expect Dick Cheney to apologize for hating the truth, and I don't expect Pace to say he really didn't mean it and was sorry. He meant it. That is where we should start as a baseline. Should a congressional resolution denouncing his remarks be offered, should he face consequences, pickets and protests?
Apologize though? Why should he? He did us the invaluable thing of letting us know where he stands, and it's now our turn to let him know how we feel by our actions.
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