He who is firm in will molds the world to himself.
Johann Gottlieb
DREAM Act Cloture Fails 55-41
I mentioned in a recent post I would support the DREAM Act as an imperfect piece of legislation, although I felt certain restrictions on a path to citizenship and sponsorship (versus legal residency) and compensatory adjustments to merit-based legal immigrants (e.g., foreign students achieving a PhD in science or engineering or an MD) until a comprehensive immigration bill would make the bill more viable for bipartisan support (although I can't say I speak for moderate Republicans like Brown, Snowe, and Collins). Only Republicans Bennett (UT), Lugar (IN), and Murkowski (AK) voted for the measure. (Murkowski seems to have assumed a more independent voting record recently; I wonder if it reflects her recent tough reelection battle. Joe "Sore Loser" Miller's quixotic attempt to disenfranchise Alaska's voters finally reached the Alaskan Supreme Court yesterday.)
I feel this was little more than political posturing from Majority Leader Reid, whom made promises to Latino supporters during his recent reelection battle and knew that the bill would not win sufficient bipartisan support.
Senate Approves Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' 65-31: Thumbs Up
The Republicans mostly voted against the bill, with the exceptions of the Maine senators, Brown (MA), Burr (NC), Kirk (IL), Ensign (NV), Voinovich (OH), and Murkowski (AK). I'm disappointed because Republicans have traditionally been supportive on civil rights issues.
I have mixed feelings about this. I support this primarily because I see it as an individual rights issue, not because I endorse the gay lifestyle. I didn't particularly see the relevance of allowing servicemen the right to arbitrarily veto the right, if not obligation, of other groups of people to participate in national service; I did think that the military needed some breathing room to develop relevant policies. In my opinion, many opponents were using the survey as little more than a delay tactic and and possible servicemen resistance to rationalize their own rejection of the lifestyle.
On the other hand, I felt that progressives were misleading in their attempts to force-fit identity politics on the military, e.g., implying that gays had some characteristic competencies (say, speaking Arabic). I had more sympathy to gay servicemen whom were discreet in line with the policy and were outed, without their knowledge or consent, by others, than those whom knowingly and deliberately defied policy; I view the latter cases a form of insubordination.
I do not think this really changes a thing for most servicemen; they are professional, and what their buddies do in their spare time doesn't really matter. I have worked with people whom have violated their marital vows; for example, during officer training in Newport, one of my fellow trainees was a married male nurse whom walked around our residence hall floor holding hands with a single female nurse. (I suspect if the nurse had been enlisted, it would have been more of a problem...) But I know they were first-rate nurses, and if I had been injured, I wouldn't have been in better hands.
But let's face it: this was always a symbolic issue from the get-go. There are 1.5M active-duty military (second in size only to China), and discreet gays have served for decades. For many gays, being open about their sexuality is a liberating experience. Since many, if not most servicemen already know gay personnel, I don't think it makes much of a difference. However, it would be a refreshing change of pace to see liberal Democrats spend as much time worrying about modernizing weapon systems as they do about identity politics and pandering to service member families.
Do They Know It's Christmas Time?
One of the topics I did not emphasize in last month's posts was the October 31 massacre when over two-thirds of a 100-member congregation Syrian Catholic Church in Baghdad were murdered or wounded after 5 members of an Al Qaeda affiliate set off two suicide vests: "It’s a horrible scene. More than 50 people were killed. The suicide vests were filled with ball bearings to kill as many people as possible. You can see human flesh everywhere. Flesh was stuck to the top roof of the hall. Many people went to the hospitals without legs and hands." Another witness added: "Blood, flesh and bones...You can’t bear the smell."
The New York Times' Anthony Shadid wrote:
The Rev. Meyassr al-Qasboutros, a priest, was among [the survivors]. His cousin, Wassim Sabih, was one of the two priests killed. Survivors said Father Sabih was pushed to the ground as he grasped a crucifix and pleaded with the gunmen to spare the worshipers. He was then killed, his body riddled with bullets. “We must die here,” Father Qasboutros said defiantly. “We can’t leave this country.”By some accounts, the attacks were rationalized as a response to two newly converted Muslim women in Egypt whom were formerly Christian and claimed that a Christian cleric was harassing them in response to the conversion. Unlike other religious minorities, the Christians do not have a militia. Western countries, in particular the US, have taken in large numbers, but are worried about possible backlashes to remaining Iraqi Christians as other Iraqi minorities feel that they are being discriminated against based on religion. Ironically Iraqi Christians, whom have had a presence in the area since the earliest days of the Christian faith, have felt that they were better protected under the secular government of Saddam Hussein; there have been some initial attempts by the semi-autonomous Kurds in northern Iraq, which have historically experienced persecution themselves, to provide some political and refuge support to the Christian minority.
Political Humor
"Mark Zuckerberg was named Time's Person of the Year. I'm sorry if you don't recognize the name. A magazine is something people used to read." –Craig Ferguson
[Of course, the Facebook page announcing the pick has a 'like' button (but no 'dislike' button). It got more pageviews than Time Magazine's cover story...]
"It's the busiest time of the year for post offices. In fact, in New York the post office was so busy today that they opened a second window." - David Letterman
[Well, the first window was stuck shut.]
Musical Interlude: Holiday Tunes
Bobby Helms, "Jingle Bell Rock"
