Right to comment?

[sheaadams20]

Amen. Your right, and it does not hurt if both sides look silly. Everyone needs a little silly in their life, if your Brit or not.

[jeezeweeze]

THE BRITISH ARE COMING !! THE BRITISH ARE COMING !!

[Binky Bainbridge]

Originally Posted by Outofdodge

"right" is the wrong word. This little piece of cyberspace is privately owned and run. Membership and posting abilities are privledges which can be revoked by the owners if you don't play by the rules.

It's not about posting your opinion.

Totally disagree OoD, it is about expressing an opinion, if it was anything less, it would make the whole exercise meaningless and bland!
If I break the rules or the owners of the forum don't wish me to post my opinions then, as you say, they have the right to exclude me, that applies on all sites.

Lastly things like that soldier post was just plain asinine and in rather crappy taste and I am still not clear what your intent was with the social security post. I thought the Brits were supposed to be better refined than that?

Why was the issue of a brave gay hero, and the general issue of gays in the military, (quote) "just plain asinine"? Both McCain & Obama have views on the subject, so why can't we discuss it on here? There is no problem with it in Europe.

Navy's new message: your country needs you, especially if you are gay

Admirals shed centuries of repression with pink press adverts

• Patrick Barkham
• The Guardian,
• Monday February 21 2005
• Article history

It is a liaison that would once have turned many military top brass purple with rage. Five years after the ban on homosexuality in the armed forces was lifted, the Royal Navy is entering into a partnership with Stonewall and actively seeking gay recruits by advertising in the pink press.Subject to smutty innuendo ever since Churchill supposedly dismissed Britain's naval tradition as "nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash", the navy will today cast off centuries of repression and inhibition by seeking Stonewall's advice on the recruitment and retention of gay and lesbian sailors. In a transformation likened by activists to turning round a supertanker, the navy will pay the pressure group for advice on curbing prejudice and ensuring gay personnel have equal rights to housing, benefits and pensions.

Despite the persistent swirl of sexual rumour around some of Britain's most celebrated war heroes, homosexuality remained the last taboo in the armed forces until 2000, when the government was forced by the European court of human rights to withdraw its ban on homosexuality in the military.

As to the "social security" post, may I ask you to read my last posting on it.

[Outofdodge]

Originally Posted by Binky Bainbridge

Why was the issue of a brave gay hero,.

He wasn't a brave gay hero any more than he was a brave black gay hero. He was a brave hero, period. That he was gay (and black) was not relevant to the issue. That some, including you, wanted to politicize his death and sexual orientation is a below the belt shot and offensive to me.

Originally Posted by Binky Bainbridge

Both McCain & Obama have views on the subject, so why can't we discuss it on here?

It wasn't the subject, it was how you chose to frame the debate. I would have probably remained in lurk mode had you not quoted an article that was meant to exploit the death of a US serviceman as a means to further a socio-political cause.

Originally Posted by Binky Bainbridge

There is no problem with it in Europe.

This isn't Europe. While the entire educated world knows that there are different cultural norms between the US and the varying states of the european union, that does not mean what is appropriate in Europe is appropriate here. Even if that makes some in Europe look at us as some sort redneck goober, it's our culture.

Every elightened person tries to avoid rednecks, until their car breaksdown in some seedy neighborhood on a hot summer day when all of a sudden they're glad to see one. We've spilt a shitload of blood and spent a crapload of money the last 100 years cleaning up the mess Europeans have made of their culture and governments.

[momof2beautifulkids]

[gadwall]

We've spilt a shitload of blood and spent a crapload of money the last 100 years cleaning up the mess Europeans have made of their culture and governments.

right on out of dodge, binky dosen't seem to understand we aren't english. and except for the original colonist that came here from england never were. i for one don't have a drop of english blood in me, norse german and american aborigine though.

[Highwayman]

Originally Posted by Tee

Do you really mean comment? Or do you mean debate, belittle, berate, criticize, argue and call names? There is a difference.....

Tee, you left out arrogant and condescending.

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by Highwayman

Tee, you left out arrogant and condescending.

Hence the "wordyesque" remark dished up by moi.

[Tee]

Originally Posted by Highwayman

Tee, you left out arrogant and condescending.

Oh...but they are just "comments"

[Binky Bainbridge]

Originally Posted by Tee

Oh...but they are just "comments"

Yes, they're just comments, so why do you, together with Army1 and HWM chose to inflame the issue by introducing other more emotive words?

It seems to me that some of you believe in "free speech" as long as it's in accordance and in agreement with your views, once it deviates, it becomes unacceptable and is relegated to being called other "names"!

You've either got free speech or you haven't - it's a bit like a pregnancy, a woman is either pregnant or she's not.

Originally Posted by OutofDodge

He wasn't a brave gay hero any more than he was a brave black gay hero. He was a brave hero, period. That he was gay (and black) was not relevant to the issue.

Disagree. Of course he was a brave hero, but the fact that he was gay is relevant to the issue for the simple reason that your military culture would not allow him to freely & fully express who he was, that is the real point here, as Barack Obama recognises in his promise to repeal "don't ask, don't tell", a real moral "cop-out" if ever there was one!
As for the old chestnut about having gays openly serving in the military would have a profound effect on morale:

"This historic British and American military integration has obvious implications for 'don't ask, don't tell,'" says Aaron Belkin, director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "The argument has always been that serving alongside gays and lesbians would cause military cohesion to fall apart and place a burden on trust in the field. Clearly that's not happening on the battlefields of Iraq.'