Peddling Morality

My beloved Corner had a discussion today on explicit* adult material being sold in the base exchange. It began with Andrew Stuttaford rightfully decrying the effort, but soon enough had Kathryn Lopez rallying against the idea of adults in the military being.. well adults, capable of making their own decisions. Kathryn asked for military members to weigh in, so I sent her this missive:

Klo:

As a former enlisted service member, I find the idea of banning pornographic material from the base exchange a demeaning practice. It's true that service members willingly forgo many of the freedoms that are enjoyed in civilian life. This makes them no less citizens, and the few freedoms left to them are all the more cherished for their scarcity. Why should we be able to dictate what these men and women view in their off time?
The counter that it is readily available off base holds little water with me. That is disproportionately unfair to the young and unmarried enlisted members. When you are forced to live in barracks, the base exchange is your primary source of any and all amenities. Even if you are lucky enough to possess a car, getting on and off base is a hassle. Similarly, soldiers posted overseas have few if any opportunities to enjoy the materials of their preference. The base exchange is the only reliable touchstone they have to American culture and goods.
There's a wide gulf between the sale of Playboy, a magazine readily available in most bookstores, and the ridiculous allusions to destroyed cohesion and morale in the emails you posted. Courage, discipline, and teamwork do not require saintly morals. We trust these men and women to make adult life and death decisions on a daily basis in combat zones, but we can not entrust them to make an adult decision about whether they can view explicit material? Sheer nonsense. There is clearly an interest, so lets give our boys and girls in uniform a little bit of a break.

I don't think it will get posted, my emails have yet to make an appearance there, but the concept is bothersome to me. We ask enough of these men and women who still serve without having to dictate their off time to them.

*Explicit in this case being Playboys, as anything more extreme has been banned for at least a decade.

In Memoriam

This week will mark the fifth anniversary of my unit's first combat losses in Afghanistan.

R.I.P. Pvt. Jerod R. Dennis and A1C Raymond Losano. Both were killed in an ambush, vicinity Shkin, Afghanistan on April 25th, 2003.

Video killed the radio star...

So last week myself and four hundred eighty some veterans of the War on Terror descended on Washington, D.C. to advocate for the necessity of completing the mission in Iraq. It was interesting and inspiring on a number of levels, and I was profoundly moved to be a part of that experience. I may write more on this group and it's noble aims in the future, but for the moment I want to share something a bit more selfish.

We split into groups by state so that we could speak to our specific representatives, and I had the good fortune to run across another Illinoisan, Michael Koolidge, host of the The Michael Koolidge Show. Michael has a local radio show which is syndicated on a couple of stations in the northwestern regions of our state. Long story short, this week he had me on as a guest on his program in my first (and undoubtedly last) appearance in media at large. I'd have liked an opportunity to wax political, but we spent most of our discussion time on my own experiences in the military and fighting overseas. I suppose it is equally worthy, but it is hard to resist the soapbox when given the opportunity.

Anyway, I have a follow up interview scheduled with him next week, so I'm looking forward to more of my thirty odd seconds. Certainly having a chance to discuss the positive elements of the military and our current endeavors are more appealing to me than a humiliating youtube video.

He hasn't yet posted our conversation in his audio archive, but when he does I'll be sure and put a link to it here.

A brief hiatus....

What, a guy can't let a year or so lapse between postings and chalk it up to ennui and apathy? Nobody (and I do mean nobody) has read any of this anyhow, so I'm perfectly ok with such significant chunks heaving too and fro. I write this for me, so there.

A year gone by, and so much has happened. I've seen my man Mitt rise to prominence in the Republican eye, even garnering the endorsement of my beloved National Review, before fading into the background with too many also ran contests. Maybe next year. I'm from Chicago, home of the Cubs, and I don't have to like baseball to appreciate the patience necessary.

I have to admit I am stunned by the outcome of the primaries so far. Who would have predicted such a bloody, brutal slugfest on the left? Certainly the continuing revelations about our state's junior senator have come as no great surprise to those of us more familiar with Chicago politics. I didn't think we'd ever be so lucky as to have the venomous hate speech of his preacher captured on DVD for our viewing entertainment, but it was a surprise gift for the fall. The Ayer's connection, the Rezko case, the snobbish anti-gun comments were not exactly anticipated, but each of these things fit my general understanding of the man.

That being said in reviewing my post last year, I was delighted by the 'I told you so' possibilities within. If ever there was a chance for me to trumpet my own prescience, my portrait would be the case. Sure, I was wrong about the whole 'smashing Obama aside' theory. He's the surprising favorite right now. I don't think he's in a position to win, however, and given that I do think this will have a devastating effect on his potential within the DNC. Beyond that, I do think that Obama has more than mirrored the picture I painted, and so I feel a tad smug about that. It's been a year, and his positions are no more clearly articulated than they were at the time. His attempts to be all things to all people has taken him so far, but whether it can take him any further I have serious doubts.

The Clinton implosion at the start of the campaign was also a huge shocker. The long feared Clinton Machine pulled a Keystone Cops routine so laughable as to discredit decades of Republican fears about the family. We've seen a bit more of the old Clinton skill come out in these last few weeks, but it seems too little too late. Whether a bloodied Obama can still claw out a nomination remains to be seen, but I wonder if she hasn't knocked him off the pedestal just enough that even John Mccain can finish the job.

Speaking of, it's hard for me to be thrilled by a John Mccain candidacy. I have tremendous respect for the man and his service, but I have enough disagreements on policy that I'll be casting a very reluctant vote come November. Add on his seeming inability to masterfully articulate an argument which doesn't include spitting out the same rehearsed talking point, and it is hard for me to think he will shine in the fall. To face Obama or Clinton, the Republicans should have fielded a master debater. Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson spring most forthright to my mind from the Republican field, but both where passed over for the candidate of inevitability. So it goes, but we endure.

The Joys of Obama

So yesterday Obama announced on the steps of the Illinois State Capitol as he continues to build towards his highly anticipated 2008 run. My sister was (theoretically, I have not confirmed her actual attendance) one of the teeming throngs cheering on this 'articulate, clean cut' young Senator, and her and thousands like her can not seem to help but emit a steady stream of hungry drool as they speak of our friend Barry in glowing terms, cramming as many references to the greatly esteemed 16th president as possible into each and every sentence. I am not impressed.

While I could spend a great deal of time separating the rhetoric of Obama (99% at least) from his actual policies and beliefs (which tend towards the frighteningly radical), I see no reason to bother. It's quite clear that his gift of gab has so swayed his vast army of supporters to the point that intervention in Darfur and pulling out of Iraq doesn't strike any of his fans as immediately oxymoronic, but fortunately for the Conservative movement avoiding an Obama election is already well in the hands of Hillary Clinton's political machine. It will be a cold day in hell before Hillary admits that she is quite simply an unelectable candidate, and thankfully she's managed to convince her supporters of this to the tune of millions and millions of dollars. Perhaps they're unaware that once she start seizing profits from corporations it's a hop, skip, and a jump to seizing their personal fortunes, but that's on their conscience, not mine. No, the reason that I bring this up is becuase Hillary will destroy Obama. Madrassa school? Hussein middle name? The daily kos and their friends can hyperventilate about Republican scheming to destroy their man Barry, but anyone with an iota of public awareness knows that the 6th party smear was a technique polished to perfection by the Clinton's in the 90's and we're seeing it come to the fore yet again here. Obama, for all his faults, seems a fairly decent guy, and I can't imagine him having the imagination or capability of responding to these assaults in a coherent enough way to ever regain traction once Hillary has had her way with him. It's like a baby boxing Mike Tyson. Even if he has the potential to fight back, by the time he grows up enough to realize it, he'll be pulverized.

Hold on, Prom!', you say, ' What about the coveted V.P. slot?' I'm actually not concerned with an Obama V.P. performance simply because I can't see Hillary's ego allowing room on the ticket for the rising star of the Democratic party. To nudge that gigantic ego aside enough to let Obama's shine onto the stage is simply not possible for a woman of her character and temperament, and would detract too much from her grandeur. No, Obama will fall aside, crushed and beaten before his time, as the Democratic monster once again eats its' young. A single violin somewhere is playing for the sorrow I feel.