Tagged: military

Internet blackout post-mortem: Who still supports SOPA/PIPA? Who went dark? Did it help?

In the last day my search engine traffic has been divided into three categories: 1) Why is [Wikipedia/Google/some other site] blacked out? 2) Which sites are blacked out today? 3) Which politicians support SOPA? The first one, admittedly, I was trolling for, and I got it. The second one, I had a partial list, but I’m not sure anyone had a truly complete list since more and more sites were going dark all day. SOPA Strike, created by AmericanCensorship.org, has probably the most complete list of sites that participated in some kind of protest, whether they went completely dark like...

Could the end of DADT mean the end of DOMA?

Today at 12:01 a.m., the military policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which prevented gays and lesbians from serving openly in the United States Armed Forces, ended in its entirety. As of today, the estimated 66,000 gays and lesbians serving in America’s military may now, if they so choose, be open about their sexual orientation, be seen in public with their partners, and (in states where it is legal) get married without fear of losing their jobs. All current investigations into “homosexual conduct” have been ended. Ninety-seven percent of personnel have received whatever training it was that the military deemed...

Obama may not know “what it is to walk into battle” but he does understand sacrifice

I’m a confessed political junkie. As such, I have a perhaps unhealthy addiction to the CNN Political Ticker blog. This entry discusses a part of a Memorial Day speech that Barack Obama gave earlier today in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The full speech, about 9 minutes long, which is linked on the left, is worth a look if you’ve got time to spare. It’s probably not his best speech, but it is quite moving and I find it to be refreshingly genuine. However, this entry isn’t really about this speech, but about the perceptions regarding presidential candidates and military service,...