I was one of the people selected to take the DoD survey, and I can tell you it is slanted towards giving a favorable view of gays in the military with slanted questions and no real opportunity to object to the repeal of DADT. The only opportunity I had to voice my objection and experience with gay service members was in a small text block.
In addition, the survey was sent to me by name and there was a specific code number attached to my response. I didn’t, therefore, have much confidence in my anonymity. I didn’t really give a damn, but I can see where people who hoped to gain positions of command would be reluctant to give their real point of view if they knew that some day they could be punished for their responses.
I’ve served with gays, and some were OK, but usually there was no way you could tell them apart from anyone else. For those more flamboyant, I found there was a high correlation of neuroticism which translated into very poor leadership.
Anyone who has ever been in the military and deployed into situations where everyone lives under stress and in very close quarters, with no opportunity for privacy or relief, and no way to just quit and walk away, realizes there is no realistic way to integrate openly gay people into this environment.
You are the second military Freeper that I have seen that has said that about the questionnaire. Wish I could remember who else said it. Maybe LJ remembers.
Thank you for your post and your insight into this, binreadin!
If anyone who has same sex even once since 1977 cannot give blood with The Red Cross.
What happens on the battlefield when a wounded buddy needs blood?
Joining the military is a not a right but a privilege.
STD’s and HIV/AIDS are preventable if you just avoid temptations and say No.
AIDS Funding for Federal Government Programs: FY1981-FY2009
http://opencrs.com/document/RL30731/
April 23, 2008
Summary
Federal government spending on HIV (the human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is estimated at $23.3 billion in FY2008. Of the total, 63% is for treatment programs; research programs receive 13%; prevention programs receive 14%, and income support programs receive 10%. The Administration’s government-wide request level for all HIV/AIDS programs in FY2009 is $24.1 billion. AIDS programs within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) account for 66% of the total amount spent on HIV/AIDS by the federal government in FY2008, a total of $15.2 billion for both discretionary and entitlement programs. Within the HHS discretionary budget, funding for HIV/AIDS research, prevention, and treatment programs has increased from $200,000 in FY1981 to an estimated $6.586 billion in FY2008; the Administration’s request for FY2009 is $6.592 billion. This report provides an overview of HHS spending on HIV/AIDS as well as budget numbers for other federal government programs targeting HIV/AIDS. This report is updated once per year to reflect the new budget figures.
Black AIDS Institute
Living Longer With HIV/AIDS Includes Developing Chronic Diseases
By Andrea King Collier
June 28, 2010
http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art57237.html
“Even a costly treatment could be worthwhile. The price of treatment with antiretrovirals in Europe is €70,000 to €80,000 (£63,000 to £72,000) a year compared with a one-off cost of €20,000 to €30,000 for a bone marrow transplant.”
Full story
Lifetime Cost of Living With HIV: $618,900
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227119,00.html
Wednesday April 28, 2010
Military Chaplains Urge Obama to Maintain Ban on Open Homosexuals in Military
By Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 28, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Over 40 retired military chaplains are urging President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to consider the impairment of religious liberty that would likely result from imposing a “non-discrimination” policy regarding open homosexuals in the military.
The Family Research Council (FRC) and the Alliance Defense Fund Wednesday released a letter signed by the chaplains expressing concern over what they claim would be a threat to Christian free speech if the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy on open homosexuals in the military were to be lifted. Defense Secretary Gates confirmed in February that, acceeding to the wishes of the Obama administration, the Pentagon would begin taking steps towards repealing the Clinton-era DADT.
“As chaplains whose cumulative service is measured in centuries, we are deeply concerned that these changes would threaten the religious liberty of chaplains and service members,” states the letter. The former chaplains note that, because they are retired, they have more freedom to speak, “unlike our active-duty brethren in the chaplaincy, who may risk accusations of insubordination or discrimination if they raise these concerns.”
The group says they fear that “chaplains might be pressured by adverse discipline and collapsed careers into watering down their teachings and avoiding - if not abandoning - key elements of their sending denomination’s faith and practice. Such a result would be the very antithesis of religious freedom and inimical to the guarantees made by our First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
The chaplains also say that homosexuals would soon demand that the Strong Bonds program, which supports military marriages and is administered by the chaplaincy, apply also to homosexual couples, if homosexuality were normalized in the armed forces. Chaplains administering the program, they note, “will either have to deny their religious beliefs to comply with the ‘non-discrimination’ policy or face the potentially career-ending consequences of a discrimination complaint when they deny their request.”
The letter continues: “Even if a chaplain never receives a formal complaint for exercising his religious beliefs, his career and ministry will be threatened simply by the existence of the ‘non-discrimination’ law. By raising homosexual behavior to the same protected status as innate, innocuous characteristics like race and gender, the armed forces will cast the sincerely held religious beliefs of many chaplains and Service members as rank bigotry comparable to racism.”
The chaplains point to several civilian cases in which Christians have been penalized in their professional capacity for upholding their beliefs in homosexuality as immoral. “Nothing will insulate armed forces chaplains from these issues already rampant in civilian life,” they state. “If anything, the uniquely close relationship between armed forces chaplains and the government will only intensify this divisive phenomenon, creating sharp and widespread conflict. ...
“Opposition to normalizing sinful behavior is deeply rooted in our theology, and that opposition will come to a sharp head if the armed forces compel affirmation of homosexual conduct.”
At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, FRC president Tony Perkins stated: “While we may not see - at least not immediately - proscriptions restricting what chaplains can or cannot say, rest assured, the appropriate gospel will be a politically correct gospel.”
“And while failure to preach this p.c. gospel may not lead to being drummed out of the military, there’s no question that it will be an obstacle to the promotion and the military careers of chaplains,” he added.
If chaplains are restricted in their ability to represent their faith, said Perkins, “you can look for orthodox Christian chaplains to exit the military, leaving an insurmountable void in fostering an environment that ensures that the men and women who wear the uniform are in their best mental, emotional, and spiritual condition necessary to defend the nation and the ideals that we represent.
“With two military actions underway, multiple deployments and one tour of duty, why would we ask these people to carry the burden of this administration’s political agenda?”
URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10042811.html
BUMP your informative post.
Push-polling is the term of art.
Plus leaking, and lying leakers, and homopolemicalpseudojournalistic tripe masquerading as news. Same old same-old. The Homoleft has been lying and falsifying things since the original Evelyn Hooker study in 1957 that patsy Hooker let some of her subjects hustle her on. They spun the data and basically rendered her report useless, except as (their) propaganda.
People of the Lie really does describe them.
Thanks for giving us the real story. I’m weary of all the propaganda out there.