Post  #2500.   Mary Don't Ask.      The don't ask don't tell thing appears settled. I say "appears." Jay Leno mentioned it tonight, and his crowd cheered. I wondered why. Leno doesn't exactly draw lots of gays, so those people must have been happy because it's right. Okay, I'll agree with that. Many, many gay people have served with distinction over the years, and many others have been thrown out of the service unnecessarily and to the probable detriment of that service. So, that's one part ..

The other is: what happens now? We've talked about the foxhole and the showers. I'm not too worried about that. Somebody will misunderstand, or more problematic, understand, and there will be trouble and blood and bruises and courts martial and all, but the military always straightens itself out eventually. Bullets flying will do that. It's the non-shooting time that will cause the big problems. For instance, at the formal Commander's Dining-In, do you ask the major's date for a dance if he's a hairy biker wearing seatless leathers? For that matter, how about the seatlessness and dress standards to begin with? Senior officer's wives used to handle that. And how did the major ever get promoted past captain? "Unconventional" officers usually retire at 45 or so in that grade. Moving on, which latrine do the trannies use? And what constitutes "fraternization? Ironically, much the homoerotic behavior which goes on presently, and a lot of it is Very Homo, is going to be viewed differently from now on. A shame, really, since it was innocently enjoyed and un-analyzed by just about everyone and was not at all what it might have looked like to an observer. All that ass-grabbing and sweaty clutching is not queer. Whole 'nother phenomenon. Really.

Mark my words, this has just begun. Rick Macherat

posted by Rick at 12:16 AM

Post #2499. Mortality.     Another visit by the googlebot reminded me that this place has had very scant output lately. Busy, nothing to say, bummed .. the usual .. however,

Like most people and especially people who deny it, I google my name occasionally and am always surprised how what I have typed over the years manages to leak out and travel. People grab pages of thoughts or comments which include mine, repost and, well, you know what I mean since you do it too. We spread. So, I ran across a peculiar entry which didn't mean anything until I clicked on a few of the URL's. That helped me figure it out. I had placed a question about weblog indexing on a help site back in early 2007 and forgotten about it. Some time later, a guy named Rat addressed my question directly and answered it with a thoughtful explanation. With the Holidays upon us and all, I thought it would be nice to go to his page and thank him. So I did, and this is what I found

Tue 6-20-2010. I've only now gotten the computer back in the house after many weeks. I've been sick a couple of months and it's bad. Pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, both inoperable, untreatable, impenetrable. In hospital a few weeks, out of it now, a few weeks, in hospice now at home and totally weak. Don't know how much time is left, but it could be short. I suppose i'll be a bad writer from now on and a worse speller...

That was his last post. Rick Macherat

posted by Rick at 10:06 PM