A little of this, a little of that.

Howdy. It's been awhile. How is everyone?

So I noticed it's been about a year since my last post. Sorry 'bout that. I can't promise that I'll be posting more frequently or starting this back up or anything, but I've had some thoughts in the ol' noggin that I've wanted to get out, and hopefully out of my head for awhile.

I thought about posting one of the ideas on Facebook. But I really didn't want to get a huge debate going between my uber-right wing friends and my more liberal friends. I've seen it happen. I've participated. It never ends well.

Repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is a total slap in the face to the homosexuals. It was a patronizing and dismissive move that only attempted to placate the LGBT community, while trying to side-step the issue of gay weddings. It was the dangling carrot intended to string them along to the 2012 elections, while doing little to actually work towards equal rights.

Was there really a major outcry among gays in the military to repeal this? I haven't heard a word about any petitions, demonstrations, or other requests to military personnel or the commander in chief to end the oppressive "don't ask, don't tell" requirement.

And really, why would there be? Do you really think there's a large contingency of homosexuals over in Iraq or Afghanistan who are thinking "you know, the only thing that sucks about this place is that I can't tell everyone I'm gay"?

I doubt it.

Just for fun, pretend that you're gay and in the military, in any position at any place in the world, and you're now free to openly express your homosexuality. You really think you're just going to turn to your commanding officer and nonchalantly tell him that you're into dudes? Most likely not.

Let's face it, a large percentage of our military comes from urban and rural areas - places that are generally poor, with few options for a "career". I think it's safe to say that when a group of guys like that get together, insulting someone by them a "fag" is quite commonplace, even used in a derogatory way to express a sense of feminine qualities.

If you ARE gay, do you really think you're going to come out of the closet while you're in a combat zone? Most likely not.

I went to a small, very conservative college. There were people we knew were gay. And you know what? they were. But they didn't feel comfortable coming out until after they had left that place - a place where homosexuality was looked down upon (in this case, as a sin, rather than as a connotation of one's masculinity). And that's fine.

Now, the ideal is that such openness will foster in a greater understanding and tolerance. And I hope that to be true. And I think it can....slowly. A change like that is a change in mentality, a complete shift of cultural instinct almost.

Now please, don't get me wrong. I think "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is bad policy. Anything akin to an ostrich sticking its head in the sand is probably not a sustainable or intelligent way of dealing with an issue. Besides, it does leave a bad taste in the mouth, and should be overturned.

But to make such fanfare out of it? For a standing ovation during the State of the Union? It just reeks of grandstanding and cheap politics. But at this point, should I really expect better of our elected officials? Or am I just setting myself up for disappointment if I actually expect them to do something for the right reasons?

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On the lighter side of things, I just want to throw my two cents into the whole Conan/Late Night/Jay Leno thing.

When the idea came up of moving Jay to 11:35, and bumping Conan (with the name The Tonight Show) back to 12:05, I never heard anyone make the most logical argument there:

YOU CAN'T CALL IT THE TONIGHT SHOW ANYMORE IF IT COMES ON THE NEXT DAY!!!!

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On a personal note...things are really going well right now. I don't want to jinx anything, but 2010 already has kicked the shit out of 2009.