DADT Repealed
The Congress has passed a repeal of DADT.
Via CNN: Senate repeals ban on gays openly serving in military
Several Republicans joined the chamber’s Democrats in supporting the legislation, which passed by a 65-31 margin. The bill needed a simple majority — meaning support from 51 of the Senate’s 100 members — to pass.
The bill now goes to President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign it into law. On Wednesday, lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted to overturn the ban 250 to 175.
I am guessing he will sign it.
This is, without a doubt, an historic vote.
Update: Doug Mataconis noted this at basically the same time as I did. I am going to leave this post up given that I think the results deserve a headline placement, even if the post itself isn’t much more than basic information.
UPDATE (James Joyner): Indeed. In fact, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, used exactly the same language. Via Twitter, no less: “Repeal of #DADT the right thing for our military & our country. Pleased to hear of this historic vote. “
Sometimes it actually does get better.
Big kudos to Obama, to Lieberman, to the brave Republicans who defied their backward, bigoted party to do the right thing.
And big props to the United States military which once again showed their leadership by broadly supporting this move.
Finally: no one who voted against this bill has any business being president of the United States. Yeah, that means you John Thune.
“to the brave Republicans who defied their backward, bigoted party to do the right thing.”
This will make it rather tough for the bigots to keep fighting Same Sex MArriage, too.
Military service is the highest calling in the fringe-right pantheon…all it will take is one pair of combat veteran gays openly demanding the right to be married to send the crackers into fatal stages of cognitive dissonance.
Today, equality for gays. Tomorrow, equality for non-Christians! One can dream…
Calling names must be part of the way liberals celebrate a victory. Adhering to one’s religious beliefs does not make a person bigot. I’m glad the repeal passed but I understand why some were opposed. Now let’s see if it works.
“Adhering to one’s religious beliefs does not make a person bigot.”
It certainly does if your primitive superstition orders you to discriminate against a group of people and you obey.
I just wonder how many enlistments just got canceled? Wonder how many people just decided to leave the military. Legislative actions alway have unanticipated results. I guess if you hate America and all it stands for, this is a good place to start. Any of you who are for this, I hope your kids come back from the service changed.
Steve P:
Adhering to one’s religious beliefs does not make a person bigot.
Did you spend even ten seconds thinking that through before you blurted it? There are white supremacist churches in this country, following what they think is the word of God. And guess what? They’re bigots.
Zels:
Don’t pretend that the brave men and women who serve our nation in uniform suffer from the same deformity of intellect as you.
@Zelsdorf,
Pardon me if I think that the opinion of the men and women who actually serve in the military, the vast majority of whom support this legislation, is more important than yours.
***It certainly does if your primitive superstition orders you to discriminate against a group of people and you obey.*** you mean like unborn babies?
“Adhering to one’s religious beliefs does not make a person bigot.”
True, but what do you call making other people adhere to YOUR religious beliefs? Besides, this religious argument is ridiculous. The military can get over the “thou shalt not kill” stuff, but the “thou shalt not lay with a man” stuff is non-negotiable?
I’m glad it passed too. I can also see why some people don’t like it. I just don’t think we should listen to those people because, well, they’re wrong.
“I just wonder how many enlistments just got canceled? ”
Probably not many. I’m guessing (just a guess, admittedly) that people who are willing to face death or dismemberment at the hands of the enemy will quickly get over the possibility of serving with one of the dreaded gays.
And the guy who cancels his enlistment because he’s homophobic? Didn’t want him anyway. I guess we’ll just have to rely on the gay dude who takes his place and is actually willing to serve.
OK, do these folks count in your mind, I wonder?
http://www.flagandgeneralofficersforthemilitary.com/
As for the other polling, I wonder how much of the number is the result of an activist White House….led by a self-described “Community Organizer”.
As for the reliance on polling data, may I suggest
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1422
…wherein we find:
So it depends, one could argue, exactly how the questions get asked. Are we talking generalities or specifics?
Interestingly, a lot in here seem reliant on the bandwagon for their arguments about DADT. I notice in the same report:
I wonder if they’d be so willing to follow the crowd, here as they seem to be on DADT.
If you read the passage in the original language, it actually reads “thou shalt not murder”….. There’s a difference.
Hey Eric — Which language is that, specifically? How fluent are you in it?
Oh, wait — you’re not?
Never mind.
I think it above you, wr, Given what I’ve seen of you here, but the verb used in the Torah commandment is “ratsah,” which is translated as “murder”, Kill, per se is generally “harag”. And yes, I’ve done serious study on various translations of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament.
> Adhering to one’s religious beliefs does not make a person bigot
You are free to practice any set of religious beliefs you wish to. The attempt to impose your beliefs on others by force is bigotry and simply un-American.
> an activist White House
You have to love the way the right alternates between whining about how Obama is a helpless, do-nothing empty suit and how he is an “activist” who is busily altering American beyond all recognition.
The one constant is the whining…
> And yes, I’ve done serious study on various translations of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament.
WR… I would take bit at his word here. Someone once described him as “dumb, but not unintelligent”. I have found that to be pretty accurate.
Eric,
When the majority is in favor of fundamental rights and the equal protection under the laws, then what they have to say has weight. When the majority wants to deprive a minority or other group of fundamental rights, then they can go to hell.
Not unless the dogma of that religion is bigoted.
Using the Torah as a guide to any sphere of life, or in this case death, is foolish.
The ten commandments were used to govern the Jews. The strictures placed on killing people who weren’t Jewish were looser, given that slaughtering entire tribes man, woman and child, leaving only virgins as booty was how they rolled.
Fortunately, that’s not your decision to make. The fact of the matter is that in wartime, different standards apply. And that’s reality. You might consider looking it up.
Translation; Anjin gets spanked with enough regularity to make him think twice about giving the usual knee jerk leftist responses. Not all the time, but usually. But that’s OK, wr… you’ll never understand it, I’m sure, but just for the sake of completing your initiation…. from Wikipedia:
….
And given the above passage, perhaps your definitions are inaccurate? And yes, I know it’s OT, but the charge got made and I could hardly let the inaccuracy pass unchallenged .
“Fortunately, that’s not your decision to make. The fact of the matter is that in wartime, different standards apply.”
It’s also fortunate that such a decision isn’t yours to make either, considering that DADT has been repealed…nice to know that you want to use the excuse of wartime to promote bigotry and discrimination…thankfully, Truman decided against that same line of reasoning in the past and the current Congress has voted against it now…
Thanks for providing the passage that makes my point exactly, Eric: “There is controversy as to which translation is more faithful, and both forms are quoted in support of many opposing ethical standpoints.”
You choose a translation that fits your political bias, and then claim it’s the direct, undisputed word of God.
Which of course is true of every tyrant who uses the Bible as an excuse to commit acts of evil.
> Translation; Anjin gets spanked with enough regularity to make him think twice about giving the usual knee jerk leftist response
Actually, it just means I am a reasonably thoughtful person. At any rate, I don’t think you are stupid, you clearly have a brain that works pretty well on some levels. I just think you are an idiot.
> Anjin gets spanked with enough regularity to make him think twice
This is coming from the guy who thinks he has the only dedicated music server in the blogosphere. You have to suspect there is an ongoing belief in the Easter Bunny lurking in there somewhere too 🙂 Run along and have a pow wow with David L. You boys can talk about how much spanking you do and have a few laughs…
My experience with DADT is entirely anecdotal, but I teach government to high school seniors in a very red state. Opposition to repeal is virtually non-existent among this group. Right now I have around 10 students who have enlisted or intend to do so. None of them will change their minds over this policy change. This difference between now and 1993 is astounding.
Anjin-san;
“The attempt to impose your beliefs on others by force is bigotry and simply un-American.”
You think it’s a good line? … you wrote it , now read it.
Correct. But then again, any religion contains such. Still, the ground for the ‘kill’ translation is shakey at best.
At what point might we hope to ever see evidence of this?
Um.. no. I chose the original translation… and the only one that makes any sense at all within the context of the remainder of the Bible.
> At what point might we hope to ever see evidence of this?
Well, you will never see it. Its a side effect of your severely limited vision.
No. The relevant semantic distinction is between slaughter and extermination, either of which confirms the point I made. Using the Torah as a lifestyle guide is for the foolish, or those mendacious enough to pilfer Yahweh’s soiled imprimatur.
The “original” translation? Would that be Wycliff’s from the 1380s? The King James (in which the commandment was translated as kill, not murder)? The Good News Bible from the 1970s? Which is the “original” and why is it better than any other?
Sounds like these folks may also agree to anything if jobs were on the line. Good job sell outs, now we have nothing but gay whores serving in the military also by association.
The young enlisted are usually the ones in the brig the most and do not command. We are all usually democrats until we grow up! Most 18 year old girls no longer want husbands either- after seeing Daddy cheat on mommy so much, probably better to marry a woman in the future. Retire from military at 38 years old and begin a family on retirement pay. Men no longer care for families, they just want it up the booty it seems. The DADT was a good move for women in general as it removes the barrier to enter all special forces.