Gay Military: Why hasn't this happened before?

I'm damn glad it has, though.

Gay Ex-Officers Say 'Don't Ask' Doesn't Work, NY Times 10 Dec 2003

Three retired military officers, two generals and an admiral who have been among the most senior uniformed officers to criticize the "don't ask, don't tell" policy for homosexuals in the military, disclosed on Tuesday that they are gay.

The three, Brig. Gen. Keith H. Kerr and Brig. Gen. Virgil A. Richard, both of the Army, and Rear Adm. Alan M. Steinman of the Coast Guard, said the policy had been ineffective and undermined the military's core values: truth, honor, dignity, respect and integrity.

They said they had been forced to lie to their friends, family and colleagues to serve their country. In doing so, they said, they had to evade and deceive others about a natural part of their identity.

Link courtesy of mattapp, who got it from Atrios.

Random thoughts about Santanalia Shopping

1. For some reason, I am really dragging my feet about both doing my own shopping and about sending people my Santanalia list. I know more or less what's going to be on the list--mostly DVDs of TV series (especially The Tick and Firefly, both of which have episodes I haven't seen) and a couple of movies (1776, Pirates of the Carribean, Real, i.e. Extended, Version of The Two Towers), and probably some books, but I just haven't written it down. (Have I mentioned how annoying I find it that B&N.com doesn't have gift registries? It's one of the few services Amazon provides that I actually miss.)

Not doing the shopping for other people surprises me less--for many years, I've not had the habit of shopping in the sense of "going out and looking around in stores to buy things". I do almost all of my purchasing on-line, and I don't enjoy browsing online stores--they're great for get in, get it, get out, but not so much for the hey, that looks interesting, I should get that.

I suspect the fact that for the first year in I think a decade we're driving, not flying, for the holiday has done something to with my foot-dragging. Because we're not flying, we weren't forced in November to sit down and confront the pending holiday to the point of making definite, hard-to-change plans. As a result, I never really switched into Santa mode.

2. My family is not particularly easy to shop for, but then, I don't know if there are any which are.

3. I cannot express how grateful I am to nellorat for all of the shopping she has done on behalf of we here in the Castle.

Thank you, my dearest dear poojie.