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From my Face-book Wall: A topic I thought worthy enough ...  [message #68236] Tue, 31 December 2013 03:35 Go to next message
The Gay Deceiver is currently offline  The Gay Deceiver

Really getting into it
Location: Canada
Registered: December 2003
Messages: 869




... to start a conversation this afternoon; and certainly worthy enough of my sharing it with the membership here.

"I, earlier today, had been invited to revisit this story from a year ago, through a link published at towelroad.com, although I never had followed it at the time it was originally published.  I teared up uncontrollably moments ago in reading about Stephen Hill's anguish.


https://fbexternal-a.akamaihd.net/safe_image.php?d=AQAzNtajKrsZmrMF&w=526&h=275&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trbimg.com%2Fimg-52bc6284%2Fturbine%2Fla-me-hidden-man-20131229-dto&cfs=1&upscale


Stephen Hill's YouTube debate query put focus on gays in military

America saw Stephen Hill's face for 15 seconds. It took him a lifetime to show it.
By Los Angeles Times"

Please, everyone take a moment or two and DO READ this follow-up piece.  Do not make the mistake I made a year ago in dismissing this story.

Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada

[Updated on: Tue, 31 December 2013 03:36]

Re: From my Face-book Wall: A topic I thought worthy enough ...  [message #68237 is a reply to message #68236] Tue, 31 December 2013 05:34 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dgt224 is currently offline  dgt224

Toe is in the water
Location: USA
Registered: May 2011
Messages: 81



Thank you very much. There was a lot there that I didn't know.

I like to think that the response to Capt. Hill's question contributed to the Republicans' inability to take back the White House in 2012. It certainly ensured that I would not give serious consideration to voting for the eventual Republican nominee.

Meanwhile the Republican leadership continues to let their religious extremists drag the party toward oblivion, and I try to convince myself that something of value will be lost when they finally succeed.
Re: From my Face-book Wall: A topic I thought worthy enough ...  [message #68238 is a reply to message #68237] Tue, 31 December 2013 09:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



"Quote:"
dgt224 wrote on Tue, 31 December 2013 05:34Thank you very much. There was a lot there that I didn't know.

I like to think that the response to Capt. Hill's question contributed to the Republicans' inability to take back the White House in 2012. It certainly ensured that I would not give serious consideration to voting for the eventual Republican nominee.

Meanwhile the Republican leadership continues to let their religious extremists drag the party toward oblivion, and I try to convince myself that something of value will be lost when they finally succeed.

--
Setting US politics into perspective, the nation is several points to the right of Europe as a whole and the UK in particular in its understanding of what one might call 'conservatism" and socialism. 

The US terms the Democrats to be socialists, but they are, on reasoned analysis, the broad equivalent of the UK's Conservative party, though a smidgen to the left. The Republicans are somewhere between UKIP and the British National Party, a cross between a rabid "No Immiga=ration, and No Europe" party and a bunch of fascist thugs. The Republicans keep their thuggery hidden behind a veneer of religious respectability and alleged patriotism.

Socialism is the UK's Labour Party, with backing by huge and powerful trade unions, many of whom moved form worker protection societies (a good thing to be) into communist organisations whose job was to create true revolution. There is nothing of that in the USA's Democrats, just a genuine desire for substantially more fairness in society.

Here we have the rise, I hope, of the third party, the Liberals (they seem to have some other name right now, but Liberal is in the title). It;s an odd misnomer, for they are not Liberal in any particular manner, but the title seems historical. Their leaning is pro-citizen and not pro-ruler, though any party that takes power becomes pro-ruler, and their heritage is somewhat left wing. How amazing, then, that we have a coalition government where the Liberals have been able to rein in the excesses of Cameron's Conservatives and produce a coherent government with substantially better social policies than might have been produced otherwise, albeit at the expense of many of the Liberal Party's true policies. Indeed, this has disgusted many previously staunch Liberal supporters. Equally, Cameron's inability to push Conservative policies through because the Liberals hold the keys to power has disgusted many staunch Conservative supporters.

I posit that this mutual disgust is no bad thing, though I agree that our social programmes have been hamstrung. I support absolutely the need to assist those who have no ability to provide for themselves and some, though not all, of the cuts to this support disturb me. I do not support social programmes to provide for those who can but who choose not to support themselves. I find the boundary area a difficult one to work through, and one where more intellectual rigour must be exercised by the lawmakers and the administrators. It feels to me that many of the wrong people are suffering from our absolute need to bring our economy back to health. Those who are incapable of fending for themselves need help whatever our economic situation, and many of those who take home enormous pay packets can go without quite a proportion with ease. France's new 75% tax bracket for the super earners may be the way. It is a two year implementation, and appears politically sound as well as fiscally interesting.

I appreciate the drive towards human equality and rights for homosexuals under the UK's coalition government. This would never have happened under Cameron alone. Hell would have frozen over first.

The USA's Republicans would not be electable here. I see them as having little value to add in the USA except as a party of opposition, but they make a poor one, with delay and confrontation as opposed to constructive politics. You need a party to spring up to oppose the Democrats, but from the other side of their policies, probably akin to our Liberals. And you need financial limits on political campaigns in line with our very low spend. Here anyone can become Prime Minister. Our current one has wealth, previous ones have not, future ones will not, or will, but they depend o the calibre of the person not their wallet

[Updated on: Tue, 31 December 2013 13:09]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: From my Face-book Wall: A topic I thought worthy enough ...  [message #68239 is a reply to message #68238] Tue, 31 December 2013 12:55 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



I realise I have not addressed the intellectual, emotional and moral courage of Captain Hill.



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: From my Face-book Wall: A topic I thought worthy enough ...  [message #68240 is a reply to message #68238] Wed, 01 January 2014 06:06 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dgt224 is currently offline  dgt224

Toe is in the water
Location: USA
Registered: May 2011
Messages: 81



"timmy wrote on Tue, 31 December 2013 04:00"

.... The US terms the Democrats to be socialists, but they are, on reasoned analysis, the broad equivalent of the UK's Conservative party, ....

--
I am reminded of a Beyond the Fringe skit in which one of the characters attempts to explain American politics to a fellow Briton, saying something along the lines of, "First they have the Republican Party, which is the equivalent of our Conservative Party, and then they have the Democratic Party, which is the equivalent of our Conservative Party." That was, of course, quite some years in the past; both have drifted rightward since then.
Re: From my Face-book Wall: A topic I thought worthy enough ...  [message #68245 is a reply to message #68240] Thu, 09 January 2014 03:36 Go to previous message
Smokr is currently offline  Smokr

Likes it here
Location: the burning former USofA
Registered: July 2010
Messages: 399



I remember thinking that soldier was doomed, and wondered what ever happened to him. It was nice to find out that it was much better than I'd feared.
Though in my mind, gay soldiers are no worry, the real worry is socialists and fascists in the government and White House.
It will be those gay soldiers that fight back against those anti-freedom/anti-liberty goons.



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