Katha Pollitt and Andrew Sullivan
Hi Katha,
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StumbleUpon Yes, my morning ablutions are complete, and I know it's noon. I've just caffeinated, taken three viracepts, one combivir, four rescriptors, one zantac, one immodium, one zoloft, and one propecia. Who needs oatmeal? But the good news is: I'm alive and my hair is growing back.
In fact, I was so zippy I missed Charlie Moskos' letter. Whenever I've dealt with him he has seemed an extremely reasonable fellow (he wrote a good piece for me at TNR on race in the ranks) but, like many military types, he just seems to lose it when it comes to the obvious fact that homosexuals have been happily murdering and killing in uniform for generations. At least he didn't push the off-the-record spin that these nellies just can't hack it, which is what Pentagon flunkies were whispering to gullible journalists. He also misses a very basic point: The 563 violations were by commanders, not soldiers. It's rather like holding turkeys responsible for Thanksgiving. As to the notion that gay soldiers disproportionately leave early, this only applies to new discharges. How does Moskos explain the enormous increase? Could it possibly be that bigoted commanders, who hate the idea that they might have to tolerate discreet homosexuals in the ranks, now try to flush them out early and fast by massive amounts of intimidation? In Italy, a Marine first sergeant is reported by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network to greet new unit members with the declaration "There are three things I hate: liars, thieves, and faggots." Nice to meet you, too.
A final thought. It's interesting that Moskos is aware, as someone in his position would never have been a generation ago, that young people do "come out" at an earlier and earlier age. Society has changed enormously. So all the policy is doing, it seems, if he is correct, is successfully flushing out a whole swath of young men and women who have the self-respect not to be ashamed of being gay. Should the military be happy it's getting rid of all these people and becoming less, rather than more, like the society it's supposed to defend? And is the presence of these people--who are often disproportionately committed to their jobs--such a threat to the effectiveness of the military as a whole? Or are we better off with a bunch of conflicted, repressed neurotics?
As to welfare mothers, I share your abhorrence of the guy who demeaned motherhood, although I am probably uniquely unqualified to talk about its onerous responsibilities. My sister has two small children, though, and she works harder than I ever have in my life. Or ever will. But the apposite question, it seems to me, is not simply whether day care is adequate (it almost certainly isn't) but whether, as a whole, it is better that, whatever the current problems, the old system has been shaken up and reformed in the direction of work. Of course, welfare bureaucracies being what they are, a lack of support in health care and day care is hardly surprising. But the answer to that is to fix the health care and day care with some of the large amounts of money being sent back to the states rather than to return to what happened before. Or am I wrong? Is your position that welfare mothers were better off in dependency and close to their kids rather than in work and distant (for some of the time) from their kids? I'd be crazy to believe the new system is perfect or without its injustices. But isn't it an improvement on what went on before? And isn't it at least a more constructive place from which to improve policy than old-style entitlement?
My nomination for the most boring story of the day: bank mergers. And anything to do with Mike Ovitz. Who really gives a damn about Hollywood moguls? And doesn't The New Yorker fellate them enough for the Times to stop covering them? I loved the story on Kathy Bates, though. What a babe. I thought the Primary Colors movie was unconvincingly crude--can anyone believe for a moment that George Stephanopoulos was ever deeply, morally conflicted about anything?--but Bates was great. Along with George Michael, she's my newly discovered icon.
Cheers,
Andrew
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