Something I Certainly Never Thought Would Happen

[filkertom]

Obama declares June to be LGBT Pride Month.

Comments

[lizziecrowe.livejournal.com]

Sounds great! Now about that DADT and DOMA repeal we were promised....

[lizziecrowe.livejournal.com]

I really shouldn't screech. this is a good step, and official one, and one that is needed. this'll work for a bit.

[ericcoleman]

They're working on DADT ... these things take time ...

[lizziecrowe.livejournal.com]

Indeed! it's part of that Defense Bill. But if they dont' get the spending fixed, the Prez won't let it go through. Around and round we go....

[alverant.livejournal.com]

He's working on DADT. It's in Congress, they help make it, they have to help take it down. Checks and balances and all that. The Prez can't snap his fingers and make it law the way W tried with his executive orders.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

You took the words right out of my mouth. No one should have absolute power.

[bald-ruminant.livejournal.com]

Except maybe me.

[lizziecrowe.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. No question there, I'm just concerned about the bill getting passed overall. Here's hoping. :)

[dadandgirl.livejournal.com]

Although, this is a place where an executive order makes sense. He's the commander in chief, the military command reports to him, not Congress. That was Truman's justification when he did it, and history says that was the right call.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

And history will justify dismantling DADT. Unfortunately in the short term the fallout for doing what Truman did will have bad consequences.

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

I've decided to go back to college (well, ITT anyway) so I can get my IT degree. As part of the financial aid application I was just digging out my DD214 - "Certificate of release or discharge from active duty." It actually lists under narrative reason for separation "Admitted homosexual or bisexual." While I was more than ready to get out of the USAF I will still be very happy to see an end to that bit of official discrimination.

Although after all these years the whole thing makes me laugh a bit. The official justification they were using at the time was that since I had a TS-SCI clearance, "enemy agents" could blackmail me to reveal secrets. Of course the only ones to whom 'they' could have threatened to tell would have been the military since they were the only ones that cared. Apparently the USAF and NSA are the secret masters of circular logic.

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

The official justification they were using at the time was that since I had a TS-SCI clearance, "enemy agents" could blackmail me to reveal secrets.

I've always thought that was the silliest rationale for not allowing gays to serve. If you're open about it, how the hell can you be black-mailed?

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

I recall a bit from Charles Stross' The Atrocity Archive where one of the characters working for a top-secret organization got time off to participate in a Gay Pride parade, and was required to do so, to establish that he was out to everyone and immune to blackmail on that score.

[ladypoetess.livejournal.com]

1. I'm going through ITT for my own IT degree(s) - are you going to a campus or through the online program?

2. I didn't realize you were in the USAF, or if I had known that at some point, I didn't realize the reason for your discharge. Wow.

3. Circular logic works because circular logic works... (repeat, ad nauseum)

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

I'm going to the Milwaukee campus. I could probably do some or even most of the classes from home, but I think I need the extra step of being in the class room. There are just too many distractions at home and I find I've actually missed getting out into the world more than I would have expected.

There were good things about being in the USAF, but overall it was a pretty mixed experience. I think most of the things I learned are not things they intended to teach me.

Circular logic: see Circular Logic. Yep. :)

Cir

[ladypoetess.livejournal.com]

I would have done a campus program, myself, but when I started I was still in 3x/week rehab on my back and knees, and would never have been able to make it to class reliably on campus. Therefore, I picked the online program - it has worked fairly well for me, though there are some classes where I feel I've learned almost nothing by not being IN a classroom (my Intro to Programming class, for instance). A good majority of the classes, however, I find I do just fine in an online environment for.

You are now the 5th or 6th person (depending on how you count them) to whom I have ties that either is or was in the USAF. :)

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

You might want to re-consider that choice. I don't expect IT to be a viable career over the next ten years, since companies are now of the opinion that paying benefits for IT personnel is more expensive than hiring temps for the few occasions where they're needed.

Sean and Cheron have been subsisting on temp work, low-paying jobs and whatever they can do to make a few bucks on the side since January for Sean and for three years with Cheron. The jobs aren't going to be coming back, either.

At the very least (and I don't expect you to do it with GI bill) do NOT borrow money to go to school. It'd be hell being able to just pay interest per month on huge stacks owed.

Higher ed, unless you know *exactly* what you want to do (and have someone who's going to hire you) is a losing propostion now and will be so for the mid-term future.

TC Trumpinski

(Hi Fred, you going to be at Duck this year? Looks like I'm on every panel they can think of.....)

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

I've been in IT (databases and programming) for over 17 years now. I'm seeing jobs listed, but they're more upfront about demanding a degree for it instead of trusting me when I say I know what I'm doing. A lot of this will be getting the paper to back up what I already know how to do, the rest will be getting a chance to have broader experience even if only in a school environment.

No, I don't think we're going to be at Duck this year, although I'm sending some of my toys down for the art show.

[ladypoetess.livejournal.com]

Re: borrowing money to pay for school - with some of the new laws being passed for student loans, it will actually make it easier to pay loans back. If you are making under a certain amount per year, payments will be deferred, and if you work in a 'public service' job for 10 years following school, the remainder of the loans will be forgiven outright - so it's getting better.

I'm going for IT myself, but specialized to security. I figure it this way: computers are not going away, therefore networks are not going away either. Everyone is going to need security for their networks, and if that's through temp or temp-to-hire work, so be it. But this is a field that isn't going to just collapse, because it's going to be needed more in the future.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

In my experience the "few" occasions will be popping up on a regular basis. More than enough to justify hiring someone full time. My current company made the mistake of hiring temps just when needed and now their whole sites are a mess written in multiple languages. Some parts that have been compiled are lacking the source code needed to make necessary modifications. Every day they find something else that needs changing.

Any company that makes the mistake of hiring "part time" IT help will realize its mistake soon enough. Best thing for companies with small IT needs is to hire out to a consulting company who has a team (or at least a person) able to handle their needs when necessary and who can work for other clients when not.

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

Look, it was a gesture of free advice and as such, I see no need to bother with arguing and trying to change your minds.

I *do* wish that you'd write down what I said and the date, so that we can compare notes in five years.

Man, I LOVE doing that. Makes up for not being able to write near-future SF 'cause things are changing so fast.

Tom

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

Cue cranial detonations from the usual suspects in 5... 4... 3... Carry an umbrella to protect yourself from flying brain matter (a fruity-drink umbrella should suffice).

[tandw.livejournal.com]

Carry an umbrella to protect yourself from flying brain matter (a fruity-drink umbrella should suffice).

On account of the usual suspects not having enough brain matter to make much of a mess?

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Glenn Beck will be spewing even more lunacy on the airwaves today. I think I'll need to go underground (literally) to get away from the cranial spewage.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Tony Perkins beat Beck to it.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/06/tony_perkins_weeps_for_benight.php
To summarize Perkins, "Waaaaa we're being persecuted because we can't persecute teh icky gays!"

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

How dare they not allow us to persecute whomever we please!!

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Nice symbolism.

Now are we doing something? Ah yes, slowly but surely and all the implementation compromised out of it.

*sigh* One side wants us to go away and the other is willing to help make us go away, permanently.

[pandoradeloeste.livejournal.com]

No frakkin' kidding. The way things are going, it'll end up being a proposal to release a statement that it would be really cool, y'know, if they weren't busy or anything, if the military would let gay and lesbian soldiers fight openly. /o\

[susan-the-rogue.livejournal.com]

See, this is why I wish I lived with my liberal LGBT-supporting fiance, and not renting from family members who adore Sarah Palin. They wouldn't appreciate me bouncing around in happiness for something like this. Fiance, on the other hand, would join me in bouncing for happiness.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

...actually, the one family member I have who supports Palin came out of the closet over Christmas. I promptly fell over laughing and told his mother it was about time!

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Barry. Now that you're actually trying to do something to please the people who voted for you, could you stop wasting your time trying to pander to those who NEVER WILL?

[moshez.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link, Tom.
In celebration, I wrote a few words on Alan Turing -- http://moshez.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/alan-turing/

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Fan-freakin'-tastic!!!

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Cue the spoiled-ass whiny white straight tea-sucking males bawling that it's Not Fairrrrr that there's no Straight Pride Month in 4, 3, 2, 1...

[invader-tak-1.livejournal.com]

They get a month as soon, as straight relationships carry societal stigma. And not before.

Soon as that happens, I'll go to the straight pride parade and wave a beige flag in support.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link. There's some further promises in the full proclamation that may accomplish something too.

[skunktaur.livejournal.com]

Can I get some popcorn and a good seat for the media outrage from Fox? :D