Gates tells troops "don't ask, don't tell" is still in effect

Mr. Secretary, the last time I checked our country is not a military dictatorship. The Constitution gives Congress the power to make laws and the president the power to enforce them. It does not say anything about gaining the approval of the military before a law can be enacted.

No, I haven't read the law. Yes, there probably is a clause in the law that provides for the military (i.e., Pentagon) to phase in the changes over a period of time. The Secretary of Defense, however, is behaving as if he is the little dictator. I'm surprised he didn't shake his fists into the air during his news conference.

Get over yourself.

Male Breast Cancer

I went for a visit to the dermatologist today. Pretty routine stuff. The face that is forever 15 and acne-prone, and now an old person dousing of eczema for my hands, upper arms, and back. (My body doesn't know if it is young or aging.)

Anyhow, the little old lady nurse was asking me some questions from a list she had. It was pretty routine stuff, such as, "Do you smoke?" "Only for my glaucoma." "How about drink?" "Yes, I'd like a cup of coffee with a shot of Knob Creek in it, please. Thank you." And so on. She then shattered my world by asking me when I had my last breast exam. First of all, I was visibly taken aback by this question. You know, I've been mistaken for a woman in many regards, but never in looks. (In other words, my boobs aren't that big, or so I had thought up to this moment.)

I used my arms and hands to unconsciously cover my upper chest as I sort of laughed it off. She said it turns out that six men had discovered they had breast cancer, since they started asking that question. Yes, I know that men can develop breast cancer, but I had never really thought about it in terms of myself. The really disturbing part was when she began to demonstrate how to do it on herself. If I wasn't emotionally scarred enough before, I am now. She went further to tell me the doctor would perform one on me. (By the way, I thought this was the dermatologist!) In the end, the exam did not take place. I got off into a sob story about my poor blotchy skin and how no one can ever love me because of it.

I dashed out!

Her words, however, did not fall on deaf ears. My personal nature is to be paranoid, which is to act on every compulsively obsessive neurotic thought that crosses my brain. I added a new thought: breast cancer. Yes, I felt myself. Thankfully, I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary. Even though, my lymph nodes did feel a little sensitive. What's that all about?

Jon Kyl is a bigot

After the Senate voted to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) declared the repealing of the law would "cost lives."

I wonder exactly how being homosexual would cost heterosexuals their lives. Is that what he meant? He went further to qualify his comments by saying the discrimination found in "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was not characteristic of the racial integration of the armed forces over fifty years ago. His attitude was that all lawmakers were 100% behind racial integration of the armed forces.

Let's face it, there were lawmakers who felt that anything that brough the races together was a catastrophe waiting to happen. This is similiar to what Senator Kyl is expressing through is comments now. Senator, it is 2010, not 1960! I wonder if fifty years from now, someone will look back and wonder how anyone could say such comments about a group of people? You would never hear a lawmaker today say that the racial integration of yesteryear was a bad policy. The same will be said about allowing gays to serve openly in the United States military.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

With a vote by the United States Senate, which followed an earlier vote by the House, Congress has repealed another area of discrimination, which was the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of the 1990s.

It now lacks only the President's signature to become a law.

John Boehner

Is it just me or does anyone else pronounce John Boehner's (R-OH), who will be the next Speaker of the House, last name as "BONER"?

I don't see how you get BAY-ner out of that. I think it is a made-up pronunciation. After all, who would want to hear the infamous words, "Hey BONER!"?

Healthcare Reform

George W. Bush appointed Henry Hudson, who is a judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, declared the individual mandate of Obama's healthcare reform bill, as passed by Congress, to be unconstitutional.

It is no surprise that a Republican-appointed judge would find in favor of the Republican agenda. (I'm certainly not shocked!)

G. Thomas Porteous: Impeached & Removed

The United States Senate found G. Thomas Porteous, who was a judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, guilty on four articles of impeachment.

This makes Porteous only the eighth federal judge to be impeached and removed by the Congress in our nation's history.

I watched some of his trial in the Senate. I had mixed feelings about what the House had done, when it impeached Porteous, but after I learned more about the charges, I felt they were justified. Porteous was a corrupt judge who had his hand out for pay-offs and kick-backs. While the U.S. Constitution shielded Porteous from crimes he may have committed before being confirmed to the court in 1994 by the Senate, it did not shield him, however, from crimes he committed as a sitting federal judge.

To wit:

Judge Porteous, and his wife, filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in 2000. As a condition of their relief, the Porteouses were barred from incurring future debt for a period of one year, without consent of the Bankruptcy Court. Porteous, who was a habitual gambler, secured lines of credit from various casinos and other gambling establishments over the course of the year, which was a direct and flagrant violation of the court's order. In addition, Judge Porteous concealed a personal checking account from the Bankruptcy Court, which he used to pay off his incurred gambling debts. He further used the checking account to shield money from the court.

Although the House Managers argued that Porteous, who was a Louisiana state judge, committed perjury during his testimony to the Senate regarding his confirmation hearing in 1994, I do not find that constitutes an impeachable offense. It was the duty of the Senate to investigate and then either reject or confirm the President's nominee. In this case, the Senate confirmed the nominee (warts and all). The Constitution, though, could not provide protection for Porteous, as he did knowingly violate a court order on numerous occasions during his time in office.

Although, Porteous' defense declared he would retire from the federal bench in 2011, it did little to curtail the vote of guilt by the Senate. In addition, the Senate did more than simply remove him from office. It barred him forever from holding any other office of honor or profit in the United States.

Now that's harsh!