exiled from reason
One of Andrew Sullivan’s readers upbraids another for supporting the odious don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy of excluding out-of-the-closet LGBTs:
Look what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. The biggest strength any army has is its spirit. A joyous, unified, spirit to win, knowing they're doing the right, just and moral thing.You're right, actually. The best asset of the army is its spirit - of comradeship, brotherhood, and unity. It is a spirit which overrules, or at least ought to overrule, all the taxonomies of civilian life: race, politics, class, region, and even, one might hope, sexuality. But if you actually believe our men and women in uniform can stand up to the most maniacal, barbaric, ruthless, and vile killers in the world, and still be flustered by - gasp - a gay person, then you have officially exiled yourself from the frontier of reason. [emphasis added]
The coming-out of Eric Alva (see HRC and SLDN for details) and countless others in the military explodes the wingnut fears about “unit cohesion” into a million pieces of bigoted bullshit. Has no one on the Right had ever heard of Leonidas, or Alexander the Great, or the Sacred Band of Thebes?