I think this is potentially a really dangerous situation, and that we need to start shrinking the size of our military, pronto. If we're ever going to have a military coup, fundamentalist Christian military officers deciding they need to take control of the country to save it from itself is how its going to happen.
Aside: sorry Stanley! Momentarily stepped on this but I moved my post down below.
"I was told because I can't put my personal beliefs aside and pray with troops I wouldn't make a good leader"
That's an appallingly backwards way to use "putting beliefs aside". Particularly since it's eliding "and pretend to have this other one".
The Air Force Academy is pretty bad, too.
5: Ooh, yes. I think this is what I was thinking about when I found the Naval Academy article:
An Air Force chaplain who complained that evangelical Christians were trying to "subvert the system" by winning converts among cadets at the Air Force Academy was removed from administrative duties last week, just as the Pentagon began an in-depth study of alleged religious intolerance among cadets and commanders at the school.
Seriously, Christians? You people are crazy.
That applies equally to all committed religious believers who think other religions are wrong, mrh.
Some of those symbols are quite wacky. The "Humanist Emblem of Spirit"?
Apparently there are no atheists in fox-holes because the non-atheists threaten to kill them if they jump in.
Seriously, Christians? You people are crazy
I blame the Jews.
The atheist one is beyond awesome.
WTF? There are Eckankar believers among our nation's deceased military veterans? You'll have to show me some evidence that that symbol was ever put on a tombstone.
The Christians who dominate the policymaking in these fields have a problem with Wicca that goes beyond their concern with non-Christian religions. Basically "The Salem Witch trials had some good ideas, but went too far at the end."
The atheist symbol should totally be on the uniform of a superhero called The Atheist.
And I have no quibble with either 8 or 11.
OK, but seriously, fuck a bunch of Dominionist militarists.
And I say that in the most reverent, non-enemy combatant tone possible.
How, exactly, would one go about getting the Air Force eliminated as a stand-alone branch? Presumably we could just talk to the Army and Navy behind their collective back and have them take care of it. The other services have their share of fucked-uppedness, but it's like logarithmic compared to the USAF.
Jesus was always a big advocate for militarism.
At a recent work function involving military folk, I learned that the last word of the Pledge of Allegiance is apparently "Amen".
15: There has been some behind-the-scenes tussling along these lines. Basic view is that the Air Force is irrelevant (and possibly harmful) in today's air-integrated warfare.
Hall hath no fury as a Baptist scorned.
That atheist symbol: isn't it about time we stopped drawing pictures of the Bohr model of the atom?
We've had the "electron cloud" model of the atom for about fifty years now, we know the shapes of the atomic orbitals, and we can take take pictures with scanning tunneling electron microscopes that are detailed enough to pick out individual atoms -- and they certainly don't look like miniature solar systems.
Is there another model of the atom that can be represented as a line drawing?
Orbitals are not awesome. No superhero would be caught dead with a picture of an orbital on his chest. Though kudos for the incredible geekiness of your complaint.
The d and f orbitals for m=0 are pretty cool- kind of look like nuclear mushroom clouds.
isn't it about time we stopped drawing pictures of the Bohr model of the atom?
And replace the stylized heart symbol with an anatomically correct sketch of the four-chambered bundle of muscle.
Slightly OT, I noticed recently in the New England Aquarium that the management has replaced all the misnomers with more biologically appropriate nomenclature: starfish are now "sea stars", jellyfish are "jellies", etc.
I half applaud the sentiment, while recognizing that it shares more than a little bit of the pedantic impulse that causes the Boston-area supermarkets to have express lanes for "Twelve items or fewer".
causes the Boston-area supermarkets to have express lanes for "Twelve items or fewer".
My eleventh-grade English teacher was proud of having written a local grocery change to effect the same change on their express lanes. He was rather tightly wound.
the pedantic impulse that causes the Boston-area supermarkets to have express lanes for "Twelve items or fewer"
Ruprecht, you philistine, the use of 'fewer' in express lane signage is one of the few signs that civilization isn't entirely in decline.
And your math teacher stood by the express lanes, assisting with the counting?
How, exactly, would one go about getting the Air Force eliminated as a stand-alone branch?
Resolved: The United States has not won a war since the inception of the Air Force as a separate branch. Be ye yea or nea?
So < has to be read as "fewer than" when applied to integers?
Resolved: The United States has not won a war since the inception of the Air Force as a separate branch. Be ye yea or nea?
Gulf War I? The Air Force made a pretty significant contribution to winning that one, almost despite themselves (the same A-10s that the USAF tries to kill every chance they can played a close combat support role and helped turn the Iraqi retreat into a rout).
You've got to give the USAF some credit for the Kosovo intervention as well.
I mostly concur with Farley's critique of the Air Force, but current US military doctrine has developed some serviceable workarounds for the major flaws in the organization of the armed forces. What we're left with is grossly inefficient, but still mostly adequate for getting the job done in combat. If (1) the Marines (which jealously guard their prerogative of deploying fixed wing aircraft) can get past their Osprey fetish; and (2) the Army is permitted to develop unmanned aerial vehicles without limitation; and (3) the trend toward outsourcing of heavy lift air logistics to private contractors continues; I think we will ultimately see the Air Force decline into semi-obscurity, like the Coast Guard.
Is there any good historical account of the role of religion in the U.S. military? Is it getting worse, or has it always been like this?
32: I'm reminded of the scene in Full Metal Jacket where the bootcamp drill sergeant beats the shit out of a recruit for denying belief in the virgin birth of Jesus.
31: I think we will ultimately see the Air Force decline into semi-obscurity, like the Coast Guard.
I don't think that goes far enough. My ex-uncle was a CPO in the Coast Guard, retired, now he drives a semi. And he's totally obscure.
KR- you're right about GWI. That was taken from a joke that Marines would tell when I was on active duty, which was prior to GWI. Then I got called up for that spot of bother. Anyway, the chaplain corps has been a part of the US military since day one. I have no idea how many other countries even bother.
If you're wondering where that atheist atom-and-A symbol came from, it's actually the logo of American Atheists, the late Madalyn Murray O'Hair's organization.
essear, there was an interesting discussion of this going on recently over at Balloon Juice. What I know is mostly from there, but I get the impression that this strong fundamentalist coercive streak, especially in the academies, is mostly a phenomenon of the past 15 years or so. Probably some of it's gone on for ages, but people who were in the armed services before then don't seem to think as much of it went on. It also seems to be worst in the Air Force and to some extent in the Army, less so in the Navy and Marines.
Most of the ex-military I've ever met have been pretty profane.
Um...
Giving off the perception that our military is unduly influenced by Christianity is precisely the opposite of what we should be doing, especially given religious inclinations of the countries we're currently mucking around in.
I mean, it's lovely to think you can somehow separate why the USA fights wars from why people join up to fight them, but I don't really see why you'd expect that to be the case. And it's even less likely that you'd see the authoritarian jackasses at the top raging against the very religiosity that they rely on for their power base. I mean, the idea is that it's a bunch of dudes jacked up to build a Christian empire. Maybe not your idea, maybe not George Washington's idea, but last I checked neither you nor the reanimated corpse of George Washington were running the US military in 2008.
You can't look at the guys in charge and believe this is anything other than intentional.
33: I think it was pretty clear in context that that was just a test of Joker's intestinal fortitude - is he going to knuckle under and pretend to be religious when threatened, or is he tough enough to stick to his beliefs - and not a heartfelt expression of religious sentiment; the same DS character refers to a church service as a "magic show" and the padre as "Chaplain Charlie" and has the entire company sing "happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Jesus, happy birthday to you".
40. Absolutely. "Private Joker may be ignorant, but he has guts, and guts is enough." Even though the entire Parris Island sequence was filmed in England, Kubrik did a pretty good job of recreating the look and feel of MCRD.
I stood by silently when the Pentagon organized and paid for propaganda directed at the Amercan public. I tut-tutted ineffectually when the military spied on and assembled dossiers on peaceful domestic opposition groups. I mumbled disapproval, then quickly forgot when senior generals expressed sympathy for dominionist Christian sentiments.
But now they've gone too far. The very fabric of civilian-military relations is at risk.
I speak, of course, of the incident earlier this evening at the Atlanta airport, where the Delta agent opened up priority boarding to "first class passengers, Platinum Medallion members, and uniformed military personnel."
Weimar is just around the corner, I tell you! We must nip this encroachment on civilian prerogatives in the bud!
As if the incident in 42 were not horrifying enough on its own, the flight attendant in first class was unable to serve me the glass of Woodford Reserve and water that I so desperately sought because, and I quote, "There was heavy demand for bourbon in coach tonight and we're all out.
I think we all know who is to blame for this.
