Poll: Should Poems Be Broadcasted on Aircraft Carriers?

[Ernie]

Should Poems Be Broadcasted on Aircraft Carriers? Vote and discuss.

https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-0 ... s-aircraft

[steve-in-kville]

I never served in the Navy or the Marines, was never on a carrier, but I know enough that such nonsense has no place on such a vessel. Want to listen to that stuff? Keep it in your own quarters and to yourself.

[barnhart]

This reminds me of the time back in the 90's when someone asked me if same sex attracted people should serve in the military. I just stared blankly, I don't know how to answer such a question. Will this new thing cause success or failure? Do I want militaries to fail or succeed? Which way will cause more death and destruction? Will it honor Jesus more or less if the people dedicating themselves to armed combat also do this other thing?

[Josh]

As a general rule, nations need a competent but small military for self defence, much like Japan has.

I don’t think the most powerful empire in the world also needs the most powerful military which is mostly used to impose its will on unwilling third parties, so I rather passively “support” this. The U.S. military-industrial complex is an evil, wicked system, and the sooner its demise the better.

[Szdfan]

I certainly hope there’s poetry on aircraft carriers. All of us can use more poetry.

https://www.businessinsider.com/tommy-t ... 2023-9?amp

While the Alabama senator has previously lambasted the poetry night, his comments on Wednesday appear to have struck a chord. Lawmakers, commentators, and others pointed out the long history of poetry by and about military personnel.

Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California pointed out that "In Flanders Fields," a famous poem about World War I, was written by a Canadian military officer. Gen. George Patton, nicknamed "old blood and guts," penned more than 80 poems over his life. US sailors even have a tradition of writing their first deck log entry of the new year in verse, as detailed by The Washington Post.

[Szdfan]

This reminds me of the time back in the 90's when someone asked me if same sex attracted people should serve in the military. I just stared blankly, I don't know how to answer such a question. Will this new thing cause success or failure? Do I want militaries to fail or succeed? Which way will cause more death and destruction? Will it honor Jesus more or less if the people dedicating themselves to armed combat also do this other thing?

There’s an essay by Stanley Hauerwas that he wrote back in the 90s on gays in the military, where he basically says that he doesn’t want anyone to serve in the military.

[Ken]

This so-called controversy is so dumb it makes my head hurt.

Senator Tuberville is getting intense pushback for blocking hundreds upon hundreds of military promotions which is actually having very real negative effects on the organization. Important high-level jobs are not being filled, or are being filled with people in temporary acting roles who don't have the authority to make serious decisions.

And so he is flailing around searching out any sort of nonsense he can find to distract people from what he is doing. The fact of the matter is that aircraft carriers literally operate as floating cities. They have their own newspapers, entertainment venues, movie theaters, and social groups (bands, choirs, and clubs of every sort). People live on them for months at a time and find ways to keep themselves entertained and engaged. It's not like we are in the midst of the Battle of Midway or the Battle of the Coral Sea. If sailors on an aircraft carrier want to do poetry among all the other ways they keep themselves amused then fine. Who cares?

There is actually a very deep and rich history of writing and reciting poetry in war time. General Patton wrote poetry. You can buy the collected volume of his poems titled "Lines of Fire" on Amazon. There are whole volumes of poetry written by and about soldiers and the horror of war during the Civil War including, for example, Walt Whitman: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/ ... nd-dresser Alfred Lord Tennison wrote the Charge of the Light Brigade about the Crimean War. John McCrae, wrote In Flanders Fields about the first world war. Ancient Greek and Roman soldiers wrote poetry. The Illiad is a poem about war.

So Tuberville is showing himself to be the most painfully ignorant fool.

Why is Tuberville doing this? Because he knows he doesn't have the votes to get his policy objective through the Senate. He has not filed a single piece of legislation or sought a single Senate vote on the abortion policy that he is trying to force through. Why is that? Probably because he knows that he doesn't have the votes to win in the Senate. So he is on a one-man crusade to force his policy objective through the back door by holding up promotions.

[Josh]

As a point of order, Daily Kos is not a reliable source of news (or aggregator sites that just repeat their articles.)

To quote from the original article:

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s war on military readiness continues as he refuses to back down from his one-man blockade of top-level military promotions and confirmations. All because the military provides access to completely legal medical procedures for military members in need.

The "completely legal medical procedures" this article is referring to is abortion. I think we can almost all agree here that abortions shouldn't be happening on aircraft carriers, or anywhere else.

[Josh]

Why is Tuberville doing this? Because he knows he doesn't have the votes to get his policy objective through the Senate. He has not filed a single piece of legislation or sought a single Senate vote on the abortion policy that he is trying to force through. Why is that? Probably because he knows that he doesn't have the votes to win in the Senate. So he is on a one-man crusade to force his policy objective through the back door by holding up promotions.

Which is morally defensible and an utterly just thing to do, as anyone in any political office has a duty to protect innocent life through any moral means possible. Which includes holding up reshuffling of military offices and titles.

Would you say the same if it were a senator trying to make slavery illegal?

[Ken]

Why is Tuberville doing this? Because he knows he doesn't have the votes to get his policy objective through the Senate. He has not filed a single piece of legislation or sought a single Senate vote on the abortion policy that he is trying to force through. Why is that? Probably because he knows that he doesn't have the votes to win in the Senate. So he is on a one-man crusade to force his policy objective through the back door by holding up promotions.

Which is morally defensible and an utterly just thing to do, as anyone in any political office has a duty to protect innocent life through any moral means possible. Which includes holding up reshuffling of military offices and titles.

Would you say the same if it were a senator trying to make slavery illegal?

The stupidity I’m referring to is Tuberville’s complaining about poetry.

Complaining about poetry in the military just makes him look like the worst kind of ignorant goober.