Yesterday, on the 60th anniversary of the integration of the military, the House Armed Services Committee held a the first hearing to review President Bill Clinton 's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. One of the opponents to gays serving in the military that testified was Elaine Donnelly , the president of the Center for Military Readiness. Donnelly seemed more than obsessed with the "sex" part of "homosexuals," as she always made sure to say. She claimed that by allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, there would be an increase of "inappropriate passive aggressive sexual behavior common in the homosexual community." Her definition of "passive aggressive" behavior is sexual conduct that "stops short" of sexual assault. She kept referring to the "close living quarters" military lived in and the "power of sexuality." In other words, Donnelly seems to think that gays and lesbians are unable to control their sexual conduct. She also seemed to think that by placing gays...

As a follow up to Kate 's post on the Rand study about post-traumatic stress disorder I wanted to note a couple of things. The LA Times article about the study says that "screening techniques for stress disorders are vastly improved from previous wars." That's true because treatment for PTSD basically didn't exist before Vietnam veterans began returning, but, as I've reported before , there are basically two things that will vastly improve the treatment and post-combat condition of incoming soldiers who could suffer from combat-related stress. First, provide a comprehensive screening survey that would signal which soldiers are more likely to bring harm to themselves or others thanks to mental stress. This by no means would be a perfect system, especially since many soldiers feel stigma from combat-related stress and don't want to appear weak by saying they've had flashbacks or thoughts of suicide, but it would provide leaps and bounds of data for research on how to best treat soldiers...