Party time at the government gate

I find it ironic that the same conservatives, such as Mike Huckabee and Jim DeMint and my own Congressman John Mica, who have been ranting about the federal government's fail on efficient airport security measures are arguing that we need to follow the "Israeli model" of airplane security, because the Israelis (really) are so advanced and experienced with security and anti-terrorist measures (I will leave it to Dana Milbank to address the economic reality of the U.S. adopting that model), and possibly have the world's most effective military, are at the same time the precise group of folks that tell us that the Israeli model of qualification to serve to protect and defend your country - by allowing gay men and women to serve openly and honestly - is flawed.

(Southwest Airlines has already adopted an Israeli model, that model being Sports Illustrated cover model Bar Rafaeli. It may be worth noting that Ms. Rafaeli would also be allowed - in fact obligated - to serve in the Israeli military, where she would have served with both straight and homosexual men and women. But this Israeli model chose not to serve. Instead, she took advantage of an exemption for married women, having married a family friend, then divorcing him shortly thereafter. Which - unlike my rabbi who chose to comment on his disappointment with that decision - isn't a judgment call by me at all. I simply note - and I agree, it is an awful and strained analogy - that, whether or not she had joined the IDF, Rafaeli still had and has the right to marry whomever she pleases, a right that gay American soldiers still won't have in most states even after Don't Ask, Don't Tell is repealed, a right that even as more and more states extend it, will not be recognized by the federal government. And just to be clear, DADT will be repealed in this lame-duck session, despite the current hyperventilating about whether Harry Reid is blowing the process. )