Tom earlier pointed out the ludicrousness of Wolf Blitzer’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” question, but this deserves to be highlighted again. From the last night’s GOP debate :

BLITZER: Mayor Giuliani, recently we’ve learned that several talented trained linguists — Arabic speakers, Farsi speakers, Urdu speakers — trained by the U.S. government to learn those languages to help us in the war on terrorism, were dismissed from the military because they announced they were gays or lesbians.

Is that, in your mind, appropriate?

Recently??? Take a look at this article :

Nine soldiers being trained as translators at a military-run language school have been discharged for being gay despite a shortage of linguists for the US war against terror, officials and rights activists said Friday.

The nine were discharged from the army’s Defense Language Institute in Monterrey, California over the course of this year, said Lieutenant Colonel Wayne Shanks, a spokesman for the army’s Training and Doctrine Command.

They included six who were being trained as Arabic speakers, two in Korean and another in Chinese, he said. “All the servicemembers had stellar service records and wanted to continue doing the important jobs they held, but they were fired because of their sexual orientation,” said Steve Ralls of the Servicemen’s Legal Defense Network.

“This is a very vivid illustration of how ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and anti-gay discrimination harms the national security of the United States and the war on terrorism,” he said.

That’s from November 18, 2002. Liberals have been complaining loudly about this for years. In the four and a half years since, the President has started a war in Iraq and there’s been a Presidential election, yet with all of the talk about “terrorists” and 9/11, the mainstream press has ignored this issue completely.

Going back to the debate question, the only thing more infuriating than Wolf’s long overdue question is the answers from the GOP candidates. Despite the fact that investigations into 9/11 consider the lack of Arabic translators “one of the most serious issues limiting the Intelligence Communitys ability to analyze, discern, and report on terrorist activities in a timely fashion.” (PDF), Giuliani dismissed the firing of translators as “disruptive issues”. McCain and Romney agreed that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is “working”. And when Blitzer ended the line of questioning asking “Is there anyone here who believes gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the United States military? If you do, speak up now.”, it was met with silence.

After the debate, Blitzer noted that this week’s debate “paints a stark difference between Democratic candidates and the Republican candidates”. Clearly, the Republican party considers institutionalized homophobia to be a higher priority than defeating terrorists. Keep that in mind the next time a Republican tries to imply that they take national security more seriously than Democrats.

I think the only thing I won’t miss about the Sopranos is that awful theme song. With the last episode this Sunday, I can’t stop wondering how it’s all going to end. Any guesses? I’ll put mine in the extended entry for those who haven’t seen the last few episodes.

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Am I the only one that thinks this bit from Slate’s review of Knocked Up is really nitpicky?

On their second date, Alison tells Ben she’s eight weeks pregnant, and, this being a mainstream movie in which the word abortion literally cannot be uttered—when Ben’s pal Jonah briefly invokes the procedure, he says it “rhymes with ‘shmashmortion’ “—she needs to know whether Ben’s onboard for the whole fatherhood thing.

Allow me to briefly divagate here on the nonexistence of abortion as an option in Knocked Up. This omission smells of the focus group, and it’s a disappointment in a movie that otherwise prides itself on its unsentimental honesty about the realities of unplanned parenthood. It’s just not believable that, in Alison and Ben’s upper-middle-class, secular L.A. milieu, abortion would not be matter-of-factly discussed as a possibility in the case of a pregnancy this accidental. If she doesn’t want one, great—obviously, there’d be no movie if she did—but let’s hear about why not. Otherwise, her character becomes a cipher, a foil for Ben’s epiphanies about growing up, without being allowed any epiphanies of her own. The biggest unanswered question about Heigl’s character is one the movie never tiptoes near—why does she decide to keep the baby?

I’m pretty sure they didn’t cover this because abortion isn’t funny. When you’re making a comedy, having a scene in which a pregnant woman agonizes over whether or not to have a baby is sure to be a laugh-killer.

Today’s the 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper? Cool. In a post about The Beatles, Tristero notes :

Sorry, I can’t suggest a bio as I grew up with the story, so there hasn’t been much need to read about it.

It’s been a while since I’ve read any books about The Beatles, but there was a time when I read every Beatles book I could get my hands on. Here are the ones I liked the most :

Beatlesongs – My first Beatles book and still one of my favorites. A great song-by-song reference book full of trivia.

A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles – Probably the first book I’d recommend to anyone interested in reading more about The Beatles

The Beatles – A biography/musical critique from Allan Kozinn for the “20th-Century Composers” series. My favorite until “A Day in the Life” came out.

The Beatles: An Oral History – Avoid any book written by an “insider”. They’re usually lame, self-serving, poorly-written, and transparent attempts to cash-in. This book, however, is a well-organized compilation of quotes from dozens of people that knew The Beatles that’s informative without being boring.

Revolution in the Head – A great examination of The Beatles’ music that, unlike many Beatles books, puts things in historical perspective. For example, the section on Helter Skelter mentions Charles Manson.

Tell Me Why – Another good song-by-song analysis that goes into greater depth musically. If you’re a musician, check this one out.

I’ve also heard good things about The Beatles: The Biography and Walter Everett’s The Beatles As Musicians series. Whatever you do, avoid any Beatles book by Geoffrey Giuliano.

Since this is the 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper, here’s a treat for you. When the Beatles were originally mixing the album, they were only present in the studio for the mono version. To them, the stereo version of the album (which is the one currently available on CD) was an after thought. There are numerous subtle differences between the mono and stereo versions, but the biggest difference is this mix of “She’s Leaving Home” :

Happy Birthday, Sgt. Pepper. Maybe someday we’ll get to hear the definitive version without having to buy or download bootlegs.

Like every year, last night’s Scripps National Spelling Bee was awesome. Among my favorite moments was the fact that the kid who won this year thinks spelling bees suck :

“My favorite things to do were math and music, and with the math I really like the way the numbers fit together,” Evan said. “And with the music I like to let out ideas by composing notes – and the spelling is just a bunch of memorization.”

The best moment of the evening was during one of the bio-clips when one of the spellers revealed her favorite word, kakistocracy :

kak·is·toc·ra·cy n., pl. -cies.

Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.

Who says TV can’t be educational?