The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Captain of USS Enterprise Relieved From Duty in Politically Correct Witch Hunt

Posted on | January 4, 2011 | 18 Comments

First, the news:

The U.S. Navy will temporarily relieve Capt. Owen Honors of his post pending investigation of the series of explicit videos he is said to have produced when he was second in command of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, sources tell ABC News.
Capt. Honors is under investigation for a series of raunchy videos in which he appeared from 2006 to 2007. . . .
A leaked version of one video . . . contained derogatory references to homosexuals and was filled with profanity.

And the Wall Street Journal:

The Navy will likely remove the commander of the USS Enterprise from his post after bawdy videos in which he denigrated gays and made other vulgar references became public, a defense official said. . . .
The quick action also demonstrates that the military is under pressure to show that will not tolerate slurs against the sexual orientation [of] service members after last month’s congressional repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that barred gays from serving openly in the military.

While I haven’t seen all the videos, the “highlights” shown on TV news and referenced online lead me to conclude that they were Not A Good Idea, and that Capt. Honors (or someone else aboard the Enterprise) should have thought twice about the project. But it is nonetheless clear that Capt. Honors isn’t being relieved of command because of the semi-pornographic content and R-rated language.

It’s the political correctness, stupid.

UPDATE: Tammy Bruce says her “head exploded” over the hypocrisy of some military opponents of DADT: “So here you’ve got brass concerned about the behavior of the gays . . . There are the heteros making videos of heterosexual troops, sailors, engaging in faux gayness for humor.”

That’s from the audio of Tammy’s show posted on her blog. She links a Baltimore Sun editorial which compares the videos to the 1991 Tailhook scandal and excoriates Capt. Honors for “misogyny, sexual harassment and gay-bashing.”

What would Gunnery Sergeant Hartman say?

UPDATE II: In his “Quote of the Day,” Allahpundit includes a quote from a sailor:

“‘In [Capt. Honors’s] defense, I’ll say that sometimes, when you’ve been out to sea for a while, cut off from everything, you start to think things that you would never normally do are actually a good idea,’ [the former ship videographer] said. ‘You do stupid stuff to stay sane.’”

Yeah. It’s kind of that way in the blogosphere: You’ve been online for a while, cut off from everything . . .

UPDATE III: In the comments, Linda informs us that her husband will soon deploy aboard the Enterprise. She writes at her own blog:

My point is, those rank and file who are flirting, naughty dancing, putting boxes over their groins, and making “broke back carrier” jokes in those videos are typical of Captain Honors’ audience.
Do you really think they are offended easily? Do you think they have never seen American Pie? Family Guy? South Park? Holy bleep, most of them are probably too young to have even heard of Porky’s.

Read the whole thing. I have fond memories of Porky’s. Also Blazing Saddles, Animal House and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Whether the cultural attitudes embodied by those comedy classics should be used in Navy training videos is a good question. However, I’ll note that I get a fair amount of blowback for my own irreverent comic sensibilities here.

This is a blog, not an aircraft carrier, but sometimes people get themselves into high dudgeon as though, if I write anything unseemly or offensive, this somehow does damage to The Official Conservative Movement™ — and in the minds of the censorious busybodies, the Movement is only for those who never say anything remotely controversial.

And then they wonder why people think conservatives are a bunch of boring, uptight prudes.

UPDATE IV: Serious ramifications.

Category: Gays, Military, Scandal

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