Short Comments On Different Topics - Transgender Military History, Trump's General VP Prospect, Closing Blogger Comments

Too much to write about, not enough time.  Here are some brief takes on things that have come up.

1.  Watch M*A*S*H Reruns To Train Troops On Getting Along With Transgender Soldiers

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When I first heard the news that the military was dropping the ban on transgender troops, I thought, what's the big deal? Corporal Klinger wore dresses all the time and it
didn't seem to really bother his unit during the Korean war.  Or the TV viewers.  Of course, cross-dressing is not the same as transgender.  Here's a take on this as part of the evolution of showing transgender folks on television from Bilerico:

"Jamie Farr's crossdressing character, Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger, debuts on the CBS television show M*A*S*H  [1972] - the first transgender-related character to appear regularly on TV. Although Klinger was said to crossdress only as an attempt to be given a discharge from the Army, it is the first moment of particular visibility that deviates from comedians' sporadic use of crossdressing for comedic purposes (popularized by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in the movie "Some Like It Hot" as well as by comedians ranging from Milton Berle to Jerry Lewis to Monty Python's Flying Circus), and develops into sympathetic characterization." 

I was reminded of this by a new LA Times story that says transgender troops in other countries is nothing new.  Well, we had a cross dressing role model on television back in 1972.  I realize that young men are still forming their self-identity including their sexual personas when they enter the military, and some have had some pretty anti-gay / transgender brainwashing.  Let the military recognize this and educate them, and help them to get over any hangups.  Let them watch M*A*S*H reruns.



2.  How About Running For Vice President To Promote Your New Book?

The Washington Post reports that Trump is seriously considering Ret General Michael Flynn, a registered Democrat, as his running mate.  Is anything Trump says serious?  It turns out Flynn's book The Field of Fight comes out on July 12, though apparently you can start reading it already on Amazon:

"Ten years ago we found evidence that al-Qaeda was far more organized and adept than we had previously given them credit for. It took us nearly that long to locate and execute their leader, Osama bin Laden, and we are far from finished. Al-Qaeda has morphed into a much more dangerous, menacing threat: ISIS. A war is being waged against us by radical Islamists, and, as current events demonstrate, they are only getting stronger. This book aims to inform the American people of the grave danger we face in the war on terror―and will continue to face―until our government takes decisive action against the terrorists that want nothing more than to destroy us and our way of life.
Lt. General Michael T. Flynn spent more than 33 years in Army intelligence, working closely with Generals Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus, Admiral Mike Mullen, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and other policy, defense and intelligence community, and war-fighting leaders. From coordinating on-the-ground operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, to building reliable intelligence networks, to preparing strategic plans for fighting terrorism, Flynn has been a firsthand witness to government screw-ups, smokescreens, and censored information that our leaders don’t want us to know. A year before he was scheduled to retire, Flynn was sacked as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency for, among other things, telling a Congressional Committee that the American people are in more danger than we were just a few years ago. Why?
The Field of Fight succinctly lays out why we have failed to stop terrorist groups from growing, and what we must do to stop them. The core message is that if you understand your enemies, it’s a lot easier to defeat them―but because our government has concealed the actions of terrorists like bin Laden and groups like ISIS, and the role of Iran in the rise of radical Islam, we don’t fully understand the enormity of the threat they pose against us. A call to action that is sensible, informed, and original, The Field of Fight asserts that we must find a way to not only fight better, but to win."

I'm not sure being an active participant in the Iraq war, where we resoundingly restored democracy to a country that had never had it before, is that great a recommendation.



3.  Blogger Stuff:  Closing comments on a single post

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I posted about the 2013 Anchorage International Film Festival documentaries, which included the film Tales From The Organ Trade.  That attracted ads from kidney traders.  Then I wrote a post called Blogger Ethics:  Leave Comment From Kidney Trader?  Well, in the last month or so, that old post has begun attracting ads from kidney traders again and I mark them as spam.  But I'm tired of that.  So I wondered, "Can I shut off comments on a single post?"  It turns out to be surprisingly easy.  
Just look under options on Post Settings either in create post or edit post (on the right).
The first category is reader comments. Bingo.
Thanks to Blogtimenow.

Let's see if they migrate to this post.