Common Sense

“Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.”  This was Gilbert and Sullivan’s commentary on the English’s, particularly the English aristocracy’s lack of common sense. It seems that this British malady is permeating American’s society these days.  And this is not just a Liberal failing … there are plenty of Conservatives who come up with loony ideas.  It seems to this observer that there is a universal penchant in this country to accept any change as being “good” … and the status quo as “evil.”

There are numerous examples in the news ... too numerous … but one, to me, is a blatant case-in-point.  There is popular rage to permeate our armed forces at every level with females … even to the most demanding of combat roles (see: Fox News Story).  I won’t go into the detailed pros and cons of this transmogrification because most cons seem obvious and, excuse the expression, commonsensical.  But there has been one consequence of this trendy tropism that is also rearing its ugly head in our armed services … and that is the growth of sexual assaults there (see: CBS News Story).

Now people who can tie their shoes should realize that mixing the sexes in stressful and/or opportunistic and/or cramped situations will probably lead to unhappy results.  I know that this shouldn’t be the case and that there needs to be extraordinary efforts to eradicate such sexual harassment.  But these extraordinary efforts on the part of senior military officers do detract … and often, significantly … from what is their primary responsibility … to kill the enemy and break things.  Thus, this social experimentation clearly makes our military a less effective fighting force … a very dangerous situation.

To me, this is common sense.