When of one mind, Janus' views
form a composite of his two main sides. He attempts to consider issues with care and thoughtfulness, though he remains biased towards Christianity and Western
traditions. Outsiders might call him a Conservative, but in fact he is a Fundamentalist in that he promotes the Christian values that raised Western civilization to its peak.
One of the faces, looking to our right and called Patulcius, is the headstrong and determined side of Janus, tending to authoritarian ideals. Patulcius looks to history and upholds the traditions of
Christianity and Western civilization, and the well-being of Western nations. Patulcius sees world events as a struggle between divine and demonic
forces.
The other face—the easy-going, more open-minded, left-facing Clusivius—dislikes authority and prefers a more individualistic outlook. Clusivius looks to the future and contemplates changes. While
Christian, Clusivius takes an interest in the well-being of other civilizations as well as the Western. Clusivius tends to believe that elitist conspiracies play a major part in world events.
When possible, the complete Janus seeks to form a synthesis of the two sides when making a decision. At other times Janus allows any differences to stand without resolution. But now and again the two sides must battle one another until one side wins Janus' acceptance.
Tending to sensationalize, and sometimes to hyperbolize, C. F. van Niekerk over-analyzes any number of subjects from mundane minutiae to the great philosophical questions of life itself.
Katáxiros, the parched one, alone and adrift at sea, yet ever rowing ahead anyhow, sometimes weakly and sometimes vigorously, thirsting after God through the Orthodox Christian Church, contemplating the ways of the Lord, recognizing that while he is inadequate to the task, he must press ever ahead. Katáxiros writes about matters pertaining specifically to the Orthodox Church.
Barzillai Alpheus Bozarth claims to be a 19th Century man marooned in the 21st Century after a failed experiment in inter-dimensional travel. Not at all impressed with the wonders of our time, he would give just about anything to return to his beloved world of "horse manure and civilized etiquette". Barzillai writes historical observations and pores over old books and documents.
We don't know what to make of the Wanderer. He walks in with the moon and rolls out with the wind. He uses no name; the smells of rank sweat, dirt, and smoke mark him as much as anything. He's always near, but never close. Heedless of human ideals and bounds, he stands unyielding for honor on the ground. He's practical to a fault when he's not romantic to even greater fault. He says little, but when he does finally speak, we listen up. The Wanderer is our lawman of final resort. By hook or by crook, he sees a job done, just don't ask how. Frankly, we're a little afraid of the Wanderer.
Nature can be cruel to mankind.
If Concussus had his way, nature would be crueler yet. Concussus tends to arrive at the blackest of times, when humanity seems the most despicable.
Diabolus, the devil's advocate. Sometimes we are tempted to embrace the evil world that we despise. Diabolus is there to encourage us in this folly. Fortunately a rare visitor here.
Are women really suited for the draft?
– 16 July 2015 –
Patulcius:
A teenaged girl from New Jersey seems to have deliberately set about drumming up a lawsuit in order to protect the rights of “the female class”. From RT News:
A New Jersey teen has launched a class-action lawsuit against the US draft system, claiming its exclusion of women is unfair discrimination. With current Pentagon policies allowing women in combat roles, she says, the law should follow suit.
Filed by 17-year-old E.K.L., identified as Elizabeth Kyle by NJ.com, through her mother Allison Kyle, the complaint states the Military Selective Service Act violates the civil rights of women aged 18-25 by making them ineligible to sign up for the draft registry. Under the law, all male US residents are required to register.
In the complaint, E.K.L. says she tried to register for the draft on the Selective Service website, only to be rejected when she checked the “female” option.
“With both males and females available for such roles today, the two sexes are now similarly situated for draft registration purposes and there is no legitimate reason for the government to discriminate against the female class, so equal protection applies,” says the complaint, cited by Courthouse News…
…Banning women from the pool of potential recruits is not rational, given the current roles women play in the US military, the lawsuit argues.
“If the two sexes can fight and die together, they can register together; if not, then no one should have to register,” the complaint states.
Sounds reasonable enough on the surface. Just like so many other diabolical things that the Leftist promotes.
The issue already came up before the Supreme Court in 1981 with Rostker v. Goldberg. The court decided that the draft did not violate the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment:
The existence of the combat restrictions clearly indicates the basis for Congress’ decision to exempt women from registration. The purpose of registration was to prepare for a draft of combat troops. Since women are excluded from combat, Congress concluded that they would not be needed in the event of a draft, and therefore decided not to register them.
Since women are now in the process of being allowed to serve in combat in the U.S. military, and because that is the primary basis by which the Court denied the conscription of women in 1981, it would seem that the Court would not deny women the privilege of the draft today.
Of course the United States would be asking for trouble if they tried to implement a female draft. (The U.S. government has developed quite a taste for asking for trouble lately.)
Logistically, the female draft would encounter issues such as child-rearing. Many of the women subject to the draft would have minor children in their care, and many of these women would be single mothers. Would a mother in her right mind leave her children for possibly years in order to fight and possibly die in a war? If she had a husband, would a husband allow his wife to serve instead of himself? What if both parents were called up? Draft dodgers can’t work back home to support the war effort. How does it look politically to see mothers behind bars for escaping the draft?
Also, in the long term, if all women between the ages of 18 and 25 fought in combat in the same numbers as men of that age, and a significant portion of them died in the war, then the country would lose some of its ability to recover the losses to its population after the war was over. The resulting demographic dent would create an age bottleneck throughout the system for the next sixty years, damaging the long-term interests of the country economically and perhaps militarily. (Fewer soldiers would exist to fight a large war twenty years after the end of the last war, for instance.)
Of course, this assumes that women are really capable, as a whole, of serving in front-line combat. Physically women can’t work at the same level that men can, and they are more easily injured. When fighting an enemy of equal number that is composed only of men, the mixed-gender side would suffer a disadvantage if for no other reason than the physical differences. But there are psychological differences as well. Women, once again taken as a whole, are not suited to the excruciating demands of front line combat. Their minds will break more easily; they will manipulate the men in their midst to make their lives easier. Men who serve with women, especially conscripted ones, will often feel the duty to sacrifice for them at the expense of the mission. The bond among soldiers serving in combat zones becomes great, but between the sexes such bonds would lead to romantic feelings, and hostile breakups or jealousy, that would distract from the mission.
I have served in mixed company in the Navy on an aircraft carrier. This was not front-line, on-the-ground duty, but we were at sea for months at a time on deployment. Women often got pregnant to avoid sea duty, and a significant number of those on sea duty got pregnant to avoid deployment. Even those who did not get pregnant tended to have romantic encounters with men (or women) despite the fact that it was forbidden on ship. Often men in authority showed favoritism to women below them, and occasionally women in charge did the same for their favorite men. In the case of combat, these things add a level of personal complexity and drama, if nothing else, to already stressful and trying situations.
If we want to lose our next war, by all means we should draft women to fight in it alongside the gays and the transvestites.
(For a better treatment of this subject than mine here, see this article at the Free Republic: “Putting Women in Combat Is an Even Worse Idea Than You’d Think” by Mike Fredenburg.)
Clusivius:
I wonder if the 17-year-old girl from New Jersey has considered what will happen if she wins her lawsuit. Thousands of women would eventually be drafted into the military to fight a war, and hundreds of them, maybe thousands, would die in combat or at least suffer permanent physical and psychological harm. That is a lot of blood to carry on one’s conscience.
The girl’s actions can be pardoned due to her youthful foolishness, but I suspect her mother, who helped her file this lawsuit, is the real instigator here. The term “the female class” is a clear indication of their blind ideology.
FINES ET INITIA 