You can’t make this stuff up, no matter how much you try. Defense – alias War – Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to test soldiers over 30 for their testosterone levels.” I’m authorizing a new screening program for testosterone deficiency for our service members, ensuring you have the right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best,” Hegseth announced in a video. Is this to make sure they can be aggressive or violent enough?
This sounds a bit like the famous saying attributed to Spartan mothers: “Come back with your shield or on it.” And, in addition, he is cutting the military ties to Harvard and other institutions claiming they are producing “weaklings.” The whole point of a university is to provide critical thinking. Both words are important: critical and thinking.
One would think that defending our nation means little more than coming out with stone-age clubs. However, Rep. Becca Balint on Thursday said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s testosterone screening requirement for U.S. service members is indicative of “homoeroticism” found in, ironically enough, in the hypermasculine art style of Touko Valio Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland.
Prayer for the Day
Despondent and despairing, we come to you, O God,
For we are fearful of changes we see about us;
Having relied on our own image of who we are for so long,
We have forgotten that you are our source of strength.
Free us from our hubris, our pride in our weapons,
And awaken us to the reality of the world around us.
In the name of the One who is the source of strength
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
So I feel like they must be looking at that [Tom of Finland’s art] as like their example for what men look like.”
U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT)
Ultimate vulnerability. That’s manly.”
Cameron Conaway, from Caged: Memoirs of a Cage-Fighting Poet
You turn us back to dust, and say, “Turn back, O mortal,”
For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past,
Or like a watch in the night.
Psalm 90 3-4