Crises de jour, and a big Blue Bunny

President Barack Obama signs the certification stating the statutory requirements for repeal of DADT (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell) have been met, in the Oval Office on Friday (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza).

Well, it’s certainly been an interesting, and in at least one instant tragic, week on various fronts.

President Obama on Friday, with backing of U.S. military leaders, certified for repeal after 18 years “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” institutionalized hypocrisy in the U.S. military. Repeal becomes effective after a 60-day waiting period.

The process has been a good example of how determined but peaceful advocacy on the part of a minority, gay and lesbian troops and their allies, backed by common sense on the part of a majority can alter a landscape for the better.

There was never any doubt, among intelligent folks at least, that the military would have little if any trouble disposing of this odd and discriminatory policy. These are descendants after all of the honorable men and women who helped lead the way out of the morass of U.S. racial segregation after President Harry S. Truman ordered an end to it in the military with a 1948 executive order.

I wonder how many folks nowadays actually realize that it took World War II to, among other things, destroy the prevailing theory that black folks were not qualified to fight alongside white folks.

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The elaborate game of chicken regarding national debt that carries with it the threat of some sort of government shutdown continues in Washington. Much of it involves posturing for political advantage, a hazardous game --- both for politicians and the public in general.

I wonder if electing more women would help. They always seem more sensible in many ways, although there are exceptions.

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Thanks to Dean Genth, I’m now facing a personal crisis every time I open the freezer door and see that big “family-size” bucket of Wells Blue Bunny vanilla. Dean has called for a boycott of Blue Bunny products because of donations exceeding $500,000 by the Wells family to old Bob Vander Plaats (displayed widely on film this week laughing heartily at a “fag” joke) and his The Family Leader.

Blue Bunny is headquartered in Le Mars, which advertises itself as the ice cream capital of the world. That’s northwest Iowa, so affection there for Vander Plaats and his agenda is not surprising. If brownshirts ever march into Des Moines, they’ll most likely come from that direction.

I actually like Blue Bunny ice cream and don’t consider myself a fool where ice cream is concerned --- so I’ll keep eating away at that bucket. Then I’ll probably switch brands --- and cut back on ice cream consumption. Then I’ll have to figure out if Blue Bunny also manufactures and packages HyVee’s generic brand, the least expensive fallback.

Life is just so darned complicated any more. Maybe I’ll just buy an ice cream freezer and make my own --- but where would I store the danged thing? And what if the cow who produced the cream turned out to be a Republican?

But I certainly don’t want any of my ice cream pennies flowing, no matter how indirectly, into Vander Plaats pockets.

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And then there were the tragic terrorist attacks Friday in Norway that killed at least 91, several in Oslo in a car bomb attack aimed at government buildings and at least 84 shot to death cold-bloodedly at an island youth camp.

The suspect in both attacks is Anders Behring Breivik, 32, described preliminarily as a right-wing Christian fundamentalist who has problems with multi-culturalism. Sound familiar?