The armed forces have never been about character building. It's always been about building a better, more disciplined k*****g machine. Forget the "thou shall not k**l" stuff an react immediately with deadly force. Not pleasant but necessary for building a viable fighting force.

I had heard that the actual "k**l ratio"-the number of soldiers and marines who actually shot to k**l during the World War II- was about 50%. During Vietnam, is was advertised as 90%. They had their system down, according to what they told us. It had everything to do with discipline, following orders and reacting before you sense of self preservation could kick in. It worked rather well, I can say from personal experience.

I have a hard time classifying people by the way they have sex. For me, what two consenting adults do behind closed doors is none of my business.

But our consumer society's like-a-moth-to-the-light attraction to more stuff, more useless material goods, is a major moral problem, every bit as if not more destructive than our permissive sexual attitudes, be those sexual attitudes heterosexual or homosexual.

We expose our children to crass materialism with advertisements for toys and TV shows that are nothing more than vehicles for selling some cheap toys produced in China or India. We worship at the alter of Celebrity, no matter how depraved said celebrity is or how depraved the movies or TV shows of which they are the 'stars.'

We elevate half-literate sports figures to mythic status and spend billions of dollars on our sport business complex while ignoring such talents as rhetoric or public speaking. It's telling that universities spend tens or hundreds of millions on sports programs, including salaries in the millions of dollars for sports coaches, while turning the teaching of academic subjects over to teaching assistants earning slightly above the minimum wage.

We also pay corporate CEOs, who risk little, if any of their own capital, hundreds of millions to preside over companies. Yet should that company fail, the CEO usually skips to the next job with most of his/her compensation intact. There are highly paid employees, not true capitalists of old who saw their own fortunes ride on the success of their companies in which they, and their workers, had a very personal stake.

"You can not serve God and mammon" came from the mouth of Jesus. I haven't read in the new Testament where Jesus said anything about sodomites. Jesus chased the money lenders out of the Temple. To my knowledge, he didn't go to the local gay bar and hammer sodomites.

So to me the real evil is the worship of mammon, the worship of material wealth regardless of the moral basis for that wealth-and not the permissive sexual morals- that is at the root of today's moral decay. A minority is involved with permissive sexual morals. Many more are up to their chins in the worship of mammon. At least in my opinion.

Dutchman, it breaks my heart to hear of your loss. I, too, lost a grandson...at the age of 8 due to negligence on the part of some partying teenagers. It is an almost unbearable sorrow to lose a loved one so young.

However, I did/do not h**e all teenagers because of the act of one, or a few. In the same manner, I do not believe anglos should be h**ed by b****s for the crimes of s***ery and lynch mobbings of the past. Your anger/hatred of homosexuals screams from many of your posts, and not always prompted by anyone or anything. Though I feel your pain, I did/do not share your desire to strike back at any group, as a whole.

One need not find homosexuality to be normal, but should accept the reality of it's existance. With that lifestyle, I believe, comes the same rights as any other citizen, assuming they live within the realm of the laws. Carriers of other diseases have not been so denigrated since the days of lepers. Surely, we have progressed as a nation & culture.

One last point: Not all aids carriers are homosexuals, and not all homosexuals carry the v***s. Many, like your precious granddaughter, got the v***s through other means. We should be fighting the v***s, not any possible carrier, be they homosexual or not.

Again, my deepest sympathy, for I know the loss you still feel and carry with you...as do I.