# Oh, \*fab\*ulous. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2001, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211 "2001-10-13T06:00:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/1 "2001-10-13T06:00:54Z")
[In reference to this photo…](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20011011/wl/1002789017attacks_military_xent191.html) From [The Rainbow Network](http://www.rainbownetwork.com/content/NewsLife.asp?newsid=2241) > [@](#): > > ``` > Simon Langley of the [British] Armed Forces Lesbian and Gay Association told RainbowNetwork: "This message is typical of the homophobia that exists in the US military. The beating to death of gay soldier Barry Winchell by his colleagues in 1999 is another example of that mentality." > He added: "Homophobia such as this is not helped by their army's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy." > ...He said that it was an empty gesture: "It's the least appropriate insult to use given the Taliban's treatment of homosexuals." > > ``` Write your own rant. I’m tired. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/2 "2001-10-13T06:02:07Z")
Oh, I think this is my favourite part: > [@](#): > > PICTURE MAY HAVE BEEN REVIEWED AS IT WAS SENT VIA NAVY COMMUNICATIONS **There’s** a message. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/3 "2001-10-13T06:05:12Z")
And finally, from [planetout.com](http://planetout.com): > [@](#): > > After complaints from gay organizations, the Associated Press today withdrew a news photograph that showed misspelled graffiti – “high jack this fags” – on an airborne bomb bound for Afghanistan. Withdrew it? Couldn’t have the military looking homophobic, could we? ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/4 "2001-10-13T06:45:20Z")
Could this be the offensive WORDS on a BOMB you refer to? [http://www.ernieshouseofwhoopass.com/pictures/ehowabomb3.jpg](http://www.ernieshouseofwhoopass.com/pictures/ehowabomb3.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/5 "2001-10-13T06:57:29Z")
No; the photograph’s linked to above. ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/6 "2001-10-13T07:00:02Z")
Meaning of course, These are words on a bomb. How politically correct do you want American servicemen to be? You find the word fag obscene? Fag or not, I’ll bet the guys on the ground don’t even notice. Or was it just your intent to denegrate Americans as usual? I myself would care less about what was written on oridinance being dropped on me. ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/7 "2001-10-13T07:02:35Z")
Meaning of course. The most obscene thing you could do to anything is drop 2 1/2 tons of tnt on it. Priorities man. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/8 "2001-10-13T07:11:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by matt\_mcl \* > \*\*Withdrew it? Couldn’t have the military looking homophobic, could we? \*\* Uh…perhaps you missed this part: > [@](#): > > **After complaints from gay organizations** , the Associated Press today withdrew a news photograph that showed misspelled graffiti – “high jack this fags” – on an airborne bomb bound for Afghanistan. Sounds more like they pulled a photo which some folks were complaining was offensive rather than because it showed the military in a bad light. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/9 "2001-10-13T07:22:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by EvilGhandi \* > \*\* > How politically correct do you want American servicemen to be? You find the word fag obscene? \*\* I find the word fag obscene. I’m an American, and a taxpaxer, which means that part of my salary went to pay for some small part of that bomb, and the salary of the serviceman who painted that on there. The fact that someone painted that phrase on there is disturbing to me. The fact that navy censors looked at it, and deemed it suitable for release is even more disturbing to me, because it shows that the navy apparently considers the use of the word “fag” as an insult to be acceptable. But, why the hell listen to me anyway? I’m just a fag, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/10 "2001-10-13T07:35:48Z")
I’m an American taxpayer, too, and my husband served in the Air Force for 12 years. I’m offended by this language, too…and I’m completely straight. When my husband was in the AF, there was definitely quite a bit of homophobia in the military culture. Apparently, there still is. It’s a pity and a shame and a waste. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/11 "2001-10-13T07:56:39Z")
“Hijack this cigarette”? I don’t get it… J/K. I agree wholeheartedly that that is an offensive thing to write, anywhere, bomb or not. Would they show a bomb that said “Hijack this, sand nigger”? I think not. Stupid fucking double standard. ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/12 "2001-10-13T08:59:09Z")
Oh for fucks sake, Just what I expected. Oh that language shows the US military in a bad light. Or I once knew a guy in the military. Or my husband was in the military. Yea? Well I was in the US army. Know what? We wrote on our ordinance. Far more offensive shit than that. You know what else? We didn’t write it for fucking CNN or for war orphans or whatever cause you have up your ass. We wrote it for us. To blow off steam. We wrote on bombs and rockets. Stuff that would in hours undoubtably kill someone. We wrote it to vent our hatred we wrote it to preserve our sanity. ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/13 "2001-10-13T09:16:41Z")
My original point. Those of you who find the words on those bombs obscene have no idea what obscene means. What those things do is obscene. Pray you never have to witness the unholy terror that is modern ordinance up close. Pray you never have my dreams. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/14 "2001-10-13T09:39:05Z")
Ghandi, I simply pray that I’m never in your head, period. I’d rather remain on the good side of the sane/insane line, you see. You’re an idiot if you think that epithets such as this become anything short of obscene just because they’re being levelled at people - to whom they likely don’t even apply, by the way - who’ve committed a different, more visible obscenity. Or do you think comparing the terrorists to, for example, Matt, is a perfectly alright thing that paints the terrorists in a bad light, but Matt in a good - or at least neutral - one? Two wrongs don’t make a right, and homophobia doesn’t bring back the dead. This is a time for stamping out evil, not letting every day evils fester simply because a more spectacular evil cries to be avenged. ---
**Author:** ![coosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@coosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coosa)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/15 "2001-10-13T10:04:34Z")
I don’t know which I find more disturbing - that enough of the military guys in the vicinity of that bomb thought that was ‘okay’, or that the Navy was comfortable enough with it to allow that picture to be released for public viewing. Maybe someone needs to be reminded that one of the guys that jumped the hijackers on Flight 93 was gay? ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/16 "2001-10-13T10:13:06Z")
Huh? Im glad to be im my head thank you. Is the alternative yours? Your words, “comparing the terrorists to, for example, Matt” I recall no such comparison. Also your words, “You’re an idiot if you think that epithets such as this become anything short of obscene just because they’re being levelled at people - to whom they likely don’t even apply, by the way - who’ve committed a different, more visible obscenity” Nice, the murder of several thousand people is morally equal to the use of the word fag. Yet another awe inspiring quote, “homophobia doesn’t bring back the dead” Oh really? Got a cite for that? ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/17 "2001-10-13T10:31:50Z")
To clarify, I do not condone the use of the word fag. Though none of my best friends are homosexual I still find it possible not to care about this lifestyle. Trust me, a good number of the guys who watched my back in the bad ol days took showers togeter. We pretended not to notice. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/18 "2001-10-13T11:16:03Z")
EvilGhandi, You’re an asshole. Just accept it and live your life reveling in the glory from your KKK “Brothers”. You wanna defend the undefensible? Give it your best shot. You’re not worth the time it would take to denegrate you. Your posts are a bizarre trip through lunacy. > [@](#): > > Yea? Well I was in the US army. Know what? We wrote on our ordinance. Far more offensive shit than that. You know what else? We didn’t write it for fucking CNN or for war orphans or whatever cause you have up your ass. So you’re basically saying that it’s OK to be a fuckwad, it was war? _IF_ that’s true, the rational seems to me to be, we could die tomorrow, so this makes racist comment acceptable. Well, if you don’t die, you still have to live with the poison you’ve spouted. Assuming you do, what kind of man does that make you? > [@](#): > > We wrote it for us. To blow off steam. We wrote on bombs and rockets. Stuff that would in hours undoubtably kill someone. We wrote it to vent our hatred we wrote it to preserve our sanity. This actually makes perfect sense. Just don’t sell yourself short in an attempt to trivialize the horror of war. Then you say: > [@](#): > > Those of you who find the words on those bombs obscene have no idea what obscene means. > > What those things do is obscene. > > Pray you never have to witness the unholy terror that is modern ordinance up close. > > Pray you never have my dreams. I’m sorry, you lost me here. This seems to be a plea for leaniency. “I’ve seen the bear, and it was horrible”. Fine. It was. But why should we let you off the hook because it was horrible? If it got to you that much, you might want to seek help among your fellow vets. They have the same things to deal with. Look, dude, I understand the horrors of war. I feel for the lingering pain. But…but… It is NEVER acceptable to denegrade someone because you’re hurt. Niggers, Fags, Spics, Nips, Kikes, Slants, etc… These are words we use to dehumanise those who oppose us. Unfortunately they are always wrong. There is no “them”, only people. When we are called on to fight, we have to do it intelegently. If we don’t, they win, even if we win the battle. And that’s sad. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/19 "2001-10-13T13:51:00Z")
I highly doubt that **matt\_mcl** is bothered by the word “fag” per se - after all, he _asked_ me to change his title on the UnaBoard to “Pinko Canuck Fag Extraordinaire”. Seriously, he asked! 😃 I think his objection is to the use of “fag” as a slur. It is obvious that an intense amount of, how shall we say, “animosity” no doubt exists between the soldiers and the Taliban forces they are attacking. So, they are attempting to portray the Taliban forces as some of the worst, lowest scum of the Earth that they can image - and in their minds, those are the “fags”. I think that is why **matt\_mcl** is, highly justifiably IMO, upset. And **matt\_mcl** does not get his jollies from bashing America. He bashes quite a few countries, inclduing his own. He’s always seemed fair to me, and that’s one reason I like him so much. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211/20 "2001-10-13T14:13:45Z")
Just because someone uses the word “fag” as a slur does not automatically make them a homophobe. Why, a well known, openly homosexual, member of these boards used that slur in the middle of a heated post [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=1664564#post1664564). What I mean is that the word fag is, rightly or wrongly, used fairly commonly as an insult by people who are not homophobes. It’s inappropriate to label the armed forces, or that soldier in particular, homophobes for using it. When an organization starts jumping all over people for small indiscretions such as this, it dilutes their message. They are expanding the definition of homophobe to include a very large percentage of the population by doing so. I’ve used the term fag as an insult before, does that make me a homophobe? Want to lump be into a group that includes the animals that beat Matthew Shepard to death? Go right ahead, but I know what’s in my heart, and it isn’t hatred. I say, pick your battles, this one isn’t worth it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-fab-ulous/87211.md?page=2)