Lew Wetzel, U.S. Army-retired, is wrong about the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy. Its presence was a baseless violation of the constitutional rights of gay members of the military and placed American lives at risk by restricting the human talent pool that the military can access.

Despite Wetzel’s illogical equation of homosexual activity with “major disturbances on military posts,” military acumen has nothing to do with sexual orientation.

And, how is homosexual activity more prone to cause “major disturbances” than heterosexual activities?

As the great U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater — a staunch Republican and hero of mine — once said, “You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.”

Meanwhile, on the Pennsylvania front, I, like the Butler Eagle, welcome the possibility of ending the commonwealth’s monopoly on liquor sales — a clear usurpation of a private-sector activity.

Would that the same tides of change that provoked this long-overdue action sweep the federal government and dismantle two other government monopolies: Amtrak and the U.S. Postal Service.