Sex and the Military Friday

Happy Bastille Day! And, as an ode to les Francais, what could be more French than illicit sex?

First off, the government had to pay a now-retired Army Colonel, Kathryn Spletstoser, almost $1,000,000 in compensation for the unwanted attentions of the AF general who became the Deputy Air Force Chief of Staff.

The settlement with the U.S. government ends more than four years of investigations, reviews and congressional digging into the matter, which delayed — but ultimately did not defeat — Hyten’s nomination for vice chairman in 2019. He served two years and did not seek a second term.

Army Col. Kathryn Spletstoser, who served as Hyten’s aide in 2017, filed the lawsuit, and in the settlement reached in U.S. District Court in California on Wednesday, the federal government will pay her $975,000.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2019, Spletstoser said Hyten subjected her to a series of unwanted sexual advances by kissing, hugging and rubbing up against her in 2017 while she was one of his top aides. She said she repeatedly pushed him away and told him to stop, and that he tried to derail her military career after she rebuffed him.

Spletstoser’s attorney, Ariel Solomon, said in a statement Thursday that the legal payout “stands out as the only known settlement paid by the government for a sexual assault case brought against a member of the United States military.”   AP

At the time, investigators said there was not enough evidence to bring charges (nor that Spletstoser was lying.)  Hyten was confirmed, and served, his two-year deputy term.

.And a Coast Guard couple is leading a suit to get better access to porn channels in Louisiana.

Elizabeth Henson just moved to Louisiana in June with her husband, an active-duty Coast Guardsman. Like many couples, they watch pornography on major websites like Pornhub to keep the marriage spicy, sometimes together over the phone when her husband’s duties take him away from home.

“We’ll watch a video together on the phone, get some of that steam blown off and maintain that sense of intimacy,” Henson, who served a decade in the Coast Guard herself, told Military.com. “This is one of the ways that we can keep that intimacy alive in our marriage.”

In Louisiana, a state law passed in January requires users to verify their age on pornography sites using a driver’s license or other ID through a third-party government website to verify that the user is at least 18 years old.

The state’s law, which went into effect in January, aims to make it difficult for children to access pornography. In practice, it mostly impacts the top pornography sites, which are those most likely to worry about compliance, one being Canadian-owned Pornhub. The site is the 12th most visited in the U.S., with some metrics showing it outperforming Netflix and Amazon.

Utah, Mississippi and Virginia passed similar laws in recent months. Virginia has one of the largest military populations in the country. Pornhub has blocked access to its sites in all three of those states, saying they cannot comply with the law because the states do not have adequate digital verification in place.

Henson says that access to pornography websites is both helpful when her husband is away and when they are together “as part of date night.” She said she’s surprised that something that’s so intimate between her and her husband is being controlled by the state.

Military.com

More hits than Amazon? Wow. Maybe I should have used these photos instead:

I’m told they are hot stars… for my money, I can see why. And y’all know I don’t favor blondes.

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", None