Norwegian troops get unisex dorms

Do you believe that, in theory, a military could be used as a platform for social experiments? Throw out the Norwegians, I get that they're great people, that's not the point. Isn't the military a large population that can be forced to be in certain conditions? Not just with political ideas, but with experiments on the physical soliders themselves? Edgewood Arsenal experiments, 1955.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgewood_Arsenal_experiments

I think to argue that a military couldn't be used as a platform for these things is ridiculous.

Some of this depends on how you frame things. The military is directly subject to the orders of the Commander in Chief so sometimes presidential policies are implemented. Two examples of what most people would consider "good" policy changes by presidents using their Commander in Chief powers are below:

For about 2/3 of the 20 century, Southern members of Congress (in particular Senators, who could use the filibuster to block legislation) were able to block any attempts at Civil Rights legislation -- so much so that Civil Rights legislation was a non-starter for decades. During the early part of WWII, FDR used an executive order to ban racial discrimination in industries that had government defense contracts. He could do that without Congressional action wearing his Commander-in-Chief hat, and the defense $$$$ was so lucrative that industry fell in line. The percentage of African-Americans in defense jobs tripled by the end of the war -- still not proportional to their overall population, but it put a lot of African American families on the road to the middle class.

In the late 1940s, President Truman convened a civil rights commission and they put out a report detailing the extensive racial discrimination in American life ("to Secure these Rights"). It was clear that most of their recommendations could not get through Congress (and would have to wait until the 1960s), but Truman used his power as Commander-in-Chief to order desegregation of the military. A "social experiment"? Maybe. But others considered it a badge of honor that the military was one of the first entities to move closer to racial justice.

As long as you have militaries that answer to democratically elected governments -- whether the government of Norway or of the USA -- civilian leadership will be able to implement policies on social issues in the military.
 
Of course the grass is always greener, etc. I wonder if the Norwegians have an MRE of imitation lutefisk.

No need to add shelf-life extending ingredients to letefisk. There isn't a microbial alive that would eat it and it has a half-life longer than most nuclear fuel... :yllol:
 
Heartily recommend "Lilyhammer" on Netflix.

New York wise guy meets Nordic communitarianism.
 
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