a couple things from the Atlantic wire

[intertribal]

First, a study finding that "almost twice as many Americans would prefer to have a son rather than a daughter."  If you actually look at Gallup's report, though, this has been pretty typical since 1941.  Basically, it's because of men - 49% of men prefer a boy while 22% prefer a girl, and 31% of women prefer a boy while 33% prefer a girl.  For some

Comments

[barry_king]

Honour is such a loaded word, isn't it? There are two meanings here, one sort of like "sanctify" where the soldiers are "honoured". Then there's a second, where you honour your committments-not a bad thing, all told. It's definitely up there on the species survival traits to have a trustworthy bulwark of defenders who won't renege at the last moment. We honour their sense of honour

[intertribal]

Is war inherently dishonourable?

My instinct is to say yes.

I agree with you that your third definition is the one I think of too, and yet it also seems to me that when most people talk about "serving honorably" it's not so much about a strong moral identity as it is about doing what your country tells you to do without hesitation, which is more like the second definition but not quite. After all, "just following orders" isn't supposed to be a positive thing anymore.