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mc7761. Since people have been discussing weight gain issues for the holidays, while I seem to have lost eight pounds since September despite eating considerably more, a bit of advice: turn your thermostat down to 10-13 degrees Celsius and try to keep warm by other means.
2. Cinematic sequences in old-school video games, where the actors were the small in-game sprites on the game screen and dialogue appeared in panels after the characters performed their gestures, have the combined limitations of the silent movie and the live stage - and, in my mind, are much better off for it.
3. This story depresses me.
Chastity has no place in a free society. Perhaps it's just my own emotional biases talking here, but even emotional biases usually have some factual grounding.
When I think of chastity - the concept of virginity as a thing of social value - I instantly remember the violence of the Old Testament, the raids and the massacres, the commandment to slay every male and every female who is not a virgin.
I see the bullet in the dowry, that an unsatisfied man might dispose of the bride if she turns out to be damaged goods.
I remember the fear in the voice of every girl who has confided to me their terror of being branded "whore" or "slut" because they dared express their sexuality in any substantive way.
I recollect bits and pieces of the vilest pornography I have encountered on the Internet, the narcissistic glorification of violation and injury as though it were the sexual climax itself.
I reflect on the words of an otherwise perfectly reasonable and thoughtful person, with whom I might converse intelligently about any other topic, who then casually judges others and themselves with a social status based on nothing more than the structural integrity of a mucus membrane.
I reread Deuteronomy 22:28-29, and marvel at the society for which such a barbaric rule would be an improvement, against which such rule would appear just.
I recall stories of babies raped and left for dead on the side of the road, by desperate men who were led to believe their virginity was a talisman that if broken would cure their AIDS.
I imagine the claustrophobic terror of a former vestal virgin, sealed up in a wall and left to starve or suffocate in a living tomb for a moment's indiscretion.
I feel the disgust of one after a trip to the grocery store, seeing the freshness seal already broken on a carton of orange juice, and for a brief, sickening moment empathize with the cruel excesses of our ancestors.
When I think of chastity, I am left contemplating the most iconic act, short of outright murder, of reducing a living human person to a senseless, amoral thing - a commodity, a meat puppet grown for entertainment and consumption. Unjustifiable in any philosophy or theology, the weapon of cult leaders and possessive parents, a throwback to the days of human sacrifice, the divine right of kings, an atavistic appeal to the pure and untouchable castes, of soul-tainting spirits, of chanting spear-rattling prayers in smoke and blood to dark meanningless gods who see humanity as a plaything.
I see the horror, the horror.
Because people will read it this way: This is not to rag on anyone who simply hasn't had sex, or isn't interested in finding it, or has above-average standards about finding someone for whom they could feel - and who presumably reciprocates - enough trust and attraction for what is obviously a very intimate activity. Either you have made a choice, and however I might agree or disagree with its particulars I respect the fact that you have made that choice of your own free rational will - or you suffer circumstances beyond your control (i.e., lack of a ready, willing, and able partner) and my rant is irrelevant to you.
But if your choice is based on some irrational or socially-pressured need to maintain some ugly, outmoded view of purity, then I only ask that you reconsider.
2. Cinematic sequences in old-school video games, where the actors were the small in-game sprites on the game screen and dialogue appeared in panels after the characters performed their gestures, have the combined limitations of the silent movie and the live stage - and, in my mind, are much better off for it.
3. This story depresses me.
Chastity has no place in a free society. Perhaps it's just my own emotional biases talking here, but even emotional biases usually have some factual grounding.
When I think of chastity - the concept of virginity as a thing of social value - I instantly remember the violence of the Old Testament, the raids and the massacres, the commandment to slay every male and every female who is not a virgin.
I see the bullet in the dowry, that an unsatisfied man might dispose of the bride if she turns out to be damaged goods.
I remember the fear in the voice of every girl who has confided to me their terror of being branded "whore" or "slut" because they dared express their sexuality in any substantive way.
I recollect bits and pieces of the vilest pornography I have encountered on the Internet, the narcissistic glorification of violation and injury as though it were the sexual climax itself.
I reflect on the words of an otherwise perfectly reasonable and thoughtful person, with whom I might converse intelligently about any other topic, who then casually judges others and themselves with a social status based on nothing more than the structural integrity of a mucus membrane.
I reread Deuteronomy 22:28-29, and marvel at the society for which such a barbaric rule would be an improvement, against which such rule would appear just.
I recall stories of babies raped and left for dead on the side of the road, by desperate men who were led to believe their virginity was a talisman that if broken would cure their AIDS.
I imagine the claustrophobic terror of a former vestal virgin, sealed up in a wall and left to starve or suffocate in a living tomb for a moment's indiscretion.
I feel the disgust of one after a trip to the grocery store, seeing the freshness seal already broken on a carton of orange juice, and for a brief, sickening moment empathize with the cruel excesses of our ancestors.
When I think of chastity, I am left contemplating the most iconic act, short of outright murder, of reducing a living human person to a senseless, amoral thing - a commodity, a meat puppet grown for entertainment and consumption. Unjustifiable in any philosophy or theology, the weapon of cult leaders and possessive parents, a throwback to the days of human sacrifice, the divine right of kings, an atavistic appeal to the pure and untouchable castes, of soul-tainting spirits, of chanting spear-rattling prayers in smoke and blood to dark meanningless gods who see humanity as a plaything.
I see the horror, the horror.
Because people will read it this way: This is not to rag on anyone who simply hasn't had sex, or isn't interested in finding it, or has above-average standards about finding someone for whom they could feel - and who presumably reciprocates - enough trust and attraction for what is obviously a very intimate activity. Either you have made a choice, and however I might agree or disagree with its particulars I respect the fact that you have made that choice of your own free rational will - or you suffer circumstances beyond your control (i.e., lack of a ready, willing, and able partner) and my rant is irrelevant to you.
But if your choice is based on some irrational or socially-pressured need to maintain some ugly, outmoded view of purity, then I only ask that you reconsider.