I'm thinking how since Roe v Wade, the anti-abortion people have made it nearly impossible to get an abortion in many parts of this country, but crafting legislation that gets around the court ruling, by using harassment and intimidation and by relying on the nut cases who actually use violence against abortion clinics. Now can't we do something like that to gun dealers and gun owners?

"They don't appear to be constantly testing their identities against another man's example, calling into question, at the drop of a hat, their clothing style or hair or general sense of being in the world." Well, for one thing men don't base so much of their self worth on their physical appearance so they are likely to admire other things in a man (fame, wealth, intelligence, athletic ability). But the real reason you don't hear about it so much, is homophobia. Whenever I've heard the word "man crush" or "bromance" it has been on TV, usually in a comedy and with a definite implication of a latent sexual desire. Men do not talk seriously about such feelings for fear of being labeled as homosexual.

As a gay teen growing up in the late sixties and early seventies for me it was Paul Simon's music. I know there was no intentional gay theme in songs like The Only Living Boy in New York, So Long Frank Lloyd Wright and Me and Julio Down by the School Yard but they had that meaning to me. And so many of their other songs, even ones with obviously heterosexual lyrics gave meaning to my feelings of alienation and separateness.

Science and religion deal with different questions. The simplest way to put it is Science deals with the objective reality while relgion deals with the subjective reality. Unfortunately religion has dealt historically with that which is not known, but nontheless objective measurable reality, such as the origin of man on earth. Religion, however deals well with questions of meaning, purpose, comfort, wonder, atonement, forgiveness, morality, love, acceptance etc. Yes even atheists deal with these things, but in a spiritual rather than scientific way, even if they won't admit it. So why religion if you can get there by other means? Religion provides provides a community and a support system for dealing with these essential issues of life. When we see all the evil that has been done in the name of religion, we have to pause and see the benefits, not only to society, but to each individual believer.

When someone becomes substance addicted or starts to behave in a bafflingly antisocial way, the people who love them become very confused and upset. When a glimmer of hope appears that their friend will return to sanity, they can become wildly enthusiastic. Such is the situation with the USA and Western Europe.

Of course you know the Vietnam war, and people's attitude about it today has little to do with actual facts. It became the defining issue separating the "greatest generation" for the "baby boomers," Glen Miller fans from Beatles fans. In a large sense it represents the cultural difference that separates liberal from conversative today. So don't talk about facts, people don't want facts about Vietnam, they have already decided what they are going to believe.

Before you compare the nasty comments about Helms with what he said and did, you need to remember that none of us had the power to anything that would diminish his life in any way. On the other hand, Helms's words and actions had a very real affect on many people's lives to this very day and dancing on his grave is a small consolation.

I'm college educated, middle class, liberal and white the last time I checked, but 90% of these things don't pertain to me. I guess I should make a better effort to live up to the sterotype.

I think they should be honest and call it "sex reduction".

I read a long time ago a feminist writer who said that all opression is basically sexual. I thought was a gross exaggeration. Now I'm beginning to believe it. Controlling people's sex lives is the ultimate goal of the opressor. Sex is too powerful, too dominant in people's psyche, too dark, too mysterious and too univeral for the forces of opression to tolerate it. Instead the answer to unwanted pregnancy, as well as to AIDS is not to protect yourselves but to just say no.

Another dumb Salon article. People like bacon, big whoop. As far as bacon bras and the like, if you look on the internet long enough you can find anything. Don't declare a phenomenon when none exists. An article on how to make bacon properly (cause there's a lot of bad bacon out there) might be more practical, but then practical is not something you usually find on Salon.

Liberals have a problem with sex because it is irrational, mysterious and powerful. In a word, spiritual. The Radical Right has a problem because it is spiritual, but not in a Christian way. Their attempts to contain sexuality under the umbrella of Christianity is ludicrous.

The Internet Stupidity Principle, which I personally invented, states that anything, no matter how absurd, whether said to deceive or as humor, will be believed literally by some people given wide enough distribution, as the internet provides. There's a reason for smilies and J/K (of course the same principle tells you some people have no idea what smilies and J/K mean.)

Come to think of it, this applies to the Bible too.

Taking this seriously, they've been abstaining from sex and he has probably not been "taking matters in his own hand". Sexual energy has to come out some way, and it isn't so strange that looking at something smooth and wet like a dolphin would get a man aroused. Now his wife getting angry because he has an erection, something he can't control, is just unreasonable.