It’s nice that we have so close a relationship - and that we’re both adult enough to discuss the topic - but I still feel a little weird discussing genital piercings with someone I’ve known since the day he was born.

But then I also felt a little strange when I took a friend’s daughter to get birth control.

And when I bought condoms for friends who were too embarrassed to do so.

And when I accompanied my boss, age 50, on her first trip to the adult video emporium.

And when I’ve explained to someone the pros of using personal lubricant.

And when I recommended the Hitachi Magic Wand to a woman who said she’d never orgasmed in her life.

And when I’ve shown the clerk in an adult store how a parachute harness is used.

And when I invited my parents to see me run for International Ms. Leather in 1997.

And … the moments will never stop because I will never stop.

Just because it feels weird doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be discussed. We as Americans aren’t taught a damned thing about having healthy, fulfilling sex lives. I don’t wonder why we’re so fucked up by fetishes and pedophiles and Net porn. Repression of desires breeds obssession with them. Ask any woman who has worked in the sex industry: The most obssessed clients are the one who were raised in the most repressed households.

Hey, I wonder if anyone’s actually done a survey on that? My evidence may be anecdotal, but it’s also that way for the many other women I know who’ve been there, done that.

The best sex ed teacher is NOT the Internet, though sexuality.org does have some good solid info.

The best sex ed teachers are the ones who know what they’re talking about and are willing to discuss it without derision, embarrassment, or invoking some angry god who will smite thee if you even broach the subject.

So I’m glad you called. The weird moments come and go, but being close enough to someone to talk about cocks and cunts and needles and “How will this affect my sex life?” and “Will I regret this?” is worth every moment.

We are now officially too close.

Paris Hilton’s Inheritance Cut

OR

“The High Price of Being a Fuck Up”

Anyone seen that $78M I misplaced earlier?

Could prove interesting.

Dissent is not disloyalty.

Edward R. Murrow, 1954

Comedy is poking fun at other people’s religions; intolerance is making fun of yours.

The first episode - in two parts - for your enjoyment:

The show screens occasionally on Sundance Channel and a good bit of it is on YouTube.

And Louis CK learns about the Catholic Church:

There may be hope for humanity yet.

Every day is a good day, kid. Just try missing one once.

The reason you haven’t felt it is because it doesn’t exist. What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons. You’re born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget. I’m living like there’s no tomorrow, because there isn’t one.

From the first episode of Mad Men on AMC.

I’m also developing an addiction to another mad man: John from Cincinnati.

I’m watching you, Bill.

While I applaud the Senate by making history - and for kicking out the idiots who tried to disrupt the prayer - religion of any kind should be banned from inclusion within government and the invocation itself should be abolished. Up to now, it has been an exclusively Christian event, so the Senate was effectively saying that Christianity is the only recognized religion to consider for the prayer. This, of course, is a no-no:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The fundamentalists (I will not call these people Christians; they show not one inkling of the tolerance, acceptance, joy, and love their savior practiced and preached) who disrupted this prayer do have a right to free speech of course, but they do not have the right to shout down a person who is practicing his religious beliefs … and at the invitation of our elected officials, no less.

Here is a compromise to be considered: If the Senate is going to continue doing the invocation, they need to include all religions so a) no one feels their beliefs are ignored and b) to look as if they are not treating one religion above all others. That means that along with the history-making Hindu prayer invocation, the Senate now must invite prayers by Muslims, Buddhists, Satanists, Wiccans, Mormons, all the various Native American tribes, and every other religion in the U.S. to take part in the event.

Freedom of religion means being afforded the same opportunities regardless of your spiritual belief; therefore, all people of all faiths should be represented in the Senate ceremony.

Of course, the easiest thing to do is to just get rid of the invocation.

Meanwhile, here in our own neck of the woods, the following is an excerpt from a letter received by the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department:

Pastor Jerry Gibson spoke at Doug White’s New Day Covenant Church in Boulder.

In addition, the New Testament states clearly that Adam and Eve were our original parents and that Noah’s Flood was an historical reality. So the EBIO department not only blasphemes God, who is invisible, but it blasphemes His Only Begotten Son and our Messiah, Jesus Christ, which is more unforgivable given the clear manifestations of His Godliness and Holiness and the confirmation of all He claimed to be through His historic Resurrection from the dead!

You can read the entire story here (evolution blog with comments), here (the Denver Post), and a kind of minor update here (Colorado Daily).

This person will probably get really incensed when I call him a “terrorist,” but mature, adult, intelligent humans don’t use threatening tones in anonymous letters to make a religious point. They live their lives by example, explain their beliefs to all who ask, and love the sinner if not the sin. Calling a jihad on evolution is a bit delusional, especially on a college campus and to a science department in particular.

In light of the shootings at Virginia Tech earlier this year, I’ll bet the writer is being watched closer than he knows, too. If his tolerance for those who disagree with him matched those of his savior’s teachings, they wouldn’t have to worry about a possible escalation, either.

Lead us from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light.

I wish MAD TV were this funny all the time.