Bill Maher last night:
Lou Dobbs has been saying recently that people are asking a lot of questions about [Pres. Obama's] birth certificate. Yes, the same people who want to know where the sun goes at night.
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Speaking of the sun, this week
Bobo became fascinated by a thought experiment posed at
Marginal Revolution. Bobo's column may be summarized as follows:
What if a freak solar episode sterilized half of the humans on the side of the planet that was facing the sun?
OMG! We'd start doubting God's omnibenevolence and we'd give up our grand, long-term projects! Aren't kids the best? They give us hope and discipline!
What a deeply enthralling mind-bender! Doesn't it just captivate your entire intellect for seconds upon seconds?
... yeah.
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In January, I told Lovely that if she turned into a boy, I'd become "gay" for her. [Admittedly, I had a bottle of wine in me.] She thought it was one of the most romantic things I'd ever said to her. (And it might've been. The bar isn't exactly in the stratosphere.)
But that exchange led to a thought experiment, which I'll share: Suppose greenhouse gases caused a widespread incurable "disease" that randomly struck people and "reversed" their genitalia. Boy parts would quickly wither away and transform into girl parts. And vice versa.
Some questions: How would the conservative fundagelical right view this change of events? Would they interpret it as part of the divine plan, or as "punishment" for sinful man's lack of stewardship over God's creation? Would our current, rigid view of gender undergo a sea change? Would we all get more extreme about limiting greenhouse gases? ... Gay Marriage prohibitions? Mwah ha ha... How would parents change the way they raise their children, knowing that their precious kids might one day get a case of the ole 'switcheroo'? On a personal level: Imagine you or your spouse were "afflicted"? Would you tell your friends or would you keep it a secret? [
Why is oyster suddenly a "stall man"?] Would you get surgically altered if you were afflicted? Then what if the disease hit you a second time? Would you pray that it would? Is it against God's law to give your wife a tug job? Is the tug job ok if you've both been "reversed"?
Put that scenario in your chaw and grind it for a while. I bet it's more fascinating and instructive than the one Bobo explored. Remember, in a thousand years we're all going to be
wankers anyway.
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Variation: I suppose a greenhouse gas-induced "switcheroo 'disease'" that affected skin pigment instead of sexuality might also be interesting to contemplate.
Labels: gays, Lovely, Misc
17 Comments:
When you say Fundagelicals do you mean the far right like the southern baptists or do you mean the regular I believe in Jesus/Moses/Mohammad or do you mean the wack-a-doodle who claim that Tinky-winky is a gay plot against our kids and that Barney is a key co-conspirator?
I don't understand your position. Do you believe God cares about marriage? Jesus said there is no marriage in heaven. Jesus also said render under Caesar that which is his. Taxes, marriage, census, these are all things of Caesar. You are therefore attacking a correlation and not a causality when you allude to conservative belief. You might as well use some political label which separates church and state, despite the wiles used to confuse; faithful are faithful to God and not government.
Anon #1: I wouldn't say "fundagelical" refers to southern baptists in particular, but let's just generalize and say the political Christian right which is often dominated by folks who are either in or quite near the wackadoodle territory.
Anon #2: My position can probably be inferred from the post, but it's not something which you should focus on. I'm providing an intellectual experiment aimed at provoking thought. In this instance, it appears I've failed you. Do I believe that God cares about marriage? That probably depends on whether I'm Catholic, Protestant, Zoroastrian or other.
But the (extremely ancilliary) point is that many so-called conservatives "of faith" loudly proclaim that God is deeply concerned about the "definition" of marriage. Is this even disputable? Just because you define the "faithful" in a certain way doesn't mean that there aren't others who self-identify as politically active conservative christians who think preserving God's definition of marriage is paramount. If you consider them inauthentic, well, take it up with them!
(And the Nazarene used a word that translates better as "unto" Caesar, not "under" Caesar.)
Whether it was divine plan or punishment would depend on who was being 'reversed,' more or less, i.e., if it was the administration of Liberty College, Praise the Lord! If it was the Mississippi Gulf Coast, why, it's 'punishment' for sinful New Orleans (and just a smidgen of bad aim from the Almighty.)
Thanks for the romance tip!
Urster, that Anon number 1 is an idiot and u let him trap you. As I was reading his crapola, I could see "profiling" was where he was going with his nonsense and I think you stepped right in it.
Anon number 2 proves that we should encourage abortion.
He states: "Jesus said there is no marriage in heaven. Jesus also said render under Caesar that which is his".
Anon 2 carefully omits that Jesus also said, "Hey, it's Good Friday...what a crappy way to spend a 3 day weekend".
I'm reminded of a Neil Gaiman short story "Foreign Parts"* in his compilation Smoke & Mirrors.
The story is of a doctor who discovers a cure for cancer, but the medicine reverses gender. This causes the forseeable unrest, especially when the medicine makes its way to the black market for recreational use. Fantatic thought excercise.
But in that story, the medicine is a choice. A climate change that causes it randomly? I just don't think much would change (pun intended). The wackos would react like wackos and others would adapt. Legal matters would have to be ex post facto: did you marry your wife before she became a man & such other complications. Lawyers gotta eat, too.
A lot would be made of who turned when, as people originally resist the idea and demand a "cure" for what ails them. Some locations would adapt quicker to full equality of sexes and orientations, other places (the ones where diseases and natures are thought to be choices, sin and evil) would lag further behind. And the porn industry would make millions off newly arisen taboo subjects. Same as it ever was.
*I think.
Actually the scenario has been going on for decades. The release of so many estrogens (and estrogen mimicing compounds) are affecting marine life and are showing up more often in land animals.
There is a great body of research that shows that much of the Transgender folk are the result of endocine pulse disruptions when the fetus was in utero.
In my case it's pure genetics. (giggles)
Have you ever divulged your own beliefs on the matter of spirtuality, oyster?
I'm quite interested to hear them...
As anon 1 I give you D-BB a big fruity raspberry there was no secret agenda on my part. I was asking for the bivalve to further refine his comment. I was mining for information. It has been my experience that the further left of center you are the more anti-religion one is and the more vitriolic on is as well as seeing one group out to "get" the other. It is also my experience that the more religious one is the more to the right one swings and sees conspiracy out to get them. the oyster know that I and my fellow shriners are not idiots and we will not rise to the attack.
Why is it that the left seems far more angry than the right?
Angrier than the teabaggers or crazy Eileen the birther?
That's different, Michael...that's "righteous indignation". Also, I would argue that the whole concept of social justice as an aspect of religion, at least for those of the Catholic faith who take all of that New Testament stuff seriously, tends to correlate with "leftward leanings" politically. Are they "less religious" than those "rightward swinging" coreligionists who focus almost exclusively on anti-abortion issues? Just asking...
Anon #1. How do I know you are really Aon # 1 and not Anon # 2 pretending to be Anon #1? Who ever you are and for whatever reason you must hide your identity, don't get so defensive. It makes you so transparent. Besides, did I ask for a freakin' response?
Been in the wine, have you friend?
We've discovered a nice little vineyard that makes a local muscadine. Lovely.
Interesting thought experiment.
I think it would be interesting if every man who ever cheated on his wife suddenly sprouted a pair of 38DDs and a big old vadgeroo.
Ratings for C-SPAN would go through the roof.
Don't oysters actually change gender, from male to female, as they grow larger/older? How do fundy bivalves deal with this issue? Does that make it OK to drop them in horseradish & tabasco and consume them alive? Deeps thoughts.
Frat boys would welcome the opportunity to be lesbians.
