zianuray

Some time ago, there was mention of an "Open-Source Boob Project" which set off quite a bit of controversy.  I'm not providing links because if you know about it, you know where to find what I'm talking about and if you don't, well, you need to find and read ALL the info before jumping down any throats.

Basically, there was a private conversation in a hallway of a hotel during a con, where one (female) person and then another and then even more VOLUNTEERED permission for a friend to touch her breasts -- just touch, respectfully and politely.  This sort of snowballed and soon various women were sporting either red or green buttons saying NO on the red or YES on the green.  The green was not, as I understand it, blanket permission to grope and drool, but a notice that it was permissible to ASK POLITELY if one could touch the breasts of the person wearing the green button.  Not to shove hands down the shirt or pinch nipples, just to touch or caress the portions exposed by whatever the permission-giver was wearing at the time.

Again, from what I understand, it was less a "sexual thrill" (although I'm sure it was that as well!) and more an almost religious experience.  Maybe not "almost".  Certainly reverential.

Many people who had not been there got bent and made noises about exploitation and attention-whoring and such.

Many others, some of whom were there, said it was a perfectly healthy phenomenon and gave their reasoning.

My take on it, after a good long while analyzing things, is this:

I think the Open-Source Boob Project is a good thing, healthy and respectful.  It reminds us -- EVERYONE -- that each individual, female or male, has the right to grant access to her or his body as well as deny access.  It seems that society is currently operating under a "failure to deny is to grant access" model -- "Well, she didn't say no!" -- and that is not healthy. 

It's not yet OK to show bare breasts on network TV most times, but it's OK to show a needle or a knife penetrating flesh or gray matter spattering a wall and the path of a bullet leaving that now-uninhabited skull.

I think something is wrong with THAT.

I <3 Boobs.  So there.

YMMV

OK, so how do "they" decide that you have a xx% chance of dying of this and a nn% chance of dying of that...you omgWILL live x%/xmanyyears longer if you do this-or-theotherthing....

According to the CDC at this link (pdf), my granduncle LeRoy, born in 1903, had a life expectancy of 49.5 years; my grandfather, born in 1912, had 51.9 years.

Grampa died at 75, and Unca Roy was still driving the lawnmower up to the square to hang at the Liar's Bench.  He passed at 87.

Gramma (Unca Roy's sister, my maternal grandmother) died at 73; her daughter Virginia(yes, my mother), died at 60.

Uncle Roy started smoking at age 12, the roll-your-owns, I don't know when he started chewing but longer than I can remember for certain.  Never had cancer, emphysema, whatever. 

Grampa had adult-onset diabetes (runs in that side of the family -- his dad, brother and sister all had it too, and they died early b/c of NOT taking care), and I suspect that's WHY he lasted as long as he did -- he paid attention, did all the tests his doctor suggested, and kept track as well as possible for the state of technology then -- "dip-strips," eew!  Started with the pills in, oh, late 1960s? and went to insulin in the mid 70's if I recall right.

Gramma had "a bad heart" and hypertension for years; she died of congestive heart failure (and, I believe, a broken heart).

Virginia smoked for at least 25 years, two-pack-a-day (see previous rantage), but claimed that had nothing to do with the fact that she got emphysema later, that it was totally genetic, an enzyme deficiency.  And she was an RN *snort*.  Not just a river in Egypt.

SO.  Uncle Roy, smokes for over 60 years, no prob.  Ma, smokes for 25, quits to get remarried and lives another 15 years, dies from emphysema.  What's the difference?  Who would have predicted that variance?

"Every serving of alcohol takes three minutes off your life" according to some ad campaign a few years ago -- DH's dad should have died 5 years before DH was born by that criteria, says DH.

When married to Daughter's father, I took one of those stress questionnaires from a psych/counselor.  I should have been dead three years at the time I took the test, more than 20 years ago. 

That feller who started the whole jogging craze -- what was is name? -- much was made of the fact that he died of a heart attack.  I found an article that mentioned that he actually outlived what his doctors expected as heart problems "ran" in his family.

I have decided that there is only one thing that'll kill ya, and that's being born conceived in the first place.  Life has a 100% mortality rate (well, except for Elijah, and I'd call that the exception that proves the rule).  May as well enjoy it, and make your own decisions on what is and isn't worth giving up!







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OK, the phrasing on this may get changed multiple times -- instead of edits, I will likely strikethrough and retype to keep my thoughts in some sort of order.

If you know me IRL or have been reading this for more than a month, you'll know that some things confuse me that other people seem to understand almost instinctively.

Like skin.

We all have it, it comes in different colors and textures, and some people look better with more of it covered (hi!  that's me!), and I've never been able to figure out what difference it makes in the overall setup what shade someone's skin IS .

So many people are either delighted or affrighted that we now have a "Black" or "African-American" President -- shouldn't the point be that we have a reasonably intelligent President that was elected by the people, that he (so far) supports science and says he wants to ease the troops out of a place they shouldn't really be (and IMO should never have been sent b/c that was based on not even faulty intelligence, but schoolyard-bully syndrome), and that he has a plan for making things "better"?

And really, shouldn't anyone be judged on what they DO versus what they CAN do rather than on skin, eye color, language spoken, age (while I do respect my elders as a group, some of them as individuals have forfeited that respect), who they love, what/how they worship (if anything).  Some of the most educated people I've met have been some of the most ignorant, though they are the exceptions.

Shub:  So, what's the big deal?

Queen of Sheba:  Ick.

Queen of Hearts:  Not so much.

Shango:  Get it away, get it away!  Instant headache-in-a-vial!  WAY pungent!

Crossroads:  Keep the Imp, but don't worry about a bottle.

51:  See above.

Baron Samedi:  DEF keeper.  Not to buy a bottle, but another imp pr two for backup would be a good thing.

Elegba:  Sweet, caramely, sort of Misk U without the coffee.

The Lion:  No big deal.

Just wondering--how many people who read this are "in a relationship" (anything from going steady to married to handfasted) with a (a) partner(s) of the SAME religious persuasion? How many mixed (and by mixed, i include Jewish/Baptist, Catholic/Methodist, &c., as well as Pagan/Xtian or Buddhist/Hindu, for that matter) and how do y'all handle it?

If you don't want to leave your name, feel free to post an anonymous reply on this one--just remember, flames will be deleted.

How this question happened:

When i went Pagan a decade or so back, i was wondering how it would work out, since i truly had no idea where to find others of like mind...there are xtian dating services, for cry-yi, or "let it be known at meeting," or the way JW's handle it (decided by the Elders), or .... But a Pagan "dating service" doesn't seem to exist.

Most of my dating was with "xtian" "men"....incuding one who was cheating on a steady GF with me, and one who was cheating on a WIFE...and both those were over as soon as i found out.

(Not saying that Pagan men are perfect; they're human, like all of us.)

But with the xtians, it was like "the kids mustn't find out, my folks mustn't know..." and i refuse to live in a broom closet. There's a difference in lying and in "the subject just hasn't come up."

Now? Happily handfasted to a Pagan (well, Heathen) man, not having to watch my step, wheee!

And i've heard that some Pagans/Witches/Wiccans actually hide their Path FROM THEIR SPOUSE??????? I can't imagine trying to live that way. I'd make a lousy secret agent.