Honest Opinion

So there I was, just sort of hanging out, engaging in some minor substance abuse, writing some nice purple invective against some internet stupidity or other, when a person I respect (and love, but the respect is more important in this case) asks me for......an Honest Opinion.

I have lost friends this way. Frequently. When, many years ago, a friend asked me for an Honest Opinion about his new girlfriend, and after receiving it went immediately to fetch his assault rifle (I shit you not, this actually happened), I instituted a new policy: If you ask me for an Honest Opinion that I think you may not like when you hear it, I will say "ask me again, and I'll answer, but you should be warned, I am actually going to give you what you asked for."

People, as a rule, don't want your opinion, and when they ask for an honest opinion specifically, they are actually saying "I think you might disagree with me, here, so I am warning you I am sensitive on this topic". They are telling you to be honest because they really want you to AGREE with them. They are telling you how important it is to them. They are telling you, basically, "I want you to give me an honest opinion if you agree with me, and if you don't, I want you to lie"

Screw that. You ask me for an honest opinion, you will get exactly that.

On to the opinion.

"Do you think I am stupid because I am a Christian"?

Fuck.

The honest answer is "yup". It isn't "Yes", because "Yes" is a correct term, carrying none of the derision I want to pack into the affirmation. What I want to say is "Of course I think your Christianity is stupid. You stopped believing in the tooth fairy and Santa Clause, right? Well, if I was a 30-year-old who still believed in the literal existence of a fairy that rewarded you for losing teeth by putting currency under your pillow, you would think THAT was stupid, right? You think the Scientologists are morons because they believed in Xenu the Cosmic Overlord who stashes souls in Volcanoes, right?" but I actually respect this person, so even tho it would be the honest thing to do, I DON'T say any of that. I say "Yup" because "Yes" is a respectful answer to a stupid question.

And i still feel like a liar, because I didn't manage to convey what I actually felt, my Honest Opinion.

I believe in reason, and it is a sad fact that if you START from reason, you can't get to any of the major religions. You can get to a nebulous spirituality, but probably not much further. If you start from religion, you can still accept Reason, but you have to hold reason subordinate to your religion, because any application of reason to religious doctrine or dogma will end with said dogma or doctrine decimated. In other words, reason kills faith. As it should.

To hold as truth or fact things that reason dictates are neither is to willfully place reason in a subordinate position. And that is, almost by definition, stupid. So, yeah, I think Christians (and Jews, Muslims, Etc) are stupid, in that they are holding to beliefs that cannot be. And believing in Christ just as hard as you can (which is the suggested antidote to this terrible 'reason' stuff) isn't going to help at all. It didn't work with Santa, after all, did it?

So my Honest Opinion insults the intelligence of somebody i respect. It is what it is.

If I didn't respect this person, I'd probably just shrug and say "Nah, to each his own" or some other equivocation.

I find it distinctly odd that my respect for this person is going to make me tell him I think he is stupid.

living an intellectually honest existence blows sometimes.

PTSD really blows

I guess I am slowly learning to accept my diagnosis. Lately I have memories (I will not relate the substance because that will trigger the memory) that cannot be turned off. I have to see it, all of it, over again. feel what I felt, see what I saw, hear what I heard. Normal memories are fragile, can be interrupted by anything, a stubbed toe, a mosquito bite, a wandering thought, a small noise. THESE memories are a revery, unstoppable Imax relivings of experiences in minute emotional detail. Every feeling, every icky sensation, every horrifying microsecond. once it starts it goes until it is finished, and it goes until I feel every little detail of the things i thought I had forgotten years ago, thought I had boxed up, thrown out and gotten over.

it really sucks. But PTSD pretty much fits.

Why isn't Dick in Jail?

Richard J Cheney admitted committing a serious felony. On T.V.

Torture is unlawful. This is fact. Causing torture is also unlawful. This is also a fact.

Waterboarding is torture. This too is a factual statement. The United States Government has tried, convicted and executed people for waterboarding, as torture. Waterboarding was called, for years, the Water Torture.

Cheney admitted instigating torture, thus, he has admitted to committing a crime.

Mr Holder? What the fuck are you waiting for?

Swallowing

Science now knows that when pregnant women orally ingest the ejaculate of the father of the child she bears, she has a SIGNIFICANTLY reduced chance of developing preeclampsia. Further research has also found that the regular ingestion of the ejaculate of her partner can help a woman become pregnant in the first place. It introduces the partners proteins into her system as a whole, and gradually acclimates her system to the presence of his proteins, so that she is far less likely to have an immune response when the fertilized egg attempts to implant, increasing the chance of successful pregnancy.

Of course, I didn't fucking KNOW THIS ten years ago, or my wife's pregnancy would have been MUCH more fun for me. (She didn't actually have preecampsia, so the effect on her would have been minimal, but trying to prevent it would have been a blast. Health first!) :-)

Pantomime Horses, I shit you not.

I download a lot of japanese porn, mostly because the idea of beauty in Japan is apparently much different than in American porn. There is very little silicon breastage, Almost no Anorexically thin chicks (who arouse in me nothing more than the desire to buy them a good date at an all-you-can-eat pancake house) and quite a bit of defiled innocence and purity, and that happens to be my thing. But I erase 9 out of 10 of the things I download, mostly because I don't read or speak Japanese, and in addition to the aesthetically pleasing aspect of Japanese porn, there is a LOT of serious weirdness. Tentacles, a penchant for VERY young looking actresses (and if I can't TELL they are over 18, I don't feel comfortable watching it or having it on my hard drive) and a rather odd costume thing. And, apparently, a real liking of sex with pantomime horses. Or, rather, very well-endowed men in HORSE COSTUMES. The first time, I laughed my ass off. It was hilarious. Around the 8th such film, I got to wondering if there was some wierd cultural thing of which I was unaware. Pantomime Horses.