March 29, 2003
Hey, Rush! Can I Ping You?
I haven’t been using the “Trackback” feature of Movable Type very often, although I should because I quote people all the time and link back to their blogs or websites. And to be honest, I was also a little reluctant because when you “ping” other sites, you’re essentially telling them that, “hey, my readers are interested in what you and/or your readers have to say.” I didn’t want some of my readers assaulting other bloggers and making me look bad, especially when there are already some snobbish bloggers out there who think that the “LJ crowd” is pretty unsophisticated. I know, I know. That was presumptuous of me to think that about those of you who have been coming here. I was pleased to see the discussion between Drew of aramchek.net and a few of the LJ admin people. In this case, trackback worked really well for both parties.
However, it appears that our conservative friends had either no interest in challenging Sean Duncan’s views or perhaps they just don’t feel like they’re up to the challenge. Mr. Duncan is ready you know? In fact, after I pinged him, he wrote an entry (notice the trackback ping in the previous entry) clarifying his position regarding his support of our (i.e., American) troops in Iraq. It’s a very compelling position and once again, I invite you to have a discussion with him. I’d find it very interesting to see how others would debate you. You know I already own you - anti-lefty’s, Pro-War and Republicans. So let’s see if it’s just me who can beat you up because I’m special or if anybody and everybody can kick your asses. Just don’t embarrass yourselves, okay? ;)
Seriously, the idea of incorporating Trackback into Livejournal sounds fun (credit crschmidt for the link). It can also be a bad thing for LJ. Can you just imagine thousands of Avril (is that how you spell it?) fans on LJ pinging the Trackback-enabled Avril site or fan blog? Or how about the 700+ Will Wheaton fans on LJ who subscribes to his syndicated RSS feed? Even if half of that number posts more than once a day, and for some reason, they feel like pinging Will’s blog to get his attention, can you imagine how many trackback notifications he’d be getting every day? Fortunately, those big-name bloggers (but not Will) turn off trackback on their sites. But still, you get the picture. The whole blogging world would be so pissed off with Bradfitz and Livejournal. Movable Type, Ranchero, weblogs.com and blo.gs would all get together and design a filter and call it an “LJ Ping Filter” just to exclude abusive LJ users. Something to consider.
On the flipside, it’s actually a very nifty feature. Hmm, I think I’m going to ping a couple of hundred right-wing bloggers just to piss them off. Cool, huh? :þ
March 28, 2003
Get A Brain, Morans!
It’s my lunchtime and let’s see what I can type up here for the next half hour. It’s Friday, and my car was originally scheduled to be completed and ready for me to pick up today. Well, that’s not going to happen because the body shop said that they found additional damage that would require a few more days of work. They said maybe next Wednesday. I knew even before they called to tell me of the change that they were not going to be able to make it. And I also know that there’s a very good chance that I would go back at least once because of something they didn’t do or something they messed up. I swear, if I’m not happy with the quality of the repairs, I’ll take the damn thing over to the BMW dealer and swap it for a Mini.
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If I posted an essay or a rant, the gist of which would be to express my “non-support” of U.S. troops in Iraq, I’d be bashed so fast and so hard that I’ll easily get over a hundred comments for that particular entry. And yet, Sean Duncan did exactly that in his blog with nary a whisper of protest. In his blog, Wise & Uncanny, Mr. Duncan argues that he “can not condone those who have participated in this war any more than [he] can condone a Crip who joined a gang because he had few other options.” His comments echo many of the anti-war protesters sentiments regarding this “invasion” without the irrational language that’s frequently characterized by such protests. Calm and yet defiant, Duncan says, “I have a hard time believing that these people actually need our support — especially when ‘support our troops’ is expressed as something which is mutually exclusive to protesting an unjust war.” So I’d like to see some Republicans and anti-lefties go over there and see if you can convince him that he is wrong. I think he might even have an LJ, or at least reads some livejournals.
By the way, the Subject title, “Get A Brain, Morans,” was from an actual Pro-War supporter at a rally somewhere. There’s a photo of the “moran,” also on Mr. Duncan’s blog.
Still on the subject of blogs and Livejournal, I keep seeing LJ people referring to Movable Type like it was a Livejournal or a Blogger service. It is NOT. I found this blog, aramchek.net, in which the guy (don’t have a name) claims he was “ditching livejournal for movable type” because according to him, “Livejournal is an inward-looking monoculture, an isolationist member of a larger, diverse ecosystem. Monocultures are boring.” I wonder if he was suspended. Anyway, LJ Support should find that piece interesting because it sounds like a Letter to Customer Service.
And Their Kids Were Hippie Chicks Or Hypocrites
Politics and the Iraq War are hot topics anywhere these days. On one hand, people are sick of hearing and talking about it, and on the other, they’re acting like they can’t have enough of it. Personally, I find the whole Anti-War and Pro-War debate amusing. Yes, I have my own views regarding the rationale for this attack on a small country in the Middle East; and I have expressed those views here.
I also like to believe that I have been more than fair to those who oppose my political opinions by giving them the opportunity to share their views and participate in the discussions. I haven’t banned anybody, deleted or censored any comments from anyone on the anti_lefty or other conservative groups. And be honest here. Unless you’re the biggest cry-baby in the world, I don’t see how you can sit there and tell me that I am “grossly unfair” and “one-sided. The truth is my anti-conservative bashing has been pretty benign. The reason for that is because I don’t really take political debates very seriously, and like I said, the whole thing amuses me. I’ve even been admonished by someone on my side and was told to just stab you right-wingers in the face and move on. And you know what? It’s beginning to sound like very good advice.
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March 27, 2003
Can You Please Send The Bill To The Pro-War Movement!
Well, so George Bush wants $74 billion dollars to pay for his war, huh? Where is he going to get that money? Oh, yeah, he want us to pay for it. He wants billions of dollars to fund a war that was unnecessary but he doesn’t want to pay for more useful programs. And Petra says she doesn’t want the government dipping into her pocket. Well, guess what? I don’t want them dipping into mine either. Certainly not to fund a stupid war - a war that only benefits companies like Halliburton. Yay, Cheney!
Bush wants to “give back” a trillion dollars to the tax payers but he’s also demanding an initial $74 billion to pay for his war games. I wonder where the money is coming from. There must be some grand economic plan that’s in the works. I just don’t have the money to pay for stupid wars — I’m already spending it all on gas and other goods, whose prices have gone up along with the cost of fuel. If you’re a Republican working at Kentucky Fried Chicken and paying very little taxes, I don’t want to hear you complaining and telling me, “but, McClane, you just don’t understand.” Those are the same people that bitch the loudest about having to pay taxes when they’re hardly paying anything. So you can understand why I think conservatives whine and moan all the time. I should know. I dated a few women who were die-hard Republicans.
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March 26, 2003
Erinn Says That "Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin"
I think I’m going to take a break from talking about the war or any kind of politics today. God knows how many other places you can go to find discussions relating to that subject matter. Just find a random journal or blog and chances are the war has been mentioned and written about by the author. Maybe I’ll go and pick a fight on Debate or some other community. I actually did the other day but lately, I just don’t have the energy nor the interest to argue about stupid stuff with the radical Right. If you’ve been to Debate lately, you might’v seen me wimped out on a couple of discussions.
My new thing is to try to earn my first Volunteer Support points. If you’re interested in assisting other users, Livejournal could use your help. According to Rahaeli and other support volunteers, LJ could really use more volunteers. Too many support requests and not enough volunteers. If you want to know more, a good place to start would be lj_supportadmin where you could read a primer and Guide on how to become a successful support volunteer. I don’t know what rewards you’ll get for achieving thousands of points. Perhaps an Amway product of some kind? Oh, and LJ_support won’t tell you this because they might not want to hurt your feelings but I’ll tell you — please don’t volunteer if you don’t know how or want to use a Spell-checker. And mastery of the English language beyond 8th Grade would be nice.
I appreciate the feedback regarding the layout. Although I’m glad that people like the new look, I’m wondering if everybody is just saying that because it looks new and they were sick of the old one. Therefore, anything that is new just looks good regardless if it’s true or not. So what is this aversion to white backgrounds? Studies have shown the black backgrounds are significantly less legible than white backgrounds, even when white type is used. I’m not making this up — if you go search related topics on the web, they’ll all say that black text on a white background is the best combination for readability. I know — try telling Nicole or Rahaeli that and they’ll just give me a weird look.
It’s too early in the morning and I’m too tired and too lazy to find that LJ page where it would tell me your friends’ birthdays. If you have it, please post the link in here. Thanks.
March 25, 2003
What A Game!
So has any of you been watching the match between the Baghdad ‘Raqis vs. the Washington Cowboys? That’s incredible. What was originally going to be a rout is becoming somewhat of a cat and mouse kind of game. The rules of the game are changing all the time, and it’s not just the home team that’s changing them either. It’s still a lopsided match but those guards are being pesky and they refuse to give up. There have been some serious setbacks for the Americans such as friendly fire killing a few of their British comrades. Then there’s that soldier who apparently went mad and started tossing grenades and shooting at his teammates, killing at least one and wounding several others.
I heard the Iraqis that killed 10 American Marines and captured 5 were actually Iraqi soldiers dressed as common civilians. That’s possible. It’s also possible that the Iraqi people are not greeting American forces with the joy we were expecting. When shit like this happens, every civilian in Iraq will be considered hostile, making this war even more dangerous because it could be very confusing for the coalition forces. The confusion can lead not only to great strain among our soldiers, but to terrible acts of violence that may be perpetrated against innocent non-combatants.
Driving away the Iraqis out of Kuwait in ‘91 is a hell of a lot different than going into Iraq with an invasion force. It’s not the same. They might not like Saddam, but it’s more than fair to expect the citizens of Iraq to be suspicious of the Americans and the British. What are they going to do after they get Saddam? Are they going to clean up the mess and leave? You may have noticed that there has been no exit strategy offered by Bush and Blair for this conflict. There isn’t one, because we have no intention of leaving.
You can understand why the Iraqis are not giving up just yet.
March 23, 2003
I'm Pretty Sure They Used To Be Liberals!
I think kids are naturally Democrats. It’s only when they grow up that some of them, probably from listening to too much talk radio, turn into Republicans. What is one of the things that Republicans are known for? They’re not too friendly. Many of them like to segregate themselves from civilization. And much like the anti_lefty community, they put up signs on their property that says, “Conservative Territory - KEEP OUT!”
I was so infuriated by that sign, I just had to make my own. Take a look and tell me what you think. (cut)
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March 22, 2003
So Erinjade Thinks I'm A Liberal, huh?
Thanks to psymonetta, I now know how to make crème fraîche.
According to my webstats, Saturday is the slowest day of the week as far as people visiting this site. Mondays are the busiest, with almost twice as many hits than Saturdays. What does that mean? My guess is that people spend their weekends doing weekend activities and come Monday morning, back at work, people slack off at their jobs and surf the web, post on their journals, and hang out at livejournal.us. Even the busiest times of the day are during office hours. It’s not hard to conclude that people aren’t doing their jobs. And according to the numbers, Republicans slack off more than Democrats by a margin of 3 to 1. How did I know that? I didn’t. I just made that up so don’t get all excited. But yes, it would be nice if the statistics could show information like that.
However, I do know that there is a guy from Home Depot who likes to post idiotic comments during his break time. He’s quite annoying. I think he’s the same guy posting as “anti_lefty supporter.” It also makes me nervous when I see someone from the DoD (Department of Defense) and the DoJ spend two hours per day in the last few days going through my archives. I used to get a lot of hits from someone in the IRS and found out it was actually a guy I went to school with. That was a relief. Occasionally, I’d get a few lunchtime hits from the FBI but I figured they’re just checking to make sure dyinghappy is behaving himself. They stopped coming after he got suspended. :)
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March 21, 2003
We May As Well Have A Tail Gate Party
People are going nuts over this war. On one side, you have the liberals going out in numbers and blocking freeways and bridges to protest the evils of this war. Hepkitten, of ljdrama.org, was even on San Francisco TV getting arrested, along with thousands of others for blocking the San Francisco Bay Bridge. The same thing is happening here in Seattle and several major cities throughout the United States. I do not know if there have been “Peace” protests elsewhere outside the USA.
It’s not just the Anti-War movement that is in a frenzy. Those who are pro-war are worse. They’re acting like a bunch of rowdy fans in a long-awaited rematch of a football game between Ohio and Ohio State. Tacky comments like, “we’re going to kick your asses now!” Or, “here, have a buster bomb, and tell us how you like it, rflmao!” For some reason, this war with Iraq is bringing out the worst, or perhaps the true-nature of the extreme right. Name-calling with racist overtones is common in all the forums and bulletin boards that I have seen. “Towel heads,” and “sand-niggers” are some of the racist terms I have seen. Cheering when cruise missiles hit their targets in Baghdad is inappropriate and is indicative of an uncaring attitude. If you were a resident of Iraq and your house was just destroyed and half of your family was killed and the other half, survived but maimed by collateral damage, you wouldn’t be cheering now, would you? You wouldn’t be cheering if you and your little sister have suddenly become orphans. It angers me to see these right wing extremist assholes act like barbarians. They don’t care about anyone but themselves. They have no class at all. And please note that I said “right wing extremist.” I don’t want to hear any whining and complaining that I said all Republicans have no class. Soldiers have more class than these pitiful extremists. I heard on TV of an Army captain who ordered his tanks to take down their American flags before entering Iraqi soil because they were going in as a liberating force instead of a conquering army.
Here’s a pretty funny exchange between a liberal peace advocate and an Iraqi citizen on Talk Radio KVI, Seattle. The poor “little girl” is just embarrassing. I know she’s a liberal but it’s still pretty funny. (found this mp3 link in Hep’s journal)
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March 20, 2003
Got To Walk Out Of Here, I Can't Take It Anymore
Although Livejournal.us is my personal weblog, and is becoming more well known, particularly within the Livejournal.com community, it woud be presumptuous for me to say that I, and I alone, is responsible for its increasing visibility. The fact is, I’m just a guy who gathers some information, and write a little commentary based on the information that I have and then submit it for discussion. Without the interaction and the dialogue, Live Journal Review is just another stale and obscure blog on the Internet.
I know it’s redundant, but several of my readers are also my Livejournal Friends. I don’t know why they added me to their friends lists, but I have to say that I’m flattered that they still wanted to keep me in their lists even though my journal is not regularly updated. Live Journal Review is basically my journal. Believe me, no one comments on my LJ, in spite of the fact that it contains far superior writings (plus personal photo galleries that would put nonuglies women to tears :)) than what you see here. It’s kind of annoying actually, but hey, I’m not complaining. The rest of my readers are other Livejournal users who are not on my friends list but who regularly particpate in the discussions and people from various different sites and blogs.
A frequent comment I hear from people who “hate” this site is something like this: “Yeah, I’ve heard of it, but it doesn’t interest me.” Or, “McClane is a jerk, a moron, an idiot, etc. I hate Live Journal Review! Why would someone even have a site like that, reviewing journals?” How do I know they say these things? Because they leave their tracks all over the site whenever they come and pay me a visit — which is usually 13.2 times a day. The 13.2 times is not a random number nor was I being facetious. It is the average number of times each “unique” visitor hits livejournal.us per day. So when I see people like kylebee and skreidle say that they don’t ever come here, I just keep quiet and smile.
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March 19, 2003
In This Proud Land We Grew Up Strong
How did my last entry turn into a political brawl? And what has mail order brides got to do with anything I said? When I targeted the anti_lefty community for Worst Community of the Week, I didn’t even mention the moderator’s name, Amalea, because quite frankly, I didn’t consider her to be one of the “extremists” in that group. And she is not the person posting as “anti_lefty.” So please leave her alone, okay?
Having lived much of my youth in several countries, I am especially sensitive to the suggestion that anything that is non-American, and yeah, including “imported” women are somehow inferior to the local product. I understand the sociological stigma of mail order brides, but try to have some class and please don’t cut people down just because they are foreign or different. That’s exactly the kind of thing I hate.
I lived in France for a couple of years. In fact, I graduated from High School there. Not once did I feel ostracized or felt discriminated by the natives because I was American. You don’t know anything about the French people. You don’t know what they really think of Americans. And you don’t know why they are against this stupid war. Maybe they don’t like Bush. They didn’t seem to have a problem with supporting Clinton in the Balkans when he was in office. There is really no sane reason why Americans would hate the French. Oh yeah, I forgot. Is it perhaps because the French, especially the women are thinner, prettier, cuter, sexier, are better in bed, are better kissers, less whiny, less inhibited, more sensitive and more fashionably up to date? I have never met a French national I didn’t like. I’m not talking about those copycats in Quebec either. Now, the English, that’s a different matter. It seems every other Briton I’ve met, I’ve had little conflicts with. It must be because I can’t stand my mother’s (who is English) relatives.
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March 18, 2003
Close The Door Behind You When You Leave
When Livejournal’s Abuse Team suspends a journal, it’s usually because the person who owned the journal did a bad thing and did not obey the rules. It really is not a difficult concept to understand. The same is true, when a community is suspended. I’m not directing these comments at anyone in particular. However, it’s been brought to my attention that
Republicans Conservatives are still fuming that their France Sucks community was suspended. That community was suspended because it was an “ethnic hate journal” in nature, plain and simple. But these people are being cry-babies about it. Eight days ago, conservadi was so disgusted with the suspension of france_sucks that she wrote, “After some thinking I’ve decided I will probably be deleting LJ this week and making the jump 100% completely to Blurty.” Well, guess what? As of yesterday, she’s still there, posting more of her shit. I guess those words didn’t really mean anything other than to wallow in her own pity party. When you say that you’re going to leave, by golly, leave! — otherwise, you lose credibility and it makes you look inept.
Not as inane, but equally pathetic is c_shlitz’s own sobfest, posting in his “Second to Last post for a while” entry, and says that it will be his “last post for sometime” because “LJ isn’t as fun as it was…” Why is he going on hiatus? Because he’s annoyed with Livejournal for shutting down france_sucks, that’s why. Okay, these are two adults acting like children. Does anyone really care if you leave Livejournal or if you don’t post ever again? No one cares, except your own kind, maybe. Even that is doubtful.
With the kind of shit that several members of the anti_lefty community is spewing, don’t be surprised if they lose that community. I don’t want that community to go away because it’s a great source of entertainment. But if the maintainer, amalea, doesn’t do her job and allows the extreme right wing to run the place like it appears they’re doing now, then a lot of people are going to get pissed, and they’ll complain to Abuse. No, we liberals are not going to complain, but your own “moderate” members would. I’d bet on it. So get those fucking extremists out of there before we all lose. If you don’t know who they are, I’ll be more than happy to list them for you.
By the way, on a gentler note, it’s too bad I don’t give awards for best looking journal because I was quite impressed with amalea’s journal layout. Normally, I’m not a fan of too many animated GIF’s, but I thought she did a good job on image placement and those blobs are delightful. Which reminds me, it’s time for a new layout.
March 17, 2003
Ladies And Gentlemen, The President Of The United States
Listen up, y’all, I got somethin’ to say.
I jus’ spent a few nasty hours readin’ this web site ‘n all y’all’s little liberal-slanted articles ‘gainst me ‘n my administrative, and I commence to feelin’ they’s a thin line what separate freedom a’ speech from stuff what pisses me off.
When Y’all’s writin’ to this publication y’all might wanna keep John Ashcroft uppermost in your minds. Believe me, you folks really don’t want Ashy to catch y’all writin’ stuff like this, ‘cause he already don’t think much a’ y’all as it is, ‘n he keep beggin’ me to set him loose on y’all like a dog. And I got to admit they’s times when my mind is virgin on it.
‘Parently y’all thinks bein’ President is a lotta beer ‘n skittles, but I’m here to tell you it ain’t—’specially not the red ones. Plain fact is this job, if you will excuse my France-say, is one tough sonnuva lady dog.
Take this war y’all so hot ‘bout. Maybe I don’t understand it no better’n you does, but I know a lotta smart people been a long time makin’ up reasons for it. These is dedicational people, and if sometime a reason come out soundin’ a tad stupid it don’t stop them, they jus’ keep polishin’ it ‘til it’s good ‘nuff for somebody in the media to defend.
We work hard on reason-makin’ ‘cause y’all is such a picky bunch. See, we got to persecute this war quick ‘fore you or some other Knights a’ the Snail Darter gets a spine ‘n shuts us down. Doin’ it quick ‘stead a’ careful mean a lotta people gonna get killed real fast, ‘n what with things bein’ the way they is in Iraq these days, more’n half uvvem gonna be children.
But, see, I know y’all; right now y’all’s goin’ ” America’s number one!” ‘n “Go get ‘em, George!” But the minute y’all sees a few body bags, or a dead Iraqi mama holdin’ her blowed-up baby, y’all gonna freak. And right off you gonna be all like “Ooooh, Georgeeee, look what you done!” Now, is that fair? I only doin’ the job y’all let me get away with.
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Another Reason Why I Hate SUV's And Republicans
It’s not that I don’t know how to drive on the snow. Hell, I’ve lived on the east coast and have experienced at least six winters. So a week ago, when it started snowing just outside Seattle for the first time this season, all hell broke loose - for me, anyway. I was supposed to pick up a friend — you know, the Sugar & Spice Girl at work - and I was running a little late, because of all these slow snow drivers on the main road up on the Sammamish Plateau (hilly neighborhood) when the SUV in front of me SUDDENLY stopped. I was a good 2-3 car lengths behind him. Too late! My anti-lock brakes worked perfectly and I skidded on a straight line right onto the SUV’s huge bumper. The impact wasn’t that hard, maybe only about 5 MPH. The airbag didn’t even deploy. The driver of the SUV quickly stepped out to inspect the damage while I sat in my car, still dazed. He picked up something on the ground and walked over to me as I was getting out of the car and handed me broken pieces of my front grille, “No damage to mine, but yours looks pretty bad, see you later!” And he got back into his miserable SUV, started his engine, and extricated his monstrous Ford which was still jammed on top of my hood. That’s when I noticed his bumper sticker: Bush-Cheney 2000!
This all happened because I was on my way to pick up a girl that I lost a bet to. Gina, you see, is a Republican. And oh, to complete the omen, this happened on March 7th - Jonfmorse’s birthday - another Republican!
So, to people like Bonnie, Gringo, Morpheus, I hope you can understand and be sympathetic as to why I am picking on Republicans these days. Especially after you see the $7,000+ damage to my car.
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March 16, 2003
So What Do We All Like To Do On A Sunday?
I tried. I really did. I tried watching The 700 Club all day today but I ran out of beer and pork rinds so I had to get up and go grocery shopping. They had a good show today though. Ah lernt’t ‘bout salvation ‘n shit. So now, am here fer’a coupla hours at yer service. Maybe talk ‘bout dem boys of ours who’s gonna go parshti’ng over Baghdad to git dat guy, ya know, dat dictater, Sadam.
Okay, enough of my poor attempt to sound like a Southern Baptist preacher. I just couldn’t resist. But you know what I’m doing, right? You know, I’m really trying to reach out to our conservative brethren. I’m just trying to pacify my “moderate” Republican friends like strwbrylv and jonfmorse. Oh, I should include my new buddy, partywhipple, in that list as well. Yeah… see, me and whip over there, we’re part of the Matrix now. He’s Morpheus and I’m Neo. We’re gonna capture us some aliens and bad guys. And we hear there’s a real nasty sonofabitch over down in the Bush of Australia somewhere. :þ
Speaking of the Bush, I’m trying to get a different kind of Bush to make an appearance here at livejournal.us and inspire us with his wisdom. I’m hoping he can do it tomorrow evening. It’s looking like it might happen too. So yeah, tomorrow, at around 9 PM Eastern (GMT-05:00), I am hoping that the President of the United States would drop in and honor us with his presence. :þ
I know it’s Sunday and maybe I shouldn’t be talking about Sextips related material but after reading about Dardy’s hilarious post on the subject of anal sex, I thought I’d bring it up for discussion here. I’m not sure how to say this because I don’t know if it’s embarrassing, but I’ll say it anyway. You see, I’m an anal sex virgin. And psymonetta, NO! STFU! I’m talking about I have never had anal sex with a woman. I guess I never really thought about it as some sort of a “mark” that I needed to convince women or myself of my sexual prowess. My last serious girlfriend (I’ve had a a couple of “playthings” since then) is a young physician. When I broached the subject one evening while spooning with her, she frowned and told me, “never, it’s unhealthy and it really has no pleasurable effect on women. It only benefits the man.” Then, to be sure that I got turned off, she went clinical on me and pulled out her Handbook of Acute Endocrinology and Metabolism to show me why anal sex should be left for the losers in the penitentiary. So what do you think of anal sex? Is it eww? Or is it oooohhh? Or perhaps, ouch?
By the way, who (a couple) said the following, and what do you think they were talking about?
“Daniel, what you just did is actually illegal in several countries.”
“That is one of the reasons that I’m so happy to be living in Britain today.”