Porn---But not for much longer if our commie leader has his way though, right Dave? Bwahahaha...

Nothing so deliciously schadenfreude-tastic as seeing the scary expansions of power and tromping of privacies put in place and defended mightily by the right wing over the last 8 years come to bite those same factions in the a*s and hear them call foul over it.

Obama's defense and perpetuation of these disgusting abuses is abhorrent, but not more so than when the right was giving birth to that Rosemary's baby and every Malkinesque talking head was singing lullabies about "What? You don't have anything to worry about if you haven't done anything wrong."

Mmhmm. Did you honestly think those abuses would only ever apply to those horrible leftists? You open Pandora's box, eventually everyone gets f*cked up the--I mean, suffers the consequences.

As for the list? Kind of boring, no?

@scotchdrnkr: Sure, at this point it's a vicious circle--no volunteers, so too overwhelmed to go rally the community, so no volunteers, so--but the point is that something has to give.

If I had five bucks to send, which I don't, I would still feel like I might be tossing it into a bottomless pit and not really effecting change because there's no organized plan in place to switch the scene from Helplessly and Perpetually in Need to Using Our Resources to Create a Framework for Sustained Success.

It's kind of like how I don't feel like there's much use in handing over my spare change to one homeless person. He's not got much of an action plan, and so the act is an isolated instance of giving but not an effective aid. I donate services to those who have a systematized effort going to help homeless people with beds and clothes instead. Teamwork.

I'm not saying that abandoning these people is a great choice, but pouring money into an ill-managed endeavor is not effective just because the principle is correct. It's like when somebody with a great idea asks for seed money to get his invention off the ground. I want to see the business plan.

Yeah Evil, I was trying to stay away from the symbolism word, but the birdcage may just be the most perfect metaphor ever. For like, everything.

Wha? Common sense...works? These are crazy times.

It seems the usual anti-legalization angle uses the notion that decriminalization would increase drug use, like the argument that providing condoms and sex education would encourage the kids to have more sex.

The basic misconception has always seemed, to me, to be that outside forces have much to do with people's choices when it comes to drugs and other risky endeavors. It doesn't. People that want to use drugs will, those that don't won't.

The relevant question is just, what do you do with those who will, no matter what, use drugs? Punish them and keep their behavior marginalized so that it remains unsafe, or acknowledge reality and try to prevent additional harms like infections and overdoses (and jail time, which is a really weird way of saying "we care about your health").

I recommend the book Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do, about the absurdity of criminalization of victimless and consensual crime in the U.S. Basic premise is that you can never be successful trying to prevent behavior that potentially hurts only the "perpetrator."

As far as wider-reaching repercussions from drug use ("It's not victimless!!"), most of those are a result of criminalization itself.

But again, common sense not our strong suit around these parts.

That snot nice.

Tough one, but it looks they need some organizational skills. Good intentions do not a successful venture make. There are a lot of healthy nonprofits out there that might be able to give them pointers on securing grants and developing ongoing support through the community. Honestly, and I don't want to sound harsh since cute things are involved, but it sounds like the people running this thing have been moping around for years instead of taking big creative action. Donating half your own paycheck every month?

No; you drain your own resources and become a less efficient manager because your own interests are tied up with those of the animals and everybody's helpless. I really think that in order to do real Good, you need to be savvy and objective and kind of clinical about things. Some of the most saintly people in the world are also the most no-nonsense, realistic, and non-touchy-feely. And those are the most successful.

I'm going to have to go pro-conceptual art on this one, although I am right now taking a contemporary art class that makes me want to shoot myself in the head every time my idiot teacher opens her mouth.

This is...I don't know....I just kind of love it. But I have a birdcage thing. They are somehow deeply sick and beautiful at the same time. A cage? For birds? Birds being among the only living things that can do something so amazing as FLY?? It's so obscene and awesome.

Yeah, puberty schmuberty. I don't know any eleven-year-olds with the agency to enter into healthy balanced sexual relationships with full-grown men. I'm pretty annoyingly culturally relativistic, but man am I glad I don't live in Saudi Arabia. Cultures that nurture the continued oppression of young girls (hi female circumcision!) need to take a good long look in a dirty broken mirror shard. A*sholes.

You're such a sap.

@Johnny: I hear you.

@Ted, regarding marketing, I hadn't seen that, and mostly hear from women who appreciate the product in a camping context when the issue comes up (see #17).

Thanks for considering the accuracy (and maybe the sensitivity/awareness) angle for the future. But speaking of accuracy, I don't go out of my way to call you out on things for the sake of it. I've often chimed in with a friendly word for you. I can't keep my mouth shut, though, when I think you're being over-broad or disparaging in a stereotypical way in your observations. And I know you're not a troll or stupid, which is why I bother.

Would that you could give me similar credit. I don't recall your accusing me of trolling, but I don't think I qualify as any kind of purposelessly argumentative voice. But I also don't think I should keep quiet about things that sound/feel wrong when I see them. My comments aren't attacks; they are pointings-out-of-awareness-gaps, as my own perspective understands them.

I would actually like us to be able to play-fight in a friendly way, quite honestly. But you usually seem dismissive. I'm sure I come off like that sometimes too, though. Whatever, circle of life.

Yeah, probably breasts are getting bigger, but it's hard to tell with the sizing weirdness. Clothing sizes, for instance, have all gone stupid as manufacturers lower the numbers for whatever reason. For instance, a size 6 of a few years ago is today something like a 2. I'm not gross-skinny, but I wear a ZERO. That's, like, hardly a number. You can't just keep making up sh*t.

It stands to reason that bra sizes might be doing the same thing, but upwards since society thinks bigger is better in that department.

The words you choose are meaningful, Ted. For some reason, you singled out lesbians and "woman who think they're men" as the groups most likely to use the urination device. Since I don't know where your data comes from and don't expect there is any, the assertion seems unnecessary at best and disparaging for the sake of being so.

You then mention strap-ons, which as a sexual device is connected to lesbians and transgendered people (which is I suppose what you were referring to with the imprecise and potentially offensive phrase "women who think they're men"), creating a thread in your comment that seems to go out of its way to marginalize these groups and generalize about them.

Just because you don't appreciate the value of something doesn't make it stupid. And the composition of your comment seems to connect people whose identities and practices which fall outside the norm with irrelevance and invalidity. They are not.

@LLoyd: No, I was just being an assumer. But I'm starting to have my suspicions about your spelling of my name...

Ted, Ted, Ted. Things (and people) that deviate from the norm are not automatically stupid or invalid.

@mark r: lovely. I do immediately think of arguments against yours, but I stand firmly in the camp of your sentiment. I think if we lived and behaved more closely to our truest selves, this is how we would act and feel. And I'm glad I'm not alone, as maudlin as that may sound.