Pascal wrote:
I'm socially conditioned like everybody else (well, more along the lines of Lebanese standards, these things vary between countries), but I realize how arbitrary some of it is.
For instance, the French shower once a day, no matter what. A complete utopia with the water shortage we knew during the war... but also to COUNTRYSIDE French people. Let's be honest, people: unless you get yourself dirty or sweaty, it's merely the accustomed luxury of urban people with indoor plumbing, automatically heated water... and no worries about abundant consumption of water. I found out how the French justify the thing being "totally not a hassle": a friend's mother stated that it took 5 minutes between entering the bathroom and exiting it. That includes, according to her, undressing, drying, and dressing again! And she seriously meant it.
Sheesh. From entering the bathroom to exiting, I take that much time to brush my teeth! Even without the asides, a 5' shower to me is nothing more than getting yourself wet under a water jet, a mockery of washing yourself. My quickest showers/baths last 25-30 minutes, "plus tax", which that French city lady found, and I quote, "preposterous".
Well, in wartime Lebanon, if you bothered to heat the water and bathe, you bothered getting well cleaned. :-P
In a sedentary lifestyle and a temperate weather, you can only get bath-warranting dirty in 24 hours if you "do in your undies".
Also, medically, too much cleaning is bad for your skin. You weaken a natural barrier and undermine its protective role.
I realize that, as a doctor, I got the habit of washing hands a lot. But I try to tone it down a bit outside work. Studies have shown that excess of "hygiene" and cleanliness weakens the immune system, which normally receives daily training from exposition to common bacteria. And germophobic people with the compulsive disorder of constantly washing their hands end up damaging their skin something awful.
I wash without fault before and after seeing patients, and for surgery. For the rest, every time, I stop and ask myself, "are they unreasonably dirty?" So at home I wash before eating, after *if* I got food on my hands, and if I know I got something on them that I consider dirty. Which is relative. For example, having earth on your hands is only a problem when you re-enter the house. Soil causes no infections except for a deep AND damaging wound risking Tetanus. Having a pet animal, which is never "sterile-clean", has been proven to boost resistance to infectious diseases as well as dramatically decrease the incidence of asthma in growing children. If you're not allergic, fear not at all.
Moderation in everything. In cleanliness AND in carelessness. These, my friends, are the current international medical standards.
I keep fighting with some Lebanese mothers who insist on giving Baby the daily bath even with a high fever. As if a quick soaping of the tushie wasn't enough and safe. WHEN SICK, YOU'RE ALREADY INFECTED, SO KEEP WARM!!!
Lebanese women are cleaning freaks. It's educated.
But, as Freud would've said, "Dull women have immaculate houses."
The ideal clean body? Think of a desert island, with many opportunities for makeshift natural soap and available water. Soap and water, and sense, give the ideal balance for any healthy body.
The rest is mere personal choice or habit. Do you know how much damage is made to the planet for producing your cosmetics and shampoos? Sometimes a LOT. And clean water is a luxury which the West wastes inconsiderately, in the name of acustomed abundance. Some things will have to change.
We use half a cubic metre of potable water to wash our car all shiny, while Africans barely have enough murky liquid to drink.
Social conditioning. Sometimes really shameful.
58 comments:
I have to take issue with you, Pascal, on the question of water.
Washing my car - if I had one, I don't - would have zero impact for good or ill on the water-poor of Africa, or anywhere else. It's an argument I've heard before, from members of the environmental movement, but it's simply not true.
The rain that, ultimately, provides my water supply isn't, in some mysterious way, being diverted from Africa, so what I do with it (and my water usage is pretty modest anyway), is largely irrelevant in that context. Closer to home, watering my garden - again, I don't have one, but stay with me - here in the relatively well-watered north-west of England, impacts not at all on people 250 miles away, in the drier the south-east (a glass of water in London is said to have already passed through 12 sets of kidneys).
What will help the situation in Africa - though not in all places - is money, to fund a program of well-digging, water pump installation and education. My having a dirty car or a dry garden would help not one iota.
I agree with you, though, that stripping, showering, drying-off and dressing again, all in the space of 5 minutes, just isn't possible. I don't think the person is lying, though, it's just that many people have no innate sense of time, and the person concerned really doesn't know how long she took, and is saying 5 minutes just to make the point that, really, it's not very long.
By the way, I used to work with a guy who believed too much washing was bad for the skin - he stank like a polecat. :-(
For instance, the French shower once a day, no matter what.
I think that must be once a month, at best! ;-)
Fascinating discussion, Gentlemen!
Weakening the immune system with too much soap and water isn't as big an issue as letting your "aura" become so powerful that the cloud lingers in the air after you've departed for points further away.
Some ladies in our building soak on the perfume until the air reeks with it in the elevator even as they are halfway downtown. And guys who don't believe their clothes are dirty enough to warrant washing are forgetting that we're shedding particles of dead skin and perspiration steadily. Where does it go? Onto your clothing and bed coverings.
It doesn't disappear by magic. You can look neat and clean, and still
have an "aura" that stuns rabbits at forty paces, let's face it!
We have a guy in this building who shall remain nameless but is living proof of the above. And what
can you do about a guy like that?
Whatever you would do risks even more problems. So the logical solution is to avoid that person.
And clean water is a luxury which the West wastes inconsiderately, in the name of acustomed abundance.
You're one crazy Lebanese mo'fo. I leave pretty near the Great Lakes. Vast quantities of water. PLus with global warming there'll be ever more -all those glaciers are melting!
Ron wrote: "I agree with you, though, that stripping, showering, drying-off and dressing again, all in the space of 5 minutes, just isn't possible."
Well, I think I have to give some information to the crowd here.
I am a woman and do take 5 to 6 minutes to do all that. I knew it, but not to give false information I chronometered it tonight. As I was not in a hurry, it took 6 minutes.
Complicated dressing may take longer, but that is another story.
I've always wondered what people do in the shower for 25-30 minutes... :-)
I guess if one doesn't shower very often, one has more work to do. :-)
As for water in Africa, I guess that that stopping abuse, for example stopping fueling the wars by selling arms would be a nice gesture from the West and could help the countries to develop.
But I guess that will not happen, selling arms is just so lucrative.
Six minutes, huh? Impressive. Again proving you're my kinda gal, I could never be with a typical woman who use three hours to get ready for a party.
Or for that matter, somebody who likes parties a lot. :-)
Do take, Ron, I'm in a giving mood. :-)
Still, simplistic as it may seem, the car washing argument isn't that hollow.
Water use and access is more and more becoming a worldwide issue. Countries that consume too much fresh water automatically siphon up resources for their neighbours. See the Rio Grande, which now has completely dried up along the course of its bed. This directly affects Mexico. And undirectly, these lifestyle choices affect the whole world's limited resources of fresh water (about 1 to 3% of all planetary water, and much of it not directly available).
During the last drought, France shipped whole tanker ships of drinking water to Spain to help a fellow nation.
Heard of Lebanon's lingering border problem of the Chebaa Farms? They're a water-rich zone, belonging to Lebanon, and occupied by Israel from Syria which had taken control of it. This is all related to Israel's agricultural politics, which require huge consumption of water, unreasonable amounts I'd say.
Now consider corn, or cotton. Worldwide consumed, very water-consuming. If we don't all start using world water more sensibly, SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE, is bound to pay the price. Children in Kirghizstan are pulled out of school every year to work like slaves in harvesting the cotton which is then weaved in China to sell clothes to the USA.
It's all related. The planet has become a very small place, and global warming is just another element in all that.
Environmental awareness is now considering many acutely significant and once overlooked criteria of world economy. Like the carbon account, how much CO2 is emitted for producing, transporting, etc... this and that. AND, samely, the water account. It takes I forget how many tons of water in the complete process of manufacturing a car from scratch. And you absolutely cannot use salty water from the sea or the ocean, and seldom water so dirty/polluted that you couldn't drink it.
So, I admit it's not always as simple, and not always obvious, but when an American wastes water, generally he's affecting the rest of the world. Because nobody todays lives in autarcy, the decrease in resources and the global pollution laugh at international frontiers. Read my post on the pirates of Somalia for another reflexion on world (im)balances.
Africa is faced with drought problems which are only aggravated by their economic choices, like agriculture, the rise in world food prices... And the demand for bio-fuels, in good part from the USA, is accelerating the Amazonian forest destruction because that's where Brazil cultivates bio-fuel crops.
Gross wasting of ANY energy, material and resource today is likely to end up affecting the rest of the world.
Besides, it's just poor manners to waste, even if there's no way to send my plate of brocoli to a Darfur child. ;-)
Wasting is, quite simply, unethical and immoral.
This brocoli joke is not as inocuous as it may seem, either. The USA waste enough food to fend off world hunger. Simply because they're a country with enough wealth to buy a lot of food, and waste it. Some of that utter waste of alimentary resource could be entirely redirected into donations for starving African populations.
Ironically, the USA themselves are beginning to feel the consequences of their water wasting. Golf courses in the middle of the desert are hogging water which some major cities, like Las Vegas, are beginning to see slimming.
The first consequence to expect, is increase of the pulling on natural water stocks, damaging lakes and natural preserved areas or wildlife sanctuaries. This is DIRECTLY insane, all "tree-hugging green talk" aside, simply because used water is recycled and cleaned BY NATURE, one way or another, at one step or another. We ruin Nature, and one day we'll be desperate for some non-polluted water to drink, while acid rains wash our cars so efficiently that the paint and metal will go down the drain too.
I'm sounding melodramatic? Well, I do hope it's far worse than anything we'll ever ALLOW to happen.
Seen WALL.E?
Not so far-fetched.
Except for that bit where they jettison their spaceship's waste into space. They couldn't survive 500 years aboard a self-sufficient spaceship without recycling every last bit of processed substance.
Don't you think we're all drinking water whose molecules were pissed by people and animals several hundred times since Life appeared? It's been calculated: we each eat every day at least one atom of carbon which was once pooped by Cleopatra on her 20th birthday. And then turned to CO2 through natural recycling, then fixated by a plant, which either we ate or was consumed by an animal from our meat-producing livestock.
So, stating that "it's all linked together" is not simply a philosophical creed. It's a scientific, mathematical, chemical, biological and economical fact.
The whole world, starting with the major polluters, CO2 emitters, resource wasters everywhere, need to shift paradigms urgently. Or we'll all die miserably.
The poorest will die first, but in the end we'll all die.
And then roaches will inherit the Earth. :-P
Or not, actually. Domestic cockroaches could survive the fallout from a nuclear war, but according to the book The World Without Us, without heated human houses and our trash, roaches would starve and die from winter cold.
Well, SOME disgusting critter will pick up the relay torch of (presumedly) intelligent Life. Undoubtedly disgusting, given that it'll have to be some beastie that can survive and thrive in the toxic cesspool we'll have left behind.
I'll read the rest of the comments later. Don't want to break my own post size record. :-)
"Six minutes, huh? Impressive"
Thanks! :-)
Actually it's the showering part. Getting ready may be something else.
But, well, nice to begin the day with a compliment. :-)
"I could never be with a typical woman who use three hours to get ready for a party."
Serious criteria!
Met many "typical women"?
I guess if a woman takes three hours she wants to please her guy... So if the guy doesn't want to be that pleased, it is probably negotiable. :-)
But I don't know, never had a girlfriend.
Me neither. Well, not for long anyway.
So all I know about women is from Hollywood movies.
Las Vegas is the bad side of America to the Nth degree. Huge water-feature shows in the middle of the desert!
It's hard to believe, though, that there is no way to economically transform sea water to drinking water.
Just checked my references : sweet water on planet Earth is actually 2.5% of it all, to be precise. Pretty much everywhere, it's getting more and more scarce, except for a few regions where climate change actually tends to cause floods. But you go and gather drinking water in the middle of a flood, before it flows back to the ocean, laden with mud and overflowing sewers and various drowned corpses.
The world currently consumes about 5.000 cubic Kms per year. That's 5.000 BILLION cubic metres.
The average European person consumes about 300 litres/day (that's 0.3 cubic metre, and about 4 times one's body weight), if we account for all of the water consumption, including the industry. In the USA, the average water consumption is 700 litres/day. The undisputed world record.
And, as I've explained, outsourcing industrial production or agricultural production simply means exporting the related water consumption.
A final word about Africa : poverty and ignorance lead to people further aggravating the natural tendancy of their countries to turn into deserts, a tendancy further worsened by global warming. There was a time (in my not so distant childhood) when only a civil war truly caused a famin in Africa, by driving away the people from their fields and losing the year's crops. Not any more. Whole countries lately are becoming unable to grow sufficient food even in normal conditions.
This will lead to a reverse effect of "all is linked". Immigration pressure towards the "West" (in fact, towards all countries less poor), getting more and more desperate, and increase in tensions, civil wars, regional, and international. Need I predict that when muslim countries get hungry and thirsty, internationally active extremists like Osama BinLaden will get lots more recruits? (Not excusing that attitude... but again, remember Somalia. Stretched resources in a Western country, fishing resources in the present case, can completely upturn the balance of another nation very far away.)
I recall the satire of the movie Superman II in Mad magazine, when the Kryptonian criminals escape from the Phantom Zone and start ravaging Earth.
The babe : "I've shot down those Earth aircrafts with my super Krapton laser vision."
The general : "I've frozen these Earth armored vehicles solid with my super Krapton ice breath."
The babe : "But look at our muscle guy friend. He just stands there, and people collapse around him dead. What power is HE using?"
The general : "He's using his super Krapton body odor. Being locked up in a space prison for 20 years can make a guy pretty gamey!"
I'm of course not suggesting anything of that sort as daily Earth criteria. I sure hope we never ever get that desperate for some clean water. And as for mentioning how excessive this is to people around you, I know, it's very difficult. Not even the closest family intimacy makes it easy to tell somebody "you stink". I suppose this is a failure of personal hygiene education, probably the key moment being the interruption of all parent-children communication come the adolescence crisis. We truly start sweating and secreting powerful pheromones at puberty. It's a key phase for the acquisition of new, essential body care norms. And then, there's the personal body and self image. Indifference and neglect towards one's self is rather revealing.
During my Psychiatry internship, I once admitted a woman (I dare not say "a lady"), expelled from a hotel's hall, who hadn't washed in a year or two. I'm telling you, I shamelessly let the strong male nurses handle that very agitated person. Heck, *I* didn't have a spare white blouse for the rest of that night shift! And interns can seldom spare the time for a shower, what if an impromptu emergency arised? But well, the point is, body care is part of the patient's assessment in Psychiatry. BOTH extremes are significant. (This is why I only shave every couple of days. That, and sensitive skin. :-)
And Ron, I'll happily admit that you probably waste very little water yourself in the "dekadent kapitalist West". (Then again, every little bit helps. I always turn the water off while brushing my teeth.) But it's a global thing. Each and every one of us needs to make as many efforts as reasonably possible. And the US-accustomed abundance IS NOT reasonable. The whole of Europe isn't, and they admit it today, things can't possibly go on the way they are. In general. And "in colonel", probably every country can improve its consumption by being more rational. The mere invention of running water has led to lots of tap-opening wasting habits.
Now to answer "in private" (get it?) the questions about body cleanliness in captain, I mean in general. I suppose when a Westerner takes a shower, especially a quick one, the water is open to the max during those 5-6 minutes. I only do that for few seconds, the norm is as little as I truly need. When commodities become rare and it takes time to provide them, or patience to receive them (like precious little water to the house's reservoir every day), one will readily spend some of that time to SPARE a bit of that resource. In fact, I myself am especially rebellious to being rushed around.
Besides, in the Orient, body care is a private moment which is traditionally enjoyed calmly and leisurely. Very stress-relieving, dedicating some private time for one's own body care. Modern life has removed far too much of physical contact occasions. Touching your own body is an important occasion of regaining sensory balance. The skin needs to be loved too, you know. If it feels like you're in always too much of a hurry for a pleasant moment, always "gotta run, gotta run", well, it's your own whole body who feels neglected, relegated to second place, and your psyche will unconsciously suffer from the sensory neglect. You have to show that you love yourself, it's important for the well-being.
As for how I shover... Hey, this is getting a little personal, isn't it? Ah well, here goes.
First, the body must be washed twice. The first time prepares it for using the loofah to eliminate the dead skin, which needs to be wet. I bet even 5-minute showerers need to take the time for this once a week. Also, the shower is for complete body washing. Sure, it cuts off a good 40% of the time if in the West you wash your hair separately. And I/we believe that anything worth the effort of doing is worth doing well. Including the thorough cleaning of all those nooks and crannies in the ears, good rinsing, and thorough drying.
I don't consider the bath as a chore to finish off ASAP. It's not a languid show of self-massage, exotic oils and all à la Cleopatra's bath, but I pay attention to every gesture. No "okay, soap touched there, so it's clean".
I confess, most Lebanese don't ever bother with such deep analysis. They just do as they're accustomed to, without reflecting on the meaning or relevance of things.
I also never leave the bathroom without taking care of the room itself. No sense in leaving a mess and "I'll take care of it this evening, after the dinner with the Ambassador."
If this isn't sufficient to answer your questions, Aniko, the only solution left is for you to come over and see for yourself how I manage. ;-)
It's a good time, too, there are promotions on airline tickets to Beirut these days. (With any luck, you might get to enjoy a nationwide artisanal fireworks display, come election day.) So, when's you coming, dear tourist?
"What will help the situation in Africa - though not in all places - is money, to fund a program of well-digging, water pump installation and education."
Money? Ha-ha-ha! Yes, I'm sure all the African Presidents will appreciate the contribution to their bank accounts.
Fund the NGOs, or keep your money.
There can be some irony, though. Take Bangladesh. A vast well-drilling program was completed, to ensure a well in every village. Then all these well-meaning helpful westerners had a nasty surprise. It turns out that the soil in Bangladesh is naturally heavy in ARSENIC. All the wells are contaminated and their water toxic, without even the need for industrial pollution.
I'm glad I don't live (survive?) in Bangladesh. Politicians still bother to stage coups for seizing power there. As we say in Lebanon, "they're fighting over the splitting of a dog's poop"!
The major challenge, in most poor countries, is to establish education programs that will include the teaching of familial planning. Overpopulation is their own, self-inflicted, worst bane. And there will be very heavy resistance to face in this sensitive issue. Especially in islamic countries, where numbers were always considered as meaning wealth and power. (More citizens meant bigger, stronger armies.)
Seen my comment on Gaza?
(My, I've really mentioned a lot of relevant topics on that humble blog of mine!)
"I don't think the person is lying, though, it's just that many people have no innate sense of time"
Well, that person wasn't just describing herself, she was spontaneously lecturing me on how I spent "too much time for a measly bath". It was about how long *I* took.
That's what I get for being so open to people's opinions : in everyday life I draw lecture givers like a magnet.
But she was a friend's mom, so I couldn't just tell her off. I just silently swore to never again take a shower in THAT house. "Yes, auntie, you're right, auntie, I promise for next time, auntie."
Don't hold your breath for that next time, auntie!
(That word, "auntie", is a verbal tic I caught during the "educational lectures" of my own extended family. That weird magnetism must be something genetic!)
"he stank like a polecat"
Well, skunks are very pretty, I think. On a TV screen!
There IS such a thing as too much washing. And then there's the opposite. Making excuses to justify the unjustifiable is, well, inexcusable. :-P
"Juan Hernandez said...
the French shower once a day, no matter what.
I think that must be once a month, at best! ;-)"
Funny you should say that. Because I heard several French also wonder about that "national figure", they can all recall people who cleraly save a lot of money on soap!
It is surprising, that in a country so typically focused on showers, you can find even in the cities people who "proudly advertise" their, um, "hygienic independance"!
Again, I guess there's a lot to study there for Psychology and Psychiatry. I mean, heck, even when in bed for weeks with the flu, my first criterium for "do I need to wash?" is By Boor BaiDVul Dose. And if I postpone out of caution, it doesn't mean I'm not self-aware.
But if you're not from Krypton, a bit of body smell is less dangerous than catching cold while severely feverish. Skin status isn't the only thing that becomes disgusting with a cold or a flu, some thing you just have to cope with until they pass.
I'm SO glad I'm better. Still convalescing, but now clean and breathing well again.
That's one thing I've noticed with studying Medicine : you start casting a very relative look at what is "disgusting". Your concern soon shifts to what is "healthy". Now, when somebody vomits, I'm immediately concerned, in that order:
- Did the person inhale some of it when it happened? (very dangerous!)
- Was there blood in it?
Professional reflexes... :-)
If any of you have worked in some field of helping people, like paramedics or firemen, you'll understand what I mean. Social customs can move aside to more practical concerns, and in some ways, I find it brings new perspective, with more universal criteria, and I love the feeling of having gained a more open mind. It's also helped me "unlearn" many silly reflexes about the human body. Starting with any embarrassment towards nakedness per se. The only embarrassing thing I can think of about a person's nudity today, is whether somebody's attitude makes it a problem. Didn't need to discover DOMAI to assimilate that.
It's been quite healthy, too, given the rather strict and prude education I had received between school and some of my meddling family.
"Weakening the immune system with too much soap and water isn't as big an issue as letting your "aura" become so powerful that the cloud lingers in the air after you've departed for points further away."
Somebody's been watching too many cartoons?... ;-)
Sure, what you mention is more repulsive to an outside person. But what's "a bigger issue"? Socially? You're right. Medically? You're not. I'll give you one example of weakened immune system : Aids.
When the immune system is failing, a person is more likely to fall sick, and even if there's no major body smell, that person is very unhealthily contagious. A medical mind helps you gain perspective on what is genuinely "dirty".
Body smell is, medically, little different from perfume. Really. They're all chemically called "aromatic molecules", and their composition is very close. True "dirty" is what is toxic, or infectious. "Dirt", as earth is sometimes called, is rich in bacteriae, but mostly harmless ones.
A normal body carries an average of 10 bacteriae for every cell. An average cell is 10 microns in width and has the same density as water. Do the math : that's 1 gram = 1 million cells. Therefore, an average adult (average outside the adipose USA) weighing 75 Kg represents 75 billion cells, and 750 billion normally present germs. Mainly present on the skin's surface and within the digestive tube. And, in both cases, creating a major barrier against invasion of harmful germs. This, ladies and gents, is the normal, healthy, desirable state of our body.
When we take a bath, most bacteriae on our skin are washed away, but not at the bottom of our sudoriparous and sebaceous glands. As soon as the sebum film regenerates on our skin, our natural flora is re-established with it, reasonably decreased in numbers by the detergent soap we've used. And essentially, we're "cleaned" from the accumulated dead skin and smelly pheromones which we needed to eliminate anyway.
Insufficient washing is mainly uncomfortable, and unpleasant to others. An important point to consider, I'll grant you that. But only extremes of non-washing are really risky. (See chapter "specific pathologies of the homeless from lack of body hygiene" in the Washington Manual of medical reference.)
Too much washing, on the other hand (pun intended), shows health consequences far sooner. The skin needs to have its sebum layer, remove it too often and it's like scraping away the paint of your car, exposing it to rust. It causes skin cracks and ulcers, painful and prompt to get infected.
So, sense and reason, again. "A house needs be clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy."
Studies have shown the paramount protective effect of being "a minimum dirty". Children who play in the garden or on the farm fall sick a lot less often, and suffer much less from asthma. They inhale or swallow small amounts of earth dust, along with the natural germs present in it, and it causes a regular training for their immune system, while contributing to establish a balance in our natural protective bacterial flora. While children raised in speckless houses, "indoor grown", are frighteningly vulnerable to ordinary sicknesses.
Only epidemics, with highly aggressive and contagious germs, do warrant a "hunt for microbes".
I've noticed that, in my home, I'm the one who's best stood up to those two consecutive flus. My hypothesis : I owe thanks to my cat. Pets have been proven to have the same protective effect. My cat constantly goes wandering in the forest. I love how cats are odorless to slightly smelling "clean", but a cat has fur, and that fur precisely holds fine earth dust within. Pretty clear when I have to bathe mine after he's been under an oil-leaking car. Cuddling with my cat, letting it sleep on my bed, even IN my bed when it's cold, affectionately curling up against my chest, constantly exposes me to that benevolent earth dust. Boosting my immune system compared to those who seldom touch the cat, I believe.
I don't hurry and wash my hands after I've touched the cat. Only if I'm about to eat. And even then, I'm not sure it's necessary, just a social habit. For 100,000 years, humans have fed without having soap. This, I believe, is the main problem with the silly theories of creationnists: they would have us forget some cold hard facts about our human nature, stemming from our animal origins and our long-time proximity with normal Nature. (Normal, before the Age of Pesticides and Heavy Metals.)
"Germs" are not our enemy. Only pathological germs are.
As for smells, everything in moderation. I've said it before, maybe I need to repeat it: our pheromones USUALLY become unpleasant to us the moment they become consciously perceived. The main exception being a heated lovemaking session, as someone pointed out. So let's respect that part of our nature as well, and keep our "body signals" on the low volume setting, but not on "mute".
A gynaecologist, Dr Gérard Zwang, author of "the sex of woman", a very documented and interesting book, wrote this highly significant bit in it: "the natural smell of a woman's clean sex is the world's best aphrodisiac."
Natural smell, and clean. All is said. Reason and sense in everything. Isn't moderation lovely? :-)
"You can look neat and clean, and still have an "aura" that stuns rabbits at forty paces, let's face it!"
Is this how polecats hunt? ;-)
"what can you do about a guy like that? Whatever you would do risks even more problems. So the logical solution is to avoid that person."
If you're really desperate, file an anonymous complaint with the sanitation department. They're trained for such... "delicate" situations.
It's really poor social manners to stink up everybody that you pass by, and even worse your daily-encountered neighbors.
Not noticing all those systematic/reflex frowns and those nostrils curled up in tetany is also the mark of poor observation skills. ;-)
Sometimes, I'll grant you that, tar and feathers would actually be an improvement.
Joe Dick country-sang...
"You're one crazy Lebanese mo'fo."
Compliments will get you everywhere. :-D
"PLus with global warming there'll be ever more -all those glaciers are melting!"
Sure, as long as there remains glaciers to melt, that is...
Aniko chronometered...
"As I was not in a hurry, it took 6 minutes."
It takes me the third of that just to dry up properly, yo!
6 minutes? Undressing, washing, rinsing, drying, dressing again?
I use that much time just to wash my whole body once, after the water's temperature is set.
Call me Saint Thomas, but I'll believe it when I see it. (Tries not to drool in anticipation.)
Eo's right, you're really not like the typical Hollywood woman.
Then again, how much can you trust Hollywood for showing realistic life? :-)
"stopping fueling the wars by selling arms would be a nice gesture from the West"
Ah, at last a Westerner with honesty. :-/
There are so many problems with Africa, sometimes I feel it would be simpler and more efficient to tear everything down and rebuild from scratch.
Provided we can find honest contractors!!!
"I guess if a woman takes three hours she wants to please her guy..."
When my cousin got married, she prepared the "traditional" way, meaning the way Lebanese women prepare these days (NOT the same as old traditions!). She had more paint on her face than on a convoy of stolen cars.
Later, she told me it took her half an hour to wash it off afterwards. (See? Some things DO take half an hour.)
Somebody present commented: "Well, it's only a small effort, if you want to be beautiful on your wedding day!"
Well, firstly, my ideal notion of a beautiful woman is one who doesn't NEED make-up to be pretty. Okay, I'll accept that some make-up isn't always bad, or uglifying, but Western standards for serious make-up are clear: the less you use, the better. Especially, IMHO, with those totally artificial-looking colors women feel compelled to add on their eyelids. WTF is wrong with natural pink?!?
Anyway, my simple reply about my cousin's make-up was: "A wasted half-hour on your wedding night? THAT really counts." }:-)
I'm all for the beloved to make herself beautiful for her first time. As long as she does what she wants, not what she was forced into by the SFX department of ILM Creatures! [ILM : Industrial Lebanon Marriage®]
She really wasn't that pretty with those masses of make-up, anyway. She looks much better in daily life.
And if I'm in love and getting married, she should KNOW that she's already the most beautiful woman in the world to me, without spending a fortune for a once-in-a-lifetime Barbie disguise.
What woman sleeps with her make-up? None. Well, I believe a woman's most beautiful in the morning after a night of passionate lovemaking. Radiating love and happiness from her every fiber, lying there in abandon and trust. I'm not one for hickies and scratching marks anyway...
"But I don't know, never had a girlfriend."
[GASP!] Aniko, you're a... hetero? :-D
"It's hard to believe, though, that there is no way to economically transform sea water to drinking water."
It all depends on how much water you need, and how much you're ready to pay for it. "Economical" is a relative term.
Vegas-like lifestyle is based in great part on the abundance of un-costly water. That's how wasting always starts: un-costly abundance. Ease.
But have you noticed how rich people often are the most stingy?
Worst part about Vegas? It's built on sand, figuratively speaking.
The whole of California deliberately ignores the very real and guaranteed sword of Damocles of The Big One. Only stinginess again, refusing to renounce land and building investments in money, explains that they haven't abandoned those conglomerates of condemned condominium skyscrapers. One day or another, it's all falling down, and it'll be far worse than all the man-made 9/11s in History.
Again, Nature demands a minimum of sense.
I don't visit Nature that much, but I respect it. All-powerful neighbor, benevolent, but don't f*** with Big Momma too much or she'll sit on you just like that, and SQUISH!
Besides, what's wrong with washing one's car with a sponge and bucket? Just as clean in the end. It just doesn't feel as much "abundance-y".
BTW, the Lebanese too are hopeless wasters. A few years ago, I heard one guy, back from a trip to Europe, rant about waste sorting: "They want the citizens to do the State's work and deal with the garbage. For free!"
I chose to abstain from commenting.
If I become President, THEN I'll tell people their unpleasant truths.
Wow. Even split, that's one big mutha of a comment.
Let's consider it my tribute to Nature. :-)
Ok, 6 minutes for the whole showering process and jumping in a pyjama. And then wasting two hours in from of the internet... :-)
Ah, a pretty young woman in a pyjama... now I can't sleep.
(I'm sorry, I'm a man, I'm not proud of it.)
Now I've read your post, Pascal.
Tell me, how do you have so much time? Maybe you are born four-handed, and that makes the writing process faster? Or maybe you never sleep?
"stopping fueling the wars by selling arms would be a nice gesture from the West"
Ah, at last a Westerner with honesty. :-/
Do you know Noam Chomsky?
Noam Chomsky is brave for his public stand against US foreign interventionism.
Of course one could take the viewpoint that it really should not be such a strange viewpoint to consider it a bad thing to make your money off fueling wars and blood feuds around the world...
If you write a (short is OK) post on this issue, I'll link to it.
Eolake, it's midnight and as far as I am aware of your blogging activity you never sleep at midnight.
(There are thousands of girls in pyjama, maybe that's the reason?)
"If you write a (short is OK) post on this issue, I'll link to it."
You mean Chomsky?
Yes, and the strangeness of the fact that his viewpoint is so rare.
---
Thousands of pyjama girls... thanks a lot, now I won't sleep this week at all.
Chomsky should have got the Nobel Peace Prize a long time ago. But the real ones don't get it. Gandi didn't.
"Yes, and the strangeness of the fact that his viewpoint is so rare."
There's a very good film about him that is downloadable. And it also explains why his point of view is so rarely heared. It's called Manufacturing Consent. I could write a post about that and link to it.
Have you seen the Corporation? Well, now, if you don't sleep for a week, you will have plenty of time.
No, I'll be day-dreaming about pyjamas and taking cold showers.
"But the real ones don't get it. Gandi didn't."
No, but Al Gore did, and well deserved too, for making such a nice slide show.
"Yes, and the strangeness of the fact that his viewpoint is so rare.
---
Thousands of pyjama girls... thanks a lot, now I won't sleep this week at all."
I realized you had two voices. Now it becomes visible.
I think most of us do. I'm losing some of my fear of displaying that.
"I'll be day-dreaming about pyjamas and taking cold showers."
I can understand that. You have a hard job of looking at naked girls all day and night, probably longing to see a girl in a big grand-dad pyjama. Life is difficult.
Well, I do my work for the good of mankind, I don't want to complain.
Yes, and the strangeness of the fact that his viewpoint is so rare.
Probably because the douche doesn't know what he's talking about.
As for Ghandi, he wasn't the real deal. Look into it. People can be fooled easily. Everyone thinks that Mother Teresa was so great, but she was a con artist. She didn't even really believe what she was doing. She took money from criminals. She spent most of it not on the poor but on nunneries. She was a complete fraud.
"Probably because the douche doesn't know what he's talking about."
Joe, I respect all kinds of opinions when I have the feeling that the person took the time to think about it, read about it etc. to build up an opinion that is convincing for himself.
But I am sorry to say that you write makes me think you didn't make that kind of effort. The argument, "probably he does not know" is quite weak.
Well, any government needs people that spout instinctively the opinions established by the government and the media without questioning them. But are you sure you want to be one of those? I don't think so.
Oopsie! Should've done the math better myself.
I missed a zero, which in volumes counts triple, and I gave you a wrong figure.
So correction: 1 gram = 10^9 cells, that's one billion, and an average adult human comprises 75,000 billion cells, 75 trillion in the english numbers system, and therefore 750 trillion bacteriae. "Give or take a few cows", as my country Grandma would say.
How come I'm the only one to notice these things? Doesn't any of you lazy guys TRULY read my captivating and concise posts, hunh?
;-)
"And then wasting two hours in from of the internet... :-)"
Ah, if you're in the habit of hurrying to have more time for the REAL important stuff, then okay!
;-)
It's true that a simple pajama takes mere seconds to put on.
And even less to take off... 8-P~~~
Did you know that "pajama" is a hindu word? (Focus, Pascal, focus, you're losing sight of what's important here, shame on you.)
Eolake couldn't sleep...
"(I'm sorry, I'm a man, I'm not proud of it.)"
What about your pledge to the cause of Hominism, a.k.a. "Male Pride"? Traitor.
I really can't see what's shameful about being moved by the image of a PYW in a pajama. It's got that feeling of intimacy picture which, in itself, summons romantic thoughts. Romantic in a good way, not innuendo for you-know-what. (Well, not necessarily anyway. ;-)
Or perhaps it's embarrassment because when it's about a friend, somebody we know, then the social conditioned reflexes of "that sort of things is shameful" make us feel like we're being rude, indiscrete, sort of voyeurs?
But if we're bothered by this, and not by the same state of mind towards a stranger, then there's definitely something wrong somewhere. I recall the many letters you've posted on Domai, and I think, there should be a more relaxed attitude about all things that don't involve an attitude of disrespect, period.
Unless, of course, the concerned person feels uneasy about it. But before apologizing and blushing, perhaps we should ask? ;-)
Yesterday evening, back from the supermarket with the parents, I was undressing and without my shirt when my little nephew (4½) arrived. Immediately, he started chanting and taunting: "Ooh, naked, how shameful!" That's a typical phrase in Lebanon, usually employed as a diversion from one's OWN embarrassment.
But clearly, his typical mother, by constant "playful" repetition, is conditioning him to exclaim "shameful!" the instant he sees bare arms! Honestly? She's starting to get on my nerves with this. Hers are great kids, very bright and perky and all, but she's hammering into their heads the watermelon-sized seeds of grave hangups.
Especially since they have been at the beach, where everybody is far more "naked" than the kids have ever seen me at home.
(Sigh) Those Lebanese...
Any wonder why I still haven't found a soulmate in this country?
A female friend of mine, when I was studying in France, was very carefree about several things which I considered intimate/private, a little more than simply being in a pajama. I just felt it showed a trust that touched me. Interestingly, she never had any romantic feelings for me, so it was all about being relaxed, and nothing more.
(And no, I have no Domai moment to retell about this, sorry. :-)
"Tell me, how do you have so much time? Maybe you are born four-handed, and that makes the writing process faster? Or maybe you never sleep?"
Well, I watch very little TV, for one thing. :-)
Also, when I write big posts, I focus on just them, and sometimes take a day or two before completing them.
And when I type on the keyboard, I never wear any socks, so it makes me twice faster, ook! ook!
Just kidding. I'm not THAT talented, just efficient with my 10 "human" fingers. It comes with training. And you should see my brother, who is a programmer in his daily job: on a keyboard, he's faster than a prestidigitator, lightning-quick.
I'm always surprisesd, with a sprinkle of impatience on top, when I see shop attendants type soooo slowly on their work computer, searching for the letters, using one single finger... you'd expect them to have a little more ease than that, over time. Especially at the book shop, those who are supposed to type book titles for a database search dozens of times a day.
I guess it's just a consequence of me having so much to say, and saying it. Clicketyclickatlack!
Should make the writing of my novels rather untiresome. Now I insert HTML coding without so much as a hesitation, for the most common stuff.
I also make use of the time and patience necessary when I download some big files I really want. For instance, right now, I'm saving a YouTube movie, 13 MB, that's AT LEAST 65 minutes. Doing two things at once, one that requires little attention but still some, the other that requires lots of concentration and very little data flow. Oh, and also serving as a biological heating cushion for the feline exploiter. (Yes, I have pussy in my bed every night. Literally. ;-)
Women aren't the only ones who can multitask. I can keep several activities in mind while really focusing on one or two, and not lose the focus when I check on the others. It's all about having an organized mind.
Maybe it's in part thanks to the training from internship night shifts? When you've been up for 32 hours non-stop and still required to retain enough focus to make the right choices for patients whose life may depend on you, the neurons get spartan. "The tuff get going, and those who still stand get tuff." Just a hypothesis...
Noam Chomsky...
Name sounds quite familiar, let me check it out.
Oh. Let me get back to you on that in a few days. Lots to read about that guy. What's worse is, it seems VERY interesting, so I'll be reading slowly and mono-tasking it. :-)
Looks like you've just brought me a new Useful Reference® for Book One™...
"Yes, and the strangeness of the fact that his viewpoint is so rare."
Rare? Or made taboo to express, but far more widespread than it appears? A bit like Christiannism beliefs in Ancient Rome?...
One day it went all the way up to the Emperor, and suddenly the persecutions ended.
"Thousands of pyjama girls... thanks a lot, now I won't sleep this week at all."
Why sleep? Sounds like a great pyjama party. PILLOW FIGHT!!!
Heh... the first genuine X-rated film I ever saw was called "Teenage Pajama Party". Now I worry that the official parties might be a little less interesting. ;-) The girls kept having and sharing these raunchy fantasies. But really, I think the daydream of the plump one in the ice cream parlor got quite messy. There are limits to how much I like to play with food, it's got to still look appetizing.
Um... TMI? ;-)
"But the real ones don't get it. Gandi didn't."
He didn't? By Kâli, that's so unfair! When you think that Nelson Mandela got his for having the wisdom to give up terrorist methods...
And don't even get me started on that sorry idjit Arafat. Talk about a premature peace prize! I'm still waiting for the results to "peace off". :-(
So much for traditional honors, eh?
When Napoleon instored the Légion d'Honneur medal for his veterans, somebody criticized him for "rewarding men with baby rattles". His relpy: "The world is RUN with baby rattles."
There's a Wikipedia article about Manufacturing Consent.
"No, I'll be day-dreaming about pyjamas and taking cold showers."
Cold showers are a waste of a good body mood, if you ask me. Of course, nobody ever dares ask me, for fear of having to read for another 37 minutes if I have any significant opinion. ;-)
Carpe diem. Unless you're really into an emergency, never pass an occasion to enjoy a good moment. Same with ANY pleasant moment in life, be it as simple as stopping to hear a baby laugh on the street.
"I realized you had two voices. Now it becomes visible.
- I think most of us do. I'm losing some of my fear of displaying that."
Notice anything about the good doctor's constant shift between very serious and worryingly silly tone? :-)
"probably longing to see a girl in a big grand-dad pyjama"
There's an awesome Benny Hill short on YouToo-b, called "Rogue Nudist". Quite relevant on the social paradoxes of titillation.
It's real strange, when you ponder it, what turns us on sometimes and what doesn't. It's all in the socially-sculpted mind.
Joe,
I'm sorry, but this time I'm going to attribute everything you said to a temporary foul mood.
Nobody's PERFECT, but you're really putting down people who have some pretty unique achievements. Gandhi saw out of his country a rigid and oft violent colonizing power through pure non-violence, that's pretty awesome in itself, regardless of anything else about the man. He was murdered by a peace-hater, like Yitzhaq Rabin. I can't help but respect such an end to such a life, both could have been more selfish and lived much longer with much less hassle...
And Mother Teresa spent her life with the poor and the unwanted, the lepers, the "garbage of humankind" in their own country. Surely it wasn't because of the luxury she could afford to live in from all those donations. Have you ever seen what leprosy does to a malnourished body? I've had a patient with a somewhat similar condition. "Hardened" nurses needed huge efforts to tend to him, in spite of everything they'd grown accustomed to, even indifferent. This was a sight -and smell- I'll never forget.
Don't be so categorical about what you have not lived. As a general rule, always think long and hard before criticizing somebody's life. Lest you say things you'll one day secretly regret.
Other debated characters of "public admiration" include Sister Emmanuelle, who spent years helping the poorest of the poor in Cairo, and Father Pierre, in France itself. Father Pierre got some significant heat because a friend of his said some pretty stypid things and he wouldn't publicly reject that friendship. Doesn't change all the good he did otherwise.
I've heard a lot of controversy about Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The fact remains, he lived hid beliefs to the end, and turned his back on his former buddy Fidel Castro when he saw him in good way to becoming himself a dictator. Whatever you feel about the Che, he had some integrity towards his beliefs. Never became an old bastard living in luxury and lies.
I'm not a Che fan. I'm quite indecisive about him. But some things I just have to respect. See my posts about Hezbollah spiritual leader Sheikh Fadlallah.
Getting off-topic.
I'd rather we returned to talking about young beauties in pyjamas, fresh out of the shower.
"Male pride"? Me? You're kidding, surely.
The argument, "probably he does not know" is quite weak.
Well, let's just say one thing I've learned about this place is that it's not worth expressing an opinion that is anything other than that of the extreme left (for which Chomsky is the poster boy).
I do not blindly parrot the opinions of others, but if you want an idea of my opinions on this you can go to slate.com and read some of Christopher Hitchens' articles.
I think anyone who has been around here very long knows that I am not one of those people who just reacts emotionally, I usually have a good reason for saying what I do, and can usually back up what I say. (I am used to few people around here agreeing with me, though, but what can you do? It takes all kinds to make a world.)
I'll get back to on what you said, Pascal. I'm going to smoke a bunch of dope so that you'll know I'm in a really good mood when I do respond.
Of course I'm joking. I would never smoke an illegal substance. Just like I would never illegally download music or videos. Or pay for sex. I am a law abiding citizen.
Joe,
You can't seriously mean that extreme leftists are the only ones against warmongering and interventionism?
"Male pride"? Me? You're kidding, surely.
Heck, why would pride be the monopole of gays, huh?
TESTOSTERONE POWER! RAAARRRRGH!!!
Just been looking at a few quotes from Bill Hicks. They reminded me that "drug-heads" jokes are the latest craze in Lebanon...
And he makes some fucking good points about legal vs illegal drugs.
I should mention to you a few things about law abiding.
In France, the law specifically forbids from questioning the illegality of drugs, it's considered "apologia", effectively preventing any debate on marijuana, for instance. "Questioning its illegality is illegal, period!"
Another law there, forbidding any database or classification of citizens with mention of ethnicity or religion, effectively prevents any official study of discrimination practices or the actual effects on people's lives of possible discrimination. "Blacks might be poorer or more unemployed, but it's against the law to ever look at an unemployed person's skin color." Therefore, nobody can look into the possible causes of eventual discrimination.
"Racism is illegal, don't even talk about it, move along people, nothing to see here, the law protects you, sleep tight."
In Lebanon, as you may know we are officially at war with Israel, no ceasefire was ever signed. And how could it? When a lebanese reporter was jailed for doing an interview of an israeli politician, under charges of "contacts with the enemy"! It doesn't matter that the interview was basically about "why are you Israelis being such jerks with Lebanon?". Dura lex, sed lex, the law is the law. Therefore, it is strictly forbidden to speak with anybody of the enemy, not until we've negociated and signed peace. All that remains, is to accomplish that without making any "contact with the enemy".
Having said that, I too have never smoked an illegal substance (or a legal one! yuck), illegally -that I know of- downloaded music or videos (with MY snail-paced dial-up? ha ha ha!), or paid for sex. Not that the law has any farklempt business interfering with how consenting adults have sex, especially when some marry in a clear "sex in exchange for money" deal. But the best things in life are free.
Then again, seems like it's becoming illegal to have a good laugh in the UK. Now THAT makes me want to become a dangerous anarchist immediately!
Anybody got the formula for the Joker's laughing gas? I think it's time to make a criminal chemical attack against the british Parliament...
To "clean house", to quote Mister V.
(Gee, I'm really in a dark vein mood today, ain't I? Pascal, you're starting to worry me.
- I am?
- Absolutely.
- Why?
- Well, for one, because you're talking to yourself!
- So what?
- Smart-ass!)
Looks like this spin-off discussion from a previous one is going to initiate a spin-off discussion.
Blame Bill Hicks. ;-)
"You can't seriously mean that extreme leftists are the only ones against warmongering and interventionism?"
Well, if warmongering and interventionism mean extreme rightism...
Gandhi saw out of his country a rigid and oft violent colonizing power through pure non-violence, that's pretty awesome in itself, regardless of anything else about the man.
Britain was already in the process of dismantling their empire by this point. There's a reason the U.S. hasn't bothered to physically conquer and occupy very many places (recent history aside) - you don't need to do that these days to make money. Do you what Gandhi really accomplished? He was almost directly responsible for the creation of the state of Pakistan. He hated Muslims. That's one reason why his personal imperfections are of more importance than you might at first think.
He was murdered by a peace-hater, like Yitzhaq Rabin. I can't help but respect such an end to such a life, both could have been more selfish and lived much longer with much less hassle...
He wasn't the lover of peace most people believe. He hated Muslims. You don't have to look too far to find this out. He hated blacks ("They are loafers...a species of humanity almost unknown among the Indians.") Even if you don't believe the stories of some of the people who knew him, you just have to look at his actions and what he himself wrote. What he did and said made the partition of India a necessity in the eyes of many Indian Muslims. He wasn't the peace loving holy man most people think he was.
He also was a bit of a fraud in that, as a lawyer trained in Britain, he started going around India dressed like some Indian fakir. He experienced racism in Britain, and I suppose it's only human that this affected his views, but still - it's another defect in his personality which is of importance.
And Mother Teresa spent her life with the poor and the unwanted, the lepers, the "garbage of humankind" in their own country. Surely it wasn't because of the luxury she could afford to live in from all those donations.
Sorry, but this is known to be untrue. Mother Teresa actually spent more of her time hanging out with people like Nancy Reagan, or chilling in the Vatican, or kicking it with the Duvalier family (nice people). She took a million dollars from Charles Keating, who stole it. (She never gave the money back. Another indisputable fact.) We also know for a fact that very little of the money went to help the wretched refuse (to borrow from the Statue of Liberty) of India.
Her money was mostly spent on religious activities and not on the poor. She built over a hundred facilities all over the world bearing her name. The poor did not benefit from this. Half or slightly over half are nunneries.
Her charity is the only Indian charity which doesn't publish its accounts. The money was kept in the Vatican bank.
A lot of the people who were supposedly dying didn’t have to die. They could have been saved if Mother Teresa had spent the money on them instead of building nunneries.
Don't be so categorical about what you have not lived. As a general rule, always think long and hard before criticizing somebody's life.
I’d suggest you follow your own advice on this one. Before telling people what to do, make sure you’ve got your facts straight. Not being a doctor I wouldn’t challenge you on anything medical, but all else is fair game.
Everything I’ve said is out there for anyone to find.
I really wish that Mother Teresa had been legit, but she wasn't. Ghandi was closer, but he was no saint, and many of his words and actions caused trouble that wouldn't have existed otherwise.
You can't seriously mean that extreme leftists are the only ones against warmongering and interventionism?
Have you read much of Chomsky? He's what I'd call extreme left. To him, it seems, spending any amount on the military is warmongering, and any kind of military action anywhere is just the worst kind of evil.
I'd love to see world peace achieved, and if you really could arrange for everyone to lay down their arms and destroy all weapons (and certainly as WMDs) then we might be able to achieve it. In the meantime, turning the other cheek just gets you slapped harder.
I haven't read chomsky, I bow to that.
But of all the dozens of countries the US has invaded, how many attacked the US first?
Not to mention the underground wars, CIA assassinations and such.
I'm not saying the US is a black sheep, au contraire, most countries are like that. Or would be if they had the power. The US has the power, and they use it. They are the 1000-pound gorilla. On PCP.
Well I have lived next door to them all my life so I know. At least you Europeans have a bit of space between you and them.
I'm not sure the old "who attacked first?" idea really works too well. We will probably never know whether Saddam had WMDs. Probably he didn't. I don't see what was wrong about them going in there and taking him out anyway, as he was a savage tyrant. They were right to go into Afghanistan too. It was right to go into Korea.
Usually they fuck it up once they get there but that's another story.
I am certainly not pro war, not a "hawk." I would rather have peace. Someday maybe we will achieve that. But pacifism will always be foolish. Sometimes you've got to fight back. Orwell was right.
I'm a bit disappointed in the Good Doctor. I was looking forward to one of Pascal's uber postings.
Mondo posting coming... eventually. Remember what the mouse said to the elephant: "Yeah, well, *I* have been sick!"
And the ungratefulness! Haven't I already given plenty to this thread? I'm telling you, it's not all done and finished in 5 minutes, not even in 6!
Even though I saved time by not undressing. ;-)
Having real trouble keeping up with all the posts lately. I actually feel sleepy at night!
Like I said before, you're washed up! :)
It's now May 27, Doc, where's that uber post that's going to put me in my place?!
Haven't you heard? Now Blogger won't allow me (or anyone else, I reckon) to post comments bigger than 4,096 characters. ):-P
It's a conspiracy, I tell you.
They've killed Kenny, those bastards!
4000 characters? For you, that's barely clearing your throat!
Hide behind the new character limit, Doc! Tsk, tsk! I'm suprised at you! Do it in installments, like our resident genius Joanie.
Well, here goes nothing. First baloney slice (I'm growing tired of quantun salami), coming up!
Who ordered the double-thickness goulash-bortsch flavored with double garlic? Ah, ov kourrse. Herre's yourr Helsingovitch Special, Misterr Dick.
"There's a reason the U.S. hasn't bothered to physically conquer and occupy very many places (recent history aside) - you don't need to do that these days to make money."
It also COSTS an insane amount of money. Does Iraq ring a minaret?
There's a reason why the worldwide crisis is most intense in the USA...
Besides, nowadays a war just costs too much. Let's just go to Mars instead. :-P
"Gandhi [...] was almost directly responsible for the creation of the state of Pakistan. He hated Muslims."
That's not the way I heard it. The people of "former India" voted for separation, and Gandhi was hoping for the continuation of a single State. To my knowledge.
Anyhow, Hindus and Muslims can't stand each other, truces never last for very long [a few yards, at most], and the most sensible solution, from what I see, would be COMPLETE separation. Nowadays, in "current India", the respective extremists are being regularly compared in rabidness to the Talibans. It's all the same league of Football-With-A-Severed-Head.
I'll let you guess what daily life feels like for the minoritarian mini-minority of Christians. [*cough*CULLINGS!*cough*]
Even a Jesus H. Christ, genuine and miraculous Son of Brahma, would've gotten bare-handedly lynched and ripped to shreads before convincing these Kilrathi Klingonite Insectoids to love one another!
Sometimes, I really wonder why some flamboyant nuts still bother to try... I admire their untiring termite-like relentlessness, but I wouldn't do the same.
But let's not AGAIN dwell on how hopeless Lebanon is, courtesy of that invasive pest species known as the common Moronus Libanicus... We've got such a big surplus of Moronites.
[Northern Lebanon accent tends to replace A's with O's, and I originate from the North. The FAR North. I was born in a humble igloo on a chilly night of June 31st...]
About Gandhi's [authentic] position towards "inferior Blacks", I've talked about it elsewhere, I think less than three days ago.
You know what? Upon deep thinking, it doesn't matter whether Mohandass Karamchand Gandhi was a formidable noble holy soul, of just a slightly less flawed neanderthal than the rest of the herd. Unless you're living in India and write publicly published opinions (which would have to take into account the very jingoist public opinion), it's ultimately pointless.
Some famous Lebanese poet whose name I've, of course, completely forgotten, wrote:
"If the People one day want life
Destiny can but comply,
The night can but turn bright,
And the bonds can but shatter."
If the people don't make the spiritual progress, you can drag the jackass to the water, kicking and screaming, all you want, for all the good it'll do.
Sorry, that should've been "bucking and rearing and braying". ):-P
One racist leader never a pogrom riot makes. It takes enthusiastic moronic masses.
I'm too old for this idealistic doo-doo.
Like my (rather) pious father likes to say: "God Himself sent His Son to humankind, and they killed him!"
Reminds me of a joke, but I think I've already told it.
"He also was a bit of a fraud in that, as a lawyer trained in Britain, he started going around India dressed like some Indian fakir."
Now that one's a bit unfair, honestly!
He CHOSE to live a hermit's ascetic life. A simpler life, less focused on the ivory tower-like preoccupations of a rich snotty snob.
A bit like Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, who made some incredibly gutsy choices for his time, to stay true to his beliefs.
[To be continued. Same P-04 time, same P-04 place]
"[Mother Teresa's] money was mostly spent on religious activities and not on the poor. She built over a hundred facilities all over the world bearing her name. Half or slightly over half are nunneries."
See, this is why I'm always a bit uneasy about "religious charity". These should be universal values and recognised as such, like the Red Cross, and not an excuse for proselytism of ANY sort. Or an excuse for having your name humbly posted everywhere in a large font.
Sure, when religion propagates the values of human solidarity, that's a good thing. But I also find it a surperfluous method.
I never caught on to this whole worship-prayer-devotion stuff, and it wasn't for lack of good will. And yet, I'm immensely more charitable than most pious people I know around me.
And I so WISH this sounded like bragging, but not even! Believe me, it's not a big feat to be more brotherly than most people around me.
How sad to acknowledge that. :-(
And yet, what would the Christian God, as described to us through the Gospel and in Catechism, prefer that we did? Pray all day, or help our neighbour?
I'm a hopeless reverse-bigot, and yet, it deeply embarrasses me to realize that I'm a far better christian than those people never missing a Sunday mass.
Mass bores me. It always has. I always wondered "Why would God be so egocentric to want our repeated praise? Doesn't he know our true feelings, once and for all?"
My parents know I love them. Goes without saying. Sure, I do say it occasionally anyway. But not to convince them (or to convince myself). Only because it's a nice thing to sincerely say to somebody who's there next to you.
If I felt the presence of a personal God, I'd talk to God, you can bet on that! But the wind doesn't whisper words, and the pigeons don't coo clearly expressed comfort.
I think I'm a VERY bad candidate for hypnotists. Auto-suggestion doesn't work on me. I've got to be rationally convinced, before I go cosplaying for a Trekkie convention or whatever.
"A lot of the people who were supposedly dying didn’t have to die. They could have been saved if Mother Teresa had spent the money on them instead of building nunneries."
Well, it's very true that treating, nay, CURING leprosy is ridiculously simple and cheap. Far more than tuberculosis.
Leprosy only still exists because poverty in many parts of the world is SO extreme, people can't even afford such an easily available solution.
The fact that leprosy still exists at all tells us A LOT about human selfishness. Damn it, it should've been long eradicated by now!
Not to mention that the natural synergic agent to the treatment, chaulmoogra oil, comes from roughly the same region where India is, from what I recall.
Ah, why am I even bothering? Preaching to the dunes, or to the already converted fennecs.
"Not being a doctor I wouldn’t challenge you on anything medical"
You're being a very disappointing disciple to R.A.F. there... Shame, thrice shame on thou!
And how very un-lebanese! ANY lebanese would readily challenge my knowledge with his own illusion of.
Well, except when they come to consult me. At that point, they're far less hard-blowing... :-P
[Cue commercial break]
Drink Tocsi-Cola™!
"Ghandi [...] many of his words and actions caused trouble that wouldn't have existed otherwise."
It wouldn't have? Ree-hee-hee-hee-heallllly?!?
Oh, your candid optimism cracks me up, kiddo!
Now, listen here, sonny: never, EVER, underestimate the capacity of humans for being FANTASTICALLY stupid.
Or you're bound to look silly every time.
"But of all the dozens of countries the US has invaded, how many attacked the US first?"
WHAT? What are you, an accomplice of the enemy, man? Never, NEVER give them a chance to strike first, or we're all DOOMED! DOOMED, I TELL YOU!!! Aaaah-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!
You're forgetting THIS, you durn bleedin'-hearted liberal varmint: we pre-emptively attack them, because we KNOW they intend, some day, at some point, probably, we can feel it in our bones, to attack us first. Which is a sneaky crime or cowardliness. So WE attack first.
To teach 'em good.
GOT THAT?!!?!?
Good. :-)
"Not to mention the underground wars, CIA assassinations and such."
Bah. All commie propaganda by the KGB to undermine our fine ultra-liberal values.
"They are the 1000-pound gorilla. On PCP."
Ah-HAH!!! You said "CCCP". You're a commie mole, I knew it!!!
"At least you Europeans have a bit of space between you and them."
It's never enough, believe me.
Lebanon is even further from them than Europe, and yet they're always visiting us unannounced when we'd like to have some peace and quiet.
And always promising to bring us some homemade apple pie NEXT time. ):-P
[Almost there. Gee, who knew Mount Everest was so tall?]
"We will probably never know whether Saddam had WMDs."
What, WMDs capable of reaching the American continent? ROMFA&OTFWHL!!! [H is for Hysterical]
What was wrong about toppling THIS tyrant (besides ravaging a whole goddamn COUNTRY to do it, and Abu Ghraib, and all that ca-ca), is that the friendly West IS the one who MADE him a well-established dictator for decades, SOLD him the chemical weapons he used on the kurds, and that TODAY still they identically support any merciless dictator that's on their side... until the poor fucker gets the Noriega treatment. Remember President-Dictator-General Manuel Antonio Noriega, in Panamá?
Don't get me wrong here, I'm all for realpolitik. It's the fucking syrupy, diabetogenic, well-intended chutzpahdik hypocrisy that ruffles my feathers sideways.
At least, them Russians and Chinese are being straightforward about it. They just say "X and Y are friends/allies, we support them, and we won't stand for the hostile West to leisurely threaten them". Human rights? WHAT human rights?
Who gives a rabbit's twice-digested dropping about human rights?
The Reds (or ex-Reds) at least respect my human right to not be publicly and permanently taken for the drooling retard which I am not.
Let's just be honestly cynical about the rest, shall we? Nobody cares about the rights and freedoms of the peoples of Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Burma, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Rwanda or North Korea. Or Switzerland, for that matter. "The others" are, always, exclusively, pawns whose purpose is to get adequately placed and moved for the sole benefit of the King's safety. And luxurious lifestyle.
Because, yes, the way the AVERAGE American squanders energy, resources, and CO2 quotas, is what you can objectively call only a luxurious lifestyle.
The other dagos can eat their sand if they're worried about starving. Okie-dokie, bwana? Goody.
Meeeee, bitter? Neuw, neuw, neuw, not one bite... I mean, not one BIT!
It's just that too much lucidity often sounds exactly like cynicism. Looks like it, smells like it, barks like it... but I swear, it's not the same! (Yes, I @#&%$ &@$#%&* &&&$$$%%%#@ swear! Crescent my islamic heart.)
"I would rather have peace."
Right-o, brother. Spankin'!
But that last slice of pizza is MINE! Word life.
You can have a piece o' da NEXT dinner order. Dibs on the BBQ chips!
"4000 characters? For you, that's barely clearing your throat!"
Yes. If I do it in two parts. First "A", then the "HEM".
It's lucky that the Lebanese are so highly adaptable!
"Do it in installments, like our resident genius Joanie."
Don't you mean, Masked Josie? ;-)
[Phew!]
How's that for a Mississippi-long serial post? Boo. Ya.
Ah, yes, I'm a big fan of FWASH on cable.
F.W.A.S.H. : Football-With-A-Severed-Head.
Such a manly sport, and what not.
Did you know it comes from the ancestor of polo?
Aah, scenic Indo-Pakistan! The picturesque! The booyas, the burqas...
"You can just call me... Ivan."
did you intend to post on this very old post?
And satisfy Joe's long eager wait by rewarding his patience? Naaah! I typed this 4-part post purely by accident. ;-)
I must've fallen on my keyboard when I slipped on the soap after hurrying through my 7-minute shower. I'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again.
I had given up on him, and have only now seen the long-awaited reply. Unfortunately I will have to give the Good Doctor another smackdown, and with an almost absurd ease too!
[snff! snff!] Bring it on, tough guy! You and what army?
Here, to give you the ghost of a sporting chance, I'll let you tag with the Legion of Pain.
Me, I'll just side with a kitten and a 2 year-old little girl. You know, to balance the numbers and not bias the judges.
When we're done with you, you can hit the showers. No more than 6 minutes each!
That's right, I only relieve the barrelloads of hurt as the Good Doctor in my civilian life.
Just to warn you I have been known to bite the occasional ear, a la Mike Tyson.
Then I won't lend you mine, my (handsome) fellow Roman countryman and friend. These Dicksters are crazy!
I'm holding on to it then. Better render to Pascal the things that are Pascal's, right? (Amen to that)
Speaking of the witch, where's MY mega-post-comment-reply? I've got other fortified camps to ravage, you know... And my potion's getting cold.
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