"I agree with everything you say, but I would attack to the death your right to say it." - Tom Stoppard

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The results of the poll are out, with 124 votes recorded (hopefully no one tried to stuff the ballot box, though I *did* implement some measures to counter that eventuality)!

Results:
Personal anecdotes/musings 30 (24%)
NUS Commentary 21 (16%)
Amusements/frivolity 21 (16%)
Quotes 15 (12%)
Religion 11 (8%)
Pseudo/Quasi intelligentsia 11 (8%)
Political Commentary 8 (6%)
Miscellaneous (specify) 6 (4%)
Technology 1 (0%)
124 Total votes

Some people thought that I was going to tailor my content to my audience. Fear not; among other reasons, since I don't get paid for this (especially since no one ever clicks on my Google ads, boo hoo. Though they've just mailed out my first cheque which strangely, though sent by "First Class US Mail", will take 2-3 weeks to arrive), I've no obligation at all to follow the results of the poll. In fact, I could be characteristically perverse and go in the other direction. Or start typing smth lyk dis.... hiakz...

In any case, the poll was just to find out what people find interesting about this place, and my curiosity is thus assuaged.


Also, it seems most blogs are largely comprised of one-issue posts; unlike mine, they have a theme running through each post. They also do not have 2000 word long posts.

The joys of verbose eclecticism!


ted writes:

"When are you posting your commentary on why is it Christianity have such a draw on the young? Waiting for t very long liao leh."

Patience, young grasshopper. Good things come to those who wait. (More importantly, I still have quite a lot of backlog to cover, and am trying to fit PRTF to Institutional Realities)

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The Young Republic on Abstinence-only policies, STDs and such:

A: I fail to see your point.

What exactly is wrong with teaching abstinence from sex, being that it is the ONLY safe method to guarantee prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as a host of social problems such as adultary, bribery et al?

If the Government decides that they want to prevent the spread of AIDS by clamping down on such activities, it is not much different then it's clamping down on, say, chewing gum by limiting its use here.

B: Hey, let me give you a piece of advice. Don't ever have sex, okay? Because
even if you're married and use a condom with your spouse every single time you come within 2 feet of each other's genitals, you can't guarantee you won't get an STD. Your spouse may be infected before marriage/unfaithful/rape victim/intravenous drug user/recipient of contaminated blood transfusion/unfortunate individual in whom inexplicable spontaneous venereal bacterial infections occur. And condoms break. THE
ONLY SAFE METHOD IS TO ABSTAIN... FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER.

(The government can deal with the resulting baby shortage by growing them from scratch in vats - I'm sure they're doing the relevant research already.)

Risk is an unavoidable element of a fulfilling and fruitful life. "Safe methods" and "guarantees" are for pussies. Pardon my French.

B.

p.s. I have no idea where you got it into your head that teaching abstinence prevents adultery. I don't even want to imagine what you mean by 'bribery'.

B: After sending my last email it occurred to me that maybe there's a way you
can avoid STDs but still have sex - just make sure all the instances of sex you ever engage in centre around raping day-old babies. But then I remembered babies can be born with HIV or other STDs as well. Too bad. You just have to go without ever getting laid.

p.s. Of course giving out condoms at a party encourages casual sex. People who have personal inhibitions against casual sex are instantly and completely changed in this respect by contact with a condom packet, and people who are generally enthusiastic about casual sex would never be able to get a condom anywhere else. I apologise for my earlier gross misunderstanding of reality.

B.

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Dr Late is one of the 29183 people (as of writing) who have signed the "FACTS" (FAMILIES AGAINST the CASINO THREAT in SINGAPORE) petition. Eheh. Why am I not surprised? Incidentally, this is what happens when you socially engineer a populace for decades to believe that gambling is evil, wrong and immoral, and then suddenly change your mind (so you've to start bashing gays).

the burden and standard of proof - Why criminalising the unwitting transmission of AIDS (or HIV, more accurately) is a bad idea

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa on The Da Vinci Code: "The book is everywhere. There is a very real risk that many people who read it will believe that the fables it contains are true."
How ironic...

The Virtues of Promiscuity - "The latest anthropological research shows that female infidelity is good for the family, the community, and even the gene pool... If the anthropologists are right, monogamy may well be counter-evolutionary or an adaptation to modern life. Or perhaps the nuclear family has always been more of an ideal than a reality."

Medical, Ethical Questions Largely Decided, Experts Say - "For all the political controversy over whether Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state and should be allowed to die, neurologists and ethicists said yesterday that the case presents few scientific and legal ambiguities."
That people so against 'unnatural' things could be for the unnatural animation of a dead person in a gross mockery of life and against the person's will is curious. Or pehaps not, given conservatives' behavior in other fields.

Schoolgirls playing filthy game of orgy roulette - "Russian Roulette is filled with inherent dangers, but Japanese schoolgirls have apparently devised a version where there're plenty of shots fired, but none of them are bullets, according to Hanashi no Channel (2/20). Instead of a single bullet being loaded into a revolver chamber and the trigger pulled until it lets off with a blast, Russian Sex Roulette, the schoolgirls' derivative game, sees the girls allow any number of men to unleash their weapons in her chamber."

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"Humor in British and American trade magazines (Hypothesis tests for differences between proportions)" - wth.

For an article I wrote I had to give the people I interviewed pseudonyms. The people I interviewed either weren't online or weren't responding, so I named all of them, save one, after Power Rangers. Coincidentally, there were 4 girls, so I could insert the names of each of my 4 favourite female rangers in. Ho ho! (I'm so going to get lynched)


Quotes:

Decant the garlic bread into the bowl (put)