Lust - The Absolute Bestest Deadly Sin of All!

If you took the time to read my introduction to my series on "My Favorite Deadly Sins" then you may recall that the only thing I see as being a violation of good moral behavior is causing another person harm. In other words the only thing that I see as being 'wrong' is hurting someone else. Breaking legs, stealing cars, shooting Granny or child molestation would fall into this category. Sex, on the other hand, falls no where in that category.

I take this pretty broad view that any sexual behavior by consenting adults is good. One person, a couple, a couple thousand people, it doesn't matter. Anything sexual that all the parties agree upon is alright by me. In fact, let me take it step further. It's not just 'OK' with me. Whatever it is that person or persons choose to do is awesome as far as I'm concerned. When it comes to sexual activity I think that anything anybody wants to do is totally rad. I love it. It doesn't matter to me whether I've engaged in it or not. It doesn't matter whether I may never participate in it. If it's consensual then I hold in the highest esteem.

See, when I was a religious man the church used to hammer home this idea that even though sexual thought was inevitable it was only appropriate amongst married people to engage in the activities and, even worse, to participate in 'lustful thoughts' was a moral aberration. I take full responsibility for believing their bullshit but at the time when I thought I deserved eternal damnation for masturbation the representatives of the church didn't try to dissuade this. As a matter of fact, they told me I should abandon my behaviors and pray for forgiveness. It's bad enough that they don't want teenagers to learn how to use condoms but when they are encouraging philosophies that cause kids to cry because of the mental anguish caused by masturbation guilt these people are harming young people and should feel ashamed.

Ultimately this lead to my entire disdain for any sort of thought crime mentality but especially when it came to sexuality. I don't usually use my blogs to tell people what to do but in this case I will: if you're a parent make sure that your religious doctrine doesn't encourage this sort of mentality. Mental health is important and sexuality identity is one of the key factors in adult self reliance and social behavior. And to my religious friends out there: if you're still a virgin and frustrated it's not because your god wants you to suffer. It's because your church is afraid of your autonomy and getting a grip (a nice, loose, lubricated grip) on your sexuality is a great first step.

But back to good stuff: fucking. I honestly think that all kinds of sex fucking rules. Men and women fucking each other. Men fucking other men. Women fucking other women. Men fucking men and women. Women fucking men and women. It's all great. I'm actually sort of a shy guy and like to keep my own sexual practices private but I'm more than happy to say that I think all of this shit is super hot. When it comes to sex I am pro-everything.

Not everything is exactly a turn on for me but I still think it's sexy. So far I've never been in a sexual situation where one person dressed up as Stalin, another as Churchill, and another wheeled in as Roosevelt but I still like to think that someone, somewhere is getting a boner by envisioning this scenario. If spanking midgets in over-sized cowboy hats make you wet then go forth knowing you have my blessing. To me an open-minded person would find the sex scenes in Brokeback Mountain to be as hot as anything else they've ever seen in a movie not necessarily because it contains specific actions they wish to replicate in their own personal life but simply because it's two people enjoying each other's sexual company.

Unfortunately there are individuals who aren't this open when it comes to sexuality. They can't allow others to find their own niche without feeling personally violated in some way. The most obvious and contemporary example of this is exhibited in many people's pure hatred of the idea of gay marriage. As backwards as Americans are in denying it legally we are actually much further ahead of most countries that wouldn't even allow the conversation. In the United States it disappoints me to no end to think that there are people out there who think the only exercise of individual liberty means lower taxes. They used the word freedom but they only mean it conditionally.

The entire concept of the 'sanctity of marriage' is actually repulsive to me. The word sanctity comes from the Latin word sanctitas meaning 'holy.' Holiness means being placed aside for religious or spiritual reasons. In other words when a person argues for the 'sanctity of marriage' they are in fact saying that marriage is a religous rite. This alone ought to throw up to several red flags. By there being laws prohibiting a person to participate in marriage as a religious ritual is in direct violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution which prohibits the state from interfering with the free exercise of religion. If a person volunteers to participate in a religion that refuses to conduct gay marriage that's their own stupid decision but it shouldn't be prohibited by laws.

The second red flag comes up with this whole idea of marriage being holy to begin with. Does that mean that as an atheist I should be prohibited from being married? In a modern, liberty-loving world we must be able to allow for any sort of contractual agreement to go forth, be it commercially, professionally, or socially oriented. If I want to make a contract with any other person and define terms that we both can agree on then that is my right as a human. If I want to make multiple contracts, as long as they don't violate a contract I've made with another person, I should be able to do that too. Personally I think that marriage would be far more sensible if people made renewable vows - create a contract with a time limit and if the people want to renegotiate or terminate the agreement they can do so without recourse.

Whether you're married or not I suggest you go out there and get some action. Whether you fuck one person a thousand times or a thousand people one time go find out what suits you best. Be honest and horny.

The Most Controversial Sin - Greed

There have been several words that have been applied to me over the years including 'liar,' 'satanic,' 'self righteous,' and my personal favorite string of words: 'dope-smoking hippie fag.' I won't even tell you what a stranger called me because I celebrated a Pistons victory over the Lakers. While I suppose all of these words have had some level of truth to them at one time or another in my life I find it quite unfortunate that the word 'greedy' has never been applied to me by anyone other than myself. I suppose one reason is that while those other terms have been used pejoratively 'greedy' is one that I wear with a tremendous level of pride.

A quick Google search to define greed returns with "[the] excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves." That sounds exactly like me. I want more wealth than I need. I want more property than I need, more food than I need, more DVDs, lovers, and hair cuts than I need. In fact, if need is based solely on daily survival I am super greedy. I may not have developed all the tools required to get more than I need but I sure as hell want them and even take steps to get more than I will ever need to live. The last time I checked I don't need a single book to maintain life, much less hundreds of them, but to some of my friends and colleagues my library is somewhat admirable. I want things that I won't even get to use before I die. If I had the means to do it I would have a heated castle with servants, an indoor pool, and a harem. And cable! Can't forget cable. Castle or not I do not plan on facing death with nothing but zeros in my bank account and I feel like I'm possibly making some errors in judgment if I don't end the year with more money than I started with. I see it as a measurable way to show that I'm contributing to my own well-being.

Being such a big fan of greed you can imagine that I'm often a supporter of those also motivated by greed. Chances are that if you are a semi-rational person you yourself are a pretty greedy person too. Take this into consideration: according to the World Bank there are currently about 1.4 billion people living under the conditions of extreme poverty. They define this as someone living on less than $1.25 a day. That's less than late fees at a video store. That's half the price of a box of Pop Tarts on sale. Two songs on iTunes would cost more than that. In Liberia that constitutes over 4/5 of the population. In the United States the number is so small it isn't even a statistic. You may not realize it, but you are rich. You may not be as wealthy as people who are doing something as important as marrying Demi Moore and playing a TV prankster but the standard of living which you have exceeds not only most of the people alive but almost every single person who has ever walked the planet Earth.

Me being the self-righteous bastard that I am let me make one aside about politics and namely the hot button topic of the day: healthcare. Speaker of the House Pelosi likes to defame those in the health industry, and particularly insurance companies as being greedy. According to an Associated Press article by Calvin Woodward health insurance providers "barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure." I know they make billions but it also costs billions to run these companies. Maybe they are greedy and they just aren't very good at actualizing themselves.

I'm not going to claim to be an expert in economics nor am I going to say that I know how to make the cost of health care decline but since Nancy Pelosi has chosen to target health insurance companies and reprimand them for their alleged 'greed' then I think she may need reconsider her position. Alcohol manufacturers have huge profit margins and it is one of the leading causes of health and family issues but I haven't seen Nancy call them out (or give back their campaign contributions or prohibit their sales in her restaurants).

This isn't to say that I'm one of those individuals who thinks that a so-called public option is gift from Satan bent on destroying Western civilization. I don't even believe in Satan. But what I will say is that in a country where we can use our Kroger Plus Card to get discounts on antiseptics, bandages, pain killers, antibiotics, dozens of different kinds of cold medicines, and literally hundreds of other items brought to us by 20th and 21st century science that to hear people complain about the high cost of MRIs gives me a kind of sickness that even modern health care cannot cure. In America we call modern technology which costs thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars life-saving while in other countries the same term is used for clean water and vitamins. If you've ever taken an Ibuprofen you should be overcome with gratitude. I know I take it for granted.

To tell you the truth I don't know what to make of the proposals for health care reform before Congress. I would think any smart person would look at any proposals government or free market based with a degree of skepticism. Maybe what Congress wants to do will help. I certainly hope that it doesn't drastically increase inflation because people without a lot of money sure as heck don't need what little cash they have to become worthless. As usual I have my doubts about the best intentions of politicians. I mean this with all seriousness: if nearly one trillion dollars are going to be spent on improving health care I would much rather that money be used to help out places like Rwanda or Tanzania where well over half the population live under extreme poverty. I think their need is far greater than America's uninsured.

I'm advocate for greed. Whether it's healthcare or an iPhone I want as much as I can get. So when it comes to pointing the finger at the greedy you don't to have select the companies that build their wealth by providing a much-needed product for millions. Nancy and anyone else like her can single out this self-righteous, ex-dope smoking hippie fag right here.

My Favorite Deadly Sins - An Introduction

I take morality and ethics pretty seriously. I have a very simple moral code in which I try to use as my basis for what I think correct behavior is. It works as follows:

DO
First off take care of yourself and act in your own best interests. Following that you should provide help and assistance to those closest to you, namely your family and friends.

DO NOT
Using force to fulfill your goals and harming another person is wrong.

I think morality is pretty intuitive but a while back some religious meatheads decided to try to tell everyone else how to live by coming up with an arbitrary list of 'deadly sins.' Since America's political environment is so volatile right now and because morality often dictates a person's ideas on public policy I thought I would blog for a few days about my favorite deadly sins and tie them into some contemporary social issues. As usual I'll probably yammer on too long but I'll try to make it entertaining.