More random cultural and political thoughts

**Karibana** · 09-16-2012, 03:25 PM

^Ugh, it's geoblocked

Of vanilla sex and the pressures from the sexual revolution. Seriously, vanilla is the wrong name for bland or ordinary anything because it's a very complex flavour.

**tjolims** · 09-16-2012, 08:56 PM

^^I really resonate with that article...entirely too many people think that sexually adventurous=no boundaries or preferences whatsoever. You can have a very adventurous, progressive, sex-positive life and still have things and people that you just don't want to do and somehow that gets missed in the rhetoric.

**Hadasah** · 09-22-2012, 09:06 PM

Wow! Paul Ryan is at my university today and I'm just unnerved by the energy there. I wouldn't be so annoyed if they didn't walk slowly in front of my MOVING car and if I didn't have to drive behind a car with two obnoxious anti-Obama stickers in the back.
Seriously, how does somebody notice a car driving behind them and walk in the middle of the street? They can't walk on the sidewalk that's right next to them?
Anyway, it was just strange, being in all of that... I don't even know what to call it. I do not want to hear what Paul Ryan has to say. I know it's important to put one's own biases aside, but reading all this stuff about Romney's views towards the "47%", and knowing about racial tension coming from the Republican side, the fact that we are on clearly divided "sides" just made me feel like I was in the Yahoo! News comment section or something.

**Denny** · 09-24-2012, 01:58 PM

I thought part of the 'sexual revolution' meant to be free to pursue the sexual path that suits consenting adults, not to be boxed in by a new set of pigeon holers.

**Karibana** · 09-27-2012, 06:25 PM

Obama on the pressures of making mundane decisions:

This time he covered a lot more ground and was willing to talk about the mundane details of presidential existence. "You have to exercise," he said, for instance. "Or at some point you'll just break down." You also need to remove from your life the day-to-day problems that absorb most people for meaningful parts of their day. "You'll see I wear only gray or blue suits," he said. "I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make." He mentioned research that shows the simple act of making decisions degrades one's ability to make further decisions. It's why shopping is so exhausting. "You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can't be going through the day distracted by trivia."

**Karibana** · 09-28-2012, 05:44 PM

**Costenya** · 09-30-2012, 12:06 AM

Originally Posted by Karibana

^Ugh, it's geoblocked

Of vanilla sex and the pressures from the sexual revolution. Seriously, vanilla is the wrong name for bland or ordinary anything because it's a very complex flavour.

Totally agree with this article. It's funny because I feel like beliefs about sexuality have broadened extremely with age; at the same time, I haven't grown less selective about my choices. To me, sex positive means that you don't engage in slut shaming and that you respect other people's rights to liberally express their sexuality as they choose. To me, it also means being absolutely comfortable with my body in a sexual realm. Hell, you can be abstinent and sex positive. At the same time, it does not mean I don't desire a monogamous relationship. I agree with the author's conclusion: being in a monogamous relationship gives ME the liberty to be free as I choose.

**Soul Rebel** · 10-05-2012, 06:44 AM

Both Romney and Obama apparently declined an invitation from the NAACP and black special interest groups to speak at an event. http://bit.ly/R2feOD

I am of mixed feelings about this. It's been clear that this is the year of the Latino in terms of who they're going to court for a vote. That kind of politicking tends to get on my nerves anyway. I do think it's important for candidates to discuss all spectrums of their constituency. But by the same token I think candidates need to stop acting like all black people have the same issues. Also the article doesn't go into any background or logistics of the planning of this event. So maybe the candidates were invited too late into their campaign schedules. Who knows? Hence I really didn't know what I thought about this which this article is trying to frame as an oversight or a slight to the black community.

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**Serbbral** · 10-05-2012, 12:46 PM

Can't wait to see how this will spin.

**LBellatrix** · 10-14-2012, 01:20 AM

@Karibana: I resent that graph...I'm a die-hard Heineken drinker and I vote in (almost) every election...

Okay, so some guy wears a racist T-shirt to a Romney event. Why the hell are people surprised? Oh wait, that's right, I keep forgetting, racism is over because a black man is president and black people are on national TV commercials.