Collie's Bestiary

5. Homosexuals are destroying the institution of marriage The social ritual of marriage in the United States today is highly unstable, as the 50+ % divorce rate shows. I don't think it's fair to blame that instability on late-comers to the institution of marriage. That's like seeing a tire is getting low on your car, [...]

Originally posted August 2004 Credits: Thanks go to Lou, Bob, George, & Ian, for input and answers to difficult questions My May Firestarter, Why not Same-sex Marriage? prompted some wonderfully fascinating discussion. I've been told by a friend this is the hardest he's ever thought about issues like this. He thanked me for encouraging that, [...]

Physical characteristics One other interesting observation: almost all the people there were White. I saw a small handful of Asians or Pacific Islanders, and maybe three black people all week — a Navy guy and his family. I didn't notice any Hispanics at all, although Bob said he heard some Spanish. It was… a little [...]

Air conditioning! Remember I said the weather was unseasonably wonderful? I loved the warmth, but I felt really sorry for the island's local folks when I found out most of the buildings on Whidbey (including all the Navy buildings — what were they thinking?!) have no air conditioning. There were interesting side effects of this [...]

Originally posted July 2004 Credits: For my extended family, who gave me cause to be there. It was a great reunion! I recently spent a week on Whidbey Island, in Puget Sound off the coast of Washington state. It was lovely, and I had a great time. It was also fascinating from an anthropological perspective, [...]

1 January 2005 Rank Song Group 1 Let Me Love You Mario 2 Drop It Like It's Hot Snoop Dogg & Pharrell 3 Lovers & Friends Li'l Jon & The East Side Boyz, Usher & Ludacris 4 Over & Over Nelly & Tim Mcgraw 5 Soldier Destiny's Child

Credits: For love, compassion — and the music. Let's all hold out for more, and better! ;) Originally posted (tongue firmly in cheek!) on February 2005 Last February (it being the traditional month of romantic entanglements) I got a great deal of enjoyment writing a Firestarter titled, "What is Love?" This February I decided to [...]

Conditioning by personal choice To the selfish all are selfish.– Aesop These are all unpleasant situations which I suspect many people have had to deal with at one point or another. Faced with potential scenarios like those mentioned above, I'm not surprised many women use the "dreaded phrase" frequently. What I consider a shame is [...]

So why does this matter? A friend noted I sounded a bit annoyed here. I am. I don't know why, but for some reason our culture teaches men to assume women are always seductively inclined towards them — often long before the woman is more than just marginally friendly. Quite frankly, it's bloody annoying. Lest [...]

Some anthropological context You're dangerous, 'cause you're honest…you tell me things I know you're not supposed to…Well, you lied to me 'cause I asked you to;Baby, can we still be friends….– U2, Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses Interestingly, I read an anthropological study many years after these incidents (I'll have to try to re-locate [...]