Valentines Primer: Guide to Love and Sex

SEX - Just in time for Valentines, here's some great sites about love and sex.

#1. Flirting

#2. Kissing

#3. Feng Shui in the Bedroom

#4. Foreplay

#5. 101 Sex Positions

#6. Kama Sutra

#7. The Five Love Languages

Bigamists and Underaged Fathers at Work

SEX - In Britain a 13-year-old boy is a new father of a bouncing baby girl. His "girlfriend", now 15, was impregnated at the age of 14 when she missed one of her birth control pills.

Meanwhile in the United States, a 71-year-old conman has confessed to bigamy, having married 19-22 times.

Now obviously I have a lot to talk about here. On one hand we have a kid who when asked about how he would support the baby financially replied "What does financially mean?" and on the other hand we have an old charmer who has been marrying women and ripping them off financially.

Lets start with the underage father, known as Alfie, who was 12 at the time he first had sex. His father (now a grandfather) has a total of 9 children. Obviously not the greatest role model when it comes to fatherly restraint.

"I thought it would be good to have a baby. I didn't really think about how we would afford it," says young Alfie. "I don't really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me 10 pounds [about $15 US]."

The British girl, Chantelle, joins an alarming statistic. Approx. 7,000 girls under the age of 16 get pregnant and have children every year in Britain. Britain has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Europe, 27 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19, but it pales in comparison to the United States where the teen pregnancy rate is 44 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19.

Evidently neither the boy or girl thought this seriously through and are taking their parents for granted that they will support their new grandchildren. The grandparents hardly have much choice in the matter either.

Alfie's father failed to warn his kids about the dangers of teen pregnancy, and Alfie himself should have been doubly cautious and worn a condom.

Meanwhile 71-year-old Irish-American conman and bigamist Oliver Killeen has been charged with a single count of bigamy, despite admitting to having at least 19 wives. Investigators believe there might be another 3, bringing his total to 22.

Killeen fathered nine children with his first wife, Mary (who died in 1974), and is believed to have had over 50 children with his 19-22 wives.

SOMETHING IS WRONG HERE.

Why would anyone want that many kids? Bragging rights? Its not like they're Conan the Barbarian, going from town to town and knocking up all the damsels in distress. Alfie can be excused for being a stupid kid that doesn't know any better, but Oliver Killeen just went on a marriage and fathering spree.

Was it greed? No. Did they just not realize what they were doing? Maybe.

I think the biggest culprits is stupidity (I will come back to this idea) and religion, in this case Catholicism as both Alfie and Oliver were born-and-raised Catholics... which means no condoms, no birth control, no abortions.

And apparently not many morals. How many lives has Oliver Killeen ruined with his bigamy? Lots. And Alfie? He's already ruined his life, Chantelle's life, and likely the life of his newborn daughter.

Chantelle is equally guilty for forgetting her birth control pills and failing to get an abortion. The grandparents must think these very young parents will be able to cope, but that is, honestly, a trailer-park mentality.

Seriously, if there's one law of the universe it is that stupid people breed constantly, and trailer parks have unusually high birth rates. They're not the brightest, they don't have many future prospects, so they get bored, screw around and the next thing you know they're on Jerry Springer bragging about how many kids they've fathered and their ex's fighting over them.

Evidently the sex education we're teaching in schools is missing an important point: All the damage that happens when people don't think ahead.

We know its statistically true that lower IQ people have more children, likely because they have fewer career prospects and don't think ahead, but our schools need to be teaching kids more about planning their futures so that they realize there's more to life than making babies.

HOW TO DARN A SOCK

FASHION - During the current recession many of you may decide its time to cut back and save some cash by buying less clothes.

One EASY way to save cash is to darn your socks. It takes approx. 5 to 7 minutes to darn a sock and it can easily be done while watching TV or a favourite DVD.

As a guy, I found it strangely relaxing and remarkably easy to darn a sock. Here's
some instructions on how to darn socks and a video demonstrating how easy it is.

Step 1.
Find thread or yarn that matches the sock in color and texture; you can use embroidery floss (a type of thread) to repair a crew sock, while wool yarn is appropriate for a wool sock. Choose a darning needle as well.

Step 2.
Turn the sock inside out and lace a baseball or golfball in the sock and position the hole over the ball. Your needle will glide smoothly over the ball's surface, making your stitching go faster.

Step 3.
Thread the darning needle with the yarn or thread and leave the end unknotted. The darning process should create a tight weave that makes knots unnecessary.

Step 4.
Start your work on either side of the hole. Take several small vertical running stitches in the intact fabric of the sock, about 1/2 inch to the left or right of the hole. Turn the sock upside down and make another row of stitches next to the first.

Step 5.
Increase the number of running stitches you make as you come closer to the hole. When you reach the point at which the hole begins, your stitching line should extend from 1/2 inch above the hole to 1/2 inch below it.

Step 6.
Continue making vertical running stitches. When your stitching reaches the hole, take your thread or yarn over the hole and into the fabric on the other side, forming what resembles a vertical bridge over the hole. Stitching should extend 1/2 inch beyond the hole at both the top and bottom edges.

Step 7.
Cut the thread end once you have covered the hole with vertical threads and extended the stitching 1/2 inch past it so that both sides of the hole look identical.

Step 8.
Thread your darning needle and begin your work 1/2 inch from either side of the hole at either the top or bottom. Take the threaded needle and weave it under and over the vertical threads that cover the hole (as well as the vertical threads that lie within 1/2 inch of the hole).

Step 9.
Turn the sock upside down once you reach the opposite end of the hole, and weave another yarn strand next to the first. Continue stitching back and forth until you've completely filled the hole. Trim excess thread. Turn sock right side out.

Bacon Explosion at Work

ENTERTAINMENT/HEALTH - Its not very healthy but to the average man the Bacon Explosion is one of the ultimate bacon recipes you can get.

Here’s what you’ll need…

2 pounds thick cut bacon
2 pounds Italian sausage, skinless and mashed
1 jar of your favorite BBQ sauce or BBQ rub

1. Roll out a piece of aluminum foil.

2. Create a 5x5 Bacon Weave, using wide strips of bacon. Make sure the weave is tight.

3. Add seasoning and BBQ sauce/rub.

4. Add the mashed up sausages and flatten them out evenly.

5. Fry up the leftover bacon (crispy to your personal taste) and add them on top of the sausages.

6. Add more seasoning or BBQ sauce/rub.

7. Roll up the sausages/etc, and roll the bacon up last so it securely surrounds the Bacon Explosion.

8. Optional: Roll up the aluminum around the bacon/sausage roll.

9. Cook your Bacon Explosion at 225 degrees in a constant cloud of hickory smoke until your Thermapen gives an internal temperature reading of 165 degrees. Normally this will take about 1 hour for each inch of thickness, so expect maybe 2.5 hours if its 2.5 inches thick.

Makes a good snack during the Super Bowl, gaming event, or whatever manly thing you want to do.

Mouth watering good!

And to those naysayers who fuss about how this will clog the arteries...? Pffff! That's the whole point!

Are People Naturally Haters?

FEMINISM/POLITICS - I recently came across a person who explained that some people believe that its natural for people to be racist, sexist, etc. because they're afraid of things that are different:

"It's natural for human beings to be afraid of new or different
people and strangers, therefore it's our inherent excuse to be racist,
right?"

I humbly disagree.

I don't think people are inherently afraid of things that are different. I agree that we are instinctually afraid of things of things like spiders, snakes, tigers, sharks, etc. because the fear of such things has been ingrained in our genes over millenia of evolution. Note: People don't hate such creatures, they're just afraid of them because they're dangerous and that is an important difference.

I don't think people are meant to be racist/sexist/ageist/classist/etc. Such fear/hatred is not the result of genetics but are caused by social constructs created by society.

Also when applied to sexuality if anything we can say with some degree of accuracy that people are naturally attracted to opposites. Men and women aren't naturally afraid of each other. Gynophobia and androphobia only develops later in life due to traumatic events.

Likewise children aren't naturally racist. Children are driven to play with each other and get along easily regardless of race. As they get older they develop beliefs that may cause them to bully, fight and discriminate against other children who dress differently, wear glasses, have different hair, etc. but those beliefs are the result of bad upbringing and certainly not the result of genetics and "natural fears".

Likewise when we apply such ideas to religious discrimination, ageism and classism it becomes obvious that discriminatory behaviour is the result of societal stereotypes against the rich/poor, the young/old and people of different faiths/no faith.

I do think however there might be a natural aversion to people who appear to be confusing with respect to gender/sex. If you see a person who you can't tell whether they are male or female a person's natural response seems to be confusion and avoidance. I don't think its pre-disposed to being fear/hatred (homophobia is still a social construct), but simply that confusion is the result because the viewer is confused as to whether the person is a potential mate or competition.

I'd argue people are more naturally afraid of competition.