The flying phallus and the laughing inquisitor: Penis theft in the Malleus Maleficarum

"a narrative included in this work, one that relates how witches steal men's penises and keep them alive in birds' nests."

Obviously there is a long history of this too. The image this creates makes me smile. A clutch of willies like baby birds.

The homophobia in Stranger in a Strange Land spoiled it for me.

@#9
But where the hell to go, though!

I want to see him do the dance!

@#3 Karsten
If you thought to find anyone receptive to your particular brand of drivel here I think you are harbouring some illusions. But then I'm stating the obvious.

@#23BSUWG
The 80/10/10 diet was written by Dr. Douglas Graham. First of all he is a chiropractor not a nutritionist. There is no scientific basis for there being an optimal diet from an evolutionary stand-point. Humans, as a species have spread into practically every part of the globe, modifying their bodies according to the conditions and foodstuff found wherever the went. Its a bit like saying we should all go and find somewhere to live that replicates the conditions on the savannahs of Africa where our species first arose.
Dr. Graham is called one of the fathers of the modern raw food movement whose main ideas about enzymes are based on discredited scientific theories from the first half of the 20th century. All the evidence shows that humans have always been omnivorous. This is coming from a lifetime vegetarian. The fact I can choose this diet has everything to do with where and when I was born. If I was a hunter-gatherer, such a choice would be terrible from the point of view of survival.
So I wouldn't put too much stock in the idea that the position of your eyes dictates how much water you should drink.

@#23 Jeff
"There is an increase in mental illness in America and Europe. That means more crazy behavior, more crime, more violence against innocent people."

I do have to take issue with what you seem to be implying about the rise in mental illness. People who are mentally ill are much more likely to be victims of crime than the perpetrators. The mentally ill are about six times more likely to be murdered. That figure rises for men with schizophrenia and people with affective psychosis. This seems to be because they get dumped in living situations where they easily fall prey to petty criminals and drug addicts. The fact that when someone suffering from mental illness is the perpetrator gets media coverage acts to distort peoples perceptions.
People under the influence of drink or drugs are more likely to kill.
While CCTV might help to catch some of the perpetrators after the fact it certainly doesn't address the root causes.

@11 Tomic
I was thinking less along the lines of technology being liberating and more how it could be viewed as another environmental pressure and engine of change.
In the evolutionary arms race there are always casualties. Most of the instruments used to controll the masses weren't designed as such. Rather they were co-opted. If technology is increasing being designed with the objective to control then all the more reason to find ways to subvert it.

Perhaps it will have a positive aspect. If, as seems likely, evolution is driven by arms races between species and even in some cases between the sexes of the same species then perhaps this could turn out to be another type of arms race. As one part of society increasingly tries to keep tabs on the rest it could be an impetus to find ways to circumvent it. Those who would use technology to control others are never the creators of the technology. Am I naively optimistic? Couldn't the geek inherit the Earth?

Once we stop these guys at CERN then we have to ban wardrobes. We shouldn't be taking the chance of people ending up in Narnia!

@8
If god had not mean me to pierce myself then why did he give me nipples?

I know personally of a guy who, along with two others, beat a bloke who had been convicted of offences against a child so badly he was left with brain damage. The thing is, this same guy would leer at young teenage schoolgirls and make comments like 'Old enough to bleed, old enough indeed'. His mates would encourage this with their laughter. Some arguments are made that paedophilia is one outcome of societies that eroticise sexual domination and submission.I suspect those who have violent knee-jerk reactions to this subject of deflecting from what might well be issues of their own. There is a whole spectrum of behaviour among humans from violent rape and sexual assault to coercion and emotional blackmail. What to speak of the pathological causes. The 'string 'em up' and scapegoating attitude doesn't help at all. Is the violent rape of an adult less serious than the inappropriate touching of a child?
I found the violence against this offender and the subsequent approval of others as disturbing and reprehensible as his original offence.
Until we can approach the subject in a more sober and nuanced way we'll never get closer to finding real solutions.

This is better than lotus seed boob.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/supplementary/1471-2482-4-5-s1.mpg

I know what I'm talking about. As an altar boy I had to regularly assist our parish priest in the exorcism of a demon which caused him painful swelling. I had to vigourously massage the afflicted body part as he called out to Jesus before the demon was expelled in a jet of foul-smelling ectoplasm. This happened on many occasions until I reached the age of fourteen when the demon was finally defeated and my help was no longer needed.

It won't be long now before we'll have geeks strapped down in front of monitors while their delicious brain-juices are milked for sale to the uber-rich.

Superstitious heathens. Disease is caused by demons which must be cast out in the name of Jesus Christ.

@#14 Noen
Even if it were only a crime to pay for sex you would still have to at least charge the prostitutes for incitement to commit a crime.

Dream on skintube

@#4
All compounds are molecules but not all molecules are compounds. A compound is a molecule composed of at least two elements. Therefore O2 is not a compound but it is molecular oxygen.

Wht th fck. Mk ny pc f crp, pnt t grn nd sy t's fr St. Ptrck's Dy. nd th prc! nyn tht bys t hs mr mny thn sns.

Christianity only moderated in response to the challenge of freethinking secularists who drew upon the Graeco-Roman roots of European culture. Not from any internal impulse to evolve. I think that more than the effect the freedom from fossil fuels would have on the environment etc. the greater benefit to the world would be breaking the hold this part of the world has on the rest. As the downside of mediaevalism became apparent to them after the scientific and industrial revolutions in the west most of the Islamic world was becoming more open to democracy and reason over religion and tradition. When oil was found that whole process was really derailed. On the one hand they became prosperous but on the other that prosperity rested on the engineering and technology of the west. For a society whose overriding concern is pride and saving face that must have really galled them. The only thing they could do to shore up their sense of self-worth was to hark back to the days when Islamic culture was at it's height. It's no wonder they started to regress.
For as long as America and the rest of the world want their oil we will turn a blind eye to the horrors going on there. Any attempts at rectifying the situation through invasion will always fuel their anger, resentment and inferiority complex. The only way out I can see is through economic independence from them and refusal to engage with them till they once again start to change from within.
We can all rail on about their brutality and superstition but as long as we continue to enjoy the benefits of an economy based on oil we will tolerate and be complicit in that brutality.

Personally I think it has to do with personal space and that added vulnerability that comes with having a piss. As far as space, I've seen medieval toilets that were basically a plank with 5 or so holes bored where everyone would sit and shit together without any dividers and it made me realise how we have changed over 500 years or so (they were Tudor era). Not something most of us would feel comfortable with nowadays I reckon. Obviously they had a different sense of personal space then. I think the need for space must have grown along with our sense of being an individual. And as someone who likes to spend my summer on a nudist beach in the south of Spain when clothes are only worn at night when it's cold, I've noticed that when I want to piss I like to move off and piss against the cliff face. It can't be the worry of people looking at your tackle because they're free to do it any time. That and seeing the sheepish look on my dogs faces when they are doing their business leads me to think that a good part is probably having to drop your guard. Isn't that why blokes like to piss against trees and walls when outside?

I'm with #34 GUIDODAVID on this. We have to try a variety of avenues to solve the world's problems. It's all well and good to say let's change social and economic policy so the poorest in the world get a fair deal. I won't be holding my breath for it to happen any time soon. It's not an either/or choice. So, at the same time as we fight for social justice we have to keep looking at alternative solutions.
Sure there are potential risks with GM and we're bound to make mistakes along the way. That's life.
Just as some people thought scientists might blow the Earth up when they built the first particle colliders(and the same fears are being expressed over the Large Hadron Collider due to open this spring) the probability is the worst fears will be unfounded. If we let fear of the unknown paralyse us we might as well just curl up and die now.

@#32
Or would having a human gene open it up to a whole new host of disease possibilities, like (tongue in cheek) chicken pox?

I'd imagine that they are trying to change the amino acid profile of the protein in rice to be like that of the protein in breast milk without going so far as growing the breasts.

I've never really got this problem with 'playing god'. I came to the conclusion that there was no god because of the obvious randomness in the world. That said, I think it is a form of moral cowardice not to play god. The difference with us as a species is that we are intentional beings. We direct nature. If I get an illness I go to a doctor and ask him to play god and alter the natural courses of things by helping me overcome my illness. That doctor takes the responsibility on himself when he intervenes. On one level aren't you being like the Jehovah's Witness who refuses blood for superstitious reasons.
I'm sure there was the same yeuch factor the first time people allowed themselves to be inoculated with the pus from a Cowpox sore but it was worth it not to get Smallpox. Cartoons of the time showed people growing cows heads after so they obviously had the same visceral fear of human-animal hybridation.
My biggest fear in this is that we leave such decisions up to multi-national corporations whose driving factor is profit above all else.
As far as the cannibalism aspect goes, seeing that we share half our DNA with bananas does that make me a demi-cannibal when I eat one?

@#44
Make it tissue cultured human meat and your on!

@Moonbat-
Originally Beelzebub was Baal Zebul "Baal the Prince" and was probably changed to Baal Zebub by Yahwists in their attempts to degrade and ridicule a pagan deity.

I like to swallow my rage and store it up till I can let it all loose one day in an irrational bout of violence somewhere really inappropriate.

"House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling."

Kyle - You've just gone on the hit list of the Vegan Death Squad!

I did waver, thinking that maybe it would be better to pick one of the books of short stories to help introduce people to him. But,when it came to clicking on a cover I was drawn to American Gods. I couldn't help myself. I just love that book!

RAGEAHOL is accurately quoting Kasem.

@#2
Capt. Tim
So you saw a preview of U2's 3D concert, then.
Personally, I can't wait till U2 collapses the dimensions as it disappears up it's collective arsehole.

I too agree with what all before have said. It strikes me that the greater part of what really disturbs certain people is the increase in freedom that is afforded by technology and the internet. They don't just don't think we can be trusted with that freedom.
Whereas before only the rich could buy newspapers and and shape public opinion, now anyone with a computer and internet connection can have their say if they want. The media really collude with government the way they give such emphasis to what's wrong with the world.
It's easy to understand why most people's fear of something bad happening is so out of proportion to the actual risk. This climate of fear then makes it that much easier to convince people that giving up their hard won liberties is the price they have to pay. It's pretty insidious.

After looking at that site it seems that the ref is the lesser evil. Not only is that unctuous toad Kilroy-Silk a representative, there's another guy Thomas Wise of the UK Independence Party. This guy was caught claiming £36,000 for an assistant whose salary was £6000. He was then found to have the extra money in his bank account where he was "looking after it" for her. On top of which is the fact that this party is in competition for votes from the same demographic as the BNP (a far right, white nationalist political party in the United Kingdom). I think it will have to be the referee. I would feel too dirty getting into bed with Kilroy-Silk or Wise over any issue.

There was only only a radical change in average lifespan from the late 19th century onwards due to better sanitation, clean drinking water and better medicine. It's easy to forget the difference antibiotics made to the human condition. It's not that long ago when a compound fracture warranted amputation to try and avoid death through gangrene. For all these various reasons we are living long enough for a bad diet to have an impact.
As far as the "The Caveman Diet" goes, I've read that the average lifespan of the caveman was 16 years. Bugger that.
While there is still a lot we aren't sure about, plenty of variety and moderation in what we eat, along with trying to cook as much as we can from scratch is probably the safest bet.
The latest tests here in the UK on pre-cooked ready meals showed that some foods had more than double the fat, salt and sugar than was shown on the labels. At least when you cook food yourself you know what is going into it. My granny might have fried everything in lard but all the veg was fresh and she never ate a ready meal from the supermarket.

I always find it funny when certain Americans crow about your "freedom" and yet you have a state where it's a crime to promote a device "designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs" and other states where it is illegal to sell sex toys.
So in many places you have the right to bear arms but not dildos.
I know that a few years back some circuit court decided that Americans did not have a fundamental right to sexual privacy. Perhaps this has changed in the interim, I don't know.
Sure seems a rather heavily qualified freedom to me.

@#7 I remember reading a very similar argument levelled against Westerners who were against Muti-murders in Africa where children were tortured and dismembered while still alive in order to use their body parts in rituals. An African anthropologist made the excuse that these practices were traditional to Africa and could not be understood or criticised from within the framework of western morality. If I judge such practices to be morally abhorrent will you ask me what qualifies me to make such a judgement?