Politics and Culture

**update**

As California judges decide the same-sex marriage issue based on who tells the weepiest story; it's important to realize that when traditionalists say that making marriage a financial extension of an emotion will harm it, they're right. Conservatives are always right on social issues: from abortion to Rock music to crime to sex education: everything they've predicted has come to pass (yes, we all like Rock and there may be countervailing goods for some stuff. More on this later).

I previously noticed that blurring the line between the sexes and types of sex ("skin is skin," somebody told me) will lead to more bisexual behavior. I saw this statement by Katy Perry:

“I have a soft spot for women--I’m not afraid of it. Some women walk into the room, and they’re so beautiful and you’re like, I wanna smell you,’ you know? I have certain girlfriends who I just think are the most angelic, beautiful creatures. And if any of my boyfriends ever fail me, I’ll turn to them!”

You might not care or think it's a good idea, but you can't deny that many predicted this state of affairs.

In case you're not aware of the significance of the statement, it's the difference between sexuality being to one degree or another, a malleable, chosen behavior and one that's fixed, impervious to any policy or societal attitude.

The latter must be true in order for homosexuality to be somewhat analogous to race.

**update**

This report shows that human sexuality isn't merely a matter of biology; culture has a lot to do with it, unless you're saying that Afghan men consume large quantities of soy milk.

An unclassified study from a military research unit in southern Afghanistan details how homosexual behavior is unusually common among men in the large ethnic group known as Pashtuns -- though they seem to be in complete denial about it.

The study, obtained by Fox News, found that Pashtun men commonly have sex with other men, admire other men physically, have sexual relationships with boys and shun women both socially and sexually -- yet they completely reject the label of "homosexual." The research was conducted as part of a longstanding effort to better understand Afghan culture and improve Western interaction with the local people.

The research unit, which was attached to a Marine battalion in southern Afghanistan, acknowledged that the behavior of some Afghan men has left Western forces "frequently confused."

The report details the bizarre interactions a U.S. Army medic and her colleagues had with Afghan men in the southern province of Kandahar.

In one instance, a group of local male interpreters had contracted gonorrhea anally but refused to believe they could have contracted it sexually -- "because they were not homosexuals."

Apparently, according to the report, Pashtun men interpret the Islamic prohibition on homosexuality to mean they cannot "love" another man -- but that doesn't mean they can't use men for "sexual gratification."

The group of interpreters who had contracted gonorrhea joked in the camp that they actually got the disease by "mixing green and black tea." But since they refused to heed the medics' warnings, many of them re-contracted the disease after receiving treatment.

The U.S. army medic also told members of the research unit that she and her colleagues had to explain to a local man how to get his wife pregnant.

The report said: "When it was explained to him what was necessary, he reacted with disgust and asked, 'How could one feel desire to be with a woman, who God has made unclean, when one could be with a man, who is clean? Surely this must be wrong.'" ...

...The report also detailed a disturbing practice in which older "men of status" keep young boys on hand for sexual relationships. One of the country's favorite sayings, the report said, is "women are for children, boys are for pleasure."

The report concluded that the widespread homosexual behavior stems from several factors, including the "severe segregation" of women in the society and the "prohibitive" cost of marriage.

Though U.S. troops are commonly taught in training for Afghanistan that the "effeminate characteristics" of Pashtun men are "normal" and not an indicator of homosexuality, the report said U.S. forces should not "dismiss" the unique version of homosexuality that is actually practiced in the region "out of desire to avoid western discomfort."

Of course, pedophilia was common before Christianity.

Here's a video of Paulina Rubio's "Y Yo Sigo Aqui." I like the song. You can see that Latino culture isn't immune to the new "skin is skin" paradigm.