Catholic Myths About Masturbation

The catholic church, nay religion in general has a few queer things to say about a great many things. Some things to say about things that are almost irrefutable for example, Darwinian evolution and some other odd ideas about virgin births and transubstantiation. But the catholic church and Christianity in general have always had some very strange ideas about masturbation. For example, as a child many people were told that if they masturbated they would go blind, that they would get hairy palms and ultimately they would go to hell. These are all very scary things for innocent children easily manipulated by fear and threats which have constantly been enlisted throughout the history of religious dogma. St. Thomas Aquinas for example described masturbation as an 'unnatural vice' and placed it in the same category as bestiality. In fact he suggested that men who carried out this practice were in fact less manly than other men. On one catholic site a search for religion and masturbation they claimed that masturbation was essentially 'self-abuse' on par with child-abuse, this complete and utter tripe should never meet the ears of a child guilting them into sexually repressive behaviour. The site goes on to say that 'It [masturbation] lowers self-esteem and self-confidence from a lack of self-control'. There is so much nonsense about masturbation, scientific and psychological studies show that masturbation is a normal part of sexual development and no adolescent should be chastised or made to feel guilty for such behaviour. 

League of Ireland Fan

Well I'm not going to lie, for most of this clip I actually cannot understand what this man is saying and for the bits that are comprehensible I still don't really understand what is going on. All the same the interview reminds me of many a dart ride and boardwalk moment in Dublin and for this I think it at least deserves merit as a site of social inspection. I will not get into a discussion regarding my belief in the inherent gap in the evolutionary cycle, instead I will merely whack this into the sports category as some of you out there might understand what is going on. So I hope you can intellectually engage with this or at least have a lol or two, in the meantime please excuse me while I crack out some cans and brush up on my SCUM!

The Evolution of Man and Woman

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin

Today is the 202 birthday of Charles Darwin, one of the most influential and revolutionary thinkers of last millennium. But why is Darwin so important, so famous? When most people hear Darwin they think of 'evolution', 'natural selection',and although relevant but frequently mis-attributed 'survival of the fittest.  What many other people don't know is that another man Alfred Russel Wallace independently proposed his own theory of evolution by natural selection which prompted to Darwin to publish his theory as well. What the theory of natural selection did for science in particular biology is akin to what Jesus Christ did for Christianity. The theory gave a framework by which almost all biology could be interpreted, explained and understood. It also had an immeasurable impact on religion, history, sociology, psychology and even literature, amongst many other disciplines. I'll just take this moment to point out how simple the theory is as well. Natural selection is the process whereby certain characteristics or traits (genes essentially) become more or less frequent in a population due to reproductive and survival pressures in the ancestors of that population. As time goes by a certain subset of a population may adopt a different a different trait compared to the rest of the population, eventually this can lead to the formation of a new species. It is by this mechanism humans, chimpanzees and other primates separated from their common ancestor. The process is remarkably simple but has given rise to the abundance of complex life that now occupies the biosphere of the earth. 

Unfortunately, although the evidence for the theory of natural selection is irrefutable ranging from paleontology to molecular biology and comparative anatomy to comparative biochemistry amongst a reservoir of other evidence, there are still people who refute it. It really is their loss because even though some people try to explain our origins in terms of a deity, this argument is inherently complex and flawed, whilst natural selection is simple and beautiful. I recommend as it is Darwin's birthday you take a look at some of his work or the the vast spectrum of work that has exploded from the foundations that he helped to establish. And to all the budding scientists out there are still hundreds of simple yet possibly immensely revolutionary insights and theories nestling in the human mind. Take the time to explore the universe, be skeptical, be critical, be creative, be the next genius. Happy birthday Charlie from MRHP.

I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions.

Charles Darwin

A Brief History of the Evolution of Psychedelic Cartoons

Since the advent of the colouring pencil, perhaps even before, cartoons and narcotics have gone hand in hand.

As we can see from this mild example Betty Boop and a clown become hysteric due to laughing gas, this cartoon was later banned and perhaps this repression sewed the seeds for later drug-laced cartoons. In the next clip we see the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland an opium icon.

All this and the Sixties were yet to happen, the tripped out minds of a generation had failed to be influenced. I only intend to give you a snippet of the evolution of cartoon-narcotics because the spectrum is so broad and colourful, that an opiatic haze is the best impression one can inspect without a great deal of digging. I only have a trowel so this will have to suffice. 

For those of us who grew up with Ren and Stimpy even as our burgeoning child brains rolled and rippled as our gyri and sulci took shape, we could not help but cast some thoughts of introspection and wonder about the content of such a cartoon and consider how the mind-altered states the characters exhibited altered the state of our minds as they developed along Piagetian and Vygostkian highways. 

Eventually these minds grew up and some of them began to flex their creative cartoon muscles, and although the following two shows are less about the taking of drugs and more about the creative process that ensues. This cartoon was clearly drawn by the shaky hand of the junky and imagined by an LSD-soaked mind.

Enjoy the rage rainbow!!