What does this have to do with the topic again?

They say one should never discuss sex, politics or religion in polite company. We were discussing the first two already. I just figured it was time to introduce the final integer into this band of ruffians.

Perhaps I misspoke when I said I was fairly religious. I am actually more of a spiritual and faith-driven person . . . two qualities I find lacking (not non-existent) in most religions. At least for my evolving (I’d like to think) way of thinking. I questioned my Catholicism in my youth. Left it and came back when I was 30 and I credit it with saving my life. Now, some 13 years later, I find myself questioning aspects of it again, yet this time from quite the different of age, and hopefully, wisdom. I think it is a good thing to question one’s own faith. It keeps you on track of who you really are inside. I am still on that journey and am certain i will be until the day I day. However, I am no longer afraid that my questioning will lead to my ultimate damnation.

Some of you may remember me fervently defending the church in my first days of posting here years ago. I have since learned quite a bit. About myself, the world and life in general. I still stand by what I said, but I think I would have toned my language down, if I would have entered the fray at all.

I probably won’t say much after this thread about my views. I have been subscribing to the Frank N theory of comment posting as of late. I find it is much better for my blood pressure. But I am guessing from time to time, a post like this will come up and I won’t be able to keep my yapper shut. To one and all’s dismay I am sure.

Just know that I am respectful of all opinion whether they be of my own, similar or not even close. And I always learn something by reading Radley’s work and the comments here.

What does this have to do with the topic again?

Probably not that much, but I ran out of clever things to say about people who hump picnic tables and it was an interesting tangent

What does this have to do with the topic again?

You are just a dilettante as far as Jesus goes if you are not handling snakes.

Tall to someone who works in an ER …. like my sister. Apparently they average like 3 people a day who come in with strange things shoved up their ass. I’m not so sure that would make for great TV.

It’s people like that wot cause unrest.

“Or respectfully request that he shut his own curtains.”

I think that your proposed solution to the issue was both fair and reasonable. That’s why it doesn’t surprise me that extremely religious people who are nosy enough to insinuate themselves into the dating life of one of their tenants wanted nothing to do with it.

One of the reasons that I began questioning my own religion when I was young, which eventually pushed me towards atheism, was the fact that I met so many very religious people who used their beliefs as an excuse to be complete and utter assholes to anyone who wasn’t the same as them. I realize that a great number of, probably most, religious people aren’t that way, but there were enough of them to convince me that if I were going to be condemned to Hell for questioning whether God exists, giving up a heaven populated with people like that wasn’t going to be a major sacrifice

That should read:

“Or respectfully request that he shut his own curtains.”

Keep my sexual escapades private.

You know, this brings up a similar situation that I was privy to back in 1995.

I had just started dating the woman who would eventually become my wife, God help her. She was renting a room in a large house with a family. I went over to pick her up from there for the first time and was asked to sit and have a cup of coffee and whatever with the mother and father of the family before we left for the evening. My guess is that although they were not related, they cared very much for my wife-to-be and wanted to make sure I wasn’t some weirdo. I’m not sure that my response to what they asked me gave them much hope to the contrary.

As we sat at the table, the husband asked me if I noticed the house next door to them. How could I not? There was only a matter of feet between the two structures from where we sat separated by a chain link fence. Yes, the kind you can see through. He proceeded to tell me that one day a few weeks prior, they had all sat down to dinner one evening and could see their neighbor in the room directly adjacent to their dining room with a porno on. I could see the room and TV set quite clearly from where I sat through the chain link fence. The set was not turned on, but if it had been, I would have been able to see everything. So had the children. All 4 of them. The guy then tells me that he proceeded to go over to the guy’s house and demanded that he turn off the porno. He asked what I thought of what he did. I told him something along the lines of: didn’t you think to shut the curtains before going over there? He said he had not. I was flabbergasted. They left the curtains open and told the kids to exit the room, I gathered, while Daddy went over and made the bad man go away. I told him he had no right to demand the guy turn off his porno. I did tell him he should have closed the curtain and gone over and asked politely if it would be possible that he not show porn when he can see their family sitting down to the dinner table. Or respectfully request that he shut his own window.

My response was not received well. It was a religious issue with them and while being fairly religious myself, I think the best way to make problems for you and your faith is to drag it into every argument there is. They felt that they were obligated to tell this guy to stop what he was doing and that he was wrong. Never mind the harm they thought it might do their children. I told them I felt that the neighbor was wrong for not showing a bit of respect for his neighbors but their opinions of his viewing habits were none of their concern.

It wasn’t very long thereafter that my bride-to-be made new living arrangements.

I’m not sure exactly how this applies here but this table incident made me think of what happened all those years ago.

I also doubt that everyone would suddenly be driven to do offensive things if it were suddenly “decriminalized”. I would rather laws like that were reserved for activities more threatening than someone fucking a table.

Part of the problem with Americans’ obsession with sex, is their eagerness to utterly destroy someone’s life for almost any transgression, so he is lucky that they dropped the felony charge.

However, what about a close packed suburban area where your entire backyard is easily visible from someone else’s second story windows? What right to privacy do you have there? None that I can fathom.

I have no problem with how ANYONE gets off with themselves or anyone else. That is an individual decision to be made by one and all. Or not at all. As long as it is consensual and does NOT involve children. These are basic principles that should be adhered to. It’s so basic, it really doesn’t need to be said. But I did, so there. I hardly think the guy needed permission to fuck his table. From anyone.

The other shoe here may be if this person is doing it as to be noticed. Sexual acts are in essence, private things that really no one but those involved really want to witness. UNLESS they seek it out in the form of pr0n, live sex shows, etc. But I can say without any hint of sarcasm or irony in my tone that I do not wish to see my neighbor fucking anything. Now if I peer over their fence, it’s sort of a caveat emptor situation. There just may be something I don’t want to see going on over there.

So, I offer this: IF the guy was doing this in full view of ANYONE without their having to gain access to the view (ie, dude is fucking is table in the front room with bay window curtains fully open exposing him to one and all) then yes, we have a crime here. Should it be a more heinous situation if children had witness to these acts? I’m not sure about that one. I’ll defer to better thinkers than I on that one.

Consequently, if the voyeur (and they are voyeurs IMHO) who made the DVDs had to look over in the back yard to gain the footage then he/she could be charged with a crime themselves.

Sure, a lot of what ifs, but I hope I have just laid down the common sense approach to this sort of thing.

You guys have it all wrong. We ban stuff like that, not because it actually threatens anyone, but so we don’t have to answer a lot of embarrassing questions from our kids.

I would pay money to see a reality series where they showed emergency rooms treating people who got stuck while having sex with their lawn furniture, vaccuum cleaner, etc, ala “Cops”. That would be must-watch TV.

The politicians and police aren’t capable, as they are on a higher plain than the rest of us. We’re only Level 7 Douchebags, they’re all at least Level 42.