Wednesday 26 May 2010

the problem with balloons and virginity: one prick and they're gone

[tiny bubbles. sing it!]
There must be something wrong with rubbers (prophylactics/raincoats) in this country.
The reason for my gripe? We've been giving the NHS too much work
killing foetuses. 189 000 last year.*
Don't they have something better they could be doing?

So what's the source of the problem?
1
Bad plastic?
Don't use party balloons folks.

2
people too cheap to spring for rubbers?
They can cost around 2 quid each. But when you consider the uterus vaccuum, there are other ways to define costs and benefits.

3
too horny or stupid to have rubbers?
Better to kill the kid. It'll be an idiot with parents like that, and foetal alcohol syndrome.

4
a distinct lack of sex education.
See my sex ed class ideas, from last year.
Problem solved.

By the way, Freakonomics mentioned how the legalisation of the availability of abortions in the US caused a huge fall in the crime rate, 20 years after it started. The reason? What the authors think is that kids who are not wanted or not planned, end up being raised in poor or abusive conditions which lead often to criminal behaviour. No birth, no crime. Can't argue with that.
There's something easier, though. Rubbers have been around since Cleopatra's time.
All the more reason to
think before you dink the pink!

Point of order: Casanova started the habit of using condoms as advertising of prowess,
and as a party trick.
-Cos67 ¬(%^D>

* against 706 000 live births. 4:1 ratio

checkitout: Post-renaissance science put to good use, from Wikipedia:

In 16th century Italy, Gabriele Falloppio wrote a treatise on syphilis. The earliest documented strain of syphilis, first appearing in a 1490s outbreak, caused severe symptoms and often death within a few months of contracting the disease. Falloppio's treatise is the earliest uncontested description of condom use: it describes linen sheaths soaked in a chemical solution and allowed to dry before use. The cloths he described were sized to cover the glans of the penis, and were held on with a ribbon. Falloppio claimed that an experimental trial of the linen sheath demonstrated protection against syphilis.

After this, the use of penis coverings to protect from disease is described in a wide variety of literature throughout Europe. The first indication that these devices were used for birth control, rather than disease prevention, is the 1605 theological publication De iustitia et iure (On justice and law) by Catholic theologian Leonardus Lessius, who condemned them as immoral. In 1666, the English Birth Rate Commission attributed a recent downward fertility rate to use of "condons", the first documented use of that word (or any similar spelling).
In addition to linen, condoms during the Renaissance were made out of intestines and bladder. In the late 15th century, Dutch traders introduced condoms made from "fine leather" to Japan. Unlike the horn condoms used previously, these leather condoms covered the entire penis.
Giacomo Casanova, in the 18th century was one of the first reported using "assurance caps" to prevent impregnating his mistresses.