Virgin Daughters

Ah, the sun is shining and the weekend approaches. Why couldn't summer have been like this? Usually by this time of year I have begun to get depressed about the onset of winter. The trees have begun to shed their leaves and the feeling is there, but the sunshine is doing something to keep me happy. I'm sitting alone in my cubicle at work. All the others have gone off to "work from home". I could have done that today. I'm only proof reading.

The Dragon's friend had a baby. She popped out yesterday. I think we will go and visit at the weekend. Apart from that, we have no plans. Maybe we could go kite flying, or visit somewhere.

I watched a documentary on Channel 4 last night called, "The Virgin Daughters". It ranks as one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen. It was right up there with "I spit on your grave" and that John Carpenter film that takes place at an Arctic survey station. I think I only caught the last 30 minutes, but I still had nightmares. It was about deeply religious American families with obsessive fathers that teach their children to remain "pure" until marriage. They interviewed a 21 year old guy that had never kissed a girl. I mean seriously, that's just one step away from being locked in the cupboard under the stairs for the first 20 years of your life.

There appears to be a purity movement in some part of US (Colorado Springs?) where all this goes on. There were girls there who weren't allowed to be alone with boys until they were in their twenties. And the number of girls who had to end relationships with boys before they even started because their fathers didn't approve, it was weird. By far the weirdest thing was the father that lined his children up once a week to receive his "blessing". He went along the line like Billy Graham or something - shudder. I'm going to see if I can watch the part I missed tonight.

I'm not against purity. I'm intensely embarrassed by people that have to advertise it. You do need to teach children about the pros and cons of physical relationships of course. They interviewed one girl on there that began a physical relationship behind her father's back when she was 19. She and her boyfriend had never been taught about contraception and she wound up pregnant. She now seems to have no relationship with her family at all and lives with a new boyfriend. Her family tried to make her marry the father of her child, but she miscarried and he marriage never happened. I don't want to think about it.

Pres Bush is having all sorts of problems with his bank bailout plan isn't he. And I notice Calamity Brown is itching to get in on the act.

It's all doom and gloom in the news today. House prices are falling, banks are going bust, businesses are going out of business. I'm in the process of composing another letter to my local MP about id cards.