Author: Deano

There is nothing particularly American about the love of bacon. Bacon is loved the world over by those who are allowed to, or choose to eat pork products.

That said, why do people love bacon? It's the salt, the fat, a savory ingredient for the plate that compliments all manner of "sweets" – pairings from french toast to grilled scallops cover a wider range than most other pork cuts.

Because bacon tends to be cut relatively thin (compared to, say, a pork chop), cooking and serving the "right amount" to balance the rest of a plate tends to be pretty easy. It can be served stand-alone, layered, diced or crushed into bits, as a wrapping, etc.

While Americans may indeed over-indulge when offered an unlimited supply, it really doesn't take much to imbue a dish with that magical smoked/fried flavor.

In short, bacon is largely loved for its versatility and taste. If American cuisine makes a more prominent use of bacon than others around the world, it is likely for similar reasons – in my experience, American cuisine itself is of a lot more flexible and experimental nature compared with all the other cuisines we ruthlessly "borrow" from.

Why do Americans love bacon?

As any supposed pet owner will tell you: we are the animal's pet, and thus perhaps one of the few species that does not keep pets as a result. Unless you count human children. Which I totally do.

Are humans the only creatures to have pets?

This isn't going to be a popular answer, but:

Why not stop refuting it? The slippery slope exists for a reason – to bring rights, opportunities, and a chance at a fair life to an ever-widening group of people.

In the case of marriage, it's clear that there is a religious and political entanglement issue. One of the BEST ways to resolve this would be to provide clarity and simplicity in the LAW, that allows for easy understanding by all, rather than a lot of exceptions and addenda tacked on to a clearly flawed starting point.

To that end, I would propose two distinct de-couplings, long overdue:

• religious marriage from the law, completely. No, you can't have Gay Marriage if Allah doesn't want Gay Marriage. Go fight with your Mullah about that, please. Civil unions for all under the law, without any regulation of or restriction to the laws of marriage within a given religion. There simply is no need for the two to agree/be consistent with each other. At least, not if we tidy up a few outstanding next-of-kin/power of attorney laws to reflect this equality/neutrality, rather than going after the "easy fix" of adding additional supported classes using the existing wording.
• legal responsibilities and powers from sexual intercourse. Seriously, we could solve any potential future marriage and the law issue by boiling it down to this: non-genetically-linked succession rights. What does putting a wee-wee into a hoo-hoo versus a no-no have to do with it? It's downright childish, I tell you… Which reminds me…

We already have much better laws on the books to handle this: it's called adoption. Why not simply let any adult adopt any other adult, or even multiple other adults? In fact, why not allow an option to allow for both "mutual and asyncronous adoption", in which such rights could be conferred one-way? This would cover gay marriage, polyamorous marriage, all kinds of heretofore unrecognizable pair-bond dynamics in longeterm BDSM and even vanilla extra-marital affairs! Go, unexploited tax base, go!

Simply put, it's not the "slippery slope" that is the problem, it's that people on every side of the problem are looking at "tunnel vision" solutions, that either "preserve sanctity" or "confirm validity" of a single interest group, which only serves to further highlight/dissociate/exclude such groups from the whole – for every good achieved using this method, it seems bound to create new enemies. If we can make such arguments about "why people are bigots who shouldn't be listened to", rather than about "how group X is actually kinda normal, kinda", I'd argue that it would be a hell of a lot easier to stamp out such bigotry in a less divisive manner.

How can supporters of gay marriage refute "slippery slope" arguments?

It will produce fewer gay offspring than heterosexual marriages.

What are all the arguments against gay marriage?

The basic rites of passage for a young porn star of any age:

• Two different forms of government identification
• A minimum of 18-21 years of age depending on shoot/distribution regions
• For men, an accompanying willing actress of superlative beauty and talent

Lacking the above, you really can't make it. Beyond the above, a lot depends on whether you're in it for the sex, the money, the fame and celebrity, an AVN Award, etc… For example, if you want to appear in a film/have sex with a specific porn star yourself, you will need to build up a good reputation as both hard working and generally on time, if the other star is significantly more famous than you, good networking skills, or even purpose-building your own production shingle (to hire them into your own movies) may be necessary. Being featured in DVDs, being part of stage or expo tours, interviewed on MSNBC, etc is just about being well-enough known to be an audience draw. If you're happy to just make bucks, you can do so nearly immediately by signing up with an adult webcam or phone sex service.

Are there "rites of passage" that young porn stars must undergo (like fetishes) before "making it?"