I chuckle a little bit whenever conversation comes around to American values and the old discussion of violence versus sexuality in film arises.

I don’t profess to be an expert on this topic, but it does seem to me that American film values are shared by other countries where the rule of law is based upon religion. In these places, sexuality in movies is a greater taboo than violence. Canada, with its geographic proximity to the US, is heavily influenced by the US from all things artistic to legislative. When it comes to what is acceptable in film for specific audiences we are more conservative than Europeans and more liberal than the Americans.

Here’s a trailer for the American film, This Film is Not Yet Rated. It was given an NC-17 rating in the US (also known as an X rating) which was rejected by the filmmakers. Thus the film is not rated in the States. Here in Ontario (which is a province in Canada) it’s rated as adult accompaniment under 14 years of age (14A). The film is banned in Malaysia,  a non-secular state. Australia isn’t really Europe but if I tell you that the film is rated MA over there you might still get my point. MA is the same rating that the spectacularly popular US show, 24, has in Australia.

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The note about Ontario being in Canada is another inside joke that Canadians chuckle about when it comes to Americans. But I digress.

Can someone please tell me why Europeans are so much more fearful of their children viewing violence than sex? Are they morally corrupt — what the hell is wrong with them?

Or do they have their priorities correct?

It was four years ago in Mexico that I was told to do that.

What should have been a simple matter of putting a ring on my bride’s finger almost turned into a fiasco. The heat and humidity of the warm weather on the Mayan coast had caused swelling of our entire bodies but particularly our fingers.

Her ring wouldn’t fit. I tried twisting it, even rocking it, onto her finger.

“Push, Baby, push,” she insisted.

So I did push, harder and harder. She pushed back. The Justice of the Peace looked on.

The ring finally slid on as we both sighed with relief.

Through the ups and downs of 4 short years of marriage she still wears that ring.

Action: When referring a patient to a specialist, and the specialist’s office says that they are booking 2 months down the road, get on the phone personally and demand to know how many hours per week the specialist works. Something like this is particularly effective: “Two months!? How many days a week do you work? One??”

This scores your office lots of fuck you points and pretty much guarantees that if you try to refer other patients in the future they’ll probably have to wait even longer. Why not teach the specialist “a lesson” by not referring any further patients to them.

Charismatic American leaders often have an interrupted life span. I know the following thought has crossed everyone’s mind in some form or another. From PostSecret: