tallslenderguy

Ditto those who would not segregate HIV from other forms of disease that we don't question the cost of treating. Personally, i think healthcare should not be a for profit venture. Beef up the NIH and research that result in new treatments can then be produced at cost, not for a profit. HIV PREVENTION DRUG: BILLIONS IN CORPORATE PROFITS AFTER MILLIONS IN TAXPAYER INVESTMENTS HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS "...this treatment was developed as a result of investments made by the American taxpayers through the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The problem is that Gilead, the company that now sells this drug, charges astronomical prices. When Truvada was first approved in 2004, Gilead charged about $800 per month, again, for this life- saving drug. Since then, Gilead raised the price of this drug over and over and over and over and over again. It now charges about $2,000 for just one month or about $70 per pill. Think about that, lifesaving drug. In the same period, Gilead has made massive windfalls on this treatment, more than $36 billion in revenues. Let me say that one more time. They made more than $36 billion on this drug alone. How can Gilead do this? How can our system allow a company to take a drug treatment that was developed with taxpayer funds and abuse this monopoly to charge such astronomical prices? This life- saving treatment would not exist but for the research funded by the CDC and NIH. So how can our system let a company charge prices that are so outrageous, making $36 billion while there are literally hundreds of thousands of people who need this drug? " [think before following links] [think before following links] https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO00/20190516/109486/HHRG-116-GO00-Transcript-20190516.pdf {mosads}Truvada costs approximately $6 per month to make, but Gilead Sciences charges up to $2,000 per month to consumers. Unlike HIV treatment drugs, HIV prevention drugs are not covered by the Ryan White Care Act, so there are significant barriers that prevent vulnerable communities from taking the drug.

As a total bottom, this question is the bane of my existence when it comes to random hooking up. i find what Tops want is close enough to 50/50 that it's impossible to know and be ready for what a random Top likes. i can be either and, while i feel more bottom/sub when i am smooth, it's not a strict identity thing with me. I.e., i can do either and will happily go with what turns my Top on. Hairy is definitely easier. If smooth, i use hair remover so there isn't stubble and it's silky smooth... but that's hard to maintain. Also, shaving for me i get ingrown hairs, and that doesn't look good at all. i find a little fuzz is easier and softer to maintain. Still looks smooth, and is to touch because it's not stubble. The hairy or smooth question has both visual and a tactile factors.

i believe there are two primary kinds of degradation. One type is generic, general. The vibe is mean, forceful, bullying. i know there are those who want this on both sides of the D/s, Top/bottom dynamic. The second type of degradation is personal, individual, not a one size fits all approach. Your question applies to race since You ask about "words for white guys/caucasion." It's only going to be degrading if race is a factor for him. To me, where the degradation comes in is in his wanting to please You and being willing to do things You both consider degrading in order for You do be pleased. It doesn't have to be mean. As a matter of fact, i believe affectionate degradation is far more powerful than mean or forceful degradation. If You want to include the race distinction, maybe pair it with something else like "boy." The distinction is he is a boy and You are a Man, which in most cultures would be degrading for a grown guy to be considered a boy in a relationship. Maybe pair that with "white boy" and contrast that with what ever color You are "_______ Man."

Yeah.. and our city council meetings are videoed and posted on youtube, which is pretty convenient. Though i've personally talked to my ward person. i think you make a good point about possibly being able to have more affect at a local level.

As i see it, democracy is about restricting and controlling government power. Supposedly the people get to vote for people who represent them and their values. Laws that are enacted and tax dollars allocated should benefit 'the people.' Of course, there's infinite variations of people and we've ended up with two grossly united, polarized groups. The 'choices' we end up with on either side tend to bring out my inner conspiracy paranoid crazy, wondering who's really in charge? It sure as hell isn't "the people" of the republic. i cannot think of a politician i could say actually 'represents' me, or even most of the people i know and associate with. It seems to me most people vote against, not for, a power structure that sort of exercises and maintains a few generally held standards.

i know the comparison to nazi Germany is to often casually used, but i see so many similarities between Trump and Hitler, as well as their ardent followers. That concerns me. If possible, it seems to me that Trump has gone to an all new and lower level in his second campaign. His personality feeds off of attention and approval, and he gets plenty of both. Trump and his followers reflect each other, and it seems the only restrictions they have is whatever they can get away with. To me, that's a scary prospect if they gain power once again. i believe they will be even bolder and more outrageous if they get a second go round.

"HairFuror" is my favorite (so far), apt on so many levels.

Given Biden's lack of support, that doesn't strike me as a "crazy" way to use your vote. Interesting MIT study done prior to Trumps election offers some insight i think: "This study investigated the cognitive processing of true and false political information. Specifically, it examined the impact of source credibility on the assessment of veracity when information comes from a polarizing source (Experiment 1), and effectiveness of explanations when they come from one's own political party or an opposition party (Experiment 2). These experiments were conducted prior to the 2016 Presidential election. Participants rated their belief in factual and incorrect statements that President Trump made on the campaign trail; facts were subsequently affirmed and misinformation retracted. Participants then re-rated their belief immediately or after a delay. Experiment 1 found that (i) if information was attributed to Trump, Republican supporters of Trump believed it more than if it was presented without attribution, whereas the opposite was true for Democrats and (ii) although Trump supporters reduced their belief in misinformation items following a correction, they did not change their voting preferences. Experiment 2 revealed that the explanation's source had relatively little impact, and belief updating was more influenced by perceived credibility of the individual initially purporting the information. These findings suggest that people use political figures as a heuristic to guide evaluation of what is true or false, yet do not necessarily insist on veracity as a prerequisite for supporting political candidates." [think before following links] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5383823/ heu·ris·tic /hyo͝oˈristik/ adjective 1. enabling someone to discover or learn something for themselves. "a “hands-on” or interactive heuristic approach to learning" 2. COMPUTING proceeding to a solution by trial and error or by rules that are only loosely defined. noun (source: Oxford languages)

❤️ i concur with those who encourage keeping an open heart. It seems common, almost the rule, for guys to have inaccessible hearts. i've spent much of my life trying to practice openness and vulnerability. Early on i learned the difference between that and wearing my heart on my sleeve, and it can be a fine balance. To me, living is connecting with other human beings, and i think intimate connection is the greatest, strongest and most intense, rewarding connection/s that we can have. i think part of the suffering we experience from loss of a love bond is because we have unrealistic expectations. i don't know if our nature is wired to preserve the feelings we have with "love" or it's a culturally conditioned expectation, i suspect it's a combination. But it seems to me it's the disappointed expectation that a love bond should last, endure, that hurts us, not the experience of love itself. So, what we need to learn is to appreciate love while we have it vs trying to force it beyond its real lifetime? idk, i'm thinking out loud on this one... not making absolute or universal judgements here, i know it's complex.

i know, it's says so right there in the Bible.

Wow, i think there are some great and thoughtful responses here. i'll throw my hat(s) into the ring as well. Some random thoughts. i think religious belief is emotional, not rational. Oh sure, there's all sorts of rationale used by the religious... they even have a name for it "apologetics," (and there's a lot to apologize for), but i think religions power is emotionally driven. If it's rooted in emotion, scientific education is not necessarily going to undo that. Ethnocentricity drives entire nations to war and killing those who believe otherwise. i think religion is just a form of ethnocentricity that i think also has precepts woven into culture in general, even the parts that claim to be secular. i don't think university and education necessarily trump emotional disposition. One of my sons is literally a rocket scientist working at NASA, the other has two masters degrees, one of them is in writing and rhetoric. They're both brilliant, and both of them disowned me as "rebelling against 'God'" when i stepped away from fundamentalism, came out to them as gay and divorced their mom. In their defense, we home schooled both of them and they were given strong religious roots. i think they are slowly seeing, but it's hard. i was raised fundamentalist christian. i knew i am attracted to males from an early age. At puberty when i put a name on it (homosexuality), it never occurred to me that i could accept being gay. i knew what 'God' had to say about Guys fucking guys, and who was i to disagree? i believed it was a choice. It's way more complex than that, but it took me 40 years to process out of the emotional disposition that those beliefs were not "God." They were peoples ideas about 'God.' Look at some of the comments and see how many allude to the bible as a source of what 'God" or "Jesus" said. The bible is a self authorizing document. We don't accept that kind of authority with other stuff, but somehow, the bible often gets a pass as an authoritative resource when quoting guys like Jesus. We say "Jesus taught love," but we're basing that on what a self authorizing book has written in it. Not only are the many denominations of Judeo-Christian based on individual peoples read of their scriptures... the scriptures themselves are individual peoples writings. Say this stuff to a fundamentalist (fundamentalist anything), and watch them glaze over. Or, vehemently insist that you just don't see. Because, it's not a matter of belief based on rationale, it's conditioned emotional disposition rationalized.

Many of us (most?) grow up in cultures where straight is the expected default setting for everyone. Cultural norms and expectations are only a reflection of who and how some are. There are tons of people in relationships they got into because that's how things are supposed to work. How we've been conditioned to believe life should be often does not aline with reality. i'm speculating, but it's possible your wife may have married you and had sex as part of the paid price for admission to get some of the other elements that marriage includes, and you may have done the same. Not necessarily purposely or consciously, like it was planned. Many of our decisions (i think most) in life are not based on rational knowledge and understanding of our needs and wants, but based on how we feel. Typical: Q: "Why'd you get married." A: "We fell in love." Who ever enters a relationship based on identifying mutual needs/desires that make the relationship compatible and sustainable? Nah, we enter marriage contracts base on something we "fell" into lol, only to discover once we are committed that "falling into" is a tenuos (at best) foundation on which to build or maintain a relationship.

Neuroplasticity is complex and an emerging science... so i'm speculating. Since the brain is connected to our sex drive and function, i figure neuroplasticity also figures in. The brain can form new neural pathways to accommodate demand and need. Also, new pathways can be formed working with existing ones. Sort of like exercising muscles, lifting weight, makes the muscle bigger (if only it worked that way with the cock?). When pleasure centers are involved, there's the added 'trigger' of wanting to repeat that pleasure. For instance, we know that sugar lights up the same area of the brain as cocain does, so their can be a similar addictive response to repeat that pleasure. Speculating, i 'd think that Top or bottoms would both experience strengthened neural pathways for their particular position. i don't think there would be a discriminating factor between the two? Yes, we are born with neuroplasticity. A newborns neuroplasticity is enormous, new pathways grow at leaps and bounds. What more recent science has discovered is the ability of the brain to build new pathways does not go away with age, it is not as substantial, but it is still there. Sorry it took a bit to reply... working yesterday and today, so catching this before i leave for work.

i don't think there is evidence that can definitively prove one is "born a bottom." Who can even remember back to birth lol? i get it though. As far back as i can remember i've been bottom. Is there a physical, brain factor that makes us bottom? idk There are definitely psychological factors for me. i also believe that the more i have bottomed, the more that has been reinforced in me? i suspect neuroplasticity plays a part, that the pleasure response i have to receiving a Mans cock gets triggered and exercised every time i get fucked and those neurons multiply and become stronger in my brain reinforcing my being bottom. It doesn't matter to me though, i love the dynamic of opposites and love those who 'feel' like they were born Top, whether They can prove it or not is not an issue for me, the fact that They want/need to put Their cock, orgasm and seed in me is what evokes the craving bottom in me.

"The video, which Mr. Trump first posted to Truth Social last Friday and then played before taking the stage at several rallies in Iowa over the weekend, is called “God Made Trump.” In starkly religious, almost messianic tones, it depicts the former president as the vessel of a higher power sent to save the nation." [think before following links] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/11/us/politics/trump-god-video-pastors-iowa.html

Just left. Have been fighting the flu, mostly over it but still have the cough. Didn't matter, still wanted Him badly when He texted me. Good 40 minutes of hard, raw sex. i love every square inch of His body, so my mouth was all over Him for at least 15 minutes, then He flips and pounds me the rest of the time. Sometimes i can tell when He comes, others i can't till after, He always leaves me cum sloppy. When He's done, i always feel worked over, pounded. it's an awesome, totally worked, relaxed feeling. in 4 years of couple of times fucking, i have never come once with Him, which is perfect by me, His orgasm in me leaves me so fucking satisfied.

Just wow.

From the article: "In the Nature Ecology and Evolution study, for example, the authors argue that scientists’ assumption that opposite-sex attraction is normal and ancestral “has not been rigorously examined.” To me, this alines with hntnhole's thoughts on cultural/religious conditioning. I.e., is much of evolutionary theory regarding sex based on presumptive bias? The overarching notion that "survival of the species" is about "normal" reproduction. From the article: “Indeed, indiscriminate mating can be more beneficial than it is costly.” "Mating" seems a euphemisim for fucking here? i'd wager no group engages in more "indiscriminate fucking" than gays? At least, it seems more culturally expected if not generally socially always accepted. To me, some of the bigger factors missing in evolutionary theory is the influence of intelligent design and intervention on evolution. E.g., straights wanna have sex without making babies, so we invent contraception. Gays wanna fuck raw and with abandon, so we invent antivirals. This is a vast topic.

i do everything in my power to keep a Mans seed inside of me once it's planted, i've figured out if there is fuck air inside of me trying to make me fart, i can lie on my back and finger the top part of my hole and the air will come out and the cum will stay in. lol, hey, i did say "everything in my power to keep a Mans seed in." i also have some sub in me that comes out in different ways. For instance i experience the power dynamic of being owned through what i perceive as "affectionate humiliation/degradation." i've been with Tops Who purposely pumped me full of air with Their Cock, and some Who have literally blown air inside of me using Their mouth. If it's obvious to me that They are turned on by Their control with me, even if it's awkward and feels sort of humiliating to fart, i get turned on by His obvious control and His obviously being turned on by His control. If He has pissed or cum in me and ends up making me fart, i feel the loss of His seed (to me, a Mans piss is another form of His seed), but it's sort of offset by His control and pleasure He gets from ownership/control. i like the way being owned feels when the Owner derives pleasure from it.

my FB just left. i've been battling the flu all week, been pretty wasted, but there's always a part of me that can rally and be horny. Had to put Him off all week, just too sick and i also didn't want to make Him sick. Today i demurred again and He responded: "I honestly don’t care that you’re sick. I’ll slide right now if you are up for that, but I am super down right now and have all the energy to come." How could i say no? Besides, i didn't wan to, i've been going through withdrawals without Him. Left me pregnant.

i too "have loved this site from the beginning." You seem pretty reasonable and smart to me, my guess is you'll figure out how to get as much as you can, and share what you can with a great community. Despite the high cost of membership, i feel it's a service well worth the cost. With all the well paid moderators, no one should ever have opportunity to whine because of a violated entitlement. Tongue removed from (my) cheek. No one likes to get reproved for rule violations (cept maybe a few subs). i'd venture to speculate that rawTOP and the moderators here even consider some of those rules petty and inappropriate. i don't generally believe that is rawTOP's or the moderators doing, rather it's their efforts to keep from having this forum shut down. That's a real threat, Remember CL personal ads? Travel to Virginia, home of Thomas Jefferson, and try to access BZ. Unless you have a VPN, you will not be allowed on BZ in VA, compliments of the commonwealth of VA (and they are not the only state in the US to do that). It's easy to be an armchair athlete and criticize the doers for doing it wrong. BZ is a privately owned site though, not a democratic republic. One can use their 'voice' and vote control freaks out of office who make rules that do force sites like BZ to toe a line you disagree with. Personally, i think BZ is doing a great job, and i am grateful for their efforts to keep this forum going. i've been here 12 years and, 2600 posts later, have never managed a violation. i'm not particularly vanilla, and i've never read the rules, so i've likely been lucky. If i do happen to, it seems to me the adult thing to do is to suck it up, apologize and try and correct the violation. To me, what we have on BZ is worth a few rules to keep BZ in existence.

In my hospital, i admit the patient after the doctor admits them. One of the questions i ask is if they have any beliefs they want us to honor or be aware of. i have an average of 150 classes of continuing medical education (CME) that i have to take every year to maintain my license. i also take more classes to maintain critical care certification. Classes that we all must take, include classes on awareness of bias against things like weight, body habitus, sexual identification/orientation. Of course, this does not change who a person might be, but the policy of acceptance is there. Funny story. i had a crush on a doctor when i first started working at this hospital. He was cute, shy. i came back on rotation one day, had not seen him in awhile, and he had transitioned and was now Julie. i marveled at their courage, but everyone was open and accepting to her. She is one of two transpeople l know of who work at my hospital. Also a nurse who recently retired and worked in hospice wore rainbows on his badge lanyard. The hospital also has several married gay couples and they can get insurance like any other married couple. We still have bigots and bias, but it is not openly tolerated. Medicine in the US is capitalist. There are laws, a hospital cannot reject anyone because they cannot pay, and we have had more than a few unhoused people long term because there was no place to place them. There are ways one can get the medicine that they need, but it's not always easy and there are hard choices, not always viable. Drugs in the US are ridiculously expensive, and the same drugs can be gotten in other countries cheaper. Insulin and other meds get skipped to keep money for other things, not unusual, but not unheard of either. Short acting insulin for prandial and corrective dosing is about $170 for 100 units. The hospital where i work is always full. We had to go on divert on Christmas day because we were full. On the floor, we have a running joke that they are going to put bunk beds in the patient rooms so we can fit more in. A "hospitalist" where i have worked is a general practitioner who cares for a patient. They come in with most illnesses and they get a doctor/hospitalist assigned to them. The hospitalist takes complete care, or may consult and add additional doctors depending on the issue. For instance, if the patient has a heart attack, the hospitalist may consult cardiology, and they may do a heart cath and a stent, or start them on a heparin drip, or___________. The anesthesiologist works in the operating room (OR), we never see them on the floor where the patients are staying. A patient may go for open heart surgery for an aortic valve replacement or bypass, the anesthesiologist sees them in the OR and cares for them during the four hour surgery, but not before or after, and the patient usually has only a minute or two interaction with them while they are putting them under for the surgery. In the hospitals where i have worked, both teaching hospitals connected to a medical school. One was big 850 beds, 3 helicopters, certified in 14 specialties. i worked on a heart unit. In a large hospital, one specialize more. We put in our own IV's. Where i work now, is 180 beds, a teaching hospital, but to small to specialize, so as a critical care nurse i get everything, not just hearts. Not unusual to have 3 or 4 co-morbidities to juggle. A patient with an MI who also has end stage renal disease, diabetic and a history of stroke with residual deficits. Actually, this sort is usually the rule, not the exception, so nurses have to be familiar with all of this in critical care. They are on telemetry, so we have to know how to read rhythms, etc.. At this hospital, we have to pull femoral sheaths after surgery, but lab draws blood using phlebotomists who do nothing but draw blood. Everyone gets blood work daily, CBC and Chem panel at least, with a bunch of add ons like liver enzymes or A1c, CRP, lactate, etc, etc.. Part of my morning routine is checking what meds my patient gets, checking vital signs (every 4 hours) and checking labs/blood work. I/O. We have certified nursing assistants (CNA's) who take vital signs every 4 hours, a nurse takes them if there is a question. We also have IV nurses at this hospital, cuts down on infection rates. We give blood, though. Monitor drips, pressers, nitro, anticoagulant. The list goes on and on. Nurses and doctors get along very well where i work, we depend on each other. i am a doctors eyes and ears. One advantage of working for a long time at the same place is you get to know each other. i have some doctors who we know each other so well, i page them with info, reasons and ask for some med or intervention, and they will simply put in an order for it. They know i see so much being with the patient all the time, i can spot things like fluid overload and they put in an order for furosemide. Or heart is looking irritated or tachy, maybe start metoprolol, or go up on the dose. Tons of stuff like that, we work as a team. They may ask for reasoning, they make the decision, but they also listen and there is mutual respect for each other. i LOVE the doctors i work with... and there are several i wish would fuck me lol or Who's cock i would suck in a heartbeat.

i was raised in a religious culture, and i also went deeply into religion for a long time. i think American culture has a lot of overt and subtle religious influence. i'm guessing the same is true in Your country (Greece?), though it seems You were able to get free of much of that influence at a younger age than i did, and come to a place of self acceptance. Being in healthcare as a nurse is mixed for me. i'm nerdy, read a lot of medical journals, have professional certifications. i love physiology and am endlessly fascinated with how the body works. i also love connecting with and helping people, and i get a lot of that in my position. The healthcare system in the US is broken. i work with amazing, caring people. i love working in a teaching hospital, the doctors i work with are beautiful people and we all get along very well. The policies of the healthcare system make the job very difficult and exhausting. Also, shortages of healthcare workers mean we are often functioning in triage mode, which can get tiring very fast. i am "happy," though i (and anyone in this profession i think) have to develop and maintain coping skills to keep going. lol... In school, i did very well on my maternity rotation, but cannot imagine being a maternity nurse or midwife. i think we probably agree that a woman has some advantages to working with women because they have the same equipment and can better relate to how it feels and works. But even with that, as you note, the people we care for-male or female- are often unwell or not in the best condition, so they are not always beautiful to look at. It doesn't "sound weird" to me at all. i get it. i've written some things on kink sites about how to use more sterile technique when sounding or using catheters if they are part of ones sexual practice. i agree, i think we can help people much more when we do not stigmatize those who are different, and even show familiarity and acceptance. i've been able to establish rapport with patients who realize i'm familiar and accepting, so i think it's wonderful that you do this. Oh yeah, me too on the catheter balloon. For me, once i get urine return, i know the tip is in the bladder, i always slide the cath in about two inches more after i get urine return before i inflate the balloon, then i gently pull it back until i get resistance. I've had both male and female patients with altered mental status who pulled their catheter out. Ouch. A part of me wishes You want to be a hospitalist instead of anesthesiologist, think people would benefit from Your caring attitude, Your desire to understand and relate. i was accepted into a nurse practitioner program and many NP's become hospitalists or anesthesiologists. i'm mixed. i'd like to have the added education and understanding of diagnosis, but also like being with the patient for 12 hours vs 15 minutes. You are so right about the effect of stigmatization on being able to provide effective care. We experience it often when it comes to alcohol. We ask how much alcohol the person consumes on a daily basis, but because of stigma, many lie. They come in for one issue, and while they are in the hospital, they start to withdraw from alcohol, and we end up having to treat that as well. If a person is alcohol dependent, and they have no desire or intention of stopping drinking when they leave, we will make sure they have alcohol while they are in the hospital for whatever they are being treated, so they do not withdraw. If they want to quit, we can implement CIWA protocol and make sure they have meds like ativan to smooth the process. About 25% of the nurses i work with are male, the other 75% female. Almost to a person, they are awesome, amazing people. i find the people who are as you describe, gossips or religious in a way that judges, do not last very long in our setting. The continuous realities of what we do usually changes them or drives them away because reality does not aline with their ideas of how things are or should be. What i do is very hard, the people i work with are what keeps me doing it. i'm very fortunate to be in a place where the culture of those providing the care is exemplary. The hospital i came from was not like that, so i know what i have is rare.

Great thread Sharp-edge, thank You for sharing Your thoughts! i'm a critical care nurse in the US. It's actually a newish career for me. i spent most of my life in executive management. 14 years ago, i left the corporate management world, went to nursing school and got a BSN, and now am in my eleventh year practicing in a teaching hospital on a critical care unit. In the US, and particularly in the hospital where i work, nurses are considered partners with the doctors. Here's some of my thoughts and experiences responding to the 4 topics You note. 1. i'm familiar with female genitalia from a couple of perspectives. i was married to a woman half my life because i was conditioned by religious culture from an early age that being gay was not an option. Longs story, but the end result is, my first experience with a vagina was my wedding night. i was a virgin and i actually missed the first time we had sex (really, i came, but my penis was not inside of her). Even though i was trying to be straight, all my masturbation fantasies and porn was of guys prior to marriage, so i didn't really know female anatomy at all. i eventually learned female anatomy in order to make her orgasm, but even with as much time as i spent going down on her orally, i didn't really notice or pay attention to her urethra. I.e., my experience with her did not equip me to cath a woman. my only real familiarity with her vagina was learning how to make her orgasm. In the last 11 years as a critical care nurse, i have seen probably thousands of vaginas. Like any other medical procedure, there's a point where i simply got used to it and don't even think about it now... it's routine. 2. LMAO. i have put in more catheters than i can count, male and female. Whether you're a male or female practitioner, the consensus amongst my peers is guys are always easier. With guys, the only obstacle is the prostate, which we encounter a lot as the primary reason for putting a cath in (urine retention from obstruction). The only weird thing i've encountered putting a cath in a guy is having the cath loop back out while sliding it in the urethra. That only happened to me once, doing a straight cath for a UA. The straight caths we had were sort of thin and flimsy, and if they encountered a swollen prostate, they'd loop around and the tip would come back out. After that, i'd always find a coude' cath and have never encountered that sense. i did cath myself to see how it feels. Half the guys don't seem to care, half it's like the end of the world. i use lidocaine gel if the guy encounters pain. Putting a cath in a woman? Hole different ball game (pun intended). i've been in situations where it took 4 or 5 people to put a cath in a woman, just to hold the various parts back to try and find the urethra. The common notion is "look for the wink." i always have a woman nurse present with me when cathing a woman, and honestly, it's just as much a challenge for a woman to put the cath in as a guy. It isn't you. Finding a woman's urethra is not easy, and often takes multiple tries by several people. As far as pain is concerned? From multiple conversations and tons of experience, the only people i have encountered who experience pain when putting a cath in are guys. Their urethra is much longer than a woman's, and they have a prostate which is often the reason for needing a cath. If the prostate is swollen, it is often painful to get the cath past that. 3. Rectal bleeds. That gets complex, eh? with 27 feet of intestine, not to mention esophageal varicosities, there can be a lot of places for a bleed. Frank red blood from the rectum is something i see usually from hemorrhoids, coffee grounds are usually from further up. In my patient population, it's not unusual to see both. We do an H/H to test for active (major) bleed. People with anal sexual activity is often reflected in other ways though. i've had a few patients with rectal prolapses that make me wonder. Also, we encounter lots of incontinence on our unit, so we see a lot of anus. As a nurse, i do not do digital rectal exams, but i do administer a fair amount of suppositories digitally. i had one woman patient, who was still pretty young and attractive, who had a connective tissue disease and here intestinal tract had lost most of it motility. i had to give her enemas 2x a shift. At one point i think she felt a little awkward, so i told her i am gay so she would not feel any sexual. i still question whether or not i should have told her that, i just did it in the moment. Like you, i agree that as a professional, gender shouldn't figure in. But, the reality is, sometimes it does. 4. From what i read and experience, sex drive is more individual than age related? Reading up on it, some women experience increased sex drive after menopause? idk. i do know there are plenty of guys who are still plenty horny no matter how old. There is an online gay site called "Silver Daddies" that has 125k members aging all the way into the 90's, both Top and bottoms. i don't doubt that age can be a factor, more to the point, health factors that may affect elderly more than younger guys, but i don't think one loses their libido just because of age?

To me, the president of the US is more of a symbol. They are often (mostly?) a puppet of forces both seen and unseen. It's hard for me to disconnect US political power from the economic power structure of big business. As a symbol, the president can get both credit and blame... and while i think the position holds power, i think the president has far less control than the image the position portrays. One of things i believe Trump wants is to wield more of that apparent power as an individual. my feel is he wants to be king, not president. i also feel he is just as he appears, volatile, shallow, narcissistic, easily manipulated by his massive ego. To me, he seems more ruled by his image than substance. He loves being the center of attention and prides himself on being outrageous, as though he equates that with being special, unique. As long as one can feed and satisfy his toddler ego, one can control Trump. In contrast, i think career politicians like Biden simply sell their soul to play a role. They are the latest actor on the stage. While a president has limited control as any famous actor does, i don't believe they write the script or direct the play.