Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

We usually don't veil our comments about sheep-f.ckers; we come right
out and say it. Only the squeamish and sheepish use asterisks and
oblique references to beastiality, but they aren't what we refer to
as RRs (respected regulars) here.

I thinnk it's significant, but not because it's about sheep or
homosexuality. It's significant because of the way fanatic
ideologues (PETA, for example: "PETA began an e-mail campaign that
the universities say resulted in 20,000 protests, some with language
like 'you are a worthless animal killer and you should be shot,' 'I
hope you burn in hell' and 'please, die.'") twist the meanings of
words, and because it provides concrete evidence that language and
language usage matters. It's too bad that it also provides evidence
of the willingness of ignorant idiots to rant and rave about topics
they do not understand and about which they are defensive at best
and paranoid at worst:

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"The news media storm reached its zenith last month, when The Sunday
Times in London published an article under the headline 'Science
Told: Hands Off Gay Sheep.' It asserted, incorrectly, that Dr.
Roselli had worked successfully to 'cure' homosexual rams with
hormone treatments, and added that 'critics fear' that the research
'could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans.'

"Martina Navratilova, the tennis star who is both openly gay and a
PETA ally, wrote in an open letter that the research 'can only be
surmised as an attempt to develop a prenatal treatment' for sexual
conditions.
...
"'The more we play God or try to improve on Mother Nature, the more
damage we are doing with all kinds of experiments that either have
already turned or will turn into nightmares,' she [Navratilova] wrote
in an e-mail reply to a reporter’s query. 'How in the world could
straight or gay sheep help humanity?'

"In an interview, Shalin Gala, a PETA representative working on the
sheep campaign, said controlling or altering sexual orientation was a
'natural implication' of the work of Dr. Roselli and his colleagues.
Mr. Gala, who asked that he be identified as openly gay, cited the
news release for a 2004 paper in the journal Endocrinology that
showed differences in brain structure between homosexual and
heterosexual sheep.

"The release quoted Dr. Roselli as saying that the research 'also has
broader implications for understanding the development and control of
sexual motivation and mate selection across mammalian species,
including humans.'

"Mr. Newman, who wrote the release, said the word 'control' was used
in the scientific sense of understanding the body’s internal
controls, not in the sense of trying to control sexual orientation.
'It's discouraging that PETA can pick one word, try to add weight to
it or shift its meaning to suggest that you are doing something that
you clearly are not,' he said."

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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Variously ascribed to Mormons, rockclimbers, soldiers of the Black
Watch regiment, etc., etc.  In the Vulgarian Digest, Spring 1970, we
read

 Dear Appie:
 Is it best to approach a sheep from behind, or to roll it over and
 lay on top?
                                                           Deprived
 Dear Depraved:
 Is the sheep male or female?  And for that matter are you male or
 female?