Chicken.

Yet you seem content with with a previous article to drag the parents of the girl in to this. Yes they have a right to blame Erin but if you are going to say Don’t drag his parents in to this, then don’t drag Lisa’s parents in to this either.

THE MIND BOGGLES.

As a matter of fact, Ritienne was seeing someone else in the last year, and has now left me. I’m now single again.

Suicide has never been far from my mind for the last fifteen years or so, ever since things started going downhill, women- a and career-wise. The only thing that’s keeping me from throwing myself off Dingli cliffs is the thought that my enemies would derive pleasure from my death, and I don’t want to give them the satisfaction. Besides, I’d like to take a few of them down before I die. But to kill yourself with your girlfriend? It’s totally stupid. As far as I’m concerned, once you’re in a relationship you’re pretty much sorted, so why kill yourself? And if you’ve a permanent job, like teaching, you’re even more sorted.

Agreed Daphne, everyone seems to forget that staging twisted behaviour or ideas in the name of artistic expression, read, freedom of speech, is not just portraying but actually promoting the content.

Calling it art to get the alibi is the exact opposite of what artistic expression is.

A bit like what Baxxter is saying but on a visual level, if the image isn’t a seedy photograph it’s acceptable, put in a couple of contrast enhancements or go for the Kodak filter and it’s 70’s Sunsilk shampoo moody. Something to consume and digest without any reservation.

The word beautiful in his mind is simply that which makes everything watchable.

I make it look ‘beautiful’ as in execution, therefore it must belong to beauty. Not really, some subject matter exists solely through restriction. And in the days of digital cameras, smart phones and computer programs, any image can have a semblance of artistic endeavour. So it’s not just done by default by everyone but even ‘quality’ becomes popular.

You can see where reality and expression will definitely blur. Why not do the same thing with war? I’m sure people like Erin will be surprised at the spectacular mix of videos of people blowing themselves up which can be edited.

Call it art. Which, I’m afraid, a society which has the time for everything but won’t spend anytime on anything, it is.

As for this material or subject matter being freely available to anyone, I don’t think so, age restrictions should apply, especially in a place where the observer doesn’t have the tools. Believe me, the Maltese don’t.

I’m not in any way trying to say that what Mr Stewart Tanti did is right. As a teacher, he should never have uploaded this photograph on his Facebook page and he is fully responsible for the whole tragedy and should be held accountable.

All I’m saying is that liking this picture or ones like it does not show a predilection to rape, torture, murder or anything like that. In any case, the photograph neither shows torture (although it can be a prelude to it) nor murder.

It shows bondage, which is a sex game of domination, submission, trust, materials (latex or plastic?) and maybe pain. People who play this game usually put some research into it, buy the right equipment, discuss what exactly it is they want to do with their other half and how far they want to go and decide on a safe word which immediately stops the game.

It sounds too much like hard work for me to be fun and I’m not into pain anyway but ‘different strokes for different folks’ and all that. I don’t think people who are interested in this sort of thing have a predisposition to carrying out deranged acts with teenagers at 4 o’clock in the morning.

And BDSM has gone mainstream now, following the publication of 50 Shades of Grey. Rumour has it that bedrooms across the western world have been stocking up on rope, handcuffs, chains, clamps, plugs and other paraphernalia. Maybe even you have noticed your Ritienne playing rougher in the last year Baxxter.

You’re not mistaken. Anything civil in this place is considered a betrayal of the approximate but incontrovertible links between closely knit extended families or followers of the same creed.

Call it peacetime Omerta’. Daphne gets bashed around the head when she dares call it Southern Meditteranean or non-European.

I’m afraid I have to introduce politics into the argument, but the result last year depended upon a party which believed principle and straight talk were enough against one which built its unprecedented majority on a whispering campaign four years in the making.

From clear cut regulations to outright patronage. Organised crime exists solely when there’s consent, the romanticisation dwells on glorifying the fatalism induced.

A senior civil servant friend of mine jokes about the corruption campaign, he insists of course people weren’t happy about that, there simply wasn’t enough.

Why is it OK to be into bondage? 50 shades of grey is not called housewives’ porn for nothing.