On Friday, John McCain and Barack Obama squared off in their first debate. Here are a few quick thoughts:

•    Although I wasn’t surprised, I was nonetheless disappointed that no one acknowledged James Meredith, the first African American to attend University of Mississippi. If not for Meredith’s courageous fight against state-sponsored terrorism 46 years ago, Obama would not have been able to debate there last Friday. At the very least, he should have been an invited guest.
•    By far, this was Obama’s strongest performance. Cleary mindful of critiques that he is too esoteric and longwinded –some of us would say thoughtful and complex– Obama came out of the gate with high energy and succinct points.  Also, he appeared more confident than normal (which is no small feat for a man who makes his own presidential seals) and didn’t appear frustrated when McCain applied pressure.
•    Neither candidate did an effective job explaining the consequences of the bailout plan for their social agendas. While this is virtually a moot point with respect to McCain, who wants to shrink every sector of government except for military, it raised a few questions about the viability of Obama’s proposed plans.
•     Is it really necessary for candidates to give Israel a shout-out at every debate?
•    John McCain repeated some variation of the phrase “Obama doesn’t understand” seven times during the debate. Most likely, he was attempted to speak to undecided voters, many of whom have lingering doubts about Obama’s experience and intelligence. While this scripted tactic may have been an effective political move, though post-debate polls suggest otherwise, it amounted to one of the most pejorative and condescending gestures in recent memory.
•    In his post-debate speeches, Obama keeps pointing out that McCain’s failure to say “middle-class” during the debate is an index of his indifference to their struggles. Based on this logic, how should I interpret his failure to say “poor people” or “black people” in the same debates?
•    Overall, Obama did a better job of explaining his points and challenging his opponents. Nevertheless, he found himself playing defense and conceding unnecessary points to John McCain. If he wants to convince undecided voters that he’s the better choice, he’ll have to refine his strategy for the next debate.

Question to the Sexpert:
“I rented the film Quid Pro Quo last week because I adore Nick Stahl, the actor. Essentially, it’s about a paraplegic journalist who’s investigating people who want to be amputated or otherwise become disabled. I’d heard a little about this fetish before, but my girlfriend brought up the point that it’s like transsexuality: in fact, one of the movie characters said she WAS a disabled person trapped in an able body. What do you think? If you’re accepting of people having surgery to change their sex, what about this?”

Thank GOD! Someone finally asked an oddball question about an obscure sexual fetish instead of just turning to the obnoxiously single girl for relationship advice.

For those who’ve not heard of this phenomenon before, or who have not seen the latest installment in the acting career of international superstar Nick Stahl (or haven’t even heard of him), let’s define a few terms, shall we? Great.

Ya’ll know what a disability is right? Good. So far we’re all on the same page. Whether you’re born with it or develop it at some point in life, it’s some sort of physical impairment or difference that makes functioning slightly or extremely dissimilar from that of the average person: deafness, spinal cord injury, amputation, etc.

Sounds like a blast, right? Well to some folks it really, really does. Some folks are turned on by disability: which is a preference that can range from totally normal (“hey, see that chick on the wheelchair? She’s wicked hot”) to creepily fetishistic and or exploitative (“god, I wanna lick that stump”). These folks are called devotees or acrotomophiles. For them, this is pretty much a sexual thing. Think foot-binding done in ancient China.

There are also folks who get their jollies from pretending to have a disability: using crutches when they can walk, binding their arms backwards, etc. Some people get off on fantasizing about themselves as disabled: they’re called apotemnophiles.

Some of these folks not only want to be disabled but feel that they need to be disabled. In fact, these wannabes (or transabled people, as some prefer to be called) feel they are disabled people trapped in a body that is not complete…. until they lose the offending body part/ability.

These transabled folks may express that they don’t feel right with their limbs intact, that their left arm, for instance, does not belong to them, or that they really belong on a wheelchair and are trapped in the body of a person who can walk. And these people are not delusional or psychotic. And they seek out doctors who will help them become disabled or try to do it themselves.

I’ll let you sit there, and reread that fucking paragraph. Go ahead, go back, reread it. It’s still there and it’s still true.

What causes this? No one really knows. Perhaps it’s a parietal lobe issue, maybe they seek novelty and exoticism, maybe they just want attention. Perhaps it’s a matter of imprinting: they attached erotic significance to a disability early on and kept conditioning themselves to be turned on by it. It could be interest in being non-conforming, a Munchausen-like desire to self-harm for affection or even an extreme form of masochistic submission.

While you could lump all the DPWs together (devotees, pretenders and wannabes), they often prefer to be sorted out separately. From this separation has arisen the notion that the group of wannabes: transabled people, people who would be diagnosed as having Body Integration Identification Disorder are comparable to people who are transgender: not conforming to the sex expressed by their bodies.

On one hand, it makes sense, as your girlfriend said, because we’ve heard people talk about their transsexuality as being “trapped in the wrong body” and needing surgery to correct the dissonance. This is the argument put forth by some transabled people. They say once they get rid of that goddamn leg, right above the knee, the world will be right.

But to many people who are disabled… like, for real for real disabled, and especially those disabled folks who are transgender, this notion is repugnant.

I’m in no position to really judge this. First and foremost I believe in a person’s right to self determination: to do whatever crazy, dangerous, silly, fun, wild, stupid, or downright sensible things they want to do to their own bodies as long as no one else has to be held responsible for the consequences. You wanna pierce your eyeball, tattoo your scrotum, whack off a hand, it’s no more my business than is anything else.

But, as with all things, that doesn’t mean I have to think it’s the best decision.

Is it related to transsexuality? Maybe. There are undeniable similiarities, but that doesn’t mean we have to put the two on the same level or react to them the same way. I thank the stars every day for my luck: being in a body that does what I need it to do. I wish that everyone could be so lucky.
Timaree Schmit is a trained sexologist who has also worked as an HIV prevention counselor and sex educator. She has written widely for numerous publications and was recently recognized by Coed Magazine as one of the 10 Most Famous College Sex Columnists in America. Timaree is completing a doctorate in Human Sexuality at Widener University.

Do you have a question or comment? Please email Timaree directly at sexpert@MarcLamontHill.com

New Moore Doc Released On Internet

Slacker Uprising, filmmaker Michael Moore’s new documentary about his 2004 tour, was released for free on the Internet on Tuesday. What do you think?

Lana Carver,
Systems Analyst
“He’s going to lose a lot of money. A years-old documentary on Michael Moore’s failed attempt to get John Kerry elected was sure to be a cash cow.”

Monte Hauk,
Computer Programmer
“A bunch of my tech friends and I are gonna figure out how to hack into it so we can pay for it.”

Adrian Sydnor,
Defense Contractor
“Check me out at 43 minutes in! I spit on a protester on my way to the Pentagon!”

Today’s photo of the day shows a tale of two cities. Where you at METS FANS?????