??!! Savage Love Letter of the Day
posted by on December 23 at 14:34 PM
This is… um… something that came in the mail today.
Now that Santorum has only one disgusting meaning instead of two, it’s a good opportunity to take another devastating swipe at the dangers of homophobia.The sad fact is that those intrepid climbers on Mt. Hood could’ve survived had all three simply huddled together and kept warm in a snow cave. That would have been their only hope, and it’s very unfortunate for them and for their families that their all-American values of homophobia probably hopelessly prevented them from ever even considering that option. But separated and clutching blocks of ice instead of each other, they were doomed to freeze and die.
The climber’s families and the nation have stoically embraced prayer and hope, while at the same time the climbers themselves were very likely frozen stiff all along because they had stoically refused to embrace each other. (Even heterosexual penguins are only able to survive the Antarctic winter by huddling together.)
As we thoughtlessly go about destroying the habitability of this planet and as we prepare to militarily impose our shallow, commercialized values upon the rest of the oil-producing world, a more accurate assessment of the needless Mt. Hood tragedy might help to bring more Americans to their senses and to make us a more human, a more practical, and a more tolerant people. The entire world will greatly benefit from that change.
Realistic And Luckily Practical Hetero
I’m not endorsing this letter by posting it. I’m actually a bit flabbergasted by it. But I don’t know anything about mountain climbing or snow caves or surviving extreme cold. I do, however, know something about huddling with men. I’m disinclined to think that RALPH here is correct, i.e. that the men could have saved themselves by huddling together—or that they refused to do so for fear of being perceived as gay by the… uh… snow? The cold? The mountain?
But, like I said, I don’t know. I also haven’t been following this story—which is tragic, and I ache for the families, and I think it’s silly to try and blame it on homophobia (and please note that the letter is from a straight guy, not a gay guy). But did I miss something? Was there are a news report that quoted someone saying that the men would have survived if they had only spooned? WTF?
Dear Gawd. How you muster the courage to open your mail each day, I cannot imagine.
I hadn't heard anything like that. This guy sounds rude.
I'm all for homosexual rights but here's an interesting story.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/6205223.stm
Sounds like something posted by someone from The Evergreen State College. How arrogant of them to think they knew what was going through their heads as they were fighting to survive.
Lets just use some simple logic here. If you were dying of cold, your last concern would be being perceived as gay, if it meant continued living you would do it. Hell, even Jerry Falwell would probably take it up the ass and suck cock if it meant his survival (picturing that I just threw up in my mouth a little).
Jean @ 3
I'm all for homophobic dipshits feeling marginalized. "Oh noes! The government no longer endorses our bigotry! To the lawyers!"
These guys surely knew that cuddling would buy them extra time, but they apparently concluded not enough.
Were they correct? Well, a well constructed snow cave will maintain a temperature of 32 degrees inside. From what I read, it didn't sound like they were able to build a perfect snow cave, so theirs was probably more like 10-20 degrees. I don't know how long 3 guys spooning can last in those temperatures. Without food or the ability to move around, maybe 2-4 days?
But homophobia? Utterly ridiculous.
Dan, this may not be as visceral a letter as the guy who sent you the Internet pictures of people vacuuming out their colons, but it's almost as intelligent.
Your brain-dead correspondent is apparently unaware that non-gay and possibly homophobic outdoorsy-type folks have always stripped down and cuddled for warmth as a survival technique. It's the standard way to revive someone suffering from exposure in cold conditions (in a sleeping bag with a non-frozen person). Yes, it's the source of stupid discomfort and silliness, and yes, they do it anyways. Your letter writer is sadly more bigoted than they are.
The Mt. Hood hikers are unfortunately dead, regardless of who or what they cuddled up with.
I'm a mountain-climber and I second FNARF's comment. (1) The letter-writter is a dumb-shit who has no idea what did or didn't go down on that mountain, but can't miss an opportunity to flaunt his oh-so-enlightend moral superiority. (2) Getting two people together in a bag is a damn good way to fight hypothermia. Getting your fingers and toes in a crotch is a damn good way to save them from frostbite. Both techniques are well-known and well-used by mountaineers.
Last I heard one of them was injured and the other two left him to go find help. Huddling together isn't really an option, in that kind of situation. Has there been anything new discovered that says otherwise?
Yes. Kelly James -- the one who was left behind (and the only body found so far) -- was apparently not hurt badly enough to prevent descending. (That, according to some reports from an autopsy. The searchers who found his body thought he had a dislocated shoulder, but the autopsy results apparently suggested otherwise.)
So, there's too little information to draw any conclusion. Why did the climbers separate? Why did James or all of them dig two snow caves? Why did James say he was injured in the Dec. 10 call to his family?
There's no way to answer those questions, so there will probably never be answers. Any speculation like the letter writer's is unjustified.
Brandon, your an asshole. I went to Evergreen, you retard and so I've heard a lot of stupid stuff there, but nothing like the dick who wrote that letter (which I think was you).
#1 Huddling together does indeed keep you warmer for longer.
#2 Even the most homophobic climber is not going to let themselves die before they would huddle with another naked man.
More tragic is their decision to ascend up the most dangerous face of Mt. Hood in December, with a raging winter storm being broadcast continuously for a few days before it actually hit, and then proceed to try and descend down the "easier" south face, which they had never seen before, while walking head-first into snow flying in 100 mph gusts of wind.
If these guys didn't want to be dead, they shouldn't have climbed that mountain. No amount of huddling naked could possibly keep you alive that long up there. I would have chosen to try and descend, too. Who the hell knows when a storm like that will end? Better just to get the hell off the mountain, not that they should have been up there in the first place, by the sound of it.
Ah, Pomme Fritz, yet another fucking judgmental know-it-all. You join the ranks of the idiots who blamed that couple for driving into the mountains in Oregon, and my stupid co-worker who said Kate Fleming was dumb to go into her basement when it was raining.
Fuck you all. Oh, yeah, and Merry Christmas, fuckers.
Hey, Pomme may be insensitive, but he's not wrong. If you have prior warning that the weather's going to be rough and you go anyway despite the warnings, no one else is really responsible but you.
It doesn't mean that they shouldn't get rescued, of course. However, you're an idiot if you're *not* being judgmental by calling them dumbasses for doing this in the first place.
Ah, yes, we really do need more judgmental people in the world. Fuck you too, bma.
It is tragic and of course there should have been a rescue attempt. I feel horrible for those guys, but it was also idiotic and selfish. Their families and people that cared about them are suffering and tax payers paid for the rescue operation because of their short-sightedness and arrogance. And of course, they are dead.
The reason some degree of judgment should be applied to this situation is that we don't want stuff like this to happen again. Of course it will, but hopefully less.
elswinger,
I go to Evergreen too and you are yet another example how that entire campus is devoid of a sense of humor and lacks the ability to withstand any form of criticism. I agree with your two points yet you see fit to call me an asshole just because I imply that Evergreen students often have there heads so far up their own asses that they could write something like RAPH.
Brandon H
P.S Why would I write a letter like that and then turn around an write a criticism of myself?
Whoever thought FNARF would use the word "anyways"? And apparently Evergreen doesn't teach the difference between there/their, and your/you're. I don't know what this younger generation is coming to.
Actually they don't even require writing courses, which shows. But you don't need to be such a crone about it. This is just a bullshit forum post anyway, it's not like anyone has the time to go through the proper editing.
LOLA: "Fuck you too, bma."
Chill out, sister. Anyone who spends time in the mountains should analyze tragedies like this so that if you ever get into trouble you don't die by repeating other's mistakes.
In this case, I think the only way they could have survived was to heed the storm warnings and cancel the trip. Once they were up there, they were screwed.
However right or wrong the original RALPH might be about homophobia, he is correct about the value of warm bodies huddling together to prevent hypothermia.
Heat loss is a function of surface area and volume. More surface area gives you more surface from which to lose heat. More volume gives you more heat to start out with. Three people huddled together reduce the surface area (per person) exposed to the elements, while approximately tripling the volume that is holding the heat. It's an excellent strategy to slow down the onset of hypothermia, whatever your other predilections about men huddling with other men.
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