strikinghelix

You know, I could go off for awhile about what a great and glorious day it is today. But I will not do that. You want fluffy bunnies and happy sunshine, go somewhere else.

I shall share something awful with you instead.

Last year, in San Diego, I went to a museum exhibit of torture devices from the Inquisitions(there were actually 3, the famous Spanish one being the last and most bloody).

It was humbling to walk amidst these brutal contraptions of wood and steel. To know that they had been born of a cruel will to dominate and baptized in the blood and pain of the hopeless. Utterly fascinating and moving.

The head crusher, which would first cause the teeth to shatter in their sockets. A ten-foot-tall tapered impaling spike onto which prisoners would be lowered, anus first, and then released, allowing the spike to slowly wend its way through the bowels and out the mouth or neck area over a course of several days, depending on the victim's weight. The Judas Cradle. The Heretic's Fork. The rack. The Iron Maiden. Cruelly spiked masks and bridles. Knives, clamps, hammers.

The one that got me was the pear. Imagine an metal pear split lengthwise into 3 lobes with a turnscrew where the stem would be. The pear is meant to be inserted into bodily orifices, after which one begins to turn the screw. This causes the lobes of the pear to expand outwards like an iron blossom, severely rupturing and tearing the orifice. It was used orally for heretic preachers, anally for homosexuals, and vaginally for women accused of congress with the Devil. It was almost too vile to look at. Almost.

It's certainly an impressive legacy of brutality, hatred, and fear. The upshot is that it reminds one of proper respect for life. Or it should.

Now that I've injected a little horror into your day, I shall be on my way.

Today is a very fine day indeed.