You'll change as many hearts and minds by insulting them as W. changed hearts and minds by bombing them.

I think I just laughed my labia off.

You rock, as usual.

I was just recalling that, in the Bible, in Exodus 21, there's a law about having to pay a fine (to her "master") if you strike a pregnant woman and she miscarries. This is really the only place where God ostensibly makes His wishes clear regarding the unborn. As in God-to-Moses. (Although where I come from they like to infer conclusions from the Psalm that talks about being knitted in one's mother's womb. But that's David's poetry, not God's Law.)

was funny.

Getting a little tired of seeing a bunch of armchair activists "throwing rocks at the coffin" (as someone else put it) of a guy who spent 40 years of his life trying to actually get something done on the Hill about actually taking care of people less fortunate than he was.

and my hair caught on fire!

Which reminds me of something Tom Waits memorably said in an interview about how he looked at people -- "You see their wings, and you see their hair is on fire." Kind of how I feel about my smart, passionate, stubborn Salonista compadres sometimes.

No, BG is not a Nazi.

Mattie, I'm still with you, girl.

Has anyone else noticed that mary_steyr is pulling our collective leg?

you're all awesome. I think blackvegan is right that we should just be whatever kind of fit suits our particular constitution.

Mattie, I share your struggle. As someone who started jogging and dieting at the age of eleven, I know what a chore it can be just to maintain the upper end of "normal" (which was just "normal" 50 years ago, when everybody was drooling over Marilyn). The money I don't spend on my nonexistent health insurance goes toward filling my shopping cart with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Kzin, I thought better of bigguns too.

Nietzsche

That (Sidewalk_cipher quote) was from "The Gay Science," in case anyone was wondering what was with all the pomposity.

As a weird never-married hermit who overthinks everything, I say don't listen to a weird never-married hermit who overthought everything. Just enjoy your happiness.

Joey, darlin, from subsequent letters I see there's more going on here than one guy making apparently racist comments.

I'm not sure this white girl can explain it properly, but I remember my friend Tracy trying to enlighten me about the whole OJ phenomenon years ago. The majority of Caucasians were convinced this man was guilty as sin, while most of the African American community rallied around him and vocally maintained his innocence. He was a gigantic icon and a boundary-breaker and the question of his guilt wasn't even discussed with "outsiders." I see this echoed in discussions of MJ and his weirdness and the allegations of child molestation -- even though by the end he seemed to have disowned his own racial identity. He still "belonged" to the community.

I'm not sure this makes the differing (sometimes violent) reactions about MJ any clearer, but I thought I'd give it a go. I'm sure Cornel West could have done a much better job with this, but he's not here.

(at the risk of feeding the trolls...) if you can't even spell "hors d'oeuvres," for the love of Pete, refrain from lecturing us about "homosexual's problems."

@Joe: or a cold shower! LOL

@AJ: I love giving well deserved compliments. Especially on threads where the subject might as well be Holy Acrimony.

That was a refreshingly grownup comment.

@DurianJoe: I've been paying attention to you since the vegetarian (J.M. Masson) flame war, and I have a wicked Internet crush on you. Can we please clone you so that the rest of us can have one?

...is that you must destroy a country to save it. If Neda had died in a "pro-freedom" American bombing she'd just be more "collateral damage."

I don't know about that, I've always come at sex from the desire angle rather than the power one. I certainly didn't go for men simply because they went for me and I could manipulate them...when I was younger, usually I was the pursuer in the one-down position. As for the more or less attractive part -- when I was in my 20s, I was largely attracting men in their 40s that I didn't find all that attractive. Now that I'm in my 40s I'm attracting men in their 20s who are cuter than anything I've ever attracted before. I guess it's my turn!!!

LOL

http://nobeliefs.com/DarkBible/darkbible4.htm

Though I doubt anything can top the sublime surrealism of "Meatballs."

I just noticed that my earlier comment got deleted...for what I wonder? Advocating putting yourself in the LW's shoes? And Marc whatever your name is, my friend had schizophrenia, not that I said so, but appreciate the awesome sensitivity.

Criminy. I guess you either get it or you don't.

Anonymous_Too, your radical acceptance and equanimity are an example to us all. (I marvel at the way Laurel962 frequently negates whatever relevant point she may or may not have with her overbearing tone and baffling hostility.)

After that bit about the water droplet, Asehpe, I'll bet you anything it's safe for me to say that you made a number of women on this thread want to have sex with you!

It should be noted that one of the problems of "patriarchy" is that it limits men, too -- the squashing of the feelings and needs of men to meet a stoic ideal probably also short-circuits sensuality, in favor of the old "manly" in-and-out. In my opinion, men should be tickled and teased and water-dropleted and all that other stuff just as much as women.