So it's not just me! I've been wondering why any more moderate voices are totally gone from this. Not even a "this is sad, I'm sure more things will happen, but for now, we need to heal". Nothing less than pure outrage, and it's... it feels like a feeding frenzy, with commenters and authors just churning things…

I guess I didn't have a clear point so much as a clear observation. If I were to have a point, it'd be that a lot of people are making a lot of quick assumptions and it's frustrating to me. And the reason for that is media sensationalism, and I think that's a negative thing.

This is exactly what a lot of people are saying. But that's the leap everybody instantly makes - "killer" to "murderer" - with no justification. And that's where the complication is. You can't call him a murderer unless he intended it. And it's hard to judge that intention from the little we actually know for sure…

I don't agree. Zimmerman ended up on his back. It's not easy to do that to somebody, especially of Zimmerman's size.

"Phobic misreading" just means "making a mistake assessing a situation out of fear". I think you're reading way more into it than the author intended. He's just saying that if these two mistakes hadn't happened, the situation might've been avoided. I don't think he's assigning blame.

Uh... I'm really sorry... you seem not to like me, because... I'm not rage-filled? The article doesn't mention race... I did, but I was taking two opposite sides of the coin...

I don't think we have evidence that Zimmerman is the attacker. Or that Trayvon is the attacker. We don't have evidence that "Zimmerman took his gun and confronted Martin" because we don't know who confronted whom. I'm not sure why you said "Exactly"...

I can't agree. Zimmerman got hurt. He had the gun, and he got the upper hand, but he didn't have it the whole time.

Are you serious? The evidence is all we have to go on. His account, the phone calls, others' account of phone calls, that's what we have. Are you aware he didn't take the stand in his trial?

I have to post this link:

Plagiarism aside (don't just copy and paste, use quotes or paraphrase, an "NPR says" doesn't make it okay), there are elements with shorter half-lives. For instance, Copernicium's most stable isotope has a half-life of 29 seconds.

...an emblem of equal rights for all American citizens...

Exactly. My ENO hammock is freaking awesome. I've napped in it tons of times.

The "Stonelea Barn, Dublin, New Hampshire" place reminds me so much of the Kill Bill wedding chapel. Right?? Windows, swinging doors, support beams, wood... I could swear it's the same place.

I don't know. The only thing that's completely clear to me is that almost everybody was willing to do almost anything to get their way. Senators on both sides using any and all tactics to their advantage; activists turning to civil disobedience; bloggers, politicians, and the media smearing opponents, etc. I…

Are you sure? The record shows several points of order being denied. It doesn't show who raised them or what they were for - so they may have been to give her a break of sorts, but I would bet they were failed attempts to suspend her filibuster.

See, if he would've said, "I'm just looking for a one-night stand, I don't care about anything other than their body", well - that's an entirely DIFFERENT can of worms with its own problems. But if you just want a physical one-night stand, in some weird sense the ends justify the twisted, sketchy, sleazy means.

Yeah, exactly. The whole approach just sorta precludes anything real. It really doesn't even make any sense to me.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm definitely not going out with him again.

Lol, for real! There's some seriously twisted and messed-up psychology going on here. It makes me wonder if anybody's written up a psych paper on PUAs.