She was. She was one of those blurt things out and let the chips fall where they may kind of ladies. My first day she asked if I was one of those “precious pissbutts”. We later determined that I was not one of those but that the phrase is just too good not to spread around.

And at the risk of sounding *like that* that blue looks so good on her. She should wear it more!!

Aside to the editors: you're wrong! Anna is right!

I prefer “female” to modify a noun — it just sounds more grammatically correct to me — but my editors disagree and changed it.

Having to discuss mental health issues in a professional context is one of the more humiliating things to do in the American workplace. I had to do it today and even though the outcome was extremely favorable for me, I still want to curl up in a ball and hide forever. I can’t imagine having to deal with it on this…

Oh come on, we know Tom likes to be Lo-key.

I! Think! He! Needs! To! Up! His! Game!

Oh no, you have to explain to an 11 year old that a handful of elite athletes care enough about inequality to make a peaceful political statement about it despite the fact that it makes mindless superpatriots angry.

What’s stupid? He’s right. Forced patriotism is bullshit. It doesn’t matter if it’s the US flag or a nutjob in North Korea. In both cases, you are expected to conform to what society demands of you. If you can’t understand that, you have no idea what freedom is.

My ancestors put on an American uniform and died for change.

Seriously. How are so many people blind to this propaganda? It’s straight-up Orwellian.

Nope. This is dumb. Marginalized peoples like Kaepernick and Rapinoe earn the change that’s necessary in this country by virtue of being human beings. Get the fuck out of here with this corny bullshit.

This is such a strange, uniquely American idea. It’s not The Military Anthem. It’s not The Troops Anthem. It’s the National Anthem. It’s for all of the people. It is not profession-specific.

Why? We have evidence of pervasive discrimination against some of this country’s citizens, people who in theory should have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else, but don’t according to a huge raft of solid statistical evidence.

She has the right to wave the rainbow flag because public opinion grew less homophobic, and because of SCOTUS and changes in the law at the city & state level, not because of soldiers.

I’m pretty sure the people who died for our freedoms didn’t do it so that this country would become a place where you have to show dogmatic loyalty to symbols as if we lived in a dictatorship, saluting “Dear Leader” and bowing down lest we be marked a traitor. Let’s save that forced patriotic bullshit for North Korea.

You mean, like equal protection under the law? I’d say that’s worth crying over.

I’m just going to say this:

“I am a foremost civil rights activist”

Born in the USA should have a Guinness record for most misappropriated uses in patriotic displays. Clearly most folks never bothered to listen to the actual lyrics.