Garth has a soft spot in my heart, his attitudes are really progressive and really awesome. He's a supporter of gay rights, influenced partly by his half-sister who is a lesbian. He gave a concert for gay rights in 2000. I liked him before, but then my mom told me she no longer liked him because he did that (she…

Yeah, that's exactly the song that popped in my head when I read this, and I kinda don't get why he canceled his appearance. He could have performed that song in honor (play the video in the background, good stuff) and just not promoted his new album. Which though, I've only heard snippets of his new single, but I…

Not sure precisely what the other commenter was referring to, but in one of his songs from the early to mid-nineties he references being "Free to love anyone we choose/when the world's big enough for all different views/when we all can worship from our own kind of pews/we shall be free". He's no Toby Keith, that's…

Who among us can resist the party in the back?

Oh, that second paragraph is very interesting. I'm reasonably aware of his career, having grown up among country lovers when he first became well-known to the public, but I'd missed that he made a point to call out appropriation - maybe because it was before that became a topic that was more discussed.

As someone who watches, I feel like there's a bit of a difference between guests and performers. It's very obvious that a performer is there to promote whatever; they do a song or a standup routine and that's it. Guests are promoting projects as well, of course, but they have a platform to talk about whatever they…

Garth is a legend. He's been a prominent supporter of gay rights (his sister is a lesbian) in the front of some pretty hideous criticism from country fans. Songs like 'We shall be free' (also shared here) show that he's one of those Christians who think the love one another stuff is more important than the eye for an…

He had a dong in the nineties...

He's an Obama supporter who's performed at gay rights marches and written songs about what the world would be like if there wasn't any bigotry or poverty. And he's pretty much always been public about that sort of thing, even back when I was a kid and he was at the height of his career.

I think he definitely means to be an ally. Is he doing the right thing? I don't really know. But this isn't an attempt to pander to conservative fans. I mean, Brooks performed at Obama's inauguration, which is not really something you do if you want to court the Tea Party crowd.

Given Brooks' history, I think it's more likely to be support for the Brown family or some sort of generalized well-meaning-but-out-of-touch worry about the nation being divided or such. He almost certainly wouldn't be among Wilson's supporters.

I imagine that some pro Darren Wilson fans are probably also Garth Brooks fans. This sends a pretty powerful message.

If I choose to turn down jobs because I'm ethically opposed, or just because I'm a racist, homophobic, bigot, that is my choice.

Ehhh, I work partly in event planning. I can totally see the destroyed binder being an issue, especially if she was planning the wedding herself. Event planning = tons of handwritten notes from meetings with vendors, receipts, menus, paper samples, etc. And unless she was scanning papers in herself, it's very possible…

Because it would be utterly terrible to accidentally receive blood from someone who might be able to *confer some degree of immunity to ebola* on you, right?

She donates blood because she has antibodies in her blood to fight ebola now. Her blood will save people from it!

Their blood will actually make you less susceptible to Ebola. It contains antibodies to Ebola virus, not Ebola virus itself. It can be lifesaving to people with an Ebola infection. In most cases it is the only treatment available to people infected with Ebola (besides supportive therapy.) It is incredible valuable and…

people who survive Ebola have antibodies that help peop'e who have Ebola. This is how the nurse recovered, btw.

It doesn't go into the regular blood supply — it helps treating people suffering from Ebola.

Just because someone is starving in another country doesn't mean it doesn't hurt when I get an injury; the world will always have problems, but no one can hold them all on their shoulders. One sorrow doesn't cancel another out, regardless of how petty some people think it is. First world problems is a pretty…