I understand where the prison system is coming from here. Until Manning has the surgery, we're basically just taking the inmate's word for it about the transgender issue. It would set the prison up for enormous liability to admit someone who is biologically male into a women's facility. If, by chance, Manning were…

That was racist? Wow. I thought it was a commentary and opinion.

I still cringe on his behalf all these years later. He was really very sweet, and a wonderful friend, but he had fairly low self esteem, so I imagine he kept a lot of it inside for a long time. Every few years, we still catch up, and it took him a long time to find someone special, so I felt guilt for a long time too.

Here is the place where I rant about future generations not having more or less permanent images. Crappy cellphone pictures and needless filters will record today, and if computers 70 years from no can render the images they will look like crap, however beautiful Kodachrome from many decades earlier will still be…

She does indeed and her mind's still pretty sharp, too. I'm glad there was a way for such a humble birthday request to be granted.

Thanks for the confirmation plus the details contained in your reply to Vagabondella: it was very enlightening. <3

I'm sure for some people the happy tweets are just a facade, but I grew up going to Catholic schools and I know a lot of people who find genuine comfort in their faith. I don't go to church anymore and I have major issues with the hierarchy, but most of the people are just like the rest of us.

Oh dear, you seem to be conflating racism with institutional racism.

I will say though, that we use it in a patronizing way, so I completely get that part. It's not really the most flattering description you can give of someone.

Why does it matter whether or not this girl is graceful under pressure, or you'd want your kids to act like this? The point of the article is that she's being viciously attacked online for being fat, black, and relatively uneducated- things that are no one's business and have no bearing on her role as a witness in a…

Riiiightt.... she doesn't actually bear thinking about as something relevant to your world, eh?

To be honest, I think that's borderline racist bullshit. Culture is not always linked to race, and it's not as if they're doing ethnic policing. If a Haitian family walked in to adopt an African-American child, I wonder if those same organizations would be discouraging them because they'd be disconnected from their…

I'm going to post this here and it may quite possibly be very unpopular and I have zero fucks to give in that case otherwise I wouldn't be posting it.

No. Straight girls are allowed to have short hair.

Typical overreaction. She doesn't say anything about the boys (other than questioning the punishment without a response). She merely says that the girl had poor judgment. The rapists are awful and terrible people, as are all the others who just watched, and got what they deserved. One fact does not make the other…

This is Robert Lackey, the person who said I'd like to see her fall down a flight of stairs on my Facebook. I have no idea who Lindy West is, I've never worked with her and I only know her from reading some of her writing which I have a lot of disagreements with. I made a joke about a public figure and then her…

Unfortunately you are underestimating the number of game-buying bigots. Anti-Semitism is alive and well in more places than you think. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with seemingly intelligent, university-educated Italians and Brits that have taken surprising turns for the worse.

I really don't think the answer to equality is for white men to be complacent. Or for them to step aside because they fucked everything up. This is the type of angry, nonsensical feminism that I don't like to be connected to. How about the desire for women, poc, those with disabilities, low-income persons etc to have…