But, in all likelihood you have far more intelligence, self-awareness, and ability to plan long term than our president has.

Based on how good they were in Key & Peele at emulating various styles, presumably for a fraction of the budget of the movies they were referencing, I expected him to do really well with the visuals in a feature film. It's exciting to see that expectation fulfilled, but I still don't know if I'll go see it, because I…

Soul Music has a special place in my heart, since it's the first book to put Pratchett on my list of favorites. There are other books of his I like more, but I really enjoyed his Death books (plus, Blues Brothers references!).

I just read Roses and Rot by Kat Howard, which reminded me a bit of Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, but is a little better put together, I think.

I had a major book hangover after finishing the Raven King. If you haven't read her standalone The Scorpio Races, that might make a good followup. Or, Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy might scratch a similar itch? Very different blurb, but I think it has a slightly similar feel. Be forewarned,…

That's why I equated it with other religiously mandated modes of dress like the yarmulke and the turban. If you are following a religion's decrees because you choose to, and not because you're being forced to practice that religion, then that's a choice. Just like people who keep kosher are choosing to, etc.

If someone criticizes Islam specifically for something that Christianity is also guilty of, then I do tend to assume they're Christian, which as you say, might not be a fair assumption. It doesn't change the fact that singling out Islam for a problem found in most other major religions as well is a bit unfair,…

Well, I don't judge them for *that*, but there are plenty of other things to judge them for.

One man's blond skeletor is another man's…?

Yes, our go-to babysitter is Dominican.

I was specifically talking about women who *choose* to wear head scarves, outside of theocratic states. People who think of all Muslim women as oppressed see a woman here in the US in a headscarf and jump to the conclusion that she's being forced to wear it, when it easily could be her choice. Those sorts of…

Does anyone actually buy new Monopoly games? I thought it was just something that you played at your grandparents' house.

I view the oppression in Saudi Arabia as being a corruption of religion for political purposes. It's not quite as extreme, but for me it's in the same category as the ways that US politicians legislate women's medical freedoms away by using Christianity as an excuse. I view that as being a failing of that…

Hmm…so this is maybe not the right night for us to have planned our belated Valentine's Day date? I mean, we've got reservations, so I'm assuming the restaurant will be open, but I didn't mean the choice of nights to be a political statement, this was just the night the babysitter was available.

There are a lot of variations in how different sects practice Islam, and it's wrong to judge a large group of people based on how a minority of them behave, which is what people are doing when they make harmful generalizations about Islam. We allow for the fact that while some extreme branches of Christianity are…

Look, if you're going to talk about men being corrupted by evil femininity, then you might find some questionable bits in the bible, what with the whole Adam and Eve, original sin thing. It's pretty fundamentally ingrained into Christianity, a religion in which most sects specifically keep women from being able to…

I don't think I've ever heard the word "repast" spoken in casual conversation, but I've seen it in books, and I think it's just something where, with a particular accent, a person might not hear a "t" in the word. I don't think Southern accents, for example, are known for their crisp "t"s.

I assumed champagne (or bubbly). But, I could definitely be wrong.

Oh, definitely - what I was trying to say is, a lot of people who harp about how important it is to forgive talk about it like it's something that you owe to the person who wronged you. In some circumstances, where the injury was minor, that might be true, but telling someone that they owe forgiveness to their abuser…

They gave him an iphone with a customized, locked-down version of iOS and some of the sensors and apps disabled or removed - I knew the people who did the work on that. :)