Honest question: Is a phrase still bad once its origins have become that obscure? When no one is even aware of its etymological connection to a racial slur?

I can't wait to hear about her running that marathon!

But how do you lift a weight by squeezing? Does she have additional kegels that I lack??

The future is now!

I do have a vagina, and I have no idea.

Totally! You've got to own your embarrassment, or other people will! Chuckling at your own occasional ugliness is the best way to disarm it.

I also started flossing every day at some point, and now feel like I can't go to bed without doing it! Regarding the heart disease thing, you might be right. Most google results seem to say so. Then again, there's this: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2…. So now, of course, I'm not really sure how to tell what's…

Yes! Jezebel commenters aren't exactly a representative sample, but it's still a relief that only one person in 200-something posts has actually defended the 'vaccines cause autism' idea!

Thanks for this. Sometimes health professionals spread bad info too. Obviously, that's no reason to stop believing them altogether, but commenters have been pointing to parents' ignorance a lot in this discussion, even though sometimes it's hard to tell who's a reliable source of info.

[since I can't edit for some reason]: this explanation avoids putting the blame on the ignorance of parents, which isn't fair, because parents just want their children to be safe (and generally have good will towards other people children too!). Sometimes it's genuinely difficult for people to discerne 'good science'…

It's all about what hazards parents see. As soon as parents start hearing about children contracting life-threatening contagious diseases in their neck of the woods, they'll start going for the vaccines again.

This. For Americans today, autism seems like a real concern, while the measles and polio just don't seem like they'd ever happen (thanks to vaccines!).

I think that's the problem with the assignment—it didn't involve a refutation/debate part! It seems like the teacher just wanted students to reproduce Nazi ideology in a persuasive writing exercise. (Crafting an argument for something you don't support is actually a great persuasive writing exercise, but there's no…

I think there's a real irony to this lesson that makes it not okay: The point was to demonstrate just how powerfully persuasive persuasive writing can be, but then the teacher is asking the students to reproduce that same process that supposedly made Goebbel's propaganda so dangerous.

Populations skyrocketed after the appearance of settled, agricultural societies as well, they just kinda plateaued after that and didn't jump again until modern times. Despite the diseases caused by domesticating animals, agriculture could support much larger populations than pre-neolithic hunting and gathering.

I detect a case of ringworm on that big butt on the right.

I feel like the only person who liked Beasts of the Southern Wild best out of all the nominees. And it was so behind in the prediction polls!

I'm in grad school, and recently made an off-handed joke at a party about waiting until marriage, without knowing that BOTH of the other men I was talking to hadn't had sex yet (both of them are at LEAST 26)!

I wish that'd work for me! My "bikini line" is like 4 inches past where any actual bikini would stop, and my hair is thick enough that the follicles still show even after I shave. Basically, there's no way for me to wear a bathing suit without displaying my pubes to the world.

I remember being embarrassed that I hadn't had sex (or even kissed anyone) by the time I graduated high school. I blamed myself for not being attractive enough, or not brave enough or something. There was nothing to lose by having sex, and I wasn't against casual hook-ups, so why wasn't it happening to me already?