Brava! That pretty much nails it and why it’s so hard for young women to get the point—they’re too young for the glass ceiling, too desirable to be ignored.

Seven presidential elections and you’re still that naive? You’re still that will ing to throw the entire government to the party that brought us Dubya, financial collapse and an endless war?

Crap, I think Sanders would be a disaster, but if he’s the nominee he’ll get my vote just for the sake of the Supreme Court.

That’s using a slippery-slope fallacy—where did I say my only consideration when voting was gender? Oh, that’s right, I didn’t.

Mostly because their voting records aren’t that different. Bernie is to the left of Hillary—except on gun control and he’s pretty appalling there—but Hillary’s record is nearly identical to Ted Kennedy’s and Ron Wyden’s.

But then, Bernie’s way to the left of the general population—he’ll be creamed if he makes it to the…

Hillary and Bernie voted the same way 93 percent of the time. Bernie sucks as far as gun control and working with others, so not the fan of Bernie that others are.

Depends on how long you think your life will be. I’ve been waiting a long time for a female president. I’ve been waiting a long time for pay equity.

Or let me put it this way—women’s suffrage was bumped from the 14th Amendment because abolitionists were afraid it wouldn’t pass. It then took another 60 years before the…

Looks like no, on the other hand, if he left half to Iman, she’ll presumably leave her estate to her daughters.

Balinese religious practices are actually a mix of Hinduism and Buddhism—a little like how the Japanese combine Shintoism and Buddhism. In both places, the Buddhism tends to kick in when dealing with death.

Yep. Eddie’s a name. Names mean bigger budgets—both for the actual film and for advertising and distribution. Until very recently, there haven’t been any “name” trans actors. I can think of two: Laverne Cox and Jamie Clayton.

I don’t like eyeliner, but it’s nice to know if my part is straight and my contacts aren’t wondering.

Yeah, I am straight, but in my youth, I was very good-looking and I downplayed it because the amount of attention I got (and the kind) made me really uncomfortable. So would I have read as “less attractive” than someone trying to be a beauty queen? Absolutely. If I really didn’t want male attention, I’d have adapted…

No, it’s really not. There are all sorts of nuances that affect how attractive someone is perceived to be—we don’t think all athletes are beautiful—hair, dress, make-up all play a part. Most people, from what I’ve obseved, aren’t that perceptive about features and bone structure. Pretty is a package.

I know it’s easy to feel that way, but Europe fought endless wars until WWII—and it finally seemed to hit the Europeans that endless wars were not worth it. Peace in the Middle East is possible—but it’s up to those countries to move toward it—and away from the endemic corruption that creates such despair for so many.

No. I’ve never been. Many of my friends have been. No “thinking” about it. It’s an appallingly common crime. I have a young teen daughter and knowing what I know about how common rape is and how difficult it can be to prosecute is as scary as fuck.

Let’s see, if the great dinosaurs hadn’t gone extinct, there wouldn’t be much of a niche for the development of mammals, let alone us . . . .

Oh geez. I’ve *been* physically attacked and gotten away without a gun. You keep your damn wits about you and hope there are no guns *anywhere*. Guns escalate a situation. You do *not* want that. If someone is close enough to grab you, it is difficult to get a gun out and use it safely. If they’re not that close, you…

How common do you think random homeless-people murderers are? The homeless are way more likely to be the victims than the perps in those circumstances.

Yeah, I was thinking this will probably put them out of business—but maybe heart_of_pyrite’s right and they’ll do a gofundme campaign.

Still, a smaller fine would have gotten the point across—it’s a effin’ cake for chrissakes. They should have baked the cake, but still . . .

It was also used to fight slavery. I mean, seriously, as a non-religious person, I’ve always had a certain pride on not being a narrow-minded bigot. The new know-nothing atheists make us look bad. There have been many, many admirable and heroic religious people—Christianity, in particular, began as a slave…

The beauty of that is that is the sort of things that makes the smarter ones start to question their actual indoctrination.