Oh, and as for your "independent contractor" example, if Hobby Lobby was a Christian Science outfit, they'd have a rough time staffing their store with independent contractors. See, ICs get to pick their own hours. They get to perform the work as they see fit. The employer only gets to dictate the result and…

The private jet example was (obviously) an extreme version of the dumb argument you're promulgating: namely, that "people are free to go do [x] if they don't like [y]," which is empirically true and usually practically unworkable or onerous. See also: "if you don't like how your low-paying retail job exploits you,…

Hooray for Deliberately Obtuse Man!

The main point is precisely that the corporation, Hobby Lobby, is paying for the plan. The owners are not paying for the plan - just like Hobby Lobby, not the owners, would be liable if a customer were injured in their store - and so their viewpoints mean bupkis.

"People who work for hobby lobby could always take birth control and have abortion and whatever."

I have a weakness for the Steak, Egg, and Cheese. It's the least healthful thing on the menu, I feel awful about myself when I eat one...and yet.

This is awful.

I always think it's funny when people say something is "just" semantics.

Didn't he come out in April of last year? I'm pretty sure he was on the Wizards' roster then. He didn't become a free agent until July. I think Washington, not Brooklyn, was actually the first team with an openly gay player on their roster.

I can totally understand that, and I'm sorry for being defensive and not as empathetic as I should have been. I'm glad we talked through this.

This movie encompasses all the reasons why Gen-Xers have no ground on which to stand when they make fun of millennials. I hated it in 1994, and I hate it now.

Your 1.) and 2.) are essentially exactly what I said - unconditionally love your child and don't do them any harm.

The people who use it in that sense are assholes. But not everyone who uses that phrase is using it that way. The reason the only time you hear it is in that context is because that's your context - a context I truly wish you didn't have to experience.

Please tell me the one right way to parent a child.

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not sticking up for any abusers. Nice GIF, though.

I might be defensive of parenting, but I think I need the basis for my thought process a little clearer.

I'm so glad you can sit up on your high horse and judge everyone. Surely, your children have no complaints about your parenting or the way they were raised.

I agree with you that anyone trying to apply it to an abuse and/or neglect situation should be told how off-base they are, but it doesn't mean that phrase shouldn't be taken to heart by a lot of people whose biggest complaint is that their parents ended up being human beings who screwed up frequently.

What's your point: that because this woman was an inveterate monster, anything less than perfect parenting is equivalent to that?