Will you at least lend us a rope to hang ourselves?

Exactly. He wasn't on trial accused of being racist.

Thanks for providing a voice of reason and logic. Zimmerman's behaviour - racially profiling Martin, pursuing him, possibly initiating an altercation - was racist as all hell. The verdict was not. There was simply not evidence to convict him. Many commenters act like the jury should have based their verdict on their…

Wow, this is an old one. Again, to reiterate that I am 100% pro-choice. However, specialist plastic surgeons generally perform non-necessary aesthetic procedures and have specifically chosen that path, so I wouldn't say they're comparable. A plastic surgeon who refused to perform liposuction would be a laughing stock,…

The thing that caught my eye when I first had a look at the cast list for this movie on IMDb a month or so ago is that the guy who is going to be playing Dick Van Dyke also played Caractacus Potts in a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang parody advert about road tax in the UK about ten years ago (apologies to any Brits who now…

I love early blues, so thanks for doing this. Worth mentioning that there was also a gay male subculture in the blues which resulted in great lyrics such as 'Lord, if you can't send me no woman, at least send me some sissy man' (Sissy Man Blues, Pinewood Tom/Kokomo Arnold) and 'My man got a sissy, his name is Miss…

I thought the same thing - aside from chefs, who gets burnt so much they would stock up on burn cream?

Anecdatally, this is totally true of my family. I have twin brothers a few years younger than me and they are insanely terrible at helping out around the house. They view it as a punishment and get super 'but what did I do?' about it. It doesn't help that our mother is very houseproud and quite a traditional…

How you choose to feel about any word in the English language is up to you. But when speaking from a linguistic perspective, it's easier to speak objectively.

Whilst they belong to the same lexical field, I have never heard anyone suggest they are considered equally pejorative. It's the same as the difference between 'bitch' and 'cunt', both horrible, gendered insults that degrade someone based on a factor outside their control, but not equally taboo. One is clearly worse…

Yeah, no, it was totally hideous and racist as all hell. Italy does not do tolerance very well. The strength of their culture and attachment to a fixed identity is what has given us so much from Italy, but it comes with a lot of negatives, of which intolerance is one of the very worst. I just wanted to be specific.…

Sure. Why bother trying to be accurate or factual or nuanced when we can all shout about how bad racism is, right?

But nigger is not an equivalent translation. The intent WAS derogatory and offensive, no mistake, but in a paternalistic, offhand way that to an Italian ear does not have the explosive, taboo impact of 'nigger' to an American. Not sure what word I would use... darkie, maybe? Like, totally inappropriate and offensive…

By and large I agree that victim-blaming is bullshit. However, IMO it's worth distinguishing between actual bullshit advice - like telling girls to dress a certain way, because it's been proved that rapists do not select their victims based on clothing, or telling girls not to drink or go to parties, because that's a…

the best parents in the world have raised rapists, paedophiles, serial killers. some people are fucked up, you can't teach them unless their abnormality is caught early and treated by professionals. whereas a normal teen can be taught not to drink to excess, not to lie to their parents , not to take drinks they havent…

To be fair, the spanking only occurs when the wife has really got some 'splaining to do...

I like Serena and I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt in that she was criticising the girl's parents rather than the girl. That's not to say that that in any way excuses or mitigates the horribleness of the crime, but I agree that a girl that age is her parents' responsibility and should not be in the…

Never gets old. I think the Epsteins would have been moved to know they would produce so much gif-able material.

How are we pronouncing this? I want to go with 'cadence' because when I try to pronounce it as written I sound like a Cockney shoeshine boy.

That's hilarious about the speaker phone!