It's the time frame then. I drink 4-5 drinks at a time pretty regularly, but not in two hours. More like a drink an hour all evening. Which I'm sure is still pretty terrible for you, but...

Oh man, preach it sis. For the first time in my life, I’ve just gotten on birth control. I’m nearly 40 with no kids- the birth control is to control periods which have become debilitating. Hubby and I have managed to not get pregnant for almost a couple decades now without birth control, so children have nothing to do…

Yup I know what you mean, and I agree with you. I’m just saying that it is a myth that Europe is more tolerant. They have a different set of problems, so they aren’t dealing with violence and wealth inequality and issues with the police and medical care and all sorts of problems that make the systemic racism in the US…

Yeah, but the bars where men are forced to buy women drinks at gun point are the only ones worth going to.

My take-away from this article:

For sure! But the scale of the problem is much greater in Europe. Look at the numbers- thousands of Europeans have left Europe to join ISIS. There are fewer than 100 Americans who are known to have tried to join ISIS, and of those, fewer than 20 who have left the US to travel to Syria to join.

No kidding. When I look back on it, selling pot and dying my hair purple were not such a big deal. I mean, I could have become an international terrorist!

Thanks for that mention. What an interesting person. I had never heard of Maajid Nawaz somehow. I'm going to pick up his book now.

There needs to be (and maybe there is already) organized outreach from non-crazy Muslim groups offering healthy alternatives within their community. There is a lot of hostility towards immigrants in Europe, and there is a place for angry young Muslim people who want to be activists and join a meaningful cause within…

It’s WAY easier to run away than your 16 year old self thought. Somehow, your mother instilled in you a sense that she had a lot of responsibility over you and that you were bound by that responsibility, which is usually a healthy thing for a teen to feel about their mum. But it’s also illusory, and once a teen…

I just learned that yesterday. Very surprising. The Belgians are almost all first and second generation immigrants from Muslim cultures, so it seems the country is having a very serious problem integrating these people. 6% of the country is Muslim, BTW, and about 500 of them have joined ISIS. If I’ve done the math…

Yes, and it's also a selling point in their recruitment of young men. You get a wife, plus sometimes the benefit of raping captive women and women in temporary marriages. They actually published an entire pamphlet on when it is permissible to rape women and girls in various situations. I'm serious. Only google it if…

I don’t know. We don’t know their individual circumstances, so I don’t want to say anything for sure about them in particular. Generally, though, teenagers do stupid things and are impressionable, yes. But also, it’s not like ISIS is an unknown entity. Any 16 and 17 year old teens who want to join are well aware of…

Yes for sure. That’s what I mean about it being draconian. This gal should surely get some really strict response- it’s a serious offense for all the reasons you named. But if she were given a similar response to yours (in proportion to the amount of drugs she was holding), she’ll be locked away for life. I didn’t…

OK, I've been polite this whole time. You are being rude now, and also I don't care if you want to read anything I write. No one forces you to. It's strange that you'd respond if you don't want to read.

You are ignoring that your experiences aren't the same as everyone. Also that I've repeatedly said that one of the solutions could be girlscouts getting their shit together as an organization and offering more of those sorts of things to girls who want them. Hopefully there are more of the sorts of activities that you…

Yes I agree with that. I didn't mean simply let people get away with whatever, but rather that the whole system is screwed. But I don't like the idea that "hey, when I was young I did five months for giving away two pills so this should happen to young people today" or the equivalent. I don't think your sentence was…

She sounds like a wonderful person, and it's touching to hear how grateful you are to have had her in your life.

We bring my grandmother's urn out during holidays and set it at the table. It's hilarious. We put her glasses on it, sometimes deal her a hand of cards or give her a smoke. She would have loved it. Every time we do it, I hear her laughing.

Sometimes it helps people to see how things work. When my grandmother died, I wanted to see the cremation place and see how it works before they put her in it. I would have pushed the button if they’d offered. I even wanted to see how the bones were grinded up. Somehow it made the whole thing more believable and it…