Had the “make a new last name” option ever occurred to me then I would have considered it when I was getting married (my wife opted to take my name without my input). I think it would have been cool to do, but I know both of our families would have been offended or at least hurt a little by it. That would have…

To play Devil’s Advocate, she is playing a pineapple ukulele. That could be the “excretory activity” to which they referred.

I think a lot of them see no dollar signs in changing the current model. What has less impact to shareholders’ bottom line? R&D to make alternative energies more efficient and then changing the infrastructure that has existed for decades to fit the new technologies? Or to make a PR blitz to convince large swaths of…

I think it’s weird/sad that people choose not to see how “pushing Hillary to the left” means she would be dishonest about her true positions on issues and change accordingly to get votes. What happens when she wins after being “pushed to the left”? What’s stopping her from going back to business as usual and…

I agree. I have his site, TAPESTRI, on my RSS feed and have looked for other articles of his and there’s not nearly enough out there from him for my taste. I’m not really into war journalism but I like the fact that he hates war but acknowledges that it’s part of our reality for the foreseeable future. He also seems…

Good for you!

It’s a great way to feel like you’re fighting the forces of evil without having to skip your yoga classes. It also makes you look great on your Facebook feed to your other Recreational Activist friends.

To clarify, I think that’s the case with most people on Facebook who think they’re part of a “movement”.

As someone raised in a conservative, proto-Tea Party household and homeschooled off and on, this stuff is all too familiar to me. I love my Mom to death but she says some things that make my left-wing “people are more important than money” brain cry.

Yeah, that’s why I specified not going the full tourist route. A lot of Americans treat travel like a form of conquest as though that is a genetic trait of white people that needs to be satisfied. They aren’t there to learn but to stand on and by things and get evidence of their exploits.

That just goes to show how much of a social myth “whiteness” is. That dynamic is present in a whole mess of countries and cultures being played out by people who would be considered “minorities” straight up and down in the USA or Europe.

Having grown up in an Evangelical family (not as extreme as these guys but certainly running parallel in many cases) I can say this has little to do with actual morals and more of a tit-for-tat move to keep numbers on the scoreboard.

I think the point is to be a "good person" without patting yourself on the back and making a spectacle of how good you are...because, really, you're just being "not an asshole" which doesn't deserve congratulations.

Better term: Lumberjaggoff.

Nothing starts out a ridiculous comment like "this is going to sound racist/sexist/homophobic but..."

Confrontated.

If by "trouble" you mean "not being white" then sure.

Hell, if that's what they had started with I would have gotten into it from the start!

Why don't you already have them?

To your first point, we don't see many Christian suicide bombers because bombs weren't invented when Christians were last on the warpath.

Rumor has it that "Israel is Judea, Judea is being occupied by a fake Roman name..."