That's kind of my reaction. LDR fell off the map? Don't tell tumblr!

Yeah, in terms of effectiveness I think I'd personally be more in favor of a Canada-style graphic warning label on each pack, but that's run into legal trouble here. And if raising the age to 21 was a guaranteed do-no-harm type of situation then, okay, give it a go — but I worry about that fetishizing smoking as an…

As a self-righteous annoying former smoker I generally support anything that discourages smoking, but is there any point to this? America is comparatively prohibitive about, say, alcohol and marijuana, and we have huge instances of teen alcohol / drug use. I tend to think that prohibition can fetishize things — it…

If your holy men start telling you that it's better to murder children than to allow women to learn, you'd do well to get a second opinion. And that's part of the problem; how can any of us truly comprehend the levels of cultural isolation that lead to such a perverted interpretation of Islam (or any religion) to…

Good advice for any majority advocate for minority issues:

Every song on there! Every last one!

Perfect! I don't use the term "life-affirming" much but there's really no better term for Howard Jones's music. Human's Lib may be my favorite pop album of all time.

I know, right? One of the most frustrating replies that this sort of thing always gets from the greeks and apologists is "Well there's nothing we can do that won't offend SOMEBODY!"

Obviously the prosecution will ask for as tough a sentence as they can, it is not necessarily the case that, if found guilty, Kieu would actually serve life in prison. Just putting that out there, since life imprisonment for armed assault seems extreme (to me at least), even given the grievous bodily harm that…

Slightly unrelated, but— circular tattoos that surround the nipple or the navel: are they EVER not tacky?

Dang. At least it's not televised? I lived in Japan for awhile and they take high school baseball super-seriously. In the spring championship in 2006 I watched Yokohama trounce Kiyomine 21-0 in a nationally televised match. At some point late in the game their captain also took a wild pitch to the brainpan and…

I really love Stephen Colbert (Strangers with Candy is one of my top-5 favorite TV shows ever) but (and this may open me up to some hate)... I never cared particularly for The Colbert Report. Even though he's perfect in the role, it just reminds me people actually think that way and raises my blood pressure a little…

Oh, lovely. Did you also hear about the state now requiring drug testing for "suspicious" persons who are receiving assistance? They literally present it as "anyone 'under suspicion' of abusing drugs may be required to take a drug test." "Under suspicion," yes, that couldn't possibly have a double meaning.

This gif!

I'm curious what everyone's reaction is to a white man dating an Asian man. Same as above? Do you even clock it at all?

I definitely understand your point but that's kind of infantilizing towards Asian women — are they too naive to understand they're being exoticized?

I admit to being entranced by all things Herman Cain, but even if I wasn't your username would still be the best ever ;)

Uggggggh, that is the worst. I see that behavior in reaction to religious statements all the time and it drives me insane. If a grieving person makes the statement that their loved one is "sleeping with Jesus" or "resting with the angels" or however one may phrase it, there's always a few jerkstores who see it as an…

It doesn't help that those burgers are a color which NO FOOD PRODUCT SHOULD BE.

Yes, it's a bit of a pet peeve when people say "Western diet" to mean "processed food / fast food." Especially when you start talking about the lifestyle/diet of France or Italy and people go "oh, that's the Mediterranean diet" or whatever. Let's just call a spade a spade without this weird regionalism.