Classier response than mine would have been. Fuck victim-blaming. Some folks need to learn the facts about the dynamics of abuse.

I could not agree more. I absolutely don’t want to play oppression olympics, but in terms of how “acceptable” it is to openly attack a group, women are very near the top. Once you realize what misogyny and sexism are, you see how it’s built into so many things. How it’s “just jokes” or “just how things are” or “hey,…

Interesting. Even though most of our dogs died at the vet’s office, we always got to take them home to bury them. I think it’s technically illegal to bury animals inside my county limits, but it happens all the time.

Oh, it’s all sinful to them, it just depends on the severity.

Yes. Look up Periods for Politicians, formerly Periods for Pence.

A law like this (and even beyond) was passed in Indiana this spring. We had a huge rally and lots of your typical letter-writing and calling campaigns. An enterprising local woman started the now-famous Periods for Pence campaign (yes, that’s right, the lovely VP-elect was our unpopular dominionist governor.) It was…

It’s a fear of mine too. I saw it in a movie as a kid and think about it at least 75% of the time I’m waiting for a train. I actually LIKE riding trains, but I’m hyperaware before boarding. Hyperaware not just for myself, but for someone else getting pushed or jumping or falling. I don’t even live in a city with…

Right? The skater wasn’t even 2 years old yet on 9/11/01.

Same with my bestie, who works for a music scholarship program, and his fiance, who works in the alumni office. A girl I babysat for years is okay too. Still worried about one person I know there. I can’t really relax until I hear that he’s okay and the shooter has been apprehended. Not that anyone I don’t know being…

Yeah, I’m shocked people DON’T know that fight is the 3rd option, once the other 2 aren’t possible. I figured that out as a kid in the late 90s, sadly, when reading 1st-person accounts of surviving mass shootings. Might as well. It has worked sometimes.

I was watching the video for active shooter training at my last job and someone burst into the office yelling. As I was hitting the floor, I realized it was fucking SANTA CLAUS coming in to pass out candy canes. Jesus.

Yeah, my parents were never going to be meddlers, but at this point, with me at 30 with no serious boyfriend and sister content at 28 with a long-term live-in boyfriend, I cannot imagine them causing any beef about anything. If anything, they might want it simpler than I would. Sis and I have had many years to fully…

Can vouch. I’m right in that “sweet spot.” I still dislike almost anything strapless, though. (One maxi-dress I own is somehow excepted.) It’s still not comfortable or terribly flattering. That trend cannot die soon enough.

I know what you mean. I used to think my mom was a little overdramatic, oversensitive, and overprotective. Well, she occasionally really was, but now that I can see the world for what it is, what she said and did made perfect sense. She did a good job of protecting my sister and me. I know she was bullied and abused…

That breaks my heart. I was really depressed and sad when I was 11-13 - my mom had cancer (a brain tumor, in fact) and it’s just a rough time for anyone. I was a dorky outcast in the small group with whom I had all of my academic classes, so most of my day was spent being ignored or teased. I was a sensitive kid and…

I totally relate. Just the technology we had back then got used for nasty purposes. I’m glad social media didn’t exist until I was in college. In 2000, which was 9th grade (which was still in junior high in our district), someone made a very nasty website that caused a ton of fistfights and drama. It was eventually…

I grew up with 2 dogs who my parents had adopted years before my sister and I were born. Togo and Scooter. Togo was a scruffy white westie mix - my mom called him a North Hampton Short Hair when my snobby grandparents asked. He tolerated us but was very loyal to my mom. He lived to be 17 and became sweeter in his old…

What a nice response! We do have the nice and pretty thing going for us most of the time. I’m not surprised to hear it was Floyd County. Driving through there on I-65, you see a few anti-choice billboards and several others related to evangelical/conservative principles. They’ve also had an outbreak of HIV in that…

Where was this in Indiana? I’ve lived here almost my whole life and haven’t seen that sort of thing. Anti-choice billboards, yes, and clinic protestors a few times, but that’s it. I believe you, I’m just sorry that was your experience. It can be very backwards here, I’m all too aware. But Indianapolis and some other…

The loudest, flag-waving Republican at my high school is now an outspoken Democrat. I suppose him coming out as gay in college played a role, although lord knows I’ve met a few gay Republicans. One thing that’s happened over the last 12 years is that most of the 18-year-old kids I knew who voted Republican in 2004…