to run that gauntlet. I have seen the sort of adults that various crushes from high school and college grew up to become (sexist, homophobic, conservative jerks for the most part)...those results make me shudder.

I look around at married couples among our friends and family, and many of them treat one another with such disrespect that it's unreal. Some of them got married young, some later, some are on their 3rd spouse.

At our house, "Thank you for being you" is said often enough that it's almost a catchphrase...basically meaning, we are grateful for our no-drama relationship, that our home is a place of refuge from the stresses of everything else in life.

The OP's son has plenty of time to date and find a loving, supportive relationship. But sometimes finding the right person for you at 16 is a gift, and not the universal curse you seem to think it is.

the sort of America that would've decided the other way in, for example, Wisconsin v. Yoder.

An America that went after known women-oppressing, child-marrying groups like the FLDS with the full force of the law, instead of allowing local police forces in places like Colorado City to be staffed entirely with FLDSers and become the prophet's personal enforcement squad.

An America in which things like "conscience clauses" were illegal, and those with strong views on the sanctity of embryonic life became podiatrists instead of obstetricians and pacemaker sales reps instead of pharmacists, because the law would prevent them from allowing their personal views to ever endanger a woman's life or health.

ETA: A world in which no one was against a burqa ban because "if we ban it, those women will just be restricted to their homes". Well, how about we stop respecting and start openly challenging a religious belief and its practioners who would confine a woman to her home unless she is swathed in yards of opaque fabric?

I'm white, but when I would play at my best friend's house growing up and somebody would call on the phone, you could always tell who was on the other end by the way her mom or dad would sound. They had the "family/friends" voice and the "work/bank/power company" voice.

I was cringing the other night watching the Daily Show when they brought out that damn Muppet and had Wyatt Cenac voice him completely over the top. I told my husband then, "You know somewhere offstage Larry Wilmore is muttering, 'Man, fuck you guys'."

Steele's actions are more than enough to make him worthy of derision. There's no need to base one's insults in bigotry and ignorance.

Usually when you're talking about a single person it's better to use terms specific to them - black, Latin@, etc. - though occasionally someone will refer to themselves as "a woman of color" or what have you. But when talking about the racism faced by all people of color, it's better to phrase it that way than to either list a bunch of races and inevitably leave someone out, or than saying "non-white people", which sets "white" up as the default race and everyone else as "other".

Somewhere at the beginning of things, *something* has to be eternal. Does it make more sense for energy to be eternal, or for an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present deity to be eternal?

Only when you're looking at the world from inside a fully-ingrained system of belief does the idea of "God as first cause" not IMMEDIATELY beg the question, "But what created God?" I know. I was there, once.

Not so in the church. As it is with corporate actions one disagrees with, your only real choice is whether or not you will keep your dollars out of their hands.

I haven't bashed any Catholics as a result of these scandals, which is actually quite a marked contrast to the bashing I did of the Boy Scouts when similar scandals came out in that organization. But the reaction of many DU Catholics really makes me shake my head. I've always believed moderate voices within a community should be the first ones calling out and condemning the extremists and/or corruption within their ranks. Far more of what I see here is bristling defense - "Don't paint the whole church with your broad brush!", etc.

Even if you can't vote bishops out, I would think extreme, vocal, public, sustained disapproval on the part of lay Catholics would have to force a response from the hierarchy.

Instead most Catholics seem to be sitting and waiting for a miracle. That's disappointing, to say the least.

charities simply because the lack of a religion isn't really a starting point around which people gather - whether for socialization, or charity work, or anything else. I don't there are many charities out there specifically organized by bald people, people who have shellfish allergies, or night owls, either.

pops up from time to time...how well did that work for India and Pakistan?

As long as we're one country bitching internally at one another, at least very, very few people ever end up DEAD over politics (yes, some -- Tiller, arguably the OKC bombing, etc.). As two countries, what is now merely badly-spelled signs and crazies spitting on Congressmen could likely become all-out war, with all the devastation it brings, right here on our soil.

There's an alternate history author, Harry Turtledove, who wrote a series of books beginning with the idea that the Confederacy won the Civil War, first by *not* losing a key strategy memo that in real history was picked up by the Union, and secondly by England and France eventually allying with the Confederacy for their cotton, in exchange for their abandonment of slavery. The USA and the CSA then end up on opposite sides of EVERY ensuing war, including WW1 and WW2 (with the US as an Axis power, hating England and France for having sided with the Confederates). Pearl Harbor was devastation enough. Can you imagine continual fighting on our soil throughout the whole of both world wars?

I'm tired of these unhinged right-wing assholes, too, but I'd much rather shake my head at their insanity on the news than face them down with my 12-gauge.