That's actually a testament to the pop culture of the times. A bubble gum popper like Barry Manilow was such a universally known icon that he made a good punch line.
This guy grew up in a time when my parents had to be careful about where they lived because even though they were a straight couple, they weren't the same race so yeah, I get it. Gay or straight, it doesn't mean you have to like his music.
-Byshop
No argument there. He was a little too "bubble gum pop" for my taste even though at the time I was chewing bubble gum.
He was nothing but a play it safe, say nothing but what everyone finds palatable, whore. His music was soul destroying mediocrity. But hey, that's equality, gay people are whores the same as straights in the entertainment business. It's weird that he would fear coming out in the entertainment industry. You can be a pedophile, murder someone, treat normal people like dogshit, and nobody cares, as long as you move units.
That's true for sure now, and likely true in reasonably recent past...but Barry Manilow is hardly a product of the recent past. He came up in a day when "liberating sexuality" meant that a girl might ask a guy out on a date. Television was slipping a married couple sleeping in the same bed past the censors for the first time...and they were in a cartoon. It was a much different time and no surprise that he would make such a choice.
I believe religion is the root of all evil, for it has caused the most wars and torturous epidemics across the globe, and the harshest forms of intolerance and prejudice among people. I do not wish to be a part of something that is evil.
Every war that has been fought "over religion" would likely have been fought anyway without it. The most obviously "religious" wars ever, the crusades, were as much about sending younger brother aristocrats off to somewhere so they wouldn't dispute their elder brother's inheritance as they were about anything else. Claiming they were about conquering the infidels just made them sound better.
When a criminal dies the world is made a better place. That criminal will never again victimize the people that have the poor luck of having him in the vicinity.
My first thought was "can't argue with that." But I must admit that right after that I thought "does that include jaywalkers?"
Who are the jaywalkers victimizing?
Well, no one. That was my point. Using the word "criminal" was probably a bit extreme, since "when a criminal is killed the world is a better place" would include some people that probably do less harm than good, like a jaywalking heart surgeon.
Jaywalking is a misdemeanor. Contextual definition of the term, crime would exclude traffic violations and misdemeanors. E.g. when work applications asks for a criminal record.
Hmmmm.... here's a thought....how about you let Riverwolf decide if he wants to supply a context for the comment he made that I was more than willing to discuss further with him?
Or have you been officially appointed as some sort of interlocutor here?
I'd be more tractable if you actually provided the actual data to back your claim.
I already agreed with you. What makes you think I want you to be "more tractable"?
Jerks that crave agreement and want to browbeat it out of people do need guns. No amount of demonstrable risk associated with gun ownership can change that. In their balance the rewards outweigh those risks and always will.
People who live in homes that attract crime have a valid reason to believe they need guns to defend their home. The fact that a house full of guns in itself attracts crime is sort of a "self fulfillment" aspect of that, but I don't deny that it is still valid.
So, I've acknowledged that there are situations where the need for guns in the home is real. I've acknowledged that this guy in Oklahoma won the gun owner lottery and got to legally shoot people. What more are you looking for from me, exactly?
Yes. I attend an independent Christian church regularly.
In the course of my life I've explored pretty much every faith I came across by attending their services. Been to mosque with Muslims, sat in meditations with Buddhists, attended services with more sects of Christians than I'm willing to take the time to name. I've also had animated discussions with "pro-active" atheists, who I sometimes derisively refer to as "worshippers of the non-god" and plenty of amiable conversations with atheists who aren't demanding of agreement as well as agnostics which are pretty close to the same thing.
Spirituality is a very interesting aspect of the human condition.
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