For @BSR -

Ossifragant- literally bone breaking “ The fierce, ossifragant force of Humbaba's blows would have hurt any men but Enkidu and Gilgamesh…”

Internecine - destructive to both sides in a conflict “indiscriminate biological warfare is internecine”

discontiguity- the quality of being discontiguous (disconnected or without contact) “after the beheading, he lived temporarily in a state of discontiguity “

Teacher here. It's made-up-nonsense. I don't give a shit what gender or sexual orientation a kid is and im CERTAINLY not going to try to convince anyone to change anything about themselves.

That said, I'm going to acknowledge that gay/trans people exist in authorship and literature as it arises. You can't read someone like Whitman (Leaves of Grass, arguably America's greatest poet) and not come across references to sexuality either implicit or explicit. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45472/i-sing-the-body-electric

It becomes relevant in passages like this:

5
This is the female form,
A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot,
It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction,
I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor, all falls aside but myself and it,
Books, art, religion, time, the visible and solid earth, and what was expected of heaven or fear’d of hell, are now consumed,
Mad filaments, ungovernable shoots play out of it, the response likewise ungovernable,
Hair, bosom, hips, bend of legs, negligent falling hands all diffused, mine too diffused,
Ebb stung by the flow and flow stung by the ebb, love-flesh swelling and deliciously aching,
Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous, quivering jelly of love, white-blow and delirious juice,
Bridegroom night of love working surely and softly into the prostrate dawn,
Undulating into the willing and yielding day,
Lost in the cleave of the clasping and sweet-flesh’d day.

----------------------------------
Maybe a conversation like:

"'Love flesh swelling' like he's in love with some woman and they...he...?"

"Probably not, he didn't have any serious female relationships as far as I am aware."

"But the title is 'The female form'"

"Well, it's possible, but it's not likely the case that he was talking about himself being in love with a woman. This poem is in the text but he wrote many other pieces about he-himself falling into and out of love with various men and we have letters documenting those relationships with his male significant others. Although, I'm not sure what to call them because gay marriage would have been illegal at the time. He's likely writing the poem in a way where he appreciates the female form and sees men who are drawn to it like the way I appreciate watching bees act obsessively driven to the middle of flowers. I like watching Bees in action, but that doesn't mean I'm going all pollen crazy, still I appreciate it for what it is."
-------------------

This is an example of how discussion of sexuality would come up in my classroom as I imagine it. Note how I'm not trying to convince the kid I'm talking to to turn gay like it's a big game of rainbow-red-rover or something. Nevertheless, knowing the author's sexual preference in this instance informs our understanding of the piece.


My own personal theory?
The people railing against things like this are the same shitheads that can't be bothered to read ANYTHING and instead giggle and guffaw at "hurhurhurhur he hadd'a boner" where I get to live an early stage of Idocracy.

Also, I agree that the "funky stuff" shouldn't be just avoided altogether. For goodness sake, just let teachers have the difficult conversation that everyone is avoiding. Reminds me of when Peggy Hill was struggling to say "Penis" when she was assigned sex ed.

This was part of the plot of the John Cleese film Fierce Creatures. Pandas are so shy the zoo replaced it with a far cheaper animatronic because no one would notice the difference.

Later in the film they show the pandas with an 'out of order' sign in front of the enclosure.

Life imitates art.

Jokes aside, she is fierce. Wicked punches. I hope she has it under control so she doesn't send too many people to hospital (while spending time in jail as a result).

Uh-hem, ma'am - sorry, but your underwire is showing something fierce.

The competition is fierce for construction vehicles during mating season.

Rats are a bit big and fierce for the average cat.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/09/cats-vs-rats-new-york/571414/

This need for folks to be squeaky clean is, excuse me, childish.

Good lord. Look at all the cliches there are around politics. It's a dirty business. Has been forever.

What HAS been said repeatedly, including in this clip, is that THERE IS NOTHING THERE.

I LOVED seeing asshat WikiLeak McFuckface squirm when Maher asked him to discuss the difference between transparency and privacy.

So many "let the system blow up" people are often fierce about privacy issues -- until it suits them to not care about it.

Those emails had nothing. People being people in private convos between co-workers.

Wait, how is the combination of words "Dwarf shortage" uttered within the bounds of a comedy show offensive to anyone? Why? Wtf?

Its not a joke that carries much meaning, besides the fact that it might be mocking the political correctness brigade a bit.

The second sentence might be the one that breaks the broadcast code, because basically anything you might happen to say to a dwarf can be theoretically deemed to be insulting.

Dwarves are fierce warriors, so I would definitely err on the side of caution there and cross the road if I see a dwarf coming.

It is as easy to claim being offended as it is for a soccer player to fall. How many of those offended were even real dwarves?

I'm overweight, had a heart attack 9 years ago when I was 30. I'm on low sodium diet, have 2 cordis brand stints in my chest. Grade 1 diastolic dysfunction from a little scar tissue on left ventricle.

I had severe depression and the heart attack at 30 messed my head up fierce in my thinking. First off I've never had a physical before then and I've never been sick. When my parents caught flus and I didn't they had me tested and I was a 1 in 10 or 100 thousand I forget that are immune to flu. Once a year I donate blood here in Ga that is sent to Emory in Atlanta I get paid $350 for my blood once a year.

But back to heart attack since I never had physical due to never sick I knew I was not eating healthy and used to smoke and nicotine is a vascular constrictor. It triggered the attack and was my last cigarette. It scared the addiction out of me and never had withdrawals.

But my severe mental depression although obese I became scared to eat, I went on starvation diet. I'd drink water but no food at all.

After 5th day I was so weak I couldn't move. Later I realized it takes a lot of calories to move my fatass. But I had a new danger that almost triggered cardiac arrest.

I live alone and was able to crawl to phone and call 911. They first thought it was another heart attack but heart was slowed but no problems. They did blood test and took 7 vials. About 6 hours later was the embarrassment.

Doctor came in, along with psychiatrist, nutritionist, and another counselor. I was hypokalemic. Which means potassium was dangerously low almost fatally low. Which was red flag for usually the stereotypical teenage girl with anorexia.

Took 2 IV bags of riggers lactate, shot of potassium, a little amphetamine to boost blood pressure up to normal and 24 hour observation on regular saline IV.

I still have severe depression due to weight. I have degenerative disc disease in my back so I can't get around very good. My diet is set at 1800 calories yet my I only lose 1 to 2 pounds a month. Extensive testing has shown my metabolism has come to a stop. So even though I eat very little calories and low sodium protein diet with barely any carbs with no metabolism the body only stores it as fat because at zero metabolism the body thinks it has to store instead of burn thinking its starving but its not.

But my cardiologist and general doc are trying an extremely dangerous and risky treatment to try and JumpStart my metabolism. I have to record my blood pressure hourly and go in once a week for ekg and blood enzyme test but they are using a drug not made for this as "off label" use and you aren't supposed to even use it with heart disease but that's the strict monitoring by both my doctors. The controversy is they are using adderall to force my metabolism up. Your body is forced to burn through energy stored, and the idea is once my metabolism kicks back in it should stay up on its own.

Tests look promising its my second week on it and I was averaging 1-2 sometimes 3 pound loss in one month. Now since the low dose adderall trial I lost 5 pounds in 1 week!!!

And that little victory has done wonders for my severe depression. I've actually got hope.

@Lawdeedaw

There's so much factually wrong here, I don't know where to begin. Let's start with this:

"That rape and mutilation has been going on for centuries but was significant in the Second Sino-Japanese War, a distinct war in and of itself."

Japan was in a state of almost complete isolation from the rest of the world between the years of 1633 and 1853. Even after the period of isolation ended, Japan was too busy for decades industrializing to be rampaging through China, as you suggest.

Japan DID eventually get involved in Chinese politics and in fact went to war with them in the First Sino-Japanese War... in 1894. There are no reports of atrocities committed by the Japanese military during this conflict. In fact, quite the opposite, Japan would release Chinese prisoners of war once they promised not to take up arms against Japan again.

The subjugation of Taiwan (which was ceded to Japan at the end of the first Sino-Japanese War but resisted Japanese rule) is a different story. However, accounts of what exactly happened are sketchy and most of the information we have is anecdotal. What can be gleaned from these anecdotes is that the Formasians put up a fierce guerrilla resistance campaign and that the Japanese tortured and killed anyone suspected of aiding the resistance. Still, it doesn't appear to have been on the same scale as the massacres which occurred during the Rape of Nanking.

As you mentioned, some of the most awful abuses were done during the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937 and 1945 (the Rape of nanking occurred during this war). The abuse ended Japan's defeat in WWII.

What you can see here by doing the math, is that Japan's military abuses in China lasted a grand total of 50 years--from the subjugation of Formosa (Taiwan) to the end of World War 2--not "centuries."

Next, let's talk about misrepresentation. You seem to be implying that Japanese textbooks don't say that Japan is the aggressor in WW2 (or previous conflicts). As I pointed out in my last post, that is flat-out wrong. There is ONE textbook that was approved for use that whitewashes the history but that book has been ignored an not used by the vast majority of schools in Japan.

If you want to criticize Japanese textbooks, you could criticize them on the grounds that though they mention the terrible things that Japanese forces did, they don't go into a whole lot of detail. See this article for more information.

As far as Abe goes, what exactly has he said that is so terrible? Yes, he hangs out with revisionists. Yes, he has expressed his opinion that Japan should stop apologizing for WWII and start looking to the future instead of the past. Yes, he has said that the issue of "comfort women" should be re-examined in light of claims that some of evidence of their existence was fabricated. But these are not really radical statements by any means. And many people and newspapers do strongly and openly disagree with his statements, so this idea that Japanese people don't challenge him is completely wrong as well.

Yasukuni is a total clusterfuck of a situation. It is a shrine to ALL of Japan's war dead. This includes war criminals, but it also includes regular soldiers just doing their duty. In terms of Shinto beliefs, all of their souls now reside there. Basically, if you want to pay your respects to someone who died in military service in Japan, you have to go there to "see them."

Abe is a total dumbass (and the press let him know it) for going there because he knows already how China and Korea will perceive it, but on the other hand his going there does not mean in any way that he reveres the war criminals who are interred there. I have no idea what his personal views are but publically he has stated that he and his wife go there to remind themselves about the terrible toll war had on Japan the last time Japan engaged in it.

Finally, as for the link you provided, it was to a year-old opinion piece that lacks context. Abe made that statement at a time when it was revealed that some of the evidence of the existence of comfort women in Japan had been faked. It was later decided that the apology would not be changed. In fact, The Japan Times is reporting that it is likely that Abe will mention that "comfort women" had their human rights violated by Japan in his upcoming address on the end of WWII, so the comparison of him to Ahmadinejad is a bit far-fetched.

Meh, that's debatable.

The women involved in the original scandal didn't claim to feel harassed.

She didn't even see the infamous picture.

In fact, she herself thought it was a obscene prank perpetrated by some conservatives who disapproved of her support for Weiner. (hehe)

Furthermore, the leakers weren't "whistleblowers" doing some ground-breaking investigative reporting on corrupt politicians.

They were right-wing lackeys who monitored Weiners communicates with the specific intent to dig up dirt.

From Wikipedia--

According to the New York Times, evidence later revealed that..


So..

Seems like Breitbart henchmen were hunting for some character-assassination dirt..

And Weiner accidentally handed it to them on a silver platter. (Hah)


There were supposedly 5 other women he sexted, and those scenarios may possibly constitute sexual harassment..

But, as far as the original scandal & dick-pic seen 'round the nation go..

A hilarious mistake lead to shaming and the end of a career.

Which sucks because Anthony Weiner was a fierce politician who was fighting the good fight.


So yeah, bad example for Oliver to pick.

Exactly.

This is Mercedes Carrera's point.

She is outraged because Sarkeesian - the new face of female empowerment in the gaming world - was completely non-responsive when Carrera reached out to her.

Full Stop.

@Babymech completely missed this point.

Then went on a red-herring tangent, dragging the thread down with him.

As for my jabs at Anita..

The reason you've barely heard about Sarkeesian is because - until recently - she was just another starving artist youtube personality.

When I first stumbled across her Feminist Frequency videos, I too was duped by her ostensibly critical analysis of female tropes in pop culture media.

So for the uninitiated - Stephen Colbert, Mercedes Carrera, yourself - Sarkeesian seems like:

"Wow, the next generation of Women's Rights Advocates is fierce."

But just like any other ego-tripping prestige hound, the flaws in her arguments began to bubble up.

Other youtubers - commenters & personalities alike - started calling her on her bullshit.

In response, she disabled the comments on all of her videos.

That was just the start of a series of shitbag tactics to cover up her bullshit.

So yeah, unless you're familiar with Sarkeesian's brand of - lalala, I can't hear you cause I'm too busy empowering my wallet with bullshit lectures about first world problems - kabuki theatre..

You could be forgiven for thinking that she's actually promoting a level-headed positive message.

When in reality..

She generates stylized drama for the purpose of furthering her own narrative & career.

Can't let all those Women's Studies courses go to waste, can she.

Anywho..

The point is.
Cytherea deserves the support of anyone that truly cares about the empowerment of women & equality of genders.

Portland is way more progressive than Seattle. Really fierce on greenbelts and walking/biking trails that are actually usable for commuters.

And yeah. Seattle has coolness.

You're welcome!

Two things in all this stand out as really worrisome to me. First off, the hateful quote was almost a paraphrasing of the bible. And not the old testament parts that Christianity will dismiss as being supplanted/fulfilled by the coming of Christ, but the new testament. First Timothy 9 and 10 are:

We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine...

It's not hating on gays or comparing them to murderers, it is just listing off a laundry list of behaviors deemed sinful and thus contrary to God's will. Even getting drunk and swearing count, so it's no more hateful against gays than it's hateful against any other non believers choices and lifestyles.

I am worried by our society as a majority looking upon that and either classing it as hatred, or worse still, using it to justify their hatred.

My next beef is the entire liberal side of the country that state like the guy in the video, freedom of speech doesn't mean A&E isn't also free to fire the guy for what he says. I don't disagree with that though. My problem is that if that same hillbilly came out and spoke about his abiding support for same-sex marriage and then A&E exercised their 'freedom' to fire him for his speech, those same Liberals would be up in arms at the injustice. That rankles me something fierce.