josie

I see her as very human, and as such, very fallible. We haven't figured out how to properly criticize her because of her gender, just as we had years of painfully and awkwardly learning to criticize Obama despite his skin color. (credit to d4rk on that statement, he brought it up when were discussing this over dinner, and I agree with it). One thing that comes to mind is the comment that "but she was against gay marriage in the 90s, now she's flip flopped, she'll say anything to get a liberal vote". To which I cite generational change, cultural evolution. I know myself better than I know anyone else, and I was "grossed out" by the idea when I was younger. It was the prevailing opinion. I'm about as pro LGBTQBBQETC as you get now, because time and experience helped reform and evolve my stance. She changed her mind, in my opinion, for a better understanding. She did not hang on to that belief to avoid accusations of inconsistency. Again, is she calculating and acting? Or is she human? ... or is she a lizard person like the rest of Washington... ooo....

I can only have hindsight in regards to feelings during Clinton's presidency, as I was a little kid (born in 89), but I'll try to answer your questions without overthinking it and retyping this post 8 billion times... Keep in mind I'm young, my opinions are still forming. I'm in sponge mode still, and still not the most adept at articulating my thoughts. A woman with 10+ more years than me may have a wildly different opinion of the Clinton scandals, having been old enough to weigh the situation at the time. 1) Ideally, organizations and people with sets of morals that define them are blind to the power and status of the people to which they are applying moral judgement. Organizations are of many minds, and their decisions are often not majority. With that in mind, they should not have been quiet. I was brought up believing/being taught that Bill Clinton was morally bankrupt, a sinner scumsucker, an evil, worthless, sex crazed madman. I was raised being told that Lewinski and the other women were flat out wh0res, pieces of sh!t, wastes of humanity. I had a very black and white upbringing with these topics, and it is something I still struggle with finding my footing with today. I respect the man greatly as a politician, as a leader, but as a human being, I still don't hold much love. I'm angry that his actions are affecting his wife in this manner, all these years later. 2) This is a tricky one. I relate. I've been cheated on many many times, & every time I shamed "the other woman" rather than simply yell at the man. It's a bandaid on an incredible, sucking wound in your chest and gut. Should I shame them? Nope. Absolutely not. I've never been the other woman, I don't see their perspective. Someone like HRC, hurt and with political ambitions of her own, knew that sticking to Bill (who she put a lot of work and time into, helping him become Governor, etc.) was probably her best chance to achieve political prominence. I never once dumped someone who cheated on me. I figured I had to just be better, more amazing, so their attention wouldn't wander anymore. I think she just had more pressing matters, and shut her heart away. Were those women any of the above? Hell, I don't know. But my moral compass says you sure as hell don't do anything with a married or taken man, no matter how he acts towards you. In today's society, with its cultural changes/attitudes, you just keep your mouth shut or you leave, rather than slander. So maybe, personally, I identify with her a little bit here, I see her reaction as human, even immature. Do her actions show a cold, calculated woman? Perhaps. I don't know, I don't know her. It's all a moral dumpster, the whole situation. This is the issue that rankles me, when I see people saying "How could you choose her for President if Bill couldn't even choose her". Eff right off with that. 3) Pro women is one thing. We should all be pro women, as equality of the sexes is good for both sexes (pregnancy notwithstanding- boy does it stand in the way). However, it is one plank in a foundation. I wouldn't vote for someone if that one plank stood out over someone whose foundation better matched my ethos. Asking if she's pro women after she's slandered the names of women who allegedly slept with her husband? I guess I find it to be childish. Are the other candidates really pro America when they tear apart immigrants and minorities? But is HRC going to stand up for my right to birth control? Yep. She's got that over some of the others in the running. :( Anytime Presidents and sex come up, it's worth considering the dalliances of revered leaders of our past, JFK, FDR among them. Lying under oath, well, that's where things get sticky with Bill (heyoo). Should we discount Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman who, in a different time, may well have had a more blistering political career? "Eleanor, how dare you stand up for women when you stayed with a man with a mistress!" No, we feel pity for her, generally, and shrug off FDR's adultery because, he was FDR, savior of the union. Yes, she existed in an era where women's suffrage was new, and women's rights movements were widely shunned IF they existed. But I don't think things were quite so shiny for women in the 1990s up at the top, either. They're better now than they've ever been, and that is saying something. I kinda like that HRC said "step aside, Billy, it's my turn." She isn't tearing him down about the past, or bringing it up at all. That's more mature. Trust me, that's difficult. I just really don't think bringing up these personally aimed questions during a debate without the candidate in question there, when there's SO much else to talk about, is appropriate. It is a sneaky personal volley, I don't see it any other way with the wording they used. If they were going for what you were asking, they did so in a very poor way. Attack your opponents, but the below the belt stuff leaves me cold. I'll go drink a beer and wring my hands over morals, now.

Nikita Kucherov isn't bad and highly ignored. Roman Josi, yeah. He's getting more notoriety, though, but falls in Shea Weber's shadow. Okposo when he isn't hurt.

Drank and watched the debate with my friend. She's very pro Hillary, I'm still kinda disgusted by all possible choices. Lots of things said that I didn't agree with, and all vile yet entertaining in a sh!tshow circus way. There was one question that just made me hang my head in disbelief. The moderator asked if Hillary Clinton was an enabler to sexual misconduct. Look. I don't like the woman, I think the long and storied tales of Bill's adultery make him a disgusting individual, but really? That's a question worthy of debate? Discussion? Over foreign policy and taxes? Horrifying. Question their status as a political powerhouse couple, question his involvement in her potential Presidency, but leave that crap out of it.

Yes, don't forget about Ghost Bear! My Flyers fan coworker regales me in ghost bear stories after every game. He's carrying a lot of excitement and hope for Philly hockey fans. Yeah, I don't like his style, either. Kind of a little sh!thawk, in my opinion. Fitting. You know I'll vouch for Larkin- kid is pretty exceptional. He skates circles around the rest of the creaky old Detroit squad and injects life into younger guys like Tatar. So is McDavid expected to play at all this year? Can we even call it his rookie year if he spent it healing on the bench? Poor kid, sh!t luck.

Chara's kinda up there in age and broken, not sure he counts at this point, unless you mean earlier Chara, and then I respectfully disagree. His intimidation value alone was pretty priceless. Didn't even have to fight. Yeah, the old and overrated thing applies to people like my beloved Datsyuk. He's just in the twilight of his career, and his stats and game show it. :cry: You still have fear of him on the ice, but he's no longer the stadium filler magic man they try to market, as much as it pains me to say it. But hey, he scored last night, still some magic in the tank :)

Yep. Agreed. That and god I hate that guy. I kinda hate saying overrated when it's a player who'd previously been pretty worthy of their hype, or is simply declining with age. But with that said, Getzlaf. I gleefully snatched him up on one of my fantasy teams and man, he's had a bad year. His whole team has. But I figured he'd have something to show for it.

Oh god, all these kidney stone stories... I definitely am of the opinion that men have it wayyyy worse with those. Oh god. Cringing. Everyone in my family gets them pretty often. I've driven various passed out/vomiting/crying family members to the hospital. I drink tons and tons of water out of pure fear. Docs told us to lay off the calcium when it comes to pills, dairy, etc... even antacids that claim they have calcium in them. My sister was eating like... ten of those a day (don't ask, hypochondria I think) and ended up with a whopper kidney stone. Had surgery and all. I guess it nearly ripped her ureter. blehhh shuddering. Such imaginative names for stones too... gravel... sand... "Yeah, my lower back hurts, I must have some kidney sand going on..." Haven't had a kidney stone myself yet, I get ovary cysts instead. Doc told me they're one of the most painful things a human can experience and do nothing about. I guess that's the closest I can relate. Brain whites out with pain. Absurd. Feel better, buno. And drink your water, everyone ;)

I mean, it's not quite her dancing in From Dusk Til Dawn, but I'm still kinda surprised it didn't make a lesbian during my formative years. Yeah, dude, I hate turning on my phone in the morning. Half my friends are on Tim Curry watch now.

Agreed. I joke that Dogma explains my feelings on Christianity. Not totally joking, honestly. Plus, Salma Hayek as a stripper. I'm also a wet behind the ears, snot nosed millenial who has yet to see Die Hard. There, I admitted it too.

I'm sorry Dennis, that's never easy. So many reminders of mortality lately. Yes, the celebrities, who are all the same age as my father (69), but in the last couple weeks I've been made painfully aware of the heroin epidemic in my hometown. Not just my best friend's husband. A guy I knew in high school OD'd Monday, and it resulted in so many people, people I'd never have expected, coming forward about their own struggles with drugs. He was a good kid. Just dealt with some bad things in his life in a poor way. It's the last place you'd expect this kind of problem. I keep thinking of the new HBO doc about the heroin epidemic in Cape Cod. But yeah, over prescribing, blah blah, a lot of hearts are breaking. I've learned a lot about this drug. I wish I didn't have to. Screw the dealers, man. Been everyone's shoulder to cry on lately. Bosses have yet to sit down with me about my salary problem. Oh well, got the republican debate to drink beer and yell about tonight!

What the actual hell, January. His role in Dogma will probably always be my favorite. Another death, too soon, fu## cancer, man.

Ah yes, the stupid sabrespace saps, you got us. So gullible. So sorry. I didn't look at his other post, was that the same "top shelf where momma keeps the cookies" shirt kid? Figured if he was gonna get deleted, he'd get deleted. I give feedback in the odd chance it IS some person genuinely trying to pull something together. Either way, he should get the message by now.

"Your mother darns socks in hell" ?

Agreed. I love color. Fans and players say stuff about "bleeding ___ and ___" in respect to their team's colors. The whites have those colors, yes, but they're not as important and feel like an afterthought. And the "slide the value bar as close to black as possible" trend could end any time and I'd be happy. Gimme some color, baby. I'll go crawl back into my rainbow den of gaudy vibrance.

Has Werther's Originals stuffed into every couch cushion and car seat for handy snacking.

That finger on the right in the first animation is SoooOoooo broken.

Awesome stuff Bio! Enjoy your new little spaceship :)

I was born with an ASD (atrial septal defect) and it wasn't caught until I was about 9 and very sick. Basically a hole in the heart, allowing the blood to mix- mine was about the size of a dime. I was one of the first people to have a cardioseal implant procedure done- I have a little metal spider lookin' thing sewn in there now that plugs up the hole, with an extremely minimal leak leftover. Now with $1500 worth of metal in my leg, MRI's are just baaaad news :P My sister was a little girl when she had to deal with lots of MRI's in the mid 80s because of cancer- she would tell the neighbors about how "mom and dad put me in the oven and clanged pots and pans at me and wouldn't let me move". That freaked people out a little!

Robyn Regehr retires as a Flame. https://twitter.com/RogMillions/status/686596796827631616

I'm kinda glad I'll never know. I have a medical bracelet I should wear that says "No MRI" on it. One of my biggest vaguely irrational fears is being in an accident or something that leaves me so badly beaten up that I'm unidentifiable but alive, and then I'm put in an MRI at some point and the metal in my heart gets ripped out. Yeeeessgghhhh.

It was liver cancer.

I don't think I've ever actually cried over a celebrity upon their death before. It's just what he stood for, which you nailed. He was bizarre. He made it okay to be weird and to reinvent yourself. He was anything you wanted him to be, whatever flight of fancy at whatever time in your life. Bowie was so many people rolled into one, and it's just not that common for popular musicians to have that much reign over their own image, then or now. He was respected, too. You didn't even have to like his music, he was an awesome spectacle. He was just such a bright spot to me. It's like a funeral in the office today, a lot of us are Bowie fans. I guess it says something that a company with no one over 43 years old is mourning his loss so deeply. We're all a little young for his heyday. He transcended a lot of generations with his indomitable weirdness. Man. Weiland, then Lemmy, now Bowie.

Only a few days ago we were celebrating another year in his life, my office played his music all day for his birthday. Today we're celebrating his life in a mournful way, and recognizing there is no more. It was always comforting to me and really, nearly every other art student I knew, to know that someone as creative as Bowie existed in the world. It feels a little duller today. Have a good trip to space and the beyond, black star. Oh no, you're not alone.

Think I'll have a drink. Getting better, but not quite good enough.