Your Most Controversial Opinions!

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That's quite a list.

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The thing is, it's not.Every woman I know (whom I've discussed this sort of thing with) has a similar list.

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Which part of the US are you from?

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I grew up in a suburban housing development just outside of a small city in a semi-rural county about an hour from Pittsburgh, PA. Edited by schrafinator, : No reason given.

Just want you to know that I'm grateful that I'm not alone in this thread.

I wish I could say "that's just the kind of guy I am", but I had to learn to be that guy. I had to meet people who had been raped and been met with ostracism when it turned out that people would rather shit on a victim than face the fact that a friend of theirs was a rapist.I used to write letters to the editor of my campus newspaper, decrying imagined slights to "manhood" and the "good names" of men in general who it had been "unfairly insinuated" might be rapists, or might be capable of rape. In other words I was a lot like these guys, here.But I got over it eventually, I guess, by being confronted with my sexism a couple of times. So now I try to pass it on, for whatever it's worth.Speaking of your list; my wife attended an informal, campus-catered afternoon talk and helped herself to the cookies and refreshements. It was a thursday so she had skipped lunch (she doesn't have a lot of time between the classes she's taking and the lab she TA's). As she grabbed a pair of cookies, some dude who was walking by commented "TWO cookies?!" in sort of mock surprise-outrage.I don't know if that asshole was trying to flirt, or what, but when my wife told me that story I was seeing red. Who the hell does that guy think he is that it's his obligation to monitor my wife's eating habits? But the funny thing was - when she blogged about it, none of our geek male friends (we're talking top intelligence percentile people here) from college thought it was sexist*. They all had some amazingly contrived explanation - for a total stranger - why it wasn't sexist, but more importantly, why my wife was over-reacting.I had thought I was mad before, but I was shocked, angry, and disappointed to find out that my friends thought the reputation of a complete stranger was so important that they would essentially tell my wife - their friend - that she had made the whole thing up, and that her experience (and mine) was invalid. I was mad about it for days.It's the year 2006. Why are otherwise-intelligent people sexist clods?*except for the one who is gay.

fair enough, correction accepted, I didn't read that bit closely. I've spent my whole life in my own company, I feel guilty if I swat fly or stand on a spider. I simply don't believe I have it in me.
seeing what other people are capable of doesn't convince me that I am capable of the same.as an aside, Isn't it possible that because these people were part of an experiment that they believed that they hadn't actually killed people, but rather thought it was part of the experiment?

If you say so. Lord willing you'll never have occasion to find out. No, they thought they had killed a person. Maybe of them were interviewed after the fact and, at the time, they had thought someone had died as a result of the shocks.Many of the subjects offered to return the payment they had received to participate in the experiment in order to try to convince the experimenter to terminate the experiment; when refused, most of them continued anyway. The fact that they offered to return their payment proves that they weren't simply "playing along" in order to earn some money.

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I wish I could say "that's just the kind of guy I am", but I had to learn to be that guy.

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Yeah, well, you learned. So thank you.

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It's the year 2006. Why are otherwise-intelligent people sexist clods?

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Lovely cookie story.I've got one, too.A couple of years ago, I was working at Zingerman's and noticed that a man was using the coffee grinder. The directions for how to use the grinder are posted right on the machine, but are not well-designed, so people very frequently neglected to use the little cleaning lever to empty out the chute as the grinding slowed. This would result in a good 4-6 ounces of (expensive) ground coffee being left behind, which is both wasteful and hurt our bottom line, not to mention that one can only assume that customers actually want to purchase it rather than leave it behind.Anyhow, I walked on over to the man in my apron and staff shirt, and said something appropriately chipper and helpful like, "Excuse me, but don't forget to use the cleaning lever to get out every last bit of coffee goodness from that grinder."The man (who, by the way, looked to be around my age, was very well dressed and clearly well-off) looked at me as I smiled at him, and he smiled back at me and said sarcastically, "Typical woman. Aren't you helpful?", whereupon he reached out and tweaked my nose.I was so offended and taken aback that I couldn't speak for a beat or two as I struggled to master myself and think of what to do or say.I managed to say to him, "You probably don't want to do that; my nose is kind of runny." Before excusing myself to go wait on someone else.Later, when I was telling my collegues about the incident, all the women, many of the young straight men, and the gay men all gasped in disbelief at the disrespect this man just showed me. His behavior was a crystal clear attempt to put me in my place; he did to me what one does to a precocious little child.By contrast, several of the straight young men, and all of the older straight men I told thought it was funny and scoffed at the idea that the guy was trying to put me down.I asked them if they had ever had a male customer similar in age to them tweak their noses, and do you know what they said":"Er..."Edited by schrafinator, : No reason given.

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When everyone on the board feels as disturbed as they are supposed to feel, what will that look like?

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Will they say a particular thing? Do a particular thing? What will happen?

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I don't know what will happen.What I hope would happen is that they (and let's face it, most of "you" are men) might realize that the rapist is not the crazed, inhumane monster that they don't have anything remotely in common with.Even if the individual never rapes or even comes close to it, people need to realize that it is not unusual, and that it's likely that they know somebody who has crossed a sexual line with someone else.

"When was the last time you saw a hollywood made movie where the asian hero of the story got the girl?"he he a few days ago "shanghai noon"!!!!

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"the early bird may get the worm, but its the second mouse that gets the cheese!"

Humans are a naturaly selfish race.People may hate cats because they had one that pee'd all over there house including on their bathroom towl, not because they are afraid of the cat's "independence"!!People should be given the option to commit suicide in a humane way (in a hospital maybe?)- we dont have a choise to be born, we should have the choise to die.The spelling of the word vacuum is weird.Every one is judgemental in one way or another.Capital punishment should be enforced in all countries.Not a stong belief but more a suggestion: the people who wrote the bible were trying to take over the world! - or maybe just attepting to apply some rules as we do laws whilst creating a cult?!There is no specific "meaning to life" it is what we choose it to be.Not everyone likes bannana's - we cannot like every oneIts' not that humans are naturaly stupid, quite the opposite infact (if you take a look at all the things we use in this society electricity, gas, the way we can access water from out homes, computers, medicines etc)its more that most people do not know how to apply their talents and some are just more talented than others!
plus some people are just plain ignorant, but even ignorant people can be smart!Finally the people in the third world countries should accept that they are creating more poverty and illness by having children they will infect and cannot support, swollow their pride and start using condoms - if its not on, its NOT on!

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"the early bird may get the worm, but its the second mouse that gets the cheese!"

We can see why YOU would think that! Okay, but sometimes innocent people are killed. Isn't that wrong? And some moreso than others... I feel a storm brewin'J0N

One needs a liscense to:Practice law, Medicine, child car provider, drive a car, cut hair, be an elecrician/plumber.
Why we do not have minimum standards and require a liscense to have children is beyond me. No other job in this world is more important.

Welcome to EvC. Say humans are a natually selfish species and I agree. Guinea pigs are selfish, too. Ever notice? All they think about is themselves. Squeal, sqeal, squeal. Even those who tell us it's always wrong to make judgments? Morphine overdoes isn't a bad way to go.Some practical reservations come to mind, though. A responsibility would exist to assess the 'sound mind' of any individuals requesting the maximum check-out. Most of these individuals would test as being severely depressed. That would be a disqualifier because clinical depression is treatable. And if you say it to yourself over and over again, it starts to sound funny.Food is another one. Not a very appetizing word when you really listen to it.(By the way, did you mean to spell your handle miss-chief?) Well, regardless of the deterrent factor for anyone else, it certainly deters the person executed.We should put Osama Bin Laden at the top of a 100-story tower, then soak the tower with airplane fuel and ignite it halfway up. All the cameras in the world can record how long it takes him to jump. A well-functioning society strikes me as one that is open enough for individuals to find roles that suit them, and activist enough to be concerned that they do. Food for thought.__Edited by Archer Opterix, : tinkering.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

Hollywood product is not the place to look for fair representation of anything.When's the last time you saw a Hollywood movie where the two leads wore eyeglasses?How many American urban skylines would you recognize if Hollywood was your source of information? New York and Los Angeles. Are there any other American cities?When's the last time you saw a Hollywood movie about Air Force flyboys who pilot propeller-driven C-130s?When's the last time you saw a Hollywood romance set in any city other than New York? Doesn't anyone ever fall in love in Pittsburgh?___Edited by Archer Opterix, : messing around.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

I realize that. I realize that as well.One more question. If you wish, it may remain rhetorical.Do you realize that the rapist is not the crazed, inhumane monster you don't have anything remotely in common with?___

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

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When's the last time you saw a Hollywood romance set in any city other than New York? Doesn't anyone ever fall in love in Pittsburgh?

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Groundhog DayFlashdance