This month has been hard. Sudden large medical bills of $1,200, the information that we were too late getting our stuff to FEMA so the rest of the $37,000 dollars in repairs we have to pay for we have to fund, the $500 dollars to get the battery replaced in the car, my stress test during which I had my blood sugar crash and during the induced chemical part of the test I couldn’t breathe that left me shaken for two day. Bad mightmares and intrusive thoughts / memories I don’t want to remember. And so much more. Ron says I may need to talk to someone again, you know therapy, but I am just not ready. As the song says
There’s got to be a morning after If we can hold on through the night We have a chance to find the sunshine Let’s keep on looking for the light
Oh, can’t you see the morning after It’s waiting right outside the storm Why don’t we cross the bridge together And find a place that’s safe and warm
The only bright spot has been talking with my wonderful brother Randy and sending him a gift. Doing that helped me a lot and is a shining light in my otherwise dark mood. I hate the news, I hate the state I live in, I hate the maga that moved in to my formerly accepting park, I hate the direction of my country. Best wishes to all. Hugs
R.E.M. – Everybody Hurts (Official Music Video)
“Everybody Hurts” from R.E.M.’s best-selling 1992 album, Automatic for the People.
I wrote this a day or two ago, but did not post it. I do that a lot with personal post, especially when I am down or really upset. Just writing about it helps me emotionally and mentally. It is why sometimes I write about my abuse, it is my way of dealing with it. The weird thing is when someone else is hurting and I can help, it helps me when I help them. You would think it would be the other way round and just add more burden, but it doesn’t. Somewhere I read a burden shared is a burden lessened. So as I post this I want to add what I found out about the song. I included the responces / comments to show the songs impact. Best wishes, and Hugs. Scottie
Simply put, R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” is designed to prevent people from taking their own lives. In 2003, co-writer Peter Buck of R.E.M. had stated that its lyrical simplicity is founded in the fact that the track is “aimed at teenagers”. However, it should be noted, in contrast, that the cover art for “Everybody Hurts” features a man who is clearly a senior citizen. Or, as Buck later stated in 2005, this song has “tended to work for people of a lot of ages”.
But apparently R.E.M. wanted young listeners in particular who may be suffering from serious depression to identify with the song and take a different route as opposed to possibly self-harm. And the argument the band uses is that “everybody hurts”. In other words, the targeted audience is not alone in their suffering. In fact being discontent with the way things are going is something that we all go through at times. So instead of doing something extreme, they should “hold on”, as in not give up on life. And one particular remedy the band espouses is for such individuals to “take comfort in (their) friends”.
Facts about “Everybody Hurts”
R.E.M.’s drummer Bill Berry is recognized as being the primary writer of this song. However, the rest of his bandmates (Mike Mills, Michael Stipe and Peter Buck) are also credited as writers. The entire band also produced the song alongside Scott Litt.
Michael Stipe, who sings this track, has stated that “people” have told him directly that it has saved lives. Indeed “Everybody Hurts” has been recognized by some organizations which encourage suicide prevention based on its message.
John Paul Jones, of rock band Led Zeppelin, wrote the song’s string arrangement.
“Everybody Hurts” fared impressively internationally. It peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 7 on the UK Singles Chart. It also broke the top 10 in Australia, Canada, France, Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands.
The music video to this track was directed by Jake Scott (song of iconic movie director Ridley Scott). It went on to win MTV Video Music Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Direction, Best Editing and Breakthrough Video.
Covers of “Everybody Hurts”
On 7 February 2010, a collection of stars including Mariah Carey, Miley Cyrus and Jon Bon Jovi released a joint rendition of “Everybody Hurts”. This rendition was released under the collective named Helping Haiti to collect aid to be sent to that country in light of an earthquake it experienced during that year. And R.E.M. waived the royalties they would receive from the money it generated in the name of that cause.
Music superstars P!nk and Kelly Clarkson covered “Everybody Hurts” to open the 2017 American Music Awards. They sung it in honor of America’s first responders (i.e. emergency workers) who were active during highly-publicized tragedies the nation was going through around that time.
President Donald Trump’s use of the song
“Everybody Hurts” has maintained a permanent presence in American pop culture. However, the track really caught the public’s attention in February of 2019 when US President Donald Trump used a meme created to mock his political opponents (i.e. the Democrats) which used the song. In response, R.E.M. – and particularly Mike Mills in particular – really let the President know that they didn’t support this decision and indeed are not supporters of him as a “world leader”. In fact they had Twitter remove the video on 16 February 2019, the day after it was posted, citing copyright infringement.
When did R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” come out?
“Everybody Hurts” was originally dropped as a part of R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People on 5 October 1992. Later, on 15 April 1993, it was also released by Warner Bros Records as a single. FYI, the hit single “Man on the Moon” also appears on the album Automatic for the People.
FYI, this song was later featured on multiple other albums of R.E.M., including the following:
The Automatic Box of 1993
In Time – The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 of 2009
Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011 of 2011
im so sorry about that, i hope your feeling okay right now. I just want you to know your very loved and he will be happy if you are happy. I know its hard to move on but you got to let ago and accept that his gone. he might be gone in real life but he will always be with you.
thank god for song, it shows love, compassion , hope and a way out for those who are at that dark place.the singer has opened his heart to you(as do the rest of the rem band) As an amature muso My eyes were fixed on the black ricky guitar but then my heart was convicted by my selfishness and I realised that love and caring are so much more valuable. Their is a answer in this song. listen and you will hear it. My life is great now . SO GLAD I did not end it when I was hurting . you do not have carry hurt on your own. from the heart of a stranger
I have attempted suicide twice, once I came very close. I now make sure I listen to this song when my demons catch up with me. It seems strange that a song can have such a powerful effect on a persons thoughts, but so do love songs, driving songs etc. But either way, I am thankful for the song and hope it has saved lives all over the planet.
Do not support Trump as a world leader? Really ? Just what do you support a grifting never do nothing in 50 + years in Congress demented farting embarrassing American economy killing demon from the very pit of hell Biden? Yeah. I thought so. Liberals are mentally ill. I guess you write that song for yourself.
My uncle/idol was murdered and his body was discarded less than 50 metres from the view of his mother’s window, me my nana and his son among others had to wait all night till morning for forensics. No one slept, we all for some 10 hrs wept in conflicting disbelief at the reality of my uncles fully avoidable fate. He chose this song as his funeral song.
Wow nr 9 ! Jezus you didn’t get the message of this whole item and song. May you find peace and soon find out that there is just one live and one world. So stop being angry about things you can’t change and enjoy your blessings.
This was featured on the Australia TAC drink driving advert that shocked millions of Australians into not drinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2mf8DtWWd8 Powerful song with a powerful video.
I really like the song and I’m thankful that they tried to prevent suicide and/or self harm with it but, being a person with suicidal tendencies I have two things to say about this son: the music extremely sad and whenever I listen to it it have the opposite effect on me, bringing all the bad memories of my past and I have to change the station. The second thing is that you can’t simply say “everybody hurts” to someone on the edge of talking their own life: depression makes you see a very narrow world and, somehow makes you not care about anyone else (if you could think about other people around you, you would never try to taking your own life). It’s a beautiful song and the intention behind it is good… but I wouldn’t suggest anyone with suicidal thoughts listening to this song in that particular moment.
The Committee is a documentary film about the little-known Florida Legislative Investigative Committee of the State Legislature from 1956-1965. Florida Senator Charley Johns chaired the committee, and its aim was to root out communist and homosexual teachers and students from state universities. It was successful in either firing or expelling more than 200 suspected gay and lesbian citizens.
I wish I could post this short video. It is what DeathSantis is trying to recreate today in Florida and if he gets the presidency he will push this hard on the entire country. Hugs
DeFascist can indeed get the country on a different path – Here’s what Ron DeFascist has accomplished –
– LGBT students cannot discuss their personal lives with teachers or counselors, making them feel marginalized, alone, and possibly increasing their risks of suicide. Some parents with LGBT family members are moving out of the state. State ACLU currently suing to end this.
– Universities are unsure what they can or cannot teach based on the whims of literally one man. GOP prefer students to be inculcated with cheap cheerleading America First nationalism (this shut down by a judge, results pending)
– History teachers can’t teach about the truth of American racism and black history because it might upset white people
– Some teachers are seeking employment in another state.
– A school principal had to resign because one of her teachers showed students a picture of Michelangelo’s David.
– A teacher is under investigation because she showed 13 year olds a Disney movie with a gay character.
– Women who discover they’re pregnant after 6 weeks, and are unable to have a child, can’t get an abortion in Florida, even though there should be retroactive abortion, Don Jr. lives there
– Property taxes and insurance costs are becoming unaffdable
– Million dollar contracts are given to DeFascist’s donors
– 87,141 people died of Covid in Florida. Less would have died had there been the slightest of protective measures taken, but DeFascist didn’t allow that.
– Hispanic farm and construction workers are not going to work out of fear of DeFascist’s draconian rules to punish undocumented workers and their bosses. Hispanic truckers are refusing to deliver to the state. Farm products are rotting while remaining unpicked.
– Students and companies who support diversity and inclusion are no longer allowed to do so.
– Trans children can no longer get medical care, use bathroom of pronouns of their choice (this shut down by a judge, results pending)
– a court could temporarily remove children from their homes if they receive gender-affirming care
– LGBT people who seek medical care can be denied it if they’re unlucky enough to have a religious fanatic doctor.
– Drag queens can be arrested for appearing in drag in public where children can see them. (this shut down by a judge, results pending)
– Any idiot can buy a gun without a permit, training, or with or without a criminal record.
– Disney, the state’s largest employer, is suing DeFascist because of politically motivated harassment after he started a fight with them because they don’t approve of his anti-LGBT laws. Disney cancelled a $1 billion construction project that would have brought the state over 2,000 jobs.
– More to come. White retirees probably love him because he’s getting rid of the blacks, gays, immigrants and other assorted annoyances. DeSantis calls Florida “the freest state in America.” Actually you’re free to move here, retire and die.
The SCOTUS ruled for the bigots! The religiously driven seriously old haters of the newer culture ruled it is OK to discriminate against the gays, if you have a sincerely held belief. I am hurting so bad seeing the US revert to a religiously driven theocracy that denies any progress in society since the 1950s. We fought these battles, we in the US are now going so far backward from the rest of the world. Hell even Nepal just approved same-sex marriage. The fundamentalist won’t stop even as they age out and become more of a minority until they rule us all with their hateful church doctrines based on words of people who did not even understand germ theory written 2,500 years ago. I am so upset at a country that claims all people are created equal that says because I am gay I have less or no rights if someone has a belief against my existence. On a prior case one of the Justices wrote that discrimination against religion is the worst kind of discrimination. Well you can choose your religion, you can change it or stop believing in any of them. I was born gay. I don’t have a choice in that. I am gay. But someone who can choose what myths they believe in that day can deny me services or rights due to that belief. Sad hugs.
The suit centers on Lorie Smith, a website designer who does not want to provide her services for gay weddings because of her religious objections. In 2016, she says, a gay man named Stewart requested her services for help with his upcoming wedding. “We are getting married early next year and would love some design work done for our invites, place, names etc. We might also stretch to a website,” reads a message he apparently sent her through a message on her website.
In court filings, her lawyers produced a copy of the inquiry. But Stewart, who requested his last name be withheld for privacy, said in an interview with the Guardian that he never sent the message, even though it correctly lists his email address and telephone number. He has also been happily married to a woman for the last 15 years, he said. In fact, until he received a call this week from a reporter from the magazine, Stewart says had no idea he was somehow tied up in a case that had made it to the Supreme Court.
“I’m not really sure where that came from,” he told me of the mysterious 2016 inquiry that used his name, email address, and cell phone number to request a wedding website for a same-sex marriage nearly a decade after he married a woman. He is a designer himself, something of a known quantity in design circles—he’s spoken at conferences and on podcasts, and has a “decent Twitter following,” he said.
The design world is small. But not small enough, he said, that he had heard of Lorie Smith—not until her case was already before the Supreme Court, and the design community began discussing its potential fallout. It didn’t make sense to him. Why would a web designer—as the website the inquiry referenced as his own made clear that he was—living in San Francisco, seek to hire someone in another state who has never built a wedding website, let alone a website for a same-sex wedding, to build his wedding website?
Photo: Alliance Defending Freedom president Michael Farris.
Hit the New Republic link for a very in-depth accounting of this story. As I’ve said many times, the ADF invents these businesses with sole intention of challenging local LGBTQ rights ordinances. The ruling in the case is expected tomorrow morning.
Truly insane story in which @melissagira called up the man named in the court filing as someone who requested a same-sex wedding website only to find out..he says he never sent such a request and is not gay.
They will have written their opinion based on the assumption that the plaintiff’s filing was true and correct. They won’t abandon it because the filing is being challenged now. Unlike in the case involving the athletic coach proselytizing on the field on school time, where the conservative justices MADE UP “facts,” or at best completely mischaracterized them, here no one could ask if the plaintiff’s “facts” were correct. There just was not enough information to argue with them. The real argument should have been over the plaintiff’s standing to pursue a case that had no real-world consequences since she was only contemplating entering the wedding web-design business.
Well, you know how the saying goes: Love the sinner. Hate the phony-sin-I-had-to-fabricate-because-I-have-never-really-experienced-discomfort-by-being-asked-to-do-anything-and-I’m-a-big-fat-liar.
I defend their right to live their lives according to a 2,000 year old book of myths and fairy tales (even though they fail to live according to it), but I object to them legislating my civil rights according to their 2,000 year old book of myths and fairy tales.
(Written, incidentally, by misogynistic men who owned other humans, and were puzzled by where the sun went at night.)
Tomorrow is the last day of the term; the Court convenes at 10 am, and this is one of only two argued cases remaining. This case was pretextual and flouted anything I was taught about standing and before-the-fact irreparable harm. Nonetheless, it got through the appellate process without being thrown out, and here it is.
Journalism is now officially dead if a case made it all the way to the Supreme Court and will have a the ruling tomorrow and this is just now being uncovered, how much other shit has gone to SCOTUS and nobody checked.
I also blame the Defense Attorneys for not doing their due diligence
Thank my dogs that love gravy that this hateful right winger did not have a gun. But this attacks and violence is what the right wants, what the right wing media with their lies about anything dealing with gender or sexual orientation is grooming or sexualizing kids. The right wing media screaming PROTECT THE CHILDREN creates the anger, rage, and fear of the subject in their thuggish followers that leads to this. Attacks on the LGBTQ+ and their supporters is the goal! I am tired of it. Already a recent poll of self reporting republicans showed the first ever decline in acceptance of gay people. A drop of 14 points. This is the result of trying their best to demonize any mention of the LGBTQ+, rainbows, and pride flags. Calling teachers groomers, attacking the best medical practice advice of all the major medical organizations which calls for accepting and assisting trans kids. They do so using lies, myths, and just made up bullshit to attack a marginalized group. This has to stop. Hugs
A triple stabbing during a gender studies class at the University of Waterloo is believed to have been a hate-motivated attack, police said Thursday as they laid multiple charges against a 24-year-old former student. The Wednesday attack injured three people and shocked the university campus located about 100 kilometres west of Toronto.
Geovanny Villalba-Aleman [photo], a recently graduated international student, faces three counts of aggravated assault, four counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, police said.
“Investigators have reason to believe that this was a planned and targeted attack motivated by hate related to gender expression and gender identity,” Waterloo Regional Police Chief Mark Crowell said at a Thursday news conference.
The police said that on Wednesday, at about 3:40 p.m., about 40 students were in a classroom when the suspect came in and stabbed three people: a 38-year-old female professor; a 20-year-old female student and a 19-year-old male student. All three were taken to the hospital with “serious but non-life-threatening” injuries, the police said.
In what he described as a “shocking attack,” James Rush, a vice president of the university, said in a statement on Thursday that the stabbing took place during a lecture in a class called Philosophy 202 — Gender Studies.
Chief Mark Crowell of the Waterloo Regional Police said at a news conference that the suspect had entered the classroom and spoke briefly to the professor, apparently to confirm the subject matter of the class. Then, he stabbed her with two knives, stabbed the other two students and attempted to stab a third.
Local, federal and provincial leaders have spoken out about the stabbing, condemning this violent act. Speaking to reporters in Brantford on Thursday morning, Premier Doug Ford said the stabbing at the University of Waterloo was “unacceptable” and expressed concern for the victims.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said news of the stabbing was “horrifying and unacceptable. This type of violence must always be condemned.” Marit Stiles, leader of Ontario’s NDP, said she was thinking of the students and staff affected, and called the news “horrifying.”
Hagey Hall reopened on Thursday after being temporarily closed Wednesday night and the campus is open for all scheduled activities, said university spokesperson Nick Manning.
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO STABBING ATTACK WAS HATE MOTIVATED: POLICE
"A 24-year-old recent graduate from the University of Waterloo is facing 10 charges after reportedly stabbing three people, including a professor, during a gender studies philosophy class."https://t.co/bBHlhETAio
Waterloo regional police say a 24 year old, international student has been charged in a hate-motivated crime related to gender expression & gender identity, in connection to a stabbing that injured three people during a gender studies class at University of Waterloo on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/IVbSx91qK4
Gah, and it is so evident, too! What the hell is UP with that? It doesn’t even have to be our community, either. Look at Abbott and his “no water breaks” law. These people just seem to WANT more suffering in the world. I absolutely don’t get it.
Conservatives love to talk like libertarians until someone does something they don’t like. They want to be free to be assholes without consequences but how dare anyone even look at them disapprovingly!
But jesus christ and a half WHY do they WANT to be assholes? This baffles me. Anyone who chooses to be an asshole simply ADDS to the number of assholes in the world! Why would people want this?
I hear you, But the person’s responsible ARE making it up. They are ‘being’ themselves (sic). People full of potential, with dreams and hopes of being AUTHENTIC, are systematically being slaughtered.
Leaving the HATE alone, ignoring it, is no longer an option.
At least being in Canada he didn’t have easy access to a gun.
Hundreds of MAGAT/incels are making their presence known in the comment section of Canada’s national main stream, right wing newspaper suggesting they deserved it because of their woke ideals.
Because this was in Canada, three people were stabbed and all will live. If that had happened in the US dozens would be dead and we’d need DNA to identify some of the bodies.
As far as I’ve seen centrist comments have mainly been confined to ‘look what your inflammatory rhetoric made him do.’ This is directed at trans people and their allies rather than at the hatemongers, of course.
Jordan Peterson is called the Incel King for a reason and I bet when the cops look at this specimen’s computer, they’ll find videos, writings and 4/8 Chan like bullshit from people like Peterson, FOX, Shapiro et al. You can bet on it. It should be noted that while Peterson still has his Incels in Canada, he is seen as an intellectual pariah.
So this morons only shtick is to push hate and fear. Yes that is the standard operating mode of the right now. But this guy is riding high with his almost non-stop attacks on the LGBTQ+. Just like Matt Walsh it is all he has to have someone notice him. It is always the other that is the fault or reason things are bad with these people. But the guy is a flat out liar but it won’t matter as all his followers want to hear is the hate. He claims that it is illegal to fly Nazi flags, “We ban all sorts of flags from public spaces – Nazi flags … “ Hugs
Yes, I don’t know where any flags are banned in public spaces. He must be living in an alternate reality,
Also, Christians have a flag. So if he is saying that no one is a real American unless they only fly the American flag, he forgets those people, and all the people who fly the ‘don’t tread on me’ flag, university flags, etc
I drive by countless frontyard flag poles where they are flying a Trump flag instead of the American one. It’s their property and they can fly whatever they want, but it’s definitely not the American flag. Of course when Republicans do it it’s okay.
our planet is literally on fire in so many ways, and morons like this are worried about flags? air-quality high alert (dangerous levels) for us here today. visibility is wayyy down….looks like a ground fog. my nose has been dripping all morning, GAH! first time i have seen noaa use ‘smoke’ in our forecast. looks like afternoon garden projects are on hold. again.
“But is it more extreme than turning Christmas day into Christmas week into Christmas month into Christmas season into — left unchecked, I promise you — Christmas always.”
Only difference between my quote and his is that the ever-expanding Christmas season really seems to be a thing… yet folks like him always talk up a “War on Christmas” as if it’s the thing under assault and bringing death threats to employees and such.
In 2018 Kobach lost his bid for Kansas governor after flaming out as the head of Trump’s so-called “voter fraud” commission. Kobach’s campaign was funded in part by prominent white supremacists and anti-immigrant hate groups. Last year he resigned from the board of Steve Bannon’s private border wall scam outfit and unlike others involved, he has somehow evaded prosecution. That same day he appeared on Bannon’s show to compare Biden to Hitler. Then he complained that Republicans are being “demonized.”
Kansas AG Kobach sues to stop trans people from changing their birth certificates
The move is timed to facilitate enforcement of a sweeping statewide anti-transgender law in Kansas that is due to go into effect next week.https://t.co/Qv8MxitIMe via @nbcnews
Hmmm, should my birth certificate have stated the names of my birth parents or, as it does, state the names of my adoptive parents? If that can be changed, why not the sex…not to mention intersex children where it’s ambiguous….or surgically altered? Birth certificates aren’t %100 accurate to begin with. This is just cruelty in action.
Rethugs have been winning elections (and getting them close enough to steal (aka Dubya)) for a long while now by using a variety of tools: Gerrymandering, voter suppression, etc.
Among those tools is racism, bigotry, and xenophobia, intended to energize their base and also to scare the low-information voters in the middle who can be readily fooled into thinking there is some kind of ‘crisis’ that must be stopped at all costs.
In the 1950s, it was communists, Black people, and gay people. In the 1960s, it was “radical militant” hippies and Black people. In the 1970s and 80s, it was “radical” feminists and again, Black and gay people. 1990s, immigrants and Black people. 2000s, Muslims and Black people, with LGBTQ folks making a strong reappearance.
Anyway, now Rethugs have combined them all together, but their main focus is on immigrants and LGBTQ people, along with Black folks.
Always it’s the “hatred and fear of other” they pound upon, election after election.
Rethugs have been winning elections (and getting them close enough to steal (aka Dubya)) for a long while now by using a variety of tools: Gerrymandering, voter suppression, etc.
Among those tools is racism, bigotry, and xenophobia, intended to energize their base and also to scare the low-information voters in the middle who can be readily fooled into thinking there is some kind of ‘crisis’ that must be stopped at all costs.
In the 1950s, it was communists, Black people, and gay people. In the 1960s, it was “radical militant” hippies and Black people. In the 1970s and 80s, it was “radical” feminists and again, Black and gay people. 1990s, immigrants and Black people. 2000s, Muslims and Black people, with LGBTQ folks making a strong reappearance.
Anyway, now Rethugs have combined them all together, but their main focus is on immigrants and LGBTQ people, along with Black folks.
Always it’s the “hatred and fear of other” they pound upon, election after election.
Jesus fucking Christ, why is this such a big fucking issue to you filthy pukes??
Why can’t you just mind your own fucking business? Trans people have absolutely nothing to do with you, why can’t you even try walking a mile in their shoes? You know, like your (false, dead) god told you to do?
Fascists always need a nearly powerless underclass to scapegoat, oppress, and persecute. For some of them, the anti-Semitism is a little too on-target, so now it’s LGBTQ people, with a sharp focus on all the trans folks.
So, I am going to ask the question that conservatives just LOVE to ask and use against us: What standing does he have? On what basis is HE legally affected or pained by the use of an ‘X’ or other marker other than ‘M,’ or ‘F’ on a birth certificate, or for people requesting changes to said indications? He isn’t. The state of Kansas isn’t. The citizens are not. It is a fucking letter as far as he or the bigots should be concerned.
I don’t see how this should even be considered — judicial bias notwithstanding.
This is no longer a religious rights against civil rights, but one religious sect’s ideas forced on everyone regardless of their beliefs. It is now the minority of the minority forcing their hate on everyone. The new fundamentalist Taliban moral police, and every one even other religious people better have the right view of sex and morality or face the wrath of the gang thugs. From the link in the article above, “Mental emotional trauma is still a thing. That’s still a real thing. So many of our people are experiencing that kind of aftermath to this event,” said Gray.
A church in #Enfield was having a Pride celebration during their Sunday morning service when two men disrupted the ceremony with hate speech. Pastor Greg Gray of Enfield’s United Church of Christ wants to make it very clear: this is not okay. pic.twitter.com/CIH2C3qfzl
This anti-Christian attack should be condemned by all. But it begs the question “Why is it always the far-right fascists/anti-gay activists–the ones demanding “religious freedom”–who are the first to attack the faith and sincerely held religious beliefs of others?”
Because it is not, and never has been, about “freedom of religion.” Rather, it has always been about imposing their religion on everyone else whether wanted or not. They are called christofascists for a reason.
The early history of Christianity is a huge hodge-podge of competing gospels, doctrines, and schools. The orthodoxy that eventually emerged was the result of centuries of political arguments, and even then often very minor differences are contentious. If you really want to dive down that rabbit hole, I can recommend some books by Bible scholar Bart Ehrman, he has a number of books that are very readable for a non-scholarly audience.
The right still loves to bring up the ONE time ACT-UP demonstrated inside St Patrick’s Cathedral (with a closeted bishop presiding over the service!). That was almost 40 years ago and they are still upset. I’m sure they’ll be fine with this though.
Another American absurdity is that having a ‘sincerely held religious belief’ exempts you from obeying laws you disagree with. – and we are about to see this go down in the Supreme Court this week.
It’s one of the bizarre features of the current cabal of Federalist Society conspirators on the Court that they now hate Justice Scalia’s decision in Employment Division v. Smith. That case held that the 1st Amendment free exercise clause doesn’t require the state to grant a religious exemption to neutral laws of general applicability.
But that was fine because it denied members of the Native American Church an exemption concerning drug laws. Now that the Catholics have the numbers on the Court, they want to overrule Smith and make Catholics and other Xtians exempt from laws they don’t like.
Y’all know they didn’t come to persuade the masses to their hateful ideology, and they certainly didn’t change any minds that day. This was all about trolling, terrorizing & proclaiming their own warped sense of moral superiority.
Scottie's Playtime 
Thank you!
My friend committed suicide and I heard this song on that same day I wished he would of heard it every time I hear this song I think of him I miss him
im so sorry about that, i hope your feeling okay right now. I just want you to know your very loved and he will be happy if you are happy. I know its hard to move on but you got to let ago and accept that his gone. he might be gone in real life but he will always be with you.
Thank you! Cried
thank god for song, it shows love, compassion , hope and a way out for those who are at that dark place.the singer has opened his heart to you(as do the rest of the rem band) As an amature muso My eyes were fixed on the black ricky guitar but then my heart was convicted by my selfishness and I realised that love and caring are so much more valuable. Their is a answer in this song. listen and you will hear it. My life is great now . SO GLAD I did not end it when I was hurting . you do not have carry hurt on your own. from the heart of a stranger
I need this…
I have attempted suicide twice, once I came very close. I now make sure I listen to this song when my demons catch up with me. It seems strange that a song can have such a powerful effect on a persons thoughts, but so do love songs, driving songs etc. But either way, I am thankful for the song and hope it has saved lives all over the planet.
What friends?
I light a candle for those who I know have left
??
Do not support Trump as a world leader? Really ? Just what do you support a grifting never do nothing in 50 + years in Congress demented farting embarrassing American economy killing demon from the very pit of hell Biden? Yeah. I thought so. Liberals are mentally ill. I guess you write that song for yourself.
Wow!! So much hate and anger. May God bless you.
Like the other side doesn’t hate? Please!
My uncle/idol was murdered and his body was discarded less than 50 metres from the view of his mother’s window, me my nana and his son among others had to wait all night till morning for forensics. No one slept, we all for some 10 hrs wept in conflicting disbelief at the reality of my uncles fully avoidable fate. He chose this song as his funeral song.
Wow nr 9 ! Jezus you didn’t get the message of this whole item and song.
May you find peace and soon find out that there is just one live and one world. So stop being angry about things you can’t change and enjoy your blessings.
This was featured on the Australia TAC drink driving advert that shocked millions of Australians into not drinking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2mf8DtWWd8
Powerful song with a powerful video.
I really like the song and I’m thankful that they tried to prevent suicide and/or self harm with it but, being a person with suicidal tendencies I have two things to say about this son: the music extremely sad and whenever I listen to it it have the opposite effect on me, bringing all the bad memories of my past and I have to change the station. The second thing is that you can’t simply say “everybody hurts” to someone on the edge of talking their own life: depression makes you see a very narrow world and, somehow makes you not care about anyone else (if you could think about other people around you, you would never try to taking your own life). It’s a beautiful song and the intention behind it is good… but I wouldn’t suggest anyone with suicidal thoughts listening to this song in that particular moment.