"If someone takes offense at the sight of our flag they should not be in this country period. "

Anyone who feels like THAT is unquestionably NOT an american or at least anti america guess where you're born could still be here. This is about as offensive as anything I've ever read. I'd of course willingly die to protect your right to say it because unlike you I love america!

The school did something stupid. It wasn't anti american or pro immigration. It was a principle acting out of fear, something Amercan's have a truly sick habit of doing lately. This is the same fear that makes people accept countless real attacks on our freedom in the name of safety.

The lakers aren't playing well at all in the playoffs. Pasol won't be much better than Duncan if they use similar defensive rotations on those screens. The lakers are a better shot blocking and rebounding team than the spurs are so that helps them. Kobe isn't going to win 4 games for the lakers so I'm not sure how that really factors in. Nash is clearly a better player than Kobe at this point.

Then again if the suns can't shoot like they are against the spurs they've very beatable. The spurs very easily could extend this series if the suns just stop shooting lights out.

Though the suns imo won't match up well with the magic or Cavs for that matter.

You know...I'm more surprised people own american flag t-shirts or bandannas (of any color). I'm also a bit confused about how the shirts would really upset anyone...get a few remarks or a few cross looks, sure. Really upset someone? That said Rico is right. The school felt there could be problems and they acted on it. I think we need to stop babying everyone and stop trying to shelter people from the world they live in, but that's a separate issue. If you become responsible for 1,000 kid's safety see how quickly your morals go away to keep from listening to 100 nut job parents in a PTA meeting blowing their top.

Why are you even watching that series? Other than Rondo I can't think of another player I'd want to actually watch play there. That said give me a break...the game wasn't even remotely close.

Maybe I should start crying over the refs with my spurs losing to the damn suns...or I could accept the better team is winning that series (or you know call it a fluke that the suns are shooting like they are).

The school was worried about a fight breaking out. These are high school kids and well...they act like high school kids. I'm not sure what's wrong with boys getting beat up in school, but that was the fear and motivation here.

Out of curiosity how does Canada regulate bank growth (deposit size, locality of capitalization, etc.)? I'd also like to know how their government creates laws since clearly the american way of having politicians without a clue how things work writing and voting on these things doesn't work.

Cheated? As I pointed out just based on box score numbers the free throw gap is noticeably different or two teams with similar paint shot/points. But it was one game. The celtics just murdered the cavs in game 2 so it was a non issue. Over the course of the series if that game one trend were to continue then one could argue for bias in the refs. BTW if someone were to fix a series you wouldn't start in game one of a series where the cavs *should* be considerable favorites.

"I can see where these guys are coming from. I often find myself wanting to track down and beat the hell out of Bill Maher, Richard Dawkins etc. when they attack the Pope."


How can you possibly defend a guy running a criminal organization like the Catholic church? Half the people running the church should be in jail. I'm still lost at how catholics aren't demanding this.

I didn't watch the game so I really can't comment on that one game. The points in the paint number and free throw number certainly raises and eyebrow. The celtics however lost the game on turnovers.

"
I'm sorry man, but it is becoming apparent that you aren't exactly sure what "to be offended" means. To be offended is to take an insult personally. This is not an emotional response. It is an interpretation of events. How you react to being offended is the emotional response."

How do you take something personally without emotion? This doesn't even begin to mention that south park didn't insult anyone. They made light of people who respond irrationally. So if you are someone who has irrational beliefs I suppose you could twist this into an insult but it's a huge stretch.

Raising your fists in anger is a physical response btw...started by emotions but still a physical one. Something upsetting you is emotional.

Did you watch a single college game this year? I saw in their entirety at least 50 college games this season. There wasn't a well called game in the bunch. Baseball is just painful to watch with god knows what will count as a strike. As already mentioned the NFL play calls are often confusing at best. "they called holding there but not on the 50 other holds?" The home team in a game one often gets some help from the refs. This is just how it goes. Game 3 expect the celtics to get a few more calls. Refs are humans and they often will favor the home team...those 30k screaming fans have an impact on the games.

That said the NBA really needs to stop having geriatrics out there. If you can no longer see, you can't be a ref!

"Muslims are not the target audience. They are simply the target. They are the brunt of the joke, you see."

yes...that was pretty clear I thought.

"It's satire, yes, but it is meant to make fun of someone else, and even mirthful prodding can be insulting."

I'm a "ginger" and that episode attacked "us" every bit as much if not more. I didn't find that joke funny. Offensive? Far from it.

"What if South Park made an episode about your mom getting fisted by some dudes? Would you laugh? Maybe. But I would be offended. Others would ask you why you were offended since it was just "satire"."

My mom not being of note, that joke would be taking on a different meaning. That said...I would not find it offensive if it were done in a respectful manor. Tom Cruise I think could very well take offense to some of the stuff south park does with him, they're pretty much just attacking the guy (mind you for good reason).

"Now I am not comparing the two in relative "offensiveness" scale, but the idea is the same. Some things you just get offended about when they directly relate to you. Other things that are not so important to you are funny."

I suppose I'm questioning why people do this. We all know that human emotional is by it's very nature irrational. I would hope most people strive to grow beyond these knee jerk reactions and to gain control of their emotions. Hell religion has been trying to force that on humanity since the beginning. Perhaps I expect people to have a more evolved mind set towards the outside world. Mind you this hope is often shown to be by own irrational every time I go to a bar on a friday or saturday night.

"That's just the way it is.

If it is irrational to you, then that is your right"

Lets just say I hope someday you are able to gain control over your emotions. It's amazing how much more enjoyable life is when simple things no longer bother you.

Now, I understand it. It however remains an irrational reaction. The whole point of a satire is to take things that when taken in a different context and "insulted" become funny to the target audience. If you get upset over something like south park, I truly wonder how you can get through a single day.

"
At this point, and I suppose I should have realized this at the beginning, it's futile arguing with hick, hoop & co. Nothing I say will convince them, so there's no point furthering the discussion."

You explain a logical reason to get offended by a satire not done with malicious intent and I'll listen. Until then saying "it is offensive" isn't an argument. If you start arguing then you can say I'm impossible. Anyone who can't see the absurdity in life really needs to take a step back and look at the world from someone else's perspective.

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Find that and block it in ad block :)

I'd like to see what the mod qz has to say...but I can't read it.

i said irrational...

You're more than welcome to have a different opinion than me. However you're the guy sitting in the splash zone at sea world complaining he got wet. The guy watching porn who's upset he saw a naked lady. The suicide bomber who is upset he died because he blew himself up...

The show wasn't done in a mean spirited manor...thus you or anyone taking offense is irrational. Especially when done the way they did this one...

Tan, I'm telling you those are unacceptable reasons to get offended. Context here is a big deal. Yeah if you're in a formal setting rules change. This is a satire and thus the context is such that getting offended is irrational. Now mind you I understand that you people are naturally irrational, but I'm simply telling you that it is not acceptable. That is all.

"It is only offensive to Muslims. Yes, it really is offensive to me (I'm a Muslim). However, I don't mind being offended. I know it's satire so I just blow it off as trivial. However, it's the scum that take it to the next level (with violence) that is really disgusting, and from there we branched off onto the tangents."

How...what part of that was offensive? You don't "blow off" a satire. The idea that something that simple was offensive is simply mind blowing. I mean really does someone calling you a name offend you too?

Your explanation fails to even remotely make an argument. This is what's wrong with the world today...

I gotta go back a second. How in the hell was South Park offensive? I mean really to find that episode offensive is simply mind blowing. It is a satire created for the use of humor. I mean next you're going to tell me someone can't make a "your momma is so fat" joke because that's offensive too. Or that dead baby jokes are cruel. None of these things are offensive to any normal human being. That episode was a far from offensive as anything south park has ever done. Hell, it was clear they were holding back like crazy to make it overly polite.

As for war being terrorism. I think there are two elements that need to be looked at. First, is the declaration or war itself done to insight fear? I think there is no doubt that the US in Iraq was done in part for that purpose. Thus the war itself is an act of terrorism. WW2 and where countries were defending themselves clearly was done defensively. The US and Canada were joining into to battle a side they felt was in the wrong, mind you I suppose any declaration has some goal of scaring the other side, but I think that's a bit of a reach. Second, the acts of the individual can be a form of terrorism when the overall mission isn't. I'm not sure how you can deny this as being a very real part of any war. People that sign up to fight in a military are already a "special" set of individuals. Many of these people are going to be a bit well...nuts. This isn't to say the general population isn't full of this as well. Any group is going to have nut jobs and often those are the people we notice. The problem is when a group is seen as a group of outsiders we tend to assume "they're all like that." Thus we ignore that a group such as the KKK in the US is ultimately a christian terrorist group and just shun them as nuts. When we see similar things in what we perceive to be "different" cultures, we decide to associate the culture with these isolated incidents.

Now there a certainly questions that arise with certain cultures that we have to be able to openly discuss. Black people in the US are more likely to go to jail. Israel doesn't exactly have a history of responsible military use. Muslims seem to do the suicide bombing thing at an alarmingly high rate relative to other cultures. America likes to keep it's military in an awful lot of countries around the globe. The french tend to smell a lot worse than other first world countries. Religious people find ways to cry over nothing far too often. So on and so fourth. It seems silly to just say "well these are still just small parts of a larger population." There has to be a reason for these things and that is a topic that can and should be discussed. Sadly I'm not sure if the population at larger is really capable of such a mature discussion which is truly sad.