How to force my son onto the homecoming court

Is Clarence Thomas self-loathing?

I don’t think he is self-loathing. Actually, he is quite proud of his activities - including voting for gutting the federal law that prevented states from openly discriminating against minorities when it came to the voting.

I have maintained, since the day he was nominated by GHW Bush, that he was essentially a second vote for Scalia and he has not proven me wrong even once. And his vote against Lily Ledbetter was shameful in the extreme.

If Thurgood Marshall had not resigned when he did, Clarence Thomas would not even have been considered for the position on SCOTUS.

Was I right to send my son to school in a dress to force him to stand up for himself because he always prefers to give in and cry?

Absolutely not.

When I was about 7, I accidentally wet the bed one night. My parents decided to send me to school with a diaper on so I would “learn my lesson.” They duct taped the diaper around my waist multiple times, that it was impossible for a 7 year old kid to take it off. I was humiliated. My friends no longer talked to me, bullies bullied me even more, even the teachers seemed to make fun of me.

Because of this, I now have anxiety. I have trust issues. I am easily emotional. I am afraid of doing things because I fear of doing things wrong. I have many mental illness that I may not have if my parents didn’t humiliate me like this. I never forgave them, but then again, they never apologized. I didn’t want to return to school ever. Some kids still bring up the incident. I had a nickname for some years too.

Humiliation doesn’t solve anything. It makes things worse. Beg for forgiveness for your son. He may forgive you, but he will never forget.

Why do people force their beliefs onto others?

Q. Why do people force their beliefs onto others?

In general, if one can get someone else to believe the same thing, it’s a form of validation for what one believes.

In terms of religious beliefs — and I want to say this as kindly as I can — the behavior of some religious people can seem quite irrational to someone who does not share their belief. (Note the word some.)

They accept the dogma of their religion as given and appear to question nothing. Two of the major religions, Christianity and Islam, accounting for about 40 percent of the world population, tell their members to convert others. Sometimes they have done it by the book. Sometimes by the sword. Sometimes by burning a few unbelievers at the stake.

In my country, we are finally making it difficult to impossible for them to use the mechanism of government to do that, but it is a constant battle.

What is the absolute strangest thing you've seen while stopped at a traffic light?

This story is absolutely true. And I’ve told it only two other times…

It was 1991 and I was working graveyard shift at a now defunct bank in downtown Los Angeles.

It’s probably in the 4:00–5:00 am hour and I’m on my way home. I’m a few blocks away from my house driving down a big empty boulevard maybe six blocks until I reach the street I live on.

I’m driving the speed limit eastbound. I’m approaching an intersection with a green light for me when all of a sudden a very, very elderly woman steps into the intersection and begins crossing the street in front of me.

No big deal. I slow down and come to a complete stop to wait for her. This doesn’t perturb me at all. What’s going through my mind is that she shouldn’t be on the streets period. What errand could she possibly be on at this hour? By herself!

As she begins crossing in front of my car a big white heavy duty utility van also crosses the intersection in the same direction as the woman. FAST.

I look in the van’s direction saying to myself “Hey! They ran a red light! And they’re speeding!”

They ran a red light. Speeding.

My hands on the steering wheel I look up at my green light. I look at the woman.

And I continue driving home processing what just happened. And realizing, what didn’t happen.

I only came to a complete stop because of the woman crossing the street. Without her I would have driven right into the intersection and been T-boned by the van - striking the driver’s side of the car.

Nobody else was on the street at this hour but the four of us. Me, the woman, and the two men in the van.

That saved my life.

And only I know that.

Simple.

Effortless.

When it mattered.

At what moment did you realize that your pet is loyal to you?

My pet dog Rish came to us in 2000 when I was growing up as a selfish,arrogant and difficult child. I had noone to take care of. Being the second child, I was getting all the attention I needed and more. Somehow my mother sensed if this is how I grow, I will be a tough kid for life. Rish changed that,one stone at a time. But he always used to see me as his competition as he was a puppy and I was a six year old. Soon he started seeing me as his sibling since I started giving him my share of milk and he realised his puppy face worked wonders on me when anything delicious was being prepared at home. Still, his loyalty belonged to my parents, especially my mom. This went on till 2008, when my elder sister left for college and my father became extremely strict; so much so that I was not allowed to socialize with my family in living room. I was always expected to study and stay in my room. Those times were tough for me. Soon I saw Rish who previously used to sleep around the house started spending a lot more time in my room. He constantly checked on me. During important exams, he used to sleep next to me while I used to pull all nighters.

RISH( 11/10/2000–06/03/2017)

^Us in 2011.

Then came a day when we were on a daily walk. A massive dog came charging in our direction. Since I am a slow runner, I started running with Rish on leash. He had not seen the charging dog yet. After Rish picked up a good pace, I left his leash. I thought atleast my soft little doggie will be unharmed if the dog gets to me. Rish noticed that I left the leash soon and looked back to search for me. That's when He saw the dog charging. He started running towards the dog. My fluffy white Pom was running towards a massive well built dog!! I went bonkers is to say the least. To my surprise, the dog changed direction and seemed scared of the current situation. I ran behind Rish and caught him and the other dog's owner came running hearing all the noise and growling that was taking place. That is how I realised two things about my pup:

He will protect me with his life.
He overestimates his size.

How will Brexit work out for you?

I was at a very nice lunch party in the Home Counties recently. My friends had just had their new swimming pool and tennis court finished and threw a bash to kind of show it off. The Range Rovers were two-deep in the large gravel drive, and occasionally the chit-chat slipped onto the dangerous ground of Brexit.

I listened with interest to what the other guests were saying. It was pretty much “Oh we will be fine once we’ve taken back control and Boris is PM. Anyway, where are you skiing this year?”

Unlike my fellow guests I’m not complacent and I deeply, deeply regret the referendum result. It’s going to harm an awful lot of Brits, though not the ones at that party.

I’m expecting Brexit to make foreign travel much more expensive than it already has. I live alone and really only have myself to look after, and I work as and when I choose. I’ve insulated myself pretty well. But the whole Brexit issue has made me deeply ashamed to be British. In fact…so much so that I’ve acquired Austrian citizenship. I’ve become a passport holder of the country that turned my Dad into a child refugee. That’s how angry I am and how alien the UK has made me feel.

I’m not just concerned that my travel rights will be impacted by Brexit. By becoming an Austrian citizen, my children and grandchildren can as well, and whilst I’m not planning to move from the UK, who knows what they will want to do? Now they won’t be restricted in their lives because some smug rich people have manipulated the rest into voting for something that is absolutely not in their interests.

Brexit might leave me relatively financially unscathed because I have made plans. My kids are working and are much more vulnerable though. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brexit impacts on them much more. I’m worried for them.

You are the Emperor of the Galactic Empire. How do you deal with the Rebels?

Carefully.

No Death Star. It’s a massive waste of resources, especially since Star Destroyers can already initiate Base Delta Zero and sterilize a planet’s surface easily.
No Death Star II. Although the 5 minute recharge time is quick and devastating, the station itself will probably never be built before the economy crashes from overexertion.
Unlike Sidious in the original trilogy, I know exactly where Yoda is hiding.
Unlike Sidious in the original trilogy, I also know exactly where Obi-Wan is hiding.
Luke Skywalker and the Lars family will be relocated to Coruscant, where I will give them a luxurious suite and well-paying jobs as my advisors. That should keep them loyal to me, especially when I share the truth to Luke and Vader.
As a corollary to #5, I’ll train Luke in the Dark Side and send him to root out the Rebel traitors from the inside. I’ll try to train Leia as well, but she might just be too indoctrinated in the ways of her parents.
I’ll fix the Galactic economy. Seriously, why the heck does Tatooine need moisture farmers dedicating their lives to farming water when you can just ship it in from Kamino? It’s not like space travel is expensive in the Star Wars universe. If that doesn’t scream how corrupt and ineffectual the old Republic was, nothing else will.

EDIT: More points!

#1 revised: The Death Star isn’t a bad idea, just objectively inferior to the dozens of Imperial ships that I could buy with the money. Quantity and versatility win out over devastating and slow.
Why are there even translation droids? Just hook up one droid up to a ton of RAM and launch (Google) Holonet Translate - a free service to the loyal denizens of the Empire. Now available on any and all datapads connected to the Holonet! Speak into the microphone and receive a translation in over 50 million languages! (Oh, and comes with a mandatory spyware download.)
Human-based racism? Seriously? This one is just ridiculous. Nothing will convince anyone that a human is intrinsically superior to any of the multitudes of overpowered aliens in SW - such as Gen’Dai (no vital organs, survive in any environment, live for centuries, peace-loving, smart). I’ll stop the racist propaganda immediately, considering that it makes the leadership appear downright idiotic.