Regarding the tolerance comment: There are a couple of definitions of the word that apply to this usage, and the one that most hear when they are told that their existence is tolerated should explain why it's offensive to anybody, black, white, gay, straight, Eragon-lover, Eragon-loather, etc. :D al...

I want to apologize for hijacking this thread with my initial post to Malik's post regarding tolerance. Lively discussions are always a good thing, but there are some issues that just can't be discussed depending on the passion of their beliefs, and I think this is one of them. So, here you go. You ...

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that Eragon is gay. Paolini's a pussy. (That's my first attempt at so-called gallows humor. Kind of. I loathe Eragon.) I guess my attempt at gallows humor failed. I've said worse about Eragon and Eldest , so didn't see this as particularly bad. You're right, though. After re...

Ah...A Time to Kill

I wouldn't have sent him to jail either.

Really? Was it better than the average fantasy fare? Do you remember the names of the books?

Oh my god. I just pulled an Eragon. Three annoying questions in a row. Bad burgs, bad!

I gave a few examples...

Just to clarify, the books didn't suck because the guys were gay, it just sucked because the storyline sucked, the writing sucked and well, it just sucked. One of the few things that actually made any of it interesting WAS the fact that several of the characters were gay. :biggrin: I've never read ...

It's just that the world doesn't fit into these neat little generalisations Sgt. --A sometimes it does Av. rapists/child rapists seem to be fairly a black & white issue. no shades of grey. the same with murder. drug dealing, armed robbery, assault, kidnapping. where is the grey in any of those?...

Esmer's answer is what I needed. If that wasn't true, then an entire storyline just went THUD.

A MC of mine will be gay. Unless I absolutely can't publish the damn book because of it. But that's a ways away. I still have 850 pages or so to go. So, for 850 pages, he's gay. And he's quite happy about it.

If Covenant was gay, he would not have married Joan and WOULD NOT HAVE HAD THE WHITE GOLD WEDDING BAND. Ergo, no Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Duh........... Oh, yea, I have to change my avatar. I forgot. Sorry. Going now........ The stuff about your naughty bits aside, yes, if TC were gay, no boo...

Yes, of course, I agree - because you're right. I'm probably not thinking rationally right now as I've written about 10,000 words in two days, amongst other things, and am a bit dizzy. :-) But if I can breathe and center my brain... I was referring specifically to people I personally wouldn't trust ...

I guess I should say, in defining 'criminal', I'm thinking more along the lines of those folks serving time for serious offenses, and not things like smoking pot, jaywalking, etc. And not trusting doesn't mean treating them as less than human. With all of the ruckus I've made lately about how people...

Thanks, both of you - your answers each helped.

Esmer, that's exactly what I wanted to know.

Esmer wrote:(btw, I'm doing naughty things to your avatar in my mind)

I think we all are. Or, er, most of us. Whatever.

Yeah, interesting topic.

I hope this is the right place for this question. Everything is supposedly always in motion -- relative motion, if I'm understanding things. Does that mean that something like a rock, say, is in motion? Or a dinner plate? Pardon my apparent stupidity, but I've never taken physics (I'll need to fix t...

Where did EL say that? For myself, I extend trust to everyone I meet. They need to earn my mistrust. If a person has been found guilty of theft, assault, rape, etc., then I wouldn't trust a thing that came out of their mouth if their tongue was notarized. I think the cute judge on People's Court sai...

Having gay friends, or agreeing that gay people should be allowed to get married, or not stoning them in the town square--that's different. That's tolerance . Tolerance? How beneficent. I tolerate the fact that registered sex offenders live on my street, because there's simply nothing I can do abou...

Me, I'll just try and stay on the right side of the law and try not to piss people off who look like they might be winging it, Veronica Mars style.

Ah, perhaps it's my admiration (or misinterpretation) of Gandalf's humility that infects my thoughts. But it makes me wonder. Saruman, too, was weakened by long corruption (not as long as Sauron), but he, too, was exerting immense will to create and control Isengard's Orcs. I feel like I'm crossing ...