Tom

So…you want to use “spiritual” without defining it?

So then your definition is deficient and needs some refining.

To be clear here Simon, you are claiming that most people playing in a volleyball league would call their membership “spiritual”?

I’m talking about being an active functioning member of an interdependent cooperative group or team of some kind, whose members are all working towards the same goal.  If my goals are identified with those of my group, then it makes me feel better in all kinds of ways.

How is that different than a volleyball team, a knitting group making a big bl…[Read more]

I am with Unseen on this Simon. I know you have been struggling for some time to come up with a meaningful definition of spiritual in a secular sense (as have many people including Sam Harris). I am yet to really hear a coherent definition that makes it worth holding onto all the baggage of spiritual when alternatives are far better (even the…[Read more]

Robert, I think you need only look at the media narratives in the US before the second Iraq invasion and during it. Dissent against the narrative that there were clearly WMD and that the war was wrong showed journalists on mainstream news sources and most newspapers being sanctioned or paying a heavy price for questioning the existence of those…[Read more]

Enco, I do not understand why you have such a difficult time understanding “top tier sports leagues”. I have gone on to specify and fully explain and this multiple times which you must have ignored multiple times (the four big pro American leagues and football premierships of Europe, playing actual league games). I highly encourage you to pay…[Read more]

All I call for is acknowledging that there are out and proud LGBTQ+ athletes and every other profession and that we as individuals make merit and ability the only criteria for admission and acceptance in sports, business, government, and every other area of human endeavor.

Enco you’re talking to yourself. If you failed to read the last several…[Read more]

And very quickly you cotton on to the fact that people just don’t want to hear about the bad and will do anything to deflect from thinking about things that might have to change. Another cheap ploy to dismiss the message without addressing it.

Since experiencing this all too much, I have tried REALLY hard to recognise that in myself. To not be h…[Read more]

If few gays make it to the top in sports, it may be that the ones who try aren’t that good and that the ones who might have made it have other interests.

I am surprised you would say such ignorant shit as that. Very surprised. Replace “gay” with black and you’d see how insanely offensive and outrageous such a statement that would be. P…[Read more]

When people decry the “fact” (really?) that there are no LGBTQ athletes

I am disappointed with you Unseen because you usually pay attention and don’t misrepresent what people said. I never claimed there are no out players, I said there are none currently playing in the top tier leagues (and qualified that by not playing on the farm team or a pla…[Read more]

Only one of these was I directly affected. One I noticed from a bus. The other I noticed from the other side of the street. As I was travelling at my leisure and went to places most people don’t necessarily need to go to or want to go to, well: maybe I was just paying more attention and being more observant. I have noticed many times foreigners…[Read more]

Here is an NBA player who came out.

Not a current player and that article just made me even more sad.

During my two trips in Boston (equalling 6 days in total) I saw a street corner with South-Boston toughs intimidating nearly everyone who passed by including racial taunts, threats of violence and general hooligan menacing.

While in Newark I saw a group of kids walking down the street knocking over a ladies shopping trolley and harassing a…[Read more]

If there is a currently playing NHL, NBA or MLB player (not an understudy, not a prospect, not a farm team player, not a benched player) then please let me know. I am not aware of any. If there is one or two, then I stand corrected (please let me know who they are). As far as I know there is 1 currently in the NFL and this was Earth shattering and…[Read more]

College is not top tier Enco (it isn’t even professional). Details matter. Pay attention and try not to misrepresent what people say or repackage them to suit your world view.