if you’ve ever ventured out of it

vville

I think you are on to the truth here and the problem.

Seems you can’t say anything these days without some someone taking offense.

As to the complainers about “harmful” words being heard by youngsters, think of what those little ones get to hear and see on TV and in Video Games.

The laughable evident thing here is that almost no one ( and very few “Little Ones”) would ever be aware of the Bryant statement were it not for the media. 

Who gets the $100,000? And why not a reprimand with no monetary penalty?  Is $5 too much or should society tie him to a post and fill him full of lead?

We seem to have ventured into the realm of the ridiculous.

vville; is it reasonable to infer that you are over
sensitive to the over sensitive? ardmore, pa is within
the circle of I-476, but i wouldn’t characterize lower
merion twp, or bala cynwyd, as “inner city”.
why not give up reading web sites and volunteer at a
soup kitchen?

Yes, he’s just a basketballer and what he says doesn’t mean anything.  Maybe
not to some of you, but to a lot of impressionable young people, what he says
does.  That’s why it’s important to know that, when Kobe “in the heat of the moment”
while sitting unmolested at court side mopping his face with a towel several minutes and afterthoughts later
than the penalty - which he richly deserved - yelled at Bennie the ref to be sure
that he would hear him and then, very deliberately, said, “You f***ing f****t!”  Heat of the moment? 
Don’t make me laugh!

Just as it is irrelevant that African Americans might call one another n****r to
each other’s faces when a non-African American uses that term with the
obvious intent to demean an African American, it is irrelevant what same-sex-
oriented individuals call one another to each other’s faces.  It was meant by
Kobe to be the most insulting and degrading thing that he could think of to call
Bennie, who, after all, was just doing his job.  Everyone who heard or saw him
say it was unequivocally aware of that, including every young person who will
only be following the lead of their idol when they do the same.

At least Kobe acknowledged that gay males have sex;-)

The comments here are interesting because they take two lines of thought.

1) Kobe is a basketball player, so who cares what he says?
or
2) Get over it; it’s just a word.

To the first, the heart of the article is not about which famous person says what. 
It’s really about testing the waters to see if that word is acceptable for use in
this day and age.  The discussion spawned is indicative of the mixed reaction to
the word’s place in sports, media, life.  The fact that Kobe is a POS is incidental
to the discussion.  And what would an adequate apology look like?  The “I’m
sorry if I offended you” has never worked when I’ve messed up in my own life.

To the second, I suspect that many of you who say “Get over it”  would not have
the same response if someone were to call Kobe a nigger.  You could argue
that nigger has a long, nasty history and is a different beast all together.  But
really what is your argument?  Are you saying that words are just words and
people should not get upset over them?  Or are you saying that some words
have power and others don’t, it’s just that you were not personally offended by
the word faggot?

How do we come to resolve on this issue?  If Kobe gets to call people faggots,
then we get to call him a nigger.  Or do we try to take other people into
consideration when we say things and strive for a more harmonious world?  On
the flip side, where does it end?  It seems that everyone is offended these days. 
It’s as if offending someone, even people you don’t know or weren’t talking to,
is the worst offense one could commit.  I’ll go now because I’m rambling, but I
am interested in the amount of power we should assign these words. (same
could be said about love, cunt, sorry, holocaust, etc)  Weigh in if I strike a
chord.

as a card carrying member of the official order, i
can speak for us all. any of us can, we’re
interchangeable. sure, we appear to be human- it’s
the main of our deception- but all the nuances of
(ersatz) humanity fade to insignificance in
deafening disco deference to our unifying
perversion. 
more worthy than our pretense at human dignity is
the idle curiosity of our hosts and landlords, the
regular, decent, heterosexual people. accordingly, i
propose to you normal citizens that we, the gays,
those people, should reveal to you the details of
our rites and rituals- only in the appropriately
clinical setting of your choice, the circus
sideshow, or carnival midway- that, at long last,
the official apology, i mean explanation, i mean
excuse be offered, the mysteries revealed.
for the price of admission, innocents, christians,
housewives, pensioners and righteous all can behold
the phantasmagoria of our curious code.
watch, if you can, as the pants wearing step into
their uniforms one leg at a time. marvel at our
manual dexterity when confronted by flatware or
telephone. witness the world our perversion; the
wanton job holding, laundry folding, mortgage
paying, grocery shopping- a bacchanalia of banality,
and not for the faint of heart. if we insist on
being who we are- or claim to be- we owe every
decent citizen our feeble excuse.
as an enticement to the show, the barker’s come on,
i confess; not only do we call each other names-
yes, dorothy, it’s true- but hold on to your hats
for an ear full of what we, the gays, those people,
call you.
guess what the price of admission is.

Like blacks, who call one another Nigga’s or Niggers, do gays call each other, Faggots? I am serious, I don’t know.

I doubt anyone’s life will be severely impacted by this incident and Kobe Bryant, who has proven himself a poor excuse for a role model long ago - what is his contribution to planet Earth? Dribbling and shooting a basketball, while getting a hernia carrying his money to and from the bank!

Kobe can go fuck himself, for all I care!

ribbie149, you mentioned Jackie Robinson’s birthday.  It’s January 31, not widely celebrated.

April 15 is the anniversary of his breaking the color barrier—Robinson’s first day playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. 
On that day each year, every player on every team wears Jackie Robinson’s number, 42.  It’s a fitting tribute and keeps his memory alive.

The fact that Robinson was an outstanding ballplayer is not incidental.  It was central to his credibility as a figure for the advancement of civil rights and the authenticity of his legacy. 

A lot of good stuff on him here.
http://www.biography.com/articles/Jackie-Robinson-9460813

somehow, i don’t feel the least bit helped. permit me
to return the favor; i don’t care.

Reynolds

Let me help you.

If (“a person’s life)is none of my business then they shouldn’t make it any of my business, because once they do, it is then my business.

Kobe Bryant is an immoral thug, but not because he used the words “F…..g F….t”.

That Reynolds is my point.  In its most simplistic terms.

i missed as much as i could, but not the point.
i don’t care. 
the article is about the boorish behavior of a thug
and putative rapist. kobe bryant is an asshole, some
news. he offered a perfunctory apology, wow.
scheer’s detractors tried to co opt the discussion,
to make it about gayness, to cast scheer as a hand
wringing hysteric. all gay men are feminine,
flighty, teetering on their heels, right?
i’m glad you’re lesbian friendly, how nice.
accepting as we all are, i’d guess everyone is put
off by pronounced, belligerent representations of
any personae be they office lesbian, dumbass
basketballer or, as andrew wheeler, arch prude.
but i don’t care.

Reynolds

You possibly missed my point.  Although I didn’t care what a persons life style was, I didn’t ask for the girl to get in my face and tell me what she was either.  She was 19 when I hired her.

Had she not complained to me that some of my other employees were shunning her and then told me why in very explicit terms, all I may have ever known was that she was a good employee.

She brought me into her problem because she was “in peoples face” about her life style.  I always thought she might be embarrassed about what she was.

That first time she complained to me she informed me exactly about what she and her female friends “Did”.  I didn’t ask her, I knew what homosexuals did sexually simply because I can and do read. That first encounter, I believe, she initiated simply because she wanted to shock me, and I assume that was her dark side - she didn’t need to approach anyone, but she seemed to get a perverse pleasure our of doing so.  Maybe she did it as a “Power” thing, I don’t know.

After she graduated from the University (age 26) she left my employment but she did keep in touch although it has been almost five years since we have last spoken.  She should be approaching 50 now.

a typo is frequently the homophone. every reader
knew what the headline meant, and understood the
typo for what it was.
scott snipes; your failure to understand why
marginalized peoples might find common complaint in
their marginalization is just that, your failure.
when i come across the phrase “life style” regarding
anything but patio furniture, i quit reading.
andrew wheeler; you are a curious messenger for the
anti sniveling message. heal thyself of your
distaste for finger waving diatribes. if peter
scheer has no cause to bitch about kobe, you have no
cause to bitch about peter scheer.
cliff carson; your lucky day: i don’t care what you
are.
with respect to and for peter scheer; kobe bryant is
a simpleton. were it not for society’s pathological
adoration of ball chuckers, he’d be the same dolt
sans helicopter. my gut feeling is that the woman in
colorado would have given him the sex he took by
force. to hell with both of them and not a few
others.
the conjecture of (purportedly) heterosexual people
as to the sincerity, worth or provenance of other
sexual sentiments is an onanism. get over people not
getting over it.

No!  That is not something you do to friends.

You won’t mention it? Not even drop a hint or two?

Ehernstein

That is exactly what I have believed since her “awakening”.

She and her husband are quite a quite successful business team.  I don’t know if he knows of her past and I will never be the one who mentions it.

Well it sounds like your employee was trying to convince HERSELF of her sexual orientation—which was apparently malleable.

Me—I’m a Kinsey 6.

Thanks Ehernstein

I didn’t know that.  It is interesting that if that is the word coined long ago to define the act of same sex attraction or pleasure ( couldn’t be for reproduction or else we would have a miracle to contend with)why the change to the word “Gay”.

I used to have a Lesbian woman who worked for me.  She was usually very pleasant and intelligent and an excellent worker (I helped her get through college and she wound up as an Engineer).

The only thing I didn’t like was her “In your face” attitude about her sexual orientation.  Seemed to me she was seeking praise for her Homosexuality.

I didn’t care what she was as long as she was a good employee, but as to whether she was born such, she later married and had children.  She told me one day that she was not sorry for her youth, but that one day she woke up and admitted to herself that it was a choice that she had made many years ago.  She is a good mother now and as heterosexual as you can be.

We are friends to this day. 

I don’t know why people do and say what they do, but it is not surprising given the diversity of the human experience.

I could give two shits what somebody who can play basketball
says.  That’s the kind of heroes we as a society set up as role
models?

What does that say about us?

mrrph.

Cliff, both “Homosexual” and “Heterosexual” were invented by a Hungarian journalist (yes, that’s right—not a doctor, not a scientist or medical authority—a journalist) named Karoly Benkert (aka. Karl Maria von Kertbeny) at the close of the 19th century. Read “The Invention of Heterosexualityu” by Joanthan “Ned” Katz (with an introduction by Gore Vidal) for the whole story.

Kobe Bryant isn’t sorry about anything—save the loss of what in his world is the equivalent of a five dollar parking ticket.

The only significant aspect of this affair is the desire of the NBA to make sure gays like yourself, Mr. Scheer, continue to attend basketball games.

Gosh whats wrong with the correct word “Homosexual”?  It doesn’t bother me to be called “Heterosexual”.

And for those in between isn’t there a Biological name “Hermaphrodite” ?

See we all need to take a lesson in proper use of English.  Why would you call a Homosexual Gay?  These two words mean something entirely different. 

I am not ashamed of being Heterosexual, therefore I don’t need a dissociative name to disguise my orientation.

I think if I were a Homosexual I would call myself that.  I don’t care what you are.  I hope you don’t care what I am.

I’ll let you do what you want to and I expect you to let me do what I want to and there won’t be any problem.  Just let me use proper English, OK?

geez people…cut peter scheer some slack here.  don’t
you think that, realizing he was going to publicly
state that he was gay, could lead to an elevated
emotional state which would ‘violate’ the cool
detachment of the printed word?

Yup, Peter is Robert’s son based on his bio. Not sure it has any relevance though, the error would be just as silly by anyone else.

I am going to say the same thing people say to when black people get worked up over the “N” word: GET OVER IT!!

I have a gay uncle whom I love dearly and would bite someone’s face off if anyone tries to bring him harm. There are times when I have used that word out of anger in his presence. He is not sensitive to the issue, which makes me wonder who are the real fags.

Why care what Kobe says? If he were to call a ref a ‘Whitey MOFO’, should all caucasians feel personally affronted? Bryant is a great BB player, but looking to him as a role model or an exemplar should be only for those who aspire to become great BB players, and they should only study, learn and practice his BB moves. Those who aspire to become great writers, thinkers, or intellectuals, for example, should look elsewhere.

****************

“fag 1 |fag|
noun [in sing. ] informal chiefly Brit.
a tiring or unwelcome task : it’s too much of a fag to drive all the
way there and back again.
• Brit. a junior pupil at a private preparatory school who works
and runs errands for a senior pupil.”
****************

fagot |?fag?t| ( Brit. faggot)
a bundle of sticks or twigs bound together as fuel.
• a bundle of iron rods bound together for reheating, welding,
and hammering into bars.
****************

ORIGIN early 20th cent.: perhaps from the obsolete sense of
fagot ‘contemptible woman.’
****************

So there are other meanings to the ‘most reprehensible’ word
faggot, fagot. But nothing could persuade me to think the big
turd kobe wasn’t using it in its homosexual male vernacular. But
since kobe is a big strapping black man he can play the double
standard by calling anyone who irritates him anything he cares
to call them. Better than getting beat by such mentally depraved
person. But now if someone were to call him the N***ER word,
for being irritated by HIM, look out. Actually, I believe his ‘posse’
would handle that for his majesty.

Newsflash: In professional sports (and sports in
general) the word “faggot” is used with alarming
regularity when someone is ticked off or is trying to
insult another player or official.  It just isn’t used
in public where those using it can be called for it.
The fact that there are no openly gay players in team
sports attests to the fact that there is STILL rampant
bigotry on almost every level of men’s team sports. It
is somehow appropriate that today, the day before
Jackie Robinson’s birthday, this is a relevant topic.