Funny story about how out-of-control heterosexuality killed my uncle during World War II. The set-up is how, like my father, he escaped Germany as a refugee, coming over here by himself on a ship as part of the American equivalent of the kindertransport program. When the war started, he was drafted and served in the Pacific. He survived that and was stationed in the Pacific as part of the army of occupation. One night, two drunken American servicemen set fire to a geisha house to drive out a couple of girls they had a beef with. They started shooting into the gathering crowd. One of the bullets hit my uncle and killed him.

Okay, maybe that's not so funny. The funny part is how the story evolved as it was told to me as I grew up:

"Your uncle died in the war."
"Your uncle was killed in a USO station."
"Your uncle was killed in a USO station by drunken American soldiers."
Then the current version.

The events were somewhat notable because the two soldiers were sentenced to hang but President Truman commuted their sentences to life in prison, an event that merited a paragraph in the New York Times. I'm not sure, but I think Truman did this because the two soldiers were black, and he didn't want the memory of a recent hanging over a poor Jewish refugee to gum up his plans to integrate the army.

One of these days, I've got to research that assumption at the Truman library. I would hope I'd learn that the rest of the story was that my uncle was actually running out of the geisha house. From what I understand, it would not have been out of character.

We're all homophobic assholes!

I referred to the Parking Lot only due to the fact that I was not discussing political aspects- I was just yelling about it at this point.

I am all for this moving to the Daily Grind-but I want to be able to access it.

No, no. Everything was perfectly clear. I just had a brain fart and wrote something that made no sense at all.

Whether or not it's been months since anything inappropriate was posted in the Prop. 8 thread doesn't enter into it. By moving the thread, a casual visitor to this site, looking up, say, references to a favorite product, can then access postings that should remain in-family. To someone reading them for the first time, all posts are current.

wendy, I could be mistaken I suppose. But I believe the thread was moved there after some argument broke out.

Perhaps I'm confusing it. After Prop 8 there were three or four threads on the subject, and this one came later. Perhaps it was indeed posted in the Parking Lot after earlier ones had been moved there.


Andrew .... I was told by Todd that anything remotely political posted on mousepad had to be relegated to their Parking Lot equivalent so that it could not be read by non-members. He didn't want anything non-happy-pappy to be part of mousepad's public image.

I'm not sure if that policy still exists. I haven't been back since I quit over that policy.

You're saying MousePad when you mean MiceChat. MousePad does not have any forums that require membership to view.

Micechat-

-but I did not start this to diss other sites. I also only posted it in the Lounge because some years back I was less inclined to play nice in those forums-so I do not have access to them. Lately I have been wanting to discuss these issues- and have not been able to.

This one popped my cork though-

If it stays here- great- let's talk about it. If not, I want to still be able to access and add to it.

Alex is correct; while political (and any other non-Disney or non-vacation planning) discussions are in the Lounge, it is a public forum that anyone can read (logged in or not) and Google can index. And Todd has no presence on MousePad.

[/OT]

But if wendy's right, and that isn't the thread that got nasty, then there's no harm in moving it where it's more appropriate.


Doesn't much matter. Prop 8 blowback is pretty old news. I'll just start a general gay rights thread in the Daily Grind and see if it sticks.

Neph's thread just reminded me how quasi-insulting I find it having to post any gay rights thoughts in the Parking Lot.