24: So why all the torture if they have truth serum for the real emergencies? Damn their budget cutting at CTU!

24 never has made any sense from a narrative point of view. They really do seem to make it up as they go along.

quester: stock footage.

For an episode that was pretty damn good, not a lot happened, did it? It was all pieces moving into place.

Well, I'm an athiest. I actually do find quite a bit of religious symbology offensive. I get very tired of it being in my face all the time. Seems like no matter what, someone is going to be offended.

You're probably right, Jessica. It just struck a chord with me, we have those here and it just seemed wierd.

Does offending people back help, ND? And no, not a facetious question. I do want to know.

I honestly don't know. Best I can say is that it tends to feel like getting pushed by the school bully one time to many and then you finally push back. There's a good chance you're going to get your ass kicked, but in many ways it's better than slowly being pushed out of the building.

I'm not always rational. I do joke around a lot. Part of the way that I deal with things is to have a pretty irreverant sense of humor about them. Sometimes it's the only way I can cope. Folks have heard me make joke in pretty horrid ways about my possible origins. It's part of my way of coping. Lately I've been feeling like any of my humor is said to be innappropriate or offensive. I suppose if that is the case then I need to go back to lurking.

I wonder, if you find being offended a problem, if offending back lightens that (evening out the playing field) or worsens it (sets off a spiral, perhaps).

Hurting people has never been an effective coping mechanism for me. Well, you know what I mean. Hurting them emotionally doesn't help me feel better. Which is why I ask.

I do understand what you are asking. I don't know that I have a very good answer for you. I think sometimes it does feel like leveling the playing field and at other times is just escalates things in a bad way.

Normally I do tend to walk away as opposed to escalating.

Not ND, but I know I made my share of crude jokes over the weekend. But, despite the fact that I share his feeling of being offended by others' religions, if I make a religious joke, it's not because I want to offend someone who is religious -- I make the joke because I think it's funny, and because I know at least some others will also think it's funny.

Now, those jokes quite probably offend some others to a certain degree, but for myself (and I'm sure this rankles as much as the offensive joke), I don't particularly care if someone else is offended by my sense of humor. And yes, this goes for people I care about, including close friends and family.

Not that I'm sure what, if any point I'm trying to make.