Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

We still have time to mess this up!

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

I was promised a recession.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

After roe, women are no longer free.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Faunasphere / RIP The Prince of Compassion

RIP The Prince of Compassion

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prince compassionAlong with his many other excellent qualities, Prince was a vegan and supporter of animal causes. He wrote the song “Animal Kingdom” for PETA. Excerpt:

“No member of the animal kingdom nurses past maturity
No member of the animal kingdom ever did a thing 2 me
It’s why I don’t eat red meat or white fish
Don’t give me no blue cheese
We’re all members of the animal kingdom
Leave your brothers and sisters in the sea”

According to PETA’s memorial: “When people would ask him why he was concerned about animals in the face of widespread human suffering, Prince would respond, “Compassion is an action word with no boundaries.”

Reader Interactions

116Comments

  1. 1.

    Punchy

    Vegan, eh? So where was his compassion for the green-stalked and chlorophyll enhanced? He was an anti-tuberite.

  2. 2.

    BD of MN

    I’m gonna pull Sign O the Times out of the CD rack (that hasn’t moved in years), pop it in the player and then tell my wife that spring allergies are bothering me…

  3. 3.

    Mike J

    Somebody should inform MTV that while it is nice that they’re playing Prince songs, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince are not the same. They just finished showing Girls Ain’t Nothin But Trouble and followed it with a Prince RIP slate .

  7. 7.

    Patricia Kayden

    I eat meat but I love Prince’s quote. I just don’t have the discipline or desire to be vegan/vegetarian but I respect those who have taken that path.

  8. 8.

    lamh36

    I was in the middle of a boatload of work, when someone told me of Prince’s death. I swear, I was ready to tell my boss, I had to go home…I couldn’t focus on my work for nothing.

    I mean this feels more shocking than MJ or Whitney, because MJ or Whitney for a time was a trainwreck, Prince didn’t seem to have those types of problems.

    I swear I thought the man would live forever!

    I’ve been watching videos since I got home and right now I’m clicking between MSNBC, videos and Purple Rain on MTV.

    Man…those beginning chords to #PurpleRain …always gets me in a mood…today of all days…it’s a sadder mood!

  10. 10.

    Mike J

    @lamh36:

    I was in the middle of a boatload of work, when someone told me of Prince’s death.

    I was working part time at the five and dime. My boss was Mr Mcgee.

  11. 11.

    Darkrose

    I’m pretty upset today, because four months into 2016 and two of the artists most responsible for the soundtrack of my teenaged years are gone. I can miss the man as an artist without signing onto his politics, though, and it says everything about PETA that they’re praising Prince for being vegan, they’re ignoring some of the problematic shit he said about humans:

    When asked about his perspective on social issues—gay marriage, abortion—Prince tapped his Bible and said, “God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was, like, ‘Enough.’ “

    From here.

  13. 13.

    glory b

    A quote I heard today, the person I heard it from didn’t have an attribution:

    Prince could steal your girl AND her wardrobe at the same time.

  15. 15.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    I’ve been ranting on FB about the fact that CNN, even now more than nine hours later, is still flagging their coverage of Prince’s death as “breaking news.” (And in the middle of it all, some RWNJ person that I know only through an opera thread decided to start a whole “CNN stands for Communist News Network” discussion. I retorted that the “C” might better stand for “Consumer” or “Celebrity.”)

  16. 16.

    ruemara

    I don’t really care that he was vegan and PETA is crap. But I’m glad we had Prince, although he was taken too soon. Pissed about his religious views but, its kinda odd considering how gender fluid and open sexually he was. People are complicated.

  19. 19.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    Prince died too young, in my view. Others believe that everyone dies exactly when they are supposed to die.
    @ruemara:

    People are complicated.

    Says it all.

  20. 20.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    I think it’s partly a function of age. Most of the news directors are probably my age (mid-40s) or a little older, which means Prince is someone from their nostalgic teen years that they have an enormous emotional attachment to. My boss (4 years older than me) said she kept tearing up every time she heard a Prince song today.

    So, yeah, it’s not this newsworthy, but I know why it’s getting such disproportionate coverage.

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    @efgoldman:
    Prince has been famous for almost 40 years. He was a genius. He was brilliant at his craft, and he treated as a craft to continually work to improve himself.

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    How are you feeling?

    Still pretty sore, but a good bit better, thanks. Pretty sure I’ll survive long enough to get in more trouble eventually.

  30. 30.

    lamh36

    Meh, I’d rather have another post about Prince, than another Bernie-stan vs HRC -stan post off…

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    My beef is with calling it “breaking” news this many hours after the event, and with nothing really new to add in all that time. Repetitive video clips and celebrity eulogies are neither “news” nor “breaking.” I think it’s misleading, at best, for CNN to continue to flag it as such.

    And as devastating as Prince’s death is to many, surely, surely, other things have happened in the country and the world today that might merit at least a mention. But you’d never know it if you relied exclusively on CNN as your information source.

  33. 33.

    rikyrah

    The soundtrack of my youth was Luther, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Whitney and Prince.

    Only Madonna’s left.

    I just can’t believe it.

    I remember the day that Marvin Gaye died, even though I was a little kid, because my sister (who’s 16 years older) was inconsolable.

    I didn’t get that pain for someone you didn’t even know.

    I do now.

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Do you think there’s even a remote chance that CNN or any other news outlet (I include NPR/PBS) would devote nine solid hours and counting to the death of Leontyne Price?

    Yeah, me neither.

  35. 35.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    @SiubhanDuinne: they do the breaking news all the time. Tim Russert dying was breaking news for days. Scalia dying was breaking news for hours and hours. The San Bernardino thing was breaking after all the basic stuff was over.

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    @efgoldman:

    Oh, I’m fully expecting you guys to complain that a groundbreaking musical artist like Price didn’t get nearly as much coverage as Prince did. And you won’t be wrong. But it’s honestly a generational thing, like the massive coverage when John Lennon was murdered.

  37. 37.

    Gvg

    Maybe the news organizations are bored with the election coverage. It’s really starting to get repetitive. Trump if he has said anything new outrageous isn’t getting as much coverage. We have 5 more months of election news to hear more than most can stand. More than that really, their is the inauguration, picking the cabinet, confirmation hearings”…..let’s hear if for fluff when I think about all this. I am one of those odd people who never got other people’s caring about actor’s and musicians lives beyond the performance, but the non stop political nonsense in the news the last….couple of decades is too sour to take straight only.

  38. 38.

    Mnemosyne

    So, is this a sufficiently open thread for me to repeat the story of the armless woman at the library? I’m going to go ahead. This is a story from a local public library in our large urban area that G heard about after it happened:

    So it’s another day in the internet commons at the library (that’s where they have computers for public use). An armless woman is there, using her toes to type on the keyboard. That’s not a problem — they’re public computers, and she’s not the first one to do it.

    The problem is that she has her non-service dog with her, and it keeps growling and snapping at the other patrons, so security goes over to ask her if it’s a service dog and if not, she needs to leave. She goes ballistic and starts screaming at them that if they want to call the cops on her, that’s fine, they should call the cops. So they do.

    It all goes south when the cops are trying to calm her down and she proceeds to kick one of them in the balls. This immediately makes the police a whole lot less willing to help her (a kick to the groin has that effect, I’m told), and they arrest her. But because she has no arms, they have to cuff her ankles and carry her out on a gurney, screaming and cursing the whole way.

    One of the security guards was able to get the dog into another room and it was eventually taken to the nearby animal shelter while the owner was booked. Don’t worry about the dog — it’s a no-kill shelter and one of the nicest ones in the metro area.

  40. 40.

    lamh36

    Ok, I’m out…it’s night like these when I notice that shared experiences really makes a difference when it comes to understanding folks reactions to certain news and events.

    I’m off to check out some more movies and other live tributes on tv.

    At the very least, Prince should be appreciated as one of the first artist of the “pop star” era, who fought for artist rights against the music company.

  42. 42.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mai.naem.mobile:

    I know. That’s my point. Beyond a certain point, it’s no longer “breaking,” and it’s just a step away from false advertising to bill it as such.

    “Breaking” =|= “Nonstop”

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    FWIW, I think SD and efgoldman are both old enough to be both of our parents.

    ETA: And I’m not bashing you guys at all, it’s just a fact. Prince means a lot more to someone my age.

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lamh36:

    I’m perfectly okay with lengthy coverage of Prince. Just call it what it is. “Remembrances” or “tributes” or “eulogies” or whatever. It’s not fucking “breaking” is all.

  46. 46.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    It’s all true. G was not only verbally told about it, he read the actual incident report that was filed with the city.

    You get some … interesting people in large public libraries. Most of them mind their own business 90 percent of the time, but 10 percent of the time they have a really bad day in a public place.

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    It has nothing to do, though, with how much or little he meant to your or my generation. Again, that’s not the point. I don’t necessarily begrudge the coverage, although I’d like to see an occasional five-minute break for other news headlines, but I do object to labeling a story as “breaking” when it’s many hours old. “Breaking” should be reserved for new, updated, or changed information, not used for the same thing on a loop.

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Okay, that makes more sense. I agree with you that if you’re doing a tribute or a remembrance, it’s silly to call it “breaking news.”

    My guess is that it’s marketing to make people think that they’ve released the cause of death and keep watching, but “cause of death” is not one of those things a coroner’s office likes to rush announcing, especially when it’s a famous person who was not known to be ill.

  49. 49.

    eemom

    Jayzus Weeping Kroost. Here I’ve been thinking all afternoon how nice it is that just about everybody is sharing in the love of this brilliant musician, and putting aside the political bullshit for five minutes…..then I come here find his passing dragged through the mud with fucking PETA (who I supported 20+ years ago before they went batshit crazy, but now ARE in fact batshit crazy) and whining about what’s breaking news or not.

    Give me a fucking BREAK.

  52. 52.

    burnspbesq

    Rumor has it that upon his arrival in Heaven, Prince was immediately asked to join the John Coltrane – Jimi Hendrix Band.

  53. 53.

    guachi

    I suspect all those people recording MTV will be uploading fresh Prince videos to YouTube shortly. I’m actually recording MTV for my own copies in glorious mpg of whatever they show.

  54. 54.

    Ridnik Chrome

    You get some … interesting people in large public libraries. Most of them mind their own business 90 percent of the time, but 10 percent of the time they have a really bad day in a public place.

    Having worked in public libraries for over 30 years, I can attest to the truth of this. I have some stories that might not quite top yours (it’s a hell of a story) but would come pretty close.

    And since we’re treating this as an open thread, Jake Arrieta just no-hit the Cincinnati Reds. That’s his second no-hitter in eleven regular season starts. These are heady days for Cubs fans…

  59. 59.

    lamh36

    Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on Prince (C-SPAN) https://youtu.be/7fd5r-XwWfc via @YouTube

    Published on Apr 21, 2016
    Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on #Prince: “He was a superstar composer, an amazing performer, and a music innovator with a fierce belief in the independence of his art.

  60. 60.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ridnik Chrome:

    At the branch where G currently works, there’s a guy who calls the reference desk every single day, and has been doing it for years. He is now limited to asking 3 questions per day because he was taking up too much of the librarians’ time. It’s pretty innocuous stuff like, “What is the weather like in Miami right now?” so they Google it and tell him.

    I’m assuming he’s somewhere on the autism spectrum since it’s such a ritual for him, but … public library. He’s part of the public. As long as he’s merely a little annoying and not rude or threatening, he gets to call and ask 3 questions per day.

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    Somebody else posted this in the morning thread, but it’ll blow your socks off:

    “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” from 2004 Rock N Roll Hall of Fame

    If anyone knows who the young guy playing acoustic guitar next to Tom Petty is, let me know, because he starts laughing at a specific action of Prince’s, and you can tell Prince did it just to mess with all of ’em (in a friendly way, I mean).

  62. 62.

    eemom

    @efgoldman:

    Some of us like actual news in our newscasts.

    omfg. Yeah, everything else out there in the mass media 24/7 is SOOOO real news. Makes perfect sense to fixate on the label attached to the death of a brilliant artist loved by millions for ONE afternoon.

    Meanwhile, the birthday of an old woman who’s lived 90 years in obscene wealth and privilege — oh yes, THAT is newsworthy.

  63. 63.

    Eric U.

    I used to say that people younger than me weren’t allowed to die. Prince was 60 days older than me. His death was a real shock though. Of course, 50 is where the bathtub curve really starts sloping up, so my rule has been out the window for a while.

    I guess it should be obvious that the amount of coverage a musician’s death gets isn’t exactly proportional to their contribution to music or even their celebrity.

  66. 66.

    chopper

    @lamh36:

    was in the middle of a boatload of work, when someone told me of Prince’s death. I swear, I was ready to tell my boss, I had to go home…I couldn’t focus on my work for nothing.

    maybe you’re just too demanding?

  67. 67.

    Cacti

    For the oldsters, here’s a name you might recognize:

    “I am deeply shocked to hear of Prince’s passing. Prince was a revolutionary artist, a great musician, composer, a wonderful lyricist, a startling guitar player but most importantly, authentic in every way. Prince’s talent was limitless. He was one of the most unique and talented artists of the last 30 years.”

    -Mick Jagger

  68. 68.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: I cried when Stevie Ray Vaughn died, so soon after getting cleaned up. I got to see him live twice, before he was generally recognized as a big deal (the used record store next door to the venue papered the house). The first show, I invited my music snob (for no good reason as he played passable tenor saxophone) and he sneered but went with me. PB heard the show, and allowed as how the man could play. The next show (maybe also papered, but I had a comp from the store regardless), PB lobbied hard to go with me, and I relented, because I wasn’t that much of a bitch. Less than a decade later the chopper crashed, and I cried.

  70. 70.

    Ridnik Chrome

    @Mnemosyne: Does G work at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago? Because when I worked there in the 90s, there was a guy known as Three Question Man, who inspired just such a policy…

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Okay, I’m officially at the “all y’all can just fuck right the fuck off now” stage. Time for this out-of-touch Queen-loving Prince-hating CNN-bashing crippled old broad to go to bed.

    Sweet dreams, everyone.

  78. 78.

    Ridnik Chrome

    @Mnemosyne: It would not surprise me at all if it was the same Three Question Man.

    And now, since I have the day off tomorrow, I am going out to my local bar where I will raise a beer (or two) to the memory of Prince Rogers Nelson. Good night all.

  79. 79.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Mnemosyne: That’s Dhani Harrison, George’s son. Coincidentally, I stumbled on an interview with George Harrison, Ravi Shankar (who didn’t talk much) and a teen-aged John Fugelsang, when George was helping promote Ravi’s record (George produced it). Ultimately George Harrison played a few songs. How I got to that I have no clue, but it’s worth a look to folks of a certain age.

  80. 80.

    chopper

    @Mnemosyne:

    the wife worked at a university library for a while. once a guy came in looking for a book. when she looked at his ID it said his name was “Shidding Wang”.

  81. 81.

    shomi

    A vegan that is dead at 57.

    Seriously Hillary Rettig whoever you are. Did you even stop and think before you mentioned Prince was a vegan like it worked out well for him?

  86. 86.

    JCT

    Just heard from my college roommate for the first time in 2 years – reminiscing about seeing Prince at the SF Civic in ’82. Controversy Tour – and I still have my Prince vinyl . Fabulous musician and very supportive of women in the business. Always the good guys, assholes live forever.

  87. 87.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: Busted. Grad school beau (who was a white gut aspiring to look like Prince) got his nym when I took him to a bar I’d gone to for years to hear some friends play. He sneered, (they went on to play with Adrian Belew, but that’s beside the point) but had a couple of drinks. The next time I went, my old pal the bartender asked “where’s Pretty Boy Floyd?” I told the story and some of my classmates howled. It stuck, in that crowd, and he was PB until we all got went on to other things. FWIW, he did approve of my other pals’ band, which played more Clash stuff.

  88. 88.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): No, you just copped to being a lookist. I was calling out your dismissal of the sight impaired. Your crimes accumulate.*

    *Trying to make jokes on the day where I finally, really have a clue of how my parents felt when Lennon was killed. Bowie’s death upset me, but this gutted me.

  89. 89.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: John Lennon. Now that was the shock to end all shocks. I remember my younger brother running down the stairs from his room blurting something out about it as I was falling asleep. Kept hoping and praying it was a dream. Still nothing like it for me. Maybe it was just that my siblings were so much older…because of them I was such a Beatles freak, and that assassination felt as shocking to me as JFK’s did to them. I felt much closer to 60s-generation musicians than anything that came along after. (Except for Prince, oddly, which is probably why I still feel so unsettled even tho’ I really need to hit the hay).

  90. 90.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Miss Bianca: I was in high school and had just finished showering when my mom knocked on the door and told me about Lennon. I was saddened, but nothing like what Prince’s or Joe Strummer’s deaths did to me.

  91. 91.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh, hell…I was gonna marry John Lennon when Yoko was done with him. At least, that was the plan. I had all his solo albums, even the crappy ones. I started playing guitar because of him.

    I was so happy when “Double Fantasy” came out, because that was some of his best post-Beatles work. After so long out of the studio, looked like he was finally getting back on the pony to ride. And then…

  93. 93.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: Ah, no…Beatles were mine. San Francisco sound was mine. Motown. It’s funny…I’m only a year older than you, from what I can tell, and our musical tastes are like a generation apart! Hell, I didn’t even get into Nirvana until 20 years after Cobain’s death…now I’m all like, “this shit was brilliant, where was I?” I was into Richard Thompson and Los Lobos and Frank Zappa during the 90s…oh, and obscure British prog and folk/rock crossovers. Total nerd stuff.

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    We watched a few minutes of E.T. last night and I realized that at one point, the older brother is humming an Elvis Costello song as he rummages through the fridge. I’m blanking on which one, but I think it was from My Aim Is True.

  97. 97.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Miss Bianca: Let’s please not talk about age, especially on this day, if you get my drift. I had – and do – kind of wide ranging tastes in music. Frank Zappa’s death was hard for me; I mentioned how I responded when Stevie Ray Vaughn died. TVZ died way too young (slow motion suicide was how his life went) and I think Guy Clark doesn’t have much longer. I hurt when Levon Helm died – he was just about the nicest guy of his era, and Bowie felt like a loss. I get how Omnes feels about Prince – a true genius, I think.

  98. 98.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Miss Bianca: Thought something like that was in play. First of two. And my parents were in there early 20s. We are the generational shift. My dad was the music guy. We used sit and read together in the living room while listening to the Moody Blues or Country Joe and the Fish. Of course, this was after watching Saturday morning cartoons. I still try to point Dad at new and interesting music. Mom is achored in Elvis

  100. 100.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: How cool that you’ve still got parents to share music with. I listened to Johnny Cash as a kid because my (very young) grandmother played his records.

  101. 101.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: I can’t imagine ever listening to music like that with my folks…they were WWII generation, and they thought the 60s were like the worst.thing.ever. They weren’t really big music fans…the only records I really remember them owning were cast recordings of Broadway musicals, so I can still sing almost all of “Sound of Music” and “Man of La Mancha” – for what that’s worth, dear God…

    Now, *Elvis* seemed like a generation apart, and kind of a joke to me until I caught a clip of *young* Elvis on TV one night and went…”oh man…no wonder the girls were losing their shit over him!”

  103. 103.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Miss Bianca: After cartoons were over, we read for an album or two and then went into the city to do something. My parents were friends with some of the Chicago Imagists like the Hairy Who and so on. They couldn’t afford babysitters, so I went with them to many things. I was also elected King of the campus at NIU because I was that cute.

  104. 104.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: Of course you were. I did get to go to the gun club on Sundays with my dad for “kids learn skeet and trap day.”
    Burnsie and I’ve been kind of tossing sad songs back and forth. (He started it.) I got him back with My Favorite Picture of You “you got your revenge” he said. He countered with Elephant and I just smacked him down with Marie. Feel free to assist.

  108. 108.

    J R in WV

    Well, I’m an old. Getting older fast, too!

    My music was (along with classical giants):

    Jim Morrison
    Janis Joplin
    Jimmi Hendrix (who Prince wanted to play with)
    Miles Davis
    Frank Zappa
    Thelonius Monk
    The Dead
    Lots of the Blues guitarists, including Stevie Ray.
    Led Zep, The Beatles, the Stones, Carlos Santana, they are still kicking.

    Prince was out there, and I knew he was a genius. When I heard him, I loved it. He was never where I was when I was, so I never got to hear him. He invented new music.

    Leontyne Price is a superstar, no question, as an interpreter of a music form that is ~200 years old. She is (among?) the best in her generation. But I posit that she is not an inventor of new music, not a creator using multiple instruments, able to play around a group of other geniuses differently while they play a cutting edge song form from our generation, like “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.

    I cried for Janis, and for John Lennon (another inventor!) and for Prince, even though I can only name a handful of his actual songs. You know it’s Prince just by hearing a few notes. Like Miles, or Frank Z. David Bowie was a great performer, but he was not in the same species as Prince, who was nearly alone.

    It’s been over 12 hours, and I’m still on the edge of being teary at the loss of a guy I would probably never met. But he was an awesome talent, a creative genius. I wish so hard I could have been a musician that could have made Prince think to himself, “That guy’s OK…” while jamming at the farm. But not to be, I’m to distracted by other things to do, and don’t really have the memory for it that you need to have to be able to jam. I’m OK with a chart, but …. and playing ALL the instruments yourself on your first 5 albums… just wow…

    I hope Prince is jamming with Jimmi, no matter how unlikely that really is, it would be a blessing if it was true.

  110. 110.

    Anne Laurie

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Bowie’s death upset me, but this gutted me.

    I’m a decade or so older than you, and that’s how I felt about Lennon’s death versus Marvin Gaye’s.

    Random nutters are acts of (the Trickster) god, but one’s family is always the most dangerous.

  111. 111.

    John not McCain

    I hope the rumor that he died of AIDS because the religious freaks he associated with convinced him to stop taking his medicine are true. It’s just what that homophobic bigot deserved.

  113. 113.

    Bob2

    @Darkrose:

    I love Prince’s music, but his JW conversion and anti-gay shtick has been really glossed over. The gays love him though, so they’re kind of giving him a pass on that amongst my friends.

  115. 115.

    Miss Bianca

    @Bob2:

    I think we are choosing to mourn the man who was inspired by his better angels, not his worse. That may be hypocritical, but…

  116. 116.

    Bob2

    @Miss Bianca:
    That’s just how we choose to mourn. It’s for the living, not for him, but also leads to a lot of cognitive dissonance like Republicans mourning Reagan still even though he was a total shitbag.
    I appreciate Prince, but I also choose not to lie about what people did and make them into heroes. Hero worship causes problems.

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