I eat a plant based diet for lots of reasons, but partly it's moral...although more environmental than about the animals. The thing is, I just can't justify buying new fake leather products because of the damage done to the environment in making them. I know that leather is bad for the environment (and cruel) too, which is why I tend to buy leather (and pleather/vinyl) second hand. But I truly doubt the tanning and dyeing process is more damage than creating a synthetic leather product from oil, which breaks down much fast and results in having to buy a replacement pair quicker, is better than a good quality pair of boots that will last years. I do get really sick of vegans telling me about my "moral relativism". I don't identify as a vegan, or even vegetarian as I feel that would exclude leather I just try and limit my use of animals wherever I can (and that includes household and beauty products, the only places I don't qualify as "vegan" are my wearing of second hand leather and the fact that I refuse to feed my carnivore pets a vegan diet because I think it's wrong. I know not all vegans are preachy, most of the ones I knew growing up made very little money and lived off rice and beans (and they would probably have accepted my viewpoint even if they disagreed), but lately there's a lot of upper middle class yuppie whole food shopping snobby ones who really piss me off (I live in a "hipster" type city). It's fucking annoying.

I married a safe guy. Very compatible and loving. Executive of Fortune 200 company. He got mentally ill, alcoholic and abusive. Then he was no longer safe. Marrying safe isn't to solution either. Only solution is don't marry.

I have an ex- friend who usually says something pretty mean or crazy and chalks it up to her anxiety. If she slips up on pills or something is out of the ordinary, she would take it out on me. I have my own anxiety and was trying to manage my OCD but whenever I tried to talk to her about how I felt, everything was turned around to her problems. It was getting tiring and exhausting to worry about her and what was going on in my life. I finally tried to confide in her, but she made it all seem as if it was all my fault and starting screaming that I was horrible. I couldn't take it any more and cut her out of my life. Now she went around to some friends I was making and told them all about my own mental health and tried to paint me as the bad guy. I finally got the truth out of a girl and I was hurt but told her I wasn't going to get into the drama between me and my ex-friend and left it at that. That sort of cleared things up and the girl realized that the more my ex-friend would rant about me, the fact I never said anything bad about her spoke louder. Now the girls are my friends and apologized for cutting me out. I still feel bad for not being there for my ex-friend but I couldn't take care of myself and her too. I want her to make friends but I want her to actually be a friend.

This is long, so if you take the time to read it, please know I would be grateful and appreciative of any advice. My spouse and I moved out of state a couple of years ago, and since then, it has been nothing but misery - financial, mental, marital, and emotional problems between the two of us. We probably shouldn't have moved to the new state so fast, and things didn't quite work out the way we wanted them to. He has had jobs, but been without a steady job over the past 2 years. He lost his most recent job in April of this year. I have had a steady job for the past year-and-a-half. At any rate, he had been wanting to move back to his home state, so he started looking for jobs both in this state and in his home state. He got some callbacks in his old state, went to interview in person, and he now has a job offer to work in our old state. Our marriage has been through hell and back over the past 4 years, and we're at a very fragile time in our lives. There are also other problems, such as our nonexistent sex life and trust issues. My mind is telling me to let him move back, separate, file for divorce and go our separate ways. My heart is saying to go along with him, work on the marriage, for me to try and get a job there if we move back together, and continue our life as best we can. I am not sure what to do. I would have to quit my job here and start all over again. I am happy here in the new state, but he is not, obviously, and again, we've been having marital issues for years anyway that have not yet been resolved. Thanks.

There is a specific restaurant where I am a regular there. I go at least 3 times a month. The manager and all of the staff know me and my bf quite well. Tonight, we went there, bf got drunk and decided to cause a scene. why? Because when our appetizer came out it was too hot for him to eat, but it wasn't for me...I had eaten a few pieces off the end and he was shocked it wasn't burning my mouth. So he grabbed my hand and placed it in the middle, where it was burning hot. I said "If something is burning hot, you don't place someones hand in it, it's rude". He thinks he did nothing wrong and proceeded to get loud, letting others "know" that he's starting to see that I have mental problems and how hard it is for him to try to treat me good. I kept telling him that he needed to quiet down, he refused. So I said that only trash make scenes in public. Now I can't go back there. 2 more weeks and I can leave him.

I texted my mentally ill brother merry Xmas and have not received a response. I'm not overly surprised because last time I texted, he couldn't end that exchange fast enough. I know my parents help him financially and I'm concerned about what will happen to him when they die. He gets very little money from disability and says he can't work. If he did earn income, the government won't pay for all the psych drugs his Dr. has him on. He can't stop taken them, at least not cold Turkey. I think this situation is going to come to a head soon. If my parents die, he will either need help or end up homeless.

I have only been able to orgasm from oral a few times in my life. My new boyfriend does everything right--the pressure, motion, etc. is all perfect and should lead to a mind blowing orgasm, but no luck. I think I have a mental block or something. Any suggestions? It's easy for me to orgasm during sex--top or bottom, doesn't matter. This is perplexing!

It is far too easy to get on welfare/government aid and take advantage of it. If I was in charge things would change. If you want welfare, food stamps, government housing etc. you will work in government programs doing things like construction, picking fruit, cleaning up litter or wherever the need is. You come in late, slack off, don’t show up etc. you are cut off. Life skill and GED classes would be offered. Condoms and birth control are provided and are mandatory. Anyone who gets pregnant or gets someone pregnant is cut off. Anyone who commits a crime or gets sent to jail is cut off. Drug tests are mandatory and anyone who fails get cut off. If you are seriously mentally ill and require medication you will take government supervised medications or be cut off. If you have kids in foster care the government takes payment from your welfare for them. The welfare program has a limit of 18 months. After that you are cut off. Anyone who gets cut off for drug use, pregnancy, failing to show up for government work, getting to 18 months etc. cannot qualify for 3 years (no exceptions). Same with anyone who was just released from jail or who is on probation. Instead of a check there would be debit cards and all spending is tracked. Things like tattoos, alcohol, cigarettes, hair appointments, manicures etc. are not allowed and are grounds for being cut off. If you have a nice car, big TV, jewellery etc. it must be sold before you qualify. There would be “welfare officers” much like parole or probation officers who you must report to and who do random inspections of your house to make sure you aren’t wasting or misspending your benefits. Only citizens qualify, no illegals, and if you immigrated you must be a citizen for 5 years in order to qualify.

How about you make your own sexual choices and start slut shaming? Humans are, at best, serial monogamists. We are not monogamous animals by nature. There is NOTHING wrong with sleeping with lots of people, so keep your small minded judgemental fucking slut shaming to yourself. Of course, protecting yourself if you are sleeping around is very important but a lot of that is down to education. No fucking wonder women are held back so much, seems there's as many small minded slut-shaming women are there are men. Also, the fact is that you might say both sexes need to start making better choices, but you are still focusing on what women are doing wrong. WOMEN need to stop sleeping around. WOMEN need to get to know a guy's morals and values before they sleep with someone. I'll sleep with whomever I want whenever I want and I won't listen to some old fashioned busybody who wants to tell me otherwise.

***Moved to Parenting from PopC channel.*** I was raped by grandpa at 11. I told no one until I was an adult. Was almost raped by H, but I got him off me in time (this was in a public park with people around and it came out of nowhere, just pushed me down and pulled my pants down.) He didn't think sexual assault of a wife was really assault. I couldn't speak of it for years, just shook and trembled at the very thought of the incident. Grandpa was sick and I learned he'd did it to previous women and children including my mom, he thought he was educating them for their life. My H was mentally disturbed. There are lots of nuts out there and sometimes the victim is so broken that she can't speak up for a long time. Cosby's victims are only able to speak up now & I understand.