What a lovely Republican sentiment. Tolerance and a lack of bigotry are referred to as "painfully politically correct". You'd make Rush Limbaugh proud.

...has anyone seen my iPod? (also, $10 says that Nick Douglas doesn't get this)

old news. REALLY old news!

Perhaps he may have been depressed because he somehow was unable to get a job at Google...? Or that he didn't get billions from working at Microsoft?

I must have missed the importance of the news...

@SFJoe: I think Owen meant that Seattle goes to pains to be politically correct (i.e. painfully modifies "politically", not "correct"). So the statement reinforces the concept that tolerance is correct. Either that or ALL THOSE OTHER TIMES that Owen has been tolerant of subjects' sexuality were written by his evil twin.

@SFJoe: I bet you call all black people you meet African American.

That's bigotry, by the way, because where I live roughly 30% of the black population is Cuban, Dominican, Haitian and Jamaican. You'd be insulting their heritage by calling them African American and propagating your own ignorance, and based on the assumption I made in my first sentence I would appreciate it if you would apologize to the black community and start referring to black people as black and not African American.

@dantheman82: since this was announced yesterday by the PRIDE foundation, how is this old news???? I mean, old news as in I heard about it yesterday, but not "REALLY old news".

Owen
poor form. Depression is irrational and it doesn't always need a rational context to push someone over the edge.

So, being gay (or lonely) is the only possible reason this man could have been so depressed that he ended his own life? And because Seattle is "painfully politically correct" (as in, most Seattleites fail to actually kill gay people on sight)
he was what, a dumbass?

In fact why is this story anything but tragic? Just more grist for your snarky mills because the man was high ranking at Microsoft? What if he had worked for a bank?

You guys are poisonous snakes. It's one thing to make fun of Sergey Brin or the foibles of yahoo executives. This man committed suicide and left his fortune to a gay rights organization, and you snark over it? Go to hell.

@Dweezil: That reminds me of the CNN report calling black rioters in France "African Americans."

[www.freerepublic.com]

@cowsandmilk: OK, so I guess they disclosed this more recently. Bizarre how nobody would say anything for 2 yrs, but IANAL. Anyways, I still think...irrelevant.

And yes, snarky. Which is why I continue to maintain that Valleywag is more interested in taking pot shots and being like a sarcastic whiny college paper and not to be treated as a real news source.

I have no idea gfburke, why it is nicer to make fun of Sergey Brin than this guy who committed suicide? Because Sergey is less human? Still alive and thus fair game?

I thought that photo looked familiar:
[en.wikipedia.org]

Looks like you've got the wrong guy in that there photo.

Time for a do over?

@Duncan: It's a poor reporter indeed who worries about form instead of asking questions.

Severe depression can be caused by inexplicable chemical imbalances not tied to a "struggle" with anything other than the depression itself. An estimated 15% of severely depressed people commit suicide because they are simply too miserable every moment of their lives for too long, and cannot hang on hoping for things to get better. Treatment -- medication, exercise, therapy, blogging for Denton -- that works on one patient fails on another, and researchers still don't understand the mechanics.

@gfburke: Owen, watch out now, you have attracted one of the "professionally offended!"

Dude, if you weren't so busy feeling sniffy, you'd see no snark whatsoever is involved here. But please, be outraged to your heart's content! And I'm sure you'll be letting everybody know the next time someone looks at you the wrong way, too.

@Paul Boutin: Blogging for Denton is now prescribed by psychiatrists as a treatment for depression? Are there any staffers actually willing to come forward and admit that? Who are the shrinks writing this unusual prescription? And are they getting kickbacks? Sounds like a hell of a story, just waiting for some investigative reporter to dig up and expose.

And...is it working?

It's horrible that he ended an otherwise prosperous life this way. It's some consolation he left his money to a worthy beneficiary.
If you really want to chase this line Owen, why dont you figure out why it didn't go to Mike? Just Saying :-S

Weirdly, and I'm just saying, Ric Weiland is not listed as one of the subjects in the Wikipedia description of the photography. He's the only one omitted. Anyone know why or care to conjecture?