Ranxerox

Both Both Republicans And Democrats Severely Overestimate How Extreme The Other Side Is
 
The ironic thing about this is that all the factors that one would expect to lead to more accurate assessments only make things worse.

I've read about this bill. It is unconstitutional AF. Even with our current SCOTUS, I don't see it having a chance.  However, I suspect that the idea is to rile people up more than to pass actual, constitutionally enforceable law.  The numbers of young people who identify as nonbinary or trans has risen significantly, and this is freaking out a lot of people.  So, socially conservative politicians are finding anti-trans stunts a good way to both energize their base and attract new support.  IOWs, laws like this are going to keep on coming.

Calvin & Hobbes' Bill Watterson is returning to comics for "a fable for grown-ups"

There are also significant risks.  
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/staying-healthy-during-pregnancy/4-common-pregnancy-complications#:~:text=Most pregnancies progress without incident,the mother or the baby.
 
 
And when there are no exceptions based on the health of the mother...if those pre-existing conditions DO exist, it's likely rather higher than that.  

Adopting out the baby only saves a person from the work of raising the child.  Never mind all work of carrying a fetus for nine months, the act of childbirth is itself extremely difficult.  They don't call it labor for nothing.

"So shines a good deed in a weary world"
 
A homeless woman is reunited with her dog, and gets hope besides

George Santos will not serve on any committees.  However, Anthony Devolder, Anthony Zabrovsky, and Kitara Ravache will.

I don't agree with this assessment. On the whole, I think Discovery is a better series than Picard.
 
I also feel that Discovery has gotten better each season. Season 1 was very hard for me to watch just because of all the grimdark, but having Jason Isaacs and Michelle Yeoh in it made it worthwhile. Season 2 felt a lot more like Star Trek. And yeah, having Pike and Spock helped a lot.
 
But Strange New Worlds is a much better series than either Discovery or Picard.

It is not worth watching for Pike, but might be worth watching for Spock.  He had a much bigger role in Discovery than Pike.  Though it is worth noting that the Spock in the Discovery is a different Spock than the the one in TOS or even SNW.  He is a younger Spock who is still dealing with issues than his older selves had already come terms.

SCOTUS’s First Decision of the Term Is a Unanimous Blow to Disabled Veterans

The Abrams delivery is probably a token gesture to satisfy Germany. The Abrams is not only more complicated than what the Ukrainians are used to, requiring additional training; they also use jet fuel rather than diesel, which is harder to supply.
 
Russia has many tanks in the field, but they're dated and inferior to the Leopard tanks. The Leopards are also lighter, which is an advantage when crossing muddy ground.
 
I have as much faith in Russia's anti-tank weaponry, as in everything else Russia has put in the field.

I think he meant, most influenced politically by the right-wing turn in the US.
 
But what you point out is absolutely true. Alberta has more in common culturally with Montana than with Ontario, while Atlantic Canada resembles New England. It's long been observed by many people, that North America would make more sense divided up vertically rather than horizontally.

This oughtta get the Christian Nationalists fired right up:
 

The culture wars are ramping up in Florida. 
 
 

The Original Series: Adventure
The Animated Series: I watched as a child but don't remember well enough to comment
The Next Generation: Hopeful vision of the future
Deep Space 9: Ongoing story lines and moral complexity
Voyager: Didn't watch
Enterprise: Didn't watch
Discovery: Diversity and handling of emotional trauma
Picard: Nostalgia 
Lower Decks: Humor while remaining Star Trek
Prodigy: This one has lots of potential. It is extremely the cool that the entire crew is aliens.  However, it trying to attract a younger audience it dumbs itself down somewhat.  Kids are smart and that is unnecessary.
Strange New Worlds: SNW does so many things well that is hard to pick one to settle on.  Probably the best of the new Treks.

The Original Series: Adventure
The Animated Series: I watched as a child but don't remember well enough to comment
The Next Generation: Hopeful vision of the future
Deep Space 9: Ongoing story lines and moral complexity
Voyager: Didn't watch
Enterprise: Didn't watch
Discovery: Diversity and handling of emotional trauma
Picard: Nostalgia 
Lower Decks: Humor while remaining Star Trek
Prodigy: This one has lots of potential. It is extremely the cool that the entire crew is aliens.  However, it trying to attract a younger audience it dumbs itself down somewhat.  Kids are smart and that is unnecessary.
Strange New Worlds: SNW does so many things well that is hard to pick one to settle on.  Probably the best of the new Treks.

Yes, my high school was also a sinkhole filled with raw sewage.  
 
j/k

The rebuttal to that, I think, is Czar Nicholas II.  As I understand it, he didn't particularly want to be Czar, he wasn't trained very well for the job, and consequently wasn't very good at it, to the point that he crashed the entire Czarist regime.  Maybe it would have survived without the First World War, but with an heir who would have to beat very long odds to live into his twenties, that doesn't seem likely.
 
I do think that to be a good leader, one must want the job and work for the job.  But what is more important is that one must care enough about the people and the community they wish to serve to be an effective leader and act in their best interest.  And it is important that leaders think of themselves as servants, rather than masters, to have the humility to think of themselves as still one of the people, rather than set themselves above them.  I don't believe Trump had that humility, or that he cared enough about the nation and her people--and I think Melania expressed that lack of humility in that particular choice of outerwear.  And I'm mostly certain that none of the more vocal Republicans care enough about the nation and her people, either.  They just care about being in charge.

One peculiarity of GA heroes is that most will fall unconscious if you hit them over the back of head even if they are otherwise invulnerable to physical attacks.

Leopards Eat Kevin McCarthy's Face
 
If you can't read the article, that is fine.  The headline pretty much tells the whole story.

https://www.enttoday.org/article/tracheostomy-supply-shortages/?singlepage=1
 
 

We're one Hero short for 2023.
 
Darren Watts passed away on New Year's Eve

A post like this would be more appropriate for Banned Books Week, but seeing as book banning and yes, book burning is a 24/7/365 (+1 for leap year) proposition, I figure anytime is a good time for this.

There’s a significance to this particular book–in Francois Truffaut’s movie adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, this appears in the scene where the Firemen arrive at Montag’s house to burn all his books. It gets consumed in the flames along with works by Nabokov, Salinger, Miller, Twain, Melville–there’s even a book of crossword puzzles burned to ashes.

I think that scene makes a really great point–that it’s not just the works of literary significance that deserve protection; the supposedly “lowbrow” works of fiction are equally deserving. The author Theodore Sturgeon once famously said, “Ninety percent of everything is crap.” I believe that to be true, and I believe this corollary to also be true–”The ten percent that isn’t (crap) is worth fighting and dying for.” I further believe that you cannot protect the ten percent without protecting the other ninety percent. The reason this book and many like it are more easily banned is that they are considered less worthy of protection than works of literary or artistic significance–simply because they supposedly lack that significance, that merit. But again, if you’re going to protect the works that have merit, then you have to protect the works that are supposedly without merit.

So anyway–the humor in this book may be dated, but it’s still a pretty decent read. If you decide to get your own copy, I hope you enjoy it–I hope you cherish it–but most of all, I hope you keep it safe from the Firemen.  Keep all your books safe from the Firemen.

Take care, everyone--and have a Happy New Year.
 
 

It will likely take years to reach SCOTOS.  That is if it ever does.  However, being decided by a lesser court is still being decided by a court.

Paul is right.  It is an executive action.  If you look at the legislative tracker given by the your link, it list the bills status as being "Introduced".  It hasn't even been voted on, much less passed by the House and the Senate. So, Biden may have used this bill as the template for his executive action, but that doesn't make it a law.
 
As for whether or not the executive action is unconstitutional, that is for the courts to decide.