Pattern Ghost

Las Vegas Pigeons sounds like it should be our next sports expansion team. Maybe we can get the Raiders to re-brand.

The important thing to remember though is that Cassandra won't like it whatever they do.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been renewed for two more seasons

Nah, it was a young Stephen Wright joke.

An acre is easy to picture. Just picture a rectangle that's one chain by one furlong.

It's been a long time.  A full century since the declaration of the end of hostilities.  The repercussions are still with us today. 

I think they'd have shot those people anyway. It's what they do. I think the bigger issue is that we're propping up groups like the Nigerian Army in an effort to fight the extremists, when they're no better. Our government has a long history of doing that, and has continued to do so under every administration in recent history.

Although they do have some interesting twists, I agree. However, throwing around huge gobs of polyhedral dice never gets old.

One thing that sucks about mail in ballots is no "I Voted" stickers.

This is just insane (HugeBillboard with Trump's face and the biblical quote "The Word became flesh - John 1:14") 
 
I honestly don't understand how any Christian who has even a passing familiarity with their own religion could support this. 

I kinda think that is the most likely outcome. I mean, I certainly hope it is. Naturally, we have to go through a few years of watching them fumble around until they realize they should have just stayed with the aggregators. I think Disney is really the only one with enough irresistible content and marketplace muscle to make their streaming service viable long term. I'd rather see the free market force the inevitable course correction rather than have the government step in the way they did with the movie studios back in the day. But who knows how long that will take; letting nature take its course can often be the slowest path to recovery.

Ah, and I'm usually a stickler for language. I'll correct the original, thanks.
 
Thanks for the detailed reply. I hope the impact is minimal and the next administration gets things back on track. (And I hope the current batch can't do too much more damage to basic human dignity in the interim.)

Sorry, we're working hard to get Pattern Ghost Volcanic back online.

I noticed Ant Man2 on a Red Box machine I walked by yesterday, so they either have it or it'll be on it soon. If you haven't used Red Box before, then setting up a new account might net you a freebie rental. They tend to give away either free rentals (for DVD, but not much to upgrade to Blue Ray) or two-fer deals on a regular basis. Also fairly cheap with no deals.

That's one of the things the two have always had in common. I don't think the DCEU's crappy portrayal of Superman has anything to do with their decent depiction of Wonder Woman.

Ah, and I'm usually a stickler for language. I'll correct the original, thanks.
 
Thanks for the detailed reply. I hope the impact is minimal and the next administration gets things back on track. (And I hope the current batch can't do too much more damage to basic human dignity in the interim.)

Ah, and I'm usually a stickler for language. I'll correct the original, thanks.
 
Thanks for the detailed reply. I hope the impact is minimal and the next administration gets things back on track. (And I hope the current batch can't do too much more damage to basic human dignity in the interim.)

That's one of the things the two have always had in common. I don't think the DCEU's crappy portrayal of Superman has anything to do with their decent depiction of Wonder Woman.

That's one of the things the two have always had in common. I don't think the DCEU's crappy portrayal of Superman has anything to do with their decent depiction of Wonder Woman.

DC Comics showed they could do a successful reboot -- once. Their successive reboots were highly questionable. Warner has not had even one such success to inspire confidence. Moreover, Crisis on Infinite Earths was conceived of from the beginning as a universe-resetting event, not tacked on to something else as an afterthought. And it was spaced out over twelve issues in an entire year, not crammed into one movie.

I've bowed out of the political threads in general to avoid exploding in rage, but I checked in to see if this had come up here, since it's super relevant to me.
 
This is a "get out the vote" ploy, but it isn't just a "get out the vote" ploy. If you don't think that this administration will follow through on this, I believe that you are sadly mistaken. The DOJ has also filed a brief statement dating that employers should be able to discriminate based on gender identity[4]. The only reason trans folk haven't been kicked out of the military en masse is because the order is held up in court. Whether this administration hates us, or is just using us as a scapegoat, it doesn't matter. They want us gone.
 
 
First, a note, transgender is an adjective, not a verb, so it's "transgender person, not "transgendered person." Not a huge deal, but I wanted to point it out. [1]
 
Now the main question, real world effects:
 
Immediate legal effects are minimal. The administration can interpret Title IX however they want, but they can't change the actual law. For good or ill, it's up to the courts to interpret the law, and congress to change the law if they don't care for the interpretation.
 
That said, the administration (as noted above) can weigh in on any lawsuits brought under Title IX, and they can sway the courts. and given the new composition of the Supreme Court, I don't hold out a lot of hope for any sane decision on this topic there. There's worse the administration can do, but I'll come back to that.
 
The government is also messing with us on passports. There was a clear cut process for changing the gender marker on one's passport, and the admin says that the process hasn't changed, but we are fining our requests rejected for spurious reasons. I ended up with only a "provisional" passport, even though every piece of my documentation was exactly as requested. Initially they declined to give me even that and I had to push.

You ask if trans folk can participate in activities as individuals of their actual gender[2][3], as opposed to the gender they were assigned at birth. The answer there is a resounding "maybe." It's works differently in different places in the country. In some places, we're completely acknowledged as our actual gender. In others, they'll leave a trans girl to die in the hallways during an active shooter drill because they think a trans girl in the girls bathroom is scarier than a psycho with a gun. Various cases are winding through the courts to establish which of our rights the government will actually acknowledge. Over all, the trend has been going toward fully acknowledging our gender.
 
And that leads us to the worse thing the DOJ can do. Armed with this (mis)interpretation of Title IX, I expect them to start filing suits against the places that do treat us as our true gender, claiming that it is sex discrimination to allow "men" in woman only spaces. They wouldn't even have to initiate the suit. They could just join one of several in progress around the country.
 
Combined, these are a clear sign that our identities are under attack. If they invalidate my gender for federal purposes, will any of my ID even be valid? Since Real ID exists, probably not. Which makes it impossible for me to get a job. Or vote. Sure, I'd have a couple of choices. I could get a new ID with an "M" on it. I'm lucky enough to mostly pass. That would have me outing myself in every situation that I needed to present an ID. Or, I could go completely back in the closet. Walk around pretending to be a guy. 
 
Beyond all of the legal ramifications, though, there's another, more immediate effect. By further marginalizing and demonizing us, the administration is signaling to the people out there who already hate us that we do not enjoy the protection of the state. That we are fair game. It is virtually inevitable that this will ratchet up the rhetoric and even violence against us. And if they get there way, there will be bathroom bills across the country, requiring me to use the men's room. So I'd have to either not exist in public, risk my life using the wrong restroom, or break the law on a regular basis and end up in men's jail. How well do you think I'd fare there?.
 
In conclusion, this administration wants people like me gone. I get the impression they'd prefer us dead, but they'll settle for back in the closet.
 
Well, I'm not going back in the closet.
 
[1] Also, some people probably do find "transsexual" offensive, so it would be rude to use it them. I think most of us just find it archaic and annoying. A few of us (but not me) even still use it to describe ourselves. Language. Go figure.
[2] My paraphrase.(I don't want to put words in your mouth).
[3] I'm not going to go into it here, but the sex vs. gender distinction is not as clear as many would like. The science is pretty clear that the idea of two distinct sexes is convenient shorthand, but woefully over-simplified.
[4] This is actually a threat to way more than just us trans and other LGBTQfolks, but that's another discussion.[5]
[5] yes, that footnote was out of order. Sorry.[6]
[6] Not sorry.
 
 
 

Tom Hiddleston: The choices we make have a lasting impact. Not just on ourselves, but on those around us. On our communities. Even on the world. When considering the question before us, we must take into account--
 
Clerk, interrupting: Sir, I just need to know whether you want paper or plastic.

There's no debate.  Betty was hotter and less psycho than Wilma.

I think the cis- prefix certainly has a place in an academic discussion, especially as relates to gender studies. It's good to be precise in certain contexts. The main problem I have with the term's insertion into everyday vernacular is that it's not necessary in almost every case that it's used. Most of the time I've seen it used in conversation or debate, it comes off as an attempt on the part of the user to elevate themselves above the unenlightened. Kind of like when a fresh college grad runs around asking everyone in their family "did you know?" (or one in my family that still does it ten or more years post-grad) when the answer is inevitably, "Yes, I've known that since I was in grade* school."
 
I haven't seen the episode, and I don't intend to, since the show looks bad in many other aspects. But, being human, and this being the internet, I'm going to voice an opinion: Dr. Device gave a pretty good rationalization for the use of the word possibly being in context. However, having seen several interviews with show runners and the actresses, I'm fairly certain that the use was simply a case of ham-fisted attempt at virtue signaling. I say this because the interviews indicated that this was a show that would be broadcast from atop a soapbox. Which is OK. It's just not a style I prefer. 
 
 
*note the "e", I did indeed mean "grade" and not "grad."
 
 

After careful consideration of my dwindling reserve of SAN points, I have decided that I am not going to look at that link.