The Logan Act deals with private citizens negotiating with foreign governments. Unless he fucked with Starlink at the direct request of the Russian gov't, I don't see how the Logan Act applies. EDIT: apparently he did it after speaking with Russian government officials. So never mind, Logan Act is absolutely implicated.

You know how they seal kids teeth, and insurance covers it? It basically keeps kids from getting cavities until the sealant eventually wears off. Well, they could put the same sealant on adults. But they don’t.

Biden is not even in the same league of asshattery as Pelosi and Feinstein, despite a long career and being in the Executive twice. I’ll never forget Pelosi talking down to a high school student who asked her a question about economic equity—I don’t remember the kid’s question, but her response is seared into my brain. She got pissy and said “America is a capitalist country” like capitalism was handed down from god on high or enshrined in the Constitution. It was contemptuously delivered, to a degree as bad as I once heard Rick Santorum speak to a student who asked him about LGBTQ rights.

Feinstein was a regressive in a lot of ways, perhaps she escaped being labeled a DINO because her votes were more important than her sometimes asinine rhetoric.

Why the fuck is it Elizabeth Warren speaking up and the Executive is totally mum? My GOP dad thinks Muskovite fucked up majorly, caused Ukrainians to die, and should be punished. Not that he’s a bellwether, but if he thinks it was wrong, many other GOP folks do as well. Fuck billionaires playing demigods. Warren speaking up is a GOP poison pill and a guaranteed “that’s what the rich are allowed to do, frail mortal!” moment where nothing fucking happens. EDIT: I love Warren. But she gets as much traction as a jr house member.

I bet they do crypto for content. Icky.

Can't we just agree that religions that teach women are subservient to men should be opposed? A concept of religious freedom that gives parents/fathers the right to compel observance on their children under threat of beatings or death is a fucked up sense of freedom. I don't blame France for trying to protect their secular society by banning religiously-derived garb in public schools - removing the power of parents to dictate such garb gives kids a chance early on to make up their own mind - do they like the freedom from family-mandated othering they experience at school, or do they like displaying that they are subserviant to men when compelled by their family?

I suspect that such decisions are being driven by fear of tort liability WAY more than any religious or social beliefs of the medical practitioners. I’m not trying to argue in favor of denying women needed medical treatment in any way, shape, or form—it’s just that my lawyer senses are tingling, and I wonder if this is an area where Doctors are overall more likely to get sued if they offer the treatment than deny the treatment. Any MDs in here want to offer a more informed opinion of what the F is going on with such denial of care situations?

For all of those who are down voting the nope, read the instructions on how to apply in the post. You all failed that trick test teachers handed out in grade school, where if you actually read the instructions, it tells you to put your name on the paper and put down your pencil without trying to answer any of the questions on the test, because the test is “do you pay attention to shit” not “do you know the answers”.

Model (USA) Rule of Evidence 407: Subsequent remedial measures are not admissible as evidence to prove negligence, culpable conduct, a defect in a product or its design, or a need for a warning or instruction.

But the court may admit this evidence for another purpose, such as impeachment or — if disputed — proving ownership, control, or the feasibility of precautionary measures

EDIT: I’m not looking up the contextualing comments that accompany the rule, but I will share what I remember from law school many years ago: this rule exists for public safety. You don’t want to penalize fixing a dangerous situation, regardless of the facts of any specific case.

Don’t disparage the Commodore 64. It was actually a TI-99/4a.

The fundamentalist’s lack of a sense of humor is not my problem.

Fucking hate this. There is a local public meeting that starts with a prayer to the Evangelical God in Jesus’s name that I’m forced to attend because of my job. I hate being essentially compelled to participate in prayer. The SCOTUS precedent supporting this is 100000000% Christian bias.

Excellent. Now I know that there are different classes of heat pump. Mine is not for prolonged crazy-low temps, others are. Thank you.

As an attorney that worked for Legal Aid in a past life, I offer the observation that people in poverty have an entirely different experience with the legal system than folks who are not desperately poor. A traffic ticket turns into an inescapable pile of court debt, your license gets suspended because of the debt, but you have to drive to get to work. You get caught driving on a suspended license then you miss your first court date because the notice went to an old address that you were evicted from, then you are late to your second court date because your boss wouldn't let you out the door. Then your kid gets sick and you miss another date, but your phone is dead and you can't call the court, and the judge throws your ass in jail for contempt. You miss work, you lose your job. You are absolutely panicking, and possibly incredibly cynical and angry to boot. Once you've got the system looking at you, the attention offers numerous ways to fuck you thirty times to Tuesday, in ways that reach beyond the direct action of the system.

I am not justfying crime, but I have seen enough variations of the aforementioned scenario to understand that for some, this translates into an extremely nihilistic view of a very small world where the morality of certain behavior stops being evaluated.

Again, not excusing responsibility, but just sharing what I've encountered - I've also witnessed people that seem like perfectly well adjusted folks who suddenly commit shockingly criminal acts, and seeing this transformation occur, it is clear that something just isn't right in their head. Don't know if it's nature or nuture, but they're subtly broken and there's probably not a damn thing that can fix them. These folks are far fewer in number than folks driven by worldview shaped by desperation.

They built a barbed wire topped chain link fence between a middle class townhome neighborhood in Chapel Hill and a working class apartment neighborhood in Carrboro. It was actually the owner of the working class apartment complex that put it up. I lived in the nicer neighborhood. Many people, myself included, were opposed to the fence. Nevertheless, the impact was an almost immediate and complete cessation of window-smashing/car robbing epidemic that plagued the nicer neighborhood. It being Chapel Hill/Carrboro, bolt cutters were soon employed. Fence had cycles of breached/repaired. Whenever fence is intact, no car break-ins but no social justice or whatever. I never felt so conflicted.

On my commute home yesterday I encountered a "wide load" convoy that was hauling a millionaire's yacht down the highway. Not a mega-yacht, just a yacht. I don't care that it was just a millionaire's yacht, I felt compelled to roll down the window and give it the bird.

Nederlanders actually are able to talk to each other, come up with solutions to intractable problems, and plan beyond the next political cycle. They also have empty churches.

The problem with high density housing is that the quality is shit. The quality is shit with lower density housing too, but things like thin walls in apartments goes a long way to people wanting to join in the sprawl. Developers fight tooth and nail against any regulations that are focused on QOL or environmental improvements (like "passive house" standards) and promise that they will make it cost far more than necessary if they are so burdened.

Just do what I did. Fuck around like Don Juan, marry a sexually incompatible person to stabilize your life, get fed up with incompatibility, divorce, do the same thing again, divorce, and luck into a new relationship with someone who knows how to both scratch your itch and not spiral your life.

They’d close the library as a fuck you.