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The other card-carrying woman here (though I have been absent a bit!). Anyone impregnated should be able to get her own treatment from a provider who is trained and still willing to perform the procedure. "Late term" is not a thing. "Later abortions" happen after a fetus is expected to be developed to viability and can survive outside the uterus but are necessary due to something non-viable about the fetus (it will never be viable outside a uterus). To force someone to continue growing a fetus that will never grow a brain, or statistically speaking has a 98% chance of not surviving due to ruptured amniotic sac or other complications, or for myriad other medical issues that none of us NOT trained in obstetrics fully understand, is cruel, dangerous and unethical. Anyone trained in the science who is willing to perform the procedure in-office or by medications (has taken an oath to do no harm and still feels the procedure is appropriate), should be able to provide that health care to the patient who wants it.

Odd to even have to say this but - no blood libels. Your next ban will be your last. Either start discussing things without the Russian playbook in front of you or find a new forum to work on.

BOROWITZ: Stormy Daniels not surprised Trump’s defense was small and didn’t last long

Here’s my $0.02, for what it’s worth….if your faith makes your life better and you wanna share that then fill your fucking boots, I’m happy for you. If you want to start telling me I’m going to burn for eternity because I don’t believe in your imaginary friend, I’m happy to write you off as a person worth giving another minute of my time.

That kind of describes Hillary Clinton. If she were a man, she'd be considered a hardass who can get things done. Since she's a woman and a liberal (sort of), she's the bitch-devil incarnate. Wendy P.

(Warning - long) Winsor recently refloated the always popular nuclear-is-expensive-because-of-those-goddamn-hippies argument. Since he's not reading my posts any more, and since that's not relevant to the woke-bashing that's going on in that thread, I thought I'd break it out into a separate thread. First off, of course there is an element of cost associated with protests. When people don't like nuclear power (or aviation, or skydiving, or drag queens, or whatever) they protest, and those protests invariably make it more difficult/expensive to do whatever those people wanted to do initially - through demanding more regulation, or lobbying to deny permits, or promoting the bad over the good. In the case of nuclear power, however, that has very little to do with the rising costs. As a pilot and a skydiver, one thing I learned early on is that most aviation regulations were written in blood. The FAR that requires pilots to check the weather before they take off if they are flying to a different airport? That's not there because "bushy tailed Liberal Arts types in Boston/Cambridge" hated airplanes and wanted to screw up aviation. They are there because of the deaths of pilots who were surprised by weather after they took off. There are similar reasons for many of the regulations involved with nuclear power. The limits for worker exposure? That's not there because scaredycat liberals want to shut down nuclear power. That's because early on several people were injured and killed by radiation from poorly designed experiments and reactors. The Demon Core, for example, killed two people working with it. At that point, the risks of gamma radiation were known, but no one had been exposed to a fatal dose of neutron radiation before - something you can only get from a nuclear chain reaction, or via a very complex sort of particle accelerator. After those two deaths, more work was done on neutron radiation risks, and new limits were put in place. More regulations! Side note here - the reason most nuclear reactors are possible at all is due to a quirk of physics called "neutron cross section." It's basically the probability of a neutron hitting the nucleus of a fissile atom. Einstein's work made it clear that the slower the neutron, the more likely it was to hit that nucleus. This is important because "prompt criticality" - the sort of chain reaction we all learned about in school, and how nuclear bombs detonate - is VERY hard to regulate, since the reaction waxes and wanes over the course of hundreds of microseconds, too fast for humans to reliably control (as the physicists working with the Demon Core learned to their dismay.) However, it is possible to design nuclear reactors that cannot go prompt-critical, and can only reach criticality with delayed, or thermal, neutrons. These are neutrons that pass through a moderator (like water) and are slowed, as well as neutrons that are natually emitted from fission, just more slowly. This allows design of reactors with power time constants of seconds or tens of seconds, which makes regulation via control rods possible. Even better, if they lose their moderator (i.e. they lose coolant) the reaction slows automatically. In fact, if the reactor even just gets too hot and boils the water, the voids in the water moderator automatically reduce power generation (i.e. it has a "negative void coefficient.") This gave early reactor designers perhaps a bit too much confidence in the inherent safety of nuclear power. As people started working on reactors for power in peacetime, we saw some of those irrational emotion driven types Winsor was referring to in his post - but initally they were on the side of nuclear power. Nuclear power was so safe, easy and efficient, according to Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis Strauss, that "it is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter." He saw so much of the promise of nuclear energy (both fission and fusion) and so little of the drawbacks that the future looked rosy indeed. Turns out, though, nuclear power is hard to do well. For example, if there is a LOCA (loss of coolant accident) in water-moderated reactor, the chain reaction does indeed stop. But the fuel is now full of short lived isotopes due to the neutron bombardment during operation, and those isotopes also decay and release neutrons. Not enough to sustain a chain reaction, but enough to cause additional fission and a LOT of heat. So although the reactor has technically shut down, it will still happily melt into a puddle of spent nuclear fuel, nuclear waste, moderator and steel. And it's hard to keep a reactor full of that stuff safe. And reactor designers started discovering this almost immediately. In most parts of the world, those designers have been very lucky that their mishaps have, for the most part, not resulted in large public health threats or loss of life. The first meltdown occurred at reactor EBR-1 in Idaho in 1955. This was a breeder reactor, so different design and different coolant, but same basic idea. A power excursion caused a partial meltdown, but cooling was restored and the core solidified before anything worse happened. The next occurred at the same facility, but in a different reactor - this time an experimental boiling water reactor. It was designed to not go prompt-critical for all the reasons listed above. However, when a technician removed a single control rod from the reactor, it did indeed go prompt-critical. Fortunately the core disassembled itself before nuclear weapon yields were reached, but the power excursion (20 gigawatts in a reactor designed to handle 3 megawatts) caused an explosion that killed three men in a fairly gruesome fashion. How could this have happened? This reactor was designed to be SAFE! It could not go prompt critical! Turns out two factors allowed this. One, some of the neutron poisons inside the reactor (that reduce reactivity) had corroded and flaked off. Two, it turns out that it takes water some milliseconds to boil, and this event happened in microseconds, so the voids could not form fast enough to shut down the reaction. Lesson learned. More regulation of nuclear power plant operation. In 1977, the nuclear reactor at the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant had its coolant level drop while the reactor was powered down, exposing the fuel elements to air (actually steam.) A hydrogen explosion occurred, which damaged the reactor and seriously injured one worker. How could this have happened? There's no hydrogen in a reactor! Where did it come from? The hot fuel elements, clad in zirconium, reacted with the steam to generate the hydrogen. Lesson learned. More regulation of nuclear power plant operation. Then Chernobyl happened. Fortunately for us the RBMK reactor is so different from US designs that a similar accident almost certainly can't happen here. But again the accident was due to something that no one had considered - that there is an operating regime for a reactor where poisons build up so quickly that it shuts down the reactor, and when they burn off (as they do eventually) then the reactor can restart so violently that it, again, goes prompt critical. So probably no effect on US reactors; ours can't go prompt critical. Although we initially thought the same thing about the SL-1 reactor in Idaho. Lesson learned. This time, no new regulations for the US. There are about a dozen of these. Three Mile Island, the most visible US incident, was the result of two mechanical failures and three coincident operator errors. And despite all the reassurances from the utility, the incident came very close to a containment breach - most of the core did in fact melt down, and a lot of it ended up on the bottom of the vessel. During the investigation, it was discovered that valves to the emergency feedwater supply were closed and never opened, there was no clear indication on the reactor status panel that the PORV was stuck open, and an operator actually shut off the emergency high pressure injection system. So failures of training, equipment and instrumentation. Lesson learned. More regulation of nuclear power plant operation. Then outside the US came Fukushima. A textbook case of how to shut down a nuclear reactor in an emergency, and everything looked good. But then a tidal wave damaged - not the reactor, not the control room, but the power lines and the generators that provided cooling water for the reactors when shut down. And THEY melted down. So failure to take into account protection of the entire plant - not just the reactor. Lesson learned. More regulation of nuclear power. These new lessons are why it's so hard to build new nuclear power plants. Recently the first nuclear reactor in decades opened at the Vogtle facility in Georgia. This was a simplified Gen IV design that's referred to as "walk-away safe" - no power needed to cool the reactor after an emergency shutdown. It was so simple that an early ad from GE for the reactor's original design touted "first concrete to fuel load in 36 months." From the beginning of the planning to the first operation took 20 years and came in $20 billion over budget. No protesters, just contractors screwing up, companies folding, and the usual very high level of quality required at a facility designed to safely contain a nuclear chain reaction. I keep hoping that, someday, we will get a Gen IV reactor design (or, heck, even a fusion reactor) that does indeed meet the promise made by Strauss all those years ago. What keeps us from getting there is not those goddamn hippies, and it's not evil liberals in suits toting briefcases. It's the fact that nuclear power is hard to do well, and we as a society have (wisely) demanded that it's done right.

Sexual immorality is just a construct. The only immorality would be if someone is taking advantage of a child or a person otherwise not able to give informed consent. Homosexual sex is not immoral. Men entering the priesthood then using the posistion of trust to take advantage of children is immoral. Likewise it is not immoral for a boy or a girl to feel they don't fit your expectations of their sexuality. It is a struggle, and it may be very difficult for them, but it is not immoral.

I thought all the QAnon, MAGA nutters quit watching football when that negro boy took a knee.

And have a great holiday season.

Texas AG Paxton is threatening to prosecute regardless of te court's order. Beto O'Rouke summed it up nicely: “This is Texas AG Ken Paxton saying he’ll throw a woman’s doctors in prison for life if they perform a *court-granted* abortion on a *nonviable* pregnancy that risks causing her permanent infertility and death,” he said. “Still think the GOP is pro-life?” O’Rourke added.

BREAKING; James Comer announces that they have found proof that Christmas presents Hunter Biden received in 1976 Were actually from Joe Biden And not in fact from Santa Claus Several elves are expected to give depositions

These are the same people who think that The Donald is well-characterized by their T-shirts likening him to the second coming; who think that it's better to hurt someone you disagree with than it is to improve your own lot, because perception is reality. Me, I moved to a place where I can buy local produce and meat much of the year, and support local businesses instead of big box stores. Where I can hike and bike from close to home, and where small towns DO try things. Like setting up community care departments, to offload mental health calls from the police. Like improving rather than defunding their libraries. Like buying hybrid vehicles for public departments. Like helping to fund public transit. Like having local newspapers. Like valuing education to the degree that nearly every kid in the state has access to a good vocational school (most with a waiting list) as well as a regular high school. And, yes, studying reparations. Life is good. Wendy P.

Donald Trump called Georgia looking for 11,780 votes. Fani Willis is only going to need 12.

Went to a talk last night with George Takei and John Cho (both Sulus from the Star Trek films) at UCSD. George was very eloquent. They both talked about the role a bit. Then the moderator asked them about their childhoods, and George talked about growing up in an internment camp. Then they went over to John who didn't say anything for a second. "I have no idea how I follow _that_" he finally said. George Takei was taken from his home in LA to a Japanese internment camp when he was 5, because he was Japanese and the Japanese had just attacked Pearl Harbor. All his family's money was taken. Their house was sold. All their possessions were taken. They were stripped naked. They were first imprisoned in a horse stall; their family of four was in one stall. They all got sick from sleeping on dung, but fortunately survived. They were then moved from camp to camp over the next five years, ending up in a mosquito infested camp on a bayou in Arkansas. And every morning they'd line everyone up in the mud and forced them to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. And every time he got to the "with liberty and justice for all" part he'd look around the prison camp they were in and think that perhaps that America was fibbing about that part. He also talked about growing up as a gay man, and how he had to hide who he was for decades from a Hollywood that would have fired him instantly if they had known. Finally he was able to come out in 2005 and admit to the relationship he'd had for the past 20 years. In 2008 they were married, and when they re-outlawed gay marriage in California later in 2008, they were both amused, thinking about what a fun court case it would be if republicans tried to forcibly divorce them. Then Prop 8 was overturned and it was a moot point. His unique perspective - a man who has had his rights taken away TWICE by America - has led him to be very politically active. When the US government finally paid him reparations for throwing him in jail for four years he donated it all to an Asian civil rights group. He's also very aware how tenuous people's rights are and how easily they can be taken away. He talked about FDR, a guy he otherwise respected, giving in to fear and starting up the internment camp program. And he cautioned that if you start with a guy that does NOT have the sort of morals that FDR had, then the damage he can do to civil rights will be that much greater. His words - “I consider it my responsibility as an American citizen to actively participate, particularly because I know my childhood imprisonment - the unjust imprisonment. If we don't participate, if we don't educate our fellow Americans to the vulnerability of our democracy, how fragile it can be, then we're not being responsible citizens.” Sometimes we forget how fragile our rights are.

I can't. Biden is boring and old, but has done well so far. He will get more boring and more old, and likely not survive his next term, or will be 25th'ed out. In which case the presidency will be in disarray and nothing much will get done. Which is not the worst outcome. Trump is an active danger to America. He has long campaigned on retribution and vengeance, and has stated he will be a "dictator" for a short time, and that he wants to "terminate" the "phony" Constitution. That's an active threat to America. One could claim "well, he won't be able to do that" - but ten years ago I am sure no one would have thought he could mount an insurrection, get abortion de-legalized or put Putin on a pedestal, either. If he accomplishes even 25% of what he sets out to do, he will have damaged the US significantly. Also, he is just plain evil. You can explain away greedy business decisions ("it's for the stockholders!") having a drug addict son, treating your kids poorly ("they're just not good kids") even working to take rights away from women ("the states should decide.") But you cannot pursue a stranger into a changing room and rape them without being inherently evil. And I don't want the US led by an evil man. The choice, for me, is very clear. The US is too important to me to ignore the threat.

As per SOP, you're coming here and telling a group largely made up of moderates what moderates believe, based on what you've been spoon-fed by your right-wind media diet. Does it take a lot of effort to remain so willfully ignorant that you post this in a thread where several people, including me, have detailed their support for Biden? There's zero doubt that he's increasingly looking like a horrible campaigner right now, but that doesn't negate what he has, and could continue to do as President.

I read that she won her primary. Georgia Trumpsters are probably gnashing their teeth....Oops!....tooth.

Within days? I can name someone who is fined for contempt, and does it again the same evening.

New episode out now! DB Cooper was a Metallurgist with my good friend Drew Daniel. https://thecoopervortex.podbean.com/e/db-cooper-was-a-metallurgist-drew-daniel/ Enjoy!

My memory is that you didn’t really like Trump, but felt it was more important to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House, so you voted for him. Id submit that Trump is a greater threat to how our country operates; one of the best things about the US is that we trust our succession, and that the person fills the position, not that the position is wrapped around the person. But that was threatened in 2020, and Trump has made it clear that he doesn’t intend to accept a loss this year, that he plans to pardon people who consider an invasion of the Capitol and the shenanigans that went along with it to be OK. In addition, his need for personal loyalty (rather than to the position) is very concerning. Personally, I consider this to be a significant threat to the structure of the country. Wendy P.

As promised. Video about the Clara letter. It’s about 45 minutes. The first 30 are about Stylometry and how it refutes the claims that Barb is Clara. The last 15 are on Barb in general. You should be able to play it at 1.25 or even 1.5 to get through it quicker.

Democrats shouldn't be trying to negotiate exceptions, like 15 weeks; rape, incest or health of the pregnant person; etc. They should come at this from the other side: all medical procedures are allowable, with the decision resting between the person needing/wanting the procedure and the medical provider. If someone wants an exception, they have to show why any procedure should be prohibited or disallowed.

There may be an easier way to stop being called a troll. Think hard and deep, it just might come to you.

Federal funds for fuel retailers? Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 was considered a large Federal contribution of funds to support gas stations. PPP funds for fuel retailers? $380 BILLION???? Numerous States have provided funding for fuel stations to replace and upgrade fueling equipment. SBA provides low interest loans to gas stations. huh....it's just too easy. Every. Damn. Time. So yeah, ZERO efforts by some to investigate or put any effort into anything besides the "OMG THE SKY IS FALLING AND NOTHING WILL FIX THE WORLD SO I DON'T CARE YOU'RE ALL WRONG AND THE PLANET IS blah blah blah blah blah blah" Trolls gotta troll.

As a person with eyes that can read the words you post here, it is obvious that you’ve got some balls to try to suggest that you’re an independent.

And in the last 5 Presidential election cycles the Kentucky governor election predicted the presidential outcome, so this means it is like totally mathematically impossible for Trump to win.

You made a very incorrect statement that I don't like to answer questions. The reality is that I refuse to get suckered into dead-end conversations with the "yeah, but" crowd. Look through the forums and you will see that I answer questions routinely for anyone with a desire to have a sincere conversation on any subject. When I sat down to write this, I planned to address your post in great detail. After re-reading my own words, I've changed my mind. I will not take the bait. You know as well as I do that there is no acceptable level of injuries or fatalities in skydiving. There is no skydiving discipline designed or intended as a tool for growth, so making a connection between them and any intended promotional value is a false narrative. Here are the facts: CP is a legitimate, internationally recognized discipline. In accordance with USPA bylaws, we support all ISC recognized disciplines. CP is dangerous. Statistically it's more dangerous than other skydiving disciplines. Welcome to reality. All forms of skydiving are dangerous. I wholeheartedly support all of them. Finally, you suggested that I must either believe that CP injuries and fatalities are "worth it", or that I haven't "actually thought about it seriously". Brother, you are way off base. There is NOTHING in skydiving that I haven't thought about seriously. Pretty much every moment of every day. Anyone who knows me and my priorities knows that. Five left and cut.

That's a shame. :-( Proud Boys’ Enrique Tarrio gets record 22 years in prison for Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy

Like a drunk using a light post. More for support than illumination.

Plus he is a rapist.

thanks for not answering my question..... I have come to expect that from you. Trump did in fact suggest suspending parts of the constitution. And he is in fact, 'Satan in human form'. He attempted to overthrow an election and still to this day denies the outcome of the election. He did in fact steal millions from his charity, his corporation did indeed get convicted of 13 felony counts of fraud, his associates and confidants are in fact convicted felons... I could go on with a dozen other factual examples or more, Of course you, like all the other trumpie supporting types cannot even bring yourselves to admit that these things happened, thus saving you the respectful civic duty of justifying your support for this human piece of fucking garbage seditious cunt.

I sincerely wish America was as concerned about school shootings as they are ear shootings.

Yeah. Jakee of course I am. See, this is why I block you at times - not contributing solutions, looking for bits and pieces of what people post just to keep it going in an ongoing circular loop. Setting up for the spike. Just add to the conversation, man.

The Scotts have realized Trump can no longer enter Scotland.

I don't see justice as shame. I honestly thought he'd buy/threaten/intimidate his way out of this one. Seeing that even a former president is being held accountable for his crimes is a good indication that America is not as corrupt as it seemed yesterday. And that's a good thing.

Late term abortions done for shits and giggles do not happen so going there is going nowhere. Nor is the decision made by a back room coin toss. I can hardly think of a more serious, weighty, and difficult decision to be made. As such, it must be made without any interference by any organization and only by the woman and her doctors. What that means is that I would always err on the side of the chance for abortions being made in error or owing to bad medical advice and not at all owing to some arbitrary point in time you and I agreed upon for what can only be seen as specious reasons.

The Liberal justices really missed an opportunity to ask: If Biden were to order the assassination of the conservative members of this court because of their inability to place law before politics, do you believe Biden would have presidential immunity?

I'm pleased to say that a new law in Illinois (where abortion is safe and legal) prevents providing vehicle license plate information to any state if the request is due to an attempt by said state to prevent a woman to coming to IL to obtain an abortion.

I planted thousands of apple trees 2 weeks ago and they've produced zero apples so far. At this rate we will see the heat death of the universe before a single fruit has grown!! Grocery Stores are a scam! I gave my wife the grocery list and $200 a few mins ago and have no groceries in my pantry WTF? $200 is already gone from my wallet, you'd have to be delusional to make a list for groceries.

Winsor prefers to talk at us not to us.

I agree on not censoring. I also am not sure that some of the prolific posting is trolling but rather an indication of lack of critical thinking ability and being extremely gullible. I will admit I find some of the conspiracy posts annoying as they are devoid of any logic and end up being an endless loop of the same tired arguments and tit for tat insults.

I'm firmly on both sides. I like cats, had cats in the house growing up, but don't want to own one now. On the other hand I am the meany who knows that they are just another form of livestock and they are not "fur babies". Feral cats should not be allowed to exist if anything can be done to eliminate them. Pretty much the same goes for dogs. Spending stupid amounts of money on animals that are sick and should be put down also bothers me. I know, the haters are going to hate on me.

Well I do have an advanced degree, but it's why it's good I cite reputable sources and show my working in maths right? Hey that's a bit extreme, I *have* graduated university, those lefty brainwashing factories right? And I restrict myself to mostly these topics. I don't really understand the long and complex history about Israel and what's happening there now. But tech and climate change I do understand, and it's going to affect me for quite a long time so I speak up when there's blatant misinformation going around.

That assumes that they’re able to think past the current news cycle, which I think is giving them more credit than they deserve.

I'm surprised Santos isn't getting any votes. Wendy P.

New episode out now! DB Cooper Didn't Get What He Wanted with Jude Morrow. Enjoy! https://thecoopervortex.podbean.com/e/db-cooper-didn-t-get-what-he-asked-for-jude-morrow/

"Republicans: The Left wants to impose mask mandates because they want to control your life. Also Republicans: The government has the right to decide what gender you are, who you can love or marry, which books you can read and what you can or cannot do with your own bodies." Xitter (pronounced: shitter) - JoJoFromJerz

Fauci injected Prighozhin with 5G nanotrackers in order to kill him because Prighozhin fights for freedom, and Fauci hates freedom. Then Antifa got hold of the Jewish space lasers and used the trackers to target and kill him. Then Hillary Clinton got his blood to use for her adenochrome perversions. It all fits together!

Ok so I got my mental bleach ready and actually gave those bastards the click they wanted just to check out what kind of shite they were peddling. First, where in the flying fuck do you get that they are trusted by either side? Check out their Twitter feed, they’re rabidly pro-Russia. They literally sell merchandise and clothing with pictures of destroyed and damaged Ukrainian armoured vehicles. You should be fucking ashamed of yourself for promoting the glorification of war and conquest in that way. Second, even they said inside the first two minutes of that video that the claim of Ukraine committing its last reserves was part of a Russian disinformation campaign. Yet here you are stating it as fact. And you try and convince us that you’re not just Putin’s little lapdog, brainwashed into cheerleading for his vicious and brutal war?

So where did we end up here? Donald Trump is a creepy weirdo who has mused on multiple occasions in public and private about sleeping with his own daughter… but he didn’t actually say the word fuck. Well that was a great point worth making.