The Frankish Reich

I had access (not through, umm, official channels) only to straight pr0n. Which, I assume, is why I am straight. Which brings me to my question: underlying all the storm and fury about exposing kids to "gay pr0n" isn't there a fear that your kids are going to be turned gay? Assuming you are straight, do you really believe that you could be gay today if you found a stash of gay pr0n in your brother's closet?

Yes, that too. So let's add that to the question - "other than demonstrated medical reasons or well-established religious exemptions."

What people forget is that this is a so-called "impeachment inquiry." Not an "embarrassing influence peddling inquiry."

Moms For Liberty is the classic astro-turf group, created by a bunch of Republican activists masquerading as regular old "concerned moms." That is why Bridget Ziegler's role and personal life is - and will always be - relevant. It exposed the organization for what it really is. Phony. A lot of you fell for it hook, line, and sinker. The cure for being embarrassed doesn't start with biting again.

Good luck with that one. https://torontosun.com/news/world/schools-out-board-boots-threeway-sex-loving-moms-for-liberty-co-founder "Moms for Liberty" will never live this down. Prediction: they'll change their name.

Right, and let's start with this!

It would have been a lot more enjoyable to watch that Florida "Throuple" woman interviewed.

It has for me. This is why I couldn't get into the Coach Prime Colorado Buffaloes. I've understood for a long, long time that there's money under the table for top athletic recruits. But I was kind of able to segment my mind to think of these kids as still somehow representative of the University of Colorado student body, etc. With NIL payments and open transfers, that suspension of disbelief ended. Coach Prime's son driving a Rolls Royce. A flood of transfers coming in a maybe staying for one year, basically one semester of classes, a lot of which are athlete-specific. This is what happened to me with college basketball and the "one-and-dones." Throwing on a school's jersey for one year, getting a C average in one semester of classes, and then walking away? In what way am I rooting for "Duke" or "North Carolina?" These kids are so obviously ringers that I can no longer buy in to the connection to the school. Why not just watch the NBA. Which is what I now do.

Rape by (thankfully) short fingers.

https://www.salon.com/2024/03/04/he-looks-lost-alarm-after-mind-blanks-out-repeatedly-during-speech/ check out the 1:01 mark of the Morning Joe montage.

So is there anyone here who DISAGREES with the following proposition: "Immunization against measles should be required for all children unless that child's parents can show a well-established religious basis (not merely personal belief) for an exemption."

True, but you are mixing up a couple things. The International Court of Justice (the old so-called "World Court") is not subject to a U.S. (or other country's) veto in its decision-making. The U.S. has been found to be in violation of international law before, and Israel may be now. That's separate (but related) to the question of enforcement of such an order. And here you're correct. But that doesn't make an ICJ decision meaningless, which is why the accused countries actually defend themselves before that court.

In other words, the "clorox thing" is not like the others.

Same speech included some garbled attempt to say something about Saudi Arabia, coming out like someone having a TIA.

I had to look it up too. Good one! Can't see the old mushroom tip without a mirror. Can't wait for that testimony in the Stormy trial.

A good question: how do we evaluate a presidential appointee? - is he/she a good soldier in trying to advance the President's agenda? If so, then Mayorkas is the ideal company man. He's not out there on a limb trying to execute his own policy initiatives. The Biden agenda has been to avoid using things like detention to "punish" illegal immigrants, and that is exactly what Mayorkas has done. - is he/she a creative problem solver when faced with new problems? Here, Mayorkas is a total failure. He (along with the White House) seemed to have no understanding that lenient treatment of illegal immigrants creates a feedback loop that encourages more illegal immigration. This should have been obvious from the start, and if not then, well certainly by the post-COVID wave. We'd like our appointees to be more than just yes men. A yes man is what he is. For that, he gets an F grade. So my grades on the key appointees, with these two factors in mind? First, the big ones: AG, State, Treasury, Defense: - Garland: B-. Plus: eliminated the utter chaos of the Trump Admin (Acting Actings, etc.). Minus: showed a lack of political skill in handling sensitive prosecutions. - Blinken: B. Plus: superb old-fashioned diplomatic work in bringing the EU/NATO together in support of Ukraine, including pulling in NATO agnostics like Sweden. Minus: continued to advance some iffy Israel/Middle East policies. In hindsight, the Trump Admin's "Abraham Accords" caused more harm than good, disrupting a delicate balance. Biden and Trump continued on that route, which has generally been considered to be a key motivating factor for the horrible Hamas attacks and ensuing war. A strategic reevaluation was in order; it never happened. - Yellen: B. Yes, went along with the ill-advised final Biden stimulus. But not surprisingly, after that, she worked well with the Fed's efforts to rein in inflation and restore some sense of normality to monetary policy. If we continue on the soft landing path, she will deserve a good measure of credit. - Austin: B. Again, fine work on keeping the western world together on Russia/Ukraine. Obviously his failure to disclose his health issues call into question whether he remains the right man for the job. Others have, as usual, been on the sidelines. There's really nothing much to say about them other than they've largely avoided scandal, which isn't nothing ...

Agreed. Extremely weak response. Impeachment or not, I can't believe that Biden hasn't fired him.

Here we go again. Taco Bell order $20? https://www.tacobell.com/food/deals-and-combos/build-your-own-cravings-box That one's $5.99 for over 1,000 calories. Not including the big Mountain Dew.

Are the wildfires in Texas anywhere near as huge as those in Canada last year? Have they resulted in unhealthy air quality over huge swathes of the United States? Silly talking point.

Yes, this reference makes some sense. And this is just ignorant nonsense. What is Clorox bleach? Chlorine! It's in every municipal water supply so that you don't get nasty things like giardia and a whole host of other water-borne pathogens. https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water_disinfection.html#:~:text=Chlorine and chloramine are the,your utility's consumer confidence report . You are attacking the most basic, effective public health measures that have largely eliminated a whole category of infectious disease in America. Drink/cook with only bottled water if you choose. But don't try to move us back to 1870.

Perfect example of nutty conspiracist thinking. So ... if the CDC had said "COVID continues to pose a grave risk to public health and further measures to stop its spread may be necessary," they'd be saying, "See, I told you they're going to try to justify mail-in balloting again in the run-up to the election." In other words, no matter what the advice, it is all part of the conspiracy. The obvious story: public health measures, effective vaccines, post-infection immunity, effective treatments, and the mutation of the virus into a less lethal form have allowed us to now treat COVID as a normal public health risk that may be addressed through normal measures." Success is failure. That's the nutcase mantra.

Umm, Chuck Schumer is the MAJORITY leader.

Of course she should. She's not in great health, and she's pushing 70. The Dems have the votes in the Senate to secure Biden's nominee. But that would require Justices who are not all about themselves.

From the linked story: The WhatsApp message to CEFC was cited by IRS whistleblowers Joseph Ziegler and Gary Shapley last year as evidence of a Justice Department cover-up into the Biden's after they were refused permission to investigate it. It later emerged from photos on his abandoned laptop that Hunter Biden was not with his father on the day it was sent, but was at Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware. So ... Hunter WAS lying about Joe being present with him at the time he sent his shakedown text. And this happened in summer 2017, when Joe was a private citizen. So ... where's anything remotely impeachable? Private citizen Joe may have profited from a China deal. Whoop-de-doo. Where's the malfeasance when he was actually VP? That all depended on discredited witness Smirnov. This is now pure politics, not an actual impeachment inquiry. Kill it.

Right. Not sure of your point here. My point is simple: just because they murdered Israeli babies doesn't mean it's ok to kill Gazan babies through reckless targeting.