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Post by mhbruin on Jan 4, 2023 9:03:08 GMT -8
Ten Commandments: Supreme Court says some OK, some not.
The Worst Take on Damar Hamlin
So Far, No Comment From John Stockton
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 4, 2023 9:07:50 GMT -8
If You Are Thinking About Running to Canada to Escape the Craziness, You Will Have To Rent
A two-year ban on some foreigners buying homes in Canada has come into effect.
The ban aims to help ease one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world.
As of this summer, the average home price in Canada is C$777,200 ($568,000; £473,700) - more than 11 times the median household income after taxes.
Some have been critical of the ban, saying it is unclear what impact it will have on Canada's housing market.
Non-Canadian residents make up less than 6% of homeowners in Ontario and British Columbia, where national statistics indicate home prices are the highest.
As of 1 January, the ban prohibits people who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents from buying residential properties, and imposes a C$10,000 fine on those who breach it.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 4, 2023 9:09:47 GMT -8
Premature Evacuation: Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Kevin's Door
Already making himself at home: Kevin McCarthy has ALREADY moved into the Speaker's office
Premature Elimination
Who ordered the removal of metal detectors in the House today?
Nowhere can I find out who ordered it — I assume that it was a Republican — nor under what authority they did.
It may seem a trivial detail, but think about it. Any random Congressperson does not have the authority to give such an order — it would either be decided by a vote on the House floor, or more likely delegated with a bunch of minor duties to the Speaker and her/his staff.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 4, 2023 9:18:17 GMT -8
Death By Playing Football is Rare
Sharon Hughes stayed awake as late as she could Monday night, forcing her eyes open. The widow of the only NFL player to die on the field during a game, she needed to know that history was not repeating itself. She needed to hear that Damar Hamlin was still alive.
Hamlin, 24, a safety with the Buffalo Bills, was in critical condition after he went into cardiac arrest during Monday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals. His medical episode stunned fans in the stadium and those watching on television, including Hughes, who saw Hamlin stand up after having taken a hit to the chest, walk a couple of shaky steps and then collapse on his back.
“I was very emotional,” Hughes, 77, said Tuesday from her Texas home.
On Oct. 24, 1971, Chuck Hughes, 28, a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, took the place of an injured teammate in the fourth quarter of a game against the Chicago Bears. With the Lions down 28-23, Hughes caught a 32-yard pass — his first catch that season — and was tackled. Several plays later, with 62 seconds left in the game, he fell facedown to the ground, clutching his chest.
He had suffered a fatal heart attack. Frantic attempts to revive him, including medical personnel pounding on his chest, were unsuccessful. People in the stadium watched in shocked silence as a stretcher wheeled him away.
“I knew something horrible had happened, because when they were rolling Chuck off the field, one of his arms fell down and his hand was flopping around back and forth, and I thought to myself, ‘Holy Christ, I think he’s dead,’” Bears defensive end Ed O’Bradovich told the Detroit Free Press in 2021.
As lifesaving measures continued in the hospital, the game resumed before a numbed crowd.
Lots of Other Terrible Injuries Are Not.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 4, 2023 9:19:27 GMT -8
Putin Is Preparing Young People to Die For Him
On Tuesday, the Kremlin announced that all Russian schools would now teach students how to interpret “international military-political and domestic events and facts from the position of a patriot of the Fatherland." And when they are not being dosed with propaganda, Russian high school students—all Russian high school students—are now to be taught how to march, salute, dig trenches, and conduct “combined arms tactics.” It doesn’t say where they would get the teachers, which could be an issue,since no one in the Russian Army seems to know how to conduct combined arms tactics.
All of this sounds sad, ridiculous, and very much like a nation that expects to be at war forever. It also sounds very, very like the past actions of nations that were on the losing end of prolonged conflicts. The only good news for those high school kids is that this government, and all its requirements, are likely to fall before they’ve managed to reach Hole Digging 201.
This action is emblematic of where Russia now sits in relation to the invasion that it launched against Ukraine. They’ve gone from assuming that Ukraine would fall in days to insisting that Russia would always hold Kherson and Kharkiv to a position where they’re telling themselves that war is good. That war is the natural state of Russia. That Russia should never expect anything but war.
What does the future look like to Russian leadership right now? It looks like Bakhmut. It looks like sending men through rubble to certain death, every day, forever.
The six-month effort to capture the battered city of Bakhmut has now cost Russia tens of thousands of troops, hundreds of tanks, and involved the expenditure of so much artillery that for the moment at least, Russian guns are virtually silenced.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 4, 2023 9:27:00 GMT -8
McCarthy's Real Problem Is He Doesn't Have Anything He Believes in. He Just Wants the Power and Glory
Except No EthicsHouse Republicans appear poised to seriously undermine a major congressional ethics watchdog as one of the first acts with their new majority, as House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) seeks to win over right-wing dissidents within the GOP conference.
McCarthy on Sunday proposed severely weakening the Office of Congressional Ethics, which has conducted damning investigations into Democrats and Republicans alike since its creation in 2007. The office could soon probe the role some lawmakers played in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and may investigate fantasist Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), whose finances are under close examination.
Under a proposal setting up the rules for the next session of the House, Republicans want to mandate eight-year term limits for the office’s governing board ― which would immediately force out three of the board’s four Democratic members ― and bar it from making any hires after the first 30 days of the new congressional session.
Since most hires require approval of the board members, and since the federal government has a notoriously bureaucratic hiring process, the rules would sharply limit whom the office could hire immediately, and effectively bar them from replacing staff members who leave over the next two years.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 4, 2023 9:29:18 GMT -8
The QOP Could Always Turn to Previous-Guy-Lite
Despite agreeing to give up some of his authority and power as Speaker, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) reportedly still doesn’t have enough votes to win. The result is pure chaos. The “Kevin Only” crowd has vowed not to vote for anyone else, while the “Never Kevin” gang still can’t come up with a candidate to replace him. And, in desperation, some Republicans are beating the bushes looking for anybody — even a former member or non-member of Congress — willing to take the job.
Meanwhile, the perfect candidate is staring them right in the face. Why all the confusion? There’s one obvious answer — the one man who, in the spirit of Donald Trump, embodies everything the Republican Party stands for today. The one man who’s perfect for the job: New York’s newly elected Rep. George Santos.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 4, 2023 9:32:51 GMT -8
When Climate Change Meets Hot Weather
“We can regard this as the most extreme event in European history,” Herrera told the Guardian.
“Take the case of July 2022 UK extreme heatwave and spread this sigma (magnitude) in a much huger area, encompassing about 15 countries.”
He added that this phenomenon is the first in Europe that can be compared to the extremes experienced by North America this year.
Scientists are still trying to work out the reason for the unseasonal temperatures.
“It’s been extreme heat across a huge area, which is almost, to be honest, unheard of,” Alex Burkill, a senior meteorologist at the Met Office, told the Guardian.
He explained that a mass of warm air had been generated off the west coast of Africa and had moved across Europe.
“It has been widespread, Denmark, Czech Republic, as well as pretty much the whole of Germany have seen temperatures for January exceeding records,” Burkill said.
But meteorologist Scott Duncan noted that even taking into account the unusually warm sea surface too, it doesn’t seem to explain the staggering temperature rises.
What climate scientists are sure of, however, is that these anomalous heatwaves are going to continue to become more common and more extreme thanks to global warming.
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 4, 2023 9:34:22 GMT -8
Previous Guy is the Liar AND the Loser
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Post by mhbruin on Jan 4, 2023 9:39:33 GMT -8
Will SCOTUS Try to Stop This?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will allow retail pharmacies to offer abortion pills in the United States for the first time, the agency said on Tuesday, even as more states seek to ban medication abortion.
The regulatory change will potentially expand abortion access as President Joe Biden's administration wrestles with how best to protect abortion rights after they were sharply curtailed by the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling and the state bans that followed.
Pharmacies can start applying for certification to distribute abortion pill mifepristone with one of the two companies that make it, and if successful they will be able to dispense it directly to patients upon receiving a prescription from a certified prescriber.
The FDA had first said it would be making those changes in December 2021 when it announced it would relax some risk evaluation and mitigation strategies, or REMS, on the pill, that had been in place since the agency approved it in 2000 and were lifted temporarily in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The changes included permanently removing restrictions on mail order shipping of the pills and their prescription through telehealth.
The agency finalized the changes on Tuesday after reviewing supplemental applications from Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, the two companies that make the drug in the United States.
"Under the Mifepristone REMS Program, as modified, Mifeprex and its approved generic can be dispensed by certified pharmacies or by or under the supervision of a certified prescriber," the agency said on its website on Tuesday.
Mifeprex is the brand name version of mifepristone which, in combination with a second drug called misoprostol that has various uses including miscarriage management, induces an abortion up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy in a process known as medication abortion.
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