• Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-08-2025, 03:46 PM
    Eminent Domain on a larger scale. :mad:
    4 replies | 108 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-08-2025, 03:21 PM
    None? How about the UK? Ask any voter in the UK who they they cast their vote for in the Prime Minister contest. None of them cast a vote for Prime Minister; they voted for their own candidate to be their specific Member of Parliament (MP) representing them in the House of Commons. Those MPs then choose the head of the executive branch (Prime Minister), just like Electors do in the United States. The difference between the US and the UK is that the US has two Congress/Parliament-type bodies (one for enacting legislation, another for choosing the President); whereas the UK does it all within a single legislative body. === Edited to add === FIRST EXAMPLE: 1951 General Election in the UK: - Labour Party: 13,948,385 votes (48.8%) - Conservative Party: 13,717,851 votes (48.0%) - Liberal Party: 730,546 votes (2.5%) The Labour Party won the national popular vote, but the Conservative Party won more seats in the House of Commons, and Winston Churchill (of the Conservative Party) became Prime Minister.
    136 replies | 13128 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-08-2025, 03:06 PM
    The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact has now been approved in seventeen states and the District of Columbia (to be implemented once the approving states possess 270 Electoral Votes). Everyone of those 18 jurisdictions voted for Harris in the 2024 election. Virginia, New Hampshire and Nebraska are the only states with electoral votes for Harris that haven't endorsed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. I've been pointing out to the adherents of the Compact that if the Compact was approved and in place, then all of their votes in 2024 would have been for Donald Trump. The electoral vote would have been 520 (Trump) to 18 (Harris). That doesn't tend to sit well with them.
    16 replies | 733 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-08-2025, 02:46 PM
    Had the Electoral College been abolished when you wrote that post, we'd still have had a Republican president less than sixteen months later. In a two party system, the winning party considers itself to have "a mandate" on ALL of the platform planks it ran on (even though the majority of the voting public does not agree with their most radical platform planks). Majority parties tend to overdo it on those "lesser planks", thus seeming crazier and crazier to those voters in the "vanilla middle". They eventually get out of touch with that "vanilla middle" and lose their votes. Unfortunately, unbridled liberty is one of those platform planks that the "vanilla middle" does not embrace. They have to be convinced.
    16 replies | 733 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-08-2025, 12:44 PM
    And Donald Trump wants to condemn Gaza, evict its inhabitants, and develop it.
    4 replies | 108 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-07-2025, 11:44 AM
    I'm pretty sure if we were to democratically choose between that and the other leading choice, then George Carlin's approach (which isn't much different from the existing system) would prevail.
    23 replies | 920 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-04-2025, 08:33 PM
    They used to make the tassels spin
    72481 replies | 2915414 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-04-2025, 07:47 PM
    Sorry. I figured that in God's country (Texas), they'd still have to cover their nipples up with those tasseled mini-yamakas.
    72481 replies | 2915414 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-04-2025, 05:37 PM
    It comes down to the government choosing winners in the market, by investing in it (and backing the investment with legislation benefiting the investment). Just another step towards a Fascist economic system, as PAF has warned about
    15 replies | 586 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-03-2025, 08:45 PM
    Ask a stripper.
    72481 replies | 2915414 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-02-2025, 03:28 PM
    You might like the "Connect to Canada" website as well. That one has a breakout, by state as well as Congressional District, for the categories and dollar amount of trade from those US states and districts to Canada. Set the "Select a State" pull-down, then look beneath it and to the left for the links to the appropriate data.
    15 replies | 420 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-02-2025, 12:09 PM
    You can find the list on the Canadian Department of Finance website
    15 replies | 420 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-01-2025, 03:55 PM
    I've got some more follow-on for you Jamie. If you hadn't already noticed, the federal webpages have been changed (not that you'd routinely be checking, of course). Check out the current Federal Bureau of Prisons webpage for "Statistics on Inmate Sex"; and compare it to the archive from 28JAN2025. D'ya notice how the 28JAN webpage about gender has morphed into the current one about sex? Notice also that the 28JAN webpage has some stats on transgenders beneath the male/female table, whereas the transgender stats are missing from the current webpage. But it's those transgender stats from 28JAN that I'd like your speculation on. I'm making an assumption that the numbers for transgender individuals are included in the male/female stats corresponding to their gender identities (which may be incorrect on my part, but it was initiated under the Biden administration). Summarizing the stats on those incarcerated in federal prisons for male inmates and those for female inmates: Female: 10,025 inmates (of which, 1,529, or 15.3%, are trans-females) Male: 143,714 inmates (of which, 744, or 0.5%, are trans-males) Given that about 0.88% of the female US population identify as trans-females (derived from UCLA data), why do you think the percentage of trans-females in the federal prison population is so high? I could hypothesize that transgender females are more prone to federal crime than cis-females (sex, rather than gender, could be the explanation). Or I could hypothesize that cis-males are identifying as trans-females so they can be incarcerated in female prisons and rape to their heart's content (which I don't buy because a female inmate is more likely to be raped by a guard than an inmate). Or I could hypothesize that cis-men are willing to endure the stigma of identifying as trans-females so they can be incarcerated in female prisons, thus avoiding the hard life (including their own rape) they'd face in a male prison. Thoughts?
    23 replies | 920 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-01-2025, 01:49 PM
    I'm in the process of renewing my passport. Every one of them has asked for "sex" rather than "gender". You won't find "Gender" on a US passport. The two terms represent different things. Sex is assigned at birth; generally upon the identified visible physiology when you pop out of the chute. There's about a 1 in 80,000 chance you don't fit into one of the binary sexes; but even in most of those cases you'll pass, physiologically, as one of the binary sexes.
    32 replies | 1379 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-01-2025, 01:34 PM
    Yeah, exactly. Passport application times are here. In a life or death emergency, you can get one in under 14days, but you have to book an in-person appointment. For urgent travel you can get one in 2 to 3 weeks, but again you have to book an in-person appointment. Expedited service is 3 to 6 weeks, and the forms are submitted in person (but be sure to factor in a couple of weeks for mail service). Routine service takes 6 weeks (plus mailing times).
    32 replies | 1379 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    02-01-2025, 01:10 PM
    No, their investigation doesn't show that 40 percent of the non-citizens in Maine voted in 2024 (unless there are only 25 non-citizens in Maine - which I seriously doubt). What they supposedly researched was the number of individuals registered in MaineCare as non-citizens who were also listed in the Central Voter Registration (CVR) as being elligible to vote. MaineCare does offer services to a restricted set of non-citizens: "The Maine Wire" supposedly mapped 10 out of 25 non-citizen individuals in the MaineCare database to the Central Voter Registration (CVR). The procedural question I would ask is: "When 'The Maine Wire' makes a mapping between the two databases, how do they assure that the individuals in the two databases are the same individual?" Is it simply a name-matching? Recall the outlet that implied that members of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus were on the Sex Offenders Registry (name-only mapping - but none were on the registry). Recall another outlet that implied the arsonist that started that major wildfire in California was a Democrat donor (name-only mapping - it wasn't the same guy). Those are two cases where you've previously been deceived by outlets like these. Is this story being proffered by "The Maine Wire" another one? I'm pretty sure they check for citizenship when you register to vote in Maine:
    17 replies | 763 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    01-31-2025, 09:47 PM
    But wait; there's more. You left out the sales tax; because that's going to be levied on the entire new price. Whatever state/county/local government collects sales tax, now gets to effectively tax the 25% tariff in addition to the previous price of the product. If the price was previously X and the sales tax is Y, the the previous total bill was X*(1+Y). Now it's (1.25*X)*(1+Y)
    32 replies | 1375 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    01-30-2025, 08:48 PM
    Yep. Here's one that's not a minor, but rather an inmate in federal custody: US judge blocks Trump administration from transferring transgender inmate
    23 replies | 920 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    01-29-2025, 12:09 PM
    OK, so there's a bias to the U-Haul map; and that's simply that U-Haul is about people that move themselves. They tend to be younger, less affluent and more responsible for their own moves. Newsweek has an article today with stats based upon data from "Hire A Helper". They tend to be older, more affluent, and often having an employer sponsoring their move.
    4 replies | 632 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    01-28-2025, 02:09 PM
    WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO LYING ABOUT ATTEMPTED RAPE AND KIDNAPPING The original story before her confession: https://www.yahoo.com/news/lower-makefield-man-charged-attempted-190436449.html
    917 replies | 182222 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    01-25-2025, 05:59 PM
    Trump's first deportation flights with average of just 80 migrants cost up to $852,000 per trip Using that cost estimate for military transport w/o aerial refueling, my back of the envelop estimates for deporting each million undocumented immigrants comes out to $10.65 billion. The flight range of a C-17 is roughly 2,400 nautical miles, so we may need to include the costs of air refueling if Mexico continues to refuse to allow C-17's to land and refuel on the way to destinations in Central and South America. Typically when you fly US military aircraft in a foreign nation's airspace, you're required to get diplomatic clearance from that nation - and it's not clear that Mexico is even allowing overflights at the moment, so they'd have to be flying outside that airspace (over international waters).
    84 replies | 8350 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    12 replies | 321 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    01-25-2025, 01:36 PM
    Yes, they're reportedly using C-17's, but they've run into a snag: Mexico refuses US military flight deporting migrants, sources say
    8 replies | 280 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    01-25-2025, 10:59 AM
    Let's see: 2/3 of the House 2/3 of the Senate 3/4 of the states Yeaaaaah, no
    16 replies | 681 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    01-24-2025, 10:47 PM
    And we'd have a right-handed baseball league separate from the left-handed baseball league, and neither would allow trans-handedness (right-handed batters are only going to be facing right-handed pitchers ... likewise for the south paws). No more of those advantages that left-handed batters have against right-handed pitchers; or that right-handed batters have against left-handed pitchers. I'm glad to hear that Trump is finally doing something about that. ;)
    20 replies | 630 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    01-24-2025, 06:59 PM
    My point would be that you can't be certain until sex differentiation occurs (around the six week mark). It's probably better to say we're all non-binary until sex differentiation occurs. I mean, no one has sexual characteristics until that point anyway.
    20 replies | 630 view(s)
  • Voluntarist's Avatar
    01-24-2025, 06:48 PM
    Not necessarily. You can have a perfectly constructed SRY on an XY, and if the uterus is overwhelmed with estrogen during the period of sex differentiation, you'll end up with a female physiology. Most often, that's not the case - but it does occur. The individual probably won't be generating either large reproductive cells (the egg) or small reproductive cells (the sperm), but will probably have a female physiology. Again, really small numbers involved, but not zero - and not from genetics, but rather the mother's endocrine system. That's why I think the system we've been using since before I was born is the best way to deal with it. The OB/GYN looking at the kid after it exits the chute and declaring male or female. Biology, Psychology, Sociology and Physiology have all agreed for almost a half century that sex and gender are different. Sex is that immutable thing you're born with. Gender is a social construct that refers to the norms, roles, behaviors, and attitudes that a culture or society associates with being normal for a person of a given sex. I can live with that because I can see a need for that "social construct" spectrum; but I wish they had come up with a new term rather than repurposing "gender", which had always been a synonym for sex. But that's water over the dam at this point. Still - bathrooms, sports, prisons, verb conjugation (for languages like French and Spanish), pronouns and so forth should be based on sex (like they were when gender and sex meant the same thing) rather than this new thing they're now calling gender. My problem is not so much with the terms being different, but rather with what they mean by transitioning gender when gender is a social construct (as well as why would you need surgery, hormones or puberty blockers to transition a social construct). == Edited === There is a effort being made by small groups within Physiology to include transgender physiology - which seems ridiculous to me. It makes as much sense as including silicon/saline bags to complete the physiology of women who have had breast implants, or appliances that compensate for loss of limbs or are designed to replace worn-out knees and hips.
    20 replies | 630 view(s)
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8 Visitor Messages

  1. Genes code proteins with mRNA. Artificial mRNA codes proteins. Ergo, artificial mRNA is gene therapy (artificial gene, artificial protein.)
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    I am sorry to hear that. I hope this information helps.

    Effects of curcumin on bladder cancer cells and development of urothelial tumors in a rat bladder carcinogenesis model.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18342436

    Curcumin for Bladder Cancer
    http://turmericsgold.com/cancer/curc...ladder-cancer/

    12 Proven Benefits of Turmeric For Urinary Disorders
    https://www.turmericforhealth.com/tu...nary-disorders
  3. Yes, please!! LOL
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    Just bored...lookin' around. Nice pic. That's not how I imagined you. I was thinking you'd look more like Lysander Spooner for some reason.
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    Your mailbox is full. In response to your pm...

    LOL, maybe because she's not drinking wine.
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    hahaha! I just logged on for the first time in weeks and saw your comment in my rep status. funny.
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    That would completely throw the Calvies into a tailspin. hehe
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    I don't exactly remember. But it wasn't scientific, it was an opinion.
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My choice of third person pronouns for myself is generally irrelevant. I'm not typically involved in the conversations that use them. It's other people referring to me in the third person, usually from a distance. I'm not a conversational partner in those exchanges. Those people could be referring to me as "That A$$hole" or "That Motherfukker" for all I know.

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