Does Trump's latest executive order effectively enact martial law?
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:Section 1. Purpose and
This section is particularly concerning:
Sec. 4. Using National Security Assets for Law and Order. (a) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the heads of agencies as appropriate, shall increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions to assist State and local law enforcement. (b) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Attorney General, shall determine how military and national security assets, training, non-lethal capabilities, and personnel can most effectively be utilized to prevent crime.
What we need is a parental figure to take Trump by the scruff of his neck and force him to apologize for what he's done.
Excepting that, I hope conscientious Americans are writing to other countries' leaders to apologize for Trump on behalf of the reasonable half of the population.
Good stuff. Important for people who want to play the game but don't want to give money to Bethesda and, by extension, their genocide-complicit parent company, Microsoft.
FYI, it's an acronym: TERF. Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist
Personally, I disagree with Rowling's views regarding trans women, but it's unfair to condemn everyone involved with making the game for the IP's creator's backwards views, especially since she had no role in its development.
Dude, I'm a prog head, and I have to say you are so, so wrong. Some of the best prog rock has released in this millennium.
But can you do a dragon punch uppercut?
Sure you can!
Look, dude, I don't have the energy to teach you in addition to my own kid at home. Improve your reading comprehension, reread my last comment, and maybe we can have a reasonable discussion.
It's as similar to racism as any prejudice is. It's just a lazy term coined, I'd bet, for the sake of quick understanding within the context of its era, rather than for semantic accuracy.
I tried to find the correct word or phrase to use, and the consensus seems to be "cultural racism", so I guess it's technically a kind of racism, even though it doesn't directly relate to race. "Culturism" would be a more accurate word, I think.
No, the only one approaching racism here is you, as you're the only one equating culture to race. A black German is the same as a white German.
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Oh no. I remember that video now. I didn't need to remember that video. Why did I have to ask?!
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I'll probably regret asking, but I'm out of the loop and insatiably curious.
Brick in the window video?
The vaudevillian steampunk band Steam Powered Giraffe apparently had the same thought, and made a song about it.
Look, I'm not really that invested in this, and yeah, the disclaimer idea was dumb. I just love Assassin's Creed for many reasons, one of which is its historical accuracy. Sure, it's no replacement for a real history lesson, but every game has been one of the most accurate portrayals of its respective slice of history in pop culture.
It's about expectations. There are obvious embellishments in each game - Da Vinci's inventions, the cyclops & minotaur, Norse gods, etc., and those are fine because they're obvious fantasy in otherwise-mundane worlds. The only reason people care about the whole Yasuke thing (or the only reason they should care) is because his story is not obvious fantasy; those not versed in Japanese history would assume his story in the game to be mostly true to historical records, because it's all mundane.
Take me with you.
Before I begin my retort, I feel I should preemptively defend myself against those who only assume the worst in others: The only dog I have in this fight is the dog of objectivity. Dogjectivity. Objectividog?
Anyway, comparing a real person to a fictional monster is missing the point. I love the game and I really like Yasuke's part of the story, but it's inconsistent with Ubisoft's previous approach of keeping the events and characters as true to history as good gameplay would allow, while throwing in bits of embellishment here and there to keep things fun.
I honestly wouldn't change anything about the game, but there should maybe be a disclaimer that Yasuke's real role in history is not truly known, but they chose the most fun version of events, even if it's likely untrue.
Interesting article. Disappointing to see that it's likely Yasuke's role in history was greatly embellished just to sell books to the Western world. And disappointing to see that Ubisoft didn't do their due diligence in researching him.
That being said, the game is a blast to play. Historical inaccuracies aside, I'd say it's the best entry in the Assassin's Creed series since Black Flag, which was also fraught with historical inaccuracies.
It's okay. I've never said "I love you" to your sister, either.
Does it matter? If you could quantify your lost potential, would such knowledge benefit you in any way? I understand the drive to understand your major life mistakes as deeply as possible, but you've already made great strides to learn from and correct said mistakes. You seem to be on a pretty strong upward trajectory, but if you obsess over what's lost, it just might drag you back down.
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It's saying that copyright law doesn't apply to AI training, because none of the data is copied. It's more akin to a person reading an impossible amount at an impossible speed, then using what they read as inspiration for their own writing. Sure, you could ask an LLM trained on, say, Edgar Allen Poe's works to recite the entirety of The Raven, but it can only "recall" similarly to a human, and will have just as many mistakes (probably more, really) in its recitation as a human would.
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Spoken like someone who either didn't read the article or has a deep misunderstanding of what AI training is.
I'm going down to the office supply store with my friends Dr. Tran, Zachary, and Ms. Shen. We're gonna buy some supplies to make trans rights protest signs.
It's a Tran, Zach, Shen trans action transaction.
There and Back Again - A Gender Journey
It all started about 37 years ago. I was born male and I was content. Sure, I was a bit disconnected, like I was just along for the ride and not really part of my own life. "That's just how life is," I thought. "Everybody feels this way, right? So why question it?" I certainly couldn't talk to my verbally and physically abusive, mostly-absent father about it.
I did well enough in school, made mostly male friends, never got bullied, and I was content. Sure, I wanted desperately to know what being female would be like, and jumped at every opportunity to pretend just a bit. "But that's normal, right? Who wouldn't want to be a different gender, at least for a day?"
In my 20s, I met a wonderful woman, we got married, and about 4 years ago, we had a baby. The moment I found out we were having a girl, my heart soared and my mind raced, thinking of all the fun girl stuff I'd finally be able to do using my future daughter as an excuse. "I just wanna be a good, present dad," I thought. "Of
Finding Myself Led to Finding a Community
Just something I've been thinking about lately:
Having been a straight-passing (I'm bi) white male in the U.S., I was part of the country's "default" community. Because of that (and because I've never really identified with classically masculine interests), I never really felt like I had any real community to call my own. I was a bit of a hermit, only interacting with others when I had to.
But now that I've found myself as nonbinary and started presenting as such, for the first time in my life, I feel like I belong. I've never felt such a deep, intrinsic connection to strangers as when I meet another trans person. I've never felt such love and acceptance as when I first came out to my trans friends.
So, thank you all for being who you are, and thank you for accepting me for who I am. I love each and every one of you. 💖
Introductions and the Exorbitant Cost of Wardrobe Expansion
Hi all! I recently had a personal renaissance regarding my gender, then I found this community. So, let me introduce myself:
I'm nonbinary demigender. My pronouns are whatever makes the most sense to you at the time. I identify as a man as far as being a dad (with an amazing daughter), but otherwise feel no connection to any gender, and I'm most comfortable balancing my masculinity and femininity. I like to be bearded and beautiful.
To me, my beard and bald head are enough to exemplify my masculinity, so I'm really focusing on expanding my wardrobe to fully incorporate feminine attire. I especially love skirts and dresses.
But it's so. Damn. EXPENSIVE!
I can fit into a few things that my amazing, supportive partner lets me borrow, but I can't just be the younger sister, forever relying on hand-me-downs.
Does anybody have advice for how to get a good start on my wardrobe that won't break the bank? I'm average AMAB size, but with a barrel chest and a slim waist. Women's L & XL u
My Story
Wall of text incoming. TL;DR - Love (and cannabis) can change the world
This isn't something I'm proud of, but it's important not to deny who we were, lest we lose sight of who we are.
I very recently had an awakening that started with self-reflection and has continued into what some might call spiritual enlightenment.
Go back a decade or so ago, and you'd see a version of me much closer to who I am today. Somewhere during that decade, I got heavily into conspiracy theories. This put me into a very negative space, as it caused me to see everything with a suspicious eye, always looking for deeper, hidden meaning and not just accepting the chaotic nature of reality.
Despite this, I found love. I became a husband and a father.
Then COVID hit and all my hair-brained theories and predictions started to come true, as far as I saw it.
The Internet started to shun people like me, putting us in the same group as bigots and far-right extremists. More proof I was always right. I
Gender Identity Scale
I've recently begun going through a bit of a personal renaissance regarding my gender, and I realized my numbers-focused brain needs something to quantify gender identity, both for myself and so I can better understand others. I also just don't like socially-constructed labels, at least for myself.
So, using the Kinsey Scale of Sexuality as inspiration, and with input from good friends, I made up my own Gender Identity Scale.
0 - not part of my identity to 6 - strongly identify as 0 - non-fluid to 2 - always changing Example: The average cis-man is 6,0,0, the average cis-woman is 0,6,0, and a "balanced" nonbinary person might be 3,3,1, or 0,0,0, or 6,6,2..
Personally, I think I'm about a 3,2,1 - I don't have a strong connection to either base gender, but b
Diablo IV disappointment
I got Diablo IV last week and played a lot over the weekend. After 40+ hours (thank you, four day weekend), I realized I wasn't enjoying myself, and was just trying desperately to justify the money spent.
I intentionality avoided news about it, hoping to enjoy finding things out for myself. I now very much regret my willful ignorance. I definitely would've passed on the game if I'd known beforehand that it was effectively an MMO. Forced multiplayer, an open world with too many activities, content balanced for groups of players, endless side quests, and cookie-cutter dungeons. But hey, it has horses! And dodging!
My disappointment is immeasurable and my week is ruined.
On the bright side, it reminded me how much I love Diablo 3. I've been playing that the last couple days to get the bad taste out of my mouth.