You say I support the republicans... I don't.

You disagree that both sides are the same. They are the same to me that they both have glaring flaws. The flaws are different, but how they treat and act on them are very similar to me. This would be one of those glaring flaws on that side of the aisle.

I register independent, and I truly do not support either party.

I get it, the impasse arises with the rabid disagreement on this outside of this judge. Much like abortion the sides are far apart on key foundational issues, and we have had that wedge issue for decades.

The quote alone juggles sex and gender...

"the transgender Montanan is prevented, based on their sex". Can't make it through a sentence without conflating the two.

This is always going to cause an impasse in this topic.

on the abortion issue as to be on the record.

I think abortions aren't for me, but should be available. I think the earlier the better, and where the specific line is I struggle with. Late stage shouldn't be allowed. Any circumstance of risk to the mother should allow one.

I think that covers the majority of the discussion you see on the issue.

and it's laughable that I'm a coward... give me a ------- break you self congratulating troll

You throw advocating for abstinence at me like a gotcha.

1. I never preached it, and thought it was foolish at the time
2. I never said that anyone is right or wrong on this topic, just that it would be an interesting discussion to have.

Why such adversarial reaction to me pointing out that the topic was being used as a cudgel to beat the other party rather than discuss why different demographics are swinging so wildly away from each other?

#20 one is a woman.

There is actually fodder here for a real discussion about the birthrate, and young people who skew towards being more liberal are not dating or engaging in sex nearly as much as in the past. But no one here can resist the urge to just sling insults at the others party.

I've said it before, and I don't know why I continue to hope it can be like it used to, but this site used to actually have meaningful discussions about the topics of the day. Now it's just a cesspool of trolls and insults.

Look at tools built into webex to summarize meetings and action items. Tools like Granola that aren't built in. There is a whole industry of AI listeners to meetings that summarize, not Transcribe.

That's what is in use here, the AI listens to the conversation and pulls out the pertinent information the doctor cares about for notes and throws away the part where you discussed the weather for the first minute of the conversation.

These tools can be built in very HIPAA secure ways, and used against models that aren't training on the data taken in or keeping a history of that session past the output of the notes.

reading further on this guy, seems he was censured in the past for a lewd gesture in the classroom... So the likelihood of unfathomably bad judgement is more likely the case and the 'on a roll' excuse is BS.

The amount of absolute stupidity it would take to say this on an open mic, not a hot mic that he thought was off I can't even imagine. I would love more of the meeting context and if she was truly on a roll. Even then I would expect something more like "you're on fire" as opposed to You're Hot... but him trying to compliment how good a job she did makes more sense than the epic level of stupidity it would take to state that outright in the middle of a meeting.

After the cat walks on the keyboard... do you still need the plus?

to be fair, I only called out the far left here... the far right has its own issues too, but being in MA I don't interact with that nearly as much. There are definitely times though were I found myself choosing to not engage and walk away with a pretty similar feeling that disagreement wasn't going to be met with a warm debate.

28

Discussing issues with the those who are further on the Left spectrum. I don't think my coworkers would do such, but you are then outed as not subscribing to the group think and that is a negative in the office.

Didn't say I hate anyone, just pointed out that they often won't engage in discussion, and assign positions. I genuinely enjoy most of my co workers, but I know enough to not go against the group narrative when issues are discussed.

This is just a different version of why Kamala lost. The left has a near zero dissent policy. I can agree with most of what a firm progressive is advocating for, but if I dare even question some of it not even disagree, I am immediately called something -icst, or -phobic, etc.

So it's easier to not just engage, meanwhile the most left voices in the office pontificate ad nauseam. The echo chamber reinforces itself, and I just choose to move on. Now, I didn't vote for Trump... But I didn't vote for her either. I'm sure though amongst those around the office, I was a guaranteed vote for Harris.

And again, this thread topic is just another flavor of that as I don't count myself as a conservative and there are plenty others out there that are the same.

Calling out Mississippi is rather humorous as Google search shows that since they went back to a Phonics based reading education approach in 2013 they have passed many blue states in education:

Mississippi has achieved a remarkable literacy turnaround, rising from 49th in 2013 to 9th place in the nation for 4th-grade reading on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Driven by evidence-based reforms like the Literacy-Based Promotion Act and intense teacher training, the state has seen significant gains, particularly among economically disadvantaged students.
The Conversation
The Conversation
+3
Key Literacy Ranking Highlights:
4th Grade Reading: 9th in the nation (2024), up from 49th (2013).
8th Grade Reading: Improved, though one source notes a ranking drop compared to 4th-grade success.
Overall Education: Ranked 16th in the 2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book, the state's highest ever.
The Daily Economy
The Daily Economy
+3
Key Drivers of Success:
Literacy-Based Promotion Act: Enacted in 2013, requiring third-graders to demonstrate reading proficiency to advance to fourth grade.
Literacy Coaches: Intensive coaching for teachers to implement science-based reading instruction.
Targeted Interventions: Focused, evidence-based support for students not reading at grade level.
The Conversation
The Conversation
+3

#4

That's the radiology technician, the radiologist in many cases isn't even in the hospital but instead working in their on remote home office.

I built a cloud infrastructure for a company trying to become the Uber of radiology, with a centralized location that scans went into and were then farmed out to the radiologist with the best specialities that aligned with the incoming scan. Those Radiologists could sign in and out of the system at will, and all worked from home set ups.

And I typoed it...

I meant DON'T exist along a binary. And that completely inverted my meaning.

#37 yes Corky, statistical outliers define our species.

Of course there are outliers that in and of itself is part of life. They exist, but they are called out rare cases because they are a variant of the norm.

Well I said nothing about race snoofy, so you not being able to handle crafting a viable analogy speaks more to your lack of intellect than to mine.

"Biological sex and sexual orientation exist along a complex spectrum "

Personalities and personal expression exist along a binary. There are many ways to be a man and many ways to be a woman, but you're still a man or a woman.

"You're on that wavelength where we should simply ban marriage altogether."

Actually it would strengthen it. Straight and Gay lose all meaning. If you can't define men and you can't define women, then there is no definition for gay and lesbian.

The whole marriage issue is solved.

How can you separate the men from the boys?... you can can't tell what one is

If men don't exist, and women don't exist... then trans can't exist since their is nothing to change from one to the other?

Having a kid play in the band for football and basketball there is an energy to these things. It's a fun diversion from reality. I went to a march madness game to see the band and cheer the team on. Last second buzzer beaters in high profile games is something a lot of us growing up role played over and over in our driveways shooting baskets. To be so negatively jaded against something that is really just pure enjoyment is honestly kind of sad.