I think it's saying those are the eight places a helicopter could work, and we are checking them off as we accomplish them.

Helicopters require atmosphere (obviously), so this is a list of the eight bodies in the solar system with atmosphere sufficient for heavier-than-air flight.

Mercury basically doesn't have an atmosphere for instance, which is probably why it's not on the list.

Sorry, but I'm not answering questions for some guy wearing blackface.

If I take a cigarette, remove the tobacco, and put it in a pipe and smoke it, did it produce cigarette smoke or pipe tobacco smoke?

If I set up a condenser, and capture a bunch of cigarette smoke in the air from someone who's smoking, and then dry that and light it on fire, is that cigarette smoke or cigarette smoke smoke?

I think this is more a taxonomy question than anything, and the answer depends on the above questions, lol.

So, it depends on what you mean by "real."

There was a bill that got integrated into the NDAA that allowed for increased technology sharing and network communication between the US and Israeli militaries.

While I agree it's not good, I don't know that it's even close to the "full integration" that a lot of the media has catastrophicized it as.

Here's the wiki article for it, if you want to actually see what it says: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States-Israel_FUTURES_Act

Why not just spin up a VM? It's a rebuild of a game from 1996. It can't be that heavy. Just spin up an Ubuntu VM and call it a day. Takes, like, 20min max.

I did in fact see it was a different person I was responding to. I tried to make my language target neutral. I settled on "rebuttal," as it felt like it restarted the attribution to responding to my post, not your OP, though I suppose using "double down" probably did the opposite. Regardless, I did recognize it was a different person.

But let's be clear. Bald faced prejudice is not rhetorical exaggeration. It's not rhetorical exaggeration to say "black people are usually criminals." Are some black people criminals? Sure. But to pretend that it is therefore somehow intrinsic to that community isn't innocent point making. It's racism.

And sure, that guy was joking. But let's say someone says something racist, I call out the racism, and then someone makes a racist joke in response. I don't think it's "not understanding humor," to call it out when I've already established the problem is the racism.

Prejudice and tribalism isn't a good thing. Even when it's against people you don't like. Perhaps especially then.

I don't know that doubling down on your own ignorance and prejudices is exactly the snappy rebuttal you seem to think it is.

This stereotype is exactly as true as the idea that, in California, there are parents cutting penises off of their babies because they want to force them to be transgender. And it comes from the same place of tribalism and ignorance.

I'm not saying Alabama doesn't have problems. Obviously it does. But this weird, "hurr-durr they marry their sisters," thing is stupid and offensive.

True and fair. But, on the flip side, I don't remember the last time I saw a private jet plow through a crowd of protestors. So, like, there are trade-offs I guess.

As opposed to cars, which have famously few consequences when things go wrong.

• Ronald Reagan

While I 1000% agree that people should have access to gender affirming care, I don't know that this argument is as much of a slam dunk as it's presenting itself to be.

While there's certainly a contingent of people who want to ban or restrict access to gender affirming care to adults, a plurality of the debate is around access for minors. And minors aren't allowed to get full body tattoos, even with parental consent.

And second, one big distinction is that your insurance company isn't going to pay for you to get a full body tattoo. That's coming out of your own pocket. My understanding is that most of the checks like getting therapist notes are to prove that it's a "medically necessary" procedure. Not defending insurance companies, but when a third party is paying for something there should be some expectation of increased scrutiny on it.

Again, none of that should be interpreted as me saying anything close to "gender affirming care bad." I think people should have access to the care that they need. I'm just pointing out the argument in the OP is a a bit of a straw man.