The Supreme Court on December 4 will hear oral arguments in a case dealing with Tennessee’s law banning irreversible gender transition procedures for children — and it promises to be one of the most significant cases the court has looked at this term. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R.) signed the much-discussed Senate Bill 1 into law on March 22, 2023, which went into effect on July 1, 2023. The bill bans doctors or health care providers from performing so-called “gender-affirming” surgeries or hormonal procedures on minors, including surgery, puberty blockers, and hormones. The bill followed a September 2022 investigation into Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) by the The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, who exposed VUMC’s gender transition procedures for children and shocking attitudes towards gender transitions in general. Walsh and The Daily Wire found that the hospital regarded transgender procedures as a “big money maker” and pressured employees to ignore their “religious beliefs” on transgender issues or face “consequences.” The Biden administration joined the ACLU and several teenage plaintiffs suing to stop the law, and a Tennessee district court initially blocked it in April 2023. But in September 2023, a sixth circuit court upheld Tennessee’s protections for children. The Supreme Court took up the case in June 2024, combining the Justice Department and ACLU cases into United States v. Skrmetti, marking the first time that the High Court took up a case of this kind. (Photo by SETH HERALD/AFP via Getty Images) “The people of Tennessee, through their elected representatives, took measured action with Senate Bill 1 to protect kids from irreversible, unproven medical procedures,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in an October statement. “Lawmakers recognized that there is little to no credible evidence to justify the serious risks these procedures present to youth and joined a growing number of European countries in restricting their use on minors with gender-identity issues.” The ACLU led a variety of left-wing legal groups in suing Tennessee in April 2023 to block the law from going into effect, calling these transgender procedures “medically necessary gender-affirming care for Tennessee’s transgender youth.” That claim is based on activist assertions that young people suffering from gender dysphoria may commit suicide if they do not have access to transgender hormones or surgeries. Recent research has shown that, contrary to such claims, these procedures actually increase the likelihood that minors will attempt suicide. According to an April study, “gender-affirming surgery is significantly associated with elevated suicide-attempt risks, underlining the necessity for comprehensive post-procedure psychiatric support.” Yet the ACLU and their allies are suing Tennessee on behalf of a Nashville, Tennessee couple and their 15-year-old son, who identifies as a girl, as well as a doctor from Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Susan Lacy. “It was incredibly painful watching my child struggle before we were able to get her the life-saving healthcare she needed. We have a confident, happy daughter now, who is free to be herself and she is thriving,” the ACLU’s client, Samantha Williams, said earlier this year of her trans-identifying son. “I am so afraid of what this law will mean for her,” she said. “We don’t want to leave Tennessee, but this legislation would force us to either routinely leave our state to get our daughter the medical care she desperately needs or to uproot our entire lives and leave Tennessee altogether. No family should have to make this kind of choice.” (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) Skrmetti’s office argues that states have governed the practice of medicine within their borders since the United States was founded, pointing out that it is states who license doctors and regulate medical practices, which includes restricting the administration of drugs. The Tennessee lawmakers who passed Senate Bill 1 used that power to stop the use of hormonal and surgical procedures for minor gender transition procedures, Skrmetti’s office said. More than 20 other states have passed similar laws protecting children, they pointed out. “The federal government, in its arguments to the Supreme Court, puts its faith in a false and manufactured consensus that ignores the many doctors, States, and countries who have looked at the evidence and determined these treatments are too risky for kids,” Skrmetti added. “The Constitution does not prevent the States from regulating the practice of medicine where hot-button social issues are concerned. People who disagree with restrictions on irreversible pediatric procedures for gender transition are free to advocate for change through state elections.” The ACLU’s case will be argued by Chase Strangio, a woman who identifies as a transgender man. The ACLU has advertised that Strangio will be the first openly trans-identifying individual to argue a case before the Supreme Court, describing Strangio as “our nation’s leading legal expert on the rights of transgender people, bar none.”

When it comes to decorating for Christmas, there are so many directions you can go. There’s the classic route, of course, with lots of red and green decor. But there are also plenty of alternatives, like going with pastels or a minimalist look. The possibilities are endless, really! That’s why, when Corey Roberts and his wife went shopping for Christmas decor, they were prepared to find many options. Even still, there was nothing that could have prepared them for the funny nativity scene they discovered. Amidst all of the options, one in particular stood out, even more so than the one without facial features. I could try and describe it for you, but I feel that it’s best if you simply see the faces for yourself first. Check them out in the viral video below! @crrcracing Someone lied on their resume #eyebrowsonfleek #christmas #hobbylobby #badhairday ♬ original sound – Corey Roberts This Unintentionally Funny Nativity Scene is Going Viral for the Best Reason Ever Right off the bat, the design for Joseph’s face is not the best. But it’s really the figurines for baby Jesus and Mary that make this nativity scene so unforgettable… and not for the reasons you’d necessarily want. Neither Mom nor baby’s eyebrows are placed in a way that makes any sense. Plus, their expressions overall simply don’t seem fitting. It’s like Corey says in the video, these may stay on the shelves for quite some time… “You need to give them to friends and family and act like there’s not a thing wrong,” someone cleverly suggests in the comment section of the video, with another adding, “It’s giving AI does Christmas.” “HOW DID THESE MAKE IT ONTO SHELVES?!??” a third person asks, voicing what we’re all thinking. “Like how many people saw them and went YUP these are GOOD!” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Couple Discovers Nativity Scene With Hilariously Nightmarish Faces Painted On appeared first on InspireMore.

Our top 25 best classic rock comeback albums list looks at a group of bands and artists who released albums after being away for a long time. However, this comeback list does not just include artists who have not released albums for a long time. Quite frankly, it includes albums from artists who did not release good albums for a long period of time or at least released albums that signified a return to form. Of course, that’s all subjective, but we stand by our own picks. First and foremost, the comeback albums must be GOOD to make the list. The post 25 Best Classic Rock Comeback Albums appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Randall Nickerson is a filmmaker who spent fifteen years documenting the Ariel School alien encounter in Ruwa, Zimbabwe. Randall was also the subject of Dr. John Mack’s book “Abductions”, and appeared on the Oprah show in 1994 to discuss his encounters with extraterrestrials. He claims to have been abducted by aliens multiple times. Known for his documentary The Ariel Phenomenon (2022), which explores a mass UFO and alien sighting by African schoolchildren in 1994, Nickerson recently shared his personal experiences on Danny Jones’s video podcast. He explained that he was abducted by the same “team” of beings each time. “I’ve only seen a small part of this population, whoever they are. And I’ve seen their research team several times. It was the same team, you could tell. They come in fours, every time. There’s something special about four. Always four,” he said. Now 57, Nickerson revealed his first abduction occurred at age 11, shortly after detecting a strong smell resembling burning cotton wool. While his memories of the event are limited, the experience left him deeply traumatized. “It took me 20 years to believe it myself… I don’t read books [about alien abductions] because it just traumatizes me even more. It reminds me of things I’ve repressed.” Nickerson noted a striking pattern among abductees: many are unusually intelligent. “Some of these abductees are geniuses with a capital G. They have photographic memories. I think they were chosen for their brains, although there may have been other reasons. But I have met a lot of damn smart people among them. They choose both men and women, maybe for genetics,” he said. Despite the trauma, Nickerson continues to engage with the topic, seeking to understand his experiences and those of others who claim similar encounters. The post UFO Researcher Alleges Aliens Target Highly Intelligent People for Abductions appeared first on Anomalien.com.

After a few weeks of being seemingly stunned by the election of Donald Trump to a second term, the PBS News Hour is pumping up the left-wing resistance (if it’s still out there), throwing out scary words like “fascist” to describe the incoming Trump administration. The latest example came Wednesday evening courtesy of PBS’s most biased reporter Laura Barron-Lopez, and Yale University leftist professor Jason Stanley, who has been calling Trump a fascist without results for six years, and is author of the 2018 book How Fascism Works. Guest anchor William Brangham prepped the audience with fearful rhetoric before the segment: "….Still to come, how Donald Trump's reelection fits into a broader acceptance of authoritarian leadership." With the words "Extremism in America" on screen under a picture of Trump, Brangham and Lopez kicked off the one-sided smearing: William Brangham: President-elect Donald Trump ran a lot of his campaign promising retribution for his enemies and asking absolute loyalty from his supporters. Now, as he prepares for a second term in office, Laura Barron-Lopez has a look at what that might mean for the future of U.S. democracy. Laura Barron-Lopez: William, according to the Associated Press, 55 percent of voters said they were very or somewhat concerned that Trump would steer the U.S. toward becoming an authoritarian country, one where a single leader or small group has unchecked power. Still, more than one in 10 of those voters supported him anyways. To discuss this further, I'm joined by Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future…. Who answers a poll with "I fear he's an authoritarian, but I voted for him any way"? And who promotes that poll? Like many leftists, Barron-Lopez misquoted Trump's "dictator for a day" joke with Sean Hannity, and his talk of using the military during times of unrest. Like...January 6?  Barron-Lopez: President-elect Trump has openly embraced a number of strongman leaders, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Trump has also said that he would be a dictator for a day. He has expressed a desire to seek revenge against his political enemies, and he's also threatened to use the military against civilians during times of civil unrest. If Donald Trump ends up governing like a strongman, what does that mean for the future of democracy? Stanley: He will end up governing like a strongman. He generally does what he says, which is why voters consider him authentic, perhaps, rightfully so. He's appointed Pete Hegseth as his defense secretary, whose writings show that he regards leftists, political opponents, university professors as the enemy, as the real enemy….For example, Orban took over the media, forcing the media to sell to his cronies and friends. And the thought was, the United States is too large for that. However, couldn't Elon Musk just buy the whole media? The left’s aversion both to free expression online and to rich people owning media outlets (Jeff Bezos of the Washington Post and Ted Turner, to name two) is of very recent vintage, suggesting political hypocrisy. Barron-Lopez invited her guest to replay a hysterical historical reference. Barron-Lopez: You said before that the signs were there in terms of showing that voters may very well say yes to a strongman leader. Are there any historical parallels, past examples that you think mirror the moment that the country is in right now? Stanley: ….What we're seeing here in terms of the sort of character of Trump, the sort of self-representation, as theorists like Ruth Ben-Ghiat have correctly pointed out, is something like Mussolini. There's lots of differences in underlying ideology, but what we have got is something similar to a fascist-supporting group…. Ben-Ghiat, another PBS favorite, has embarrassed herself there on a few occasions, suggesting Trump would herd his political enemies into camps. Barron-Lopez: What could a second Trump term mean in terms of emboldening extremists or those who hold far-right views about the future of the country? Stanley: ….These are people who believe that this is a Christian nation, that it's being ruined by secularists, everyone who's not a Christian nationalist or a virulent Trump supporter is a Marxist. This is fascism when you call everyone who is not a supporter of the leader a Marxist. You call your normal political opponents Marxists. You target the schools and universities and the press. You say they're controlled by Marxists. This is the dominant vocabulary of the Trumpist movement…. So a liberal accusing Trump of being fascist is only being factual -- but a Trump supporter calling a Trump-hater Marxist is actually being a fascist? Even when Trump opponents are openly Marxist, public broadcasters call it "baseless" to identify them that way. They won't identify them as "Extremism in America." Stanley donated a whopping $5,000 to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, after previously giving to leftists Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). PBS didn’t bother disclosing those facts. Also note that Stanley has been calling Trump a fascist for at least six years now and yet still somehow remains a free man, which rather calls into question the former and future president’s fascist bona fides. This hysterical segment was brought to you in part by Consumer Cellular. A transcript is available, click “Expand.” PBS News Hour 11/27/24 7:32:09 p.m. (ET) William Brangham: President-elect Donald Trump ran a lot of his campaign promising retribution for his enemies and asking absolute loyalty from his supporters. Now, as he prepares for a second term in office, Laura Barron-Lopez has a look at what that might mean for the future of U.S. democracy. Laura Barron-Lopez: William, according to the Associated Press, 55 percent of voters said they were very or somewhat concerned that Trump would steer the U.S. toward becoming an authoritarian country, one where a single leader or small group has unchecked power. Still, more than one in 10 of those voters supported him anyways. To discuss this further, I'm joined by Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of "Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future." Professor Stanley, thank you so much for joining. Why did voters on one hand acknowledge and express fear that the country could very well tip towards authoritarianism under Trump, but then on the other hand still vote for him? Jason Stanley, Yale University: The idea that democracy is a value upon which voters vote or place enormous priority on is false. Voters prize a number of things over democracy, especially voters who have regularly lived in a country where you can replace leaders and parties by elections. The idea that democracy should be a value, well, that's something that schools and universities teach. That's something we try to emphasize, but it doesn't mean that people are born that way. Laura Barron-Lopez: President-elect Trump has openly embraced a number of strongman leaders, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Trump has also said that he would be a dictator for a day. He has expressed a desire to seek revenge against his political enemies, and he's also threatened to use the military against civilians during times of civil unrest. If Donald Trump ends up governing like a strongman, what does that mean for the future of democracy? Jason Stanley: He will end up governing like a strongman. He generally does what he says, which is why voters consider him authentic, perhaps, rightfully so. He's appointed Pete Hegseth as his defense secretary, whose writings show that he regards leftists, political opponents, university professors as the enemy, as the real enemy. So, every indication we have is that he's going to rule like an authoritarian and maybe not step down from power, certainly adjust the levers of power in our very flawed democracy so that Trumpism remains in power for some time to come, perhaps a very long time to come. And we know that they have been taking advice from Orban. And for a long time, people said, including me, that the United States was too large to do what Orban did. For example, Orban took over the media, forcing the media to sell to his cronies and friends. And the thought was, the United States is too large for that. However, couldn't Elon Musk just buy the whole media? Laura Barron-Lopez: You said before that the signs were there in terms of showing that voters may very well say yes to a strongman leader. Are there any historical parallels, past examples that you think mirror the moment that the country is in right now? Jason Stanley: Every authoritarian situation is somewhat different, but there's regularities of structure. Putin, for example, is an extremely popular leader in Russia, right? I mean, people would vote for him. What we're seeing here in terms of the sort of character of Trump, the sort of self-representation, as theorists like Ruth Ben-Ghiat have correctly pointed out, is something like Mussolini. There's lots of differences in underlying ideology, but what we have got is something similar to a fascist-supporting group. We have got billionaire oligarchs and Christian nationalists, so both sort of radical and antidemocratic. And once those two groups — once you have a large group of Christian nationalists or ethnic nationalists, plus oligarchs, together in support, it's very hard to defeat that coalition. Laura Barron-Lopez: What could a second Trump term mean in terms of emboldening extremists or those who hold far right views about the future of the country? Jason Stanley: Well, I mean, those are the people he's taken into power, he's proposing to take into power. These are people who believe that this is a Christian nation, that it's being ruined by secularists, everyone who's not a Christian nationalist or a virulent Trump supporter is a Marxist. This is fascism when you call everyone who is not a supporter of the leader a Marxist. You call your normal political opponents Marxists. You target the schools and universities and the press. You say they're controlled by Marxists. This is the dominant vocabulary of the Trumpist movement. And what it augurs is very problematic and worrisome. But I don't think what will result is less popularity for the strongman leader. Democracy is something you have to fight for. You have to fight for its values. You have to teach its values that every citizen is important, every citizen's perspective is important. And those aren't values we're born with. And as they attack the institutions that defend those values, the press, the universities and the schools, we will see a democratic culture, what we have of a democratic culture disappearing.

While the Black Ops 6 omnimovement system has been a game-changer for gunfights in the latest Call of Duty, that doesn’t mean everyone’s been happy with Treyarch’s movement changes. Some have been pointing out that, in comparison to Modern Warfare 2019, Black Ops 6’s movement is actually much slower and clunkier. That’s why a Treyarch director has weighed in on exactly why BO6 feels different to play than other CoD games, while explaining the team’s goals for the “overall game experience.” Continue reading Black Ops 6 dev explains the new CoD’s controversial movement changes MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Black Ops 6 guns, Black Ops 6 missions, Black Ops 6 loadouts

From Phasmophobia to Content Warning, it’s tough to beat the experience of sharing the scariest horror games with your friends. But convincing everyone in your crew to buy another new game to play with you can be tough. Enter the Steam Autumn Sale, which has dropped 2024 co-op game Nuclear Nightmare to well under $2. A blend of the frantic chaos of Lethal Company and the constant paranoia of John Carpenter’s The Thing, this terrifying test of your friendship is the perfect way to ring in the winter, and the response has been great, with a new player count high and very positive user reviews. Continue reading Co-op horror game Nuclear Nightmare is under $2 on Steam, and doing great MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best co-op games, Best horror games, Best indie games

Katie Pavlich, Sean Davis Explain Why Kash Patel's the BEST Choice for FBI Chief (With Help From McCabe)

Joe Biden sets off for Angola on Sunday on a trip that will deliver on a promise to visit Africa during his presidency and focus on a major, U.S.-backed railway project that aims to divert critical minerals away from China.The project, partly funded with a U.S. loan, links...

European Council President Antonio Costa and Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Sunday, using the first day in their new roles to send a message of support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.Their visit comes as Ukraine...