Below The Fold ...

And you said that "all drug deaths are caused by the drugs being illegal," and I have to stress that is patent nonsense.

You didn't limit your statement to recreational drug users.

Agreed, I should have limited to recreational and qualified just to the majority.
 
Re #233

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The city where I attended university was home to a couple of large steel mills and urban legend had it that some years previously a particularly obnoxious employee had checked in at the start of his shift and was never seen again. Word was that he (or at least his corpse) had ended up in one of the smelters and someone else had punched him out. While most of us just assumed that this was an urban legend some of the old hands insisted it wasn't ....
 
"The city where I attended university was home to a couple of large steel mills and urban legend had it that some years previously a particularly obnoxious employee had checked in at the start of his shift and was never seen again. Word was that he (or at least his corpse) had ended up in one of the smelters and someone else had punched him out. While most of us just assumed that this was an urban legend some of the old hands insisted it wasn't ...." S2 #244
Alright.
Some may think that story is just gross.
I think it's a hundred better !
Best of all, the happy ending. :)

eat your hearts out lobsters !
 
Happy

Equal Pay Day: March 26, 2026​

The date of Equal Pay Day symbolizes how many extra days into the new year women have to work to earn what men earned the prior year.
This year, Equal Pay Day falls on March 26, a day later than in 2025 but 16 days before the first Equal Pay Day, April 11, 1996.
While an earlier date may signal progress in narrowing the pay gap between men and women, U.S. Census Bureau data show disparities persist, even in women-dominated occupations.

Despite gains, women — who made up 44% of all U.S. full-time, year-round workers in 2024 — still earned significantly less than men, with median earnings at 83% of men’s, according to a table package from the American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates.
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FFRF slams Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick’s ‘religious liberty’ committee​

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s newly created Senate Select Committee on Religious Liberty is a thinly veiled effort to advance a Christian nationalist agenda.

Patrick announced the formation of the committee on March 23, claiming that it will “educate Texans” about their so-called “God-given religious liberty rights” and ensure those rights are not infringed. All committee members except one are Republican and all appear to be affiliated with conservative Christianity.

“Just like President Trump’s so-called Religious Liberty Commission, which Patrick chairs, this committee isn’t about protecting religious liberty — it’s about undermining true religious freedom,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Religious freedom under our secular Constitution means the right not just to believe, but to disbelieve. It does not mean the right to impose your religion on others or to claim exemptions from laws that protect public health and civil rights because of your religion.”

The committee’s mandate raises concerns about its purpose. With a leadership structure closely aligned with Patrick’s political priorities, the body appears designed to promote a predetermined ideological outcome rather than conduct a balanced or meaningful review.

FFRF warns that Patrick’s framing of religious liberty as “God-given” reveals that he appears to be unaware that the Constitution itself is godless and its only references to religion are exclusionary, such as barring any religious test for public office. Sovereignty is invested not in a deity but in “We the People,” and our democracy runs by consent of the governed — not whatever deity Patrick subscribes to.

FFRF notes that similar efforts across the country have been used to justify discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals, undermine reproductive rights and erode the all-American principle of separation between church and state.

FFRF emphasizes that Texas is home to a religiously diverse population, including millions of residents who are atheist, agnostic or religiously unaffiliated, as well as adherents of minority faiths. Any government project that elevates one religious perspective over others marginalizes large segments of the population.

“There can be no religious freedom without the freedom to dissent,” adds Gaylor. “When religion enters government, watch out!”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation will monitor the committee’s actions and oppose any efforts that threaten the constitutional rights of Texans.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 41,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including 1,800 members and a chapter in Texas. FFRF’s purposes are to defend the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

Read this press release online.

 
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