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WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon on Wednesday will sweep away Trump-era policies that largely banned transgender people from serving in the military, issuing new rules that offer them wider access to medical care and assistance with gender transition, defense officials told The Associated Press.The new department regulations allow transgender people who meet military standards to enlist and serve openly in their self-identified gender, and they will be able to get medically necessary transition-related care authorized by law, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal decisions not yet made public.

In last week's article I discussed the issue of American “balkanization” and the rapid migration of conservatives and moderates from large population centers and states that are becoming militant in their progressive ideology. In my home state of Montana there has been a surge of people trying to escape the chaos and oppression of leftist states. Some are here because of the pandemic and the harsh restrictions they had to endure during the first lockdowns. Others are here because they can't stand the hostility of identity politics, cancel culture and race riots. Either way, they are fleeing places with decidedly...

Young American flyers arrive in war and discover that the bureaucracy is more deadly than the enemy.6 part miniseries

Nearly two decades after George Clooney left the seminal medical drama ER, the actor is making a return to the small screen — and the only catch is the one in the title. Clooney will be directing and starring in a miniseries adaptation of Catch-22 from Paramount TV and Anonymous Content. There is no network currently attached to air the miniseries. Clooney will be adapting Joseph Heller’s tragicomic 1961 World War II satirical novel Catch-22 into a six-episode miniseries and starring as Colonel Cathcart, the primary antagonist of the book, according to Variety. Based off of Heller’s own experiences in...

The Path to IgnoranceOne common denominator characterizes almost all unrest on college campuses: the demands to create more “-studies” courses (black, Latino, feminist, gay, etc.) and thus to hire more -studies professors. An empiricist from Mars might observe that the chief beneficiaries of the protests are -studies academics. They alone will win more jobs and classes, which otherwise few students wish to attend and from which fewer gain any factual knowledge, written and oral speaking skills, or improvement in inductive thinking. A good leftist would cite conflict of interest: the more -studies professors egg on students to protest for more...

On Meet the Press this morning, Donald Trump insisted that: he was "100 percent right" when he said he saw thousands of Muslims in Jersey City, New Jersey, cheering the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, even though fact-checkers have debunked his assertion. In a phone interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Trump said he has heard from "hundreds of people that agree" that there were televised Muslim celebrations of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which he used as evidence to show his remarks were true. "I saw it. So many people saw it," said Trump, who, in the...

The maintenance and intensification of the American sanctions regime imposed on Iran, even in the absence of a tight international sanctions regime, could lead to a better deal than the one reached last month in Vienna, an Israeli expert on arms said. Emily Landau, head of the arms control and regional security program at the Institute for National Security Studies based at Tel Aviv University, is one of Israel’s most respected expert observers on the Iranian nuclear program. In an interview, she said that the nuclear accord struck between the P5+1 powers and Iran on July 14 was the result...

The Ten Scariest DMV Horror Stories There is a dark side to driving in the US, and it is known as the DMV. Listen to these ten tales of woe from Jalopnik readers and you'll get a taste of American bureaucracy at its worst. 10.) Counterfeiters get Mustang GTs Suggested By: frankiepoops What happened: Worst experience that I ever had was when the NY DMV decided that my title for my 1996 green Mustang was counterfeit, not the first time I registered it, but when I went back to put it back on the road after parking it for a...

Why do men die first? This is a question that has gone unanswered for centuries, but, now we know. It requires a bit of explanation, first: If you put a woman on a pedestal and try to protect her from the rat race ... you're a male chauvinist. If you stay home and do the housework ... you're a pansy. If you work too hard ... there's never any time for her. If you don't work enough ... you're a good-for-nothing bum. If she has a boring repetitive job with low pay ... this is exploitation. If you have a...

When Washington makes a big decision—to pass the PATRIOT Act, to invade Iraq, to bail out Wall Street, to spend hundreds of billions "stimulating" the economy—the most important stage of the debate isn't the final agreement on what to do. That's just a bunch of details about portions and timing. The key stage comes in the initial rounds, when the acceptable radius of disagreement is established. Your sharpest critics are often your most radical critics, so it's important that their arguments be confined to the foreign press, the blogosphere, and other backwaters. Once those boundaries are ratified, you must police...

New York Giants star receiver Plaxico Burress is facing a mandatory 3½ years in prison and the end of his football career. His crime? Not having a license, which New York City never would have issued him, for the exercise of his constitutional right to bear arms. ...And then there is the issue of the permitting process for residents. In 40 states, including Connecticut, law-abiding adults are issued permits once they pass a fingerprint-based background check and a safety class. In New Jersey, carry permits are virtually never issued. In New York City, carry permits are issued, but to applicants...

Late Sunday night, my wife and I drove from Sacramento, Calif., to Los Angeles. We figured that it would be wise to leave Sacramento in the early evening to avoid traffic. At 7 p.m., we climbed into the car and headed for Interstate 5, the major highway connecting Northern California and Southern California. For the first five hours of the drive, things went as planned. The highway was relatively clear, and we sailed along happily at 80 mph. Then we saw it. A sign. A large orange sign reading: Freeway Closed Ahead, 11 p.m.-4 a.m. It was too late to...

The core of the governor’s socialized medicine proposal is a mandate that every Californian MUST carry health insurance and that every insurance company MUST cover anyone who applies, regardless of pre-existing medical conditions. It’s called “guaranteed issue,” and it sounds too good to be true. That’s because it is. But if you are guaranteed health insurance AFTER you get sick, why would you pay for it when you are healthy? The governor’s advocates say that’s not a problem, since everybody will be required to carry health insurance, thus spreading the risk. Wait a minute. We already have a law that...

Associated Press U.S. troops would no longer be asked to reveal previous mental health treatment when applying for security clearances under a proposal being considered by the Pentagon. The idea stems from the finding that service members avoid needed counseling because they believe that getting it - and acknowledging it - could cost them their clearance as well as do other harm to their careers, The Associated Press has learned. "This is just one of several items under review by the Department of Defense and the services in an effort to remove the stigma associated with mental health issues," said...

March 2007Edition Reel Test of the Month Reel Celebrity of the Month Alan Arkin was probably the biggest surprise on Oscar Night winning the Best Supporting Oscar for his portrayal of a cocaine using grandfather of the “Little Miss Sunshine” . He inconveniently dies as the very dysfunctional family is on the way to the big contest. The family is “running late” so just put him in the back … reminiscent of National Lampoons Vacation.. and they presses on to make the deadline in their clunker van. He at 73 has had a long & varied career with movies...

Judge Whittemore in court this afternoon requested of Schindler attorney David Gibbs a response to a brief by Schiavo attorney Felos questioning the constitutionality of legislation passed last night by U.S. Congress and signed by President Bush. Acknowledging that Terri’s life hangs in the balance, Judge Whittemore said to Gibbs that he acknowledged the “catch-22” he was being placed in, but he would like Gibbs to respond to the Felos brief before giving his ruling. Whittemore offered U.S. attorney Zimmerman the opportunity to join Gibbs in defending the constitutionality of the congressional action, but refused to require the justice department...

A Latin document bearing the seal of Pope John XXIII outlined a 1962 Vatican procedure for shielding sexually abusive priests, two lawyers for plaintiffs in cases against the church maintain. The ``Crimine Solicitationis,'' translated as ``Instructions on proceeding in cases of solicitation,'' states abuse cases are subject to the ``papal secret'' and threatens excommunication against victims who do not come forward within 30 days, according to the document given to authorities by Carmen Durso of Boston and Daniel J. Shea of Houston. On Monday, Durso presented an English translation to U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan. ``We gave it to the U.S....