On the contrary, being anti-choice is easy. It's simplistic and binary, perfect for people blinded by the certainty of monotheistic faith - life starts at conception. God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.

The circumstances of conception are irrelevant. All the complexities and hazards that can and do occur on the path to birth are irrelevant. The science of fetal development and pregnancy is irrelevant.

That an IVF zygote isn't even implanted in a uterus yet is irrelevant - destroying it is killing a child, and can be prosecuted as such in Alabama. I mean, it has a soul already, and that's just an objective fact.

Sweet Home Talibama.

'I increasingly feel
like the only or at least
the most important story
is how private equity is hollowing out
and destroying every aspect of our existence."

--yet another
Homeless, drug-
addicted/addled
LOSER who bought
the Bigscreen TeeVee
instead of Hoarding Every
Last Penny for the Rent. LOSER!

--or maybe Someone
whose nearest Hospital's
been shut down as Unprofitable
and has to Drive 200 Miles to get
a fucking Flu Shot. 'pharmacy'? What
Pharmacy!? they're just Not Profitable

see: Private
Equity.

if Soulless
Corporations
are People Too
why not Zygotes?

if women get Pregnant
don't Blame the Menfolk
for their wanton Sex Drives
[the Former, fool, NEVER the latter]

handmaids
galore and not
a Feminist about:

it's a "Republican"
fucking Utopia
Friendo!

“Rite Aide acquired Seattle's Bartell Drugs chain back in 2020. Now, more than 20 Bartells have closed in Seattle.”

All together, now: Bartell’s started closing downtown stores in 2019, a full year before the merger, due to assaults upon their employees in those stores.

And thanks for the Magic heist story! Anything that reminds me of Seattle in the ‘90s is a good thing, and it’s hard to get much more Seattle in the ‘90s* than fooling with Magic cards.

*Without strapping on a guitar and dying of a heroin overdose, natch’.

Never believe national chains excuses for shutting down store locations.

Ever.

@2 - LMAO @ Sweet Home Talibama! It seems they are bucking to be the new capital of the United Christian States of Trumpghanistan. I feel like Floriduh won't let this stand for long though!

@kristofarian - Spot on as always my friend!

Recent news is that a school district imposes limits on a kid's hair-do? We had these arguments in the 1970s. What next? Outlaw Nehru jackets? On the other hand, we already have a crooked (ex-)president claiming to be Not A Crook, so maybe Time is in a loop and we have not yet noticed.

Oh, and a lot of the sanctions against Russia are actually against Chinese or Indian or other firms that are supplying them with materials.

Yes, these will be actioned with extreme prejudice.

No, you don't get a say in the matter.

@11: Time is a flat circle. We’re all in the Night Country now.

This Alabama bullshit is what happens when people vote for the Taliban. If you’re a Republican and you voted for these assholes, it’s your fault. And if you are a Democrat or at least someone who can read (and knows the Earth is more than 6000 years old), but didn’t bother to vote, you voted for them too. A majority of Alabama chose these Bible-thumping motherfuckers either through action or lazy-ass inaction, and now they’re living with it.

The really sad thing for me about Chief Justice Parker’s statement is that a good 60-70% of the people of Alabama will think it’s unquestionably reasonable. I don’t know if we have to wait for these people to just die off or if, in the looming, there’s a new crop of them being raised in poison. If religion is a scam, and I believe it is, and if Phineas T. Barnum’s dictum about suckers being born every minute is true, then how can things ever improve in this regard? What would it take? Sorry again, my sisters.

Used to love Vice News. Fresh coverage of stories the networks wouldn’t bother with. Pretty in depth stuff. But it got hard to find. Time changes. On HBO. Then, Showtime. Then, on the Vice Channel. Then, back on HBO (kinda). Sorry, guys. The dedicated reporting was first-rate. Sorry they mismanaged the administration.

Hurray for high-speed rail, well, anywhere. One note of caution though. $250M sounds like a lot of money (and it is), but if our LA-SF high-speed rail experience is an example of how it works, by the time the lawyers, the study consultants, and the contractors get there hands on it, there’ll be 35-cents left for trains and construction. Please learn from our debacle. And if some state rep from, say, Sedro-Wooley announces that the train needs to stop there, too, or he/she won’t support it, tell them to sit down and shut up. BTW, the Los Angeles-Las Vegas train seems to have a lot more energy and will attached to it. Maybe, if you have to choose HSR planning, perhaps Las Vegas makes more sense (it’s a long, boring 6-hour drive and you better hope you have satellite radio else you’ll have to listen to about 3 hours of Billy Bob the Evangelist or nothing), but since I’m not a huge fan of LV, it would have been so nice to be able to hit SF for dinner in 2-3 hours, maybe a ballgame, stay overnight, and be home the next day before noon.

Pssst, Joe…no one’s gonna hurt Russia economically as long as people are buying its oil. Just sayin’, buddy.

Moon and space exploration and discovery always exciting. It’s maybe a little sad though that Odysseus will only have a week before it looses its power source (the sun) and its innards will enter into eternally unrecoverable frozen stillness. Like me should I ever be forced to watch The Bachelor.

Good weekend, everyone. Won’t be long now before the clover goes green and daffodils bloom.

@9- I can’t wait to see the girls having their skirt lengths measured before they’re allowed in.

@12 "Nothing racist"

my arm is not long enough for the jerk off motion that is my soul

@1: You're also a MAN, Max. Fuck "God" if women and girls are to be forever seen as baby incubating farm animals forced to give birth just because some dumb book, written by MEN, for MEN says so!
Cruelly misogynist, religiously based horseshit like this is why I'm an atheist, will always be an atheist, and THAT's a fact.
You and your conservative ilk will never experience menstrual periods, breast lumps, water weight gain, pregnancy, childbirth, delivery, or breastfeeding. If you are ever raped (perish the thought) you will never have to worry about carrying someone else's inseminated kid through violence, rape, incest, and forced impregnation. What if pregnancy (i.e.: ectopic) put your health and life at risk? What then? Get a fucking CLUE! Body autonomy in regards to a woman's health and well being is and should always be a WOMAN'S right, not a MAN's, and certainly not for RWNJs in the Divided States Neofascist Extreme Court or elsewhere to decide!
MEN should have NO SAY in women's health issues, and yet, millions of years later, here we are in dystopia all because of the fragile MALE EGO.
Are you aware that in your declaration of being "pro-life" you are willfully defending rapists and sexual predators, Max? I'm surprised you're not a rabid fan of the Orange Turd. DJT is all for a 16-week abortion ban. Are you happy now? If the Orange Turd and its neofascist lackeys illegally reseize control of the White House in November I'll be adding you among those to blame for the apocalyptic end times to follow.

@2 DOUG, @4 kristofarian, and @8 diFrankieFox: Do you guys have any idea what you're saying? Is it because the dire global consequences don't immediately and bodily effect any of you assigned male at birth?

@7 Will in Seattle: +1 Agreed. We both know better, don't we?
I finally had to transfer all my prescriptions from Rite Aid to another pharmacy closer to home on my bus route.
Rite Aid used to have the nicest mom 'n' pop drugstore downtown. The pharmacists there were nice, accommodating, knowledgeable, and knew their customers on a first name basis. Because the building was old, the corporation closed the location, transferring prescriptions of downtown customers to other stores. The current idiots at the remaining bigger stores across town are disorganized jokes. People have to wit in long lines, even if they received phone messages that refills were ready to be picked up. Too many prescription medications are out of stock and on back order. The good pharmacists have all been replaced by rude, smarmy incompetents who, by their actions have proven to be willing to work under poor conditions, long hours, and Draconian cuts in wages and benefits.

@ 18 - Hi, Auntie, I think Max was being tongue-in-cheek.

I miss Morty. With all the current SPD, SPOG, and other law enforcement agency scandals occurring locally, regionally, and nationally, I wonder if he & his wife said fuck it and became expats?

@19: Max didn't sound sarcastic to me.
Go back to resuscitating your inflatable doll before it loses all its hot air, raindrop dear.

@20 Bauhaus I: Tongue-in-cheek or not, men have no business deciding the outcome of women's health. Period.

@17 alright that was a good retort

@1 Max Solomon, @2 DOUG, @4 kristofarian, @8 diFrankieFox, @19 raindrop, and @20 Bauhaus I:
Okay, I have a question for you and all fellow commenters assigned male at birth:
Would you trust the medical advice of a female proctologist who had absolutely no idea what her male patients' health conditions were like, regardless of how great in detail you described your symptoms?

@18 I know what I'm saying. The Alabama Supreme Court is the American Taliban. And I think that affects everyone.

@25 yes. there are idiot doctors of all genders. no guarantee a man is going to know anything more just because he has the same parts

@5 One of the reports said that it was impossible for Kandula or Dave to avoid the collision because of the speeds involved. Is it negligent to not be running your siren when you're going so fast that you can't avoid an accident if someone steps in front of you? Maybe, especially when you're going 50 over the limit. That'll be for Davison to decide, and possibly eventually a jury.

Discipline by SPD will depend on that "when necessary." How often was Dave chirping his siren? How many blocks before the collision was the last chirp? Are chirps allowed as a substitute for continuous sirens when operating at high speeds in residential zones?

If Dave's last chirp before the collision was three or four blocks back, then I could see negligent driving charges. I think it's unlikely from Davison, but you never know. That could also prompt internal discipline, since that's far enough away that the average pedestrian isn't going to know that a cop is going to barrel through the intersection in 5-10 seconds. If the last chirp was half a block away, I don't see any possibility of charges or discipline, though I would hope that it would prompt a change to the SPD procedures.

And I'll note again that if SPD actually used their sirens all the time except when a silent approach was needed (like the fire department), this whole thing could have been avoided. And likely also the multimillion dollar civil suit against the city that will come.

This is from the POV
of the Patriarchy
auntie Gee:

'if women get Pregnant
don't Blame the Menfolk
for their wanton Sex Drives
[the Former, fool, NEVER the latter].'

and I Concur with

"MEN should have
NO SAY in women's
health issues, and yet,
millions of years later,
here we are in dystopia
all because of the fragile

MALE EGO.'

Bingo
auntie Gee.

End Stockholm
Syndrome -- fuck
the Patriarchy & stop
Fucking the Patriarchy.

@30 I'm not sure if you're just really dense or if it's an act. Hanlon's Razor and all. Just in case you're posting in good faith, let's try this again.

SPD doesn't make laws, but they do make policy for how officers should conduct themselves. If you don't follow policy, you can get fired. That's what's called the "disciplinary process" which is what I said SPD would follow. I never said that SPD would set the law. They set policy. Repeat it again, maybe a little slower this time so it sinks in. Pooooolicy.

But here's the wild thing. Hang on to your hat because this gets weird. The same set of evidence could be used to determine criminal charges and also disciplinary action! Crazy, right?! So if an officer was determined to be a negligent driver in court, it might trigger discipline. Or Davison might choose not to file charges (most likely IMHO). But the /same set of facts/ that led to no charges being filed could result in internal discipline by SPD. And even if no charges are filed and no discipline is handed down, the /same set of facts/ could result in the City being civilly sued for several million dollars, and possibly losing.

And that evidence will absolutely include the number and frequency of siren chirps. And a determination of negligence (criminal, civil, or resulting in discipline) will absolutely turn on whether the officer did everything that is reasonably necessary to operate a vehicle at that speed. If the officer took proper care, then he isn't at fault if someone steps out in front of him. The actual speed isn't particularly important except insofar as it affects the standard of proper care in that instance. Again, this might shock and amaze you, but there are varying levels of care required depending on the hazards of the situation.

To use an analogy, you need a different level of fall and dropped tool protection if you're working 2 feet above ground than if you're working 200 feet above ground. If you're working 200 feet up and drop a hammer on someone's head and they die, you are going to be held negligent if you didn't meet all appropriate OSHA requirements to prevent dropped tools. If you did meet those requirements, you did your best and sometimes bad things happen. You might still get civilly sued, but you won't go to jail. The fact that the hazard is higher for a 200-foot drop means that you have to take extra precautions.

And I know that mens rea is your favorite get-out-of-jail free card, but it may not apply here the way you say it does. If Dave knew of a risk and disregarded it, that's recklessness, a higher standard than negligence. If he didn't know of the risk and should have, that's negligence. (https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/mens_rea) If SPD officer training covers when sirens should be used during high speed operations, and he didn't follow guidelines, that likely falls under either negligence or recklessness.

@26 Doug: +1 Agreed. Thank you for the clarification. I wish we could build a wall around all the clueless blood red neofascist states of MAGA confusion, pen in the RWNJs and pro-Turdists until they all die off. They're all inbred sewer rats fighting in a trap, already dying of terminal stupidity.

@27 Brent Gumbo: +1 Agreed. Thank you, too, for making some good points, and the reminder that bad doctors are plentiful in all genders.

@28 & @33: Hard pass. Just keep on blowing on your inflatable doll, raindrop dear, before it runs out of hot air.
You can hold its hands though, during the resuscitative process.
If you're lucky you can even play pat-a-cake with your Mal*Mart supply of Twinkies.

@32 kristofarian: +1 Agreed. Thank you and bless you for also responding.
As usual, you nailed it. I've been doing precisely that--I have indeed stopped fucking the patriarchy
since ending an abusive marriage and don't miss it one bit.
I do feel genuinely sorry for those, regardless of gender, who are stuck in unhealthy relationships, isolated from friends, family, support, and resources, and who have no way out of their nightmares.

@33: I have nothing against ANY doctor, regardless of gender, out to perform safe, healthy abortions, raindrop dear. You know me better than that. As kristofarian aptly points out, the sexism lies within the patriarchy. That needs to end.
I have been fortunate that I never had to terminate an unwanted pregnancy during my reproductive years. But I would never stand between another woman or adolescent girl who does or ever did. RWNJs have their heads of their asses, as does ANY woman who wildly continues to support the Orange Turd, and that the MAGA / mega church will "save" her--usually just because she's Caucasian.

@36 OK, so let's look at the statutory definition of criminal negligence. "Criminal negligence (sometimes called culpable negligence) refers to a defendant who acts in disregard of a serious risk of harm that a reasonable person in the same situation would have perceived. Another common definition includes an act that amounts to a gross deviation from the general standard of care."

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-criminal-negligence.html

So a prosecutor would have to convince a jury that Dave operated in a way that a reasonable person wouldn't. Yes, it's an arbitrary standard. But that's the way the law is written. You don't have to like it, but laws are often written in the gray rather than black or white. The standard of care is highly relevant here as well, because that is going to end up being the SPD manual and training. The training is relevant because if officers are trained that "when necessary" means "all the time when you're going 50 over the limit," then it's going to be easier to prove criminal negligence.

I don't disagree that more likely than not Dave is going to walk, on both criminal charges and SPD discipline. I absolutely disagree that there's no way to charge negligence under these conditions. It would take a prosecutor who wants to make a point, though and I think that's unlikely. Of course, his comments after the fact will make a civil suit against the city much easier since Dave is such an unsympathetic character.

Oh, and the RCW isn't as clear-cut as you say. RCW 46.61.035 (irrelevant stuff snipped):
(1) The driver of an authorized emergency vehicle, when responding to an emergency call or when in the pursuit of an actual or suspected violator of the law or when responding to but not upon returning from a fire alarm, may exercise the privileges set forth in this section, but subject to the conditions herein stated.
(2) The driver of an authorized emergency vehicle may:
(b) Proceed past a red or stop signal or stop sign, but only after slowing down as may be necessary for safe operation;
(c) Exceed the maximum speed limits so long as he or she does not endanger life or property;
(3) The exemptions herein granted to an authorized emergency vehicle shall apply only when such vehicle is making use of visual signals meeting the requirements of RCW 46.37.190, except that: (a) An authorized emergency vehicle operated as a police vehicle need not be equipped with or display a red light visible from in front of the vehicle; (b) authorized emergency vehicles shall use audible signals when necessary to warn others of the emergency nature of the situation but in no case shall they be required to use audible signals while parked or standing.
(4) The foregoing provisions shall not relieve the driver of an authorized emergency vehicle from the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons, nor shall such provisions protect the driver from the consequences of his or her reckless disregard for the safety of others.

Did Dave slow down at red lights to verify that it was safe to proceed? Nope. He ran right through them at speed. He obviously endangered life or property since Kandula was killed. So there's a decent chance he could have been popped for violating that RCW.

BTW, I don't know where you got the idea that I think that if Dave had been running his siren continuously, Kandula wouldn't have been killed. I said that I thought there was a better chance of that outcome, and Dave did not do everything he could to alert pedestrians in his way that he was coming down the road at 70+ mph. I also observed that SFD vehicles don't seem to run people down despite responding more often to serious threats to life and safety, and perhaps that might be due to running their sirens continuously.

PS The recent case where officers were disciplined for slow response is nearly irrelevant to the Kandula case. If they had been disciplined for driving 25 mph to a Priority 1 call, it would absolutely be relevant. Instead, they were disciplined for sitting around doing nothing for 20 minutes. That’s a totally different scenario.

You still think that mens rea is a get out of jail free card. As if you can't be convicted of negligence unless you're a cat-stroking supervillain talking about your master plan. Let's repeat. Criminal negligence requires only that you /should have known/ that something presented a hazard and/or that you acted more recklessly than an average person. Someone can be convicted of criminal negligence for leaving a firearm in reach of a toddler, even if they didn't intend for the toddler to shoot their sibling. Likewise, someone driving more recklessly than an average person can be convicted of negligence even if they didn't mean to kill anyone. I hope you're not a defense attorney.

Convenient for your arguments that you completely ignore RCW 46.61.035(2)(b). Any emergency responder going over the speed limit needs to slow down to confirm that it's safe to proceed through intersections before running a red light. Did Dave slow down before going through intersections? If not, he didn't follow the law.

I always wondered why SFD slowed down for red lights and SPD didn't about half the time. I see now that it's because SFD actually follows the law and SPD is willing to ignore it. Not exactly shocking.

PS If Washington’s negligence standard is so vague that it can never be proven, explain how there are convictions for criminal negligence in general and negligent driving in particular every year.

Also discuss the varying levels of mens rea. You seem to think that willfulness is the only one that exists. Compare and contrast willful through negligent.

@42 No, not at all. I’m challenging Ahab to back up their assertion that it’s impossible to prosecute someone for negligence. The fact that prosecutions happen is not an anecdote, so either Ahab is wrong or they can offer a clarification of the argument.

"I
hope
you're not
a defense attorney."

pro bono and
Worth every
penny

"Just
like Gaza,
this dialogue will
just keep going in circles."

if you're still Equating
anti-Nutnyahooism
with anti-Semitism
& Hamas with ALL
Palestinians then
yes fuck yes yes

@25, Part II, the Sequel: I guess this is the question I meant to ask all SLOG commenters assigned male at birth:
What would your reaction be if you were a patient of a RWNJ female proctologist who insisted on monitoring your sex life, restricting when you could have erections, made you were a penile corset, and politically lobbied "for religious reasons" to make Viagra distribution illegal in all 50 U.S. states?

@46: !@#$ing AutoCorrect! Make that: "...monitoring your sex life, restricting when you could have erections, made you wear a penile corset, and politically lobbied "for religious reasons" to make Viagra illegal in all 50 U.S. states?"

@49: That's right. Keep on stammering, raindrop dear. Did my question make you flinch? Good.
A scenario like this would scare the shit out of any neofascist gun lovin' MAGAt and RWNJ preacher
of often misquoted "biblical" bullshit.

Griz's back is up this week.

@51

19th Century 'science'
to be Sure but
Science it
WAS, in-
deed!

"well-played,"
dewey.

@45 You keep walking past the elephant in the room. Yes, state law allows emergency responders to break traffic laws on emergency calls. But they also require that emergency responders slow down at intersections to verify that it is safe to proceed. Let's repeat that little piece of the RCW here. Read it this time.

(2) The driver of an authorized emergency vehicle may:
(b) Proceed past a red or stop signal or stop sign, but only after slowing down as may be necessary for safe operation;

Now go back and read it again. Because reading comprehension isn't a strong suit for you.

So the question remains to you, did Dave slow down at the intersection to see if it was safe to proceed? Yes or no question, no Gish Gallop required. If he did, then we can talk about sirens etc. If he didn't, he broke the state law that allows him to go 74 in a 25 zone.

Yes or no?

@54 Ah. So the intersection of Dexter and Thomas is not an intersection. That's a bold place to plant your flag. Friend.

@54 Also, let's look at some numbers. Dave was traveling at ~75 mph or around 108 ft/second before he started braking. In the urban canyons of SLU, it's hard to see down cross streets, especially on a street as narrow as Thomas. From the next alley west of Dexter (~150 feet away), you can see ~20-25 feet down Dexter. At the 25 mph speed limit, a car on Dexter could go from completely invisible to Dave to the middle of the traffic lane in the same time that it took Dave to get to the intersection. Dave would have T-boned that car at ~50-60 mph. He would have had no way to avoid a collision with a car following all traffic rules.

That's what slowing down at an intersection is for--to check that nobody is coming on the cross street. Dave was lucky to have made it through several intersections without hitting a car, and Kandula paid the price for that. And before you complain that a car driver should have stopped for the siren, remember that we're in an urban canyon and it's hard to locate sound and lights if you're not in a line of sight to the police car.

Finally, the fact that Dave hadn't hit anyone earlier in the route is no proof that he was operating safely. The Exxon Valdez didn't hit any reefs until it did.

@51: 'Pure science', my ass. Patriarchy isn't science--it's pure fascism.
Afraid to answer my question (@46 / @47), raindrop dear? The Orange Turd and its Turd Reich lackeys and RWNJs have you so brainwashed it's pathetic. What will you do when they rewire what's left of your brain into a present day Lawnmower Man?
Have fun packing, shipping, and handling merchandise for Amazon for no pay, benefits, or time off.