Yes, which is why I specifically wrote: “sexual orientation has never received the same degree of protection under federal law (this case concerned a state statute)” (emphasis added).  

No, that’s not the result. Laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race in places of public accommodation have already been found constitutional (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Atlanta_Motel,_Inc._v._United_States), sexual orientation has never received the same degree of protection under federal law…

Except sexual orientation also isn’t a protected class under federal law either. This case was about a conflict between a state law and the First Amendment. If you’d like to make some state’s rights arguments about local interests trumping the First Amendment, you can try, but I don’t think you’d like where that leads.

It’s understandable — the kid really wants to play soccer, not tennis.

Yeah, I was really surprised that the kid ran out when the ball was still arcing high through the air.

All I got out of this story was that when you were underage a guy paid you $50 to meet him in a deserted men’s locker room....

Yes, croissant is kwah-sahn, not craw-sandt, but craw-sandt has become the accepted American pronunciation, hasn’t it?

This was the plane I immediately thought of when I read the “cons” of wing-mounted engines included picking up ground debris.

Given that the kid is three, it’s extremely unlikely his disability was caused by thalidomide exposure.

The issue was using the communal syrup bottle, which sits on the table and is used by all subsequent customers, not merely “eating.” If they interfered with him using his feet to hold the utensils or his own food I would be outraged. I think it’s a much, much closer question on asking him not to use the syrup bottle.

While you’re correct in the abstract about averages in the financial context, I’m not sure how applicable that is for consumer motor vehicles purchases, because I would expect that the percentage of the original purchase price covered by the down payment increases for luxury vehicles, which would reduce the monthly…

Yes, that was my immediate thought. Colorado experimented with “flat” plates some years ago and the overwhelming reaction was that they were far less readable at a distance if there was any sort of sun glare or if the plate was dirty. (Ironically, the reason the state gave for introducing “flat” plates in the first…

Ax uses the app onstage and in practice sessions to read music without relying on a page-turner. The app can hear Ax and follow along, so it knows when to turn the page.

It’s standard to bring a certified copy of the birth certificate if you don’t have a passport for your kid, but once the kid has a passport that should be sufficient.

In developed countries it’s pretty rare for kidnappers to succeed (at least when they are carrying out the kidnapping for ransom). Success rates are a lot higher in developing countries where police corruption is a big problem, although in this instance they apparently captured the crooks: https://jalopnik.com/bernie-e…

Well, there are many different reasons . . . to Libertarian politicians who simply don’t care because that’s their ideology

Health & safety inspections are very different than applying a hard cap to the total number of restaurants that are allowed to operate in the city.

I suspect it may have something to do with the Gurkhas’ bad ass reputation:

io9 has written about this before. There are actually conflicting stories on the subject (some saying he was transformed into his dog form by terrigenesis, others suggesting that was a misunderstanding or joke). This series is presumably intended to definitively clean that issue up.

That’s my criticism of it — overrepresenting women, POCs, LGBTQ individuals, etc. as characters in historical entertainment directly and explicitly minimizes the actual historical oppression such people experienced.