2026-03-07 00:00:27
Last Thursday, the Kansas State legislature passed SB 244, overriding a veto by Governor Laura Kelly and enshrining anti-trans law as unhinged in its fury as it is disheveled in structure. Here at Defector, we are committed to explaining incredibly stupid shit so that it can be comprehended by smart people such as yourselves. As a Defector subscriber, you likely hold a law degree, but that won't really help you understand this mess. To aid the process, please doff your thinking cap and replace it with this tasteful Kansas City Chiefs hat. Oh dear. Well yes, you do look ready to understand this now, just go ahead and...
Oouughhhh my head hurts. So uh, what exactly is this law trying to do?
This law essentially functions as a wishlist for a Republican party that has a super-majority and a thoroughly busted local democratic process. The spirit of it is that anyone who had trans'd their sex on their drivers license would have their license instantly invalidated, and also that nobody can use a public bathroom except for the one that corresponds with their "sex at birth." The latter would be enforced by deputizing citizens to act as genital-investigator (or dick-dick, if you prefer) toward anyone in the bathroom with them that they feel ought not be there, and paying said dicks for convictions. If these snitches fail to secure the conviction bag, or find their suspected bathroom bandit on private property, this law would still also empower the rat fucks to sue in civil court.
2026-03-06 23:25:25
The animal kingdom is ruled by open sexual relationships. Bats, beetles, and bonobos all have multiple partners over a season or a lifetime. Barnacles and barracudas don't even get to pick their partners, simply spewing their eggs and sperm into milky clouds underwater. But it's much rarer to be a nonmonogamous bird. An estimated 90 percent of birds are socially monogamous, meaning they choose partners with whom they cohabitate and raise young, albeit usually without the bounds of sexual exclusivity. For many birds, monogamy just makes sense. Their tiny, naked chicks are essentially helpless, and the round-the-clock care they require is an easier job for two. The expectations for each bird parent are clear, and as such caregiving often follows a set script for each species.
The small and skittish white-faced plover is one such monogamous bird. Pairs of white-faced plovers switch off the incubation of their nests. The females sit on the nest by day, and the males take over at night. Around noon, when temperatures are hot, both parents will pitch in to cool the eggs. This simple routine clearly works, and has for thousands of years for the many white-faced plovers scuttling around the shores of eastern Asia. All of them, it seems, except for this guy.
2026-03-06 22:50:19
CALGARY, Alberta — The Germans are famous for squishing words together to form useful new compounds. But Calgarians perfected the art when they came up with "Saddledome." You look at it, and you say, Yup, that's a Saddledome. The building occupied by the Flames since 1983 is unlike any other in the NHL. Even from a distance at night, the curved red line that lights up the Saddledome's profile makes it unmistakable. The world's largest cowboy could straddle that roof and feel right at home.
If you consider the $1 billion renovation of Madison Square Garden the de facto creation of a brand new building (and I will), the Flames have played in the Saddledome for a decade longer than any other NHL team has called their respective rink home. As someone who gets nostalgic about old arenas, loves Canadian hockey, and had never been to Alberta before, I'd known for a long time that I wanted to catch a game under its iconic parabola before it closes for good next year. Since time was starting to run short on that dream, after a delightful 48 hours in Calgary (I saw Les Mis!), I climaxed my visit with Senators-Flames. It might have been a low point for the franchise, but not for me.
Certain people (N. Murray Edwards) have been trying to bump off the Saddledome for over 10 years, and when the Flames drop the puck on the 2027–28 season, it'll be in a new arena—at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars contributed by the city, the province, and their taxpayers. You can see the bones of the new building right next door, and when you walk south from downtown to a game, the construction site looms over the ol' saddle. The trick of perspective can't help but feel threatening. You will be destroyed because of me.
2026-03-06 22:13:10
The trick with every Formula 1 season is to believe, at the start, that it will be exciting. Fortunately, if last year's preview was any indication, sports fans tend to be quite good about doing this.
But this year, this year really, there is a lot to be excited for. There's a massive regulations overhaul that is shrinking the cars, if just by a little, and dramatically changing how they operate. There's a whole new team on the grid, with not-so-new drivers. Even if there aren't so many new rookies as last year, there is one (a teenage non-pay driver, at that!), plus a lot of sophomores to watch develop. There is already a disaster story on the horizon, for those who enjoy schadenfreude.
Because this is F1, there is also plenty to be wary of. The American broadcast rights have been moved to Apple TV; what this will mean for the sport's popular streaming product, F1 TV, and overall broadcast quality, is unknown. The new regulations may very well be a huge dud that will produce poor racing. Who knows?
2026-03-06 04:22:49
President Donald Trump did not fire multiply radioactive Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday, a day after members of Congress grilled her over agents of her department murdering American citizens, her having viciously slandered those murdered Americans, obvious graft and corruption in the awarding of federal contracts by her department, and her (and her department's) inappropriate relationship with Trumpworld creature Corey Lewandowski. She has been replaced as DHS head by Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin—but she has not been fired! Do not put in the newspaper that Kristi Noem has been fired by Donald Trump!
No indeed, in a post to his busted social network Trump says that Noem is being reassigned to the—to, ah... to... hm, let me see here...
The current secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!), will be moving to be Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida. I thank Kristi for her service at "Homeland."
2026-03-06 03:02:25
You think about difficult things when you're stranded: dark thoughts of vanishing horizons, daunting ifs and thens, promises made to yourself on sleepless nights. And so it was for me last week, when a blizzard delayed our return home from a vacation long enough for me to miss recording the podcast. "If I ever make it home to my podcasting setup again," I swore to myself from the extremely comfortable hotel room that my wife and I wound up staying in for two delightful nights longer than expected, "I pledge that we'll have Spencer Hall on the podcast."
These are the sorts of promises you make when you don't know if you're good for it, at moments when you don't know what a promise is worth. But look:
