News items from the USA that didn’t make the headlines in Canada..Sorry about that Keystone thing.Larry Summers, who served as treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton and was the director of the National Economic Council under former President Barack Obama, admitted during an interview on Wall Street Week that cancelling the Keystone Pipeline was a "mistake" and that slowing oil permits and "being hostile as a country" toward natural gas were errors as well..Summers was asked if the OPEC+ move to slash oil production by two million barrels a day in order to control prices, will have "larger macroeconomic effects" and possibly speed up a global recession.."There's nothing good in this," he said, adding "we made a mistake by canceling the Keystone pipeline. We made a mistake by slowing down all kinds of permitting activity. We made a mistake by being hostile as a country to natural gas.". Larry SummersLarry Summers ."So, the real lesson of this is we need a different kind of energy strategy than the one that we have. We need a strategy that is balanced rather than a total hostility to fossil fuels, or the kind of total strategy of favoring fossil fuels that we had.”.Out of this world.Tom Cruise is looking beyond fighter jets, with an eye on space. .The Top Gun star is in talks with Universal Films Entertainment Group to shoot a movie on the International Space Station, which would, of course, require Tom and others to be rocketed up there. (Hi Elon!).He certainly has the power to sway Universal. Top Gun receipts have gone north of US$700 million in the domestic box office and US$1.4 billion on planet earth..Universal’s chairman Donna Langley is ‘high’ on the idea saying, "I think Tom Cruise is taking us to space, he’s taking the world to space. That’s the plan. We have a great project in development with Tom taking a rocket up to the space station and shooting.".Like the atmosphere in space, the plot is thin: A dude on earth goes to space, as Langley says, "to save the day.".And to take a walk. He famously does his own stunts, some of which are jaw-dropping. Not only would Tom be the first actor to shoot a movie in space, but the hope is that he'll also be the first to do a spacewalk..But if it comes off what on earth, or not, would Cruise do next?.You don't slap family friendly titles on stuff to cover your a**.A livid San Diego-area mother, Brittany Mayer, took protesting the advertising of a ‘family friendly’ drag show on the website of her child's school to a new level that has caught fire on social media..Mayer is among the many ‘Mama Bears’ across the US confronting school officials for adopting cultural and political agendas they believe are harmful to their children. . Brittany MayerBrittany Mayer .She told the board she "wanted to know just what it is that makes a drag show family friendly.".Mayer’s innovative argument was that the family friendly label can be slapped on anything, including gentlemen's clubs, strip shows, Fifty Shades of Grey read-alouds and an event featuring "all the sex secrets of Kama Sutra for kids and families.".To make her point, she then described, using graphic terms, exactly what goes on at drag shows where children are present, as documented countless times with video posted on social media platforms.."My question, what is it about a grown man — and I honestly, sincerely as a woman mean this — what is it about a grown man, costumed in a sparkly bra with augmented boobs busting out, a leather mini-skirt barely covering his twerking ass, with tuck tape on his front while spreading his fish netted legs as he writhes on the ground, grinding his groin next to a minor (that is appropriate for children)?" she asked.."Family friendly," she said, using air quotes. "You owe us an answer.".Boy or boy.The Biden administration passed an executive order saying US military members must be treated according to their gender identity and not their biological sex. But it still requires biological men who identify as women to register for the military draft, while those who are "born female and have changed their gender to male" are off the hook.. Rachel LevineRachel Levine .According to the Selective Service System (the draft board), almost "all male U.S. citizens and male immigrants residing in the United States who are 18 through 25 years of age" are required to register, and individuals "who are born male and have changed their gender to female" are expressly included..If the shoe fits. Rachel Levine, a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps., transitioned from male to female in 2011.
