“The law recognises two sexes: science recognises seven"

This is a quote that I saw from a biologist about what biology professors say to themselves. Rather than calling "bullshit" on the claim I think I'll take it at face value. 

So what are the other five sexes?

There is certainly a wide variety of sexual variations which makes it very difficult to precisely define what is a male or what is a female. But I wasn’t aware that even extreme variations, such as Swyer Syndrome, may be considered new sexes.

There seven biological karyotypes that do not result in death to the fetus and I suppose these could be categorized as sexes but they're really just variations to my mind.

X – Roughly 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 5,000 people (Turner’s )

XX – Most common form of female

XXY – Roughly 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 people (Klinefelter)

XY – Most common form of male

XYY – Roughly 1 out of 1,000 people

XXX - Roughly 1 in 1,000 female births.

XXXY – Roughly 1 in 18,000 to 1 in 50,000 births

So, like I said, what are these other sexes?

As for gender. gender defines society’s expectations about the attitudes and actions associated with a given sex. In order to have more than two genders then one has to define more than two sexes. 

Gender is a continuum, ranging from man on one end woman on the other with varying degrees of gender nonconformity in between. But even radical gender nonconformity doesn’t result in a new gender. 

I can understand “gender fluid” as an individual that moves along the gender continuum for various reasons. I have no idea what “non-binary” means and transgender is the need, due to extreme dysphoria, to move from one sexual bucket into the other but isn’t itself a different gender.

Medicaid Cuts

The fiscal centerpiece of the Republican  “big, beautiful bill” now making its way through Congress is to take Medicaid away from jobless adults. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the work requirement would save $300 billion over a decade and take health insurance from 7.6 million people. 

I know that we would all like to think that those 7.6 million people will find alternate health insurance. Unfortunately I suspect that's not going to happen.

So now when those 7.6 million people get sick they will go to the hospital emergency room. Hospitals, by law, cannot turn away uninsured patients. To make matters worse, uninsured patients may now be using hospital emergency rooms for ailments that would previously have been handled by their primary care doctors.

About 75%-80% of uninsured patient costs are paid for by a combination of state, local and federal dollars. The rest is absorbed by the hospital. 

So the costs aren't going away. It's a big shell game with the GOP basically shifting most of the costs to local governments, state governments and the hospitals. In some areas this may drive hospitals out of business which will just further confuse the issue.

This is another example of the GOP only looking at the savings side of the balance sheet without considering the cost side. These cuts could well turn out to be penny wise and pound foolish.

There is a New Pope

On the second day of balloting the College of Cardinals have elected a new Pope. He is Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost from Chicago who will reign as Leo XIV.

So, we have the first American Pope. He is reported to be a centrist who worries about the less fortunate but is also very conservative on church doctrine.

It would be nice if he would take up the mantle and oppose some of Trump's policies but I wouldn't hold my breath.

So What's New?

So what's new? Not all that much that I want to talk about.

The US GDP declines by 0.3% last quarter. One more quarter of GDP decline and we'll be officially be in a recession.

The College of Cardinals will begin balloting for a new Pope tomorrow now that Pope Francis has been laid to rest.

The Stock Market continues to be jittery and Trump continues to be unpredictable. His latest things include (1) saying he wants to reopen Alcatraz, (2) he wants to put tariffs on foreign movies and (3) he's not sure if he has to uphold the Constitution.

I wish Trump would find a new toy and stop with the tariff shit already.

The Fed will meet Wednesday and decide on interest rates. Inflation is sitting at 2.4% so they can either cut rates or leave them the same. It sounds like most economic experts expect them to keep rates the same despite the incessant whining from the White House to cut them.

I passed my cancer check last week but will go through it again in six months. My daughter is recovering from her ACL surgery but is getting more than a little tired of being laid up. She started physical therapy this week so she has my sympathies.