Guest post: The long and unacknowledged reach of Christianity
Dec 8th, 2020 5:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonOriginally a comment by Timothy Harris on Call me them.
I feel as though the act of misgendering erases the person I have worked so long and hard to become.
How can you ‘become’ in this way? I am a bit long in the tooth now, but even in my mis-spent youth I should not have been able even to begin to think in these terms. All human beings are astonishingly complex, nobody really knows who, intrinsically, they are because your self is not something that exists in some pristine and well-locked little box inside you, and that might be changed by some effort of the will (who changes who?), but is in a state of constant flux & … Read the rest
Stick a fork in him, he’s done
Dec 8th, 2020 5:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an effort to overturn the results of the presidential election in Pennsylvania, signaling the high court would not go along with President Trump’s unprecedented efforts to win another term despite a decisive defeat in the popular vote and Electoral College.
The lawsuit was brought by Republican Rep. Mike Kelly, who argued a 2019 state law authorizing universal mail-in voting is unconstitutional and that all ballots cast by mail in the general election in Pennsylvania should be thrown out.
But the law wasn’t unconstitutional until Trump lost.
… Read the restKelly, along with several others, filed the lawsuit on Nov. 21 and requested Pennsylvania either reject the more than 2.5 million ballots cast by
Not yours
Dec 8th, 2020 5:28 pm | By Ophelia BensonNever again should a Court in the United Kingdom make a decision which substantially removes access to key healthcare from trans young people whilst denying all voice to those people. We do not live in Gilead.
— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) December 8, 2020
Gilead? What’s that got to do with anything?
More appropriation, that’s what it’s got to do with. The Handmaid’s Tale is about a theocratic enslavement of women. It’s not about trans people or the state of being trans. There can be books about women. They don’t all have to be about men who say they feel like women.
Also, are trans parents people who don’t have any children but say they feel like parents?… Read the rest
Which twin gets the backlash
Dec 8th, 2020 4:30 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’ve been stalling on this one because I know it’s going to annoy me so intensely. Via guest, MK Fain’s exchange with Kaitlyn Tiffany while the latter was working on her “Radical Feminist Women Are Evil” piece for the Atlantic.
First of all, KT is deceptively polite for someone who’s going to talk the lying shit about Fain that she did talk. That’s what journalists do, but given the dishonesty and venom of KT’s article I think it’s unethical.
But what really gets up my nose is her insistence on how hateful the radical feminists are, given the vast quantity of revolting obscene misogynist garbage directed at gender critical women (and at opinionated women in general). I’ve never seen … Read the rest
Well, they’re Christmas parties
Dec 8th, 2020 11:50 am | By Ophelia BensonThis was supposed to be a vaccine summit.
"Well, we're gonna have to see who the next administration is … hopefully the next administration will be the Trump administration … we were rewarded with a victory" — Trump is still lying about his election loss pic.twitter.com/amriO46DW9
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 8, 2020
Still lying about it and still constantly changing the subject to it.
Trump calls for judges and Republican legislators to have the "courage" to help him overthrow the election, then says, "I'll tell you what, life will be much easier for this country." He then exits the White House event to cheers. pic.twitter.com/tb7QiskANf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 8, 2020
The top of the stairs
Dec 8th, 2020 11:27 am | By Ophelia BensonMore on that Florida police raid yesterday:
… Read the restFlorida law enforcement agents searched the home of former state data scientist Rebekah Jones on Monday, entering her house with weapons drawn as they carried out a warrant as part of an investigation into an unauthorized message that was sent on a state communications system. …
The Florida Department of Health is the agency that fired Jones in May, after she helped create the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.
Jones has said she lost her job after she refused requests to manipulate data to suggest Florida was ready to ease coronavirus restrictions. A spokesperson for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at the time that she “exhibited a repeated course of insubordination during her time with
An otherwise reputable publication
Dec 8th, 2020 10:07 am | By Ophelia BensonA NOTHER one. This time, jarringly, in or at The Atlantic, where it stands out like a sore thumb gender marker.
If you need me I’ll be reading this article and banging my head against a wall https://t.co/sTJC6CQ8aW
— Kutie Herzog (@kittypurrzog) December 8, 2020
So I opened it up so that I could start banging my head against the wall too.
That atlantic article is idiotic for a lot of reasons, but you'd think the author would at least have the self-awareness to not say it's "unbelievably difficult" for trans dudes to be online *in an article about how they removed women who criticize them from online.* pic.twitter.com/1gdi7v1lFI
— Mayor Watermelon (@MayorWatermelon) December 8, 2020
… Read the restI see there's
Stunt pilot
Dec 8th, 2020 8:26 am | By Ophelia BensonNews from the office of the Texas Attorney General:
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed a lawsuit against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the United States Supreme Court.
Uh huh. The old “suing states that didn’t vote the way you want” trick. When I say “old” I mean “I never heard of that before.”
The Michigan Attorney General is not impressed.
.@MIAttyGen @dananessel issued the following statement in response to the lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton seeking to overturn election results in Michigan and other states: pic.twitter.com/62Y4SLpiis
— Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (@MIAttyGen) December 8, 2020
Call me them
Dec 7th, 2020 4:08 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhat happened to the whole idea that it’s a mistake to spend too much time thinking about yourself instead of everything else there is to think about? That idea does exist, doesn’t it? I didn’t imagine it?
Normally we think people who go on and on and on about themselves are boring, yes, but worse than that, they’re…well, the obvious: they’re self-obsessed. It’s bad to be self-obsessed. We used to know that, didn’t we? What happened to that?
Behold: from Science Mag: Why I came out as nonbinary to my Ph.D. lab
Who cares?
The illustration nails it:
Yes, every bit as smug as that.
But maybe the content is better than the title would lead you to expect?
No.… Read the rest
No thanks, no more vaccine for us
Dec 7th, 2020 3:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonBrilliant. Trump scores again. Absolute genius.
Trump administration officials passed when Pfizer offered in late summer to sell the U.S. government additional doses of its Covid-19 vaccine, according to people familiar with the matter. Now Pfizer may not be able provide more of its vaccine to the United States until next June because of its commitments to other countries, they said.
Thanks, Don! That’ll be a few hundred thousand more deaths because you’re such a genius. What was the plan? That Ivanka would design an awesome vaccine and you could rake in all the profits?
… Read the restAs the administration scrambles to try to purchase more doses of the vaccine, President Trump plans on Tuesday to sign an executive order “to
Raid
Dec 7th, 2020 2:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is shocking.
I’m guessing the film is from a security camera.
I freaked out when the guy in front pulled his gun –
– and then he pointed it.
1/
There will be no update today.At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardware and tech.
They were serving a warrant on my computer after DOH filed a complaint.
They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids.. pic.twitter.com/DE2QfOmtPU
— Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) December 7, 2020
… Read the restThis is what happens to scientists who do their job honestly.
This is what happens to people who speak truth to power.
I tell them my husband and my two children
Highest civilian honor
Dec 7th, 2020 10:04 am | By Ophelia BensonTrump gave the Prez Medal of Freedom to a wrestler today.
This prestigious award is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, which may be awarded by the President to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.
Like, you know, wrestling.
How about poker? Any prez medals for that?
Bridge? Checkers? Monopoly? Hide & seek?
He’s trolling us (or maybe the wrestler gave him cash for it).… Read the rest
What’s wrong with this guy?
Dec 7th, 2020 9:44 am | By Ophelia BensonA federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia.
The lawsuit was brought by former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell and relied on baseless conspiracy theories to argue Biden’s victory, which has been upheld by two recounts, was illegitimate.
“They want this court to substitute its judgment for the 2.5 million voters who voted for Biden,” US district judge Timothy Batten said of the lawsuit. “This I’m unwilling to do.”
Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, said today that the state would move forward with recertifying Biden’s victory after another recount confirmed his win.
Trump is being completely grown-up and reasonable about it.
… Read the restThe Republican Governor of Georgia refuses
Unambiguous and threatening
Dec 7th, 2020 9:27 am | By Ophelia BensonMichigan trumpers are armed and dangerous.
Michigan secretary of state Jocelyn Benson said dozens of armed protesters gathered in a threatening manner outside her home on Saturday evening chanting “bogus” claims about electoral fraud.
Armed protesters. Outside her house. In support of a criminal trying to steal an election. We’re on a knife-edge here.
In a Twitter statement on Sunday, Benson said the protesters were trying to spread false information about the security and accuracy of the US election system. “The demands made outside my home were unambiguous, loud and threatening.”
… Read the restThe individuals gathered outside my home targeted me as Michigan’s Chief Election officer. But their threats were actually aimed at the 5.5million Michigan citizens who voted in
To learn feminine mannerisms
Dec 7th, 2020 8:28 am | By Ophelia BensonMmmm.
https://twitter.com/NoName_XX_AHF/status/1335859246190260224No, chum, that’s not it. Spend your month off to learn being passed over for jobs and promotions, being ignored at meetings, being expected to make the coffee and keep the break room clean, being lectured and shouted at on social media, being a member of the sex seen as second, as an afterthought, as subordinate, as irrelevant, as stupid, as feeble, as scheming, as ball-breakers, as whores, as frigid bitches, as outsiders, as the enemy.… Read the rest
As women do
Dec 7th, 2020 7:58 am | By Ophelia BensonThe Daily Mail again, sorry:
Two transgender women who viciously beat up and stamped on a teenager after he mocked them in central London have admitted they ‘overreacted,’ but have slammed Britain as ‘transphobic’.
Tamzin Lush and Tylah Bryan walked free from court last month after admitting violent disorder, alongside a third trans woman, Amarnih Lewis-Daniel, who has not since spoken out.
They were filmed beating up and stamping on a 19-year-old who mocked them and told them: ‘You’re not a woman. You need a f**** to be a woman’.
A fanny, that is, which here in the US is just very mild slang for butt/bum/ass/arse, so mild that it may have dropped out of use altogether, but in … Read the rest
Mass spreader
Dec 6th, 2020 5:58 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo anyway Rudy has the Covid. Serves him right.
Giuliani was admitted to Georgetown University Hospital on Sunday, a source familiar confirmed to CNN.
Nice for some. Ordinary people can’t get admitted to anywhere unless they’re gasping, and not always even then, but Rudy just checks in the day he tests positive.
The former mayor of New York has been crisscrossing the country to battleground states, leading the President’s long-shot legal battle to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In other words Giuliani has been doing lots of traveling as the pandemic gets ever worse and the medical experts and health care workers plead with us all not to travel, and he’s been doing this stupid reckless … Read the rest
Guest post: A truly unique police procedural
Dec 6th, 2020 4:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonOriginally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Living azza.
I don’t know, maybe guys like Skye Morden are constantly saying to themselves (sotto voce) “I am a woman I am a woman I am a woman” ad infinitum. It sounds horribly distracting, but maybe it does the trick.
I believe the formula is most effective when repeated in ALL CAPS, like the preferred repetition of TWAW. I also am of the understanding that the minimum number of reps is five for best results.
Distraction is of no consequence, so long as one achieves confirmation and validation (or at least compliance/acquiescence), which is a much higher priority than actual policing. Perhaps PC Morden will be put onto limerick … Read the rest
Chilly
Dec 6th, 2020 1:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonMore bullying of women who refuse to endorse the gender mythology:
It doesn’t relate to this week’s court ruling, but is in some ways adjacent, and concerns something that happened a year ago today. What happened was this.
2
— Clara Vulliamy (@ClaraVulliamy) December 6, 2020
(A side point, before we go on – I just want to make a note of the self-admiration in the first tweet of saying “feel free to wander off, I shan’t mind a bit” – as if Twitter were a living room and people were gathered around her listening to a speech. There’s no such thing as “wandering off” on Twitter because no one knows you’re there to begin with. She can’t see people … Read the rest