Women write to the Times to take issue with Martin Samuel’s clueless “be inclusive of cheating men in women’s sports” column.

I am a grassroots runner who has had to compete against males who identify as females for the past eight years. I have lost places in races, prizes and records as a result. As a man, Martin will never be affected by this problem. It is therefore offensive that he deems fairness essential for elite athletes and, in effect, all male athletes, but not for female “fun” runners: we should put the “need for inclusion” above our “competitive priorities”. At what level of competition does Martin deem a female runner worthy of fairness?
Helen Smith, Frodsham, Cheshire

That’s the … Read the rest

This. makes. no. sense.

Scroll down to the headline Transgender runner row loses sight of what race is all about to read the column I’m talking about.

Glenique Frank ran the London Marathon as a woman, placing 6,160th in a female field of 20,123. Pretty much no one would have known about this had the BBC not singled her out for interview. It then emerged that Glenique had run the New York City Marathon recently as Glen, a man. She is transgender and had been permitted to self-identify. This troubled Mara Yamauchi, a former British Olympian. “Nearly 14,000 women finished in a worse position because of him,” she said. “It’s wrong and unfair.”

Wrong and unfair how? Because “Glenique” ran … Read the rest

The Times:

Jenny Lindsay knows exactly when her “cancellation” began. It was June 2019 when the poet and performer tweeted her shock at the violent words of a columnist for an arts magazine, who had written: “Take out the Terf trash. Make them afraid. Get in their faces.”

How “extraordinary that such views are given an airing” in any publication, Lindsay wrote, adding “for clarity” that the columnist, a trans woman called Cathy Brennan, was advocating attacks on women, “Terf” being the acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist.

Lindsay’s response seemed reasonable, even understated, given that days later Brennan was under police investigation for lunging at Julie Bindel, the campaigner against violence against women, after an event in Edinburgh.

But … Read the rest

S. V. Dáte reminds us that Trump tried to enact a coup and journalists should not obscure that fact.

Donald Trump is the only president who used the threat of violence and then actual violence in an attempt to remain in power — the very definition of a coup. It was the singular unique act of his tenure, truly historic. In 232 years of elections, no other president had done anything remotely close to what Trump did.

…

Yet, somehow, this key bit of context almost never makes it into news coverage of Trump’s 2024 campaign. Instead, he is treated like any other candidate — with the focus on things like how he will fend off Ron DeSantis,

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on It just happens to disagree with the mainstream narrative.

The thing that drives me mad is that all the “alt cures” for things like allergies, and in iknklast’s case asthma, are to bolster the immune system. The ignorance of what asthma and allergies actually are astounds me, do they really not know that these are the products of an immune system that is overreacting to stimuli? I would watch as my mother would suffer attacks strong enough to put her in the hospital in oxygen tents, until she was prescribed prednisone, thinking that would be my fate since I had many of the same food allergies she did. (I was prescribed a … Read the rest

Sonia Sodha continues:

These sweeping powers should concern all democrats. The police are supposed to treat citizens impartially, regardless of their belief. But they have a poor track record, and not just when it comes to republicans.

Take, for example, the egregious way the police have clamped down on the free speech of those who express the “gender critical” belief, protected in equalities law, that sex is binary, immutable and relevant in society. The police should be scrupulously neutral on this. Yet in recent years they have adopted the controversial position of campaigners who believe that gender identity can replace sex altogether – that being a woman is not a biological reality but instead about conforming to feminine stereotypes

… Read the rest

You have two choices: cheer on the monarchy, or shut up. There is no third option. The anti-monarchy campaign group Republic found out.

Its chief executive and several other protesters were bundled into a police van yesterday after being arrested at a peaceful protest in Trafalgar Square. It followed a letter from the Home Office last week that informed them of new police powers to curb protest and harsher criminal penalties for protesters. “I would be grateful if you could forward this letter to members likely to be affected,” it ominously suggested.

These arrests by the Met took place in the context of new laws ushered in by increasingly authoritarian home secretaries. Priti Patel introduced new measures to

… Read the rest

Shannon Fentiman is a Labor member in the Queensland Legislative Assembly and the current Queensland Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Women, and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence. She wrote in a public Facebook post three hours ago above a doctored photo of her wearing the “woman adult human female” badge:

Someone did this to my office recently.

I know the sticker doesn’t look like it says much, and most people will be lucky enough to be unaffected by what it says.

But for some people in our community, these stickers represent much more – they represent a movement which discriminates against them and denies their existence.

I want to be very clear – I don’t stand for these

… Read the rest

Yeah let’s get rid of vaccines, and antibiotics, and anesthetics, and medications, and clean water, and sewage processing, and clothes, and food, and oxygen. They’re all a conspiracy.

Steve Kirsch is a tech entrepreneur who made hundreds of millions of dollars after founding an early search engine and helping invent the optical computer mouse.

Recently, he stood before a gathering of more than 250 lawyers in Atlanta while wearing a custom black T-shirt designed like a dictionary entry for the phrase “misinformation superspreader.”

It’s like this, man. He’s a truth-teller, man, but the suits won’t listen, man, they’re too hooked on their mainstream narrative to listen, man.

“Our definition is it’s someone who’s basically pointing out the truth and

… Read the rest

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch is popular today.

https://twitter.com/kevindavis338/status/1654846939693760513

Strange Women Lying in Ponds Distributing Swords and the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, all in one photo. https://t.co/ZEjFkj0Oh4

— Laura Chapin (@LauraChapin) May 6, 2023

https://twitter.com/CharlesLarrivee/status/1654854631476932608 … Read the rest

Is Amnesty UK out of step with Amnesty Ireland?

https://twitter.com/Dawson40M/status/1654840704000983040

Ok I won’t let anyone tell me different. You should have a word with Amnesty Ireland.

https://twitter.com/DreyfusJames/status/1654875585359892482

I let @AmnestyIreland tell me different. When you signed a letter to the @IrishTimes saying that Irishwomen who protested males in female jails had no place in public life.

Make your mind up Amnesty. What's the carve-out? Protest is fine so long as men are the ones protesting?

— Squirrel on a Bike (@squirrelwheel) May 6, 2023

And Yet, Amnesty Ireland advocated for silencing women who know that sex is binary, advocated to remove democratic representation from inconvenient women, what about their rights "Amnesty"?

— Nachthexe (Night Witch) (@hardakeep) May 6, 2023

… Read the rest

Women aren’t listening.

Emboldened since the women-led protests that broke out last fall, which turned into nationwide demonstrations against the Islamic Republic, growing numbers of Iranian women have started going around without head scarves and wearing Western-style clothes.

The government told a cafe owner named Mohammad to force his women customers to wear hijab, but he just put a sign on the wall saying wearhijab and left it at that.

In Iran, Mohammad said, forcing women to wear the hijab is a lost cause.

“In all honesty, we didn’t get upset when they shut down our cafe,” said Mohammad, who asked to be identified only by his first name to avoid further legal repercussions. “In fact, we felt good

… Read the rest

Kate heaps opprobrium on the coronation, and very good opprobrium it is, too.

…at the very top of those organizations, there are these special people who are appointed at special ceremonies, with all sorts of weird robes and weird things, not entirely dissimilar to what happens at a coronation – and we call them bishops. And we sit twenty four of them in the House of Lords, and they have genuine power over the legislation that affects all of us in our everyday lives.

… Read the rest

The PostMillenial tells us:

A 2021 study of military youth has revealed that not only were minors with severe mental illness allowed to embark upon experimental medical sex changes, but also that prescriptions for anti-psychotic drugs actually increased after hormonal interventions were initiated, reports Fox News.

The study, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, examined the Department of Defense (DoD) medical records of 3,754 trans-identified adolescents and 6,603 siblings who did not identify as transgender. The findings reveal no improvement in mental health after commencing hormone interventions and an increase in prescriptions for psychotropic medication.

Ok but at least they’ve ruined their bodies, so…

Many proponents of adolescent sex changes argue that the high rates of

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on On top of the roller coaster.

I just bought the idea that trans people were “born that way” as in intersex, but that there were men with AGP who used that in order to play out their fantasies with everyone playing along. Then Josh sent a link to me that explained it clearly and I went “OH! those bastards!”

I had so many friends (now distant acquaintances, or not friends at all) who were very nitpicky and skeptical about everything they dd and thought who would make sure they would check all angles before accepting the truth of anything who were very supportive of trans issues. And I had some internal conflict … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Lady Mondegreen on Top of the roller coaster.

there are, of course, zero trans people who think, “people are or can be the other sex”

I have in fact seen trans-identified people claiming just that. But it’s a motte-and-bailey: argue trans activists and their allies into a corner and then OF COURSE, nobody is claiming that trans people really are the other sex! They know very well they’re not!–

–and then we’re lectured endlessly about intersex conditions, which supposedly support the TRA claim that Sex Is Not Binary. We’re told that sex is assigned at birth–yes, sometimes the word used is “gender”, but there’s also “assigned male at birth” and “assigned female at birth.” (AMAB … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on They are pretending they have the right to be certain.

I’d like to offer at least a partial concession to Silent Bob’s argument about gender being “assigned at birth.”

If we take gender to broadly mean the sets of customs and behaviours that are expected of us based on how we’re perceived sexually, then in most other cultures, people really are assigned a gender at birth — they’re assigned a very specific cultural role in their community. Elsewhere in the world, your observed sex at birth will determine which gender role you are assigned, and this will determine which clothing and jewellery you can and cannot wear, which hairstyles you can and cannot … Read the rest

The poor flustered monarchists are trying to put a cuddly spin on this whole “swear allegiance” idea. Can’t be done, chaps. It is what it is.

The King would find the idea of people paying homage to him during his Coronation “abhorrent”, the broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby believes.

For the first time, the public are being given an active role in the ceremony as they are invited to swear allegiance to the King.

But Dimbleby, a close friend of the King, told BBC R4’s Today programme he has “never wanted to be revered”.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has previously said the oath is voluntary.

Yes but Arch, such an oath is itself…well it’s an oath. That’s the point of swearing it, … Read the rest

The Washington Post:

Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo arranged for the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work just over a decade ago, specifying that her name be left off billing paperwork, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

In January 2012, Leo instructed the GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit group he advises and use that money to pay Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the documents show. The same year, the nonprofit, the Judicial Education Project, filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case.

And when Republican activists do things about voting rights, they’re not working to expand or protect them.… Read the rest

The Guardian makes a point of insulting women some more.

Not everyone in the US can afford period products: an estimated 16.9 million menstruators live in poverty, sometimes having to choose between buying food and pads. Those who can may still be using the first type of pad or tampon they ever bought.

In the 2010s, there was some innovation marketed to millennials who craved a more comfortable way to deal with menstruation. Period underwear brands led by Thinx  cropped up, often using suggestive advertising like yonic-looking fruit to hawk the panties. (Knix, Aisle and Bambody are other popular labels.) Suddenly, menstruators had a bit more choice, though many still felt that their best choices were uncomfortable tampons or

… Read the rest