Ah yes, very good, the world melts and fries and burns thanks to global warming so the thing to do is keep building bigger cruise ships.

The world’s largest cruise ship is set to begin its maiden voyage Saturday as it gets underway from the Port of Miami.

Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, which runs nearly 1,200 feet from bow to stern, is leaving South Florida for its first seven-day island-hopping voyage through the tropics.

Great. Fabulous. It’s definitely worth speeding up warming that little bit for the sake of taking tourists “island-hopping” for a week.

“Icon of the Seas is the culmination of more than 50 years of dreaming, innovating and living our mission – to deliver

Law boffins say Trump’s showy rudeness in court probably influenced the jury to give him a sharp shock.

A federal jury saddled former President Donald Trump with a hefty $83.3 million decision in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation trial against him on Friday, closing the curtain on a raucous week-and-a-half of acrimonious legal proceedings.

The jury deliberated for under three hours before delivering their verdict, which included $18.8 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages for Carroll.

The significant sum comes after Trump displayed a brazen lack of legal decorum throughout the duration of the trial, repeatedly railing against Carroll online and going head-to-head with US District Judge Lewis Kaplan during his much-anticipated but ultimately brief testimony.

Dialing … Read the rest

Et tu National Secular Society?

Interesting edit there… pic.twitter.com/SfTRW0Vqwg

— Ben Cooper (@bencooper) January 27, 2024

Seriously? All Lives Matter on Holocaust Memorial Day?

The name “Holocaust” is specific to the genocide of six million Jews.

It’s not a good look to hide the genocide of six million Jews on Holocaust Memorial Day.

How dare you edit this to eliminate the word Jewish. Why did you erase the Jews? You are reprehensible. Here: original version: pic.twitter.com/XvryJPXVo7

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) January 27, 2024

… Read the rest

88 million bucks.

A jury awarded $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll on Friday in a stinging and expensive rebuke to former President Donald Trump for his continued social media attacks against the longtime advice columnist over her claims that he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store.

The award, when coupled with a $5 million sexual assault and defamation verdict last year from another jury in a case brought by Carroll, raised to $88.3 million what Trump must pay her. Protesting vigorously, he said he would appeal.

“Vigorously” is one word for it. I can think of others.

Carroll’s attorneys had requested $24 million in compensatory damages and “an unusually high punitive award.” The jury awarded $18.3

Remember the recent outrage about Munroe Bergdorf’s appointment as a UN Women UK champion?

Mr Menno does.

Message to @UNWomenUK: 🎶Women don't have bollocks!🎶

Shout out to @roseveniceallan and @MForstater for telling it like it is❤️👏#Bergdorf pic.twitter.com/ChKst15CNZ

— MrMenno 🏳️‍🌈🎶 (@MrMennoTweets) January 26, 2024

… Read the rest

Well if you decide you dislike someone and want to make sure she isn’t allowed to speak, the thing to do is just tell one brazen lie after another. That’ll fix it.

I attempted to book the @cityofhobarttas Town Hall in my personal capacity for a "women's rights and free speech forum". My attempt was deliberately blocked and I'm taking the Hobart City Council to Discrimination Tribunal – first appearance in February.
The below relates to my… pic.twitter.com/Ch8h3HpWMD

— Louise Elliot (@LouiseElliotM) January 26, 2024

Hi Jacqui,

Let’s shut up those pesky women by telling a stream of lies about them.

Love ya,

Rodney Croome… Read the rest

From the NY Times live reporting of the Carroll-Trump matter:

Carroll’s brand before 2019 was that of a respected columnist, Crowley says. Let’s talk about [the] Trump brand, she tells the jury: “What could be more on brand for Donald Trump than malice?”

This is what I’m saying.

I for one can’t think of anything else like it. People with mean streaks sure; people who play dirty, who are ruthless, who do damage, yes, but not people who are constantly energetically noisily mean and rude and sadistic and insulting. People who have nothing but venom and contempt toward everyone but the Self. People who are never embarrassed or ashamed to carry on that way in public. And this is the … Read the rest

From NY Times live coverage of the Trump defamation trial:

Michael Madaio, Trump’s lawyer, objects when Crowley [Carrol’s lawyer] accuses Trump of defaming her. Judge Kaplan asks why. “Defamatory,” Madaio says, objecting to the use of the word even though a jury in May found she had been defamed. Judge Kaplan overrules him.

That’s bold. Trump lawyer says it’s defamtory to say that Trump is defamatory even though a jury found he was defamatory just a few months ago.

In addition to that, of course, one could make a good case that defamatory is what Trump is – not just what he does now and then, but what he is. He’s a dedicated full-time defamer; he defames people any … Read the rest

Cozying up to Erdoğan:

The Turkish government paid for the wife of the First Minister to attend a summit in Istanbul, according to the Scottish Government’s latest list of ministers’ interests.

Nadia El-Nakla and an SNP press officer attended Emine Erdoğan’s “United for Peace in Palestine” conference on November 15, following an invitation from the Turkish consulate in Edinburgh.

…

Earlier this month it emerged that Turkey had given Mr Yousaf’s in-laws short-term refugee status to help them escape Gaza.

Last week, The Herald revealed that the First Minister had invited Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Scotland when the two men met at COP28 in December.

What’s next? A camping trip with Putin?… Read the rest

Sigh.

It’s not a “belief.” It’s a fact. An ordinary humdrum fact. Nobody has to waste any energy “believing” it; it’s just there. Of course humans “exist in two sexes.” If they didn’t there would be no Stephen Whittle saying they don’t.

Being a Gender Critic is NOT a protected characteristic
Religion/belief is a PC (unless the R/B is not worthy of respect)
In work a Belief that humans exist in 2 sexes can be a PC, but becoming a Gender critic outside your head by acting on your belief won’t be: it’s subtle

— Prof. Stephen Whittle OBE, PhD, DLaws, FAcSS, (@stephenwhittle) January 26, 2024

What is “acting on your belief” that there are two sexes? What does that … Read the rest

Even the Telegraph reports on this subject using the terms of the cheaters instead of the non-cheater, reality-based ones. It makes their reporting worthless, because it’s not reporting to keep repeating a blatant lie.

Thomas’s triumph in the 500-yard freestyle event in Atlanta, Georgia, almost two years ago made global headlines and sparked a major furore in the United States and beyond over her participation in women’s races.

Her landmark victory came less than three years after she began transitioning – she had previously been ranked just 65th over the same distance in the division’s male category – and led to protests from rival swimmers.

The ugly fallout, which continues to this day, has included accusations Thomas had been

Lia Thomas is suing.

The US swimmer Lia Thomas, who rose to global prominence by becoming the first transgender athlete to win a NCAA college title, is taking legal action in a bid to compete again in elite female sport – including the Olympics.

Or, to put it more clearly and accurately, the male US swimmer William “Lia” Thomas, who rose to global prominence by pretending to be a woman and thus winning women’s races, is taking legal action in hopes of cheating women that way again.

Thomas has always denied transitioning to get ahead. “The biggest misconception, I think, is the reason I transitioned,” Thomas said in 2022. “People will say: ‘Oh, she just transitioned so she would

Susanna Rustin in the Guardian:

I can clearly remember the moment I found out that Maya Forstater, the NGO researcher who lost her job in 2018 because of her gender-critical beliefs, had lost her employment tribunal. This was in December 2019, and it chilled me because I share Forstater’s view about the importance of biological sex. In a verdict that was later overturned, Judge James Tayler ruled that her opinions were “not worthy of respect in a democratic society”, and thus not protected under the Equality Act or the articles of the European convention on human rights concerned with freedom of thought and expression.

The “opinion” that men are not women is not worthy of respect. Old … Read the rest

Brendan O’Neill points out that the phrase “her penis” is not strictly accurate.

‘Her penis’ is back. Just when you thought the weirdos had put it away, here it is again, flopped all over the newspapers. A ‘trans woman’ allegedly ‘played with her penis’ in front of two young girls, reported the Daily Echo this week. ‘She’ allegedly ‘loved’ exposing ‘her penis’ to minors, says Portsmouth News. This ‘56-year-old charity shop worker’ is charged with ‘exposing her penis’ to horrified kids, says Talk TV. ‘Her penis’, they all say, over and over, like members of a lunatic cult, with no clue as to how unhinged they sound to those of us who know that the only possessive pronoun

There just aren’t any women, you see.

Australian surf brand Rip Curl has come under fire after featuring a transgender boarder in a campaign to promote women’s surfing. 

Male transgender boarder. It’s funny how they always leave that out. It’s implied, of course, but it damn well shouldn’t be implied, it should be spelled out. Every single time. Just combining “transgender” and “under fire” and “women’s surfing” is not good enough. Spell out the damn insult.

Sasha Lowerson, 44, featured on the Rip Curl Women Instagram page on Thursday as part of the company’s Meet The Local Heroes of Western Australia campaign.

It comes just months after Rip Curl dropped former brand ambassador Bethany Hamilton – one of the world’s

Nones are the majority.

When Americans are asked to check a box indicating their religious affiliation, 28% now check ‘none.’

A new study from Pew Research finds that the religiously unaffiliated – a group comprised of atheists, agnostic and those who say their religion is “nothing in particular” – is now the largest cohort in the U.S. They’re more prevalent among American adults than Catholics (23%) or evangelical Protestants (24%).

Back in 2007, Nones made up just 16% of Americans, but Pew’s new survey of more than 3,300 U.S. adults shows that number has now risen dramatically.

Better late than never, yeah?

Pew asked respondents what – if anything – they believe. 

Well that’s a silly way to put … Read the rest

Wow, powerful argument.

I don't have an identity, I'm normal pic.twitter.com/edKVVHW98X

— Katy's Shit Cartoons (@KatysCartoons) January 25, 2024

Being used to the body you’ve always been is not an idenniny, it’s just being used to what you’ve always been.

Idenniny is much more magical and profound and meaningfulish than mere being used to what you’re used to.

He’s not kidding about the shit cartoons part.… Read the rest

Mermaids is doing what now?

pic.twitter.com/27QpwvvkGW

— Women’s Rights Network- Greater Manchester (@WRN_Manchester) January 25, 2024

Dennis stepped in.

Mermaids are encouraging parents to bombard schools with a threatening legal letter which reads as though schools have a duty to facilitate social transition so I've done a template response any head teacher is free to use in reply. https://t.co/n5vS0qNy28

— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) January 25, 2024

… Read the rest

Yet another one. I may find myself doing these for years to come – there’s so much of it.

NC: No, some people. Is that not enough. ERCC is saying to those ppl "you are a bigot, go away"
MS: No, we explain that we are transinclusive service and that is what we do

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) January 24, 2024

[High squeaky contemptuous voice]: You suggest everyone thinks like that.

No, not everyone, because we know there are fools like you, but certainly most people, you absolute monster of a smug censorious heartless last person who should be working for a rape crisis center goon. Everyone did “think like that” until about ten years ago, and now … Read the rest

More.

MS: We recognise trans people have ownership of their own identity, does not take away from staff or users

— Tribunal Tweets (@tribunaltweets) January 24, 2024

What is “ownership of their own identity”? This fool seems to take it to mean “people are what they say they are” – which is an abjectly ridiculous claim. No people don’t “own” their idenniny in the sense that if they say they’re a mouse then they’re a mouse.

We own very little, in fact. We’re thrown into the world, as the existentialists put it. We can change, we can acquire talents, we can curl our hair, but the range is pretty narrow. That’s just reality.

NC: 'No men' – for anyone who