The party of more disease won.

President-elect Trump says he’s going to let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “go wild on health.” That has many pediatricians nervous, because of RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine rhetoric. When another vaccine skeptic, Joseph Ladapo, became surgeon general in Florida, some doctors there say vaccine hesitancy got worse.

“It’s because people in power, like our surgeon general, as an example, are pushing this anti-vax message,” says Dr. Jeffrey Goldhagen, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine and president of the International Society for Social Pediatrics and Child Health.

Vaccine hesitancy has been growing in Florida. The routine childhood vaccination rate for kindergartners is now at 90.6%. That’s the lowest rate

It just gets nutser and nutser.

Three police forces called in to probe Allison Pearson tweet

Three of Britain’s biggest police forces were involved in the investigation into a Telegraph journalist’s social media post.

Allison Pearson, an award-winning writer, is being investigated by Essex Police for allegedly stirring up racial hatred in a social media post last November.

The force has refused to tell her any details about which post on X, formerly Twitter, is being investigated, or who made the complaint against her.

How do they get to refuse to tell her what they’re investigating?

Two police officers called at her home at 9.40am on Remembrance Sunday to tell her she was under investigation and invited her to

I’m trying to catch up on the Essex case, but I have to interrupt myself for a minute to deal with one bit of incoherent drool. “CA” is a manager at the theatre in question.

Sarah: “There was a man in these toilets who refused to leave and shouted in my face “I AM A WOMAN”. This is a safeguarding issue and I want to complain.” CA: “It is not possible, or appropriate, for us to police the gender identity of those who access the toilets.. we want everyone to feel comfortable and use the toilets appropriate for them and for their circumstances.”

Me: NO YOU DON’T.

You don’t you don’t you don’t. Why do you say you do … Read the rest

If it’s a non-crime why are you banging on my door on a Sunday morning?

A Telegraph journalist is facing a “Kafkaesque” investigation for allegedly stirring up racial hatred in a social media post last year.

Allison Pearson, an award-winning writer, has described how two police officers called at her home at 9.40am on Remembrance Sunday to tell her she was being investigated over the post on X, formerly Twitter, from a year ago.

Oh come on. Two cops. Unexpected. 9 fucking 40 in the morning on a weekend. Over a tweet from a year ago. Why on earth could that not have been a phone call or email or just plain mail? Even if the tweet deserved investigating, … Read the rest

Um………..man up?

Fox Fisher, a woman who says she's a man, has advised Virgin Atlantic to ban passengers who have clothing with the word 'woman' on it, because cabin crew had to repeatedly check she was OK after she saw a passenger, from her upper class seat, wearing a t-shirt with the word on it pic.twitter.com/ZgCrel71wT

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) November 14, 2024

U ok hun? … Read the rest

Being inclooosive is all very well, but you can’t be inclooosive of everything all the time for the simple reason that sometimes you need to be specific. Specificity requires exclusion.

A trustee and PR director of Britain’s oldest breastfeeding charity has resigned after it introduced an inclusivity policy that allowed men to attend support groups.

This is one of those times. Breastfeeding is inherently “exclusionary” in the blunt factual sense that men can’t do it. It’s not that spiteful bitchy women decided to make it exclusionary, it’s that men can’t breastfeed.

Given the fact that men can’t do it, what can possibly be the point of being inclooosive of men in breastfeeding support groups? What can a man’s motive … Read the rest

The Justice Department is a tad irked by the Matt Gaetz nomination.

Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general has Justice Department veterans petrified and warning of a crisis in the department marked by chaos and revenge.

…

“There’s no conceivable justification for nominating somebody this smarmy and this offensive for a position of such significance in this democracy other than to have a puppet and somebody who, as Gaetz has demonstrated, will do anything Trump asks,” said Ty Cobb, a former Trump White House lawyer.

[Aside: I do wish Americans would stop using the word “smarmy” without bothering to know what it means.]

In the weeks leading up to the election and days since, Gaetz

Um…

I very much disagree with your assessment of Trump. He has been the subject of extreme media propaganda.

He won the hearts and minds of the American people for good reasons.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 12, 2024

What I wonder is what reason Dawkins has to think Musk has the welfare of the world at heart.… Read the rest

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. That’s an old saying, i.e. there’s no one author. Anyway is it true?

I don’t know. The most obvious answer is that it depends. Is the enemy of your enemy otherwise a fine upstanding person? Then by all means make friends with her. Is the enemy of your enemy a bad person who has never done a kind or generous thing in his life and is intent on destroying as much of the world as he can before he stops having a pulse? Then no, he’s not your friend, no matter how profoundly he hates your enemy.

There are some gc feminists who should be paying more attention to that distinction.… Read the rest

The AP reports:

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz [has] resigned from Congress, ending an ethics probe into allegations of sex trafficking, sexual misconduct and drug use, after President-elect Donald Trump nominated him for attorney general.

…

Gaetz submitted his resignation from Congress, effective immediately, launching an eight-week clock to fill his seat, Johnson said, possibly in time for the start of the new Congress on Jan. 3. It also ends a long-running ethics investigation into the Florida congressman.

Johnson framed the stunning move by Gaetz to resign early and before confirmation as a way to help the majority fill his vacancy much [faster] than if he were to wait until his Senate confirmation as attorney general.

Nothing like an Attorney General … Read the rest

How bizarre.

"A philosopher looks at sport" by Stepen Mumford

His thesis is that if women's sport had historically been supported just as men's sport, then today's female athletes would be just as strong, fast, etc. as men. Their performance today lags behind men because of the patriarchy. pic.twitter.com/oHwpfC7sV3

— Miroslav Imbrisevic (@Miroandrej) November 12, 2024

To say that “whether it is natural or inevitable that men outperform women should be questioned” requires being unaware of human sexual dimorphism.

Of what now?

Human sexual dimorphism.

It’s a thing.

Men can’t get pregnant. Women can’t swim faster than “Lia” Thomas.… Read the rest

Public Notice on Trump’s swift move to demand the powers of a dictator:

But the process of staffing up every new administration has slowed to a crawl because Republicans spent the last 25 years weaponizing Senate procedure to obstruct Democrats. Democrats have certainly returned fire, but no one has done more to ratchet up the temperature — and the gridlock — than Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president,” he crowed back in 2010. And one of the ways McConnell ensured that Obama couldn’t enact his agenda, despite having a majority in the House for his first two years and in the Senate for six,

Suzanne Moore is not enormously impressed by Alastair Campbell.

Post-Blair, Campbell has made a career as some sort of management consultant, banging on about leadership. His thuggishness has never been toned down. Not even in his diaries. Him physically fighting Peter Mandelson during an argument over what the leader should wear while canvassing has always stuck in my head. He has no time for women except the “totty” him and his Westminster cronies rated. On Clare Short, for instance, he wrote “God she does turn my stomach”.

…

He was disastrous and bullying as a leader of the Remainers trying to get a second referendum, again shouting over distinguished female journalists.

Now he is reincarnated alongside Rory Stewart

Oh how exciting, another first.

Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride won the state’s only House seat Tuesday, NBC News projects, making her the first openly transgender person elected to Congress. 

But so very much not the first man elected to Congress.

There are a lot of available firsts in this kind of thing. The first person from an obscure small town in Iowa; the first person who failed algebra in 9th grade; the first person who has a cat named Ronald Krump – one could go on in this vein forever.

Meanwhile, McBride is a guy elected to Congress and women continue to be both ignored and mocked.… Read the rest

And here we go: Even Worse Than Last Time in action. The Beast appoints a Fox News jock Secretary of Defense.

President-elect Donald Trump stunned the Pentagon and the broader defense world by nominating Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary, tapping someone largely inexperienced and untested on the global stage to take over the world’s largest and most powerful military.

The news was met with bewilderment and worry among many in Washington as Trump passed on a number of established national security heavy-hitters and chose an Army National Guard captain well known in conservative circles as a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend.”

Of course he did. He considers himself … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on Often struggling.

This reminds me of the Arch Bishop of MPLS-St. Paul, John Nienstedt, who vigorously defended the Church against charges of priestly abuse (including moving notorious priests around without warning the new parishes.) He had sent a sermon around the state for priests to read on the Sunday before the vote on a state amendment banning same-sex marriage that reminded Catholic voters about the canonical position on the issue (gays must remain celibate to avoid sinning.) I heard him defend the position on a radio call-in on Minnesota Public Radio, about how the law can be painful to follow sometimes but there you go.

Shortly after, there were photos showing him … Read the rest

I’ve been thinking about this 10 Stupid Goddy Rules in the Classroom thing, and what would be better in classrooms. I don’t necessarily think any homilies or bits of moral advice should be on the walls of classrooms, but I’m not adamant about it. Maybe it’s useful to have them. So what kind of thing should they be?

My hunch is some form of “don’t be shitty.” Maybe a bulletin board that could have posters that change every few days, with small manageable iterations of “don’t be shitty.” Help each other; don’t make fun of anyone; share; remember what it feels like to be teased or bullied. Blah blah; that kind of thing. Tiny chapters from the large book of … Read the rest

Last June we were talking about Louisiana’s plan to force “the 10 commandments” on school children.

The AP version:

Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law Wednesday.

The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-size display of the Ten Commandments in a “large, easily readable font” be in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities.

Opponents question the law’s constitutionality, warning that lawsuits would be likely to follow. Proponents say that the purpose of the measure is not solely religious but that it has historical significance. In the law’s language, the Ten Commandments are described as “foundational

Receive HOW much in grant money for writing fatuous speculative anti-woman blather????

Nearly two million pounds, that’s how much.

Equally, let's not forget that it is possible to be a complete moron at a British university and – not even in spite of, *because of* that fact – receive hundreds of thousands of pounds in grant money. https://t.co/2Qbcf8OPTL pic.twitter.com/IXiZSGt4y4

— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) November 12, 2024

Two. million. pounds. … Read the rest

Welby has resigned.

Justin Welby spent his 11 years as Archbishop of Canterbury trying to prevent the global Anglican communion from fracturing, often struggling to please liberals or conservatives as they fought over homosexual rights and women clergy.

But in the end he was brought down by an issue from the church’s past rather than its future: the failure to investigate an abuse scandal that dated back decades…Welby said he had had “no idea or suspicion” of the allegations before 2013, the year he became archbishop. But the independent Makin Report, published on Nov. 7, concluded it was unlikely he would have had no knowledge of the concerns regarding Smyth’s behaviour in the 1980s.

That’s unclear. Is it unlikely … Read the rest