They want to get rid of NOAA and the National Weather Service. Good plan; who the hell needs weather forecasts?

Partisan jostling aside, what does Project 2025 say about NOAA and the National Weather Service?

A [Rep Jared] Moskowitz spokesperson, Keith Nagy, said “while Project 2025 does not call for the complete dismantling of the NOAA, it intends to undermine the agency’s independence from the executive branch and eliminate many of its internal departments. Any threats toward the NOAA or NWS jeopardizes life-saving information about hurricanes, heat waves, and other extreme weather events.”

…

Project 2025 includes about four pages on NOAA and the National Weather Service. That part was written by Thomas F. Gilman, who was an

Sigh.

I’m astonished at the profound ignorance on display at the SCOTUS today. Sotomajor and Jackson- you think giving T to a boy is the same as giving it to a girl? You believe a girl can go through “typical male puberty”? I am dumbfounded.

— Miriam Grossman MD (@Miriam_Grossman) December 4, 2024

And strangio — “blockers do not harm”, are you kidding me? The reason Sweden rejected them is because “Leo” developed spinal fractures from blocker-induced osteoporosis. Don’t you know ANYTHING?

— Miriam Grossman MD (@Miriam_Grossman) December 4, 2024

Siiiiiiiiiigh … Read the rest

The Nation should be embarrassed that it published this.

Trans Medicine’s “Merchants of Doubt”

Before we read any further, what is “trans medicine”? Fake medicine? Real medicine that trans people take? Reckless experimental attempts to change people’s sex?

Someone called Joanna Wuest wrote the article. He/she looks male to my jaundiced eye, but not so unmistakably male that I can claim to be sure she/he is male. Google turned up a lot of content but not a single bit of information on what sex he/she is.

So, what does she/he tell us?

Gender-affirming care is based on dangerously uncertain science. So say lawmakers in the 26 states that have banned medical interventions for minors ranging from puberty-suppressing and hormonal replacement

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Affirming 4 kidz.

How do otherwise reasonable adults convince themselves that maiming teenagers is a good idea?

With many individuals, I’d be tempted to ascribe it to a tendency to outsource moral judgement, in this case deferring to some authority who has deemed trans “rights” to be a “progressive” cause. Once somebody higher up the food chain has blessed it, they don’t have think about it any more themselves; they can climb aboard the bandwagon with a clear conscience and an empty head. Once the bandwagon starts rolling faster and farther, passing ethical and prudential boundaries one might have baulked at, it becomes harder to get off without seriously lacerating … Read the rest

Oh that’s outreach, is it? Not a stone-cold insult but outreach? Doesn’t reach me, I must say.

The NHS Gender Outreach Worker at University of Central Lancashire,

27 November 2024. pic.twitter.com/xGGWQg5gec

— Gay Not Queer (@Gaynotqueer1) December 4, 2024

Do they have Race Outreach Workers?

The wording. You always have to look closely at the wording. Like this NPR headline:

Supreme Court hears challenge to law banning gender-affirming care for trans kids

Calling it “gender-affirming care” is glaringly tendentious. Is it really care to remove healthy breasts or invert healthy penises in order to “affirm” a minor’s belief that she/he is the other sex? Is affirming children’s fantasies with drastic medical interventions really care? Is NPR really so confident that “yes” is the right answer to both questions that it doesn’t worry at all about encouraging teenagers to wreck their bodies?

If so, why? How? How do otherwise reasonable adults convince themselves that maiming teenagers is a good idea?

Front and center at the Supreme

Well well well, look what won a Political Cartoon of the Year award.

What oh what is a woman? It’s such a deep question. Philosophers (the male ones) have been puzzling over it for years, possibly as many as ten. Is it someone who talks in a high squeaky voice? Is it someone you [presumed guy] want to fuck? Is it someone who smells like fish?

It’s almost as difficult as who is a baseball.

You are choosing a very politically loaded version of “woman.”

What is a baseball? Legally, for a baseball to be used in a game, it has to be treated with mud from a certain river. The ones you buy at Walmart are not subjected to this. They are still baseballs functionally.

I…

— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) December 1,

Originally a comment by Mosnae on Trans list.

The “appeal to nature” fallacy is well-known: the idea is, if something’s natural it must be good. Of course, this is ridiculous. What I think needs more attention is the converse fallacy eg. the idea that if something is good, it must be natural. You’d expect the silliness of this to be obvious, yet accross the political spectrum, there are constantly people who are trying to prove stuff is “natural” or “unnatural” just because they think it matches their political views.

Consider how homophobic rhetoric is ripe with claims that homosexuality is unnatural: that doesn’t automatically make it immoral, does it? Likewise, ancient civilisations usually being male-dominated isn’t convincing evidence for … Read the rest

I wonder why “Brigitte” Baptiste decided he wanted to pretend to be a woman.

Just can’t quite figure it out.… Read the rest

Stupid confusing meaningless headline: check.

Trans scientist makes BBC’s 100 Women list

Meaning the “scientist” identifies as a scientist but has no actual qualifications to be a scientist and knows nothing about science?

No. Of course, as always, they mean a man who pretends to be a woman makes BBC’s 100 Women list. As always, they should say that in the headline, instead of burbling about trans scientists.

Broadcaster says Brigitte Baptiste uses a queer lens to analyse landscapes and species in a bid to expand the notion of ‘nature’

What’s a queer lens?

Nothing. Pretentious guff.

The BBC has included a transgender Colombian scientist in its annual list of 100 inspiring women, just days after sparking controversy over

Next it will be cartoon characters, pirates, caddies, celebrity chefs.

Trump makes his vapid daughter’s only slightly criminal daddy-in-law Ambassador to France.

President-elect Donald J. Trump announced on Saturday that he would name Charles Kushner, the wealthy real estate executive and father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France, handing one of his earliest and most high-profile ambassador appointments to a close family associate.

A close family associate with no known qualifications for being an ambassador to Staten Island, let alone France.

The announcement was the latest step in a long-running exchange of political support between the two men. Mr. Kushner received a pardon from Mr. Trump in the final days of his first term

Another day another list.

The BBC has included a transgender Colombian scientist in its annual list of 100 inspiring women, just days after sparking controversy over its choice for women’s footballer of the year.

Let’s ask ourselves: why does the BBC have a list (annual, even) of 100 inspiring women? It doesn’t have an annual list of 100 inspiring men, so why does it have one of women? It has to be because women get overlooked, so let’s try to correct that overlooking with lists. It’s an attempt at affirmation of the overlooked half of humanity, aka affirmative action. That being so…what the hell do they think they’re doing, adding a man who insults women by pretending to … Read the rest

Meet “Rainbow Laces” –

Football has the power to bring us together. 

Clubs and communities are stronger when everyone feels welcome, and it’s down to all of us to make that happen.

That’s why we, the Premier League, proudly stand alongside Stonewall in promoting equality and diversity.

A key focus of the partnership with Stonewall encourages LGBT+ acceptance among children and young people involved in community and education initiatives such as Premier League Primary Stars and Premier League Kicks, and within Academies.

Coaches, teachers and leaders are equipped with bespoke resources and programmes developed by the League and Stonewall which promote positive attitudes towards the LGBT+ community.

Blah blah blah, on and on, short paragraph after short paragraph, until you can’t see the horizon any … Read the rest

Tom Nichols on why Biden’s pardoning his worthless son is such a bad move.

President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter is a done deal. The president has not only obviated the existing cases against Hunter; the sweep of the pardon effectively immunizes his son against prosecution for all federal crimes he may have committed over the course of more than a decade. This pardon is a terrible idea—“both dishonorable and unwise,” in the words of the Bulwark editor Jonathan Last—and, as my colleague Jonathan Chait wrote yesterday, it reflected Biden’s choice “to prioritize his own feelings over the defense of his country.”

Obviously. Hunter Biden isn’t some random guy caught up in a mess, much less … Read the rest

CNN slobbers over Chase Strangio:

Strangio, an attorney for the ACLU, is set to make history Wednesday as the first known transgender person to argue before the US Supreme Court. And he’ll do it as part of the most high-profile dispute on the docket this session.

The case, US v. Skrmetti, challenges a Tennessee law that bans treatments, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers, for transgender minors and imposes civil penalties on doctors who violate the prohibitions. Some two dozen similar laws have been enacted in recent years in Republican-led states.

Wait a second though. The putative treatments aren’t actually treatments. They’re more like medical malpractice.

The justices will decide whether Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for

Jonathan Chait is not amused at Biden’s outrageous abuse of power.

When President Joe Biden was running for a second term as president, he repeatedly ruled out granting a pardon to his son Hunter, who has pleaded guilty to tax fraud and lying on a form to purchase a gun.

But now he’s not running for anything so what the hell, might as well abuse the office.

Biden professed a willingness to abide by the results of the justice system as a matter of principle. But in breaking his promise, and issuing a sweeping pardon of his son for any crimes he may have committed over an 11-year period, Biden has revealed his pledge to have been merely instrumental.

Oh ffs.

Biden has issued a sweeping pardon of his godawful corrupt sleazy son.

President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he has pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who faced sentencing this month for federal tax and gun convictions, marking a reversal as he prepares to leave office.

“Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” the president said in a statement. It is a “full and unconditional pardon,” according to a copy of the executive grant of clemency.

This official grant of clemency cannot be rescinded by President-elect Donald Trump.

By pardoning his son, Joe Biden has reneged on a public promise that he made repeatedly before and after dropping out of the 2024 presidential race. The president and

JKR has a fine blistering mini-essay about the mass bullying of gender atheists.

The rewriting of history begins.

Opponents of gender ideology haven't merely 'endured unsparing criticism'. I haven't simply been told I 'betrayed real feminism' or received a few book-burning videos.

I've been sent thousands of threats of murder, rape and violence. A trans… pic.twitter.com/aiGv2yHDCO

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 2, 2024

The full essay:

The rewriting of history begins.

Opponents of gender ideology haven’t merely ‘endured unsparing criticism’. I haven’t simply been told I ‘betrayed real feminism’ or received a few book-burning videos.

I’ve been sent thousands of threats of murder, rape and violence. A trans woman posted my family’s home address with a bomb-making guide. My eldest … Read the rest

How sad, it turns out that calling women too posh and too old doesn’t make people think you’re a good bloke despite the sexual harassment.

Outrage over Gregg Wallace’s alleged conduct has intensified after he dismissed his accusers as “middle-class women of a certain age”, following revelations that the BBC received multiple complaints about him over a period of 12 years.

The corporation and other broadcasters are facing growing questions about how the MasterChef presenter was allowed to remain on screen despite a series of allegations of inappropriate behaviour dating back to at least 2012.

It’s a real puzzler. Could it be because there are lots of people – well, lots of men anyway – who love brash … Read the rest