How about no.

Labour MP Tahir Ali has today advocated for blasphemy laws during Prime Minister’s Questions.

The MP for Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley asked Keir Starmer if he would “commit to introducing measures to prohibit the desecration of all religious texts and the prophets of the Abrahamic religions”. Speaking in the Commons, Ali added that “November marks Islamophobia awareness month,” and that “last year the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution condemning the desecration of religious texts, including the Quran, despite opposition from the previous government.”

Then the UN Human Rights Council needs to have a word with itself. Goddy rights are the enemy of human rights. “Prophets” are the fictional goon squad that enforces … Read the rest

Trans-identifying man Brianna Wu tells women we’ve never been denied anything so we just don’t get it.

I think for a lot of women, particularly after childbirth, their sense of being female is biology. And I fully admit that you have those experiences and we don’t.

But respectfully, I think because you’ve never been denied any area of expression, there’s a lot women take for… https://t.co/K8Wb74nwLC

— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) November 25, 2024

Yes he actually wrote that. Women have never been denied any area of expression, he says, blithely ignoring all the many many areas of expression we have been denied, and in some cases punished for trying to enter. Man lectures women on how we have never been … Read the rest

Jack Smith left the door open just a fraction.

In fact, this move could be an effort to keep the cases alive in the long term. An interesting tell in each motion is Smith’s request to dismiss the cases “without prejudice.” That means that the cases can be filed again. By dismissing the cases now on his own terms, Smith blocks Trump’s attorney general from dismissing the cases for all time.

Which of course Trump’s attorney general would be required to do.

In addition, by filing his motions pre-emptively, Smith was able to explain his reasons for dismissing the case, rather than allowing Trump’s future AG to mischaracterize them. According to Smith, he was dismissing the case not because

Does Amnesty Hate Women?

Well duh. Of course it does. Obviously.

It’s not a human rights issue to pretend to be something you’re not and force everyone else to play along with your pretense.

It’s glaringly obviously not a human right to force women to agree that men are women if they say so, welcome men into all our spaces, give them all our prizes, put them in charge of all our organizations, make them CEO of all our rape crisis services.

Amnesty is garbage.… Read the rest

I was thinking Jack Smith shut down the Trump case because he had to, but Adam Schiff implies he didn’t.

“I think this is a serious mistake by the department,” Schiff told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, saying that while Smith sought to dismiss the cases without prejudice — meaning they can be brought against Trump once his term is over — it now means that the “status quo” is to not bring any charges against the president.

If it’s a mistake, that implies it wasn’t mandatory.

“But it is nevertheless a very serious distinction, because the status quo now is no charges against the president,” Schiff, who served on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on

Why Bad Kennedy should not be the boss of Health and Human Services, by former Harvard Medical School dean Jeffrey S. Flier.

RFK Jr. was nominated precisely because of his stated positions on a wide range of health and scientific matters: vaccines, AIDS, the reputed harms of electromagnetic radiation from Wi-Fi and cell phones, and many other topics. So these views are central to assessing his suitability for the role. 

The scientific process requires skepticism about prevailing consensus. Some Kennedy supporters see his skepticism on a wide variety of scientific and medical issues, including policies during the Covid epidemic, as a positive that will enable him to disrupt the medical and research establishment.

But there’s informed skepticism and … Read the rest

Dang. The BBC wins another prize for maximum hatred of women.

Find out more about Barbra Banda's story and why she was shortlisted for #BBCWFOTY

Read: https://t.co/xrfne3pr7h pic.twitter.com/r98X1TOrma

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) November 26, 2024

… Read the rest

It’s the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

UN Women (which doesn’t always know which people are women) tells us:

Violence against women and girls remains one of the most prevalent and pervasive human rights violations in the world. Globally, almost one in three women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both, at least once in their life.

For at least 51,100 women in 2023, the cycle of gender-based violence ended with one final and brutal act—their murder by partners and family members. That means a woman was killed every 10 minutes.

So are we talking about women here? Or about women plus men who pretend to be women? … Read the rest

I think maybe I haven’t been paying enough attention to Brianna Wu, a 6’4″ man who calls himself a woman and wants to make himself safe by putting women in danger. Like…

You would force me to use the men's restroom? Do you know how fast I would get raped/assaulted if that happened?

My life matters. I deserve dignity. I didn't ask to be born like this.

— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) October 22, 2024

See what he does there? Apparently without even noticing? Claims he would speedily be raped and/or assaulted if he used the men’s restroom, in order to defend his right to threaten women with rape and/or assault by barging into their restroom. He doesn’t want to be … Read the rest

This is so sick.

Jack Smith files to drop Jan. 6 charges against Donald Trump

Not because he didn’t do it, not because there’s no evidence he did it, but because there’s a law that says he can’t be prosecuted.

Special counsel Jack Smith has filed a motion to drop all four felony charges against President-elect Donald Trump in connection with his effort to overturn his 2020 presidential election in the lead-up to the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S Capitol.

Trump was first indicted on four felonies in August 2023: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. The case

I can hear the shrieks of laughter all the way over on the left coast.

No shortage of irony here. pic.twitter.com/puyF9J7lJM

— Chris Rose (@ArchRose90) November 25, 2024

… Read the rest

So declaring a particular month “Pride” month is now mandatory, and refusal is a human rights violation? Really?

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has found the township of Emo will have to pay damages after refusing to proclaim Pride Month back in 2020.

I do love it that the township is Emo. No YOU are.

Borderland Pride requested Emo to declare June as Pride Month and display a rainbow flag for one week but the township refused, resulting in a years-long process in which the tribunal ruled against the township. The tribunal ruled Borderland Pride will be awarded $15,000, with $10,000 coming from the township itself and the other $5,000 coming from Emo mayor Harold McQuaker.

Another apt name. Could … Read the rest

The Telegraph:

The British Transport Police (BTP) is facing legal action over new guidance that allows trans officers to strip-search women.

No, stupid: guidance that allows male officers to strip-search women. The issue is not that they’re trans but that they’re male.

Revealed by The Telegraph, the guidance allows male staff identifying as female to intimately search women so long as they have a gender recognition certificate (GRC).

Why not give out species recognition certificates to bears so that they can intimately search humans?

Cathy Larkman, retired police superintendent and national policing lead for the WRN, said: “The letter before action to British Transport Police by Sex Matters is a significant development in this sorry tale of police forces

Amnesty UK kicks women again.

The only submissions now not published in the FWS case starting TOMORROW in the SUPREME COURT are those from @AmnestyUK – it promised to publish them before proceedings commenced. This really isn't good enough. Is it not proud of its slam-dunk arguments? Doesn't it want praise? https://t.co/0re2kvCy7D

— Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender) November 25, 2024

No wonder they dragged their feet.

Amnesty abandons women and girls. https://t.co/TUsY01vqEu

— Joan Smith (@polblonde) November 25, 2024

Also Amnesty. Single sex spaces for women and girls important for Iraqi and Syrian refugees, but not British women. Make of that what you will. https://t.co/dBQuM0yAdK pic.twitter.com/gnKDnGzFyH

— Lisa Mackenzie (@lnmackenzie1) November 25, 2024

So the thinking is that women in the … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug at Miscellany Room.

I don’t claim any expertise on social media algorithms, but I assume they are basically designed to maximize the number of clicks by applying heuristics like “people who clicked on X in the past were more likely than expected by chance to also click on Y” (I am sure there are others here who can correct me if I’m completely off the mark). If so, it’s telling that the YouTube algorithm started suggesting a lot more Right-wing crap after I began specifically looking for gender critical material. There’s a twist to the story, however. Recently (for reasons I hope are only too obvious) I have, once again, been watching a … Read the rest

So, looking for a few specks of gold in the giant pool of dung, we find Bad Kennedy saying Big Sugar and Big Salt are not all that good for us.

The former environmental attorney – who still must face confirmation by the Senate – is considered by many to be a controversial pick, given his history of making baseless health claims, including that vaccines can cause autism and that wifi technology causes cancer.

Yet some of his ideas around reforming the FDA have found support from health experts, lawmakers and concerned consumers alike – including some Democrats.

…

Leading up to the election, Kennedy – a former Democrat – offered several ideas for tackling chronic diseases under his slogan

Exactly so.

"Not allowing" can only make sense in this context if BTP regard strip searching as some kind of perk of the job.

— Malcolm Grimston (@MalcolmGrimston) November 24, 2024

I mean if you can’t be a male cop strip searching a woman what’s the point of going into law enforcement at all??? … Read the rest

New monster much like the old monster.

Elon Musk is so excited to start his new gig ruining the federal government that he’s getting an early start by goading his millions of followers to cyberbully government employees.

This week, Musk took aim at Ashley Thomas, the director of climate diversification for the U.S. International Finance Corporation—a highly technical role that involves developing ways of securing agriculture and infrastructure against extreme weather, one agency official told The Wall Street Journal.

Well we can’t have that. We mustn’t do anything to make sure agriculture and infrastructure can withstand extreme weather. Who needs agriculture and infrastructure?

Speaking of fake jobs, last week, Donald Trump announced that Musk would be co-heading

Here is Janet Inglis explaining what’s wrong with Tim “Sarah” McBride intruding on women:

Oh for goodness sake!
He's a man.
A man who has taken photos of himself entering women's toilets.
A man who has campaigned relentlessly for an end to women's single sex spaces and sports.
A man who uses resources intended for women only.
A man who uses women only services.…

— Janet Inglis (@DieMadTerf) November 23, 2024

He’s a man.

A man who has taken photos of himself entering women’s toilets.

A man who has campaigned relentlessly for an end to women’s single sex spaces and sports.

A man who uses resources intended for women only.

A man who uses women only services.

These are all

Guardian US columnist Margaret Sullivan frowns in the direction of Republican Nancy Mace, because of Mace’s failure to pretend that a man who calls himself Sarah McBride is a woman. Women are supposed to embrace everyone! It’s in the paperwork! It comes with the territory! Women are not allowed to disbelieve men who claim to be women, because that’s Not Kind.

I would much rather share a ladies’ room or a locker room with Sarah McBride than with Nancy Mace.

McBride, of course, was just elected to Congress and, in January, will be the highest-ranking elected official in America who is transgender. The 34-year-old comes to the US House of Representatives after serving in the Delaware legislature; before that,