Oh god this is a genre of writing I absolutely cannot stand, it brings me out in a mental rash before I’ve finished reading the first sentence. The genre is the person – a guy, in my experience – who thinks he has a delightful subtle and erudite wit but doesn’t. You know what I mean, right? In love with his own writing voice, and completely blind to how tedious and unamusing and pompous it is?

It’s a nameless fool on Twitter trying to condescend to JK Rowling as if he were her beloved great uncle and knows far better than she ever will. He’s fingernails on a blackboard, I tells ya.

https://twitter.com/i_iratus/status/1787179164442734617

You see what I mean, right? … Read the rest

Update: This story is from 2010, as diligent readers pointed out.

Ya think?

Nadia Murad, a Yezidi girl, was 19 years old when lSlS kidnapped and held as a slave for 3 months, tortured and raped.
lSlS kiIIed her mother and 6 brothers.

Nadia's book event was cancelled in Canada because organizers felt 'her story could promote Islamophobia' pic.twitter.com/5GW6ZEaFXK

— Azat Alsalem (@AzzatAlsaalem) May 10, 2024

Right. By the same token, don’t report murders, because that might promote murderophobia. Don’t report torture because that might promote torturerophobia. Don’t report genocide because that might promote genociderophobia.

I’m well familiar with the line of thought because of Does Got Hate Women? There were worries about it, and discussions, and cautions. I did … Read the rest

Either way, there are always men intimidating women. The guy in the blue T shirt is an actual academic, who teaches students.

Horrid intimidatory harassment of a Muslim woman from former IDF soldier Sammy Ben & ASU Professor Jonathan Yudelman. They chase her down & tell her “no one wants you here. Leave. Go back to Jeehaad.”

Does @ASU support this bigotry?

(Tweet corrected)pic.twitter.com/qeNr7EMEvz

— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) May 6, 2024

He gets in her face, he raises his arms inches from her face, he follows her as she tries to get away, he addresses her with the underlined “bitch” – he’s just the flip side of the coin.

NBC News reports on the aftermath:

An Arizona

… Read the rest

Speaking of tawdry…

Laurence Fox has been slammed online after he posted an unearthed upskirt photo of a TV host.

The actor-turned-politician, 45, took to X to mock Jeremy Vine and GB News star Narinder Kaur as he posted a compromising paparazzi photograph of the 51-year-old television star in the back of a vehicle. The photo in question shows Kaur without any underwear on. Fox has been slammed by countless X users, who have claimed that his decision to post the picture was “low, even for him”.

Wtf? We need harsher language for this kind of bullying crap. “Paparazzi” and “compromising” are way too mild.

Upskirting is a criminal offence in the UK, and the photo was removed from

… Read the rest

Further installments of squalor and piggishness:

With the third week of testimony drawing to a close, the case that ultimately hinges on record-keeping returned to deeply technical testimony — a sharp contrast from Daniels’ dramatic, if not downright seamy, account of an alleged sexual encounter with Trump that riveted jurors earlier this week. Trump denies they ever had sex.

Daniels’ story of an alleged sexual encounter with Trump was a crucial building block for prosecutors, who are seeking to show that the Republican and his allies buried unflattering stories in the waning weeks of the 2016 presidential election in an effort to illegally influence the race.

Trump walked out of the court in a rage Thursday, angrily telling reporters,

… Read the rest

Ohhhh the hell with it, let’s put the Confederate names back.

After a meeting that lasted for hours, the Shenandoah County school board voted early Friday morning to restore the names of three Confederate officers to schools in the district.

With the vote, the district appears to be the first in the country to return Confederate names to schools that had removed them after the summer of 2020, according to researchers at the Montgomery, Ala.-based Equal Justice Initiative.

The vote rolled back a decision made four years ago, when the killing of George Floyd prompted nationwide demands for a racial reckoning. At a virtual meeting in July 2020, the summer of pandemic and protests, the board voted 5-1 to

… Read the rest

The Times in July 2020 on why Black instead of black:

“We believe this style best conveys elements of shared history and identity, and reflects our goal to be respectful of all the people and communities we cover,” said Dean Baquet, The Times’s executive editor, and Phil Corbett, associate managing editor for standards, in a memo to staff.

Conversations about the change began in earnest at The Times and elsewhere after the death of George Floyd and subsequent protests, said Mike Abrams, senior editor for editing standards. Several major news media organizations have made the same call including The Associated Press, whose stylebook has long been an influential guide for news organizations.

“It seems like such a minor change,

… Read the rest

Joyce Vance on the state of play:

Lots going on, most notably news that neither the Fulton County case nor the classified documents prosecutions [is] going to see the light of day before the election. Although that already seemed preordained, it’s now formal.

• In Fulton County, the Georgia Court of Appeals will review Judge McAfee’s decision that Fani Willis can stay on the case. Whichever side loses the appeal will likely apply to the Georgia Supreme Court for another bite at the apple. The process will take months.
• In Florida, Judge Cannon has removed her May 20 trial date from the calendar. She refused to set a new one, but scheduled almost all of the pending motions in the

… Read the rest

From Slate a few months ago:

Homicide Is a Leading Cause of Death for Pregnant People. Abortion Bans Are Making Things Worse.

You know what else is making things worse? Pretending violence against women is violence against people. Pretending violence against women is not specific to women and thus not in any way linked to hatred and contempt and disgust for women.

When Julianne McShane wanted to report on how some of the most vulnerable women in the United States were dealing with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, she knew exactly where she needed to go: Tulsa, Oklahoma. Oklahoma is where two realities collide. It is one of 16 states that have banned abortion almost

… Read the rest

If you don’t have the goods, just make something up.

A barrister who championed LGBT+ charity Stonewall has been disbarred after making false homophobia claims. Barry John Harwood was found to have knowingly misled the Bar Standards Board (BSB) after fabricating parts of “serious” allegations against fellow barristers. Mr Harwood, who was the deputy director of advocacy at City law firm DWF, complained about a colleague’s behaviour towards him in March 2019.

What behavior? Referring to Harwood’s partner as his “husband” despite knowing they were in a civil partnership aka not married.

Take your time digesting the horror of it.

But anyway, however trivial, it’s not even a fair cop.

However, the BSB found Mr Harwood had in

… Read the rest

A win, for a change.

My mind is slightly blown – Government have accepted my legal amendments to ban Registered Sex Offenders from changing their name to avoid detection. Huge congrats to all the victims & survivors esp. @DellasLaw x @LDNVictimsComm @VictimsComm pic.twitter.com/GiHVkqlWfI

— Sarah Champion (@SarahChampionMP) May 9, 2024

… Read the rest

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Science Based Medicine says what?

Remember back in 1997, the Pokemon seizure episode? Hundreds of children reported symptoms, including seizures, after watching a specific episode of the Pokemon cartoon that includes a sequence of flashing alternating red and blue lights. The press reported the episode at face value, attributing the reaction to a known phenomenon of photosensitive epilepsy. However, later reviews found that the majority of cases were not seizures, and in fact occurred during later viewings of the episode, after the story was widely reported.

Widely reported, eh? So we’re talking suggestibility here? Social contagion?

The episode is a great example of a mass hysteria – a story spreading widely in the public that triggers some form

… Read the rest

I don’t think I saw this one last October.

… Read the rest

Traitors. Backstabbers. Thieves. Haters of women.

BREAKING: Today, we sought to intervene in #GainesVNCAA — a bogus lawsuit that's trying to get the NCAA to ban transgender athletes from college athletic participation. We are proud to be represented by @ACLU, @ACLUofGA, and @CooleyLLP. pic.twitter.com/U4zFa8LmmA

— National Women's Law Center (@nwlc) May 6, 2024

Why do they continue to call themselves a women’s law center? It’s grotesque. They’re not just standing by while men grab women’s sports, they’re actively helping.

Read our full statement: https://t.co/y9abKQIXeb

— National Women's Law Center (@nwlc) May 7, 2024

It’s not “bullying” for women to have their own sports and keep men out of them. It’s just utterly disgusting for this “Women’s” … Read the rest

It turns out that by “doing more” the Premier meant doing more to promote “family and domestic violence.”

You couldn’t make this insanity up if you tried.

Last week, Western Australia Labor Premier @RogerCookMLA said, “No government is doing more than my Government in relation to family and domestic violence.”

This week, his @walabor government is trying to pass a law that will… pic.twitter.com/Y0PvxEEHoU

— Rachael Wong (@RachaelWongAus) May 9, 2024

This week, his @walabor government is trying to pass a law that will allow men to change their legal sex to female, and self-identify into female-only spaces, like bathrooms and refuges.

Here is the Premier on the day the Bill was introduced, pictured with WA Attorney General John Quigley,

… Read the rest

The kids are not all right.

Delegates at a National Union of Students (NUS) conference voted in a breakout meeting to stop recognising their Jewish members’ main representative body because of its support for Israel, the JC can reveal.

The non-binding vote against the continued affiliation of the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) was carried overwhelmingly at the NUS conference in Blackpool last month during a session that began with calls to “dismantle” the Jewish state as a “racist project of colonialism”.

So in other words shun the Jews. We’ve been here before, chums.

At the Oxford protest camp, participants have been asked to agree that as a “colonised” people, Palestinians have the “right to resist against occupation”.

They have

… Read the rest

Sigh.

https://twitter.com/ReduxxMag/status/1788286633650868612… Read the rest

Huh – for some extremely mysterious reason the jovial Fred “Freda” Wallace is in Twitter jail.

https://twitter.com/GreatBritishGay/status/1788250123702579357

But not to worry! He’s using his other account, which is against the twitty rules.

https://twitter.com/Missfreda666/status/1788236778018841003

Serious abuses eh? Remember Fred at that discussion facing the audience with his skirt up around his neck and his balls on display? Such a character.… Read the rest

Top climate scientists say we’re screwed.

Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) above preindustrial levels this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed.

Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), foresee at least 2.5C of global heating, while almost half anticipate at least 3C (5.4F). Only 6% thought the internationally agreed 1.5C (2.7F) limit would be met.

All of which is unsurprising, given the rate at which we continue to do the things that roast the climate.

Many of the scientists envisage a “semi-dystopian” future, with

… Read the rest

Are. they. serious.

https://twitter.com/SonyaDouglas/status/1788107621045600361

Wat?

If they’re not really, literally, materially women then the study will be worthless.

It’s slightly more complicated with “Black” because that’s not yes or no (aka “binary”) the way female or male is. Many many enslaved people in the US were partly white thanks to the genial custom by which owners and overseers were free to rape the enslaved women and girls whenever they felt like it. Looking at you Thomas Jefferson.

Anyway. What in hell is the point of doing such a study if you’re going to render it worthless by including men who pretend to be women?

CNN tells us:

The American Cancer Society said Tuesday that it is seeking participants for

… Read the rest