Here we go.

This is starting to look awfully bad for you @KateOsborneMP. I wonder if @KemiBadenoch has seen this yet. https://t.co/gvVgtl8Nxt

— Fred Sargeant (@FredSargeant) December 14, 2023

This is the thing, you see – like a lot of words, “epidemic” has a narrow literal meaning and an expanded, somewhat metaphorical one. I think “epidemic” probably originally referred to disease only, but it’s been used to mean “[undesirable] trend” and the like for a hella long time. Kate Osborne isn’t wrong to say that it’s not a hooray word – it’s used of trends the speaker dislikes or disapproves of, not of trends she welcomes and embraces. We don’t talk of an epidemic of politeness or safe driving. … Read the rest

What is “the gender police v Kemi Badenoch” that the BBC is not reporting on? I was thinking I’d already posted about it but I hadn’t. I can’t give you the tidy BBC version because they haven’t reported on it at all so here is the TalkTV version instead:

Minister Kemi Badenoch accused Labour MP Kate Osborne of ‘lying’ in a fiery clash over language used to describe transgender children

Kemi Badenoch accused Labour MP Kate Osbourne of lying during a fiery clash that erupted over language used to describe transgender children in an appearance at the Women and Equalities Select Committee on 13 December.

The Cabinet minister hit back at [rebuked] Ms Osborne for accusing her of previously using

Interesting. If I’m reading this correctly the BBC is not reporting on the gender police v Kemi Badenoch.

No. This is a huge row, and Lauren Moss and @joshparry this deserves your appropriate coverage. @ChrisMasonBBC if the Identity unit refuses to report this then Millbank needs to step up. @stuartmillar159 these are front page stories while you ignore this raging controversy. https://t.co/FBmMcfYUD3 pic.twitter.com/elYRMCtuAc

— Cath Leng (@leng_cath) December 14, 2023

Josh Parry is the BBC’s “LGBT & Identity” producer. (Who knew they had one? Who knew there is such a thing?)… Read the rest

From last year, but still worth a look.

An insane woman describes how she explained to a man who had sex with her why he is actually gay. https://t.co/fDWqlBhLKB pic.twitter.com/0CORVHzpQH

— Innocent Bystander (@supertolerant) December 12, 2023

My favorite part is the subtitled “laughter”.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? at Miscellany Room.

I’ve just started reading philosopher Val Plumwood’s Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason, a 2002 follow-up to her 1993 work Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. I’m barely past the introduction and I’m already amazed. It feels like every other sentence or two is a “Holy shit!” moment, where she either puts things into a perspective I’ve never thought of before, or encapsulates ideas that have been rattling around in my own head for quite some time. If Feminism and the Mastery of Nature was an examination of the origins of our current crisis in the foundations of Western thought, this book looks to be … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Sastra on Part of a network.

It is important to say these things at the outset of this report because society regularly tells LGBTQ+ people that they are not normal

And right here is the fundamental divide, the problem with coupling homosexuality and gender nonconformity with transgender. The society that regularly tells people who don’t abide by the conventions associated with their sex that they’re perverted, wicked, or sick is not the same part of society which views sex as a biological category we can’t choose to follow or not. The reasoning is completely different. The issue is completely different.

We do not believe that psychics are not normal. We question the existence of psychic … Read the rest

Of course they did.

Of course. pic.twitter.com/Baer1niYQl

— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) December 13, 2023

What’s trans ideology got to do with Southern poverty and law?

Not one damn thing.… Read the rest

The SPLC turns its attention from Southern poverty law to talk instead about luxury idennnies and the evil demons who don’t bend the knee to them.

Opening line:

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) people exist in all societies across the world and thrive in all areas of life. 

What are “Queer” people? How do they differ from lesbian and gay people? Why are they part of this discussion?

And why are transgender people part of this discussion? They’re the opposite of lesbian and gay, rather than being a branch of lesbian and gay.

And what does the “+” mean?

It is important to say these things at the outset of this report because society regularly tells

The way they talk about this!

.@SarahAMcInerney "What happens if… none of the countries on the green list provide surrogacy to same sex couples?"

Minister Donnelly: "That is a concern… it would be our intention there are jurisdictions [on the green list] that any couple could apply to." #rtept | @RTENews pic.twitter.com/22Mg6xUX2g

— RTÉ Prime Time (@RTE_PrimeTime) December 12, 2023

What did she say?

Many of the countries that are providing surrogacy at the moment internationally are closed to same sex couples, it’s against the law in those countries that same sex couples would avail of it.

Wait slow down. “Countries are providing surrogacy”??? Wtf does that mean? Countries can’t gestate babies for people. It’s only women who can … Read the rest

But will it make a difference? Probably not.

The agreement reached in this glitzy metropolis for the first time nails the role of fossil fuel emissions in driving up temperatures and outlines a future decline for coal, oil and gas. In UN terms that is historic, and the biggest step forward on climate since the Paris agreement in 2015.

But by itself, will this deal be enough to save the “north star” of this COP – keeping temperatures under 1.5C this century? Most likely not.

And that’s not just because of the petrostates.

A key factor in softening the text was the attitude of middle-income developing countries who were very uncertain about the much hyped phased out of fossil

What the COP agreement says:

The decision text from Cop28 has been greeted as “historic”, for being the first ever call by nations for a “transition away” from fossil fuels, and as “weak and ineffectual” and containing a “litany of loopholes” for the fossil fuel industry. 

First ever call to do something they have no intention of doing.

The text states the huge challenge with crystal clarity:

Limiting global warming to 1.5C [above pre-industrial levels] with no or limited overshoot requires deep, rapid and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions of 43% by 2030 and 60% by 2035 relative to the 2019 level and reaching net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. [Countries] further recognise the need

Progress.

One of the UK’s largest private hospital groups has guaranteed its patients same sex care, prompting calls for the NHS to follow suit. HCA has rewritten its policies to promise that patients will be provided with intimate care by a staff member of the same “sex” rather than the same “gender”. This means that a trans woman could not provide personal care to a female patient unless that patient has given express consent or in emergency situations.

It comes after the hospital was forced to apologise to patient Teresa Steele for cancelling her operation when she requested that only biological women were [would be] involved in her intimate care.

Remember that? October last year? They cancelled the … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Rob on Just sprinkle in a few sustainability coordinators.

A long time ago Kim Stanley Robinson wrote about this. He called it Götterdämmerung* Capitalism. He made the point that free market Capitalism will never surrender a resource or technique for exploiting the resource no matter how inefficient or dire the consequences until it is economically imperative that it does so. Really, you say, but we live in a capitalist society and companies adopt practices to look after the environment and reduce emissions. That’s true, but it’s only because regulations have actually forced that on them over decades of incremental change – pushed by activists and researchers working to change both societal and governmental attitudes.

For … Read the rest

Originally a comment by iknklast on Magical solutions.

It’s interesting his notation about sustainability and corporations. I realized quite a long time ago that most sustainability coordinators/directors/whatever, are very much on track with corporate free market agendas, and the only solutions I’ve ever heard have been very business friendly, and very climate hostile, while singing the praises of green this and green that.

I suspect the rise of the sustainability coordinator is less a signal of corporate commitment to fighting climate change and more a commitment to doing nothing. Any time Congress started rattling the swords of possible regulations, the businesses could point to their sustainability department and crow about their free market commitment to sustainability, helping to stave … Read the rest

Auden Schendler is the senior vice president of sustainability at Aspen One and the author of the forthcoming book Terrible Beauty: Reckoning With Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul. He wrote about the futile “magical solutions floating out of Dubai” in the Times:

I have spent my career working on climate change — not theoretically but in the trenches, crawling under trailers to insulate them under a federal government program to help low-income families conserve energy, building solar farms, capturing methane from coal mines, bolstering the climate movement through various nonprofit boards and crafting policy at the state and municipal levels. I served as a state regulator and an elected town councilman.

I have also spent 25 years in

Oh we can’t do that.

A statement delivered by the Australian climate change minister, Chris Bowen, on behalf of what’s known as the umbrella group of countries, came as tensions flared at the United Arab Emirates over the text of a draft deal proposed by the summit presidency.

Released early on Monday evening local time, the draft avoided highly contentious calls for a “phase-out” or “phase-down” of fossil fuels in an attempt to find consensus from nearly 200 countries that have been meeting in Dubai for nearly a fortnight.

Sssshhhh don’t mention fossil fuels. Touchy subject.

Some observers welcomed elements of the draft, including the first mention in a Cop text of reducing fossil fuel production, but others

I keep ranting about cruise ships, no doubt partly because I can see them from here for about six months of every year. I should start ranting about gigantic yachts, too.

There is much more at stake in this burgeoning market than these yachts’ purchase prices. Megayachts are an increasing blight on our societies, and the world would be better off without them.

First and foremost, owning a megayacht is the most polluting activity a single person can possibly engage in. Abramovich’s yachts emit more than 22,000 tonnes of carbon every year, which is more than some small countries. Even flying long-haul every day of the year, or air-conditioning a sprawling palace, would not get close to those emissions

I thought I was going to be able to share this Guardian piece about ferocious abortion restrictions in Arizona as just that, but alas it was not to be. About halfway through:

Amid the confusion, some Arizona abortion providers resumed work in July 2022. But in September, a court reinstated the 1864 ban. For about two weeks, until a state appeals court order halted the ban, abortion providers were once again unable to offer the procedure.

What is clear is that abortions are currently outlawed past 15 weeks in Arizona. A near-total ban, Taylor said, would push pregnant people in the state to a breaking point.

Thud. Sigh.

I wonder if that really is what she said. I wonder if … Read the rest

I hope Giuliani is sweating even more than he was that time the hair dye ran down his face.

How much should it cost to defame two innocent citizens in the service of a dangerous fallacy that sought to undermine a U.S. presidential election?

That’s the question jurors are set to answer in the defamation and conspiracy trial of former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. Jury selection took place on Monday in the federal district court in Washington, D.C.

This phase of the civil case centers on the penalty. District Judge Beryl Howell has already found Giuliani liable for defamation and civil conspiracy for repeatedly making false statements about two Georgia election workers: Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, who are

Lauren Smith at Spiked:

Even if someone looks like a man, talks like a man and actually is a man, you can now get yourself in trouble if you refer to him as a man. 

That’s been true for at least ten years.

That’s the take-home message of last week’s social-media bust-up over Melissa Poulton, previously known as Matthew Viner.

Previously known as Matthew Viner because that was his name, presumably on all kinds of official documents and records. It’s his new handle that’s the alias, not his old one.

Poulton is a transwoman who has been selected as the Green Party’s candidate for Bromsgrove in the next UK General Election. He describes himself as a ‘proud lesbian’. Last