Originally a comment by Nullius in Verba on ‘Microaggressions started out as a legitimate issue’.

Like, I can see putting a hand on someone’s knee as being actually innocent, even though invasion of personal space is always suspect. I had a coworker who always put his hands on people’s backs when talking to them at their desks, for instance. It made me uncomfortable, for obvious reasons, but I didn’t attribute ill intent to it, because the dude was probably autistic. On the other hand, it can absolutely be anything but innocent, and there’s no way for a woman (or much less often a man) to know the intent motivating the incoming hand. For some reason, we have yet to … Read the rest

This is a fun heads I win tails you lose Trump has going here. If he pitches fits in court and calls the judge names why that’s because he’s The Victim Of A Conspiracy. If he doesn’t, same deal.

Mr Trump was combative on the stand. He took direct aim at the judge, leading to some heated exchanges, and drew his rebukes for airing broad grievances when they were not directly relevant to the question.

Is this because he’s a goon who acts like that at all times? Or is it a cunning plan?

“I think he is trying to goad the judge into doing something he can argue on appeal shows prejudice on his part,” Prof McMunigal said.

Oh, good idea, Germany.

A German kindergarten has said it will drop Anne Frank from its name in favour of a “more diverse” alternative, adding fuel to the national debate over anti-Semitism amid the Israel-Hamas war.

More “diverse” than Anne Frank. (I have no idea what the German for the buzzword “diverse” is, or even if it’s comparable to the Anglo buzzword.) More “diverse” how? Adding anti-Semites? Nazis? Neo-Nazis? Fans of genocide?

In what way is there a need for more “diversity” than a name that symbolizes the mass murder of European Jews by the Nazi regime? To put it another way, why is it a good idea to change the subject when the subject is Anne Frank/the … Read the rest

Meanwhile let’s get this straight. There’s a prolific women-hater on Twitter named David Leavitt but he is NOT repeat NOT the novelist named David Leavitt. They are two different people.

I don’t know if the novelist is on Twitter, but the journalist definitely is. He’s a very bad man.

Also either dishonest or stupid. Rowling does not say what he claims she says in the tweet he singles out to demonstrate her saying the thing she didn’t say.

A very bad man. Not the novelist.… Read the rest

The most marginalized…

A very small sampling of what happens when you say on Twitter that compelling a woman to call her rapist or violent male attacker ‘she’ in court is state-sanctioned abuse. pic.twitter.com/HhuPz4igz2

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) November 5, 2023

But don’t ever ever ever suggest that trans “activism” is just a tiny bit inclined to abuse and threaten women. No no no no no don’t you dare or we’ll tell you cunts exactly how we want to slaughter you.… Read the rest

BBC yet again cheering on the destruction of women’s sports:

Two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya says she is “not going to be ashamed” of being “different”, and will “fight for what is right” amid her ongoing dispute with athletics authorities.

Some lede. Should read: Two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya, who competed against women, says he is “not going to be ashamed” of cheating women, and will continue to cheat amid his ongoing dispute with athletics authorities.

Semenya, 32, was born with differences of sexual development (DSD) and cannot compete in female track events without taking testosterone-reducing drugs.

What kind of differences of sexual development? Odd that the BBC doesn’t say. Why be so cryptic about it?

In a wide-ranging

JKR nails it again.

The Honourable Chris Kourakis has issued a statement referring to my 'anxiety' about the use of female pronouns for men standing trial for violence against women and rape. He states that 'a victim of crime would never be asked to address an accused person in a way which caused… pic.twitter.com/43tdCboOc6

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) November 6, 2023

The Honourable Chris Kourakis has issued a statement referring to my ‘anxiety’ about the use of female pronouns for men standing trial for violence against women and rape. He states that ‘a victim of crime would never be asked to address an accused person in a way which caused the victim distress.’

That assurance is welcome, although I note

Oh goody, an activist.

Erm. So that’s “The transformative future of #womensports” in the sense of being women’s sports played by men? That’s “embracing intersectionality and solidarity” in the sense of embracing men who invade women’s sports and thus destroy them for women?

Well why is there no solidarity with women? Can anyone explain?

Who is this Natalie Washington?

Natalie Washington is a British football player and activist, best known for her work as campaign lead for Football v Transphobia.^[1][2] She also serves as a trustee for Trans Pride Brighton.^[3]

She began playing as a midfielder for Rushmoor Community FC in the Hampshire County Women’s Football League in 2017, after training with the team

The Post on what Trump is planning for us:

Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.

In private, Trump has told advisers and friends in recent months that he wants the Justice Department to investigate onetime officials and allies who have become critical of his time in office, including his former chief of staff, John F. Kelly, and former attorney

The NY Times is live-reporting Trump’s testimony.

Trump’s acknowledgement of some involvement in assembling the documents in question can’t be stressed enough. The modus operandi of Trump and most around him is to lay the blame at staff’s feet, or consultants’ feet or lawyers’ feet.

Trump is being asked about why he decided to drop the value of Seven Springs, one of his properties in Westchester County, N.Y., on a financial statement. “I thought it was high,” Trump says, yet again admitting his involvement in the process.

Trump appears not to realize that, because here the value was lowered, these admissions of his involvement in manipulating the financial statements are damning.

But it was good manipulating. Surely he should … Read the rest

The protocol.

2/ This practice direction states *in terms* that the "use of preferred gender pronouns is a matter of respect". That is an ideological position and it is correct to criticise the policy as having that objective. Please note lawyers and *others* in the second sentence. pic.twitter.com/A0tC7FTdzj

— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) November 6, 2023

The protocol “does no more than allow lawyers and others to inform the court of the correct pronunciation of their name and their preferred gender pronoun”

Stop right there.

That’s smuggling. That’s smuggling the concept of “preferred gender pronoun” concealed by “correct pronunciation of their name.” Those two items are not the same thing. Preferred is not the same as correct, and pronouns … Read the rest

Of course.

I would have linked straight to the source but you have to click through eleventy times to get to that set of nominations…but by having done so I did get to learn (to my complete lack of surprise) that 1. the male nominations appear first and 2. the male nominations are all men.

Yes, Yasmin Finney is a trans woman.… Read the rest

Ahh poor Fiona the lonely sheep stranded at the bottom of a cliff has been rescued at last.

The sheep, called Fiona and wearing a huge fleece, had been stranded at the foot of cliffs on the Cromarty Firth for at least two years, with an animal welfare charity having deemed rescue attempts “incredibly complex”.

But five farmers managed to haul her up a steep slope, and now plan to deliver her to a farm park.

A real farm park, not the pretend kind kids are told about when Flopsy dies in the night.

Jillian Turner first spotted the sheep two years ago while she was paddling along the coast of Sutherland with her kayak club. She assumed the

Science! Very sciencey science!

science pic.twitter.com/whcgYhgY4M

— Róisín Michaux (@RoisinMichaux) November 5, 2023

You just divide the Transgender Women’s Importance of Pronouns Scale by the Narcissism of Transgender Women’s Timewasting Scale and BOOM, there’s your total rock-solid non-falsifiable proof that Transgender Women’s Luxury Pronouns matter more than anything else in the entire universe. That’s SCIENCE.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Mile-high semi-free press.

They were unfamiliar with the concept of people who had pursued so-called sex-change drugs and surgeries but later regretted these interventions and sought care to help remedy the results.

You’ve taken one side of an issue, but haven’t researched the issue enough to realize its full ramifications and fallout? You’ve been reassured by reliable sources that the other side is made up entirely of genocidal, Nazi bigots, so you don’t have to listen to what they’re saying at all. That’s a good look for journalists. I guess this sort of thing is bound to happen when you outsource your ethics, morality, and values to “reliable sources”. Like … Read the rest

Izzat right?

JK Rowling is basically David Duke, and that's been clear for a long time now.

But people still have to engage with her posts and point out she's a hateful bigot, over and over, because (a) beloved children's author, (b) no public consensus that trans hate is hate.

— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) November 4, 2023

What an idiot.… Read the rest

Yascha Mounk on Hamas and idenniny:

…the reaction to the worst murder of Jews since the end of the Second World War has continued to range from oddly muted to openly celebratory. Reacting to Hamas’s massacre in its immediate aftermath, Rivkah Brown, an editor at Novara Media, wrote that “today should be a day of celebration for supporters of democracy and human rights worldwide”. The Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter sent out an invitation to a solidarity rally with Palestine that featured a picture of the Hamas fighters on paramotors who murdered over 250 people at a music festival.

During the following weeks, hundreds of prominent artists and writers, actors, academics and medical professionals, including Tilda Swinton and

Lisa Jones tells us about the Denver Press Club and its devotion to a free press:

On August 21, 2023, I was hunting for a small, private venue in downtown Denver for a mixer. The Denver Press Club building seemed to fit the bill. It could accommodate 50 to 100 guests, serve drinks and hors d’oeuvres, and was available for rental on the evening of Thursday, November 2nd.

On August 22nd, in an email exchange with the club’s executive director, I described the event I planned to host: an evening mixer where everyone is welcome to engage in honest and open discussion about free speech and gender identity. I said Nina Paley and Corinna Cohn, hosts of the Heterodorx

This week in Trump crime family news:

Trump’s elder sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, took the witness stand in New York this week and testified they had little knowledge about the financial statements at the center of the case. Next week, Donald Trump is expected to take the stand on Monday, followed by daughter Ivanka Trump on Wednesday.

In the middle of a school week.

The New York attorney general’s office has been building its case that Trump, his adult sons and executives at the Trump Organization knowingly inflated the value of assets to boost the former president’s net worth when brokering deals. Judge Arthur Engoron ruled before the trial started that documents prove the family had

Originally a comment by Rev David Brindley on Bad Behaviour??? Us???

I can assure our US and UK readers that here in the Great Land of Downunder, cunt IS used as a term of endearment amongst some sub sets of men.

That sub set of men being the drunken uncles at parties, the misogynist and homophobic, sexually insecure males. Not only do they call each other “cunt”, but they also use other terms of endearment, such as “poof” to assure themselves that while their best friend may be gay, they most assuredly are straight. They refer to their wives/girlfriends as “The Missus” in fear that if they use her name she will either appear and drag them home, or at