Cooking.

A heatwave is sweeping across parts of southern Europe and north-west Africa, with potential record-breaking temperatures in the coming days. Temperatures are expected to surpass 40C (104F) in parts of Spain, France, Greece, Croatia and Turkey. In Italy, temperatures could reach as high as 48.8C (119.8F). A red alert warning has been issued for 10 cities, including Rome, Bologna and Florence.

…

A satellite image recorded by the EU’s Copernicus Sentinel mission revealed that the land temperature in the Extremadura region had hit 60C on Tuesday.

60C! That’s not even on the thermometer! It’s 140F!

Italian weather forecasters are warning that the next heatwave, dubbed Charon after the ferryman who delivered souls into the underworld, will push temperatures

Smug man boasts of intruding on women in a vulnerable state, emphasizes his determination to ignore their wishes and call them names in the process.

I told this story on Facebook but it’s about such a good thing I’m going to post it here too.

So when I realized back in the spring what a fool I’d been not going to the Arboretum I started going there quite often, and one of the first places I went was the trail that goes north and away from the arboish part of the Arbo but is still part of the same big chunk of land. That trail goes underneath a Seattle-East Side freeway to a small island in Lake Washington, and also to a second trail, a spectacular engineered one, that goes over the water to a raised lookout tower and a tiny island called Marsh Island … Read the rest

The Washington Post takes the “someone” approach.

Democrats said the legislation would put someone experiencing a miscarriage at risk by forcing doctors to take extra time determining whether they qualify for an abortion. It also sets unrealistic time constraints for someone to report rape or incest to qualify for an abortion exception under the bill, they said.

Any particular kind of somone? Dunno.

Abortion rights advocates are vowing to fight the measure. If it is passed, Planned Parenthood North Central States will challenge the law in court and refer patients out of state if they need an abortion during the next few weeks, the group said in a statement.

“We intend to show that in numbers on Tuesday at

The NY Times on the other hand does not avoid the word. Take notes, Guardian.

The bill passed by Republicans allows for abortions up to about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. The legislation includes exceptions after that point for rape or incest, when the woman’s life is in serious danger or she faces a risk of certain permanent injuries, or when fetal abnormalities “incompatible with life” are present.

Three times in one paragraph. Feel bad, Guardian.… Read the rest

The Guardian reports on the attack on women’s rights while pretending it’s not about women:

Iowa’s state legislature voted on Tuesday night to ban most abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy, a time before most people know they are pregnant.

Women, you absolute shits.

This is women losing the right to plan their own damn lives and here you are still pretending it’s about people in general. Stop doing that.

Same for the ACLU – stop that.

“The ACLU of Iowa, Planned Parenthood and the Emma Goldman Clinic remain committed to protecting the reproductive rights of Iowans to control their bodies and their lives, their health and their safety – including filing a lawsuit

Hey, baby, lighten up, it was just a joke, don’t you have any sense of humor, what’s your problem, bitch?

Italians have reacted with outrage after a 66-year-old school cleaner escaped punishment for groping a female pupil because it “only lasted about ten seconds”.

The 17-year-old schoolgirl was walking up a flight of stairs between classes when the janitor, Antonio Avola, put his hand inside the waistband of her trousers and inside her underwear from behind.

When she confronted him, he responded: “Come on darling, you know I’m only joking,” according to other students who witnessed the incident, which happened at a high school in Rome in April last year.

Ah yes, it’s such a funny joke to be … Read the rest

Dr Helen Webberley of Gender GP fame notoriety leaps to defend the use of “bonus hole” as an alternative to “vagina.”

Humanity has been inventing new language for thousands of years.

No one batted an eyelid when we moved on from “Ye Olde English”!

This is no different. The only reason it’s newsworthy is because… you guessed it… it’s about the trans community.

There are currently words… pic.twitter.com/vrymT40yBH

— Dr Helen Webberley she/her (@HelenWebberley) July 11, 2023

It is of course not even slightly true that “no one batted an eyelid when we moved on from Ye Olde English” – whatever tf that’s supposed to mean. Of course people batted an eyelid at changes in the language. People always do.… Read the rest

Huh. It turns out that insulting people isn’t part of a president’s duties.

Ex-President Donald Trump can be held liable for disparaging comments he made about a woman who accused him of rape, the US Department of Justice has said. Its lawyers previously argued Mr Trump was legally immune as he was president when he made the remarks in 2019. But on Tuesday government attorneys said they no longer had “sufficient basis” to conclude Mr Trump had acted within the scope of his duties.

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The legal action cites his remarks as president about her in 2019 while responding to reporters’ questions. The lawsuit has been updated to reflect further comments he made about her during a CNN town

This is so crappy. So corrupt. So grotesque. So Berlusconi.

Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump asked a federal judge on Monday night to indefinitely postpone his trial on charges of illegally retaining classified documents after he left office, saying that the proceeding should not begin until all “substantive motions” in the case had been presented and decided.

And what federal judge is that? One that Trump made a federal judge, of course! One that Trump made a federal judge in defiance of her woeful lack of experience or smarts or any other qualification other than trumpism. He commits a whole slew of federal crimes but no problem because he had carefully put a pro-him hack in the … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Any supposed costs.

I see trans women as real women.

Good for you. Now go ahead, date one. Are they still “real women” for you in this context? You’re happy to do girl dick? You’re expecting women and girls who know that TiMs are men to accept and submit to the presence of “girl dick” in their locker rooms: you should be willing to share in that acceptance too.

What you’re saying automatically in the argument…is you don’t believe these people are women.

Yes, and? Here’s your daily reminder that they’re not women; never have been, never will be. You might be willing to lie, but don’t expect others to … Read the rest

Focus, Thames Water. FOCUS.

Thames Water, which is heavily in debt and has just been fined for a sewage release that was devastating to aquatic life, has been installing Pride-themed drain covers across southern England so that 'LGBTQ+ members of the public can feel seen and valued' https://t.co/s8OYLlljuM

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) July 11, 2023

… Read the rest

So…this is not good.

It took me a minute to figure out the scale of it, thinking this could be just a small patch and we can’t tell…but then I spotted Florida. Tiny tiny Florida. The scale is enormous.

S FL ocean hits mid 90s! NOAA forecasts 100% chance of bleaching in red. “No form of management or protection can prevent reefs from being impacted by increases in sea surface temps associated with the burning of fossil fuels,” Precht says. https://t.co/ThxoTpha8N @WFLA pic.twitter.com/S4sBPepd4q

— Jeff Berardelli (@WeatherProf) July 11, 2023

… Read the rest

TIME has a long profile of Rapinoe. It gets to That Subject toward the end.

Rapinoe has shifted her focus to trans-rights advocacy. She’s particularly contemptuous of policies designed to keep transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams. “We as a country are trying to legislate away people’s full humanity,” she says. Proponents of such laws often claim they’re protecting women’s sports. “It’s particularly frustrating when women’s sports is weaponized,” she says. “Oh, now we care about fairness? Now we care about women’s sports? That’s total bullsh-t. And show me all the trans people who are nefariously taking advantage of being trans in sports. It’s just not happening.”

Excuse me? We can show you Lia … Read the rest

Megan Rapinoe is confused.

“Absolutely ‘You’re taking a ‘real’ woman’s place,’ that’s the part of the argument that’s still extremely transphobic. I see trans women as real women. What you’re saying automatically in the argument—you’re sort of telling on yourself already—is you don’t believe these people are women. Therefore, they’re taking the other spot. I don’t feel that way,” Rapinoe told TIME when asked if she’d be okay with a biological man playing with her on the national team.

It doesn’t matter what you “see” people as, and it doesn’t matter what way you “feel.” You can see horses as airports and cars as flowers if you like, but that doesn’t change the reality. You can “feel” that peaches … Read the rest

The Daily Mail:

The Met today reopened its investigation into a transgender activist and convicted attempted murderer who told activists at a London march to ‘punch TERFs’ in the [fucking] face. 

Sarah Jane Baker, who spent 30 years in jail for kidnap and then the attempted murder of a fellow prisoner, provoked outrage over her inflammatory comments on Saturday against feminists who are critical of trans ideology. 

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Astonishingly, Baker was defended by the organisers of Trans+ Pride, who said Baker ‘holds a lot of anger’ which she had the ‘right to express… through their words’. 

Astonishingly but not all that astonishingly if you’ve been paying attention to trans ideology and “activism.”

She was reported to the police for

Twitter has limited visibility of a reply I made to a tweet of Peter Tatchell’s.

This one:

Violent threats against trans critics are wrong. I condemn them

But it was one person who does NOT represent the #trans community

Also wrong are abuse & smears by trans critics – against trans people & allies like me

Two wrongs don't make a right!https://t.co/8tYHpPtHoU

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) July 10, 2023

It’s an idiotic thing to say. Of course it wasn’t one person! It was also the crowd who cheered!

So I replied:

No it WASN'T "one person" Peter, because it was also all those people who screamed approval.

Imagine if he'd said "Punch a faggot in the fucking face!" to

So here is Ian Kennedy’s wisdom on why women don’t want men in women’s sports:

Transgender women in hockey. 

It’s a topic being used by politicians to pass harmful legislation removing rights from transgender people. Meanwhile the presence of transgender women in women’s sport is being defended by human rights advocates, allies, sports governing bodies, and the LGBTQ+ community. 

Why? Why are human rights advocates defending men intruding in women’s sport? Women’s sport is for women, so obviously men should stay out of it. Adults don’t play on Little League teams and men don’t play in women’s sports…unless they’re selfish narcissistic pigs.

At the roots however, research and scholarly analysis has shown that the exclusion of transgender women from

Jon Pike on the Foucauldian trope about “policing women’s bodies”:

Here’s a supposed gotcha, that bugs me, and deserves a thread on ‘policing women’s bodies’ as a criticism of arguments for fair sport for women. The objection is presumably Foucauldian in inspiration, derived from Discipline and Punish and the [concern] with bio-politics.

My reading of Foucault is heavily indebted to Nancy Fraser’s critique: ‘Empirical insights and normative confusions’ sums it up nicely. Those who talk today about ‘policing women’s bodies’ in the context of sport are normatively confused. That’s to say, any practice that secures sex-based spaces necessarily involves regulating bodies, on the basis of sex. So, if sex based spaces are sometimes a good thing then regulating bodies on

Joan Smith on the both-sidesing of trans “activists” who threaten women with violence:

On Saturday, a convicted criminal got up in front of a cheering crowd in central London and publicly incited violence against women. “If you see a terf, punch them in the fucking face,” he declared to whoops of approval from his audience at Hyde Park Corner.

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After Baker called for assaults on women at Saturday’s London Trans Pride event, the organisers defended him. They insisted they did not condone violence, but added that “Sarah and many others in our community hold a lot of rage and anger and they have the right to express that anger through their words.” 

In other words many trans people are … Read the rest