McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism advertised a discussion scheduled for today:

The Sex vs. Gender (Identity) Debate In the United Kingdom and the Divorce of LGB from T

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By Professor Wintemute: Since 2018, there has been a debate in the United Kingdom about whether or not the law should be changed to make it easier for a transgender individual to change their legal sex from their birth sex, and about exceptional situations, such as women-only spaces and sports, in which the individual’s birth sex should take priority over their gender identity, regardless of their legal sex. This debate inspired the foundation in 2019 of an organisation, LGB Alliance, which rejects the political coalition of LGB

Sigh. Washington State health department. It couldn’t be California or Wisconsin or New Jersey, no, it has to be Washington.

#DYK? If you have COVID-19 and would like to breastfeed/chestfeed, your breast milk is not likely to spread COVID-19 to your baby.

➡️ Wash your hands
➡️ Wear a mask while breastfeeding/chestfeeding and within 6 feet of your baby.

Learn more: https://t.co/7tms8eO7yB pic.twitter.com/G4xospWBZQ

— Washington State Department of Health (@WADeptHealth) November 25, 2022

… Read the rest

Speaking of aquifers drying up…the Ogallala aquifer is one of them.

After decades of irrigation, the aquifer that makes life possible in dry western Kansas is reaching a critical point. Several counties have already lost more than half of their underground water. But a new plan could save more of what’s left.

…

Fly over these dry plains and you won’t see many rushing rivers or glimmering lakes. You’ll see circles. Mile after mile of green geometric crop fields spun into the near-desert landscape by wells that tap water hidden beneath the surface and the center pivot irrigation sprayers splayed around them.

Which could make you think “Dang, human ingenuity, aren’t we clever.” Or it could make you … Read the rest

When words have more than one meaning…

Today, @uscsocialwork sent out this letter announcing that they will no longer use the word “field” (as in “conducting field work”) because it’s perceived as racist. Is this with merit or empty virtue signaling? @elonmusk @IngrahamAngle pic.twitter.com/kgM9p4MAb5

— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) January 10, 2023

Yes, language can be powerful, but it can also be complicated. For instance the word “field” can mean something other than a piece of land where a crop is planted. I have a feeling that migrant workers and descendants of slaves aren’t really all that bothered by anthropologists who talk about their field work.

And speaking of words being powerful, I think it’s something of an … Read the rest

Oops, we’ve broken Great Salt Lake.

Emergency measures are required to avert a catastrophe in Utah’s Great Salt Lake, which has been drying up due to excessive water use, a new report warns. Within years, the lake’s ecosystems could collapse and millions will be exposed to toxic dust contained within the drying lakebed, unless drastic steps are taken to cut water use.

Will drastic steps be taken? Of course not. They never are. We just sit here stupidly watching the lions and wolves and hyenas and tigers approach.

A team of 32 scientists and conservationists caution that the lake could decline beyond recognition in just five years. Their warning is especially urgent amid a historic western megadrought fueled by

On the one hand this is just a typically infuriating usurpation aka “appropriation”; on the other hand it’s an interesting point about an outsider point of view.

TERFs say trans women do not understand the experience of womanhood.

It is the opposite; No one understands woman better than those who came to it the long way around.

— TERFs aren't women (@Saeko_Cut) January 9, 2023

Men who call themselves women of course don’t “understand the experience of womanhood” better than women do. On the other hand they do have the advantage of the outsider point of view, which is at least different from the insider one, and has at least the potential to offer insights.

It’s like being a foreigner … Read the rest

Someone looking for a libel suit, I’m guessing.

Originally a comment by Rev David Brindley on We cannot even manage those minor changes.

Even IF we can slow, or reverse the rising temperatures, we are still doomed.

The world may come to run on 100% renewable electricity and 100% hydrogen, but there are still limits.

We will still need oil, not for ICEs, but for plastics, pharmaceuticals, fertilisers, etc.

We will still need plastics, not for excessive packaging, but for all its other myriad uses in medicine, science, engineering, etc.

We will run out of silica sands for making solar panels. Fraser Island has enormous deposits of almost 100% pure silica, but mining has been banned since the 70’s. But will that ban hold as silica supply … Read the rest

Originally a comment by iknklast on Existential crisis.

Trumpists are neither conservative nor liberal; they want to break things. Conservatives don’t want to break things, they want to keep them intact the way they are. They also don’t want change to their own lives; liberals want to make changes to the overall system.

I actually think Trumpists are confused about what they want and about how possible it is for a society to work the way they want. Most of them are the ones who failed seventh grade civics and think the teacher had it in for them because of some sort of liberal bias that kept her from seeing their brilliance.

They don’t understand government; they don’t know … Read the rest

BBC Live on the news from Brazil:

A joint statement has been issued at a North America summit in Mexico City, with the leaders of Canada, the US and Mexico condemning what they describe as “attacks on Brazil’s democracy”.

US President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated they all “stand with Brazil, as it safeguards its democratic institutions”.

“Our governments support the free will of the people of Brazil,” the three leaders said in their statement.

The CIA used to overthrow elected governments in Central and South America whenever the mood struck them.

“Influencers” are doing their bit to track down the perps.

One of them is Felipe Neto, a

Trump’s army did its bit.

The scenes in Brasilia looked eerily similar to events at the US Capitol on 6 January two years ago – and there are deeper connections as well.

“The whole thing smells,” said a guest on Steve Bannon’s podcast, one day after the first round of voting in the Brazilian election in October last year.

The race was heading towards a run-off and the final result was not even close to being known. Yet Mr Bannon, as he had been doing for weeks, spread baseless rumours about election fraud.

It’s a bizarre hobby.

Along with other prominent Trump advisers who spread fraud rumours, Mr Bannon was unrepentant on Sunday, even as footage emerged of widespread

Speaking of the capture of the BBC by the trans clown posse, Glinner reminded us of this Glinner Update post by JL from October 2020:

Wednesday 21st October was International Pronouns Day. Our National Broadcaster decided to celebrate by gaslighting children.

BBC Bitesize is an online educational resource for children. How is it “educational” to publish confusing cartoons about parts of speech? What next, “what are verbs?” illustrated with a cartoon of giraffes and watering cans and Wembley Stadium?

On Twitter, the post attracted a barrage of negative comments and so was deleted rather hastily.

It reappeared again the following day. This time with the replies turned off.

The Stonewall Influence was powerful.

Their tweet has gone but the

Originally a comment by James Garnett on We’ve come to believe our own press clippings.

I don’t think Earth will support eight billion humans living off the land.

Oh, I don’t disagree with that, at all. I’ve been saying for some years now that humanity and civilization are far past the point of sustainability; the great fall of humanity is not only inevitable, I think, but it’s coming far sooner than most people probably expect. My comment that “there are those who have taught themselves the old ways” is not a call for humanity to return to a hunter/gatherer lifestyle, it was simply an observation that there are people who do that. Because they lament the state that we’ve … Read the rest

Finally there is some pushback at the BBC:

Tim Davie is facing a revolt as he is accused of letting the transgender Pride network “police” the BBC.

Staff have told him to shut down the Pride network.

The latest trans row to hit the broadcaster began with a testy exchange between Nathan Wren, BBC Studios Pride’s co-chair, and Malcolm Clark, a science producer, at the World Congress of Science & Factual Producers last month.  Mr Clark claims he complained that the group “policed” BBC output and stifled debate, prompting Mr Wren to reply: “We only intervene, when, say, a trans subject is being covered and then we’ll press to ensure trans voices are being heard.”

Oh is that all.… Read the rest

The Guardian Live on events in Brasilia:

Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro has joined Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s call for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s extradition from the US.

Seriously. Boot him out.

An hour ago:

Brazil’s GloboNews is reporting that the country’s Congress, supreme court and presidential palace have all been retaken by security forces.

…

GloboNews has also shared footage of the aftermath of the attack on the palace taken by the minister of communications, Paulo Pimenta, in which he says of his office: “Look what the vandals did here! The chaos. Unbelievable. They are criminals.”

In three blocks before that one the Guardian calls the attack “the protests,” which seems very mistaken. A coup is not a protest. … Read the rest

It’s…January 8.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has ordered the federal government to take control of policing in Brazil’s capital, Brasília, after hundreds of hardcore supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the country’s congress, presidential palace and supreme court.

Gee. Our fascists missed a trick, they just stormed the congress. If only they’d thought to take on the supreme court and the White House too maybe they would have won. The White House would have welcomed them and handed over the keys.

“What we are witnessing is a terrorist attack,” the news anchor Erick Bang announced on the GloboNews television network as word of the upheaval spread. “The three buildings have been invaded by coup-mongering terrorists.”

Shocking

Disturbances in the field:

In case helpful to anyone… we are getting a few questions about whether @GoodLawProject has any organisational position on sex work. We don't. It's not an area we presently have a policy position on or litigate in or are active in. And nor do we expect to in the future.

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) January 8, 2023

Who will pay for the hundreds or thousands of staff we'd need? And all the infrastructure? We can't fix all the problems, Harry.

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) January 8, 2023

If we only work with people we agree with on everything we will have a tiny audience, be bankrupt in months, and have zero influence. Change is about compromise.

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on They appointed an expert group.

I strip you naked and stand you out in the savannah in front of a hungry lion, you will understand. Biology rules not only us but lions…tigers…bears…spiders…snakes…etc etc etc

We’ve used our intelligence and technology to smooth over some of the rough edges of material existence. Unfortunately we’ve fooled ourselves into thinking that we’ve completely escaped all that biology stuff, and that we are beyond the jurisdiction of the rules that govern the rest of life.

In a very short time, most of us in the West have become divorced from the basic processes that sustain the lifestyle to which we’ve become accustomed. Food comes … Read the rest

If you’re in the mood to get really angry, watch this clip:

Our episode with @hjoycegender is phenomenal & Triggernometry at its finest.
Join us at 7pm UK time TOMORROW for the full taboo-busting episode as we go to the heart of one of the most controversial topics in the culture war. pic.twitter.com/JIys1dMbYn

— TRIGGERnometry (@triggerpod) January 7, 2023

… Read the rest

James Esses in the Spectator:

Childline has acted as a haven for struggling children for over 35 years. In 2006, it became part of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), to further its child safeguarding mission. 

He used to work there, and he says it’s put ideology ahead of safeguarding.

I was a volunteer counsellor at Childline between 2015 and 2020. In my time there, I spent thousands of hours counselling children through a variety of issues. Supporting the welfare and wellbeing of children was extremely fulfilling. 

Over time, I began to notice a change in the presentation of children coming through to speak to me. Increasing numbers of children were telling me that