Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Their stories have upended his assumptions.

…and any attention they got reinforced to the public the false impression that transgender people were incapable of making sound decisions about their treatment.

Guess what? The impression is not a false one. Deciding to pursue a course of medical treatment that promises something it’s not possible to do is the definition of a decision that is unsound. The falseness is in the claims of those offering such “treatments,” not in the correct perception that a course leading to sterilization and lifelong medical experimentation on your own flesh is not a good or healthy one.

It’s like getting on board a burning plane that … Read the rest

It’s like being tangled in a net that just pulls tighter the more you struggle.

Reuters has a special report on detransitioners.

For years, Dr Kinnon MacKinnon, like many people in the transgender community, considered the word “regret” to be taboo.

MacKinnon, a 37-year-old transgender man and assistant professor of social work at York University here, thought it was offensive to talk about people who transitioned, later regretted their decision, and detransitioned. They were too few in number, he figured, and any attention they got reinforced to the public the false impression that transgender people were incapable of making sound decisions about their treatment.

But what if it’s not a false impression? What if it’s not high quality thinking … Read the rest

I’m reading a piece about Jazz Jennings’s “affirmation” surgery. Had to take a break for a minute to cope with the revulsion. They didn’t know what they were doing but they did it anyway – how progressive.

Jazz Jennings has had a tougher transition than her doctors expected. In the last two years, the teen reality star and LGBTQ+ activist has undergone multiple gender confirmation surgeries, and her doctors are now revealing more details about what went wrong in the new season of TLC’s I Am Jazz, People reported.

Why did the doctors expect a not so tough transition? Why would that be easy? It turns out there was no reason for them to think that other than the … Read the rest

Oh honestly. Easy for some. King Choss says words about The Poor:

King Charles has highlighted the cost of living crisis and the “great anxiety and hardship” of many struggling to “pay their bills and keep their families fed and warm” in his first Christmas broadcast.

Isn’t that just so kind and loving of him?

Until you remember how much money he gets for his important job of being a tourist attraction. He’s ordered a slap-up coronation, no expense spared:

King Charles III is reportedly in favour of a “glorious” coronation with pomp and pageantry to promote the best image of the UK amid the cost-of-living crisis.

It was speculated that Buckingham Palace might opt for a cut-price

It’s the human imperative to fight over something. We can’t get out of bed in the morning unless there’s a fight to inspire us. India chooses communalism.

Tensions are rising in India over prime minister Narendra Modi’s push to make Hindi the country’s dominant language.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janaya party (BJP) government has been accused of an agenda of “Hindi imposition” and “Hindi imperialism” and non-Hindi speaking states in south and east India have been fighting back.

Of course with Modi and the BJP it’s not just Hindi, it’s also Hindu – it’s not just the language, it’s also the religion and all the baggage that goes with it.

Modi’s speeches are given exclusively in Hindi and over 70% of

We are Inclusive, so we are excluding you. Have a nice day!

I applied for a studio space in @denmarkfarm. They refused to rent BC of my lack of belief in gender identity
Do they also discriminate against people who don't believe in God, or in Santa.
Is reputational damage more important than the law?@SexMattersOrg @peter_daly @anyabike pic.twitter.com/IT0tQ30Cmh

— Wild Womyn Workshop (@Wild_Womyn) December 25, 2022

You couldn’t make it up. “We have recently written and adopted an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Policy for our charity…This policy clearly states that we must be inclusive as an organisation.” Therefore we are excluding you.

Also the bit about yeah yeah we support feminism and women’s rights BUT we support … Read the rest

Golly gee who knew Louisa May Alcott was butch? Besides everyone?

Louisa May Alcott balked when her editor asked her to write a book for girls. “Never liked girls or knew many,” she journaled, “except my sisters.”

…

To family and friends, she was Lou, Lu, or Louy. She wrote of herself as the “papa” or “father” of her young nephews. Her father, Bronson, once called Alcott his “only son.” In letters to close friend Alfie Whitman, Alcott called herself “a man of all work” and “a gentleman at large.”

Gasp – could this mean………………………..?

All this leads me to wonder: Is Alcott best understood as a trans man?

No. Why? Well, for one thing, because she’s not particularly hard … Read the rest

Stella Creasy now:

clarksons words contribute to an environment where if women don’t do what you like, being violent or abusive is an acceptable way to show it and their freedom to be who they are is shaped accordingly. Let’s change that and give women equal protection from hate under our laws. pic.twitter.com/eIsqp2Mdno

— stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) December 20, 2022

Stella Creasy last May:

Stella Creasy is clarifying her position on the word ‘woman’. “Do I think some women were born with penises? Yes”, she declares. “But they are now women and I respect that.”

…

Surely, as a fellow feminist, she and JK Rowling aren’t too far apart on the issue? “No, I don’t agree with her and I’m

Originally a comment by Nullius in Verba on Despite warnings.

It really is (morbidly, frustratingly, infuriatingly) fascinating how this movement reveals just how insignificant the concerns and welfare of women and girls are to those in power. And not just political power. It’s as though power itself, even if only that of an artist or book club chairman, makes it difficult to remember that female people exist and are as valuable as males.

The movement’s success also shows how fragile actual progress is and that liberty really does have an eternal price. After all, Genderism quite obviously depends on the exploitation of existing sexism, whether conscious and overt or nascent and hidden. The very idea of gender identity requires … Read the rest

Thanks, Keir.

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to change the law to allow trans people to self-declare their gender, The Telegraph can reveal in the wake of anger over similar moves in Scotland.

The Labour leader has said he will “update” the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) if elected, despite warnings that doing so would impact women’s rights and could enable predatory men to access single-sex spaces.

It’s so heart-warming to know that Labour doesn’t give a shit about women.

In a message to Pink News for Pride last year, he said his priority was “forming the next government so we can introduce legislation and change society so that, whoever you are, you can lead a happy and fulfilled

The return of The Soul:

my profound thought for Monday morning: it's really weird how some people need to tell other people that they are not allowed to be who they are and then try to force them to conform to what they themselves believe should be permitted as expressions of the human spirit.

— Prue Bray (@PrueBray) December 12, 2022

“Who people are” is no longer who they literally are, but who they mystically are.

Who people are isn’t the dull material facts of date of birth, parentage, history, sex, education, skills – that’s all so yesterday. Now who people are is who they think they are inside their heads. The fun about that is that it can be … Read the rest

The Seattle Times on what it’s like here now:

A quarter-inch of frozen water ground the region to a halt.

…

Transportation — moving by any means — was all but impossible.

It was – you couldn’t walk, let alone drive.

King County Metro shut down all its buses. So did Pierce and Snohomish counties. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport briefly closed all three runways, an “unprecedented” situation. Paine Field closed. So did Highway 2 over Stevens Pass. Garbage pickup was canceled. Museums, theaters, libraries, the zoo, the aquarium: all closed. Doctor appointments moved online.

“Stay home if you can,” King County Executive Dow Constantine tweeted. “Please don’t go viral on TikTok trying to drive on the ice.”

Again with the sloppy “trans rights!!!!” without defining trans rights.

But what ARE trans rights? Of course trans people should have human rights. Do you mean new rights, specific to trans people? If so you really need to tell us what they are before you order us to endorse them with no ifs or buts.

— Ophelia Benson (@OpheliaBenson) December 24, 2022

It's not a coincidence that you can only talk in meaningless general platitudes. That's because once we are clear on what these claimed "rights" actually are, we say hell no get out of here. https://t.co/YxwtmqOyXw

— Ophelia Benson (@OpheliaBenson) December 24, 2022

Define "trans rights." Of course trans people have human rights, but what are specifically trans rights?

The Sun says it’s sorry.

The Sun newspaper says it regrets publishing a Jeremy Clarkson column about the Duchess of Sussex and is “sincerely sorry”.

What was its first clue?

I still don’t see why the editor or editors didn’t read it the first time and say “Ffs he can’t say that” and simply take it out. Even if you think Markle is scheming and manipulative and fake, you don’t get to say poisonous degrading things about her in a much-read tabloid.

Neil Wallis, media commentator and former editor at the Sun and News Of The World, told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme Clarkson was failed by the editorial team.

“The bottom line of this is this is a

Some responses to the ACLU’s triumph in Connecticut:

In other words, women and girls don't have the right to equal access to sporting opportunities and achievements. https://t.co/oY5wDgAnsy

— ZombieTron (@ZombieTron) December 24, 2022

"Equal and fair play" https://t.co/MKcim9xASG pic.twitter.com/cW8OzwiSyO

— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) December 24, 2022

I no longer donate to the @ACLU . They are not about fairness. They certainly aren't about free speech. They only care about erasing women's and girl's opportunities. https://t.co/Aqo7Wr99QS

— AllTheThingsICannotSay (@All_I_CannotSay) December 23, 2022

“Trans youth have a right to equal and fair play.”

Women, apparently do *not* have a right to equal and fair play in your mind.

Cc @PolitiBunny https://t.co/e2WatSbmMR

—1) (@AaronWorthing) December 22, 2022

If this is taken

It never ceases to amaze, the smugness, the shy self-flattery, the absolute indifference to the concerns and rights of women.

I will be proud to vote to extend trans rights today.#GRRbill#TransRightsAreHumanRights pic.twitter.com/l1wkSXvIN6

— Richard Leonard (@LabourRichard) December 22, 2022

He will be (and was) proud to vote to take rights away from women and hand them over to men. What a thing to be proud of.

He starts from the position that, as a socialist, he believes in equality. What does equality have to do with pretending that some men are women? What does it have to do with ignoring all the women who object?

“Trans people are among the most discriminated against,” he sermonizes, while ignoring the … Read the rest

What utter morons.

“Historic day for equality” – what’s it got to do with equality????

Not one thing. It’s not equality to get governments to affirm that you are something you’re not. If a small segment of people decided to start identifying as bears it wouldn’t be “equality” for the government to pass a law saying those people really truly are bears. It would be ridiculous, embarrassing, baffling, weird, incomprehensible, but not For Equality.

If a small segment of bears decided to start identifying as people it wouldn’t be “equality” for the government to pass a law saying everyone has to welcome the bears and give them all the rights and privileges that people have.

It’s not “equality” for … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Working with.

WAIT!

WE NEED A LOGO!

It’s gotta fit into a corner of our poster-like images. We could use it on our letterhead, if we ever bothered to commit anything to paper. Or pay for postage. Our logo has to be something convincing enough to make people think we’re more authentic and bigger than we really are boldly dynamic, engagingly synergystic, with exponentially mobilized potential to leverage strategic, global-stakeholder partnerships. Something Institutional. Without one, how will anyone be able to tell our Official Institute Communications from those of some ersatz, wannabe “Institute” that’s just somene else with a laptop? We have to have some way for our marks… Read the rest

Originally a comment by John Wasson on Chiseling away.

Loss of glaciers and sea ice means less sunlight is reflected.

As glaciers grind over ground they free up mercury in rocks and 42 tonnes may be released from south-west Greenland ice sheet. Nature Geoscience, DOI: 10.1038/s4a561-021-99753-w

New Scientist May 29 2021 p. 21

As the world warms and the Greenland ice sheet melts, its fresh cold water is expected to slow down a dominant conveyor belt of ocean currents: the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). An AMOC collapse would leave an excess of heat in the tropical South Atlantic, which would trigger a series of air-pressure changes that ultimately strengthen the Pacific trade winds.

The good news is … Read the rest

When news outlets and dictionaries lie:

Fact Check-Cambridge Dictionary expanded, not replaced its definition of “woman”

When it comes to definitions, expansion can be replacement. If you expand the definition of “apple” to include bananas, cherries, apricots, papayas, and tangerines, it’s no longer a definition of “apple.”

The Cambridge Dictionary updated its definition of the word “woman” to include a further definition that includes transgender women. However, social media users sharing the new definition mistakenly claim the dictionary replaced existing definitions of “woman” with the description.

See above. If you “expand” the definition of “woman” to include “trans woman” then the definition is no longer a definition of “woman”; you have replaced it. The social media users were not … Read the rest