The Guardian heralds another first:

Missouri set to become first state to execute an openly transgender person

Progress! No, wait, that’s not what we mean. What do we mean? Uhh………..

Amber McLaughlin is facing the fate on Tuesday of becoming the first openly transgender person to be executed in the US – unless Missouri’s governor, Mike Parson, grants clemency and puts a stop to the planned lethal injection.

First transgender person but not first man.

Punishment by execution is a bad thing, but it doesn’t become worse because the executed person is a man who claims to be a woman.

There are no further court appeals pending. The clemency request focuses on several issues, including McLaughlin’s severely traumatic childhood and

Gee, I wonder why women get so angry about this kind of thing; I just can’t understand it.

Marjorie Roome is an extraordinary but real example of what happens to women's sport when men are allowed to compete in women's categories.
Marjorie is a man who says he 'identifies' as a woman. He took up indoor rowing and has been allowed to compete in women's championships 1/4 pic.twitter.com/foZI32LWBU

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) January 1, 2023

He won the 65-69 women's world championships every year and is now in his 70s. In 2022 he broke the British record for the 70-74 age category. However, most women now refuse to compete against him and Marjorie, a man, is typically the only competitor in

Paul Fidalgo has an interesting piece in Free Inquiry (where he is now the editor-in-chief).

Tim Minchin Reaches across the Algorithmic Chasm

Nice title, too.

In a “lecture” portion of his show recently posted online, which is introduced as being a “TED Talk” on confirmation bias, Minchin (winner of CFI’s 2021 Richard Dawkins Award) teases apart what he sees as the worsening phenomenon of tribalism, wherein the political right has come to hold bewilderingly absolutist, contradictory, nonsensical, and bigoted beliefs, while progressives have turned on themselves, creating an endless fractal of mini-tribes that are constantly ejecting their members over increasingly minor ideological infractions.

Also over what I would consider not infractions at all. Progressives have lost their grip on … Read the rest

Now we get to read the texts and phone logs and such from Trump’s Big Day.

The Jan. 6 select committee has unloaded a vast database of its underlying evidence — emails between Trump attorneys, text messages among horrified White House aides and outside advisers, internal communications among security and intelligence officials — all coming to grips with Donald Trump’s last-ditch effort to subvert the 2020 election and its disastrous consequences.

The panel posted thousands of pages of evidence late Sunday in a public database that provide the clearest glimpse yet at the well-coordinated effort by some Trump allies to help Trump seize a second term he didn’t win.

This will keep us busy for weeks.

Hope Hicks, to … Read the rest

In case anyone’s feeling like shedding a tear for Pope Benny (unlikely, I know), here’s a reminder from 2009:

The Catholic Church (and Pope Benedict XVI) were presented with a public-relations powder keg in March when news broke that a 9-year-old Brazilian girl underwent an abortion after she’d been raped and impregnated with twins by her stepfather. Catholics from São Paulo to Paris were outraged by the swift public declaration of the local Archbishop, José Cardoso Sobrinho, that the girl’s family as well as the doctors who performed the abortion were automatically excommunicated.

What, just because the local archbishop valued the “life” of the process inside the 9-year-old girl more than the very actual life of the girl herself? … Read the rest

Jordan Peterson is notoriously a stupid person’s idea of a smart person.

Example:

The idea that neighborhoods should be walkable is lovely. The idea that idiot tyrannical bureaucrats can decide by fiat where you're "allowed" to drive is perhaps the worst imaginable perversion of that idea–and, make no mistake, it's part of a well-documented plan. https://t.co/QRrjVF615q

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) December 31, 2022

Ah yes, we live in that utopia where nobody decides were anybody can drive, so there are no freeways or highways or roads.… Read the rest

Oh ffs.

'So a woman can have a penis?'

Nick Ferrari puts Sir Keir Starmer on the spot amid a row over trans athletes.#LBCBestof2022 @NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/Jh6AGy95Wg

— LBC (@LBC) January 1, 2023

And Sir Keir whines and gesticulates and flails like an idiot. He finally manages to utter the complete sentence “I don’t think discussing the issue in this way helps anyone.”

It helps women you fucking fool. This exciting new fad for pretending men can become women by saying so is bad for women, and men in power brushing that off is also bad for women. It does help us to keep reminding men in power like you that letting men pretend to be women and … Read the rest

Yet another one of these.

“Tiffany Newell” new Canadian Record in Masters Women Indoor 5000m run for the age group 45-49.

More than a stolen award from women athletes, this is a record that's been ratified because “Tiffany” apparently has “met all the World Athletics requirements to compete as a woman” pic.twitter.com/aCUCi7NPpr

— Amy E. Sousa (@KnownHeretic) December 30, 2022

“Tiffany” of course is not a woman.

This is Paula James, who held the Canadian F45 record before Newell. https://t.co/e76VOAshaa pic.twitter.com/AHSgaUWszH

— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) December 31, 2022

Sucks for Paula James, doesn’t it.

We know that female athletes lose performance between the ages of 45-55. We know that this is the effect of peri/menopause.

I know how hard it

I could find only one headline that doesn’t lie about the murder of Carlo Secondino. Even the New York Post says “woman” in the headline. Newsweek is the one truth-teller.

Who Is Nikki Secondino? Trans Woman Accused of Murdering Father

A New York transgender woman has been arrested by police and is accused of killing her father and critically injuring her sister, according to reports.

Why don’t they all report it that way? Why do they say “woman” and “daughter” in the headlines?… Read the rest

Actual literal journalists lying about the news. That’s useful. Reporter for CBS News:

At a Brooklyn diner, employees put up a tribute to Carlo Secondino—a delivery driver killed this morning.

His daughter told police burglars at their home stabbed her, her sister, and Carlo.

Now police say that’s false. She is under arrest, facing a murder charge. @CBSNewYork pic.twitter.com/SwBZmouYHN

— Tim McNicholas (@TimMcNicholas) December 30, 2022

That’s all lies. His SON told police that. His SON is under arrest on suspicion of murdering his father and stabbing his sister.

The hashtag is NotOurCrimes. It gets used a lot.… Read the rest

Ah, I didn’t realize there was a Welsh publisher of women writers. Gwasg Honno Press: “Vibrant fiction, auto/biography, short stories, anthologies & Classics (@Honno_Clas) from Welsh women writers. Longest running UK independent women’s press.” (I still miss Virago.)

But, it turns out…

Are you thinking about a good new year's resolution? Have you always wanted to publish a story? Make 2023 the start of your writing career…#NewYearResolution #Writers #CallOut #Submissions #AuthorLife pic.twitter.com/rgZEN5a5DC

— Gwasg Honno Press (@honno) December 30, 2022

Never mind then, it’s not a women’s press after all.

Mind you, they’ll get in trouble for that “or.” It’s not “if you’re a woman or you identify as a woman” because that implies that if … Read the rest

Bolsonaro has urgent business up north.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been sworn in as the new president of Brazil – the third time he has held the country’s highest office.

…

Lula and incoming Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin paraded through the city on an open-top convertible before proceeding to the Senate – at the start of the formal inauguration ceremony. The men have spent the past days selecting their cabinet and appointing supporters to key state owned businesses.

In a noted change of policy from the Bolsonaro administration, Marina Silva – one of Brazil’s best known climate activists – was re-appointed to head the environment and climate ministry. She will be expected to achieve Lula’s pledge to reach

Now that’s more like it.

Scarborough’s New Year fireworks cancelled to protect walrus

Priorities. Which is more important, a walrus or fireworks? The walrus, obviously. Good job Scarborough.

A New Year’s Eve fireworks display had to be cancelled at the last minute to protect an Arctic walrus discovered in Scarborough.

The event was called off over fears it “could cause distress to the mammal”. Council leader Steve Siddons said he was disappointed but “the welfare of the walrus has to take precedence”.

The walrus, which has drawn huge crowds since arriving on Saturday, is believed to be the same one spotted on the Hampshire coast three weeks ago.

If it’s drawn huge crowds that would seem to indicate it’s … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Arty Morty on Where are the skeptics?

To go back to latsot’s analogy with other kinds of pseudomedicine, why is the skeptic community not going after the quack doctors peddling dangerous drugs and mutilating surgery to these genuinely distressed people?

I’ve been racking my brain for years trying to figure this out, and the best I can come up with is this:

“Gender medicine” is a treatment for a mental health disorder but people are terrified to make any kind of association between atypical gender expression and being mentally disordered. To which the obvious reply should be, “Then get rid of gender medicine, you idiots!” But instead, the reply from skeptics, progressives and everyone else is … Read the rest

Sigh. Rule number one, plus two through six or seven hundred: don’t be an asshole.

A controversial New Year’s Eve fireworks display at the billionaire owner of New York’s Empire State Building’s property outside Queenstown is understood to have caused a large scrub fire.

Why was the fireworks display controversial? Well, because of the risk of fire. Cool that the guy did it anyway.

Empire State Realty Trust chairman, president and chief executive Tony Malkin of New York had upset neighbours of his Dalefield property with plans for an extravagant 14-minute fireworks display to bring in 2023.

Because fireworks are a necessity of life?

Now, several neighbours who were watching the display closely with fears for their animals, believe

Everything that’s yours is belong to us.

An Australian transgender woman who says she was barred from using the female-only platform Giggle for Girls has sued the social media site for alleged discrimination.

Female people must not be allowed to have anything that’s only for them. Not one thing.

In a federal court lawsuit filed on 22 December, Roxanne Tickle claims she was unlawfully barred from using Giggle in September 2021 after the firm and its CEO, Sally “Sall” Grover, said she was a man.

The activist is seeking damages, a written apology and complete access to the platform.

Oh is that all.

After initially suing Giggle and Grover in the federal circuit and family court in July this

What do you know, sometimes Scientific American does remember that men are not women and vice versa.

Women have long surpassed men in the arena of environmental action; across age groups and countries, females tend to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Compared to men, women litter less, recycle more, and leave a smaller carbon footprint. Some researchers have suggested that personality differences, such as women’s prioritization of altruism, may help to explain this gender gap in green behavior.

Or to put it more crudely, lots of men are of the “you can’t tell me what to do” mindset even in contexts where yes of course someone can tell you what to do, while women are better at … Read the rest

Recognised:

A trans media activist who has been made an OBE said she was afraid of the backlash she might receive as a result.

It’s a funny sort of gig, being an “activist” for pretending to be the sex you’re not. “Come on, kids, let’s get some more of you pretending to be the other sex! You boys especially – put some effort into it!”

Helen Belcher, from Wiltshire, director of Transactual and trustee of Trans Media Watch, has been recognised in the King’s New Year’s Honours list.

Claim to fame? Pretending to be a woman.

The 59-year-old councillor said she was afraid of what the press reaction might be towards her.

“I would hope it would mean things

Originally a comment by latsot on Scary guy.

I know we’ve all made this point a thousand times but I never claimed not to be boring: where are the skeptics?

They (we) were right there front and centre when homoeopathy was a hot topic. You know what? In retrospect I think we probably exaggerated the harms, I don’t mind admitting it. Not the harms of believing nonsense, I don’t think those can be overstated, but the harms of fannying about with water for pretend ailments or ones that will eventually sort themselves out anyway*… there’s a case to be made that we might have had our thumbs on the scale when we raved about it as a scourge. Understand … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Cluecat on Scary guy.

Strange, isn’t it, that just a few years ago there was a massive issue raised by the Skeptic/Autism Advocate communities about Autistic youngsters (primarily male) being fed Lupron as a supposed “cure” for their Autism – that was totally caused by mercury poisoning (somehow that none of these practitioners ever really managed to satisfactorily explain).

There was a huge fuss about how chemical castration doesn’t cure a neurological developmental disorder, and that feeding these kids the same stuff that everyone decided was too harsh to give to literal sex offenders was correctly recognised as medical abuse (often driven by the kind of parent that won’t accept a “defective” child), and totally … Read the rest