All entries by this author
Nov 11th, 2022 9:01 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Geneticist tells us women don’t actually exist. Honestly they don’t, he says.
He’ll have to let us into a rather shocking secret, researcher Gordon Strathdee says. “The reason us [sic] scientists find this question so hard to answer is that women don’t actually exist. Honestly they don’t. They’re all just a figment of your fevered imagination.
The reason is that “woman” and “man” are just categorisations that humans have invented to make communication easier. But these things are concepts, that exist only … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
25 comments
Nov 11th, 2022 5:47 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Trump is fuming.
Former President Donald Trump ripped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a flurry of posts on Truth Social on Thursday, calling him an “average Republican governor with great Public Relations.”
In a public statement also posted on Truth Social, Trump unleashed on his one-time ally, offering a taste of the potential insults to come if the two face off in 2024. The Florida governor is seen as a potential 2024 presidential hopeful, which could challenge the former president’s hold on the GOP should DeSantis decide to run for president.
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“And now, Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games! The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused
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7 comments
Nov 11th, 2022 5:25 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Once the glaciers melt, they’re gone, so the rivers go too. That’s happening in the Camargue:
People have always been attracted to the Camargue because of the abundance of species and resources it contains despite the challenges of living between the ebb and flow of an ever-evolving delta. Its nutrient-rich wetlands contain an enormous amount of biodiversity, making it one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. The Rhône river has long served as the Camargue’s lifeline, bringing fresh water from the Alps and dampening salt levels in the Camargue. As rain and snowfall decrease, it’s becoming a less reliable fresh water source, with researchers estimating the river’s flow has reduced by 30% in the last 50 years.
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2 comments
Nov 10th, 2022 3:31 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Do it now or you won’t be able to do it at all.
Mary Trump, former president Donald Trump’s niece, has warned that the clock is ticking for the Department of Justice and Attorney General Merrick Garland to decide on whether to indict her uncle now that the midterm elections are over.
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The former president’s niece argued that the decision whether or not to indict her uncle [will] have to take into account not just the amount of evidence against him, but also the actions he might take in retaliation.
“I guess it comes down to one — I guess if they feel that they have enough evidence to indict, which it would be shocking if they didn’t.
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7 comments
Nov 10th, 2022 12:15 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Victoria Smith on Izzard and not being trendy:
Like many, I saw Izzard as someone who got it, who understood that women, like men, are full, complete human beings, not a set of stereotypes to be put on and taken off at will. Izzard’s descent into boorish sexism has surprised me; I thought he was better than that. Then again, his boorishness is in fashion, whilst the resistance of women such as [Rosie] Duffield and me is forever out of date.
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Whilst numerous studies have indicated that younger men are no less sexist than their fathers — that, on the contrary, they may be more so — this has not dented the view that the young, supported by
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7 comments
Nov 10th, 2022 11:35 am |
By Ophelia Benson
A sign at the The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in London:
https://twitter.com/JammersMinde/status/1590774516581793792
A scramble to apologize without any mention of what was wrong with the “signage.”
The statement issued:
Earlier today on-campus signage at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) was shared on social media.
Our intention, following discussions with our student community, had been to communicate the definition of TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist) to help clarify what we considered to be growing misconceptions around what the term
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8 comments
Nov 10th, 2022 10:23 am |
By Ophelia Benson
I’ve just spent a few minutes trying to figure out what the Equality and Human Rights Commission is, with not much success. I can’t tell what its relationship to the government is. They don’t explain it very clearly.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is Great Britain’s national equality body and has been awarded an ‘A’ status as a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) by the United Nations.
What’s a national body? What’s a body in this context?
As a statutory non-departmental public body established by the Equality Act 2006, the Commission operates independently. We aim to be an expert and authoritative organisation that is a centre of excellence for evidence, analysis and equality and human rights law. We
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3 comments
Nov 10th, 2022 5:37 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Oliver Brown at the Telegraph talks to a woman who had to race against “Lia” Thomas:
The day after she watched Thomas – who until starting hormone therapy was ranked a mere 554th as a man – vanquish every female rival in the country, she found that they would be direct competitors in the 200-yard freestyle final. They finished, ultimately, in a dead heat for fifth.
Except, only Thomas was allowed to hold the fifth-place trophy, with Gaines told by an official that it was “for photo purposes”. She would need, she was told, to make do with the award for sixth.
They both won the fifth place but she was ordered to take sixth. Insult to injury.
Thomas
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3 comments
Nov 9th, 2022 11:07 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Donors are disgusted.
but the new bit is thinking feminism and anti-racism didn’t work that way, why is that? Well why is that? Because fragile is the last thing we want to be or appear to be or claim to be. It’s degrading. It pulls against equality and ordinary inclusion in public life. So…why is it so appealing to “the trans community”? Why do we hear so very very much about it?
I think part of it that campaigns against sexism and racism were eager to argue their position, to have the opportunity to present the facts of the matter to the court of public opinion, to win hearts and … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
15 comments
Nov 9th, 2022 11:03 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Originally a comment by Sastra on Donors are disgusted.
VanitysFiend wrote:
The idea that the religious, be they liberal or conservative, deserved to be treated with kid gloves, and people like Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris etc were being highly disrespectful when they called religious beliefs silly, wrong, or worst of all, bad. The idea that the mainstream progressive liberal left would move on from defending conservative Islam to something like Transgenderism isn’t that far fetched to me, what’s bizarre is that the sceptics and atheists followed them on this.
I used to call that the “Little People Argument “ — that being skeptical and honest was a position of power and that the religious were little people, not big … Read the rest
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1 Comment »
Nov 9th, 2022 10:40 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Robert Reich points out that it’s a bad idea to let raging narcissists have a lot of power.
Like Donald Trump and Elon Musk for example.
First is Elon Musk, who last Friday fired half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees, including teams devoted to combating election misinformation – and did it so haphazardly and arbitrarily that most had no idea they were fired until their email accounts were shut off.
This was after he fired Twitter’s executives to avoid paying them the golden parachutes they’re owed. And after posting an article suggesting without evidence that Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, was in a drunken fight with a male prostitute.
Attention: the fox is inside the chicken coop.
But this has
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8 comments
Nov 9th, 2022 7:09 am |
By Ophelia Benson
This is what I mean. They meet, they say words, they wring their hands, but they’re not going to do anything. They’re locked into it. They take private jets to conferences to talk about climate change.
Data from FlightRadar24 shows 36 private jets landed at Sharm el-Sheikh between 4 and 6 November, the start of the summit.
A further 64 flew into Cairo, 24 of which had come from Sharm el-Sheikh.
The COP27 website says delegates should use either airport.
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Flights produce greenhouse gases – mainly carbon dioxide (CO2) – from burning fuel. These contribute to global warming.
Emissions per kilometre travelled are significantly worse than any other form of transport.
Locked in.… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
3 comments
Nov 9th, 2022 7:02 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Trump “warns” DeSantis not to compete with him.
Donald Trump has warned Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis against running for president in 2024, saying doing so would harm the Republican Party.
Which of course is code for would harm Donald Trump. Dump doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the Republican party, it’s himself he cares about.
He also threatened to release unflattering information about the 44-year-old, without providing details.
Speaking of unflattering information, Don…we have some on you. How much time do you have?
He told US network Fox News that the Florida governor should stay out of the race.
“I don’t know if he is running. I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I really
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7 comments
Nov 9th, 2022 6:07 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The elections haven’t been the bloodbath that was predicted.
It’s not that there were no disappointments. There were some painful losses for Democrats: the odious Peter Thiel acolyte JD Vance has won a Senate seat in Ohio; candidates that perennially capture the imagination and hope of national democrats, like Beto O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams, lost.
Beto O’Rourke doesn’t capture my imagination, but losing Stacey Abrams is a bitter pill.
The much-watched state of Georgia provided perhaps the most embarrassing result for Trump: Brian Kemp, the candidate he campaigned hardest against, was comfortably re-elected governor, while Herschel Walker, his hand-picked Senate candidate, polled almost 5% behind Kemp and is probably facing a highly uncertain runoff against Raphael Warnock.
I hope Trump … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
10 comments
Nov 8th, 2022 5:21 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
The Guardian reports on the LGB Alliance hearing:
The creation of LGB Alliance has promoted constructive debate on “difficult and problematic issues” of sex and gender, the Charity Commission told a court on Monday, during final arguments over whether the gay rights group should have been given charitable status.
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Mermaids, which supports transgender, non-binary and gender diverse children and their families, launched an appeal last year against the Charity Commission’s grant of charitable status to LGB Alliance. Mermaids has argued that the group was set up to lobby the government to restrict legal rights afforded to transgender people.
And to non-binary people and gender diverse children. Let’s make sure to get all the adjectives in every time, even … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
5 comments
Nov 8th, 2022 4:11 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Originally a comment by Lady Mondegreen on Donors are disgusted.
Because fragile is the last thing we want to be or appear to be or claim to be. It’s degrading. It pulls against equality and ordinary inclusion in public life. So…why is it so appealing to “the trans community”? Why do we hear so very very much about it?
They need the argumentum ad misericordiam. Their movement relies on it to garner support. Why are we subjected to a “Trans Day of Remembrance,” when it’s easy to demonstrate that trans people aren’t any more likely to be murdered than anybody else? Why are gender critics constantly told we’re responsible for trans suicide and violence against “the trans community”?
It’s … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
3 comments