Remember those first tweets of JKR’s on the subject? How hedged and cautious and hyper-polite they were?

Those days are over. Yaboosucks.

Very much enjoying the recent spate of bearded men stepping confidently onto their soapboxes to define what a woman is and throw their support behind rape and death threats to those who dare disagree. You may mock, but takes real bravery to come out as an Old Testament prophet. https://t.co/V3WFS31gAQ

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 13, 2022

… Read the rest

The resistance is spreading. There’s a group called Evidence-Based Social Work Alliance.

As a coalition of qualified practitioners, academics and social work students, we came together in response to our individual concerns regarding the uncritical use of gender identity theory in social work and other professions. As a group we believe social workers have a responsibility in law, underpinned by professional ethics and values, to promote and uphold the safeguarding of children. Children and young people with gender dysphoria are presenting to the profession and we are being silenced in our attempts to understand and discuss the evidence-base approaches to exploring this phenomenon.

They have news today:

Social Work England to discontinue case against social worker for “offensive”

I missed this last week. Elon Musk tried to appoint himself “peacemaker” between Ukraine and Russia by telling Ukraine to give Putin what he wants. Ukraine told him to fuck right off. Who does he think he is?

Elon Musk drew backlash on Monday from Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, for his unsolicited advice on how to bring about “peace” amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country.

Who is he to give advice? Who asked him? Who does he think he is?

In a Twitter poll, Musk suggested a path to “Ukraine-Russia Peace” that included re-doing elections “under UN supervision” in the regions of the country recently annexed illegally by Russia. The land grab, covering nearly a fifth of

UK news media are sycophantically promoting Eddie Izzard’s campaign to be elected a Labour MP for Sheffield. They’re not sycophantically promoting the campaign of Sheffield councillor Abtisam Mohamed. What is it that indicates Izzard would be a good MP? Experience, training, education? Anything?

Abtisam, who has represented Firth Park ward on the council for the Labour Party since 2016, will now seek to be nominated by city party branches.

…

Abtisam said why she wants to become an MP: “It’s about making sure that the local voice is heard at a national level, being able to challenge the current situation with decisions being made by the Conservatives and the impact that has on us as local communities and on

Nearly a billion.

Jurors ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Wednesday to pay nearly $1 billion to Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims’ relatives and an FBI agent, who said he turned their loss and trauma into years of torment by promoting the lie that the rampage was a hoax.

The $956 million verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host for spreading the myth that the massacre never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns.

The verdict came in a defamation lawsuit filed by the relatives of five children and three educators killed in the 2012 shooting, plus an FBI

Originally a comment by iknklast on You have to get water there.

This is my field, building and restoring ecosystems. Doing it on Earth we get it right less than 3% of the time. It is more than just water, and how likely are the lunar poles to provide enough water to keep more than a handful of humans for a short time? Who knows? There is research going on to determine how much water is on the moon…and other planets.

But there are a myriad of things we depend on, many of which we might not even know about. Fungus. Bacteria. Plants. Animals. Protozoans. Water. Soil. Atmosphere.

A moon colony – or any other planet – would not … Read the rest

The Independent tells us:

Transgender prisoners “with male genitalia” should no longer be held in women’s prisons, the justice secretary has announced.

That is, men should no longer be held in women’s prisons, even if they claim to be trans.

In a parliamentary statement, Brandon Lewis said he would bring forward a new policy on the issue later this year.

“Under the reforms, transgender prisoners with male genitalia should no longer be held in the general women’s estate,” he added.

“This will not be a blanket rule; exemptions to these new rules will be considered on a case-by-case basis. This will also apply to transgender women who have been convicted of a sex offence.”

What will? The rule, or … Read the rest

I don’t think this claim is true:

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis has spoken out against violence against trans people in a revealing interview with Spain’s Cadena SER radio network. The 63-year-old performer explained how her trans daughter receives death threats, and expressed alarm about the “terrifying” rise in transphobia.

“I have a trans daughter. There are threats against her life just [for] her existence as a human being,” she told Cadena SER on Tuesday. “There are people that want to annihilate her and people like her. The level of hatred… [It’s] as if we haven’t learned from fascism, [as if] we haven’t learned what the result of that is: the extermination of human beings. That is terrifying.”

I … Read the rest

About this “statement” of Munroe Bergdorf’s, which was apparently made on Instagram, which makes it a pain in the ass to quote or cite – it’s interesting that it starts with insulting women.

Note the disdain – “spurred on by a group of middle-aged cisgender women.” As if there’s something obviously contemptible and illegitimate about adult women having opinions and goals, and acting on them. He sounds like people ranting about “the Jews.” Yes, women are interested in this political movement, partly because it has such immense hostility and disdain toward women. Jews are interested in anti-Semitism and women are interested in men who claim to better women than women are.

Munroe Bergdorf is a man who performs “being a … Read the rest

LGBT+ Labour @LGBTLabour is “The Labour Campaign for LGBT+ rights. Campaigning for equality since 1975. Affiliated to @UKLabour.” Yesterday it went all-in for Mermaids.

Munroe Bergdorf couldn’t have outlined our thoughts any better. We wanted to share with you what she’s written.

The attack on Mermaids is as unsubstantive as the attack on Stonewall. We stand in solidarity with @Mermaids_Gender. pic.twitter.com/MxHna0yXt1

— LGBT+ Labour (@LGBTLabour) October 11, 2022

Team Urge Children to Destroy Their Bodies. Yay.… Read the rest

This seems a bit clumsy.

So Jameela Jamil & Munroe Bergdorf have both issued statements in defense of Mermaids.

What's interesting about the two statements is that they are IDENTICAL.

Mermaids is obviously issuing a pre-written statement for its patrons to post.

Desperate. #SafeguardingFail #Mermaids pic.twitter.com/w9RjF5k9UW

— Bessie Braddock (@BraddockBessie) October 12, 2022

It’s not just a quick concise statement, either, but a long (to the point of tedium) detailed self-important little essay.

And why are random people issuing “statements” on the subject anyway, as if they were important or informed or otherwise relevant? Why is anyone supposed to care what Jameela Jamil thinks? Why are we consulting her about whether it’s ok to ruin teenagers’ bodies for the sake … Read the rest

Originally a comment by KB Player on You have to get water there.

All the effort to make something which on earth nature does it by itself even on unpromising sites.

This morning I walked past a piece of “waste” ground, a slab of concrete about two feet from the ground, about 100 yards long and 10 yards wide. It was put in as part of the tram works, probably around 10 years ago.

It is now covered with buddleia, which attracts insects in the summer. There’s a cotoneaster with berries. Soil is building up from the leaves that have fallen and rotted. I did a little guerrilla gardening the year before last and planted some daffodil bulbs, and … Read the rest

Talking about women’s rights is transphobic.

Teachers who discuss sex-based women’s rights with transgender colleagues would be considered “transphobic” under a policy proposed by members of Britain’s largest teaching union.

That is, feminist teachers who talk about feminism with colleagues who call themselves transgender will be branded evil by their own union. People who call themselves trans have all the rights and women have none.

The National Education Union’s trans and non-binary network has proposed that anyone who expects trans people “to participate in discussion or debate about their rights and/or identities” is transphobic.

I wouldn’t want to talk to trans people about it, frankly, because they wouldn’t listen. The trouble is it will probably come up, because … Read the rest

How “skepticism” has fallen.

You are what’s in your head, not what your body is. Could it be any more “spiritual” and religion-like? Thoughts determine physical reality; physical reality does not.

It’s all the more fatuous given the emphasis skepticism normally puts on how easy it is to fool ourselves, how difficult it is to see ourselves clearly, how prone we all are to flattering self and disparaging others (like “GC idiots” for instance). There’s all that, but on the other hand there’s also “if you like to fantasize about being a woman then you are a woman.” Puh-leeze.

If you are what’s in your head and not your body, then if you spend enough time fantasizing about being … Read the rest

Mermaids is getting more unwelcome attention:

Parents of children who have used the transgender youth charity Mermaids have complained to the watchdog after a [male] worker posted explicit images and sexualised pictures “as a schoolgirl” online.

Darren Mew, digital engagement officer at the children’s charity and who identifies as “they/them”, posted an image of himself on Instagram with an upwards view through his short skirt with the words “Sorry I can’t hear you. I’m just out here living my fantasy” and the hashtag “nonbinaryfinery”.

Mew was also featured in a collage of six pictures of himself naked, holding his erect penis, from the rear and with pairs of breasts with penises protruding from them for a shot for Haus

Oh hey what do you know, Biden does know what a man is.

Under President Joe Biden’s administration, transgender women who are born male must register for the Selective Service, which provides the Defense Department with troops in the event of a military draft. Transgender men who are born female do not have to register for the Selective Service. While the policy was established before Biden took office, the Biden administration has not changed the standard.

How very interesting. As people are pointing out all over Twitter, Biden thinks it’s fine for men to invade women’s sports and take their prizes and join them in the toilets and locker rooms, but not to refuse to register for the potential … Read the rest

Originally a comment by iknklast on A cold, dark, black emptiness.

It takes MASSIVE amounts of fuel just to get off the planet. Transporting the ingredients of biospheres too isn’t doable.

Not to mention the ecological issues. We don’t have much success building ecosystems on Earth, in places where there is existing soil, a seed bank, and a nearby highway to readily move things from one spot to another. I worked on one demonstration project – just a five mile stretch of a lake, to show it could be done. We moved aquatic plants from south central Oklahoma to south eastern Oklahoma, a three hour drive in good situations, but five hours when you are going slow and stopping … Read the rest

From Pliny:… Read the rest

The abject stupidity around this subject is breathtaking.

Sturgeon is correct: “Abusive men are a threat to women. Trans women are not a threat to women. This is about further stigmatising & excluding an already stigmatised group. Real feminists should be concerned with real threats to women, not with stigmatising trans women.” #r4today

— Zoe Gardner (@ZoeJardiniere) October 7, 2022

Fascinating, Sturgeon, but how does anyone know which are the “trans women” and which are the abusive men? How do you know that zero abusive men claim to be trans women? How is anyone supposed to know for absolute certain that all trans women are sincerely deluded as opposed to seizing an obvious opportunity to abuse women and get away … Read the rest

But it’s the right-on kind of misogyny.

Nicola Sturgeon’s Scotland: a place where an Equalities Officer feels free to declare in public how much he wants to beat up non-compliant women.

SNP equalities officer threatened to 'beat the f*** out of terfs' in abusive tweets – Daily Record https://t.co/hQ4fZJvmEd

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 10, 2022

So lets read about this charming young fella. [Updating to say: probably not a fella; see comments.]

An SNP equalities officer has apologised for a series of social media outbursts including one threatening violence against women. In now deleted posts, Cameron Downing, 23, said he wanted to “beat the f[uck] out of some terfs and transphobes”.

The old familiar a man wanted to … Read the rest