There’s nothing like starting a news story with an agentless passive voice claim that doesn’t mean anything.

The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is being urged to reconsider its decision to ban transgender women from female contact rugby competitions due to fears it will set a “dangerous precedent” in other sports.

Oooooh really? By whom? You? Your cat?

That’s such crappy manipulative sneaky concern-mongering disguised as journalism; there ought to be professional standards against that kind of thing.

What about the fears of other dangerous precedents, like the dangerous precedent of letting men take over women’s sports? I urge the Irish Independent to pay attention to that, and to skip the passive voice intro in the future.

Para 2:

Equality

This reads more like a letter from a hostage than a policy statement from a sporting institution.

IRFU Updates Transgender Policy

The IRFU will amend its gender participation policy for rugby from the forthcoming season, based on medical and scientific evidence and in line with World Rugby guidance.

The IRFU is keenly aware that this is a sensitive and challenging area for those involved and the wider LGBT+ community and will continue to work with those impacted, providing support to ensure their ongoing involvement with the game.

Ok? Ok? Ok? We’re keenly aware, we promise we are, so so so aware, we totally get how sensitive and challenging and agonizing and torturous and sensitive it is, have we grovelled enough … Read the rest

On the one hand a law firm is working up a class action type case against the Tavistock GIDS; on the other hand a chain of banks is…doing this.

We’re so proud to sponsor this year’s Trans Festival. While we’re there, we’ll be joining a panel to talk about how businesses can support the trans community. Because everyone is welcome. pic.twitter.com/eLjbqflaYU

— NatWest (@NatWest_Help) August 11, 2022

When did banks and corporations and other profit-seeking institutions get so childish? And how, and why?… Read the rest

Some news about the law firm that is planning to sue the Tavistock GIDS:

The U.K.-based plaintiffs firm PGMBM, which operates as a partnership between British, Brazilian and American lawyers, is launching an office in Rio de Janeiro following a significant win for claimants harmed by a dam collapse at a mine co-operated by BHP Inc. in Brazil.

The firm is also changing its name globally, and will now be known as Pogust Goodhead.

…

The firm has secured a series of high-profile litigation wins over the past 12 months.

In addition to the court victory against BHP, Pogust Goodhead notched a settlement in May on behalf of 15,000 claimants against the Volkswagen Group, and in 2021 it won an

It must have been fun to be a political journalist reporting on Trump, right?

Well, no. I never found Donald Trump to be remotely captivating as a stand-alone figure. He’d been around forever and his political act was largely derivative. His promise to “drain the swamp” was treated as some genius coinage, though in fact the platitude had been worn out for decades by both parties. Nancy Pelosi promised to “drain the swamp” in 2006, just as the Reagan-Bush campaign had vowed to “Make America Great Again” in 1980.

Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things. But on top of that, he is a uniquely tiresome individual, easily

Originally a comment by Papito on Boston Children’s Hospital.

In many American states (I haven’t added up which ones lately), therapy for kids identified as suffering from gender dysphoria, which does not affirm their transition, is considered to be “conversion therapy,” and is illegal.

In Massachusetts, the law is HR 140, passed in 2019.

The law has specific exceptions for therapists who are encouraging children to change their gender identification to the opposite gender. It only prohibits providing therapy to children that affirms their actual sex.

This law, similar to laws in dozens of other states, all passed in the last decade, makes it possible that a therapist could not only lose his license to practice, but be … Read the rest

Boston Children’s you might want to pay close attention to this report in the Times:

The Tavistock gender clinic is facing mass legal action from youngsters who claim they were rushed into taking life-altering puberty blockers.

Mass legal action? How mass?

Lawyers expect about 1,000 families to join a medical negligence lawsuit alleging vulnerable children have been misdiagnosed and placed on a damaging medical pathway.

Yikes! Very mass!

They are accusing the gender identity development service [GIDS] at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust of multiple failures in its duty of care.

Starting with failing to be not credulous idiots. These are doctors, not teenagers; why did they fall for this destructive nonsense?

This includes allegations it recklessly

Someone ratted the trumpster out.

The raid on Mar-a-Lago was based largely on information from an FBI confidential human source, one who was able to identify what classified documents former President Trump was still hiding and even the location of those documents, two senior government officials told Newsweek.

That person had better go far away and hunker way down.

The officials, who have direct knowledge of the FBI’s deliberations and were granted anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters, said the raid of Donald Trump’s Florida residence was deliberately timed to occur when the former president was away.

Well duh. Nobody wants to spend time with the trumpster for the fun of it.

FBI decision-makers in Washington and

Of course he did.

Trump said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination and did not answer questions during a deposition on Wednesday with New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office.

In a lengthy public statement, Trump lambasted James as a “failed politician” and accused her of having “intentionally colluded with others” in her three-year probe of the Trump Organization, calling the inquiry a political fishing expedition against his family. 

Please. That pool is so full of fish they don’t have room to swim.

The statement continued: “If there was any question in my mind, the raid of my home, Mar-a-Lago, on Monday by the FBI, just two days prior to this deposition, wiped out any uncertainty.

Polio is back:

The UK Health Security Agency said that, since early February, 116 polioviruses had been identified in 19 sewage samples from boroughs in north-east and central London including Barnet, Camden, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest.

…

While a small number of polioviruses are detected in sewage in the UK each year, the large number detected over recent months is unusual, and appears to reflect transmission of the virus in the community.

…

Public health experts said it appeared such transmission was asymptomatic, and was likely to have been caused by an individual recently vaccinated with live oral polio vaccine (OPV) entering the UK. OPV generates excellent gut immunity against polio; however, people who have been recently

Wait what?

Hysterectomies at a children’s hospital???

No joke.

Meet the Center for Gender Surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital:

Gender dysphoria occurs when there is a conflict between the gender you were assigned at birth and the gender with which you identity. This can create significant distress, and you may feel uncomfortable in your body. The Center for Gender Surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital offers gender affirmation surgery services to eligible adolescents and young adults who are ready to take this step in their journey. It is the first center of its kind in the U.S. in a major pediatric hospital setting.

Well isn’t that just lovely. Congratulations on your first.

As the first pediatric center in

The Huffington Post, or Alanna Vagianos who writes for it, or both, doesn’t/don’t know which people do the baby-having.

They know, of course, but they pretend not to.

Emphasis added:

[Kris] Kobach has continually called for the Supreme Court to repeal Roe v. Wade, and believes there should be no exceptions for abortion restrictions. In 2018, Kobach supported legislation to ban all abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected. In 2004, he was a proponent of a bill that requires people seeking an abortion to get an ultrasound and mandates the state to tell patients that an abortion will cause a fetus to feel pain — an often cited anti-choice talking point that has not been scientifically proven.

Marina Hyde on The Great Intrusion:

FBI raids on former presidents; filing stuff in the U-bend – another hugely uplifting 24 hours in politics. Not for the first time, much of the most unwittingly revealing commentary on it all comes from Trump himself, who says of the raid, “nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before”. Well quite.

Well quite, indeed. Why would that be? Oooh it’s a tough one…let me think hard for a second…oh I know, couldn’t it be because no president of the US has been such a determined criminal before? Not even Nixon?

The whole business has appalled freedom-loving anti-elitist Nigel Farage, who this morning announced himself to be

Some gossip about the Conceptual James v Twitter quarrel:

Even if you’ve never heard of James Lindsay, you probably know a few of his hits.

He was part of that “grievance studies hoax” a few years back, where he and a couple of other anti-woke activists published a handful of ridiculous papers (the most headline-grabbing was arguably one about “rape culture” at Portland dog parks) in academic journals. It became known as the “Sokal Squared Hoax,” and to its admirers it was a devastating exposé of how far the humanities in higher education had sunk in service of identity politics.

The couple of other activists were Peter Boghossian and Helen Pluckrose.

At the time, in

Trump is using it to demand more money. Of course he is.

Donald Trump on Tuesday tried to turn the news of an FBI search of his Florida estate to his benefit, citing the investigation in text messages and emails soliciting political donations from his supporters.

“I’m a criminal, send $$$.”

“As they watch my endorsed candidates win big victories and see my dominance in all polls, they are trying to stop the Republican Party and me once more,” Trump said in a fundraising email on Tuesday. “The lawlessness, political persecution, and Witch Hunt, must be exposed and stopped.”

Therefore, send $$$$$$$.

Eric Trump, one of Trump’s adult children, told Fox News on Monday the search concerned boxes of

“Womanhood” is not a tent.

Womanhood is a tent big enough to accommodate Kim Kardashian and trans women, according to Val McDermid, the crime writer, who claims that concern about transgender rights is overblown.

No it’s not; it’s not any kind of tent, big or small. It’s not a tent and it’s not expandable in the sense that it can mean itself and also its opposite. If “woman” can mean “man” then it no longer means “woman,” so what use is it? We still need a word that means what “woman” used to mean, so why not just save ourselves the trouble and stick with the word we already have? If men who consider themselves woman-like want a word … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Rob on You must tell the truth while you testify.

I’m sure Jones does know the difference between truth and bullshit. Even between the shades of truth that a complex world throws up. I don’t think he cares. Neither does Trump. Or anyone else in that broad camp. For that matter the same could be said for some on the activist left (TRA’s anybody?). The common thread for all these people with megaphones is that they are appealing to the emotions of their audiences. The words don’t have to be true (and usually are not). They have to evoke the feeling that the audience craves. It’s especially dangerous because it’s addictive, probably in a literal … Read the rest

Interesting…

Former US President Donald Trump has said his Florida home is being raided by the FBI.

Mr Trump said in a statement Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach was being “occupied by a large group of FBI agents”.

Neither the FBI or Department of Justice [has] commented on the reported raid. It is unclear what might have prompted any search warrant.

Maybe it was the story about torn-up papers in the White House toilets.

Updating to add:

BREAKING NEWS: Dozens of FBI agents raid Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence to conduct an unannounced search warrant — even going as far as opening and searching his safe. RT TO THANK THE FBI FOR HOLDING TRUMP ACCOUNTABLE!

— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) August 8, 2022

The war between Alex Jones and truth:

The judge, Maya Guerra Gamble, scolded Jones, after he told untruths at least twice on the stand. “It seems absurd to instruct you again that you must tell the truth when you testify, but here I am: you must tell the truth while you testify,” she said. “This is not your show.”

Jones tried to interject, saying he had only said what he believed to be the truth.

“You believe everything you say is true, but it isn’t. Your beliefs do not make something true. That is what we’re doing here,” the judge said.

But if he really believes everything he says is true how is he to know it’s not true?… Read the rest

Remember when Trump went to visit Macron for Bastille Day and was all excited about the parade with all the toys and wanted “his” generals to do the same next year?

The generals, to his bewilderment, reacted with disgust. “I’d rather swallow acid,” his Defense Secretary, James Mattis, said. Struggling to dissuade Trump, officials pointed out that the parade would cost millions of dollars and tear up the streets of the capital.

And would be a weirdly militaristic thing to do.

An Air Force general later spelled it out for him.

“So, what do you think of the parade?” Trump asked Selva. Instead of telling Trump what he wanted to hear, Selva was forthright.

“I didn’t grow up in the