Tantrums win again.

So, @PolariPrize has promised to 'review its processes' according to @thebookseller. If this is true, then the Prize has failed to stand by its longlist decisions. To promise a review is to suggest that something might be wrong, that perhaps @JohnBoyneBooks was a mistake. pic.twitter.com/DOVZPhXvQn

— Jonny Best (@JonnyWorst) August 11, 2025

To promise a review is also to give in to petulant demanding bedwetters.

The Guardian:

Ten authors nominated for this year’s Polari prizes, a set of UK awards celebrating LGBTQ+ literature, have withdrawn from the awards over the longlisting of John Boyne, who has described himself as a “Terf” – the acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist.

Two judges have also withdrawn from

While Trump is busy harassing cities like New York and Washington, let’s read up on murder stats in states like Mississippi and Alabama.

House Republicans held three field hearings on violent crime last year in New York City, Chicago, and Washington DC. These hearings should have been held in the murder-plagued states of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. In 2023, Speaker Johnson’s hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana had a murder rate 8 times higher (41.1) than Minority Leader Jeffries’ hometown of Brooklyn, New York (5.0), 6 times higher than Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco, California (6.6), and more than 7 times higher than the national average (5.5). Our 2023 report in the Red

What happens when a child is head of state.

During the news conference, Trump spoke at length about his upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

He says he finds it “very respectful” that the Russian president is meeting him on US soil, and he thinks the pair will have “constructive conversations” on Friday.

By finding it very respectful he of course means flattering to him personally. Not the transactional courtesy of international diplomacy but dude to dude flattery and submission. He thinks Putin is kneeling to him as opposed to dragging him around by the balls. That’s how stupid he is.

But his comments on a possible “land swap” with Ukraine might not please President Volodymyr Zelensky, who

Well whaddya know – it turns out you can forfeit the right to be the gender of your choice. No less an authority than Nicola Sturgeon says so!

Sturgeon apparently thinks there is a 'right' to be the gender of your choice. How does that 'right' exist and how can it be enforced on other people? What a vacuous woman. https://t.co/nDQPnKrc6d

— Joan Smith (@polblonde) August 11, 2025

… Read the rest

He’s going completely batshit. He’s demoting the entire FBI to beat cops. Sir, sir, that’s not what they’re there for.

The FBI has begun dispatching agents in overnight shifts to help local law enforcement prevent carjackings and violent crime in Washington, according to two people familiar with the matter, as President Donald Trump threatens a federal takeover of the nation’s capital and considers calling up the National Guard.

…

Trump on Sunday compared forthcoming action against D.C. crime to his administration’s aggressive crackdown against illegal immigration at the southern border, saying that he plans to “immediately clear out the city’s homeless population and take swift action against crime.”

“Be prepared! There will be no ‘MR. NICE GUY.’ We want

Impulsive golfer threatens mass arrests and deportations:

In a social media post on Sunday, Donald Trump has demanded homeless residents of Washington DC leave the country’s capital or face eviction, and again promised to use federal officers to jail criminals, even though violent crime in the city was at a 30-year low when he took office in January.

“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Sunday morning, shortly after being driven from the White House to his golf club in Virginia. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital.”

The post was illustrated with four photographs, all apparently taken from the president’s motorcade along the route from the

Yes, he’s reckless and ignorant and corrupt and greedy, but on the other hand he’s also spiteful and malicious and destructive.

Once a dramatic feature of the White House entryway, the official portrait of former President Barack Obama has been moved to a decidedly less prominent position, underscoring the yearslong tensions between the 44th and 47th presidents.

Portraits of other recent predecessors with whom President Donald Trump has a contentious relationship, former President George W. Bush and his father, George H. W. Bush, have also been moved.

Trump directed staff to move the Obama portrait to the top of the Grand Staircase, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN, where it will now be out of view from

Oddly enough, people who work at the CDC are not best pleased.

The day after a lone gunman opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, killing a police officer and shattering windows across the agency’s campus, employees were reeling from shock, fear and rage.

“We’re mad this has happened,” Dr. Debra Houry, the C.D.C.’s chief medical officer, said in a large group call Saturday morning with Susan Monarez, the agency’s newly confirmed director, who tried to reassure them. Another employee on the call, a recording of which was obtained by The New York Times, asked Dr. Monarez: “Are you able to speak to the misinformation, the disinformation that caused this issue? And what your plan forward

Lies and bullshit have consequences.

A shooting at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention killed a police officer and rattled the community of public health workers, who said the attack was a manifestation of rampant misinformation surrounding vaccines.

A 30-year-old man who believed the Covid-19 vaccine had made him ill opened fire at C.D.C. buildings on Friday, according to the police. A young DeKalb County police officer was killed in the attack, and the gunman also died. On Saturday, investigators from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies were working to piece together the details and the circumstances that precipitated the attack.

The shooting came after years of conspiracy theories about vaccines and escalating

The Times July 19 2020:

John Boyne has expressed gratitude after a comedian apologised publicly for the “relentless harassment” that caused the novelist great distress.

In a statement published on Twitter last week, Aidan Comerford issued an apology and retraction for suggesting Boyne “has engaged in transphobia [and] implying that he is transphobic, on a number of occasions”.

Comerford, the author of Corn Flakes for Dinner, a comedy about family life, said he had wrongly tweeted that no transgender person would appear with Boyne on an RTE radio interview with Ryan Tubridy in 2019. “I have been informed that, in fact, no transgender person was invited to appear; therefore, I retract and apologise,” he said.

Comerford also admitted

Oh good, another fuss. There can never be enough fussing.

The Polari Prize, the UK’s literary award celebrating LGBTQ+ writing, has come under fire following the release of its 2025 longlist, with critics accusing the organisers of platforming a writer labelled by some as a “TERF”.

The horror!!

The controversy centres around the inclusion of John Boyne, author of Earth, on the main Polari Book Prize longlist. Boyne has previously faced criticism for his portrayal of trans characters, particularly in his 2019 novel My Brother’s Name is Jessica.

And mere criticism is not enough, there must be shunning.

The novel, which follows a cisgender boy struggling to accept his sibling’s transition, was widely condemned by

BBC tells us:

A former police community support officer who was “obsessed with weapons” has been jailed after she tried to make a gun using a 3D printer.

Zoe Watts, 39, of St Helen’s Avenue, Lincoln, was found with weapons, including knives and a crossbow, alongside parts for 3D printed guns during a raid on her home on 11 December. Watts denied a charge of attempting to manufacture a prohibited weapon, and claimed she was making a “fidget” toy gun as a Christmas present.

Watts, of course, is a large hulking man. This crime is not the crime of a woman; this sentence was not handed down to a woman.

Two days before the raid on her home, Watts

Originally a comment by Dave Ricks on A Harvard professor.

The Harvard prof Sarah Richardson concluded her book review:

Reprising the anti-biological determinist tradition, Fuentes respectfully explains science in plain language to a wider public, presents biological knowledge as one among many sources of sense-making about the world, and recognises biomedical scientists’ responsibility to respond to harmful deployments of inaccurate, overly simplistic, and reductionist science by those attempting to naturalise and depoliticise their hateful views.

This interdisciplinary, scientist-humanist voice is vital in our time. As the Lancet Commission makes clarion, gender is an essential concept for improving health and wellbeing for everyone. Defending research and clinical practice in gender-related areas must be a priority in the face of perilous

2. Translation:
You can be male in body, male in law, untouched by surgery or hormones – and still legally female.
Why?
Because you said so. pic.twitter.com/0hZoixQbjk

— boswelltoday (@boswelltoday) August 7, 2025

7. A definition of “woman” that only includes women is now discriminatory.
If your category excludes men, your category is illegal.
That’s where we are. pic.twitter.com/gMVjrJo1k0

— boswelltoday (@boswelltoday) August 7, 2025

Number 6, the one about smell – does that apply to smells in general? If I don’t like the smell of perfume does that make me a man? If I don’t like the smell of cigarette smoke (I detest it) does that make me chewing gum? But I hate chewing gum too, so now … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on Badgey MaBadgerson.

It’s the most ridiculous thing, a safety rating system where everyone rates themselves.

Restaurants in Toronto are inspected by the health commission or whatever it’s called, same as in any other normal city. Here, the inspectors issue a “grade” to the restaurant, a Red, Yellow, or Green Card, which must be prominently displayed at the business entrance.

But imagine if restaurants all just issued their own cards. Each restaurant could just post a big yellow “You’re safe eating with me!” badge on its front door if it chooses to.

It’s so fucking stupid, it’s not even worth imagining. It’s not even funny. It’s just plainly, obviously so dumb, it’s tedious to … Read the rest

Oh come on. Much too easy.

What @UKLabour @bphillipsonMP can’t justify is why it is “dangerous and an affront to dignity” to expect c!s women to use the same loo as trans women – but it is PERFECTLY FINE to stick women who are trans in with c!s men.
And then you have the contradictory “biological” sex… https://t.co/rIyIR8Eljj

— India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) August 8, 2025

Of course they can. It’s because trans women are men! That’s it, that’s all you need.… Read the rest

No hurry. We’ll get to it over the next few months, or perhaps next year, or some time soon after that.

The NHS has delayed a ban on staff who are trans women in female changing rooms and lavatories until the autumn.

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, promised new guidance in April, after the Supreme Court ruled that trans women – people who are biological men – should be barred from using women’s single-sex services.

The Telegraph can reveal that NHS England has no plans to bring out the guidance until “late summer or early autumn” – meaning it may not be published until October or November.

That’s ok. It doesn’t matter. It’s only women who are at risk … Read the rest

Jo Bartosch writes:

If there’s one thing predators are good at, it’s spotting soft targets. Thanks to Dr Ronx Ikharia, this could soon be easier than ever. Ikharia – a BBC children’s presenter and NHS emergency medic who identifies as ‘trans nonbinary’ – has launched a new scheme called ‘Safe With Me’. It involves distributing large yellow badges, which signal that the wearer is available to escort ‘trans+ people’ to ‘their preferred facilities’. In other words, it is to help men in frocks breach the law on single-sex spaces.

The first thing that occurs to me is not even the “but women” bit, it’s the glaringly obvious fact that someone saying or signaling something does not make it … Read the rest

Oooh a surge in young pipple idennifying as nonbinaree. But which kind of nonbinaree??

Staff at Scotland’s youth gender clinic say they are struggling to deal with surging numbers of children who identify as neither male nor female.

What mean “deal with”? How do you deal with children who idennify as tigers or cars or archaeologists? What kind of dealing is there?

A warning about the rise in “non-binary” patients was raised as part of a review into the impact of government spending on trans healthcare. However, workers at the Sandyford clinic in Glasgow highlighted a lack of guidance on how they should be looked after.

One health professional revealed that some young “non-binary” patients who say they do

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on A Harvard professor.

…“sex is a biocultural construct. Gamete size represents but one of multiple components and developmental processes—including gonads, hormones, genitals, fertility, mating, parenting behaviour, secondary sexual characteristics, and gender identity.”

And yet none of these other factors results in a third gamete, or individuals that are, biologically, partway between male and female. None of these other complications allow humans to change sex, or offer some “other” pathway for being a woman. “It’s complicated,” doesn’t do the heavy lifting they claim it does. Sure, it’s complicated, but it’s not magic. It’s not arbitrary. It’s not swayed by wishful thinking. It’s not as uncertain and unknowable as they would have … Read the rest