One or two items from Janice Turner’s conversation with Kathleen Stock:

Although Sussex had a radical history, the philosophy department was an outlier: relatively conservative, less prone to fashionable thinking. Her argumentative father had inadvertently prepared her for “lots of rude, bolshie men who just would sneer at you if you said something stupid”, but who, she adds, “are still the cleverest people I’ve ever met”. The English and gender studies departments thought the philosophers very dull. “We were laughed at because we believed in things like truth and objectivity. Philosophy at Sussex has never been trendy. Thank God – that’s the way I like it.”

Especially that kind of trendy. “Hahaha you believe in truth” – from people … Read the rest

Jurors said they had voted to acquit Rittenhouse, 18, of homicide, attempted homicide and other charges related to the August 2020 shootings in Kenosha, Wis. https://t.co/MEjTsQ1x61 pic.twitter.com/E3EecBHrq0

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 19, 2021

All counts. Not even reckless endangerment. I’ve seen sober explanations that he had a good case for self-defense, but…not even “but you shouldn’t have been there with an assault rifle in the first place”?

I got nothin’.… Read the rest

Today, like every day, is trans day of something. This one is remembrance. Tomorrow is biceps and the next day is wood lice.

Cllr. Peter Kavanagh, Mayor of South Dublin County Council, paid tribute today to the county’s Transgender community and spoke about how they were disproportionately affected by the global Covid-19 pandemic. Mayor Kavanagh raised the Trans flag at County Hall in Tallaght to mark Transgender Day of Remembrance, when the victims of transphobic violence are commemorated.

Trans people are disproportionately affected by the pandemic? Really? More so than mothers of small children, people with no money, homeless people, mothers of slightly bigger children, people who lose jobs because of lockdowns, people with health conditions that make them … Read the rest

The Times on Project Veritas a week ago:

Hours after F.B.I. agents searched the homes of two former Project Veritas operatives last week, James O’Keefe, the leader of the conservative group, took to YouTube to defend its work as “the stuff of responsible, ethical journalism.”

“We never break the law,” he said, railing against the F.B.I.’s investigation into members of his group for possible involvement in the reported theft of a diary kept by President Biden’s daughter, Ashley. “In fact, one of our ethical rules is to act as if there are 12 jurors on our shoulders all the time.”

No, I’m sure Biden’s daughter gave them her diary of her own free will.

Project Veritas has long

… Read the rest

Return of prior restraint:

A New York trial judge has temporarily blocked the New York Times from publishing some materials concerning the rightwing activist group Project Veritas, a rare step that the newspaper said violated decades of first amendment constitutional protections.

The order by Justice Charles Wood of the Westchester county supreme court covers memos written by a Project Veritas lawyer and obtained by the New York Times.

Remember the Pentagon Papers?

“This ruling is unconstitutional and sets a dangerous precedent,” Dean Baquet, the Times’s executive editor, said in an emailed statement.

“When a court silences journalism, it fails its citizens and undermines their right to know,” he added. “The supreme court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers

… Read the rest

It’s an outrage!

Richard Segovia’s house is as loud as the Latin rock music he teaches children to play in his basement studio. With colors ranging from jungle green and royal blue at the pavement to a red and yellow sunburst at the ridge, the otherwise modest Spanish-style home is essentially one enormous mural, a crowded portraitof long-gone musicians, Segovia’s family members, social activists, various psychedelia, and the odd jungle animal.

Segovia has lived in San Francisco’s Mission district since 1963, and he sees himself as a custodian of the neighborhood’s culture, specifically as the birthplace of Latin rock. (Carlos Santana, a family friend, grew up nearby.) But increasingly the 68-year old “Mayor of the Mission” finds himself face to

… Read the rest

The Daily Mail has a useful reminder of some of Adrian Harrop’s nastiest work. (Reading the piece also gives me an unpleasant awareness of the Mail’s conspicuous persecution of Meghan Markle via the sidebar – two headlines about her doing some unremarkable things but presented with hostile contempt. Ugly…and in fact quite similar to Harrop himself. Both Harrop and DM are relentless persecutors. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that they both target women.)

None of the GP’s alleged cyber victims were named. But in the case of A, he posted her full name and details of her job, and continued to do so even when she asked him to stop due to concerns for her safety.

He warned

… Read the rest

They what?

Yesterday it emerged the Labour Party had suspended the membership of Gil House pending investigation for allegedly engaging in prejudicial conduct that was “grossly detrimental to the party”. Gil’s crime? Insisting that “only women experience the menopause”.

Perhaps the Labour Party was confused by the name? Perhaps they think it’s only men who experience the menopause because look it says it right there, men o pause. It’s a pause that men do. Could that be what the Labour Party was thinking? Because that would be less stupid than…

So the Labour Party has decided to be the Stupid Party. It’s impossible to dignify this insulting nonsense with anything less crude than STUPID. Punishing someone for saying only women … Read the rest

On today’s Woman’s Hour Emma Barnett asked Nancy Kelley, CEO of Stonewall, a lot of probing questions, and pushed for non-evasive replies. It’s the first segment and it lasts about 35 minutes. It’s good stuff.… Read the rest

Jo Bartosch on the BBC’s Politics Live comedy hour yesterday:

The moment of hilarity arrived when Ellie Mae O’Hagan, director of the think-tank CLASS, was asked by presenter Jo Coburn about the definition of ‘woman’. In response she said: ‘You know, I actually don’t know why some people are women and some people are men.’

After claiming her view was shared by most women (though who knows if they were women), O’Hagan then said that those who claim to be able to tell a person’s sex are ‘liars’.

And that’s why the human race has proved unable to reproduce over the past 300,000 years.

O’Hagan’s nonsensical comments were made during the course of a wider discussion on gender self-identification with

… Read the rest

Why Adrian is in the hot seat.

https://twitter.com/STILLTish/status/1461425909135773708

Look at that second one. “I did it because I’m so compassionate, unlike you, Karen!”

You wouldn’t want him handing you an aspirin, let alone anything more intrusive.… Read the rest

Maya Forstater welcomes the end of No Debate:

“No debate” has been the longstanding position of Stonewall since it took up the cause of overwriting sex with by self-identified gender. It has refused all invitations to take part in discussion with those who disagree with its “trans women are women” position.

So when on Tuesday night Stonewall CEO Nancy Kelley spoke alongside Naomi Cunningham, Chair of Sex Matters, and answered questions from members of the LGB Alliance, history was made. 

The debate was about what Stonewall calls “conversion therapy” and reasonable people call not encouraging teenagers to rush into permanent changes to their still-changing bodies.

The proposed law would make it a criminal offence for a therapist or other

… Read the rest

David French on Kyle Rittenhouse and the self-defense defense:

The trial itself has not gone well for the prosecution, for reasons that relate to the nature of self-defense claims. Such claims are not assessed by means of sweeping inquiries into the wisdom of the actions that put the shooter into a dangerous place in a dangerous time. Instead, they produce a narrow inquiry into the events immediately preceding the shooting. The law allows even a foolish man to defend himself, even if his own foolishness put him in harm’s way.

But perhaps more so if he’s a white man, and a whole hell of a lot less so if he’s a black man. As for women, they don’t generally … Read the rest

This happened:

https://twitter.com/VictoriaPeckham/status/1460965687636152327 https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1461253380152639490

“Oh did I say ‘lacks a citation’? Of course I meant ‘cites.'”

Weasel.… Read the rest

Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame lets us know how perfected they all are:

I am proud not just of what we as group contributed as actors to the franchise but also as the children that became young adults that walked that path. I look at my fellow cast members now and I am just so proud of who everyone has become as people. I am proud we were kind to each other that we supported one another and that we held up something meaningful.

They’re just so wonderful as people, unlike that witch who created the whole thing. They’re kind to each other (but not to that witch, without whom they would be no one in particular) and … Read the rest

Via Screechy Monkey: another rapist gets a stern frown instead of a prison sentence.

A New York man who pleaded guilty to rape and sexual abuse for assaulting four teenage girls during parties at his parents’ home will not face jail time after a judge Tuesday sentenced him to eight years probation.

Niagara County Court Judge Matthew J. Murphy III said he “agonized” over the case of 20-year-old Christopher Belter, who was accused of committing the crimes when he was 16 or 17. Belter pleaded guilty in 2019 to felony charges that included third-degree rape and attempted first-degree sexual abuse, as well as two misdemeanor charges of second-degree sexual abuse.

Although Belter faced a maximum sentence of eight years

… Read the rest

Much discussion about this from Ellie-Mae O’Hagan:

I’m sorry, what? pic.twitter.com/BzBhvc0iLP

— Andrew (@notthatbeard) November 17, 2021

Anyone who claims to know “why some people are women and some people are men” is a liar.

Therefore, this man here is a woman because he says so.

Longer excerpt:

"I want the viewers at home to really think about why it might be upsetting for a transgender woman" to have an MP "call them 'male-bodied people'" says Ellie Mae O'Hagan of the CLASS think tankhttps://t.co/wHYWst78se #PoliticsLive pic.twitter.com/A6q3mbHvVt

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) November 17, 2021

“All I care about is the principle of live and let live,” she says fatuously. Oh yes? What if a neighbor moves into her house while … Read the rest

Ingratitude thou marble-hearted fiend.

The cast and crew of the Harry Potter movies are coming together for a reunion, with one notable exception – the author, JK Rowling.

HBO Max announced on Tuesday it would bring together the cast members from all eight Harry Potter films for a retrospective special entitled Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts. 

The release said it would feature stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint – who have not made a public appearance together since the premiere of the last premiere of the franchise, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2, in July 2011, as well as filmmaker Chris Columbus, who directed the blockbuster film.

The Mail doesn’t say whose decision … Read the rest

"I want the viewers at home to really think about why it might be upsetting for a transgender woman" to have an MP "call them 'male-bodied people'" says Ellie Mae O'Hagan of the CLASS think tankhttps://t.co/wHYWst78se #PoliticsLive pic.twitter.com/A6q3mbHvVt

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) November 17, 2021

Oh yes? Well I want Ellie Mae O’Hagan to really think about why it might be upsetting for women to have men calling themselves women, and bullying any women who don’t comply.… Read the rest

QAnon shaman gets 41 months in prison.

The sentence matches one [Judge Royce] Lamberth imposed on a former mixed martial artist filmed punching a police officer during violence, who was sentenced last week to 41 months in prison. The two are the stiffest sentences handed down in any of the roughly 675 riot prosecutions.

…

While in detention, Chansley was diagnosed by prison officials with transient schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety. When he entered his guilty plea, Chansley said he was disappointed Trump had not pardoned him.

Trump doesn’t do things for other people. … Read the rest