He really is quite something.

Unlike most of the people who criticise me over this, I HAVE got my head round both sides, which is why I don't think that coming to conclusions is easy. Maybe there are no conclusions. Maybe some problems are just not resolvable.

— Philip Pullman (@PhilipPullman) July 20, 2021

I’ll have to try that more often. “Unlike most people who disagree with me, I DO understand everything.”… Read the rest

That Georgia Rep has been telling lies about Covid on Twitter.

Twitter temporarily suspended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for violating its covid-19 misinformation policy after she falsely claimed the coronavirus was “not dangerous” for some people.

…

Greene tweeted Monday that the novel coronavirus was “not dangerous for non-obese people and those under 65.” More than 600,000 people in the United States have died of covid-19.

And not all of them were over 65 or obese or both.

Why would MGT endanger people by lying that way? I know the obvious reasons (politics, attention, stupidity, ignorance), but they never really seem like enough. It’s like seeing a fire engulfing an apartment block full of people, and running … Read the rest

Philip Pullman really is very entitled.

Thank you to all those people who are patronising me (I like your books but you've got it all wrong and you don't understand anything and you ought to, etc etc). May I respectfully invite you to change your tone. You're not getting anywhere like this.

— Philip Pullman (@PhilipPullman) July 20, 2021

I guess “change our tone” in the sense of saying he’s got it all right instead of wrong? But he has got it all wrong. Despite being perfect and a sage and a magus and so on, he has got it all wrong. I know that’s hard to believe, when it’s women saying so, but there it is.… Read the rest

Anti-vaxxer dies of COVID:

On Tuesday, the Cape Cod Times reported that Linda Zuern, a former member of the Bourne, Massachusetts Board of Selectmen and a Trump-supporting figure in the local Republican Party, had died of COVID-19.

Zuern died at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston of severe complications caused by COVID-19, according to the report. She was 70 years old and had not been vaccinated.

“She was a strong woman who believed in speaking the truth and defending our freedoms in America,” Republican State Committeewoman Deborah Dugan told the Cape Cod Times. Dugan was at Zuern’s bedside when she died. “I would describe her to people as a little woman but a mighty warrior.”

What freedoms? Freedom from … Read the rest

nutmeg sums up the point neatly.

Wearing 'too short shorts': A speaking to
Wearing shorts instead of bikini bottoms: A fine
Smoking cannabis: A ban
Competing against female weightlifters after a 15 year career as a men's weightlifter: Brave and stunning pic.twitter.com/jAaKH2hH2C

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) July 20, 2021

… Read the rest

Well why stop there? Why not force them to wear no pants at all?

Women’s team fined for not wearing tiniest possible pants.

Norway’s women’s beach handball team have been fined 1,500 euros (£1,295) for choosing to wear shorts rather than bikini bottoms in a match at the European Beach Handball Championships in Bulgaria.

The fine was ‘150 euros per player, for a total of 1,500 euros’ handed out by the European Handball Federation (EHF) because shorts are ‘not according to the athlete uniform regulations defined in the IHF [International Handball Federation] beach handball rules of the game.’

But why are those the athlete uniform regulations? Why are women forced to wear sexually provocative underpants for what is supposed … Read the rest

And then Philip Pullman.

This kind of abuse is pitiful, vile, beneath contempt.

— Philip Pullman (@PhilipPullman) July 20, 2021

My views on this issue are not mixed. I am anti-bullying, anti-abuse of any kind, and also anti-transphobia. How dare you accuse me of sending mixed messages and sitting on the fence? How dare you assume that if I'm pro-trans I have to be anti-women?

— Philip Pullman (@PhilipPullman) July 20, 2021

How dare we accuse him of sending mixed messages when he interrupts himself talking about abuse of a woman to say he opposes “transphobia” – which as we know all too well can mean anything and everything and is often just a pretext for bullying women. So that’s … Read the rest

The new wave of JKR-bullying continues to break over our heads.

Children's gender identity charity Mermaids has accused JK Rowling of being 'despicable' for revealing she has received rape and death threats for defending women's rights. They've condemned not those threats she received, but threats that trans people "will" receive as a result pic.twitter.com/qzSh4oaCIn

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) July 20, 2021

They really said that? They really did.

This is a good day for allies to tweet in support of their trans siblings. #TransLove

— Mermaids (@Mermaids_Gender) July 20, 2021

They don’t know how to spell “despicable.” … Read the rest

And speaking of bona fide qualifications – an item I just saw on Facebook.

Yes it does.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by maddog on Lesbians with penises.

it’s denying the reality of the existence of trans-women, in fact all trans-people

Wait, what? Recognizing that women don’t have penises, and that woman/woman sexual orientation is penis-exclusive is “denying reality” now? WHAT f”ing “reality of the existence of trans women” makes them at all relevant to a group that is exclusively women/women related, and has no connection to, interest in, or reason to consider penis-people at all?

Trans-women are women. Full stop.

That’s just flatly not true. By definition, only men can be “trans women.” Trans women are men. The penis is sort of a giveaway about that.

It’s baffling that (LGB Alliance) don’t accept that …

It’s not … Read the rest

Via Charles Pierce in Esquire, a doctor in Arkansas says what it’s like there:

The last day I worked wasn’t too bad. Had several people come in with symptoms or just to be tested. Mostly younger than 40. Of course zero vaccinations, and when I asked why, I don’t get the “cause the internet, cause screw the libs, I think it’s dangerous” excuses. I don’t get any excuses at all. They just shrug their shoulders and say they didn’t need it. It’s just part of their psyche now. Sun rises in the east, Jesus will return to judge the quick and the dead, you just don’t get vaccinated.

They didn’t need it, but now they have symptoms. shrug.

The

Doocy: 99% of people who are dying are unvaccinated

Kilmeade: That's their choice!

Doocy: They don't want to die. The admin and gov't says mask mandates are to protect the unvaccinated

Kilmeade: That's not their job, it's not their job to protect anybody! pic.twitter.com/NsP2IcMnCX

— Lis Power (@LisPower1) July 19, 2021

It’s not? It’s not the government’s job to protect people?

I kind of think it is.… Read the rest

The sly way they distort the reporting on this…

Headline: J.K. Rowling Responds to Pipebomb Death Threat, Hits Out at Trans Activists

No she doesn’t “hit out” – she tweets words. See also: the American Booksellers Association claiming to have committed “violence” by including a gender critical book in a promotion.

Ryan Smith writes:

J. K. Rowling has hit out at a Twitter user on Monday, after she was sent a “pipebomb” threat amid a series of attacks over her previous statements about trans women.

She didn’t “hit out” at anyone.

The Harry Potter author shared a screenshot of the offending tweet, which was directed at her on Sunday, as she slammed the efforts of some trans activists to get

Graham Linehan calls out the coward celebrities who are ignoring the abuse aimed at JK Rowling:

David O’Doherty? The ‘trans ally’ who gave my wife shit over the phone because he didn’t have the guts to confront me? Let’s see what he’s talking about.

Jokes about Birkenstocks, it turns out.

Aisling Bea what do you think of the pipe bomb threat? You were full of talk of nuance when you wrote this disgraceful, patronising tweet to a survivor of domestic violence.

Jon Ronson, author of ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’, anything to say about this public shaming, certainly more ambitious in scope and significance than what Justine Sacco went through? Not even a trace of journalistic interest in it?

Now there’s a headline.

Bid to exclude ‘people with penises’ from lesbian events ‘unlawful’

But lesbian events are for lesbians, and “people with penises” are men and men can’t be lesbians because lesbians are same-sex attracted women.

Lesbians will be breaking the law if they exclude biological males who are transgender from social events, after a controversial discrimination ruling set to become a national test case. Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination commissioner Sarah Bolt has ruled lesbian events that exclude trans-women carry a “significant risk” of breaching legislation.

And lesbian events that are forced to include men are guaranteed to be no longer lesbian events.

Men can be trans all they like, knock yourselves out guys, but they’re still men and they’re … Read the rest

Yes so this is clearly a very healthy and progressive movement for social change.

Yes, but now hundreds of trans activists have threatened to beat, rape, assassinate and bomb me I’ve realised that this movement poses no risk to women whatsoever. pic.twitter.com/qb1RrCFqy0

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 19, 2021

https://twitter.com/DoorEmby/status/1417112429666783234 … Read the rest

The battle continues.

I guess it’s good you no longer pretend to be a journalist anymore. Be well.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) July 17, 2021

In reality Cardona doesn’t meddle with curriculum decisions.

Peppered with questions Thursday about whether he supports “critical race theory,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said that his department will leave curriculum decisions to state and local officials.

“It’s important that I reiterate at every opportunity I have that the federal government doesn’t get involved in curriculum,” he said during a hearing before the House education committee Thursday.

But he didn’t completely sidestep the issue of how racism should figure into classroom discussions, a question that has engulfed state legislatures and local school boards across

It’s Put People Off the Vax day again.

Trump giving the base the exact message they want of being against the COVID vaccine because if the election was stolen, clearly you can't trust the Biden administration to administer the COVID vaccine that Trump himself is taking credit for creating.

Yeah, my head hurts too. pic.twitter.com/clNAnEqxZp

— The Darkest Timeline Numbersmuncher (@NumbersMuncher) July 18, 2021

I can’t find a link to the statement itself, including on Trump’s website, only to people citing it, so that’s irritating. Mediaite reports on it but doesn’t link to it. Maybe someone has taken it down.

Donald Trump stirred up vaccine opposition on Sunday, even linking it to his false claims about the 2020 election.

There

Work it out for yourselves.

So the prime minister says that with the removal of Covid restrictions we will now be able to make our own “informed decisions” about what we will and will not do. Generally, we might feel it’s a sign of a good government and a good society that it allows and enables its members to make their own informed decisions about how they want to live their lives.

Generally, yes. All things being equal, yes. In normal circumstances, yes. Obviously. Of course. We can figure out for ourselves when to go out and when to stay home, what to wear and where to live, how much to sleep and what toothpaste to use. But when … Read the rest

Sisters!