Uh oh, the monstrous regiment of women.

In Michigan, women hold power. Not everyone seems comfortable with that.

The chairman of the Michigan Republican Party called three top statewide elected officials “witches” in a speech last week. He said he wanted to “soften up” the women — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson —  so when he had GOP candidates to run against them, they’re “ready for the burning at the stake.”

Well at least he didn’t call them cunts. Progress?

Weeks earlier, the state’s Senate majority leader said of Whitmer that the party had “spanked her hard on the budget, spanked her hard on appointments.”

In December, another state senator said

Originally a comment by Arcadia on Rated inadequate.

I get why it’s hard to suddenly come up with a large number of trained specialists to deal with a condition growing patient numbers by over 1000%, not to mention that apparently there is no specific training to deal with this, but more experimental guesswork and common or accepted practice.

What I don’t get is the implication that features in all these articles that, if the distressed child can’t get the appointment with the so-called specialists, that nothing else can or should be done.

If I needed a hip replacement, and couldn’t get an available surgeon, I think I’m better off waiting, even in pain, rather than turning to a dentist … Read the rest

Boys just wanna have fun.

A Morrison government adviser has been sacked after pixelated images of unnamed Coalition advisers allegedly performing lewd sex acts on the desks of female MPs were broadcast on Monday night, deepening the political crisis surrounding workplace culture at Parliament House.

The federal government was hit on Monday by new allegations broadcast by the Ten Network of male Coalition staffers engaging in vulgar and unprofessional conduct as the ABC prepared to air a new episode of Four Corners where a security guard provided a firsthand account of what she witnessed on the night Brittany Higgins was allegedly raped in the office of then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds in early 2019.

…

The report referenced images

CNN tells us:

Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican being investigated by the Justice Department over sex trafficking allegations, made a name for himself when he arrived on Capitol Hill as a conservative firebrand on TV and staunch defender of then-President Donald Trump. Behind the scenes, Gaetz gained a reputation in Congress over his relationships with women and bragging about his sexual escapades to his colleagues, multiple sources told CNN.

You know, like any other frat boy.

Gaetz allegedly showed off to other lawmakers photos and videos of nude women he said he had slept with, the sources told CNN, including while on the House floor. The sources, including two people directly shown the material, said Gaetz displayed

Ex-Muslims of North America has a horror story:

In November 2020, a teenage Muslim boy opened fire on a family of Ahmadis, a religious minority in Pakistan who consider themselves Muslims but are not considered such by the government. Tahir Ahmad Mahmood was killed, and his father and two uncles suffered injuries. The teenage culprit was restrained and apprehended by police, whom he told his motive: the Ahmadis “were insulting Islam” and possessed unacceptable “religious differences.”

And “unacceptable” apparently means “deserving of death.”… Read the rest

Speaking of teenagers and puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones…the Tavistock is in a bit of a pickle.

In January, England’s only NHS gender clinic for children and young people was rated “inadequate” by the country’s health watchdog – the lowest rating, meaning it is performing badly.

The findings make for sobering reading with inspectors raising “significant concerns” about the way the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) works.

Nearly 5,000 children are waiting – sometimes for up to two years – for an appointment, and the management team has been disbanded following the inspection. 

Well at least the children who are waiting aren’t getting blockers or hormones, so maybe it’s not such a bad thing? Maybe the longer you … Read the rest

Oh oops really? That’s embarrassing.

The evidence for using puberty blocking drugs to treat young people struggling with their gender identity is “very low”, an official review has found.

Uh oh. So all those kids we’ve put on puberty blockers have messed up their brain development and bone density and whatnot to no purpose? Oops. Our bad!

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said existing studies of the drugs were small and “subject to bias and confounding”.

…

The NICE evidence review looked at what impact puberty blockers had on gender dysphoria, mental health – such as depression, anger and anxiety – and quality of life.

NICE, which provides national guidance and advice to improve health

I missed these back in early March.

"Women around the world have been treated as sexual objects. Yet if sexual objectification is so categorically awful, then why do I want it so badly?

The idea that being seen as a 'sex object' is universally a bad thing is too simple, like many tenets of feminism."
— Jacob Tobia pic.twitter.com/XWjZ0SbbT0

— Genevieve Gluck (@WomenReadWomen) March 7, 2021

24 days later Gloria Steinem boasts of signing the open letter that says we all have to “support” men who say they are women, and accuses feminists who say no of co-opting “the feminist label.”

I am proud to sign this letter because we all must fight against the unnecessary barriers placed on trans

GLAAD presents an open letter supporting “trans women and girls” – i.e. men and boys who claim to be women and girls.

In observance of Women’s History Month and Transgender Day of Visibility, we write this letter as feminist leaders in advocacy, business, entertainment, media, politics, and social justice who stand as, with, and for transgender and nonbinary people.

What does Women’s History Month have to do with trans anything? Women’s History Month is about women, not trans people. Women are allowed to have things that are for women, and we’re not required to add a shout-out to trans women to all the things that are for women. I for one am deeply fed up with having the subject … Read the rest

Oh no oh no it’s totalitarianism in our very own HomeLand.

Top Republican leaders have increasingly spoken out against the prospect of vaccine passports. The passports would serve as proof of COVID-19 immunization. Some venues and companies might require such passports before allowing people to crowd into their indoor spaces.

President Joe Biden‘s administration has provided guidance on vaccine passports for private sector businesses. However, Biden has said that there will not be a federally mandated, universal vaccine credential nor a federal database for storing citizens’ vaccination information.

Nevertheless, top Republicans have begun to vocally oppose the passports as evidence of government overreach and inequality amid the ongoing pandemic.

It’s not “overreach” to try to slow and stop a … Read the rest

Matt Gaetz says they were just good friends.

The Florida politician, a close ally of Donald Trump, claimed during the Tuesday night interview that he was the victim of an extortion plot by a former justice department official, and questioned the motivation behind Tuesday’s original reporting by the New York Times.

Gee, yes, what motivation could a newspaper have for reporting such a thing?

Gaetz, 38, claimed his lawyers had been informed that he was the subject of an FBI inquiry “regarding sexual conduct with women” and that the official was attempting to extort $25m from his family “in exchange for a commitment that he could make this investigation go away”.

Uh huh. Sure.

According to the New York

Joan Smith points out that it’s a bit much to tell girls in school to be sure to report rape when in reality reporting rape tends to be a dead end, with a lot of misery on the way to the dead end. “Be sure to report rape, even though it’s futile and will also bring a world of bullying down on your head.”

Suddenly everyone is talking about a “rape culture” in schools. Not for the first time, it has to be said, but influential MPs, headteachers and senior police officers are urging anyone who has been attacked to report their experiences. “Every victim who comes forward will be believed, will be listened to and dealt with sensitively,” according

An arrest has been made in that violent attack on a woman in NYC yesterday. The suspect has previous.

An arrest was made early Wednesday in a brutal attack on a 65-year-old Asian woman that drew widespread outrage after footage of the assault was released.

It does tend to draw outrage, that kind of thing – kicking a woman in the abdomen so hard that she falls on the sidewalk, then stomping on her head three times. Yes, we get riled when we see something like that. Most people have enough compassion for such a reaction.

New York City police identified the suspect as Brandon Elliot, 38, who was charged with two counts of assault as a hate crime and

Another win!

Bowls England say they are updating their “historical and outdated” guidance on transgender bowlers after a trans female was barred from competing.

Stella Moore, 67, who has lived for three years as a woman, is unable [to] play for her Hampshire lawn bowls club.

There’s no such thing as “living as a woman,” any more than there’s such a thing as living as a bear or a tulip or a recycling plant.

Also, is Moore really unable to play for her club? Or is it just that she’s unable to play “as a woman”?

The Portsmouth and District Women’s Bowling Association say they have been following guidance published in 2014.

It required gender reassignment surgery three years before

Another day another bullying.

A gender studies professor at University of Rhode Island is facing backlash for comparing transgender people with far-right conspiracy theory-driven website QAnon, according to the Daily Mail.

Professor Donna Hughes wrote a piece for a radical feminist site. Oh the horror.

…saying that people who think they can change their gender are suffering from a “trans-sex fantasy.” Hughes also said that transgender people, just like QAnon with the right, has radicalized the left. Going further, Hughes said the left is using transgender issues to further an agenda that harms children.

“The American political left is increasingly diving headfirst into their own world of lies and fantasy and, unlike in the imaginary world of QAnon,

Vaccination passports are as dystopian as it gets? I’ll give you dystopian.

Here’s your dystopian.

NYPD says 65-year-old Asian American woman was walking to church this morning when suspect assaulted her and said “f*** you, you don’t belong here.” Happened in front of 360 W. 43rd St. 11:40am. Sources say building security guard not only failed to render her aid… 1/2 pic.twitter.com/ZLtQEHHJci

— CeFaan Kim (@CeFaanKim) March 30, 2021

I’m Asian American and I belong here. RT if you are too or you agree. https://t.co/smpLBqQile

— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) March 30, 2021

The security guard inside closed the door from inside instead of going to help her. I saw someone say that’s their job, to secure the building, their job … Read the rest

It doesn’t? Really?

No vaccine passport. It doesn’t get much more dystopian than being required to show your “health papers” wherever you go.

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) March 30, 2021

I can think of way more dystopian it can get. Lots of it. Surveillance cameras in every room, recording-transmitting devices on every surface, militarized police everywhere you go, food shortages, criminalization of all dissent, closure of all independent sources of knowledge and discussion, harsh prison sentences for the smallest infractions, death penalties for the smallest infractions, mandatory prostitution, mandatory impregnation and childbirth, disfavored races and ethnic groups and immigrants sent to camps in miserable climates, most people denied health care, schools eliminated…and so on and so on.

It’s laughably easy … Read the rest

Originally a comment by maddog on Cyclist and expert.

Let boys compete in girls’ competitions, but don’t count their wins

^^ This suggested model is a “solution” that doesn’t solve the fundamental problem: Why should boys compete in the girls’ division at all? There already exists a solution for boys who want to play sports: they can play in the boys’ division. “Where can boys play sports?” has NEVER been a problem. Wailing about, “where can this boy play?” is a ridiculous non-problem

He can play in the boys’ division, that already exists for him. Boys’ sports get the lion’s share of attention and resources, just as it always has been. Historically, girls haven’t had nearly as many opportunities … Read the rest

The thing about being an academic in English (the discipline) is that it’s pretty hard to say anything original, given the huge number of academic colleagues who precede you. So what do you do? In some cases you bullshit. Might as well, right?

“Unquestionably” – that’s rich. It’s questionable.

More:

Lavery told us that he was going to talk about a eugenicist (Marie Stopes) and a charlatan (L. Ron Hubbard) though ultimately [he] never gave us the lowdown on Stopes’ support for eugenics and Hubbard was given only a very passing mention in the Q&A.

… but if I confess to attempting to animate within realism, the erotic frisson that might derive from a fantasy of being

They what?!

BREAKING: Arkansas has become the first state to ban health care for trans youth.

— ACLU (@ACLU) March 29, 2021

Arkansas banned health care for a group of people? How can that be?

That’s how – by wording it deceptively. Arkansas didn’t ban health care for trans teenagers, it banned “gender affirming” care, i.e. puberty blockers and amputations. The NBC headline is honest, the Washington Post one is fuzzy, the Insider one is just a lie, like the ACLU tweet.

From the NBC story:

The Arkansas Senate passed a bill Monday that would ban access to gender-affirming care for transgender minors, including reversible puberty blockers and hormones.

But puberty blockers are not entirely reversible.

It’s interesting how … Read the rest