Very crap news.

Professor Deborah Cameron (1958-2026)

Worcester College is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Fellow Emerita Professor Deborah Cameron.

Professor Cameron held the post of Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language & Communication at Worcester from 2004-23.

Debbie’s research and ideas were foundational in the fields of sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, feminist theory and discourse studies. As her work examined the politics of speech, media and the construction of gender, her books captured the public’s interest throughout her career. These included, among many others, The Myth of Mars and Venus, Verbal Hygiene, The Feminist Critique of Language, and most recently The Rise of Dogwhistle Politics – published in November 2025.

At Worcester, Debbie will

When universities lose their tiny little minds.

A Scottish university has issued guidance stating that it is “not just women” who menstruate and experience the menopause.

Oh has it now. Any other jokes? It is not just men who experience testicular cancer?

The advice from the University of Strathclyde states that “trans men and women” may have “actual or pseudo menopause symptoms”. It adds that non-binary and intersex people can also be affected. It reiterates this guidance for menstruation, stating again that it is “not only women” who have periods.

So an actual university doesn’t know the difference between people claiming something and the reality of that something. An actual university thinks that saying=absolute unquestionable truth – at least, … Read the rest

Sad. Even the Telegraph can’t get it right.

The Green Party is being sued by a former member who was suspended for mocking “fairy” pronouns.

Emma Bateman, who was co-chairman of Green Party Women, was found to have breached diversity rules by making “clearly antagonistic” comments about “fae/faer” pronouns used by people who believe they are mythical beings.

…

In March 2022, Ms Bateman was suspended for three months over a speech she made to gender-critical activists in Speaker’s Corner, Hyde Park, in which she mocked those who believe “that every time someone says men are not women a person with fairy pronouns literally dies”.

She also challenged fellow members on how far they were willing to go to

Updates on the latest ICE murder:

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers were conducting an operation as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

She said officers fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him. O’Hara said police believe the man was a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.”

Are Trump and allies going to go all anti-guns now?

An angry crowd gathered after the shooting and screamed profanities at federal officers, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home.

One officer responded mockingly as he walked away, telling them: “Boo hoo.”

So we should be … Read the rest

Via Mosnae in comments:

White House posts digitally altered image of woman arrested after ICE protest

I’m sure the fact that the woman is Black has nothing to do with this whimsical bit of forgery from the Trump goons.

The captions are wrong: the one on the left is the fake, obviously.

Pretty unabashedly racist, if you ask me. In the real image she looks calm and resolved; in the fake one created and posted by the government she looks a mess.

They get worse every day.… Read the rest

Another kill.

A Minneapolis man was shot and killed by federal agents today, according to city officials. The man is believed to be a US citizen, police said.

DHS says agents defended themselves: The Department of Homeland Security said the man had a handgun and approached Border Patrol officers during a targeted operation. He “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him, and an agent shot him in self-defense, according to DHS.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said videos show masked agents “pummeling one of our constituents and shooting him to death,” and he denounced the “impunity” of federal agents operating in the city. Gov. Tim Walz called on President Donald Trump to pull ICE out of Minneapolis and

God damn them all to hell.

The National Park Service has taken down an exhibit on slavery at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, the Interior Department said on Thursday, following President Trump’s directive to remove materials that promote “corrosive ideology.”

What corrosive ideology would that be? The one that doesn’t try to deny the fact that the US was a slaveholding nation for its first three centuries? Is it really more corrosive to admit it than it is to lie about it? No, it damn well is not.

The outdoor exhibit, called “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,” memorialized nine people enslaved by George Washington at the President’s House Site, where the first

The bullying continues.

Trump on Saturday threatened to slap 100% tariffs on Canadian imports if America’s second-biggest trading partner makes a trade deal with China.

…

Trump mockingly referred to Carney as “governor,” a term he has also used for former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, playing off his call for Canada to become the 51st US state.

“Playing off” nothing. They always have to sugar-coat it. Don’t sugar-coat it.

“It sounds like Trump is lashing out at Carney for stealing the limelight at Davos. (Trump) didn’t get his tariffs over Greenland, so now he’s searching for another target to threaten,” said Inu Manak, senior fellow for international trade at the Council on Foreign Relations.

That’s more like it. Trump … Read the rest

Not just women

A Scottish university has issued guidance stating that it is “not just women” who menstruate and experience the menopause.

The advice from the University of Strathclyde states that “trans men and women” may have “actual or pseudo menopause symptoms”. It adds that non-binary and intersex people can also be affected. It reiterates this guidance for menstruation, stating again that it is “not only women” who have periods.

Silly party trick. “If you use different words to label women then it’s “not just women” who do things only women can do. Very impressive; even adorable; now stop talking and finish up your vegetables.

For Women Scotland (FWS) described the guidance as “misleading, deeply stupid and, quite frankly, offensive”.

Fairy pronouns a step too far?

The Green Party is being sued by a former member who was suspended for mocking “fairy” pronouns.

Emma Bateman, who was co-chair of Green Party Women, was found to have breached diversity rules by making “clearly antagonistic” comments about “fae/faer” pronouns, a type of “neopronoun” inspired by the mythical world.

So there are “diversity rules” that require solemn respect for bullshit like “neopronouns” “inspired by” “the mythical world”? Have we reached peak stupid yet?

Ms Bateman, 58, is suing the party for discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 after being repeatedly suspended and eventually expelled for her gender-critical views.

Speaking to The Telegraph, she claimed to have been labelled an “anti-Semitic, eugenicist, fascist,

To wash out our brains from the Minneapolis dirt.

The Freedom Singers, Newport 1964.… Read the rest

Medical doctor is nostalgic for the days when people died in their thousands of cholera, diphtheria, typhus, tb, smallpox.

Offering a startlingly candid view into the philosophy guiding vaccine recommendations under the Trump administration, the leader of the federal panel that recommends vaccines for Americans said shots against polio and measles — and perhaps all diseases — should be optional, offered only in consultation with a clinician.

Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who is chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said that he did have “concerns” that some children might die of measles or become paralyzed with polio as a result of a choice not to vaccinate. But, he said, “I also am saddened when people die

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on The asteroid doesn’t care.

I’m terrible at remembering who said what and when, but someone at a recent podcast made the point that many European leaders lack the confidence to take a strong bold stance against Trump because their popular support is so weak. Well, maybe their popular support is weak precisely because they’re perceived as so feeble and pathetic and spineless and lacking in character. They’re sure as hell not doing anything to earn my support. At least we can all stop pretending to be baffled by how the Germans could go along with the the Nazis and still manage to live with themselves: We’re seeing the same collective failure play … Read the rest

What I still keep wondering is why Kennedy thinks he knows better than the people who have actual education in the subject. He does not have that education.

The Trump administration announced new dietary guidelines on Wednesday, including an inverted food pyramid that places red meat and whole-fat dairy at the top alongside fruits and vegetables.

“We are ending the war on saturated fats,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a press conference at the White House this week. “My message is clear. Eat real food.”

But saturated fats—cholesterol. Why is Bad Kennedy telling us to up our cholesterol?

The new guidelines encourage research-backed practices like eating more whole foods including fruits, vegetables

Oh good, let’s make grease great again.

Beef tallow, a fat that both cardiologists and the federal government told Americans to avoid for nearly half a century, has become an unexpected breakout star in the new federal dietary guidelines.

The rendered beef fat has been quietly growing in popularity over the past few years among cooks who like how it crisps fries and doughnuts, beauty influencers who smooth it on their skin and others who favor it for high-fat diets or believe it’s healthier than oil pressed from seeds.

On Thanksgiving in 2024, it was thrust onto the national stage. A barefoot Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pulled a turkey from a vat of boiling beef tallow and declared,

Rob Henderson in the Times:

In recent years, casual contempt for white women has come mostly from the left. On May 25, 2020, the same day that George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, a white woman called the police on a black man who was birdwatching in Central Park. Derek Chauvin went to prison for murdering Floyd, and Amy Cooper was given an insulting nickname for her supposedly racist reaction.

She was dubbed “the Central Park Karen”.

Since then, many conservatives have complained about the left’s attack on white people and the “values” of white supremacy, which apparently include perfectionism, urgency, individualism and objectivity. All of this helped fuel a political backlash against diversity,

Sigh.

Let Andrea Egan’s appointment as Unison general secretary be the last, dying breath of this pernicious disease. pic.twitter.com/x13TcKcfJz

— Bruce Bowman (@boswelltoday) January 23, 2026

No, the argument cannot “then develop to” whatever scenario you dream up. Knowing that men are not women does not “develop to” or lead to or prompt or motivate or allow random extreme remarks along the lines of “you’re out because you have blue eyes.” Saying, pointing out, underlining that men are not and cannot be women is not random the way “because blue eyes” is. What sex people are is not random and it’s not always or automatically irrelevant. It’s not random and arbitrary to say that men should not be in women’s … Read the rest

Trump big mad at Canada.

Trump rescinded on Thursday his invitation for Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada to join his “Board of Peace,” an organization that he had founded to oversee a peace deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza but that he has now tried to broaden into an institution to rival the United Nations.

Which is like trying to square the circle, because the United Nations is what it says on the tin – a grouping of nations – while Trump’s “Board of Peace” is one deranged man’s plaything. There’s no rivalry because there’s no commonality.

In a high-profile speech at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, Mr. Carney had urged leaders of smaller nations to

Well, does he?

Trump Shows ‘Unmistakable’ Signs of Advanced Dementia, Experts Say

[M]any U.S. mental health experts have been warning for years that Trump not only fits the profile of a dangerous psychopath, but has numerous hallmark signs of dementia. Today, we revisit their findings – a reminder that the future of the world is at risk if we continue to deny that the emperor has no clothes.

A psychopath with dementia is an alarming prospect. You know who else is an alarming prospect? Trump. What a coincidence!

[T]he authors did not just warn that Trump was dangerously callous, mentally disturbed and showing clear psychopathic tendencies. In later interviews, petitions and editorials, Bandy Lee and others pointed out

Sucks to be you, girls.

It’s the girls’ category. He’s not a girl.… Read the rest