Oh here we go…

The head of Britain’s equality watchdog is being investigated by a senior lawyer over complaints made by colleagues.

A king’s counsel (KC) has been called in by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to carry out an independent investigation into dozens of allegations made against its chair, Kishwer Falkner.

The Guardian understands that 40 complaints have been made by 12 current or former staff members at the EHRC. The nature of the allegations has not been revealed by the watchdog…

The Daily Mail, which first revealed the investigation into Lady Falkner, quoted sources saying that she denied the allegations. They claimed that they were “ideologically motivated” because she is “the woman breaking

No skin off his dick is it.

A woman can “quite clearly” have a penis, Sir Ed Davey has said as he suggested the debate around transgender issues had already been settled.

The Liberal Democrat leader insisted discussions around single-sex spaces were not new and that more compassion towards trans people was needed in society.

During a phone-in with LBC’s Nick Ferrari, Sir Ed was asked a question by a caller named Mary from Cambridge who said she was speaking “on behalf of 51 per cent of the population”.

She told him: “I’m a tactical voter and I would like to support the Lib Dems. But can you answer the question ‘what is a woman?’, please?”

Sir Ed said:

So now I have to remind myself who Reem Alsalem is. I’ve posted about her before.

First time was December 1 last year, when the Guardian reported that Nicola Sturgeon rejected Alsaleem’s concerns about “reform” of Scotland’s gender law.

Second time was 17 days later when the BBC reported

Last month, a UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, warned the Scottish bill could endanger women.

Reem Alsalem said it “would potentially open the door for violent males who identify as men to abuse the process of acquiring a gender certificate and the rights that are associated with it”.

This was disputed by a separate independent UN expert on gender identity, who said the legislation would bring

A press release from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the UN:

GENEVA (22 May 2023) – Threats and intimidation against women expressing their opinions on sex and sexual orientation is deeply concerning, said Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls in a statement today. In the context of disagreements between some women’s rights activists and transgender in a number of countries in the Global North. Alsalem warned that violence against women and intimidation against people for expressing differing views.

There are some glitches in the wording there, but we get the gist. Women get to talk about women’s rights, and trans activists need to stop bullying us for doing so.… Read the rest

Let’s read the LGBT Foundation’s guide to watizzawoman.

There are as many ways of being a woman as there are women in the world.

There is so much that unites all women: our shared joys, our unique experiences, and the challenges we face in a patriarchal world. These are often increased and impacted by our other identities such as race, sexuality, and disabilities. We are all multifaceted people who go beyond a simple sentence summarising womanhood. A rigid, simplistic definition both limits and reduces our womanhood.

No it doesn’t, the same way it doesn’t reduce our humanity to say we are humans. A definition is just a definition; it’s not a biography or a public relations statement … Read the rest

Speaking of “pranks”…

Guide to blah blah a woman blah blah – illustrated with this stunning photo of a man in a wig. Hahahahahahahahahahaha brilliant prank joke or what?… Read the rest

One day you’re a star, the next day you’re busted.

A TikTok creator who filmed himself “walking into random houses”, asking young women if they “want to die” and stealing a dog in the park has been arrested by London police on “suspicion of causing a public nuisance”.

Bacari Ogarro, 18, who goes by the name “Mizzy” on social media, sparked widespread outrage last week after a video of him and two accomplices entering a home in Islington, north London, went viral.

Along with the video where he harasses and threatens women, and the one where he harasses and threatens women on the Tube, and the one where he grabs a woman’s dog and runs away, and the one … Read the rest

I said life is too short to go on with that Rolling Stone love letter to Jeffrey Marsh, but I’ve changed my mind – life is too short but the love letter is too stupid to leave unmocked.

It’s a flowery message given by a person who built a career by giving beautiful advice. But every moment hasn’t been joyful. Marsh is nonbinary, loves wearing bright lipstick, and is open about their support for the LGBTQ+ community, all things that have made them an ongoing target for death threats and right-wing campaigns. 

Car crash with multiple victims. A flowery message? That’s not actually a compliment. Flowery writing=over the top, too much, undisciplined. What is “beautiful advice” when it’s at home? … Read the rest

Are they kidding???????

Uber has suspended its head of diversity, equity and inclusion after Black and Hispanic employees complained about the workplace events she moderated exploring the experience of white American women under the title “Don’t Call Me Karen”.

That’s about as stark as it gets. It’s ok to single women out for abuse, as if women were the dominant privileged default sex.

Lee’s suspension, which was first reported by the New York Times, follows mounting internal discontent over two “Don’t Call Me Karen” sessions that she convened on Zoom for up to 500 employees. The events, one in April and the second last week, were billed as “diving into the spectrum of the American white woman’s experience from

One small step in the effort to avoid draining the Colorado River completely dry:

A deal has been struck by Joe Biden’s administration for California, Arizona and Nevada to take less water from the drought-stricken Colorado River, in a bid to prevent the river dwindling further and imperiling the water supplies for millions of people and vast swaths of agricultural land in the US west.

The agreement, announced on Monday, will involve the three states, water districts, Native American tribes and farm operators cutting about 13% of the total water use in the lower Colorado basin, a historic reduction that will probably trigger significant water restrictions on the region’s residents and farmland.

…

The agreement averts, for now, the

I thought the Guardian was talking about specialty pronouns in German but it turns out to be more interesting than that.

Berlin’s recently appointed conservative mayor has said he will refuse to use gender-neutral language in office, insisting he wanted to use a language “that everyone understands”.

Surprise twist.

This is arguably more complicated than it would be in English because the German language genders words into male, female, and neutral.

Not “words”; the reporter means “nouns.” Nouns have genders in all the European languages I know anything about, while English doesn’t. That fact does indeed make things more complicated.

According to traditional language rules, a male citizen is a Bürger, a female a Bürgerin. But when male

Horrible sadist Bacari Ogarro pretends his sadistic actions are “pranks.”

A TikTok user who went viral when he entered a stranger’s house uninvited has defended his videos after they were described as “abhorrent” and “criminal” by politicians.

Bacari Ogarro, known as Mizzy on social media, posted the video of himself entering the London home as a “prank” two weeks ago. It was met with shock and anger, with many online calling for him to be arrested.

The self-described content creator has now said the negative reaction to his videos is partly down to him being Black.

Nope. It’s because he grabbed a woman’s dog and ran away with it laughing madly. It’s because he physically and verbally harassed women. … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on Lipstick=target of death threats.

I despise these platitudes.

“I can predict the future, and you’re going to be okay.”

Unless you’re not, in which case you’ll be dead and unable to point out how full of crap I was.

“Maybe all you need to know is you are great, just as you are now!”

Maybe all you need to know is that you are not great, just as you are now. Maybe, you kind of suck and need to take some time to make the effort to not suck. Maybe you need to consider that there is a whole world out there full of things you don’t know or understand, and rather … Read the rest

Is there a Stupidity Defense? Trump could use one.

Federal prosecutors have evidence Donald Trump was put on notice that he could not retain any classified documents after he was subpoenaed for their return last year, as they examine whether the subsequent failure to fully comply with the subpoena was a deliberate act of obstruction by the former president.

The previously unreported warning conveyed to Trump by his lawyer Evan Corcoran could be significant in the criminal investigation surrounding Trump’s handling of classified materials given it shows he knew about his subpoena obligations.

Well this is where the stupidity defense comes into play. Telling Trump things doesn’t equal Trump knowing things. First, he has to listen. Second, no, seriously, … Read the rest

Rolling Stone is making googoo eyes at Jeffrey Marsh.

YOU DON’T HAVE to tell Jeffrey Marsh they make a certain portion of the internet upset. They’re well aware— they just won’t let it stop them from helping people. 

Politics and idenniny aside, the “they” affectation is just bad writing. It makes extra work for the reader. It’s confusing and distracting both at once. That makes it irritating, so that’s three things that get between the reader and the writing.

Long before trans star Dylan Mulvaney‘s collaboration with Bud Light lit a portion of the right’s brains on fire, Marsh was making videos about love. Part pun, part dance, part affirmations, their videos directly address the viewers, encouraging them

Disturbing. Really disturbing. The whole and only point is to frighten people, to make them terrified and upset and even bereft (the one where he grabs a woman’s small dog and dashes off with it). The whole and only point is to make people miserable, and this vile man giggles like a loon the entire time.

There are sadists in the world; did I not know that? I did know it. I guess it’s the social media thing – now there are sadists in the world who share their sadism on TikTok. Yay human progress.

Keep seeing videos from TiKTok/YouTuber ‘Mizzy’(Bacari Ogarro)

Pretty sick of seeing just how much of a horrible person he is, here’s some videos below showing

Every word of this ridiculous piece is wrong. It’s just one bonehead error after another. It’s a man saying why it’s good for men to take over women’s sports.

As our understanding of gender identity continues to evolve, so too does the conversation around trans athletes in competitive sports.

“Gender identity” is a stupid new religion, and the “understanding” of people like Anthony Bernardi is not evolving but decaying.

Trans women, in particular, have become the focus of heated debate when it comes to their participation in women’s sports.

Duh. That’s because they’re men, so their “participation” in women’s sports is cheating and bad. Women in men’s sports don’t have the same power to cheat. Trans “women” are intruding… Read the rest

It drives me crazy how normalized dangerous driving is.

Road safety campaigners have accused the UK home secretary of trying to downplay the dangers of speeding after she reportedly requested a private speed awareness course after being caught driving over the speed limit.

Bad writing. You have to read the whole piece to understand that she requested a private course instead of a group one. She didn’t ask for a speed awareness course because she wanted to improve her awareness, she asked for a private one instead of a group one because she wanted to be sneaky.

Within the last year, two of Braverman’s ministers at the Home Office were banned from driving for six months. The immigration minister,

Never mind about the health of the baby, if the man wants to “participate” in breastfeeding the baby by taking a cocktail of drugs and hormones here’s the list. Women, meanwhile, must not drink so much as a glass of wine.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals has a maternity document that advises men to breastfeed their babies if they say they identify as women. It links to a blog that advises men to take birth control pills, estrogen and domperidone to build milk ducts https://t.co/pHu8meXdvF pic.twitter.com/3twx97r2Qz

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) May 20, 2023

… Read the rest

What a stupid thing to lose a job over – curated pronouns ffs.

A New York Christian university terminated two employees for putting pronouns in their respective email signatures, these former workers allege, according to reports.

Where are all the secular universities here? The idea that pronouns are magic is more theocratic than secular; the secular universities absolutely need to resist that idea too.

Raegan Zelaya and Shua Wilmot, who were residence hall directors at Houghton University, said that administrators told them to take the words “she/her” and “he/him” off of their email signatures.

Apart from anything else, customized pronouns in email are utterly stupid because nobody is going to be using their pronouns in email in the first place. … Read the rest