All entries by this author
Feb 22nd, 2020 4:43 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
The jokes write themselves.
Presumably “land a great guy” means “capture the affections of a man for purposes of marriage or commitment or a rewarding temporary relationship”…but isn’t the list kind of bare bones? Even putting feminism aside for a moment, is that really what Great Guys want? Someone sweet and not annoying? That’s it?
On the upside, I guess women in the market for a … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
11 comments
Feb 22nd, 2020 10:56 am |
By Ophelia Benson
A Labour Party aide explains that women over 39 are just stupid and clueless:
One senior campaign aide said that the issue was becoming increasingly difficult to navigate and could do long-term damage to the party in an area where it has traditionally been strong.
“I think we are all in a bit of a bind,” the aide said. “We want to be the party of equality but there is a risk that we are seen to be obsessed by this and are tearing ourselves apart. The tone on both sides has been blown out of all proportion.”
Be the party of equality by all means, but you have to be clear that “equality” doesn’t mean “everything I like.”
The
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17 comments
Feb 22nd, 2020 9:54 am |
By Ophelia Benson
News from Sweden:
For several days this week the veteran Swedish journalist Malou von Sivers will cover the same topic in every episode of her nightly TV chat show: the extraordinary rise in diagnoses of gender dysphoria among teenage girls.
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The immediate trigger for Von Sivers’s themed week is a report from Sweden’s Board of Health and Welfare which confirmed a 1,500% rise between 2008 and 2018 in gender dysphoria diagnoses among 13- to 17-year-olds born as girls.
But it also reflects a rapid change in public opinion. Just a year ago, there seemed few official obstacles left in the way of young people who wanted gender reassignment treatment.
Which is to say, puberty blockers, aka an uncontrolled … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
13 comments
Feb 22nd, 2020 9:06 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Originally a comment by Papito on The child deals with life by wearing pink and flowers.
The kids with dysphoria or gender confusion almost always grew up to be homosexual adults, not transsexual adults. Transsexual adult males usually weren’t dysphoric when they were kids….
I think they were all gender dysphoric as kids in a retrospective sense. You know, like all of a sudden, as adults, they discovered that they were always gender dysphoric and that’s what their problem was. But you’re right. All of the guys I know who transitioned were nebbishes who weren’t the least bit feminine before transition. Meanwhile, I knew other guys who were seriously swishy as kids and they mostly turned out gay. The … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
3 comments
Feb 21st, 2020 3:56 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Hey kids, gather ’round, it’s time to play Invent Your Own Reality!
Fun fact: lots of things do not mean there is a coherent binary thing called “biological sex,” in fact pretty much all things do not mean that except the nine words “there is a coherent binary thing called ‘biological sex.'” BUT – and this is important – that fun fact in turn does not mean that Chase Strangio has … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
11 comments
Feb 21st, 2020 11:01 am |
By Ophelia Benson
From the Guardian Live on Trump:
After Trump dismissed reports of Russia’s preference for him in the 2020 race as a Democratic “misinformation campaign,” the former CIA chief of Russian operations tweeted this:
Important point. It’s not about Trump playing “tough on Russia” guy for the camera. It’s about having a corrupt, ignorant, stupid, incompetent, reckless, ludicrous clown playing president for the camera.
Mind you, we’ve already had presidents that make us look foolish and inept, but having a Trump … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
1 Comment »
Feb 21st, 2020 9:47 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Originally a comment by guest on What the specific demands for liberation ARE.
It seems a bit ridiculous to think the stories people tell each other in any culture DON’T influence the behaviour of those people. And don’t forget Harry Potter–I was, I think, possibly too old for it when it hit, and after reading half of the first novel gave it up as boring and derivative, but I’ve read and heard some things that make me think it would be difficult to overestimate its effect on the generation it was aimed at. I never watched the X-Files myself, but your recommendation is making me think I should check it out. It just seems a shame that the stories … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
5 comments
Feb 21st, 2020 9:30 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Originally a comment by iknklast on You there: get out.
though you’ve likely never met a single transgender child
To add: this is a huge assumption on your part. Like the Christians that people my front porch on Saturday mornings, you assume that we would automatically change our minds if we ever met a single person who fits in the group being discussed.
In fact, I have known several. It was the situation of one of those children that caused me to question my support for the trans lobby, which had prior to that been unwavering. When I saw the way that child was ushered into trans while going through therapy for anxiety following a series of tragic events … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
7 comments
Feb 21st, 2020 9:08 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The purge is expanding.
Johnny McEntee called in White House liaisons from cabinet agencies for an introductory meeting Thursday, in which he asked them to identify political appointees across the U.S. government who are believed to be anti-Trump, three sources familiar with the meeting tell Axios.
McEntee, a 29-year-old former body man to Trump who was fired in 2018 by then-Chief of Staff John Kelly but recently rehired — and promoted to head the presidential personnel office — foreshadowed sweeping personnel changes across government.
“Sweeping personnel changes”=a purge.
Trump has empowered McEntee — whom he considers an absolute loyalist — to purge the “bad people” and “Deep State.”
There it is again. This is a random employee of Trump’s, … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
2 comments
Feb 21st, 2020 8:21 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Lisa Nandy is really digging in on this “self-identification is a right” nonsense.
Sure, people have a right to say “I know better than a psychiatric assessment who I am.” What they don’t have is a right to impose that claim on anyone else, a right to live according to that claimed knowledge in all circumstances without question, a right to lie on official … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
12 comments
Feb 20th, 2020 5:04 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
The Post has more on the “Trump was enraged that the intelligence people did a briefing on Russian plans to get him re-elected” story.
A senior U.S. intelligence official told lawmakers last week that Russia wants to see President Trump reelected, viewing his administration as more favorable to the Kremlin’s interests, according to people who were briefed on the comments.
After learning of that analysis, which was provided to House lawmakers in a classified hearing, Trump erupted at his acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, in the Oval Office, perceiving him and his staff as disloyal for speaking to Congress about Russia’s perceived preference.
Trump did not erupt at Russia, and vow to leave nothing undone that would … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
2 comments
Tags: Trump
Feb 20th, 2020 3:55 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1230622853726380034
Let’s learn more:
President Donald Trump pushed aside his acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, in anger over what he perceived to be an inappropriate congressional briefing by the top intelligence official in charge of election security, a former senior U.S. official familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News.
What he perceived to be an inappropriate congressional briefing aka a congressional briefing that he saw as inconvenient for him. Not for us, not for the country, not for the world, not for humanity, but for him. Nothing matters except Donald Trump. The interests of Donald Trump come before anything else.
Trump’s anger cost Maguire a chance to become the permanent DNI, the former official
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
3 comments
Tags: Trump
Feb 20th, 2020 10:02 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Truth matters:
As she delivered her sentence, Judge Amy Berman Jackson delivered a defense of facts, accusing Roger Stone of disregarding them in his case.
“The truth still exists. The truth still matters,” Jackson said. “Roger Stone’s insistence that it doesn’t, his pride in his own lies are a threat to the very foundation of this democracy.”
Despite America’s current divisions, Jackson said that the condemnation of Stone’s disregard for the truth “should transcend both parties.”
I don’t know why the Guardian decided to downgrade that into “facts.” Truth includes facts but that’s not all there is to it.
House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff said Roger Stone’s sentence was “justified” and warned that a presidential pardon in the
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6 comments
Feb 20th, 2020 9:30 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Updating to add the conclusion: 40 months.
The Guardian live is following the hearing in Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s court.
The federal prosecutors and Roger Stone’s lawyers argued in court over whether the former Trump associate had obstructed his own criminal case by posting about it on social media.
As a reminder, Stone was slapped with an expanded gag order last year after he posted an Instagram appearing to show Judge Amy Berman Jackson and the crosshairs of a gun.
Jackson warned in court today that the post could have incited violence against her and merited a sentencing enhancement, denouncing Stone’s behavior as “intolerable.”
Awww just a bit of boyish fun.
Under questioning from Judge Amy Berman Jackson, federal prosecutor John Crabb defended the original
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2 comments
Feb 20th, 2020 8:31 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The sentencing hearing for Roger Stone is happening now.
Jackson spent much of the first hour of the hearing criticizing Stone’s actions.
Stone’s actions “led to an inaccurate, incorrect and incomplete report” from the House on Russia, WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign, Jackson told the court. She also said she believed Stone’s threats to witness Randy Credico deserved a stronger sentence.
In other words Stone’s actions meant that the Mueller report couldn’t nail Trump. The perjury did what it was meant to do.
Stone also potentially threatened her on social media, the judge said.
“I suppose that I could say Roger Stone didn’t intend to hurt me … it’s just classic bad judgment,” Jackson said, then dismissing that idea.
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Feb 20th, 2020 7:42 am |
By Ophelia Benson
It takes the breath away:
Queensland police have revealed that a man who killed his wife and three children by dousing them with petrol and setting them alight had a history of domestic violence and was known to them.
Not just murder but murder by extreme agony.
But in comments that have shocked domestic violence campaigners, the force says they are keeping an “open mind” about suggestions the 42-year-old Rowan Baxter had been “driven too far” and are appealing to people who knew the couple to come forward to understand his motives.
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On Thursday, Det Insp Mark Thompson confirmed domestic and family violence orders had been granted against Baxter, saying there had been “a number of engagements of
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