Hmm.

It's true, I did say that. https://t.co/eet6B01Gzg

— Alister McGrath (@alisteremcgrath) November 30, 2019

Is it simplistic or just simple?

Sure, “there isn’t one” is simple, and easy to say, and kind of bare bones – indeed boring, but that’s not really much of a reason to abandon atheism for christianity is it? Baroque complication may be more fun but that doesn’t make it true.

I don’t know. There’s too much empty space. Everything is way too far apart. None of it is cozy or manageable enough to make the human idea of a “God” at all believable. It even smells weird in space – a burnt metal sort of smell. That’s simplistic, if you like.… Read the rest

Again with this crap.

Can trans women and radical feminists find sisterhood? https://t.co/QQd5l1K1EM

— Morgane Oger (@MorganeOgerBC) December 1, 2019

No, they can’t, because trans women are male people, so they can’t be sisters so we can’t find “sisterhood” with them. Men are not our sisters. That’s not some terrible thing, it’s just reality. White people shouldn’t run around flapping their hands and trying to force people of color to accept us as fellow people of color because we’re not. Same with women.

What ever happened to “respect boundaries”? Wasn’t that a thing for awhile?… Read the rest

You what now?

Appalled to recieve a call for help from board members of a women's centre being overrun by transphobic extremists trying to roll back its decade-long work helping all women and non-binary people. Laws exist to protect us all from hatred for a reason, #NelsonBC#bcpoli @BCNDPWRC

— Morgane Oger (@MorganeOgerBC) December 1, 2019

So the problem is that boardmembers of a women’s center want the women’s center to be for women?

The Nelson and District Women's Centre is facing a coordinated and well-funded litigious campaign aiming to undo over a decade of trans-inclusion work by two members in what seems to be yet another episode of TERFs v Society. Rolling back services would have harmful consequences.

—

Where does Goop come in?

Here, for one:

This person was one of the doctors GOOP used to attack me in 2017 and she identifies as a colleague of Block. pic.twitter.com/mRLQD5lVOQ

— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) December 1, 2019

A mouthpiece for conventional obstetrics and gynecology, eh? As opposed to being a mouthpiece for Goop?… Read the rest

Jennifer Block is rallying her troops on Facebook.

Hey all, yes, my piece got pulled. You can still read it in the archive (see link in comment) and read The Daily Beast’s take on what happened (also in comment). It’s been a wild Thanksgiving! I need to say more and figure out in what forum. Meanwhile, Dr. Gunter has blocked me on Twitter (@writingblock if you want to follow me, though be prepared!) I managed to stay present, connecting with people in the real world for much of the holiday, and just this evening posted some responses to the criticism (some reasonable) and unfounded accusations. I guess I hit a nerve. Anyway, thanks for being here.

Uh huh the … Read the rest

And now we can combine our two themes of the morning.

Some further responses from Jen Gunter:

I explained how tweets about abortion were used to imply that is how I regularly tweet. I explained the claim of credible research about vaginal yogurt was false. I showed the claims about tea tree oil were false. I explained I had written on obstetrical violence 2.

— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) December 1, 2019

I explained that personal anecdote is not scientific. I pointed out how the data on alcohol in pregnancy was mischaracterized. I explained the patriarchal roots of vaginal steaming and the biological implausibility of effectiveness and the potential harm. 4

— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) December 1, 2019

I pointed to my extensive body of work that shows I have acknowledged repeatedly

Jennifer Block is angry that Scientific American removed her bad hit-piece on Jen Gunter.

.@DrJenGunter called for the removal of my @sciam piece, which argued that her approach to women’s health is authoritarian and bullying. This response proves my point. It’s not anti-science to acknowledge people's lived experience. I stand by my piece. https://t.co/Vyg0yQtbiN

— Jennifer Block (@writingblock) December 1, 2019

Of course it’s not “anti-science to acknowledge people’s lived experience,” whatever that may mean, but it is anti-science to substitute “lived experience” for properly conducted research,

Upon reflection, I should have asked @DrJenGunter for an interview. Perhaps it could have started more of a dialogue (now she has blocked me). I didn't (nor did @sciam) think it

Yes this is definitely an important hill to die on – the freedom to call women you don’t like “evil little cunt.” Our ability to reason and argue and discuss will wither and die without that freedom! Freedom freedom FREEDOM.

Good. It never should have been posted in the first place, but good that it’s been removed.

Jen Gunter a few hours ago:

The post about me has been removed from @sciam for not meeting editorial standards. Thank you everyone for your support. Half truths, obfuscations, and lies help no person have agency over their body.

Note where the article used to be:

Editor’s note. The post that originally appeared here has been removed because we’ve determined that it doesn’t meet our editorial standards.

Jen Gunter a couple of hours later:

Removing this piece was important not just for me, but for health care. Naturopaths, anti-vaccine doctors, and people who claim they can “balance hormones” with food

News for New Hampshire:

Transitional Housing Unit Resident on Escape Status

The New Hampshire Department of Corrections announces that a minimum-security resident of the North End Transitional Housing Unit in Concord failed to return home as scheduled on Wednesday, November 27.

Shaun Cook, 41, was placed on “escape” status just after 6 p.m. Wednesday night.

Cook is described as a white transgender female, 5’8”, 179 pounds with brown hair and
brown eyes.

She has a scar on her chin and left cheek. Cook prefers female pronouns and
will often go by the first name, Summer, however, that is not her legal name.

Cook has been imprisoned for several crimes throughout the years. Most recently, she is
serving time for

Seen on Twitter:

Not “murdered woman’s body found in freezer” but “woman whose body was found in a freezer was a bitch.”

Women are blamed for their own murders.… Read the rest

Howard Jacobson remembers Clive James:

Clive James never failed to get a joke. Or to go on to make a better one. This wasn’t because he was overly competitive: rather, like Dr Johnson, whom he often quoted, he believed that conversation obliged us to keep the ball in the air. People lacking the grace that is a sense of humour also lacked common sense, he once told Martin Amis. “A sense of humour,” he went on, “is nothing but common-sense dancing.”

…

His practice as a critic, which was to abolish distinctions between high and low (but not between good and bad) was exemplary. The catholicism of his interests made his television columns for the Observer not only the

In an extra turn of the screw, the first named victim of the London Bridge murders was working on prisoner rehabilitation.

The first victim of the London Bridge attack has been named as Jack Merritt, a 25-year-old who worked for a programme aimed at improving prisoner rehabilitation.

Merritt’s death was confirmed by his father, David, who described him as a “champion for underdogs everywhere”.

Merritt worked as the course coordinator for Learning Together, a programme run by the University of Cambridge’s institute of criminology which had been running a course at Fishmongers’ Hall next to London Bridge on Friday.

Two people were killed and three were injured when 28-year-old Usman Khan launched a knife attack. Khan was arrested in December

Jennifer Block explained the other day why she wrote that hit piece about Jen Gunter at the Scientific American blog:

I’ve been mulling this one for a while, about a troubling authoritarian streak in one prominent OB/GYN in particular. Then she went after Our Bodies Ourselves, as well as the fantastic Cosmopolitan Magazine piece on LEEPs, and Jennifer Lang wrote an open letter. So here’s my contribution.

There is no “troubling authoritarian streak.” It’s not “authoritarian” to say bullshit is bullshit; the reality is it helps people resist being conned and fleeced by people who sell quack “remedies” for big bucks. Gwyneth Paltrow is not being a friend to the downtrodden by peddling jade eggs and herbal miracle drinks. And … Read the rest

Hmm.

“Author David Thomas still lives as a man, but has begun the male-to-female transition that will eventually result in becoming a woman.”

It won’t you know. It can’t. It doesn’t. It won’t. A man can’t “become” a woman. You can call it the male-to-female transition all you want, but it still won’t result in becoming a woman. Not even eventually. Not ever. This isn’t because we’re too mean to open the door of the club house, it’s because that’s not how it works.

But hey, I’m sure if he “learns to stand and walk like a woman” no one will ever suspect that he’s a man, because having a special dainty but seductive way of standing and walking is … Read the rest

Way back last May:

An Ohio state representative introduced a new bill last month, which aims to prohibit insurance coverage of abortions that occur where the mother’s life is not “endangered if the fetus were carried to term.” The bill includes exceptions, including one for a procedure that does not exist.

GOP Rep. John Becker introduced House Bill 182, which allows for two situations where insurers could offer coverage for abortion services. One is a “procedure, in an emergency situation, that is medically necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life.”

The other, the bill says, is a procedure for an ectopic pregnancy, “that is intended to reimplant the fertilized ovum into the pregnant woman’s uterus.”

Which can’t be … Read the rest

The BBC reports:

Two members of the public have died after a stabbing attack at London Bridge, in which police also shot dead the suspect.

The Met Police has declared the attack a terrorist incident.

The suspect, who died at the scene, was believed to have been wearing a hoax explosive device, police said.

Videos on social media appear to show passers-by holding down a man. An officer arrives, seems to indicate to the group to move, and fires a shot.

Because of the apparent explosive device, I guess.

The challenge for police and security services is that low-tech attacks – involving knives or vehicles – and often carried out by lone actors can be hard to spot in

The Scientific American blog has a shockingly bad – and anti-science – post by Jennifer Block attacking Jen Gunter for disrespecting The Anecdote.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop brand is annoying, unattainable and overpriced, for sure. But Goop does more than just annoy. It incites an interesting rage among medical professionals in particular, most prominently Jen Gunter. An ob-gyn and the author of The Vagina Bible (also a New York Times contributor, prolific Twitterer, TV show host and soon-to-be podcaster), Gunter wrote an open letter to Paltrow in 2017 and hasn’t stopped harping on her since. Gunter points to Paltrow as emblematic of the “wellness industrial complex” that is not only exploiting gullible women with snake oil but threatening their health.