Originally a comment by iknklast on The medical paradigm establishment narrative.

I am so sick of the anti-scientific, anti-expert obsession, especially in women’s health issues. Challenging the patriarchy does not mean rejecting every single thing any man has ever done or said. It does not mean branding science as a “male” field, or branding medicine as something “men” do to oppress “women”. It means getting rid of the things men do to oppress women, while maintaining the things that are in our best interests. It does not mean abandoning all rationality and reason, though I have seen that argued (in my playwriting program, I protested parts of one book my mentor had me read because they implied women don’t … Read the rest

So we might as well read that open letter to Jen Gunter by Jennifer Lang.

There is nothing the patriarchy likes to see more than a good cat-fight. I read your open letter to Ms Paltrow when it was published in 2017, and at the time found it very unfortunate. I, too, struggled with whether it was worth my time or mental energy making a public response as urgent social, environmental and political events piled up around us. I decided to classify your letter as yet one more public beat-down of a female voice offering an alternative narrative to the monopoly-on-truth claimed by the western medical model. I ignored it. However, the publication of your new book and in

A couple of comments on Jennifer Block’s Facebook post reporting and denouncing the removal of her hit-piece on Jen Gunter:

Maya Shetreat You hit a nerve because you’re taking aim at the misogyny of medicine and of patriarchy in general. How dare you imply women are capable of making educated decisions on their own?! You are describing a paradigm that is deeply threatening to the establishment.

It doesn’t feel good when the haters swarm, but know it’s because what you’re saying is deeply important and resonates with many people. Otherwise they’d ignore you…

Jennifer Lang Maya Shetreat It’s nice to see you here. I KNOW you understand what happens when the dominant narrative gets challenged in a poignant and insightful

News from Pakistan:

A ten-year-old girl in rural Pakistan was stoned to death by family members after a tribal council decided she had been planning to elope, according to local reports.

Gul Sama, a resident of the village of Shahi Makan, in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, was killed on November 22. Local activists and residents were threatened with death by the tribal council, or jirga, if they spoke about it. However, social media posts showing the girl’s grave went viral with activists calling for justice. The police stepped have arrested the dead girl’s parents and Mushtaq Laghari, a cleric who conducted the funeral in secret.

“Her face and head were unrecognisable and she was brutally killed,” a resident of

Trump is on his way to London to embarrass us and disgust everyone else some more. He told some more lies before getting on the plane.

Speaking to reporters before he left for London, Trump falsely claimed the Ukrainian president had cleared him of wrongdoing in a recent interview with Time magazine.

“The Ukrainian president came out and said very strongly that President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong. That should be case over,” Trump told reporters. “But it will never end it because [Democrats] want to do what they want to do.”

In reality, Volodymyr Zelenskiy criticized Trump for holding up Ukraine’s military assistance and said that the US president had harmed his country’s economic propsects by calling it corrupt.

No.

Dear Media,
Please retire the use of the term “Anti-vaxxer.” It is derogatory, inflammatory, and marginalizes both women and their experiences. It is dismissivemy simplistic, highly offensive and largely false. We politely request that you refer to us as the Vaccine Risk Aware. pic.twitter.com/WtAyFOhLuv

— Crazymothers (@Crazymothers1) December 1, 2019

How does the word “anti-vaxxer” marginalize women specifically? There are plenty of male anti-vaxxers, and there’s nothing sex-specific about being an anti-vaxxer, so I’ll thank her not to rope us into her bullshit.

But Steelclaws said it better.

Updating to add:

“Antivaxer” is a the most respectful name I can think of for them. It has the added bonus of being accurate. https://t.co/65JRY1lRjO

— David Gorski, MD, PhD

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