Category: Notes and Comment Blog

  • Where theocracy gets you

    Christina Dalcher on what people don’t know about Islamist countries:

    I was there when a group of academics who dared to criticize the government for not being democratic were removed from their homes in the wee hours and not heard from afterwards.

    I was pressured into putting a religion on my visa because ‘atheist’ would be problematic.

    I heard women speak of the safe houses that were set up to help Filipina maids who had their passports taken by their employers and who were regularly beaten by same.

    I knew that if I dared to call someone an idiot (or, worse, an ‘animal’), I would go to prison.

    I was told (by engineer friends) of oil field workers dying during Ramadan while white-collar professionals traveled to Austria for a month.

    I know that women in court were not permitted to cross their legs.

    I had students tell me Hitler was their hero and not blink an eye.

    I was forbidden from using any academic materials that came from Israel or that were written by a Jew.

    I met people with PhDs whose fathers hired Indian expats to research and write their dissertations.

    I (and the rest of the faculty) were told that no local student would fail a course.

    My requests for books on Semitic linguistics were ignored by the university library.

    Oh, and forget about traveling to another state for a medically necessary abortion — try another country. I don’t like any of that, and I don’t find it racist to say so.

    It sounds like Saudi Arabia – the Filipina maids who had their passports taken by their employers and who were regularly beaten by same is an item I’ve read about that hellhole of a country. The rich people leaving the country during Ramadan sounds very Saudi, too.

    And it sounds utterly hellish.

  • Define “basic humanity”

    Frustrating. I can’t find the source of the quoted passage, Google says it’s never heard of it, SEEN hasn’t so far answered my question. There’s an answer but I haven’t been able to find it yet.

    Meanwhile – somebody said this:

    “It can make them feel unsafe and unwelcome in an industry where I don’t think that’s the case. There’s a very small minority that speaks loudly about these topics, but largely it isn’t reflective of a wider view of people in publishing.”

    I want to know more about this because I want to know who thinks recognizing the material reality of sex translates to calling into question the basic humanity of certain groups. I want to know who thinks that and I want to argue with that person about it. I want to grab this endless emotional blackmail by the throat and shake it until it promises to stop. Knowing a man is a man is not repeat not repeat NOT the same thing as denying the basic humanity of the man in question.

  • Gracious

    She’s just not that into you.


    Taylor Swift has yet to endorse any presidential candidate this election cycle. But former President Donald Trump says he accepts the superstar’s non-existent endorsement.

    Trump posted “I accept!” on his Truth Social account, along with a carousel of (Swift) images – at least some of which appear to be AI-generated.

    One of the AI-manipulated photos depicts Swift as Uncle Sam with the text, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.”

    Also on Team Trump: Al Capone, Amelia Earhart, Rachel Maddow, David Beckham.

    Swift’s fans – known as Swifties – have gotten political this election cycle. Immediately after President Joe Biden stepped aside and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, a large group of Swift’s fans formed a community called “Swifties for Kamala,” which is not affiliated with the singer. The group, which has mobilized Swift fans to help elect Harris and other Democratic candidates down the ballot, has more than 60,000 followers on X.

    Yeah ok but they’re confused, that’s all. They meant “Swifties for Trump” but they spelled it wrong.

  • Chicago

    A long string of clips from last night at the DNC. I haven’t watched most of them yet; just the tweets make me tear up. You may notice a theme.

    I did watch the kids singing the anthem one. And the Maxine Waters one. She said “Fannie Lou” and I was a goner. Fannie Lou always makes me tear up. Always.

    I did manage to stay dry-eyed for the one about snacks.

  • No longer an employee

    More on Smyth Harper:

    Seems a very odd choice for head of communications for the police a non-departmental public body which oversees the system handling complaints against the police.

    H/t Smurfette

  • Repudiation

    Conservative judge just says no to Trump.

    Retired federal appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig, a prominent conservative legal scholar put on the bench by President George H.W. Bush, is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump, whose candidacy he describes as an existential threat to American democracy.

    Harris is a former prosecutor. Trump is a convicted felon. You do the math.

    “In the presidential election of 2024 there is only one political party and one candidate for the presidency that can claim the mantle of defender and protector of America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law,” Luttig wrote in a statement obtained exclusively by CNN. “As a result, I will unhesitatingly vote for the Democratic Party’s candidate for the Presidency of the United States, Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.”

    …

    In endorsing Harris, Luttig argues that partisan distinctions must, in this election, be set aside in order to prevent the “singularly unfit” Trump from returning to the White House.

    “In voting for Vice President Harris, I assume that her public policy views are vastly different from my own,” Luttig writes, “but I am indifferent in this election as to her policy views on any issues other than America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law, as I believe all Americans should be.”

    There’s that, and parallel to that there’s the fact that he’s a very bad person in just about every possible way, and she’s not. I cannot stand the prospect of another four years of a selfish mean greedy dishonest pig of a man lording it over all of us.

    Luttig now joins a number of high-profile Republicans endorsing Harris, including former members of Congress Joe Walsh, Barbara Comstock and Adam Kinzinger. Kinzinger, now a CNN contributor, will have a high-profile speaking slot this week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

    Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, also a CNN contributor, endorsed Harris at the end of July in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed. Her campaign, he wrote, was “the best vehicle toward preventing another stained Trump presidency.”

    Speaking to CNN, Luttig said his decision to publicly back Harris was a matter of knowing “right from wrong” – and acting in accordance.

    More people should do that.

  • You just don’t

    The quotation marks indicate a quotation, so I looked for it. Apparently it’s Fran Lebowitz who said it.

    Anyway it’s true. It’s weirdly bizarrely shamingly true. I don’t know anyone as blatantly obviously shamelessly as stupid as Trump. It’s possible that I know some people who are approximately that stupid but if so they don’t flaunt it the way he does…which means they are less stupid than he is.

    You can object that this unsurpassed stupidity of his got him elected president, but on the other hand it made billions of people aware of how profoundly stupid he is when they otherwise would have had no idea.

    Anyway I really don’t know any other people who get up in public and babble like angry toddlers all day long. He really is uniquely thick in the head. It’s very shaming.

  • Shulgarh district

    In other parts of the world:

  • Radioactive hair

    Police in Iran shoot a woman in the spine, paralyzing her, because they don’t like her hair.

    The family of Arezou Badri, a 31-year-old woman shot by Iran’s police on July 22 for allegedly violating mandatory hijab laws, is under intense government pressure to withdraw their complaint.

    Badri, a mother of two, was left paralyzed after the shooting, an incident that has ignited outrage both within Iran and on the international stage.

    The family’s complaint regarding Badri, who suffered severe spinal cord injuries and remains hospitalized at Valiasr Hospital in Tehran, was heard in a court this week. However, the family remains dissatisfied with the outcome and the judicial process.

    This is because she has hair on her head. Women have slutty whorey seductive catch-me fuck-me hair on their heads, because they’re sluts, so if they don’t wear a huge bandage on their hair to conceal it, the cops get to shoot them. Women are so evil it’s beyond belief.

    A warrant for the confiscation of Badri’s vehicle over an earlier alleged hijab violation led police to open fire from the rear driver’s side.

    Say what? How could a “hijab violation,” i.e. not wearing a thick bandage on the head concealing all but the face “lead” police to open fire on the woman not wearing the bandage?

    It’s all futile anyway you know. It’s not women’s fault that men think about sex a lot. If you bandage the hair it will be something else that turns the men’s thoughts to sex. If you do away with all the women you won’t have any people left. It’s a mug’s game trying to make men stop thinking about sex.

    The Information Center of the Mazandaran Police Command confirmed the police shooting at the car in which Badri was a passenger, stating that the driver “continued to flee despite police orders, prompting the police to shoot at the car according to the law on the use of firearms.”

    Yeah see that’s not a good reason. If the police are hassling her for existing, they don’t therefore have the right to shoot her in the back for trying to get away from them. Iranian law may allow it, but some laws suck.

    She has two kids. Now their mother is paralyzed and will probably die. Because she didn’t hide her hair from lecherous men.

  • The impossible dream

    Hmm that’s a stupid title.

    Tentative deal could allow transgender girls to keep playing on girls’ sports teams in N.H.

    If boys play on girls’ sports teams then those sports teams are no longer girls’ sports teams. By definition. These boys who long to play on girls’ teams are yearning for the impossible, because by getting their wish they fail to get their wish. “Ok George and Fred and Bill you can play on the girls’ team, whoops now it’s a mixed team.”

    Two transgender girls in New Hampshire whose families filed a federal lawsuit challenging the enforcement of a new state law that bars them from girls’ school sports may get a temporary reprieve.

    Two boys, that is. If they get any kind of reprieve they will change the girls’ team into a girls’ and boys’ team. The thing they want is literally impossible for them to attain.

  • Legally recogniiiiiized

    Julie Bindel on another cheating male athlete:

    Valentina Petrillo, a 50-year-old biological male, is set to be the first transgender Paralympian. The International Paralympic Committee allows governing bodies to set their own policies, and World Para Athletics permits anyone legally recognised as a woman to compete in the women’s events.

    Why stop there? Why not legally recognize cheetahs as human and let them compete in races? Why not recognize dolphins as human and let them compete in swimming competitions?

    Petrillo is being lauded not because he is a brilliant sprinter, but because he is the first transgender person to compete in the World Paralympic Games. Supporters of transgender ideology will approve of how inclusive the sporting world is – and the women who complain will be called bigots. Is this going to keep on happening until we are back to the bad old days, when no females competed in the Olympics? Perhaps women athletes have had their moment, won their quota of medals, and are now to be consigned to cheerleading?

    It’s hard to see how that situation can be averted unless everyone retreats from the bullshit. If legal recognition is all it takes what will prevent all male athletes from simply demanding legal recognition and then taking women’s places?

    The same science that has determined he has a disability can also determine that he is male. The sacrifices made by those hard-working female athletes in order to compete in this elite sporting competition can only be imagined by most of us. We must make no bones about saying that, whether deliberate or not, Petrillo is a cheat.

    And that the people he is cheating are women.

  • Cheating dude tells women to “look within”

    Let’s add insult to injury, shall we?

    [O]utspoken Scottish golfer Hailey Davidson – born male but who transitioned to female – has shared her perspective on why athletes should look within when faced with defeat by transgender competitors.

    There it is again – as pretty much always. The issue isn’t “transgender competitors”; it’s men intruding on women’s sports. When it’s the other way around it’s pretty much never a problem for the men. The news media flat-out refuse to cover this honestly.

    Davidson was recently excluded from NXXT golf events due to the policy changes following her transition. She took to Instagram to express her views: “I will never understand athletes who blame a transgender competitor on their own athletic failures. If you don’t take accountability for your failures then you will never actually be good enough to make it.”

    First of all, the guy is illiterate. He means “athletes who blame a transgender competitor FOR their own athletic failures.” Second, he’s a pig, taunting women who don’t consent to his intrusion into their sport. I will never understand pigs like Hayley Davidson who insult women for not wanting him ruining their sport.

    Having last competed in men’s tournaments in 2015 and after her gender reassignment surgery in 2021, Davidson has seen victories in NXXT tournaments. Despite this, the organization’s updated inclusion policy as of January prevents athletes not born female from competing.

    Despite what? Why would Davidson’s success at cheating women be a reason for the organization to continue letting him cheat? It’s not “despite this,” it’s “because this.”

  • A laborer from Shamokin

    Wait what?

    Robert A. Bridy, 64, a laborer from Shamokin, Pennsylvania, traveled on Saturday to the rally to show support for Trump. He said the election feels tight in this state and added that his union and a close friend are trying to convince him to vote for Harris and other Democrats, but he has voted for Trump since 2016.

    Bridy called Trump a “working class guy like us.” Trump is a billionaire who built his fortune in real estate.

    How do people manage to think that?

    The only explanation I can think of is insulting to the people in question.

    Trump has never been in any sense working class. He was landlord class from the beginning.

    What he can claim, I suppose, is that he lacks class in the cultural sense. He’s from Queens, and he remains all Queens despite the very tall property on 5th Avenue. You can buy the brownstone, you can build the tower, but you’ll still never be what old money is willing to sit down to dinner with. The tall garish tower will never be 47 and 49 E. 65th Street.

    A different person could make that transition, but for Trump it’s completely out of the question. He’s determinedly sleazy and vulgar and trashy – he wants to be that, he enjoys it, he loves rubbing people’s noses in it.

    Also a different person could remain loyal to his Queens roots but also be a decent human being, but again for Trump that’s just not a goal.

    So really what the laborer from Shamokin, Pennsylvania is saying is that Trump is a bad cruel vulgar ignorant person “like us”…which is just too sad and horrific to believe.

  • The contrast

    This is effective.

    Now you can say “Well sure but those are carefully selected clips, you could find other clips that would show the opposite” – but the reality is that you could not. Not in a million years could you find clips of Donald Trump talking to little girls the way Harris does. The reality is that Trump does think that “value” in women means “sexually appealing to Donald Trump.” The reality is that Trump thinks that’s the only kind of value women can have.

    And the reality of course is that you could never find clips of Harris talking about anyone the way Trump talks about female people. For Harris female people have the capabilities that male people have; for Trump female people are items on the menu.

  • He’s so shell-shocked that

    Michael Tomasky at The New Republic notes that Harris is good at fighting back, something the Dems are often not very good at.

    And Donald Trump is freaked out in ways he never imagined were possible. He has faced a lot of opponents—from 1980s New York Mayor Ed Koch to all his many creditors to the 16 dwarves he ran against in 2016 to a Clinton campaign that thought the race was over to prosecutors he has known for years how to slow down, especially with corrupt hack judges having his back. But Trump has never had an opponent that made him go: “Oh fuck, these people mean business.”

    Now he does. And that it’s a Black woman who means this business makes it so great, so much better. The New York Times reported over the weekend that he is so shell-shocked by the turnabout in this race that he’s doubling down on racism and “stop the steal” delusions. He is in full-blown meltdown mode, in other words.

    Let’s not get too excited, because Trump still has the massive advantage of being the worst person on the planet and lots of people just love that. But still: it is indeed nice to see the other team not just flopping around helplessly.

  • Extreme extremism is extremist

    The BBC is just a tiny bit evasive as it reports on misogyny and “extremism”…

    Extreme misogyny will be treated as a form of extremism under new government plans, the Home Office has said.

    Tautology, dear BBC. Extremism will be treated as a form of extremism.

    Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has ordered a review of the UK’s counter-extremism strategy to determine how best to tackle threats posed by harmful ideologies. The analysis will look at hatred of women as one of the ideological trends that the government says is gaining traction. Ms Cooper said there has been a rise in extremism “both online and on our streets” that “frays the very fabric of our communities and our democracy”.

    It’s still not clear how “extremism” is being defined.

    The review will look at the rise of Islamist and far-right extremism in the UK, as well as wider ideological trends, including extreme misogyny or beliefs which fit into broader categories, such as violence.

    Is the issue Islamist “extremism” or Islamist misogyny? Bundling everything into “extremism” just makes it all a soup, with no clarity about the ingredients.

    This is also not the first time the government has considered misogyny as a form of extremism. For some years there has been concern around “Incel culture”, an online movement of mainly young men who describe themselves as “involuntarily celibate” and blame women and “alpha males” for their problems.

    There is, of course, no mention of the misogyny of trans ideology.

  • Oh right, women exist!

    Well there’s a surprise.

    Extreme misogyny to be treated as terrorism

    Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has ordered a review of Britain’s counter-extremism strategy to urgently address gaps in the Government’s stance, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

    It will look at tackling violence against women and girls in the same way as Islamist and far-Right extremism, amid fears that current Home Office guidance is too narrow.

    It’s nice that they’ve at least noticed finally. I’m so sick of seeing the lists of persecuted groups that always always always leave women out. I saw another one just this morning.

    The move comes after Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said that violence against women and girls should be treated as a national security threat.

    Speaking in the wake of a damning report into the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Scotland Yard officer, he warned that hundreds of thousands of sex abusers and paedophiles were at large and tackling them would require more resources from future governments.

    Last month, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) published a major report into violence against women and girls, calling for an overhaul in the way it is dealt with owing to the “epidemic scale” of offending

    Well it’s about fucking time. Did they think women are just expendable, or what?

  • He thinks it’s a beautiful phrase

    The fragrant candidate from Queens:

  • Oh yes we can

    A comment by a woman on Jo Phoenix’s post Talking about Asian grooming gangs:

    An interesting and thought provoking article. One thing I find missing is the observation that not all cultures and religions are the same regarding attitudes towards women and girls. All are bad in their own way, but men of Muslim heritage and Muslim countries do have particularly oppressive and offensive attitudes about women and girls. Just because a subject raises unpleasant issues and is difficult to discuss doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be discussed.

    I would put that more cautiously by saying that countries where Islam is more or less mandatory train men (and plenty of women) to be suspicious and contemptuous of women. Some men resist, some people grow up in more liberal secular families, yadda yadda, but the bottom line is that Islam teaches that women are always potential whores and have to be hidden and controlled and bullied.

    Jo Phoenix’s reply, I’m sorry to say, is not impressive.

    Not sure I agree. This is a generalisation. Catholicism? The Magdalen Schools in Ireland and csa by priests? Fundamentalism is a problem. Look at the legacy of Christianity in many African countries. We cannot say that Islam – as a religion – is more or less oppressive than Christianity.

    First of all, yes, Catholicism, and the Magdalen laundries, and rapey priests. Yes, for sure. But that doesn’t translate to “Islam is not all that bad.” Yes it is. Look at Iran. Look at Afghanistan. Look at Boko Haram in Nigeria. Look at Saudi Arabia. And yes, look at Pakistan. The fact that Catholicism also sucks does not make Islam benign. There are reformist Muslims of course but the Taliban doesn’t pay a whole lot of attention to them. Of course we can say that Islam – as a religion – (what else would it be?) – is more oppressive than Christianity. Try telling the girls and women thrown out of schools and universities by the Taliban that Christianity is just as bad.

    She goes on:

    The generalisation comes in when you say ‘men of Muslim heritage’ – do you mean all men of Muslim heritage – if so this is the same as saying men of black heritage are problematic. 

    Of course it isn’t. Black heritage is not a religion, it has no Mohammed, it has no Koran, thus it has no holy book that tells it women are sly rebellious lying whores and must be muffled and controlled. It is fair to say that some men of Muslim heritage reject the misogyny, and even resist Islamist rulers and “activists” – like the late Tarek Fatah for instance. It’s fair to say that and it’s good to promote them and their work. But one can do that without pretending that Islam as it is in the world today is a benign or even somewhat benign religion. Unless you think half of humanity is simply worthless, that won’t fly.

  • It’s actually much better

    It seems Trump has finally said something that angers even the maga types.

    Former President Donald Trump received an immediate backlash Thursday when he said the Presidential Medal of Freedom he awarded to Dr. Miriam Adelson, the widow of Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, was “equivalent” and “much better” than the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for bravery in combat. 

    What was that Captain Bonespurs? You’re dissing combat veterans now?

    Speaking from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, during an event on fighting antisemitism, Trump praised the late Las Vegas casino magnate as “one of the greatest businessmen in the world,” before addressing Sheldon Adelson’s widow to make a comparison between the Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, which is typically given for significant achievements in the arts, public service and other fields. 

    In other words it’s a fine medal but it’s not comparable to the one you get for risking your life. Bloated scam artists who’ve never risked a damn thing shouldn’t belittle the people who risk their lives.

    “I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version,” said Trump as he spoke from the podium in front of multiple American and Israeli flags. 

    He added, “It’s actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they are dead. She gets it and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman. And they’re rated equal, but she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom.” 

    Remember when Trump skipped a planned visit to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and called the soldiers buried there suckers and losers? He just did the same sort of thing all over again. He’s not a fast learner.

    But many veterans with prominent platforms on social media denounced Thursday’s remarks from the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, lambasting the comments about the medal as “offensive” and “disrespectful.” Trump’s statement about the Medal of Honor and his characterization of service members who receive the award became a top trending topic of discussion on X, the social media platform. 

    Trump’s comments on Thursday evening recalled past criticism of the former president over his disparaging comments about the late Republican Sen. John McCain in 2015 when he said McCain was “only a war hero because he was captured” during the Vietnam War, adding, “I like people that weren’t captured, OK?”

    This is core Trump. He’s all about self-dealing – he’s all about self, period. That’s all there is to him. He’s just a flat endless wasteland of self. He’s a vision of hell.