Category: Notes and Comment Blog

  • Slaves for eternity

    What’s wrong with this picture?

    “I’ve never seen a more materialistic and carnal religion.”

    There is that part, but there’s also the part that has “heaven” stocked with slaves.

    Slaves. In heaven. Come on now. Heaven means heaven – a magical place that’s magically good in every possible way. There is no suffering in heaven, no pain, no sorrow, no boredom, no fatigue, no prison, no punishment, no force, no oppression.

    So how can there possibly be slaves?

    They really haven’t thought this through.

  • Celebrating

    Another angry misogynist man steps up.

    Yeah right, we want men to stop taking our prizes and jobs and sports therefore we’re trying to genocide them.

    But also at our expense.

  • A splinter group

    Some people just won’t take no for an answer.

    The Girl Guides have become embroiled in infighting over a ban on boys who identify as girls.

    A splinter group has formed in an effort to force the organisation to reverse the trans ban, introduced last year following a Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of sex under equality law.

    But it’s Girl Guides. Because it’s Girl Guides, it should be girls, not girls and some boys. Just girls. That’s ok. That’s allowed.

    Calling itself Guiders Against Trans Exclusion (Gate), the group encourages Guide leaders to oppose the policy through activism, including writing to politicians and attending protests.

    It encourages members to show opposition to the ban by wearing the Guide’s promise badge upside down, changing profile pictures on social media to show support for trans allies, and wearing a trans pride necker scarf.

    But why should Guide leaders oppose the policy? Why can’t there be a Girl Guides?

    One Brownie leader, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “It’s an increasingly hostile environment. Communications from Girlguiding HQ seem to assume everyone is devastated by the rule change. I haven’t had a single parent ask me about it.

    “The online briefings after the policy change focused on how sorry they were and how they could continue to support trans girls. The idea that some parents or volunteers might welcome the change seems beyond them.”

    Bad theory of mind strikes again. “I think the right way, therefore everyone else must think the way I do, apart from a few warped people who are why we right-thinkers are having to fight them.”

    A social media video published by Thatcham Rangers, a Girlguiding group in Thatcham, in Berkshire, shows girls holding slogans such as “trans girls are girls” and “our story includes trans girls”, while the Girlguiding promise is read over the footage.

    In separate correspondence seen by The Telegraph, the group leader said she had been working with a local trans activist linked to a Pride organisation.

    Girls must be made to submit. No other outcome is acceptable.

    In the briefing video, organisers say they plan to “put pressure” on Girlguiding, MPs and other public bodies, and claim to have received support from organisations including the Scottish Green Party.

    Individuals linked to Gate are understood to be represented on a Girlguiding taskforce – a panel of 16 set up to explore how trans girls and women can be supported by the organisation. Newbury Pride is also understood to be represented on the panel, according to correspondence seen by The Telegraph.

    Girls must not be allowed to have anything just for girls. That would be treason. Female people are inferior, and most of them are sluts; they must be under discipline at all times.

  • No you’re not

    But if politicians did create more opportunities for women and girls in sports, men who pretend to be women would just steal those too.

    It’s like nailing an envelope with $10,000 in it to your front door so that nobody will break in. People who want to break in will just take the 10 k and then break down your front door.

    Also the ACLU is lying about the working to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity bit. The ACLU is doing the opposite of that. The ACLU is working to insure that girls and women won’t have an equal opportunity to compete and thrive.

  • Ugly man

    Now let’s think about all the innocent people Trump has hurt.

    My goodness, that’s hard to do, isn’t it! It would be much easier and faster to think about the few people Trump hasn’t hurt.

  • Tributes pour in

    Suzanne Moore on Jenni Murray:

    As the tributes pour in for this legendary broadcaster, let’s just say some are more fitting than others. I would love to see that expression that was hers alone as she peered over the top of her glasses at her interviewee. That look, both withering and bemused, could stop lesser mortals – however famous they were – in their tracks. That voice, deceptively soothing, was the voice of a woman who championed women’s rights for more than three decades. She spoke with the knowledge of someone who listened intently to the personal details of all kinds of women – and fought publicly for our political rights.

    Make no mistake, Dame Jenni was Woman’s Hour and she left after 33 years at its helm because the BBC would not let her discuss one of the issues of the day. “I was roundly ticked off publicly and informed that I would not be allowed to chair any discussions on the trans question or the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act,” she wrote in the Daily Mail in 2020 of the BBC’s actions towards her. She’d left Woman’s Hour earlier that year.

    In the name of “impartiality”, the BBC chose not to stand by one of its most beloved journalists because she had written that women’s rights were based on biological sex.

    Very partial indeed, in more than one sense.

    Safeguarding children, single-sex spaces, women’s ability to define themselves: these were things that mattered to her and despite the many death threats and the loss of her beloved job she would not shut up.

    “And yet I am not prepared to stop talking about this. It’s an issue that needs to be discussed without anyone fearing losing their livelihood or their life.” Brava Jenni.

    Her defenestration was possibly meant to be an example to junior women at the BBC, an attempt at silencing. Woman’s Hour is now an unlistenable mishmash of awed, whispering presenters kowtowing to men. Last week, for instance, in a discussion about misogyny and the manosphere, a man who had not transitioned into “womanhood” until his sixties was interviewed as an expert on the subject. Impartiality? No, this is a closing down of exactly the debate Jenni wanted to have.

    Her views on the trans issue were an intrinsic part of her feminism, but we had to listen to Harriet Harman on the Today programme on Saturday patronisingly explain that they didn’t “detract” from it. This is a travesty. Murray thought as she did because she was a feminist to her fingertips. She never regretted what she said and felt that the 2025 Supreme Court ruling on the matter had proved her right: that the legal definition of women is based on biological sex. She never backed down. She was never afraid to ask the difficult questions. She was magnificent, she had class.

    She was a contender.

  • They made a point of it

    More on Jenni Murray.

    And gender rubbish is inherently inimical to women and our interests, yet here we are.

  • Beeb v women

    The Beeb is on the hot seat.

    It was a huge loss, which is now irrevocable.

  • No you can’t

    Reuters:

    A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration’s restrictive Pentagon press access policy, which threatens journalists with being branded security risks ​if they seek information not authorized for public release.

    The lawsuit by the New York Times in Washington, D.C., federal court alleged that policy changes ‌by the Defense Department last year gave it free rein to freeze out reporters and news outlets over coverage the department did not like, in violation of the Constitution’s protections for free speech and due process. The government disputed that characterization and said the policy is reasonable and necessary for national security.

    U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said in his ruling that he recognized the importance of protecting troops and ​war plans but that it was “more important than ever that the public have access to information from a variety of perspectives about what its government is ​doing” in light of President Donald Trump’s recent “incursion” into Venezuela and war with Iran.

    Also in light of Trump’s lies, impulsive actions, lack of brain function, self-dealing, indifference to everyone and everything but himself.

  • Guest post: That’s where it blows up

    Originally a comment by Dave Ricks at Miscellany Room.

    Yesterday (March 19, 2026), the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) reported on the military “exercise” called “Arctic Endurance” in Greenland that started in January 2026, and will continue at a lower level for the rest of the year. I used Google Translate to read these two articles:

    The battle for Greenland

    Denmark prepared for possible attack from the US: Flew bags of blood to Greenland and prepared to blow up runways

    Key sources in Denmark and Europe are now telling for the first time what happened in the most critical days when Donald Trump threatened to take Greenland “the hard way”.

    The battle for Greenland

    ANALYSIS Behind the word ‘exercise’ in Greenland [, hidden blood and explosives,] and the most serious situation since April 9, 1940

    It’s one thing to have a marital breakdown, it’s quite another to file for divorce. That’s why “Arctic Endurance” was carefully described as an ‘exercise’.

    My quotes are from the first article, which is long and detailed:

    • DR explains their sources [italics mine] — “The story is based on 12 central sources at the top of the Danish government, the Armed Forces and central sources in our closest allied countries in Europe, whom DR has spoken to since Donald Trump’s statements about Greenland in December 2024. The information is confirmed by at least two, but typically significantly more, independent sources. The sources assess that the situation around Greenland remains so tense and sensitive that they can only speak anonymously. DR has also verified the information with other sources who have had insight into parts of the process.”

    • DR explains the timing [italics mine] — “Eight of DR’s sources describe one triggering factor in particular: the morning of January 3, 2026, when they woke up to the news that the United States had attacked Venezuela and removed the country’s president. That’s where it blows up, says a high-ranking source in the Danish security apparatus. … When Trump keeps saying he wants to take over Greenland, and then what happened in Venezuela happened, we had to take all scenarios seriously, says the source. The source also says that the assessment of the threat of a takeover of Greenland included “the fact that the official US is not functioning as usual”: Trump doesn’t have the same level of people around him as before who would talk him out of it. It’s super dangerous.”

    • DR lists five countries involved — “With little delay, an advance command with Danish, French, German, Norwegian and Swedish soldiers was first flown to Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq. Immediately after, a main force followed, including soldiers from the Dragoon Regiment in Holstebro, elite soldiers from the Jægerkorps and French alpine hunters trained for war in cold, mountainous areas. At the same time, Danish fighter planes and a French naval vessel were sent towards the North Atlantic.”

    • DR explains the point [italics mine] — “The goal of having soldiers on land in Greenland — with as many different flags on their shoulders as possible — was, according to six of the sources, so that the Americans would be forced to take a major hostile action if Donald Trump actually wanted to occupy Greenland militarily. That should deter the US from even trying. … All this even though none of DR’s sources had any illusions that it would be possible to hold out against an American attack. â€œThe cost to the US would have to be raised. The US would have to carry out a hostile act to get Greenland,” says a high-ranking Danish defense source about the historic defense plan that could have plunged Denmark into conflict with our most important ally since World War II.”

    • DR explains their article subtitles about blood and explosives — “For regular military exercises, where the purpose is to train with allies, blood and explosives are not packed, defense sources say. On the contrary, it is part of the procedure when preparing for a possible attack. Several other sources confirm to DR that the dispatch of soldiers to Greenland was about preparing a real defense of the Commonwealth.”

  • It’s yer attitude

    This guy.

    That’s the summary. The word for word is worse.

    Reporter: Mr President, why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files, why not just do it now?

    Trump: You know, it’s not the question that I mind, it’s yer attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions, you start off with a man who’s highly respected, asking him a harrible and insubordinate and and just a terrible question and you could even ask that same exact question nicely – yer all psyched uh somebody psychs you over at ABC they’re gunna [grimaces] psycha – [long pause while he rears back trying to shake loose a thought] – yer a terrible person and a terrible reporter – uh – as far as the Epstein files is – I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein, I threw him out of my club many years ago cuz I thought he was a sick pervert –

    [skipping some dull ranting]

    …and yer not after the radical left cuz yer a radical left network, and I think the way you ask a question, [his face distorts with rage] with the anger and the meanness – is terrible, yawta go backn learn how da bea reporter – [jabs finger] no more questions from you.

  • More than the sum of the parts

    The thing is…

    The thing is, it’s bad enough to have a man on to tell women about misogyny on a program called Woman’s Hour – but it’s way over the top bad to have a man who claims to be a woman on to tell women about misogyny on a program called Woman’s Hour. It’s exponential.

    Why is the BBC determined to share exponential insults to women?

  • Get off the sidewalk

    Well it’s about goddam time.

    Lime scooters in Seattle will soon be equipped with artificial intelligence and cameras that, it’s hoped, will shame people into not riding on the sidewalk.

    The technology has been tested in town in recent months leading up to the rollout, and it’s coming to Seattle before any other cities, said Parker Dawson, who runs regional government relations for Lime.

    Lime Vision will be installed on half the scooter fleet, about 3,500 vehicles, by June 1 and all of the fleet by year’s end. New and retrofitted scooters with the technology will begin showing up in mid-April.

    Without sharing many details, Dawson said the technology was developed by Lime specifically to deter sidewalk scooter riding, which by city law is barred but certainly not adhered to. Dawson wouldn’t say why the scooters won’t just slow down when on the sidewalk, as they do on the waterfront, where geofencing limits speeds to 8 mph down from the typical 15 mph.

    They’re a god damn menace and the rule against riding on the sidewalk should have been enforced from the outset.

    While Lime has faced criticism for safety concerns, notably the danger of riding a scooter without a helmet, many people can attest to the annoyance of being “buzzed” by a scooter while simply walking on a sidewalk, Scholes said later in an interview.

    Yeah no it’s not a mere annoyance, it’s terror. It’s the awareness that you could at any moment veer from a straight line just as one of those scooters or a bike or any other heavy swift mode of transport is zipping up behind you. You can’t hear them. They’re not like cars; they don’t make a noise; you could accidentally walk right in front of one because you’re on the sidewalk, which is where people walk. You’d be dead or horribly smashed up. It would not be fun.

    “The person riding on the sidewalk and ringing their bell to get out of their way. That’s really rich,” Scholes said. “It’s become a constant nuisance and it’s more than a nuisance, it’s a safety issue.”

    Scholes pointed to the number of visitors the city gets, and the urban senior living facilities in the city core, as reason enough for the technology.

    “We all have to uphold and protect the great walkability we have here because it’s such a fundamental asset,” he said. But, he added, Lime felt pressure to respond to criticism in Seattle and get off the sidewalk because the city is one of its biggest markets in North America.

    How about because the damn scooters and bikes are dangerous?

    Some of the blame for sidewalk scofflaws rests with the city, Dawson said, noting that people often ride on sidewalks when they don’t feel safe riding in the street.

    Yeah now think about how we peasants who use our feet to get places feel. We don’t feel safe walking on the sidewalk, and that makes sense, because we’re not.

  • The infinite trolling loop

    Every time you think you can’t despise the BBC any more profoundly, they step up to say hold my beer.

    “on the basis of her academic work” – but it’s not “her” academic work you evil shits. And no we don’t believe he was the only sociologist who has done academic work on the subject of the social theory of masculinity.

    And he didn’t share “her academic expertise,” he shared his academic expertise, which is the very issue we’re yelling about. Repeating the same stupid insulting lie over and over and over again is not going to persuade us, it’s only going to make us hate you more.

    How is it possible for you to ignore the obvious fact that a man’s experience of, take on, opinion about misogyny is not going to be the same as women’s because of the existential differences between them? Men are not vulnerable to male hatred and contempt the way women are because men are stronger. This is a lifelong fact about the two sexes. It’s a fact that does make a difference. Pretending there’s some need to bring men in to chat about it for the sake of variety is just one more calculated insult.

  • Diplomacy

    Sir that was 85 years ago.

  • Mental age 34 months and falling

    It’s worth watching all 7 plus minutes of his slobbery crazed babble. Notice the contrast with Vance, who is evil but not bereft of a brain.

  • 100% porridge

    This is…alarming. He has the brain power of a wet sponge.

    Note the terrified laughter when he says he wants to hug it. They’re trying to pretend he was joking instead of babbling like a two-year-old.

  • The emergence of a different paradigm

    The NY Times published a guest essay yesterday titled We Study Mass Shooters. Something Terrifying Is Happening Online.

    Until recently, if asked to profile a typical mass shooter, we would have described a middle-aged man who was socially isolated and in despair. He was not in the grip of a political ideology, nor did he have a mental health condition such as schizophrenia. Rather, he was deeply despondent about a life crisis, perhaps a divorce or a job loss. In attacking a workplace or a group of people he blamed for his problems, he was both exacting vengeance and effectively or literally committing suicide.

    Over the past several years, something has changed. We are witnessing the emergence of a different paradigm: a mass shooter no less despairing about life’s hardships but younger, highly connected to online social networks and seemingly convinced that in acting violently he or she is carrying out the only meaningful act possible in a world otherwise devoid of meaning. This shift is highly significant for our understanding of the online-fueled pathologies that afflict our society and for the policies that could help prevent such tragedies.

    Consider a recent example. Last month in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, an 18-year-old killed her mother and half brother at home, then opened fire at a secondary school she had attended, killing five students and an educator. In the aftermath of the shooting, amid the expected evidence of the shooter’s despair, there emerged an alarming trail of online activity: On Roblox, a game platform, the shooter had created a game simulating a mass shooting; her TikTok account reportedly featured reposted videos of a mass shooter; she belonged to a gore forum where users can post uncensored videos of violence, which has been frequented by other mass killers; and she had visited the online profile of a 15-year-old girl who killed two people at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wis., in 2024.

    But. There’s a catch. You know what it is, of course. That “she” is not a she. The guest essay starts with a major, repeated lie about the very subject the authors are writing about. They tell us We Study Mass Shooters but what’s the point if they then systematically lie about the sex of at least one of their subjects?

    I looked for more information and found that Wikipedia does the same thing.

    On February 10, 2026, a mass shooting occurred in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada. Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her mother and half-brother at their home before going to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where she killed six people and injured twenty-seven others before killing herself. Van Rootselaar was a former student of the school.

    No footnote, no brackets, no warning, no explanation – just the big lie.

    My signpost to this outrage was, as so often, Helen Lewis.

  • Not caring that transphobia what?

    Once more for those waaaaaaaaay the hell in the back…

    Knowing and/or saying that trans women are men is not in any way immoral or ugly or socially reprehensible. Trans women are men; that’s why the “trans” part is there. Women are women; trans women are not women. A table is not a trans chair; the two are different things. Different things are different. A carrot is not an orange, despite the similar color; the two are different things. A bicycle is not a car even though both have wheels; the two are different things. A man is not a woman even though both are human; the two are different things.

    Also, check your spelling ffs.

  • Nullified

    Now there’s a piece of good news.

    A federal judge on Tuesday nullified nearly all actions that the Trump administration took to shutter Voice of America, a federally funded news organization that broadcast to countries with limited press protections, including Iran, China and Russia.

    Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered more than 1,000 full-time journalists and support staff at the news group to return to work by March 23 and to resume broadcasting operations. The judge’s decision excludes contracted employees.

    Judge Lamberth wrote that Congress passed clear laws funding V.O.A. and directing the administration to maintain news operations “in each significant region of the world” that present “a variety of opinions and voices.” But the Trump administration, Judge Lamberth said, flagrantly disregarded the rules in seeking to shutter the news service and its parent agency.

    The Trump administration and evil Elon.

    The journalists and support staff members at V.O.A. who sued the Trump administration said they want to rebuild the news agency’s reach.

    “We are eager to begin repairing the damage Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency,” Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper, three of the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “We hope the American people will continue to support our mission to produce journalism, not propaganda.”

    Especially not Trump propaganda.