Category: Notes and Comment Blog

  • …or else

    The AP put out a fake news warning.

    CLAIM: A photo of a person holding a sign featuring pink, blue and white guns and the words “trans rights… or else” shows the shooter who killed six people at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday.

    AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The person who took this photograph confirmed it was captured in Oklahoma City before news of the Nashville shooting was widespread. It does not show the shooter.

    THE FACTS: The photo circulated widely online after the police chief identified the shooter as transgender in a late afternoon news conference on Monday. Police had previously identified the shooter as female.

    “This is the trans shooter, Audrey Hale,” read one tweet shared thousands of times. “The Feds are in the middle of trying to scrub ALL of her social media & pictures from the internet.”

    The tweet claimed the shooter was a “terrorist” who wanted to kill Christians, “as the sign makes clear.”

    However, the person holding the sign in the image is not the shooter who opened fire at The Covenant School, killing three students and three adults.

    So. Not a photo of the shooter. But. Is a photo of someone threatening mass shooting.

    Oli has images of the shirt.

  • Pretty woman

    Now that’s what I call a grift.

    Guy puts on a dress, gets $26,000.

  • The all-important membrane

    Good move.

    The government is planning on banning a cosmetic surgery called hymenoplasty across the UK.

    It attempts to recreate a woman’s hymen, which in some cultures is linked to virginity, and has been described as a form of honour-based abuse. The procedure will be criminalised, as will virginity testing.

    …

    Hymenoplasty is available in clinics and can cost up to ÂŁ3,000. The procedure recreates a thin membrane known as the hymen which partially covers the entrance to the vagina. It is often done as a way to “repair” a hymen.

    Because without that there hymen all you’ve got is a slut.

    A woman’s hymen can tear for all sorts of reasons and not just through sexual intercourse, for instance through playing sports or using tampons.

    The practice of hymenoplasty is linked to conservative cultures which place a high value on virginity, with the expectation a virgin should bleed after sex on her wedding night. The WHO says virginity testing is practised in at least 20 countries. It involves an intrusive vaginal examination to check if the hymen is intact.

    It’s not virginity per se, it’s female virginity. Nobody cares about male virginity – in fact for males it’s shameful to be a virgin. This is because children are women’s fault.

    Aleena, whose name we have changed, said she was raped and then, as a teenager, faced years of pressure from her family to get the procedure.

    Some “family.”

  • Modern audiences

    Another cleanup on aisle 10.

    Several Agatha Christie novels have been edited to remove potentially offensive language, including insults and references to ethnicity.

    Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries written between 1920 and 1976 have had passages reworked or removed in new editions published by HarperCollins to strip them of language and descriptions that modern audiences find offensive, especially those involving the characters Christie’s protagonists encounter outside the UK.

    To be honest this doesn’t really outrage me all that much. Agatha Christie wasn’t a giant of literature, she was a popular mystery writer.

    The updates follow edits made to books by Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming to remove offensive references to gender and race in a bid to preserve their relevance to modern readers.

    Or, a bid to make it possible to read their books without flinching. Dahl is far more of a literary writer than Christie or Fleming, and I do think that makes a difference. I think I can explain why, too: Christie and Fleming are telling stories; the language is just the medium. Literary writers care about the language as well as the stories.

    Among the examples of changes cited by the Telegraph is the 1937 Poirot novel Death on the Nile, in which the character of Mrs Allerton complains that a group of children are pestering her, saying that “they come back and stare, and stare, and their eyes are simply disgusting, and so are their noses, and I don’t believe I really like children”.

    This has been stripped down in a new edition to state: “They come back and stare, and stare. And I don’t believe I really like children.”

    But what if the racist language is there to tell us something about Mrs Allerton?

    H/t Nullius in Verba

  • Guest post: They are the nails that refuse to be hammered down

    Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on More than viz.

    I get the feeling that those organizing and supporting this aren’t going to be satisfied with “vengeance” that is purely rhetorical. Unlike the “violence” of “misgendering” and “deadnaming” that they’re always decrying, the vengeance they’ll be looking for isn’t going to be limited to saying mean things. Trans activists have threatened and used physical violence for years. It’s always been there. It’s always been in one direction. Against women. Claims of “trans genocide” are just another tool of escalation and justification, the hyperbolic paranoia and explicit emotional blackmail allowing them to excuse whatever they do as “self defence.” If your opponents are Nazis, you get to do what you like. Pour soup on a Nazi? Great! Hilarious! Punch a Nazi? Go right ahead! Nazis are bad! Kill a Nazi ? She’s a NAZI! Why not? She gets what she destrves. Once you’ve successfully dehumanized your opponents, you’ve removed them from your society’s circle of concern, and few will come to their defence. And some will help you do your dirty work, and be proud to do so.

    One of the online graphics I’ve seen in conjunction with posts about this event says TRANS RIGHTS OR ELSE, with a black ground sporting silhouettes of assault rifles in the colours of the trans flag. This is a definite threat, and represents a distinct escalation from pink and baby blue baseball bats. Someone with a baseball bat can only attack one person at a time, and they have to be very close to do so. Assault rifles are weapons of mass murder from a distance.

    Trans activists are priming the pump. The combination of suicidal ideation and imminent genocide that they’ve been feeding their audience is vicious enough to start with; add in a call for the extraction of “vengeance” by a fearful population with a high proportion of psychological comorbidities that has ready access to firearms of all kinds, and you’ve got a recipe for inevitable disaster. If this isn’t an example of stochastic terrorism, I don’t know what is.

    And who will be the prime targets for this vengeance? At whom is this angry, frightened, delusional, armed mob being aimed?

    Women.

    Women have always been the scapegoats, the enemies, the targets. Why on Earth would trans activists change their tune now? By defending their rights, women stand in the way of what some men want. Never mind that there is no chain of logic linking the writings of gender-critical feminists with male violence against trans identified males. It’s the TERFs’ fault. They wish harm to trans people. Always. “Exclusion” is harm. Always.

    But women aren’t the logical target, they’re the easy target. Most have been socialized to put the needs and feelings of others before themselves. I think some of the rage and fury we see trans identified males (and their allies) exhibit is the result of miscalculation; believing that women will always be nice and give way, they are unprepared when any woman stands firm to defend her rights and the rights of all women. They are the nails that refuse to be hammered down. The solution? Hammer them harder.

    With this “Day of Trans Vengeance” women who say no will face heightened risks for defending their rights. That they’ve been painted as TERFs, and bigots, and Nazis will make it that much harder for them to do so. They’re up against more than just the trans activists, too. The ground has been prepared for righteous trans violence for some time, by both unwitting and very knowing enablers. It’s been a steady drip, drip, drip (sometimes a whole fucking tsunami) of lies and distortions, all of which erode women’s rights, and their ability to articulate and argue for them. Women’s facts and arguments are all ignored; trans activists’ lack of arguments are papered over. But who needs facts and evidence, especially when they’re all against you? “The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” Trans activists have had lots of allies fighting for them, and against women, on multiple fronts. Every thoughtless repitition of the unevidenced onslaught of anti-trans violence and murder. Every story claiming outright, blanket “bans” on health care for trans identified people, of “bans” on trans identified athletes in sport have helped genderists make it look like it’s Germany in 1932. Every refusal to spell out what women are fighting for rather than imputing bad faith and anti-trans prejudice. Every claim of “transphobia” against feminists trying to protect women’s boundaries. Every acceptance as unquestioned fact of the groundless, malicious accusations of “transphobic” hatred and bigotry against women like JK Rowling and Kelly-Jay Keen. Drip, drip, drip, until we’re neck deep in bullshit and misinformation, afraid to speak the truth.

    With this latest ratcheting of rhetoric, it will be a miracle if no women are injured or killed as a result of this call for “vengeance.” And if there are any women who fall, there will be excuses and rationalizations. The violence will be condemned, but there will be a “but.” And that “but” will consist of how the victims were really to blame because they were wicked, would not bow down, would not submit, and said “No.”

  • The man who punched her

    Meanwhile this guy also hasn’t been arrested.

    Word is he succeeded in fracturing her skull.

    https://twitter.com/SimonRAnderson1/status/1640924419957874691

    Many people who were there say the police were absent. Normal procedure would be to have a buffer zone between the protesters and the counter-protesters, with physical barriers as well as cops. None of that was present in Auckland. The cops basically told the trans two thousand “go right ahead.”

  • Guest post: One word: plastics

    Originally a comment by John Wasson on Plastics.

    The ubiquity of plastics is incredible.

    Mary Jo DiLonardo “Microplastics Found Near the Top of Mount Everest” November 20, 2020

    Rowan Jacobsen, “An Ocean Plastics Field Trip for Corporate Executives”, Outside August 8, 2019

    There may be some progress replacing ‘plastic’ made from fossil.

    Clare Watson “Scientists Created a New Recyclable Plastic Not Made From Crude Oil” 29 March 2023

    Allison Christy and Scott Phillips describe making a new type of plastic based on poly(ethyl cyanoacrylate) or PECA, which is prepared from the monomer used to make Super Glue.

    Small-scale lab experiments replicating industrial processes suggest roughly 93 percent of the new plastic could be recycled into clean starter materials – even when the plastic is mixed in with other unprocessed plastic waste, paper, and aluminum.

    Alice Klein “New type of plastic may be infinitely recyclable”

    Eugene Chan et al (Colorado State U) PBTL from bicyclic tholactones has excellent strength, toughness and stability to make packaging, sports equipment, car parts, construction materials. Recycled (on its own after separation from other plastics) by heating to 100 C in presence of catalyst for 24 hours breaks into original building blocks. (Science Avances, doi.org/d845)

    New Scientist Aug. 29 2020 p. 20

    On the other hand,

    Sami Grover “Undercover Tape: How Exxon Is Lobbying to Make Plastics the Norm” August 13, 2021

    Exxon is working hard to promote plastics recycling as a strategy to divert attention away from bans and regulations.

    The polymer industry in the U.S. is pretty much integrated with the petrochemical industry.

    Lloyd Alter “Fossil Fuel Companies Are Fueling a Global Plastics Binge; What Will We Do With It All? ” Updated October 11, 2018

    Fossil fuel companies are building hundreds of new “cracking” facilities to make 40 percent more plastic.

    And remember the classic lines in “The Graduate”

  • The final battle

    Amanda Marcotte points out how mass shootings are commercials for Trump:

    [Republicans] are, after all, a party still completely in the thrall of Trump, whose main campaign message is that America is a hellscape beyond redemption, and that the only viable response is about “retribution.” Last Saturday, his “burn it all down” message assumed a new metaphorical meaning, as he held a rally in Waco, Texas, on the 30th anniversary of the FBI’s standoff with a group of doomsday cultists who ultimately chose to die by fire rather than surrender their illegal weapons. Trump’s speech was a cut-rate version of the apocalyptic ravings of Waco cult leader David Koresh, full of talk of how the country is “failing,” our society has “collapsed” and the upcoming presidential election is its “final battle.” The trappings of the rally, which opened with a video montage of the Jan. 6 insurrection, only enhanced the Armageddon messaging. 

    Armageddon! Apocalypse! Trump or The End!

    Mass shootings, which are both legitimately terrifying and attention-grabbing, are a boon to a party that thrives on fear and anguish. Unlike most of the terror porn churned out by right-wing media, the horror of Monday’s shooting in Nashville was all too real: The shooter blowing out windows and stalking hallways. The fleeing children. The weeping parents. The cops rushing the building to take the killer out. Unlike antifa riots or the fictional fires burning down American cities, that actually happened. 

    It’s no wonder the immediate Republican response to mass shootings is to fight like hell to block anyone who tries to slow down the mayhem. This isn’t not just about the political power of the NRA anymore — the gun lobby has lost much of its financial clout. But Republicans believe that mass anxiety benefits them, so anything that keeps the public on edge is a political win. Most of the time, they have to make up the threats to scare people. Not with mass shootings, though, which are real and occur day after day, week after week in America. 

    I wish I could think she’s wrong.

  • Police darvo on steroids

    The police are very politely begging Eli Rubashkyn to turn himself in for a friendly chat, because they just really really don’t want to arrest him.

    Police are investigating “alleged offending” at an anti-transgender event in Auckland over the weekend, after supporters and counter protesters clashed.

    Of course, as always, “an anti-transgender event” is inaccurate and highly inflammatory.

    Thousands gathered at the Albert Park rotunda on Saturday to protest British activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s Let Women Speak event.

    That’s much more accurate. Thousands gathered to scream DO NOT LET WOMEN SPEAK.

    About 150-200 people turned out in support of Keen-Minshull, who goes by Posie Parker, but they were drowned out by close to 2000 people rallying in support of trans rights.

    Inaccurate again. Close to 2000 people rallied in support of trans takeover and dominance and silencing of women.

    So then, they grudgingly admit, someone threw tomato juice on Keen-Minshull.

    Counter protestor, Eli Rubashkyn, said she’s been told by police that it’s likely they will apply for a warrant to arrest them on Wednesday.

    The reporter got lost in the pronouns there – Rubashkyn is both she and them. Funny how StuffNZ call Rubashkyn “counter protester” as opposed to attacker or assaulter or misogynist bully. But don’t worry, it gets worse.

    Rubashkyn said she has been receiving “constant” death threats following the protest and calls for her deportation.

    That is, receiving “constant” death threats and calls for deportation.

    Police asked Rubashkyn to contact them about “fronting the matter”.

    Asked. Not told, but asked – as if it were a favor. He assaulted a woman on camera and has been bragging about it ever since, and they asked him to drop by for a talk.

    “The situation is likely to escalate unnecessarily if you become the subject of an arrest warrant,” a communication to her said.

    In another message, police said: “This matter needs to be dealt with soon to remain low key. If we don’t get any traction, police may have no option but to issue a warrant for your arrest.”

    And that would never do. He must be treated with the utmost courtesy and affection, because he is MOST OPPRESSED.

    “We don’t need to make this a big deal, we just need to get it done. Please reach out to me.”

    We don’t need to make this a big deal. It was just some bitch you threw tomato juice on, it’s no biggy, all we want to do is have a conversation so that we can tell the public you did nothing wrong.

    In a statement, police said they made “several attempts” on Tuesday and Wednesday “to locate a person of interest in relation to a publicised assault at Albert Park on Saturday.

    “That person is aware that police would like to locate and talk to them about the incident, and ask them to come forward so the matter can be dealt with appropriately.

    “There is currently no warrant to arrest this person.”

    WHY NOT????

    H/t Rob

  • They want to keep government spending in check

    Republican-run Southern states reject federal funding for hospitals. That’s nice for the non-rich people who live there.

    Since its opening in a converted wood-frame mansion 117 years ago, Greenwood Leflore Hospital had become a medical hub for this part of Mississippi’s fertile but impoverished Delta, with 208 beds, an intensive-care unit, a string of walk-in clinics and a modern brick-and-glass building.

    The Delta was where slavery was at its worst. It’s where Parchman is. It’s where Emmett Till was tortured to death. It’s where Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were murdered. Fertile for cotton but horrible for the people forced to work in the fields.

    But on a recent weekday, it counted just 13 inpatients clustered in a single ward. The I.C.U. and maternity ward were closed for lack of staffing and the rest of the building was eerily silent, all signs of a hospital savaged by too many poor patients.

    It’s nearly out of money; it’s going to close.

    Rural hospitals are struggling all over the nation because of population declines, soaring labor costs and a long-term shift toward outpatient care. But those problems have been magnified by a political choice in Mississippi and nine other states, all with Republican-controlled legislatures.

    They have spurned the federal government’s offer to shoulder almost all the cost of expanding Medicaid coverage for the poor. And that has heaped added costs on hospitals because they cannot legally turn away patients, insured or not.

    Republican legislatures don’t want to let poor people have Medicaid. They want them to go without it.

    Opponents of expansion, who have prevailed in Texas, Florida and much of the Southeast, typically say they want to keep government spending in check.

    They want to let poor people die.

    Who will mow their lawns and scrub their toilets then is a puzzle, but Republicans stand on principle, the principle of making sure people stay mired in poverty.

    In Mississippi, one of the nation’s poorest states, the missing federal health care dollars have helped drive what is now a full-blown hospital crisis. Statewide, experts say that no more than a few of Mississippi’s 100-plus hospitals are operating at a profit. Free care is costing them about $600 million a year, the equivalent of 8 percent to 10 percent of their operating costs — a higher share than almost anywhere else in the nation, according to the state hospital association.

    Expanding Medicaid would uncork a spigot of about $1.35 billion a year in federal funds to hospitals and health care providers, according to a 2021 report by the office of the state economist.

    Yebbut they’d have to spend it on poor people.

    And it would guarantee medical coverage to some 100,000 uninsured adults making less than $20,120 a year in a state whose death rates are at or near the nation’s highest for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, kidney disease and pneumonia. Infant mortality is also sky-high, and the Delta has the nation’s highest rate of foot and leg amputations because of diabetes or hypertension.

    Health officials blame those numbers in part on the high rate of uninsured residents who miss out on preventive care.

    So it’s their own fault then.

    Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, and key G.O.P. state lawmakers argue that a bigger Mississippi program is not in taxpayers’ best interest. The governor says the state’s $3.9 billion surplus would be best used to help eliminate Mississippi’s income tax.

    “Don’t simply cave under the pressure of Democrats and their allies in the media who are pushing for the expansion of Obamacare, welfare and socialized medicine,” Mr. Reeves said in his annual State of the State address in January.

    Ugh god, that’s enough. I’m so sick of this heartless crap.

  • More than viz

    Oh yes that Trans Day of Vengeance thing…maybe it got an early start yesterday?

    Trans Day of Vengeance, a weekend of protests for trans/non-binary rights, has been initiated by TRAN (Trans Radical Activist Network) and OURRIGHTSDC, because “visibility” is no longer enough. We resist and denounce the criminalization of transgender identity and violence against our siblings currently happening across the nation. We are fighting for our rights to exist. We are taking back the narratives. We are fighting back. With vengeance, because this is a fight for our survival.

    Details are still being worked out, but we will meet at 11am on April 1st in front of the SCOTUS, where we will have a few speakers to kick off the march. In the evening of March 31st, following Queer Youth Assembly during the day, we will have a slightly riskier protest as a pre-march event. The details are to be announced.

    trans,trans child,trans children,trans kids,transgender child,trans kid,trans rights,my trans life,trans family,trans man,male to female trans,female to male trans,trans youth,trans woman,child,mom of transgender child,trans*,having a transgender child,trans men,trans guy,raising a transgender child,5 year old transgender child,anti trans bills,trans girl,emmy trans,anti trans,jordan peterson trans children,trans women,trans texas

    Don’t ask me what that last paragraph is for. An encyclopedia of keywords? Who knows?

  • The Shaviro clause

    Remember Wayne State professor of English Steven Shapiro? Who said –

    Although I do not advocate violating federal and state criminal codes, I think it is far more admirable to kill a racist, homophobic, or transphobic speaker than it is to shout them down.

    The president of Wayne State is not charmed.

    Dear campus community,

    This morning, I was made aware of a social media post by a Wayne State University professor in our Department of English.

    The post stated that rather than “shouting down” those with whom we disagree, one would be justified to commit murder to silence them. We have on many occasions defended the right of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but we feel this post far exceeds the bounds of reasonable or protected speech. It is, at best, morally reprehensible and, at worst, criminal.

    We have referred this to law enforcement agencies for further review and investigation. Pending their review, we have suspended the professor with pay, effective immediately.

    To be precise, he didn’t say “one would be justified to” – he said “I think it is far more admirable to.” They sound similar but there is a real difference. “One would be justified” is a good deal closer to incitement than “I think it is far more admirable to.” I’m sure Shaviro has every intention of saying that; I’m sure he was very deliberate in starting with the disclaimer and then wording it the way he did. Just saying you think it’s more admirable is…well, it’s very sly. He may well get away with it.

    It’s also a nice (i.e. evil) touch to limit it to “violating federal and state criminal codes,” as opposed to confronting the horror of killing a human being. Murder isn’t wrong or bad, he hints, but criminal codes forbid it.

    And all this because he hates women who know men are not women.

  • Plastics

    Plastics can’t be “recycled.” So-called recycling creates more pollution than it “recycles.” It’s all a big scam.

    The disturbing reports on plastic pollution just keep coming: toxic plastic waste is filling up our oceans, our landfills, and even our bodies. But if you’ve seen a recent surge of ads from the companies that produce this garbage, you might be forgiven for thinking they’re working on solutions to the problem.

    “America’s Plastic Makers” is the brand promoting a slew of ads about a new “solution” to plastic pollution that experts and evidence say creates new climate and environmental harms, and doesn’t actually work. It’s called “advanced” or chemical recycling, and refers to various processes for repurposing plastic waste. Some of those would use chemicals to break down used plastic and supposedly turn it into new plastic. But far more frequently, chemical recycling refers to combusting fossil fuels to turn plastics into chemicals or more oil and gas to be burned (also known as pyrolisis or gasification, which isn’t recycling at all). 

    Big Oil companies are opening new chemical recycling facilities across the country, which they’re selling as the silver bullet to dealing with hard-to-recycle plastic waste. And they’re advertising these facilities with the help of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade association for chemical producers and the main lobbying arm for the plastics industry. 

    They’ve known all along, but they’ve campaigned to convince us to put those plastic bottles in the bin marked Plastics.

    Enter chemical recycling.

    Here’s the thing: chemical recycling is inefficient and unproven, and it exacerbates climate and environmental injustices, according to a series of nonprofit, journalistic, and government analyses. The process is extremely energy and emissions-intensive because it requires burning more fossil fuels, using and emitting more neurotoxic or carcinogenic chemicals like benzene, or both. Hazardous waste created during chemical recycling is either burned in copious amounts on site or, in many cases, shipped across the country to multiple locations to be burned. And a large majority of these facilities are sited in communities of color and low-income communities. 

    Plus shipping takes more fuel.

    Read the whole thing.

  • Himself and his many grievances

    Tom Nichols on Trump in Waco:

    Almost 30 years after a cult leader caused a disaster in Waco, Trump rallied his own political cult—and the location cannot be a coincidence—in that same Texas city. The Waco tent revival featured the usual Trumpian cast of grifters, carnies, and misfits, including the fan favorites Mike Lindell and Ted Nugent. Most of the former president’s speech was, of course, about himself and his many grievances, and the crowd reportedly began to thin out somewhat early.

    I never will understand why a flabby rich guy who never stops talking about himself and his ludicrous grievances is so appealing to The Folk. He’s rich. He’s self-obsessed. He’s greedy. He’s lazy. He’s cruel. He’s a liar. He’s a rapist. He’s grandiose. What in that list makes him a man of the people?

    I know that many people, after years of this mad-king routine, simply do not want to process anything with the words Donald Trump in it. I don’t blame you. But let’s not look away: In Waco, Trump embraced a creepy mash-up of the national anthem, “USA” chants, and his own voice, and then proceeded for some 90 minutes to make clear that he is now irrevocably all in with the seditionists, the conspiracy theorists, the “Trump or death” fanatics, the Vladimir Putin fanboys—the whole appalling lot of them.

    Well, yes, but…um…he sticks it to the libs. Yeah, that’s it. He’s not politically correct.

    Trump and his minions, especially elected Republicans, are experts at pretending that things didn’t happen the way we saw them. Ask a GOP official about Trump’s offensive statements, and you’ll likely get “I didn’t see that,” “I don’t read his tweets,” “I’ll have to check into that,” and other squirts of verbal helium. 

    It’s all worth it because look, abortion rights are mostly gone. Victory!

  • Guest post: Psychological pressures in action

    Originally a comment by Nullius in Verba on Glam.

    It occurs to me that the way these people talk about, celebrate, and encourage this shit online is similar to what I’ve seen of two other horrid online groups. Specifically those formed around murder and suicide. Looking into either one gets really dark, really quickly. You can see the same sorts of psychological pressures in action, all of which are also present in other high demand groups (i.e., cults). It’s also the same sort of assault on identity, one’s conception of oneself as a continuous entity of worth, that Lifton documented in Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. (Side note: I highly recommend the book. It’s one of those things that, having read it, I see its echoes everywhere, just like with Nineteen Eighty-Four.)

    The Internet is a more powerful thing than we really understand. In hindsight, it was almost certainly unwise to popularize it when and how we did. We aren’t ready for it.

  • Tourist

    So he’s off on his travels is he?

    https://twitter.com/deves_katherine/status/1640648348402323456

  • David has a pee-pee

    The human body is PORNOGRAPHIC. Who knew?

    The Florence museum that houses Michelangelo’s statue of David has invited teachers and students from a Florida school to visit, after an uproar over an art lesson.

    The school’s principal quit after a complaint about a sixth-grade art class that included an image of the statue.

    A parent had complained the image was pornographic.

    So have her children had their genitalia removed? Was it porn every time she changed their diapers when they were babies? Is it porn when she takes a shower?

    The controversy began when the board of Tallahassee Classical School – a charter school in Florida’s state capital – pressured principal Hope Carrasquilla to resign after three parents complained about a lesson that included a photo of the 17ft nude marble statue.

    Where is his fig leaf god damn it?! What was this Michelangelo fella thinking?!!

    According to Florentine art historian and dean of the University for Foreigners in Siena, Tomaso Montanari, such an attitude is “disconcerting”.

    “First comes the dismay at the absence of educational freedom, as it should not be restricted or manipulated by families,” Mr Montanari said.

    “On the other hand, from a cultural perspective, the Western world has a tendency to associate fundamentalism and censorship with other societies, believing it possesses the capability to spread democratic ideals worldwide.”

    He’s right you know. This is Talibanesque. Granted there aren’t whippings or burials alive or beheadings involved, but the thinking is all too similar.

  • The very atmosphere

    Heather Cox Richardson writes:

    March 27, 2023 (Monday)

    Seven people died today in a school shooting in Nashville. Three of them were nine-year-olds. Three were staffers. One was the shooter. In the aftermath of the shooting, President Joe Biden once again urged Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons, to which today’s Republican lawmakers will never agree because gun ownership has become a key element of social identity for their supporters, who resent the idea that the legal system could regulate their ownership of firearms.

    In the wake of the shooting, Representative Andrew Ogles (R-TN), who represents Nashville thanks to redistricting by the Republican legislature that cut up a Democratic district, said he was “utterly heartbroken” by the shooting and offered “thoughts and prayers to the families of those lost.”

    In 2021, Ogles, his wife, and two of his three children held guns as they posed for a Christmas card with a caption that read: “The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference—they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.”

    Then…………………………………………….why is there so very much gun violence in the US with its barely detectable gun laws and its profusion of guns? I await elucidation.

  • Channel the donations

    Virginia Thomas the conflict of interest:

    A little-known conservative activist group led by Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, collected nearly $600,000 in anonymous donations to wage a cultural battle against the left over three years, a Washington Post investigation found.

    The previously unreported donations to the fledgling group Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty were channeled through a right-wing think tank in Washington that agreed to serve as a funding conduit from 2019 until the start of last year, according to documents and interviews. The arrangement, known as a “fiscal sponsorship,” effectively shielded from public view details about Crowdsourcers’ activities and spending, information it would have had to disclose publicly if it operated as a separate nonprofit organization, experts said.

    So that means she deliberately concealed the conflict of interest. How…interesting.

    The funding is the first example of anonymous donors backing her activism since she founded a conservative charity more than a decade ago. She stepped away from that charity amid concerns that it created potential conflicts for her husband on hot-button issues before the court.

    And proceeded to subterfuge in order to go on with her “activism” but in secret this time.

    In reality I think it’s not altogether fair that a spouse married to a senator or justice or similar can’t operate independently, but at the same time I think the issue is real so we’re stuck with the unfairness.

    Of course Virginia Thomas is also a trumpy lunatic, so there’s that.

    In 2020, she privately pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue efforts to overturn the presidential election, and she sent emails urging swing-state lawmakers to set aside Joe Biden’s popular-vote victory in awarding electoral votes.

    That is she tried to help overthrow the government. That goes quite a bit beyond spousal conflict of interest.

    Ginni Thomas has long maintained that she and her husband keep their careers separate. “I can guarantee that my husband has never spoken to me about pending cases in the court. It’s an ironclad rule in our house,” she told congressional investigators last year who were examining the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. “Additionally, he’s uninterested in politics, and I generally don’t discuss with him my day-to-day work in politics.”

    Which totally works as long as you define politics as “that which does not interest Clarence Thomas.”

  • Glam

    It seems the guy who dumped tomato soup/juice/sauce/whatever on KJK is being sought by The Law. Unless he’s just identifying as being sought by The Law.

    https://twitter.com/ElianaRubashkyn/status/1640639580344037377
    https://twitter.com/ElianaRubashkyn/status/1640672937962516480