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A striking anomaly

Jonathan Kay at Quillette:

On 10 February, Jesse Van Rootselaar (also known as Jesse Strang) killed eight people in the remote British Columbia mining town of Tumbler Ridge. The first two victims were the killer’s mother and half-brother, whom Van Rootselaar shot at home. Van Rootselaar then went to a local secondary school and murdered six more people—five of whom were twelve- or thirteen-year-old students—before committing suicide. Twenty-seven others were injured. It was the deadliest Canadian school shooting in almost four decades, and the highest-casualty mass-shooting event in the nation’s history.

…

When news of the tragedy was first reported to Canadians on the afternoon of 10 February, it appeared to include a striking anomaly: The killer, we were

… Read the rest

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A striking anomaly
By Ophelia Benson, February 17, 2026

Jonathan Kay at Quillette:

On 10 February, Jesse Van Rootselaar (also known as Jesse Strang) killed eight people in the remote British Columbia mining town of Tumbler Ridge. The first two victims were the killer’s mother and half-brother, whom Van Rootselaar shot at home. Van Rootselaar then went to a local secondary school and murdered six more people—five of whom were twelve- or thirteen-year-old students—before committing suicide. Twenty-seven others were injured. It was the deadliest Canadian school shooting in almost four decades, and the highest-casualty mass-shooting event in the nation’s history.

…

When news of the tragedy was first reported to Canadians on the afternoon of 10 February, it appeared to include a striking anomaly: The killer, we were

… Read the rest

Archives
Bad Moves
Articles
Flashback
In Focus
Latest News
Letters
Notes and Comment Blog

A striking anomaly 

Jonathan Kay at Quillette:

On 10 February, Jesse Van Rootselaar (also known as Jesse Strang) killed eight people in the remote British Columbia mining town of Tumbler Ridge. The first two victims were the killer’s mother and half-brother, whom Van Rootselaar shot at home. Van Rootselaar then went to a local secondary school and murdered six more people—five of whom were twelve- or thirteen-year-old students—before committing suicide. Twenty-seven others were injured. It was the deadliest Canadian school shooting in almost four decades, and the highest-casualty mass-shooting event in the nation’s history.

…

When news of the tragedy was first reported to Canadians on the afternoon of 10 February, it appeared to include a striking anomaly: The killer, we were

… Read the rest
Political asylum in the what now? 

The theocrat’s veto:

If the Turkish man on trial for burning a copy of the Quran loses his case on Tuesday, the Trump administration is preparing to offer him political asylum in the United States.

According to the Telegraph, State Department officials are already making plans to help him leave the country. Let that sink in. A man who came to Britain as a refugee — fleeing the Islamic terrorism that, as he puts it, destroyed his family’s life in Turkey — may soon have to flee Britain itself and seek asylum in America because we cannot protect his human rights. I cannot think of anything more embarrassing for Sir Keir Starmer.

So what’s this case about? On 13

… Read the rest
Bawdy 

One small item from a Mother Jones piece about Trump and Epstein:

Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal’s response rips the hide off Trump’s case on many levels. For instance, it contends, rather reasonably, that reporting Trump was pals with Epstein before Epstein was busted is not defamatory. But the killer argument is that the WSJ article was “consistent with plaintiff’s reputation.” Trump, Murdoch’s lawyers maintain, “admitted to instances of using bawdy language when discussing women. Plaintiff thus cannot allege that the Article damaged his reputation.”

“Bawdy” is doing a lot of work here. Murdoch’s lawyers could have gone with “sleazy” or “lecherous” or “misogynist.” But they landed on a Benny Hill-ish description that’s less offensive in tone. 

… Read the rest
If 

Peter Tatchell longs to see women’s rights demolished.

Peter Tatchell wishes women were required to have “a legitimate reason” for not taking our clothes off in the presence of male strangers. It looks as if he thinks simply not wanting to take our clothes off in the presence of male strangers is not a legitimate reason. All the tender concern is for men who want to … Read the rest

Heated blankie 

Priorities.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s relationship with U.S. Coast Guard officials has become strained throughout her first year leading the department, according to two U.S. officials, a Coast Guard official and a former Coast Guard official.

The tensions between Noem and the only branch of the U.S. military overseen by DHS stem from some early decisions she made that rankled Coast Guard officials, including a verbal directive to shift Coast Guard resources from a search-and-rescue mission to find a missing service member, the sources said.

So she’s the “let them drown” kind of Coast Guard boss.

Noem’s focus on meeting the Trump administration’s deportation quotas appears poised to further impact Coast Guard operations in the coming months, according

… Read the rest
Who’s a naughty boy then? 

The Daily Mail on the fall of Lynsay Watson:

A transgender activist who accused Father Ted co-writer Graham Linehan of harassment has been arrested outside court over a separate case. Former police officer Lynsay Watson was detained by officers near Manchester Civil Justice Centre, with pictures of the appearance outside court widely shared online.

Widely shared because Watson turns out not to be a harmless slender wisp of a girl.

Former PC Watson was sacked by Leicestershire Police for gross misconduct in 2023 after allegedly harassing a free speech campaigner and critic of gender ideology.

Watson appeared for an oral permissions hearing for judicial review of a Cambridgeshire Police decision not to prosecute Helen Joyce for misgendering another trans

… Read the rest
The toxin known as Pam Bondi 

Andy Borowitz yesterday:

Can the attorney general of the United States go to prison?

The answer, of course, is yes: John Mitchell, who served under Richard M. Nixon, later served 19 months behind bars for crimes related to the Watergate cover-up.

Will the toxin known as Pam Bondi follow in his footsteps?

It’s worth considering in light of her appearance before Congress on Wednesday, a performance that Kimberly Guilfoyle might call “too shouty.”

Her testimony was unquestionably obnoxious. But was it criminal?

When you examine the evidence, it doesn’t look good for Pam.

This was the pivotal moment: responding to a question from California Rep. Ted Lieu about the Epstein scandal, Bondi snapped, “There is no evidence that Donald

… Read the rest
Highly inappropriate 

Krauss says let’s not go crazy here.

As Epstein was nearing the end of his thirteen-month jail sentence in 2009, he called me. He had learned that I had moved to ASU and that I was hoping to establish the Origins Project program there. Jail time, he said, had convinced him that making money should no longer be his primary goal. He wanted to support science and science education, and he wanted advice about where to direct his money. He expressed interest in supporting the ASU effort. I told him that the conduct for which he had been convicted had been, aside from its illegality, highly inappropriate and plainly stupid. I also thought that his plan was laudable and

… Read the rest
36 girls not enough? 

Lawrence Krauss says we’re making too much fuss over Jeffrey Epstein.

Wikipedia:

In 2005, police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein after a parent reported that he had sexually abused her 14-year-old daughter. Federal officials identified 36 girls, some as young as 14 years old, whom Epstein had allegedly sexually abused. Epstein pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2008 by a Florida state court of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute. He was convicted of only these two crimes as part of a plea deal agreed by Alexander Acosta of the U.S. Department of Justice, and he served 13 months in custody which included extensive work release.

Do we think … Read the rest

We do, Lindsey 

Even Republicans.

Trump’s most unbridled critics at this weekend’s Munich Security Conference have not been Europeans but Americans – and not just Democrats.

A few Republicans, out of earshot of the US president’s favoured Fox News, have had the courage to challenge Trump’s diet of tariffs and unpredictability.

If only that were all. There’s also the diet of stupidity and egomania and brutality and greed and the list goes on.

Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, accused Trump of “doubling down on stupid”. He said: “Never in the history of the US has there been a more destructive president than the current occupant of the White House in Washington. He is trying to recreate the 19th century. He

… Read the rest
Even as a pope 

Peter Baker on Trump’s personality cult:

After a year back in the White House, Mr. Trump’s efforts to promote himself as the singularly dominant figure in the world have become so commonplace that they no longer seem surprising. He regularly depicts himself in a heroic, almost godly fashion, as a monarch, as a Superman, as a Jedi knight, as a military hero, even as a pope in a white cassock.

One thing that’s interesting about that is the focus on quantity as opposed to quality. Trump is going for the Too Dumb to Notice crowd as opposed to the Not That Dumb one. The more he leans into the vulgar boasting the more he disgusts … Read the rest

No laws on the books 

Let the cars run free!

The momentous end to the federal government’s legal authority to fight climate change makes it official.

The United States will essentially have no laws on the books that enforce how efficient America’s passenger cars and trucks should be.

That’s the practical result of the Trump administration’s yearlong parade of regulatory rollbacks, capped on Thursday by its killing of the “endangerment finding,” the scientific determination that required the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases because of the threat to human health.

Oh who cares about human health. What a silly thing to protect! The important health is the health of cars! They need to run free every day.

“The U.S. no longer has emission standards

… Read the rest
Ho yus the retroactive hysterical frenzy Ho yus the retroactive hysterical frenzy 

Hoooooooooly cow – he didn’t – did he?

He did.

… Read the rest
An unusual dream 

Back in July 2019 the NY Times gave us Jeffrey Epstein Hoped to Seed Human Race With His DNA.

Jeffrey E. Epstein, the wealthy financier who is accused of sex trafficking, had an unusual dream: He hoped to seed the human race with his DNA by impregnating women at his vast New Mexico ranch.

Mr. Epstein over the years confided to scientists and others about his scheme, according to four people familiar with his thinking, although there is no evidence that it ever came to fruition.

That is unusual! Also revolting.

Mr. Epstein, who was charged in July with the sexual trafficking of girls as young as 14, was a serial illusionist: He lied about the identities

… Read the rest
by a wrestler 

Gee, I wonder what that could be about.

Investigations underway after alleged sexual assault during wrestling match

The U.S. Department of Education is investigating the Puyallup School District after a high school athlete accused a transgender athlete of sexually assaulting her during a wrestling match in December 2025. 

What kind of transgender athlete? Of course they don’t say. Nor do they say a male athlete is accused of sexually assaulting her. They never do.

A wrestler from Rogers High School claims she was sexually assaulted during a wrestling match in December by a wrestler from Emerald Ridge High School.

“The Puyallup School District contacted our school resource officer at Rogers High School on January 30 and had stated there was

… Read the rest
Most likely to get beaten up 

Well…apart from women, that is. But no matter, women are obviously such a tiny insignificant group that it’s pointless to pay attention to them.

… Read the rest

Onslow Onslow 

I’ve realized who[m] he reminds me of which.

… Read the rest
10,000 miles 

So after all that, Theo Upton just quits and moves to the far side of the planet.

Ms Peggie, 56, blew the whistle after being forced to share a changing room with male-to-female doctor Beth Upton, who undressed in front of her.

And news that Dr Upton, 30, has quit the NHS will be “a relief to female patients”, a campaigner has claimed.

The blast came as sources revealed Dr Beth Upton may have flitted 10,000 miles to Australia in the wake of the high-profile court battle.

Couldn’t he have just done that in the first place instead of pissing away all that money and time and effort, all in aid of his game of Pretending to Be a Laydee?… Read the rest

Gross misconduct mark 2 

Brilliant news!

… Read the rest

Toxic and traditionalist 

First of all what a dopy title.

‘Carnage of concern and upset’: Women’s Institute groups close after transgender ban

What the hell is a carnage of concern?

You’d think a Guardian subeditor would have a better vocabulary than that. The root word – the “carn” bit – is the same as the one in carnivore. Meat. Carnage is bloody slaughter, it’s not distressing disagreement.

Anyway.

At least 12 Women’s Institute (WI) groups are closing or considering closure after the organisation barred transgender women from membership.

Members say more groups are likely to close, and that the federation’s decision has opened up a toxic, traditionalist culture that will deter younger women from joining.

Ahhhhhhh toxic and traditionalist is it. It’s traditionalist … Read the rest