The director of the Center for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa in the NY Times last month:

The World Is Watching the U.S. Deal With Bird Flu, and It’s Scary

As a virus scientist in South Africa, I’ve been watching with dread as H5N1 bird flu spreads among animals in the United States. The pathogen poses a serious pandemic threat and has been detected in over 500 dairy herds in 15 states — which is probably an undercount. And yet the U.S. response appears inadequate and slow, with too few genomic sequences of H5N1 cases in farm animals made publicly available for scientific review.

Failure to control H5N1 among American livestock could have global consequences, and this demands

How sad, they’re fighting already.

A multi-day firestorm has erupted over comments made by two incoming advisers to President-elect Donald Trump about H-1B temporary worker visas, a carve-out for high-skilled workers that some in MAGA world say are taking American jobs.  

It’s so sad when racism and nativism can’t get along with greed and self-dealing.

Vivek Ramaswamy, in a post on X, criticized an American culture that he said “venerated mediocrity over excellence,” attributing this as one reason for the influx of foreign tech workers. Ramaswamy, who is Indian American, went on to say he hopes Trump’s presidency can start an American culture that prioritizes “hard work over laziness.” Tech executives have called for greater access to

Bird flu is turning up in zoos.

Dozens of rare animals including tigers, lions, and cheetahs are dying as bird flu infiltrates zoos, with potentially “grave implications” for endangered species, researchers have warned.

As a growing number of zoos report animal deaths, scientists are concerned that infected wild birds landing in enclosures could be spreading it among captive animals. In the US, a cheetah, mountain lion, Indian goose, and kookaburra were among the animals that died in Wildlife World Zoo near Phoenix, according to local media reports last week. San Francisco Zoo temporarily closed its aviaries after a wild red-shouldered hawk was found dead on its grounds, and later tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAIV). A rare

Oh yay, the BBC has another story about drag. BBC News should rename itself BBC Drag News.

An Australian drag queen may not be the obvious choice to be one of the stars of a Christmas panto in Bradford.

But for Shane Jenek, who is currently playing Blue Faerie in the Alhambra’s Pinocchio, it makes perfect sense.

The 42-year-old burst into living rooms down under in 2003 when his alter ego Courtney Act successfully auditioned for Australian Idol (the day after Jenek was rejected) and landed a record deal. Courtney went on to be a runner-up on RuPaul’s Drag Race US in 2014 and won Celebrity Big Brother UK in 2018.

And so on, for 24 more enthralling paragraphs.… Read the rest

Oh dear, I found him – the “transphilogyny” guy. It’s a sort of TED talk but not really. His name is Pella Felton.

Here’s all 16 minutes 46 seconds.

Here’s his pseudo-intellectual drivel in writing, with a couple of paragraph breaks added:

Transphilogyny refers to the affirmation and normalization of transfemininity as womanhood. Coined as an analogue to trans scholar Julie Serrano’s transmisogyny, I devised transphilogyny as a counter to the rise in structural, political and physical violence towards trans women . Rather than looking at such violence as inevitable, I envision transphilogyny as a collection of utopian practices through which we can imagine and enact a different reality through which human women become legible and valued beyond the gendered

Dude screams that he gets to define what hatred of women is, “patriarchy be damned.”

Make no mistake, these men are dangerous…

They hate women… pic.twitter.com/NG8EwOyO8x

— Jonny Bell (@Jonnywsbell) December 26, 2024

He also says “philogyny” when he means “misogyny.” Twice. The second time he calls it “philogyny nwar” – meaning, misogynoir, a portmanteau word for, of course, hatred of black women.

Dude is white and male as well as large and loud. He’s not the progressive he thinks he is.… Read the rest

Sometimes it just looks like sheer unadulterated sadism. For the sake of it.

Male officers identifying as female are allowed to intimately search women if they hold a gender recognition certificate

Women’s rights campaigners are suing the British Transport Police (BTP) over guidance that allows [male] transgender officers to strip-search women.

Why would they do that? Why would the higher ups lean back in their chairs and blow cigar smoke at the ceiling and decide yes indeed, we will allow men who pretend to be women to strip-search women? Other than sadism?

The policy, revealed by The Telegraph, allows male staff identifying as female to intimately search women so long as they have a gender recognition certificate (GRC).

A … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Rev David Brindley on Check the label.

“Liberal democracy” was a short lived experiment, between circa 1946 and 1986. It grew to be too much of a threat to the autocratic kleptocracy it briefly rose above, and has been slowly wound back ever since.

The Middle Class in which many of us grew up or aspired to join was a pleasant result of that short experiment, but the autocratic kleptocrats could not accept that so many people were suddenly joining in the common wealth and began a relentless campaign to turn worker against worker, to teach those outside the middle class to scorn them, and thus began the class war that would only ever result … Read the rest

How does anyone manage to believe this? The Washington Post:

NEW CASTLE, Pennsylvania — Lori Mosura goes to the grocery store on a bicycle because she can’t afford to fix her Ford F-150 truck.

The single mother and her 17-year-old son live in an apartment that is so small she sleeps in the dining room. They receive $1,200 each month in food stamps and Social Security benefits but still come up short. Mosura said she often must decide whether to buy milk or toilet paper.

It was all that penny-pinching that drove the part-time tax consultant to abandon the Democratic Party this fall and vote for Donald Trump.

“He is more attuned to the needs of everyone instead of

The Associated Press had a contest to name Female Athlete of the Year. You know what comes next.

A group of 74 sports journalists from The Associated Press and its members voted on the award.

Clark received 35 votes, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles was second with 25.

But Olympic gold medalist boxer Imane Khelif was third, getting four votes.

Naturally. If you have an item for women – an event, a list, a contest – it’s important to add men, because women must not be allowed to have anything all to themselves.… Read the rest

The BBC’s obsession with drag queens continues.

Strictly to feature first drag queen competitor

Notice the weird chummy insiderism of the title. Wtf does it even mean? It looks like an uncompleted thought rather than a title. It’s a cozy reference to a tv program that everyone who matters knows all about so no need to spell out the program’s actual title; it’s so much cuter to use just the first word of the title, and let everyone who isn’t in on the joke puzzle over the meaning.

Does the Beeb always do that, or only when the subject is drag queens? Does it refer to “Call” instead of “Call the Midwife”?

No. The BBC doesn’t do that.

Strictly’s Christmas

Originally a comment by Der Durchwanderer on Check the label.

Liberal democracy does not depend on silly lies about who can do what in the way of magic personal changes.

Aye, but there’s the rub. Germany is slowly (actually not-so-slowly) ceasing to recognise itself as a liberal democracy as you might understand that term; it sees itself, rather, as the world’s first “defensive democracy”. Its politicians regularly tar any opinions, statements, or policies which disagree with the ruling coalition as “anti-democratic”, regardless of how soundly those opinions, statements, and policies are founded in the principals of liberalism nor how widely they are to be found amongst the demos itself.

Anything that does not fit onto the tip of the … Read the rest

So kids in school can be compelled, by the school, to use wrong, counter-intuitive, fantasy-based “pronouns” in conversation.

A federal appeals court decided on Friday to revisit its recent decision to uphold a central Ohio school district’s right to enforce policies against the bullying of transgender students, which had been challenged by a conservative parents group.

That’s very misleading. Of course schools should have and enforce policies against bullying, but failing or even refusing to join someone else’s fantasy isn’t bullying. Arguably the demand to be called anything non-intuitive is itself a bullying move. If you’re ordered to call people by the counter-intuitive pronouns, you’re going to have to work hard to remember to do it and avoid … Read the rest

Denmark has a nice dry wit.

From Reduxx:

The German federal government was responsible for funding a research project labeling “organized transphobia” a threat to democracy. The project, which was made in collaboration with a trans-identified male known for threatening violence against women he disagrees with, classifies those opposed to Germany’s radical gender self-identification laws as “enemies” of society.

Hm. Man who threatens violence against women labels disobedient women “a threat to democracy.” So democracy=men forcing women to lie about who is a woman? Weird definition.

Days ago, the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society (IDZ Jena) published a brochure reporting the outcome of a research project it had undertaken on “Organized Transphobia: Concepts, Actors, Narratives, and Counter-Strategies.” In the 92-page release, it

So dignified.

Gibson, the maker of famous electric guitars, has issued a cease and desist order to the company behind a range of “Trump Guitars” endorsed by the US president-elect.

Gibson told Guitar World, which first reported the story, it took action because the design of the instruments being sold as Trump Guitars “infringes upon Gibson’s exclusive trademarks, particularly the iconic Les Paul body shape”.

Named for the American musician the Guardian once said “basically invented the electric guitar”, Gibson Les Pauls have been sold since 1952 and played by countless rock legends, among them the Edge of U2, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and Slash of Guns N’ Roses.

Trump Guitars were announced last week, as the latest

UK Women’s March has a statement about itself.

*Our Statement*

With Donald Trump set to return as US president in January 2025 and Nigel Farage picking up the anti-abortion mantle here in the UK, it’s time to make our voices heard.

We are marching because violence against women and girls in the UK has increased by 37% since 2018 and has now been declared a national emergency.

We are marching because abortion in England and Wales, if not carried out according to the strict requirements of the Abortion Act 1967, is technically still a criminal offence carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

We are marching because reproductive rights are being removed state by state in the US making it

So now we’re a threat to democracy. Reduxx has the details:

The German federal government was responsible for funding a research project labeling “organized transphobia” a threat to democracy. The project, which was made in collaboration with a trans-identified male known for threatening violence against women he disagrees with, classifies those opposed to Germany’s radical gender self-identification laws as “enemies” of society.

Interesting. So a guy who threatens women with violence is fine, but women who say men are not women are threats to democracy.

Days ago, the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society (IDZ Jena) published a brochure reporting the outcome of a research project it had undertaken on “Organized Transphobia: Concepts, Actors, Narratives, and Counter-Strategies.”

Oooh how thrilling.

When’s the next minstrel show?

CNN on Trump’s noisy claims that Panama owes him a canal:

Panama President José Raúl Mulino posted a lengthy statement in Spanish and English on social media declaring ownership of the port “not negotiable.” Built at the turn of the 20th century, the canal was operated by the US until 1999, when it was fully turned over to Panama under a treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter two decades prior that guaranteed American use of the canal in perpetuity.

“I want to express precisely that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belong to Panama, and will continue to,” Mulino wrote.

The response did little to discourage Trump and his allies, though, who responded with