Islamizing Turkish schools:

 Turkey’s steps to promote traditional moral values in students, increase Islamic lessons and open prayer rooms in schools are fuelling secularist concerns in the Muslim country and laying bare divisions over the role religion should have in education.

The measures, introduced recently, have fired up tensions over what is already a highly charged subject as Turkey marks 100 years since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the staunchly secular republic.

Reuters stumbles over its own feet there – if Turkey is a staunchly secular republic then why does Reuters call it “the Muslim country”?

The number of Imam Hatip schools, founded to educate Islamic preachers, has risen to around 1,700 from 450 in 2002 when the AKP first

… Read the rest

A Lively Exchange of Views.

At 9 minutes in Tatchell tells us “it’s not compatible with a kind compassionate generous society”…to say that men are not women.… Read the rest

Yesterday trans ideologue Finn MacKay tweeted this photo:

as evidence for this assertion:

If nobody has a gender (apart from trans people) & there is only biological sex & the rest is personality – it’s a bit weird so many men’s personalities are expressed so similarly, same for women. Is this just biological sex?

Women’s personalities are expressed so similarly, MacKay says, pointing to a grotesque photo of seven women dressed up as expensive prostitutes [aka “sex workers”]. We’re supposed to nod in agreement that that’s how women dress, and isn’t it weird that we have such similar personality expressions.

Many people pointed out the utter stupidity of that claim, and were ignored, but Colin Montgomerie gave it a … Read the rest

Oops.

A word of advice: don’t do this.

Publisher drops author for using fake accounts to ‘review-bomb’ peers

You mean, like overwhelm peers with rave reviews? No.

Cait Corrain, whose book Crown of Starlight was due to be published in May next year, posted on X to apologise for her behaviour. “I boosted the rating of my book, bombed the ratings of several fellow debut authors, and left reviews that ranged from kind of mean to downright abusive,” she tweeted.

Corrain’s US publisher Del Rey, an imprint of Penguin Random House, stated on Monday that it was “aware of the ongoing discussion” about the author. Crown of Starlight “is no longer on our 2024 publishing schedule”, it said. Though it

… Read the rest

The Times:

A jury on Friday ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers who said he had destroyed their reputations with lies that they tried to steal the 2020 election from Donald J. Trump.

Judge Beryl A. Howell of the Federal District Court in Washington had already ruled that Mr. Giuliani had defamed the two workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. The jury had been asked to decide only on the amount of the damages.

The jury awarded Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss a combined $75 million in punitive damages. It also ordered Mr. Giuliani to pay compensatory damages of $16.2 million to Ms. Freeman and $16.9 million to Ms. Moss, as

… Read the rest

It’s not just religious liberty though, in fact it’s not even primarily religious liberty. It’s also, of course, not just conservatives.

In a ruling hailed as a major victory by conservatives, Virginia’s Supreme Court on Thursday revived a lawsuit by a teacher who claims his religious liberties and free-speech rights were violated when school officials fired him for refusing to use the pronouns of a transgender student.

It should never be a job requirement to have to remember anyone’s specialty pronouns.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative Christian group that is representing Vlaming, called the ruling a “sweeping victory” for free speech and religious rights, and Virginia Attorney General Jason S. Miyares (R) said “it dramatically expands the protection

… Read the rest

Updating this to add – the image Finn MacKay tweeted doesn’t show so here it is:

MacKay is using that ridiculous photo as evidence that “women’s personalities are expressed so similarly.”

Wait, what??

https://twitter.com/Finn_Mackay/status/1735639310144094371

So many?

So many women’s personalities are expressed via tiny skirts and towering heels? I don’t know any women who fit that description. Not one. Women like that are a confection of the advertising-entertainment industry; they have nothing to do with real life.

https://twitter.com/Finn_Mackay/status/1735640634004824401

No, we don’t mean “the rights of trans people”; we mean the stupid nonsensical contorted garbage that makes up the belief system behind the idea that there is such a thing as “trans people.”

Mackay isn’t really that dumb, surely? Just identifies … Read the rest

Fiona McAnana on how cheerfully people urged men to ruin women’s sports:

In truth, a male athlete’s testosterone levels are largely irrelevant to this debate. Testosterone suppression cannot reverse the changes wrought by male puberty, which is where most of the physiological advantages that men enjoy come from.

Nevertheless, the IOC duly updated its guidance and the UK’s sports councils followed suit. As it turns out, these changes had their biggest impact on non-elite sports. In practice, no one has any idea of their testosterone levels at any given moment and most amateur athletes do not regularly measure their levels. This meant that the male population eligible to compete against women was broadened from just a handful of

… Read the rest

What a massively creepy intrusive You Will Think What We Tell You To Think letter.

I believe that the blatant and appalling discrimination I've experienced by the Hobart City Council is attributable in no small part to the attitude expressed in this letter I received from @HelenBurnet1. Here, the Acting Lord Mayor is trying to discipline me for my wrongthink.… pic.twitter.com/pqeTLggbx9

— Louise Elliot (@LouiseElliotM) December 15, 2023

“I am disappointed” – oh shut up with that passive aggressive crap. You’re not her mother.

“after last week’s workshop on inclusion and gender diversity” – as if having a “workshop” means people have to believe everything they’re told there. Guess what: not all women are delighted to be told we … Read the rest

I hope the jury decides Giuliani should pay $44m.

Jurors have begun deliberating in the multi-million dollar defamation case against Rudy Giuliani.

Ex-poll worker Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss are suing Mr Giuliani after he falsely claimed they played a role in election fraud.

They are seeking damages of up to $43m (£34m).

How about $45m?

A judge has already found that Mr Giuliani defamed the two and it is now up to eight jurors to decide exactly how much he will have to pay. In closing arguments on Thursday, Joseph Sibley, Mr Giuliani’s lawyer, urged the jury to be measured as they consider the penalty.

Lawyers for Ms Freeman and Ms Moss are “asking you to

… Read the rest

Golly, look what RTÉ has just broadcast and published:

Leading doctors report HSE to HIQA over transgender care

The two most experienced clinicians involved in transgender healthcare in Ireland have made a formal complaint to the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) about the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) treatment of children with gender identity issues, Prime Time has learned.

Professor Donal O’Shea and psychiatrist Dr Paul Moran of the National Gender Service (NGS) allege that the HSE has been directing children to services overseas that adhere to a so-called ‘gender-affirming’ Model of Care.

Prof O’Shea and Dr Moran say that the gender-affirming model can damage children and is associated with a greater readiness to start on inappropriate medical treatment for

… Read the rest

An article from the CDC: 2,500-year Evolution of the Term Epidemic:

The term epidemic (from the Greek epi [on] plus demos [people]), first used by Homer, took its medical meaning when Hippocrates used it as the title of one of his famous treatises. At that time, epidemic was the name given to a collection of clinical syndromes, such as coughs or diarrheas, occurring and propagating in a given period at a given location. Over centuries, the form and meaning of the term have changed. Successive epidemics of plague in the Middle Ages contributed to the definition of an epidemic as the propagation of a single, well-defined disease. The meaning of the term continued to evolve in the 19th-century era

… Read the rest

When museums and galleries tell us lies.

https://twitter.com/MollieBoss/status/1735376342630199805

That’s so ridiculous. There were no “LGBTQIA+” groups in 1988. That wasn’t a thing.

Trans ideology along with all its other flaws is gruesomely imperialist. Get outta the way you boring lesbians and gays, trans people and “queer” people are way more interesting and exciting than you.

If you want to learn more from pink suit guy here he is:… Read the rest

Jo Bartosch at Unherd:

Badenoch has never compared “children coming out as trans” to a disease. She has, however, referred to the surge in referrals to NHS gender identity services as “almost an epidemic”. And while it might be an emotive word, there has been a 1,607% increase across the past decade in referrals to NHS Gender Identity Services (Gids) at the NHS Tavistock and Portman Foundation Trust. Although the Tavistock clinic has now been shut following a report which slammed the service as “not safe” for children, there are still 8,000 youngsters on the NHS waiting list for help with gender confusion. This unprecedented rise in need for Gids can rightly be understood as an “epidemic”.

In the … Read the rest

Here we go.

This is starting to look awfully bad for you @KateOsborneMP. I wonder if @KemiBadenoch has seen this yet. https://t.co/gvVgtl8Nxt

— Fred Sargeant (@FredSargeant) December 14, 2023

This is the thing, you see – like a lot of words, “epidemic” has a narrow literal meaning and an expanded, somewhat metaphorical one. I think “epidemic” probably originally referred to disease only, but it’s been used to mean “[undesirable] trend” and the like for a hella long time. Kate Osborne isn’t wrong to say that it’s not a hooray word – it’s used of trends the speaker dislikes or disapproves of, not of trends she welcomes and embraces. We don’t talk of an epidemic of politeness or safe driving. … Read the rest

What is “the gender police v Kemi Badenoch” that the BBC is not reporting on? I was thinking I’d already posted about it but I hadn’t. I can’t give you the tidy BBC version because they haven’t reported on it at all so here is the TalkTV version instead:

Minister Kemi Badenoch accused Labour MP Kate Osborne of ‘lying’ in a fiery clash over language used to describe transgender children

Kemi Badenoch accused Labour MP Kate Osbourne of lying during a fiery clash that erupted over language used to describe transgender children in an appearance at the Women and Equalities Select Committee on 13 December.

The Cabinet minister hit back at [rebuked] Ms Osborne for accusing her of previously using

… Read the rest

Interesting. If I’m reading this correctly the BBC is not reporting on the gender police v Kemi Badenoch.

No. This is a huge row, and Lauren Moss and @joshparry this deserves your appropriate coverage. @ChrisMasonBBC if the Identity unit refuses to report this then Millbank needs to step up. @stuartmillar159 these are front page stories while you ignore this raging controversy. https://t.co/FBmMcfYUD3 pic.twitter.com/elYRMCtuAc

— Cath Leng (@leng_cath) December 14, 2023

Josh Parry is the BBC’s “LGBT & Identity” producer. (Who knew they had one? Who knew there is such a thing?)… Read the rest

From last year, but still worth a look.

An insane woman describes how she explained to a man who had sex with her why he is actually gay. https://t.co/fDWqlBhLKB pic.twitter.com/0CORVHzpQH

— Innocent Bystander (@supertolerant) December 12, 2023

My favorite part is the subtitled “laughter”.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? at Miscellany Room.

I’ve just started reading philosopher Val Plumwood’s Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason, a 2002 follow-up to her 1993 work Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. I’m barely past the introduction and I’m already amazed. It feels like every other sentence or two is a “Holy shit!” moment, where she either puts things into a perspective I’ve never thought of before, or encapsulates ideas that have been rattling around in my own head for quite some time. If Feminism and the Mastery of Nature was an examination of the origins of our current crisis in the foundations of Western thought, this book looks to be … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Sastra on Part of a network.

It is important to say these things at the outset of this report because society regularly tells LGBTQ+ people that they are not normal

And right here is the fundamental divide, the problem with coupling homosexuality and gender nonconformity with transgender. The society that regularly tells people who don’t abide by the conventions associated with their sex that they’re perverted, wicked, or sick is not the same part of society which views sex as a biological category we can’t choose to follow or not. The reasoning is completely different. The issue is completely different.

We do not believe that psychics are not normal. We question the existence of psychic … Read the rest