Background:

THE University of Edinburgh has once again been accused by a trade union of hosting an event which “contests the legitimacy of trans people and their rights”.

On Wednesday (October 11) the university is set to host a launch event for an anthology of essays titled ‘Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader’ published by academic publisher Routledge. 

However, the Edinburgh branch of the University College Union (UCU) has sent an e-mail to principal Peter Mathieson and senior management staff condemning the event and calling for it to be cancelled.

In the e-mail, which was also sent to all members of UCU Edinburgh, the union accuses university management of failing to protect transgender staff and students from transphobic abuse and

… Read the rest

This Johnny fella who turns out to be not an especially dim-witted undergraduate but a post-doc is a real piece of work. Flippant, ignorant, and malicious, while full of self-righteous hatred of women who don’t submit.

https://twitter.com/ChemBioJonny/status/1712496209649184919

See also: “I’d only read about Christianity when the book is written by a Christian”; “I’d only read about Scientology when the book is written by a Scientologist”; “I’d only read about Nazism when the book is written by a Nazi”; “I’d only read a book about Trump when the book is written by a fan of Trump.”

https://twitter.com/ChemBioJonny/status/1712495433346392242

What if the law said humans can fly? Would he jump?

https://twitter.com/ChemBioJonny/status/1712494073649455104 https://twitter.com/ChemBioJonny/status/1712156422199218217

The story there turned out to be that a few protesters … Read the rest

Just in case there haven’t been enough insults yet today…

https://twitter.com/scepticalPhil/status/1712361477988897071… Read the rest

Sigh.

A shocking decision @AusHumanRights https://t.co/gFk15TQapp

— The Lesbian Project (@project_lesbian) October 12, 2023

Sorry, lezzers, you have to let men in. Sux 2 b u.

The Gay Men's Network stands shoulder to shoulder with the Lesbian Action Group and LGB Alliance Australia. We will do everything we can as an organisation to help in any way fighting this ridiculous and cruel decision. https://t.co/sqMgxMKxT3

— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) October 12, 2023

The insults just keep rolling in.… Read the rest

Cancel that book.

Academics at the University of Edinburgh have accused their own union of attempting to stifle debate after it called for the launch of a book on sex and gender to be scrapped.

Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader features essays from figures such as the philosopher Kathleen Stock and is edited by Selina Todd and Alice Sullivan, a professor of sociology at University College London (UCL) who gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament last year on the Scottish Government’s gender reforms.

Selina Todd is a professor of history at Oxford. Don’t ask me why that was omitted.

The University and College Union (UCU) Edinburgh branch committee has written to the university’s principal, Sir Peter Mathieson, saying it has “concerns about the

… Read the rest

Has to be parody doesn’t it?

Guy is there to protest the event, guy tells interviewer he doesn’t know what it’s about, doesn’t know what the book says, doesn’t know what the protest is about, but by god he’s there anyway because [insert miracle here]

We spoke to Johnny, who was protesting the book launch.

He said this:

(Unfortunately the video was corrupted, but we still captured audio.) pic.twitter.com/WlAb6IeRcm

— Ross Patterson (@Ross_Patterson_) October 11, 2023

… Read the rest

The CBC is being a little bit bashful in its wording here…

https://twitter.com/CBCNews/status/1712204181069504847

Dead “as a result of the conflict”? Meaning what, dead of a broken heart?

But, I’m grateful to them in a way, because that silly periphrasis introduced me to this guy:

This should surprise no one. Ex-Muslims have been screaming about the Left-Muslim alliance since 9/11. It's the whole reason I got involved in talking about wokeness, for lack of a better term. I wrote about it here.https://t.co/Wehffypw1k

— Dangerous Speech Podcast (@dangerousspeach) October 11, 2023

… Read the rest

What was that we were saying the other day (or maybe I was the one saying it) about how rape is basically legal in the UK? (Not that it’s much better in the US.) Tiny fraction reported; tiny fraction of those prosecuted; tiny fraction of those convicted.

Now we can add tiny fraction of those punished. It must be down to a thousandth of a rapist per annum by now.

Scottish man who R*ped a 13 year old girl smiles as he leaves court as his conviction is DROPPED due to liberal laws enacted by the Scottish government.

The 22 year old man repeatedly r*ped the 13 year old girl when he was aged 17 and was originally sentenced to

… Read the rest

The Outside article with the subhead “Banning trans women from competitive cycling is an insult to all women” is written by…wait for it…a man who claims to be a woman. Well he would say that wouldn’t he – anything to fool or cheat or bully women into obedience.

My career as an athlete is a little complicated, though. As a trans woman, bike racing has always felt like a lose-lose proposition for me. If I do well, I risk getting called a cheater, or even worse, becoming a Fox News headline.

That’s because you are a cheater, bro.

Even before transitioning in 2020, seeing the hate directed at trans women athletes made me feel like competitive sports was a dead

… Read the rest

Dishonest and stupid in one.

https://twitter.com/outsidemagazine/status/1711894420725862484

First of all nobody proposes “banning trans women from cycling.” The issue is that trans women have zero right to compete against women, because it’s unfair to the women.

Second, the insult is not to trans women, it’s to women. Letting men who call themselves women compete against women is a profound and multifaceted insult to women.… Read the rest

What a nightmare girls must live in.

“Most people aren’t able to do this job for more than two years.” It was a strange comment for an introductory training session, but it wasn’t an average first day of a new job. I was 27, living in Herne Hill and learning how to be an online sex and relationships advisor for young people on a salary of around £24,000 a year. “There’s no shame in quitting,” my trainer reassured me. “This type of work really takes its toll on a person.”

Because there’s so much of it? Because of all the research? Because too sedentary?

I realised there was one issue coming up over and over that shouldn’t be considered

… Read the rest

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), on atrocities and the moral high ground and international humanitarian law:

Hamas’s appalling attack on Israeli civilians has been widely described as the country’s “9/11 moment”. It is an appropriate description of such wanton cruelty. But the analogy carries a cautionary note as well.

The US government lost the world’s sympathy, and the moral high ground, when its response to 9/11 degenerated into a highly abusive war in Iraq, systematic torture, and endless detention without trial in Guantánamo. The Israeli government should be careful not to replicate this path to opprobrium. Indeed, such an abusive response may be exactly what Hamas wanted to provoke.

Hamas also thinks … Read the rest

Harvard students don’t actually know everything.

A letter from Harvard University student groups blaming Israel for violence in the region has drawn a backlash from prominent alumni and US lawmakers.

The letter, authored by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, stated that students “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence”.

Glad they’re not dogmatically absolutist about it.

“The apartheid regime is the only one to blame. Israeli violence has structured every aspect of Palestinian existence for 75 years,” the letter added.

And what was going on 75 years ago? 76 years ago? 77, 78, 79? That might have given Jews the idea that they needed a Jewish nation?

… Read the rest

I overlooked this news last week:

Donald Trump has dropped his $500 million lawsuit against Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and fixer who is now a key witness in a criminal case against him, Cohen and a Trump spokesperson said Thursday night. But the former president did not waive his right to sue again.

Trump had accused Cohen of “spreading falsehoods” “with malicious intent” and causing “vast reputational harm” for talking publicly about hush-money payments made to women during Trump’s 2016 campaign that are at the heart of criminal charges he faces in New York. Trump has also accused Cohen of breaking a confidentiality agreement that he signed as a condition of his employment.

In other words Trump … Read the rest

Trump doesn’t have enough legal action going on so he’s suing, suing I tell you.

Donald J. Trump has claimed in a lawsuit in a London court that Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer, inflicted “personal and reputational damage and distress” on him by leaking a dossier detailing unsavory, unproven accounts of links between him and Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.

…

In a court filing last month, Mr. Trump’s lawyers said he was “compelled to explain to his family, friends, and colleagues that the embarrassing allegations about his private life were untrue. This was extremely distressing” for him, the filing said, asserting that Mr. Steele had presented the claims in a “sensationalist manner” that was “calculated

… Read the rest

A month ago, on September 11, the president of Penn State explained about free speech and the First Amendment, while carefully also wringing her hands about how hurtful some speech can be – “not only offensive but deeply hurtful” she emphasized, without explaining the difference.

Today, it seems, Penn State canceled a talk by Riley Gaines, on account of how…um…er…

No way President of Penn State makes a whole video explaining why public institutions are legally obligated to let "bigots" apparently like me on campus to speak then proceeds to CANCEL my speech tomorrow for real women's day (X/X)😭😂

Have it your way. See ya tomorrow with a… pic.twitter.com/vHTPbK6hBZ

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) October 9, 2023

… Read the rest

Phoning it in much?

Is it, as the South East Technological University (SETU) claims, “unlawful” to refuse to address someone by their preferred name or use their chosen pronouns? It isn’t and it shouldn’t be. But it is bad manners – and deliberate discourtesy is not a trivial matter.

I don’t understand why anyone has a problem calling people by the names they prefer. I’ve been doing it almost all my life.

If Fintan O’Toole really doesn’t understand then he hasn’t been paying attention. Easy for him, isn’t it. Women, on the other hand, have compelling reasons to be wary of men who order us to call them “Nellie” while taking over our spaces and even our feminism.

It started

… Read the rest

A good thing for a change.

The women of Matobo, Zimbabwe paint their dwellings with intricate designs using charcoal, ash, water and soil, an annual ritual with continually changing imagery #womensart pic.twitter.com/amcolVsgPs

— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) October 10, 2023

… Read the rest

Outside Sydney Opera House:

Australian police said on Tuesday they were investigating a pro-Palestinian protest outside Sydney Opera House, after footage emerged of a small group appearing to chant anti-Semitic slogans at the demonstration.

…

Unverified footage shared by the Australian Jewish Association and featured on Sky News appeared to show a small group outside the Opera House lighting flares and chanting “gas the Jews”.

…

Protest organiser Palestine Action Group Sydney defended its right to protest “apartheid” in Israel but said a small number of “vile antisemitic attendees” had no place in their movement.

There was an interesting (and heated) discussion about Israel and apartheid on Start the Week yesterday.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by tigger_the_wing on Just dissolve that sucker.

I suspect that the reasons that they formed a ‘church’ were tax avoidance and lack of oversight; the latter enabled them to avoid prosecution for years, despite numerous complaints, injuries and deaths.

Because of the abuse of autistic children, there were a lot of campaigns from autistic advocates over the years; but the wheels of justice were clamped until governments finally made it illegal to administer the specific ingredients to children.

The ‘church’ had got away with it by handing out the ingredients and then giving unrecorded spoken instructions to the ‘congregation’ which, when followed, turned the MMS into a powerful industrial bleach.

Parents enthusiastically shared photos in online … Read the rest