Victor Madrigal in all his diversity.

… and second time pic.twitter.com/sU8QFY1z0M

— Jon Pike (@runthinkwrite) November 1, 2023

The repeated phrase is “girls in all of their diversity.”

(Yes, I'm annoyed at being called a bio-essentialist by these unthinking gender-identity essentialists)…

— Jon Pike (@runthinkwrite) November 1, 2023

It’s bio-essentialism to say elephants are not ostriches. It’s bio-essentialism to say whales are not lobsters. It’s bio-essentialism to say daffodils are not sequoias. It’s bio-essentialism to say potatoes are not grapes.

I begin to detect a pattern here.

We need to know the differences between things. It’s necessary for our enjoyment but also for our survival. Fire is not snow and it’s not like snow – if you touch it it … Read the rest

Replies to this are harsh.

States must uphold the ideal of sport that is inclusive of LGBTI+ persons.
Read a joint statement issued by 13 @UN_SPExperts: https://t.co/80jLaUq33j
"We're convinced that sports have the power to change perceptions, prejudices & behaviors: it must not be used to reinforce them". pic.twitter.com/TTXXgiyN3X

— Victor Madrigal-Borloz (@victor_madrigal) October 31, 2023

Categories based on age, sex and disability exist in sport to ensure fairness.

Stop destroying women’s rights.

You are a corrupt man.

— Homunculus  (@tryingattimes) November 1, 2023

https://twitter.com/LouiseWluddite/status/1719666043868598424

This what our ‘human rights’ expert is campaigning for everyone.

Unfair, unsafe sport for women

But I guess that’s OK because Victor doesn’t recognise women as full human beings pic.twitter.com/CijqaET3IT

— Rebecca Marian

UN Human Rights High Commissioner issues a slimy manipulative statement pretending to defend women’s rights while actually stamping on them.

Expressing grave concern about structural barriers to sport faced by women and girls in all of their diversity, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and other gender diverse persons and intersex persons, a group of UN experts* today issued a policy position urging States and other stakeholders to respect the right of all to participate in cultural life through sports and games and to tackle discrimination against, and enforcement of equal treatment of all athletes, especially women and girls in all their diversity, LGBT and intersex persons.

This of course means the opposite of what it appears to mean. It doesn’t mean … Read the rest

When skepticism goes meta:

Two years ago, the star researcher Dan Ariely, a behavioral scientist, fell into the spotlight when a trio of data sleuths exposed problems with the numbers supporting a headline-making 2012 study he helped write. The study found people were less likely to lie on a form if they signed an honesty statement at the top, as opposed to the bottom.

On the blog Data Colada, the sleuths examined one of three experiments in the paper, which claimed to use data from an insurance company. Amid the fallout from their findings, Ariely claimed that the company “collected, entered, merged, and anonymized” the data before sending it to him. That company, The Hartford, said back then

It’s kind of like Citizen Kane but without any Orson Welles. The Washington Post lines up the players:

Trump’s four-year presidency — and the tumultuous period of investigations and criminal and civil litigation since he left office — have reshaped much of the Trump family’s wealth, business and dynamics with one another, according to court filings, financial records, emails and interviews with people close to the family.

Ivanka Trump, once considered by Trump’s business partners to be the most likely of his children to take over the Trump Organization, has largely stepped away from the limelight of both business and politics, at times telling others she was stung by the scrutiny she received in Washington…

Yeah gee why would … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Athel Cornish-Bowden on It is important to distinguish.

We should never forget the Deir Yassin massacre carried out by Irgun terrorists led by Menachem Begin, who later founded Likud, the current party of government, which continues the ideas of Irgun with less overt violence. Likud is largely responsible for the humiliations and hardships that Palestinians suffer every day, starting with the continuing invasion of the West Bank. If some Palestinians feel pushed into retaliating in horrific ways then we still need to ask who is ultimately to blame. A few years ago we had a colleague older than us — well into her 70s and maybe 80s — who was involved in non-violent support of … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Pliny the in Between on Here’s your amuse-bouche sir.

Being a white haired guy i my ’60s, almost every time I go to a restaurant anymore some 20 something asks if I need help with the QR code menu or ordering. Or in the self-check line at the grocery, or any other place where modern IT is about. I smile, say no thank you, and enjoy my wife’s wry smile at all this ageism, knowing full well that I just spent the last 8 hours analyzing training sequences in an AI system I developed. Or figuring ways to constrain generative AI. They don’t know that, of course and I could get all pissy about it … Read the rest

Fighting for the glorious cause of…this one person.

Double Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya says her focus is now “more about winning battles against the authorities” than collecting medals.

Semenya, 32, was born with differences of sexual development (DSD) and cannot compete in any track events without taking testosterone-reducing drugs. The South African wants to hold World Athletics to account for discrimination against athletes with hyperandrogenism.

“I fight for what is right for humanity and for inclusivity,” she said.

Inclusivity of what though? Of people with extra testosterone? Is that really a glorious cause?

Hyperandrogenism is a medical condition characterised by higher than usual levels of testosterone, a hormone that increases muscle mass and strength.

You can see his … Read the rest

Wow here’s a shocker – “Barbie” Kardashian is less violent when he’s in the men’s prison wing. Who could have predicted that?

Trans inmate Barbie Kardashian’s behaviour behind bars has improved dramatically since being placed into a men’s prison. Sources say there “isn’t a peep” out of Kardashian as the lag lives within a strict and disciplined regime in Limerick prison.

The Irish Mirror revealed in August that the 21-year-old had been transferred there from the women’s wing of the jail. Prison officers in the female wing were struggling to keep her under control, as she threatened staff and fellow lags.

The “fellow lags” who are female and thus extra vulnerable to hulking strong psychopaths like “Barbie.”

Female staff

This is worth watching because…what is he doing? Who is filming all this? Does he just systematically bring someone along when he goes out to eat and instruct that someone to record all interactions with the servers? So that he can bully and punish every single worker who recognizes a man and uses the normal polite subservient language when talking to that man? Yes, clearly that’s exactly what he does. Poisonous scumbag.

This obvious man goes to restaurants and films himself waiting to be 'misgendered' by staff so that he can complain about it. It's clear he's doing this so he can both play the victim and exert power over low-paid workers by shaming and punishing them pic.twitter.com/PF8A9wYk79

— ripx4nutmeg

Trump has a boatload of gag orders and he’s having himself a high old time ignoring them all and telling us he’s ignoring them. Crime boss does whatever he wants all the time and brags about it in public while campaigning all too successfully for a second term as president. We’re locked in a nightmare.

Judge Chutkan gagged Donald Trump tonight.

Anyone else would be sitting in jail pending trial. pic.twitter.com/9faXpseXhv

— Evan (@daviddunn177) October 30, 2023

Trump is already attacking Judge Chutkan's Sunday night decision, reinstating his gag order, in a Truth Social post that he made in the middle of the night. pic.twitter.com/dh1effEkPf

— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) October 30, 2023

… Read the rest

The Telegraph reports:

The Welsh government is to redefine women to include transgender females under planned new laws.

The proposal was revealed on Sunday in a leaked draft of its Gender Quotas Bill which proposes that half the candidates in any list to be members of the Senedd must be women.

For the purposes of the proposed legislation this includes transgender women, the report stated.

For the purposes of the proposed legislation this includes transgender women, the report stated.

That is so so so fucking insulting. “Ok ok ok we’ll pass a bill saying half the candidates must be women. But we’ll also say men can be women so ha you lose anyway. Sorrynotsorry bitches.”… Read the rest

First, Julie Bindel in The Spectator last November:

The most important job of any union is to support its members against bullies. So why has the Society of Authors, a sort of posh union for writers, illustrators and translators, failed to support members who are receiving death threats? In August, J.K. Rowling tweeted her sympathy for Sir Salman Rushdie after his attempted murder. Imagine how she felt when she received this response: ‘Don’t worry, you are next.’ Rowling is a member of the Society of Authors and expected the union to put pressure on the authorities by condemning the threats against her. Right? Wrong.

Not only did the Society fail to defend Rowling, but the chair of the management

All in fun! Just joking! Where’s your sensayuma?

More threats. Found by @Aja02537920 pic.twitter.com/hgR2ZrqngX

— James Dreyfus (@DreyfusJames) October 30, 2023

Etsy sells these shirts with explicity violent messages. pic.twitter.com/Gs2iQFc80s

— Logic & Facts (Reality Matters) (@Zubi_Freeman) October 30, 2023

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Sackbut on Not Selfridge’s.

It is important to me distinguish:

– the actions of the Israeli government;

– the state of Israel itself;

– Israelis;

– Jewish people;

– Palestinian people;

– the nation of Palestine (whatever that means currently);

– the actions of the Palestinian government;

– the actions of non-governmental groups.

I keep looking for nuance in the various protests, and in reports of these protests. I keep hoping to see protesters make clear that they are criticizing government actions and not damning the civilian populations. I keep hoping for news coverage to make this clear. But it is distressingly rare. Protests like this one are described as “pro-Palestine” rather than “pro Palestinian … Read the rest

Horrific.

Berlin 1933.
The brownshirts held their rally then marched to a Jewish owned shop to make the staff & their customers feel unsafe.

Glasgow 2023.
The anti semites held their rally then marched to a Jewish owned shop to make the staff & their customers feel unsafe.#ScotlandsShame pic.twitter.com/7Cs5Ew8s1Y

— Biology Rules Ok (@OkayBiology) October 30, 2023

The Marks in Marks & Spencer was Michael Marks, a Jewish immigrant from Belarus. … Read the rest

Trump again told to shut up, again fails to comply.

A federal judge has reinstated a limited gag order on former President Donald Trump in his 2020 presidential election subversion case. It prevents him from criticising court staff, prosecutors and possible witnesses between now and his trial.

Judge Tanya Chutkan had temporarily lifted the order earlier this month so his lawyers could appeal but reinstated it on Sunday. An hour after the news emerged, Mr Trump called the judge “Trump hating”.

Laura Norder innit.

The former president is also under a gag order in a separate ongoing civil fraud trial in New York.

The judge in that case has issued two separate fines against Mr Trump for violating that

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Protecting the public.

If they are that “acutely vulnerable” then maybe the outside world is not for them. If they really must go out of doors, they should make it brief. They should wear blinkers, lest they be upset by anything alarming coming into their peripheral vision. Looking down at the ground is also to be recommended. For longer, more dangerous journeys, they should be preceded by someone walking 10-20 yards ahead of them, ringing a bell, wearing a sign proclaiming “CAUTION: ACUTELY VULNERABLE PERSON APPROACHING!” This will give people in the vicinity time to hide from view anything that might upset or give offence.

There is no such thing

Yet more solidarity from the boys.

Fred Wallace has gone to #LetWomenSpeak with a speaker shouting Baker's threats against women on repeat.

After this, he hung it in the women's area. Like the obsessive misogynist he is. https://t.co/73Y5N2bywN

— Billy Bragg (@Serena_Partrick) October 29, 2023

… Read the rest

The nightmare returns:

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters stormed the airport in the Russian city of Makhachkala in the predominantly Muslim region of Daghestan, with some shouting anti-Jewish comments at passengers arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv on October 29.

Riot police arrived at the airport after the disturbances, while the Interior Ministry office in Makhachkala said reinforcements, including National Guard units, were being sent to “ensure the safety” of arriving passengers, according to the Baza Telegram channel.

Anti-Jewish protests have broken out in several cities in the region in the face of Israel’s war with Hamas, rulers of the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip.

…

Late on October 29, videos and photos from the scene published by Izvestia indicated