I’m reading a piece by Elizabeth Weiss about science museums and how they should respond to controversies. I’ve paused to follow up a sidetrack.

In the past two decades, science institutions have faced challenges from another source: indigenous religions. Unlike Christian fundamentalist beliefs, these indigenous beliefs often receive enthusiastic support from academics, scholars, and mainstream media journalists. This support might stem from a desire to oppose Western civilization and align with the “victims” of modernity as part of an effort to “decolonize” museums. Alternatively, it may also be linked to a trend of virtue signaling, which has allowed the misconception that “indigenous knowledge is science” to take root in academic circles.

It’s the virtue signaling bit that caused me to … Read the rest

Daily Mail:

USA Boxing to allow transgender women to compete against female boxers under certain conditions from 2024 after introducing new policy

That is, USA Boxing to allow men to punch women.

USA Boxing has adopted a ‘Transgender Policy’, which will allow male boxers who transition to fight in the female category from 2024.

One, it’s unfair, and two, it’s dangerous.

But it’s only unfair to women and dangerous to women, so it doesn’t matter.

USA Boxing announced the policy on Friday, saying in a statement: ‘The purpose of this policy is to provide fairness and safety for all boxers.’

Bullshit. That policy can’t possibly provide either fairness or safety for women boxers.… Read the rest

Stop cheating or lose your funding.

Parkrun must protect women runners from transgender rivals – or risk losing their funding, says a report backed by Olympians.

The research paper by Policy Exchange, a think tank, found that at least three Parkrun female records were held by biological men as a result of its policy of allowing entrants to self-identify their gender.

The report – backed by Olympic medallists Sharron Davies and Daley Thompson and tennis player Martina Navratilova – warned that female athletes risk being alienated unless grassroots sports from cricket and rowing to football and tennis could provide fair and safe play.

That is, the report warned that there’s a risk that female athletes will be alienated. The … Read the rest

Blah blah blah Peter.

Trans women aren't same as other women but equally valid

Some people are women based on their chromosomal sex

Trans are women based on other biological markers & gender identity

Both types of women are victims of sexism, rape & violence

Fight the misogyny that harms them all pic.twitter.com/vMnkHv19V8

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) December 28, 2023

Rabbits aren’t same as other women but equally valid.

Shovels aren’t same as other women but equally valid.

Sailboats aren’t same as other women but equally valid.

In short, that doesn’t mean anything. It’s hurbleburble meant to cover up the absurdity of claiming that men are women. Men aren’t the same as women how? In the sense of being the … Read the rest

Still racing toward the cliff.

The hottest year in recorded history casts doubts on humanity’s ability to deal with a climate crisis of its own making, senior scientists have said.

As historically high temperatures continued to be registered in many parts of the world in late December, the former Nasa scientist James Hansen told the Guardian that 2023 would be remembered as the moment when failures became apparent.

“When our children and grandchildren look back at the history of human-made climate change, this year and next will be seen as the turning point at which the futility of governments in dealing with climate change was finally exposed,” he said. “Not only did governments fail to stem global warming, the

Who ya gonna believe, Trump or pretty much anyone else?

Donald Trump has angrily denied claims by the director of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York that he bullied his way into a now famous cameo. The former president made a brief appearance in the 1992 film in a scene filmed at the Plaza Hotel, which he owned at the time.

Director Chris Columbus said Mr Trump insisted on appearing in the film if they used the hotel as a location. But Mr Trump said the filmmakers were “begging” him to appear.

“I was very busy, and didn’t want to do it. They were very nice, but above all, persistent,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform on

Let the mutilations continue.

Ohio’s Republican governor has vetoed legislation that would have barred transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming care, he said Friday. Signing the bill would “be saying that the state, the government” knows what’s better for youth than their parents, Gov. Mike DeWine said.

So there should be no laws against beating children, or torturing them, or locking them up in a dark cold basement room, or putting them to work in factories at age 5. Parents always know better, so there should be no child protection laws or institutions at all.

Also, it makes a difference what you call it. “Gender-affirming” makes it sound wholesome and nice. Non-medical genital mutilation and mastectomy don’t sound quite so … Read the rest

How not to do an exhibition on women in revolt:

Tate Britain is currently holding a 'Women In Revolt!' exhibition, which explores women's rights in the 1970s and 1980s through art. The first paragraph of the opening exhibit label makes clear that cross-dressing men are centred in the displays https://t.co/WjVXqGLy3i pic.twitter.com/4hQtXOOvvg

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) December 29, 2023

I wouldn’t say the circled bit makes clear that trans women are centered, but that it makes clear they’re included, which of course they shouldn’t be. Men shouldn’t be included in exhibitions about women, because men are not women. You can’t include men in an exhibition that purports to be about women even slightly without diluting it. It’s just really stupid, frankly, to … Read the rest

Today I learned that it’s “insidious” to be not attracted to someone.

When the Mail gets it and “progressives” don’t:

The BBC has been heavily criticised for describing playwright Noel Coward as ‘queer’ amid concerns that the term, ‘reclaimed’ by some in the gay community, is still offensive to many.

A social media post by the BBC Arts account promoting the BBC2 Boxing Day documentary about the actor, singer and composer’s life described him as being ‘queer’ in a ‘very straight world’. The same wording is used on the show’s description on the BBC’s iPlayer.

Critics accused the corporation of using ‘homophobic slurs’ saying Coward was a ‘gay man’, while another said the term ‘queer’ was an ‘insult for most gay men and women’. 

And it’s not for the BBC to err … Read the rest

What is The Birth of a Nation?

D.W. Griffith’s controversial epic 1915 film about the Civil War and Reconstruction depicted the Ku Klux Klan as valiant saviors of a post-war South ravaged by Northern carpetbaggers and freed Black people.

Similar to Gone With the Wind but without spoken dialogue.

History is usually written by the winners. But that wasn’t the case when The Birth of a Nation was released on February 8, 1915. In just over three hours, D.W. Griffith’s controversial epic film about the Civil War and Reconstruction depicted the Ku Klux Klan as valiant saviors of a post-war South ravaged by Northern carpetbaggers and immoral freed Black people. The film was an instant blockbuster. And with innovative

Two more down.

A Confederate monument was taken down in Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday, after an order by the city’s mayor ended years of debate, as officials around the United States reckon with memorials on public property that commemorate the Confederacy.

Donna Deegan, the Democratic mayor of Jacksonville, ordered the removal of two statues that were part of the “Tribute to the Women of the Southern Confederacy” monument in Springfield Park.

Does Jacksonville need large heavy three-dimensional tributes to the women of the slave-owning Confedracy?

Ms. Deegan said in a statement on Wednesday that the monument had been erected as part of a campaign to promote discriminatory Jim Crow laws and intimidate Black people.

A campaign that lasted a … Read the rest

Don’t mention the slavery.

Nikki Haley, the Republican presidential candidate and former governor of South Carolina who for years has wrestled with how to approach issues of race, slavery and the Confederacy, found herself again confronted with those subjects at a town hall event on Wednesday in New Hampshire, hundreds of miles north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Her answer to a simple yet loaded question by an audience member in the city of Berlin — “What was the cause of the United States Civil War?” — showed just how much she continues to struggle with such topics.

“I mean, I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are,” she

I watched this scene again yesterday evening (not the whole movie; I came in late) and it struck me how like Trump Colonel Jessup is. Not as flabby and laughable, of course, but every bit as enraged and murderous.… Read the rest

Cheater wins.

The Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) has been forced to drop their new regulations on men who want to participate in women’s competitions after being sued by a trans-identified male player. The lawsuit was launched earlier this year by Natalie Ryan, who had been dominating women’s competitions prior to the PDGA attempting to rein in male competitors.

Natalie Ryan is of course a man.

Ryan first filed a suit against the PDGA in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California this past February. In his complaint, he argued that a recently-adopted PDGA policy prohibiting trans-identified males from competing with women if they had undergone a “male puberty” violated his civil rights and California laws against

Geeta Pandey of BBC New Delhi reports:

It was sometime after 1am on 11 December when more than a dozen people barged into Sasikala’s [not her real name] house. The 42-year-old was dragged out, stripped and paraded naked around the village, tied to an electricity pole and beaten for hours.

A resident of Hosa Vantamuri village in Belagavi district in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, she was being punished because her 24-year-old son had eloped with his 18-year-old girlfriend.

The young woman had been betrothed by her family to another man and was to get married the next day. Her furious family wanted to know where the couple were.

So this isn’t about injustice to one woman, it’s … Read the rest

Tommy Dorfman, the lovely fella who tried to make an airline worker’s life worse, isn’t a narcissistic self-obsessed dweeb at all, no indeed. Here he is “coming out” in 2021. I had to hit stop at 54 seconds because enough already, so if you manage more and it turns out he’s really not a narcissistic self-obsessed dweeb, let us know.

Actor Tommy Dorfman is here to reintroduce herself https://t.co/tOpsLgdz6g pic.twitter.com/PvVo3kz9p3

— TIME (@TIME) July 22, 2021

… Read the rest

Morgane Oger declares himself “thrilled” to ruin yet another women’s organization. Shutting down Vancouver Rape Relief wasn’t enough for him.

Man who hates women takes a woman’s place on a wonen’s non profit for board. “Gendered violence”, indeed… pic.twitter.com/ePMtlVjuHJ

— goinglikeelsie KPSS! (@goinglikeelsie) December 26, 2023

… Read the rest

Oh joy an opportunity for self-promotion!

Trans activists are calling for a boycott of Delta Airlines after a transgender actor complained about being "misgendered" by two Delta employees at LaGuardia Airport.

Tommy Dorfman, who starred in 13 Reasons Why, uploaded a video of the interaction to his TikTok. pic.twitter.com/G4nVXIsowF

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) December 26, 2023

Fame at last – Newsweek!!

A video by transgender actress Tommy Dorfman, in which she accuses Delta Air Lines Employees of “intentionally” misgendering her, quickly went viral and sparked a fiery debate on social media.

He’s an obvious guy. People who work for airlines have to deal with a lot of people, most of them stressed, all day every day. They … Read the rest

I didn’t realize it was Adam Kinzinger who set off the “Trump smells” alarm. I take that to mean it’s actually true.

I’ll do better than wearing a mask; I’ll never go near him ever.… Read the rest