Seriously now. Take a good hard look at that cover.

What is the central image, the one that jumps out at the viewer? A very conservative Muslim couple, the woman in a burqa chador and a man with the regulation full beard, with a child between them, both of them wreathed in smiles as they walk a few inches behind an apparent gay couple.

That is not the real world.

Very conservative Muslims do not beam joyously on gay couples in the park. They don’t. Secular liberal Muslims yes, but the uniform-wearing ones, no. Theocrats, Christian or Jewish or Hindu or Muslim, do not beam approvingly on same-sex couples, not even when they’re actually not same-sex couples because one … Read the rest

Rich guy who shares some of his millions:

Hamish Ogston is one of Britain’s richest men…

He has spent the last five years building up his eponymous foundation, which has donated tens of millions to heritage projects, healthcare and women’s education in the global south.

He’s had dinner with Charles Windsor. Anne Windsor’s husband has had dinner with him. Heady stuff.

Today, a Sunday Times investigation reveals evidence that suggests for the last 15 years he has engaged in the exploitation of vulnerable southeast Asian sex workers. Documents suggest Ogston has trafficked or attempted to traffic Thai and Filipina sex workers, and hosted women who entered the country as tourists only to stay at his property and engage in

… Read the rest

Bahahahahaha behold the progressive paradise where men carry babies and women are muffled in burqas. Theocrats and gendercrats join hands to defeat the dreaded feminist monster! And everybody is smiling!

New fairytale just dropped. pic.twitter.com/9QHmoQHTNx

— iamyesyouareno (@iamyesyouareno) September 30, 2023

… Read the rest

Classic. Right-wing ideology in a nutshell. People must be allowed to do whatever they want, provided that what they want to do is expensive and destructive and dangerous.

https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1708067435612373195

Fuck public transportation yeah? Fuck pedestrians and cyclists yeah? The only decent people are the ones in cars, god damn it, so give everything to them and punish all those reckless lazy anti-capitalist people who don’t have six cars in their garages.

https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1708067438791622935

Freedom! Freedom freedom freedom!

For people who own cars, that is. Not for all those other people, the ones who refuse to support the automobile industry. Lazy irresponsible greedy buggers.… Read the rest

Queering the what now?

One year ago:

https://twitter.com/GeorgeWOxford/status/1573199209536389123

So naturally I had to find the source.

York Art Gallery: Queering the Burton

York Art Gallery and the York LGBT Forum have been working to queer the Burton Gallery by telling the stories and sharing the perspectives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) people. Art works from York Art Galleries collections will be ‘coming out’ from the stores as well as looking again at some of the art already on display from an LGBTQIA perspective.

Visitors will be able to explore the stories which draw on LGBT Forum participants original research, as well as creative responses to the art which are inspired by lived experience.

‘Queering the

… Read the rest

The Times on that canceled anthropology panel:

For a big annual conference on anthropology, Kathleen Lowrey, an associate professor at the University of Alberta, put together several panelists around a controversial theme: that their discipline was in the midst of erasing discussions of sex, which they believe is binary — either male or female.

So she collected a panel of speakers, only to have the profession…er…erase it.

That statement again, in case it’s faded over the past few days:

In a joint statement on Thursday, the two sponsors of the conference, the American Anthropological Association and the Canadian Anthropology Society, said that they wanted to protect the transgender community: “The session was rejected because it relied on assumptions that

… Read the rest

You know, it’s just occurred to me to wonder something. I don’t know why it took me so long. What I wonder is: if the trans ideology is based on truth – if it really is true that people can be born in the wrong body – why are there not whole bookshelves full of accounts of the experience? Why has this truth been hidden from us for so long? Why didn’t we already know about it, before 2010 or whatever it was? Why aren’t there memoirs and autobiographies and biographies and histories telling us about it?

There are of course memoirs and novels and so on that express discontent with the rules of gender, including some with a wish … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on What’s that smell coming from the basement?

…the sad reality is our climate is changing faster than our infrastructure can respond…

We all know what happens to organisms whose ability to adapt fails to keep up with the pace of its changing environment. Humans are numerous and resourceful enough to be around for a long time (even if it is ultimately in only small numbers, in widely spaced patches). Civilization is another story. Its dependence on the combination of cheap, reliable energy, and immediate access to material resources on a planetary scale makes it vulnerable to disruptions of either. The unacknowledged and unprotected foundation of all of this economic activity is … Read the rest

Now to see if I can tolerate reading all of Grace Lavery’s Address to the Genderariat.

The emergence of a liberal ideology of trans rights over the last two decades has precipitated a crisis in higher education. The purpose of my lecture today will be to sketch the contours of that crisis as I see them, and to propose a couple of possible ways forward.

The trouble is though, it’s not a liberal ideology. Very much the opposite. It’s dictatorial and punitive, not liberal. It rests on bullshit claims and personal fantasies, which are not good foundations for a liberal ideology.

…there is in this room some number—perhaps a sizable number—of people who are perturbed by the growing conflict

… Read the rest

The second point-hiss in the Open Democracy hit piece on Kathleen Stock is a complicated but trivial story about Nathan Oseroff accusing Stock of “publicly advocating bigotry and intolerance” and Brian Leiter saying Oseroff should be fired from his job as an editor at the American Philosophical Association blog, which eventually he was.

Leiter defended his actions, telling openDemocracy that Oseroff-Spicer “repeatedly abused his position at the APA blog”.

The events led both Oseroff-Spicer and his partner, a trans man, to conclude “philosophy just was not the right place for either of us”.

Or to put it another way, he and his partner weren’t the right people for philosophy.

Next up:

Christa Peterson, currently a final-year philosophy PhD student at

… Read the rest

Oh please.

Open Democracy does the big Reverse:

Cancel culture? Trans-inclusive writers say they face abuse and censorship

They face abuse and censorship? You mean they engage in abuse and censorship.

Students and academics say they are bullied and threatened with legal action for opposing ‘gender critical’ views

And Open Democracy pretends to believe them.

Sussex English undergraduate Katie Tobin was among the first to experience such a backlash when she wrote an article in late 2018 for the Sussex branch of The Tab, a student newspaper conglomerate with a presence on dozens of UK campuses.

Tobin’s piece concerned an email Stock had sent the entire Sussex philosophy cohort defending her views on trans rights. In her article, Tobin said

… Read the rest

Not the future any more.

All drainage systems have their limitations and New York City’s is 1.75 inches of rainfall per hour. Unfortunately for many New Yorkers, the storm that deluged the region on Friday dropped more than two inches between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. — and then kept on coming.

The limit on the capacity of the city’s network of drains, pipes and water-treatment plants is the main reason New Yorkers across all five boroughs suffered through flooding. And this probably will not be the city’s last bout with heavy flooding as it plays catch-up with the pace of climate change, experts said.

“This changing weather pattern is the result of climate change, and the sad reality

… Read the rest

I feel like Stanley on The Office [US version] saying “Have you lost your damn mind?”

“Has someone said or done something that made you feel bad, upset or angry?”

Yes. Many times. We did not call the police.

The @CPSUK has lost its mind. pic.twitter.com/ORdqo3Ef2C

— WeAreFairCop (@WeAreFairCop) September 30, 2023

“Has someone said something that made you feel bad? Tell the police.”

It literally says that. It literally says that.… Read the rest

I can’t find another source for this clip so here’s this one.

"Super" Sue Reiki-Smith of @TigardTualSD just accused parents of committing "hate" in a LIVE news conference. As a #Hazelbrookmiddleschool parent myself: Is it not a hate crime when a boy, who dresses like a girl and who beats on girls, only because they are real girls? For the… pic.twitter.com/2cLZrzwn1C

— Ben Edtl (@benedtl) September 29, 2023

It’s hard to hear what she says at the beginning. She says adults nationwide have been “calling out the student’s gender.” That, she says, “has nothing to do with the choices that student made relative to the assault. That student made an incredibly awful choice, and will have consequences that are ‘metted’ … Read the rest

They just are, that’s all. Why are you so stupid? If I say they are, then they are. There’s nothing more to it.

Klyne-Simpson says she understands some people can feel uncomfortable at first if they have never met a transgender person before.

“But all it takes is education. Once you understand trans women are women, trans men are men, non-binary people are who they say they are, it’s as simple as that,” she said. “If you still feel uncomfortable after that, that’s on you, it’s not on me. I am who I am, it’s as simple as that. I just look different. That’s all.”

It’s so simple. You just say. Why are you so stupid … Read the rest

More on the school corridor assault on a girl (that I meant to add to the post about it but ran out of time, sorry) in a suburb of Portland (Oregon):

School officials in Tigard-Tualatin, a suburb southwest of Portland, say the incident is now under criminal investigation. The attacker was arrested and is facing assault charges, said Jennifer Massey, the public information officer for the Tualatin Police Department; the case was referred to the Washington County Juvenile Department. The district would not comment on the specific disciplinary actions it had taken against the attacker.

Oregon Live goes off on what I consider a tangent, about a trend of brawls in schools and how schools are trying to cope. Then … Read the rest

Tatchell telling women what we’re allowed to do and say and think, yet again.

Together with trans campaigner Bobbi Pickard, I defend trans human rights

We explain why trans critics are wrong

And we show why all women, including trans, have a common interest in working together to end sexism, rape & violence

WATCH https://t.co/Tq56AE7H2r

Via @IAI_TV

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) September 28, 2023

Two men telling women we have to pretend men can be women.… Read the rest

Cars identify as a vulnerable community!

Rishi Sunak is to prioritise the interests of millions of car owners with a series of measures that will provoke environmentalists and curb the power of local councils.

In a package expected to be announced at the Tory conference on Monday, the prime minister will set out his “plan for motorists” that will limit the number of 20mph speed restrictions and favour drivers over bus passengers.

Yeah, go after those spoiled selfish privileged bus passengers who bully and victimize poor huddled drivers of cars.

The “plan for motorists” is expected to include moves to limit English councils’ powers to place 20mph speed limits on main roads, and to restrict the number of hours a

… Read the rest

This clip was doing the rounds yesterday. (Warning: it’s horrible.)

https://twitter.com/ReduxxMag/status/1707456456935587849

A transgender student of the male flavor, that is. Quite a strong male student by the looks of it.… Read the rest

Pliny on Wolf:

… Read the rest