All entries by this author

Least surprising news ever

Jul 15th, 2023 10:02 am | By

The most predictable crisis ever:

Households in Florida, the third most populous state in the US, have been grappling for some time with a property insurance crisis that is making home ownership unaffordable for many.

Now why might that be? Because Florida is doomed. It’s like trying to get fire insurance on your house when it bursts into flames. It’s like trying to buy car insurance after you rear-end another car. It’s like trying to buy life insurance when you’re dead.

After at least six insurers went insolvent in Florida last year, Farmers on Tuesday became the latest to pull out of the Florida market, saying in a statement that the decision was based on risk exposure in

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Nobody wins?

Jul 15th, 2023 6:21 am | By

Won’t somebody please think of the cheaters?

“Nobody wins in this” — the cycling community reacts to new UCI transgender policy

Subhead: Athletes and advocates on both sides of the trans-athlete inclusion debate share their opinions

It’s not “the trans-athlete inclusion” debate, it’s the fairness to women debate. It’s not fair to women to let men compete in women’s sports. It’s that simple.

Starting July 17, 2023, transgender women who have transitioned after puberty are banned from competing in the women’s category at all UCI-sanctioned events, cycling’s governing body announced today

Good, but incomplete. Trans women should compete in the men’s category, because they’re men. It’s that simple.

In a press release, the UCI said it was “necessary to

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Origin myth

Jul 14th, 2023 4:31 pm | By

So now you want to know all about Katje Van Loon, right? Obviously. You’re in luck, because the BBC explained about her exactly one year ago, on that previous International Non-Binary Day.

Ten years ago, Katje van Loon wrote a blog post calling for the creation of International Non-Binary Day on 14 July – exactly half way between International Women’s Day and International Men’s Day. Katje tells BBC gender and identity correspondent, Megha Mohan, why it is important that the day has become a reality.

Well thank fuck the BBC has a gender and identity correspondent, or we might never know about these things.

Katje explains all:

My grandmother had just died and I was at her apartment organising

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Who says?

Jul 14th, 2023 4:08 pm | By

I’m trying to figure out who decided there’s such a thing as International Non-binary Day, and on what authority, and why anyone else is expected to nod agreement. It seems to be the work of one woman (or am I wrong to call her [xir?] a woman?) named Katje van Loon (a good deal too on the nose there) in 2012. Ok so why is anyone else expected to agree with her? Why am I expected to? What gave her the authority to invent a new International Day that we now have to hear about even though we don’t want to?

The Human Rights Campaign is very on board but it doesn’t explain any of these mysteries.

July 14 is

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From high up

Jul 14th, 2023 1:35 pm | By

This is cool. With the right lens you can clearly see Puget Sound and Lake Washington from 438 miles up.

You can even see Lake Samamish, east of Lake Washington and much smaller.

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The MP from Doolally

Jul 14th, 2023 9:25 am | By

What does any of it mean?

It’s as if people are repeating sentences in a foreign language they are wholly unfamiliar with – reading them off a cheat-sheet without having any idea what they’re saying.

How do we go about “respecting” non-binary people? I simply don’t know where to begin. And why is it that they must be respected more than anyone else? Why are they singled out for this extra … Read the rest



Commit to challenging unacceptable behaviour

Jul 14th, 2023 8:53 am | By

University College London press release:

14 July marks International Non-Binary People’s Day, aimed at raising awareness of the issues that non-binary people face around the world. 

Hmm. Ackshually, 14 July is Bastille Day. Famous for it. You’ve heard of Bastille Day haven’t you? In connection with a little item called the French Revolution? Quite conspicuous in its day.

But that’s genderism for you, innit. Just take what isn’t yours and then bully the people you took it from.

Find out more about what you can do to learn about diverse gender identities and create a more inclusive environment on campus.

No. I’ve already learned a great deal about “diverse gender identities,” all of it horrifying, and if the … Read the rest



He’s sort of gone full circle

Jul 14th, 2023 8:39 am | By

Speaking of “Neither puberty suppression nor allowing puberty to occur is a neutral act”…

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The autonomous disembodied self

Jul 14th, 2023 5:23 am | By

Leor Sapir wrote a few months ago:

That most children desist from cross-sex identification does not necessarily mean that they will no longer experience any distress associated with their bodies; rather, it means that even if such distress lingers, it will not prevent them from becoming reasonably well-adjusted and living a good life. The notion that no human should ever have to experience any discomfort associated with male or female embodiment, including during the turbulent period of puberty, is the utopian promise fueling much of the gender transition industry. There has been a growing movement among gender activists to frame puberty as something that the autonomous, disembodied, self should have a “right” to choose. “Neither puberty suppression nor allowing

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Somebody may have done something, possibly

Jul 13th, 2023 3:27 pm | By

Oh interesting.

Mind you the Telegraph is remarkably coy and evasive about it, not to say incoherent.

Headline:

Arrest after activist told crowd at London Trans Pride to ‘punch Terfs in the face’

That’s basically meaningless. They could be talking about the arrest of an activist in Hong Kong or Ulan Bator or Juneau. Is it the activist who was arrested or just some random person somewhere unknown?

Subhead:

Met says the person is in custody on suspicion of incitement to violence after a video of the incident was widely shared on social media

What kind of person?

Lede:

A 53-year-old woman has been arrested, police said, after an activist told a crowd at a trans pride event to

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469 women lose their work

Jul 13th, 2023 11:52 am | By

On the one hand “trans women” and on the other hand the Taliban.

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Weird kind of history to make

Jul 13th, 2023 4:34 am | By

The BBC gushes over a man who won a “beauty pageant”:

Rikkie Valerie Kolle has made history as the first transgender woman to win Miss Netherlands. It’s the first time in the Dutch pageant’s 94-year history that a trans woman has been crowned winner. It means the 22-year-old will be the second openly trans competitor to take part in Miss Universe in December this year.

Well of course it’s the first time a man has been crowned winner of a competition for women.

This doesn’t infuriate me the way the intrusion of men in women’s sports does, because I think “beauty pageants” are bad and stupid and (obviously) sexist, but the fawning and drooling does annoy. Do grow up, … Read the rest



A quicky doesn’t count

Jul 13th, 2023 4:20 am | By

The ten second rule is meeting some resistance.

Does it count as sexual harassment if an assault lasts less than 10 seconds?

Many young people in Italy are expressing outrage on social media, after a judge cleared a school caretaker of groping a teenager, because it did not last long enough.

That’s such an interesting idea. Apparently if a guy grabs a woman’s breast or crotch for only 9 seconds it’s legal and fine and just what women and girls have to expect because of their foolish choice to be born female.

I beg to differ. Nobody should touch anybody anywhere no matter how briefly. Period. The only exception should be physical safety – if someone is about to … Read the rest



New thermometers needed

Jul 13th, 2023 3:50 am | By

Cooking.

A heatwave is sweeping across parts of southern Europe and north-west Africa, with potential record-breaking temperatures in the coming days. Temperatures are expected to surpass 40C (104F) in parts of Spain, France, Greece, Croatia and Turkey. In Italy, temperatures could reach as high as 48.8C (119.8F). A red alert warning has been issued for 10 cities, including Rome, Bologna and Florence.

A satellite image recorded by the EU’s Copernicus Sentinel mission revealed that the land temperature in the Extremadura region had hit 60C on Tuesday.

60C! That’s not even on the thermometer! It’s 140F!

Italian weather forecasters are warning that the next heatwave, dubbed Charon after the ferryman who delivered souls into the underworld, will push temperatures

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Man takes care to make women angry

Jul 13th, 2023 3:18 am | By

Smug man boasts of intruding on women in a vulnerable state, emphasizes his determination to ignore their wishes and call them names in the process.

https://twitter.com/NickySimpson98/status/1679249600727662592… Read the rest


Zeus did a fly-by

Jul 12th, 2023 5:16 pm | By
Zeus did a fly-by

I told this story on Facebook but it’s about such a good thing I’m going to post it here too.

So when I realized back in the spring what a fool I’d been not going to the Arboretum I started going there quite often, and one of the first places I went was the trail that goes north and away from the arboish part of the Arbo but is still part of the same big chunk of land. That trail goes underneath a Seattle-East Side freeway to a small island in Lake Washington, and also to a second trail, a spectacular engineered one, that goes over the water to a raised lookout tower and a tiny island called Marsh Island … Read the rest



Someone over the rainbow

Jul 12th, 2023 10:41 am | By

The Washington Post takes the “someone” approach.

Democrats said the legislation would put someone experiencing a miscarriage at risk by forcing doctors to take extra time determining whether they qualify for an abortion. It also sets unrealistic time constraints for someone to report rape or incest to qualify for an abortion exception under the bill, they said.

Any particular kind of somone? Dunno.

Abortion rights advocates are vowing to fight the measure. If it is passed, Planned Parenthood North Central States will challenge the law in court and refer patients out of state if they need an abortion during the next few weeks, the group said in a statement.

“We intend to show that in numbers on Tuesday at

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Say our name

Jul 12th, 2023 10:33 am | By

The NY Times on the other hand does not avoid the word. Take notes, Guardian.

The bill passed by Republicans allows for abortions up to about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. The legislation includes exceptions after that point for rape or incest, when the woman’s life is in serious danger or she faces a risk of certain permanent injuries, or when fetal abnormalities “incompatible with life” are present.

Three times in one paragraph. Feel bad, Guardian.… Read the rest



Pretend there are no women

Jul 12th, 2023 10:19 am | By

The Guardian reports on the attack on women’s rights while pretending it’s not about women:

Iowa’s state legislature voted on Tuesday night to ban most abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy, a time before most people know they are pregnant.

Women, you absolute shits.

This is women losing the right to plan their own damn lives and here you are still pretending it’s about people in general. Stop doing that.

Same for the ACLU – stop that.

“The ACLU of Iowa, Planned Parenthood and the Emma Goldman Clinic remain committed to protecting the reproductive rights of Iowans to control their bodies and their lives, their health and their safety – including filing a lawsuit

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She was asking for it

Jul 12th, 2023 7:12 am | By

Hey, baby, lighten up, it was just a joke, don’t you have any sense of humor, what’s your problem, bitch?

Italians have reacted with outrage after a 66-year-old school cleaner escaped punishment for groping a female pupil because it “only lasted about ten seconds”.

The 17-year-old schoolgirl was walking up a flight of stairs between classes when the janitor, Antonio Avola, put his hand inside the waistband of her trousers and inside her underwear from behind.

When she confronted him, he responded: “Come on darling, you know I’m only joking,” according to other students who witnessed the incident, which happened at a high school in Rome in April last year.

Ah yes, it’s such a funny joke to be … Read the rest