Well knock me down with a 2 by 4.

Oliver Brown in The Telegraph:

British Rowing is expected to announce a dramatic abandoning of its controversial transgender policy on Thursday by restricting the women’s category solely to those born female, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

All right. Now all other sporting bodies all over the world kindly follow suit. Restore fairness to women!

After months of intense discussion at board level, the governing body has decided to follow the majority view of its 31,500 members, more than 80 per cent of whom are understood to have urged a change in approach that would ensure the fairness and integrity of the female category.

It is about. fucking. time.

Rowing

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Awww Free Willy wants to be an advertising model. Poor guy must be jealous of Dylan Mulvaney.

https://twitter.com/JammersMinde/status/1686790648437895175

He was such a star on that Big Brother thing all those years ago.

https://twitter.com/mathano4/status/1686807941205082120… Read the rest

Sarah Smith at the BBC leans on the same aspects of the indictment as I did.

Some US commentators have introduced another reason why they think these charges are the most serious. They see in Mr Trump’s alleged conduct a threat to the ideals that underpin the bedrock of the country.

Not since the nation’s founding has any president “voted out of office been accused of plotting to hold onto power in an elaborate scheme of deception and intimidation that would lead to violence in the halls of Congress,” writes Peter Baker in the New York Times.

He goes on: “As serious as hush money and classified documents may be, this third indictment in four months gets to the

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Peter Baker on the implications of the indictment:

But not since the framers emerged from Independence Hall on that clear, cool day in Philadelphia 236 years ago has any president who was voted out of office been accused of plotting to hold onto power in an elaborate scheme of deception and intimidation that would lead to violence in the halls of Congress.

What makes the indictment against Donald J. Trump on Tuesday so breathtaking is not that it is the first time a president has been charged with a crime or even the second. Mr. Trump already holds those records. But as serious as hush money and classified documents may be, this third indictment in four months gets to

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A legal eagle, Randall D. Eliason, takes us through the third indictment.

The charging decisions in the indictment reflect smart lawyering by the special counsel Jack Smith and his team. The beauty of this indictment is that it provides three legal frameworks that prosecutors can use to tell the same fulsome story.

It will allow prosecutors to put on a compelling case that will hold Mr. Trump fully accountable for the multipronged effort to overturn the election. At the same time, it avoids legal and political pitfalls that could have delayed or derailed the prosecution.

Good to know. I woke up this morning brooding on the two cliffs we’re racing toward – the climate one and the prolific criminal … Read the rest

Hahahaha I for one, unlike SOME people, never wear either baseball caps or shades. I’ll cop to being “bitchy” though – but not in the way Mr Willoughby means it.

(It’s very telling though. Men wear shades and caps; women are bitchy. Clearly there’s not a misogynist bone in Will’s body. Clearly.)

"At the end of the day, Gender Criticals are either bitchy women or blokes in sunglasses and baseball caps," said Jonathan Willoughby with all the self-awareness of a dog licking its arse in public.#IndiaWilloughbyIsADude
H/T @ilovepreserves pic.twitter.com/UVJCyxzFPV

— Fred Sargeant (@FredSargeant) August 2, 2023

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The “friendly” atheist again, at Religion News Service:

Richard Dawkins has abandoned science to justify his transphobia

Even the title is ridiculous. It’s not “abandoning science” to know that men are not women. Trans ideology is not scientific, it’s all about the fee-fees.

Subhead:

It’s jarring to see the world’s most famous atheist use his massive platform to downplay or deny trans identities.

Wait. Are we talking about science here, or idenninies? They’re not the same, to put it mildly.

And how is it “jarring” to see an atheist deny that claims about idenninies can trump physical realities?

For decades, the renowned evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins urged his readers to use science and reason to counter religious misinformation.

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Bros line up to brosplain trans ideology for Dawkins. (That is, they line up that way on my Twitter, because they would, wouldn’t they.)

I remember when Dawkins once told me during a Q&A that he was confused at why people would want his opinions on topics outside his expertise.

I wish I'd given him a different reply. Because now he's just being cited by conservative propaganda for his anti-trans misinformation. https://t.co/SCI2sdHGrC pic.twitter.com/VHs9IKxPm0

— Matt Dillahunty (@Matt_Dillahunty) August 1, 2023

And what is the “expertise” that tells us men are women if they say they are? Having a trans significant other, of course. What more do you want?

Calling trans people by their pronouns might lead to *gasp* other forms

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Trump raised nearly $250 million pushing fake election claims in the weeks before Jan. 6

The House select committee that investigated the riot on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021 said in their final report that Donald Trump raised nearly $250 million between Election Day and Jan. 6 as the former president’s tried and failed to fight the election results in court.

“Evidence gathered by the Committee indicates that President Trump raised roughly one quarter of a billion dollars in fundraising efforts between the election and January 6th. Those solicitations persistently claimed and referred to election fraud that did not exist,” the committee said in their final report.

His crimes are nested, or recursive. He tries to steal the election, … Read the rest

Here we go.

Former President Donald Trump was criminally charged Tuesday in connection with his efforts to reverse his loss to President Joe Biden in 2020.

The charges mark the unprecedented third criminal indictment against the former president since he launched his latest bid for the 2024 Republican nomination. No other U.S. president, current or former, has ever faced criminal charges.

No other US president has ever been such a rampant, lifelong, determined criminal.

Attractively, he’s using it as a lever to raise yet more money.

Trump is back to fundraising off of the latest federal indictment against him just days after it was revealed that his allied political action committee has spent over $20 million on his legal fees.

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Boris Johnson wants to put in a swimming pool at his Oxfordshire house, but there’s a problem. The Great Crested Newt is in his way.

The UK’s largest newt, which takes its name from the striking jagged crest that males display in the spring breeding season, is a protected species under British law.

As such, an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison could await anyone found guilty of disturbing the newt’s resting places and breeding sites, or taking their eggs.

Johnson launched an application with South Oxfordshire district council in June for the construction of an outdoor pool, measuring 11 metres by 4 metres (36ft x 13ft).

But Edward Church, a local government ecologist who reviewed

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Originally a comment by Sastra on Hemantsplaining biology to a biologist.

In a way, trans ideology resembles a religious Accomodationist argument. Trans people, like the devoutly religious, are seen as a uniquely vulnerable, needy group utterly dependent on their belief. It provides them with their foundation for meaning and sense of self. Without the reassurance that there is this one thing they can know and depend on, their life shatters.

It comes back to New Atheism, which as I saw it was a reaction not so much against religion, but against Accomodationism. In Accomodationism, arguing for the truth of atheism was insensitive at best, a cruel intellectual exercise which ignored the grieving widow in need of a future heavenly … Read the rest

Phoenix has smashed all the records – not in a good way.

A historically intense and long-duration heat wave has spent weeks baking the South and Southwest, bringing dangerous triple-digit temperatures to 70 million Americans. Phoenix, at the epicenter, just logged its hottest month on record — and the hottest month ever observed in a U.S. city.

Phoenix’s average temperature for July was a blistering 102.7 degrees, taking into account average daytime high of 114.7 degrees and overnight low of 90.8.

…

While the heat in Phoenix eased just enough on Monday to end its record-shattering streak of 31 straight days at or above 110, the hot weather is forecast to recharge later this week. Excessive heat watches are in

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Librarians hiding the naughty books:

Works by authors sceptical of transgender activism became the subject of an internal “grievance” within the library service of Calderdale Council, a local authority affiliated with the controversial LGBT charity Stonewall.

The Telegraph can reveal that books critical of gender ideology have been removed from public view by staff at council libraries, and stashed out of sight in an off-limits storage space.

…

Calderdale Council has stated that no books are expressly banned by library services, but information from the local authority has revealed that “following consideration of a formal grievance internally” a number of titles were “placed in the lending store”.

The council has confirmed that while these books could be found

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Originally a comment by Eava on Showing members how to gain children’s trust.

To play devil’s advocate, our laws about consent are legal fictions, not brain development. Legally minors can consent to sex in most states in the US. Depending on the ages of the minor and the adult, in some states a 14 year old can consent to sex with an 18 year old. In some states a minor can consent to vaginal intercourse, but not oral or anal sex, or the penalties are different, creating a disparity between gay and straight minors. There was a big blow up over a State Senator in California who put forth a law to equalize the penalties so a 21 year … Read the rest

Ah yes, “clucking” – women don’t talk or argue, we “cluck.” Why is that? Because we’re stupid like chickens, obviously; because when we try to talk all that comes out is an irritating repetitive noise.

I’m being taken to federal court by a male who claims to be female because I say he is not female. pic.twitter.com/FY16f5Ktwe

— Sall Grover (@salltweets) August 1, 2023

Also, of course, his claim is just wrong. Lots of trans women do insist – with menaces – that they are women in every sense, that they are women period end of story, that they are women and we had better not say otherwise if we don’t want our lives ruined.… Read the rest

Snerk

A jeopardy winner is about to tell Richard Dawkins what he's got wrong about biology. https://t.co/06U2u630hr

— Graham Linehan (@Glinner) August 1, 2023

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I remember when advertising relied heavily on women as both consumers and models. Now it’s…mastectomies?

Dear @CostaCoffee,

Could you kindly explain why you are glorifying irreversible surgery performed on healthy breasts of women for a mental health condition? pic.twitter.com/9NyFPYj9J3

— James Esses (@JamesEsses) July 31, 2023

What’s even the connection? What’s the hook? If your mastectomy scars are bothering you, knock back a coffee to go while surfing?… Read the rest

This is from 23 years ago, but I don’t think I was aware of it until now.

ACLU represents NAMBLA

Citing the First Amendment, the American Civil Liberties Union is defending a group that supports pedophilia against a civil suit filed by the family of a molested and slain Massachusetts boy.

The parents of 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking damages from the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) for the 1997 rape and murder of their son…

The suit accuses NAMBLA of inciting Jeffrey’s murder and rape at the hands of Charles Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari through its literature and Web site — which is now offline. Both men were convicted of killing Jeffrey in separate

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“Why do you even care??!” he shouts.

We don’t. We don’t care in the slightest. Who wears makeup and who wears a muscle shirt is not what we care about. It doesn’t take all that much effort to find out what we do care about. I guess Neil Tyson is too important to bother though.

“Today I feel 80% female, 20% male. I’m going to put on makeup”

Neil deGrasse Tyson defends the pseudoscience of Woke gender studies. pic.twitter.com/4G8KxnTaEs

— Mythinformed (@MythinformedMKE) July 31, 2023

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