All entries by this author

1983–>1984

Jun 23rd, 2023 3:34 pm | By

Rewriting history.

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Enormity indeed

Jun 23rd, 2023 3:05 pm | By

Yesterday evening I started a frivolous read of a novel about life at the Barbizon Hotel for Women in the ’50s. I stopped reading at the top of page 12. Here’s why:

Page 2, in an account of marital sex: “she had instead surrendered to the enormity of him.”

Page 6, of an elderly fellow resident of the Barbizon: “Only her tentative movements…and the lines around her mouth and down her neck, belied her advanced age.”

Page 12: “Leave it to Patrick to bury the lead.”

Great god almighty are there no editors any more? How did no one catch these? Just in the first 12 pages!… Read the rest



Ignore all the warnings

Jun 23rd, 2023 11:52 am | By

Now there’s a surprise.

Warnings over the safety of OceanGate’s Titan submersible were repeatedly dismissed by the CEO of the company, email exchanges with a leading deep sea exploration specialist show. In messages seen by the BBC, Rob McCallum told OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush that he was potentially putting his clients at risk and urged him to stop using the sub until it had been classified by an independent body.

Mr Rush responded that he was “tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation”.

Right on. Who cares about safety? Full speed ahead.

(I don’t know why the BBC quotes this Rob McCallum fella without saying who he is.)

The tense exchange ended

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Everyone except…

Jun 23rd, 2023 10:55 am | By

The Famous Artis Birdy Rose spots a contradiction that is all too pervasive in these Inclusive No Not You times.

Yesterday I read online a statement on the Leigh Folk Festival Facebook page, which read:

“Leigh Folk Festival is, and always has been, an inclusive environment where everyone should feel welcome and comfortable, from artistes, to attendees, volunteers and crew”

The statement went on to say that a member of an act due to perform at this year’s festival has “made remarks online that are not in keeping with Leigh Folk Art’s values. As soon as we were made aware, the act’s performance was pulled from the line up”

Genius, isn’t it? “Incloosiv environment. Everyone should feel welcome and … Read the rest



Venom

Jun 23rd, 2023 7:55 am | By

Two successive tweets to sum up. First tweet:

https://twitter.com/IndiaWilloughby/status/1672217974038577153

Awwwwww look at that sweet little thang, wouldn’t so much as swat a mosquito.

Next tweet:

For people not familiar with the UK education system, “two O Level” is roughly equivalent to “flunked out of high school at 16″…only more so because of the UK’s baroque and sadistic obsession with class. It’s gasp-level insulting.… Read the rest



Guest post: We can only ever really live our own lives

Jun 22nd, 2023 1:59 pm | By

Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on They would magically transform.

I’m not entirely sure they really want to be women, so much as they want to be what they think women are.

That distinction I think matters. I don’t think I could ever see myself as trans, because I am me, I can only ever be me, and thus I have no frame of reference for how to really truly be anyone else.

This doesn’t mean I can’t imagine how others feel, or that I can’t empathize, but that my frame of reference is based on data that is available to myself, and thus can never fully encompass someone else’s life.

If I were to try and be … Read the rest



They would magically transform

Jun 22nd, 2023 10:59 am | By

It’s a funny thing, when you think about it, that trans women are women, but women are cis women. I think it should be the other way around. Women are women, and trans women are not.

Helen Joyce:

It’s obviously extremely hurtful for men whose dearest wish is to pass as women to be told they really don’t. I wish they hadn’t been lied to and misled by gender doctors, who promised them the impossible.

These men were promised that if they took cross-sex hormones and underwent genital amputation, they would magically transform to such a degree that everyone, but specifically women, would see them as women.

Those men want that so badly, and they are so self-centred, that

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All-out international effort

Jun 22nd, 2023 10:22 am | By
All-out international effort

Peter Brookes in The Times:

H/t Margaret Nelson… Read the rest



Urp urp she a bigottt

Jun 22nd, 2023 9:49 am | By

Where it started.

It’s worth belaboring this because it’s dangerous as well as wrong. It’s a not very subtle way of inflaming and intensifying hatred of people who don’t subscribe to gender ideology.

No, wrong; she doesn’t deny that trans people exist, she denies that people can be the opposite sex. She disputes a fact claim about people who call themselves trans, which is very different from denying that people who call themselves trans exist. We know they exist. We … Read the rest



The Tinkerbell fallacy yet again

Jun 22nd, 2023 7:54 am | By

Existence precedes essence.

https://twitter.com/SazuBurns/status/1671756491617980417

What’s not super hard is grasping that people don’t cease to exist when others don’t believe their self-descriptions. The two things are separate. Tom Coates could claim to be very clever, and I would not believe that claim, yet my non-belief would not cause Tom Coates to stop existing.… Read the rest



Guest post: Brain development is both experiential and hormonal

Jun 22nd, 2023 7:41 am | By

Originally a comment by Freemage on Mandatory affirmation.

Puberty blockers have been weighing on my mind, in particular, lately.

The whole claim is that the blockers prevent the development of sexual characteristics until the child has become old enough to be able to decide for themselves as an adult whether or not to transition. On first glance, this seems reasonable–I’m fine with adults transitioning, though I still agree to the GC in terms of what transition actually entails, and more importantly, permits. (Ie, an adult TIM still has no business in a women-only space, or participating in women’s sports, etc.) At that point, it becomes cosmetic surgery, which is generally up to the person getting it.

But this claim … Read the rest



Mandatory affirmation

Jun 21st, 2023 11:28 am | By

Abigail Shrier tells us:

Gender ideologues in California let the mask slip, or perhaps just tossed it away: A new bill, AB 957, directs family court judges to award custody based in part on “a parent’s affirmation of a child’s gender identity,” which the bill defines as intrinsic to the “health, safety and welfare of the child.”

And what “a child’s gender identity” means in this context “a child’s assertion that she or he is the other sex.” So custody decisions will be based partly on a parent’s “affirmation” of a silly lie, one which could end up prompting the child to make drastic changers to her or his body – irreversible damage in short.

How far must a

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But not inclusive ENOUGH

Jun 21st, 2023 10:12 am | By

Birdy has the information.

https://twitter.com/TheFamousArtBR/status/1671549547754008576… Read the rest


Inclusive exclusion

Jun 21st, 2023 9:04 am | By
https://twitter.com/JonHartleyInBSE/status/1671505598242848768… Read the rest


This kind of behaviour

Jun 21st, 2023 8:38 am | By

But wait, there’s more! (I didn’t wait. Wasn’t possible. I couldn’t leave that bit of Emptyspeak unmocked for one second.)

https://twitter.com/LeighFolkArts/status/1671417779281440769

It’s genius, isn’t it?

WHAT KIND OF BEHAVIOR??

Did they forget, between the second tweet and the third, that they hadn’t said what “kind of behaviour” they were talking about? The word “remarks” doesn’t quite cover it. We can’t believe they would never knowingly book an artist known for making remarks. There must be something specific about the remarks that they disapprobate, but they haven’t said what that something is.

Trans ideology makes people stupid.… Read the rest



Somebody did something to somebody

Jun 21st, 2023 8:28 am | By

This is the sort of thing up with which one must not put.

Could it be any more stupidly meaningless? “Somebody told us somebody said something not in keeping with some values. As soon as somebody told us, somebody pulled somebody’s performance.”

It’s bound to be about trans something, because people don’t talk this stupidly and meaninglessly about anything else, but even beyond … Read the rest



Everything is women’s fault

Jun 20th, 2023 5:01 pm | By

Whooo-eeeee, we’ve got a live one here.

What?????

Andrew Tate is our fault????

How, exactly? Show your work.

But wait, there’s more.

Imagine … Read the rest



Pop of the Tops

Jun 20th, 2023 4:41 pm | By
https://twitter.com/MrMennoTweets/status/1671234354729689089… Read the rest


Recognize what you don’t know

Jun 20th, 2023 11:57 am | By

Expertise is a powerful thing.

I do wonder how he knows that though. I wonder how he could know it. Is it possible to know all there is to know about every human society through all of history? Even if some of them left no records of any kind? Do we know, for a fact, that every human society through all of history has left records that tell us some members of all … Read the rest



At her second 45-minute appointment

Jun 20th, 2023 11:08 am | By

The Telegraph:

A patient who was referred to the controversial Tavistock transgender clinic at age 15 has spoken out saying she feels like a “mutilated experiment gone wrong” after undergoing a mastectomy.

Jasmine, who was born a girl, decided to identify as a boy but has since detransitioned – meaning she has returned to identifying as female.

Or to put it another way, she decided to pretend to be a boy but then changed her mind. What is the difference between pretending and identifying as? Is there any? Is the second just more polite? If that’s the reason maybe we should stop saying it, because too much politeness is how we got here.

“Identifying as” sounds kind of more … Read the rest