Originally a comment by Cluecat on Summation.

This is something that seems very strange – how is it that *this* is what the “So Very Skeptic Atheist Bros” have thrown everything away for. Really.

They’ve quite literally gone from “Hurr, Religiot! Humans don’t have souls! You’re all stupid to insist on it!” to “Hurr! Of course I have a pink sparkly feeeeeemale identitay! You’re all stupid to deny it!”.

They’re right back agreeing that souls exist, and that they can be in the “wrong” bodies (by some mechanism that’s never made clear). Do they understand this, these Big Skeptic Bros?

It’s embarrassing, frankly. It’s the antithesis of everything they have been claiming when it comes to any other area. … Read the rest

Hmm. So the Supreme Court answers to no one, so the Supreme Court justices can…do whatever they like.

It was a short letter. John Roberts, chief justice of the US supreme court, was brief in his missive to Democratic senator Dick Durbin, who chairs the Senate judiciary committee. Citing “separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence”, Roberts declined to appear before the committee to discuss disturbing recent revelations of ethics violations at the court.

What about ethical concerns and the importance of preserving judicial non-corruption? No? Nothing?

Congress is meant to exert checks on judicial power – to investigate or even impeach judges who abuse their office or interpret the law in ways that

… Read the rest

Republican Supreme Court rules gerrymandering is totes legal.

Barely a year after Democratic justices on the North Carolina Supreme Court said new maps of the state’s legislative and congressional districts were partisan gerrymanders that violated the State Constitution, a newly elected Republican majority on the court reversed course on Friday and said the court had no authority to overturn those maps.

The practical effect is to enable the Republican-controlled State Legislature to scrap the court-ordered State Senate and congressional district. boundaries that were used in elections last November, and draw new maps skewed in their favor for elections in 2024.

Can legislatures fix elections in advance? Sure sure sure, no problem. (Unless the legislature happens to be majority The … Read the rest

Oops.

What does gender critical even mean? It isn’t okay to be lesbian critical or race critical or gay critical. One day we will look back in horror.

— Dr Charlotte Proudman (@DrProudman) April 28, 2023

Right?? Who the hell ever heard of “race” and “critical” being discussed in the same breath?

Oh wait…… Read the rest

Not amazed. Not triggered. Not convinced.

https://twitter.com/amazingatheist/status/1650156544690929665

Ok so then bring out the big guns, argumentatively speaking.

Pregnant men
Girl dicks
Pregnant men
Girl dicks
Pregnant men
Girl dicks
Pregnant men
Girl dicks
Pregnant men
Girl dicks
Pregnant men
Girl dicks
Pregnant men
Girl dicks
Pregnant men
Girl dicks
Pregnant men
Girl dicks
Pregnant men
Girl dicks
Pregnant men
Girl dicks
Pregnant men…

— THE KING OF NIHILISM (@amazingatheist) April 23, 2023

… Read the rest

You can’t have equality between the sexes if sex is determined by rhetoric rather than reality.

*** NEWS ***
We are appealing Lady Haldane's judicial review decision that "sex" in the Equality Act is "legal sex" and not biological sex.

More details on our CrowdJustice page. Please support the case!#SexIsBiologicalhttps://t.co/rshffgwBwg

— For Women Scotland (@ForWomenScot) April 27, 2023

“Legal sex” here means “fictional sex.” It’s ridiculous. It’s not workable or reasonable to base laws on fictional “identities.” Eventually you’ll have everyone identifying as heir to the throne and entitled to all that cash.

I wonder how Lady Haldane would rule if a lot of people started identifying as military veterans entitled to the benefits that go to such … Read the rest

In surprise twist, violent man turns out to be violent man. Who could have seen that over the horizon?

Barbie Kardashian under Garda investigation for allegedly threatening to rape female prison officers

Dangerous inmate Barbie Kardashian is facing the prospect of more jail time – after gardai began an investigation into allegations she threatened to rape female prison officers.

The Mirror has confirmed that the [male] transgender prisoner is alleged to have threatened to sexually attack several female prison officers at Limerick Prison this week.

Kardashian, who is legally a woman after she secured a gender recognition certificate, is alleged to have issued the threats after she refused orders to clean up the shower area of the prison’s women’s section

… Read the rest

Michael Tomasky says never mind Carlson, get Murdoch.

As Tucker Carlson begins to slither out of the news cycle, here’s a reminder to keep our eyes on the prize. The prize—that is, the real enemy of standards and decency and integrity—is Rupert Murdoch. Carlson was a symptom. An unusually disgusting and purulent (great word, look it up!) symptom, but a symptom all the same. The disease is Murdoch.

He has been destroying journalism for 50 years. I’ll get into some of that below. But right now, let’s focus on something that’s happening in England, which I can assure you is something that Rupert is worried about—maybe even more worried than he is about Smartmatic.

He means Britain … Read the rest

I saw a cruise ship heading from Puget Sound into Elliott Bay this morning for the first time this year. I saw another one at a pier a few days ago. April to October they ply to and fro, burning up their 80 thousand gallons of fuel per day.

Meanwhile Spain is hot.

Spain recorded its hottest ever temperature for April on Thursday, hitting 38.8C according to the country’s meteorological service.

Seattle got that hot two years ago, but not in April.

The record figure was reached in Cordoba airport in southern Spain just after 15:00 local time (14:00 BST). For days a blistering heatwave has hit the country with temperatures 10-15C warmer than expected for April. It’s been

… Read the rest

First of all the headline.

Narrow legal definition of sex in Montana bill would jeopardize protections for trans people

What “narrow”?!! It’s just the definition. A small set of people are trying to force all of us to “broaden” the definition so that it means nothing. If sex stops meaning “female/male” then it’s just random. (Of course there are other meanings of “sex,” in particular the activity, but the definition PBS means here is the one that names female or male.)

A bill advancing through Montana’s statehouse would legally define a man as someone who produces sperm and a woman as someone who produces eggs — and apply that definition to 40 aspects of the state’s legislative code, from employment protections

… Read the rest

The ACLU continues to cheer on teenagers to get their genitalia mutilated.

It’s completely disgusting and dishonest to call it “vital health care.” It’s not. Being unhappy with your gender or sex or both is not the same as being ill or injured. It’s not “vital health care” to kill people so that they can be with god sooner, and it’s not “vital health care” to try to swap out people’s genitals.

DOJ agrees: Tennessee’s ban denies young people vital health care simply because of who they are.

It’s discriminatory, it’s unconstitutional, and it's why we’re taking Tennessee to court.https://t.co/wEn8Ml0Q28

— ACLU (@ACLU) April 27, 2023

… Read the rest

Peak incoherent headline:

Montana governor lobbied by non-binary son to reject anti-trans bills

What the hell is a non-binary son?

The son of the Republican governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, met their father in his office to lobby him to reject several bills that would harm transgender people in the state, the Montana Free Press reported.

Hahahahahahaha “their father” – this stuff gets dumber every day.

David Gianforte told the paper they identify as non-binary and use he/they pronouns – the first time they disclosed their gender identity publicly.

How exciting! How glamorous! How first time disclosing! How center of attentioning!

They told the outlet they felt an obligation to use their relationship with their father to stand up

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Nullius in Verba on What is up for debate.

It’s difficult to represent the strongest form of their argument, not because their argument is bad, but because they have multiple arguments pointing to multiple conclusions that are mutually exclusive. The ends of their motte’s arguments are different from the ends of their bailey’s arguments. The arguments deployed in the motte are actually logically incompatible with those deployed in the bailey, so we’d have to handle each of those separately.

Even restricting our attention to just the motte or just the bailey, however, we find mutually exclusive arguments in terms of both premises and conclusions. In the motte, for instance, some arguments proceed from the premise … Read the rest

Pay close attention at 1:25.

The shutting down of lesbian voices and the #AHF film at @EdinburghUni was also raised in the House of Commons by @joannaccherry. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/Zt2u76j5M6

— For Women Scotland (@ForWomenScot) April 27, 2023

Penny Mordaunt says, in replying to Joanna Cherry, that historically the LGBT movement has given lesbians a lower profile. Yes it has, and all the more so now. Joanna Cherry nodded agreement when Mordaunt said that.

That film needs to be shown at Edinburgh, and then shown again, and again, and again.… Read the rest

More insults.

https://twitter.com/TouroftheGila/status/1651304404719644672

Yes so nurture, much positive.

https://twitter.com/palladianblue/status/1651369718518005760

One of those physical interactions was when he tried to push her off her bike.

https://twitter.com/palladianblue/status/1651371473167327233… Read the rest

Speaking of rights, and violations of same –

The screening of Adult Human Female at Edinburgh University has been cancelled. https://t.co/vgYntil1ZC pic.twitter.com/rOQg6Wvw0w

— Lisa Mackenzie (@lnmackenzie1) April 26, 2023

Guy with the mic has just said “step away from the TERF, she smells bad”.

— Lisa Mackenzie (@lnmackenzie1) April 26, 2023

Security let the protestors in.

— David (@_Dav1d__) April 26, 2023

The BBC:

The screening of a controversial film about transgender issues has been cancelled for a second time by the University of Edinburgh after student protests.

Gender-critical documentary Adult Human Female was due to be shown at a lecture hall in George Square on Wednesday. But the university said protestors were restricting access to the venue and

… Read the rest

Holly Lawford on trans YouTube celebrity Natalie Winn:

At one point, Wynn spends a substantial amount of time describing, and then attributing to Rowling, so-called “motte-and-bailey” rhetorical tactics. These are arguments by which a person puts forward a difficult-to-defend claim (analogized to a lightly defended low-walled medieval courtyard known as a bailey), and then retreats to a more defensible claim (the metaphorical motte, or castle) when challenged, without conceding that the latter differs from the former.

But then Wynn uses this same strategy to impugn Rowling, first arguing that saying “transwomen are men” is transphobic (the bailey), and then retreating to a far more defensible position, expressed implicitly by means of the following rhetorical question: “Is it really hysteria

… Read the rest

But wait – an article in Prospect says Carlson is a rebel guy.

Tucker, as his enormous fan following knows him, was adored by viewers and reviled by critics for his signature incredulous stare—the slack-jawed expression he wears when he simply can’t believe what he’s being told.

That look of smirking disbelief is deliberately theatrical. But Carlson’s insistent distrust of his powerful guests acts as a solvent to authority, frequently making larger-than-life figures of the political establishment defend arguments they otherwise treat as self-evident.

Tucker’s willingness to challenge and mock ruling elites went alongside an obsessively nativist message that alienated viewers who might otherwise have embraced his populist perspective.

He didn’t challenge and mock all ruling elites though did … Read the rest

Talk about a nest of vipers. Fox has a dossier on Carlson to threaten him away from retaliation. Fox made the US a much worse place while making itself a fortune, so I hope the pair of them devour each other leaving nothing behind but the claws.

When Fox announced Carlson’s departure on Monday, the network presented the separation as amicable. But according to one former on-air Fox personality, the anchor and some of the channel’s top executives are parting ways on “the worst” and “messiest possible terms.” Indeed, in private communications released last month as part of the Dominion-Fox lawsuit, the now-fired Fox host gossiped that one such exec “hates us,” claiming she was covertly working

… Read the rest

Is it true that Tucker Carlson is fascinating as well as repellent?

Tucker is hard to replace with just another cable-news face, Hirshman noted, because “he doesn’t just repeat things that others are saying but rather he cooks up these ridiculous issues in an ever-evolving list of grievances”.

What’s more, he’s remarkably good at capturing attention and giving his viewers the language to express their anger, racism and hate.

In that sense, Carlson is something like Donald Trump, who famously called himself a “ratings machine”. You can despise what these men are saying and still have trouble tearing your eyes from their TV presence; they possess a kind of perverse gift, like one bestowed by an evil godmother upon

… Read the rest