This is all fine.

Now trans activist who boasts of her violence joins Women’s Institute: Self-professed ‘violent and cruel’ martial arts champion signs up to organisation amid row over policy to allow transgender members

That’s the headline. They do long headlines, the Daily Mail.

A transgender activist who claimed she was drawing up a kill list of ‘Nazi’ opponents says she has just joined the Women’s Institute.

Shanu Varma, who has described herself as ‘violent and cruel’ and purports to be a martial arts champion, said she had signed up to the organisation amid a row over whether or not it should allow transgender members.

No, the row is over whether it should allow men who are trans. It’s … Read the rest

Ok, so this guy is promising to kill any woman who objects to a man in the women’s toilets. “It will be the last mistake you ever make,” he says smugly.

Calm down sir! Just go pee in the men’s where you belong.
He needs put on some kind of watchlist likes! pic.twitter.com/es0H8kbt2B

— мiсhеllе тhоmsоn (@mscots41) April 19, 2023

… Read the rest

One, man charged with punching woman in the face.

Police have charged a 20-year-old man with allegedly assaulting an elderly woman at an Auckland anti-transgender rally last month.

The charges arise from the heated clashes at the speaking engagement for activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, who goes by the alias Posie Parker, at Albert Park.

Videos online show both supporters of Keen-Minshull and protesters clashing, with one showing a man hitting a woman twice in the face.

Two, he got to hide his name.

A man charged with assaulting an elderly woman during a protest against an anti-transgender speaker has received name suppression.

The man appeared in the Auckland District Court on Thursday morning, where he was given name suppression

Wikipedia sheds light on what is is about Thank You, Jeeves that would make a publisher anxious.

The book uses the dated and now derogatory term “nigger minstrels” which was once a common term for white performers in blackface. Blackface minstrels were a staple of British seaside resorts until World War II.^[19] The term “nigger minstrels” was historically used to differentiate blackface minstrels from “colored minstrels” who were actually black performers.^[20]

Blackface performances, widely considered offensive today, were popular at the time Wodehouse was writing this novel. During this period, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby and Shirley Temple were among the many actors who performed in blackface.^[21]

What’s a publisher to do?

Maybe there’s no answer … Read the rest

Guess who hasn’t been reporting on the Fox News-Dominion settlement…

Fox News’s last-minute settlement with Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday earned banner coverage on every television news network but one: Fox News.

The $787.5 million settlement was covered only three times by Fox News in about four hours after the settlement became public, amounting to about six minutes of coverage. For most of the day, including during the network’s prime-time shows, hosts appeared to be focusing on other issues, like illegal immigration and Covid-19’s possible origins.

Sorry, we’re busy here, very very very busy, we’ve got breaking stories about immigration and Covid.

Anyway. The settlement is a record-breaker.

The $787.5 million that Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting

Wait a second.

Willoughby is very grumpy here, but the thing is – he says two trans women are not trans. Starting at 1:28 he says it. He goes on to say they’re not pretty enough. “They both look terrible, they look like a bag of spanners” – so it’s all about what one looks like? Not the soul? I thought it was the soul.

Moving past the headline…

The Women’s Institute will continue to “celebrate” the lives of the transgender women enriching its membership, the head of the organisation said on Tuesday, following reports that it was facing a bid to overturn inclusive policy.

Why should the WI, or any such organization, have an “inclusive policy” that entails being “inclusive” of people who are explicitly and inherently not part of that organization’s constituency? Why is the WI expected to be “inclusive” of men at all? Should peace organizations be “inclusive” of people who promote war? Should labor unions be “inclusive” of the bosses? Should atheist organizations be “inclusive” of Catholic priests and nuns?

And, second question, in what sense does a man “enrich” … Read the rest

The Guardian exclaims

Women’s Institute will ‘continue to celebrate’ transgender women amid inclusivity row

Women’s Institute will continue to celebrate men as women object to letting men join the Women’s Institute on account of how they’re not women.

Women’s Institute will continue to celebrate men as women object to being told, even by institutions that are specifically and explicitly for women, that we must be “inclusive” of men in everything that’s ours, even in things that actually say “Women” on the door or label or title.

Women’s Institute will continue to celebrate men while women struggle furiously to keep what’s ours.

Women’s Institute will continue to gloat about celebrating men and to sneer at women for objecting to … Read the rest

Fox settled with Dominion.

Fox News and its parent company Fox Corp. have struck a deal averting a trial in the blockbuster defamation suit filed by the election tech company Dominion Voting Systems over spurious claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential race.

Judge Eric Davis of the Delaware Superior Court announced the settlement from the bench on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the trial’s scheduled start.

The parties settled for $787,500,000 — about half of Dominion’s original $1.6 billion ask.

The amount “represents vindication and accountability,” said Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson. “Lies have consequences.”

Dominion CEO John Poulos told reporters, “Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and

Did Caroline Nokes mean “basic bitch” when she said ““Well I think that that’s a really basic and to be quite frank insulting way to regard trans women, to keep harping back to calling them biological men”? I don’t know, but it’s certainly possible, so I decided to learn more about the epithet.

“Basic“^[1] is a slang term in American popular culture used pejoratively to describe people who are perceived to prefer mainstream products, trends, and music. “Basic bitch” originated in hip hop culture and rose in popularity through rap music, songs, blogs, and videos from 2011 to 2014.^[2][3] Their male counterparts are usually termed “bros“.^[4][5][6]

The Urban Dictionary … Read the rest

How did we get here?

How did we get to a place where grown-ass adults in government are playing Let’s Pretend and forcing everyone else to play Let’s Pretend too?

Tom Swarbrick: 'Why would you include a biological man in a women's institute?'

Caroline Nokes: 'That's a really insulting way to regard trans women.'@TomSwarbrick1 disputes Tory MP @carolinenokes's notion of supporting trans women, 'with or without a gender certificate'. pic.twitter.com/mJeDwCkkQM

— LBC (@LBC) April 18, 2023

It’s not insulting to say that men are not women.

“To be quite frank I think we just need to be more inclusive and more understanding of trans women and the discrimination they face, and the hostility,” she says passionately.

How … Read the rest

Man tells women what women have to put up with.

“I’ll probably get a lot of angry letters now from WI members.”@WilliamJHague tells #TimesRadio the Women's Institute should welcome transgender women. pic.twitter.com/G1PKj4ZtAq

— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) April 18, 2023

He got a lot of irritated tweets, I can confirm that much.

Oh look a man telling Women when it is Women can organise for themselves! There's no such thing as a female Willy. Stay in your lane.#ThisIsMyNO

— WheeshtCraft (@Dis_Critic) April 18, 2023

“Get over it and get used to it,” William Hague tells women! Thanks, Willy, we won’t.

Women have a right to our own groups and spaces. We should not be forced to accept males into

William Hague tells women to get used to it. Easy for him.

Lord Hague has argued that the Women’s Institute (WI) should welcome transgender women amid a backlash over its membership policy.

The WI is under pressure from a new campaign group called Women’s Institute Declaration, which argues its policy of welcoming trans women – announced in 2015 – puts it “in an untenable position”.

A petition, which has attracted hundreds of signatures, calls for a pause in admitting new trans members so there can be a wider debate on the implications of the move. It also demands a vote of WI members on its stance.

However, Lord Hague insisted those with concerns needed to “get used to

Sigh.

“It’s a wholly depressing state of affairs that we regard people who are born as biologically male as dangerous.”

Caroline Nokes, Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, voices her support for the Women’s Institute’s decision to allow trans women to join. pic.twitter.com/d8epJxLMsL

— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) April 18, 2023

“Trans people are amongst the most marginalized, amongst the most abused, in our communities”

No they’re not. That’s an endlessly repeated bit of doggerel but doggerel is all it is. It’s an empty platitude that pops out any time someone presses the right button (which is extremely often).

There are so many kinds of people who are far more marginalized and abused than trans people – poor people for … Read the rest

Another entry under the heading “publisher tweaks wording of pop fiction writer”:

Jeeves and Wooster books have been rewritten to remove prose by PG Wodehouse deemed “unacceptable” by publishers, the Telegraph can reveal.

…

The disclaimer printed on the opening pages of the 2023 reissue of Thank you, Jeeves states:  “Please be aware that this book was published in the 1930s and contains language, themes and characterisations which you may find outdated.

“In the present edition we have sought to edit, minimally, words that we regard as unacceptable to present-day readers.”

…

An examination of the revised Wodehouse novels reveals that racial terminology has been removed or replaced throughout.

In other words they’ve removed “nigger” and similar disparaging words.

Again, … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Just such a toxic climate.

However constrained men are by the rules of gender, they’re not subordinated by them in the way women are. It’s like All Lives Matter again.

It’s understandable why transactivists are so desperate to avoid comparisons between TiMs and Rachel Dolezal:

Among other experiences, my interviewees described complaints to and by management, attempts to shut down events, no platforming, disinvitations, intimidation, smears and losing career progression opportunities, including being blocked from jobs.

Others spoke about being physically removed from events, alongside receiving torrents of abuse online that even included incitements to murder. One criminology scholar said her experience was “a continuum of hell”, while a law

Laura Favaro’s article in the Chronicle of Higher Ed last September:

“There’s just such a toxic climate around this subject,” I was repeatedly told. A mid-career sociologist added: “There is conflict, and bullying, but no debate happening.”

But the topic seemed too important to ignore. In recent times, it has moved from Twitter (where it now trends almost daily) to the centre-stage of politics; would Liz Truss have been elected as the new Conservative Party leader by Tory MPs and party members without her consistent opposition to gender self-identification? Nowhere is the debate more febrile, however, than academia. It has ended friendships, research collaborations and even academic careers.

One recent case in point is the accusation that University and

Breathtaking. (You know how sometimes when you read something really appalling you find yourself not breathing as you read on? I don’t think I’m the only one.)

A university has “confiscated” the findings of an academic studying Britain’s gender wars in a row over her “dangerous” research data, The Telegraph can reveal. 

Dr Laura Favaro began the first ever taxpayer-funded study into whether social scientists at universities feel censored over their views on transgender issues in March 2020 at City, University of London.

But it has descended into chaos, with the study’s author allegedly hounded out of the university, stripped of the findings she collected and barred from publishing them amid claims of transphobia.

How can they do that???… Read the rest

Hahahaha I got a spam comment in Latin. I’ve been trying to check them before deleting lately, because one or two genuine comments (from non-first-time commenters) got put in spam a week or so ago. Latin is a novelty.

First para:

Qui nam amet placeat ab reprehenderit. Consequatur rerum non natus numquam qui ipsum qui quod. Temporibus inventore dolore et eveniet consequatur impedit a. Dolores facilis autem id occaecati.

Google translate:

For he who will be pleased by the rebuke. The consequence of things is never born who himself who what. In times of discovery of pain and consequences, it prevents a. But it was easy to be blinded by sorrows.

I love “who himself who what,” also “it … Read the rest

What not to do.

Twelve people have died from heatstroke while many others have been admitted to hospital after attending an awards ceremony in India’s Maharashtra state.

The government-sponsored event took place in an open ground under a blazing sun and lasted for several hours.

In one of India’s hottest months.

Just don’t do that. It’s not difficult. Heat kills. Don’t put on events in the open when it’s hot.

Thousands of people attended Sunday’s event, which was held to felicitate a prominent social activist.

Many people complained of dehydration and other heat-related ailments after attending the function.

Navi Mumbai – a city close to financial hub Mumbai – where the event was held, recorded a maximum temperature of