It’s only women.

In President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union since Roe was overturned and half of the country lost their right to be seen as full human beings, abortion barely merited a mention. In a speech where ‘junk fees’ got nineteen sentences, reproductive rights got just four:

“Congress must restore the right the Supreme Court took away last year and codify Roe v. Wade to protect every woman’s constitutional right to choose. The Vice President and I are doing everything we can to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient privacy. But already, more than a dozen states are enforcing extreme abortion bans. Make no mistake; if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I

Katha Pollitt on “blasphemy” complaints in higher education:

Have we really reached the stage where accusations of blasphemy can get a professor fired? Seriously, blasphemy? In a secular college? In the United States? What century is this? When it comes to being offended on religious grounds, anyone can play the game. A Catholic student can accuse his history professor of bigotry for speaking with insufficient respect for the doctrine of papal infallibility. A fundamentalist Protestant can insist that a biology professor accept an exam answer claiming that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. A Jewish foreign-relations student can insist on an A for a paper claiming that God gave Jews the land of Israel. Left meets right; deference to religion meets

Originally a comment by latsot on The women of Scotland would bring it.

A couple of videos from the day.

This one is… well, basically it’s a bunch of interviews with men. At an event called Let Women Speak. It has me in it, though :) (just in the crowd, nobody was stupid enough to try to interview me)

But this one is amazing:

And it has Spookie in it! And Lorna! And Dr Em! And Jean from Aberdeen! And the extra benefit of not having me in it!

Seriously, goosebumps with that one. These are ordinary women being absolutely brilliant. Say what you like about Kellie-Jay, nobody else could have made this happen. Nobody.

Do you see how … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Appetite is outpacing.

…We’re not going to stop flying…until we reach the point where we can’t fly any longer, whether it is economical, climate induced, or just the total collapse of systems (from environmental damage, much of which is not climate change, and most of which is being ignored right now. How many people are paying attention to the decline of flying insects, for instance? That is crucial…but people ONLY want to talk about climate change).

And we’re lucky if people are even willing to talk about that. Climate change is but a small part of the complex of interlinked, cascading disasters we’ve initiated and continue to fuel. These are … Read the rest

The BBC “apologises” for soliciting yet more abuse of JK Rowling.

The BBC has apologised for its “poor effort” to resist “baseless accusations” of transphobia against JK Rowling on BBC Radio 4. Stacey Henley, a trans woman and editor-in-chief at The Gamer, said the Harry Potter creator was pushing “transphobia” and a “campaign against trans people”. She made the comments while discussing a new Harry Potter video game called Hogwarts Legacy.

Effort shmeffort. Why seek out men who call themselves women to talk about JKR at all? The BBC doesn’t seek out white people who call themselves Black to talk about race and issues around race, does it? Who cares what some guy who runs a gamer mag thinks about … Read the rest

For some reason, just out of the blue, I have the impulse to quote from this Glinner post from May last year…

Not content with bullying his female colleagues, Owen Jones has moved on to schoolgirls. The Times ran with this shocking story today, that has surely peaked anyone who happened upon it. A young girl resisted the gender woo emanating from a visting misogynist member of the House of Lords at her (Stonewall-affiliated) school and was in turn surrounded by 60 schoolmates who “shouted, screamed and spat at her”. The traumatised girl has been forced to leave school.

“Not nearly good enough!” says the Goebbels of LGBT Inc.

Who used Twitter to summon the mob at the … Read the rest

The trouble is that individual abstinence won’t make any difference.

…for a small, yet growing, number of travelers, the problem with air travel goes way further. They are giving up flying because of its impact on the climate.

“I choose to stay grounded because it aligns with what is true,” said Dan Castrigano, 36, a former teacher who in 2020 signed a pledge not to travel by air. “The climate is breaking down.”

The last eight years on earth have been the hottest on record. Sea level rise is accelerating, and extreme weather events are happening more often than ever.

And a tiny fraction of the population deciding not to fly won’t make a dent in that. … Read the rest

Owen Jones trending.

I'm going to reply and say – like many, many other women – that my experience of being subject to online misogyny has included Owen Jones https://t.co/ByBhtez4ln

— Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender) February 7, 2023

Hi. One of your journalists, by the name of Owen Jones (pic below) has repeatedly sent his 1M followers to pile on many of us. From what I can gather, this is a white middle aged, middle class and extremely wealthy male.

He’s often punching down on working & underclass women. pic.twitter.com/SMhbLIpJFX

— Lola Beet (@Lolbeelolbee) February 6, 2023

https://twitter.com/raychilled/status/1622739756122529793

I ended my subscription in 2020 due to your promotion of regressively sexist and misogynistic gender ideology. Since then I’ve watched in horror

Hoo-boy. I bet the Guardian is sorry it asked this question.

Women in the UK: share your experience of being subjected to online misogyny https://t.co/gtefrYzGdt

— The Guardian (@guardian) February 6, 2023

How much time do you have?

Will this be the most glorious ratio in the history of all of Twitter?

— Sarah Phillimore (@SVPhillimore) February 6, 2023

Reply after reply after reply cites Owen Jones.… Read the rest

Imagine, say, Rachel Dolezal saying “I’m more of an African-American than Michelle Obama will ever be.”

I’m more of a woman than JK Rowling will ever be. https://t.co/QuzqhtqzdP

— India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) January 22, 2023

… Read the rest

The NY Times on David Carrick:

The police officer told one woman he was the “safest person she could be with,” before threatening her with a gun and raping her repeatedly. He shut another woman in a small closet under his staircase, holding her there for hours on end. One of the women he sexually assaulted was a fellow police officer.

At a sentencing hearing in London on Monday, prosecutors laid out the shocking details of the sexual violence carried out by the officer, David Carrick, who raped, assaulted, and abused at least 12 women during his nearly two-decade police career.

That’s the thing about a police career, I suppose – it can enable predators.

Last month, after Mr.

From the Male Dominance Displays on Social Media files:

It’s a bit weird, she keeps saying. It’s a bit weird for a man to sit in the aisle seat next to a woman on an empty bus, she says. No it’s not a bit weird; it’s blatantly intrusive and rude and bordering on assault. It borders on assault because she’s physically pinned to her seat: she can’t get out unless he lets her. It’s not a bit weird, it’s a deliberate hostile aggressive act.

I had a man get pointlessly aggressive with me on a bus a few years back, not in the “Hi honey” way of course but in the random belligerent toad way. I had a heavy … Read the rest

Earthquakes.

A huge earthquake killed more than 2,200 people and injured thousands more on Monday in Turkey and northwest Syria, flattening apartment blocks and heaping more destruction on Syrian cities already devastated by years of war.

The magnitude 7.8 quake, which hit before sunrise in bitter winter weather, was the worst to strike Turkey this century. It was followed in the early afternoon by another large quake of magnitude 7.7.

Two of them. Massive ones, hours apart.

In the Syrian rebel-held town of Jandaris in Aleppo province, a mound of concrete, steel rods and bundles of clothes lay where a multi-storey building once stood.

“There were 12 families under there. Not a single one came out. Not one,”

Salman is back.

In a wide-ranging interview with David Remnick [in the New Yorker], the novelist said: “I’ve been better. But, considering what happened, I’m not so bad.

“The big injuries are healed, essentially. I have feeling in my thumb and index finger and in the bottom half of the palm. I’m doing a lot of hand therapy, and I’m told that I’m doing very well.”

But he said it was difficult to type and to write due to a lack of feeling in some of his fingertips.

“I’m able to get up and walk around. When I say I’m fine, I mean, there are bits of my body that need constant check ups. It was a colossal attack.”

Originally a comment by latsot on Good afternoon Glasgow.

It was really good. I knew the women of Scotland would bring it and they absolutely did. The talks were great. I understand there was a problem with the live feed, but a better version should be up soon. There were a few impromptu talks as usual and some of those were especially good. A new star was born in Jean from Aberdeen!

But the atmosphere was also brilliant. In the days leading up to the event, a few women told me they were nervous about going there alone so I offered to meet them outside the hotel and go down mob handed. In the end, there were about 15 … Read the rest

A few hightlights.

Nobody is born in the wrong body; STOP TELLING OUR CHILDREN THAT.

We are WOMEN and we say 'NO' to the @theSNP 'NO' to men in women's spaces. #WomenWontWeesht #LetWomenSpeak #standingforwomen pic.twitter.com/TJdexbWLbS

— Tetchy Terf (@tetchyterf) February 5, 2023

Caption this…#standingforwomen#LetWomenSpeak #letwomenspeakglasgow pic.twitter.com/WgCsqV38di

— NorthernRadFemNetwork (@FemNorthern) February 5, 2023

https://twitter.com/Kazlovinglife1/status/1622248658040233984

Let Women Speak #glasgow #letwomenspeak #standingforwomen I’m https://t.co/cxNKzUlPhh

— Kellie-Jay Keen (@ThePosieParker) February 5, 2023

… Read the rest

Oh no oh no this new politically correct idea that girls are not public property for boys to fumble at whenever they like is HARMING BOYS.

Boys are being damaged by “an excessive cultural shift” against them triggered by the #MeToo and Everyone’s Invited movements that has left many lost, insecure and traumatised, according to top child experts.

Stupidest lede ever. Saying boys should not sexually assault girls is not “an excessive cultural shift” and it’s also not “against boys.” Some boys actually know they shouldn’t sexually assault girls!

Julie Lynn-Evans, a psychotherapist with 35 years’ experience, says the two movements involving girls and women speaking out about sexual harassment have led to a “dangerous” backlash against boys. Many have

The Irish Times reports:

An attempt to stage Waiting for Godot in the Netherlands took on a Beckettian turn when the venue cancelled the performances because the Irish director had auditioned only men for the all-male cast of characters.

Can you imagine?? Auditioning only men to play men??? That director should be in jail, with bruises and contusions.

The play, in which Vladimir and Estragon are occasionally joined by other male characters as they await someone who never arrives, had been in rehearsals since November and was due to be staged at the University of Groningen’s Usva student cultural centre in March.

But the performances were cancelled after the venue discovered the casting call for the play’s five male

Originally a comment by Graham Douglas on Julie don’t want no stinkin’ fair competition.

I’ll admit up front that I am a huge rugby (union) fan. The team I support (Sale Sharks) started up a women’s team about three years ago and they now play in the top league for women’s rugby in England. I go down to watch them whenever I can because the standard of rugby played is very high. The games are most enjoyable and I always try to encourage anyone with even a vague interest in rugby to get down and watch the women.

All of which pre(r)amble is to say that the supporters’ club organised a meet&greet with some of the players and coaching … Read the rest

Marjorie Taylor Greene is annoyed because They Don’t Pay Her Enough.

Earlier this week, the Republican representative from Georgia appeared on journalist Glenn Greenwald’s podcast and expressed concern about her congressional salary, which according to public records is $174,000 annually.

Greene told Greenwald: “Becoming a member of Congress has made my life miserable. I made a lot more money before I got here. I’ve lost money since I’ve gotten here.”

She’s welcome to quit. She wasn’t drafted.

Additionally, Greene complained about the amount of time her congressional work consumes, saying: “The nature of this job, it keeps members of Congress and senators in Washington so much of the time, too much of the time … that we don’t get