Originally a comment by Enzyme on It would be so easy to move on.

That made me think of Daniel Barenboim taking Wagner to Israel, too.

On a more general point, I wonder whether the reason they can’t leave Harry Potter alone is that most of the complainants are of the internet-in-the-bedroom cohort. They’re the generation that grew up online, rather than reading. As such, I would not be surprised if HP is the only book/s they have ever read, or at least the only ones that they’ve read aside from those they were required to read at school. Their cultural exposure is, I strongly suspect, highly stunted.

Harry Potter blocks off most of the horizon because they genuinely … Read the rest

News from Afghanistan:

A former Afghan MP and her bodyguard have been shot dead at her home in the capital Kabul, Afghan police have said.

Mursal Nabizada, 32, was one of the few female MPs who stayed in Kabul after the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

Her brother and a second security guard were wounded in the attack on Sunday.

Former colleagues praised Ms Nabizada as a “fearless champion for Afghanistan” who turned down a chance to leave the country.

The Taliban’s god hates women.

Hannah Neumann, a member of the European Parliament, said: “I am sad and angry and want the world to know!” in response to the killing.

“She was killed in darkness, but the Taliban

What world does Owen Jones live in?

By “anti-trans activists” he means women who don’t share his belief that men who call themselves women are women, and who point out the ways such a claim negates women’s rights. It’s not hateful and cruel for women to defend our rights and resist a campaign to hand them over to men who call themselves women.

If the British media wasn't so riddled with transphobia, anti-trans activists would have long been properly recognised as one of the most obsessively hateful and cruel movements in modern politics. https://t.co/wRUwTSusW5

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) January 16, 2023

Meanwhile he continues to pretend that “trans rights”=LGB rights and LGB rights=trans rights. Holyrood’s “gender recognition reform bill” is … Read the rest

Home life with David Carrick according to an ex:

“He used to say: ‘Who do you belong to? You belong to me.’ He said many, many times: ‘You have to obey me. You’re here to serve me.’” The woman described Carrick as a sex addict and alcoholic who started drinking at 7am after returning home from night shifts guarding Westminster VIPs.

She said his three-bedroom terrace house in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, was full of pornography and he became obsessed with emulating violent sexual acts. She said he would often text her pornographic videos while on duty, and if she said she was not interested he would send her “sad face” selfies.

The easy instant availability of porn has been such a … Read the rest

Why Andrew Tate moved to Romania:

In one of his social media videos, Andrew Tate explains why he moved to Romania in 2017.

“One of [my reasons] is the #MeToo era,” he says. “People say: ‘Oh you are a rapist’. No, I am not a rapist, but I like the idea of being able to do what I want, I like being free.”

“If she goes to the [Romanian] police and says: ‘He raped me yesterday’, they’ll say ok, do you have evidence? Is there CCTV proof?”

Yes quite. Rape is such a fun crime for the perp, because all you have to do is turn the CCTV off and you’re golden. Everybody knows women are all lying Karens, … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Piglet on Holy dread.

I can’t get over how pathetic it is. There are so many fantasy novels out there that they could read, including ones by trans authors and with trans characters, yet they’re hung up on this one. It would be so easy to move on and read a different book. I used to love the music of the Smiths, but Morrissey turned out to be such a prick that I haven’t been able to listen to them anymore. That’s OK, plenty of other bands out there. Conversely, I know Jewish opera fans who enjoy Wagner, feminists who love James Brown, CSA survivors who still listen to Michael Jackson. They accept that you … Read the rest

High up London cop turns out to be a serial rapist. What a surprise.

A Metropolitan police officer has been revealed as a serial rapist who committed more than 71 serious sexual offences, despite the force being told of repeated allegations over two decades that he was a threat to women.

Well twenty years isn’t that long, and you don’t want to rush these things. It’s better to wait and see how it all plays out.

PC David Carrick, an armed officer in the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, admitted on Monday to 49 counts – some detailing multiple offences, against 12 women.

Police and prosecutors say he exploited his position as a Met officer to lure women, then

Don’t utter the name!!

A Canadian trans artist is taking JK Rowling’s name off Harry Potter books and reselling them without it following the debate about the writer’s views on trans issues.

Is a trans artist someone who claims to be an artist but isn’t actually a literal artist?

More to the point, what a childish and spiteful little hobby. Some observers are saying it’s a violation of copyright, but we can say for sure it’s childish and spiteful.

Artist Laur Flom is now removing her name from books about the boy wizard, before giving the books new covers and selling them for £140.

It has been reported that some of the proceeds are then donated to transgender charities.

Some. … Read the rest

The faculty of the Department of Art History at the University of Minnesota issued a statement of its own, a far better one.

The tenure-stream faculty of the Department of Art History at the University of Minnesota writes to address the recent non-renewal of adjunct instructor, Dr. Erika López Prater, from her term appointment at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. As has been widely reported, and especially well documented in a New York Times article of January 8, 2023, Dr. López Prater showed a 14th-century manuscript painting depicting the Prophet Mohammad in her art history survey course, prompting student complaint and the subsequent cancellation of Dr. López Prater’s spring semester course. This happened without the due process

The Times reports on that firing of an academic who showed an image of Mohammed in an art history class we talked about last month.

Erika López Prater, an adjunct professor at Hamline University, said she knew many Muslims have deeply held religious beliefs that prohibit depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. So last semester for a global art history class, she took many precautions before showing a 14th-century painting of Islam’s founder.

Let me just interrupt here to say it’s an art history class and students shouldn’t be able to impose their religious taboos on all the students in the class. Their deeply held religious beliefs should be their problem, not everyone else’s. If they can’t tolerate images of … Read the rest

Allons enfants:

Parisians will be invited to vote on whether to allow electric scooter rental services to continue operating in the French capital as authorities weigh banning the controversial for-hire vehicles, the city’s mayor has said.

Do it. Those things are a nightmare. People zoom silently down the sidewalk [pavement] on them, risking the lives of all pedestrians.

The issue is “extremely divisive”, Anne Hidalgo told the weekend edition of Le Parisien newspaper, with critics saying riders show only cursory respect for the rules of the road.

Cursory meaning zero.

They often defy bans on riding on pavements, or park without consideration, while some abandon the scooters in parks or even toss them into the Seine river.

…

Let Women Speak part one:

Apparently the audio cuts out a lot, so be warned.

Part 2 is refusing to embed so here is Part 2.

H/t latsot… Read the rest

Interesting. It seems that if you’re in the military, reporting rape=having a “personality disorder” and getting discharged.

Hundreds of female members of the Armed Forces who accused their colleagues of rape were “misdiagnosed” with having a personality disorder, The Telegraph can reveal.

You can kind of see the logic, I guess. No one but a personality disordered person would accuse a colleague of rape. It’s such a…disordered thing to do.

The victims claimed that after they sought help for sexual assault from the military’s departments of community mental health (DCMH), they were “written off” with emotionally unstable personality disorder and subsequently medically discharged.

Very community mental health. I’m sure it did wonders for them.

Paula Edwards, the chief executive of

Originally a comment by latsot in Miscellany Room.

I’m going to the Standing For Women event in Newcastle today. There are expected to be ‘counter-protesters’ there (by which I mean crybabies in masks) so there might be interesting things to report.

If you want to follow what’s happening on Twitter, the official account is @SFWnortheast and the most relevant tags are #LetWomenSpeak, #LetWomenSpeakNewcastle, #WomenTalking.

I expect footage of the talks (if they are allowed to take place) will be on KJK’s various spaces at some point. I’ll be filming what I can, but I won’t be able to get decent footage of the talks. I need my hands to get around so I’ll be using a chest-mounted camera … Read the rest

Oh yes about that guy with his dick out:

Victoria Centre statement over pictures of person exposing themselves in House of Fraser

Not themselves, just himself. He’s a guy.

A statement has been issued after photos of a person appearing to indecently expose themselves in a Nottingham designer shop caused rage on social media. The censored pictures have been widely shared on social media, depicting a person seemingly exposing their private parts in public.

What an abominable piece of writing. The photos were of a man apparently flashing in a Nottingham shop.

Users have identified the shop where the pictures were taken, which was in various locations across House of Fraser, in Nottingham’s Victoria Centre. The person seems to

Police seize Andrew Tate’s supplementary penises:

Several luxury cars have been seized from British-American influencer Andrew Tate’s property in Bucharest.

British-American for-profit misogynist, they mean.

After the arrests on 29 December, police said they had identified six people who were allegedly “sexually exploited” by what it called an “organised criminal group”.

Six people? Not six women? Were some of them men?

Police alleged the victims were “recruited” by the British citizens, who they said misrepresented their intention to enter into a relationship with the victims – which they called “the loverboy method”.

They were later forced to perform in pornographic content under threat of violence, a statement alleged.

That certainly sounds as if all six were women. Why not … Read the rest

Trans people in the bible! Jesus lifts up gender-queer people as model disciples!!

Also how fast can we talk let’s try to set a record… Read the rest

Is the long arm of the law finally reaching out to grab Trump by the shoulder?

Even as Donald Trump prepares to dial up his campaign to take back the White House, the former US president’s political and personal fate may already have been decided by the secret workings of a grand jury in Georgia.

The 23-member panel, convened to consider whether Trump and others committed crimes in trying to overturn his defeat in Georgia when it appeared the state might decide the outcome of the entire 2020 presidential election, was dissolved on Monday after submitting its conclusions and asking that they be made public.

…

In November, the day before Trump announced he was again running for the White

It’s like Nazi Germany. Just like. No difference.

I feel hunted. It is fascism. I understand how Jews must have felt in Germany in the Thirties.

— Davina Regina (@DavinaRegina68) January 13, 2023

No he doesn’t.

Exactly how I feel. And nobody’s doing anything.

— India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) January 13, 2023

There is no resemblance. None. Pretending there is is a disgusting form of narcissism. … Read the rest

That’s…………..what we’re saying.

My view is gender neutral awards should reserve 50% of nominations for women.

Women represent a majority of the music industry workforce, so the Academy making the nominations should also be weighted to be at least 50% women, too. https://t.co/7JrDha1S8f

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) January 13, 2023

That’s the whole point. Gender-neutral awards=women being forgotten. That’s why there have to be awards specifically for women. If the Oscars didn’t have a Best Actress category women would have vastly fewer awards, because most movies have few women and those few women have few lines.

But

Non-binary people, like Emma Corrin and Sam Smith, exist. They're never going to accept being in a men or women's category.

So you