Reliably backing the wrong horse, our Jolyon.

So frustrating to read, even well intentioned like this, pieces on free speech that don't engage with relative power. Who actually has a platform to speak – and for what purpose do they use it, to challenge or to embed power? https://t.co/uPy2UpFssX

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) August 14, 2022

Yes that’s Salman, embedding power all over the place, not challenging it at all.

Of course saying that relies on believing that Islam is powerless. Have a think about that for a minute or two.… Read the rest

A little more news:

A family statement… @SalmanRushdie #SalmanRushdie pic.twitter.com/tMrAkoqliq

— Zafar Rushdie (@ZafRushdie) August 14, 2022

… Read the rest

Ewan Somerville at the Telegraph on more gender Stalinism in academia:

“Far-Left” university bosses have been accused of forcing out their own diversity adviser after staff protested that criticism of transgender activism was “threatening”. 

They’re not “far-left” though. We need a new moniker for this nonsense. Far-Identitarian perhaps. There’s nothing actually lefty about imposing fantasies on the world and punishing people who fail to believe the fantasies. Far-Incloosive. Far-Reality-Denying.

The equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) adviser at the University of Sheffield had been employed for more than two years working on LGBT+ inclusion and a race equality action plan.

No equality or inclusion for women though? Nothing? Not even a crumb?

But in October last year, his colleagues from

… Read the rest

At least Rushdie is off the ventilator and able to talk.

Unfortunately there’s no other new information, but it’s a start. I hope.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Security conscious.

John Kelly tried to limit access to Trump at Maralago but he failed because Trump said no.

Mr. “I-Know-More-About-Everything-Than-Anyone-Else-On-Earth” probably figured he could spot spies because they would be wearing black trench coats and carrying bombs with lit fuses. A man with no theory of mind, who chooses staff because they look the part (rather than being qualified for the position), would think that everyone else hires underlings and minions in exactly the same way. In real life, at a resort, an agent could be a member of caretaking or custodial staff. What matters is access, not rugged good looks, or femme fatale gorgeousity. I’d be amazed … Read the rest

Now for the essay by Dr Kit Heyam that explains why Joan of Arc & Elizabeth Tudor were too good to be mere women.

Dr Heyam uses the bespoke pronouns right off the bat, and the result of course is confusing meaningless drivel.

Title: ‘It was necessary’: taking Joan of Arc on their own terms

Whose own terms?

Subtitle: We take a look a fresh look at Jeanne d’Arc’s story, and what they tell us about the history of gender

What who tell us about the history of gender?

Pronouns are there for a reason: to convey needed information without having to repeat people’s names a million times. Sticking in “they”s where they don’t make any sense doesn’t convey any … Read the rest

Could they be any more insulting? The Telegraph tells us “academics” say Queen Elizabeth I wasn’t a woman. Gee, I wonder why they think that – because she was powerful and tough and clever perhaps? Can’t be no girl because girls are weak and soppy and stupid? Thanks, academics, you’re doing brilliant work.

Elizabeth I has been presented as possibly non-binary in an essay published by the theatre, which refers to the female monarch with the gender-neutral “they/them” pronouns.

The essay was written by a “transgender awareness trainer” in defence of the Globe’s decision to stage a new play featuring a non-binary Joan of Arc, but both the play and the essay have raised concerns that famous females are

… Read the rest

But what’s the point of it?

A children’s story hour run by a drag queen in Cardiff was targeted by protesters claiming it was “sexualising their children”.

The Drag Queen Story Hour Tour arrived in Wales this week with the final event being held in Cardiff Central Library.

Story-teller Sab Samuel said it provided a “positive experience” and said there was no sexual content.

But in what way is it a positive experience? What’s the point of it? Why drag queens and not drag kings? Why men dressed up as women and not women dressed up as men? What is it all supposed to mean?

What does it mean? What are children supposed to take from it? What does a … Read the rest

It appears Trump may have leaked the names of two FBI agents who searched Maralago to Breitbart, thus putting them at risk from Trump’s lunatic treasonous fans.

CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez suggested on Friday that former President Donald Trump‘s office was responsible for leaking a search warrant to Breitbart News and other outlets.

…

The warrant authorizing an FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was provided to Breitbart on Friday before a federal judge in Florida formally unsealed it at the request of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The unsealed warrant redacted the names of the agents. The leaked warrant did not.

It is not known at this time how Breitbart News obtained the warrant on Friday

… Read the rest

Nick Cohen in the Spectator:

Like online trolls, religious totalitarians want their targets to think about them constantly. If some cannot physically harm their enemies, they will accept mentally crippling them as the next best option. The threats against Rushdie never went away. A few days before we met in 2012, the organisers of the Jaipur Literary Festival had cancelled a booking. They feared that the mere sight of him might lead to assassination attempts, riots, injuries and deaths.

I wrote about it at the time.

I asked why John le Carré had said, ‘My position is that there is no law in life or nature that says great religions may be insulted with impunity’.

‘I gave

… Read the rest

This is very good.

Funny to see Boris Johnson in the background.

God, I miss the Hitch. His response here to Shirley Williams and the question whether Salman Rushdie should’ve got a knighthood is a class act that no other pundit or thinker have managed or ever will manage to reach. pic.twitter.com/FzCVusR01v

— Ben Brittain (@BenABrittain) August 13, 2022

… Read the rest

Ok ok ok so Trump stole top-secret documents and kept them at his resort hotel, big deal. What harm could that possibly do?

The Justice Department’s search warrant raises concerns about national security, said former DOJ official Mary McCord.

“Clearly they thought it was very serious to get these materials back into secured space,” McCord said. “Even just retention of highly classified documents in improper storage – particularly given Mar-a-Lago, the foreign visitors there and others who might have connections with foreign governments and foreign agents – creates a significant national security threat.”

What, you mean a big resort hotel isn’t the most secure place you could possibly stash highly classified documents? Huh. Who knew?

“It’s a nightmarish environment

… Read the rest

Since The Religious Veto is on our minds at the moment, I was reminded of the last minute “wait let’s think about this some more” a week before Does God Hate Women? was published.

I wrote a quite furious post about it on May 25, 2009.

About this non-ecumenical book that Jeremy and I wrote, that is due out at the end of this week. Yes, what about it, you’re thinking, all agog. For reasons which I will explain another day, the publisher became nervous about it last Friday. The publisher phoned us on Friday, and talked of changes, or delays, or would we like to drop a chapters. We would not like to drop a chapter, and if

… Read the rest

Taliban attacks women:

About 40 women marched through the Afghan capital demanding rights, before the Taliban broke it up by firing into the air.

The fighters seized their mobile phones, stopping one of the first women’s protests in months.

Male insurrectionists attack women and steal their phones.

Never forget the Taliban are in no sense a legitimate government. They’re violent thugs who overthrew the government. They represent government by the gun.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world that officially limits education by gender – a major sticking point in the Taliban’s attempts to gain international legitimacy.

But “officially” only according to the Taliban, who are a group of criminals. They have no legitimacy.… Read the rest

Oh is that how it works.

https://twitter.com/monisha_rajesh/status/1558410523137417220

His own family’s religion – so he’s not allowed to critique and satirise other people’s families’ religions?

Plus of course Rowling’s not “peddling hate speech at a minority group” – she’s disputing the truth claims of a new and deranged belief system that’s carving up children and calling it “gender-affirmation surgery.”

https://twitter.com/monisha_rajesh/status/1558413720417714176

Yo, transgenderism is a human-made belief system, and a very destructive one, and we all get to “pick it apart” aka say what’s wrong with it.… Read the rest

Writers say it’s not good to try to murder writers:

Fellow authors such as JK Rowling and Stephen King have written messages of support, calling the news “horrifying”.

Booker-prize winning author, Ian McEwan, called it an “appalling attack” that “represents an assault on freedom of thought and speech”.

“Salman has been an inspirational defender of persecuted writers and journalists across the world. He is a fiery and generous spirit, a man of immense talent and courage and he will not be deterred,” he added.

He was an absolute torch of a defender of the Charlie Hebdo people, which meant quarreling with some of his own friends, because they shamefully took the other side.

Afghan-American author, Khaled Hosseini, wrote: “I’m

… Read the rest

The Beeb reports:

Salman Rushdie’s agent has said “the news is not good” after the author was stabbed at an event in New York state.

He was attacked on stage, and is now on a ventilator and unable to speak, Andrew Wylie said in a statement, adding that the author will lose one eye.

…

“Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged,” his agent, Andrew Wylie said.

A day that will live in infamy.… Read the rest

Reuters:

FBI agents in this week’s search of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Florida home removed 11 sets of classified documents including some marked as top secret, the Justice Department said on Friday, while also disclosing it had probable cause to conduct the search based on possible Espionage Act violations.

The bombshell disclosures were made in a search warrant approved by a U.S. magistrate judge and accompanying documents released four days after agents searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach. The Espionage Act, one of three laws cited in the warrant application, dates to 1917 and makes it a crime to release information that could harm national security.

Trump is saying it was all declassified, but Reuters says that’s … Read the rest

Good god, this is getting intense.

FBI agents removed 11 sets of classified documents from former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida,

including some marked top secret and meant to only be available in special government facilities.https://t.co/aDz9EmA2co

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) August 12, 2022

Many news sources are running the same headline.

11 sets, some top secret.

That’s no joke.

He’s done, isn’t he? Unless he just unleashes his fascists on us?… Read the rest

Leo Igwe:

A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.’—Humanists UK patron and novelist Salman Rushdie on freedom of expression.

Elham Manea:

„The moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.“ – #SalmanRushdie #WordsMorePowerfulThanKnives #RushdiQuotes

… Read the rest