Some gossip about the Conceptual James v Twitter quarrel:

Even if you’ve never heard of James Lindsay, you probably know a few of his hits.

He was part of that “grievance studies hoax” a few years back, where he and a couple of other anti-woke activists published a handful of ridiculous papers (the most headline-grabbing was arguably one about “rape culture” at Portland dog parks) in academic journals. It became known as the “Sokal Squared Hoax,” and to its admirers it was a devastating exposé of how far the humanities in higher education had sunk in service of identity politics.

The couple of other activists were Peter Boghossian and Helen Pluckrose.

At the time, in

… Read the rest

Trump is using it to demand more money. Of course he is.

Donald Trump on Tuesday tried to turn the news of an FBI search of his Florida estate to his benefit, citing the investigation in text messages and emails soliciting political donations from his supporters.

“I’m a criminal, send $$$.”

“As they watch my endorsed candidates win big victories and see my dominance in all polls, they are trying to stop the Republican Party and me once more,” Trump said in a fundraising email on Tuesday. “The lawlessness, political persecution, and Witch Hunt, must be exposed and stopped.”

Therefore, send $$$$$$$.

Eric Trump, one of Trump’s adult children, told Fox News on Monday the search concerned boxes of

… Read the rest

“Womanhood” is not a tent.

Womanhood is a tent big enough to accommodate Kim Kardashian and trans women, according to Val McDermid, the crime writer, who claims that concern about transgender rights is overblown.

No it’s not; it’s not any kind of tent, big or small. It’s not a tent and it’s not expandable in the sense that it can mean itself and also its opposite. If “woman” can mean “man” then it no longer means “woman,” so what use is it? We still need a word that means what “woman” used to mean, so why not just save ourselves the trouble and stick with the word we already have? If men who consider themselves woman-like want a word … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Rob on You must tell the truth while you testify.

I’m sure Jones does know the difference between truth and bullshit. Even between the shades of truth that a complex world throws up. I don’t think he cares. Neither does Trump. Or anyone else in that broad camp. For that matter the same could be said for some on the activist left (TRA’s anybody?). The common thread for all these people with megaphones is that they are appealing to the emotions of their audiences. The words don’t have to be true (and usually are not). They have to evoke the feeling that the audience craves. It’s especially dangerous because it’s addictive, probably in a literal … Read the rest

Interesting…

Former US President Donald Trump has said his Florida home is being raided by the FBI.

Mr Trump said in a statement Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach was being “occupied by a large group of FBI agents”.

Neither the FBI or Department of Justice [has] commented on the reported raid. It is unclear what might have prompted any search warrant.

Maybe it was the story about torn-up papers in the White House toilets.

Updating to add:

BREAKING NEWS: Dozens of FBI agents raid Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence to conduct an unannounced search warrant — even going as far as opening and searching his safe. RT TO THANK THE FBI FOR HOLDING TRUMP ACCOUNTABLE!

— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) August 8, 2022

… Read the rest

The war between Alex Jones and truth:

The judge, Maya Guerra Gamble, scolded Jones, after he told untruths at least twice on the stand. “It seems absurd to instruct you again that you must tell the truth when you testify, but here I am: you must tell the truth while you testify,” she said. “This is not your show.”

Jones tried to interject, saying he had only said what he believed to be the truth.

“You believe everything you say is true, but it isn’t. Your beliefs do not make something true. That is what we’re doing here,” the judge said.

But if he really believes everything he says is true how is he to know it’s not true?… Read the rest

Remember when Trump went to visit Macron for Bastille Day and was all excited about the parade with all the toys and wanted “his” generals to do the same next year?

The generals, to his bewilderment, reacted with disgust. “I’d rather swallow acid,” his Defense Secretary, James Mattis, said. Struggling to dissuade Trump, officials pointed out that the parade would cost millions of dollars and tear up the streets of the capital.

And would be a weirdly militaristic thing to do.

An Air Force general later spelled it out for him.

“So, what do you think of the parade?” Trump asked Selva. Instead of telling Trump what he wanted to hear, Selva was forthright.

“I didn’t grow up in the

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Say you’re Trump and you want to get rid of certain telltale notes – what do you do? You stuff them down the toilet, of course, flush once and walk away.

Remember our toilet scoop in Axios AM earlier this year? Maggie Haberman’s forthcoming book about former President Trump will report that White House residence staff periodically found wads of paper clogging a toilet — and believed the former president, a notorious destroyer of Oval Office documents, was the flusher.

For the compelling reason that nobody else would be that stupid.

Haberman — who obtained the photos recently — shared them with us ahead of the Oct. 4 publication of her book, “Confidence Man: The Making of

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Thought for the day:

By making the term “man” subsume “woman” and arrogate to itself the representation of all of humanity, men have built a conceptual error of vast proportion into all of their thought. By taking the half for the whole, they have not only missed the essence of whatever they are describing, but they have distorted it in such a fashion that they cannot see it correctly. As long as men believed the earth to be flat, they could not understand its reality, its function, and its actual relationship to other bodies in the universe. As long as men believe their experiences, their viewpoint, and their ideas represent all of human experience and all of human thought, they

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That’s not how it works.

An Irish “LGBTQ+ Inclusive” football team beat out the female competition in the 2022 Junior J Shield Final, claiming a significant margin of victory in every placing that many attribute to the fact a biological male was on the team.

Silly many, what difference would that make?

Na Gaeil Aeracha, which bills itself as Ireland’s “first explicitly LGBTQ+ inclusive” football club was forced to lock down its social media accounts following backlash as sport fans noticed one of the players appeared to be an older man.

Giulia Valentino, a male who identifies as a transgender woman, was playing against young women and girls in the Ladies Gaelic Football Junior J Shield tournament

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A heavy foot on the scale again:

A Tasmania-based lesbian woman and supporter of the anti-trans group LGB Alliance, is raising funds to take her battle to ban trans women and men from her drag shows, to the High Court. 

The LGB Alliance is not “anti-trans.” Journalists get away with such flagrant lies when reporting on trans-related stories. Lies and libel.

That’s the first paragraph; the second is:

Trigger Warning: This story discusses comments against the transgender community, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.

There’s no such trigger warning for … Read the rest

Glinner knocks it out of the park for 15 minutes, starting at 30 minutes.… Read the rest

That led me to this from a year ago, which I think I missed at the time:

https://twitter.com/UileamMcOistin/status/1556332587085402113

Seriously??

According to The Australian, yes:

Lesbians will be breaking the law if they exclude biological males who are transgender from social events, after a controversial discrimination ruling set to become a national test case.

Lesbians will be breaking the law if they exclude biological males who are transgender from social events, after a controversial discrimination ruling set to become a national test case. The law will be forcing women to let men attend their social events. The law might as well say women will be breaking the law if they refuse sex. The law might as well be written … Read the rest

It seems the slogan “No LGB without the T” is not as popular as it once was.

https://twitter.com/BraddockBessie/status/1555963440962981892 https://twitter.com/dinahbrand2/status/1556293889044221961

"You can't go, without me"

"You are nothing without me"

"Everything you have, you owe to me"

"I am your everything"

"Everything you've built, is mine to take"

"There's no discussion or debate"

"No LGB without the T"

"If you love me, you'll change"

ALL THINGS ABUSERS SAY! pic.twitter.com/YlPLx7SCDV

— Gay Male Journal (www.gaymalejournal.org) (@Gaymalejournal) August 7, 2022

… Read the rest

Amnesty is Thorry You Were Offen-ded.

Amnesty International has said it “deeply regrets the distress and anger” caused after it alleged that Ukrainian forces were flouting international law by exposing civilians to Russian fire.

We deeply regret your feefees but you’re wrong to have them.

Amnesty sparked outrage in Ukraine with the publication of a report on Thursday that accused the military of endangering civilians by establishing bases in schools and hospitals, and launching counterattacks from heavily populated areas.

The head of Amnesty’s Ukraine office resigned in protest, accusing the rights organisation of parroting Kremlin propaganda.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the group had tried to “shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim”.

We see a lot … Read the rest

You don’t like the drought? Ok have a flood.

Photographer John Sirlin was in a canyon in the northeast part of Death Valley National Park late Thursday to shoot lightning in an expected thunderstorm.

Then the lightning petered out and the storm became a nonstop torrential downpour that lasted for hours, bringing near-record rainfall to one of the hottest, driest places on Earth.

Which isn’t what you want in drought conditions. You want slow steady non-torrential rain that has time to soak in, not a blast that washes away all the topsoil.

More analysis will be needed to determine whether climate change helped drive the storm’s intensity. But its extreme nature is consistent with what can be expected as

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A reporter at Open Democracy sent For Women Scotland a “when did you stop beating your trans people?” set of questions, so For Women Scotland is sharing the obnoxious questions with us.

Dear Adam,

Thank you for your hugely revealing question set about our shadowy operation. I am only amazed that you forgot to ask about the top speed of our broomsticks and whether they were diesel or electric (0-60 in 20 secs), or, indeed, whether we favour Eye of Newt over Fillet of Fenny Snake (personally, I find Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting are best for date night!). I’m afraid that I must be brief as we are off to dance widdershins round a churchyard by moonlight and

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Anti-Semitic dogwhistle, from a current Senator. Awesome.

The democrats just blocked my effort to try & force Soros backed prosecutors to put dangerous criminals in jail pic.twitter.com/alt5DZmiSS

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 7, 2022

… Read the rest

Drag doesn’t have to be misogynist or trans or groomerish. Monica Hesse in the Washington Post:

A not-small number of hours in my early 20s were spent attending drag shows in a basement-level gay club in Washington’s Dupont Circle neighborhood. What you would do is arrive around midnight when “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé was playing, and by the time you’d heard “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé for the eighth or 40th replay, it was time to go home.

In between were drag performers. Drag kings, mostly (this was ladies’ night), who would dress in fedoras or leather chaps and lip-sync to James Brown or Justin Timberlake. There was a performer who went by Ken Vegas. My friends and

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I just listened to most of this Radio 4 item on drag queen story hour, in which Jo Bartosch argued against and some young guy who says “like” way too often argued for. The host was, predictably, somewhat flippant about the whole thing, but what really annoys me is that no one at any point stopped to ask why is this only one-way? Why is it monodirectional? Why is there no drag king story hour? Why is it all about men making a joke of women while no one is making a joke of men?

I would really like to know.

They talk about panto, and someone (I think the like-saying guy) mentions Shakespeare, meaning actually theater in general … Read the rest