All entries by this author

There was an idea

Aug 6th, 2022 2:25 pm | By

David Frum on how it could play out:

[S]crape aside the audacity, the self-pity, and the self-aggrandizement, and there was indeed an idea in Donald Trump’s speech at a conference hosted by the America First Policy Institute: a sinister idea, but one to take seriously.

Trump sketched out a vision that a new Republican Congress could enact sweeping new emergency powers for the next Republican president. The president would be empowered to disregard state jurisdiction over criminal law. The president would be allowed to push aside a “weak, foolish, and stupid governor,” and to fire “radical and racist prosecutors”—racist here meaning “anti-white.” The president could federalize state National Guards for law-enforcement duties, stop and frisk suspects for illegal

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The bearer of an exalted wisdom

Aug 6th, 2022 11:30 am | By

I seized the opportunity presented by No Internet to read some of White Fragility, and found it not as terrible as I expected, but hardly a work of staggering genius. There is this air of unfalsifiability about the whole thing, because she treats any disagreement with her or challenge to anything she says as an example and illustration of WhiteFragility, which amounts to declaring herself always right from the outset. It’s quite like Freud that way. Your resistance simply shows how right I am.

John McWhorter of course makes the same point:

DiAngelo has spent a very long time conducting diversity seminars in which whites, exposed to her catechism, regularly tell her—many while crying, yelling, or storming toward

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Guest post: Heart of the City

Aug 6th, 2022 10:03 am | By

Originally a comment by Sackbut at Miscellany Room.

Among the comic strips I follow is Heart of the City, a charming strip about a young girl named Heart, her friends, and their lives in Philadelphia. It was created by Mark Tatulli, and he wrote the strip for many years. A few years ago he passed the strip along to Christina “Steenz” Stewart. She is Black, and she made significant changes to the strip over the few years, in addition to having a drastically different art style. Many characters were added, several faded away, the cast became much more racially diverse, and there was a bit more focus on the differences between the life experiences of girls and boys. I … Read the rest



There is a man in this photo

Aug 6th, 2022 9:21 am | By

“Inclusive” sport in Ireland:

https://twitter.com/JamesSharmanGY/status/1555683838092795906… Read the rest


Guest post: The problem is incremental 

Aug 6th, 2022 9:07 am | By

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on Never going back.

I have been thinking a lot about intellectually compelling problems vs. emotionally compelling problems lately: Considering that climate change – along with the strongly interlinked problem of ocean acidification, the mass-extinction of species, and the general toll the human economy is taking on ecosystems and the natural world – is the most dire existential emergency our species has ever faced, many have struggled to explain why – despite constant claims of “alarmism” and “hysteria” – there isn’t more alarm and public outrage around the issue.

The most obvious answer, and usually the first one that comes to mind – is that tackling the problem puts you on a direct … Read the rest



Olympic ignoring of women

Aug 6th, 2022 8:41 am | By

The Guardian does a long conversation with athlete and “LGBTQ+” activist Tom Daley:

Isn’t part of the problem that the LGBTQ+ community is at war with itself over trans rights? The level of fury between trans rights activists and gender-critical feminists astonishes me, I say. Daley nods, and says it’s dangerous. “The LGBT community is so fractured right now over certain issues. And that’s when the right are going to get us. They’re going to try to break us down. And if you think they’re just going to take away trans people’s rights, you’re wrong. It’s going to go much further than that, and we have to stick together as an LGBTQIA+ community to stop that happening.”

But it … Read the rest



A significant margin of victory

Aug 6th, 2022 7:39 am | By

Fun and games in Ireland:

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.

For “many” read “all,” even if some of them wouldn’t admit it. Yes, Virginia, teams that are “inclusive” of males are going to beat the female competition.

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.

All “LGBTQ+ inclusive” means in this … Read the rest



Guest post: What are the keystone gender norms?

Aug 5th, 2022 5:16 pm | By

Originally a comment by Laurent on Scoop: more men running for office!

We’re all non-binary.

I keep struggling with gender stereotypes themselves, and the whole issue clearly doesn’t clarify at all.

I really wonder what are the keystone gender norms that apply to the binary as a general inalienable truth, that almost everyone would acknowledge is actually what historically defines gender at core and still applies mostwhere, if possible independently of secondary cultural norms.

What I get is that it is not about lifestyle at all.

Men -. I was about to write down “none”, but admittedly there is one norm that became quite exceptional but may make an unexpected come-back in the future: obligation to go to war and … Read the rest



$49.3 million

Aug 5th, 2022 5:07 pm | By

In Alex Jones news: $45.2 million in punitive damages.

Jones spent years telling his audience that one of the worst school shootings in American history was a hoax. Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, who brought the charges against Jones, told the court how he made their lives a “living hell” after Jesse, their 6-year-old son, was gunned down in the attack.

“I can’t even describe the last nine-and-a-half years,” Heslin said. “The living hell that I and others have had to endure because of the recklessness and negligence of Alex Jones.”

Not to mention the brutality and cruelty and total lack of empathy.… Read the rest



Looking forward to welcoming

Aug 5th, 2022 4:35 pm | By

Hoo-boy…“unethical” doesn’t even begin to describe it.

FPFW:

There are a couple of studies being done in British universities in an attempt to prove that “transition” from male to female reduces the male performance advantage enough to make it fair for those post-pubertal adult males to play and compete in women’s sport. It’s known that testosterone suppression reduces oxygen-carrying capacity, which reduces athletic performance a bit, though it’s

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Watching the little girls undress

Aug 5th, 2022 10:05 am | By

Fun at the swimming pool:

A senior woman who expressed discomfort regarding a trans-identified male in the women’s changing room at her local pool has been banned from using the facilities she frequented for over three decades. Julie Jaman, 80, had been a guest at the YMCA-run Mountain View community pool in her small town of Port Townsend, Washington for over 35 years.

Interrupting for a moment to say I know that small town. It’s on the Olympic Peninsula, the remainder of the state west of Seattle and Puget Sound; it’s on a bluff overlooking the water and features a lot of gorgeous Queen Anne-style Victorian houses. It’s a lovely place.

Speaking to Reduxx, Jaman revealed that on

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Their aim is to break the taboo

Aug 5th, 2022 9:08 am | By
Their aim is to break the taboo

U wot?

Young people who bleed across Wales? What do they do, open a vein in Fishguard and march bleeding all the way to Abergavenny?

Haha, silly me, no, they mean “people” all over Wales who shed their uterine linings once a month.

Our aim is to break the taboo around periods by encouraging conversation on one of the most normal, natural topics that half the world’s population experience.

Which half? Which half which half which half which half which half which half?

Of course they don’t say. Funny that they want to break one taboo by instituting another.

We’re immensely proud that Bloody Brilliant was created for the young people of Wales by the young people of Wales. 

Following

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Beware of Ctrl+H

Aug 5th, 2022 8:38 am | By

Let’s see…off the top of my head rather than looking in a dictionary…

-fer

-late

-ition

-parent (that pun is the title of a Netflix show of course)

-cendent

-itory

Quite a few words to render meaningless.

H/t soogeeoh… Read the rest



Guest post: Snow is AWOL

Aug 5th, 2022 5:32 am | By

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on Never going back.

The situation is much the same in south-eastern Norway. For the first time ever this year the trusted spring flood due to snowmelt in the second half of May has been completely absent due to record-low levels of snow in the mountains. Combine that with the driest summer on record, and it’s becoming a major challenge for hydropower companies such as the one I’m working in to keep our power plants running. To the end consumers this has the effect of driving the already economy-breaking energy prices even further up. Factor in the European over-reliance on Russian gas that is no longer available, and we’re facing the real prospect … Read the rest



The millions of others

Aug 5th, 2022 5:05 am | By

Amnesty International is even dumber than I thought – or its social media intern is, but that’s the same thing, because what is Amnesty doing letting a stupid clueless woman-hating child handle its social media?

It’s millions of men who can become pregnant.

Who knew?… Read the rest



Never going back

Aug 5th, 2022 3:44 am | By

The snowpack is shrinking.

The Western US is an empire built on snow. And that snow is vanishing.

Since most of the region gets little rain in the summer, even in good years, its bustling cities and bountiful farms all hinge on fall and winter snow settling in the mountains before slowly melting into rivers and reservoirs. That snowmelt, often traveling hundreds of miles from mountain top to tap, sustains the booming desert communities of Las Vegas, Phoenix and Salt Lake City — even coastal Los Angeles and San Francisco. A civilization of more than 76 million people, home to Silicon Valley and Hollywood alike, relies on snow.

Without the snow, it’s mostly desert.

Dangerously high temperatures in the

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Dr Selfabsorption

Aug 5th, 2022 3:08 am | By

It seems I missed new jokes from Jason Stanley during my exile from internet privilege.

https://twitter.com/jasonintrator/status/1555176677835251712

Please, sir, tell us more about yourself.

Oh look, he does!

https://twitter.com/jasonintrator/status/1555405383841218560

But for the chef’s kiss –

https://twitter.com/jasonintrator/status/1555350866286333952… Read the rest


InfoDefeats

Aug 4th, 2022 6:39 pm | By

Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.

Right-wing talk show host Alex Jones will have to pay the parents of a Sandy Hook shooting victim a little more than $4 million in compensatory damages, a jury decided Thursday, capping a stunning and dramatic case that showcased for the public the real-world harm inflicted by viral conspiracy theories.

A separate, shorter trial during which punitive damages will be discussed is now expected. Punitive damages are awarded when the court finds the defendant’s behavior to be especially offensive.

“Neil and Scarlett are thrilled with the result and look forward to putting Mr. Jones’ money to good use,” Bankston added. “Mr Jones on the other hand will not sleep easy

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Message in a bottle

Aug 4th, 2022 5:59 pm | By

Sorry! Internet torture hell. I think it’s been fixed now…… Read the rest



Communities that face barriers

Aug 3rd, 2022 1:19 am | By
Communities that face barriers

Interesting ploy in this one – mention racism but scrupulously refrain from mentioning sexism…when talking about an issue that is precisely about women and not men.

We can talk about racism and “discrimination”…but not sexism or discrimination against specifically women. We can’t ever ever ever talk about women and injustice against women. That would be transphobic.… Read the rest