Kate Manne:

Abortion bans target and primarily victimize women, who are seen as no longer fulfilling their rightful reproductive and social role as mothers in particular and caregivers in general, to everyone around them.

Primarily?

We are perceived as owing our bodies, our minds, our labor, to men and “their” children within a white supremacist, cis-normative hetero-patriarchy.

What does it have to do with white supremacy? What is “cis-normative” about it?

Hence the deliberate cruelty and, in my view, paradigmatic misogyny involved in enforcing pregnancy. 

I agree with that bit at any rate. It can’t help being misogynist, given who the victims are. That’s complicated by the fact that there are many many many women who want … Read the rest

The Beeb reports:

DJ Tim Westwood accused of sex with a 14-year-old

Julie Bindel points out that the word is “rape.”

DJ Tim Westwood is facing allegations from a woman who says they had sex several times starting when she was 14. She says Mr Westwood was in his 30s at the time and describes him as a “predator”.

The woman is one of several to come forward after an investigation by BBC News and the Guardian, with claims of misconduct and abuse dating from 1990 to 2020. Mr Westwood did not respond to a request for comment.

It is illegal in the UK to have sex with a 14-year-old.

In other words it’s statutory rape. It’s not “having sex … Read the rest

The making of a non-binary person:

There’s a meme that pops up every now and then about a bird that is called a penguin its whole life. One day the bird meets a doctor who says, “You are not a penguin, you are what is called a swan.” The swan is filled with relief. Suddenly, its whole life makes sense.

I had my swan moment in 2011 when I was in my mid-20s.

…I fell into an online rabbit hole and stumbled to the Wikipedia page for gender identities. It was here that I first read the definition of “non-binary”. In those paragraphs, I learned about people who do not follow binary gender norms, people who feel they exist

The deepities of India Willoughby are deep indeed.

Yes, our worldview is that your anatomy not your brain dictates what sex you are.

Well done India. pic.twitter.com/kl9NQZqc8X

— Dr. Jane Clare Jones (@janeclarejones) July 13, 2022

“Children as young as 3 know they’re the opposite sex.” Hmmm, what could be a little off about that argument? Could it be the fact that children as young as 3 know a lot of things that aren’t true? Could it be that children as young as 3 know they are dinosaurs and tigers and flying warriors in capes? Could it be that children as young as 3 believe what adults tell them?

Children as young as 3 know lots of things that aren’t … Read the rest

There was this one wild night in Trump’s lame duck tenure:

Late on a Friday night about six weeks after Donald Trump lost his reelection, a fistfight nearly broke out in the White House between the president’s fired national security adviser and a top White House aide.

A bunch of “unofficial Trump advisers” had managed to get into the Oval Office, where a bunch of official people tried to get them out, and everyone shouted at everyone else for hours.

There was shouting, insults and profanity, former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann testified to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Herschmann said he nearly came to blows with Michael Flynn, a former

What it’s like in Trumpy Murka:

I think about guns because guns are what I talked about most for the last several months as I ran in our local Republican primary for county magistrate. Not gas prices. Not the “stolen” election. Not caravans at the southern border. Not abortion. Not the mundane, budget-related duties of the seat I was running for. I talked about guns. I am a Democrat who ran for local office as a Republican because in Anderson County, Kentucky, right down the road from the state capitol, Democrats no longer have a prayer of winning a partisan election, even if it is to serve in a nonpartisan job. This is die-hard Trump country now. Donald Trump

How stupid is this?

I believe abortion is a tragedy.

There are over 60 million unborn children who have never breathed, lived, hugged, loved, or danced.

Our country is far poorer without them. pic.twitter.com/kQH4tTBU99

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) July 12, 2022

Why not also tear your hair over all the couples who split up before having children? All the couplings that didn’t result in pregnancies? All the billions of potential pregnancies that were just sexual assaults that didn’t quite get the job done? We don’t need more people. Better people, more generous people, more decent people, more unlike Ted Cruz people, yes, but more numbers, no. We’re racing toward the cliff of climate disaster, so maximizing the possible … Read the rest

The Washington Post duly takes the party line.

Sen. Hawley accused of transphobic questioning at abortion hearing

Not “Hawley called transphobic” but “accused of transphobic questioning” – which subtly implies that there is such a thing as transphobic questioning.

The subhead isn’t even a little bit subtle:

The Missouri Republican refused to acknowledge that some transgender men can get pregnant

No he didn’t. He refused to swallow the lie that some men can get pregnant.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday on the legal impact of the end of Roe v. Wade, was accused by a congressional witness of employing a transphobic line of questioning.

Or to put it another way, a congressional witness marched … Read the rest

Trump tried to squeeze a witness.

Donald Trump attempted to contact one of the witnesses who has been speaking to the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, the panel said Tuesday.

Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the panel, delivered the revelation at the conclusion of the committee’s seventh public hearing on the Capitol attack.

According to Cheney, Trump tried to call the unnamed witness after the committee’s sixth hearing last month. The witness, who has not yet been publicly revealed as a participant in the committee’s investigation, declined the call.

Not surprisingly, this could be a crime.

If the justice department gathers evidence indicating that Trump was attempting to influence witness testimony in the January 6

Yet another one.

The organization has “women” in its name, but still, it obeys the orders Not To Say The Word.

Paid sick days give people seeking abortion care the time they need to travel to a clinic, receive care, and recover.

Learn how you can use paid sick days for medication abortion.

Newsweek reports on Professor People Capable of Pregnancy and her smug exchanges with Josh Hawley:

A University of California, Berkeley, law professor slammed GOP Senator Josh Hawley as “transphobic” during a Senate hearing Tuesday on abortion policy.

During the hearing, professor Khiara Bridges used the phrase “people with a capacity for pregnancy,” which is considered a gender-neutral term that encompasses everyone who is able to get pregnant, including transgender men and nonbinary individuals.

No it isn’t. People like Khiara Bridges may consider it that, or may pretend to, but it isn’t just generally or widely or universally “considered” that, not least because it’s bullshit. Women are the only people who are able to get pregnant; that includes women who call … Read the rest

When Josh Hawley is talking sense and the academic he’s questioning is talking unmitigated bullshit:

3/ Why in God's name do you want to endlessly feed them this sort of ammo? There are a million answers you can give that would accomplish your political goals without making you sound like a Bill O'Reilly wet dream.https://t.co/1DvPcBW6gr

— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) July 12, 2022

… Read the rest

Holy moly. I wouldn’t have guessed this was even possible.

In about a week, a Massachusetts woman is expected to reach the eastern end of Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail, becoming the first female hiker to finish all 11 national scenic trails in the United States. 

Arlette Laan, whose trail name is “Apple Pie,” had about 200 miles left of the 1,200-mile-long trail as of last week. Once she reaches the trail’s eastern terminus in Sturgeon Bay, she’ll make history. 

Laan’s said “a lot of stubbornness” has helped her complete this journey, which began in 2003 when she hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. 

She’s now done it.

Appalachian Trail: 2,190 miles

State(s): ME, NH, VT, MA, CT,

JKR going all-in again.

Like many women on the left, I despair that so many self-proclaimed liberals turn a blind eye to the naked misogyny of the gender identity movement and the threat it poses to the rights of women and girls. Walsh's film undeniably exposed what many leftists are too scared to, 2/4

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 12, 2022

Walsh believes feminism is 'rotten' and his default appears to be denigrating women with whom he disagrees. He's no more on my side than the 'shut up or we'll bomb you' charmers who cloak their misogyny in a pretty pink and blue flag. 4/4

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 12, 2022

… Read the rest

Media Matters did a roundup of right-wing media fussing about Mentioning Slavery At Monticello.

The right-wing media ecosystem is expressing outrage following a New York Post story that Monticello, the estate of Thomas Jefferson, is teaching visitors that the principal author of the Declaration of Independence enslaved hundreds of people.

Note that the outrage isn’t because it’s not true. The outrage is because we’re just supposed to shut up about it. But why should we do that?

The conservative freakout seemingly started with a July 4 tweet from Jeffrey A. Tucker, who complained of “aggressive political messaging” at Monticello. Tucker, who is the president of the Brownstone Institute — formed in May 2021 to oppose COVID-19 precautions — also wrote

It’s a week! Another week! I didn’t know! I can’t keep up. There are so many of them, along with days and months: it’s impossible to keep up.

Are those the non-binary colors? Yellow white purple black? I didn’t know there were non-binary colors. What do they mean? Why those colors in particular?

Is it true that we don’t know “loads” about what non-binary lives are like? Is there anything to know? Are non-binary lives as such any different from other lives? If so, why? What is it about calling yourself “non-binary” that causes your life to be different from the lives of “binary” people?

Why does anyone need to take any steps to “include” them? What reason is … Read the rest

Here’s a bit of Bow-tie Guy telling Fox News how sad it is that Monticello guides talk about slavery instead of Jefferson’s interest in architecture.

Fox brings on a guest who was a recent visitor to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, to complain about his tour guide over-emphasizing TJ’s history as a slave owner: “I just thought that Monticello would be protected from this disease of wokeism.” pic.twitter.com/dJZFjAiRGG

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 11, 2022

Jefferson was an interesting guy, no question, but one of the most profoundly interesting things about him (in my view) was the yawning canyon between his revolutionary rhetoric and his utterly commonplace Southern gentleman exploitation of enslaved human beings.… Read the rest

Fox News is outraged that the people at Monticello inform the visitors about slavery. It’s supposed to be a secret!!!

Today’s little Fox News gem was a segment on what a huge bummer it is to visit Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello these days, what with all the focus on slavery and what not at what was built as a slave plantation.

A bow-tied, bespectacled guest for the segment was billed hilariously in one chyron as a “recent Monticello visitor.” Turns out there’s a little more to the story.

The guest was one Jeffrey Tucker. Who?

…

Tucker is a former Ron Paul acolyte who has worked with Lew Rockwell in various capacities, including at the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

The ACLU has an article (which it shared on Facebook) by a clinic escort on why abortion rights matter.

Last week, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, upending 50 years of legal precedent and sparking protests across the country. It’s easy to think Roe fell with the stroke of Justice Samuel Alito’s pen, a legal battle lost in a courtroom. But as a clinic escort for the last decade, I’ve watched the fight for abortion access play out in real time on the sidewalks in front of abortion clinics in Missouri and Illinois.

As a volunteer clinic escort, it’s my job to help patients get from their car door to the clinic door safely; to provide a

NASA has released the first image from the Hubble telescope.

On Monday, July 11, President Joe Biden released one of the James Webb Space Telescope’s first images in a preview event at the White House in Washington. NASA, in partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), will release the full set of Webb’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data during a televised broadcast beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT (14:30 UTC) on Tuesday, July 12, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Learn more about how to watch.

This first image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as