Miriam Margolyes declines to shun JKR.

The actress who played Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films has offered sympathy to JK Rowling over accusations of transphobia.

…

Younger Potter stars including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, the three principals, all distanced themselves from Rowling after she expressed her views on the importance of biological sex.

Being the clueless ungrateful young toads they are.

“There isn’t one answer to all these trans questions,” [MM] told Radio Times. “We all know people who are slightly pansy or a bit butch or whatever you call it. But I think the vituperation that JK Rowling has received is misplaced. I don’t know her at all. I admire her as

You’d think people in India would have had enough of communal [aka religious] violence during Partition, but apparently not.

The procession had begun peacefully. Marching through the streets of Delhi’s Jahangirpuri district on Saturday, the devotees had gathered to celebrate the Hindu festival of Hanuman Jayanti. But the peace did not last long. As the evening drew in, an unauthorised parade began to gather. This time, men clad in saffron, the signature colour of Hindu nationalism, filled the streets brandishing swords and pistols, and started to shout provocative communal slogans.

Previous agreements between Hindu and Muslim residents for the procession to avoid passing by a local mosque, which was holding evening prayers, were ignored.

“A Hindu mob smashed beer

The Washington Post has a piece on something called Libs of TikTok, apparently a Very Influential Twitter account of the angry right-wing variety. It’s somewhat interesting, as such things are, but the writing is terrible – don’t their editors edit?

The anonymous account’s impact is deep and far-reaching. Its content is amplified by high-profile media figures, politicians and right-wing influencers. Its tweets reach millions, with influence spreading far beyond its more than 648,000 Twitter followers. Libs of TikTok has become an agenda-setter in right-wing online discourse, and the content it surfaces shows a direct correlation with the recent push in legislation and rhetoric directly targeting the LGBTQ+ community.

What the reporter, Taylor Lorenz, means is of course as usual … Read the rest

I very often think accusations of virtue-signaling are unfair, even when I do think the accused is being fatuous or censorious or worse. Even then I generally think there’s some intention of doing good. Other times, though, it’s just unmistakably “Look at me I have ascended to the highest level.”

Like this:

When I'm invited to speak at an event or panel please be assured I have made certain that the organisers are trans inclusive and that it's not just a panel of white women discussing feminist issues or VAWG. I will do my best to uphold this but if I've missed something let me know

— Patsy Stevenson (@PatsyeStevenson) April 19, 2022

Too funny. Please be assured that I … Read the rest

This farking idiot.

Former president Donald Trump voiced regret Wednesday over not marching to the U.S. Capitol the day his supporters stormed the building, and he defended his long silence during the attack by claiming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others were responsible for ending the deadly violence.

“I thought it was a shame, and I kept asking why isn’t she doing something about it? Why isn’t Nancy Pelosi doing something about it? And the mayor of D.C. also. The mayor of D.C. and Nancy Pelosi are in charge,” Trump said of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in a 45-minute interview with The Washington Post. “I hated seeing it. I hated seeing it. And I said, ‘It’s got to

Via Old London Photographs:

Absolutely hideous.… Read the rest

Sigh. Laurie Penny pretends not to know that some autistic people can’t function independently in order to defend people who trans autistic children and adolescents.

Please Laurie. I have a respect for you, though I disagree with you on this issue profoundly. Address my points. Not all autistic people are capable of agency. That’s a literal fact. May are and all power to them. But let’s be super sure before we perform irreversible surgery….

— Dr. Ted Kuhner (not a doctor) (@DrKuhner) April 18, 2022

I asked for evidence of your assertion that autistic people aren’t capable of agency in the way that allistic people are.

— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) April 18, 2022

I’m hearing that you’re uncomfortable. But sometimes

Julie Bindel on That Lunch:

I have been in contact with Jo Rowling for two or three years. She got in touch with me on Twitter having seen the abuse that I had been receiving at the hands of misogynists since 2004. I don’t know when she picked up on what was happening to me, but she was clearly concerned about women’s rights and safety.

…

We have talked regularly ever since and I soon learnt what an amazing person she is. She has a wonderful sense of humour, in fact, she is one of the funniest women I have known, and has an enormous amount of integrity and generosity.

…

This lunch has now become infamous, but contrary

The singing fanatics story originates in a Facebook post by an evangelist named Jack Jensz Jr. “Worshipping our King Jesus 30,000 feet in the air!” he exclaims, not mentioning “Intruding on unwilling passengers 30,000 feet in the air!”

There are some “Yay Jesus!” comments and some very hostile ones.… Read the rest

Alex Jones is trying to get out of paying.

Companies owned by US radio host Alex Jones, including his right-wing website InfoWars, have filed for bankruptcy.

The move comes as he fights defamation suits brought by families of those killed in a 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school.

Mr Jones, who falsely claimed the shooting was a hoax, has been ordered to pay damages in the lawsuits.

So he’s declaring bankruptcy instead.

In the US, declaring bankruptcy provides a route for companies to remain in operation and negotiate their debts, with settlements overseen by the court. It puts a hold on other litigation.

Troubles for the radio host and conspiracy theorist stem from his false claims about

What I’m saying. We can’t stop. We refuse to stop. We keep driving straight at the edge, accelerator to the floor.

Three members of the Just Stop Oil campaign held on remand by Warwickshire police were taken to Coventry magistrates court on Monday morning.

Katheryn Dowds, 28, Jake Handling, 27, and Josh Smith, 29, pleaded guilty to aggravated trespass at the Kingsbury oil terminal after their solicitor did not appear to advise them, according to a campaign source.

Dowds was fined £327, and Handling and Smith were fined £150 each. All were then released, only to be immediately rearrested and held again by police for breaching a high court injunction banning protests at the Kingsbury site, Just Stop Oil

Good thing it’s a very level-headed, reasonable, thoughtful, careful, fair movement for social justice. Good thing it stays strictly away from hyperbolic claims about ideological rivals being genociders. Good thing it doesn’t pretend knowing what a woman is=systematic murder of millions of people.

At this point a visible Harry Potter tattoo should be met with the same degree of revulsion as a Swastika

— Matthew Goldin (@matthewgoldin) April 17, 2022

… Read the rest

This is unbelievably obnoxious and intrusive and aggressive.

Imagine you get on a plane and you have to listen to this pic.twitter.com/RpY8d7RK4Y

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) April 16, 2022

It’s a captive “audience,” extremely tightly confined, with no escape possible. Standing up and making a lot of noise of any kind is grossly rude, and making a lot of religious noise is an outright insult.

Now Ilhan Omar is on the naughty stool because she asked what people would think if Muslims did it. Of course, in Islamist countries, Muslims do do it, but she’s not wrong to hint that no one should do it.… Read the rest

More treason in Congress.

Mike Lee wasn't mentioned a single time on CNN's State of the Union, Fox News Sunday, NBC's Meet the Press, ABC's This Week, or CBS's Face the Nation. Not one mention of new revelations about a senator scheming w/the Trump admin to end democracy on any of the major Sunday shows.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 17, 2022

The Times reports:

For weeks in late 2020, Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, cheered on President Donald J. Trump’s effort to fight his election defeat, privately offering up “a group of ready and loyal advocates who will go to bat for him.”

In text messages to Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff,

“Me me me me me make it about me talk about me make the thing you’re talking about be about me.”

And that they are broken and terrible for existing. They're not, they're women who deserve the same respect the rest of us do, simply with the inability to have children due to medical reasons. GC's parroting such talking points, only serve to hurt women further.

— PumpkinSpiceGob_Vtuber (@thweikantra) April 15, 2022

I suspect as someone who is physically/phenotypically androgynous, and who never intends to be pregnant, I may not count either.

— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) April 15, 2022

She doesn’t suspect any such thing.

The idea that GC feminists believe that wombs, having kids or femininity is what makes

Well, punk, are ya?

I’ll start. No, and I don’t want to be, and I’ve never wanted to be. (So I must be trans, right? No.)

No, I forget “daintiness” at all times. What a revolting word.

There is nothing I can wear and still be girlish, nor do I want to. I don’t wear slacks or shorts, I wear jeans or (inside) sweat pants. I don’t wear them girlishly, I just wear them.

What does “dressing for an evening date” mean? What are “mannish suits”?

I don’t think about white gloves or white collars at all.

No. I hate perfume and have no jewelry.

No. I sprawl whenever I feel like it.

No. I stride like a fucking kangaroo.… Read the rest

If you’ve been thinking “At least cactus will flourish,” think again.

[E]ven these prickly survivors may be reaching their limits as the planet grows hotter and drier over the coming decades, according to research published on Thursday. The study estimates that, by midcentury, global warming could put 60 percent of cactus species at greater risk of extinction.

There’s nothing surprising in that really. Being adapted to the climate of Arizona doesn’t mean you’re adapted to the climate of a furnace.

Most cactus species “are in some way adapted to the climates and the environments that they live in,” said Michiel Pillet, a doctoral student in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona who led the new study,

Trump issues insults and taunts in observation of Giant Rabbit Day.

NEW!

President Donald J. Trump:

“Happy Easter to all including the Radical Left Maniacs who are doing everything possible to destroy our Country. May they not succeed, but let them, nevertheless, be happy, healthy, wealthy, and well!” pic.twitter.com/Q6tJf0nThl

— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) April 17, 2022

And carrots to the Rabbit, too.… Read the rest

“Cis” man singles out feminist woman for opprobrium again.

Given how you can barely open a newspaper without reading that what cis men do is trans people's fault, I really don't think there is much danger of Janice being silenced. pic.twitter.com/wwahUlj6EP

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) April 16, 2022

Of course the headline doesn’t say “I am being silenced” – it says “women won’t be silenced.” She’s not talking about herself, she’s talking about women. Maugham wouldn’t understand.

Anyone who works in the media – and many who don't – have heard the first hand accounts of how young women are treated in those newspapers. And how their editors are either directly responsible or look the other way, because the wrongdoer

Stonewall “training” at Bristol University:

Women may not truly know they are women unless they have their chromosomes tested, Stonewall has told university staff in its latest diversity training.

Lucky lucky staff, getting trained by the best.

In a handout after the session, staff were given a series of tips for creating an inclusive environment. One stated: “Remove gendered language from key policies and support LGBT people to navigate policies which might exclude them including parental leave policies.”

Oh sure, just remove “gendered language” from everything, that’s a good idea. That way women won’t be able to talk back. Sit down, Karen!

The Stonewall handout, seen by The Telegraph, added that staff should “avoid gendered language such as girlfriend,