All entries by this author

In a frank and open manner

Apr 20th, 2022 9:44 am | By

The story of the groomers and their sex show for “children as young as 5” is being framed in the non-conservative press as a matter of threats and abuse against the organizers as opposed to a matter of grooming.

The Guardian for instance:

Sex education theatre show for children cancelled after ‘violent threats’

The Family Sex Show organisers receive abuse over UK production aimed at children as young as five

A theatre show that promised to reimagine sex education by discussing the issue in a frank and open manner with audience members as young as five years old has been cancelled after “violent threats” were made against its organisers.

But small children don’t need “sex education” apart from a few … Read the rest



Girlguiding is a home for trans people

Apr 20th, 2022 8:31 am | By

Girlguiding UK issues a statement:

We have been involved in a legal case with a former volunteer since 2018 and we have now reached a settlement. Please find our statement below.

Girlguiding’s full statement regarding its legal case with Katie Alcock:

Girlguiding celebrates the ever-growing diversity of its membership. We are committed to balancing the views, needs and wants of all of our members in a complex and changing world. It’s important that we do this in a thoughtful and respectful way, reflecting our volunteer code of conduct. So we have a diversity and inclusion strategic plan which underpins our commitment to inclusion.

Define diversity. Define inclusion.

Diversity meaning girls from all backgrounds, excellent, keep doing that. Diversity meaning … Read the rest



Apprentice judge

Apr 19th, 2022 5:37 pm | By

Oh, great. Who is the judge who struck down the mask mandate? A Trump appointee, age 35, rated unqualified.

US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle has been serving as a federal judge in Florida for more than a year. Notably, the Senate vote confirming her to the lifetime appointment came in mid-November 2020, after the presidential election. She had been given a “not qualified” rating by the American Bar Association, based on her limited amount of experience post-law school.

Terrific! And she’s risking people’s health and lives, especially bus drivers, for a childish and stupid idea of freedomfreedomfreedom, meaning I can do whatever I want to and other people don’t matter.… Read the rest



Whatever we want

Apr 19th, 2022 4:58 pm | By

Activist asks: Why can’t I just do whatever I want to? Why????

Columnist Leanne Wood in The National [Wales]:

“Being trans in the UK is fucking agony right now.”

My friend’s words last week following publication of guidance for separate and single-sex service providers by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. She goes on: “So now the EHRC want to help people exclude me from taking a piss in a bathroom that I’m comfortable in”.

As if that were the only possible criterion.

Here’s the thing: the fact that he’s comfortable in the women’s toilets doesn’t mean that anyone else is comfortable in the women’s toilets while he’s in them. It’s not just automatic or obvious that his comfort … Read the rest



Or perhaps not

Apr 19th, 2022 11:46 am | By

The BBC seems to be nostalgic for the Jimmy Savile days.

A sex education theatre show aimed at children has been cancelled after the venue said it had received “unprecedented threats and abuse”.

Is sex education really something you want to do in a theater?

The Family Sex Show, featuring topics such as consent, pleasure and queerness, was due to be performed at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory in May.

Wtf is “queerness”? And who on earth wants some random theater company “educating” children about it?

The show also explored topics such as non-sexual nudity and gender and was aimed at children as young as five.

Who wants to take children age 5 to a sex show at a theater? Besides groomers?… Read the rest



The vituperation is misplaced

Apr 19th, 2022 11:16 am | By

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

Read the rest


The peace did not last long

Apr 19th, 2022 10:38 am | By

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

Read the rest


Libs of what now?

Apr 19th, 2022 9:50 am | By

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



Please be assured

Apr 19th, 2022 8:14 am | By

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:

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



Why isn’t she doing something about it?

Apr 18th, 2022 5:25 pm | By

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

Read the rest


From Greenwich Hill

Apr 18th, 2022 3:54 pm | By

Via Old London Photographs:

Absolutely hideous.… Read the rest



Now it’s autism denial

Apr 18th, 2022 3:29 pm | By

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.

Read the rest



Clearly concerned

Apr 18th, 2022 11:55 am | By

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

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Next time try 300,000 feet in the air

Apr 18th, 2022 10:59 am | By

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



Penalty

Apr 18th, 2022 10:48 am | By

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

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No protests at the oil terminal

Apr 18th, 2022 9:24 am | By

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

Read the rest


Harry Potter=Treblinka

Apr 18th, 2022 7:22 am | By

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.

Read the rest



Handcuff him to his seat

Apr 18th, 2022 6:39 am | By

This is unbelievably obnoxious and intrusive and aggressive.

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



Mr. Lee was chagrined

Apr 17th, 2022 4:37 pm | By

More treason in Congress.

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,

Read the rest


Reverse victim and offender

Apr 17th, 2022 3:59 pm | By

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

She doesn’t suspect any such thing.

Read the rest