Originally a comment by Green Eagle on Capture.

“Gender” is a linguistic term, not a biological one. Words may have a gender; something which is far more understandable to people who speak languages like French, German or Italian, where many words have genders unrelated to the sex of the creatures they refer to. “Equus,” or “Alumnus, for example are words of the male gender, regardless of whether they refer to male or female horses or graduates. There is no such thing as an equua, and the term alumna is a construct.

Whether a person is male or female is a biological question, not a linguistic one, and is capable of being answered correctly by any minimally qualified geneticist. People … Read the rest

How not to help refugees fleeing a war on civilians:

France has accused Britain of “lacking humanity” in helping fleeing Ukrainians join their families in the UK via the French port city of Calais.

French interior minister Gerald Darmanin, in a strongly-worded letter to his British counterpart Priti Patel, urged London to set up a proper consular presence in Calais to issue visas after 150 Ukrainians were turned away and asked to obtain visas at UK consulates in Paris or Brussels.

Paris and Brussels are not across the street or around the corner, they are a hefty train journey away. These are refugees, not tourists.

The French minister, in his letter, said the UK’s response was “completely unsuitable” and

Zelensky did a Zoom call with a group of Congress people yesterday. The Congress people were told, emphatically, not to share anything about the call during the call so as not to endanger Zelensky. Two Republican senators said nah we’ll just go ahead and endanger Zelensky.

Two US senators have come under fire for sharing photos of Volodomyr Zelensky on social media after they were reportedly asked not to for the safety of the Ukrainian president.

Democratic Rep Dean Phillips slammed Republican Senators Steve Daines and Marco Rubio for their “appalling and reckless ignorance” after they each posted screen grabs from a Zoom call between Mr Zelensky and a group of US lawmakers on Saturday morning, where he had

It seems Bill Barr has written a book in which he brags about how fiercely he stood up to Trump.

In excerpts published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, President Donald Trump’s former attorney general recounts how he bravely stood up to Trump about his bogus claims of election fraud, telling him: “The fact is, we have looked at the major claims your people are making, and they are bullshit.”

The courageous Barr hit Trump with another expletive: “I’ve told you that the fraud claims are not supported. … But your legal team continues to shovel this shit out to the American people. And it is wrong.”

And another! “’Mr. President,’ I said, ‘the reason you are in this

When even George Will is harsh…

We are the sum of our choices, and Vladimir Putin has provoked some Trump poodles to make illuminating ones. Their limitless capacity for canine loyalty now encompasses the Kremlin war criminal. (The first count against Nazi defendants at Nuremberg: “Planning, preparation, initiation and waging of wars of aggression.”) For example, the vaudevillian-as-journalist Tucker Carlson, who never lapses into logic, speaks like an arrested-development adolescent: Putin has never called me a racist, so there.

J.D. Vance, groveling for Trump’s benediction (Vance covets Ohio’s Republican Senate nomination), two weeks ago said: “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine.” Apparently upon discovering that Ohio has 43,000 Ukrainian Americans, Vance underwent a conviction transplant, saying

Lessons for invaders: don’t use the elevators.

Russia agreed to a ceasefire in Mariupol and then went on shelling the evacuation corridor.

Russian forces continued to shell the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Saturday, despite agreeing to a ceasefire just hours earlier – throwing an attempted mass evacuation of civilians into chaos.

It would, wouldn’t it.

Three hours after the ceasefire was supposed to begin, at 09:00 (07:00 GMT), Mariupol authorities announced they had postponed a planned mass evacuation because of the continued bombardment.

“We ask the people in Mariupol to head for the shelter, there will be more information on the evacuation asap,” a statement said.

“Due to the fact that the Russian side is not sticking to the ceasefire and continues to shoot Mariupol

They might as well be building their new houses on the slopes of an active volcano, or on a frozen lake that melts every summer, or in the middle of a freeway.

Away from the lights and fountains of the Las Vegas Strip, bulldozers are working overtime as the suburbs of Sin City are bursting out of their seams.

Las Vegas is growing at a staggering rate. Clark county, where the city is located, is home to roughly 2.3 million people, but forecasts predict the population could go beyond 4 million by 2055.

And Las Vegas is where? In. the. desert. And the climate is doing what? Getting. hotter.

What is wrong with people?

Attracted by the lure of

The dog that didn’t bark in the night:

Donald Trump was aware long before he took the stage at the “Save America” rally on 6 January that he would not march to the Capitol to protest the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election win, according to his White House private schedule from that day.

The former president started his nearly 75-minute long speech at the Ellipse by saying he would go with the crowd to the Capitol, and then repeated that promise when he said he would walk with them down Pennsylvania Avenue towards the Capitol.

But Trump’s private schedule – released by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack in a filing on Wednesday – shows Trump

This again.

Free tickets are available for this talk now at : https://t.co/5MFdTN9F24 #WicklowLibraries #InternationalWomensDay2022 pic.twitter.com/FhqHlQ00LZ

— Wicklow Libraries (@WicklowLibs) March 3, 2022

International Women’s Day they say, but Sara Phillips is a man.

Right there – in celebration of International Women’s Day.

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2022, Wicklow County Council Library Service has invited Wicklow’s own Sara Phillips to the library for what promises to be an interesting conversation with Mary Millett from County Wicklow Partnership. Sara hails from Ashford and is a member of the National Women’s Council of Ireland and also chairperson of The Transgender Equality Network Ireland, TENI.

Sara will be chatting about a variety of topics , in particular those that affect

The Tucker Carlson-Russia-Trump-Bozo the Clown nexus continues to outdo itself in weirdness. Back in December:

“At this point, NATO exists primarily to torment Vladimir Putin,” Carlson said, “who, whatever his many faults, has no intention of invading Western Europe. Vladimir Putin does not want Belgium. He just wants to keep his western border secure.” He insisted that Putin just wanted to secure Russia’s naval base on the Crimean peninsula, which, of course, was already secure from Russia’s 2014 incursion into Ukraine.

He just wants the Sudetenland, really, it will all be fine.

He suggested that concerns about Russia were a function of lobbying from Ukrainian actors and a “hangover” from spending four years on the “Russia hoax” — Donald Trump’s

They’ve been trying to take Zelensky out and failing.

President Zelensky has survived at least three assassination attempts in the past week, The Times has learnt.

Two different outfits have been sent to kill the Ukrainian president — mercenaries of the Kremlin-backed Wagner group and Chechen special forces. Both have been thwarted by anti-war elements within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

Wagner mercenaries in Kyiv have sustained losses during their attempts and are said to have been alarmed by how accurately the Ukrainians had anticipated their moves. A source close to the group said it was “eerie” how well briefed Zelensky’s security team appeared to be.

Some Chechens tried last Saturday and were “eliminated” by Ukrainian security.

Oleksiy Danilov,

Ten days ago a fellow “trans lesbian” talked to Susan Stryker about his plans to tell Irish lesbians what’s what.

The upcoming Lesbian Lives Conference in UCC will see the internationally renowned Susan Stryker giving a keynote speech. I spoke to her in advance of the conference, and, as a trans lesbian myself, I found her insights on trans people’s role at this point in world history incredibly illuminating.

Well naturally. What could be more illuminating than a man telling a man about their “role” in telling women what to do?

We also discussed being a trans woman within the wider lesbian and academic community. “There was Simone de Beauvoir saying one is not born, but rather one becomes a

Empathetic?!!!

‘Gender has changed, is changing still, changing all of us and we in turn change it’ – A beautiful, funny and empathic keynote from @susanstryker #LesbianLives2022 pic.twitter.com/x7ujmm9Hll

— Equality Network (@LGBTIScotland) March 4, 2022

A man who accepts an invitation to give the keynote at a lesbian conference does not have a lick of empathy. A man who stands in front of room full of lesbians and pretends to be one of them does not have a lick of honesty or integrity or decency. A man who stands in front of room full of lesbians and pretends to be one of them reeks of male entitlement and ego and sense of superiority.

Of course the quislings at “Equality Network” … Read the rest

Oh whew, there’s no problem then, what a relief.

.@ShonaRobison "We must be clear: all the evidence tells us that the cause of violence against women and girls is predatory and abusive men; it is not trans people. We must not conflate the two." pic.twitter.com/vcHWozQ2PX

— Sarah Masson (@_sarahmasson) March 3, 2022

Oh but wait though. Wait a second. Back up. How do we know which is which? How do we know which “trans women” are really just predatory and abusive men disguising themselves as “trans women” to get access to vulnerable women in private spaces? How do we know???… Read the rest

The Met Police – the ones with the horrific record of abuse of women – just can’t do enough for their trans n enby ossifers.

The Met Police are reviewing their uniform policy amid concerns some officers feel obliged to wear uniforms that do not match their gender identity. Currently, the uniforms officers wear are at a manager’s discretion, meaning that some trans or non-binary officers may feel obliged to ‘come out’ to management when picking their kit.

But “coming out” as gender-special is the whole point. It’s an announcement that One is more special than everyone else. Doing it to a manager, and watching the manager anxiously grovel, must be their treat of the year.

In his interview

Ron DeSantis chastised some high school students for…clowning around? Littering? Smoking? Laughing at him? Saying “like” too many times?

No.

The Florida Republican governor approached a group of students wearing masks who were standing behind a podium at the University of South Florida, where he was scheduled for a news conference Wednesday.

“You do not have to wear those masks. I mean please take them off,” DeSantis said to, at first, polite laughter. But he wasn’t kidding around.

“Honestly, it’s not doing anything. We’ve gotta stop with this Covid theater. So if you want to wear it, fine. But this is ridiculous,” he continued.

Why do we gotta stop?

DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw defended the governor’s statements on Twitter:

Originally a comment by Omar on Puff puff puff.

Part of her wanted people to know her journey to this moment, to know what it felt like to be in a body but not be of that body.

This could be the biggest philosophical breakthrough of all time! Imagine the response from dear old Plato if he was still around. The consciousness of Lia Thomas or whatever his real name is, floats about inside his body like goldfish at constant equilibrium with the water inside its bowl; IN THE BOWL BUT NOT OF IT! Drop the bowl on the floor and smash it, and there will be the goldfish flapping about, free.

Another term for ‘consciousness’ is ‘soul’, proving … Read the rest

It’s Women’s History Month and Robin Buckallew is again observing it by writing a story a day. Today’s is about privilege and who really has it.

NEVER POOR… Read the rest