Helen Dale explains why so many people need self-help books: because they weren’t taught or didn’t learn enough growing up. The piece as a whole isn’t among her best work, because there’s way too much self-conscious meta, too many clauses commenting on previous clauses, too much performance, but the final full paragraph is unclotted and So True.

If you are emotionally devastated by the leftward lean of science fiction to the point of launching a campaign to “take back” the genre; if the moral struggle that gets you out of bed each morning is purging racism from young adult fantasy novels; if you feel besieged by the political predilections of self-declared gamers (or betrayed by the politics of game reviewers);

The QC does it again.

Unspeakably awful. Imagine being headteacher of a school in which a trans boy commits suicide because of transphobic bullying. And then signalling in your statement that the bullying was fine. https://t.co/eRBwmFMpVS

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) February 9, 2022

It’s considered not just bad form but very dangerous to make claims about suicide like that – dogmatic assertions of a single cause.

I send my love to that boy's family. I have spoken to so many like his. All in despair, desperate to protect their children from what the country is becoming, cheered on by our media and facilitated by the @EHRC.

— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) February 9, 2022

One could ask if people like … Read the rest

Fox News is selling the anti-vax truckers in Ottawa as freedom fighters. Of course it is.

Fox News’ effort to discourage its viewers from vaccinating themselves against COVID-19 has gone international. The network’s stars have in recent weeks fixated on our neighbor to the north, regaling their audiences with fawning coverage of Canadian truckers protesting their country’s COVID-19 vaccine requirements – and encouraging the development of similar activism in the U.S.

It still seems like a very weird flag to fly. Join us, we’re the ones in favor of deadly pandemics! If we’d had our way there would be no polio vax, no measles vax, no smallpox vax, and your kids or your friends or you could get a … Read the rest

Those cats are safe from Zouma.

Animal charity the RSPCA has taken West Ham defender Kurt Zouma’s pet cats away after videos emerged on social media of him kicking and slapping one of them.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is liaising with Essex Police about the incident.

“The two cats are now in RSPCA care,” said a charity spokesperson.

The Premier League club say they have fined Zouma “the maximum amount possible” and the fee will be donated to animal welfare charities.

In addition, German sportswear firm Adidas has ended its deal with the 27-year-old.

I hope the cats get a vastly kinder human for their next home.… Read the rest

Gotta keep the women out somehow.

The disqualification of five ski jumpers at the Winter Olympics because of the suits they wore didn’t just result in an unexpected podium for the inaugural mixed team event. The abrupt ouster of those participants — all women — also resulted in howls of protest and outrage directed at the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Oh I don’t know, howls of protest and outrage sound awfully manly. I expect it was more whining.

“They destroyed women’s ski jumping,” said Germany’s Katharina Althaus.

Althaus, who helped Germany win the mixed team event three times at the ski jumping world championships, was among the women disqualified on Monday when FIS ruled that their suits were “too

A letter from Amnesty UK:

Yes, I emailed amnesty UK a while back re the Amnesty Ireland letter. This is their reply pic.twitter.com/kA5SMhZL5q

— Ellie Scott (@KodaScott1) February 9, 2022

It’s funny, in a way, that Nscribble first says that AmnestyUK stands against “those spreading hate” and then immediately mentions misleading and confusing people as a common tactic against their human rights campaigns. Poor befuddled Nscribble doesn’t seem to grasp that accusing gender critical feminists of “spreading hate” is itself misleading and confusing, or to put it more crisply, a lie.

Then Nscribble accuses the gender critical feminist side of “spreading vitriol or misinformation,” which is also misleading and confusing, not to mention vituperative and unfair. Then Nscribble brushes aside … Read the rest

The ACLU yesterday, UN Women today.

Harriet Tubman
Tarana Burke
Oprah Winfrey
Rosa Parks
Wangari Maathai
Maya Angelou
Janelle Monáe
Angela Davis
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Laverne Cox
Beyoncé
Serena Williams
Wilma Rudolph
Marsha P. Johnson
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Who are women that inspire you this #BlackHistoryMonth?

— UN Women (@UN_Women) February 9, 2022

Laverne Cox is a man who calls himself a woman. Marsha Johnson was a drag queen who did not call himself a woman. Here’s a list of 15 women that includes 2 men; enjoy!… Read the rest

An ACLU promo on Facebook did what it’s supposed to do and got me to click the ACLU link and read and then to look for more. The second item is Ban Forced Pregnancy.

As the Supreme Court appears prepared to gut or overturn Roe v. Wade, the threat to our abortion rights has never been closer to becoming reality. Already, roughly half of all states are poised to ban abortion, and politicians could even push to ban abortion nationwide if they have the opportunity. As a result, people across the country could be forced to remain pregnant against their will, losing control over their own bodies and futures.

People! Actual people! I used to think it was … Read the rest

How much bigger than a cat is a large football player?

Kurt Zouma is 6’3″ and 209 lbs/94.8 kg. An average cat is 8 to 10 lb, and only a few inches high. Not exactly a fair fight.

Police have opened inquiries into a video that shows West Ham’s Kurt Zouma kicking and slapping a cat. They are planning a joint investigation with the RSPCA, which has described the footage as “very upsetting”.

Zouma has now apologized. Because what, he thought it was ok to kick and smack an animal a small fraction of his size until people got mad at him?… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Freemage on Even dangerous ideas.

Above and beyond the offensiveness of the position, it’s a crap job of philosophy. I read the article in Daily Nous, and it contained a fairly extensive breakdown of Kershnar’s position, which while more nuanced than the clips being touted by the right wing social media ring, are still utter shite.

He has two prongs to his discussion–he says that sex with minors should be illegal if it is harmful or against their will, but then posits that since it isn’t always harmful or against the minor’s will, there might be cases where it shouldn’t be illegal.

This, frankly, shows a grotesque ignorance of both human psychological development AND legal … Read the rest

Eric Alterman in the Nation on Todd Gitlin:

Todd was no less devoted to activism and organizing than he was to scholarship. This was harder than it looks. To be an honest intellectual, as I once heard Susan Sontag—another friend and fan of Todd’s—say, is to make distinctions. To be a successful activist, however, requires the elision of such distinctions in the name of movement unity. By the time he died in early February at 79, Todd was the veteran of more movements than most of us can remember hearing of. He spoke at rallies, in classrooms, at dinners, and cocktail parties, just as he published in scholarly sociological publications, on op-ed pages and obscure political websites, in underground

No sooner do I upbraid one collection of strategically vague claims than I find myself reading another.

Louis Theroux has compared pornography to junk food and argued that sex work is a valid occupation in the modern world.

The film-maker returns to BBC2 on Sunday with Forbidden America, a three-part series that explores the adult entertainment industry as it grapples with its own MeToo movement.

Sigh. “Sex work” is feelgood for selling access to one’s body to strangers. “The adult entertainment industry” is feelgood for porn, including violent porn. If you’re going to talk about it, talk about it; don’t pretty it up.

Theroux, 51, told Radio Times that he has watched pornography for the sake of expediency.

Another cancellation?

Philosopher Stephen Kershnar of the State University of New York at Fredonia is barred from campus and teaching, pending an investigation into his recent comments about whether “adult-child sex” is always wrong.

A number of philosophers and free speech advocates have jumped to Kershnar’s defense, arguing that his words have been taken out of context and that academic freedom means nothing if it doesn’t protect even dangerous ideas. Yet other academics believe Kershnar’s comments are troubling enough to make his more than an open-and-shut academic freedom case.

What about this idea that “academic freedom means nothing if it doesn’t protect even dangerous ideas”? All dangerous ideas? No matter how dangerous? What about the “idea” that genocide is good? … Read the rest

Turns out Trump stole a bunch of federal property when he skulked back to Mar a Lago.

The National Archives and Records Administration last month retrieved 15 boxes of documents and other items from former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence because the material should have been turned over to the agency when he left the White House, Archives officials said Monday.

That is, because the material wasn’t his to take, that is, he stole it.

Trump advisers deny any nefarious intent and said the boxes contained mementos, gifts, letters from world leaders and other correspondence. The items included correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which Trump once described as “love letters,” as well as a letter left for

A rebuke:

The Today programme presenter Justin Webb has been partially rebuked by the BBC after he suggested students were lying when they accused a university professor of transphobia.

Introducing Radio 4’s newspaper review last October, Webb said: “And quite a lot of coverage still of Kathleen Stock, the academic from Sussex University who’s been abused by students who accuse her, falsely, of transphobia. She says her union has now effectively ended her career. It’s published a statement of support, not for her but for those who are abusing her.”

Four listeners complained to the BBC that Webb’s use of “falsely” was inaccurate and betrayed a personal opinion. Three also complained of inaccuracy and apparent bias in describing the

It’s all about the dress. Literally all.

yeah dad, how do you know pic.twitter.com/ZZqfMXfAFQ

— Serious trans vibes Comics (@AssignedMale) February 8, 2022

… Read the rest

“Science News” is kidding about the “Science” part.

The coronavirus is a danger to babies and pregnant people, and the vaccines are safe, data show

Good science communication is as clear and unambiguous as possible. Pregnancy is not a universal human experience.

We get a story about a pregnant she who got the vax and then

Others who’ve been pregnant during the pandemic haven’t been so sure. Cumulatively, only 42.6 percent of pregnant people ages 18 to 49 have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the United States as of January 15, before or during their pregnancies.

The campaign to erase women from public discourse continues even in science journalism.

Yet unlike when Yohay rolled up her sleeve almost

Trump may have put himself in worse jeopardy.

Donald Trump’s incendiary call at a Texas rally for his backers to ready massive protests against “radical, vicious, racist prosecutors” could constitute obstruction of justice or other crimes and backfire legally on Trump, say former federal prosecutors.

…

Trump’s rant that his followers should launch the “biggest protests” ever in three cities should prosecutors “do anything wrong or illegal” by criminally charging him for his efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, or for business tax fraud, came at a 30 January rally in Texas where he repeated falsehoods that the election was rigged.

Legal experts were astonished at Trump’s strong hints that if he runs and wins a second term in

This garbage again. Boys are to be ambitious and strong, girls are to be humble and kind. It might as well be shirts marketed to slave-owners and slaves respectively.

A bestselling author has criticised Primark over a “sexist” children’s clothing line that encourages girls to be “grateful”, “humble” and “always perfect” while telling boys to be more assertive.

Kate Long, a teacher and novelist, condemned the “hugely sexist messaging” she found emblazoned on many of the retailer’s clothes for children. On a visit to a Primark in Chester, Long found tops for girls that had printed on them phrases such as: “Be kind”, “Kindness always wins”, “Grateful, humble and optimistic” and “Be good, do good”.

The messages displayed on

This is good.… Read the rest