It’s the elites. That’s the problem. Not fanatical gun-worship, not psychopathic gun marketing, not copycat massacres by gun, but elites – and not your old-fashioned elites who are rich and powerful but those new elites who are elite in the sense of not agreeing with people like Ted Cruz.

Continuing where I left off –

The GOP speakers shifted blame for the latest tragedy from the availability of high-powered weapons to an array of other culprits, such as declining church attendance, physical and social media bullying, weak families, violent video games, opioid abuse, lack of mental health services, multiple points of entry at schools and unlocked doors.

The speakers also pivoted from condemning the evil of the Uvalde school

Trump, naturally, chose the Go All-in Option on the guns question at the NRA festivities yesterday. Why not after all? Clearly the proliferation of automatic weapons is being nothing but beneficial.

Former president Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), among other speakers, broadly rejected proposals for new restrictions [on guns] and called instead for more school security or mental health screenings, while issuing dark warnings of alleged Democratic plots to take weapons.

“We all know they want total gun confiscation, know that this would be a first step,” Trump told the crowd in an auditorium about 300 miles from the site of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Tex. “Once they get the first step,

They’re busy stealing the next election.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is now signaling he won’t comply with a subpoena issued by the House select committee examining Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his presidential reelection loss. The California Republican will be joined in this defiance by other colleagues who played important roles in the attempted subversion.

The same Kevin McCarthy very well may be House speaker in 2024. If Congress doesn’t revise the antiquated process that governs how Congress counts presidential electors, he could play a critical role influencing which electors get tallied, potentially swinging the outcome.

If he can, he will. I think that’s all too obvious.

“McCarthy and his allies in Congress are actively concealing the plot

Blurgh urgh urgh urgh what do words mean let’s just pretend we have no idea and never have had. The Telegraph:

Stella Creasy is clarifying her position on the word ‘woman’. “Do I think some women were born with penises? Yes”, she declares. “But they are now women and I respect that.”

What other words shall we ask people to clarify their positions on? How about “pear”? Shall we decide it means “vegetable similar to broccoli”? Or “ocean”? Can we clarify that it refers to an amount of water that could fit in a thimble? Or “night”? Should we alert the world that it means the time starting with sunrise and ending at sunset?

Zero women were born with penises. … Read the rest

John Pavlovitz talked about the cult of the gun back in 2017.

Enter the seductive cowboy fantasy of “the good guy with a gun.”

It’s the deadly lie that men have been led to believe; that the world is in grave danger, and that we’re all poised to be the steel-jawed hero—riding in, packing heat, and saving the day by gunning down the bad guys and getting the girl.

It is the perpetuation of a dangerously antiquated gender trope, where men all want to save and women all just want to be saved; that misogynistic myth sold by Hollywood, Republicans, and Bible Belt Evangelicals. This fantasy is incredibly persuasive and undeniably effective—but it is not reality. 

I think it’s not … Read the rest

Peter is telling feminists what we’re allowed to do and think again. I’m increasingly tired of it.

Nobody’s talking about “blanket bans on trans women.” That’s a dopey, prejudicial way to put it. It’s not “banning” men to have women-only spaces. Women want and need women-only spaces and we have a right to them, end of story. Trans women continue to exist even if women have women-only spaces. No one is banned.

“Trans women are not a threat” is a ludicrous claim. He doesn’t know that – he can’t know it. It’s entirely possible that some trans women are a threat, in fact it would be odd if none of them were. In any case trans women are men, … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Pliny the in Between on Celebrating.

Warning: graphic. Brutally, necessarily, truthfully graphic.

It’s the smell. That’s what forces its way into my thoughts every time there’s another mass shooting. I guess it’s part of the PTSD associated with 25 plus years of trauma surgery trying to undo extremes of violence. It’s left its mark. Iron. Metallic. If you are winning the fight, that’s what you smell. If you’re losing it shifts to an indescribable stench of corruption as cells begin to die and normal organ barriers begin to fail. In the OR you smell death well before the monitors slow and the EKG begins to widen. Still you try. Last night I couldn’t sleep because … Read the rest

What about crime and punishment? What do we do? What about Restorative Justice? Julie Bindel looks at the details:

Restorative justice (RJ) is described as an alternative to prison; it is a non-punitive response to criminal behaviour. The idea is to bring together the person who inflicted the harm (the “responsible person”, in RJ terminology) and the victim, often in the presence of community representatives. The perpetrator is supposed to accept responsibility for the harm inflicted and reach an agreement with the victim about how to make amends.

I think one problem leaps off the page at this juncture: what if the victim doesn’t want to be brought together with the responsible person? Like, suppose the crime was violent and … Read the rest

Gun company drops out of NRA convention:

The gun manufacturer that produced the AR-15-style assault rifle the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooter used to kill 19 children and two teachers has shut down its social media accounts after being linked to the massacre. It has also reportedly dropped out of the National Rifle Association’s annual convention set to be held starting Friday in Houston. 

…The firearm Ramos used is reportedly made by Georgia-based gun manufacturer Daniel Defense, authorities and the company each confirmed. 

If the company confirmed then you can drop the “reportedly.”

The arms manufacturer states on its site, “At Daniel Defense, we celebrate the liberty of our country, the enthusiasm of our customers and employees, and the

Interesting. Three people who were scheduled to perform at the Gun Jamboree have sent regrets.

Several musical performers who planned to appear at this week’s National Rifle Association convention in Houston have withdrawn out of respect for the victims of the massacre in Uvalde, 279 miles west of the typically boisterous annual gun-rights gathering.

Out of respect for the victims? But why does respect for the victims entail not performing at the National Rifle Association convention? Presumably all musical performances all over the country aren’t being canceled, are they? Why these in particular?

Could it be, could it possibly be, that it suddenly doesn’t feel altogether right and good to celebrate The Holy Gun when The Holy Gun … Read the rest

It seems the reaction to the school massacre wasn’t as swift as it might have been.

Javier Cazares, a father whose 9-year-old daughter was killed in the massacre, said that officials have been misrepresenting the response of law enforcement during the shooting at Robb Elementary.

“They said they rushed in and all that, we didn’t see that,” said Mr. Cazares, who was outside the school during the attack and heard gunshots.

He saw police officers evacuating children, but grew angry, he said, when he did not see officers enter the school immediately. Mr. Cazares wanted to rush in himself to help his daughter, Jacklyn, saying he would carry his little girl out himself, but they told him to let

And another one.

Transgender cyclists are still competing in women’s races despite British Cycling suspending the policy last month that had allowed them to race in the female category.

Suspensions are for cis people.

However, trans female cyclists are continuing to compete in the women’s category. On May 8, Maxine Yates, a transgender downhill mountain bike racer, won the women’s 19+ category in the second round of BC’s DH National Series event at Fort William, Scotland, a competition in which ranking points were available. Yates is ranked first in the senior female category on the BC website.

Despite being a man.

The rider who finished second in the race at Fort William, Jane Page, has complained to BC that

Medical sociologist writes idiotic think-piece about abortion rights for the NY Times in which she’s so busy tapping all the required Stations that she obscures whatever it is she’s trying to say. Editors should just say no to this brand of crap.

Matt Lavallee was in college when he learned his girlfriend was pregnant. “The news scared me,” he said, acknowledging that an unintended pregnancy was an even more daunting prospect for his girlfriend. “But there was no question that abortion was the best option for us.”

…

We don’t often hear abortion stories from cisgender men like Mr. Lavallee, even though they are responsible for the overwhelming majority of the world’s unplanned pregnancies, and so often benefit when an

PROBLEM SOLVED.

Totally utterly completely solved. Boom.

Cruz: Have one door… and have that one door, armed police officers at that door. If that had happened.. when that psychopath had arrived, the armed police officers could’ve taken him out… pic.twitter.com/YnOCDs9GAZ

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 25, 2022

Except. Well, just a few details.

One, you can’t have just one door for every school.

Two, you can’t have two armed cops on duty at all times at every school.

Three, what are they supposed to do, “take out” everyone who approaches the door?

Other than that, PROBLEM TOTALLY SOLVED.

Updating to add a fourth tiny problem with Cruz’s otherwise brilliant plan:

NPR tells us:

Approximately 40 minutes to an hour passed

Ok it’s no fun to be a child blown to smithereens by a teenage boy with an assault rifle, but what about men who call themselves women? They’re the ones who really have a tough time.

Easier pic.twitter.com/UMac4299wi

— Serious trans vibes Comics (@AssignedMale) May 25, 2022

… Read the rest

Norway is so “progressive” it’s reactionary.

A Norwegian feminist could be facing up to three years in prison for allegedly “hateful” tweets directed at a male who claims to be a lesbian woman.

Christina Ellingsen, a representative of feminist organization Women’s Declaration International (WDI) is being investigated under hate crime charges for tweets she made between February 2021 and January 2022.

The tweets in question were replies directed at Christine Marie Jentoft, a representative of trans activist group Foreningen FRI. Jentoft is a male who identifies as a lesbian woman.

Ellingsen’s charges are centered around her questioning why FRI promoted the belief that men could be lesbians. While police are still investigating, if she is found guilty, Ellingsen

India Willoughby angrily asks what does Martina Navratilova know about sports. That’s a good look.

What does Martina know about it? And why do you think ancient tennis players and old swimmers from the 70s and 80s know ANYTHING about trans – or are they the better informed than actual sports scientists and doctors? Populist mob-inciting crap.

— India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) May 24, 2022

We don’t need to know anything about trans to say that men don’t get to invade women’s sports. The issue isn’t being trans, it’s being male. If you’re male, get out of women’s sports. Simple.… Read the rest

I’d be out of there at the speed of light.

Imagine how traumatizing it’d be for a child to survive a school shooting (or for the parent of a child who didn’t) — only to go to Target and see this. pic.twitter.com/OHlGZzN546

— Lakota Man (@LakotaMan1) May 25, 2022

… Read the rest

It’s so touching when a guy gets to combine his fetish with his job. Like for instance

Dr Jonathan Harrow MD, a man with two PhDs, who’s lectured on health at universities and had senior medical jobs all over the world and who mostly, it seems, presents and identifies as a man.

…

However, despite being so qualified in medicine, a few weeks ago he started a community job as a nurse practitioner. The role involves wearing a nurse’s uniform. He attended the interview dressed in women’s clothing…Since starting the job there’s been a common theme in his online posts – he wants people to validate his choice of wearing a nurse’s uniform, and alludes to the fact that

God? Why God of all people? He’s the biggest mass murderer of all time.

As for good moral values, MTG wouldn’t know them if they bit her on the ass. They start with respect for others, and that’s not her style at all.… Read the rest