And yet another follow-up to the story – Jon Stewart says with much emphasis that he’s not calling Rowling anti-Semitic and that Newsweek is full of shit for saying he is.

Newsweek et al, may eat my ass. pic.twitter.com/eRoYYeNRi1

— Jon Stewart (@jonstewart) January 5, 2022

That’s roughly where I am, except that I’m much less keen on Harry Potter, precisely because of the crude stereotypes and Manicheanism. … Read the rest

More on that theme.

In total fairness, goblin mythology as antisemitic tropes predates all of us, including JK Rowling. But across Harry Potter novels, JK uses her freedom to reinvent almost anything. But as Jon Stewart points out, the antisemitic tropes maintained.

— Rafael Shimunov (@rafaelshimunov) January 3, 2022

This is what it looks like to me – not that she did it deliberately, but that she drew on tropes without thinking about them. She didn’t have a subtle mind when she wrote the first Potter book; I’ve been surprised by the quality of her writing on the trans ideology wars.

I’m not overjoyed about saying this but it’s no good ignoring it or hiding it.… Read the rest

There’s a new front in the war on Rowling.

Jon Stewart has accused JK Rowling of antisemitism for her depiction of goblins in the wizarding world of Harry Potter.

A recent episode of the late-night show host’s podcast, The Problem with Jon Stewart, has begun making headlines for his takedown of the Gringotts Bank goblins, which he believes are depicted as Jewish “caricatures” in the series.

Stewart’s argument – that Rowling perpetuates anti-Jew stereotypes in Harry Potter – was based on the similarities between the books’ goblin creatures and an illustration from an antisemitic text, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, published in 1903.

Now you could ask if there’s any reason to think she was … Read the rest

Stephen Marche tells us it’s not if but when – the US is going to be dealing with a second civil war. One reason is to do with the people who go into policing and security.

The right is preparing for a breakdown of law and order, but they are also overtaking the forces of law and order. Hard right organizations have now infiltrated so many police forces – the connections number in the hundreds – that they have become unreliable allies in the struggle against domestic terrorism.

Michael German, a former FBI agent who worked undercover against domestic terrorists during the 1990s, knows that the white power sympathies within police departments hamper domestic terrorism cases. “The 2015 FBI

… Read the rest

Andreia Nobre and Anna Slatz at 4w tell us:

The Brazilian edition of Marie Claire magazine has named a trans-identified male convicted of pimping and accused of facilitating child sexual exploitation as one of the country’s top inspirational women’s rights activists.

A pimp. I feel inspired already.

While the list profiles brave female advocates such as Joênia Wapixana – the first Indigenous woman in Brazil to become a lawyer – and Maria da Penha – an abuse survivor who fought to increase legal penalties for domestic violence – one name stands out.

Indianara Siqueira, a biological male prostitute who identifies as a woman, was featured on the list as the magazine’s 6th pick.

Between 2007 and 2010, Siqueira served

… Read the rest

Officially celibate religious boss says it’s selfish not to have children.

The Pope’s comments came as he was discussing parenthood during a general audience at the Vatican in Rome.

Hey if you want to know about parenthood, who better to ask than a prelate whose religion forbids him to be a parent?

“Today … we see a form of selfishness,” he told the audience. “We see that some people do not want to have a child.”

That’s not selfish though. It’s not as if there’s a child sitting there, wanting to be had. What he means by having a child is actually making a child where no child was before. It’s not selfish not to do that. It’s particularly … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Michael Haubrich on Belatedly hearing the voices.

There are a great many issues that can never be fixed when it comes to indigenous poeple in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Obviously the bells can’t be unrung, no matter how many land trusts are bought up and donated to tribal governments. The economies of the people before us have been disrupted, and they long ago began adapting to the new ways.

But what we can do is learn and understand who they were and who they are. The idea that indigenous people were savages that we civilized is not only patronizing, it is wrong. There were some advanced civilzations that waxed and waned over … Read the rest

“Well then I just won’t hold a press conference, so there. That’ll show them. They’ll be sorry.”

Former President Donald Trump has canceled a press conference at Mar-a-Lago scheduled for Jan. 6, the one-year anniversary of his supporters’ insurrection. Trump now says he will discuss the Capitol riot during a rally in Arizona on Jan. 15 instead. The press conference, he said in a statement, was canceled over the work of the House Select Committee investigating the violent mob’s attack. “In light of the total bias and dishonesty of the January 6th Unselect Committee of Democrats, two failed Republicans, and the Fake News Media, I am canceling the January 6th Press Conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, and instead will

… Read the rest

They want to ask Sean Hannity some questions.

The 6 January committee is seeking information from Fox News’s Sean Hannity, the group’s chair Bennie Thompson and vice-chair Liz Cheney have announced.

In a letter to Hannity, they wrote:

The Select Committee now has information in its possession, as outlined in part below, indicating that you had advance knowledge regarding President Trump’s and his legal team’s planning for January 6th. It also appears that you were expressing concerns and providing advice to the President and certain White House staff regarding that planning. You also had relevant communications while the riot was underway, and in the days thereafter. These communications make you a fact witness in our investigation.

The House select

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Pliny on Risks.

As a retired surgeon I can offer a couple of thoughts. When I was teaching residents I used to tell them that we didn’t have a healthcare system but rather a methodology for treating middle-aged white guys. Much of the medical literature of my formative years described signs in symptoms in men predominantly. One of my proudest moments was when an AI system I was developing identified a variant presentation of a deadly condition in a woman because it recognized the significance of sex and ethnicity in disease and injury presentation.

I also told the residents that if men had to carry a fetus to term our species would be long extinct. … Read the rest

One of these is not like the others.

https://twitter.com/DrProudman/status/1478409387773513728

She’s a barrister, who specializes in women’s rights, including FGM cases, so she can’t actually be stupid, but…come on. Being literally [the thing that makes you not-privileged in the first place] can’t possibly be a form of privilege! Being literally Black as opposed to being another Rachel Dolezal is not a form of privilege. Obviously. Everybody knows this…except, suddenly, when it’s women. Then somehow everything becomes its own opposite and we rapidly lose track of where we are. Is that the sky over there, or is it the water?

Rich women have privilege compared to poor women, for sure. Able-bodied women over disabled women, same again. Education, location, health, … Read the rest

This is startling:

Women who are operated on by a male surgeon are much more likely to die, experience complications and be readmitted to hospital than when a woman performs the procedure, research reveals.

Women are 15% more liable to suffer a bad outcome, and 32% more likely to die, when a man rather than a woman carries out the surgery, according to a study of 1.3 million patients.

Yikes. I wonder what would even explain that.

The findings have sparked a debate about the fact that surgery in the UK remains a hugely male-dominated area of medicine and claims that “implicit sex biases” among male surgeons may help explain why women are at such greater risk when

… Read the rest

From Reporters Without Borders:

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appalled by the suspended prison sentences passed yesterday on two Nigerien journalists who published an international report about drug trafficking and corruption in Niger. These totally unjustified sentences send a shocking signal about the state of justice and the fight against corruption in this country, RSF says.

In a terrible start to the year for journalists in Niger, L’Événement news website editor Moussa Aksar was given a two-month suspended jail sentence and freelance reporter Samira Sabou got a one-month suspended jail sentence for publishing a report by the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) in May.

Describing Niger as a “nerve centre” of regional drug trafficking, the GI-TOC

… Read the rest

What petty childish performative bullshit.

A secondary school specialising in performing arts has quietly cancelled Harry Potter author JK Rowling – replacing her as a house name over her ‘comments and viewpoints surrounding trans people’.

The Boswells School in Chelmsford, Essex, had honoured the writer for one of its in-school groups, which had also been labelled with the quality of ‘self-discipline’.

But it emerged today she had been replaced over the summer with Olympic hero Dame Kelly Holmes.

The school had announced plans to review Rowling’s name in July after ‘requests from students and staff’. 

…

The school’s issues with Rowling, 56, were laid bare in a newsletter seen by MailOnline, which featured an image of the house logo

… Read the rest

La lutte continue.

Letter 8. Losing the will to live. https://t.co/btZff8QPxm

— Andy (@lecanardnoir) January 4, 2022

So I read the other guy’s 6 and 7 so that I’d know what Andy was replying to. I became very tired when I got to this bit:

In my first letter, I gave a definition of gender that highlights that it is a complex construction involving a wide range of inputs and outputs, and that we are still actively involved in the process of understanding how those factors interact.

No it isn’t complex, except in the sense that it’s become fashionable to misunderstand it and try to make a personality out of it.

Andy’s response to that part:

I am not going

… Read the rest

Yet another guy cheerily giving away women’s rights.

https://twitter.com/roderickgraham/status/1477752118404595718

He’d rather destroy women’s sports than “erase” trans people (by which he means not allow men to compete against women). Easy for him, it’s not his ability to compete fairly in a sport that’s being waved away.

https://twitter.com/radicalhag/status/1477989506011869185

He would rather erase women. So many of them would. It’s astounding.

Jess DeWahls sees it too.

https://twitter.com/JessDeWahls/status/1478136391565520897… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Connections found.

“The idea that history stands still is nonsense because you keep finding new things.”

It’s not just a matter of things being “found” or “discovered.” It’s that new information is being disclosed or officially acknowledged, instead of being hidden, or swept under the rug. It completes the story, telling it more fully and honestly.

On this side of the Atlantic, the official acknowledgement of the foundations of Canada and the United States in genocide, and the disposession of the Original inhabitants, along with the importation of kidnapped, enslaved Africans, is a work in progress.* It’s not that this was ever really secret (certainly not to those on the … Read the rest

We keep seeing them, men breezily giving away women’s rights. There’s an endless supply of such men.

A blanket ban is insane. Young trans girls are indistinguishable from their non-trans friends.

Feels like this country is *uniquely in the world* sliding backwards on trans rights.https://t.co/qSyAn8JvPy

— Tom Harwood (@tomhfh) January 3, 2022

Yes, how dare girls’ schools continue to be girls’ schools. Never mind the fact that girls flourish in girls’ schools – add some boys to the mix anyway, because Tom Harwood is fine with it.

No, actually the “question at the heart of this debate” is, why do YOU (essentially just a rich person with opinions) merit being listened to as though you’re an expert here? https://t.co/f6UKe9gcTj

… Read the rest

Why is Devin Nunes walking? To take up an awesome opportunity to run a new Media Thingy invented by Donald Trump! (Actually because redistricting has made it hard for him to get re-elected.) Who is better at inventing awesome new media thingies than Donald Trump??? He’s invented about six of them since he lost the election, and they’re all so successful that they make Twitter and Facebook look like the local coffee shop’s noticeboard.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) officially resigned from Congress on Monday to become the CEO of ex-President Donald Trump’s new media venture, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG).

…

The California Republican’s plans for resignation were revealed in early December. Trump claimed in a statement at the

… Read the rest

Devin Nunes has resigned.

NBC News: Devin Nunes has officially resigned from Congress. @NBCNews

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 3, 2022

Devin Nunes is no longer in Congress. Marjorie Taylor Greene is no longer on Twitter… 2022 is off to a good start.

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) January 3, 2022

Devin Nunes resignation letter is read on the floor of the House today, taking effect at 11:59 PM. Good riddance. pic.twitter.com/cAN5oY6cbe

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 3, 2022

Buh-bye.… Read the rest