I didn’t know the Australian PM is an evangelical.

Scott Morrison has asked a national conference of Christian churches to help him help Australia, while revealing his belief that he and his wife, Jenny, have been called upon to do God’s work.

In video that has emerged of the prime minister speaking at the Australian Christian Churches conference on the Gold Coast last week, Morrison also revealed that he had sought a sign from God while on the 2019 election campaign trail, and that he had practised the evangelical tradition of the “laying-on of hands” while working in the role of prime minister.

He also describes the misuse of social media as the work of “the evil one”, in

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On Any Questions yesterday, starting at 33:50 minutes, a caller named Arthur asked “What is a woman?”

Jackie Baillie, Labour, starts with “I’m supportive of the Gender Recognition Act,” then says she recognizes “there are women who will identify as being a women based on their sex”

Ok let’s pause there – that’s a “recognize” too many. Women don’t “identify as being women based on their sex.” They just are women. Women are women, based on their sex. Sticking the I-word in there adds nothing but confusion.

She continues “and there are trans people whooo you know may be born as a different gender who will identify as women and I think we should demedicalize the process and enable … Read the rest

How the headline looks on the BBC front page:

Whoever is in charge of that front page is sending a signal. Nicely done.… Read the rest

The BBC solemnly reports on “Elliot” Page’s conversation with Oprah Winfrey.

Elliot Page says having transition surgery has been a “life-saving” experience.

So what the BBC is doing here is promoting the idea that getting your healthy breasts cut off can be life-saving. That is, the BBC is encouraging girls and women to think it can be good to get your healthy breasts cut off. Why is the BBC doing that?

The Canadian-born actor, 34, said having top surgery had allowed him to “feel comfortable in my body for probably the first time”.

And why is the BBC calling it “top surgery”? Why is the BBC, a grown-up institution, using baby talk for amputation of healthy breasts? There’s no … Read the rest

Someone is shocked and hurt in Halifax.

“Shocked and hurt” is how Alicia Frederick says she felt when she learned about a new book purchased by Halifax Public Libraries.

Public libraries buy a lot of books. It’s not really a worthwhile project to try to monitor their purchases for what makes you, Random Person, shocked and hurt. Libraries don’t and can’t filter their acquisition process according to what might possibly make someone feel shocked and hurt.

The library currently owns two copies of the book by Abigail Shrier, called Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. As of this writing, 21 people have it on hold. The book’s description on the library website says:

Unsuspecting parents are awakening

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The headline, for a start.

‘It is life-saving’: Elliot Page reveals happiness at having had top surgery

That is, Elliot Page claims happiness at having had her healthy breasts cut off.

It has been widely noted that Page doesn’t appear the least bit happy in her interview with Oprah Winfrey.

“I want people to know that not only has it been life-changing for me, I do believe it is life-saving and it’s the case for so many people,” the actor told Oprah Winfrey on her new show for Apple TV+.

So more and more and more girls and women should get their healthy breasts cut off. It will make them so happy.

Unless of course it doesn’t, but hey, … Read the rest

Another day another dude doing a Zoom meeting for work without bothering to put pants on.

Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of the books “Lincoln’s Melancholy” and “Powers of Two,” has resigned from his positions as editor in chief of the Believer magazine and artistic and executive director of the Black Mountain Institute.

Because of the no pants.

In a farewell letter shared with the staff, Shenk said his resignation followed “a dumb, reckless choice to disregard appropriate setting and attire for a Zoom meeting. I crossed a line that I can’t walk back over. I sorely regret the harm to you — and, by extension, to the people we serve. I’m sorry.”

The incident occurred during a

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Uh huh great, woman journalist skewers governor for signing a bill that would keep boys from playing on girls’ athletic teams.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice struggled to come up with a single example of a transgender athlete gaining an unfair advantage in sports while being grilled Friday by MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle over why he signed a bill targeting transgender athletes.  

It’s not about “targeting” anyone, and the issue is boys who get a hefty advantage by moving over to the girls’ team.

“Can you name one example of a transgender child trying to gain an unfair competitive advantage at a school there in West Virginia?” Ruhle asked Justice. 

“Well, Stephanie, I don’t have that experience exactly to myself

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Lesson: don’t mess with Maya.

The answer is no. pic.twitter.com/0kh335VOTt

— Maya Forstater (@MForstater) April 30, 2021

That’s them told.… Read the rest

Medical advice from random podcasters is not one of our best inventions.

Hugely popular US podcast host Joe Rogan has backpedalled on his comments that young, healthy people could forgo the coronavirus vaccine.

“I’m not an anti-vax person,” Rogan said. “I believe they’re safe and encourage many people to take them.”

But Rogan did not walk back his suggestion that the young and healthy do not “need” vaccines, which drew backlash from White House officials.

Why call it “backlash”? What a stupid word to use. Rogan shouldn’t be making such reckless and destructive “suggestions,” and the government is entitled to say he’s wrong and must be ignored. This isn’t a game.

Asked about Rogan’s comments, top US infectious disease expert

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The placid sense of male entitlement just takes my breath away sometimes.

https://twitter.com/kazarnowicz/status/1388153071428046849… Read the rest

Classic. It’s women’s fault when men kill men!

Update:

Dan Arel tweeted

Um, TERFS are Nazi though.

Also LOL at people calling me a misogynist for believing that trans women are women.

TERFS get trans women killed. End of story.

Feminists don’t kill men who say they are men, but feminists somehow “get” such men killed. They must be witches!

In fact when you think about it, really think about it, all women are bitches. They all make men do things. Men are pure and perfect and guiltless, but women put their witchy magic on the pure perfect men and “get” bad things done by those men.

It’s scary scary stuff. Medical science needs to hurry up with those uterus … Read the rest

Male athlete says it’s “fundamentally unfair” to have athletic teams for girls or women.

A Canadian transgender athlete says it’s “reprehensible” that some U.S. states are trying to ban trans women and girls from playing for female sports teams.

Of course he’s a male himself, and competing against women gives him a huge advantage, so that could be why he’s saying that. Just a thought.

“What they’re really doing is fighting for what one might call the non-existent rights of [non-transgender] women and girls, while treating trans girls and trans women as not real girls or women,” said Veronica Ivy, a two-time track cycling world champion.

Yes it’s our old pal Rhys McKinnon, talking about “the non-existent rights” of … Read the rest

The old “right to have access to a woman’s genitals” take.

https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1387733202983440384

How sensitive and humane to frame women as a resource men have a right to use.

https://twitter.com/wwwritingclub/status/1387861486236848135 https://twitter.com/tkingdot/status/1387866307941609475 https://twitter.com/sarahditum/status/1387780570328014854

In other news, one of the 87 Duggar kids from the “87 and counting” tv show about religious fanatics trying to break world records on how many children one woman can push out – one of those kids has been arrested.… Read the rest

But he was just joking joking joking. When Tucker Carlson scowled into the camera and told his dupes to call child protective services if they see any kids in masks, he was just JOKING.

After the Erik Wemple Blog posted a Twitter thread with updates on the states’ responses, some Carlson allies claimed we were taking all of this too seriously. “It should go without saying that no, you should not, in fact call the police or CPS on parents with kids in masks outdoors. It should also go without saying that Tucker Carlson is not, in fact, seriously telling his viewers to do that,” wrote the author of a piece on Twitchy that helpfully aggregates the sentiment.

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It’s Mary Beard’s turn to get some random policing and name-calling, it seems.

Exceptionally eminent classicist Mary Beard “spouting her nonsense”?! Honestly, just fuck off. Fuck very far off. Being allowed to be successful as a woman without ridiculous caveats lasted all of 5 minutes. Well done all! pic.twitter.com/jyjxyrKa0P

— Victoria Freeman (@v_j_freeman) April 29, 2021

What “nonsense” has Beard “spouted”? As far as I can tell, none. As far as I can tell (people have been locking accounts or deleting them altogether, so some evidence is missing) someone whined at her for followcrime, and others rushed to join the fun.

One day the ‘progressive’ left will need to have a reckoning with how their reforming zeal has resulted in

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New homophobia much like the old.

Thick and fast come the apoplectic accusations from the LGBT+ lobby against members of the authentic and historical lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) community and other gender-critical people. We are repeatedly told that we are guilty of transphobic “hate” and that our organisations are “hate groups”. Simply insisting that sex is a biological and immutable characteristic, and that the settled definition of “sex” underpins LGB and women’s rights, is even enough to get you accused of being a terrorist or a neo-Nazi sympathiser, no less.

…

We must ask ourselves, however, how much damage the LGBT+ lobby is doing to the mental health of the young LGB people who gravitate towards it, given

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This business of saying (as Index on Censorship did) that we have to “build bridges” with people who say men are women if they say they are made me think there must be a handy label for that, like “gaslighting” and “sealioning” and similar, but I couldn’t think of one. I did what any sensible person would do and asked Twitter. “Motte and bailey” is close but it leaves out the building bridges bit.

This at least names the Index on Censorship part.

Those third parties are the "flying monkeys".

— Medusa's Butter Dish (@RenterNomads) April 29, 2021

Ahhh yes. I haven’t incorporated that label into my vocabulary, and maybe it’s time I did. Wikipedia:

Flying monkeys^[1] is

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People have only been saying that trickle-down economics is crap for decades.

To be more specific, trickle-down economics is just lovely for Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk but not so great for people at the bottom of that trickle.

Still, it is surprising to see Biden get a clue. He’s been a very conservative brand of Democrat most of his career.

The US president was a young politician when the idea that cutting taxes on the well off would be good for the poor first came into vogue in the 1970s. Now he has used his first address to a joint session of Congress to call on the US’s top 1% to pay for his $1.8tn American families plan

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Index on Censorship steps up:

This week Index on Censorship took the unusual step of legally intervening in an employment appeal tribunal.  As always our focus was on the core principle of free expression and protecting free speech in law. The tribunal has now concluded and has reserved judgment – we expect to learn the result in the coming months.  Much will be discussed and written about in the coming days regarding the Maya Forstater tribunal, but for your information on what Index provided to the court please access our skeleton argument here.

Whatever the outcome of the Employment Appeal Tribunal the toxic nature of the current conversation on gender and trans rights is doing little to build

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