Originally a comment by Papito on The unbridled pursuit of personal appetites.

Barr is, of course, historically ignorant. Our country was explicitly founded without a state religion, and declared by our founding fathers not to be a Christian nation. God was literally voted out of the Constitution.

Several of our founding fathers, for example Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin,Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, John Adams, and George Washington, were more philosophical Deists, or outright atheists, than Christians.

Let’s see what Washington had to say on the matter:

The blessed Religion revealed in the word of will remain an eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institutions may be abused by human depravity; and that

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This guy continues to fascinate me in his cold-blooded outrageousness.

Me: debates gender crits
Gender crit intelligent professionals: why won’t you debate us, you @&nt, you &%fg *cue pile-on*

— Simon Cox (@SimonFRCox) November 29, 2020

One person called him a “twunt” – just one, just one time. He says it’s all of us, and when challenged, refuses to admit.

Abuse and threats are deliberate gender-crit strategies. I publicised it the people who haven’t yet worked out how dishonest is the gender-crit claim that reluctance to debate them is because of the quality of their arguments.

— Simon Cox (@SimonFRCox) November 29, 2020

I don’t love this “gender-crit” label either.

https://twitter.com/radicalhag/status/1333313882627207168

It is my statement. I don’t think it’s unjust.

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Robert Reich points out that Biden’s “normality” compared to Trump is a relief but not enough.

Normal led to Trump. Normal led to the coronavirus.

Normal is four decades of stagnant wages and widening inequality when almost all economic gains went to the top. Normal is 40 years of shredded safety nets, and the most expensive but least adequate healthcare system in the modern world.

Normal is also growing corruption of politics by big money – an economic system rigged by and for the wealthy.

Normal is worsening police brutality.

Normal is climate change now verging on catastrophe.

Normal is a GOP that for years has been actively suppressing minority votes and embracing white supremacists. Normal is a Democratic party

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The BBC has a prominently placed news item about an attack on Laverne Cox:

Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox has said “it’s not safe if you’re a trans person” after being caught up in a transphobic attack in Los Angeles.

Cox posted a 10-minute Instagram video explaining she had been walking with a friend in a park on Sunday when a man “aggressively” asked for the time.

He then proceeded to ask the friend if Cox was a “guy or girl?”

The man then physically attacked her friend, according to the star, who said she was “still in shock”.

“The guy is like hitting my friend, and then my friend is going toward him,” said Cox.

“I

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I wrote a thing about William Barr’s hypocritical pretense to care about morality while lying and cheating to help the most immoral human slug on the planet do whatever he wants.

He unloaded his deep wisdom at the Catholic college we Yanks call Noder Daym last year, including this inspiring gem:

On the other hand, unless you have some effective restraint, you end up with something equally dangerous – licentiousness – the unbridled pursuit of personal appetites at the expense of the common good. This is just another form of tyranny – where the individual is enslaved by his appetites, and the possibility of any healthy community life crumbles.

This from a guy who enables Donald Trump. You’d laugh if … Read the rest

The gender wars have been hot today. Most of the heat has come from…male barristers calling women names and accusing them of horrors. This guy in particular:

Maya, you belittle the abuse directed at me to help legitimise abuse of others.

They may not be an old white male barrister who needn’t fear for his livelihood, but young women without that.

You’re contemptible.

Gender crit lionising of you speaks to the thuggery of your cult

— Simon Cox (@SimonFRCox) November 29, 2020

Quite a contrast, isn’t it. Maya’s critical of Simon Cox, but she doesn’t call him names. He calls her, and all of us, names.

Jolyon Maugham QC has been at it too, and he, notoriously, blocks everyone who … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Omar on Milk, eggs, and a hug from the god.

God is held to be omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient: everywhere, all-powerful and all-knowing. If you ask me, that trilogy is actually a bit of a swamp that God has created for himself and suddenly found himself in, and with consequences. If those consequences were unexpected, then we can forgive him: he is only human (or a human creation) after all. But if those consequences were expected, then unfortunately, God only has himself to blame.

God’s omniscience means not only that he knows your thoughts, but being omniscient, he knows them before you know them yourself. That means also, that God knows exactly what any given … Read the rest

Wait what? I missed this one. Too much trump-watching no doubt.

Handball Australia seeks to improve LGBTQI+ inclusion policy. We acknowledge at the Asian Championships in November 2018 a request was made of Hannah Mouncey which in hindsight was inappropriate and this caused Hannah distress. anger and to feel isolated. https://t.co/D6zvBdKD6T

— Handball Australia (@AusHandball) September 28, 2020

Outsports sets the scene:

Hannah Mouncey is an athlete of unique distinction. She’s been part of a men’s national team that qualified for the World Championships, and she has also done it with her country’s women’s team.

Not many athletes — if any — can make that claim.

Well, no, because most male athletes wouldn’t consider it fair or sporting – … Read the rest

Laurence Tribe and Michael Dorf write about the Supreme Court ruling that puts “religious freedom” ahead of public health:

The Roman Catholic Diocese ruling is also far-reaching in its substance. The unsigned majority opinion decries what it deems discrimination against religion because worship services were subject to capacity limits while some essential business were not. Likewise, Justice Neil Gorsuch complains in a concurrence that under some circumstances, New Yorkers in a hot zone were permitted to crowd into a liquor store or a bike shop but not a church, synagogue or mosque. Justice Brett Kavanaugh registers the same complaint about grocery stores and pet shops.

Those comparisons are inapt. Government discriminates illicitly when it fails to treat like cases alike.

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A historic first for Argentina! A man is allowed to join a women’s football team. Celebrate!

Mara Gomez is set to become the first trans woman to play in Argentina, after the AFA confirmed her registration to play for Villa San Carlos.

Gomez will make history by taking her place in the Women’s first division in Argentina, and is likely to make her debut against Lanus on December 5th.

…

On her social media post Gomez said, “Today I am officially a player of the highest category of Argentine soccer.

“The road was long, there were many obstacles, many fears and sorrows. That which one day made me think that I would not be anyone, that I would never

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More on (and from) Colm O’Gorman.

Francis, did you pause for one moment to consider how this very particular accusation might impact to me as a person? Given my history? To be accused of being "a new priest, same as the old priests"?

— Colm O'Gorman (@Colmogorman) November 27, 2020

Did Colm O’Gorman pause for one minute to consider how that open letter might have an impact on women as people? Given our history? To be told we shouldn’t have legitimate representation?

https://twitter.com/wwwritingclub/status/1332812764889436161 https://twitter.com/huskydp/status/1332746815578497035 https://twitter.com/HeidiK2018/status/1332752776225558530… Read the rest

Glinner has helpful background on Amnesty Ireland and its move to shun Irish women who don’t obey the Gender Priests.

A few years ago, my wife and I did our bit in trying to repeal the eighth amendment in Ireland. The Eight Amendment was a hangover from Ireland’s priest-ridden past which prevented women from receiving an abortion, even in cases such as ours where the child had no chance of surviving. We worked with Amnesty International, who shot a moving and powerful video that I like to think had some influence on the final result of the referendum, which was a resounding success for Irish women.

As soon as the result came in, Colm O’Gorman, who had accompanied us while

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How insulting is this?

The Democratic Party should stop wasting so much time on the lost cause of suburban wine moms and start listening to the voices that form the core of the party’s base, writes @lyzl https://t.co/Kotrq8g7lm

— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) November 28, 2020

Is the article as insulting as the tweet? Pretty much. What’s the argument? That the fact that a slim majority of white women usually vote Republican=white women vote Republican.

Exit polling indicates that Trump’s support had increased among White women, with some major polls putting it at 55 percent.

…White women are not a swing voting bloc. In the past 18 presidential elections, they have repeatedly voted for the Republican candidate, breaking only for

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Part of a response from Amnesty International to a complaint:

First…

For example, the letter asks for media and politicians to not give legitimacy to those spreading vitriol or misinformation. This is being framed as a call to take away their political representation, which anyone reading the letter will clearly see is not what it means.

Ahem. Cough cough cough. FROM THE LETTER:

We call on media, and politicians to no longer provide legitimate representation for those that share bigoted beliefs, that are aligned with far right ideologies and seek nothing but harm and division.

See? I’ll repeat, with emphasis added.

We call on media, and politicians to no longer provide legitimate representation

The letter SAID “legitimate representation.” It … Read the rest

Bad.

A teenager has been taken into care in Australia’s first known case of parents being judged abusive and potentially harmful for failing to consent to their child’s self-declared transgender identity and wish for irreversible cross-sex hormone treatment.

In other words the state is telling parents “You have to let your child take cross-sex hormones or we will take the child away from you.”

A state children’s court magistrate cited the risk of self-harm when making the protection order in October — almost a year after the teenager, who was born female and cannot be named for legal reasons — was removed from the family by police at 15 after discussing suicide online.

How do we know the teenager … Read the rest

Another big No for Donny Tinydesk.

President Donald Trump’s legal team suffered yet another defeat in court Friday as a federal appeals court in Philadelphia roundly rejected the campaign’s latest effort to challenge the state’s election results.

Trump’s lawyers vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court despite the judges’ assessment that the “campaign’s claims have no merit.”

I think that assessment means the Supremes are likely to decline to take the case.

“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” 3rd Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote for the three-judge panel.

Giuliani’s sweat … Read the rest

Joan Smith reminds us that footballers and movie stars can also be men who punch women in the face.

Imagine a man hitting his partner. The picture that comes to mind probably involves a scruffy individual, his hand raised and his face contorted with fury. We can all condemn that, can’t we? But what if the angry face is familiar, seen thousands of times in a very different context? If it belongs, say, to the world’s most famous and admired footballer, Diego Maradona?

He was very good at getting the ball into the net, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a violent bully. That’s a very complicated thought, I know, but it’s true.

Domestic abuse is routinely overlooked or

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Another sarcastic photo and caption:

Photograph: Erin Scott/Reuters

Caption:

Donald Trump speaks with members of the military via videoconference on Thursday.

Heeheeheeheeheehee… Read the rest

Pathetically, it’s news that Trump was pushed into admitting that at some point he will have to get out.

Donald Trump has said that he will leave the White House in January if the electoral college votes for Democratic president-elect Joe Biden, in the closest the outgoing president has come to conceding defeat.

Which is not very close, because he said it in reply to a very narrow question, and he instantly qualified it and undercut it with more shouting about fake votes blah blah blah.

Speaking to reporters on the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump said if Biden – who is due to be sworn in on 20 January – was certified the election winner by the electoral college, he would

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Trump won’t like it that news outlets are reporting on his tiny desk and tiny hands and big diapers.

For a US president obsessed by size – his hands, his wealth, his crowds – Donald Trump made something of a bold U-turn on Thursday night by addressing the country from a desk seemingly designed for a leprechaun.

Or a very naughty boy.

The hashtag #DiaperDon swiftly trended on Twitter, with people mocking the president as an infant banished to the children’s table for Thanksgiving.

I still can’t quite believe this happened today.
Whoever suggested that desk … thank you.#tinydesk #TinyDeskDonald https://t.co/9sQ6Ko1bMA pic.twitter.com/xKuU0DVjUD

— Noah Maher (@noahsparc) November 27, 2020

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