Oh SHUT up.

Matt Smith has been praised by fans for correcting Sue Perkins on his House of the Dragon co-star’s pro-nouns during an interview.

The word is “pronouns”; not “pro-nouns”. Illiterate hacks.

The former Doctor Who and The Crown star was chatting to the TV presenter about season two of the prequel to the Game of Thrones franchise when Sue mislabelled actor Emma D’Arcy as a ‘she’. Emma identifies as non-binary and goes by the pronouns they/them – something Matt was quick to effortlessly point out as the interview with former The Great British Bake Off host Sue continued.

Blah blah blah. There’s no such thing as “non-binary.” Nobody has time or energy or inclination to memorize all … Read the rest

Can’t a guy call people faggots in the privacy of his own [checks notes] Vatican?

Pope Francis has again been accused of using a highly offensive term to describe gay men in a closed-door meeting, two weeks after the Vatican apologized over his use of the same slur.

The Italian news agency ANSA, citing unnamed sources, reported that Francis used the Italian word in a meeting on Tuesday afternoon in which he suggested gay men should be welcome in the Church but not in seminaries. The Pope is alleged to have used the term in a non-public meeting with Roman priests at the Salesian Pontifical University.

Ok not his own Vatican but his own Pontifical University. Much the same thing. … Read the rest

Southern institutions are going all-in on the nasty prejudices and persecutions these days.

Southern Baptists say women are inferior.

Even as they prepare to vote on a formal ban on churches with women pastors, delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to boot one such church from its ranks.

Messengers, as voting representatives are known, voted 6,759 to 563 to oust First Baptist Church of Alexandria, a historic Virginia congregation that affirms women can serve in any pastoral role, including as senior pastor.

What’s wrong with saying women can be senior pastors?

Tut, don’t be silly, it’s obvious. Women are inferior. End of story.

“We find no joy in making this recommendation, but have

How spiteful.

The Virginia NAACP sued a county school board Tuesday over its reinstatement of Confederate military names to two schools, accusing it of embracing segregationist values and subjecting Black students to a racially discriminatory educational environment.

The school board in Shenandoah County voted 5-1 last month to revert the name of Mountain View High School back to Stonewall Jackson High School, and that of Honey Run Elementary to Ashby Lee Elementary. The vote reversed a 2020 decision to remove the original names against a backdrop of nationwide protests over racial injustice.

Who is Ashby Lee? I had to google. Ashby and Lee are two people; Turner Ashby was a Confederate cavalry commander. Two for the price of one!… Read the rest

Women have no rights that the manly men must accept.

TikTok has briefly suspended the account of Hey Jane, a prominent telemedicine abortion service, four times without explanation. Instagram has suspended Mayday Health, a nonprofit that provides information about abortion pill access, without explanation as well. And the search engine Bing has erroneously flagged the website for Aid Access, a major seller of abortion pills online, as unsafe.

The [abortion] groups and women’s health advocates say these examples, all from recent months, show why they are increasingly confused and frustrated by how major technology platforms moderate posts about abortion services.

Is that the job of technology platforms? No it is not.

They say the companies’ policies on abortion-related content,

From the Department of Easy For Him to Say:

Keir Starmer has pledged to end the Tory culture wars if he becomes prime minister. In an exclusive interview, the Labour leader told HuffPost UK that people are “exhausted” by the political battles over issues such as trans rights. And he said he wanted to focus on “bringing people together” rather than creating further division.

Man blows off women’s rights as “culture war” and thinks that will “bring people together.” Is it 1968 again? Are men of the left really still sneering at pesky women and our pesky insistence on our pesky rights?

Starmer has been criticised in the past for shifting his own position on transgender rights. However, the

Another dude dismisses women’s concerns while claiming the women don’t know what they’re talking about.

The new BBC Director of Sport, @AlexKayJelski,a man who said @sharrond62 @Martina weren’t experts & compared excluding men from women’s sports to excluding Jamaican or Ethiopian women
(btw – he knew what a woman was when picking a surrogate)#DefundTheBBC https://t.co/AIvOS8rquB https://t.co/HWyCLo6bob pic.twitter.com/yZx8p4cnJN

— Le_Sorelle_Arduino KPSS (@Sorelle_Arduino) June 10, 2024

Martina is not impressed.

This is pretty pathetic- never heard of this man, looked him up here and found myself blocked.
Once again, good to know that men apparently know what women like myself and Sharron know about biology and sports etc. Just amazing to be this confident, no? https://t.co/PeYjqHFa2W

— Martina Navratilova (@Martina)

Nothing but mashed potatoes between those ears.

Trump complains at length about credible reports (that had nothing to do with Biden) that he called dead soldiers "suckers" and "losers" pic.twitter.com/4H1KiKc5Fk

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 9, 2024

… Read the rest

Keir Starmer promises to continue ignoring women.

Keir Starmer has pledged to end the Tory culture wars if he becomes prime minister. In an exclusive interview, the Labour leader told HuffPost UK that people are “exhausted” by the political battles over issues such as trans rights.

So he’ll just continue to ignore women’s concerns. Thanks Mister Sir!

Starmer has been criticised in the past for shifting his own position on transgender rights. However, the Labour leader said his government would look to bring an end to those controversies on day one. He said: “I think people are exhausted by culture wars. My clear view is that the vast majority of the public in general in the UK are reasonable,

Well, maybe, but a question arises. How, exactly, are you defining “transphobia”? How are the people reporting it defining it?

The UK has seen a 462% increase in sexual orientation hate crime reports since 2012

The number of reports regarding transphobia has shot up even further with a 1,426% increasehttps://t.co/iswYDhjOAy

— Metro (@MetroUK) June 10, 2024

The full caption says “Map shows hotspots for sexual orientation and transgender hate crimes” but the tweet twice says the issue is reports of such “hate crimes.” The two are not the same thing, to put it mildly. Trans “activists” see “hate crimes” everywhere. Of course the stats have shot up when there is so much hyperbolic shouting about dangerous women who refuse … Read the rest

You what?

There are tentative signs of high pressure building from the west but cool, wet weather is likely to continue across the UK, forecasters say. After a cool and windy weekend, Monday and Tuesday will remain cool for the time of year, the Met Office said, although will feel warmer in sheltered sunshine.

Heavier showers on Monday should ease up by Tuesday, and overnight temperatures will be in the single figures with a chance of grass frost in rural areas. Ellie Glaisyer, a Met Office meteorologist, said the temperatures were “disappointing for June”. 

Oh dear oh dear if only it were hotter.… Read the rest

Shocking news out of Spokane, a famously boring city in the eastern half of Washington state – the eastern half being the dull, dry, not so scenic, next to Idaho half. You don’t expect much shocking out of Spokane but here it is all the same.

Lime, a popular electric scooter and bike rental service

Lemme stop you for a second right there. It’s not popular with me. I hate the damn thing. People ride the scooters on the sidewalks [pavements in UK-speak], endangering pedestrians who aren’t expecting them and can’t hear them approaching because they’re SILENT. They’re a menace and should be illegal.

Lime, a popular electric scooter and bike rental service, has announced it will be

Eeeesh. No it’s not.

The answer is contained in the question, if trans women weren't women they wouldn't be trans women. it's like asking whether blue cars are cars, or whether tabby cats are cats. Don't waste my time with tautologies.

— Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) June 8, 2024

No it’s not like that at all. It’s like asking if pretend cats are cats or if fake cars are cars. “Trans” isn’t comparable to “blue” or “tabby” in this attempted analogy, because “trans” means “not real.” Prisoners of the ideology don’t define it that way of course, but all the same that’s what it means.

It’s not a humdrum adjective that simply names an attribute of a person or thing. … Read the rest

That’s depressing.

NO TERFS https://t.co/Ya5YGj8KKS pic.twitter.com/0YeFNHGHvC

— GLAAD (@glaad) June 6, 2024

Replies are indignant. … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? at Miscellany Room.

A local greenspace was the site for a Pride event today. We went through, checking out the vendors. The last time I felt this out of place was back in the days when I used to do wedding photography, when I ended up shooting a wedding where the parents and pastor did the whole Evangelical, loud, praying over the couple routine. Most of the church weddings I shot tended to be in more staid, bland, formalized, un-zealous traditions, which I found less jarring to my atheist sensibilities. I’ve usually found unbridled, vocal, demonstrative piety disconcerting, partly because displays of delusional thinking, however sincere, are kinda creepy. More creepy … Read the rest

A thing I often wonder: why is the subjunctive so taboo in the UK even when it’s necessary for meaning?

I ask because I’ve just happened on an example of the kind of thing.

From a statement issued by Durham University:

While individuals and groups within the University community may express lawful views on any issue, we insist that this is done in a safe and respectful way.

See that’s not what they mean. By not using the subjunctive they said something they’re not trying to say. They say they’re insisting that this is in fact done in a safe and respectful way, when what they’re trying to say is that they insist it should be done … Read the rest

Slowly, inch by inch, institutions are rediscovering that people can’t change sex even if a piece of paper says they have done so.

The equalities watchdog is urgently reviewing its guidance for employers on single-sex jobs as women’s refuges are “routinely” and “unlawfully” advertising positions to male-born applicants.

The Equality Act has exemptions which allow employers to restrict a job role to a particular sex if they can show it is an “occupational requirement” and is “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”. Under these rules, it is lawful for women’s domestic violence and rape charities to advertise female-only positions.

But there’s a catch!

However, the feminist campaign group Fair Play For Women (FPFW) has alerted the Equality and

I’m nostalgic for the days when we didn’t sell T shirts for little girls urging them to Bend Over.

So this is for sale on @tiktok_uk as suitable for 8 year old girls. It baffles me any mother would buy this for her little girl, or that any woman would sell it but here we are. #childsafeguarding pic.twitter.com/3P6AIYEYwW

— Joolz Denby (@JoolzDenby) June 8, 2024

… Read the rest

The New Republic reminds us that what Trump is doing is not legitimate response to rivals but something else entirely.

The idea that Trump should pursue “revenge” and “retribution” for prosecutions is everywhere on the right. After a federal judge ordered Steve Bannon to surrender to prison, numerous MAGA influencers, including the MAGA God King himself, angrily vowed such payback. Republicans have said Trump should “fight fire with fire” (Senator Marco Rubio) and that GOP district attorneys should declare open season on Democrats (Stephen Miller). Trump, of course, has offered many versions of this, including to Dr. Phil and Hannity.

In the media, this story tends to be framed as follows: Will Trump seek “revenge” for his legal travails,

Oh good GOD.

How do they get this way? How do they not see it?

Do you know what is ‘toxic’, @Keir_Starmer?
To respond to a question about the abuse and harassment of one your own female MPs with a story of a murder.

Still no comment from you or @UKLabour about the trans activist protest at Rosie Duffield’s launch in Canterbury tomorrow? pic.twitter.com/c2gupNoGpq

— Venice Allan (@roseveniceallan) June 8, 2024

The woman asks him why he said, in connection with Rosie Duffield, that “only women have a cervix” is “something that shouldn’t be said” and “is not right.”

“Well,” he says, “look, what I said then and on other occasions is simply that I do not like the … Read the rest