That’s a bit of good news for a change – or just the undoing of a bit of bad news, as so often, but we take what we can get. They’ve said “Sorry, we’ll reverse the whole thing, sorry” about the exams-evaluations-algorithm mess. I was reading a lot of desperately sad tweets yesterday by parents of kids at state schools who’d earned a place reading engineering at Cambridge and then had it snatched away by the algorithm.

Gavin Williamson and Ofqual have apologised to students and their parents, as they announced that all A-level and GCSE results in England will be based on teacher-assessed grades.

In a spectacular U-turn, the education secretary announced the government would scrap the controversial standardisation

Graham Linehan hosts a scorching retort by Victoria Smith to Rebecca Solnit’s smug glib mess of a Guardian open letter, starting from an essay of Solnit’s about male violence.

On this, you are totally right. Male violence is a global outrage. Why, then, have you written a piece which dismisses women’s fears as “really weird”, writes off actual occurrences of male violence as “lurid what-ifs”, euphemistically characterises sexual assault as “unpleasantness”, tells women which male people they’re allowed to be wary of (the ones who aren’t your mates) and accuses women of “posing a threat” if they are insufficiently accommodating? Do you have any idea what you sound like?

But of course, Victoria goes on, Solnit would say she’s … Read the rest

Remember when Trump gave Rush Limbaugh the “medal of freedom”? Obama gave it to John Lewis; Trump gave it to Limbaugh. So about Limbaugh –

RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): I have two stories about Kamala Harris. One’s from The Spectator, and one is — one of the — one of the oddball sports websites. The NBA has fired a freelance photographer because he insulted Kamala Harris. His name is Bill Baptist.

…

He’s ”a freelance photographer he’d been working for the NBA inside its bubble at the Disney World complex in Orlando” — as the NBA goes through its supposed season here. He’s an independent contractor, had the deal terminated by the league after he posted a “sexist Facebook post referencing

Iowa got clobbered a few days ago. Really clobbered. Nobody is paying attention.

On Monday, Iowa was leveled by what amounted to a level-two hurricane. But you wouldn’t know that from reading, listening to or watching the news.

…

Gusts of 112 mph were recorded in Linn County. As I drove through the town of Cedar Rapids on Monday, I saw billboards bent in half, whole buildings collapsed, trees smashed through roofs and windows. The scope and breadth of the disaster is still being calculated, but by some estimates, more than 10 million acres, or 43 percent, of the state’s soybean and corn crops have been damaged.

A quarter of a million Iowans are still without power.

Donny’s found a new doctor buddy.

President Donald Trump has found a new doctor for his coronavirus task force — and this time there’s no daylight between them.

It’s gonna disappear, like things that disappear. It’s because of testing that we have so many cases. They were all old anyway. You can fix it by injecting a little bleach. We’re doing GREAT. Let’s watch some football.

Trump last week announced that Dr. Scott Atlas, a frequent guest on Fox News Channel, has joined the White House as a pandemic adviser. Atlas, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a fellow at Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institution, has no expertise in public health or infectious diseases.

Fabulous pairing.… Read the rest

They’re so confident, so dogmatic, so lecturey with the bullshit. The hand goes up and down, the vowels are crisp, the voice is shouty.

“This includes transgender women,” purple hoody with glasses tells us forcefully, “because they are women – being transgender does not eliminate, whatsoever, their identity as a woman.”

Well that’s us told!

But it’s bullshit. Purple hoody can gesture at us all she likes, she can over-enunciate her words all she likes, it doesn’t make the bullshit true. Yes being a transgender man does eliminate his “identity as a woman” – whatever that might be. A man is a man even if he fantasizes that he’s a woman every hour of every day. Nobody, nobody at all, … Read the rest

From the Independent:

[warning – it’s gruesome]

A woman who fantasised about being blind claims to have arranged to have drain cleaner poured in her eyes to live the way she was “supposed to be born”, it has been reported.

Jewel Shuping, from North Carolina, said she was diagnosed with Body Integrity Identity Disorder, a psychological condition where healthy people believe they are meant to be disabled.

I would suggest wearing eye patches rather than pouring Drano into the eyes.

The 30-year-old’s desire to be blind reportedly began in early childhood. At the age of six she would spend hours staring at the sun after being told it could damage her eyes, she told Barcroft Media.

If that … Read the rest

Trump’s brother died in the hospital yesterday. Trump played golf.

It’s getting to him today though.

.@FoxNews is not watchable during weekend afternoons. It is worse than Fake News @CNN. I strongly suggest turning your dial to @OANN. They do a really “Fair & Balanced” job!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2020

… Read the rest

Leo Igwe asks:

What will Islam/Muslims in Kano gain by executing a person who sang a song that was critical of Muhammad…….????

More:

From Vanguard

The Muslim Lawyers’ Association (MULAN), Kano State branch has on Saturday okayed the death sentence judgment against one Sharrif Yahaya for blaspheming the holy prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.).

This was also as it called on the Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to ensure strict compliance to the Judgement. The Muslim Lawyers’ in a statement signed by it Chairman, Muhammad Sani Garba Esq and made available to newsmen in the state. Garba said the judgment was the right thing as the convict deserves the death punishment.

…

“This is because the supreme court has decided in

Boar!

Boar!

Run!

The Indy has details:

Beachgoers in northern Germany were shocked by the sight of a wild boar approaching them from the Baltic Sea.

Well, you don’t expect it, do you. You expect humans, and maybe crabs, and an occasional otter, but not wild boars. The snout! The ears!

Footage from the scene shows the swine swimming for the shore with its snout and ears poking above the water.

It would make me rethink my leisure habits, for sure.

Wild boar are known to be able swimmers. There were reports last year of a herd of boar swimming several miles across the Malacca Strait from Indonesia to Malaysia and terrorising farmers upon arrival.

Be careful out there.… Read the rest

Not much surprise there.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a marked deterioration in Americans’ mental health, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study made public on Thursday. That study, which surveyed 5,412 Americans, found that “40.9% of respondents reported at least one adverse mental or behavioral health condition.”

The only surprise is that the number is that low.

According to the new study, 31 percent of respondents were suffering from symptoms of anxiety or depression; 26 percent experienced symptoms of traumatic disorder; 13 percent were using drugs or alcohol more heavily, or for the first time, to cope with the pandemic; and 11 percent had seriously contemplated suicide.

Some are mourning a loss, some … Read the rest

Listen, if you don’t believe that people can change sex, you can’t work for the police. It’s just that simple.

In emails seen by this newspaper, Norfolk ­Constabulary told a woman inquiring about a role in the force that the job “would not be ­suitable” for her ­because of her “gender critical” views.

After the candidate made clear that she did not think a person could ­physically transition to the opposite sex, another force in the South East said her views did not constitute “the behaviours expected” and an application “would be not successful”.

Belief that gender is as changeable as nationality or political party is mandatory now. You might be able to get a job cleaning toilets, but … Read the rest

Trump tells us how he’ll steal the election.

Trump says this like it's a mission statement: "You're not gonna know [the election results] for months or for years. Because these [mail] ballots are all gonna lost, they're gonna be gone. pic.twitter.com/lpke3FlaDF

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 15, 2020

Asshole.

REPORTER: Will you say Kamala Harris is eligible to run and be vice president based on the fact she was born in Oakland?

TRUMP: "So, I have nothing to do with that. I read something about it … it's not something that bothers me." pic.twitter.com/Oq3CCluSvn

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 15, 2020

Boats. There are boats.

TRUMP: "We have a silent majority the likes of which nobody has seen. I just

This happened last week:

At KNKX, we value high-quality, factual information in our news programming and we aim to present an array of voices that reflect our region.

KNKX is an NPR station in Tacoma. It used to belong to Pacific Lutheran University but then

On November 12, 2015, Pacific Lutheran University announced its intention to sell the station to the University of Washington, owner of KUOW.^[4] The planned sale to UW triggered “public outcry” from KPLU’s listener base, who feared KPLU’s unique programming would be sacrificed if it became a sister station to KUOW. On November 23, the KPLU advisory board voted unanimously to oppose the sale.^[5] The board sought to negotiate with a community-based

Is your Pride event inclusive of furries? Well IS it?

Is your Pride event REALLY inclusive of everyone within the LGBTQ+ community?

We recently shared a survey focusing on the inclusion of Pups, Furries & Kinksters at Pride.

Here are the Animagi survey results and more details can be seen at: https://t.co/aWzcXHofRs pic.twitter.com/QEsmpWe4gH

— UK Pride Organisers Network (UKPON) (@UKPrideNetwork) August 15, 2020

Is that what the + means? Furries? What the survey calls “kink and fetish”?

I’m not seeing the connection, myself. I mean yeah, I get that it can all be filed under “not what Mr and Mrs Normal get up to in bed,” but I would think a lot of lesbians and gay men don’t particularly want … Read the rest

Trump is doing his bit to cripple the election again today.

The Democrats know the 2020 Election will be a fraudulent mess. Will maybe never know who won! https://t.co/tEWKJ5NcUj

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2020

Wow! https://t.co/w81tt85i5Z

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2020

Followed by retweets of DEMOCRAT FRAUD claims by the Communications Director of the Republican party.… Read the rest

“Oh you don’t want us to remove mail boxes just before an election in which people will have to vote by mail?”

The US Postal Service will stop taking letter collection boxes off streets in Western states following accusations the removals would further limit some voters ability to send back mail-in ballots.

“Accusations.” Yes, obstacles are obstacles – who knew?! If you remove mail boxes that means people in the area from which a box was removed will have farther to go to mail their ballots. That is called an obstacle. Ob-stuh-kl. It’s an impediment, a hindrance, an added difficulty.

The change came after CNN and others reported on Friday that the US Postal Service has started reducing post

Not bad.

This is the ad @seanhannity is tweeting about and had his lawyers threaten twitter to mark it as ‘manipulated content.’ He is devastated that we called out his projection and hypocrisy. You have to click it to play it! #ByeHannity pic.twitter.com/RozY24phsm

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) August 15, 2020

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Papito on Unironically.

Unfortunately, most self-ID’ed NBs are deep in trans country, at this point, and thus utterly unaware of how much trans ideology actually is reinforcing the NB’s social discomfort by shoring up traditional gender roles in the first place. [Freemage]

This is a great insight. NBs wouldn’t exist without the trans cult, but it seems helpful to contemplate the exact relationship. Are NBs a product of the trans cult as a sub-variety of trans people, or are they (unknowingly) implicitly rejecting the trans cult – which, while proclaiming the erasure of binaries, is one of the most binary parts of society?

I feel for kids growing up these days. Gender stereotypes are pushed … Read the rest