Um………..man up?

Fox Fisher, a woman who says she's a man, has advised Virgin Atlantic to ban passengers who have clothing with the word 'woman' on it, because cabin crew had to repeatedly check she was OK after she saw a passenger, from her upper class seat, wearing a t-shirt with the word on it pic.twitter.com/ZgCrel71wT

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) November 14, 2024

U ok hun? … Read the rest

Being inclooosive is all very well, but you can’t be inclooosive of everything all the time for the simple reason that sometimes you need to be specific. Specificity requires exclusion.

A trustee and PR director of Britain’s oldest breastfeeding charity has resigned after it introduced an inclusivity policy that allowed men to attend support groups.

This is one of those times. Breastfeeding is inherently “exclusionary” in the blunt factual sense that men can’t do it. It’s not that spiteful bitchy women decided to make it exclusionary, it’s that men can’t breastfeed.

Given the fact that men can’t do it, what can possibly be the point of being inclooosive of men in breastfeeding support groups? What can a man’s motive … Read the rest

The Justice Department is a tad irked by the Matt Gaetz nomination.

Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general has Justice Department veterans petrified and warning of a crisis in the department marked by chaos and revenge.

…

“There’s no conceivable justification for nominating somebody this smarmy and this offensive for a position of such significance in this democracy other than to have a puppet and somebody who, as Gaetz has demonstrated, will do anything Trump asks,” said Ty Cobb, a former Trump White House lawyer.

[Aside: I do wish Americans would stop using the word “smarmy” without bothering to know what it means.]

In the weeks leading up to the election and days since, Gaetz

Um…

I very much disagree with your assessment of Trump. He has been the subject of extreme media propaganda.

He won the hearts and minds of the American people for good reasons.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 12, 2024

What I wonder is what reason Dawkins has to think Musk has the welfare of the world at heart.… Read the rest

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. That’s an old saying, i.e. there’s no one author. Anyway is it true?

I don’t know. The most obvious answer is that it depends. Is the enemy of your enemy otherwise a fine upstanding person? Then by all means make friends with her. Is the enemy of your enemy a bad person who has never done a kind or generous thing in his life and is intent on destroying as much of the world as he can before he stops having a pulse? Then no, he’s not your friend, no matter how profoundly he hates your enemy.

There are some gc feminists who should be paying more attention to that distinction.… Read the rest

The AP reports:

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz [has] resigned from Congress, ending an ethics probe into allegations of sex trafficking, sexual misconduct and drug use, after President-elect Donald Trump nominated him for attorney general.

…

Gaetz submitted his resignation from Congress, effective immediately, launching an eight-week clock to fill his seat, Johnson said, possibly in time for the start of the new Congress on Jan. 3. It also ends a long-running ethics investigation into the Florida congressman.

Johnson framed the stunning move by Gaetz to resign early and before confirmation as a way to help the majority fill his vacancy much [faster] than if he were to wait until his Senate confirmation as attorney general.

Nothing like an Attorney General … Read the rest

How bizarre.

"A philosopher looks at sport" by Stepen Mumford

His thesis is that if women's sport had historically been supported just as men's sport, then today's female athletes would be just as strong, fast, etc. as men. Their performance today lags behind men because of the patriarchy. pic.twitter.com/oHwpfC7sV3

— Miroslav Imbrisevic (@Miroandrej) November 12, 2024

To say that “whether it is natural or inevitable that men outperform women should be questioned” requires being unaware of human sexual dimorphism.

Of what now?

Human sexual dimorphism.

It’s a thing.

Men can’t get pregnant. Women can’t swim faster than “Lia” Thomas.… Read the rest

Public Notice on Trump’s swift move to demand the powers of a dictator:

But the process of staffing up every new administration has slowed to a crawl because Republicans spent the last 25 years weaponizing Senate procedure to obstruct Democrats. Democrats have certainly returned fire, but no one has done more to ratchet up the temperature — and the gridlock — than Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president,” he crowed back in 2010. And one of the ways McConnell ensured that Obama couldn’t enact his agenda, despite having a majority in the House for his first two years and in the Senate for six,

Suzanne Moore is not enormously impressed by Alastair Campbell.

Post-Blair, Campbell has made a career as some sort of management consultant, banging on about leadership. His thuggishness has never been toned down. Not even in his diaries. Him physically fighting Peter Mandelson during an argument over what the leader should wear while canvassing has always stuck in my head. He has no time for women except the “totty” him and his Westminster cronies rated. On Clare Short, for instance, he wrote “God she does turn my stomach”.

…

He was disastrous and bullying as a leader of the Remainers trying to get a second referendum, again shouting over distinguished female journalists.

Now he is reincarnated alongside Rory Stewart

Oh how exciting, another first.

Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride won the state’s only House seat Tuesday, NBC News projects, making her the first openly transgender person elected to Congress. 

But so very much not the first man elected to Congress.

There are a lot of available firsts in this kind of thing. The first person from an obscure small town in Iowa; the first person who failed algebra in 9th grade; the first person who has a cat named Ronald Krump – one could go on in this vein forever.

Meanwhile, McBride is a guy elected to Congress and women continue to be both ignored and mocked.… Read the rest

And here we go: Even Worse Than Last Time in action. The Beast appoints a Fox News jock Secretary of Defense.

President-elect Donald Trump stunned the Pentagon and the broader defense world by nominating Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary, tapping someone largely inexperienced and untested on the global stage to take over the world’s largest and most powerful military.

The news was met with bewilderment and worry among many in Washington as Trump passed on a number of established national security heavy-hitters and chose an Army National Guard captain well known in conservative circles as a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend.”

Of course he did. He considers himself … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Mike Haubrich on Often struggling.

This reminds me of the Arch Bishop of MPLS-St. Paul, John Nienstedt, who vigorously defended the Church against charges of priestly abuse (including moving notorious priests around without warning the new parishes.) He had sent a sermon around the state for priests to read on the Sunday before the vote on a state amendment banning same-sex marriage that reminded Catholic voters about the canonical position on the issue (gays must remain celibate to avoid sinning.) I heard him defend the position on a radio call-in on Minnesota Public Radio, about how the law can be painful to follow sometimes but there you go.

Shortly after, there were photos showing him … Read the rest

I’ve been thinking about this 10 Stupid Goddy Rules in the Classroom thing, and what would be better in classrooms. I don’t necessarily think any homilies or bits of moral advice should be on the walls of classrooms, but I’m not adamant about it. Maybe it’s useful to have them. So what kind of thing should they be?

My hunch is some form of “don’t be shitty.” Maybe a bulletin board that could have posters that change every few days, with small manageable iterations of “don’t be shitty.” Help each other; don’t make fun of anyone; share; remember what it feels like to be teased or bullied. Blah blah; that kind of thing. Tiny chapters from the large book of … Read the rest

Last June we were talking about Louisiana’s plan to force “the 10 commandments” on school children.

The AP version:

Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed into law Wednesday.

The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-size display of the Ten Commandments in a “large, easily readable font” be in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities.

Opponents question the law’s constitutionality, warning that lawsuits would be likely to follow. Proponents say that the purpose of the measure is not solely religious but that it has historical significance. In the law’s language, the Ten Commandments are described as “foundational

Receive HOW much in grant money for writing fatuous speculative anti-woman blather????

Nearly two million pounds, that’s how much.

Equally, let's not forget that it is possible to be a complete moron at a British university and – not even in spite of, *because of* that fact – receive hundreds of thousands of pounds in grant money. https://t.co/2Qbcf8OPTL pic.twitter.com/IXiZSGt4y4

— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) November 12, 2024

Two. million. pounds. … Read the rest

Welby has resigned.

Justin Welby spent his 11 years as Archbishop of Canterbury trying to prevent the global Anglican communion from fracturing, often struggling to please liberals or conservatives as they fought over homosexual rights and women clergy.

But in the end he was brought down by an issue from the church’s past rather than its future: the failure to investigate an abuse scandal that dated back decades…Welby said he had had “no idea or suspicion” of the allegations before 2013, the year he became archbishop. But the independent Makin Report, published on Nov. 7, concluded it was unlikely he would have had no knowledge of the concerns regarding Smyth’s behaviour in the 1980s.

That’s unclear. Is it unlikely … Read the rest

Archbish urged to get out.

The archbishop of Canterbury has been urged to stand in solidarity with abuse victims by resigning after a report into a cover-up in the Church of England. A petition started by three members of the General Synod – the church’s parliament – calling for Justin Welby to quit has reached more than 10,000 signatures.

An independent review published last week concluded John Smyth [might] have been brought to justice had Welby formally reported the abuse to police a decade ago.

But he didn’t, so Smyth went elsewhere to torture more boys. It seems Welby’s god hates children and loves their torturers. Beware of people who think they have a pipeline to Mister God.

Over

Disruption.

There’s already a judiciary subcommittee on the “weaponisation of the federal government” in Congress to investigate the “censorship industrial complex” – the idea that big tech is “censoring” Republican voices. For the past 18 months, it’s been subpoena-ing academics. Last week, Elon Musk tweeted that the next stage would be “prosecutions”. A friend of mine, an Ivy League professor on the list, texts to say the day will shortly come “where I will have to decide whether to stay or go”.

Trump’s list of enemies is not theoretical. It already exists. My friend is on it. In 2022, Trump announced a “day one” executive order instructing “the Department of Justice to investigate all parties involved in the

Brianna Wu speaking up for women…but of course he considers himself a woman, which he isn’t, so his speaking up for us is speaking over us, so no, not requested, not wanted, not needed, absolutely not appreciated.

It's amazing how Men like "Brianna" seem to think they have the authority to speak on behalf of real Women…

He's utterly deluded… pic.twitter.com/h6nx71of4Y

— Jonny Bell (@Jonnywsbell) November 11, 2024

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on The spirit of vengeful reprisal is the totality of his beliefs.

The part about learning Russian was not entirely a joke btw. Earlier today I filled up two 15 liter water jugs. The Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection recently sent out a leaflet asking all citizen to stock up on water, durable food items, hygiene products, matches, candles, firewood etc. to be prepared to survive for up to a week without electricity, tap water, open stores etc. in case of a “crisis or war”, so if it’s just my paranoid delusion, at least It’s not just me.

To my country, and Europe in general, one obvious implication of Trump’s return to power … Read the rest