I started re-reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland last night (for the 5th time? 10th? 20th? I don’t know). Kept shrieking with laughter at the language jokes.

Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice’s first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them.

…

How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even

What a bizarre choice.

On Debate Night tomorrow, Stephen will be joined by @StuMcMillanSNP, @CMochan, @MGallacherMSP, @agcolehamilton and @OwenJones84

Join us and an audience from Dumfries on@BBCScotland 10.30pm #bbcdn pic.twitter.com/ZoUYCOzkAu

— BBC Debate Night (@bbcdebatenight) March 12, 2024

BBC Debate Night then gives a short bio for each debater, concluding with

And Columnist @OwenJones84 will be on the panel #bbcdn pic.twitter.com/gRhTVLBvVx

— BBC Debate Night (@bbcdebatenight) March 12, 2024

It looks like one of Moley’s jokes but it isn’t, that’s the actual BBC tweet.… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on Oh look a sharp rise in referrals.

Wouldn’t you think that would alarm the people in charge? Wouldn’t you think they would pause to try to figure out why referrals skyrocketed like that? Wouldn’t you think they would not just assume it’s because a real need is at long last being met? Wouldn’t you think they would want to make sure they hadn’t simply created a market just as advertisers create markets for particular movies or shoes or cars? If you build it they will come along to get their bits cut off.

It never ceases to amaze me the rationalizing people do. People want moral certainty and simplicity, and that means they … Read the rest

More on the no more puberty blockers news:

Children will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics, NHS England has confirmed. The government said it welcomed the “landmark decision”, adding it would help ensure care is based on evidence and is in the “best interests of the child”.

Makes you wonder why care wasn’t already based on evidence and in the best interests of the child.

It used to be widely understood that “in the best interests of the child” very very often meant “not what the child wants in the moment.” It used to be widely and well understood that children don’t always know what’s best for them. I still wonder how that understanding vanished … Read the rest

No longer:

Children will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics, NHS England has confirmed.

Puberty blockers, which pause the physical changes of puberty such as breast development or facial hair, will now only be available to children as part of clinical research trials.

Fewer than 100 young people are currently on puberty blockers and they will be able to continue their treatment, it has been confirmed.

But is it “treatment” or is it something else? That’s rather the issue, isn’t it?… Read the rest

Stock on Butler part 2.

There isn’t a single objection lodged against opponents that does not come freighted with the implication of moral taint and/or stupidity. Of course, painting one’s intellectual enemies as cartoon characters is a known tactic of modern transactivism; still, it is shocking to see it done so crudely by someone who retains a high reputation in many quarters.

The many quarters are the more easily fooled ones, as of course Stock knows and expects us to understand.

It is also striking how hackneyed some of the thought is. Butler’s writing in her heyday at least displayed a bit of panache and originality, assuming you could parse it successfully. In contrast, here she comes over as in

Reading Kathleen Stock’s heartwarming review of Judith Butler’s new book on Y R terfs so evil. I’ll say one thing for JB: she’s a brilliant catalyst for jokes.

Not for her the pedestrian business of going through critics’ arguments, providing non-partisan evidence, and patiently exposing internal contradictions and gaps in an understated but cumulatively devastating manner. 

She could do that, she says, but she goes on to not do it.

Instead, she wants to give the people what nobody was really asking for: a deconstruction of the “syntactical elements” of the “anti-gender movement”, understood as a “phantasmic scene” according to the “theoretical formulation of Jean Laplanche”.

Oh well then. If we’re bringing in Jean Laplanche then it’s game over. (New … Read the rest

Is that true?

I assume that by ” those who have whipped up Britain’s unhinged transphobic moral panic” Jones means those who have pointed out that people can’t change sex and that men who claim to be women are displacing and bullying women.

Is it likely that four teenagers would stab a man who claims to be a woman because gender critical feminists point out that men can’t be women? I don’t think it’s likely at all. I don’t think stabby teenagers spend much time considering the arguments of gender critical feminists. To be fair I don’t think they spend any time doing that.… Read the rest

What was their first clue?

To Donald Trump, Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán is “fantastic,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping is “brilliant,” North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is “an OK guy,” and, most alarmingly, he allegedly said Adolf Hitler “did some good things,” a worldview that would reverse decades-old US foreign policy in a second term should he win November’s presidential election, multiple former senior advisers told CNN.

“He thought Putin was an OK guy and Kim was an OK guy — that we had pushed North Korea into a corner,” retired Gen. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff, told me. “To him, it was like we were goading these guys. ‘If we didn’t have NATO, then Putin

Trump and Orban agree to murder Ukraine.

Donald Trump “will not give a penny” to Ukraine if he is re-elected US president, the far-right Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said after a controversial meeting with Trump in Florida.

“He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war,” Orbán told state media in Hungary on Sunday. “Therefore, the war will end, because it is obvious that Ukraine can not stand on its own feet.” According to Orbán, Trump has a “detailed plan” to end the Ukraine war, which began two years ago when Russia invaded.

Oh please. Trump has no detailed anything. It doesn’t take a detailed plan, all it takes is a Toddler No, and that’s all Trump … Read the rest

Wait, you mean Hamas aren’t the good guys? Are you sure? Did you check with them?

Arresting the victim part 3:

During the protest some activists were heard chanting “Zionist scum, off our streets” and several placards showed support for the Houthi militias in Yemen targeting ships going through the Red Sea.

One pro-Palestine activist on the march could be seen wearing a protective helmet and carrying a riot shield. The man, whose helmet was similar to those used by reporters in combat zones, paraded holding the riot shield with the slogan: “Resistance is justified when your land is occupied.”

One young woman held a placard that read: “One holocaust does not justify another,” in defiance of

Remember how the police arrested and then “de-arrested” a guy who was protesting Hamas on Saturday? It’s not working out well for them.

A former Cabinet minister has accused the Metropolitan Police of “emboldening” the mob after a counter-protester carrying a sign saying “Hamas is terrorist” at a pro-Palestine rally was arrested.

Niyak Ghorbani, 38,  was pulled to the ground and handcuffed by officers after an incident close to the march through central London on Saturday. He was arrested over an allegation of assault but was later de-arrested after officers reviewed footage of the incident.

The Met is now facing calls to take action against a protester who Mr Ghorbani, an Iranian who lives in Balham, says

“Scotland will do it! Tell Scotland! Scotland will hit her for us!”

Trans rights activists are attempting to have JK Rowling arrested by Scottish police over “misgendering” after a complaint was dismissed in England.

Northumbria Police last week confirmed that it did not believe the Harry Potter author had committed a criminal offence by publicly calling India Willoughby, a transgender TV personality, a male.

Willoughby had gone to police claiming Rowling had “definitely committed a crime” by referring to the former Celebrity Big Brother contestant as male.

Willoughby is definitely a man, and a nasty aggressive bullying man at that.

The 58-year-old former newsreader has vowed to appeal against “their decision not to prosecute” and is to request a

Deutsche Welle on the opening of the Amsterdam Holocaust Museum:

Israeli President Isaac Herzog attended the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam on Sunday. The museum tells the stories of some of the 102,000 Jews who were deported from the Netherlands and murdered in Nazi camps during the Holocaust in World War II. Three-quarters of Dutch Jews were among the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.

Who were the Nazis? Members of a genocidal political movement in Germany. DW is to the Nazis as the Washington Post is to slavery. That’s a crude comparison, but my point is that nationality is not the same as political or moral orientation. Netanyahu isn’t Israel, Germany isn’t Nazism, the … Read the rest

Well whaddya know:

Transgender golfer Hailey Davidson’s playing options just got significantly smaller.

Transgender i.e. male.

NXXT Golf announced on Friday that, effective immediately, competitors must be a biological female at birth to participate. A statement from the tour notes that it underscores the organization’s commitment to “maintaining the integrity of women’s professional golf and ensuring fair competition.” The news comes on International Women’s Day.

“As we navigate through the evolving landscape of sports, it is crucial to uphold the competitive integrity that is the cornerstone of women’s sports,” said NXXT Golf CEO Stuart McKinnon in a statement.

Yes, it is. Thank you for noticing.

“Our revised policy is a reflection of our unwavering commitment to celebrating and

Gender gender gender gender.

Did I mention gender?

Hannah Gadsby has a new gendersomething. Yay.

Nanette was already an awards-scooping live show before Netflix’s cameras started rolling, but its meteoric success made a proper international celebrity of the festival circuit staple. It also made Gadsby, who grew up in a small town in north-west Tasmania, an unexpected figurehead for LGBTQ+ representation in Hollywood.

Yet again – how does that work? How can anyone be a figurehead for all of those categories?

Gadsby spends much of their time based in Australia but has seen trans rights become a divisive political issue in the US and UK, one often divorced from the voices and experiences of trans and genderqueer people.

I … Read the rest

University of Victoria celebrates Women’s Day by celebrating men, because of course it does.

Jamey Jesperson, Vanier Scholar, faces the uphill battle for visibility navigating academia as a trans woman studying anti-colonial histories. https://t.co/FsrJ12PH18#IWD2024 #InspireInclusion #InternationalWomensDay @UVicHumanities

— UniversityOfVictoria (@uvic) March 8, 2024

Psst – Jamey – trans is colonialism. You’re the colonizer, chum.… Read the rest

The Washington state department of health promoted this article on Facebook and did so without any “pregnant people” genuflection so I got my hopes up, but of course that was a mistake.

Abortion

Abortion is legal and protected in Washington state. Abortions have been legal in Washington since 1970, and that has not changed even after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

A lawsuit in Texas seeks to remove U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone, a safe and effective drug that’s been used in medication abortions by millions of Americans for over 20 years. As of April 21, 2023, the Supreme Court maintained full access to the drug nationally.

Third sentence in and it’s … Read the rest

Hey gang, let’s go protest the opening of a Holocaust museum. Maybe dress up as Anne Frank to really underline the point.

After many years, a Holocaust Museum has finally opened in Amsterdam today.

This is currently going on outside.

pic.twitter.com/d3RXjgVtAK

— Daniel Sugarman (@Daniel_Sugarman) March 10, 2024

… Read the rest

Oh dear, Willz is feeling let down by the police, who are after all there to do the bidding of angry men.