Thank god The Independent is on the important news.

Lorraine Kelly repeatedly misgendered Sam Smith while discussing the singer’s look for the Barbie premiere.

*gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasp*

Hosting her ITV daytime show Lorraine on Thursday (13 July), Kelly talked to guest Vogue Williams about the pink carpet hits and misses from Wednesday night’s (12 July) European premiere for Greta Gerwig’s movie.

While the majority of the guests opted for Barbie-inspired all-pink outfits, Smith – who has written a song titled “Man I Am” from the perspective of Ken for the Barbie soundtrack – went for a far more casual look.

What does “more casual than Barbie-inspired all-pink outfits” mean?

Discussing the outfit on Lorraine, Williams joked that Smith looked like they were dressed for an airport rather than a red carpet event.

They who? Smith and Barbie? Smith and the the guests in the Barbie-inspired all-pink outfits?

However, while Williams referred to Smith using they/them pronouns, Kelly referred to the singer repeatedly as “he” and “him”.

“It’s a bit big for him,” Smith said. “If he was my son, I’d be saying, ‘Son, that’s too big for you’… He’s going to stand out. He knows what he’s doing, does that fella.”

On Twitter, viewers branded the moment “awkward” and pointed out that Williams had looked uncomfortable during the segment.

How very important and significant and urgent and consequential.

In response to one critic on Twitter, Kelly insisted that her wording had been unintentional, writing: “Fair comment. Not in the least intentional but will take on board – thanks for bringing to my attention.”

That’s not insisting, it’s just saying.

The Independent has contacted Smith’s representatives, as well as ITV, for comment.

Oh thank god. I was afraid the whole thing might fizzle out because it’s so trivial and ridiculous.

Another taunt from another man pretending to be a woman:

Valentina Petrillo, a 49-year-old biological male, has won a women’s 400 metres bronze at the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris. The Italian, who was 18 years older than any other competitor in the race, denied Morocco’s Fatima Ezzahra El-Idrissi a place on the podium in the T12 final for visually impaired athletes.

The medal for Petrillo, the first achieved by a transgender athlete on the global stage in track and field, drew swift condemnation, with Peter Eriksen, Canada’s former Olympic head coach, calling the result “shocking” and Mara Yamauchi, the third fastest female British marathon runner in history, asking: “How many 49-year-olds would win medals at world level?”

Yes but he calls himself Valentina, so sit down and be quiet.

Petrillo’s involvement in international competition has long been the subject of consternation. Having only begun hormone therapy to begin transitioning in 2019, aged 45, Petrillo entered the 100, 200 and 400 metres for women at Italy’s Paralympic championships the following year and immediately won all three races. “Better to be a slow happy woman than a fast unhappy man,” the athlete told the BBC. “I don’t feel like I’m stealing anything from anyone.”

And yet, of course, he was stealing anything from anyone, and still is.

When Petrillo won a 200m women’s indoor masters title in Ancona in March, in a time that would only have been good enough for 14th in the men’s race, Cristina Sanulli, who finished second, said: “We do not feel equal because Petrillo’s physical structure is male. So we are not running at par. Although the personal path that Valentina has taken is respectable, athletically speaking it is not, and because of this we feel very discriminated against.”

Well, she’s just cross because he stole first place from her.

When Petrillo, who is understood not to have undergone gender reassignment surgery, was refused access to the female changing rooms in Ancona, the athlete lashed out at detractors as “being on the same level as Hitler”.

“I’ve not undergone hormone therapy to win, I’ve done it for myself,” said Petrillo, who is married to a woman and has two children.

Oliver Brown, chief sports writer for the Telegraph, who wrote this piece, is even more blunt on Twitter.

The National Review tells us:

A video published by the New York Post on Saturday morning shows Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explaining to a group of supporters that Covid-19 may have been “ethnically targeted” at Caucasian and black people, sparing Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese from severe outcomes.

“COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” the Kennedy scion said during a dinner on the Upper East Side. “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

“We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact,” the Democratic hopeful added.

Ah yes, there are papers out there – what more do we need to know?

In April, Kennedy launched his bid to challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party’s nomination in the 2024 election.

In 2021, he published a book, The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health, which accused America’s leading public-health officials of collaborating in “a historic coup d’état against Western democracy.”

There are papers out there that say so.

The most predictable crisis ever:

Households in Florida, the third most populous state in the US, have been grappling for some time with a property insurance crisis that is making home ownership unaffordable for many.

Now why might that be? Because Florida is doomed. It’s like trying to get fire insurance on your house when it bursts into flames. It’s like trying to buy car insurance after you rear-end another car. It’s like trying to buy life insurance when you’re dead.

After at least six insurers went insolvent in Florida last year, Farmers on Tuesday became the latest to pull out of the Florida market, saying in a statement that the decision was based on risk exposure in the hurricane-prone state.

Because Florida is doomed.

“Hurricane insurance is critical to being able to continue to live in Vero Beach,” Brown, in his 60s, says. “In 2004 and 2005 we were hit twice, at a time when we were fortunately covered by Citizens.”

Since then, however, Citizens’ eligibility rules for property insurance have changed: homeowners are now only eligible for their policies if available premiums from private insurance companies are more than 20% higher than the premiums for comparable coverage from Citizens.

Citizens did not return requests for comment.

“Citizens fired us, and we had to take insurance with a private company – for 20% more,” Brown says.” That company then increased prices by 40% and then last September, in the middle of the hurricane season, went bankrupt and we lost all coverage. I panicked and called every insurance broker I knew. They all said getting cover was impossible now.”

Because Florida is doomed.

The insurance industry relies on low risk. Millions of people get fire insurance, and most of them never need it. If the risk of fire or floods or crashes is too high then it ceases to make sense to sell insurance.

Although demand for properties in Vero Beach has been rising dramatically since the pandemic, people who have been unable to secure insurance for their properties, Brown says, are now fearing this will reduce the value of their homes.

“The houses on either side of me have been on sale for six months. I guess not many people can afford to pay $10,000 a year or more on insurance, and hurricanes are becoming stronger and more frequent here.”

Because Florida is doomed.

Won’t somebody please think of the cheaters?

“Nobody wins in this” — the cycling community reacts to new UCI transgender policy

Subhead: Athletes and advocates on both sides of the trans-athlete inclusion debate share their opinions

It’s not “the trans-athlete inclusion” debate, it’s the fairness to women debate. It’s not fair to women to let men compete in women’s sports. It’s that simple.

Starting July 17, 2023, transgender women who have transitioned after puberty are banned from competing in the women’s category at all UCI-sanctioned events, cycling’s governing body announced today. 

Good, but incomplete. Trans women should compete in the men’s category, because they’re men. It’s that simple.

In a press release, the UCI said it was “necessary to take this measure to protect the female class and ensure equal opportunities.” 

So Cycling Weekly chooses to frame it as cruelty to men who claim to be women.

The heartbreak was certainly felt throughout the internet as trans and cis women athletes alike expressed their despondence. 

“I don’t agree with the UCI’s decision to ban trans women from competing in the women’s category. I know this is a complicated topic for many (yes, professional racing complicates this for sure), but I keep returning to what I believe to be the purpose of sport: to offer opportunities for enjoyment, self-betterment, personal challenge, camaraderie (etc.) for all,” writes Haley Smith, a Canadian Olympian and Life Time Grand Prix contestant. 

“Maybe you believe that trans women racing against those assigned female at birth is unfair or wrong. But I truly believe that a ban is much MORE wrong…I don’t have an answer, but I know in my gut that this isn’t the right decision.

I don’t think that’s her “gut.” I think it’s years of whining and screaming and throwing tantrums by the trans communinny.

Already banned from competing in the women’s category in her homeland, British cyclist and transwoman Emily Bridges released an emotional statement on her social media. 

“It’s the hope that gets you. The thought that there’s some small possibility that they’re not going to wield the axe and cut you from the thing you (used to) love keeps some semblance of hope for the future of this environment. But that hope is gone now,” she states.

Hey, Bridges, have you ever stopped to think about women’s hopes in all this?

American athlete and longtime trans-advocate Molly Cameron expressed more frustration than heartbreak, vowing to boycott any event that adopts the UCI’s new policy. A longtime cyclocross racer, Cameron raced internationally until the UCI’s first eligibility policies banned her from competing in the women’s category in the early aughts. 

So he’s a man? Aka a trans woman? Cycling Weekly should have said that up front.

So now you want to know all about Katje Van Loon, right? Obviously. You’re in luck, because the BBC explained about her exactly one year ago, on that previous International Non-Binary Day.

Ten years ago, Katje van Loon wrote a blog post calling for the creation of International Non-Binary Day on 14 July – exactly half way between International Women’s Day and International Men’s Day. Katje tells BBC gender and identity correspondent, Megha Mohan, why it is important that the day has become a reality.

Well thank fuck the BBC has a gender and identity correspondent, or we might never know about these things.

Katje explains all:

My grandmother had just died and I was at her apartment organising her things. Trying to distract myself after a while, I fell into an online rabbit hole and stumbled to the Wikipedia page for gender identities. It was here that I first read the definition of “non-binary”. In those paragraphs, I learned about people who do not follow binary gender norms, people who feel they exist in an intermediate space outside the definitions of male and female.

It was 2012. Until that day she was unaware of people who don’t follow gender norms?

In some ways I was like my mother. People called my mother a “handsome” woman, which I realised much later was designed to be an insult referring to her perceived lack of femininity.

She was a single woman, a lawyer and educator. She wasn’t like the other mothers from school. She would be as comfortable fixing things around the house as she was while teaching her students, or caring for me.

I was like her in my embrace of non-traditional gender roles. But unlike her I existed somewhere else. It wasn’t just that I didn’t feel “girly”, or was taller, and larger and less feminine. It was more than that: the label “woman” just didn’t fit me.

Because of course she’s more special and interesting than her mother. Obviously. We all are.

As an older millennial, I grew up online. In chat rooms, I found communities of people who talked about sexuality, and came out as bisexual at the age of 14.

Ah yes. Artymorty was just talking about the growing up online aspect this morning:

It’s easy to see how this is fueled in part by the increasing amount of time we spend online. Young people growing up are so focused on their digital lives, they’re beginning to find their actual bodies frightening and alien. Or if not quite frightening and alien, at least inconvenient and wrong.

Behold Katje Van Loon.

Amusingly she’s grown up since then.

Now, things have changed in my life. I’m more comfortable in myself. It matters less to me when people call me a woman or use the “she/her” pronouns. I used to be really in favour of having a third gender marker on IDs like passports or driver’s licences like they have in Argentina, Australia and India – and are proposing in South Africa. But now I’m not so sure. Do I want gender-minority data collected somewhere that is easily accessible for governments? Definitely not. I don’t have faith in bureaucracies. I can see why it may be important for some people in certain countries, but not for me.

Please notify the BBC and the Human Rights Campaign.

I’m trying to figure out who decided there’s such a thing as International Non-binary Day, and on what authority, and why anyone else is expected to nod agreement. It seems to be the work of one woman (or am I wrong to call her [xir?] a woman?) named Katje van Loon (a good deal too on the nose there) in 2012. Ok so why is anyone else expected to agree with her? Why am I expected to? What gave her the authority to invent a new International Day that we now have to hear about even though we don’t want to?

The Human Rights Campaign is very on board but it doesn’t explain any of these mysteries.

July 14 is recognized around the world as an occasion to shine a light on those who identify as non-binary and celebrates the rich diversity of the community.

Is it? I have my doubts. In Ulan Bator? Kabul? Peshawar? Kinshasa?

July 14 is recognized around the world as International Non-Binary People’s Day. This occasion shines a light on those who identify as non-binary and celebrates the rich diversity of the community.

Why do the HRC people repeat themselves, repeat themselves? I don’t know, don’t know. Anyway – what kind of “light” does it “shine” on people who claim to have interesting idenninies? All I’m seeing is pointless tedious circular flattery.

After that we get some testimonials, so that’s enough out of them.

This is cool. With the right lens you can clearly see Puget Sound and Lake Washington from 438 miles up.

You can even see Lake Samamish, east of Lake Washington and much smaller.

What does any of it mean?

It’s as if people are repeating sentences in a foreign language they are wholly unfamiliar with – reading them off a cheat-sheet without having any idea what they’re saying.

How do we go about “respecting” non-binary people? I simply don’t know where to begin. And why is it that they must be respected more than anyone else? Why are they singled out for this extra level of respect? What is it about them that compels, or should compel, extraordinary respect?

And how can they be recognised in law? They claim to be neither female nor male. How can the law recognise that? What would follow from the law’s recognition of it? How would such recognition affect the boring binary rest of us?

What is “gender-affirming healthcare” for “non-binary” people? Surely if anything it ought to be gender-negating healthcare? But it’s not clear what that would be either.

I wonder if Nadia Whittome MP has ever “sent love” to all women.

University College London press release:

14 July marks International Non-Binary People’s Day, aimed at raising awareness of the issues that non-binary people face around the world. 

Hmm. Ackshually, 14 July is Bastille Day. Famous for it. You’ve heard of Bastille Day haven’t you? In connection with a little item called the French Revolution? Quite conspicuous in its day.

But that’s genderism for you, innit. Just take what isn’t yours and then bully the people you took it from.

Find out more about what you can do to learn about diverse gender identities and create a more inclusive environment on campus.

No. I’ve already learned a great deal about “diverse gender identities,” all of it horrifying, and if the environment on campus were any more “inclusive” there would be no women present at all.

Familiarise yourself with the UCL policies and commit to challenging unacceptable behaviour

The university has guidance around recognising and challenging transphobic behaviour which encompasses support for non-binary people. Ensure you’re familiar with spotting harmful behaviour and if you experience or witness discrimination or harassment, please use Report + Support. Remember that we can all play a role in creating a safer, more compassionate, and inclusive campus. 

By reporting people who don’t believe in Magic Gender to the authorities for punishment.

Speaking of “Neither puberty suppression nor allowing puberty to occur is a neutral act”…

Leor Sapir wrote a few months ago:

That most children desist from cross-sex identification does not necessarily mean that they will no longer experience any distress associated with their bodies; rather, it means that even if such distress lingers, it will not prevent them from becoming reasonably well-adjusted and living a good life. The notion that no human should ever have to experience any discomfort associated with male or female embodiment, including during the turbulent period of puberty, is the utopian promise fueling much of the gender transition industry. There has been a growing movement among gender activists to frame puberty as something that the autonomous, disembodied, self should have a “right” to choose. “Neither puberty suppression nor allowing puberty to occur is a neutral act,” writes the World Professional Association for Transgender Health in the seventh version of its Standards of Care.

Mind-body dualism all over again. The soul reborn. “This body isn’t precious unique Moi, it’s a husk occupied by that magical spiritual being. It’s everyone’s right to shape their own husk until it fits the magical spiritual being better.”

Oh interesting.

Mind you the Telegraph is remarkably coy and evasive about it, not to say incoherent.

Headline:

Arrest after activist told crowd at London Trans Pride to ‘punch Terfs in the face’

That’s basically meaningless. They could be talking about the arrest of an activist in Hong Kong or Ulan Bator or Juneau. Is it the activist who was arrested or just some random person somewhere unknown?

Subhead:

Met says the person is in custody on suspicion of incitement to violence after a video of the incident was widely shared on social media

What kind of person?

Lede:

A 53-year-old woman has been arrested, police said, after an activist told a crowd at a trans pride event to punch gender-critical people in the face.

They stop being coy only to tell us a lie. He’s not a woman. Also, is the “activist” in question the “woman” mentioned in the first clause, or someone else entirely?

At the march in London on July 8, an activist was filmed apparently calling for protesters to “punch Terfs in the face”.

Who says he’s an activist? He’s a convicted felon out on parole, is what he is.

The Metropolitan Police said a woman had now been arrested on suspicion of incitement to violence in Westminster after a video of the incident was widely shared on social media.

He’s a man. A man a man a man a man. Stop pinning these horrible men’s crimes on us.

Terf is an abbreviation for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist”, a term used to describe people who believe that a trans woman’s gender identity is illegitimate.

Well there’s a meaningless claim. Two meaninglesses in one article and we’ve barely started. We don’t “believe that a trans woman’s gender identity is illegitimate”; we know that men are not women. This subject is already rotted from within partly because of obfuscation and gibberish; don’t be making it worse.

In the video, the activist was apparently seen telling a cheering crowd: “I was going to come here and be really fluffy, be really nice and be really lovely and queer and gay and laugh.

“But if you see a Terf, punch them in the f—— face.”

“apparently seen”??? There’s a video of him saying it.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “A 53-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of Incitement to violence. She has been taken into custody.

“The arrest on 12 July is in connection with an incident during the Trans Pride event in Westminster on 8 July. A video was widely shared on social media.”

He’s a man. A man a man a man a man.

On the one hand “trans women” and on the other hand the Taliban.

The BBC gushes over a man who won a “beauty pageant”:

Rikkie Valerie Kolle has made history as the first transgender woman to win Miss Netherlands. It’s the first time in the Dutch pageant’s 94-year history that a trans woman has been crowned winner. It means the 22-year-old will be the second openly trans competitor to take part in Miss Universe in December this year.

Well of course it’s the first time a man has been crowned winner of a competition for women.

This doesn’t infuriate me the way the intrusion of men in women’s sports does, because I think “beauty pageants” are bad and stupid and (obviously) sexist, but the fawning and drooling does annoy. Do grow up, BBC.

Rikkie says she dreamed of winning pageants like this as a child. “The journey started as a super insecure little boy,” she tells Newsbeat. “And now I’m standing here as a strong and empowering and confident woman. I’m really proud of that.”

Empowering? How? Don’t be absurd. Beauty pageants are enfeebling, not empowering. There’s no power in standing around in a dress or a swimsuit or underwear.

As Miss Netherlands, Rikkie is now entered into December’s Miss Universe competition – which was bought by trans businesswoman Anne Jakapong Jakrajutatip last year.

Tell you what, how about trans women take over these “competitions” completely. Women have better things to do.

The ten second rule is meeting some resistance.

Does it count as sexual harassment if an assault lasts less than 10 seconds?

Many young people in Italy are expressing outrage on social media, after a judge cleared a school caretaker of groping a teenager, because it did not last long enough.

That’s such an interesting idea. Apparently if a guy grabs a woman’s breast or crotch for only 9 seconds it’s legal and fine and just what women and girls have to expect because of their foolish choice to be born female.

I beg to differ. Nobody should touch anybody anywhere no matter how briefly. Period. The only exception should be physical safety – if someone is about to step in front of a speeding cyclist on the sidewalk [pavement] then it’s ok, indeed imperative, to grab. Other than that: no touching without invitation. (The rules are different among friends, of course, but this is about street/school/stairway harassment.)

Francesco Cicconetti wrote on TikTok: “Who decides that 10 seconds is not a long time? Who times the seconds, while you’re being harassed? Men don’t have the right to touch women’s bodies, not even for a second – let alone 5 or 10.” He goes on to say that the judges’ decision to acquit the caretaker shows just how normalised sexual harassment is in Italian society.

Quite so. Apparently Italian women are supposed to stay inside, just as women are in Afghanistan and Iran and so on. If they’re out in public, they’re whores by definition, so they positively welcome being leered at and followed and grabbed. Plus they hate it and it serves them right for going outside, the sluts.

Cooking.

A heatwave is sweeping across parts of southern Europe and north-west Africa, with potential record-breaking temperatures in the coming days. Temperatures are expected to surpass 40C (104F) in parts of Spain, France, Greece, Croatia and Turkey. In Italy, temperatures could reach as high as 48.8C (119.8F). A red alert warning has been issued for 10 cities, including Rome, Bologna and Florence.

…

A satellite image recorded by the EU’s Copernicus Sentinel mission revealed that the land temperature in the Extremadura region had hit 60C on Tuesday.

60C! That’s not even on the thermometer! It’s 140F!

Italian weather forecasters are warning that the next heatwave, dubbed Charon after the ferryman who delivered souls into the underworld, will push temperatures back up towards 43C in Rome and a possible 47C on the island of Sardinia.

Europe’s hottest-ever temperature of 48.8C (119.8F) was recorded near Syracuse on the Italian island of Sicily in August 2021.

A new study says 61,672 people died in Europe as a result of the heat last year. ISGlobal Institute in Barcelona said Italy had most deaths that could be attributable to the heat, with 18,010, while Spain had 11,324 and Germany 8,173.

The new normal.

Smug man boasts of intruding on women in a vulnerable state, emphasizes his determination to ignore their wishes and call them names in the process.

I told this story on Facebook but it’s about such a good thing I’m going to post it here too.

So when I realized back in the spring what a fool I’d been not going to the Arboretum I started going there quite often, and one of the first places I went was the trail that goes north and away from the arboish part of the Arbo but is still part of the same big chunk of land. That trail goes underneath a Seattle-East Side freeway to a small island in Lake Washington, and also to a second trail, a spectacular engineered one, that goes over the water to a raised lookout tower and a tiny island called Marsh Island and is just one epic view after another. Part of it is metal grid and part of it is woodchip-packed solid.

So, I went to that trail back in March or April, all bright-eyed and eager for the treat, but what I found when I got there was that it was destroyed. It was underwater. I was CRUSHED. A few weeks later I checked the other end, which is next to the Montlake Bridge of questing tourists fame. I was hoping I could go some distance onto the trail from that end – but no, that end was if anything even worse.

It wasn’t just that I wanted to walk on it, though it was certainly that, but it was also that it was such a great thing and so horrible that it was ruined. (The reason I stopped using it was because I got too irritated about encountering runners thundering over it in defiance of the very clear signage at each end of the trail saying no running on this fragile trail. It was the runners who destroyed it. Fiends.)

But. I had a faint hope that the scorching dry summer we get here might dry it out enough so that I could hop from puddle to puddle for at least part of the trail.

So, you know what’s coming next. After a couple of weeks of not being able to go on many explores I went back to the Arbo today and decided to go to Foster Island and maybe see if the trail was any better, so I did that, and by god it’s battered but NOT DEAD. It’s a little tacky in places, but only a little. I can’t tell you how ecstatic I was.

The lily pads were very much in evidence today.

Updating to add – I forgot! Just as I came around the curve into full view of the open water, the far side of the Bay, the vast sky, etc, a Bald Eagle sailed into view a few yards away, alone in that huge deep blue sky. I suspected it was Zeus in one of his many disguises.

The Washington Post takes the “someone” approach.

Democrats said the legislation would put someone experiencing a miscarriage at risk by forcing doctors to take extra time determining whether they qualify for an abortion. It also sets unrealistic time constraints for someone to report rape or incest to qualify for an abortion exception under the bill, they said.

Any particular kind of somone? Dunno.

Abortion rights advocates are vowing to fight the measure. If it is passed, Planned Parenthood North Central States will challenge the law in court and refer patients out of state if they need an abortion during the next few weeks, the group said in a statement.

“We intend to show that in numbers on Tuesday at the Capitol, reminding those politicians really of the fact that they will be held accountable for every vote that they take to strip Iowans of their rights,” said Mazie Stilwell, the director of public affairs at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa.

It’s women who lose when abortion rights are demolished.