Huh. So they want to exile us now.

He wants to “exile” us as “sick”; he wants to boycott us and banish us.

But don’t worry, this is a very healthy and progressive ideology and movement.

The Guardian tells us:

A high-end hotel in the liberal Texan enclave of Austin is playing host to a conference whose theme is boosting global birth rates, but which will in fact feature racist and eugenicist internet personalities and far-right media figures.

Boosting global birth rates – brilliant. That’s like throwing bottles of gasoline onto a house fire.

The Natal conference – whose website warns that “by the end of the century, nearly every country on earth will have a shrinking population, and economic systems dependent on reliable growth will collapse” – is scheduled to be held on 1 December at the Line Hotel.

Somebody should tell them about the other systems that are going to collapse, long before the end of the century.

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the Global Project on Hate and Extremism, said the meeting will cement links between the far right and influential rightwing opinion-makers. “It’s not surprising to see far-right folks, eugenicist types and white nationalists joining forces at a conference like this. They have become bedfellows,” she said.

She added: “The far right has long fretted about a demographic winter, and though they don’t necessarily say it openly, what they are referring to most often is a fall in white birthrates.”

If only they knew they can just stop fretting because global warming is going to make their concerns irrelevant.

Billy Bragg is unapologetic and determined: he knows which views are unpopular and To Be Avoided. Whether they’re any good or not is entirely beside the point.

Come on, Suzanne. Can he be any clearer??? The views in question are frowned upon. What more is there to say? We all know that no true claim is ever unpopular, right? Well then.

Her views are contentious! And divisive! And therefore obviously wrong. No true or reasonable or useful view is ever contentious or divisive, so why is Hadley even trying?

Nobody must ever say anything contentious!! How is this so contentious? Why is everyone not agreeing with my assertion that contentious views are automatically wrong and forbidden?!!

People can see! They won’t sit next to you in the cafeteria! They won’t ask you to their parties! They’ll point at you and laugh!

Batshit crazy godbotherer or droll parodist? You be the judge.

Has to be parody, doesn’t it?

Besides, who the hell wants canned peaches for anything? In fact who keeps a big stock of canned foods, so many that you need a code if the labels are gone? Canned foods are mostly bad foods. Why isn’t he instead getting all theological up in there with demanding fresh vegetables and pasta sauce in a glass jar?

Ok has to be parody.

Ooh I know this one, I can help.

Let me explain. Those are two different people, saying different things. So, to offer an analogy, you might like the novels of Natalie Haynes but not the novels of Lionel Shriver, or vice versa, because those are two different people writing different books. Do you see how that works? It’s quite a common occurrence, so it’s a good idea to get used to it.

LOVE the macramé bracelet.

Click on the image to see the classic Keds, too.

Aw look at the plucky lads overcoming the handicap of being male.

Aw, sad.

Vox has details:

[Last] Sunday was not a fun day for the thousands of people on their way to Burning Man. In the days leading up to the bacchanal, traffic is typically a nightmare on the two-lane highway that leads to the barren former lake bed in the Black Rock Desert, a national conservation area that, for a week every year, becomes known as Black Rock City, population 80,000.

But this year, a small group of climate protesters parked a 28-foot trailer across the road, causing miles of gridlock. Seven Circles, a coalition of organizations that includes Extinction Rebellion and Rave Revolution, made some simple demands of the Burning Man Organization, which hosts the annual desert party: “Ban private jets, single-use plastics, unnecessary propane burning, and unlimited generator use per capita at the nine day event in Black Rock City, Nevada.” There were also calls for the organization to mobilize its members “to initiate systemic change.” But the ban on private jets — that seems pretty straightforward.

Oh come on, how is all that not worth it for the sake of a great party?

The protesters, it deserves to be said, had a point: Burning Man is famously bad for the planet.

The many tens of thousands of people the event attracts must travel through some of the most remote parts of the country to a destination where there are few natural resources, where everything gets trucked in, and where vast structures are lit ablaze on the last night of the festival, pumping carbon-filled smoke into the atmosphere. But over 90 percent of the event’s carbon footprint comes not from the fires themselves but from travel to and from Black Rock City, according to a 2020 environmental sustainability report from the Burning Man Organization. Another 5 percent comes from gas- and diesel-burning generators that keep lights and air conditioners on during the festival.

Air conditioners. Ya gotta love it. “Let’s go spend a week in the desert, don’t forget to bring the generator and the portable air conditioner!”

All things told, each Burning Man generates about 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide. That’s more than about 22,000 gas-powered cars produce in a year.

Well, ok, but after all, Burning Man is an essential service, like hospitals and, uh, fire departments.

The explosive growth and popularity of the festival in the past three decades mirrors an entire history of humans favoring their own version of progress over the consequences it produces. What started out as a gathering on a beach in San Francisco has grown into a destination for celebrities and the ultra rich, especially tech billionaires. That’s why private jets have become an issue. There are now fancy camps, meals prepared by private chefs, and VIP parties. Bear in mind, all of this is built just for the weeklong festival at the end of the summer, and it all has to be disassembled and taken away after. One of the founding principles of Burning Man is “leave no trace,” but even the event’s organizers were stunned by how much trash got left behind in the desert last year.

Jeez, what a grouch. Some people just don’t like parties.

Men must be protected, but women are fair game.

I doubt I’ll ever understand why the blatant absurdity doesn’t make them stop and think again. Why keep the men’s toilet for men but say “come on in!” on the women’s? And while we’re at it, why label the women’s the women’s, and then add a smaller sign underneath that says “Both”?

Also, the iconography is interesting. In the original pair, the man straddles boldly while the woman balances dangerously on her one tiny leg. Men R strong, women R dainty. That’s why it’s so much safer to invade the women’s toilets than the men’s.

Alabama Republicans are still battling Reconstruction.

Just a few months ago, the US supreme court issued one of its most surprising rulings in recent memory.

In a 5-4 decision in Allen v Milligan, the court said Alabama’s congressional map violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act because it diluted the influence of Black voters, who make up about a quarter of the state’s population, but comprise a majority in just one of Alabama’s congressional districts. The justices upheld a lower court’s decision ordering Alabama to redraw its map “to include two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it”.

It was widely seen as a major win for the Voting Rights Act, a statute that the US supreme court has significantly hollowed out over the last decade. It was a victory that was supposed to give the Black belt, a historically Black region in the state that is among the poorest in the US, better representation in Washington.

In sharp contrast to the Shelby ruling, which was supposed to give Black voters worse representation.

But when Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature convened just a few weeks later, they ignored the mandate. Their new map still included just one majority Black district. It increased the percentage of Black voters in a second district to be around 41% Black, but continued to crack the Black belt, a historically Black region that stretches across the middle of Alabama, into multiple districts. Now, it is asking a federal court to approve that map and, if they don’t, the case will probably return to the supreme court.

Alabama Republicans would restore slavery if they could.

Hmmmmmmmmmmno.

No gender idenniny isn’t “real” any more than the “soul” is real. Feelings about what sex one is can be real. Intense unhappiness about what sex one is can be real. Unhappiness of that kind can be both real and as it were manufactured – it can be a product of social manipulation or contagion, while still being an intense feeling. But our feelings don’t necessarily mirror reality – in fact they very often don’t. It’s even possible to change one’s feelings by tweaking one’s description of them. We can talk ourselves out of feeling angry or miserable, and we can also talk ourselves into feeling angry or miserable. The feelings can be real but they can be based on very mistaken ideas, interpretations, beliefs. Trans ideology is strikingly prone to whipping up desperate feelings on the basis of total bullshit.

Sex is real: it’s a given, it’s something we’re born with and can’t change. Our feelings about what sex we are are real in the sense that we feel them (those of us who do), but they’re not real in the way sex is real. It’s like a lot of things that way. We can feel we are pretty much anything, but that doesn’t mean we can be whatever we can imagine ourselves being.

Then of course Tatchell cheats in the way this ideology always does, by changing the wording. “Real” suddenly switches to “valid,” without explanation or justification. The two are not the same.

Hm. Interesting.

An unsafe environment, Comerford says. So unsafe that there is no choice: it is imperative that such an environment be prevented by canceling the entire gig in every case.

This is a big part of the pathology of this kind of “politics.” It’s pathological to be so extremely fragile that merely being in the presence of people who don’t share your delusions is “unsafe.”

But they’re not actually that fragile, are they. Hardly anyone is. It’s the ideology that’s fragile, and it’s the ideology that’s pathological.

It’s stupid and bad to keep telling people, over and over and in all-caps, that they are as fragile as a spider web, so fragile that they will drop dead or commit suicide if they even share a large space with people who don’t endorse their luxury false “identities.”

This is not a thing. We don’t do this. We don’t tell children their fantasies are real and anyone who doesn’t agree that their fantasies are real is a lethal threat.

Yet here is Comerford saying the opposite. It’s grotesque.

Sigh.

The Telegraph:

Cricket is facing mounting criticism for failing to follow other sports in tightening women’s sport protections after it emerged a transgender player will make her international debut.

Danielle McGahey, an Australian-born player, is set to become the first transgender cricketer to play an official Twenty20 international, representing Canada.

That is, the first man to play on a women’s team.

Sharron Davies, the Olympic medallist swimmer who has been at the forefront of campaigns to protect the integrity of women’s sport, says the situation is “outrageously irresponsible”.

“We’ve been pushing the England and Wales Cricket Board for years to protect females from male biological advantage,” she told Telegraph Sport of campaigns in England to toughen rules. “There are trans-identifying males in the English game right now that have caused damage to young female cricketers. Canada is particularly discriminatory toward their female athletes by allowing males into sports like rugby even against international governing bodies’ safety-first policies.”

And safety of course is not the only issue. Fairness is another.

McGahey detailed how she had undergone the required medical transition in order to meet existing ICC eligibility regulations.

“I am absolutely honoured,” McGahey told the BBC. “To be able to represent my community is something I never dreamt I would be able to do.

He shouldn’t be. He should be absolutely embarrassed and ashamed and crawling with remorse.

An ICC statement said: “We can confirm that Danielle went through the process as required under the ICC’s player eligibility regulations and as a result has been deemed eligible to participate in international women’s cricket on the basis that she satisfies the MTF transgender eligibility criteria.”

Oh go soak your head. Fuck “eligibility regulations” and fuck “deemed eligible” and fuck “she satisfies the male to female criteria.” Fuck all of it. It’s insulting theft of women’s sports so stop pretending it’s anything else.

Why would any college, let alone a women’s college, give money to Dylan Mulvaney to talk about women’s rights and women’s empowerment? When there are plenty of women who would do a much better job of it and have the added value of being women?

Dylan Mulvaney is a stunt, an act, a joke, a living cartoon. Why would any educational institution go near him? What is the purpose?

He won an award. He whined about tranzfobeea.

Victoria Smith on the surprising absence of embarrassment:

It has just been announced that Danielle McGahey, a biological male, will represent Canada as the first trans cricketer in an official international women’s match. What’s more, McGahey isn’t remotely ashamed to be stealing the place of an elite female cricketer. All the rules have been followed: blood tests, declarations of gender identity, and all the rest. As long as a series of arbitrary hoops — none of which turn males into females — can be jumped through, McGahey assumes the right to pose as the injured party should anyone object. 

The cricketer follows Lia Thomas, Veronica Ivy, Laurel Hubbard, Lindsay Hecox, Hannah Mouncey and CeCé Telfer. Objection to any exclusion of male people from female categories has been recast as trans people not being allowed to play at all. In tandem, it has transpired that women themselves are to be considered petty and selfish for complaining. Turns out we sceptics had a lot to learn. 

It’s funny because it was only about fifteen minutes ago that women were finally allowed to participate in sports. Blink and you missed it!

Recently, World Athletics, International Rugby League, Fina and British Cycling have been among those finally making moves to protect female categories. Given the historical exclusion of women from top-level sports, it’s a disgrace that these battles had to be fought at all, let alone that any wins for women continue to be framed as “bans” on trans people. 

…

When you have a male body and compete against women, any prizes you win are for shamelessness, not sporting prowess. You show who you really are. The trouble — for women, at least — is how many people don’t care, just so long as the same sex gets to win.

We’ll always have the knitting.

Jo Bartosch on the sudden cancellation of Róisín Murphy:

Murphy’s crime was to have been forthright about her views on the use of experimental puberty-blocking drugs on children who are confused about their gender.

…

Murphy’s views are certainly not unfounded. Medical opinion across the world is now shifting against the use of puberty blockers to treat childhood gender distress. And yet Murphy could not have put a larger target on her own back had she announced her engagement to President Putin, with Andrew Tate as celebrant.

…

This week, it was reported that Ninja Tune, the record label behind Murphy’s long-awaited upcoming album, Hit Parade, has halted all marketing and promotion of her work. It has also committed to sharing proceeds from the new album with pro-trans groups. Today it was announced that two of her London gigs have been cancelled.

Punish punish punish the non-compliant woman. Keep punishing her until there is no punishment left.

It is a symptom of a profound social sickness that expressing concern over the safety of children leads to such hostility and public shaming. The real opprobrium should be reserved for those ghoulish medics and influencers who promote the myth of the transgender child, and who are harming countless numbers of children in the process.

Oh but it’s all fully reversible, they keep assuring us of that.

This guy is a medical doctor – it says so on the tin. And yet, he thinks a single word can change people’s sex.

He’s been trying to bully Martina.

Peak argumentative skills: put quotation marks on things people never said. Martina doesn’t bully anyone for being “too butch.” What a ridiculous claim. She doesn’t talk in terms of “normal women,” either.

I wouldn’t want to get a flu shot from that guy.

Proud dude sentenced to 17 years.

A leader of the far-right Proud Boys has been sentenced to 17 years in prison, one of the longest terms yet handed out over the US Capitol riot. US Army veteran Joe Biggs, 38, was an instigator of the storming of Congress on 6 January 2021, prosecutors said.

Another Proud Boys member, Zachary Rehl, was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years, also on a charge of seditious conspiracy. Rehl, a former US Marine and leader of the Philadelphia branch of the Proud Boys, was seen on video spraying a chemical irritant at officers outside the Capitol during the riot.

Biggs was convicted of a slew of charges in May, including seditious conspiracy, intimidation or threats to prevent officials from discharging their duties, and interference with law enforcement during civil disorder.

…

In court, federal prosecutor Jason McCullough said the crimes were “very serious” and that a stiff sentence would send a message ahead of next year’s presidential election. “There is a reason why we will hold our collective breaths as we approach future elections… They pushed this to the edge of a constitutional crisis,” he said.

Prosecutors used text messages, social media posts and videos to show that the Proud Boys were involved in a co-ordinated effort to stop the certification of the 2020 election at the Capitol.

It wasn’t just playacting, it wasn’t just boys getting a little overexcited, it was the real thing. It could happen again. It could succeed this time.

He’s absolutely right.

But see women don’t get to cite aggravated contempt. We’re not eligible. Racial minorities are eligible, LGB people are eligible, god-botherers are eligible, trans people are super eligible, but women are not. Some women are of course included in racial minorities and religions, some of course are lesbians, but women qua women are not entitled to claim that misogynist abuse is aggravated anything. We’re too privileged for that.

Preposterous and sick indeed.

I wish Seattle would do the same.

Paris says au revoir to rental e-scooters

They’re a menace. It’s like allowing people to drive their cars on the sidewalks.

A ban on rental electric scooters has come into effect in Paris in response to a rising number of people being injured and killed in the French capital.

…

Paris is now one of the first capitals to have outlawed the rented electric vehicles, just five years after being one of the first to adopt them.

Come on, Seattle, do the same.

As a cyclist of the traditional variety, I am more than a little peeved by the way electric “personal vehicles” like e-scooters are crowding out our space. Forty years campaigning for cycle paths, only to be squeezed to the side by a new kind of motorised transport – that gets one’s goat.

Nor do I take kindly to what – as a father of young children – I have in recent years witnessed all too regularly: scooters powering down the pavement and requiring urgent avoidance. A good friend of mine broke a rib when he was knocked over by an e-scooter in Paris. This was last year, and it still hurts when he coughs.

Pedestrians on the sidewalk. Everyone else – including people riding bicycles – on the street.