Latest Blog Post:

Either the gag order has teeth or

One lawyer’s view:

… Read the rest

More Blog Posts

Archives
Bad Moves
Articles
Flashback
In Focus
Latest News
Letters
Notes and Comment Blog

Either the gag order has teeth or
By Ophelia Benson, April 23, 2024

One lawyer’s view:

… Read the rest

Archives
Bad Moves
Articles
Flashback
In Focus
Latest News
Letters
Notes and Comment Blog

Either the gag order has teeth or 

One lawyer’s view:

… Read the rest

What gag order??? 

Trump is busy testing them even as we speak.

… Read the rest

He does it anyway 

Now there’s a trial within the trial. The trial has been paused while the judge and the lawyers discuss what to do about Trump’s nonstop violations of the gag order.

Trump was warned he could face sanctions if he violated the order, “and here we are”, the prosecutor says.

They are now going over each of the social media posts where Trump allegedly broke the order, including one he reposted from Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ former lawyer, who is now serving time in prison for extortion, tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement.

…

Some of the most striking moments so far have occurred when prosecutors have recited Trump’s own words back at him as he sits here in court.

Just

… Read the rest
Perfectly legal views 

A tiny flicker of hope?

The Labour shadow justice secretary has said she agrees with JK Rowling that “biological sex is real and is immutable”. Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, expressed support for women who express gender critical views, saying that they should not be “stigmatised” for saying them.

The Labour shadow justice secretary – not the Eating People’s Faces shadow justice secretary.

It comes after Wes Streeting earlier this month admitted that he had been wrong to say that “trans women are women” in the wake of the Cass review into NHS gender care.

If trans women are women then what does the “trans” in “trans women” mean? It’s double dipping, that’s what it is. They don’t … Read the rest

Uncomfortable in his seat 

The public humiliation of Trump got under way this morning. It may be the only consolation we ever get.

The prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, presented to the jury that Trump’s “catch-and-kill” scheme with the National Enquirer was entirely geared towards helping the Trump 2016 campaign.

Colangelo contended there were three parts to the alleged conspiracy: that the National Enquirer would run positive coverage, the National Enquirer would attack political opponents and that the National Enquirer would act as the eyes and ears for the campaign to detect and suppress negative stories.

Journalism at its finest.

During much of Colangelo’s opening statement, Trump appeared uncomfortable in his seat with his brow furrowed while the unsavory details of the alleged affair with Daniels

… Read the rest
Keeping the peace 

The Daily Mail three days ago:

A transgender runner who outraged many by entering last year’s London Marathon as a woman has revealed she won’t list herself in the female category when she runs the race again on Sunday. 

Glenique Frank, 55, sparked controversy last year after she competed in the female category of the colossal race in the English capital last April, with Olympian Mara Yamauchi claiming it was ‘wrong and unfair’. 

“Glenique.”

[T]he charity runner from Daventry is again preparing to take on the gruelling 26.2-mile race on April 21, albeit in a different category than last year. 

She is expected to compete as a non-binary athlete instead, a category that was introduced by marathon organisers

… Read the rest
Correcting the past 

Maximum self-determination at last:

The German Parliament, or Bundestag, passed one of the world’s most far-reaching sex self-determination policies on April 12, despite protests from women’s rights campaigners. The Self-Determination Act (SBGG) establishes ‘gender identity’ as a protected characteristic and allows parents to change the sex marker on their children’s documents from birth.

Entschuldigen sie Deutschland but that’s not self-determination. That’s the opposite of self-determination. Parents changing the sex marker on a newborn’s documents is parental determination, not self determination. Verstehen sie?

No, actually, it’s just that Genevieve Gluck Reduxx worded it confusingly. What she meant was that the law lets parents change their children’s sex marker retroactively, starting at age 5.

But arguably the most troubling aspect of

… Read the rest
Tense confrontations on campus 

There’s a situation at Columbia:

Columbia University is facing a full-blown crisis heading into Passover as a rabbi linked to the Ivy League school urged Jewish students to stay home and tense confrontations on campus sparked condemnation from the White House and New York officials.

The atmosphere is so charged that Columbia officials announced students can attend classes and even possibly take exams virtually starting Monday – the first day of Passover, a major Jewish holiday set to begin in the evening.

Tensions at Columbia, and many universities, have been high ever since the October 7 terror attack on Israel by Hamas. However, the situation at Columbia escalated in recent days after university officials testified before Congress last week

… Read the rest
Guest post: Much of the fervid proselytizing has been recruitment 

Originally a comment by Artymorty on There’s no shame, no apology.

I have a sickening feeling that one reason the medical interference has been seen as okie doke is because so many people were doing it at the same time. There’s a “community” being built, and when there’s a “community,” well at least you won’t be lonely with your ruined body, you’ll be able to find other people in the same boat. Once that stops being the case, the interference stops looking quite so progressive. What does this mean? That much of the fervid proselytizing for medical interference has been recruitment – so that people who have already trashed their bodies will have a pool of potential fellow-miserables. A

… Read the rest
Guest post: You plug in your good friend Pat 

Originally a comment by Sastra on But I want to, he said.

@Sonderval #10:

Very insightful, and clearly expressed. This misapplied attitude of “look below the surface, it’s almost always more complicated than it appears to the simple-minded” is I think one of the main motivators for an atheist/skeptic/humanist embrace of gender ideology. It’s a sort of forced-teaming with the theory of evolution to go with the forced teaming with homosexuality and gay rights. The combination leads to a very comfortable, smug certainty that they can’t possibly be wrong. A science-oriented person ought to be just as wary of that.

YNNB #8 is undoubtedly correct about the different motivations. I’ll add in the natural human tendency to think small … Read the rest

Trans epistemology 

“I’ve seen far too many criticisms of it so far to be able to say that.”

Derp.

Of course he has: because he sought them out, and because his mates and allies are all firmly trapped in the ideology. … Read the rest

Guest post: Extrapolating the lessons of science to a “credo quia absurdum” 

Originally a comment by Sonderval on But I want to, he said.

What do they see that I don’t see???

They “see” the same thing we all see. But they do know that if you are smart you look deeper than the obvious, and that looking only at the surface is what stupid and bigoted people do.

Smart people (having read Kant) know that “I think therefore I am” is not as convincing as it looks on first sight.

Smart people know that species, despite looking clearly distinct, actually evolve.

Smart people know that space and time are not what they seem.

Smart and non-bigoted people know that despite looking different, members of all races are just human.

So … Read the rest

That student 

CBS is less dishonest than NBC, which is damning with faint praise indeed. They do manage not to say the assault was an assault, not an “altercation.”

A 13-year-old is facing charges after a student at one Montgomery County middle school was assaulted at lunch with what students describe as a Stanley cup. Upper Gwynedd Township police said the teen will be charged as a juvenile with aggravated assault and other charges.

Less deceptive, but still pretending nobody involved has a sex.

Superintendent Todd Bauer started the meeting with a statement about the attack, which took place at lunchtime Wednesday afternoon. He said a seventh-grade student was assaulted by another student in an alarming attack. As a result, that

… Read the rest
That was no altercation 

NBC Philadelphia lies and conceals and deceives in its shockingly dishonest reporting on the Pennbrook school assault. Aren’t there any professional regulatory bodies that discourage lies and deception in journalism? Are they toothless?

A seventh grader is recovering in the hospital after a physical altercation between students during the lunch period at a Montgomery County middle school.

Liar! It wasn’t an altercation, it was an assault. It was a crime. Call it an alleged assault if you have to for legal reasons, but don’t call it an altercation. Don’t mislead the readers.

A female student was attacked from behind with a 40-ounce Stanley brand mug, according to a source who spoke with NBC10. The attack is alleged to be unprovoked.

… Read the rest
But I want to, he said 

Oh oh oh says the man, running is so important to me.

https://twitter.com/Jonnywsbell/status/1781826317299720228

“Running is so – such a crucial part of my like my being” he says – not pausing for a single second, of course, to remember that the same is true of the women he runs “with” and that therefore he should stop competing with them.

They never do. They never ever do. They tell us self-pityingly how much the cycling football running swimming rugby yadda yadda means to them and never ever ever stop to think about anyone other than their precious selves. … Read the rest

Guest post: Still Another New Academic discipline 

Guest post by Jonathan A. Gallant

An Inside Higher Education article on “Critical Studies” announced another triumph of this modern academic approach to socially constructed categories:  “For instance, critical childhood studies investigates how childhood is socially constructed, understood and experienced cross-culturally and trans-historically.  It challenges the notion that childhood is a natural and universal stage of life...”  

  Permit me to announce the new, related approach of Critical Mortality Studies.  This field will interrogate the social construction of death, challenging the notion that those who are assigned to the category of “deceased” are any different from you, me, or the Associate Dean for DEI.  They are just on their own position along the spectrum of vitality, and should therefore be … Read the rest

Blunt force trauma 

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania…

– The boy maintained a “hit list” of girls to assault.

– The school was well aware of the boy’s violent tendencies, and reportedly had him solo-escorted into school every day.

– The victim was bludgeoned in the head repeatedly with a Stanley tumbler.

– School administrators had been warned repeatedly about the boy’s violent tendencies, but appear to

… Read the rest

No bus no tube 

The Times on the bullying of Hilary Cass:

Dr Hilary Cass has criticised the spread of “disinformation” around her report, including from a Labour MP, as she revealed she had been told not to travel on public transport over safety fears.

In an interview with The Times, the paediatrician behind last week’s landmark review on the treatment of transgender children said that young people were being put “at risk” by the spread of false information.

At risk of ruining their lives, at that.

Following publication of her 388-page report, figures including the Labour MP Dawn Butler repeated claims that Cass had not included 100 transgender studies in it. Calling the assertion “completely wrong”, Cass said that it was “unforgivable”

… Read the rest
Progressive bullying 

Dr Cass can’t take a bus any more.

… Read the rest

Out of the cocoon 

If nothing else, we get the satisfaction of knowing Trump had to listen to a bunch of people saying what a pile of ordure he is.

He seems “selfish and self-serving,” said one woman.

The way he carries himself in public “leaves something to be desired,” said another.

His “negative rhetoric and bias,” said another man, is what is “most harmful.”

Way too mild, but better than nothing.

It’s been a dramatic departure for the former president and presumptive 2024 GOP nominee, who is accustomed to spending his days in a cocoon of cheering crowds and constant adulation. Now a criminal defendant, Trump will instead spend the next several weeks subjected to strict rules that strip him of control

… Read the rest