This document is part of an archive of postings on Tongue Tied, a blog hosted by Blogspot who are in turn owned by Google. The index to the archive is available here or here. Indexes to my other blogs can be located here or here. Archives do accompany my original postings but, given the animus towards conservative writing on Google and other internet institutions, their permanence is uncertain. These alternative archives help ensure a more permanent record of what I have written.
This is a backup copy of the original blog
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" -- 1st amendment
31 August, 2022
Google BLOCKS Trump's Truth Social from being downloaded on Android devices because of 'lack of content moderation'
Donald Trump's social media platform hasn't been approved for download on Android devices yet because of the applications lack of content moderation.
Truth Social was made available for download on the Apple App Store in February, but an Alphabet Inc spokesperson said the insufficient moderation has kept it from being approved for the Google Play store, according to Axios.
While Trump Media & Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes say the decision to make Truth Social available on Android devices is 'up to Google', the company has put the onus on the platform.
'I don't know what's taking them so long,' Nunes said.
Alphabet said it sent a notification to Truth Social on August 19 stating the platform is in 'several violations of standard policies in their current app submission.'
Google noted that 'having effective systems for moderating user-generated content is a condition of our terms of service for any app to go live on Google Play.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11160887/Truth-Social-Android-app-not-approved-Google-Play-Store-Axios.html
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30 August, 2022
Australian radio host ignites controversial transgender bathroom discussion
Former Liberal candidate Katherine Deves says there has been “deafening radio silence” on the issue of gender reassignment. She said the media has been “shocking” on their “failure” to report on the Tavistock clinic. Ms Deves also said European countries were backtracking on medicalised pathways for transgender…
Paul “Campo” Campion from River 94.9FM’s Marnie & Campo show said he disagreed with transgender students being able to use any bathroom they wanted. He also referred to the student’s genitalia.
The controversial topic started over a lighthearted discussion on people identifying as animals in Victoria.
Campo, who has been on the show since 2015, said he was concerned about his daughter in school who was sharing the bathroom with a transgender student.
He said he needed more education around the topic and didn’t agree with the Queensland Department of Education’s policies around transgender bathroom use.
The school was not named however due to the public profile of the radio host, members of the community were concerned the child mentioned would be identifiable.
The station received complaints and Michelle Inns, founder of popular Facebook group Parents of Transgender Kids, encouraged all members to write a formal complaint.
“There is a significant level of disgust in our community for the comments made on the show about transgender children, their access to school bathrooms (a right that is enforced by Education Queensland),” Inns said.
“The discussion of a minor‘s genitalia on public radio is also extremely inappropriate.”
It is bitterly disappointing after all of the recent community backlash against transgender discrimination in our schools and political system that the radio station has allowed this kind of behaviour.
“People seem to assume that shared bathroom use is putting their children at risk.
“Our kids are already struggling with their bodies and are incredibly self conscious, it’s more likely they will be seeking privacy and trying to avoid conflict.”
Station general manager David Wiltshire said they reviewed the broadcast and did not breach the commercial radio code of practice.
He said however he was not dismissing the concerns.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/ipswich/ipswich-radio-host-ignites-controversial-transgender-bathroom-discussion/news-story/f1bb2f7430ffe0c59d5d1d2b551ce84c
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29 August, 2022
Turkish singer Gulsen jailed for controversial religious school comment
A Turkish court Thursday jailed a pop star famous for her racy outfits and support for LGBTQ rights on charges of “inciting hatred” over a comment about religious schools.
Singer Gulsen Bayraktar Colakoglu — a 46-year-old known by her first name on stage — was detained at home in Istanbul and taken to court.
A judge then remanded her in jail pending an investigation into remarks she made on stage in April about Imam Hatip religious schools, AFP reports.
The schools raise children to be Muslim preachers and remain highly controversial among secular Turks.
A clip of the comments went viral and created outrage among senior members of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted party this week.
Gulsen is a household name in Turkey and her case has turned into headline news in the officially secular but mostly Muslim and highly polarised country.
The controversial comment saw Gulsen remark to an unknown person on stage in apparent jest that his “perversion” was caused by his upbringing in an Imam Hatip school.
“Targeting a fraction of society with the allegations of ‘perversion’ and trying to divide Turkey is a crime of hatred and disgrace of humanity,” AKP spokesman Omer Celik said.
https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/turkish-singer-gulsen-jailed-for-controversial-religious-school-comment/news-story/91ed969624dde70d0cf8fa261518d6dc
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28 August, 2022
If you don't vote the way I do, the answer is no
I have encountered this a few times when dating. I have met what seemed like a compatible lady without any prior discussion of politics. The initial discussions were about cultural and lifestyle matters. When it emerged that I liked Donald Trump, however, the shutters really came down. There was nothing I could say or do to stop the lady from breaking off contact. Their minds just snapped shut.
And that is despite the generalization that the older both men and women get the more conservative they become. As I am in my 70s and mostly meet people of a similar vintage, women I meet should have by now become closer to me politically. And I do find that. But for some Leftist women, Donald Trump is a move too far
by Jeff Jacoby
BACK IN the 1980s, when I was single and looking, I went on a first date with a woman who was in the microbiology graduate program at MIT. I no longer remember how we met or where we went that evening, but even after all these years I vividly remember how the date abruptly crashed.
The conversation had meandered into politics and my companion asked if there was a potential presidential candidate I liked. Indeed there was: I told her I was a fan of Jack Kemp, the former Buffalo Bills quarterback who had become a Republican congressman from New York. Half libertarian, half "bleeding-heart conservative," Kemp was considering a run for the White House, and I hoped he would go for it.
My date was appalled. She wanted nothing to do, she heatedly said, with someone who could support the likes of Kemp. Our first and only date quickly came to an end.
The experience left me baffled, for two reasons. One was that I truly couldn't understand how a political figure like Kemp — a man of integrity, commitment, intellectual curiosity, and optimism — could possibly inspire such animosity. The other was that I had never before gone out with someone for whom a deviation in political outlook outweighed everything we might have in common. I was certainly used to political disagreements with my peers. But to recoil from the prospect of getting to know someone just because they voted differently? That was a first.
Now it's normal.
NBC News reported last week on the findings of a new survey of second-year college students it conducted with Generation Lab, a polling firm that specializes in young people's views and behavior. Of the survey's 21 questions, three focused on the willingness of respondents to make a connection with someone who supported a different presidential candidate than they did in the last election. The results indicate a generation far more likely to see political dissimilarity the way my long-ago date did: as an automatic deal-breaker.
Asked whether they would choose to be roommates with someone who voted differently in 2020, nearly half said they probably or definitely would not. That antipathy was especially intense among Democrats, a combined 62 percent of whom said "probably not" or "definitely not." But even among self-identified Republicans and independents, the refusal to room with someone from the other side of the political aisle was well into double digits.
The results were even more pronounced when respondents were asked if they would go on a date with someone who voted differently the last time around: A combined 53 percent said they would not. As for marriage, nearly two-thirds — 63 percent — said they could not imagine marrying someone whose choice for president diverged from theirs.
Given the state of contemporary America, it is hard to be surprised by these results, which roughly parallel what other surveys have found. Evidence of our political, cultural, and social abyss abounds, especially for those who spend an inordinate amount of time on social media. Still, of all the ways in which college has been transformed over the past generation, this has to be the saddest. Life eventually wraps most of us in a cocoon of familiar faces, ideas, and experiences. But one of the great blessings of college and early adulthood ought to be the chance to be exposed to new faces, ideas, and backgrounds — to encounter people with different upbringings and beliefs, and, just maybe, be enriched by the experience.
When I was in college, I never had roommates whose political views lined up with my own and never thought there was something wrong with that arrangement. I am friendly to this day with the freshman roommate who was (and remains) a passionate liberal, the one who constantly played Tom Paxton protest songs and avidly supported Jerry Brown for president. I concede that I didn't form the same bond with another roommate, the one who kept a copy of Mao Zedong's "little red book" of quotations on his dresser. Still, even he and his outlandish views contributed something meaningful to my experience.
That isn't possible when politics take priority over everything else. As it becomes more and more unthinkable today to share a dorm room, go on a date, or contemplate tying the knot with someone whose politics aren't a close match, Americans will have less and less to say to each other. Division, discord, and distrust are already at crisis levels in this country. I shudder to imagine where we are headed as the current generation of college students comes of age.
https://jeffjacoby.com/26412/if-you-dont-vote-the-way-i-do-the-answer-is-no
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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26 August, 2022
A regional Australian newsletter that published a “blatantly sexist” joke column has been referred to the nation’s press watchdog
Murgon Moments, a free monthly newsletter distributed in the South Burnett town, published a “Joke For The Month” in its August edition that made reference to violence against women.
It involved a woman being told by her doctor she could avoid becoming a victim of domestic violence by keeping her mouth shut.
Ms Fentiman said the content of the column was blatantly sexist and insulting to women and showed a complete disrespect for domestic violence survivors, their families and support workers.
She confirmed on Thursday a complaint had been made to the Australian Press Council — an industry-funded body that sets standards and responds to complaints about material published in newspapers and magazines.
“As Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, it is deeply troubling that a Queensland community newspaper would publish such disgraceful content, and it must be reprimanded for disseminating this so called ‘joke’ to its readers,” she said.
“As a nation, we have come so far in our fight to end all forms of domestic and family violence, but it is these types of publications which belittle and undermine the very abuse we are trying to eliminate.
“I strongly urge the Australian Press Council to act swiftly on this complaint, to ensure all media outlets in every community are held to the highest standard.”
The APC has no legal or legislative powers to penalise the press.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/domestic-violence-qld-newsletter-reported-to-watchdog-for-sexist-joke/news-story/68d71106c2c8efc4dfc54ce5e5f2dbdd
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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25 August, 2022
Hang on, doesn’t Murdoch support free speech?
This article in a Left-leaning newspaper is being deliberately obtuse. Defamation has never anywhere been protected speech. It has always been actionable speech. And this case is no different. Lachlan Murdoch was clearly defamed so is free to sue no matter how strongly he supports common free-speech immunities. He can do so with no inconsistency
This is a story that, in many respects, is of David and Goliath proportions. On one side is Fox News boss Lachlan Murdoch, one of the world’s most powerful media executives, and on the other is Crikey, a small, progressive news website ran by long-time local media proprietor and former editor Eric Beecher.
At issue is an almost throwaway last line in a comment piece published in late June by Crikey on the US congressional hearings investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in 2021. The opinion article was about Donald Trump’s egregious attempts to subvert the election result and ended thus: “The Murdochs and their slew of poisonous Fox News commentators are the unindicted co-conspirators of this continuing crisis.” According to Lachlan Murdoch’s lawyers, the story implied the media scion “illegally conspired with Donald Trump to incite an armed mob to march on the Capitol”.
Murdoch took umbrage, and threatened to sue Crikey for defamation. The website responded by removing the article but refused to apologise and questioned the validity of the case. In a tit-for-tat exchange of legal letters, the stoush escalated, with both sides unwilling to back down and Crikey goading Murdoch into taking it to court.
The case may well end up before a judge – a juicy case indeed – but there are some broader implications at play. First, Lachlan’s father Rupert – one of the richest and most powerful media moguls in the world – has never sued for defamation. You can criticise the elder Murdoch for much, but at least he appears to understand that with his endless opportunities to have his say, suing for supposed reputational damage is not appropriate.
His son, however, has no such self-awareness but is thin-skinned – the article never even named Lachlan. For any Murdoch, presiding over media organisations which at their worst insult, distort and aggressively attack opponents, to sue a small website for saying bad things about him is astonishing. The Murdoch media champion “free speech” to the point of nausea, but not this time.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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August 24, 2022
Facebook and Instagram Ban Children’s Health Defense Amid Legal Challenges Over Censorship
The non-profit Children’s Health Defense (CHD) has been booted off Facebook and Instagram for 30 days for allegedly violating the company’s community standards on “misinformation” about COVID-19.
“Facebook is acting here as a surrogate for the Federal government’s crusade to silence all criticism of draconian government policies. Our constitutional framers recognized this peril of government censorship,” wrote CDH founder, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in a public statement.
“We don’t need the First Amendment to protect popular or government-approved speech. They incorporated the First Amendment specifically to protect free expression of dissenting opinions.
“They understood that a government that can silence its critics has license for every atrocity.”
Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
On Aug. 17, Meta notified the CHD that it had suspended its webpage for 30 days. The page had hundreds of thousands of followers.
“This is because Children’s Health Defense goes against our Community Standards on misinformation that could cause physical harm,” the notice read.
“We encourage free expression but don’t allow false information about COVID-19 that could contribute to physical harm.”
“Your page has been unpublished.”
In August 2020, the CHD filed a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the Big Tech company of censorship.
In the 150-page lawsuit, the CHD said a judicial remedy is “urgently required” to redress the damage to the organization, including the “abridgement of its fundamental rights caused by Facebook and its Chairman Mark Zuckerberg’s aggressive and illegal efforts, embarked upon in response to state pressure and in conjunction with state actors, to censor and suppress CHD’s posting of material critical of those very state actors and voicing alternative views concerning the safety and efficacy of vaccines.”
The CHD appealed against a judge’s ruling in favor of Meta and produced U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documents the agency shared with Facebook.
“These documents, provided to Facebook on a regular basis, contained what the CDC considered misinformation,” according to the CHD.
Titled “COVID Vaccine Misinformation: Hot Topics,” the documents asked tech giants to “be on the lookout for various topics the CDC considers to be misinformation, including COVID-19 vaccine shedding, VAERS reports, spike protein data, and more.”
The CHD argues that its de-platforming by Meta came days after the CDC issued new and less restrictive COVID-19 guidelines while admitting it had made mistakes responding to the pandemic.
“Within hours of the CHD de-platforming, CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky shared her plans for overhauling how the agency works while admitting to a flawed response to COVID-19 and pandemic missteps,” the CHD said in a statement.
“Censorship is not only unconstitutional, [but] it’s un-American,” said Roger Teich, CHD lawyer for the Meta lawsuit.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/facebook-and-instagram-ban-childrens-health-defense-amid-legal-challenges-over-censorship_4680852.html
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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23 August, 2022
'I was sacked for suggesting that drag acts were a gross caricature of femininity'
A lecturer at a prominent music academy says she has been forced out of her job after she suggested drag acts could be viewed as sexist.
Cathy Boardman, a lecturer in cultural studies, had asked her class to reflect on 'womanface' – a critical term for female impersonation – and whether or not it was demeaning.
But bosses at the BIMM Institute , which has outposts around the country and links with Sussex University, told her this was a 'deeply sensitive' subject and that transgender students had been left upset.
Ms Boardman was then dismissed from her post. The lecturer, who is now taking legal action for unfair dismissal, said she had already been warned by the college principal that a small group of students were 'out to get her'.
'I could lose everything,' she told The Mail on Sunday. 'I've been in insecure work for my whole life – but this salaried job gave me hope that I could get a mortgage and provide a better future for my boys.'
Ms Boardman is claiming that she is the victim of discrimination on the basis of her sex and her 'gender-critical' belief that birth sex is immutable.
She is among a growing number of academics and professionals to be attacked for challenging – or appearing to challenge – transgender orthodoxy.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11130491/Music-academy-lecturer-sacked-comments-drag-queens-femininity-takes-legal-action.html
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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22 August, 2022
‘Extreme misogynist’ shuts money-making scheme after global ban
Feminist hatred of men is OK. Why not male hatred of women? Many men are very angry with women. I'm not but maybe it has a place
“Extreme misogynist” Andrew Tate has had further action taken against him in a bid to stop the spread of his “rape culture” videos.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, banned the controversial influencer for violating its policies on dangerous organisations and individuals on Saturday.
Tate, who had 4.7 million followers on Instagram alone, was already banned from Twitter.
Now TikTok has confirmed the former reality TV show contestant has been banned from its platform, stating extensive efforts are also being made to remove videos containing him that have been shared by his fans.
Tate had encouraged members of his affiliate marketing program Hustler’s University to promote his content in exchange for commission, leading to thousands of videos of him circulating online and propelling him to viral fame.
However, the 35-year-old has shut down the business in response to his social media bans saying it has “no future”, The Guardian reported.
TikTok is now reviewing and removing videos containing Tate that violate the platform’s community guidelines on misogynistic language.
“Misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated on TikTok,” the company told Fox29.
“Our investigation into this content is ongoing, as we continue to remove violative accounts and videos, and pursue measures to strengthen our enforcement, including our detection models, against this type of content.”
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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August 21, 2022
Feds Seek Shutdown of Site Predicting '24 Biden Loss
These days, the website PredictIt is about the only place to go for unfiltered opinions of everyday Americans speculating on the future of U.S. politics. PredictIt users have registered their collective opinion that Joe Biden has only a 20 percent chance of being reelected in 2024—a staggeringly low number for a president who’s barely a year and a half into his term.
Naturally, the Biden Administration wants to shut it down.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), headed by Biden appointee Rostin Behnam, has decreed that PredictIt must cease operations by February 15, 2023. The reason is unclear. The CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight (DMO) explains PredictIt “has not operated its market in compliance with the terms of the letter” that authorized its operation. As a result, the DMO has withdrawn its authorization. And that’s it. That’s all the agency thinks Americans need to know.
For its part, PredictIt “maintains that all open markets are within the terms of the . . . letter.”
PredictIt lets everyone see what everyday Americans, rather than just “experts,” think about future political events, without filtering those opinions through potentially biased pollsters. This makes the site a valuable resource.
https://amgreatness.com/2022/08/16/biden-gives-predictit-zero-chance-of-survival/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
19 August, 2022
‘Terror Campaign’: Trans Activists Push for Censorship of Discussions on Child Sex Changes
Prominent Twitter users that have criticized child sex-change procedures were accused of engaging in “terrorism” by transgender activists. (Photo Illustration: Ryan J. Lane/Getty Images)
Transgender activists have accused Libs of TikTok and other prominent Twitter users of engaging in “terrorism” in an attempt to have them removed from the platform for criticizing child sex-change procedures.
Libs of TikTok, commentator Matt Walsh, Manhattan Institute senior fellow Chris Rufo, and activist Billboard Chris shared several publicly available documents and videos purporting to show that Boston Children’s Hospital was performing sex changes on minors, such as a video promoting “gender-affirming” hysterectomies.
Activists accused the accounts of “stochastic terrorism” and demanded Twitter take action to censor the conversation and take down their accounts.
“In the last 5 days, Libs of Tiktok has tweeted and retweeted 14 posts about Boston Children’s Hospital. As a result, BCH providers are being inundated in death threats and harassing calls and emails,” Alejandra Caraballo wrote. “It’s now affecting their services. This is stochastic terrorism, full stop.”
The post was retweeted by Ari Drennen, LGBTQ program director at the left-wing activist organization Media Matters, along with several other posts expressing concern about criticism of the hospital posing a potential safety threat.
“I once again ask, when will Twitter do something about this account and their ability to rile up massive harassment campaigns against their targets? Last time it was Nazis at pride and drag events. This time it’s threatening pediatricians,” Caraballo wrote.
Caraballo said there was a link between Libs of TikTok’s tweets and real-world violence against LGBT people, but that Twitter was ignoring the account because of policies in place related to Elon Musk’s attempt to buy the company.
“Matt Walsh, LOTT, Christopher Ruffo, and Billboard Chris continue to wage a stochastic terror campaign against Boston Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. As a result, service is being interrupted and workers are being threatened. Twitter must stop this,” transgender activist Erin Reed wrote.
Twitter permanently suspended commentator James Lindsay Aug. 5 after Drennen, Caraballo, and other transgender activists engaged in a similar campaign over Lindsay’s use of the word “groomer,” which describes adults who form inappropriate friendships with children in order to prime them for sexual abuse, but has also been used to refer to those who expose young children to sexual content regarding gender identity and sexuality.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/08/17/terror-campaign-trans-activists-push-for-censorship-of-discussions-on-child-sex-changes/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
18 August, 2022
Episode of Australian children's show Bluey is BANNED in America because it contains 'inappropriate content'
An episode from popular Australian children's show Bluey isn't available on American streaming service Disney+ because it was deemed 'inappropriate' and didn't meet the streaming service's guidelines.
The episode, titled 'Family Meeting', was was initially banned because one of the cartoon dogs farts in a scene.
However a Disney Branded Television employee told Pirates and Princesses the episode will soon be available after they had a change of heart.
'Family Meeting' will roll out on US platforms soon. Some of the Bluey content did not meet Disney Junior broadcast S&P in place at the time the series was acquired,' they said. 'Now that it is rolling out on other platforms, it is a great opportunity to reevaluate which is what we plan to do.'
During the episode, Bluey's dad Bandit is accused of letting off a fart in front of his eldest daughter.
The Aussie animated series is wildly popular in the US and won the Kids: Preschool Award at the 2019 International Emmys.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11121787/Australian-childrens-Bluey-BANNED-America-contains-inappropriate-content.html
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Wednesday, August 17, 2022
The next alarmist goal: Stifling debate on costs of green energy
Progressives first demanded that social-media platforms silence critics of climate alarmism. Now White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy wants them to censor content on the costs of a force-fed green-energy transition.
A few years ago, Facebook enlisted third-party “fact checkers” to review news stories about climate. That didn’t satisfy Democratic Senators who howled about a “loophole” for opinion pieces. Facebook then began appending fact-checks to op-eds, including by Wall Street Journal contributors Bjorn Lomborg and Steven Koonin, that criticized apocalyptic climate models and studies. The goal was to restrict readership.
Now progressives are moving to censorship phase two, which is shutting down debate over climate “solutions.” “Now it’s not so much denying the problem,” Ms. McCarthy said in an Axios interview. “What the [climate denial] industry is now doing is seeding doubt about the costs associated with [green energy] and whether they work or not.”
Ms. McCarthy cited the week-long power outage in Texas in February 2021. “The first thing we read in the paper was” that the blackouts occurred “because of those wind turbines,” she said. “That became the mantra.”
In fact, most of the media immediately blamed climate change and fossil fuels. The Wall Street Journal was among the few to point out that wind energy plunged as temperatures dropped and turbines froze. Gas-fired plants couldn’t make up for the wind shortfall despite running all-out, and then some went down too.
Ms. McCarthy doesn’t want to admit the inconvenient truth that renewable energy sources are making the grid increasingly unreliable. Comparing fossil-fuel companies to Big Tobacco, she complained that “dark money” is being used to “fool” the public about “the benefits of clean energy.”
“We need the tech companies to really jump in,” she said, because highlighting the costs of green energy is “equally dangerous to denial because we have to move fast.” Got that, Mark Zuckerberg? Merely pointing out technical limitations of lithium-ion batteries could be “disinformation.”
Asked whether climate disinformation posed a threat to public health, Ms. McCarthy replied “absolutely,” while adding hilariously that “President Biden doesn’t focus on, and neither do I on, bashing the fossil-fuel companies.” The Axios interviewer smiled and nodded along.
Some conservative scholars argue that Big Tech companies could be sued as “state actors” for violating users’ First Amendment speech rights when they censor content at the behest of government officials. Ms. McCarthy is helping make their case. Now Gina McCarthy tells Big Tech to stifle debate on solutions.
https://climaterealists.ca/climate-censorship-phase-two/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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16 August, 2022
A group of experts convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) has given new names to the monkeypox virus variants
And the names for the virus and the disease itself look set to change soon too.
Let's unpack the changes and why this is happening.
What are the new names?
There are two monkeypox variants — one of those having two subvariants.
After the WHO-convened meeting of virologists and public health experts, it was decided:
The Congo Basin variant will now be referred to as Clade one
The West African variant will now be referred to as Clade two
The experts agreed the second clade consisted of two subclades.
And they decided on a naming convention with a Roman numeral for the clade number and a lower-case letter for the subclades.
So the new names are:
Clade I
Clade IIa
Clade IIb
Clade IIb is the group of variants dominating the current global outbreak.
The WHO says these name changes should come into effect immediately.
What is a clade?
It's a term for a group of organisms that come from a common ancestor.
Are they changing the name 'monkeypox'?
It looks very much like it, but we don't know when that will happen yet.
The WHO is holding an open consultation to come up with the new disease name — and is currently taking suggestions.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-16/monkypox-variant-names-changed-clade/101336662
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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August 15, 2022
DeSantis Unveils Ultimate Florida License Plate - And Libs Are Completely Losing Their Minds
Another day, another empty outrage from the left.
Woke scolds have now found a way to get upset over a flag closely associated with the American founding and the Revolutionary War.
Florida has unveiled a new license plate featuring the Gadsden flag. Gov. Ron DeSantis touted the new license plate in a July tweet.
American revolutionary Christopher Gadsden designed the flag in 1775 for the newborn U.S. Navy, according to the Charleston Museum.
Gadsden took inspiration from pro-American imagery created by Benjamin Franklin, who was the first to use a rattlesnake to symbolize the 13 colonies.
The flag was intended to symbolize defiance of the British crown’s tyranny, and features a rattlesnake rising against a metaphorical treading boot.
A Wednesday hit piece from NPR sought to link the license plate and the Gadsden flag to “dangerous far-right extremist ideology.”
“The state can’t claim a lack of knowledge about what this image represents to most of the public,” said a representative of the Southern Poverty Law Center quoted by NPR.
The SPLC representative linked the flag to the Jan. 6, 2021, disturbance at the U.S. Capitol. The flag has been used for decades by libertarians and other critics of government overreach — far before the Capitol incursion.
Six states already offered Gadsden flag-themed license plates in 2014, according to The Washington Post.
https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/desantis-unveils-ultimate-florida-license-plate-libs-completely-losing-minds
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Sunday, August 14, 2022
Facebook has removed its censorship on an Australian independent think tank group for sharing a post saying men can’t get pregnant.
The social media giant claimed it was an error following public backlash despite initially saying the decision to impose the ban was “final.”
Women’s Forum Australia, which promotes a pro-women approach to social and cultural issues, became a target of censorship when it posted a screenshot of a tweet on July 22 which said: “Exactly zero men have ever given birth in any year, in any country.” The screenshot was accompanied by an affirming caption consisting of three underlined red 100 emojis.
The original tweet was published by Sall Grover, founder of women-only app Giggle, in response to a news.com.au article that stated, “each year in Australia, several men give birth to children.”
Facebook removed the post a few days later, explaining that it “goes against our Community Standards on dangerous individuals and organisations.”
However, after the issue was reported by the Australian media on Aug. 11, Facebook reversed the ban and said it was a mistake.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/facebook-overturns-decision-to-censor-pro-women-group-for-sharing-post-saying-men-cant-give-birth_4659943.html
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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August 12, 2022We must resist the cancellers and the linguistic revisionists
After reading The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Guide in the early 1990s, I never realised how infectious, dangerous and widespread political correctness would become.
Most of the examples back then were humorous and appeared far-fetched with constructs such as vertically challenged instead of small and chemically inconvenienced for being drunk.
Fast forward to more recent times and it’s obvious that the cultural-left language controls and group think now dominate the Western world.
Whether it’s in the UK, Europe, the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, not a week goes by without yet another example of books being banned, ideas being censored, the past being rewritten, statues being demolished, and authors and academics being vilified and publicly shamed.
Now rebadged as being “woke”, political correctness represents an existential threat to Western societies, including concepts such as rationality and reason, religious freedom and freedom of expression. We have entered an Orwellian world where Big Brother and the Party control how citizens think and where anyone who questions the thought police is victimised, punished and silenced.
For years praised as an accomplished and successful author, JK Rowling is now condemned as transphobic for arguing against radical transgender theory. In her resignation letter, Bari Weiss, an accomplished writer for The New York Times, describes how she was bullied and isolated because of committing what she terms “Wrongthink”. Such is the destructive nature of what he terms the “appalling ideology of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity” that Jordan Peterson resigned from his academic position at the University of Toronto.
As argued by feminist Camille Paglia, such is the debilitating and destructive nature of political correctness, “We are plunged once again into an ethical chaos where intolerance masquerades as tolerance and where individual liberty is crushed by the tyranny of the group”.
In schools and universities, as a result of neo-Marxist inspired critical race and post-colonial theories, students are taught Western societies are inherently racist, there is nothing beneficial about Western civilisation and, if they are white, told they must atone for past crimes committed against People of Colour including exploitation, cruelty, slavery, dispossession and genocide. Such is the insidious and dangerous impact of critical race theory on schools, American parents are orchestrating campaigns and state governments are now legislating to ensure a balanced and impartial curriculum.
In Australia, the neo-Marxist inspired gender fluidity program Safe Schools, funded by state, territory and commonwealth governments, tells primary and secondary school students boys can be girls and girls can be boys. A recent discussion paper informing government guidelines for kindergartens and preschools argues gender is fluid and binary and young children can self-identify anywhere on the LGBTIQ+ spectrum as there is nothing normal about being a boy or a girl. To suggest gender and sexuality are binary is to be guilty of hetero-normativity and cisgenderism.
Such is the power of woke ideology that much valued and appreciated literary works are regularly condemned and cancelled. Examples include Huckleberry Finn (using racist language), To Kill a Mockingbird (promoting white saviour complex), Moby Dick (killing whales) and Lord of the Flies (all the characters are white, male and privileged). Children’s stories are not immune to wokeism and cancel culture. Victims include Thomas the Tank Engine (enforcing capitalist hierarchies), Little Black Sambo (racism), Sleeping Beauty (heteronormativity and non-consensual sex) and Enid Blyton’s The Faraway Tree (no assertive roles for girls).
Much valued literary works published with the best of intentions are also targeted by the woke thought police. In England, the University of Leicester has decided to cancel such literary classics as The Canterbury Tales, Beowulf and Le Morte d’Arthur in order to decolonise the curriculum and present students with texts that properly reflect “ethnicity, sexuality and diversity” characterising contemporary society.
Nothing is immune for the cultural-left’s thought police, with even food and beverages targeted. The list includes American and Australian food brands like Coon Cheese, Red Skins, Aunt Jemima, Dixie beer and Eskimo Pie being condemned for cultural appropriation and reinforcing unconscious bias. To cure Western societies of racism, all that has to be done is to rebrand and market products now considered politically incorrect and offensive. Ignored is such misplaced tokenism does nothing to redress the very real disadvantage often suffered by people of colour. Instead of virtue signalling and acting morally superior a much better idea is to address what causes disadvantage and to empower those at risk to better their lives.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/we-must-resist-the-cancellers-and-the-linguistic-revisionists/news-story/a9a456781b7da307b35a0b8a598356ee
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Thursday, August 11, 2022Christian influencer slams Addison Rae's 'Holy Trinity' bikini ad: 'I felt sick to my stomach'
The Holy Trinity is rubbish doctrine anyway. Most Christian denominations believe in it but it is mentioned nowhere in the Bible. It's a theological compromise from the 4th century, promoted by the Egyptian Athanasius. The bikini is a reasonable mockery of it.
Christian influencer Brittany Dawn Davis has gone after TikTok star Addison Rae for posing in a “Holy Trinity” bikini for the brand Praying by Adidas.
Rae has faced so much backlash over the photo since she posted it a week ago, she already took it off her Instagram. The bikini is still available on Praying’s website for $100 — the top features “Father” and “Son” on either side of the piece, while the bottoms read “Holy Spirit.” Rae has not publicly addressed the controversy beyond deleting the ad.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/brittany-dawn-davis-slams-addison-191329967.html
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Wednesday, August 10, 2022Kathy Hochul, Democrats demand ‘inmates’ must now be called ‘incarcerated persons’
While even some Democrats are calling for immediate legislative action to address rising crime, Gov. Kathy Hochul acted Monday to help the people getting arrested feel better about themselves.
Hochul signed into law a bill passed by the Democrat-controlled Albany legislature that replaces the word “inmate” with “incarcerated person” in state law.
“For too long, we as a society have thought of incarcerated individuals as less than people. The use of the word ‘inmate’ further dehumanizes and demoralizes them,” state Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx) said of the bill he sponsored with Jeffrion Aubry (D-Queens), which Hochul signed into law Monday.
But Hochul’s latest effort to make the state more politically correct has her critics arguing she has got some seriously misplaced priorities considering how shootings spiked 13.4% last month alongside a 34.3% murder increase compared to July 2021.
“Another ‘Woke’ Criminals 1st Law supported by our Governor instead of doing her job & protecting the public from rampant crime,” state Sen. Jim Tedisco (R-Schenectady) tweeted Monday afternoon.
“Welcome to Democrat-controlled New York … Where the “incarcerated individuals” are running the asylum,” Michael Fraser, a spokesman for Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay said in a tweet.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/08/kathy-hochul-democrats-demand-inmates-must-now-be-called-incarcerated-person/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Tuesday, August 09, 2022LinkedIn drops climate-change skeptics from networking site
An organization that is skeptical of man-made climate change was booted from the popular LinkedIn networking site for unspecified reasons but the guess is an easy one: Expressing the wrong, disapproved opinions.
Gregory Wrightstone, executive director of the Virginia-based CO2 Coalition, says its page at LinkedIn was terminated “out of the blue” over the weekend, except there were hints the group was a target.
“We just got a statement at the top that we had violated their terms and conditions of LinkedIn,” Wrightstone tells AFN. “There does not appear to be any recourse to this.”
That punishment came after Wrightstone was permanently banned in July and after a second Coalition employee, Darren Nelson, was blocked just weeks ago.
https://co2coalition.org/news/linkedin-drops-climate-change-skeptics-from-networking-site/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Monday, August 08, 2022Associated Press Injects Woke Ideology Into Its Stylebook
Since 1953, the AP Stylebook has been a go-to manual for journalistic grammar and style at most media outlets. It lays out basic rules about grammar, punctuation, phrasing, and the like, intended to have universal applicability. In the past, it was aimed at reducing bias and creating a framework for evenhanded reporting.
Those days are gone.
Now, the AP is outright suggesting that reporters inject bias into stories on behalf of the more important goal of diversity, equity, and inclusion. All now must serve the new god, DEI.
In May, AP issued guidance following the leak of the then-pending Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade.
The left wanted to frame the issue of abortion as vital to women’s rights. The only problem was that the left’s ideology now makes it nearly impossible to define what a woman is.
AP stepped in to check their privilege.
“Phrasing like pregnant people or people who seek an abortion seeks to include people who have those experiences, but do not identify as women, such as some transgender men and some nonbinary people,” read the new AP guidance.
Saying pregnant “women” is now offensive. The rules of grammar and language must conform to any self-proclaimed marginalized group that says it’s offended. Truth and accuracy are secondary concerns.
AP followed up last week with a more extensive “Topical Guide,” on transgenderism and other issues. It suggests using “unbiased language” and to “avoid false balance [by] giving a platform to unqualified claims or sources in the guise of balancing a story by including all views.”
It then proceeded to elucidate its commitment to carrying water for the transgender advocacy movement and ensure that everyone using the AP Stylebook does, too.
“A person’s sex and gender are usually assigned at birth by parents or attendants and can turn out to be inaccurate,” the guide says, with no evidence or explanation.
“Experts say gender is a spectrum, not a binary structure consisting of only men and women, that can vary among societies and can change over time,” AP continues.
Do other experts disagree and does that not count?
The Topical Guide includes a section about sports that tells reporters and editors not to “misgender or imply doubt” about transgender athletes, especially biological males competing in women’s sports.
Of course, even using the phrase “biological” males would be a no-no, according to the AP.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/07/28/associated-press-injects-woke-ideology-into-its-stylebook
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Sunday, August 07, 2022Pennsylvania moms react to education dept suggesting kids may use 'ne, ve, ze/zie and xe' pronouns
Pennsylvanians blasted their state's department of education's new gender identity page which suggested teachers should not make assumptions about students' pronouns, and listed "ne, ve, ze/zie and xe" as some examples.
Fox News Digital spoke with people from Pennsylvania, including mothers, about the education department's webpage.
"In addition to the traditional pronouns (he/him, she/her, they), some people prefer to use gender-neutral pronouns, such as ne, ve, ze/zie and xe. If you don't know a student's preferred personal pronoun, it's always best to ask," the Pennsylvania DOE said.
"This is grooming of our children," said parent, a chair at the PA Economic Growth PAC, Veronica Gemma. "[W]hen it comes to sexuality, whatever they identify as, that's their personal business. And it's not academics. It doesn't belong in the classroom."
"They need to focus on the terrible reading scores in this state, the terrible math scores in this state… [Instead,] they're focused on indoctrinating this next generation to change the fabric of our country," she added.
The Pennsylvania website also claimed the concept of two genders, male and female, was a "faulty concept."
"As a Pennsylvania parent, I’d like to know what qualifies them to all the concept of biological gender as faulty?" said a mother named Megan Eileen.
"As a mom, my children know who they are and they were created in God's image. So God created a man and a woman and that's it. There's only two genders," said Gemma.
"Why do they feel that it’s appropriate to teach this to a third-grader? It’s not appropriate. So many children in Pennsylvania are struggling with grade competencies, particularly after the long COVID-19 mitigation disruptions," Eileen said.
"The [Pennsylvania Department of Education] needs to stop spending money and classroom hours on leftist indoctrination and focus on academics. I think that’s something most parents and teachers, regardless of political affiliation, agree on."
Proponents of teaching gender ideology in schools say that it helps maintain tolerance and an accepting environment for LGBTQ+ youth. According to the Trevor Project, an organization that advocates for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals, "[O]ne in three transgender youth reported attempting suicide, almost one-third reported being a victim of sexual violence, and more than half reported a two-week period of depression."
Pennsylvania's education department had previously told Fox News in a statement that it was crucial to "support all learners" and to help them feel "welcome in their schools and communities."
One of the web pages included an article written by an activist, who said, "A gender-diverse child’s best predictor of success is whether that child receives support at home and from teachers."
Republican. state Rep. Barbara Gleim said, "I think that a lot of this is coming down from the Biden administration through his executive orders."
"I'm not anti-trans, but these discussions have a time and a place. And I don't think that elementary school [and] middle school are the time or the place for these discussions," she added.
Kara Kowalski from York, Pennsylvania, said, "I'm not a parent, but I have three nieces who are young. They're eight, six and three. And I pretty much spend every day and every second that I can with them. I'm gay myself. But I don't align with all of this."
Fox News Digital also spoke with the feminist writer of "The Abolition of Sex," Kara Dansky, who has been a vocal voice against the gender identity movement.
"I think that what we're seeing is a vicious combination of woman hatred and greed," she said. "I absolutely think that our society should be accepting of people who do not wish to conform to sex stereotypes. That's a good thing. We have been saying for decades that women especially, ought to be able to transcend sex stereotypes. And we should champion and accept that," she said.
"But that's very different for a school or an education department trying to persuade children that they actually are the opposite sex," she added. "That's extremely dangerous."
https://www.foxnews.com/media/pennsylvania-moms-education-department-suggesting-ne-ve-ze-zie-xe-pronouns
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Friday, August 05, 2022Alum used to be a chemical that was helpful with mouth ulcers and such things. No more
Kel Richards
A reader has alerted me to the use of an odd word ‘alum’ to refer to the graduates of his old university. When he wrote to protest that this was a nonsense word he was told ‘Alum is the non-gender specific term for a singular graduate (rather than specifying gender – alumnus/masculine or alumna/feminine)…’
He was also told that ‘alum’ had been coined in the 19th century. Which rather surprised him, since he hadn’t realised the 19th century was flush was trans-gender issues (and the fear of being transphobic). He asked me to investigate.
After some digging, I discovered that ‘alum’ is indeed recorded in the Oxford as American ‘non-standard’ usage from 1877 with the meaning you’d expect: ‘A former student of a school, university, etc.; an alumnus or alumna’.
But it had nothing to do with gender. As I read the citations it seems to have begun as an abbreviation rather than as a non-gender-specific term. It’s only around the year 2000 that wokeness took over and unis started referring to their graduates using a word that makes them sound like ‘an astringent mineral salt, typically occurring as colourless or whitish crystals’.
https://spectator.com.au/2022/08/language-23/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Thursday, August 04, 2022The ever-shifting language of ‘culture wars’
‘Come on, old girl,’ said my husband as though encouraging a cow stuck in a ditch, ‘you must know.’ It was because I’d asked him in the far-off days of last week what woman meant, just after Rishi Sunak had said: ‘We must be able to call a mother a mother.’ Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch then tussled in a hate-crime triangle on television over who said what, when about people self-identifying in a gender.
Such matters are said to belong to culture wars, which we had thought an American phenomenon. Culture wars acquired their name only in the 1980s. Since then we have grown used to language (as part of their armaments) changing rapidly. Politically incorrect began as something assumed bad; then politically correct became a shorthand for the false and absurd. Politically correct was overtaken by woke. This grew in popularity thanks to the refrain ‘I stay woke’ in Erykah Badu’s Master Teacher (2008) (‘What if it were no niggas / Only master teachers? / I stay woke.’) But soon it became impossible for most British people to use woke without irony. The thinking behind it was instead derided as wokeness, wokery or wokeism.
Doubt is also more widely being cast on the assumption that gender can be changed by self-identification so as to require a change in sex-linked terminology (woman instead of man, he instead of she). But the Equalities Act 2010 had confusingly used the term transsexual person to someone undergoing or even proposing to undergo gender reassignment.
When asked at the General Synod this month ‘What is the Church of England’s definition of a woman?’ the Bishop in Europe (as it happened) said there was ‘no official definition’, as it had been ‘thought to be self-evident’. Yet the C of E can by law only marry a man to a woman.
And now politicians fear to say what a woman is, caught between the lines of a culture war, not knowing whether to call a self-declared trans woman a woman or a man; whether to say shibboleth like the Gileadites or sibboleth like the Ephraimites. It matters: the book of Judges tells us 42,000 Ephraimites were killed. Will the next prime minister be a Gileadite or an Ephraimite?
https://spectator.com.au/2022/07/culture-wars-2/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Wednesday, August 03, 2022The Battle Over Renaming 'Racist' Monkeypox
Nearly seven weeks after the World Health Organization said it will change the name of the monkeypox disease, agreeing with scientists who called it "discriminatory and stigmatizing," the controversial label doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
Critics say the name "monkeypox" plays into racist stereotypes about Black people, Africa and LGBTQ people — and, they note, it falsely suggests monkeys are the main source of the virus.
"Monkeypox should be renamed for two major reasons," said Dr. Ifeanyi Nsofor, a global health equity advocate and senior New Voices fellow at the Aspen Institute. "First, there is a long history of referring to Blacks as monkeys. Therefore, 'monkeypox' is racist and stigmatizes Blacks."
"Second, 'monkeypox' gives a wrong impression that the disease is only transmitted by monkeys. This is wrong," he adds.
Yet despite growing criticism of the name, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses told NPR that even if the name is changed in the next year or two, the term "monkey" will likely still be part of any revamped name. While WHO names diseases, the ICTV determines the formal names of viruses.
In recent discussions held by the ICTV, "the consensus is that use of the name 'monkey' is sufficiently separated from any pejorative context such that there is no reason for any change," Elliot Lefkowitz, the organization's data secretary, told NPR via email.
And when asked for an update on WHO's name-changing process, WHO Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said last week: "We, as far as I know, have not received any proposals for a name to replace monkeypox." The process, she adds, remains open for suggestions.
Nonetheless, the movement to change the name of the virus is continuing. Last Tuesday, New York City public health commissioner Ashwin Vasan sent a letter urging WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to act immediately to rename monkeypox, citing "potentially devastating and stigmatizing effects."
As calls to rename the disease are growing, so is the current outbreak. In fact, the disease's spread prompted WHO to declare it an international public health emergency in July. When WHO announced its plan to rename monkeypox in June, there were around 3,100 confirmed or suspected cases worldwide. There are now 22,485 cases, according to the CDC — only 344 of them in countries with a history of monkeypox.
One of the worst outbreaks is in the U.S., which has reported 5,189 cases, including 1,345 cases in New York state, the CDC says.
The fact that the name change is still being debated presents a contrast to the urgency the agencies showed in labeling COVID-19.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/08/01/1113908154/critics-say-monkeypox-is-a-racist-name-but-its-not-going-away-anytime-soon
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Tuesday, August 02, 2022Beyonce to change ‘deeply offensive’ word in song Heated from new album Renaissance
Beyoncé has removed an ableist slur from her new song Heated following backlash from fans and disability advocates.
Virtual hellfire was sparked on social media by the star’s use of the term “sp*z” on the track, which is featured on her recently released Renaissance album.
On the upbeat number, Beyoncé, 40, sings the lyrics: “Sp*zin’ on that ass, sp*z on that ass/ Fan me quick, girl, I need my glass”, prompting disability advocates to call her out for using derogatory language.
“So @Beyonce used the word ‘sp*z’ in her new song Heated. Feels like a slap in the face to me, the disabled community …” penned one Twitter user in a now-viral tweet.
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In Australia, the UK, and other countries, “sp*z,” which is derived from the word “spastic,” is viewed as a derogatory slight against people with cerebral palsy — a congenital disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture caused by abnormal brain development during gestation.
However, in the US, the term is often casually used to suggest that a person is going to wildly let loose or has expertly completed a major feat.
Representatives for Beyoncé told the NY Post, “The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced,” adding, “The road to success is always under construction.”
https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/beyonce-to-change-deeply-offensive-word-in-song-heated-from-new-album-renaissance/news-story/4e5ef7b766e8d26c5ed830b98810b0ab
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Monday, August 01, 2022Twitter Stops Censoring Epoch Times Content After Outcry
Twitter has halted its censorship of content from The Epoch Times following a flood of public criticism.
Links posted on the social media platform were working properly on July 30. It’s unclear when the change was made by the technology company.
Earlier in the week, Twitter users who attempted to click on an Epoch Times link on the platform were told that the link “may be unsafe.”
“The link you are trying to access has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe,” Twitter said.
The link could be “malicious” and attempting to steal personal information, “spammy” and trying to mislead people, “violent or misleading,” or otherwise in violation of Twitter rules, according to the warning.
The censorship affected all of The Epoch Times’ content.
Multiple U.S. lawmakers decried the development, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“Twitter must explain itself for this outrageous act of censorship,” Rubio, the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote on Twitter.
Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) were among the other members of Congress who criticized Twitter’s actions.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said Twitter’s warning was “an outrageous act of censorship.”
Twitter has not responded to requests for comment.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/twitter-stops-censoring-epoch-times-content-after-outcry_4632452.html
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
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Sidebars
The notes and pix appearing in the sidebar of the blog that is reproduced above are not reproduced here. The sidebar for this blog can however be found in my archive of sidebars
Most pictures that I use in the body of the blog should stay up throughout the year. But how long they stay up after that is uncertain. At the end of every year therefore I intend to put up a collection of all pictures used my blogs in that year. That should enable missing pictures to be replaced. The archive of last year's pictures on this blog is therefore now up. Note that the filename of the picture is clickable and clicking will bring the picture up. See here (2021). See also here (2020).
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