Mick Hartley

Chimney murmuration

A recent photo of a starling murmuration as if smoke from a chimney has been called a "fluke" by its Yorkshire based, UK photographer, Anna Tosney #WomensArt pic.twitter.com/ZPtUI4NH92

— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) August 30, 2023

A modern Maoist struggle session

Via Jerry Coyne, the story of the Oberlin College (Ohio) lacrosse coach, Kim Russell, who dared to share a social media post in support of women’s sports and female athletes:

In a documentary IWF produced telling her story, Russell talks about loving her lacrosse student-athletes as her own children. But following an Instagram post where Russell congratulated swimming star Emma Weyant for being the “real winner” of the 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA championships in 2022 after she officially came in second behind UPenn’s Lia Thomas, one of her own lacrosse players reported Russell’s post to Oberlin’s athletic director. The report triggered a series of lengthy disciplinary meetings and a full-fledged character assassination campaign against her involving Oberlin faculty and the women’s lacrosse team.

Evidence now available to the public, the audio recordings depict the onslaught of verbal attacks Kim was met with from Oberlin administrators:

“Unfortunately, you fall into a category of people that are filled with hate in the world.”

“It’s acceptable to have your own opinions, but when they go against your college’s beliefs, it’s a problem. For your employment.”

“What Oberlin College subjected Kim Russell to for simply believing biological truths was nothing short of a modern, Maoist struggle session,” said Andrea Mew, storytelling coordinator at IWF and producer of the documentary.

Amidst the backlash, Russell has continued to work as a coach for Oberlin College, where she is “walking on eggshells.” In the documentary, she acknowledges she is still at risk of being fired, but says that defending the integrity of women’s sports and exposing the college for trying to silence her is worth it.

Kim Russell’s story is a testament to the aggressive push within institutions to adhere to dogmatic ideology at the expense of fairness and freedom of thought. 

Particularly within academic institutions in the US, where gender ideology reigns supreme.

Denied “gender affirming” surgeries

A man in Indiana strangled his 11-month-old stepdaughter - "“all I know is I killed the little fucking bitch" - and was sentenced to 55 years in prison. But, you know, he's trans....

Anna Slatz at Reduxx:.

The American Civil Liberties Union in Indiana has filed a lawsuit against the state’s Department of Corrections after a trans-identified male inmate convicted of murdering his infant stepdaughter was denied “gender affirming” surgeries.

The suit, which was filed on August 28, challenges a recently-adopted policy stipulating that the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) cannot provide transgender surgeries to inmates. House Bill 1569, which took effect July 1, bans the spending of state or federal dollars on sexual reassignment surgery for inmates.

According to the complaint, the ACLU is accusing the state of “deliberate indifference to a serious medical need,” arguing that “gender affirming surgeries” are a “medical necessity” for some inmates. The ACLU also states that the policy “discriminates … in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

The ACLU brought the case against the state on behalf of a transgender inmate currently serving a 55-year sentence for the horrific murder of his stepdaughter.

Autumn Cordellioné, also known as Jonathan C. Richardson, was arrested in 2001 after his 11-month-old stepdaughter died in his care while her mother was at work....

Using “she/her” pronouns to refer to Richardson, the ACLU’s filing reads: “Accordingly, at this point gender-affirming surgery is necessary so that her physical identity can be aligned with her gender identity.”

Despite only having begun to identify as transgender in 2020, the ACLU claims that Richardson has “identified as a female” since he was 6 years old....

In addition to hormones, Richardson has been receiving ample accommodations from the IDOC, including being given bras, makeup, panties, and “form-fitting clothing.”

As the article goes on to document, at length, this seems to be all the ACLU does nowadays - act for violent trans-identified criminals.

Conversion therapy and the Church of England

From the Times:

More than two thirds of Church of England priests back the government’s plan to introduce a ban on conversion or so-called “gay-cure” therapy, with less than a fifth against it, a Times survey has found.

A Times survey was sent out to 5,000 priests selected at random from a Church of England directory and almost 1,200 responded.

It included the question: “The government is proposing a ban on conversion therapy. Do you support or oppose such a ban?”

A total of 67.8 per cent said they supported a ban, with 17.7 per cent against....

The term conversion therapy broadly refers to any kind of pressure applied to those who are gay or transgender to repress their sexuality or gender identity. At its most extreme, there have been reports of electro-therapy and so-called “corrective rape” being used.

That's all very interesting, but it skips over the thorny issue of what exactly "conversion therapy" means nowadays. Everyone agrees that the old-style gay conversion therapy - electro-therapy and so-called “corrective rape”, etc. - is an abomination, but the controversy now centres on the fact that gender activists have co-opted the term to refer to any intervention, such as counselling, or just wait-and-see, which doesn't immediately affirm a child's belief that they were somehow "born in the wrong body" and should adopt a new gender identity. For these activists, encouraging a child to stop and think, and carry on through a normal puberty so they don't make a terrible mistake and ruin their lives, is seen as conversion therapy.

The whole issue's been turned on its head: the real gay conversion therapy is the endorsement of a new gender identity leading to puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, and ultimately surgical procedures - so a child who would have developed into a normal gay adult is re-engineered into some pseudo-version of the other sex. 

As none of this is acknowledged, the survey is a complete waste of time.

Broad Street and City Hall

Philadelphia ca. 1907. "Broad Street north from Locust". 

[Photo: Shorpy/DPC ]

It always amazes me, in photos of US cities at this time, to see the height of these huge modern buildings, while on the streets are horse-drawn carts. It just seems incongruous - like they're from different eras.

At Kappa Kappa Gamma

Back in March we heard about the case of the University of Wyoming sorority members who had to live with a 6' 2" 260 pound man who "identifies as a woman", and so has access to their private spaces. He particularly liked to watch them in the showering area, all the while sporting an erection. Naturally outraged, the six women took their case to court.

Well, they lost:

A sorority at the University of Wyoming will be forced to accommodate a 6’2 trans-identified male after the federal District Court rejected a suit brought by six of the female members. Women from Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) sued the national leadership of their sorority after expressing discomfort with the presence of Artemis Langford.

Despite hearing testimony from the women, some of whom stated Langford had “watched” them undress with an erection, Judge Alan Johnson dismissed the case of Westenbroek v. Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity on August 25. Johnson stated that re-defining “woman” to include males was “Kappa Kappa Gamma’s bedrock right as a private, voluntary organization — and one this Court may not invade.”

In other words, if the Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity defines "woman" as anyone who identifies as a woman, well, that's their business.

As a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, Langford, who is 6’2 and weighs approximately 260 pounds, is granted access to the KKG sorority house, which accommodates up to 50 women.

Though Langford had been residing elsewhere at the time of the first filing, women alleged that he would frequently sit in the second-floor common area and had been observed watching the women on multiple occasions.

According to court records, Langford had been voyeuristically peeping on the women while they were in intimate situations, and, on at least one occasion, had a visible erection while doing so.

“One sorority member walked down the hall to take a shower, wearing only a towel … She felt an unsettling presence, turned, and saw [Langford] watching her silently,” the court document reads.

“[Langford] has, while watching members enter the sorority house, had an erection visible through his leggings,” the suit says. “Other times, he has had a pillow in his lap.”

As evidenced by his Tinder profile, Langford is “sexually interested in women.” It was further stated in the suit that Langford took photographs of the women while at a sorority slumber party, where he also is said to have made inappropriate comments.

“[He] repeatedly questioned the women about what vaginas look like, breast cup size, whether women were considering breast reductions and birth control,” the complaint had claimed. 

The women who dared to question Langford's right to access what they assumed would be women-only spaces, meanwhile, have been named and shamed:

Last week, local outlet Wyofile sympathetically profiled Langford and attempted to portray the women’s objections with his presence in the sorority house as homophobic, asserting that his declared sexual interest in women qualified him as being “gay.”...

“The lawsuit against Artemis is horrible, false, and causing harm to Artemis and other trans people,” Langford’s lawyer, Rachel Berkness, told Wyofile.

“The reality is this lawsuit is being used as clickbait so that the plaintiffs’ lawyers can raise money at the expense of a kind and wonderful student in our community,” Langford’s lawyer told Wyofile. “I hope people look back at this case in the same way they look back at other attacks on members of minority groups in our history — as shameful and not who we are.”

So a man who likes to watch women undress is the hero here - "a kind and wonderful student in our community" - while the women who object to being ogled by a predatory creep are vilified as transphobes attacking down-trodden members of minority groups. And not just transphobes but homophobes too, because Langford, being sexually attracted to women and identifying as a woman, makes him gay in gender-world.

It's a strange old turn-around.

Not a woman's crime

Meanwhile, in Hampshire:

A paedophile who was caught with indecent images of children “wrestled” with police to stop them taking her phone.

Sophie Louise Carter, 39, was visited by police after officers received information about the potential distribution of images.

When officers arrived, Carter took out a phone but refused to give it to officers, forcing them to “wrestle” it away from her.

Two phones were seized with only one of them being accessed.

Two category A images were found - the most severe kind.

A further three Category B images were discovered as well as six which were Category C.

We've seen enough of these cases by now to be aware of what's going on here. "Sarah Louise" Carter is, of course, no woman. Looking at images of child sexual abuse is not a woman's crime, despite this constant gaslighting by the press.

Carter, of Nottingham Place, Lee-on-the-Solent, was prosecuted under the name Dominic Mark Carter.

Her sentencing hearing was told she identifies as a woman and goes by Sophie Louise.

And here he is, unshaven, in a fetching pink combination:

[Image: Newsquest]

Confronted with an esoteric and discredited ideology

From the Times:

A noticeboard at one of London’s biggest hospitals is advising staff not to ask patients their name in case it causes offence to trans people.

Critics have said that the poster, at the Royal Free Hospital, would in effect leave doctors unable to access a patient’s records and is against General Medical Council rules.

The hospital has been displaying materials as part of an “allyship scheme” that is supposed to be more inclusive.

Joan Smith at UnHerd:

If you have to visit a hospital, you will probably have lots of questions. Are the results of those tests as scary as you fear? Who will look after the kids if you’re admitted to a ward? What you won’t be asking, I can pretty much guarantee, is “are the staff LGBT+ allies?”...

It’s part of the NHS Rainbow Badge scheme, similar to Stonewall’s discredited Diversity Champions programme, and it now has an astonishing 77 NHS trusts signed up. The scheme is run by the LGBT Foundation and promotes extreme gender ideology in hospitals. Staff are advised to avoid words like “mother” and encouraged to introduce “gender neutral” toilets — all without consulting patients, of course.

It’s yet another example of institutional capture, a fact confirmed by questions for staff in hospitals signed up to the scheme. “Does the service have sensitive guidance in place to support a noncarrying parent to breast/chest feed?” is classic trans activist framing.

The Royal Free seems to have gone further down this route than most. According to guidance posted on a staff noticeboard, staff are apparently being advised not to ask “inappropriate questions” such as “what is your name?” because trans patients might not want to disclose their birth name. A hospital spokesman denied that this was official policy, but could not say who created the guidance.

At one level, it’s laughable to see responsible adults behaving like this. Doctors and nurses have many more pressing things to worry about than offending the tiny proportion of the population who identify as trans or non-binary. It’s not even the case that many gay and lesbian patients want to be treated by staff wearing rainbow badges, given the hostility they have endured from trans activists....

We are living through a period of crisis in our institutions. Trust in the NHS and the police has collapsed, to give just two examples, and one of the reasons for this is a failure to consult the public. Women want rapists to be arrested and charged, not cops wearing rainbow badges and dancing at Pride. And hospitals should be places where worried people feel listened to, rather than being confronted with an esoteric and discredited ideology.

Watching “impure videos”

Pyongyang steps up its Orwellian surveillance:

North Korea has recently been increasing the severity of punishments for watching “impure videos” such as South Korean dramas and movies, Daily NK has learned.

Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Aug. 14 that a man in his twenties living in Cholsan County was sent to a political prison camp in July after being accused of watching South Korean videos. 

As it is almost impossible to survive in political prison camps, North Koreans regard being sent to such camps as a death sentence....

In late 2020, North Korea enacted the “Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act,” also known as the anti-reactionary thought law. Article 27 of the Act, which is entitled the “Crime of Distributing Puppet (South Korean) Ideology and Culture,” stipulates that “any person who views, listens to, or possesses South Korean movies, video recordings, compilations, books, songs, drawings, or photographs, or who brings in and distributes South Korean songs, drawings, photographs, or designs shall be sentenced to five to 10 years of reform through labor. If the severity of the crime is deemed high, the offender shall be sentenced to reform through labor for 10 years or more.” 

Based on the law, the man should have been sentenced to five to 10 years of reform through labor or more than 10 years if his crime was deemed severe; however, he was sentenced to time in one of North Korea’s political prison camps instead. 

The source told Daily NK that another man in his twenties was arrested in Sinuiju in June for watching pornography. This man was also sentenced to time in a political prison camp in the court’s final ruling. 

When the authorities searched the man’s house, they found that his portable storage device contained not only pornography but also many South Korean dramas and movies. 

Some had expected the man to be sentenced to reform through labor, but when he was sentenced to time in a political prison camp, people expressed concern that the authorities are intensifying their punishments of violators of the law.

“Before, even if you were caught watching South Korean dramas or movies, you could sometimes be released if you made use of your connections or paid bribes to the crackdown team,” the source said. “Recently, however, it’s difficult to avoid punishment even if you pay over USD 1,000.”

On July 20, the central government also ordered the propaganda departments of provincial, city, and county party committees to strengthen ideological education regarding the influx of foreign information.

According to the source, the order included the following instructions: a) strengthen the monolithic ideology system of the Workers’ Party; b) systematically carry out ideological education; c) intensify systematic surveillance and reporting systems such as inminban (neighborhood watch unit); d) strengthen efforts to ensure impure material such as puppet (South Korean) videos and pornography cannot be accessed; and e) intensify education related to the socialist revolution.

Given this, North Korea’s government looks set to intensify its ideological education and crackdowns on violators of the anti-reactionary thought law. 

Protecting gender expression

Male teachers wearing huge fake breasts are a Canadian speciality, and must be protected at all costs.

Yes, it's the return of Kayla Lemieux, previously the subject of some controversy last year when he insisted on teaching while wearing these ridiculous outsize protuberances.

It transpired that these were just his work clothes: out on the street, it seems, he dresses like a normal guy.

Anyway, he's back, at another Ontario school - and still with the breasts:

Students won’t just be greeted by a new teacher when class begins in a week, they’ll also be welcoming an educator who is world famous for what the principal calls expressing their own “gender expression.”

In a memo to parents obtained by the Toronto Sun, Principal Tom Fisher said the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board school has “an obligation to uphold individual rights and treat everyone with dignity and respect” and “should the school be subject to any disruptions or protests; we are committed to communicating with you as openly and as frequently as possible to ensure student safety – and to share any operational plans.”

The principal highlighted to parents preparations for what he said may be an onslaught of media and potential controversary over trans teacher Kayla Lemieux’s return to the classroom, which included special entry and exit plans.

These will include “having students enter and exit the building using assigned doors at entry and dismissal” and “locking exterior doors during school hours, only using the front main doors during school hours” while “all students and visitors will be required to use an intercom system to enter and exit the building” and asking parents “to email or call before coming to the school if they wish to visit to speak to an employee.”

All so that Lemieux can "express his gender" - ie, wear huge fake breasts, with prominent nipples.

Just how ridiculous does this have to get before people see it?