First Willy Wonka, Now James Bond: The Language Police Are Going After Ian Fleming's Classic Novels

There are many, many, many things to despise about the “woke” far left. But most of those faults pale in comparison to one big thing the far left just loves to do: mutilate the English language.

Now that mutilation can take on many different forms, from the utterly nonsensical “pronoun” hysteria, to claiming that your literal spoken words aren’t what you said, all the way to whatever in the world “misgendering” is.

Within this odoriferous assault on the English language, however, has emerged an alarming new trend. Namely, leftists are now no longer content with just butchering contemporary language — they want to apply those same doctrines to the most iconic writings of yesteryear.

Case in point, according to U.K. outlet The Telegraph, Ian Fleming’s iconic James Bond novels have been re-written to better fit with modern non-sensibilities.

Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. actually commissioned a review of the class spy thrillers by “sensitivity readers,” which is about as dystopian of a phrase as there is.

So what has been changed? Terms such as the n-word were removed from Fleming’s classics, which were published between 1951 and 1966, and replaced with the phrase “black person” or “black man.”

On top of the edits, each new Bond novel will also carry the following disclaimer: “This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace. A number of updates have been made in this edition, while keeping as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it is set.”

Interestingly, these edits largely focus on the depiction of black people.

In Fleming’s 1954 “Live and Let Die” novel, Bond describes the black men working in gold and diamond trades as “pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought, except when they’ve drunk too much.” That bit of monologue now will read, “pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought.”

Also in “Live and Let Die,” Bond visits a Harlem nightclub and is described as such; “Bond could hear the audience panting and grunting like pigs at at the trough. He felt his own hands gripping the tablecloth. His mouth was dry.” That descriptive bit of noir-esque prose has been replaced with the much more generic, “Bond could sense the electric tension in the room.”

Even a reference to an accent (“straight Harlem-Deep South with a lot of New York thrown in”) has been removed.

https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/first-willy-wonka-now-james-bond-language-police-going-ian-flemings-classic-novels-report

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http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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UK: Put word WOMAN back into health advice, NHS told

NHS bosses were today urged to start using 'women' and 'woman' again on health pages online. Gender-specific terms have been quietly scrubbed on official advice sites under a woke inclusivity drive.

Pages on ovarian, womb and cervical cancer as well as the menopause, which can only biological women can suffer, were affected by the changes.

Ministers, including ex-Health Secretary Sajid Javid, had pledged to crackdown on the practice -- but action has yet to be taken.

The NHS has quietly omitted the terms 'women' and 'woman' from its webpage on menopause. But a newer version omits women from the overview entirely. Experts have warned women could be disadvantaged by de-gendered medical advice confusing health messaging

Now a 1,400-strong group of campaigners have demanded immediate action, in an open letter started by the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG). Doctors, nurses and healthcare practitioners are among the signatories.

The letter is addressed to NHS chief executives, ministers and chief nursing officers from across the UK.  CAN-SG said the changes have 'occurred by stealth over the past couple of years'.

Campaigners claimed that the scrubbing was discriminatory, given that conditions specific to men haven't been affected as prominently. They also claimed patients felt the updated language 'dehumanising', making it less clear about who is the 'intended audience' of such advice.

Experts have long warned that de-gendering medical advice could be dangerous for women by over-complicating vital health messaging.

The group said the NHS website is a 'specific, significant source of health information for everyone' but there has been a 'gradual eradication' of the word 'woman'.

It accuses the health service of 'reducing' the word 'woman' to phrases such as 'anyone with a cervix' and failing to explain that ovaries are female reproductive organs.

The changes were made without conducting an equality impact assessment, consulting the public, considering how women would feel or analysing how it could impact women's health.

The health service also failed to seek legal advice on whether its actions are discriminatory.

Dr Louse Irvine, spokesperson for CAN-SG, said: 'The incredible response to this letter -- over 1,400 signatures in 24 hours --  shows how strongly women patients and clinicians feel about this issue.  'The NHS should heed these views: accurate sex-based language is important to ensure life saving health communication is understood by those for whom it is intended, and to convey respect for women, their bodies and health issues.

'For example women's awareness and uptake of cervical screening is on the wane. 'Many women do not know they have a cervix - or that cervical screening is life saving -- so a phrase like 'anyone with a cervix' is meaningless to them.   'That is why we need simple clear language when talking about women's health.

'Many women find it disrespectful that communication about their health issues erases the word "woman", and this undermines trust and confidence in that communication.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11790047/Put-word-WOMAN-health-advice-NHS-told.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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Newspaper comic strip Dilbert gets canceled after its creator is branded racist

Newspapers are dropping the 'Dilbert' comic strip after creator Scott Adams launched into a racist tirade advising his followers to 'get the f**k' away from black people.

Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the US, said it would stop publishing the comic immediately following the remarks made by its creator on his online show 'Real Coffee with Scott Adams.'

It comes after Dilbert was already canned by 77 newspapers in September due to its increasingly controversial plotlines including one about a black character who identifies as white.

The comic has been in circulation since 1989 and frequently pokes fun at office culture.

Adams, who is believed to have amassed more than $70 million from the Dilbert series, said in the livestreamed talk on Wednesday: 'The best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people.

He added: 'There’s no fixing this. This can’t be fixed... You just have to escape. So that’s what I did, I went to a neighborhood where I have a very low black population.'

The 65-year-old went on to label black people a 'hate group,' citing a poll that found nearly half of black people are not ok with white people.

The hour-long YouTube video was posted to Adams' channel which has 118,000 subscribers. As of Saturday it had 142,000 views.

On Saturday Gannett, which owns over 100 newspapers, confirmed it was dropping Dilbert over the controversy.

'Recent discriminatory comments by the creator, Scott Adams, have influenced our decision to discontinue publishing his comic,' the organization said in a statement Saturday to The New York Post.

Adams appeared to double down on the remarks on Twitter at the weekend. 'A lot of people are angry at me today but I haven't yet heard anyone disagree,' he told his 867,000 followers.

'I make two main points: 1. Treat everyone as an individual (no discrimination).

'2. Avoid any group that doesn't respect you. Does anyone think that is bad advice?'

Adams' satirical strips feature in newspapers across 57 countries, and in 19 languages - and there are over 20 million Dilbert books and calendars in print.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11793295/Newspaper-comic-strip-Dilbert-canceled-creators-racist-tirade.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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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State Department Parts Ways With Liberal ‘Disinformation’ Watchdog

The Department of State is cutting its funding of the Global Disinformation Index after reports surfaced in recent days that the London-based media watchdog group made concerted efforts to steer advertisers away from conservative-leaning websites in favor of more liberal ones.

The Global Disinformation Index labeled a number of right-leaning American media outlets as “risky” and encouraged advertisers to take their business elsewhere. The websites included the American Spectator, the Federalist, the Daily Wire, RealClearPolitics, Reason magazine, the New York Post, and the Washington Examiner, which broke the story of the GDI’s partisan leanings.

The GDI deemed a number of liberal outlets “least risky,” including ProPublica, National Public Radio, HuffPost, Buzzfeed News, and the Washington Post.

The GDI had received more than $300,000 in grants through two state department offices, one of them the National Endowment for Democracy.

The department said its initial impetus to fund the Global Disinformation Index came from its work abroad — including in Communist China — where it sought to fight propaganda from authoritarian regimes.

“We recognize the important work GDI has done with NED support in other countries to help preserve the integrity of the information space and counter authoritarian influence,” the endowment said in a statement, according to the Washington Times.

The NED told the Washington Times that it had “recently” become aware of the project centered on American media and did not fund it.

The foundation said that given its “commitment to avoid the perception that NED is engaged in any work domestically, directly or indirectly, we will no longer provide financial support to GDI.”  

It added: “We have strict policies and practices in place so that NED and the work we fund remains internationally focused, ensuring the Endowment does not become involved in domestic politics.”

https://www.nysun.com/article/state-department-parts-ways-with-liberal-disinformation-watchdog?

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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More censorship by Gooogle

This time it was my blog "The Psychologist" that they hit

They deleted a post as "hate speech". In it I simply reproduced an article by Malcom Smith that referred to the frequent appearance of blacks in TV advertisements.

I also added partially related comments about the poet Homer. As they are just a discussion about ancient history, I presume Google will not object to them so I reproduce them below

The "Greek" heroes in Homer were repeatedly described as blond or having golden hair: ξανθῆς δὲ κόμης ἕλε Πηλεΐωνα …. That is very rare in modern Greece. Modern Greeks are usually swarthy with black hair

Felice Vinci has solved that puzzle by pointing out that the events recorded by Homer probably took place in the Baltic many years before Homer was recorded. The attack on Troy was the work not of Greeks as we know them but of proto-Vikings. It was decribed by a Greek but that was not where the action originally took place

The full post that Google deleted does appear in my backups. The backups concerned are here. To see the deplored article just scroll down to the posts of 2nd Feb.

State Department Under Fire for Financing ‘Disinfo’ Project That Blacklisted Conservative Websites

A London-based online content watchdog financed in part by the U.S. Department of State is under fire from conservatives who say the platform consistently flags right-leaning news websites as problematic in an effort to cut off their advertising revenue and “defund disinformation.”

The Global Disinformation Index, founded in 2018, included a number of conservative American websites on its list of “risky” outlets that should be avoided by advertisers. Among them are the American Spectator, the Federalist, the Daily Wire, RealClearPolitics, the libertarian Reason magazine, the New York Post, and the Washington Examiner, which first reported on the group’s activities.

Websites called “least risky” by the group include a litany of progressive-leaning outlets such as ProPublica, National Public Radio, HuffPost, Buzzfeed News, and the Washington Post, among others.

The efforts by the London firm appear to have had the desired effect. A billion-dollar online advertising company owned by Microsoft, Xandr, until recently subscribed to the company’s services and routinely blocked advertising to a number of right-leaning websites, according to the Examiner, including Sean Hannity’s hannity.com, the Washington Times, and rushlimbaugh.com.

Many of the sites were described as “false/misleading” by Global Disinformation’s analysts. Other pejoratives used by the firm’s analysts to describe websites it found offensive include “morally reprehensible or patently offensive” or lacking in “redeeming social value.”

Over the weekend, Microsoft told the Examiner that it was suspending its relationship with the firm and would no longer use its ratings pending an internal review of the questions raised by the Washington Examiner.

The Department of State’s role in financing the activities of the Global Disinformation Index has drawn the ire not only of First Amendment advocates but of some Republicans in Congress. The center was on the receiving end of at least $330,000 from two branches of the Department of State, the Global Engagement Center and the National Endowment for Democracy.

“The State Department should not be funding woke organizations who seek to censor and demonetize conservative outlets,” Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, a Republican who sits on the board of the National Endowment for Democracy, told the Examiner. “House Republicans will assert our oversight over the State Department’s funding of these types of groups.”

Founders of the Global Disinformation Index include a former MTV executive in Europe, Clare Melford, and a professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and a security fellow at the Truman National Security Project, Daniel Rogers.

In their mission statement, the founders said the firm’s founding principal is that most so-called disinformation is promulgated for financial gain and their goal is to cut off funding to the offending sites.

The group defines “disinformation” as narratives that are “adversarial” to democratic institutions, scientific consensus, or at-risk groups. “Adversarial narratives undermine trust in our social, political, economic, and scientific institutions and sow or exacerbate division within our societies, often leading to real world harms, including violence, illness and death,” the group says.

Among the “adversarial narratives” cited by Ms. Melford are "climate change denial" and skepticism about vaccines.

https://www.nysun.com/article/state-department-under-fire-for-financing-disinfo-project-that-blacklisted-conservative-websites

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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In California, Telling the Truth Is Illegal

Even if you’ve got the courage to speak up and say the emperor has no clothes, the state of California won’t let you.

California’s Civil Rights Department is forcing burger chain Shake Shack to pay $20,000 to a former employee who alleges he faced “misgendering” in the workplace—aka fellow employees refusing to indulge an adult’s gender-swapping fantasy.  

The former burger flipper (or perhaps cashier or shake maestro) says he “was repeatedly misgendered by co-workers and that when he complained, management failed to take reasonable steps to correct the behavior,” according to a press release from the state Civil Rights Department.

Instead, the employee alleges, “management told him repeatedly that he would have to explain his gender to co-workers rather than rely on management to correct discriminatory behavior.”

As a result, the employee left a Shake Shack restaurant in Oakland after a month of employment and the California Civil Rights Department took up his crusade, resulting in a prelitigation settlement with Shake Shack that includes a $20,000 payout to the employee and the burger chain’s committing to new policies and training.

 “California law prohibits intentional misgendering in the workplace,” said Kevin Kish, director of the Civil Rights Department, in a statement announcing the settlement. “Intentional misgendering and other forms of discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression can be stressful and traumatic.”

 What about being forced to lie by the government? Can that be stressful and traumatic?

Think about a similar situation that is about anything besides gender. What if the employee was 20 but “identified” as 70?

If you’re rolling your eyes, consider this: In 2018, a 69-year-old Dutch man and “positivity trainer,” Emile Ratelband, went to court because he wanted to identify as a 49-year-old, saying it would help him on a dating app and with employment.  

His request was denied, with the unfeeling judges writing that Ratelband was merely “at liberty to feel 20 years younger than his real age and to act accordingly,” the BBC reported

But the quest continues. On his Twitter profile, Ratelband identifies as “age-fluid.”

Or what about the infamous case of Rachel Dolezal, the white woman who had presented herself as African American and even headed up the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Wash.? In 2017, a couple of years after the national controversy about her, Dolezal told NBC News’ NBCBLK that she identified as “trans-black.”

 Her language in another interview echoed the claims of trans activists who say that people can be born in the “wrong body.”

“I feel that I was born with the essential essence of who I am, whether it matches my anatomy and complexion or not,” Dolezal told The Guardian in 2017.  “I’ve never questioned being a girl or woman, for example, but whiteness has always felt foreign to me, for as long as I can remember. I didn’t choose to feel this way or be this way, I just am.”

Or consider Tiamat Eva Medusa, who was born male and now identifies as a dragon lady. “After transitioning to a woman and then to a reptile, Tiamat found her true self in another species,” says Diana Tourjee, narrator of the 2018 Vice documentary “I’m a Real-Life Transgender Dragon.”  

Tiamat added eight horns to his head, got heavily tattooed, and had most of his teeth yanked out and his ears removed (“I’m a serpent dragon and serpents don’t have ears,” Medusa says in the documentary).

If Tiamat worked in California, would his coworkers need to call him a dragon?

Even parents aren’t necessarily going to be free from California’s draconian speech policing: Proposed legislation would make courts “strongly consider that affirming the minor’s gender identity is in the best interest of the child if a nonconsenting parent objects to a name and gender marker change to affirm the minor’s gender identity.”  

In other words, even if you don’t think your son is your daughter and it will hurt your child to have that fake identity affirmed, a court could take the decision out of your hands.  

Gender isn’t the only arena where California’s government goons are aiming to squelch speech. Last fall, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed legislation that banned doctors from spreading “misinformation” on COVID-19. If doctors were found to have spread such “misinformation,” they would be guilty of “unprofessional conduct” and referred to the appropriate state medical board for further action.  

Misinformation, conveniently enough, is defined by the state as “false information that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus.” Truth is irrelevant. All that matters is that you exclusively spout the popular claims of the day propagated by Anthony Fauci and his ilk.

Thankfully, a federal District Court judge blocked enforcement of the new law last month, and Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, a psychiatrist, told Fox News that he and a few other medical doctors are willing to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court if need be.  

But nevertheless, California’s willingness to put the weight of the government behind political correctness should concern everyone. Telling the truth should not be illegal anywhere, even in California.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/02/15/california-forces-shake-shack-to-pay-20k-to-misgendered-employee

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Woke researchers call for term 'fitness' to be banned because it is 'ableist'

Woke researchers have called for terms such as 'fitness' to be revised as part of a crackdown on 'harmful terminology' in science.

The team of experts from the US and Canada said the word is vague and ableist —  discriminatory against people with disabilities.

The recommendation applies to the field of biology, where fitness is used to describe reproductive success in certain species.

It comes amid a broader push for language to be changed to be less offensive, with doctors last summer claiming the term 'morbidly obese' should be ditched.

The crackdown on the term 'fitness' was revealed in an article published today in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

It was co-authored by scientists from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and universities in the US, including Michigan, California and New Jersey.

They want a rethink of terminology in the scientific fields of evolution and ecology - the study of the relationship between species and their surroundings.

They claim both scientific disciplines have histories 'rooted in eugenics, ableism and racism' and that part of that legacy is embedded into everyday terms.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11750613/Woke-researchers-call-term-fitness-banned-ableist.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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Children’s author Roald Dahl’s beloved books scrubbed by ‘sensitivity experts’

Roald Dahl’s famed children’s books are being scrubbed by so-called sensitivity experts to remove language they deem offensive, including “fat” or “ugly” characters — and making the beloved Oompa Loompas of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” gender neutral.

Publisher Puffin tapped sensitivity readers to rewrite hundreds of sections of the late author’s texts to ensure his work can continue to be enjoyed — and not offend — today’s more woke audience, The Telegraph reported.

“Words matter,” begins the notice at the bottom of the copyright page of Puffin’s latest editions of Roald Dahl’s books.

“The wonderful words of Roald Dahl can transport you to different worlds and introduce you to the most marvelous characters. This book was written many years ago, and so we regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all today.”

Oompa Loompas, the diminutive staffers of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, was once called “small men,” yet are now “small people.”

Another favorite character of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’,” infamous glutton Augustus Gloop, is no longer called “fat” but rather “enormous.”

Characters from the author’s other classic tales are also getting a lefty makeover, according to the National Review.

Gender references have also been neutralized to not offend women or the transgender community. In “The Witches,” a section saying witches are bald beneath their wigs has a new disclaimer: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.”

Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company made the latest changes in conjunction with Inclusive Minds, which its spokesperson said is “a collective for people who are passionate about inclusion and accessibility in children’s literature,” according to the Daily Mail.

https://nypost.com/2023/02/18/childrens-author-roald-dahls-work-rewritten-by-sensitivity-experts/

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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JK Rowling critic forced to publicly apologize for calling her a Nazi after lawsuit threat

J.K. Rowling has faced fierce backlash from former fans because of her views and statements about transgender individuals and biological sex. Rowling first made headlines in June 2020 after sharing a series of tweets on her thoughts regarding the concept of sex.

"If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased," she tweeted at the time. "I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth."

This began an avalanche of criticism and name-calling aimed at Rowling.

One Twitter user named JJ Welles posted a now-deleted tweet that said Rowling was "a nazi or at least has views that align with them."

Rowling responded with a threat of legal action in December, "Okey dokey, JJ, we’ll play it your way. Give my regards to your solicitor!"

On Monday, two months after the Nazi accusation, Welles issued a retraction.

"I would like to publicly apologise for a previous Twitter thread where I interacted with JK Rowling on matters relating to the transgender community. I have now removed these tweets and would like to apologise to JK Rowling directly for causing potential upset," he wrote.

In a later tweet, he added, "I would also like to retract my likening to JK Rowling to any far right or Nazi organisation and emphasise I do not wish any individual, inclusive of JK Rowling, to come to any harm."

https://www.foxnews.com/media/jk-rowling-critic-forced-publicly-apologize-calling-her-nazi-after-lawsuit-threat

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Christian teacher loses job after refusing to deceive parents on kids' gender transitions

A California teacher, who lost her job after refusing to comply with a California district's gender policies, citing Christian beliefs, is blowing the whistle on the expectations she felt as a teacher to not only hide students' gender transitions from parents, but also to keep them in the dark through lying.

"I knew immediately, like in my gut, in my heart, in my soul, that there was a decision I had to make because, you know, these two things were totally butting heads," Jessica Tapias, who worked at the Jurupa Unified School District, told Fox News Digital. "I essentially had to pick one. Am I going to obey the district in the directive that are not lining up with… my own beliefs, convictions and faith? Or am I going to stay true…, choose my faith, choose to be obedient to… the way the Lord has called me to live. And so it was crazy to be in the position where I realized that I couldn't be a Christian and a teacher."

In a notice under Superintendent Trenton Hansen's letterhead, reviewed by Fox News Digital, the district said they couldn't accommodate Tapias' Christian beliefs which prohibited her from withholding information on gender transitions from kids' parents.

"Consequentially, the District will release you from your employment effective at the end of the day on January 31, 2023," the notice said.

"Based on your religious beliefs, you cannot be dishonest with parents... If asked about a student's gender identity by a parent, you cannot refer the parent to a counselor, defer the inquiry and suggest they speak with a student..., or otherwise deflect the parent's inquiry," the letter, signed by assistant superintendent of human resources, Daniel Brooks, said.

Tapias said, "According to my school district, students have privacy. And so if a student shares information regarding a pronoun preference or thinking there may be the opposite gender of what they biologically are, if they share that information with a teacher, we are supposed to keep that info from parents in case the parent doesn't know."

https://www.foxnews.com/media/christian-teacher-loses-job-refusing-deceive-parents-kids-gender-transitions-devil

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Science needs to stop using terms like male, female, mother and father, researchers say

Alternatives to terms like “male” and “female” and “mother” and “father” should be sought in science because they assume that sex is binary and heterosexuality is the norm, a group of researchers from the US and Canada suggests.

Male and female should instead be referred to as “sperm-producing” and “egg-producing,” the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) Language Project said, according to the Times of London.

Meanwhile, father and mother should be labeled “parent,” “egg donor” and “sperm donor” in the scientific field.

The group has called on the scientific field to use words that are more “inclusive and precise,” according to a press release from the University of British Columbia, which has three researchers part of the initiative.

“Much of western science is rooted in colonialism, white supremacy and patriarchy, and these power structures continue to permeate our scientific culture,” some project members wrote in the Trends in Ecology and Evolution journal.

UBC assistant professor Dr. Kaitlyn Gaynor said the undertaking began from a Twitter conversation between a few people about terminology that is potentially harmful.

“We reached out to different networks in ecology and evolution that were focused on increasing inclusion and equity in the field to rally support for one very specific action —revising terminology that might be harmful to certain people, particularly those from groups historically and currently excluded from science,” she said according to the press release.

https://nypost.com/2023/02/14/science-needs-to-stop-using-male-female-mother-father-researchers/

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Adios, ‘Latinx’: Hispanics Rightly Reject Left’s Contrived Gender-Neutral Label

One of the first things that Arkansas’ new governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, did upon taking office on Jan. 10 was to issue an executive order banning the use of the woke, made-up word “Latinx” in state government business and official documents.

Then, on Feb. 1, taking their cue from Sanders, a Republican, five Hispanic Democratic state legislators in liberal Connecticut called for that same gender-neutral term, “Latinx” (mispronounced “Lateenex”—rhymes with “Kleenex”—by our hapless president), to be banned in official government business there as well.

The five lawmakers’ one-paragraph bill, HB 6384, introduced in the Connecticut General Assembly, reads: “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened: That the general statutes be amended to prohibit any state agency, or state employee on behalf of a state agency, from using the term ‘Latinx’ on any official communications or forms of the state agency.”

“This has been offensive and derogatory to all Puerto Ricans, and it’s something that hasn’t sat well with a lot of people here for a while,” the bill’s chief sponsor, state Rep. Geraldo Reyes Jr., D-Waterbury, told CTInsider.com. “When I found out that [Sanders] banned it on her first day in the office, I saw that as an opportunity for me to do the same thing.”

The Arkansas chief executive’s statement speaks for itself: “Ethnically insensitive and pejorative language has no place in official government documents or government employee titles,” Sanders’ executive order stated. “The government has a responsibility to respect its citizens and use ethnically appropriate language, particularly when referring to ethnic minorities.”

It goes on to say: “All state offices, departments, and agencies, unless granted an exemption by the Governor, shall review official documents of their respective entities regarding the use of the term ‘Latinx,’ ‘latinx,’ ‘Latinxs,’ or ‘latinxs’ in official state documents.”

The affected Arkansas state agencies were instructed to report back to Sanders’ office highlighting all instances in which the word is used and “within sixty (60) days of this Order, all state offices, departments, and agencies shall revise all existing written materials by replacing the terms ‘Latinx,’ ‘latinx,’ ‘Latinxs,’ or ‘latinxs’ with ‘Hispanic,’ ‘Hispanics,’ ‘Latino,’ ‘Latinos,’ ‘Latina,’ or ‘Latinas.’”

Sanders’ and Reyes’ actions notwithstanding, polls overwhelmingly find that Hispanics themselves neither like nor use the term “Latinx.” The Pew Research Center reported in August 2020 on the results of a bilingual survey of U.S. Hispanic adults it had conducted the prior December that found that “only 23% of U.S. adults who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino have heard of the term ‘Latinx,’ and just 3% say they use it to describe themselves.”

A newer poll, this one from October, shows the term’s favorability has not improved with age—or with its use by the Left. To the contrary, the survey conducted by WPA Intelligence and Visto Media for Bienvenido of 1,288 registered Hispanic voters (1,086 of them likely voters) found that when asked “How do you prefer to be identified?” just 1% opted for “Latinx.”

That’s an epic fail when you consider the concerted effort that’s been made by woke leftists (most of them, incidentally, non-Hispanic whites), in cahoots with the LGBTQ lobby, the Democratic Party, the liberal media, and much of academia and trendy corporate America, to push the term into mainstream acceptance and use.

It’s met resistance in no small part because it runs counter to the grammatical structure of Romance languages—such as Spanish, French, and Italian—that routinely assign gender to nouns, both in suffixes, such as the -a and -o in Latina and Latino, and in the articles that precede nouns (e.g., “la,” “el,” “las,” and “los”).

As such, “Latinx” is nothing more than gender-neutral virtue signaling, created by and for the perpetually aggrieved woke—again, most of them white non-Hispanics—and for the vanishingly small number of people who “identify” as “nonbinary.”

Language should not be twisted like a pretzel in service of a radical political agenda or to accommodate and placate a vocal but minuscule minority.  

Even if you disagreed with the premise behind its creation by misandrist feminists in the 1970s, whose creed was “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,” the title “Ms.” found a practical purpose as an honorific when you didn’t know a woman’s marital status.

But “Latinx” has no such redeeming social value. We shouldn’t lend it undue legitimacy by using the term—or, for that matter, indulge the Left on any of its other linguistic fabrications, such as “cisgender,” “deadname,” or the singular “they” for the self-styled “nonbinary.”

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/02/09/adios-latinx-hispanics-rightly-reject-lefts-contrived-gender-neutral-label

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Secret Blacklist Exposed: Townhall Labeled 'Reprehensible' and 'Offensive' on List Targeting Advertisers

In the era of cancel culture, leftist forces are working together behind the scenes to censor and de-platform conservative voices. We've seen it in real-time—look at what Facebook and Twitter did to President Donald Trump. Look at what Big Tech has done to a slew of social media accounts, high-profile or not, who dared to voice a contrary opinion that goes against the grain of the liberal ethos. The Twitter Files have exposed what we have suspected all along. We now have the hard evidence exposing this extensive censorship operation that included assistance from the FBI.

Regarding advertising, the tentacles of leftism are even more entrenched in the effort to censor, and they have heavy hitters as allies. Take what Gabe Kaminsky of The Washington Examiner exposed today. Townhall is one of those listed on a secret blacklist compiled by some British-based woke nonprofit that targets advertisers with the intent of silencing these websites. An advertising agency that Microsoft bought is a subscriber to this list (via Washington Examiner):

An advertising company owned by Microsoft that subscribes to a left-leaning "disinformation" group's secret blacklist for conservative media outlets has been internally flagging right-leaning websites and taking steps to defund and deplatform them, according to records obtained by the Washington Examiner and whistleblowers in the advertising industry.

The Global Disinformation Index, a British organization with two affiliated U.S. nonprofit groups, is feeding secret blacklists to ad companies, such as Xandr, with the intent of shutting down websites peddling alleged "disinformation." Now, sets of documents and emails leaked to the Washington Examiner shed light on how Xandr, which Microsoft bought in 2021 for $1 billion, has targeted disfavored speech and blocked conservative websites from reaping key ad dollars.

"Xandr's use of politically motivated flags on this blacklist stands outside of the norm in advertising," said a senior executive at an ad company, noting that the real purpose of blacklisting should be to protect brands from advertising "on content that is illegal, fraudulent, [or] low-quality."

"In this case, Xandr prevented us from talking to our voters in the critical days leading up to Election Day," the executive, who was granted anonymity to discuss confidential company matters, told the Washington Examiner. "Our audience reads the Examiner, Daily Wire, Townhall, etc. Voters go to these news & opinion sites [to] inform their decisions. And if Microsoft is using their technology to block us from showing ads on these websites, they're actively preventing us from talking to voters on the public squares where their decisions are being informed."

[…]

The revelation that Xandr has its own blacklist of conservative websites comes after the Washington Examiner reported that the State Department granted $330,000 to GDI.

The State Department's Global Engagement Center, which aims to "counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations," sent $100,000 to GDI.

Oh, this little covert censorship operation now has Joe Biden as a backer using taxpayer dollars. It doesn't get much swampier than this, but it's also something that isn't shocking. Numerous websites on the conservative spectrum have experienced oddities regarding ad revenue. And while this isn't the source of all ills—it only shines as another example of the Democrat-media-technology complex working tenaciously to erase people and opinions they view as offensive. It's why Townhall and other outlets have launched successful membership services, which have served as a critical backstop to any potential fallout should we get black-bagged by these leftists Gestapo types. In turn, we can create edgier content for our loyal readers.

So, speaking only for myself, I can only say "thank you" to these miserable leftists seeking to hurl me and others with differing opinions into the meat grinder. I love that you find me "reprehensible" and "offensive." I'm elated that it triggers you and keeps you up at night. I'm an insomniac, so I'll keep driving you mad at all hours. We're not going away, and neither are my friends.

Suck it,

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2023/02/10/townhall-unveils-its-new-pronouns-reprehensibleoffensive-n2619442

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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NZ’s new PM suggests shift from identity politics. So can Kiwis relax?

New Zealand’s new Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, has seemingly signalled a move away from the identity politics beloved of Ardern. So does that mean that Kiwis concerned about free speech can now chillax?

It doesn’t look like it. Justice Minister Kiri Allan’s new “hate speech” bill passed its first reading in parliament on December 13th last year.

A number of MPs from the opposition National and ACT parties opposed the bill. And New Zealanders from across the political spectrum have until February 2nd to make submissions to the select committee in a last-ditch attempt to shoot down this ill-thought-out bill.

But with Labour holding an absolute majority, it looks almost inevitable that bill will soon become law.

The statement Allan made in support of her bill shows how little Labour has learned from the debacle of its first package of “hate speech” proposals. They were hastily withdrawn after widespread public blowback and after Ardern and some of her ministers proved incapable of defending (or even accurately summarising them) on air.

That package sought to criminalise the incitement of hatred against any group defined by sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, employment status, family status, religious beliefs, ethical beliefs, or political opinions.

Allan’s new bill would, much more modestly, extend current protections in the Human Rights Act only to groups defined by religious belief.

Allan defended the bill with an argument that comes straight out of our universities (and I regret to say that’s not a compliment). “Speech that incites hostility or contempt,” she asserted, “causes significant harm to both those specific groups and to society as a whole.”

One problem with this approach is that most of us think that our political opponents’ proposals will cause harm, so introducing bans on “harmful” speech will inevitably lead to more and more restrictions on legitimate political debate.

Another is that speech that undeniably causes harm may well be justified by other considerations – of truth or of justice, say. Speech exposing the misdeeds of Lance Armstrong, for instance, clearly caused him harm, but who would argue that we should have clamped down on that?

Perhaps most importantly, to treat speech as equivalent to violence is to forget one of the main advantages of open discussion. Free speech is valuable in part precisely because it isn’t violence, and allows us to conduct our political disputes largely free of the horrific conflicts of the past.

Labour claims that this bill will reduce violence. It claims to be acting on the recommendations of a royal commission into the Christchurch massacre in 2019. Allan in her statement presented her bill as a response to an “association between hate speech and terrorism” established by research and to “evidence [that] the spread of this type of speech” could be “a precursor to violence.”

But claims of an association between speech and violence are, to put it mildly, debatable. As Jacob Mchangama points out in his recent book Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media, “studies suggest that, on the whole, free speech is associated with less rather than more violent extremism” in democracies, and that “the preventive effect of free speech on terrorist attacks seems particularly strong.”

This is probably because suppressing speech only convinces extremists that violence is their only recourse. A 2017 study found that recent far-right violence in Europe has been motivated partly by “extensive public repression of radical right actors and opinions.”

‘Victims’ of hate speech, according to Allan, “can experience the loss of their right to feel safe, freedom of movement and expression, and, at the right extreme end of the spectrum, the right to life, if someone is killed as a result of incitement or hostility.”

The most peculiar assertion here is that opinions are on the same “spectrum” as homicide. Allan’s argument is, unfortunately, all too familiar to me from my time in academia. Take something very serious – racism, say, or even murder. Next, find something else extremely common – obviously jocular expressions, cartoons, offhand remarks, social media posts, and so on.

Then, present them as “on the same spectrum,” and you have a ready means of denouncing perfectly ordinary behaviour as if it’s only a step away from something atrocious.

What’s most disturbing here isn’t the bill itself, but the trend it represents. Hyper-illiberal views which were once fringe even on university campuses are now deeply embedded in the political class across the English-speaking world.

And that is bad news for free speech everywhere.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nz/nzs-new-pm-suggests-shift-from-identity-politics-so-can-kiwis-relax/news-story/59e4a7b3cf2019bc3cdf3e882f7c6506

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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AP Bans ‘Crisis Pregnancy Centers,’ Directs Journalists to Use Negative Term Instead

The Associated Press added an entry to its style guide directing journalists to put the term “crisis pregnancy center” in scare-quotes, and to use “anti-abortion center” instead, to convey that “the centers’ general aim is to prevent abortions.”

The AP added this entry between Nov. 20 and Nov. 27, 2022, according to The Daily Signal’s search of the Wayback Machine. The guide describes the centers as “set up to divert or discourage women from having abortions” and warns writers against “potentially misleading terms” like “pregnancy resource centers or pregnancy counseling centers.”  

“If using the term anti-abortion center, explain later that these often are known as ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ (with quotation marks) and that their aim is to dissuade people from getting an abortion,” the style guide entry states.  

“It’s disgraceful that so-called journalistic professionals succumb to pro-abortion political activists to do their bidding,” Thomas Glessner, president of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, told The Daily Signal. His organization won an important 2018 U.S. Supreme Court case against then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who applied state law forcing pregnancy centers to post information about nearby abortion facilities.

“If they actually cared about integrity, they would know that pregnancy centers seek to help women who are facing unplanned pregnancies with material and emotional support,” Glessner added. “Many centers also provide medical services for free.”

The AP did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment about when, exactly, it adopted this guidance, and how it would respond to criticism about it.

The AP’s pregnancy center definition follows at least 80 attacks against pregnancy centers since the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade in early May, according to the Catholic Vote tracker. Abortion advocates have firebombed and spray-painted the centers, which provide free medical and financial support to pregnant and new mothers, with pro-abortion and anarchist messages and symbols.

“These centers are the backbone of the pro-life movement, serving as boots-on-the-ground representatives of a movement that cares deeply for both mom and baby,” Glessner said. “It’s a disgrace that the media have taken such an active stance against these centers, especially at a time in our history when women really need help, acknowledgement, and someone to lean on during a difficult time.”

The Associated Press is the most common stylebook among journalists and news outlets on the Left and Right, including The Daily Signal. The Daily Signal does depart from AP style when the style guide adopts partisan messaging on abortion, transgender identity, and other issues, however.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/02/03/disgraceful-associated-press-directs-journalists-use-crisis-pregnancy-center-new-abortion-guidance

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Our non-gendered parent who art in heaven: Priests could stop using male pronouns 'He' and 'Him' when referring to God in prayers and drop phrase 'our Father' from the Lord's Prayer

This is a bit of a storm in a teacup. Christians have never held that God has a sexual identity. Using male pronouns to refer to him has always been recognized as a convenience only

God could be referred to in 'non-gendered' terms during Church of England services for the first time, it can be revealed.

Breaking with centuries of tradition, bishops have announced they are launching a major 'project on gendered language' this spring.

It may suggest that priests can stop using the male pronouns 'He' and 'Him' when referring to God in some prayers, or even that they can drop the famous phrase 'our Father' from the start of the Lord's Prayer.

However, such a radical rewriting would have to be agreed by the whole of the church's governing body, the General Synod, and would be fiercely resisted by traditionalists for breaking away from the words of the Bible.

The landmark move has been revealed today in a question presented to the committee that develops the wording used in church services, called the Liturgical Commission.

The Rev Joanna Stobart, a vicar in the diocese of Guildford, Surrey, said that some clergy want to refer to God without saying He or Him, particularly in prayers of forgiveness for sins.

She asked: 'Please could the Liturgical Commission provide an update on the steps being taken to develop more inclusive language in our authorised liturgy and to provide more options for those who wish to use authorised liturgy and speak of God in a non-gendered way, particularly in authorised absolutions where many of the prayers offered for use refer to God using male pronouns?'

In response, the Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Rev Michael Ipgrave, said: 'We have been exploring the use of gendered language in relation to God for several years, in collaboration with the Faith and Order Commission.

'After some dialogue between the two Commissions in this area, a new joint project on gendered language will begin this spring.

'In common with other potential changes to authorised liturgical provision, changing the wording and number of authorised forms of absolution would require a full Synodical process for approval.'

The proposal was welcomed by a group that campaigns for 'gender justice' in the Church of England.

But Synod member Rev Dr Ian Paul said: 'The fact that God is called 'Father' can't be substituted by 'Mother' without changing meaning, nor can it be gender-neutralised to 'Parent' without loss of meaning. Fathers and mothers are not interchangeable but relate to their offspring in different ways.

'If the Liturgical Commission seek to change this, then in an important way they will be moving the doctrine of the Church away from being 'grounded in the Scriptures'.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11722729/God-non-gendered-Church-England-services.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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Must not refer to an old person's age

A furious outburst from an old lady below. If the "offensive" remark had been made to me I would have smiled at the joke rather than taking offence. If I had said anything, I would probably have said something along the lines of "I wish I WAS still young". I am 79

My 68-year-old husband is affable by nature, so he moves fairly easily through the world. He can strike up a conversation with just about anyone and knows most of our local shopkeepers by name. That’s why I was surprised when he returned from running some errands recently not just flustered, but upset.

“I was queuing at the bakers, minding my own business” he told me, “Then, when it was my turn, the bloke behind the counter said, ‘And what can we do for you, young man?’”

Being 65 myself, I knew exactly why he felt so outraged and humiliated. This may surprise those of you who are still young (it’s a very temporary state, so be warned) but those of us you think of as old do not go about our lives thinking of ourselves that way. We think of ourselves just as we always have – as we did when we were 14 or 40 or 25. Our outsides might have changed but our essential selves are just the same. It is always a shock when we find ourselves being treated differently simply because of the length of time we have spent on the planet.

However, the young (“not that young”, as my husband hastened to emphasise) shop assistant’s remark was particularly offensive because of the many ignorant assumptions it contained. The first is that old people are all desperate to be thought young. This is a delusion held by those who have never grown old (or even up).

Yes, there are downsides to being older, but there are also benefits, and that is true of any age. Anyway, as there is sod-all any of us can do about the passage of time, we may as well make the best of it. And, if we are lucky enough to be reasonably financially secure, most of us do.

Moreover, unless you die young, all of us will get old. Therefore, it is absurd to feel sorry for those who have lived longer than you. We neither want nor need your pity because we know we are lucky. We are still alive

https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/this-throwaway-joke-at-the-bakery-was-just-another-example-of-ageism-20230130-p5cgjt.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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Must not disagree with gender ideology

Sonny Bill Williams has ignited a storm of controversy on social media and been labelled “transphobic” for backing a comment from a woman who “thanked God” her parents wouldn’t let her get a sex change when she was 12.

Williams, who retired from a glittering career in rugby and rugby league in 2021, today shared a tweet from well-known anti-transgender and anti-vaccination advocate, Doctor Anastasia Maria Loupis.

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The Danish doctor’s social media feed is littered with comments about stamping out gay and transgender rights, anti-vaccination sentiments and Donald Trump fan fiction.

Williams re-tweeted a post, quoting “100, 100″ to show his strong backing for the views from the controversial Doctor with more than 154k followers.

The backing quickly gained traction on social media, and saw many taking aim at Williams for what they saw as his ‘transphobic’ views.

“From ages 4-12 I wore boys’ clothes, played boy sports and rejected all thing ‘girly’. When my brother teased me for being a girl, I even said that when I got older I would ‘cut my boobs off’. I was not transgender, I just idolised my brother. Thank God my parents were sane,” the tweet says.

Seen alongside the words were a picture of a young red-headed girl padded up as an American football player, side-by-side of a glamorous shot of a red-headed woman on a boat holding a beverage.

He later deleted the tweet.

The two-time Rugby World Cup winner, NRL Premiership hero with the Bulldogs and Roosters and champion boxer has more than 936,000 Twitter followers, who were divided over the controversial view – though the vast majority were “disappointed” and “angry” with his backing of the controversial comments.

NZME columnist Alice Soper condemned the remarks, and Williams’ support of them, countering that “you are who you are, and the world is better for it”.

Others implored him to use his enormous social media platform to avoid spreading such ‘anti-trans’ views that have the potential to harm transgender individuals.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/sonny-bill-williams-ignites-social-media-controversy-with-transphobic-tweet/news-story/1d10625029e26316e4fe9891b1404cd4

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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'Jump the gun', 'roll with the punches' and 'deadline' are the latest phrases to be branded offensive due to their 'violent' undertones

They are words and phrases that have been a part of the English language for centuries.

But now ‘jump the gun’, ‘roll with the punches’ and even ‘deadline’ are on a new ultra-woke list of terms to avoid because they are considered too ‘violent’.

Instead, safer alternatives are suggested with, for example, ‘that’ll kill two birds with one stone’ being replaced with ‘that’ll feed two birds with one scone’.

The guide is entitled Evolving From Violent Language and was created, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the ultra-woke US state California.

Author Anna Taylor is a communications director and ‘diversity, equity and inclusion champion’ at technology company Phenomenex.

Last night, Ms Taylor told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The guide is for those who would like to replace mostly violently framed idioms with more positive and inclusive language.’

The list has been shared on Twitter, where it received more than 30 million views. Silicon Valley tech business adviser Jeremiah Owyang endorsed it, writing: ‘I didn’t even consider my language, I’ve used the phrases on the left too often.’

A woman who works in advertising and marketing added: ‘While that may sound like some “wokie” nonsense, it’s fundamentally solid. How even seemingly innocuous sayings can inspire violent tendencies that do us a disservice when we communicate.’

But others pointed out that some phrases are not based in violence, such as ‘jump the gun’, which refers to runners in an athletics race starting too soon.

Last night Frank Furedi, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, warned: ‘Some people might regard these ultra-woke suggestions as harmless and even amusing. But it’s not funny at all because the re-engineering of language subverts the way we think and our way of life. There’s a tendency now to inflate in an alarmist way the meaning of words.

‘They are attributing to these phrases the worst possible motives, rather than taking a step back and seeing these expressions have got nothing to do with violent intent

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11714189/Latest-phrases-branded-offensive-violent-undertones.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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Phoenix Is Policing Super Bowl Speech, but Not Violent Crime

It’s a tale of two cities in downtown Phoenix, set to play host to the national media and all the associated fanfare in the lead-up to Super Bowl LVII.

Or rather, it’s a tale of where one city government’s priorities lie, brought to light by two lawsuits challenging the city’s willingness to trample on its residents’ rights. Government officials can’t be bothered to police violent crime in one of the nation’s largest homeless encampments. But they have more than enough time and resources to police their own citizens’ free speech ahead of the Super Bowl.

In a massive swath of downtown Phoenix known as “The Zone,” where more than 1,000 homeless people have set up camp, the crisis is spiraling out of control as lawlessness, violence, and death become regular occurrences. And that’s to say nothing of the used condoms, needles, and human waste littering the streets. Just how bad is it? Last November, the burned remains of a 20-to-24-week old fetus were found in the street. Less than three weeks later, first responders put out another fire—only to discover adult remains.

And while city leaders are unwilling to protect the public’s health and safety, those same leaders were champing at the bit to cater to the whims of the National Football League—even if it meant censoring their own citizens in the weeks surrounding the Super Bowl.

The city said no resident or business in the “clean zone,” which encompasses most of downtown Phoenix, could put up any temporary signs—including flags, banners, posters, flyers or even window paintings—without the approval of the city, the NFL, and the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee. The mandate was ostensibly meant to ensure that only the NFL and its chosen sponsors can advertise in the “clean zone.” In practice, it meant that hundreds of businesses and thousands of residents were banned from communicating with the public on their own property without permission from the government and its handpicked private entities.

After the Goldwater Institute sued the city over these unconstitutional restrictions, the government amended the “clean zone” ordinance to remove the NFL and the Host Committee from the signage decision-making process. (And this past week, a court ruled the restrictions were unconstitutional.) But it’s all too clear what is and is not important to city leaders.

https://townhall.com/columnists/townhallcomstaff/2023/02/04/phoenix-is-policing-super-bowl-speech-but-not-violent-crime-n2619134

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Journal axes gene research on Jews and Palestinians

This news goes back to 2021 but is a strange example of something being unsayable. Apparently, saying that Palestinian Arabs and Jews have some genes in common is "incorrect". But it is actually a central Israeli claim that they trace their origins to ancient Israel, a land that has also been called Palestine.

So Jews SHOULD have some Middle-Eastern genes -- and they do. Perhaps its how you talk about the genetic commonality between Jews and Palestinian that raises hackles. Calling the two groups "almost identical" was undoubtedly a stretch. That could be nearly true of Mizrachi Jews (who come from Arab lands) but seems unlikely to be true of the Ashkenazim. Yet it seems to be the Ashkenazim who were studied in the paper concerned

A keynote research paper showing that Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinians are genetically almost identical has been pulled from a leading journal.

Academics who have already received copies of Human Immunology have been urged to rip out the offending pages and throw them away.

Such a drastic act of self-censorship is unprecedented in research publishing and has created widespread disquiet, generating fears that it may involve the suppression of scientific work that questions Biblical dogma.

'I have authored several hundred scientific papers, some for Nature and Science, and this has never happened to me before,' said the article's lead author, Spanish geneticist Professor Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, of Complutense University in Madrid. 'I am stunned.'

British geneticist Sir Walter Bodmer added: 'If the journal didn't like the paper, they shouldn't have published it in the first place. Why wait until it has appeared before acting like this?'

The journal's editor, Nicole Sucio-Foca, of Columbia University, New York, claims the article provoked such a welter of complaints over its extreme political writing that she was forced to repudiate it. The article has been removed from Human Immunology's website, while letters have been written to libraries and universities throughout the world asking them to ignore or 'preferably to physically remove the relevant pages'. Arnaiz-Villena has been sacked from the journal's editorial board.

Dolly Tyan, president of the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, which runs the journal, told subscribers that the society is 'offended and embarrassed'.

The paper, 'The Origin of Palestinians and their Genetic Relatedness with other Mediterranean Populations', involved studying genetic variations in immune system genes among people in the Middle East.

In common with earlier studies, the team found no data to support the idea that Jewish people were genetically distinct from other people in the region. In doing so, the team's research challenges claims that Jews are a special, chosen people and that Judaism can only be inherited.

Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East share a very similar gene pool and must be considered closely related and not genetically separate, the authors state. Rivalry between the two races is therefore based 'in cultural and religious, but not in genetic differences', they conclude.

But the journal, having accepted the paper earlier this year, now claims the article was politically biased and was written using 'inappropriate' remarks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Its editor told the journal Nature last week that she was threatened by mass resignations from members if she did not retract the article.

Arnaiz-Villena says he has not seen a single one of the accusations made against him, despite being promised the opportunity to look at the letters sent to the journal.

He accepts he used terms in the article that laid him open to criticism. There is one reference to Jewish 'colonists' living in the Gaza strip, and another that refers to Palestinian people living in 'concentration' camps.

'Perhaps I should have used the words settlers instead of colonists, but really, what is the difference?' he said.

'And clearly, I should have said refugee, not concentration, camps, but given that I was referring to settlements outside of Israel - in Syria and Lebanon - that scarcely makes me anti-Jewish. References to the history of the region, the ones that are supposed to be politically offensive, were taken from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and other text books.'

In the wake of the journal's actions, and claims of mass protests about the article, several scientists have now written to the society to support Arnaiz-Villena and to protest about their heavy-handedness.

One of them said: 'If Arnaiz-Villena had found evidence that Jewish people were genetically very special, instead of ordinary, you can be sure no one would have objected to the phrases he used in his article. This is a very sad business.'

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/nov/25/medicalscience.genetics

For what interest it may have, the Abstract of the paper is below:

The genetic profile of Palestinians has, for the first time, been studied by using human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene variability and haplotypes. The comparison with other Mediterranean populations by using neighbor-joining dendrograms and correspondence analyses reveal that Palestinians are genetically very close to Jews and other Middle East populations, including Turks (Anatolians), Lebanese, Egyptians, Armenians and Iranians. Archaeologic and genetic data support that both Jews and Palestinians came from the ancient Canaanites, who extensively mixed with Egyptians, Mesopotamian and Anatolian peoples in ancient times. Thus, PalestinianJewish rivalry is based in cultural and religious, but not in genetic, differences. The relatively close relatedness of both Jews and Palestinians to western Mediterranean populations reflects the continuous circum-Mediterranean cultural and gene flow that have occurred in prehistoric and historic times. This flow overtly contradicts the demic diffusion model of western Mediterranean populations substitution by agriculturalists coming from the Middle East in the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition

One wonders a little how their sample of Ashkenazi Jews was gathered. How reprsentative was it? Other studies have shown the Ashkenazim to have very little in the way of Middle-Eastern genes. Could that contradiction be a sampling artifact? It seems a pity that such concerns were not examined.

"NewsGuard" is really Leftguard

NewsGuard—one of the largest and most influential “fact-checkers” employed by Big Tech—is targeting PragerU!

After labeling PragerU as misinformation, encouraging tech platforms to cancel us, warning users to “proceed with caution” before viewing our content, damaging our reputation, and costing us hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of dollars, NewsGuard refuses to leave us alone.

Political and corporate elites empower third-party fact-checkers like NewsGuard to censor companies they don’t like—companies like PragerU. Meanwhile, leftist, legacy media companies like the New York Times and NPR get near-perfect “credibility” ratings.

So, who is behind NewsGuard, and why are they controlling what you can and cannot see?

NewsGuard is partnered with Big Tech companies (like Microsoft), Big Pharma (like the PR firm for Pfizer—the maker of the COVID vaccine), government agencies (like the Department of Defense), and even national teachers unions (like the American Federation of Teachers) “to combat disinformation, especially around COVID-19 and elections” according to the World Economic Forum. So, it’s no wonder NewsGuard doesn’t want open dialogue about COVID-19 and lockdowns.

They want to stop PragerU from exposing the truth.

Advisors to NewsGuard include former Directors of the CIA and other government agencies. Their partners, advisors, and staff overwhelmingly support left-wing causes. So, how can NewsGuard claim to be “independent” and call itself “The Internet Trust Tool”?

If you’ve seen any of our videos, you know that PragerU is fiercely committed to the truth. But NewsGuard slapped us with a misinformation label just because they don’t want the public to hear what we have to say.

Here’s just one of many examples of how third-party fact-checkers like NewsGuard are hurting organizations like PragerU, Breitbart, The Daily Wire, and The Babylon Bee: The company that used to host our videos, JW Player, informed us 18 months ago that they were not willing to work with us anymore. When we asked why, they said we had been blacklisted by NewsGuard and claimed our content was “misleading.” Suddenly, we had to devote considerable time and money to find a new video host.

Now, NewsGuard is back, threatening to further harm us if we don’t comply with their long list of ridiculous demands.

We will not let NewsGuard and their cronies get away with this. We’re not going to let them suppress free speech, conceal information, and control what you can and cannot see, all while keeping you completely in the dark.

There might be severe consequences for us for pushing against NewsGuard. But if we don’t do it, who will?

<i> info@update.prageru.com </i>

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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WEF against free speech

In a recent WEF panel titled “The Clear and Present Danger of Disinformation,” Vera Jourova, Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, said the United States would “soon” have laws against “what qualifies as hate speech, as illegal hate speech.”

Commissioner Jourova did not define the speech she thought was deserving of prohibition.

For all but the willfully blind, “hate speech,” “disinformation” and such are any departure from the official government line and laws against hate speech attempt to criminalize dissent. That’s a concept Vera Jourova, born in Czechoslovakia in 1964, should understand.

Czechoslovakia fell to a Stalinist coup in 1948. As in other captive nations, Stalin’s USSR crushed all dissent. In 1968, the Czechs pushed back with their “Prague Spring,” but the Soviets crushed that too. It wasn’t until after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 that the Czechs could again express themselves freely.

The struggle of man against power, said Czech novelist Milan Kundera, is “the struggle of memory against forgetting.” Those struggles, and their lessons for the present day, seem to have escaped the notice of Vera Jourova, who previously served as the E.U.’s Commissioner for Justice, Consumers, and Gender Equality.

https://blog.independent.org/2023/01/27/world-economic-forum-war-on-words-wheels/?omhide=true

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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