Mick Hartley – Page 667 – Politics and Culture

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Corruption on earth

international community to condemn the killing. The French government had previously described his death sentence as "a serious blow to freedom of expression and press freedom in Iran." […]

Ruhollah informed his father that his taped “confession”, which had been broadcast a few days previously on Iranian state television, had been recorded a month earlier by the agents of the judiciary.

“Although the case was over and the verdict had been issued,” he told his father, “the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Unit handed me to the judiciary about two months ago and I underwent long interrogation sessions, first by the judiciary’s security division and then by the Intelligence Ministry.”

Zam’s father also wrote that interrogators had promised Ruhollah he would be released in a prisoner exchange, and his “confessions” would be heard only by judiciary chief Ebrahim Raeesi.

Ruhollah Zam had been made to confess, amongst other things, to receiving cash payments from foreign countries, espionage and “revealing the whereabouts” of General Ghasem Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force who was killed by a US drone strike in Iraq last year in Iraq.

In June this year Zam was sentenced to death by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Abolghasem Salavati. The 13 charges against him, which it was decided amounted to “corruption on earth”, included “working with French, Israeli, and U.S. intelligence agencies”, “spreading false news and propaganda”, “acting against national security”, “insulting holy Islamic values, law enforcement agents, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the late Ayatollah Khomeini”, “espionage”, “spreading corruption”, “collecting classified information”, “making income from illegitimate sources”, “encouraging people to break national order and security”, “collusion against national security” and “creating and joining a hostile group.”

December 13, 2020
Cementing in gender dysphoria

ze: 11pt”>“The implications of this eventually published study are shocking. Puberty blockers are not given as a ‘pause button’ to ensure children make the right choice for them. They are given to “trans” kids’’ to cement in dysphoria.

Can anyone else think of any other treatment given to anyone where it is known that the treatment almost guarantees that symptoms do not reduce? That is the reason puberty blockers are given: to lock in the state of psychological distress children (often gay) have over their sex & sexuality.

Gender dysphoria is nothing more than a label we give to children as they find discomfort with their emerging sex & sexuality. It is no wonder it is strongest in gay kids, especially lesbians & maybe enhanced if you have autism. These feelings are then weaponised by activists.

A narrative is spun for children that these feelings are to do with their ‘gender’. Children are lied to about being ‘in the wrong body’. They are told that they will kill themselves unless they embrace their ‘gender’. Their sex and sexuality are denied to them.

These ideological doctors then ‘treat’ them to lock in these feelings so that they go onto radically change their bodies, put their fertility and health at risk, stunt their growth, increase risk of suidicdal thoughts. This is an appalling scandal. Yet everyone cheers it along.”

And, for good measure, also from the Glinner Update:

he Pyongyang General Hospital (what progress? – will they be out in time for Christmas?).

She's since been quiet, leading to the inevitable rumours that she was dead or disappeared. Now she's back with a snarl, the way we like her:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister Yo-jong on Wednesday warned that South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will "pay dearly" for doubting the regime's claim that there are no coronavirus infections in North Korea.

Kim Yo-jong, who has evolved into a hysterical attack dog on behalf of her brother, in a statement denounced South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha's "presumptuous remarks" and said the North will "never forget" them.

Kang had cast mild doubt on the regime's implausible claim, saying at the Manama Dialogue, a security summit in Bahrain last week, that it "is hard to believe."

She said the North has become "more North Korea — that is, more closed, very top-down decision-making process where there is very little debate on their measures in dealing with COVID-19."

"So, all signs are the regime is very intensely focused on controlling the disease that they say they do not have," Kang added.

But Kim was irate. "It can be seen from the reckless remarks made by her without any consideration of the consequences that she is too eager to further chill the frozen relations between the north and south of Korea," she said in the statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

Attagirl.

Doing what was right for traumatised women

We move slowly forward, one step at a time. Good news from Scotland:

MSPs have overwhelmingly backed an amendment in Holyrood that will allow the survivors of rape and sexual assaults to pick the sex rather than the gender of the person examining them after an attack.

The change in terms put forward by Labour’s Johann Lamont was backed by 113 MSPs.

The LibDems and Greens voted against, while the SNP's Christine Grahame abstained.

Currently, Section 9 of the Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014 allows victims of sexual assault to request an examiner of a particular gender.

But yesterday in Holyrood, the Labour MSP Joanna Lamont moved an amendment to the Forensic Medical Services Bill to change that to sex.

In its stage one report of that bill, Holyrood’s Health and Sport Committee, warned that the definition of gender “could be ambiguous in the bill, which has the potential to cause distress to individuals undergoing forensic medical examination.”

The Scottish Government initially rejected this argument, stating it was “not immediately convinced that there is legislative ambiguity on this matter”.

However on Thursday, ministers dropped their opposition.

Opening the debate, Lamont told colleagues the change was about clarity and doing what was right for traumatised women.

She said: “In giving people rights, in giving women victims of rape and sexual assault rights, in giving all survivors of sexual violence rights, we need to be precise.

“Sex is defined in law, and gender is not. A right is not a right, if it’s unenforceable. We owe it to survivors to listen and treat them with respect.”

Inevitably the familiar accusations of transphobia were dragged out:

Her colleague Monica Lennon said that some of those backing the amendment were ”blatantly hostile towards trans women, and the trans community.”

She added: “Clearly, there are some people who want to exclude trans women from working with women and girls to have disclosed rape or sexual assault.”

Well yes. Excluding trans women from working with women and girls who've been raped sounds like a very good idea to me. It's extraordinary that the delicate sensitivities of trans women could be placed ahead of the feelings of rape and sexual assault victims, who might just not be too happy with the idea of being examined and questioned by men who identify as women and dress up in a skirt and a wig considering they'd just been subjected to violence and humiliation at the hands of a man. But that's the way the whole debate's been framed: trans feelings trump women's feelings every time. But the tide is turning…

Pig Foot Pete

An early Forties soundie from the Dinning Sisters:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjfCuc3F7TM&w=550&h=309]

Yes indeed, it's not at all unlike the Andrews Sisters and their Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from 1941. The Dinnings were signed by Capitol Records as an answer to The Andrews Sisters, who recorded for Decca.

Lucille (Lou) Dinning once said, "Let's face it, the Andrews Sisters were way ahead of us. We tried our darndest to be as commercial as they were, but weren't flashy enough. We were all kind of shy. We came from a farm in Oklahoma. We never took dancing lessons or anything."

Well I like those harmonies – and those teeth.

Writing on the wall

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Three Mills Wall River, Stratford, Newham, 1981

Prefab, Poplar or Limehouse, Tower Hamlets. 1982

Paddington, Westminster

Burne St, Lisson Grove, Westminster, 1987

St Agnes Place, Kennington. 1980

Limehouse, Tower Hamlets 1984

St Leonard’s Rd, Bright St, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1988
[Photos: Peter Marshall]

Free speech victory

Good news from Cambridge:

Cambridge University has been forced to drop rules requiring students, lecturers and visitors to “respect” opposing views after overwhelming opposition from academics.

In a vote crucial to the free speech issue and watched closely by other universities, dons successfully challenged a “vague and authoritarian” policy they feared would stifle debate and threaten staff with disciplinary action or sacking for being disrespectful.

The amended version will also make it almost impossible to “no platform” speakers by cancelling their invitation, a controversial practice condemned by ministers and other critics.

More than 1,200 academics — at least 77 per cent of those who voted yesterday afternoon — were in favour of the three amendments to the freedom of speech policy that the university wanted to introduce. It now urges speakers to “tolerate” rather than “respect” each others’ views.

The earlier version had been approved by the university’s council but Arif Ahmed, a senior philosophy lecturer, put forward the amendments that replaced the word respectful with the word tolerant and made it harder to disinvite speakers.

Read Stephen Fry's contribution to the free speech campaign here.

The Inspectors

The technical look

Presumptuous remarks

Doing what was right for traumatised women

Pig Foot Pete

There are frequent accidents

Writing on the wall

Free speech victory