Welcome to Sunday, October 25: the Sabbath for goyische cats and National Greasy Foods Day. Below you see your choice of meat in the back room of Black’s BBQ in Lockhart, Texas, the finest establishment of its kind in America. Starting at the left and going clockwise: brisket, ribs, link sausage, and giant beef ribs. This food has plenty of Vitamin G (grease). You tell the guy what and how much you want, and he hacks off the requisite portion. You get sides before you get to this room.
Many will be repelled by this photo. Those people will, on average, live longer than I, but I will be the one who’s eaten like a king. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life—longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now.”
It’s also National Tight Ends Day (it’s football season!), World Pizza Makers Day, and World Pasta Day. Here’s the famous white clam pizza served at Frank Pepe’s in New Haven, Connecticut. I requested to be taken here after I gave a talk at Wesleyan, and my friend Fred Cohan (a prof at WU) took me.
Pepe’s white clam pizza is perhaps America’s most famous pie (as I said, I eat like a king), and here’s a short video about the place. As you’ll hear and see, the clam pie is made with freshly shucked clams, and sometimes they run out.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the October 25 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*As expected, the riots that started in France have spread to other countries in Europe this weekend:
While protests in France have claimed most international attention, large demonstrations also rocked many European cities Saturday from Milan to Rome to Madrid, Lisbon and Tirana.
In Milan, huge crowds of mostly young people gathered as night fell, chanting insults to Meloni and holding aloft banners such as “No to lies of the state.”
. . . . A separate anti-war march took place in central Rome. Organizers sought to distance themselves from potential unrest, urging participants to keep their faces uncovered and hands visible.
But it was these marchers who briefly clashed with police near the Piazza della Repubblica, even as organizers were trying to hold the crowd back using batons and tear gas. In the end, the protesters pulled back when a water cannon was turned on. They retreated to a location about half a kilometer (mile) away.
. . . In Albania’s capital Tirana, riot police used water cannons on large groups of protesters, some of whom set government buildings on fire and threw projectiles at police. Authorities said 2,500 officers patrolled the streets Saturday.
Looting, however, was far less frequent than it was last weekend. Stay tuned.
*To her credit, Melania Trump has apparently brokered a cease-fire deal that will allow people in a Ukrainian city captured by Russians (and cut off from the rest of Ukraine) to move back to Ukraine as a whole (article archived here).
Melania Trump, the first lady, said on Friday that she had brokered a cease-fire between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Oleshky, a southern Ukrainian city that is occupied by Russia and whose citizens are cut off from food and medical aid.
Mrs. Trump said the cease-fire would allow residents of the frontline city to leave “through a designated safe passageway.” The city, in the Kherson region of Ukraine, has been occupied by Russia since it began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
“It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible,” she said in a statement, adding that the “localized cease-fire” would begin on Thursday. Pope Leo XIV also lobbied Vladimir V. Putin for a cease-fire in recent days, calling the Russian leader from his hospital bed after undergoing lung surgery.
David Arakhamia, the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party faction in the Ukrainian Parliament, said in a statement that the cease-fire would begin in “the near future,” with the goal to establish “permanent humanitarian corridors for the safe evacuation of civilians and the delivery of aid.” He offered “sincere gratitude” to Mrs. Trump and the pope.
Dmitri S. Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, said in statement that the Russian military was “working on agreeing upon the timing of a cease-fire in that area to enable this humanitarian mission.” The first lady “made a significant contribution” to the negotiations, he said.
The unusual announcement by the first lady, who has tried to position herself as an intermediary between the warring sides, underscored the Trump administration’s freewheeling and unorthodox approach to diplomacy. It came as Ukraine and U.S. allies try to head off a turn toward Russia by President Trump that they fear could alter the course of the war.
In recent days, Mr. Trump has defended Mr. Putin and demanded that the Ukrainians replace Mr. Zelensky. He has also arranged to purchase diesel from Moscow and insisted to reporters that “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine,” even as Russia attacks civilians with missiles and drones.
Earlier this week, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, called Mr. Putin a “humanitarian” for releasing an American held for more than four years on what the State Department called fabricated charges.
*Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for Ohio’s governorship, has ignited a controversy because he put out a ludicrous and insulting attack against his Democratic opponent Amy Acton, highlighting her estranged mother’s calling her a “liar.” As the NYT revealed earlier, the estrangement resulted from Acton having accused her stepfather of sexual molestation, and thus being removed from the home. Now Ramaswamy is using the “liar” characterization as fodder for his candidacy.
In the ad, Donna Arthur, Dr. Acton’s mother, says, “Don’t let her become your governor. If you think she’ll make your life better, you’re fooling yourself.”
Now the ad itself has divided Republicans, as it’s such a low blow (Ramaswamy spent $4 million to air it, and is still airing it).
The most explosive advertisement of the midterm elections has split Republicans and again posed the question of what is fair game for campaign attacks in American politics.
In the days since the leak of the ad from Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio, many fellow G.O.P. politicians have denounced, disavowed or distanced themselves from the spot. Yet President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have defended the ad, a remarkably ruthless one even by the standards of modern political campaigns.
The ad features the estranged mother of Mr. Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, calling her daughter a liar and urging Ohioans not to vote for her. Ms. Acton has said that she has not spoken to her mother since she was 12 years old, when she was removed from her mother’s custody after her stepfather was arrested and charged with raping her.
The outrage over the ad’s dark backstory has left Mr. Ramaswamy, a billionaire entrepreneur who exemplifies the anything-goes, attack-at-all-costs ethos of Trump-era politics, at the center of a self-created political firestorm.
The Republican disagreements over the ad show that major figures in the party can still become divided over the rules and red lines of political warfare in the Trump era. And they set the stage for high drama on Election Day in Ohio, a state that has trended solidly Republican in recent years but now has outsize importance in the midterms. The overarching political question is: Will a potential backlash to Mr. Ramaswamy hurt other Ohio Republicans in competitive races, especially Senator Jon Husted, who is trying to fend off a well-known Democratic rival in a vital race for Senate control?
There is now a degree of unpredictability in the state. Campaigns in both parties do not know how voters will react.
Crikey! I was going to say that at least some Republicans have ethical standards about campaigns, but it looks as if they’re mainly worried about how this hamhanded ad will affect their candidate. Their concern appears to be more on the “did it work?” side than the”is it underhanded?: side. I couldn’t find the full ad on YouTube, but here’s a news report that shows part of it.
*The WaPo describes what seems like an out-and-out medical scam, with patients being charged high “hospital fees” for procedures done in doctors’ offices—without ever having set foot in a hospital (article is archived here).
“The numbers are staggeringly large,” said Blue Cross Blue Shield Association CEO Kim Keck, citing her organization’s estimate that hospitals would bill $500 billion less over the next decade if they were federally banned from charging higher rates for the same service offered through a hospital system rather than an independent physician’s office.
Doctor’s offices tend to say there is nothing they can do. It’s the hospital systems they are part of that charge hospital rates to insurance companies and therefore to patients.
Hospital systems, meanwhile, justify higher rates for doctor’s office procedures by saying the charges are necessary to subsidize the enormously complex round-the-clock care that happens at their hospitals. Limiting their ability to charge those fees would undermine their overall finances, potentially leading to reductions in services, they said.
Insurers and lawmakers are looking into ways to curb the practice of charging hospital rates for routine care or tacking on hospital facility fees for care that was not in hospitals. But it’s been going on for years with little progress made to stop it, and it is only getting more common as hospitals acquire more medical practices, now consolidating nearly half of all physicians in the U.S. into hospital systems, up from less than 30 percent in 2012.
This “we need to subidize other care” excuse won’t wash, at least in for-profit hospitals, which have a median profit of about 5.5%, but could be justifiable in nonprofit or government hospitals, which either are close to breaking even or are losing money. The solution would be to make it illegal for procedures in a doctor’s office to be charged at hospital rates, but we know that isn’t going to happen, as doctors themselves make more money when they are rembursed by insurance like Medicare at higher rates if they are affiliated with hospitals and thus allowed to add “facilities fees” to their bills.
*Voters in two blue states are set to vote on a ballot measure that would ban trans-identified men and boy from women’s sports, and supporters are confident that the ban will pass.
Colorado and Washington are reliably Democratic states where elected officials have rejected moves to ban transgender women and girls from female sports competitions. Now activists have gone around lawmakers to put proposed bans on both states’ ballots.
At a time when some Democratic leaders nationwide are recalibrating their approach to transgender issues, particularly sports, and polls show Americans generally back the bans, supporters are optimistic they will pass and open the door to similar efforts in other places where lawmakers have blocked bans.
Though the issue has been debated in many legislatures, this is the first time it’s going to voters.
“What is happening in 2026 is a testing ground for the future,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which supports LGBTQ+ rights.
Twenty-seven states — including all where Republicans control both the legislature and governor’s office — already have such laws.
Overall, Americans are opposed to trans-identified men competing in womens sports, and the “rights” of these males have to be balanced against the rights of women to compete fairly. As I’ve written repeatedly, the latter trumps the former, as the first right carries more unfairness. At any rate, if a law simply said that men and women could compete with each other until age ten or so, I wouldn’t have as much objection to that, as the differences in athletic ability are greatly enhanced at puberty. But I’d still object in general because I think a ban creates a better climate to keep the sexes separate at greater ages (stuff like dodgeball in elementary school might be excepted since it’s not a team sport). In general, and I must say this again, sports is one of the very few areas in which trans “rights” have to yield to other rights.
*The new film about Elizabeth Holmes, “You can see everything“, has become wildly popular, with its opening being the biggest regular documentary since Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” in 2004. In the WSJ, John Jurgensen and Ben Fritz discuss the factors making the film so popular. (See also the absorbing hourlong NYT videocast, “Why no one can look away from Elizabeth Holmes,” which features ohn Carreyrou, the journalist whose book began the exposé of Homes. ) An excerpt from the WSJ piece:
For nearly three years, fewer than 10 staffers at the New York-based indie film studio A24 knew that their 300-person company was making a genre-bending documentary about convicted Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes.
Keeping “You Can See Everything” off the radar, a minor miracle in an industry where leaks are routine, was intended to prevent any interference for directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim as they worked.
The secrecy around the film, the studio soon realized, could also be its most potent marketing weapon.
In June, A24 executive Nicolette Aizenberg texted the director of the Telluride Film Festival: “Have something…of note to talk to you about.” Though the Colorado festival’s lineup was almost locked, they hatched a plan to unveil “You Can See Everything” there. On Sept. 6, 650 people filled a theater and locked up their phones in Yondr pouches without knowing what they were about to see.
It was a major gamble for a movie company. A24 knew it had a notorious subject, surprise twists and, in Fielder, a filmmaker who was cult-famous for his attention-grabbing stunts. But was it enough to flip the switch from silence to buzz?
The ripple effect of ecstatic reactions set the tone for a sprint to theaters nationwide just over a month later. “It destabilized everything in the best possible way,” said Julie Huntsinger, the Telluride director. The movie teaser, dropped at the same time as the Telluride debut, was instantly viral, spawning memes of Holmes and Fielder locking eyes.
. . . . Last weekend, the film opened to $15 million in domestic ticket sales and more than 3,000 sold-out showings. It was the biggest box-office debut for a non-music documentary since Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” in 2004. Some 70% of ticketbuyers were under age 35, according to the studio. It will expand to 2,600 movie theaters this weekend—on par with wide releases from major studios.
The insatiable reception has already reconfigured the race for awards that will play out in the coming months. A24 plans to mount a campaign for best picture at the Academy Awards, where “You Can See Everything” could become the first documentary in Oscars history to be nominated for that top prize.
Most movie studios are valued on their record of hits and flops. A24 has built something rarer and more valuable: a brand identity. Young audiences trust that an A24 release will be as relevant for them as a Disney movie is for families. Fans of the studio buy its merchandise, subscribe to a membership club and use “A24” as an adjective to describe an edgy-yet-artful aesthetic.
“I’ve never seen anybody say ‘Let’s go see a Warner Bros. movie, let’s go see a Paramount movie, let’s go see a Sony movie.’ Young people are saying, ‘Let’s go see an A24 movie,’” said David Permut, who produced A24’s psychosexual relationship comedy “The Invite.”
I guess I’ll have to see this movie. Other A24 movie hits include “Marty Supreme” (I thought it was good but not great, “Backrooms,” and “The Drama”. If you’ve seen “You Can See Everything,” please weigh in below.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is pretending that Ancdrzej is prey:
Hili: I’m gonna pounce on you any second now.
Andrzej: Fine, but then we’re going home.
In Polish:
Hili: Zaraz na ciebie napadnę.
Ja: Dobrze, ale potem wrócimy do domu.
*******************
From Cats that Have Had Enough of Your Shit:
From Bad Spelling or Grammar on Signs and Notices:
From CinEmma:
It is characteristic of Masih to bring the blinded Iranian protestors onstage in Poland with her to show what the Islamist regime is doing. She is getting an award, but insisted on sharing it with the victims for whom she fights incessantly.
How ironic… https://t.co/VP9I4VdGRe
— Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) October 24, 2026
From Luana; this appears to be a real ad aired in Ireland, intimating that it’s a form of abuse when your grandma hugs you. The ad caused a big backlash and has been pulled.
The latest ad from the Irish Government to the Irish people, who are the font of all problems in the country and desperately need to be stopped from their bad behaviour.
This time, it’s hugging your grandkids. https://t.co/IKYKteKP8m
— John McGuirk (@john_mcguirk) October 21, 2026
The Number Ten Cat has some great advice:
Always stroke a cat when given the chance
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) October 23, 2026
Two from my feed. I love the first woman! “I bought loads of Israeli goods. . thanks for inspiring me.”
I was shopping in Brighton and antizionists tried to stop me buying Israeli goods from Waitrose. They said I’d be “racist” to buy them. I asked if it was xenophobic to boycott a whole nation. They had no answers. So I bought LOADS of Israeli products and they were NOT happy. https://t.co/LohsFNCcDM
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) October 24, 2026
I love these guys, too:
In 1983, an orange cat named George got stuck on top of a 160-foot chimney in Bolton, England. Fred Dibnah, a famous steeplejack, tried to rescue him, but George wasn’t making it easy.
After a 30-hour standoff, George was finally brought safely back to the ground. https://t.co/JaSLCYtduv
— Furrend (@hifurrend) October 24, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This Polish Jewish woman, about 20 years old, died in Auschwitz.
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) October 25, 2026
And one from Dr. Cobb, describing a venerable Oggsford tradition (this can only be done when the time falls back). Click to go to original post:
Some music. One of the greatest jazz duo songs I know: Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins alternate solos on the Rodgers and Hart song “It Never Entered My Mind“. Oscar Peterson is on the piano; the song was recorded as late as 1957.
A combination of the two greatest sax players of their era (note the difference in tone and style) and a beautiful song. Ben Webster starts off, and they switch to Hawkins at 2:25. It’s one verse repeated and improvised over and over.
Conservative commentator Erick Erickson calls Ramaswamy’s ad political malpractice, in that it forces other Republican candidates to address an issue that is morally repugnant to their voters, at a time when they should be making their closing arguments before midterm elections. Instead, both the President and Vice-president have endorsed this ad. This should mean something to Republicans who have a sense of decency. So both morally wrong and bad political strategy. What were they thinking?
One version I read says this was a test market video sent to a limited audience that escaped into the wild.
Yes, Reese, I think so: When “narrow casting” goes wild.
Narrow casting is when a particular media is pitched at a certain group and only that group.
That, I think, was also behind the trans/Dylan Mulvaney’s ill fated beer promotion: The company only expected a certain demographic (which they wanted) to see it but it got more broadly “leaked.”
best regards,
D.A.
NYC
The rhetoric surrounding the inclusion of trans individuals who are biological males in female sports is truly polarising and, apparently, my attitude that it is unacceptable makes me a monster. This is despite my having had trans friends, including a neighbour’s daughter who transitioned to male, and even my car mechanic who later transitioned to female. All great people and my mechanic friend’s 40th birthday party was a total hoot, being attended by over 60 trans individuals of varying ages who were some of the nicest people I ever met. Sadly, the bigotry surrounding her transition means that the only relative who attended was mum, and only a couple of other ordinary people besides she and myself were present. Even worse, her business was decimated because customers deserted in droves, despite being a newly minted trans woman affecting mechanic skills by exactly 0%. The physical transition a couple of years later did, so my car and a couple of others was about all that could be managed, but I think the collapse of the business actually fomented the physical transition.
All that said, to permit anyone who has passed male puberty into female sports means that natal females will instantly be at a competitive disadvantage to the extent that whatever they do, however early in life they start training, they will never be able to compete fairly. Indeed, there will be little point in sacrificing one’s early life to a sport when it can all be negated by the inclusion of a biological male. So I am a monster, I am just a monster who sees the inherent unfairness in inclusion and I cannot see a way this can be mitigated beyond exclusion.
Growing up, the gym classes integrated the boys and girls until we moved on to middle school. I am sure that dodge ball was a miserable sport for the girls, though, as it was for the less competitive boys.
Mirrors my experience exactly.
I agree bigotry or abuse toward your mechanic friend (or the “trans” people I know and care about) is unacceptable. And you’re not a monster of course!
It can be hard to distinguish bigotry from distinction. Does your friend say “I’m a male who likes to feel feminine”? or instead say “I’m a woman”? The first claim is all fine, but the second claim is not true, and it identifies someone who has a selective acceptance of reality (like when trying to diagnose what’s wrong with the car). I don’t think making that distinction or wanting a reality-based mechanic is bigotry by the shop’s customers.
Similarly, at universities it’s enjoyable to collaborate with gender-bending researchers and teachers because in addition to rejecting human sex stereotypes they often have other refreshing views and ideas. But some professional biologists (especially biologists who work on the ecology and evolution of sex!) are wary of working with someone who claims to be the opposite sex because that person’s judgement and understanding of biological reality are questionable.
That distinction is related to the all-in tactics of TRAs like Erin Reed. They recognize that giving up some demands (sport) will undermine others (puberty blockers, prisons, schools) because if “trans” women are not women in sport then they’re not women.
https://x.com/benryanwriter/status/2114040909964718242
Again good wishes for your friend.
People want to be tolerant. People would be more tolerant toward trans people if trans people were more tolerant.
Most trans “women” know they are not really women. It is only a vocal minority and “progressives” who like to shout “trans women ARE women”.
It is absurd that the so-called anti-Zionists in Brighton (Great Britain) are using the same tactics as the Nazis did in Germany in the 1930s. They are shouting literally: “Kauft nicht bei Juden!” (“Don’t buy from Jews!”) 🙁
Now all that’s missing is: “Brits! Fight back!”
My husband, who grew up in Bolton, tells me we have a DVD of a documentary series about Fred Dibnah. He became quite a celebrity in the UK — partly because he was pure northerner but also because of his job. He demolished the towering chimney stacks of old abandoned textile and other factories that were all over the north. Single-handed, no heavy equipment. (Take bricks out one by one at the base and replace them with wooden supports. Then set fire to the supports. He could make the chimney fall exactly where he wanted, eg into the small space between two buildings. Crowds gathered to watch.) Personally, I get a real kick out of the accent – the first time I spoke with his parents, I felt like I’d been dropped into a Wallace & Gromit film ;-J
Oh I saw a show on him, Loretta!
It was wonderful.
D.A.
NYC
Regarding the statistics of food-consumers—all of these, by necessity, disregard individual differences in metabolism. Your mention of Black’s reminds me of a family friend, who ate there every time that he was in the area. And he ate portions far beyond the average individual’s capacity: he was 6’2’’, had played college football, etc. No one who saw him, even in his later years, when I knew him, would call him fat. The portions that he ate at Black’s, and other places that he enjoyed, used to astonish the staff. Obviously, this was not his behavior at every meal.
His main claim to fame was as a US Army general, he retired with 4 stars on his shoulders. And he lived to 102 years, without any noticeable pathological cognitive decline.
Just an anecdote, I know, not a statistic. But each of us is an anecdote, right?
By the way, one of the reasons that the looting is reduced in this weekend’s violence is that in many cities, the “demonstrations” have been confined to non-commercial areas, where there are fewer stores, especially fewer high-end luxury stores to be looted.
In Ukraine, Melania giveth and Donald taketh away. It’s the weird ambiguity of the U.S. administration. Who knows why this is really happening? It may be to allow Trump to claim that positive outcomes are taking place in Ukraine even as he pressures Zelensky to give up the fight. His head is a big can of worms.
As for berating grandparents for hugging their grandchildren in Ireland, my late (beloved) Uncle Jack used to pinch my (face) cheek when he came to visit, and it kinda hurt! I hated it, but it wasn’t the end of the world and I coped. Grandchildren in Ireland should learn to cope as well. Small slights, little annoyances, and imperfect encounters are simply part of life, and these grandchildren would be better off if they just learned to deal with them. As for the government, maybe it would be better to spend their money on something else—like informing the populace that it’s not OK to hate, defame, and attack Jews.
And, it’s great to see that TomCat George was rescued! I wonder if the cigarette smoke from the rescue workers was what pushed him further and further away, forcing rescuers to stuff George in the cat box. All’s well that ends well, I suppose. Good cat rescue story. And it’s not even Caturday!
The Ukraine ceasefire (in just one city) also involved Pope Leo. I’m very suspicious about Melania’s contribution, especially considering the Russians praised her.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-war-limited-ceasefire-oleshky-melania-trump-9.7393085
Dodgeball. God how I loved to play dodgeball as a 4th or 5th or 6th grader. Back when you used those Voit red rubber balls with that pebble-texture on them so you could semi-grip them as you approached the center-line with semi-fun-fear looking out for the guys who could really throw them and dodge your own throws.
Imagine, one moment you taught by the teacher to be nice. The next your taught by the gym teacher to heave these rubber balls at each other. God how I loved the pure fun of it all, at least for me.
God those were wonderful times in my own memory, or what seems to be a memory of those times.
I have fond memories of dodgeball as well. I went to an all-boys high school in Australia in the 80s.
I had read somewhere that they don’t have dodgeball anymore in schools…. too “male toxic” or something.
(where’s that eye-roll emoji?)
best
D.A.
NYC
I’ll chip in about the Elizabeth Holmes movie, because there are a couple of insights that I haven’t seen in the multitude of favourable reviews of the film. I enjoyed the documentary very much, and had no problem sitting through it for three hours. At the beginning I got the sense that Elizabeth Holmes was trying to manipulate me, part way through I felt that Billie Evans was trying to manipulate me, and at the end I couldn’t help but feel that Nathan Fielder was trying to manipulate me. And I enjoyed it!
One thing not addressed in detail is how so many investors were convinced to throw tens of millions of dollars at Theranos without any apparent due diligence. No one on the board or among the primary investors seems to have any significant knowledge of science. Elizabeth Holmes herself could not possibly have gained so much knowledge of analytical chemistry and pathology at her age, particularly after having dropped out of university (although I am reminded that a certain young Swiss patent clerk revolutionized physics, and that is not something one would have thought plausible either). At the outset, Holmes was either an extraordinary genius or a fraud, and everyone wanted to believe it was the former. No one seems to have asked a chemist or pathologist if the technology she promoted was within the realm of possibility.
“The pies are made with freshly shucked clams and sometimes they run out.”
How do they run out without legs?
It created a great mental picture, though.
Very funny!
Re google maps.
My daughter in the UK was once showing a work colleague her home street in NZ. They zoomed just down the road to our tiny beach when her colleague said “There’s people on the beach front I bet you know them” sure enough unbeknownst to my daughter, my wife and me, were the two of us in living colour mucking about with our very young grandchild. It was a weekday, and we were the only humans.
It was there for a few years.
I saw and enjoyed You Can See Anything yesterday. A unique film, and the second half is riveting.
I live in Washington state and am curious to see how the trans bill fares. I think many people support it, though of course the local media here in Seattle are against it and are presenting a very slanted picture. They are distorting some of the bill’s provisions and also framing this as a Republican versus Democrat fight, which is not true of course. But painting it as a Republican initiative is extremely damaging in parts of the state these days.
So passage is no sure thing. I hope it does pass, but it may be a close call. There’s a lot of progressive pressure here, which as we have all seen can be very aggressive and condemnatory.
I voted Yes (I almost always vote No on initiatives; but could not on this one).
My wife voted No. She was bothered by the supposed “invasive examinations” and “can’t use a birth certificate” rhetoric from the Against team.
I don’t think she read the measure’s actual words. I did. It requires that:
For participation in the girls/women’s division for sports that have separate divisions*, that a girl must provide attestation from her physician based on:
1. Genetic testing [cheek swab]
2. Endogenous testosterone testing [blood test]
OR 3. Physical examination
In other words, you have to show that you are actually biologically female. How else can one ensure that the division includes only girls/women? (It’s clear that these days people will try to cheat.)
I could not vote against this, because I oppose males playing in female divisions in sports. I suspect it will pass and I hope it does.
I think that the trans-activist team are scared of this (the rhetoric in the voter’s guide was pretty over the top, IMO, and some of it was irrelevant (e.g. claiming outsider billionaire financing)) because it will, I think, show that even in a pretty deeply-blue state like Washington, the majority of voters think keeping girls’/women’s divisions for only biological girls/women is actually enacting fairness in sport. In preference to the activists’ political agendas.
(* This excepts younger kids’ sports where (pre-pubescent) boys and girls play together.)
Re: hugs in Ireland. Whatever happened to, “I would even let Aunt Bertha hug and kiss me”?