“#arrestme”: JK Rowling Dares Scotland to Enforce Anti-Free Speech Law

We have previously discussed the growing anti-free speech movement in Scotland with the expanding criminalization of political and religious speech. The new Scottish law is a perfect nightmare for free speech, expanding the potential of a jail sentence for merely insulting language. In response, author JK Rowling has taken a stand and dared the Scottish […]

“#arrestme”: JK Rowling Dares Scotland to Enforce Anti-Free Speech Law

TODD STEPHENSON: FREE SPEECH GOES BOTH WAYS

Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark recently found himself in a media furore as he asserted his right to use colourful racial terms. Ratepayers might regret the distraction from local concerns, but part of my job in Parliament is to consider speech issues in a serious way. And I’ve concluded that free speech is indeed under threat…

TODD STEPHENSON: FREE SPEECH GOES BOTH WAYS

TODD STEPHENSON: FREE SPEECH GOES BOTH WAYS

Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark recently found himself in a media furore as he asserted his right to use colourful racial terms. Ratepayers might regret the distraction from local concerns, but part of my job in Parliament is to consider speech issues in a serious way. And I’ve concluded that free speech is indeed under threat…

TODD STEPHENSON: FREE SPEECH GOES BOTH WAYS

The UK shows why it is one of the most tolerant countries there is

Vaughan Gething has just been elected as First Minister of Wales. He is black (his mother is Zambian) and this makes him the first black leader of a country in Europe. It also means that none of the four leaders of the UK are white men. And I (especially) have nothing against white men, but […]

The UK shows why it is one of the most tolerant countries there is

DON BRASH: Terminated for saying “no” to cultural training – what’s next? (UPDATED)

The following is written by Don Brash in his capacity as Hobson’s Pledge Trustee. As I shared with you previously, the Real Estate Authority (REA) said they were going to cancel real estate agent Janet Dickson’s licence for five years because she would not take a compulsory Māori culture course. Then, the real estate company…

DON BRASH: Terminated for saying “no” to cultural training – what’s next? (UPDATED)

*Who’s Afraid of Gender?*

That is the title of the new Judith Butler book, focusing mostly on trans issues.  To be clear, on most practical issues concerning trans, I side with the social conservatives.  For instance, I don’t think trans women have a right to compete in women’s weightlifting contests.  And I have not been happy with how many […]

*Who’s Afraid of Gender?*

Nikole Hannah-Jones on reparations for descendants of slaves

As you know, I go back and forth on the question of affirmative action for college and professional-school admissions, and even after I thought I’d settled on a view (i.e., give some preference to minorities among those equally qualified for admission), it still keeps changing. After I read the long New York Times piece below […]

Nikole Hannah-Jones on reparations for descendants of slaves

A good refutation of a bad article on the supposed “spectrum” of sex

On March 8, I wrote a critique of this article, which appeared in American Scientist (click sceenshot to read): When I wrote my piece, I had grown weary of people making the same tired old arguments against the sex binary, arguments like saying that sex isn’t binary because male orangutans come in two forms (“flanged” […]

A good refutation of a bad article on the supposed “spectrum” of sex

Once again: the claim that sex is non-binary, but there are no new arguments

Really? Do I have to rebut the same arguments about the definition of biological sex again?  Well, here in American Scientist is a group of two anthropologists, one anatomist, and a gender-and-sexuality-studies professor, all telling us that there is no clear definition of sex, using the same tired old arguments to rebut the gamete-based sex […]

Once again: the claim that sex is non-binary, but there are no new arguments

Not Bridgeable

In the last few years, especially after I started writing for this blog, I got more than a few comments about the need for bi-partisanship, not hating out ideological, let alone political opponents. What was notable about this was that they all came from the Right of the political spectrum. The Left seem quite happy […]

Not Bridgeable

The Irish reject a “Woke” constitutional change

Ireland’s effort to remove old-fashioned family values from its constitution suffered a double defeat Saturday as voters rejected the amendments on offer as maddeningly vague and threatening to property rights… In final results announced Saturday night, the amendment to change the constitutional definition of family was rejected by 67.7 percent of voters. The proposed changes […]

The Irish reject a “Woke” constitutional change

#IWD2024

Longing for Auschwitz.

An article in Tablet Magazine with that title, “Longing for Auschwitz., that nails what lies at the heart of what happened in Israel last October 7. A couple of excerpts but as always… Hamas’s assault on Israelis on October 7th was not an act of war as we normally think of it but something far […]

Longing for Auschwitz.

Texas professor fired, then reinstated after a lawsuit, for teaching that chromosomes determine human sex

In general, one can’t say that chromosomes “determine sex” in animals, as there are other genetic or environmental features that determine what sex an individual becomes. As Coyne and Maroja (2023) note: Different sexes can determined during development bybe based on different chromosomes and their genes (e.g., XX vs. XY in humans, ZW vs. ZZ in birds, […]

Texas professor fired, then reinstated after a lawsuit, for teaching that chromosomes determine human sex

Bari Weiss interviews Roland Fryer

A lot of readers and heterodox colleagues have sent me this link to Bari Weiss’s interview with Harvard economics professor Roland G. Fryer, Jr., often accompanied by big encomiums. Despite my unwillingness to watch long videos, I did watch all 77 minutes of it.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t mesmerized, or even much interested. There are interesting […]

Bari Weiss interviews Roland Fryer

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