Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Update 510. Treachery Special. #BeMorePorcupine.
The treachery is coming from the UK Government I hasten to add. The US President is doing a grand job so far.
This is a long one, dear readers!
STOP PRESS! I’ve replaced the endpiece with a much more appropriate endpiece - thanks, Liz!! 🤣
As we move into 2025 I will be featuring, to start with, and in alphabetical order, those Readers’ Choices for best film ever that did not make the top seven ( see Update 500 for the top seven).
Thanks to Siobhan for nominating Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
Nine-year-old Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) is autistic and lives in New York City with his parents Linda and Thomas Schell (Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks). He is close to his father, who gives him missions to hunt for clues to New York City's "lost Sixth Borough". The tasks he is given force him to explore his surroundings and communicate with other people, which is not easy for him.
On September 11 2001, schools close early, and Oskar arrives home alone to find six answering machine messages left by his father from the World Trade Centre. Oskar hides under his bed, where his grandmother finds him and stays until Linda returns home. Oskar is angry at his father's funeral, unable to make sense of his death.
A year later, Oskar has a secret hiding place with memories of his father, including the answering machine and its messages. In his father's room, he accidentally shatters a vase, and inside finds a key in an envelope with the word "Black" on it. He becomes obsessed with finding the lock the key fits, believing it a clue from his father. He finds 472 Blacks in the New York phone book and plans to visit each one.
Thanks to two wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
The UK - Attempts To Undermine Cass?
The first session of the Women and Equalities Committee was entitled Evidence base on the safety and effectiveness of puberty blockers. Excuse me!? We have just had the 4 year Cass review. You have banned the prescribing of puberty blockers to children until 2027. What the F*** do you think you are doing?
This bunch are going to do clinical trials, aren’t they, so I hope somebody is gearing up a judicial review challenge. They are going to continue the experimentation on children and the mutilation of children. I have just had a load of waffling drivel response from the new Labour MP in our constituency. She had said she was going to meet me but her assistant has probably pointed out that I am a Raging Terf so she thought she had better write to me instead.
Anyway Hannah Barnes ( author of Time To Think) in The New Statesman (Are politicians trying to undermine the Cass Review? 23 January) reports:
A parliamentary committee on puberty blockers this week revived all the gravest errors of the Tavistock era.
Upon stepping into Parliament’s committee room six yesterday afternoon (22 January), I felt like I had travelled back in time. Otherwise, there is little to explain the anachronistic, ignorant questions put forward by members of the Women and Equalities Select Committee (WESC) and their bizarre choice of witnesses, who were ill-equipped to answer them. All it went to show is how so many politicians have failed to engage in the detail of the debate on how best to care for gender-distressed young people and how far we are, still, from settling it.
The committee had chosen to hold a one-off session on the “Evidence base on the safety and effectiveness of puberty blockers”. This seemed strange given the recent four-year review into youth gender services that looked at that very question. Surely, therefore, you’d call the person who led that process, Dr Hilary Cass, as a witness? Apparently not. Or a member of the team from the University of York who carried out the independent, peer-reviewed study of the evidence base for the use of puberty blockers to treat gender-related distress? This group had concluded: “There is a lack of high-quality research assessing puberty suppression in adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria/incongruence. No conclusions can be drawn about the impact on gender dysphoria, mental and psychosocial health or cognitive development. Bone health and height may be compromised during treatment.” None of them were invited either.
Instead, Sarah Owen, the committee’s Labour chair, chose to hear from the former clinical director of the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids, the Tavistock children’s service roundly criticised and closed down as a consequence of the Cass Review); a professor in bioethics who has argued for close to two decades that it is unethical to deny children treatment with puberty blockers; and an emeritus professor of endocrinology who, while no doubt an excellent endocrinologist, has never worked with gender-distressed children, nor contributed to the research in this area.
Throughout the session, consultant paediatric endocrinologist Professor Gary Butler, who ran the endocrine clinic at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) which prescribed puberty blockers, seemed to be talking about a completely different Tavistock clinic to the one that was closed by NHS England. We know from Gids’ own data, CQC inspections and clinicians who carried out the assessments of young people, that these could be completed – at times – over just two or three appointments. Yet Butler talked of each child receiving an “extensive review”.
When the diagnosis of gender dysphoria had been made, Butler explained, he and an endocrine colleague would assess again for a child’s suitability for puberty blockers, including assessment of competence or capacity.” Yet we know, from Butler’s own published data in 2022, that just one young person – out of 1,089 referred by Gids and seen by endocrinologists – was judged to lack capacity to consent to treatment. Butler apparently didn’t see the hundreds of teenage girls who filled Gids’ waiting room either, the ones whose distress had only begun after the onset of puberty, and who were often contending with other difficulties. They didn’t ever “get in the way of endocrinology”, he said. “We were not seeing them. And furthermore, because they had already gone through their biological puberty, there really wasn’t a place for puberty blockers.” Butler did not offer an opinion on whether he shared the concerns of some Gids staff that many of the young people prescribed puberty blockers on his watch, would most probably have grown up to be gay or lesbian, had they not transitioned.
Not one of those asking the early questions pushed back against this. Thankfully, after 45 minutes, a dissenting voice emerged in the form of Rosie Duffield, who not only knew what went wrong at Gids, but has also read the Cass Review. (It’s unclear where the others have been for the last five years.) How did Butler know all those children who had gone through Gids and his care were OK? Earlier comments, Butler clarified, had been about children with precocious puberty. “I know there are some situations where we don’t know the full outcome in terms of every person who’s received puberty blockers from the trans field. We don’t know all the details yet.” This is putting it mildly. We don’t know any of the details. And we don’t know them because neither Butler and his team at UCLH, nor the professionals at the Tavistock followed any of their patients up. It was unbelievable to hear Butler say later – when questioning the viability of a new research trial – that in his view, “The only way… to really get an idea of whether an intervention is successful or not is the long-term outcomes.”
Duffield probed further: “Why did you continue to prescribe puberty blockers when the preliminary results from the early intervention study in 2015-16 – which of course you were heavily involved with – didn’t demonstrate clear benefit?” Butler appeared to put the blame for this on NHS England, simply stating that it had produced the service specification which guided the conduct of the gender services. The Cass Review noted, by contrast, that “clinical practice subsequently appears to have deviated from the parameters set out in the service specification”. Why were the results of that study not published until 2020 (almost a decade after the study began), Duffield asked? “I wasn’t directly involved in that study,” Butler replied. Again, this is demonstrably false. Butler is the second author listed on the paper revealing the study’s results. His roles are recorded as “Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing”.
Dusty - so let’s be clear at this stage. Butler lied and provided misleading information to the committee.
Duffield’s time was limited, so her questioning did not extend to Professor Simona Giordano, who Gids once cited as being instrumental in its decision to block puberty in younger children. Giordano had, the gender service said, “argued strongly that it was in the best interests of the child to offer earlier pubertal suppression, that arguments about irreversibility were spurious and that if it were impossible to consent to interventions whose outcome is uncertain, much medical research involving human beings would be unethical”. Judging from what she said at the hearing, Giordano’s views remain the same. But, in Duffield’s absence, no one could scrutinise them properly.
According to Giordano, scientists who had looked into the impact of puberty blockers on the adolescent brain – on executive functioning, cognitive functioning or IQ – “found no difference in the scores of trans young people treated with puberty blockers compared to their cisgender cohorts”. The truth is that scientists just haven’t looked at the cognitive impacts properly at all. Animal studies and controlled case studies suggest that neurodevelopment will be impacted by pubertal suppression. But we don’t know by how much, or how long it may take people to catch up, if ever. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Giordano, who sits on the World Professional Association of Transgender Health Ethics Committee, seemed to dismiss concerns about the impact of puberty blockers on adolescent bones, too, claiming that there were “no cases” in the literature or reports of complaints from patients. Journalists have spoken to them though – both in Sweden, and here in the UK. I have spoken with – and documented – the story of one young trans man who broke four bones while on puberty blockers and under Butler’s care. Butler told the committee that the breaking of bones was “not something we would see in puberty… Even if there is a change in bone density, it rarely gets into the range you would expect fractures to occur.”
That the committee would try to better in two hours what the Cass Review spent four years carefully investigating is incomprehensible. That Sarah Owen believed the WESC could genuinely learn about the safety and efficacy of puberty blockers or gain any meaningful suggestions on how to run a robust research trial from these two witnesses is highly questionable. Butler was the clinical lead of a service that has been closed down in part because of the poor care it provided. He presided over what the Cass Review called, “a departure from normal clinical practice”. It is also publicised that he has been highly critical of Cass in the past, and has questioned the need for any change to the help given to gender-questioning young people.
For her part, Giordano seems to be of the view that it is too much to expect studies to show anything other than that puberty blockers block puberty. They are not intended to improve mental health, nor ease gender dysphoria. She said she does not think that a clinical trial is the way to conduct research, and that in this area of medicine, “it’s perhaps necessary to change the goalposts” and not require the highest grade of evidence because this area of medicine has “such vast repercussions on people’s lives”. Except, there’s the rub. The evidence we have does not show this.
Dusty - what I say above about Professor Butler applies equally to Professor Giordano.
With this pointless, error-strewn hearing (there were many more mistakes I have not mentioned), the only thing the WESC has succeeded in is creating the impression that it seeks to undermine the Cass Review. It was as tone deaf as Giordano’s remark that it was “ethically problematic to withhold medical treatment that is experienced as beneficial, that nobody has complained about, on the grounds that there is not enough evidence yet”, while Keira Bell sat a few feet away. Bell took her “complaints” about treatment, and the regret she felt at having made irreversible changes to her body, all the way to the Supreme Court. (Dusty - Court of Appeal actually). The public deserves better than this committee. And young people deserve better than witnesses who don’t think they deserve a higher standard of evidence underpinning their care.
Here’s what my evidence to this appalling joke committee would have been: ‘There is no such thing as ‘gender identity’ and, at best, ‘gender dysphoria’ is a symptom of something else. You do not treat a symptom. All so called gender care should be stopped immediately on the basis of Do No Harm.’
It’s a pity Kellie-Jay Keen was not asking the questions at the Committee:
UK - Tribunal Cases
Sex Matters in their latest newsletter ( 24 January) report on two tribunal cases involving the National Health Service (NHS).
Nurses say “no” to compelled pronouns
Employment tribunals in Edinburgh and Newcastle this week both heard arguments from NHS trusts seeking to force female employees to call trans-identifying men they are accusing of sexual harassment “she” in court.
NHS Fife sought to ban nurse Sandie Peggie from using ordinary language when referring to a male doctor, Beth Upton, in her complaint against the doctor and NHS Fife.
Peggie was suspended and investigated by her employer after she objected to Upton’s presence in female changing rooms at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy. Her legal team, headed by barrister Naomi Cunningham (who is chair of Sex Matters) insist that accurate language is central to her case.
Jane Russell, the barrister for NHS Fife and Dr Upton, argued that allowing the claimant and her legal team to call the man “he” in court would itself amount to unlawful harassment of Dr Upton, who considers himself to be a woman. Russell urged the judge to impose an order that would require both Peggie and her legal team to refer to Upton in “neutral” terms in future hearings (such as “the respondent” and “Dr Upton”) and for the tribunal to refer to Upton as “she”.
Cunningham said: “The claimant can’t put her case, clearly and forcefully, without using correct-sex pronouns, as opposed to preferred pronouns.” The tribunal agreed. It issued an order saying that both sides of the case can use whichever pronouns they prefer and the tribunal will endeavour to use neutral terms for the respondent during the hearing.
A previous attempt to anonymise Dr Upton’s identity and hold hearings in private was dismissed.
Meanwhile the nurses in Darlington also faced a legal attempt to place reporting restrictions on their case, and force them to use preferred pronouns in court.
The court heard that the trans-identifying male doctor is “a private person”, but the nurses in response submitted evidence showing him campaigning for Stonewall on Facebook and being a member of a “transgender shitposting” group. Throughout the hearing, Mr Quintavalle referred to the doctor as “he” while Employment Judge Langridge tried to compromise by saying “they”. We have not yet heard what the Newcastle tribunal decided.
The Judicial Office sent out a note to all judges reminding them that the Equal Treatment Bench Book in England in Wales was updated after the Forstater case, and other gender-critical cases. It now makes clear that in some cases “it may not be appropriate, or may even be extremely inappropriate”, for the judge to use a defendant’s preferred pronouns – for example, in cases of violent or sexual crimes by a transgender perpetrator (or in other scenarios a judge may deem relevant). The Judicial Office’s note said: “In these exceptional, but increasingly common judgments, where one side’s case hinges on the recognition of the biological sex of the trans person as crucial, and the other side on the recognition of their chosen identification, judges need to be careful not to let the choice of gendered pronouns give an appearance of bias, or that there is predetermined conclusion.”
I would love to rewrite the Equal Treatment Bench book…but, anyway, Michael Foran was at the preliminary hearing in the Scottish case. I previously reported here on Michael’s analysis of direct sex discrimination cases:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/rawhide?utm_source=publication-search
The piece by Michael was previously behind a paywall but, given that Naomi Cunningham for Ms Peggie was given leave to add in a direct sex discrimination claim, Michael has now made his piece available to all subscribers. Thanks, Michael. Michael will be arranging a webinar for paid subscribers with Naomi as a guest in the near future:
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Regular readers will know that we argue here that DEI departments in Government departments and organisations are used to instil gender ideology and critical race theory. Here is another excellent Executive Order from Donald Trump.
Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing
EXECUTIVE ORDER
January 20, 2025
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose and Policy. The Biden Administration forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), into virtually all aspects of the Federal Government, in areas ranging from airline safety to the military. This was a concerted effort stemming from President Biden’s first day in office, when he issued Executive Order 13985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.”
Pursuant to Executive Order 13985 and follow-on orders, nearly every Federal agency and entity submitted “Equity Action Plans” to detail the ways that they have furthered DEIs infiltration of the Federal Government. The public release of these plans demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination. That ends today. Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great.
Sec. 2. Implementation. (a) The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), assisted by the Attorney General and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), shall coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear. To carry out this directive, the Director of OPM, with the assistance of the Attorney General as requested, shall review and revise, as appropriate, all existing Federal employment practices, union contracts, and training policies or programs to comply with this order. Federal employment practices, including Federal employee performance reviews, shall reward individual initiative, skills, performance, and hard work and shall not under any circumstances consider DEI or DEIA factors, goals, policies, mandates, or requirements.
(b) Each agency, department, or commission head, in consultation with the Attorney General, the Director of OMB, and the Director of OPM, as appropriate, shall take the following actions within sixty days of this order:
(i) terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” offices and positions (including but not limited to “Chief Diversity Officer” positions); all “equity action plans,” “equity” actions, initiatives, or programs, “equity-related” grants or contracts; and all DEI or DEIA performance requirements for employees, contractors, or grantees.
(ii) provide the Director of the OMB with a list of all:
(A) agency or department DEI, DEIA, or “environmental justice” positions, committees, programs, services, activities, budgets, and expenditures in existence on November 4, 2024, and an assessment of whether these positions, committees, programs, services, activities, budgets, and expenditures have been misleadingly relabeled in an attempt to preserve their pre-November 4, 2024 function;
(B) Federal contractors who have provided DEI training or DEI training materials to agency or department employees; and
(C) Federal grantees who received Federal funding to provide or advance DEI, DEIA, or “environmental justice” programs, services, or activities since January 20, 2021.
(iii) direct the deputy agency or department head to:
(A) assess the operational impact (e.g., the number of new DEI hires) and cost of the prior administration’s DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” programs and policies; and
(B) recommend actions, such as Congressional notifications under 28 U.S.C. 530D, to align agency or department programs, activities, policies, regulations, guidance, employment practices, enforcement activities, contracts (including set-asides), grants, consent orders, and litigating positions with the policy of equal dignity and respect identified in section 1 of this order. The agency or department head and the Director of OMB shall jointly ensure that the deputy agency or department head has the authority and resources needed to carry out this directive.
(c) To inform and advise the President, so that he may formulate appropriate and effective civil-rights policies for the Executive Branch, the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy shall convene a monthly meeting attended by the Director of OMB, the Director of OPM, and each deputy agency or department head to:
(i) hear reports on the prevalence and the economic and social costs of DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” in agency or department programs, activities, policies, regulations, guidance, employment practices, enforcement activities, contracts (including set-asides), grants, consent orders, and litigating positions;
(ii) discuss any barriers to measures to comply with this order; and
(iii) monitor and track agency and department progress and identify potential areas for additional Presidential or legislative action to advance the policy of equal dignity and respect.
Sec. 3. Severability. If any provision of this order, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this order and the application of its provisions to any other persons or circumstances shall not be affected.
Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 20, 2025.
The Grooming Gangs Scandal
Talking of DEI, James Esses on Matt Goodwin’s substack discusses the techniques that have been and are being used by the Government to try and avoid a national inquiry.
Very interesting discussion between Andrew Gold and Winston Marshall:
Ireland - The Uni Party Rules!
So, after all that, Ireland is stuck again with the awful woke twins, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael supported by some pathetic ‘independent’ TDs ( Teachta Dála, is a member of Dáil Éireann). This is disastrous for Ireland.
The Associated Press ( Ireland is finally set to get a new government, led by a familiar face 22 January) reports:
DUBLIN -- Veteran politician Micheál Martin is set to become Ireland's prime minister for a second time on Wednesday when lawmakers formally approve him as head of a coalition government.
The confirmation comes almost two months after an election in which Martin’s Fianna Fáil party won the most seats, but not enough to govern alone.
After weeks of talks, the long-dominant center-right parties Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael agreed to form a coalition with the support of several independent lawmakers.
Under the deal, Martin. 64, will be taoiseach, or prime minister, for three years, with Fine Gael’s Simon Harris – the outgoing taoiseach – as his deputy. The two politicians will then swap jobs for the rest of the five-year term.
Members of both parties have ratified the government agreement, and Martin is set to be confirmed by members of the Dáil, parliament’s lower house, on Wednesday. He will then be formally appointed to the job by President Michael D. Higgins before appointing his Cabinet.
In Ireland’s Nov. 29 election, voters bucked a global trend that saw incumbent governments ousted around the world in 2024. Fianna Fail won 48 of the 174 legislative seats and Fine Gael 38. They’ve secured backing to govern from the mostly conservative Regional Independent Group, which will be given two ministerial positions.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil share broadly similar center-right policies but a century-old rivalry stemming from their origins on opposing sides of Ireland’s civil war in the 1920s. They formed an alliance after the 2020 election ended in a virtual dead heat.
Their new agreement shuts out left-of-center party Sinn Fein, which will stay in opposition despite winning 39 seats. Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have refused to work with them because of their historic ties with the Irish Republican Army during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
The new government faces huge pressure to ease rising homelessness, driven by soaring rents and property prices, and to better absorb a growing number of asylum-seekers.
The cost of living — especially Ireland’s acute housing crisis — was a dominant topic in the election campaign, and immigration has become an emotive and challenging issue in a country of 5.4 million people long defined by emigration.
Before the election I reported on the parties’ manifestoes and concluded that, from a Terf and free speech viewpoint, Aontú was the best:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/irelands-call
Harry Manning for RTE (Aontú TDs leave Regional Independent Dáil groupingAontú TDs leave Regional Independent Dáil grouping 22 January) reports:
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín has confirmed that his party has resigned from the Regional Independents Technical Group, which includes government-supporting TDs, in order to join the Independent Technical Group amid a row over speaking rights.
Aontú's decision to resign from the grouping leaves four Regional Independents, Michael Lowry, Barry Heneghan, Gillian Toole and Danny Healy-Rae, as well as independents Carol Nolan and Mattie McGrath remaining in the Regional Technical Group.
The Independent Technical Group will include Mr Tóibín, his Aontú colleague Paul Lawless as well as Independent Paul Gogarty and the Independent Ireland TDs.
Speaking outside Leinster House, Mr Tóibín said the opportunity to join a "new home" arose at around midday.
"The decision was made today, it was a live discussion. We were offered for the first time today, around midday, the opportunity to join an alternative group.
"A number of political parties have been critical of Aontú in terms of this and have asked us to walk away from the Regional Technical Group.
"It has developed over the past 24 hours that an opportunity for Aontú to keep speaking rights and still participate in the Dáil in another technical group.
"That is the Independent Technical Group made up of Independent Ireland and Paul Gogarty and we have been speaking with them over the past 24 hours and thankfully they've allowed us to join their group.
"We're resigning from one and we have a new home in which we will be able to represent our constituents," he said.
Mr Tóibín called for a "significant reform" of the Standing Orders to ensure all TDs have equal speaking time without having to form technical groups.
The full article is here:
https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/0122/1492332-aontu-regional-technical-group/
John McGuirk, editor of Gript News, knows who is to blame for the new government!
The embarrassment you voted for, Ireland
Ask an average person to explain what yesterday’s embarrassing fracas in their national parliament was actually about, and you would hope that they might struggle to explain it to you. You would hope that they have better things to be doing with their lives than understanding the specific rules around Oireachtas speaking time.
The public do care about politics, of course. They might care that their children cannot get a teacher because the national shortage of teachers is now in its third year. Or they might care about a relative who has spent night after night in undignified conditions on a hospital trolly because no matter how foreseeable the annual trolly crisis is, the €25billion-funded HSE has never been able to solve it. Or they might care about how their son or daughter is emigrating because they cannot find a home in Ireland. They might care about their pension, or their tax bill, or the fact that diesel is heading for €2 a litre.(Dusty - or gender self ID and what is taught in schools, John!)
The opposition parties demonstrated something yesterday: They demonstrated that when they really want to, they can kick up a real row. A proper ruckus. They can – in the words of an elderly man I overheard yesterday – “turn the whole thing into a circus”. They can ruin Meehawl Martin’s big day and frustrate all the lads who were lined up to become Ministers.
Which means that the public are entitled to ask a basic question: Where was this fight when it was our priorities on the line?
If you don’t know, let me tell you what yesterday’s fight was about: In essence, television time. The opposition were annoyed that some Independent TDs who are formally backing the Government would nevertheless be allowed to sit on opposition benches and get speaking time as if they were regular independent opposition TDs. This drives opposition TDs mad because they are worried that the voters at home, watching television, might not realise that Danny Healy-Rae is a now a feckless Government TD instead of a heroic Opposition TD because he’s still sitting in the same place. When you turn on your telly, you, the stupid voter, might not know that because he hasn’t changed seats.
That, in short, was what the row was about.
The opposition parties are very annoyed about the potential “visuals” on television of Danny Healy Rae (who is my example here) questioning a Minister about why drunk driving can’t be legalised for Kerry people from across the chamber, as if he was some kind of heroic rebel, when he’s actually supporting that Minister. They think he should sit behind the Minister, so the public can see he is part of the Government. They care very much about this, enough to kick off one of the biggest rows in Oireachtas history.
If ever there was a day that summed up the gulf between the politicians, and the public, this was surely it.
Lest you think that I am only firing at the opposition here, a word about the Government and their “big day” being spoiled. Virgin Media news had a report yesterday evening from Nemo Rangers, where various people – who appeared all to be in their 60s – had assembled to celebrate the big day of Micheál Martin, who was to become Taoiseach for the second time. There was a woman with a perm and a man in a GAA jersey. Their disappointment was immeasurable, not because of any issue of policy or politics, but because the big day for the parish had been spoiled and “it was a shame for the entire Martin family”.
Yesterday was to be a day of pure ceremonial celebration at the taxpayer’s expense. Meehawl was to be nominated, then he was to get in his big new black car and go to see the President, then he was to come back and be carried into the Dáil to shouts of “yahoo” and “hup ya boy ya”. Then he was to appoint some Ministers, who would get their seals of office and return to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael pubs across Ireland to get their own shoulder-high hoisting and their own shouts of yahoo and hup ya boy ya. Then the Dáil was to adjourn for a few weeks, before any work was done, to give everyone time to recover.
All the while, the 700 people would remain on their trollies. And the schools would remain without teachers.
One side annoyed about television time and how things look. The other side annoyed because their the-parish-won-the-county-final style celebrations were interrupted. A Ceann Comhairle in the middle of it all, entirely out of her depth, and in the chair only because of the grubbiest and most shoddy of political deals.
I would say, dear reader, that we all deserve better.
But in actual fact, these are the people, and the standards, that you voted for. Enjoy it. Because it doesn’t get any better than this.
Meanwhile, still in Ireland, I last reported on Enoch Burke here:
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/mean-streets?utm_source=publication-search
I am pleased to report that he has not, as yet, been sent back to prison.
Maria Maynes in Gript News ( No application by Wilson’s Hospital School to jail Enoch Burke again 22 January) reports:
There has been no application by Wilson’s Hospital School in Westmeath to jail teacher Enoch Burke again as his case returned to the High Court on Tuesday.
The lawyer representing the Church of Ireland school confirmed that the school was not making an application at this stage to attach and commit the History and German teacher to prison for contempt of court.
Alex White, barrister for the school board said that the school was not seeking an order to have Mr Burke committed to Mountjoy Prison for a third time for contempt of court owing to his presence on school premises this term. Alternatively, he said the school wanted to see if a new approach to recoup fines owed by Mr Burke would lead to a solution.
On Tuesday, the High Court heard that Attorney General Rossa Fanning SC is seeking to sequester the assets of Mr Burke, who has been accused of breaching a court order by attending the school. The application in question concerns some €190,000 in fines against Mr Burke which have been building up since early 2023.
A barrister representing the Attorney General (AG) and the Ministers for Finance and Education had been invited before the court to speak about possible ways to recoup the fines.
Mr White told the court that the school would prefer if the Attorney General take the lead in the case, stating: “We have been in court on numerous occasions, and don’t want to go down that road again.”
The court heard arguments centring on whether Mr Fanning could initiate action or if the school itself was the one which should seek enforcement. The teacher, who is currently suspended pending a disciplinary hearing, is still being paid his salary by the State. His salary is one potential source for recovering the fines. It is the first time the State has been prepared to use a legal power to deduct unpaid fines directly from Mr Burke’s salary or bank account, the High Court heard.
Brian Kennedy SC told the court that it would be legally possible for Wilson’s Hospital School to sequester Mr Burke’s assets, but that would have the effect of “freezing” his bank account, and that further steps would have to be taken to recoup the fines. The alternative, he said, was a garnishee order, meaning that the fines could be taken directly from his wages or bank account.
“From the Attorney General’s point of view, there is no reason why such an order could not be made,” counsel said.
In a letter read in court before Judge Nolan, Mr Burke slammed the proposal to deduct fines from his salary as “illegal, unprecedented, and gravely disturbing,” saying that it amounted to an attempt to “strip me of my livelihood.”
While he was not present in person, his brother Isaac, a barrister, attended the hearing.
Earlier this month, Mr Burke, who returned to his former place of work after the Christmas holidays, said that he had been “welcomed by students” showing their support at the school.
“I just want to emphasise that I am here today to work. I really want to make that absolutely clear. I come here to my place of work, Wilson’s Hospital School, to do my job and to do my work. To do my job as a teacher of German and History,” he told press on the first day back. The teacher has repeatedly claimed that his imprisonment and subsequent fines came about due to his refusal to use the “they/them” pronouns for a pupil at the school.
Describing the situation as “horrific,” he said: “I was welcomed by students knocking on the windows, waving from the classrooms and showing their support. This is my job – I’m just a teacher at the school. This could all be over today, all of this horrific situation – and it is a horrific situation – it could be over today if the judges did what they should have done.”
Mr Burke has spent over 500 days in jail since August 2022 but has been released outside of term time.
This week, Mr Burke returned to the grounds of the school. The court heard that the school had reported ongoing disruption from his presence and the attendance of supporters. Mr Burke has continually said that he upheld the Christian ethos of the Church of Ireland school, and that he “couldn’t teach children something that is simply wrong.”
Mr Burke’s X account has posted updates, with his brother Isaac explaining in a video message posted in the middle of January that Enoch had attended the School since the beginning of the new school term.
“With temperatures plummeting to minus three, minus four degrees at times – and Enoch forced to stand outside the door of this place where he is an employee, and remains an employee in his seventh year of employment.”
“There’s very little you can do in a situation like that but to keep moving to keep your blood moving. It’s very cold,” Mr Burke said. “I got on well, was loved by the students, and indeed over the last week, students were knocking, waving, looking for selfies. But it all goes back to 2022 when I was asked to accept transgenderism, and I said that was something I couldn’t do. It’s now 2025 […] this is the third year this has been going on, and it could be over today.”
The judge has ordered Mr Burke to submit written responses within two weeks.
Watch Out For Globalism…And Beyond
While we should rightly celebrate what has happened in America we should remember that there are powerful sources behind ‘transgenderism’ and ‘transhumanism’ and Trump’s victory is not simply going to defeat those by itself.
Kellie-Jay Keen looks at organisations like the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organisation ( I note that Trump has taken America out of the WHO) and others.
Mel K and Jennifer Bilek look at the millionaires who fund the trans industry.
All thoughts gratefully received including if you think that what is said here is incorrect or is a conspiracy theory. This is a free speech forum, folks!
The ‘Reasonable’ Larping Men
Brianna Wu is a larping man who is presenting himself recently as the reasonable face of trans rights. On his substack, The Secret Gender Files Malcolm Clark investigates the truth of this assertion!
Beware the Moderation of Mister Wu.
Fans of trans activist Brianna Wu claim he offers a middle way that can solve the gender wars. In fact he represents nothing more than a new shade of lipstick on the same, old trans lobby pig.
Jan 23, 2025
Meet the new face of trans activism.
Brianna Wu.
Aka John Walker Flynt.
Whoarr!
For the last year Wu (she/her…….ahem) has been spinning a tall tale about his alleged moderation. According to Wu all that bullying, picketing, getting people fired and the occasional threat of rape we’ve come to associate with the trans lobby is not at all the authentic voice of ….genuine.…trans identified folks. How could you think such a thing?
Pull the other one I hear you splutter. But let’s hear Brianna out.
Wu insists he is a voice of sanity that has been rudely talked over by the alphabet soup menagerie of the LGBTQIAA2S + for much too long. He and a small group of fellow trans activists say they have taken a courageous new tack and distanced themselves from the excesses of a lobby currently about as popular as arsonists in Los Angeles.
Malcolm’s investigation reveals how Mr Wu has not exactly been very moderate in the past to say the least!! Malcolm concludes:
Wu’s sudden emergence has though done something useful. It has revealed how hungry members of the wiberal commentariat are for a compromise. They have taken the ‘Be kind’ mantra to heart and desperately want to lose themselves in the warm, sweaty embrace of a middle way.
There is however no middle way that allows rape-enabling perverts access to incarcerated women. Nor should we consider a middle way that permits girls to be gaslit into having their breasts removed or feminine boys their healthy adult sexuality stolen from them.
Brianna Wu is merely the first of what I predict will be many “moderate” trans voices who will attempt to rebrand the venomous trans agenda. They’ll be less obviously lunatic. They’ll smile and tilt their bewigged heads. They’ll claim to be outraged by this or that example of extremism. In the end though the lie they’re selling is essentially the same one the aggressive extremists are.
Good advice there from Malcolm. No compromise!!
The full piece is here:
Emotional Manipulation
Kaeley Triller Harms on her substack, Honest to Goodness looks at ‘emotional manipulation’ in the light of her own traumatic experiences as a child and the cringeworthy sermon to President Trump and Vice-President Vance by Bishop Budde.
Why I'm Done With Emotional Manipulation Framed as 'Love' and 'Mercy'
Bishop Budde's self-righteous sermon about "trans children' was a case study in this tactic
Jan 23, 2025
As an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse, I have a visceral response to emotional manipulation.
My abuser was a grown man who made me feel like I hung the moon. He took me to fun places and bought me pretty things and gave me candy and told me I was pretty and that he loved me very much. He nicknamed me “Special Kay” and walked me down to the corner store to buy me grape soda and nail polish. He was one of my favorite people because I was too young to recognize that his brand of love was abusive and that it was actually going to cost me way more than I would ever willingly agree to pay.
In our relationship, when my abuser wasn’t getting the desired response from me, he would say asinine things like, “Don’t you love me anymore?” And he would pair the question with actual tears designed to make me believe his world would absolutely crumble if I did not drop whatever I was doing to solve his emotional crisis.
By the time I was probably 5, I was carrying this massive burden—the knowledge that it was my personal responsibility to make sure a grown man did not fall apart. The price tag, of course, was my innocence, but when you’re little and compassionate, you don’t necessarily have the tools to understand that the only appropriate response to this perversion is “Hell no. What you’re doing isn’t love. It’s hurting me. You need to stop.” You just go along to get along and hope for the best.
The best, it turns out, will require a lot of struggle, a lot of prayer, a lot of therapy, and more tears than you knew you could cry in a lifetime. You limp away from the situation even 30 years later, sadder but infinitely wiser about the dynamics of emotional manipulation and sabotage.
And I’ve got to tell you that watching Bishop Mariann Budde’s “sermon” at the Inaugural Prayer Service this past Tuesday put me right back to that headspace. I felt instant rage to a degree that may be hard to explain to those unfamiliar with my personal journey out of abuse. I guess in order to explain this, we would have to start by examining what the bishop actually said:
“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you… In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives…”
“Well what’s so bad about that?” you might ask. “All she did was ask for mercy. Doesn’t God love even marginalized people? Isn’t He merciful? Doesn’t He want us to love them, too?”
One need only spend a few minutes familiarizing herself with the entire body of Bishop Budde’s work to realize that what she was really asking for is not mercy, but capitulation. She wasn’t asking him to use softer words. She was asking him to pump the brakes on necessary policy changes that protect the greater good, a course of action completely absent in true mercy for any who indulge it.
The full piece is here:
STOP PRESS - Let Women Speak
I almost forgot to mention that the regular LWS rally is tomorrow at Reformers’ Tree.
26 Jan 2025, 13:00 – 15:00 GMT
Reformers' Tree, London W2 2UH, UK
My wife and I hope to make the Nottingham LWS since we can do that in a day, so do let us know if you are coming to that.
08 Feb 2025, 13:00 – 15:00
Location is TBD
Endpiece by Liz
#BeMorePorcupine
#AdultHumanFemale
#LetWomenSpeak
#BanGenderAffirmingCare
#GrassrootsArmy
#FightForFreeSpeech
#KeepOnTerfing
#GenderEnders
#NeverSurrender
Emotional manipulation is the go-to tactic of TRAs - when they’re not threatening to give us the bash. John Flynt - aka Wu - is a classic. He might be fooling some with his latest tactic of ‘reasonableness’, but for the rest of us the school of hard knocks has shown us what skilled manipulators he and his ilk are. As the article you shared said, the bishop cloaked her manipulation in the language of love. Neither she nor Flynt are too far removed from each other.
I felt that the obfuscation and sheer lies of this Gang of Three was appalling. The more I listened, the worse and more egregious it seemed.
__
For example -
After agreeing with Prof. Ashley Grossman on saying that PBs for precocious puberty on (especially) children of six years and under having no future medical problems as a result of taking PBs… ‘That it was a routine treatment for these young children’, Butler then said -
“…From the pediatric-endocrinology perspective, and I’m not just speaking for myself but we don’t see why there would necessarily be… outside the sort of social side… in around the gender side why there would be any other different medical concerns to… err… considered around using puberty blockers in an adolescent who is otherwise healthy.’
adolescence | ˌadəˈlɛsns |
noun [mass noun]
the period following the onset of puberty during which a young person develops from a child into an adult: