The Kite Runner
Update 505. Free Speech Special. #BeMorePorcupine.
As we move into 2025 I will be featuring, to start with, those Readers’ Choices for best film ever that did not make the top seven ( see Update 500 for the top seven). However I am just interrupting this process since, after featuring a piece on Afghanistan in the last update, a reader reminded me of the work of the great Afghan writer, Khaled Hosseini and here is the film of his novel, The Kite Runner.
In Kabul in 1978, 10-year-old Amir is the son of a wealthy Pashtun philanthropist and iconoclast, known locally as Agha Sahib, whom Amir calls "Baba". His best friend, Hassan, is the son of Baba's long-time servant, Ali, a Hazara. Amir does kite fighting, and Hassan is his spool-holder and "kite runner", who can accurately predict where loose kites will land, and has deadly aim with a slingshot. On Hassan's birthday, Amir gifts Hassan a US-made slingshot.
And the rest of the plot is very convoluted, so if you haven’t seen it, you’ll just have to watch it (or read it) 😄
Thanks to two wonderful readers for suggested pieces.
Some of the linked pieces below may be behind a paywall.
UK - Freedom Of Speech Act
I presume that this news is as a result of the Free Speech Union’s judicial review action, so many congratulations to them. The hearing of their action was to take place on 23 January ( I was going to go!!) so I also presume that that will now be withdrawn. I’m not quite clear what was controversial about the Act (see headline)!!
Bryony Gooch in The Independent (Government set to reintroduce controversial university free speech law 15 January) reports:
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson PA Wire© PA Wire
Legislation to protect freedom of speech on university campuses is back on the government agenda, after Labour initially halted plans due to concerns over student welfare.
The Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act offered a number of controversial powers, as the regulatory Office for Students (OfS) could fine and sanction universities, higher education providers and student unions for failing to uphold free speech.
The Act, passed by the previous Tory government, also offered a complaints scheme for students, staff and visiting speakers to seek compensation if they suffered from a breach of the university’s free-speech obligations.
Its aim was for universities to “secure” and promote the importance of freedom of speech and academic expression on campuses.
A government source told the BBC that the legislation would begin again to become workable, although it remains unclear how the Act may be adapted from what was originally suggested.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson originally paused the legislation in July 2024, not long before it was due to come in full force.
The full article is here:
Tyranny in Teignbridge
Glinner interviews four brave women of Teignbridge who attempted to speak up on Terfy issues at local council meetings and were shouted down. They were supported by Rachel of Council Watch.
Glinner also says there will be a new Mess soon 😃
In Praise Of JL
A reminder that I always recommend JL’s weekly pieces on the Glinner Update:
A Week In The War On Women and The Good News Supplement:
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/
Let Women Speak
Kellie-Jay and LWS are going to Rio de Janeiro on 01 February. Please consider supporting them by buying a cut price hoodie or just by donating 😁
Also my favourite Thought Criminal LWS apparel are back in stock 😃
And no, I don’t get a cut!! 😂
New Zealand - Dear Mr Hipkins
On her substack, A B’Old Woman Katrina Biggs has written to the leader of the Labour opposition, Chris Hipkins about single sex spaces:
Dear Mr Hipkins, our objection to men in women’s spaces cannot be dismissed as just a “culture war”, as much as you’d like to.
Politicians and councillors are still trying their damnedest to belittle women's concerns about men in female spaces as just a "culture war".
Jan 14, 2025
We’ve got some politicians and councillors here in New Zealand who think the matter of men in women’s spaces is behind us now. They’ve stonewalled those of us who object to it, so have the illusion they’ve beaten us. Word has seeped out of the Labour Party, for example, that “none of that’s an issue anymore”.
Oh, really? Word of advice - think again.
To be fair, there are plenty of politicians in other political parties, too, who think the same as Labour. They just want women to accept our fate, and stop being a nuisance so they can get on with ‘more important things’. So what if a few men who say they’re women want to get into women’s spaces and sports? Can’t we just absorb them, and not complain unless we get hurt or assaulted? Naturally, if that happens, though, those things will require full documented evidence. Women and girls can’t have spaces free from men if we don’t get hurt or assaulted, and can prove it if we do. Meanwhile, men who say they’re women only need to have a ‘lived experience’ sob-story, if even that, to have the freedom to waltz on into women’s spaces.
The current Leader of the Opposition, Labour leader Chris Hipkins, thinks that objections to men in women’s spaces is just a culture war, and Shane Jones and Winston Peters of NZ First are only stoking the flames of it for shits and giggles. He appears determined not to believe the issue of men in women’s spaces is actually still alive, and of great concern to many women and men. Unlike Labour, and too many others in parliament, NZ First are actually hearing and acknowledging that. I’m not going to paint NZ First as purely altruistic angels, but, for whatever reasons, they’re not only listening to the TQ+ (who have their own select committee rainbow meeting room at Parliament) nor the experts who tell them that ‘trans’ must be granted all they desire otherwise they’ll be extremely sad. No, they’re – gasp – listening to ordinary women and men.
However, in a recent Newsroom article, Chris Hipkins brushes it all off as a culture war, and a war on transpeople. He goes on to infer that this is about not letting people be free to be who they are. Nobody so deaf as someone whose job depends on it, eh?
Although I don’t think it will make a scrap of difference, I wrote to him anyway…
The full piece is here:
Australia - The Surface Design Association
The Surface Design Association don’t believe in freedom of speech and expression! Pearl Red Moon reports on her substack, Cosmic Pearl.
Thought criminals be damned
As a gender critical feminist even my money is too tainted to be acceptable to virtue signalling leftists
Jan 15, 2025
After having the Surface Design Association eject and ban me from being a member of their organisation in December last year I emailed them back to find out if would be allowed to buy any of their online art tuition classes, which are purportedly available for non-members to participate in. A few days later I got an email back advisng if I tried to take a class I’d be kicked out of that too.
Truly these actions are a fascinating explication of “go woke, go broke” – they don’t want my money for a paid membership nor will they sell me their classes. As it was the second time they canceled my membership (first was December 2022, documented in a previous Substack) that is two annual membership fees that have been refused, a total of $320. Add at least $350 to that total for any subsequent classes I might have signed up for.
Ewww, such is my taint!
I’d be fascinated to know how many others they might do this to. Theres no way of knowing if their LGBTQUIA+ members endorse this position and feel it’s the right thing to do. It illustrates the organisations degree of ideological indoctrination that they can view my ostracization as different from denying someone participation because they disapprove of their particular religious beliefs.
Sometimes I wonder what exactly it is they fear I might do if interacting with SDA rainbow identities? It is true I would refuse to use obvious wrong sex pronouns or assign any to be referred to for myself. Postmodernist thinking has successfully promulgated the idea that not believing somebodys claim they have changed sex is a legitimate and unnacceptable type of violence. Trans ideology activists and their allies are pushing internationally for gender scepticism to made illegal and have punishments applied for what they view as “hate speech” and misgendering (my bag is packed for when I get arrested).
Mauve Elizabeth
The full piece including more lovely works of art from Pearl is here:
Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?
This should get my Scottish readers firing on all cylinders 😄
Eleanor Burleigh in The Daily Express (Woke row as famous poet dropped from school curriculums 14 January) reports:
Portrait of Robert Burns (25 January 1759 - 21 July 1796), Scottish poet and lyricist© Getty
A school board in Scotland has dropped national poet Robert Burns from its curriculum in the name of "diversity", sparking outcry from commentators.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has scrapped Burns' writing as a main topic in secondary schools, consigning it instead to a wider anthology of national poetry taught on the course.
The full article is here:
Endpiece by Liz
#BeMorePorcupine
#LetWomenSpeak
#Grassroots Army
#FightForFreeSpeech
#KeepOnTerfing
#GenderEnders
#NeverSurrender
The Teignbridge Council is something else! Ours mightn’t be so blatantly rude, but they stonewall just as much over anything with a touch of ‘anti-trans’ about it.
Thanks Dusty. Really good news about the University free speech bill and well done Free Speech Union. I’m sure the threat of legal action helped. Join if you can, they offer great protection for us ‘thought criminals’.
Well done KJK, she is unstoppable. And come on Scotland, you can’t let your culture be censored.
Btw, thanks to anyone who voted for the Godfather trilogy. We’ve rewatched it over the last couple of weeks and I’d forgotten how brilliant it is. I should have put it on my favourites list, especially with my Sicilian connections. 😁