When the media play Nurse Ratched, be Randle Patrick McMurphy!

The First Street Journal is committed to doing something really, really radical, and that is telling the truth. In the pursuit of that, I have published our Stylebook,[1]I give complete permission to anyone else who likes our Stylebook to adopt it as his own, with the appropriate reference, of course! something rarely done these days. In it, I noted:

Those who claim to be transgender will be referred to with the names, honorifics, and pronouns appropriate to the sex of their birth; the site owner does not agree with the cockamamie notion that anyone can simply ‘identify’ with a sex which is not his own, nor that any medical ‘treatment’ or surgery can change a person’s natural sex; all that it can do is physically mutilate a person.

Our Stylebook was first published on November 12, 2020, so this is not a new thing for this website. But USA Today seems to think we are hurting other people by telling the truth.

‘A matter of physical safety’: What it means to deadname someone and the impact it makes

by Clare Mulroy | Monday, March 11, 2024 | 6:02 AM EDT | Updated: 9:57 AM EDT

Merriam-Webster named “authentic” its 2023 Word of the Year, but other top contenders included “indict,” “rizz” and “deadname.” These words reflect increased search and cultural impact.

“Deadnaming” is one word that’s coming up on the campaign trail – the local one, that is. In Ohio, three out of four transgender candidates have been challenged or disqualified based on an elections law that penalizes candidates who don’t put their former names on petitions, the Associated Press reported.

But what is a deadname and what does it mean to call someone by it?

Deadnaming is when someone refers to a transgender or nonbinary person by a name they used before transitioning. This is often the name they were assigned at birth, also called a deadname.

In other words, it is telling the truth! Bradley Manning might really, really, really believe that he’s a woman named “Chelsea,” and he actually got his name changed legally, but he’s not a woman, and never will be. Referring to him as “Chelsea” is lying, not just to him, but to yourself.

Deadnaming can be intentional or unintentional. Both instances cause harm.

“It isn’t just a matter of comfort (for trans people), it’s a matter of physical safety,” Olivia Hunt, the policy director at the National Center for Transgender Equality told USA TODAY. “How you address someone tells them a lot about how you view them as a person and also communicates to other people how they should treat that person.”

So, it seems that Miss Mulroy believes that I should deliberately lie, not only to be polite, but to not do so is a “matter of physical safety” for the ‘transgendered.’ Sorry, but deliberately lying is not polite. This isn’t a matter of “Do these jeans make me look fat?” kind of questions, but ones of objective reality.

In the year 2525, if man is still alive, when an anthropologist digs up the grave of Chad Malloy, a ‘transgender’ writer who calls himself “Parker,” as the anthropologist is trying to figure out what society was like in the early 21st century, before the nuclear devastation of World War III, he will examine the remains scientifically. Five hundred years from now, the soft tissues will have long decayed away, and the anthropologist will have just the skeleton. He will examine the structure of the pelvis, and write down in his notes — perhaps with a quill pen and ink on parchment; who knows how much we will have recovered from the war? — “The subject was male,” which will be an objective conclusion based on the scientific fact that males and females have different pelvic structures.

And if there is still some recoverable DNA from the remains, and the technology still exists to examine that, the anthropologist will discover that the subject has XY, rather than XX chromosomes, and will again write in his notes, “The subject was male.” This will be an objective fact.

There are no federal laws surrounding deadnaming, though local and state legislature have moved in both directions in recent years – some providing legal security for trans and nonbinary individuals’ name and pronoun usage and others forcing them to use deadnames in school settings.

In 2021, California became the first state to ban colleges from deadnaming students on university records. Social media apps have updated their use guidelines to ban deadnaming. In 2023, Discord added deadnaming and misgendering to its hate speech guidelines. TikTok banned both in 2022. Twitter, on the other hand, quietly rolled back its former policy against deadnaming and misgendering in April 2023.

We have previously reported on how The New York Times gave major OpEd space to Andrew Marantz, a staff writer for The New Yorker, to tell us that Free Speech Is Killing Us, and to Mr Malloy to tell us How Twitter’s Ban on ‘Deadnaming’ Promotes Free Speech. It seems as though the guardians of the so-called Fourth Estate just don’t like interlopers! Greg Bensinger, a Times Editorial Board member, wrote that “Twitter Under Elon Musk Will Be a Scary Place,” because Mr Musk was significantly loosening the editorial censorship on Twitter, was allowing more actual freedom of speech. Heaven forfend!

And now Miss Mulroy, who did go further to tell readers the legal difficulties the ‘transgendered’ face in trying to change their documents, is telling us that simply telling the truth, something I always do, is seriously harming the ‘transgendered.’ Sorry, but nope, I do not go along with that, and I will not cease telling the truth.

George Orwell wrote, in his dystopian novel 1984, “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” What Miss Mulroy, and so many others in the credentialed media, are telling us is that we must reject objective truth, and go along with the subjective claims of the mentally ill. The inmates are running the asylum, and the staff are going right along with it. When the government and the credentialed media play Nurse Ratched, be Randle Patrick McMurphy!

References

References
1 I give complete permission to anyone else who likes our Stylebook to adopt it as his own, with the appropriate reference, of course!

Chaya Raichik and Libs of TikTok save the taxpayers a million bucks!

Chaya Raichik, wearing a t-shirt with an image of Taylor Lorenz crying about something, from her Twitter feed.

We have previously noted Chaya Raichik, the creator of the Twitter site Libs of TikTok. LoTT’s schtick is to find the silliest things leftists put on the social media site Tik Tok, and snark them for sensible people on Twitter. Basically, LoTT is mocking people for their own exposed stupidity, and Mrs Raichik has found an absolutely unGodly amount of that stupidity. The left have been so outraged about the site that Washington Post writer Taylor Lorenz spent a lot of time and effort to dox Mrs Raichik, exposing the previously anonymous Tweeter, seemingly in the hope of getting her fired from her position as a Brooklyn real estate saleswoman.

Meet the woman behind Libs of TikTok, secretly fueling the right’s outrage machine

A popular Twitter account has morphed into a social media phenomenon, spreading anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment and shaping public discourse

by Taylor Lorenz | Tuesday, April 19, 2022 | 6:00 AM EDT

On March 8, a Twitter account called Libs of TikTok posted a video of a woman teaching sex education to children in Kentucky, calling the woman in the video a “predator.” The next evening, the same clip was featured on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News program, prompting the host to ask, “When did our public schools, any schools, become what are essentially grooming centers for gender identity radicals?”

Libs of TikTok reposts a steady stream of TikTok videos and social media posts, primarily from LGBTQ+ people, often including incendiary framing designed to generate outrage. Videos shared from the account quickly find their way to the most influential names in right-wing media. The account has emerged as a powerful force on the Internet, shaping right-wing media, impacting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and influencing millions by posting viral videos aimed at inciting outrage among the right.

The anonymous account’s impact is deep and far-reaching. Its content is amplified by high-profile media figures, politicians and right-wing influencers. Its tweets reach millions, with influence spreading far beyond its more than 648,000 Twitter followers. Libs of TikTok has become an agenda-setter in right-wing online discourse, and the content it surfaces shows a direct correlation with the recent push in legislation and rhetoric directly targeting the LGBTQ+ community.

There’s more at the original, but Miss Lorenz wound up doing Mrs Raichik a favor, as she now has a guesstimated net worth of $800,000, and that’s only expected to grow.

And it should grow: it seems that Mrs Raichik has saved the taxpayers of the United States a cool million bucks!

John Fetterman and Bob Casey pulled support of LGBTQ William Way Community Center after LibsofTikTok kink parties tweet

On Wednesday Fetterman said he only withdrew the $1 million funding request to fend off anticipated Republican attacks, while Casey’s office defended pulling the money.

by Julia Terruso and Aliya Schneider | Wednesday, March 6, 2024 | 3:36 PM EST | Updated: 4:48 PM EST

U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey both signed letters Tuesday requesting to pull federal funding for the William Way Community Center after learning the LGBTQ-focused nonprofit rents its space for BDSM-kink parties.

But Wednesday, Fetterman (D., Pa.) said his staff withdrew the $1 million funding request to fend off anticipated Republican attacks, while Casey’s office defended pulling the money.

Casey spokesperson Mairead Lynn said the Pennsylvania Democrat believes “that consenting adults have the right to do whatever they want in their free time, but these types of appropriations projects warrant the highest level of scrutiny on behalf of taxpayers.”

Fetterman distanced himself from the decision to pull the funding, first telling reporters in Washington he had no knowledge of it, despite his signature appearing on the letter and then later issuing a statement saying the decision was made because of presumed incoming Republican opposition.

“(A)fter learning the LGBTQ-focused nonprofit rents its space for BDSM-kink parties,” huh? I’ve quoted four paragraphs above, but you have to scroll past an advertisement, four more paragraphs, and another advertisement, to get to how the Distinguished Gentlemen from Pennsylvania learned about those “BDSM-kink parties:

News of the funding consideration went viral after the controversial far-right social media account LibsofTikTok, which is operated by Chaya Raichik and is notorious for sharing anti-LGBTQ views, condemned Casey and Fetterman for supporting the allocation, calling attention to the fetish parties.

Raichik wrote that the funding “includes $1M of your tax dollars to go towards renovating an LGBTQ Center in PA which boasts rooms to try BDSM and s*x f*tishes and hosts BDSM and s*x k*nk parties. There’s even a k*nk party happening there this weekend!”

“(C)ontroversial far-right social media account”? “(N)otorious for sharing anti-LGBTQ views”? The article authors make no bones about it: they are fully supportive of the homosexual and transgender agenda.

Going unmentioned in the article is the controversy over the wholly legitimate arrest — though with Philadelphia’s hard left District Attorney not pressing charges — of Philadelphia’s “executive director of the Office of LGBT Affairs” and his ‘husband,’ Darius McLean, Director of Empowerment Programs at the Arcila-Adams Trans Resource Center of the William Way Community Center, due to ‘Celena’ Morrison driving a vehicle with an expired and suspended car, and Mr McLean then stopping to try to interfere with the citation. Messrs Morrison and McLean claim that they were taking the vehicle for repairs, certainly a legitimate trip, but not one which justifies driving an unlicensed vehicle on the public streets. Perhaps Senators Casey and Fetterman were unwilling to associate themselves with any support of the William Way Center at that moment in time.

It’s a simple truth: Mrs Raichik and her “controversial far-right social media account” have would up saving the taxpayers a million bucks!

At the end of the Inquirer’s story:

William Way has struggled to get federal funding this year. In July, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee voted down several requests for funding of LGBTQ centers, including William Way and two others in Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan’s district.

All three of the organizations had received similar funding in the past.

That’s a start! I, of course, not only don’t see why the government should be funding private “LGBTQ centers”, but cannot see why we should be funding any supposedly private organizations with taxpayers’ dollars. The William Way Center should be able to support itself with private donations, and if it can’t, then it does not deserve to stay open.

Clearly, I should be watched, perhaps even arrested for Wrongthink.

We have previously reported on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its supposedly abandoned policy of surveilling “Radical Traditionalist Catholics.” That story has pretty much faded away, but I seriously doubt that everyone in the FBI has forgotten that we are the absolutely greatest threat to America!

Well, the US is not the only nation which engages in such silliness!

UK Government Report: ‘Lord of the Rings’ Fans May Be Potential ‘Far-Right’ Terrorists

Catholic Vote News Feed | Groundhog Day, February 2, 2024

We have Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Shakespeare, and Homer on our bookshelf. Clearly, I should be watched! Photo by D R Pico.

CV NEWS FEED // A now-viral report by British government counterterrorism program Prevent stated that classic novels by authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis can be “red flags” for possible “far-right extremism.”

“We prevent vulnerable people from being drawn into extremism,” Prevent claims on its website. Prevent goes on to describe itself as a “government-led, multi-agency” program that “aims to stop individuals becoming terrorists.” Its website elaborates that “police play a key role” in the program’s efforts.

The Daily Caller’s Kay Smythe reported that while Prevent “was founded to support counter-terrorism efforts” it “has gradually swayed into a focus on only extremists from Islam and ‘far-right’ ideological mindsets.”

“[T]he programme’s attempts to address right-wing extremism were even more inept than some of its attempts to address Islamist extremism,” British author Douglas Murray noted in a February 2023 Spectator piece.

Murray pointed out that Prevent was once “advised by left-wing activist groups like Hope not Hate.”

“Such groups have long believed that the definition of far-right should encompass, for instance, many people who supported Brexit,” he added.

My old Bible, using an Israeli 20 shekel note as a bookmark.

It’s not just Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit which are in our bookcase, but I also have a Bible, a Catholic Bible, complete with an Israeli ₪20 note being used as a bookmark therein! The bookmark is currently in the Book of Job, because that was the Catechism lesson I taught this morning. I’m even on our parish council.

Even worse: one of the parishioners in our very small parish is trying to get a Knights of Columbus chapter set up, and has asked me to sign up.

Representative Jim Jordan reported that in its zeal to track down the January 6th kerfufflers, the:

federal government flagged terms like “MAGA” and “TRUMP,” to financial institutions if Americans completed transactions using those terms.

What was also flagged? If you bought a religious text, like a BIBLE, or shopped at Bass Pro Shop.

Heaven forfend! Clearly, I should be watched, perhaps even arrested for Wrongthink.

Journolism: The credentialed media don’t exactly lie, but they conceal politically incorrect facts

We have previously reported that today’s professional journalists rarely deliberately lie to us, but that they often omit rather important parts of the story. This was an Associated Press story, an ostensibly straight news piece, in which the writer managed to omit the most important part of the story. Read on and you’ll see why I frequently refer to journolists[1]The spelling ‘journolist’ or ‘journolism’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their … Continue reading as opposed to journalists! Continue reading

References

References
1 The spelling ‘journolist’ or ‘journolism’ comes from JournoList, an email list of 400 influential and politically liberal journalists, the exposure of which called into question their objectivity. I use the term ‘journolism’ frequently when writing about media bias.

Liz Magill is not just toast, but toast which has fallen on the floor, buttered side down

We have previously reported how University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill has completely fouled up the school’s response to the antiSemitism on campus, costing the Ivy League university the good will of its many deep-pocket alumni donors.

Well, she may have just fired herself! From The Philadelphia Inquirer: Continue reading

Are you ready to surrender your rights for the “common good”?

I’m old enough to remember the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, a product of mostly leftist students on campus.

With the participation of thousands of students, the Free Speech Movement was the first mass act of civil disobedience on an American college campus in the 1960s. Students insisted that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students’ right to free speech and academic freedom. The Free Speech Movement was influenced by the New Left, and was also related to the Civil Rights Movement and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement. To this day, the Movement’s legacy continues to shape American political dialogue both on college campuses and in broader society, influencing some political views and values of college students and the general public.

I’m not a leftist by any means, but I completely support the freedom of speech, and all of the rights enshrined in our great Constitution. Sadly, so many of today’s left do not support freedom of speech, at least not when they believe they have the power to restrain it.

Irish senator under fire for advocating bill to restrict free speech

One critic calls Ireland’s anti-hate law ‘draconian,’ adding it will have ‘severe implications’

By Brianna Herlihy, Fox News | First Sunday of Advent, December 3, 2023 | 4:00 AM EST

A speech delivered in June by an Irish lawmaker who said the work of legislatures is about “restricting freedoms” in the name of the “common good” has gone viral, with criticism on both sides of the Atlantic.

Senator Pauline O’Reilly of the Green Party, in defense of Ireland’s proposed Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences Bill 2022, spoke at the Houses of the Oireachtas in June, saying, “We are restricting freedom, but we’re doing it for the common good.

Well, of course she’s a member of the Green Party, of the hard left.

“You will see throughout our constitution, yes, you have rights, but they are restricted for the common good. If your views on other people’s identities go to make their lives unsafe, insecure and cause them such deep discomfort that they cannot live in peace, then I believe that it is our job as legislators to restrict those freedoms for the common good.”

If a right is “restricted for the common good,” is it a right at all?

Senator O’Reilly’s speech is embedded below the fold, since videos take up a lot of bandwidth on the front page. Continue reading

Another deep-pockets Ivy League donor tells the pro-Hamas students to go to Hell Go directly to Hell, do not pass Go, do not collect $2,000,000

We noted, just yesterday, that despite the noisy pro-Palestinian demonstrations on our college campuses and in large cities, only about 20% of Democrats support Hamas, and that, even surveying only those in the 18-to-24-year-old age bracket, Hamas enjoyed less support than Israel. The radicals are both the noisy and stupid ones.

As for colleges themselves? We have also noted how some deep-pockets donors are closing their checkbooks and job offers in the face of the anti-Semitism being displayed. Now, yet another college is losing a billionaire donor. From Forbes: Continue reading

Rashida Tlaib and the rest of the Usual Suspects prove the need for a strong, independent, affirmatively Jewish Israel!

We are being told by the people the credentialed media use as spokesthings, like Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the now-censured congresscritter from Detroit and a ‘Palestinian-American,’ if such an oxymoron can actually exist, that all the Palestinians want is their freedom. They don’t hate Israelis specifically, or Jews more generally, but just want their freedom. Mrs Tlaib even tried to claim that the mantra, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!” as not being anti-Israeli at all, but no one actually believed her.

However, there’s an obvious question: do the (purported) leaders of the pro-Palestinian movement in the West actually represent the crowds behind them. The tweet I retweeted from @StopAntisemitism is just one of hundreds they’ve posted, documenting people living in the United States and Canada showing us exactly who they are. The Stop Antisemitism site is doing great work in exposing and identifying those people, and letting their colleges or employers know just who they are, and many have found their way to the unemployment line. If you think that’s a bad thing, just imagine how employers would react if one of their employees was caught on video calling for the death of [insert virtually forbidden slang for Negroes here].

Of course, even those stupid enough perhaps to want to say that kind of thing about blacks are generally not stupid enough to say it on tape, which means that they are at least not as stupid as the anti-Semites! Continue reading

The left sure like Christians, right up until they seem to be actual Christians!

We have been told what a devout Catholic President Biden is, and how former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was a good, believing Catholic. President Trump, on the other hand, showed us how fake a Christian he is, because he almost never attended religious services. Clearly, for the left, being a faithful Christian of some denomination or other was a pretty good thing. Or at least it was until someone who is actually a Christian becomes Speaker of the House! Continue reading