Links - 29th January 2024 (1 - Diversity: Mark Cuban & Airlines)

Mark Cuban hits back after Elon Musk criticizes business diversity initiatives - "Musk, the world’s richest man, who employs thousands of people at Tesla, SpaceX, and X, formerly Twitter, claimed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) was “just another word for racism” in a post to his social network. Cuban, the entrepreneur and investor who rose to prominence as owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team and star of the reality TV show Shark Tank, rejected Musk’s argument. Such initiatives are good for business, he wrote in a series of posts, enabling companies to find the best employees, getting the best out of workers, and increasing productivity by reducing “unnecessary” stress.  “Good businesses look where others don’t,” Cuban, 65, wrote. “You may not agree, but I take it as a given that there are people of various races, ethnicities, orientation, etc that are regularly excluded from hiring consideration.”... Cuban said Musk was losing out. “By extending our hiring search to include them, we can find people that are more qualified. The loss of DEI-phobic companies is my gain,” he said... Cuban elaborated on his rebuttal of Musk by waxing philosophical on what it means to be a good employer. Equity is a “core principle of business”, he said. “Put your employees in a position to succeed. Recognize their differences and play to their strengths where ever possible.”  Inclusion efforts were focused on ensuring that “all employees, no matter who they are or how they see themselves, feel comfortable in their environment and able to do their jobs,” he wrote.  Following Cuban’s tweets, Musk wrote: “Cool, so when should we expect to see a short white/Asian women on the Mavs?”  Ackman himself chimed in late on Thursday, bringing the debate between billionaires full circle with a remark to Cuban: “That’s exactly what I thought until I did the work. I encourage you to do the same and revert. DEI is not about diversity, equity or inclusion. Trust me. I fell for the same trap you did.”  Musk replied: “Yup.”"

Te𝕏asLindsay™ on X - "The Hodge twins told Mark Cuban to not “be a white supremacist” and hire @WuWei113 as a Mavs Point Guard 😂"
Wei Wu 吴伟 on X - "Hello white woman with big teeth and big smile. Your support show your character. You possess wisdom. Very honor. When I be 15 millionaire dollar, I also give you best job. You be my bodyguard. What you do? Smile. Shiny teeth blind all enemy. Blind enemy can not attack. I'm safe."

Thread by @wokal_distance on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "The issue here is that radical leftists are running a motte and bailey game with DEI.  They use the very reasonable position @mcuban outlines as their motte, and one they gain power they abolish merit hiring, use hiring quotas, and require the adoption of leftist politics. Further, the adoption of particular political positions is very often made a condition of hiring. This usually takes the form of requiring employees to sign mandatory diversity statements containing loaded political language. Other times the demand is simply implicit and those who don't get on board are denied advancement or are not hired.  In essence, DEI seeks to enforce a particular worldview and a set of (very left) social values on entire companies. In it's most pernicious form, DEI departments hijack entire institutions. The DEI activists re-orient the hijacked institution away from it's original mission and then use it as a vehicle for to advance their political and social goals. As ever more resources are dedicated to DEI, the organization becomes ineffective at it's original mission. When this happens the reputation of the organization suffers, and it's ability to recruit talent, raise funds, and operate effectively is compromised.  This is how woke takeovers of institutions occur, and almost always DEI policies are the way it is done. I think that @mcuban is arguin in good faith, taking the plain meaning of the terms Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and attempting to craft a workable policy.  However, in the Academic literature those words are actually terms of art that have very specific meanings. For example, In academic literature equity does not mean "treating people equally but while taking their specific situation into account."  In DEI literature equity means means: "an administered system in which shares are adjusted so that participants are made equal." In the DEI literature, equity is not a reference to equality, it is a reference to making sure that everyone has equal share of wealth, money, and power in society. In other words, in the DEI literature equity refers to using administrative systems to make OUTCOMES equal. The point here is that while the program @mcuban laid out might work very well (it may not, I can't say for sure) the fact is the program he laid out is VERY different from what you find in the academic DEI literature, and in the actual DEI programs in the corporate world. This is why DEI must be abolished. Once we ahve abolished DEI, we can then go about trying to figure out what actual best practice is for hiring, and we can experiment with different ideas. But we can't do that until we get our institutions out from under DEI."

Colin Wright on X - "That @mcuban is so naive to believe that DEI ideology simply entails expanding the applicant pool, still hiring based on merit, but maybe giving a tiebreaker to the "diverse" candidate is absolutely laughable. Somebody needs to go on Shark Tank and try to sell him a bridge."
Mythinformed on X - "Mark Cuban and The Dallas Mavericks setup a hotline for employees to turn in their fellow coworkers that weren’t following the DEI rules because Woke is Communism."

Frank McCormick | Chalkboard Heresy on X - "Mark Cuban can champion DEI because his billions insulate him from its effects. He’ll never have to sit through diversity training, be operated on by a “diversity-pick,” or suffer career setbacks because he’s a white male. DEI was always for the peasants."

Scott Adams on X - "Mark, literally everyone who has spent a minute in the real business world knows DEI might have been well-intentioned but in practice it is pure race discrimination. Every time.   Ask me about the five careers I have lost so far for being white and male.   1. Crocker Bank ("We can't ever promote you because you are white and male.") Yes, management told me directly.  2. Pacific Bell (See #1)  3. Dilbert on UPN bumped from Monday TV schedule so they could create an all-Black comedy lineup.  4. Speaking career eliminated for backing Trump in 2016, because that makes me a racist they say.  5. Cartoon and publishing career canceled for saying in public you should stay away from people who have been taught in school that you are their oppressor. (I could have worded it better, but no one of any color disagrees with the obvious.)  I understand Elon Musk says race could be a tie-breaker if qualifications are the same. That's called racism too. Get the fuck away from that scenario too, if you can."

Thread by @Hebro_Steele on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - ""I pastor one of Chicago's toughest neighborhoods on the South Side and @mcuban's defense of DEI is deeply flawed for one reason: this poisonous ideology has no impact on my community, the very community it professes to help." -- Pastor @CoreyBBrooks...  From my church located in one of Chicago’s most violent South Side neighborhoods, I watched with disquieting fascination the public trial of Claudine Gay. I followed the debates on the influence and impact of the DEI movement not just in the case of Gay but throughout America. What I heard was that these DEI policies were being done in the name of my community. Sometimes I laughed out loud at some of the claims.  It was like listening to people who don’t know you talk about you as if they knew you deep down. Perhaps the most visible example was @mcuban's response to @elonmusk’s claim that “Discrimination on the basis of race, which DEI does, is literally the definition of racism.” .@mcuban responded: it is “a given that there are people of various races, ethnicities, orientation, etc that are regularly excluded from hiring consideration.”  The implication here is that USA is systemically racist. I agree there is racism but not in the way that he thinks. .@mcuban then wrote, “By extending our hiring search to include them, we can find people that are more qualified.” This rather simple sentiment is one that most people would find agreeable and I do so to a certain degree. What this ignores is how profoundly education and skill development has declined in our community for generations. We are behind in nearly every social and educational metric and while living in an ever-changing world that seems to be speeding beyond the grasp of our fingertips. If @mcuban came into my community it wouldn’t take him long to understand that this DEI ideology is profoundly flawed, has no impact upon us, and creates more racial divisions.   The reality is that the countless of diversity programs that came into being since the late 1960s have been abysmal failures. Nearly every one of them, if not all, professed to have the goal of uplifting poor blacks after centuries of racial oppression. The original intent of Affirmative Action was true uplift by providing bootstraps: better schools, teachers and resources to uplift the undereducated segments of the black population. However, this process of development was too slow for the many white university presidents who wanted to increase the diversity on their campuses now. They moved away from development to cold racial preferences. Diversity, not development, became the new virtue of our times. At the same time, our community was bombarded with one liberal policy after another since the 1960s. We were encouraged to move out of our homes — many admittedly not in good condition, but which we owned — and into housing projects where we had zero equity. Man-in-the-house rules broke apart too many families. Our schools produced far too many illiterates. For decades, our culture rewarded black deviancy shown on countless of @BET rap videos. The only way too many of our children know how to buy food is with Uncle Sam’s dollar. Instead of embracing freedom and responsibility, too many of us allowed ourselves to be seduced into the culture of dependency. Those who could escape and make a life for themselves did and many did. But for those of us who have been caught up in the multigenerational cycle of societal and governmental dependency, that is the only world they know. And we ask them to believe in the American Dream? This is the world of bad faith that I’m trying to reverse every day with my work in the streets, which includes overseeing the building of a community center that came after long years of struggle. I have encountered far too many tragedies. A young man I mentored since he was knee-high was shot dead and all I could think about was the promising future he had been working toward. Another kid I mentored made a dumb mistake and is now on trial for murder. But many kids in my neighborhood have made it out — one of them was just awarded a prestigious fellowship at NASA.  Here's a picture of DeMario at NASA, second from your left. The only tool I used with these youths: the American principles. Be on time. Say, yes sir, no sir. Respect your elders. Be responsible. Be accountable. Save money. Build credit. Plan for the future. Be a parent. Get married. You fall, get back up. Never give up. Just do it. That is why I laugh out loud when I heard DEI advocates describe merit and punctuality as white supremacist values. Too many people were destroyed by this culture of dependency and now they want to take away all the remaining lifelines to a life of possibility and future? I know @mcuban surely doesn’t believe in this ridiculousness — he is a businessman. I also hope that he surely recognizes how racist it is to create the belief that standards — educational to societal — across America must be lowered in the name of helping black people. What Cuban doesn’t realize from his post is that the systemic racism that my community faces is not white supremacy but post-60s liberalism. With diversity and not development as its focus, every one of those principles was created in the name of our inferiority. That is why it was disappointing to learn how little Gay produced by way of academic merit and yet rose to the presidency of Harvard because of race. Seeing people like @mcuban defend this only reminded me of how profound the stigma is that we cannot succeed without race. That is why it is my mission in life to develop strong individuals to the point where the thought of using race as an advantage would be an insult to their well-earned pride. We are only at the beginning of reversing the fortunes of our community and we have a long ways to go. We may not save everybody. But we know the harsh realities and it is our refusal to look way to some false ideological comforts that gives us the best chance of giving these young Americans a good life. That is how you create a deep and meritorious talent pool. -@CoreyBBrooks"

Thread by @stclairashley on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "ey @united  On July 29, a United plane was nearly totaled after a hard landing  Who was flying that aircraft?  Was the co-pilot a former flight attendant who was FIRED and then rehired through United’s DEI program despite being on a list to not return to United?  Am I correct that this individual failed multiple trainings including simulator training?  Am I also correct that United has covered up this DEI disaster and many others? Was the #2 at the Denver hiring center also onboarded through DEI? Did she or did she not change fail grades for DEI hires because “it makes the numbers look bad”?  Did the instructor who failed this co-pilot ask corporate why they passed him?
It’s Sowell Goodman!! on X - "He seems to forget that they measure effectiveness based on diversity % of workforce. Weird there’s no insight or metrics to track that it correlates with merit, at all."
The woke believe that all groups are equally good. So if a "minority" group performs worse than others, that is due to discrimination and not a problem with diversity quotas

United Airlines Vows 50% Of Its New Pilots Will Be Women, Minorities
Peachy Keenan on X - "Update: I checked on United's corporate diversity report and am happy to report they exceeded their quota of 50%. Fully 80% of the new class of pilots they graduated is W or POC. Congratulations!"
i/o on X - "United partners with Elizabeth State University, an HBCU which had the distinction in the 1980s of being the only university in which the average SAT math score was lower than that score which would have been produced if a person had guessed "B" on all the multiple choice questions on the test from the previous year.  How do I know this? Because my housemate, a stats grad student who went on to teach at UC-Davis, performed this analysis on one of his papers."
Clearly, imposing a hard limit of 50% of white men doesn't mean that standards are lower, because all populations are equal in ability so this is just picking up "minorities" who are unfairly discriminated against

Boeing, in new diversity report, says it fired 65 workers for hateful words or actions - "Boeing has fired 65 employees and disciplined another 53 for racist, discriminatory and hateful conduct since Chief Executive Officer Dave Calhoun vowed “zero tolerance” in June. The CEO is trying to make good on an anti-bigotry pledge he made last year after George Floyd’s murder by a police officer spurred protests across the U.S. Now, in a bid for greater transparency, Boeing is releasing a breakdown of its employees by gender, race and ethnicity — and the report shows that the company has a long way to go to attain its goal of a more diverse workforce... Boeing is working to bolster inclusion as investors press U.S. companies to help address deep-seated racism and to be more transparent about their own hiring practices. McDonald’s is tying executive bonuses to targets for increasing underrepresented groups. Investor proposals for independent racial audits were backed by more than one-third of Johnson & Johnson and Citigroup shareholders at annual meetings this month... One of Calhoun’s first hires after taking the top job last year was Michael D’Ambrose as human resources chief, with a mandate to bolster diversity... “By being more diverse, more inclusive, we will make better decisions,” he said."
How Boeing 737 MAX's flawed flight control system led to 2 crashes that killed 346
Clearly, the problem was that they didn't have enough diversity

Boeing's 737 Max software outsourced to US$9-an-hour engineers - "It remains the mystery at the heart of Boeing Co.’s 737 Max crisis: how a company renowned for meticulous design made seemingly basic software mistakes leading to a pair of deadly crashes. Longtime Boeing engineers say the effort was complicated by a push to outsource work to lower-paid contractors."
Boeing Lost Its Way on a Wall Street Detour - Bloomberg
‘Designed by clowns…supervised by monkeys:’ Internal Boeing messages slam 737 Max | Fortune

R A W S A L E R T S on X - "🚨#BREAKING: Alaska Airlines Forced to Make an Emergency Landing After Large Aircraft Window Blows Out Mid-Air   📌#Portland | #Oregon  A Forced emergency landing was made of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 at Portland International Airport on Friday night. The flight, traveling from Portland to Ontario, California, faced severe depressurization, causing the ejection of a large window section and an unoccupied seat. This incident resulted in a child's shirt being ripped off. The Boeing 737-900/-9MAX aircraft reached a maximum altitude of 16,300 ft before safely returning to Portland International Airport. As of now, it remains unclear if anyone on board the flight was injured, as this story is still developing."
Wolf Bronsky on X - "Apparently, this aircraft came off the line two months ago. It's brand new.  The failure is in the fuselage, not a door. This is something not seen on the aviation industry in decades. Not since the Brits were making flying trashcans post-war. It's a scandal."

Alaska Airlines’s faulty Boeing door plug was made in Malaysia—and that’s complicating investigations into why it ripped off mid-flight

Matt Walsh on X - "Ladies and gentlemen, meet the “dream team” at the manufacturer that made the plane door that just blew off in the middle of a flight
"Spirit Aerosystems Engineering Dream Team!""

Boeing's subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems repeatedly warned of 'excessive' defects in the Alaska Airlines door plug that blew out at 16,000ft and nearly caused worst air disaster in 22 years - "The Boeing subcontractor that manufactured the door plug that blew out at 16,000 feet during an Alaska Airlines flight was warned of an 'excessive amount of defects,' according to a lawsuit days before the fateful flight... The lawsuit adds the problems at the company were 'widespread' and included 'the routine presence of foreign object debris in Spirit products, missing fasteners, peeling paint, and poor skin quality.'... Both Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, which are the only two US carriers to fly the aircraft revealed they found loose bolts inside several other door plugs on their fleets."

James Lindsay, anti-Fascist on X - "Don't let them fool you. At American Airlines, they have "intentional recruitment and advancement" goals based on DEI, including for pilots. We need to be demanding leaders in these industries answer for why they're potentially putting a Marxist ideology ahead of people's lives."

James Lindsay, anti-Fascist on X - "Let's have a close look at Boeing and DEI! Boeing's corporate filings with the SEC reveal that in beginning 2022, the annual bonus plan to reward CEO and executives for increasing profit for shareholders and prioritizing safety was changed to reward them if they hit DEI targets."
Elon Musk on X - "Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? That is actually happening."
Of course, left wingers claimed this didn't mean they were unqualified

Michael O'Fallon - Sovereign Nations on X - "Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines (@united ), wants to emphasize that Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) guided racial and gender quotas are the key considerations when determining who will be piloting your upcoming flight."

i/o on X - "United Airlines partners with three HBCUs to help it recruit blacks into its diversity-oriented flight school. The average SAT scores at two of those schools — Delaware State and Elizabeth City State University — are in the bottom 2% of all undergraduate institutions in the US."

FAA’s diversity push includes hiring people with ‘intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities - "The Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers who suffer “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website... The initiative is part of the FAA’s “Diversity and Inclusion” hiring plan, which claims “diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond.”... All eyes have been on the FAA and airline industry in recent days, after a plug door on a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5... Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm – a group of health care professionals, medical students and policymakers working to “protect health care from a radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology” – told Fox News Digital that similar to the medical field, the aviation industry has an obligation to protect its travelers. “The aviation industry has a responsibility for traveler safety just as the health care industry has a responsibility for patient safety. These responsibilities outweigh other factors when considering applicants to work in those fields. People with disabilities who can successfully complete the task should never face discrimination,” said Goldfarb, a retired professor and the former associate dean for curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. “Unfortunately,” Goldfarb said, identity politics is “creating opportunities for so-called oppressed groups by lowering standards for entry into those fields and thereby endangering the safety of those which it’s designed to serve. Some endeavors simply do not lend themselves to identity politics,” he added."

REVEALED: United CEO Scott Kirby is drag queen, pushes drag and DEI on staff - "The United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby who went viral for championing DEI measures for pilots at the company is also a drag queen in his spare time...   "Today only 19 percent of our pilots at United Airlines are women or people of color." Kirby then boasted, "And by the way, from all the data I've seen, that's the highest of any airline in the country."   When pressed for why there were not enough women and people of color in the c-suite by the Axios interviewer, Kirby shrugged off the comment... Maya Tallman, a trans-identifying male, is running the newly formed DEI Committee at the company.  In a letter sent to employees about DEI, Tallman explained the committee would be going by DEIB instead of DEI because the "B in DEIB stands for belonging."... Tesla and X owner Elon Musk posted to X last week about all the DEI efforts in airline industry, saying that "people will die due to DEI" when a panel blew out on a Boeing airplane."

Oren Cass on X - "Absolutely brutal Boeing story @nytimes. "What used to be a duopoly has become two-thirds Airbus, one-third Boeing. A lot of people are looking at Airbus and seeing a company run by competent people. The contrast with Boeing is fairly profound.”"
constans on X - "Airbus is staffed by Europeans for whom being an engineer at airbus is one of the best jobs you can get. Boeing is staffed by Americans for whom working at Boeing is something you do because you can’t get a better paying job with a tech company."

Meme - 🇺🇸Travis🇺🇸 @Travis_in_Flint: "Why would Delta Airlines send this to all employees?"
"Race and Ethnicity. Style Note. Capitalize "Black" and "Brown" in Delta communications. Unlike Black or Brown, "white" should be lowercase. When referencing race, ethnicity, or nationality, be as specific as possible."

Be Yourself: a culture of belonging at Virgin Atlantic - "it’s crucial we commit to a robust diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy... It’s not just a moral and social responsibility either; if an organisation wants to compete in today’s marketplace – attracting and retaining top tier talent and customers – fostering an inclusive environment is non-negotiable... Better decision-making can be achieved when you realise the benefit of having a range of perspectives. Equity bridges the gap between minority and majority groups"
Virgin Atlantic flight canceled after missing bolts on wing - "According to Airbus UK's Chief Wing Engineer Neil Firth, the missing fasteners had “no impact to the structural integrity or load capability of the wing, and the aircraft was safe to operate.” The panel in question is part of a secondary structure dedicated to enhancing the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft. Each panel has 119 fasteners."
Of course, there was an asinine "fact check" which didn't address the meat of the issue

KC-10 Driver ✈️ 👨‍✈️ B-737 Wrangler on X - "Can you fly with missing screws? Yes. You’ve been doing it your whole life, going back to the dawn of the jet age…you just didn’t know it. The trick is knowing how many screws are missing, what they support & how many can be gone. We have a whole book for it: the MEL. MEL stands for Minimum Equipment List. It’s essentially a book that describes all the various systems installed on the airplane, which can be broken (INOP) at any given time & if there are restrictions on flying with that system broken. Sometimes, you may have multiple broken systems. The MEL will tell you if the broken systems affect each other. For example, we have two radar altimeters on the 737. The MEL lists them as “Radar Altimeter. 2 installed. 1 required (to fly)” The MEL may also list any specific restrictions that apply in that situation…for example, the weather forecast at destination may have to be above a certain level if one of the radar altimeters is inop, because certain instrument approaches require the use of both radar altimeters. The MEL may further elaborate, restricting you from flying if the wing anti-ice is also inop because of some relation to how the plane would be flown (I’m making that anti-ice part up just to illustrate). The engineers have designed & approved the MEL in such a way that the plane can be flown without increasing risk when some systems are inop. There are many systems on the aircraft that are listed as “2 installed, 2 required”…they can’t be broken. Keep in mind - we’re not talking about big items here, like an engine or a hydraulic system. MEL items that can be deferred are always “nice to have, but not necessary”. But…it’s just not practical to expect that every system will be operational on every flight. Airplanes are complex & though our maintenance practices have evolved to the point we now replace some systems before they even break, you’d paralyze the entire air travel industry if you insisted every single system worked every single time. While the MEL doesn’t cover how many screws have to be on that section of the wing, Maintenance teams have similar guidance that does cover those things. As the article explains: “Both Virgin and Airbus stressed there was no impact to the safety of last week’s aircraft despite the missing fixings.” They counted the missing screws, noted their location and referred to the book. The engineers have already done the work; you need X number of screws on component Y and no more than Z can be missing in sequence, according to the book (I’m creating that as an example). Maintenance comes back & tells you the airplane is airworthy, but that they’ve documented the missing screws in the log book, which will be replaced at the next maintenance opportunity. Most pilots trust that, and with good reason – we know there’s often something broken or missing on the airplanes. Just going through the maintenance records on the number of dents alone on every flight is kind of painful, but it’s all there, on every flight, attached to the flight plan: the log book’s most recent maintenance discrepancies, which have been deferred, which have been fixed & what they did to fix it. Over time, some of the screws will come out. The jets are up & down multiple times a day, going through turbulence, landings, thrust reversers and – most damaging of all – taxiing at ORD. So, yes – you can fly with missing screws. The tolerances are well known & can be quickly referenced. Your last flight probably had a few screws missing somewhere & your next one will, too. Why did they cancel the flight? I don’t know, but anytime the word “Panic” is used, I start to tune out mechanical issues & focus on people issues."

Links - 28th January 2024 (2 - Trans Mania [including Stonewall and the Slippery Slope with Gay Marriage)

Doctors Call for Withdrawal of Psychiatry Textbook Promoting ‘Gender-Affirming’ Care - "Nearly 170 health professionals have signed an open letter to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) condemning its new “gender-affirming” care textbook as “unacceptable, unethical and unsafe.”... The signatories demand that the APA “explain why it glaringly ignored many scientific developments in gender-related care and to consider its responsibility to promote and protect patients’ safety, mental and physical health.”  The letter calls for the APA to suspend publication of the textbook, “Gender-Affirming Psychiatric Care,” released on Nov. 8. The textbook is intended to be used as a teaching tool for doctors in training... The tome’s foreword declares it to be “the first textbook dedicated to providing affirming, intersectional, and evidence-informed psychiatric care for transgender, non-binary, and/or gender-expansive (TNG) people.” Its 26 chapters are written by 56 authors, 50 of whom either identify as transgender or don’t identify as male or female, according to the foreword.  But other health professionals are questioning the wisdom of relying on the authors’ personal experiences, just because of their gender identities.  They also object to backing up those testimonies with limited scientific studies, some with heartily disputed results. The textbook also presents neo-Marxist critical theories focused on calling out the so-called oppression of particular identity groups, critics point out.  Yet the textbook will be seen as a gold standard of care because it comes with the considerable clout of the APA behind it...   That’s despite the fact that the textbook presents as evidence some studies that have come under fire for being flawed. Those include the famous Dutch protocol study that became the basis for recommending puberty suppression, the use of cross-sex hormones, and other “gender-affirmative” procedures for people who identify as the opposite sex.  Transgender activists say puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery can save the lives of gender-confused adults and children who may feel suicidal. Others dispute that idea. And new research backs up that way of thinking... The signature of Dr. Lauren Schwartz, a psychiatrist in Oklahoma, appears first on the letter. She worries that using the textbook to train doctors could lead to harming millions of children... She and fellow professionals hope their letter will raise awareness among parents and providers on “how radically the American Psychiatric Association has shifted away from medicine and science in the publication of this book,” she said.  “There are so many false, harmful statements—ones rooted not in medicine or science, but in an inconceivable ideological foundation and medical misinformation, both of which will harm patients and their families,” she wrote in a text message.  Other professionals who signed the letter include psychiatrists Miriam Grossman and Az Hakeem. Both have written books denouncing transgender ideology.  Dr. Grossman, a childhood and adolescent psychiatrist, wrote “Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness.” Her book excoriates gender ideology as a repudiation of reality and a mockery of basic male and female biology. She has been outspoken against transitioning children.  Dr. Hakeem, a London psychiatrist, formerly worked at the Tavistock gender clinic. He is the author of “Detrans: When Transition is Not the Solution,” which argues that no one is born in the “wrong body.”  He maintains that transitioning becomes a “false solution to a different problem” at a time of increasing pressure to affirm a person’s belief that he or she was born the wrong sex.  The idea of affirming gender confusion and medically altering a person’s body to fit a new gender identity is under scrutiny from clinicians and scientists worldwide.  Yet, those methods are recommended by the book’s authors.  Critics of the textbook argue in their letter that reviews of gender-affirming care in Sweden and England also did not support the idea that transitioning improves the mental health of patients.  They point out that the textbook relies on“evidence-informed” information, instead of the scientific standard that typically requires evidence-based information.  And they question why the textbook dismisses the idea of scientific neutrality and depends, instead, on the “lived experiences” and “community impact” of authors who identify as transgender. Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, board chairman of the Do No Harm organization, said he signed the letter because his organization is concerned about potential harm to children.  New evidence out of Europe indicates that medically “transitioning” children to help them try to resemble the opposite sex is doing more harm than good... “We don’t have any study that shows that this is long-term beneficial,” he said.  And the Dutch studies finding that “gender-affirming” care helped people with gender dysphoria or confusion were not successfully duplicated by researchers in England, Dr. Goldfarb said.  The newest studies coming out of Europe suggest that what’s best for children with gender dysphoria is intensive, long-term psychiatric care before any medical intervention, he said. The lack of acknowledgment of the latest scientific research in the textbook is, he said, “quite extraordinary.” While adults can make their own decisions, children lack the maturity to make life-altering changes to their bodies, Dr. Goldfarb said. And the risk of harm for children taking puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones is real and serious. Puberty blockers stop the development of the sexual reproductive system, meaning children who don’t go through puberty would never fully develop sexuality. They’re also likely to lose the ability to have children, he said.  “It sort of depends on how far into puberty they are before they start blocking its progression,” he said. “It depends on how many hormones they take and for how long they take it.”  Dr. Goldfarb and other health professionals objecting to the textbook take issue with the authors’ assertion that puberty blockers for children are “fully reversible.” And the textbook is “disturbingly nonchalant,” the letter states, about the high rate of mental and behavioral health issues simultaneously affecting people with gender dysphoria. Autism, ADHD, anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal thoughts often coincide with gender dysphoria in youths.  The textbook is “disturbing,” said Alan Hopewell, a prescribing neuropsychologist in Texas with experience treating transgender-identifying patients... “This is nonsensical gibberish which has no foundation whatsoever in science.”"

Finnish Study: Mental Health Issues Remain After Transgender Medical Procedures - "“This confirms that you don’t go around thinking that you’re going to change your sex unless something’s wrong mentally,” he said. “It doesn’t fix the underlying mental problems,” he said... a person feeling confused about his or her sexual identity may assume that it has to do with gender, especially in light of the current climate of gender affirmation. “It’s a false solution to a different problem,” said Dr. Hakeem, an author on transgenderism and fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and honorary associate clinical professor at University College London Medical School... Dr. Hopewell said studies like the Finnish one aren’t likely to be conducted in the United States because transgender activism has silenced scientific inquiry, he said. Anyone attempting a similar study in the United States would likely be attacked or suffer a career loss, Dr. Hopewell said. He compared it to the “Sauber Reinigung” tactic used by Nazi Germany to eliminate “undesirable” educators and professors from education systems."
Have the psychiatric needs of people seeking gender reassignment changed as their numbers increase? A register study in Finland - "When index period and psychiatric treatment before contacting GIS were accounted for, GR patients who had and who had not proceeded to medical GR had an equal risk compared to controls of needing subsequent psychiatric treatment."
More evidence that sex change surgery doesn't help patients. We already know from elsewhere that gender affirmation surgery doesn't reduce the suicide rate, since the post surgery suicide rate doesn't change. Clearly the lack of a dose-response relationship doesn't mean anything, and stigma and transphobia are responsible

120 Medical Professionals Sign Letter Opposing Gender-Neutral Language - "A large contingent of Australian medical professionals are pushing back against attempts to create gender-neutral and diverse medical language over concerns that it may distort data and lead to severe errors in conducting procedures.  One hundred and twenty medical researchers, doctors, midwifery professors, and senior clinicians signed a letter addressed to peak funding body the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) on Jan. 1.  The letter warns that such ambiguous language will blur the lines between biological sex and gender identity.  They suggest this exacerbates the female data gap—a theory suggesting that medical data is skewed due to its reliance on research predominantly involving biological men... The letter was prompted by a consultation paper from the NHMRC on the ethics of conducting medical research on pregnant women.  Another of the letter’s warnings is that medical professionals nationwide are facing institutional pressure to introduce gender-neutral language in research, practice, and policy despite their genuine beliefs on the topic... The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)—one of Australia’s most prominent health bodies—notes on its website the official distinction between sex and gender.  The research agency defines sex identity as derived from a person’s biological characteristics, including their chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive organs.  Conversely, it defines gender identity as linked to a person’s social and cultural identity based on their life experiences.  The organisation asserts that both gender and sex identities are malleable and can change over the course of a person’s lifetime.  The AIHW also acknowledges that usage of the terms male and female in its research reports will vary depending on where the data is sourced from.  This implies that the organisation’s definition of the terms male and female may change depending on whether the data provider classifies individuals based on gender or sex identity. As for AIHW, their reports use both.  “In many of these instances, male or female may refer to either sex or gender, depending on the data source,” AIHW said.  “Most current data sources do not record sex and gender as separate concepts so it can be unclear which is the focus.”"

Chronicling courage | Edward Lucas | Standpoint - "Any wild accusations of hateful prejudice for raising these issues will prove our point. For the record, we make no accusation of wrongdoing by those named explicitly or implicitly in this edition. We just disagree with them. Because these matters are complicated, they must be discussed freely, and the outcomes negotiated. We need more than obfuscation and evasion, as illustrated by Stonewall’s response to questions arising from Kathleen Stock’s reporting. Worse is when dissenting voices are silenced by verbal (or physical) mob rule. The chant of “transwomen are women” may be considered a sympathetic affirmation of those who have happily transitioned, but used to drown out opposing voices it becomes Orwell’s “Four legs good, two legs bad!”, with lipstick. Those who stand up to this pressure are brave; they deserve support."

Civil servant given warning after ‘inappropriately’ saying there are two sides to the trans debate - "A civil servant was told by a Whitehall investigator that it was inappropriate to say there are two sides to the trans debate.  An official in the Department for Work and Pensions was reprimanded over a series of comments made during a discussion around transgender issues, including for saying “I think it’s useful to hear both sides of a subject”... One civil servant was subsequently investigated and found guilty of breaching the department’s behaviour policy and rules on harassment for their comments on the call. Among the remarks made by the civil servant, and branded as “inappropriate comments relating to trans women” by a DWP investigator, were the comments: “One of the things I struggle to understand as a lesbian myself is, how can trans women be lesbian as lesbian is same sex attracted, not gender?”, “I find the term cis very offensive”, “Sport is segregated because there is a difference” and “What if you don’t believe in gender? I don’t”... Responding to the investigation, Kate Harris, co-founder of LGB Alliance, a gay rights charity, told The Telegraph: “The Civil Service was once renowned around the world for impartiality and integrity. Now the DWP believes it is sensible to discipline an employee for a thought crime... The civil servant who was investigated by the DWP replied “drink the kool aid” in response to those arguing for trans women to participate in women’s sports. The investigation found the phrase was not appropriate and likely to cause offence “as the origin of the phrase is linked to a mass suicide”.  While the phrase originated from a mass murder suicide of over 900 people in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978, it is commonly used to refer to those who display obedience to a cause or cult-like behaviour.  The DWP found that by using the phrase the civil servant was harassing colleagues on the call. The civil servant’s comment that “I think IWD should centre [on] women really” was found “to exclude trans women from the relevance of International Women’s Day” and was therefore inappropriate. When the civil servant was accused on the call by fellow officials of displaying “Terf [Trans exclusionary radical feminists] behaviour”, the civil servant responded by saying: “STOP BEING INSULTING”.  The investigation found the latter comment to be “not the appropriate manner in which to raise concerns about others behaviour/language as writing in all Caps letters is interpreted as aggressive and shouting when read out”."

Meme - "I have permanently fucked my life up
VENT
"I’ll never have fully functioning genitals again. I can never have blood children. I’m the antithesis of impulsive, but the one time I act too swiftly, I end up fucking my life up.  I am an outcast. I am unloveable. What was done to me as a child isn’t to blame for my choice to transition and neither is anyone/anything else. The blame is on me because I walked into that clinic and made my decision. And I made a horrible fucking decision. How can I ever trust myself again? How can I be certain about anything if I felt so certain about that?  I’m a fucking nutcase. What am I living for? I just have drifted through my life so far. The only place I belong is a jail cell because it feels like a matter of time before I hurt someone. I’m just so damn angry at everything and I want revenge against the whole fucking world."

Meme - Treebeard @queercryptoid: "Just saw another LGBTQIA+ thing where the "A" was clarified to mean "Ace/Ally" and I just want to make it clear that while I love my ally friends SO MUCH, ally is nowhere in that acronym."
Crush Bundicoot @dumbusernamebro: "It's all labels anyway, why does anyone care?"
Treebeard: "If you're not queer, you don't need to try and claim a seat in a community of people who need the seats for actual queer people."
h i b a @tiny_squirrel: "And allyship can be a gateway for some of them to come in terms with their own queer identity, nd there was a time where ace wernt even considered in, sure some r weirdo who r desprate for attention but i blv we have to be more open.. happy pride month"
yozo @franicman: "This makes it sound like we have an LGBTQ parliament where we vote on queer issues "Sis, was that new Lady Gaga single a yass? Or a slay?"(The congress mutters)"
h i b a @tiny_squirrel: "I totally agree with u that the A should be for Ace, but I do not agree with this reasoning u gave, there r no limited seats in the community and u made sound like it is.. we r about inclusion (im ace) not exclusion... after all they r all just labels"
gítchørr líchbåch @crtrdwrdjysn: "well anyone can be queer, they just have to say so and no one can really disagree lol"
Artem Klimashin @artooom123: "Yes let's remove the people who support us because we are so insecure that we need our own club. Nah f that shit"
完全感覚Dreamer 🍥 @Itsukushimi777: "There's a limited number of seats?"
The circular firing squad of the left! "Inclusiveness" isn't always good and "gatekeeping" isn't always bad

fiona on X - "why the fuck would you want straight people to have a claim in a community that isn’t theirs? also they’re not doing us a favor by being allies, it’s basic human decency, it’s not about needing our own club, it’s about queer history and oppression"
Disagreeing with a left winger means you don't have basic human decency. Liberal logic strikes again!

Meme - ">it's professor x and the ex-men"
This is from Alok Vaid-Menon and the "International day against homophobia, biphobia, intersexism, and transphobia", with @travisalabanza (UK), @eddiendopu (South Africa, Zimbabwe), @katkkolkes (Botswana)

Trans woman’s Ohio house candidacy challenged under decades-old law - "Both Joy and Childrey are accused of violating a 1995 Ohio statute that requires political candidates to disclose any legal name changes within five years of the election."
No one is above the law - except trans people and other "minorities"

2015: Stonewall extends remit to become LGBT charity and begins journey to trans inclusion - "Ruth Hunt became Stonewall’s Chief Executive in 2014. One of her first steps in her new role was to try to understand what, if anything, Stonewall could do in the fight for trans equality.  On 30 August 2014, a meeting was set up with trans professionals, campaigners and activists to discuss the possibility of Stonewall becoming trans inclusive.  It was one of many meetings that would start a conversation that was well overdue. Until this point, Stonewall had been firm about not campaigning for trans equality and many in the trans community didn’t trust Stonewall. Some believed Stonewall's stance was actively holding back trans equality.  The meetings were therefore also about building bridges.  As well as establishing if Stonewall could do trans campaigning, the charity had to also understand how it could contribute to the fight for trans equality.  The consultation ended up involving more than 700 organisations and individuals.  At the end of the process it became clear that the trans community wanted Stonewall to be fully trans inclusive and share the power that the charity had established in its 25-plus years of campaigning.  There had been discussion of Stonewall simply giving grants to trans organisations rather than becoming completely trans inclusive but this was rejected. Not only was it seen as a waste of time due to the bureaucracy for everyone involved, trans people highlighted that cis people are ill-equipped to make decisions on where money should be spent on furthering trans equality.  Following this consultation, Stonewall announced in February 2015 that it would now be campaigning for all of the LGBT community and was beginning a path to trans inclusion."
Clearly, their wholesale pivot to trans issues had nothing to do with gay marriage being legalised in 2013 and their losing their cause (as OutFront Minnesota admitted in 2015)
The 'myth' of the slippery slope strikes again

Stonewall is at centre of a toxic debate on trans rights and gender identity - "Since its 1989 inception in response to a ban on the “promotion of homosexuality” by schools and councils in section 28 of the Local Government Act, Stonewall has been a part of every major struggle for LGBT rights in the UK. But in the past few weeks it has become embroiled in a toxic row.  A founding member has accused it of taking an “extremist stance”, a report accused it of giving incorrect advice on equality law and a cabinet minister was reported to be pushing for all government departments to withdraw from its Diversity Champions programme, which the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) quit last month... Matthew Parris, one of Stonewall’s 14 founders, wrote in the Times that the charity had been “cornered into an extremist stance” on the subject of trans rights. He argued that Stonewall should stay out of the issue, sticking to LGB rights without the T, which stands for trans... Prof Kathleen Stock, a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex who has written a book criticising theories of gender identity, said Stonewall had encouraged a definition of transphobia that was far too wide.  “Through its Diversity Champions scheme it’s disseminated this very widespread idea that an attack on the theory – or an attack on the particular interpretation – of identity is an attack on trans people. And that has really made the whole discourse incredibly toxic, given its enormous reach within national institutions,” she said.  She added that as a gay woman she had benefited from advances in equality achieved by Stonewall in the past, but it had now overreached. “They got what they wanted in terms of gay marriage and many other of their original goals so they needed a new agenda, they needed new revenue, new streams and a rationale, and they found one through what is now being called trans rights – but it is a tendentious interpretation of what trans rights are."
Naturally, a founding member of Stonewall is a bigot

Stonewall should stay out of trans rights war - "What is the charity I helped to found doing, getting entangled in attempts to deny free speech at a university? This column should avoid getting into the trans debate itself. My single, tight focus is on this question: why Stonewall? There’s something perversely 20th-century about linking gays to trans. Gay men do not want to be women. We like being men. I doubt that being a lesbian is about not wanting to be a woman. Our issues have nothing to do with identification or changing our bodies: we know what we are and nobody disputes it. Most gay men would strongly resist the suggestion we’re boys who want to be girls. I can’t think of anything I’d like less. The whole history of the gay liberation movement is inseparable from what people do rather than what they are. Central to trans concerns is being, not doing. The one thing that links gays and lesbians with trans people is empathy with anyone excluded, oppressed, marginalised or rejected. Indeed this was what influenced some gay groups into supporting the 1984-5 miners’ strike, and Stonewall was perhaps drawn into the trans arguments because a group was fighting for what it considers to be its rights. But this has led it straight into a confrontation with another such group: feminists. Stonewall should have stood clear. Now it seems to have dived into the judicial issue of whether would-be trans children can consent to chemical or surgical intervention. This is not something on which gays, lesbians or bisexuals can speak with greater authority than any other citizen. I repeat: it has nothing to do with us... Perhaps the truth is that, after success in our great 20th-century drive for equality, Stonewall was left with bricks and mortar, an admirable staff, a CEO and a fund-raising team and, unconsciously, craved another big, newsworthy cause. Well, sometimes a big army with only small battles to fight does best simply to scale back. I know many gay men have become embarrassed by Stonewall and see (as I do) the paradox that some of its activities are actually damaging the standing of the gay community. We don’t want to be associated with sallies in the trans wars. We want to feel proud, not hurt, not victims. Trans people cannot yet feel that: they need a support group. But that’s for them. Gays (to use the lingo) should not be colonising their issues. I’ve mentioned on these pages before a new Stonewall initiative, entitled “Decolonising Queer Leadership Programme”, a “3-part programme for LGBT people of colour, who want to develop their skills in creating lasting change in their communities and build collective power through challenging society’s constructed power norms”. Ye gods, how did we get here?"

After Supreme Court win, LGBT activists look beyond marriage - "In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling on Friday, though, the fight for marriage equality is over, notwithstanding a few isolated pockets of resistance. Now, activists who have poured themselves into the fight for years are confronting a simple question: What's next?  The short answer: Quite a bit...
Where do you think the movement goes from here? What's the next frontier?...
a top priority for our movement needs to be passing a federal civil rights law that would prohibit discrimination broadly on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity... Do you think the fight for rights for transgender people will absorb a lot of this activist energy?...
There is an opportunity, though, for the needs of trans people to be at the center of the LGBTQ agenda moving forward, but the only way that will happen is for the folks who have been leading the movement thus far to take a step back. They need to recognize that who they are, and what they view as the LGBT community, cannot be the dominant narrative, because it leaves out so many other folks who are in desperate need of access and support...
so much of LGBT work over the last few years has been defined by the marriage fight. It's kind of difficult to have to reimagine what LGBT activism looks like without this unifying rallying cry... The next phase of the fight for LGBT equality is an omnibus, full nondiscrimination bill that extends the same protections in the Civil Rights Act to the LGBT community. I would say the push for religious freedom laws on the right should be the foil for our work - ensuring nobody has a license to discriminate against LGBT people seeking housing, jobs, or equal treatment in the public sphere.
Do you think the fight for rights for transgender people will absorb a lot of this activist energy?
If we're really serious about nondiscrimination, we have to need to develop winning messaging around trans equality and put that at the center of our activism. That's gonna be a huge, long-overdue shift for a community of activists that's been rightly criticized for marginalizing and sidelining trans issues. It's a big moment of cultural reckoning, but I have faith that LGBT activists have awakened to the reality that there is no LGBT equality if trans equality isn't at the forefront of it...
One of the great strengths of this movement is that we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We're also a movement that recognizes progress on one issue leads to progress on other issues...
Where do you think the movement goes from here? What's the next frontier?...
what's ahead of us now is securing the two-pronged push for legal equality and social equality. Legal progress doesn't always mean people receive equal treatment in their own lives.  The Human Rights Campaign believes that the epidemic of anti-trans violence in this country is a national crisis, for example, and tackling that kind of violence doesn't come through passing new laws alone. It comes from tackling the root causes of that kind of discrimination - economic inequality, questions of race and other intersectional issues, law enforcement training, to name a few."
From 2015. Of course, many people who are pro-gay marriage but anti-trans mania refuse to accept the link that these activsts make between gay marriage being rammed through and the pivoting to trans mania. Indeed, we have a tacit admission here that the trans agenda comes at the cost of lesbians, gays and bisexuals, as well as a proclamation that gay marriage being rammed through helps push trans mania
There's also a lot of talk about laws against "discrimination", which as we know led to attempts to compel speech (the gay cake lawsuits)
Keywords: pivoted to trans, gay marriage got rammed

Richard Hanania on X - "Regarding trans, no one talks about how unfair it is to masculine looking women. It's probably harder to find dates when people suspect you might be a man. Usually women who look like men are unattractive anyway, but some can be masculine and attractive in a heterosexual way."

Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 on X - "A doctor in Quebec has been suspended for 3 months for correctly telling his patient that she is a woman. She came in seeking testosterone, but what she was really doing was trying to get the doctor in trouble as she secretly recorded the appointment."
Radié trois mois pour avoir mégenré un patient trans - "Le Dr Raymond Brière a répété au patient qu’il était biologiquement une femme... À un moment, le Dr Brière mentionne que la prise d’hormone mâle peut entraîner des comportements agressifs. Le patient répond que ces affirmations semblent basées sur des stéréotypes... Le Dr Brière explique que, pour une femme, les gels peuvent être appliqués à l’aide d’une pompe. Le patient indique qu’il refuse d’utiliser une pompe. Le médecin insiste. Le patient rappelle alors au Dr Brière qu’il est un homme trans. Le médecin réplique qu’il est « génétiquement une femme ». Le patient réitère qu’il se considère comme un homme trans. Le Dr Brière répond que « si une analyse chromosomique est réalisée, il sera démontré que ses chromosomes sont porteurs des gènes XX et non XY ». Le patient répète qu’il est un homme trans...   Le patient reproche au médecin son comportement agressant"
Weird. We are told that sex and gender are different and only ignorant people don't know them. Of course, we will still be told that "transphobia" is why trans people have worse medical outcomes, even though biological sex is a very important variable in medicine

Six Wives: Secrets of the Tudor Queens

Six wives: Catherine of Aragon | HistoryExtra

"‘For a Spanish Infanta to live in what is essentially penury is extraordinary. And this is because the English king says, well, your father didn't finish paying your dowry. Why should I pay for your upkeep in England? Why? What's in it for me? Her father says, but you're in England. You are the English King's daughter-in-law. Of course he should pay for your upkeep. And because they are fighting over this nobody actually is giving her quite enough money to cover her expenses. Henry VII is paying her an allowance. It becomes a hundred pounds per month as of July 1503. And that's a sizable amount for most people. But not if you are a Spanish Infanta and a Dowager Queen of England. She cannot cover her expenses. Her servants aren't being paid and she's really really worried about this’...

'At one point rumors swirled that the English King Henry VII had it in mind to marry his daughter-in-law himself. But this plan turned out to be a non-starter when it was met with horror by the young Catherine's parents'...

'It does seem weird but it actually starts out as a very romantic story at least in the young Henry's eyes. Catherine gets Henry at his best. He's a very Dashing Young Man. Tall, athletic, kind of a true Renaissance Prince. He's good at everything, very clever, very sporty. And he fances himself as a bit of a chivalrous Knight. He likes to rescue this Damsel in Distress who is the widowed Catherine, his widowed sister-in-law. And so I think he quite likes the idea of the marriage. It's not just that he's kind of getting his his brother's cast offs'...

‘After seven years of marriage including at least one stillbirth, one miscarriage, and the infant death of Prince Henry, Catherine still hadn't given her husband a surviving heir. But that all changed in 1516, when Catherine gave birth to a healthy daughter, Mary. it wasn't quite the son that Henry had dreamed of, but it wasn't a bad start’

‘Very easy with hindsight to look back and think, gosh yes, Mary's birth. Huge disappointment to Henry, it all starts to go horribly wrong. It wasn't like that. Even though Henry needed a male Heir, a healthy daughter was still very much of use, particularly when it came to the international marriage market and the forging of alliances. And Henry doted on his daughter. He was very proud of Mary. Showed her off to visiting ambassadors. And Mary was also very very close to her mother. So I think this strengthened Henry's relationship with Catherine. Catherine had proved she could have a healthy child and as I say Mary was really the apple of Henry's eye for most of her childhood until things started to go horribly wrong’...

‘While Henry probably never saw Mary as a serious Contender for the throne, understandably, because in England women didn't rule as regnant Queens at this time, Catherine may have had a different view. Because in Spain they did rule as regnant Queens. So I think it's fair that she thought it was worth educating Mary and bringing her up so that she could fulfill that role should it become part of her future’...

'I think it's easy to um to fall for the line that it was love at first sight for Henry. And Boleyn first appears at court in 1522, but really his first recorded interest in her isn't until four years after that'...

'Catherine did absolutely refuse to let go of Henry. She was implacable it was not going to happen. And that was given material expression by things like, she continued to sew his shirts for him. Even quite late on in their marriage, and this is something Anne Boleyn found out was absolutely infuriated by. I think Henry probably couldn't quite understand what the problem was. But between women, this was a big deal'...

‘Henry, really. I think I've come across one instance, in his entire life and reign when he expressed regret about getting rid of someone. and that was not a wife. That was Thomas Cromwell. For Catherine, no, she was just disobeying her king. That's how he saw it. She was going against the laws of God which he himself was responsible for. And um he felt in public at least nothing but frustration and anger towards Catherine at the end’...

‘We tend to see her as some kind of girlboss. We now struggle to admire women in history if they're not warriors or inspiring in some sense. And Catherine is inspiring in a lot of ways. She did a lot of quite extraordinary things. But she's also human. There's more to her than just being an amazing queen or just refusing to bow down to Henry's will. I mean those things were true but she's also incredibly stubborn. Sometimes she's misguided, she's also loyal, she inspires loyalty in others. So I think we need to see her as a rounded human and a woman in an extraordinary situation who therefore had to do some extraordinary things’

‘I'm often asked which of the Six Wives was Henry's favorite. I would say it was actually Catherine. Um because they did have a happy marriage for you know the best part of 20 years. You know it it went well for them and she was an ideal wife in Henry's eyes. In fact he harked back to her in later marriages. He held her up as this Beacon of Womanhood and being this ideal Queen Consort. But of course we now remember their marriage for what happened next... I think Henry and Catherine were actually ideally suited. They were a Dream Team. Um had that young boy lived early in their marriage, everything would have been different’" 

 

Six wives: Anne Boleyn | HistoryExtra

"‘There is a rumor, it may be nothing more than that, that when Anne is pregnant, getting very large now, that Henry's eyes starts to wander. But Anne is not a woman who is prepared to accept that. So I think probably behind the scenes there are fireworks. And what attracted Henry in a mistress, that sort of feistiness that Anne had, it doesn't attract him when she is his wife. He expects something different. He expects a Catherine who knows how to deport herself you know in a very queenly way. Anne is very outspoken and she's not prepared to give up her opinions just because she's now Henry's wife’...

[On the birth of Elizabeth] You might think that that is the beginning of the end for Henry and Anne. I don't think it is. You know he he is known to have said that we can have a living daughter now, you know, thank God we can perhaps have a living son. He does cancel the jousts that are planned for the birth of a son but I don't think this is the beginning of the end uh for Anne Boleyn. Their relationship is sunshine and storms. They argue, they berate each other, and then they make up wonderfully. And I think that characterizes the next couple of years. It's, intense, yes. It's volatile. But there is still hope there'"

 

Six wives: Anne of Cleves | HistoryExtra

"'Christina of Denmark famously quipped when asked if she would marry Henry VIII. She said if she had two heads she would put one of them at Henry's disposal, ouch. So finding a willing bride narrowed the field I think... Anne is not given any great education. She'll be taught needlework, she's not even taught how to sing or dance actually and that is a major difference to the English Court. Henry VII would have an expectation that a highborn woman would be able to entertain him or to take part in entertainments with him, you know it's a common interest… Anne is recorded by the English ambassadors as being kept at her mother's elbow. She's raised very close to her mother, she's not allowed to mix with men. She's not really able to mix sort of with wider people'...

'Henry fancies himself as this chivalrous knight. And so he has it all planned. Rather than wait for Anne to arrive in London he makes his way down to Rochester to meet her on her way back up. And he rides down there in disguise. Now this is kind of chivalrous code so the idea is, that your true love will recognize you anywhere. So even though he's in disguise, you know Anne will pick him out from a hundred men. And so he and his entourage come, come kind of bursting into to Anne's chamber and he strides up to her and kisses her on the lips and she thinks who the hell is this. And is really affronted. The one account has her slapping him around the face. You know, this, who is this man? And then he takes off his mask and she realizes too late that she has fatally insulted her husband to be, the King of England. Now I think it's this encounter really that is the end of their marriage. I don't think it's as the history books would have us believe, that it's you know Anne and she's the ugly wife, and I'm quoting there. That she repels Henry physically. I think it is just this very first disastrous encounter where Anne just doesn't get it. She doesn't get this kind of courtly etiquette. And that puts Henry off, and it puts him off forever'...

‘Had she been better educated she probably would have been aware that perhaps she should look out for the king in disguise. Certainly it's happened before in English Royal history Henry VI for example dresses as a squire when his fiance Margaret of Anjou arrives and she also doesn't recognize him.'...

'Henry should be quite pleased that his wife, his future wife is unhappy about being embraced by a strange man. But it doesn't it doesn't play out like that. So I agree with Tracy. I think this is the moment when his Illusions are absolutely shattered. He has believed himself to be in love with her and it just goes wrong'...

'Nobody says that Anne is ugly'...

'Her brother has paid for her to have a very fine suite of dresses because of course she's becoming a queen but they're all in the German style so as far as the English are concerned they're a bit frumpy, they're a bit out of date. They're not the stylish French dresses that the English Court would expect so although she appears very richly dressed, as far as the English are concerned she doesn't look very good but there's nothing really that suggests that she was ugly or unattractive and certainly she will later assert that she's more attractive than Catherine Parr Henry's sixth wife and people aren't disagreeing'"

 

Six wives: Catherine Howard | HistoryExtra

"‘It's interesting looking at Henry's marital history. Each wife tends to be in some respect the opposite of the one before. So Catherine Howard, very attractive. Younger than Anne of Cleeves. In fact probably half Anne of Cleves' age. An English Rose Henry apparently called her. His rose without a thorn. All very very different to Anne of Cleves. And we saw how Anne of Cleves, of course very different to Jane Seymour. And so it goes on. He seems to kind of just switch, go for the complete opposite. He's he's a man forever on the rebound I think...

Catherine was executed alongside Lady Rochford…  she had suffered a complete mental breakdown upon imprisonment and Henry had actually ordered that she'd be taken away from the tower to be essentially nursed back to health to then be brought back to be executed. So it's the two friends really who are being executed together...  He doesn't want to be seen anymore. He wants to live most of his life in private. He wants to kind of lick his wounds. But I think genuinely for Henry, he's heartbroken. And that sense of betrayal for a king who's already paranoid is more than he can bear. He's increasingly frail and he's often seen to be weeping. He really is suffering I think a complete mental breakdown. This Renaissance Prince has now descended into tyranny, into betrayal, into execution and there's a sense of a gathering storm'"

LInks - 28th January 2024 (1)

Meme - "The "Make A Wish" foundation really came through for little Billy: *Kid in hospital bed with nurse [?] flashing him*"

Meme - "Les premiers jours d'un Français à Montréal
"Trop chers les forfaits téléphones"
"Y a pas ça en France"
"Troy marrant leur accent"
"C'est où pour acheter de la weed?"
"Y a pleins de Français ici"
"Et ça fait combien eu euro ?"
"La France est championne du monde de football"
"Trop cher le vin ici, mais j'ai encore mes deux bouteilles que j'ai ramené dans ma valise"
"Comment on va aux Chutes du Niagara?"
"C'est où La Banquise?"
"Ah mais y a d'autres villes au Québec ?"
"700$ une chambre dans une coloc? Ca va j'ai encore des euros"
"En fait le Plateau c'est le Petit Paris"
"je vois pas de caribou"
"Un écureuil !"
"Les Québécois sont gentils"
"Jpensais qu'il y avait de la neige en septembre, j'avais apporté ma doudoune hihi"
"MDR donner un pourboire ?"

Meme - "*La pizza con l'ananas* Che schifo, ma come si fa a mettere la frutta su un piatto salato? Con il prosciutto pure, che vergogna...
*Prosciutto e Melone* SPETTACOLO!!!"

Why floor sitting is healthy and feels good. - "If the big message from the 2000s and 2010s was “Every office worker needs a standing desk,” then “Everyone should sit on the floor” is the 2020s-era sequel"
There's no evidence for this, so

Why Chopin Wrote Less Piano and Orchestral Music Than You Can Count on Your Two Hands - "“In a Mozart or Beethoven piano concerto if you removed the orchestra and told the pianist to play their part alone you’d be left with a bare bones structure. There would be some beautiful themes, some beautiful moments, and then there would be these very dull and uninspiring passages because you would be missing the core of the work. Now in Chopin if you take away the orchestra for the most part you would still end up with a fully-fledged and well-developed work.  When the orchestra comes in it adds something – another layer – not instead of the piano, not in place of one of the piano themes or capabilities, but yet another layer, and more beauty.”   “I think Chopin also had an interesting vision of how the orchestra instruments sounded which didn’t always translate well into reality. He’d write small details that were very important but could never be heard in the modern concert hall and are even difficult and challenging to register on a recording. “For example, there are solos by woodwind instruments that don’t have the power to project and don’t have the power to actually be louder than the piano, especially the modern pianos. We’re dealing with writing that sometimes is very thin. As a pianist that just requires you to adjust to find also the color of the orchestra and gather inspiration from what those musicians are doing and how they’re shaping the phrases.”"
Too bad this doesn't answer the question posed

‘Anything is possible’: why Iceland has become a classical music powerhouse - "Perhaps we have the country’s sluggish cultural development to thank for that. While the rest of the world was busy erecting barriers between music genres last century – roping off classical music, in particular – Iceland was simply trying to get things going. There was no time wasted deciding who was allowed to listen to what. For much of the second half of the 20th century, classical orchestral music felt new in Iceland. Here, the symphony orchestra was a postwar institution, not a 19th-century one."

Teen stabbed to death over sweet-and-sour sauce outside DC McDonald's - "A 16-year-old girl was stabbed to death outside a Washington, DC-area McDonald’s in an apparent dispute about sweet and sour sauce over the weekend.  Naima Liggon, of Waldorf, Maryland, was allegedly killed by another 16-year-old girl outside the fast food chain in a popular nightlife section of the city around 2 a.m"

Why Arabs Lose Wars - "There are many factors—economic, ideological, technical—but perhaps the most important has to do with culture and certain societal attributes which inhibit Arabs from producing an effective military force... John Keegan, the eminent historian of warfare, argues that culture is a prime determinant of the nature of warfare. In contrast to the usual manner of European warfare which he terms "face to face," Keegan depicts the early Arab armies in the Islamic era as masters of evasion, delay, and indirection. Examining Arab warfare in this century leads to the conclusion that Arabs remain more successful in insurgent, or political warfare—what T. E. Lawrence termed "winning wars without battles."... These attributes included over-centralization, discouraging initiative, lack of flexibility, manipulation of information, and the discouragement of leadership at the junior officer level... In every society information is a means of making a living or wielding power, but Arabs husband information and hold it especially tightly... the Arab educational system is predicated on rote memorization... The emphasis on memorization has a price, and that is in diminished ability to reason or engage in analysis based upon general principles. Thinking outside the box is not encouraged; doing so in public can damage a career. Instructors are not challenged and neither, in the end, are students. Head-to-head competition among individuals is generally avoided, at least openly, for it means that someone wins and someone else loses, with the loser humiliated. This taboo has particular import when a class contains mixed ranks. Education is in good part sought as a matter of personal prestige, so Arabs in U.S. military schools take pains to ensure that the ranking member, according to military position or social class, scores the highest marks in the class. Often this leads to "sharing answers" in class—often in a rather overt manner or junior officers concealing scores higher than their superior's. American military instructors dealing with Middle Eastern students learn to ensure that, before directing any question to a student in a classroom situation, particularly if he is an officer, the student does possess the correct answer. If this is not assured, the officer will feel he has been set up for public humiliation. Furthermore, in the often-paranoid environment of Arab political culture, he will believe this setup to have been purposeful. This student will then become an enemy of the instructor and his classmates will become apprehensive about their also being singled out for humiliation—and learning becomes impossible. Arab junior officers are well trained on the technical aspects of their weapons and tactical know-how, but not in leadership, a subject given little attention. For example, as General Sa'd ash-Shazli, the Egyptian chief of staff, noted in his assessment of the army he inherited prior to the 1973 war, they were not trained to seize the initiative or volunteer original concepts or new ideas. Indeed, leadership may be the greatest weakness of Arab training systems. This problem results from two main factors: a highly accentuated class system bordering on a caste system, and lack of a non-commissioned-officer development program. Most Arab officers treat enlisted soldiers like sub-humans... The social and professional gap between officers and enlisted men is present in all armies, but in the United States and other Western forces, the noncommissioned officer (NCO) corps bridges it... Most of the Arab world either has no NCO corps or it is non-functional, severely handicapping the military's effectiveness... The show-and-tell aspects of training are frequently missing because officers refuse to get their hands dirty and prefer to ignore the more practical aspects of their subject matter, believing this below their social station. A dramatic example of this occurred during the Gulf war when a severe windstorm blew down the tents of Iraqi officer prisoners of war. For three days they stayed in the wind and rain rather than be observed by enlisted prisoners in a nearby camp working with their hands. The military price for this is very high. Without the cohesion supplied by NCOs, units tend to disintegrate in the stress of combat. This is primarily a function of the fact that the enlisted soldiers simply do not trust their officers... Decisions are made and delivered from on high, with very little lateral communication. This leads to a highly centralized system... The politicized nature of the Arab militaries means that political factors weigh heavily and frequently override military considerations. Officers with initiative and a predilection for unilateral action pose a threat to the regime...   Taking responsibility for a policy, operation, status, or training program rarely occurs.. A lack of cooperation is most apparent in the failure of all Arab armies to succeed at combined arms operations... This problem results from three main factors. First, the well-known lack of trust among Arabs for anyone outside their own family... the complex mosaic system of peoples creates additional problems for training, as rulers in the Middle East make use of the sectarian and tribal loyalties to maintain power... Middle Eastern rulers routinely rely on balance-of-power techniques to maintain their authority... combined arms exercises and joint staffs create familiarity, soften rivalries, erase suspicions, and eliminate the fragmented, competing organizations that enable rulers to play off rivals against one another...   Arab regimes classify virtually everything vaguely military. Information the U.S. military routinely publishes (about promotions, transfers, names of unit commanders, and unit designations) is top secret in Arabic-speaking countries. To be sure, this does make it more difficult for the enemy to construct an accurate order of battle, but it also feeds the divisive and compartmentalized nature of the military forces. The obsession with security can reach ludicrous lengths. Prior to the 1973 war, Sadat was surprised to find that within two weeks of the date he had ordered the armed forces be ready for war, his minister of war, General Muhammad Sadiq, had failed to inform his immediate staff of the order...   In terms of safety measures, there is a general laxness, a seeming carelessness and indifference to training accidents, many of which could have been prevented by minimal efforts... When they had an influence on certain Arab military establishments, the Soviets reinforced their clients' cultural traits far more than, in more recent years, Americans were able to"
From 1999

Squatting Slavs: One of the internet's best-known memes is evolving - "Looking at some of the recently made posts by the most popular Slavic meme pages supports the argument that, despite all their flaws, such jokes have played a positive role in strengthening the relationship between emerging Europeans based on laughing at our shared experiences."

Expensive Engagement Rings Linked to Higher Divorce Rates - "The study was titled ‘A Diamond is Forever’ and Other Fairy Tales: The Relationship between Wedding Expenses and Marriage Duration. It successfully found the correlation between marriage success and marriage prices. Though they stated that the price tag and the marriage duration was “not or inversely associated,” they found enough correlation that one can start naming the ceiling on wedding spending."

Meme - Marty McCusker: "Buy physical media, you own nothing otherwise."
"Your Discovery content will be removed soon
PlayStation: Dear PlayStation Customer, As of December 31, 2023, due to our content licensing arrangements with content providers, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased Discovery content and the content will be removed from your video library. Click here for a ful list of affected tiles that will no longer be supported, We sincerely thank you for your continued support Thank you, PlayStation Store
PLAY HAS NO LIMITS"

DiscussingFilm on X - "Christopher Nolan says there’s concern of content disappearing from streaming services.” “There is a danger, these days, that if things only exist in the streaming version they do get taken down, they come and go.”"
Guillermo del Toro on X - "Physical media is almost a Fahrenheit  451 (where people memorized entire books and thus became the book they loved) level of responsibility.  If you own a great 4K HD, Blu-ray, DVD etc etc of a film or films you love...  you are the custodian of those films for generations to come."

Meme - "If paying for games is not owning
Then pirating them is not stealing"

Meme - "Ubisoft Touts Subscription Services As The Future Of Gaming, Says Players Need To Start "Feeling Comfortable With Not Owning Their Games""
"(If) Paying for games is not owning
(Then) Pirating them is not stealing"

Meme - "Me waking up at 2 am instantly knowing that my calf is cramped and I will soon endure the pain of a thousand suns"

Hidden Gem Travel Destinations You Should Absolutely Visit - "If you're anything like me, deciding where to take your next international getaway is one of the most challenging decisions to make. There are so many incredible places to see. And while the big tourist cities — like Greece or Tokyo or Paris — are popular for a reason, perhaps you're looking for something more off-the-beaten path."

At What Age Does Our Ability to Learn a New Language Like a Native Speaker Disappear? - "In one of the largest linguistics studies ever conducted—a viral internet survey that drew two thirds of a million respondents—researchers from three Boston-based universities showed children are proficient at learning a second language up until the age of 18, roughly 10 years later than earlier estimates. But the study also showed that it is best to start by age 10 if you want to achieve the grammatical fluency of a native speaker... There are three main ideas as to why language-learning ability declines at 18: social changes, interference from one’s primary language and continuing brain development. At 18, kids typically graduate high school and go on to start college or enter the work force full-time. Once they do, they may no longer have the time, opportunity or learning environment to study a second language like they did when they were younger. Alternatively, it is possible that after one masters a first language, its rules interfere with the ability to learn a second. Finally, changes in the brain that continue during the late teens and early 20s may somehow make learning harder... Perhaps even more important than when one learns a language is how. People who learned via immersion—living in an English-speaking country more than 90 percent of the time—were significantly more fluent than those who learned in a class... In what could be the most surprising conclusion, the researchers say that even among native speakers it takes 30 years to fully master a language. The study showed a slight improvement—roughly one percentage point—in people who have been speaking English for 30 versus 20 years. The finding is consistent for both native and non-native speakers."

The Most Popular Types of Language Tattoos - "Japanese tops the list of languages with an impressive 231,240 searches a year. It is closely followed by Chinese with 184,800 searches. This could be due to these languages using symbols in their writing that many may find aesthetically pleasing.   Arabic is the third most popular language to get tattooed, with 81,600 annual searches. Celebrities such as Selena Gomez, Angelina Jolie and Rihanna have Arabic tattoos, which could help boost their popularity.   At the bottom of the top 10 is English, with 9,240 searches. Hindi only just misses the top 10, coming in just after English with 8,040 searches. "

Meme - "Thought my Uber app was messing with me
*mass of cars* *accident*"

Meme - "Terrible recipe, I replaced the chocolate with used motor oil and it tasted like used motor oil"

255 Ways to Spell Schwarzenegger (According to Water Cooler Trivia Participants)
Clearly, people are racist for not being able to pronounce ethnic surnames

New York state could force Chick-fil-A to stay open on Sundays in the name of 'the public good' - "The Rest Stop Restaurant Act would force any businesses along the New York State Thruway to stay open every day of the week to accommodate travelers. The Thruway is a system of highways that spans approximately 570 miles across the state of New York. It operates under its own authority, the New York State Thruway Authority."

Everything Is Broken - "“There are still many good individuals involved in medicine, but the American medical system is profoundly broken. When you look at the rate of medical error—it’s now the third leading cause of death in the U.S.—the overmedication, creation of addiction, the quick-fix mentality, not funding the poor, quotas to admit from ERs, needless operations, the monetization of illness vs. health, the monetization of side effects, a peer review system run by journals paid for by Big Pharma, the destruction of the health of doctors and nurses themselves by administrators, who demand that they rush through 10-minute patient visits, when so often an hour or more is required, and which means that in order to be ‘successful,’ doctors must overlook complexity rather than search for it ... Alana, the unique thing here isn’t that you fell down so many rabbit holes. What’s unique is that you found your way out at all.” I had barely started processing this when Norman moved to change the subject: “Now, can I ask you two something? How come so much of the journalism I read seems like garbage?”... For seven decades, the country’s intellectual and cultural life was produced and protected by a set of institutions—universities, newspapers, magazines, record companies, professional associations, cultural venues, publishing houses, Hollywood studios, think tanks, etc. Collectively, these institutions reflected a diversity of experiences and then stamped them all as “American”—conjuring coherence out of the chaos of a big and unwieldy country. This wasn’t a set of factories pumping out identical widgets, but rather a broad and messy jazz band of disparate elements that together produced something legible, clear, and at times even beautiful when each did their part.  But, beginning in the 1970s, the economic ground underneath this landscape began to come apart... Flatness is the reason the three jobs with the most projected growth in your country all earn less than $27,000 a year, and it is also the reason that all the secondary institutions that once gave structure and meaning to hundreds of millions of American lives—jobs and unions but also local newspapers, churches, Rotary Clubs, main streets—have been decimated. And flatness is the mechanism by which, over the past decade and with increasing velocity over the last three years, a single ideologically driven cohort captured the entire interlocking infrastructure of American cultural and intellectual life. It is how the Long March went from a punchline to reality, as one institution after another fell and then entire sectors, like journalism, succumbed to control by narrow bands of sneering elitists who arrogated to themselves the license to judge and control the lives of their perceived inferiors... Today’s revolution has been defined by a set of very specific values: boundarylessness; speed; universal accessibility; an allergy to hierarchy, so much so that the weighting or preferring of some voices or products over others is seen as illegitimate; seeing one’s own words and face reflected back as part of a larger current; a commitment to gratification at the push of a button; equality of access to commodified experiences as the right of every human being on Earth; the idea that all choices can and should be made instantaneously, and that the choices made by the majority in a given moment, on a given platform represent a larger democratic choice, which is therefore both true and good—until the next moment, on the next platform... The Obama administration could swiftly overturn the decision-making space in which Capitol Hill staff and newspaper reporters functioned so that Iran, a country that had killed thousands of Americans and consistently announces itself to be America’s greatest enemy, is now to be seen as inherently as trustworthy and desirable an ally as France or Germany... The biological difference between the sexes, which had been a foundational assumption of medicine as well as of the feminist movement, was almost instantaneously replaced not only by the idea that there are numerous genders but that reference in medicine, law or popular culture to the existence of a gender binary is actually bigoted and abusive... Facebook’s longtime motto was, famously, “Move fast and break shit,” which is exactly what Silicon Valley enabled others to do. The internet tycoons used the ideology of flatness to hoover up the value from local businesses, national retailers, the whole newspaper industry, etc.—and no one seemed to care. This heist—by which a small group of people, using the wiring of flatness, could transfer to themselves enormous assets without any political, legal or social pushback—enabled progressive activists and their oligarchic funders to pull off a heist of their own, using the same wiring. They seized on the fact that the entire world was already adapting to a life of practical flatness in order to push their ideology of political flatness—what they call social justice, but which has historically meant the transfer of enormous amounts of power and wealth to a select few... So, instead of reflecting the diversity of a large country, these institutions have now been repurposed as instruments to instill and enforce the narrow and rigid agenda of one cohort of people, forbidding exploration or deviation—a regime that has ironically left homeless many, if not most, of the country’s best thinkers and creators. Anyone actually concerned with solving deep-rooted social and economic problems, or God forbid with creating something unique or beautiful—a process that is inevitably messy and often involves exploring heresies and making mistakes—will hit a wall. If they are young and remotely ambitious they will simply snuff out that part of themselves early on, strangling the voice that they know will get them in trouble before they’ve ever had the chance to really hear it sing... Seduced by convenience, we end up paying for the flattening of our own lives... This disconnect between culturally mandated politics and the actual demonstrated preferences of most Americans has created an enormous reserve of unmet needs—and a generational opportunity"

Fascinating on X - "In 2012, a Burger King employee anonymously posted an image on 4-chan of him putting his feet in lettuce, with the caption:   "This is the lettuce you eat at Burger King."   It took 20 minutes for people to track down the branch the employee worked at and contact the news.   The next morning, Cleveland Scene Magazine contacted the Burger King establishment and talked to the breakfast shift manager, who, upon seeing the offending photo, said, "Oh, I know who that is. He's getting fired.""

Wilfred Reilly on X - "Cheating on your partner is "making out on up" with another human being. This is virtually the universal definition, from every etiquette, etc book I have ever read ("A gentlemen does not have mistresses").    Him being nice to waitresses, or Her reading erotica, is not "cheating." A great deal of modern Internet culture involves bizarre control freaks describing behavior that would shatter almost every actual relationship as mandatory. I once had an upper-middle class Rules-reading partner who actually sounded like the Internet, and at one point "ordered" me not to do a whole range of things - from talking to most of my female friends to ever watching porn.   I broke up with her almost immediately. I don't do most of the 3-4 things that often, as it happens, but took this as a sign she was a controlling loonie. This is 110% what will happen in real life, if you do this type of stuff with any successful man or woman."
Some people claim that watching porn is cheating, or anything which involves deception is cheating

Toronto Public Library features collection of previously censored, banned books
I like that the list includes The Satanic Verses, so it's not North America-centric, as well as books liberals have tried to "ban", and books "banned" for non-typically politically partisan reasons

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Like A Surgeon (Official HD Video) - YouTube

Meme - "SI VOUS NE POUVEZ PAS LE CACHER VOUS POUVEZ LE DECORER *le décolleté et des fesses*"

Americans Admit they thought things in Harry Potter were Magic but were Actually just British - "One American admitted to thinking that the popular British dessert, treacle tart, was magical...   School houses and prefects are a staple in British schools and are also present in Hogwarts... Christmas crackers are a UK festive tradition that contains items that have declined in recent years...   In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry takes everything off the train food trolley, and one person on Reddit admitted to thinking that was magic. To think that the person coming around asking whether we need refreshments on a train is magic is quite hard to believe. It’s just food at the end of the day... one American thought that pumpkin juice was a British thing, not a magical one."

When Passion Leads to Burnout - "You’ve no doubt heard the well-worn advice that “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” It’s a nice idea but a total myth.  When we equate work we love with “not really working,” it propagates a belief that if we love it so much, we should do more of it — all of the time, actually. Who needs a day off when you’re not really working?! There’s a whole cottage industry committed to proliferating this mindset — from books, to talks, and even kitsch stores selling piles of “Work is Bliss” quotes on merchandise. This type of mentality leads to burnout, and the consequences can be both dire and hard to detect. As an expert in workplace happiness and someone who speaks internationally about workplace well-being, it’s easy for me to be consumed by my passion for the topic.  I love my work, and as such, can easily fall victim to burnout. It’s one of the ironies of my job. Yet, I would never claim that it doesn’t ever feel like work. It is more like being involved in a complicated love affair. One minute it’s thrilling, passionate, engaging. The next, it’s exhausting and overwhelming, and I feel like I need a break... In a Gallup survey of 7,500 full-time employees, 23% reported feeling burned out at work very often or always, while 63% said they experience it sometimes... The WHO noted that the syndrome was characterized by three dimensions: 1) feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; 2) increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and 3) reduced professional efficacy...   While burnout can affect anyone, at any age, in any industry, it’s important to note that there are certain sectors and roles that are at increased risk, and purpose-driven work — that is work people love and feel passionately about — is one of them. According to a study published in the Journal of Personality, this type of labor can breed obsessive — versus harmonious — passion, which predicts an increase of conflict, and thus burnout... “an estimated 300 to 400 U.S. physicians take their own lives every year” — a suicide rate dramatically higher than that of the general public, 40% higher for men and 130% higher for women. A Dutch study found that female physicians experience more patient empathy and, as a consequence, higher levels and deeper experiences of burnout — one hypothesis for the alarmingly high suicide rates...   So, what can leaders do to prevent purpose-driven employees in their own organizations from suffering? Dr. Ellison stresses that they can mitigate this “always-on” mindset by being aware of when passion becomes a double-edged sword."