Author: Mick Hartley

  • An example of transphobia

    s electrically alive. I was also draw to the name Amber because, in Greek mythology, the name Amber is equivalent to the name of the Greek goddess Electra… The name Amber reflects my true identity.”

    The convicted murderer also claims that his 2021 transfer to the female prison estate was “a massive improvement” because he could “truly live and be seen as a woman.”

    And have sex with women.

  • Because insanity

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Report here:

    A transgender woman won a High Court case to be transferred to Northern Ireland's female prison while being held on charges of threatening to kill her neighbour, it has emerged.

    Michelle James, 63, was moved from Maghaberry Prison to Hydebank Wood on Thursday after taking court proceedings.

    The move happened after the Department of Justice accepted there was a lack of policy in place for transgender prisoners and consented to the transfer.

    How lovely for him.

  • Fragile

    ink” href=”https://mickhartley.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451ebab69e202c8d3c712a6200c-pi” style=”display: inline”>Hart4

    Hart5

    Hart6

    Hart8

    Hart9

    Hart10

    Hart12
    [Photos © Paul Hart]

    Paul Hart previously:

    Reclaimed
    The Fens
    Poetry of Place

  • Facilitating the use of puberty-blockers

    It's the ones who've transed their own children who are the last holdouts. Susie Green, former CEO of Mermaids, transed her son after the father complained about him playing with girlie toys, with the coup de grace of a visit to Thailand on his sixteenth birthday to be castrated. She's spent her life since pushing for other kids to be given puberty blockers, and be medically mutilated  – like her son – into some grim sterile parody of the other sex. 

    From the Times:

    An organisation led by the former chief executive of the transgender support charity Mermaids has vowed to keep on helping children get access to puberty blockers, despite a permanent UK ban.

    Anne Trans Healthcare, co-founded by the former Mermaids leader Susie Green, hit out at Labour after it was announced that the government would keep a ban on the drugs for under-18s….

    In a post on Instagram aimed at trans youth and their families, Anne Trans Healthcare said that it would still be facilitating the use of puberty-blockers.

    It said: “We offer a legal, compassionate, and supportive routes [sic] to accessing puberty blockers with medical oversight from experienced endocrinologists.

    “Our team will guide you through every step of the process, ensuring you feel reassured and supported.⁠”

    A dangerous, deluded woman.

  • Improving attitudes towards Jews and Israel

    Two not unrelated stories from the JC:

    Egypt revises textbooks to remove antisemitic and anti-Israel content:

    Eighty per cent of Egyptian schoolchildren are now being taught from revised textbooks which have removed antisemitic content found in previous editions, with students showing improved attitudes towards Jews and Israel according to a new report by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (Impact-se) published last week.

    “Review of Changes and Remaining Problematic Content Egyptian Textbooks: Selected Examples 2023-24,” published by the international research institute and authored by Yonatan Negev PhD, revealed that year-on-year revisions to the Egyptian school curriculum, which has in the past portrayed Jews through antisemitic stereotypes, have yielded promising results….

    The report noted that ten antisemitic passages previously identified by Impact-se researchers, including a multiple-choice question in which Jews were described as “people of treachery and betrayal,” were replaced with passages “emphasising peace, coexistence, and cooperation between Islam and Judaism.”

    The antisemitic depiction, which has since been removed, was included in a lesson comparing the Yom Kippur War to the Prophet Muhammad’s battles with Jewish tribes in Arabia and asked students to use the internet to search for Qur’anic verses about “the treachery of the Jews.”

    Since the revisions were made, students are instead tasked with creating a booklet titled “A Guide for Dealing with Others” to foster respect for Jews and those of other faiths.

    Swedish government to stop funding UNRWA:

    Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli hailed the move as a "courageous and critical decision by the Swedish government."

    "UNRWA, whose personnel actively participated in the October 7 atrocities, whose facilities became terror hubs, and whose schools spread Hamas propaganda and incitement, has lost its legitimacy to exist," Chikli wrote on X.

  • The resurrection of the Ottoman caliphate

    A whole new set of problems are now arising in the Middle East, with Erdogan's Turkey at their heart. Interesting analysis from Richard Kemp in the Telegraph:

    The future of Syria is going to be influenced by Israel and Turkey beyond all other forces. The two countries are far from friends, but both have national security interests in Syria. Until Netanyahu ordered the shattering of Syria’s military hardware last week, the country had for decades represented the greatest direct conventional threat to Israel. Courtesy of Assad, Syria was also the principal supply route from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

    Unlike Netanyahu, Erdogan has broader designs on the Middle East, including, at least in his mind’s eye, the resurrection of the Ottoman caliphate. He has close ties with Qatar and Sunni jihadist groups in the region, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which themselves may now gravitate further towards Ankara as Iran descends: an increasing threat for Israel and many of the Arab countries as his regional power strengthens.

    More immediately the 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey are politically problematic for Erdogan and he wants them sent home.

    But his highest priority is ending the idea of a Kurdish autonomous region in northern Syria, which he sees as a direct threat to Turkey given the pressures over Kurdish separatism in his own country. There are indications now that Erdogan is winding up for a major assault against the Syrian Kurds.

    Significant though they are, the Kurds are just one part of a complex ethno-religious patchwork of rivalry and often deadly antagonism, which includes Sunnis, Shia, Alawites, Druze and Christians. It is unlikely HTS leader Al-Julani will be able to re-unite a long-fractured country any more than Assad could.

    As the influence of the Iranian Ayatollahs wanes, Erdogan now steps in. There are certainly indications that Turkey has designs on northern Syria. "You cannot encounter a son of the homeland whose heart does not tremble at the mention of Aleppo, because Aleppo is Turkish and Muslim to its core".

  • The death knell for unisex toilets in our schools

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  • Belated outrage over Syria

    : 40px”>Some of the precise numbers remain disputed. There is, as yet, no independent verification of the statement by Mouaz Mustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, that the mass grave at al-Qutayfah contains the remains of at least 100,000 people. The task of piecing together the precise dimensions of the Assad regime’s crimes against the Syrian people, and crucially the names and whereabouts of the victims, is only now beginning. And yet, the fact that this regime was a monstrous one, engaged in the mass slaughter of Syrian civilians, was known to both policymakers and publics in the West.

    The facts were in plain sight. A huge body of research and eyewitness testimony has long been available. But there was no widespread public revulsion against Assad in the West.

    Generally along the lines of: not really our business; let's not get involved. With Obama leading the way. We don't want another Iraq – so they ended up with something much much worse. And of course Arabs being killed is of no interest anyway unless Jews are involved – in which case: omigod! it's a genocide!

    Sednaya and the Assad regime’s practices were not particularly aberrant, in the context of the recent history of Syria (and Iraq… and Lebanon). Bashar, who was indeed a ‘weak’ man as John Simpson described him, didn’t invent any of these practices. His father and his father’s predecessors used similar methods. His fellow Ba’athist Saddam Hussein (and his successors) used and use them in Iraq. Indeed, there is ample evidence to suggest that Bashar’s own successors, now busily being normalised by the same people who three weeks ago wanted good relations with the deposed dictator, follow similar practices themselves.

    In April 2022, in cooperation with Syrian colleagues, I wrote an article called ‘Erdogan’s Secret Prisons in Syria.’ The article was based on a 140-page report titled ‘Sednaya of the North’ produced by Syrian activists and based on eyewitness testimony. The report details the random detention and widespread torture (including sexual abuse) of civilians in northern Syria by Turkey-supported militias, the same militias now allied with the new ruling authorities in Damascus. All of which proves, in the immortal French adage, that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

    The "moderate Jihadi" line from the new Syrian rulers seems to be paying off, as their leader assures us that they're absolutely not a threat to Syria's neighbours or to the West.

    We shall see.

  • Japan’s Love Hotels

    1758238975.jpg” style=”width: 550px” title=”Prost-7″ />

    Prost-8
    [Photos © François Prost]

  • The state of California

    it's inevitable that they'll be used by the worst sort of men.