As a class, men are bigger, stronger, and more aggressive. So yes, trans men aren't considered a threat.
Phil: all the hullabaloo about protecting women’s spaces heaps insults on women AND defies statistical analysis
In athletics, I'd say we're well past "statistical analysis" and are finding that "men being bigger and stronger" is why we have women's sports.
Similarly we're starting to see reports that trans-women are a lot more violent than women. https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/18973/pdf/
Shockingly, Trump and his crew didn't handle this issue competently.
Big picture we have laws and rules designed to protect women from men. As a class, men are bigger, stronger, and more aggressive. How these rules and laws interact with men who identify as women hasn't been worked out.
Measuring educational success based on a single annual or every other year or every three year test only works if everyone learns and tests the same way.
You're right... but I'm not sure that should drive this. I also doubt we should reduce the amount of information available to parents.
I was disappointed at the school pushback I got in making my kid repeat 2nd grade.
My kid's "failure" wasn't the school's fault, but they were still punished by me pulling her from the school.
Her "failure" was she was too young for her age. The school was "punished" by losing the money that follows her when I transferred her. It was in her best interests but not the school's.
These tests have their own problems, but they cut through self interested adult spin.
Everyone hates accountability and/or performance reviews, especially when they are being measured over things they don't control.
Agreed. This gives Team Blue something useful to talk about.
I'll add that it's currently impossible for importers to follow the law. Ergo they're not. Ergo when they have spot checks on whether they're following the law, their only recourse is to have a personal relationship with the inspector. If this isn't resolved real quick we're going to be creating corruption.
I made my kid repeat 2nd grade. Even in hindsight it was a great parenting decision. Calling it a "key to success" is accurate.
If the kid isn't ready to be promoted then they shouldn't be promoted. At some point they shift from learning to read to reading to learn, if you promote them without that skill then they're screwed.
If the populace of the West Bank were as rabid to attack Israel as you say then we’d have had a LOT more attacks
Leaving Hamas in charge of Gaza for 18 years resulted in more attacks. If they held elections tomorrow Hamas would win. If they'd held them before the Gaza war Hamas would still have won. A less internally abusive Hamas would win consistently.
Pulling out of the West Bank is duplicating the Gaza withdrawal and expecting it to work differently even though Hamas will gain a lot more resources.
a country removing, even forcibly, its own nationals from occupied territories [never] meets the definition of ethnic cleansing.
In a fair world where the policy is carried out in an even handed way, yes.
IMHO keeping any of the land from before 1967 results in various claims, and that's without removing any Palestinians which will also no doubt happen.
Factor in the Settlers having a say without Palestinian input and it won't be "even handed".
A lot of people in Lebanon want to have a functioning state. The West Bank is more comparable to Gaza.
Big picture Israel will be taking what it wants and leaving. What's left should be expected to be a failed state.
If they had a lick of sense that’d largely be of Jewish settlers into the new Israeli borders...
Doing this without Palestinian approval means breaking international laws on ethnic cleansing. They might as well go all in. Also if the Palestinians aren't sitting at the table drawing lines then the Settlers will be.
Hamas avoided serious attacks for years to build up forces and get ready. I can't see the World supporting Israel going into Gaza having a serious war in that context.
A serious West Bank war would be much worse than Gaza. I get what you're saying, but there's a really good chance that the West Bank would become Gaza-on-steroids.
Further, if they're going to set boarders, there's going to be forced land swaps and population exchanges.
Israel forcing various groups of Palestinians to leave to preserve the larger settlements will be ugly.
If the argument is "this should be done for world support" then we need to take a good look at what the cram down will look like.
Israel's real world choices are to have an urban war (i.e. what you call genocide), or live with terrorists running cities. I'm not sure India is willing to (or needs to) level Kashmir considering it already runs it.
What needs to happen is we-the-World should stop pretending that the openly genocidal Jihadists are reasonable.
The world should be calling on Hamas to surrender and disarm, not for Israel to go back to waiting for the next mass murder.
The conflict goes on because we-the-world keep encouraging the Palestinians to continue it. In other situations they'd lose the war, accept that they've lost, do a lot of soul searching, and redo their ideological choices that led them into this disaster.
First, :amusement:, that's my cat. It's like I sent you a photo and you put it up there. Handsome fellow.
2nd, Coffee is evil. I love it, but it's evil none the less.
I used to get migraine headaches every few months. They were bad enough that I'd also get nausea and then go through caffeine withdrawal as well as just being sick. Then I gave up all forms of caffeine and the migraines went away.
almost twenty years after the Gazan withdrawal, I don’t think anyone can pretend the settlers aren’t a major component of the Israeli side of the problem.
OK, hold up there. Full stop. Why are the settlements a problem?
The Palestinians are genocidally inflamed by the existence of Israel to the point where it's rare for the settlements to show up in their news. They don't make a distinction between the settlements and the rest of Israel.
That's a big deal.
The settlements make peace deals based on the 1967 lines of control impossible, but so what? Israel was able to offer peace in 2000 and 2008 based on land swaps, they still can.
I would expect if we had to do it today there would also have to be population transfers as well. So various groups from both sides would have to pick up and move after boarders are established, i.e. exactly like what happened in Poland after ww2.
There hasn’t been an administration since Sharon that is capable of plausibly agreeing to any such peace deal even if the Palestinians were to offer one.
2008 wasn't the most recent proposal to be rejected. The Trump peace plan was shot down as "hot garbage" because the Right to Return would only be into a Palestinian state and not Green Line Israel.
If the Palestinians were to offer an peace plan then we'd see a huge amount of life put back into Israel's peace wing and huge political pressure to accept it.
But as long as the Palestinians are openly genocidal and constantly committing terror attacks it's hard and pointless for a peace wing to offer them the proposals that they've made clear they'll never accept.
However we need to be careful not to read too much into them. Hamas is brutal to it's own people, corrupt, and abusive so of course they're unpopular.
But that shouldn't be read an a desire to make peace with Israel. The protesters could just want the Jews driven into the sea by a group that's not self serving.
RE: Iceland
Iceland was settled by Vikings and their slaves.
What makes it different for Israel is that the Israeli’s are doing it right now.
That's not what the wars are about, nor is it why the Palestinians refused peace in 2000 or 2008 (etc).
The Palestinians make it very clear they view every inch of Israel as stolen and want the Jews gone.
The settlers are a problem but in theory if the Palestinians ever agree to a peace deal we'd have land swaps and whatever to set boarders and clean all of that up.
It's not just the Jews, it's also the jihadist Arabs. If you actually listen to them and understand they're serious about what they want and why, then the Left is dealing with a "repressed minority" that can't be handled in any other way.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Gender Critical: Legally Defining Sex”
Phil: trans men are apparently not a threat.
As a class, men are bigger, stronger, and more aggressive. So yes, trans men aren't considered a threat.
Phil: all the hullabaloo about protecting women’s spaces heaps insults on women AND defies statistical analysis
In athletics, I'd say we're well past "statistical analysis" and are finding that "men being bigger and stronger" is why we have women's sports.
Similarly we're starting to see reports that trans-women are a lot more violent than women. https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/18973/pdf/
https://legislature.maine.gov/testimony/resources/CJPS20210518Gingrich132664242197478414.pdf
"
Shockingly, Trump and his crew didn't handle this issue competently.
Big picture we have laws and rules designed to protect women from men. As a class, men are bigger, stronger, and more aggressive. How these rules and laws interact with men who identify as women hasn't been worked out.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025”
If Health Care were cheaper the gov would have a lot more money to throw at these sorts of things.
"
Measuring educational success based on a single annual or every other year or every three year test only works if everyone learns and tests the same way.
You're right... but I'm not sure that should drive this. I also doubt we should reduce the amount of information available to parents.
I was disappointed at the school pushback I got in making my kid repeat 2nd grade.
My kid's "failure" wasn't the school's fault, but they were still punished by me pulling her from the school.
Her "failure" was she was too young for her age. The school was "punished" by losing the money that follows her when I transferred her. It was in her best interests but not the school's.
These tests have their own problems, but they cut through self interested adult spin.
Everyone hates accountability and/or performance reviews, especially when they are being measured over things they don't control.
"
Agreed. This gives Team Blue something useful to talk about.
I'll add that it's currently impossible for importers to follow the law. Ergo they're not. Ergo when they have spot checks on whether they're following the law, their only recourse is to have a personal relationship with the inspector. If this isn't resolved real quick we're going to be creating corruption.
"
Stop trying to meet production quotas and quantitative rubrics.
So we don't test and just promote everyone? Won't we end up promoting kids that can't read?
"
it’s a failure to regurgitate on specific tests in a specific way.
What do you suggest as an alternative?
"
I'm planning on pulling the Blue lever this cycle, just as an effort to stop the current insanity. The GOP needs to own what their leader is doing.
"
I made my kid repeat 2nd grade. Even in hindsight it was a great parenting decision. Calling it a "key to success" is accurate.
If the kid isn't ready to be promoted then they shouldn't be promoted. At some point they shift from learning to read to reading to learn, if you promote them without that skill then they're screwed.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/21/2025”
Israel really needs to stop funding their crazies. Force them to have jobs and serve in the army and their reproduction rate won't matter.
"
If the populace of the West Bank were as rabid to attack Israel as you say then we’d have had a LOT more attacks
Leaving Hamas in charge of Gaza for 18 years resulted in more attacks. If they held elections tomorrow Hamas would win. If they'd held them before the Gaza war Hamas would still have won. A less internally abusive Hamas would win consistently.
Pulling out of the West Bank is duplicating the Gaza withdrawal and expecting it to work differently even though Hamas will gain a lot more resources.
a country removing, even forcibly, its own nationals from occupied territories [never] meets the definition of ethnic cleansing.
In a fair world where the policy is carried out in an even handed way, yes.
IMHO keeping any of the land from before 1967 results in various claims, and that's without removing any Palestinians which will also no doubt happen.
Factor in the Settlers having a say without Palestinian input and it won't be "even handed".
"
Going to be a long year and a half.
"
His own editorial doesn't talk about "challenging incumbents" much less how and why they'll be challenged.
In theory a stronger party would avoid someone like Trump taking over but he's arguing for the opposite.
So it's much emotional noise without any description, much less details, on what he's trying to do.
"
RE: Cowing the West Bank Lebanon-style
A lot of people in Lebanon want to have a functioning state. The West Bank is more comparable to Gaza.
Big picture Israel will be taking what it wants and leaving. What's left should be expected to be a failed state.
If they had a lick of sense that’d largely be of Jewish settlers into the new Israeli borders...
Doing this without Palestinian approval means breaking international laws on ethnic cleansing. They might as well go all in. Also if the Palestinians aren't sitting at the table drawing lines then the Settlers will be.
"
Hamas avoided serious attacks for years to build up forces and get ready. I can't see the World supporting Israel going into Gaza having a serious war in that context.
A serious West Bank war would be much worse than Gaza. I get what you're saying, but there's a really good chance that the West Bank would become Gaza-on-steroids.
Further, if they're going to set boarders, there's going to be forced land swaps and population exchanges.
Israel forcing various groups of Palestinians to leave to preserve the larger settlements will be ugly.
If the argument is "this should be done for world support" then we need to take a good look at what the cram down will look like.
"
Israel doing a unilateral withdraw is probably also the West Bank becoming a terror camp.
Which will result in a Gaza style war.
"
Israel's real world choices are to have an urban war (i.e. what you call genocide), or live with terrorists running cities. I'm not sure India is willing to (or needs to) level Kashmir considering it already runs it.
"
What needs to happen is we-the-World should stop pretending that the openly genocidal Jihadists are reasonable.
The world should be calling on Hamas to surrender and disarm, not for Israel to go back to waiting for the next mass murder.
The conflict goes on because we-the-world keep encouraging the Palestinians to continue it. In other situations they'd lose the war, accept that they've lost, do a lot of soul searching, and redo their ideological choices that led them into this disaster.
Instead we keep shielding them from that outcome.
On “Weekend Plans Post: Caffeine Rituals”
First, :amusement:, that's my cat. It's like I sent you a photo and you put it up there. Handsome fellow.
2nd, Coffee is evil. I love it, but it's evil none the less.
I used to get migraine headaches every few months. They were bad enough that I'd also get nausea and then go through caffeine withdrawal as well as just being sick. Then I gave up all forms of caffeine and the migraines went away.
And we have an anima club meeting this weekend.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/21/2025”
almost twenty years after the Gazan withdrawal, I don’t think anyone can pretend the settlers aren’t a major component of the Israeli side of the problem.
OK, hold up there. Full stop. Why are the settlements a problem?
The Palestinians are genocidally inflamed by the existence of Israel to the point where it's rare for the settlements to show up in their news. They don't make a distinction between the settlements and the rest of Israel.
That's a big deal.
The settlements make peace deals based on the 1967 lines of control impossible, but so what? Israel was able to offer peace in 2000 and 2008 based on land swaps, they still can.
I would expect if we had to do it today there would also have to be population transfers as well. So various groups from both sides would have to pick up and move after boarders are established, i.e. exactly like what happened in Poland after ww2.
There hasn’t been an administration since Sharon that is capable of plausibly agreeing to any such peace deal even if the Palestinians were to offer one.
2008 wasn't the most recent proposal to be rejected. The Trump peace plan was shot down as "hot garbage" because the Right to Return would only be into a Palestinian state and not Green Line Israel.
If the Palestinians were to offer an peace plan then we'd see a huge amount of life put back into Israel's peace wing and huge political pressure to accept it.
But as long as the Palestinians are openly genocidal and constantly committing terror attacks it's hard and pointless for a peace wing to offer them the proposals that they've made clear they'll never accept.
"
I haven't been following the protests.
However we need to be careful not to read too much into them. Hamas is brutal to it's own people, corrupt, and abusive so of course they're unpopular.
But that shouldn't be read an a desire to make peace with Israel. The protesters could just want the Jews driven into the sea by a group that's not self serving.
"
RE: Iceland
Iceland was settled by Vikings and their slaves.
What makes it different for Israel is that the Israeli’s are doing it right now.
That's not what the wars are about, nor is it why the Palestinians refused peace in 2000 or 2008 (etc).
The Palestinians make it very clear they view every inch of Israel as stolen and want the Jews gone.
The settlers are a problem but in theory if the Palestinians ever agree to a peace deal we'd have land swaps and whatever to set boarders and clean all of that up.
"
Three fourths of the modern Jews aren't citizens in other countries. So the Jews mostly have no where to go.
Historically, many of those who do/did have passports are to Arab states that kicked them out and don't want them back.
It's not useful to pretend they all have European passports and can just move back if enough pressure is put on Israel.
"
Nut picking. You have one very angry guy with his fellows pointing out that the rest of Israel society doesn't agree with him.
More importantly, Israel has an army right there and if they ever start treating "everyone as a terrorist" then we'll see scary fatality numbers.
"
It's not just the Jews, it's also the jihadist Arabs. If you actually listen to them and understand they're serious about what they want and why, then the Left is dealing with a "repressed minority" that can't be handled in any other way.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.