Yes, it’s another of those dreaded “Assorted” columns. Keep the groaning down.
I found this at Ace’s place:
Plastic Martyr
@plasticmartyrI wonder how these conservatives would feel if we passed a law making it illegal to teach your kids about religion until they were adults.
The “Don’t Say Bible” bill
This is a perfect illustration of how utterly clueless the Left’s allegiants are. The author of the above tweet seems unaware that public-school teachers are forbidden to introduce religious topics in the classroom, other than in a passing mention while discussing some historical atrocity. Citing the Bible in a government-school classroom will, quite predictably, cost a teacher his job. The excellent movie God’s Not Dead 2, which stars Pat Boone and Melissa Joan Hart, is based on an actual case on that subject – an unusual case in which the teacher did not lose her job.
But that’s the Left. That’s what they do. And it is why there can be no compromise with them – on any subject.
Mathematician / philosopher Raymond Smullyan once presented a parable that runs something like this:
Two boys, John and Steve, are ambling about when they come upon a luscious looking cake. Steve smiles brightly and says, “I shall now eat the cake.” John protests, saying that as they both found it, they should share it equally, half the cake to each of them. Steve is adamant that the cake is his alone, and a struggle begins, when a mediation-minded adult happens by. “Gentlemen!” the adult says. “You shouldn’t argue and fight; you should compromise.” He turns to John and says “Give Steve three-quarters of the cake.”
That’s the consequence of a “compromise is always best” attitude on one side of a dispute when the other side is implacable and will say and do anything to get its way. When you face an enemy of that sort, you must either pull your own guns and fight a outrance, or resign yourself to defeat by the death of a thousand compromises. These past few decades, the Republican Party has repeatedly chosen the latter course.
Got that? Now read these thoughts from John Hayward (“Doc_Zero”) and the mighty Ace of Spades. Which explanation rings truer: timidity or collaboration disguised as timidity? There’s a case to be made either way.
Back to religion-related subjects for a moment: Mike Miles of 90 Miles From Tyranny has a gift for unearthing excellent graphics of every sort. Here’s one from his labors of yesterday:
As of the 2016 survey (the most recent I could find), there are 37,192 Catholic priests in the United States. So the abuse rate per capita for Catholic priests is about 1 in 185. That year there were about 3.5 million public school teachers, full or part time. That makes their abuse rate 1 in 120, which is significantly worse than that for Catholic clerics. So what would account for the disproportionate focus on Catholic clerics? That priests lack a wealthy and protective union with its own Cabinet department, perhaps?
Now, let’s breathe a little fire on today’s most conspicuously rampant madness:
Finally, one of his teammates has dared to speak about this openly. That would be Riley Gaines, who had to accept her trophy for sixth place despite having tied for fifth with Lia. Lia was given pride of place over Gaines, nevertheless. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, she said: “I went behind the podium to collect my fifth place trophy and they kind of blatantly told me that Lia would hold the fifth place trophy and that I could pose with the sixth place trophy for photos and I would be mailed a fifth place trophy.”
“When I kind of questioned it, you know, I asked (the official) ‘is there a reason why you’re giving Lia the trophy?’ he just explained to me that, ‘we’re giving it in chronological order,’ and I questioned him again, what does that mean? What are we being chronological about? We tied. And he kind of blatantly said, ‘we’re just gonna give the trophy to Lia, we respect and admire your swim but Lia needs to hold the trophy.’”
Can you feel the creeping madness?
He needs to hold the trophy.
In order to make the point. No—in order to rub it in the face of women like Riley Gaines that men now own their sport.
This was inevitable. It started, not with transgenderism, but with Rachel Dolezal and Shaun King, who, despite having two Caucasian parents each, were allowed to get away with claiming to be Negroes. Dolezal’s “I identify as black” is only a few years old. I don’t know whether Shaun King said anything similar, but his attitude is identical with Dolezal’s.
Yet it’s lunacy, and it’s undisguised…so why aren’t we calling it that?
Why aren’t we treating the lunatics with compassion and therapy, as lunatics deserve?
Why does this species of insanity rate a completely different, contradictory standard of “tolerance?” Because it’s got a major political party behind it?
Have we become so timid, so completely confrontation-averse, that we cannot protect young women – athletes and non-athletes alike – from having their sex stolen from them? (Not their “gender.” Gender is for nouns and connectors. People have a sex.)
Or is it something else? Are we now forbidden to say that women, young and old, need and deserve protection from predatory men? That when men are permitted to prey upon them, women are at a severe disadvantage that can only be redressed by decent men?
I hope that when “transgender-rights activists” and “public-school teachers” are at last publicly hanged for defiling our children with such madness, I’ll still be around to say “This was inevitable, too.” Because it most certainly is.
Because someone is bound to bring it up, I shall pre-empt: Yes! I wrote a simpatico transwoman into the Futanari Saga. I did so for a compelling reason: to create an example of good sense in one who chooses to present as the opposite sex.
My character Holly Martinowski chooses to present as a woman despite having a Y chromosome in every cell and the genital equipment that goes along with said chromosomes. She’s an important contrast to my futanari characters, whose condition is unchosen and immutable. Neither Holly nor my futanari asked to be born as they were. However, Holly’s presentation is volitional, arising from other aspects of her anatomy and physiognomy. She is not mentally ill, nor does she claim to be anything she is not:
Ray had only just donned his stole and murmured a prayer for God’s guidance when a penitent entered the face-to-face booth and knelt. He donned a formally grave expression, looked up at his visitor, and swallowed an oath.
“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen,” Holly Martinowski intoned. “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.” She smiled wanly. “I’m not really sure how long it’s been since my last confession. More than fifteen years, anyway.”
“Bless you, Holly,” Ray said. “May the Lord be in your heart and help you to confess your sins sincerely and with true contrition. What are your sins, dear?”
“Father,” she said in a gradually strengthening voice, “I’ve been bitter and resentful. I estranged myself from my parents because they mocked me as I was and could not accept me as I am today. My bitterness has led me to resent them and wish them ill, even though none of them ever did me any injustice that went beyond a few harsh words.
“And I may have been less than honest. Since I endeavored to transition, I’ve let everyone I met believe that I’m female. I know I have only the appearance and not the essence. I know that no surgery could make me other than cosmetically female. But I’ve chosen to live as a woman, rather than as the pitifully unmanly man I would otherwise have been. And I am happy this way. I don’t regard my masquerade as a sin, though not being candid about my origins might strike you as sinful.”
She bowed her head over her folded hands.
“Other than that, I’ve missed a lot of Sunday Masses. But I have not worshipped any other god. I have not blasphemed. I have not made any idols. I haven’t killed or harmed anyone, or committed adultery, or theft or fraud. I haven’t borne false witness against others. I’ve envied naturally born women their state, but only in a wistful way. And I’ve tried most sincerely, Father, to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. I love God and delight in all His works. I strive to love my neighbor as myself. And with that I subject myself to your judgment and to the mercy of God.”
Ray was momentarily thrown out of his orbit.
“Have you examined your conscience closely, Holly?”
“I have, Father.”
“And you find no other blemishes there?”
“I have confessed all that I’ve found, Father.”
“You don’t think it a deception to wear a female guise?”
“I wear it for its own sake, Father. I don’t use it to deceive or defraud others. I never have.”
“And you never will, dear?”
That brought Holly’s head back up.
“Only God can know the future, Father. But it’s not my intention ever to do so. What could I gain that I couldn’t get some other way?”
Ray breathed deeply and strove to steady himself.
“It’s not the gain or loss that matters but the intention, dear. Are you firm in your resolve?”
“I am, Father.”
“And truly sorry for your sins?”
“O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishment, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and worthy of all my love. I humbly resolve with the help of Thy Grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin. Amen.”
He grinned despite himself. “You boned up before you came here, didn’t you?”
She returned the grin. “A little cramming is acceptable before an exam, isn’t it, Father?”
He chuckled. “Let’s hope so, dear, because it was one of my most regular practices back in seminary. Your penance is five Our Fathers, five Hail Marys, and five Glory Bes interleaved, to be performed in a spirit of contrition immediately upon leaving the confessional. Go to the front of the church and kneel at the old communion rail. Look upon the Presence lamp as you pray, and give thanks for the love and mercy of God.”
“I shall, Father.”
He raised his right hand. “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins. Through the ministry of the Church, may God give you pardon and peace. I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
“Amen,” she whispered.
“Now go and sin no more.”
She exited the confessional.[From Experiences. See also this essay.]
Holly’s attitude is the acceptable “middle ground” of transgenderism:
That stance is acceptable because, properly practiced, it does no harm. Indeed, at its best it can’t even be detected. But it excludes the “Lia” Thomases of the world, and those who seek to preach “gender fluidity” to impressionable children – as it should.
That’s all for today, Gentle Reader. Until whenever. Have a nice day.
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You lost me on this one Mr. Porretto. First you rightly explain how it is impossible to compromise with leftists because they don’t compromise by nature. My personal experience as well as my political observances over my 71 years tells me you are correct. As (I believe) Ayn Rand said: “In any compromise between good and evil, evil always wins”. Which is why even in war I was uncompromising toward communists. If I shot one and he wasn’t dead, I shot him again.
Then after your insightful explanation of why compromise is impossible you reveal you created your own compromise in the form of the character Futanari Saga. Is Saga somehow immune to the slings and arrows of the despicable and insincere left? Or will these uncompromising slobs allow Saga as the exception to the rule?
Author
It looks as if you read the piece too swiftly to comprehend it. Try to read it again, at a reasonable pace this time. Make sure you get the names right.
Sorry I confused the names. Holly is the object of my opinion. However, it is still a compromise. With people who will never compromise. It’s like reaching an agreement for Christians to live in Arabia. Sooner or later their heads will roll. Even the Christians know it.
The only “acceptable middle ground to transgenderism” is first to admit there is no such thing then to treat people with that psychosis to help them overcome it. AS you stated, gender is for grammar not sex.
Sorry I misread your post.
Author
I don’t think you get it. (You didn’t read the books, did you?) It’s not a psychosis for someone to want to be taken for and treated as a member of the opposite sex, so long as he remembers what he really is, and never claims rights or privileges that aren’t proper to what he really is (e.g., for a biological man to demand to compete in women’s sporting events). Holly, my “transgender” character, passes in public as a woman, but she knows it’s a masquerade, just as would someone doing so on Hallowe’en. She demands nothing of others. She courteously accepts the treatment she receives. She is not “a bearded dude in a dress.” Her presentation is convincingly feminine; that’s how she’s taken and treated, which is all that matters to her.
There are one hell of a lot of people who aren’t transgender who demand rights and privileges to which they’re not entitled (e.g. Colin Kaepernick). Some of them can’t even bring themselves to be polite to those who disagree with them. But a transwoman such as Holly, or Blaire White (watch a few of her videos and be impressed), is a different matter altogether. As I said in the Afterword to The Wise and the Mad, the wise man knows what is tolerable and what is not — and he tolerates the former but condemns and opposes the latter, not the other way around.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
[William Ernest Henley, “Invictus”]
Give it some thought.
I do get it, I just disagree. There is a problem with a person who wants to be taken for and treated as a member of the opposite sex. It’s all make believe. They are promoting themselves as something they are not to other people. They are deceitful at the minimum and a fraud at the worst, their reasons do not matter.
Halloween and such is dress up. It’s pretend. Like wearing a costume in a play. They don’t expect to be “accepted” as a female because it’s not a fraud, it’s a joke. I dressed as Olive Oyl for Halloween once do you think I expected people to “accept” me as Olive Oyl?
There’s also a problem with a society and culture that is so permissive as to not just tolerate but encourage people to actually believe and demand they are something they’re not and if a person points it out he is the bad guy.
I have no concept of the internal struggle that must go on in persons like that. I can’t. But I will not compromise the truth to assuage their ego and desires. They have their reasons and their feelings etc but I have mine too and they are just as valid.
Author
What you expected is less important than whether your presentation was good enough to be taken for Olive Oyl, which I doubt was the case. But that’s neither here nor there.
Ponder this: You’re in some public place. There are restrooms, clearly marked “Men” and “Women.” A human being with feminine features, no beard or beard shadow, exhibiting no indications of masculinity, is dressed as a woman dresses, and carries herself as a woman does — in other words, someone you would automatically take to be a woman — heads for the women’s room. Would you be in favor of having a guard at the women’s room door enforcing a “crotch check” before allowing that person to enter? That’s the essence of the matter; think about it.
(Fran, I’m going to chime in here with some first-hand experience, if you’re agreeable.)
I am a trans woman myself, just like Holly. I know I will never be a cis woman, but I am capable of presenting as a woman for almost all purposes, and this is what people take me as. I’m a relatively late-in-life transitioner, so I still show the influence of having grown up with testosterone in my blood…but it’s the estrogen and progesterone I take that now dominate my blood chemistry, and the effects thereof are also visible. It took me long enough to figure this out, but, as I’ve put it poetically, I finally heard the true song of my heart…and it was sung in a woman’s voice.
I dress like a woman, style my hair and makeup like a woman, move and speak like a woman. What else should anyone take me for but a woman? You’d think I’d be used to being called “ma’am” and “Miss” by now, but hearing those honorifics directed at me still gives me that inner feeling of, “Yes!”
My driver’s license and passport both show “F” under “Sex,” and neither of them, or anything else I carry in my wallet, from my charge cards to my amateur radio license, will show me as being anything but “Amy.” I’m gainfully employed (and quite lucratively, in fact), and my coworkers know me only as “Amy.” I have many friends who’ve only known me under that name, too. More friends than I had before transition, to be sure!
I’m far too old to participate in any serious sporting events, so have little fear about that. And I was never interested in participating in sports when I was younger anyway. But I will compete in a karaoke contest. I might not win, but maybe I can give the winner a run for their money. 🙂 (And yes, I can sing many songs with female vocals. You should hear me do Sade’s “Smooth Operator.”)
What’s in my panties is the business of no one but my doctors and my lover(s). With regard to the latter, I’m a lesbian, and you might be surprised that more than a few sapphic women have no trouble with a trans woman as a lover. Some of those are other trans women, who at least share similar backgrounds. True, there are some who don’t accept us that way. But there’s no accounting for taste.
The only thing I ask of people–the only thing I’ve ever really asked–is that I be treated just like any other woman. I hold up my end of that bargain, by doing everything I can to be a woman in their eyes. And I certainly don’t believe I’m psychotic. Neither do a lot of people. And, if I am to be judged, let it be on my own merits.
This post makes a good point. However much we like to find a phrase or meme that makes our opponents look horrible, it’s better to actually win the war.
And, however much you liked/disliked Trump and his policies (most of them pretty good, some terrible), he always was more focused on the public fight than designing ways to actually win.
https://www.takimag.com/article/doom-and-groomer/
On the open border, it troubled me that Trump chose to locate his power to interdict invasion in one or more statutory provisions relating to “emergencies.” What limitations those statutes imposed I never researched but I am certain the statute(s) were relatively narrowly drafted and were not drafted with the open border in mind as one of the emergencies. It frosted me no end that he refused to speak of the invasion of our country by the illegals and claim the authority to protect each of the states “from invasion” found in Art. IV, Sect. 4 of the Constitution.
Confucius wisely spoke of the rectification of names, the need for exact speech in government matters lest vague or incorrect terminology prevent ministers and rulers from devising appropriate remedies. If today one calls a three-alarm fire a ruckus or a hullaballoo there’s no chance of the king sending the right kind of help. Trump seemed to me to deliberately choose personal ineffectualness if not an out and out excuse to avoid doing what he knew needed to be done. Yet another instance of his accidentally on purpose not getting it.
I doubt his WH counsel was alert to this and, even if he were, I’ll be good money that like just about every other member of the Uniparty Treason Class he did his best to keep the flow of invaders utterly unimpeded.
You stated that: “Would you be in favor of having a guard at the women’s room door enforcing a “crotch check” before allowing that person to enter? That’s the essence of the matter; think about it.”
Okay, I thought about it. No, I would not suggest that every ladies room have a crotch check guard. I don’t think that’s a reasonable answer to the situation.
That said, it is not the essence of the matter. The essence of the matter is the fact that males seem to think it’s okay to pass as females. It’s not okay regardless how many scenario’s we devise it’s a lie, a fake and a fraud and to accept it is wrong.
I am kinda amused that as a Catholic you don’t find deceit and fraud particularly disturbing. Especially when those perpetrating said deceit are frequently demanding we go along with it, call them by fake pronouns and give them special civil rights claiming their perversion is a civil right. This particular fraud has already infected the law and is now working its way through our grade schools and that is alarming to me.
Author
I give up. You consistently miss the point. Believe what you like, and have a nice life.
I was not expecting a “have a nice life” dismissal. Ya kinda stunned me. I may not be getting your point but I’m willing to accept it’s all on me. I just don’t think I should be dismissed like some bothersome rube because I’m not getting it. I do read your blog daily and usually agree with your political and social points and even your religious ideas though I’m a Lutheran not a Catholic. This time I’m stymied. I will let the matter drop. Sorry if I bothered you. I did not mean to.
Author
Look, as it happens I’m a very serious person — about everything. I dislike to have to repeat myself. Today I’ve had to do that to excess, and you are the reason. You appear to be unable to grasp the implications even of your own position. So I’m tired out. I shan’t attempt to elicit actual thought from you any longer. Go find some other website where the proprietor never says anything you would disagree with or need to think critically about.
P.S.: I might not have taken this tack had you refrained from mentioning my religion, about which I’m fairly sure I know more than you. That was the last straw. Don’t bother to apologize; just go away.
Suppose we parse this Gordian Knot by slicing more transparently (no pun intended), illuminatively. Applying the Platinum Rule, “First, do no harm. Second, if harm’s been done, repair the harm done as necessary to prevent greater harm, as necessary.”
What harm to whom, has the trans entity committed?
How is harm defined and applied to the human entity receiving the harm?
What authorities, laws, traditions, attitudes must be prioritized and applied to govern the various situations most fairly?
I worked, for over two years, with a trans woman… M to F.
Out of professional courtesy I called them HER and SHE. (Being in academia at the time, it would have been enormously uncomfortable job-wise, let alone working with them, if I had not.)
But they transitioned as an adult. I cannot claim to understand it, but they made a choice AS AN ADULT.
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Wishing all my Christian fellows here a wonderful, joyous, and meaningful Easter.