Is “the establishment” in the room with us now, Elon?

Started #reading Valuable Humans in Transit (and Other Stories) by qntm www.tumblr.com/considermyca...

With hindsight, we should have kept on talking about “sex changes”. Would have made nonsense like the UK Supreme Court decision in FWS – which was based on a supposedly “clear” and “common sense” definition of “sex” which parliament “must” have had in mind – harder to justify

your oppressors will not spare you for worshipping them

“(It is a noteworthy feature of our virtue and vice vocabulary that, although our list of generally recognised virtue terms is comparatively short, our list of vice terms is remarkably, and usefully, long…”

The Church of Finland (or at least the one I went to) has found an ingenious solution to the “common cup vs individual cups” question: a chalice with a spout to pour the consecrated wine into individual cups kept below the altar rail, the cups themselves being miniature chalices, not “shot glasses”

The Church of Finland’s hymnal (which is also, in traditional Lutheran fashion, the service book) had one feature I’ve never seen before, but which I now think should be mandatory for all hymn books: an index of first lines *of each verse* 🤯

New verbal stim: “Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Church”

Went to Divine Service at the Rock Church in Helsinki. Extraordinary building! Though perhaps not as extraordinary as this piece of found poetry created by my phone’s attempt to translate a Finnish prayer in the service book

Currently reading Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman www.tumblr.com/considermyca...

Currently #reading I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman www.tumblr.com/considermyca...

Bobby Jenrick undermining his party leader? Say it ain’t so

the entire conservative media apparatus was born out of a conviction that what happened to Nixon should never again happen to a Republican president and it worked and they now feel comfortable enough to admit it

You’re not “housing them on military bases”, Shabana. You’re “putting them in camps” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

can’t believe a narcissist is being so publicly humiliated by a reflecting pool

I think the BBC is extremely aware of what it is doing, tbqh

"If Karl Marx is your favorite 'economist', block me." well I wouldn't go *that* far, but

<cue more news stories showing happy people cannonballing into lakes and eating ice creams>

god @acollierastro.bsky.social is so good. I'm only 40 minutes in, which is the bit where she says "you can stop watching here, but i have more to say", and i've been watching her for long enough to know this is where it gets *even better*. But it's fabulous even just up to here

Graphic design is my passion.

And now mom says ice cream isn’t dinner. What’s going on? What does this mean? Dinner is food and last time I checked, ice cream is food. So what’s this really all about? The answer is simple: power

the three genders

The “adult content” in this post is… Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Thank god Bluesky is protecting Our Innocent Children from this filth. Remember: UK government policy is that no one see a naked person till they’re 18. Realistic! Attainable!

Started #reading The Greek Plays, ed. Mary Lefkowitz and James Romm. Translators include Emily Wilson and Sarah Ruden. £3.95 on ebooks dot com! A real treasure trove! www.tumblr.com/considermyca...

Sang this last night, it kinda broke me: “Peace is the blessing that I seek, How lovely are its charms! I am for peace; but when I speak, They all declare for arms. “Should burning arrows smite them through Strict justice would approve; But I had rather spare my foe, And melt his heart with love.”

I know everyone's probably read this already, but I really do think it's good.

These are the judges to whom the government wants to hand sole power over our freedom, by largely abolishing jury trial www.declassifieduk.org/palestine-ac...

Increasingly tempted to spend tomorrow working on one of our fancy new airconned electric buses as it perambulates around southeast London

was looking for something else Brexit-related but ended up stumbling upon some copy I filed for the Evening Standard do please join me in spotting the date of the email, then the opening line, then running head first at a wall

Not now, tiny particle that could erase the universe at any moment

As per yesterday's Reuters on the heatwave: 'At least 18 people died in France, including two children left in a hot car' - and this is the picture they chose It's not new that the media is complicit in climate denialism, but that doesn't mean we have to accept it.

Before another pundit launches their #GalaxyBrain take on why losing six prime ministers in ten years is Fine, Actually: we *know* the issue is that the prime ministers were crap, not that the system is irrationally expelling them. It's the crapness that is the problem.

Whomst among us &c. &c.

Fascinating thread - more on art and human creativity than AI

"Purchases from a high-end cookware brand were among the red flags which alerted police to Peter Murrell’s long-running embezzlement of the SNP’s funds." [runs in panting] INSPECTOR LE CREUSET

I suppose the significance of this is not that it actually increases the chances of rejoining anytime soon, but that it creates the political space for politicians – an incoming prime minister, say – to move us a lot closer to the EU

Cancelled our trip to see Simon Russell Beale narrating Venus and Adonis at the Barbican tomorrow. In related news, made the happy discovery that you can return Barbican tickets up to 24 hours before the performance and get a credit on the ticket price (less £3 per ticket admin fee)

Keir Starmer is a bad person who used his power to make the United Kingdom a more unequal place and dismantle the possibility of opposing oppression and genocide, and to drive trans people from public life. If you think he is decent, I have news for you about your own moral judgement.

Reading Emily Wilson’s translation of The Bacchae, and excited to discover that Euripides depicts the earliest known example of a Starmerite social media scold telling people off for gloating

I am getting seriously worried about @greenparty.org.uk and @zackpolanski.bsky.social inability to call out the dismantling of human rights, particularly of trans people.

Andrew are you sure you meant to post this on main?

Guy at the bus stop is repeatedly playing a voice note he’s recorded saying “just checking how the vibe is with you. It’s one of those nights when you just have 7, 8, 9 cold, sober as a judge” I have to say the “blasting out the same voice note to the bus queue repeatedly” isn’t *screaming* “sober”

Today in “no shit, Sherlock”. It was always pretty clear that the “RTO” push was being driven by CEOs feeling shamed by their peers for not having enough big dick energy to force their workers back to the office

well

“Gaza is not a betrayal of American democratic tradition but an expression of an American imperial tradition.”

As I've said, the next government must do these things immediately just to prove they aren't transphobic. This isn't allyship, it's baseline neutrality. Do this first, and then we can talk.

PREDICTION: the lesson the Democrats draw will be “we need to do Starmerism *harder*”

Hear me out: what if we replaced rolling news with helicopter footage of trains every day? I don’t think anyone would actually be less well informed.

Starmer saying the next PM will inherit a country that is 'fairer' than the one he inherited 2 years ago. In the one Starmer inherited, trans people could use public toilets.