England bans puberty blockers for minors at gender clinics

The New Neo Posted on by

Good news:

The publicly funded health service in England has decided it will not routinely offer puberty-blocking drugs to children at gender identity clinics, saying more evidence is needed about the potential benefits and harms.

The National Health Service said Friday that “outside of a research setting, puberty-suppressing hormones should not be routinely commissioned for children and adolescents.”

People under 18 can still be given puberty blockers in exceptional circumstances, the NHS said, and a clinical study on their impact on kids is due to start by next year.

More evidence was always needed, and it’s a scandal and an outrage that administering these blockers ever become standard in the first place. But better late than never.

England has a centralized health care system, so it’s easier to enforce a wider ban there as compared to the US, where at the moment it’s being done on a state-by-state basis. The same leftists who are so often lauding Europe’s approach to health care as so forward-looking and fair and “progressive” compared to that of the US are probably rather silent on this latest action, which when a state such as Florida does it is labeled hateful and vicious discrimination against so-called “trans kids.”

It is Orwellian that efforts to protect children by calling a halt to these blockers are labeled as harm to children, whereas efforts to give children poorly-tested drugs (that may compromise future fertility, cause bone loss, and interrupt psycho-sexual development and ultimately impede sexual pleasure even later in life), as well as to perform irreversible surgeries to remove perfectly healthy sexual organs, are considered to be helping them.

The one previous use for puberty blockers in children has been to halt what’s called “precocious puberty,” which is when hormonal problems cause very young children (aged 5 or 6, for example), to enter puberty prematurely. The article doesn’t mention that, but such children wouldn’t ordinarily be seen at gender clinics anyway.

I hadn’t known the following until I read it just now:

In 2020, England’s High Court ruled that children under 16 were unlikely to be able to give informed consent to medical treatment involving drugs that delay puberty.

The decision was overturned in 2021 by the Court of Appeal, which said doctors can prescribe puberty-blocking drugs to children under 16 without a parent’s consent.

Shocking.

The Trump large post-indictment lead – bug or feature?

The New Neo Posted on by

From Red State, we have a post with the title “Oops! Democrats Did It Again – Trump Surges in Polls After Indictment.” Here’s the first paragraph:

A classic definition of insanity goes something like this: doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Apparently, Democrats and the left have yet to get this memo, because they continue to engage in it. A CBS/YouGov poll taken on June 9-10, shows former President Donald Trump blowing away his rivals for the Republican Presidential nomination. The poll was taken after Trump was indicted on Thursday over the handling of classified documents.

The author is ignoring a couple of things here. The first is that Trump has always been way ahead of any rivals in all polls so far in this election cycle. But the second is that there may be no “oops!” about this at all. It may be exactly what the left wants. In fact, from the start, I’ve thought that these indictments are designed with the goal of boosting Trump with primary voters on the right and handing him the nomination, and then hurting him in the general and just about guaranteeing Biden’s re-election or the election of any Democrat who might take Biden’s place. Therefore, to the Democrats, Trump’s strong polls against his Republican rivals are a feature rather than a bug.

And this is true even if you think that Democrat leaders are not all that worried about the election because they will cheat. Whether or not this cheating will happen, we certainly know they will rig, helped along by biased cooperative coverage in the MSM. But even though they may be very confident in victory, it certainly doesn’t hurt to make Trump even more toxic in the eyes of those voters in the middle who might otherwise vote for him.

In addition, a subsidiary goal of the left is that the indictment will have a chilling effect on anyone who might want to work for Trump or for his campaign. The threat of lawfare constantly hovers over their heads. Plus, of course, Trump and his family must be enduring extra pressure and stress from this, and it will last for the whole election cycle and beyond.

I think it’s often the case that people on the right underestimate the tactical intelligence of the left. At this point, though, I don’t know why anyone would.

Songs of friendship and comfort

The New Neo Posted on by

It’s a genre, and a rather large one. Here are just a few examples – heavy on the Bee Gees, of course.

I always liked Ringo’s quirky voice:

Early-ish Bee Gees:

Got to include this one. And she’s got my hair, although in a different color:

My guys again:

Back in the days when they were still speaking to each other:

I had this LP in college:

A single Bee Gee, Robin Gibb, recorded just a few years before he died but released posthumously:

And this one is about friendship, too. So beautiful:

Hopkins’ kingfishers and dragonflies

The New Neo Posted on by

[NOTE: I decided not to be as politics-intensive as usual today.]

I consider the poems of Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins to be among the greatest, and I’m going to highlight a single line from his poem entitled—well, the poem has no title, so I’ll just give you the line:

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame…

If you’d like to have some visual images to go with the word images, here are photos of a kingfisher and a dragonfly:

Here’s the entire poem:

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves – goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

I say more: the just man justices;
Kéeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is –
Christ – for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

No one ever said Hopkins was an easy poet. His work was almost entirely unknown during his lifetime, except to a few friends and colleagues, and only some of those select few even liked it. It was so very ahead of its time – Hopkins’ lifespan of 1844-1889 – that it was mostly considered just plain odd by those who did read it back then. And sometimes I think it’s even ahead of our time.

Nevertheless, at least a few of the people to whom Hopkins sent his poetry must have considered it worth something because, although Hopkins burned most of it when he entered the priesthood, he knew that some of his friends had copies, and at least one of them – Robert Bridges (future poet laureate of the UK) – preserved them. Although Bridges failed to convey much praise to his friend for his poetry during Hopkins’ lifetime, Bridges thought enough of it later on (1918) to publish it, long after Hopkins’ premature death.

In one of those ironies of which fate seems fond, Bridges’ poetry is pretty much forgotten these days, and he is remembered mostly for his role in preserving Hopkins’ work. It is Hopkins himself who is acknowledged (much like Emily Dickinson, another hidden poet) as one of the greatest poets the English language has ever known.

But that’s all background—it’s that first line I’m after:

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame

It is arresting on first reading it. But why? Well, it’s unusual, like almost all of Hopkins’ poetry. The imagery is lush and intense, emotional and sensual.

But it’s mostly the music of the language that gives it unusual force. That music is over-the-top too, although at the same time some of it is so subtle that the casual reader affected by it may never notice what Hopkins is actually up to. Some of the alliteration is obvious but some is partly hidden and done syllablically: the word “kingfishers” contains the “k” and then the “f” sound, followed by the words “catch” and “fire,” which start with those same sounds as well. Then Hopkins does the same thing with the “d” and “f” in “dragonflies” followed by “draw” and “flame.” You may not notice it, but you may respond to it, perhaps even without knowing to what you’re responding. And somehow, despite the extremity of the device, it’s saved from seeming contrived or sing-songy, because the words and images are so lovely and unexpected.

This celebratory poem (“and it was good”) was found among Hopkins’ papers after he died. It’s one of the few that was not sent to his friends, although it’s not clear why. Did he think it was one of his more inferior works? If so, the world has disagreed with him.

Dershowitz on the Trump indictment

The New Neo Posted on by

I think it’s always interesting to hear what Dershowitz has to say on any issue of law and politics, for the obvious reason that although he’s a lifelong Democrat he’s a reasonable and knowledgeable person. That doesn’t mean I always agree with him, of course. Here I mostly agree with him, except for his suggestion that both sides are somewhat equivalent in their politicization of the law.

Here are more of Dershowitz’s views on the subject.

As for my own – so far – you can find them here.

The Trump indictment and the audio: has Ahab finally caught the Great Orange Whale?

The New Neo Posted on by

There’s a lot to digest today, all of it incomplete. So I’ll start with a little discourse on law.

No system of law can be perfect or anything close to it. In the end, justice – or any approximation of it – rests on the people who implement the law. I’m talking about those who draft statutes, judges who interpret law and make rulings, professors who teach it, students who learn it, lawyers who practice it, pundits who write about it, and juries who decide about guilt.

And, of course, prosecutors who decide which people to prosecute. That is of the utmost importance, and one of the potential weak points, because not everyone who violates a law can be prosecuted. That would take way too much time and effort, because there are so many laws on the books. As lawyer Harvey Silverglate states in his book Three Felonies a Day (from the summary at that Amazon link):

…federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and…prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets. The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to “white collar criminals,” state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance.

The subtitle of Silverglate’s book is How the Feds Target the Innocent. But that’s hardly the whole story. An important part of the story is also whom among the guilty they target and whom they spare, and why.

I don’t know whether Trump is innocent or guilty of the letter of the statutes he is accused of violating, but I know that a Democrat would never be charged if he or she were in Trump’s shoes. And I know that, so far, Trump has been the target of many accusations based on lies, and Biden and so many other Democrats have not been charged despite all the evidence of their suspicious and arguably criminal behavior. For example, we have the Biden bribery allegations that the investigators have sat on for many years, including right before Biden’s election. Not to mention the coverup of the entire Hunter Biden laptop story.

It is the differential application of the legal system depending on politics, as well as the obvious willingness of government agencies to lie, that is so infuriating, outrageous, depressing, and frightening.

We have known for quite some time that Trump would probably be indicted for something connected with the supposedly classified documents at Mar Al Lago. I can’t recall when I first read it, but long ago – perhaps a month or so after the raid – but we’ve heard rumors that the documents in question were papers he had taken in order to exonerate himself in defense against some mendacious accusations against him. We also learned – and again, I’m not sure when I first heard it, but probably within the last month or two – that the DOJ had an audiotape of Trump admitting that the documents in question were classified and that he had not declassified them while he was president.

Today we got more information about both of those things (the link is to a CNN article, so make of that what you will):

Former President Donald Trump acknowledged on tape in a 2021 meeting that he had retained “secret” military information that he had not declassified, according to a transcript of the audio recording obtained by CNN.

“As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,” Trump says, according to the transcript.

CNN obtained the transcript of a portion of the meeting where Trump is discussing a classified Pentagon document about attacking Iran. In the audio recording, which CNN previously reported was obtained by prosecutors, Trump says that he did not declassify the document he’s referencing, according to the transcript.

I’ll pause here to note that this is both very strange and difficult to interpret, perhaps because CNN means it to be. I don’t think the entire transcript is available, at least not as I write this. So, why would Trump say something as strange as “here’s a document that’s classified, and although I could have declassified it I didn’t do so”? And was he speaking in general of other documents, or of the particular one concerning attacking Iran?

More:

CNN first reported last week that prosecutors had obtained the audio recording of Trump’s 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey, resort, with two people working on the autobiography of Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows as well as aides employed by the former president, including communications specialist Margo Martin.

The transcript of the audio recording suggests that Trump is showing the document he’s discussing to those in the room. Several sources have told CNN the recording captures the sound of paper rustling, as if Trump was waving the document around, though is not clear if it was the actual Iran document.

“Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Trump says at one point, according to the transcript. “This was done by the military and given to me.”

So, it appears that CNN is reporting on a transcript and did not hear the audio themselves. Who prepared the transcript, and who gave it to CNN? How accurate is it? Was anything left out or changed? We’ve seen excerpts of previous conversations that seemed very bad for Trump, and yet when the full story was revealed it was not especially bad at all. Is this one of those cases? Or is this the time Ahab finally will strike Moby Trump with his harpoon?

More:

Trump was complaining in the meeting about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. The meeting occurred shortly after The New Yorker published a story by Susan Glasser detailing how, in the final days of Trump’s presidency, Milley instructed the Joint Chiefs to ensure Trump issued no illegal orders and that he be informed if there was any concern.

“Well, with Milley – uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn’t that amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him,” Trump says, according to the transcript. “They presented me this – this is off the record, but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him. We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him.”

Now we have come to something that seems relevant to the rumor that Trump’s allegedly classified papers had to do with protecting himself from false allegations against him. I think what he may be saying here is that Milley had made some false accusation against him about something that was contained in the papers. This thing may have been plans to attack Iran, which he said were actually Milley’s plans and not his. So why didn’t Trump declassify the papers before he took them? Again, we don’t have a full transcript, but there’s this:

Trump continues: “All sorts of stuff – pages long, look. Wait a minute, let’s see here. I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this.”

“Secret” and “confidential” are two levels of classification for sensitive government documents.

Did he fail to declassify it because he had just found it among some other papers he took? And now he knew it was too late to do so? Possibly. That at least makes a certain amount of sense.

So now we can construct a tentative timeline. Perhaps the DOJ or FBI received the audio of this meeting first. Who made the recording? Who gave it to them? Was Trump aware he was being recorded? And then I would imagine that the DOJ and/or FBI decided to subpoena the document in question – whether or not they knew exactly what it might be – and it wasn’t delivered. That’s what they were searching for, apparently.

More:

In March, prosecutors subpoenaed Trump for the document referenced in the 2021 recording. Trump’s lawyers provided some documents related to Iran and Milley in response to the subpoena, but they could not find the document itself.

Maybe it doesn’t exist, at least not exactly as described in the audio, and that’s why the documents didn’t match what they thought they were looking for. Or maybe it does exist, and Trump kept it, because he thinks it exonerates him and implicates them in wrongdoing.

It somehow makes me think of a snake swallowing it’s own tail. If I have the scenario right, they’ve tried again and again to frame Trump, and in his effort to avoid one of those attempts, he actually may have committed a criminal act for which he will be prosecuted, perhaps successfully.

What a terrible terrible mess.

[NOTE: In CNN’s earlier report on the audio recording, they wrote that they had not listened to the audio but that “multiple sources described it.” It doesn’t name those sources, although it does say that prosecutors have the audio. Who gave the information to CNN? Was it someone from the prosecution? Is that misconduct (I have no idea what the answer is to that)? And who made the recording? The article says that “multiple people were making recordings” during that period of Trump’s life.

The article also indicates that Trump said that “if he could show [the document] to people, it would undermine what Milley was saying” (Milley had been accusing him of planning to attack Iran). To me, this would suggest that Trump did not show the contents to anyone in the room but was just describing its existence in order to assert his innocence.]

Sadness

The New Neo Posted on by

Commenter “stan” writes:

I got a real bad case of the sads this morning. Oh, I’m angry. I’m ready to fight. But for a few moments I felt grief.

America is dead. It’s been dying since 1993 and the finishing blow was likely in 2016. And it’s sad. I’m sad for my kids. I’m sad for what might have been. I’m sad when I fully contemplate the overwhelming amount of hate that has driven the destruction.

Agreed.

But I’d change that last date. I think the finishing blow was actually Obama’s election. I believe it was Obama’s successful implementation of the Gramscian march through the DOJ and other federal agencies that finally cemented our current abysmal situation. After his eight years in office everything was in place, and Trump was a mere blip on the radar screen and a temporary obstacle to be gotten rid of.

More from stan:

Biden, Obama, the Clintons and the rest of Big Brother’s politburo have made it perfectly clear. Soros and the dark money crowd, The NY Times, WaPo, the big tech censors — they aren’t fooling around. They intend to crush dissent. Crush.

…Their behavior makes it absolutely clear that they no longer believe they will ever be out of power again. The masks are off. It’s ugly. It looks more and more like they seriously want to provoke violence. And violence may be the only recourse that remains to save us.

The do want to provoke violence, but only because they believe – correctly, I think – that they will be able to crush it easily and to use it to further implicate and imprison those who oppose them. So I don’t think violence would save anyone or anything. I see something more like the Canadian truckers protest – but then again, look at what the government of Canada managed to do to them. The computerization of finance and just about everything else has enabled people to organize protests more easily, but it has extended government’s reach to disempower them even without using violence to do it.

More:

This is about dictatorial abuse of power. This is about that which EVERY moral, patriotic American should be united in opposition. Regardless of their policy preferences.

Indeed, they should be, but they are not. If they were, none of this would be happening and/or attempts at it certainly wouldn’t be successful. But for such a long time the public has been subjected to so much propaganda from the left, and education in civics and government has been so lacking, that close to half of America doesn’t see it that way. And even if they did, what would they be able to do about it?

So I’m sad. But I have been sad about this now for years. And I haven’t utterly given up hope. Just because I don’t see the way forward doesn’t mean that there isn’t a way forward. Life is unpredictable, and history unforeseeable for the most part.

Trump indicted versus Biden coverup

The New Neo Posted on by

Virtually everyone on the right has known for quite some time that our system of justice has become wholly political. There have been so many reasons to think that, but today we got what is probably the biggest one of all so far: the utterly asymmetrical mirror-image legal treatment of Trump versus Biden. It is not surprising but it is profoundly depressing.

I almost certainly will be writing more about this, probably tomorrow. For now I suggest you read this post at Ace’s about the Biden bribery allegation coverup that’s been going on for years, and this at Legal Insurrection concerning the Trump Mar-Al-Lago indictment. You might also want to take a look at this one about Biden’s chortling response to a question about the bribery allegations.

I had a lovely few hours today away from the news. I visited a friend whose son – someone my own son grew up with – was visiting her, along with his wife and small children. So much fun, laughter and a good meal. And then I came home to this news.

I’ll close with this:

“This story contains details some readers may find distressing”

The New Neo Posted on by

That quote in the BBC article is actually an understatement. The story is exceptionally distressing, and probably nearly 100% of readers would find it distressing.

Here’s what happened:

Four young children have been stabbed in a park near Lake Annecy, in France’s south-east.

Police overpowered and arrested the attacker, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said.

Authorities said the children were aged three or younger and most were in a critical condition…

Police have confirmed that the suspect is a 31-year-old Syrian, who had refugee status in Sweden.

The attacker has no criminal or psychiatric history. The fact that he is a refugee from Syria suggests terrorist activity, although authorities deny it. But it’s also possible he just went suddenly psychotic. The article also says he has a child in Sweden about the age of the children he stabbed. That to me seems potentially significant:

Police say the suspect has refugee status in Sweden and recently came to France, leaving behind a wife and three-year-old daughter. In an unsuccessful asylum application last year for refugee status in France, he said he was a Syrian Christian.

During the incident, the attacker invoked the name of Jesus Christ.

I find that last sentence difficult to believe. But if a person is bona fide insane – as in schizophrenic, for example, and hearing voices – anything is possible.

The man was apprehended by police after they shot him in the legs.

Prayers and hopes for a full recovery for all the victims.