I think it looks pretty good, actually. || Love machine, ladies. || Bling thing. || Contraband detected. || On transgender Reddit, euphoria abounds. || Balls and blocking. || On atomic weapons and bomb-like objects. || For lovers of glamour, those Hollywood vibes. || From 1981: Does Woking Want a Sex Shop? || On tiny tessellations and apian secretions. || Rooftop scenes. || Rooftop scenes 2. || Gentleman caller. || Congestion of note. || Gym juddering, Chile. || China, 1917. || Attention, fat chaps. || Incoming. || On the mend, I see. || Make your own Star Trek title cards. (h/t, Neatorama) || Today’s word is metaphor. || Meet the Rag and Bone Men, 1966. || Regarding fur. || Today’s other word is farming. || You can run your fingers through it. || And finally, fire from the Earth, fire from the sky.

To enable extra commenting options – including @username mentions, comment editing, upvotes, custom avatars, and live notifications – scroll down to the black ‘Meta’ box at the very bottom of the page and click register. It’s free and quite painless.

For additional rumblings, follow me on X.

Where employers must accommodate impossible pregnancies:

A lot of people have struggled to believe me when I say that the Australian Human Rights Commission is giving pregnancy protections in law to men who claim to be woman, because it’s so stupid it’s hard to believe anyone would say it.

Enjoy: pic.twitter.com/IveqVhN9KG

— Sall Grover (@salltweets) May 26, 2026

One more time. When you surrender to the lie, complications will ensue.

There may be perfectly rational reasons not to employ a cross-dressing man. Practical workplace complications, bathroom use, likely mental health issues, not wishing to participate in someone else’s psychodrama, things of that kind. A fear of him becoming pregnant is not, I’d suggest, one of them.

Previous adventures in the Land of Before Logic, where everything is terribly progressive, competitively so, can be found in the archives.

Among which, the “multicultural playgroup” in Sydney that’s all about “diversity” and “celebrating difference,” and which therefore turns away four-year-olds and their mothers for being “too white.” And where parents of suspicious pallor are promptly interrogated by staff on their “cultural background.”

And we mustn’t forget the implausible sorrows of Ms Cindy Prior, an administrator at the Queensland University of Technology, who invoked the “trauma” of sweating when politely questioned by students about the need for racially segregated computer labs.

Ms Prior, a woman of aboriginal descent, saw fit to seek damages of $250,000 from the students in court, where she claimed to have suffered “psychiatric injury” as a result of this enquiry. What with all the sweating. Ms Prior told the court that, such was her distress, she was “unable to continue working face-to-face with white people.” Ms Prior also objected to being “found ridiculous.”

Happily, her vexatious legal action, directed at three students, two staff members and the university itself, was not successful. It remains unclear whether anyone at the university belatedly realised that a job entailing the denial of access to computer resources on the basis of race – specifically, being white – might attract racists with personality disorders.

Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and so forth.

A question is asked and answered:

Highly neurotic, antagonistic, passive-aggressive. Borderline. https://t.co/xFEKa2jooG

— J.D. Haltigan, PhD 🏒👨‍💻 (@JDHaltigan) May 24, 2026

Bluesky is, it has to be said, a strange, unhappy place. One where everything, but everything, is fraught, problematic and seething with complication.

Including grilled cheese sandwiches and the paranormal:

Readers may recall previous mentions of the platform as a favoured watering hole for those who demand the pre-emptive deletion of untoward thoughts:

Got banned from BIuesky within the first 30 seconds for posting a biological fact pic.twitter.com/uxQzPVn2SR

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 17, 2024

People so immensely progressive that they are enraged by even polite statements of fact. Such that, in response to polite statements of fact, they issue repeated, quite colourful death threats and publicly share the polite person’s home address, including photos of his front door and directions to the nearest subway station.

One might almost appreciate the attention to detail.

People so immensely progressive that they then complain that the person being threatened, by them, has taken screenshots of said threats. Because, in the world of the immensely progressive, that constitutes harassment, the “doxing” of trans people, and indeed “trying to have them killed.” By simply quoting their own words.

Update, via the comments:

Rafi quotes this,

And adds,

Answers on a postcard, please.

The whole thing had an air of inversion and unrealism, of something not unlike madness. It called to mind the James Damore ‘Google memo’ incident, detailed here, or Cathy Newman’s bewildering interview with Jordan Peterson. It didn’t feel like a difference in political outlook, so much as one of incompatible psychology. It became quite surreal.

At one point, Mr Singal was the most blocked person on Bluesky*, with mass reporting campaigns and a petition of at least 18,000 Bluesky users demanding that he be banished immediately. Amid endless, openly malicious efforts at defamation and numerous, quite vivid demands that he be killed, with helpful instructions on how to go about that task.

The participants in this weird fever included Harvard-educated professionals, or supposed professionals, and alleged champions of decency and justice. Albeit of a kind who favour gratuitous pronouns in their bios, and who claim that the US is a “totalitarian fascist state.”

And lest we forget, this uproar, this psychotic reaction – what some have dubbed a tightening purity spiral – was not a result of Mr Singal being rude or abusive or racist or indecent, or anything of that sort. But for politely correcting factual errors and suggesting that maybe, just maybe, children shouldn’t be drugged and mutilated such that their lives will be forever ruined.

That’s quite a feat.

Much of the left-leaning tech-related media joined in the farce, of course, with claims that “marginalised communities” – people “who escaped Twitter” – escaped! – “now feel their Bluesky experience is at risk because of Singal’s joining.” As if he, one man, a political liberal who has only ever voted for Democrat candidates, were befouling their paradise, their refuge, “harassing” users with his polite statements of fact.

Taken as a snapshot of progressive psychology, a general mindset – like the ‘Google memo’ saga and the Cathy Newman interview – it was quite… revealing.

*That title, of most blocked, is now held by JD Vance, The official White House account, and the US Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Misstep to remember. || A Trip to the Planets, 1963. || Trial and error. || Cleaving scenes. || Question asked. || Camouflage insufficient. || You must listen without questioning. || Not-so-small small intestines. || Teens. || Yes, it will be on the test. || Bra testing of note. || Briefly airborne. || A binary was detected. || Hungry bear encounters pigs. ||  Spray thoroughly. || Specialised sauce mop. || Not exactly helping his case, I fear. || The progressive retail experience, parts 728 and 729. || Why pigeons don’t rule the Earth. || A project was undertaken. || Do you want to see her nipples? || “Homer Simpson arse shoes.” || The science-fiction cover art of Richard M Powers. (h/t, Things) || Outdoor fun for all the family. || For oldies who miss dials. || And finally, on the ease of using international email, 1986.

To enable extra commenting options – including @username mentions, comment editing, upvotes, custom avatars, and live notifications – scroll down to the black ‘Meta’ box at the very bottom of the page and click register. It’s free and quite painless.

For additional rumblings, follow me on X.

In the comments, Pst314 and Dicentra steer us to new realms of niche woe:

An exchange of views ensues.

In which, Ms Taylor Lorenz, an “online culture journalist,” struggles with causality. Including the seemingly difficult concept that a heavy reliance on delivered takeaway, and the mindset that implies, may have some bearing on how little cash one has left at the end of the month. And so, via some contortion, we arrive at the conceit that preparing a simple meal, even a packed lunch, is a physical impossibility for those deemed downtrodden.

Readers may note that, during the exchange, the more excuses that Ms Lorenz conjures into being, the more she pretends to care, the less she sounds like an actual person so much as a weird programme that’s been left running.

Despite Ms Lorenz’s pretence of cosmopolitan expertise, there’s no sense at any point in the exchange that the topic has actually been thought about, autonomously, poked at from various angles. Her mouthings merely suggest someone who’s memorised some pre-approved excuses for suboptimal behaviour. I don’t believe that any actual thinking has taken place.

Instead, there’s a sense that Ms Lorenz has merely recalled the mouth sounds that will denote some fashionable stance, an approved position, one selected well in advance of any mental activity.

Should any occur.

Update, via the comments:

Chow Bag adds,

When not dining out, that is.

At risk of sounding insufficiently sensitive, I’d suggest that if your life is so disorganised that you use delivered-to-the-door takeaway services for the bulk of your meals, week after week, in ways you cannot afford, then the problem, the actual problem, is your being so disorganised.

Readers will note how Ms Lorenz has to add implausible and contradictory complications to bolster her assertion.

And so, not only are these weirdly incompetent young people all working double shifts, every day, every week, but they’re also elderly and disabled and unable to operate a hob or reach for kitchen utensils. And they’re so pressed for time, so downtrodden, that they can afford to spend half of their food budget on dining out in restaurants.

As one does.

I doubt it’s ever occurred to Ms Lorenz that, by excusing foolish, unaffordable behaviour and the habitual displacement of responsibility, by encouraging the cultivation of victimhood, she’s making poverty more likely, and more likely to persist.

Her supposedly compassionate philosophy, such as it is, seems to be, “Carry on doing that really stupid thing. Just remember to blame other people for your own bewildering choices.”

Ms Lorenz has subsequently restricted who may reply to her assertions.

Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.