Wings Over Scotland

Arrgh! New comments page means my song lyrics on previous page will be missed and never make the big time…

@galamcennalath

Regards the singer you’re asking about, I played a video on Off Topic shortly after the referendum. I believe it features the same song that you are looking for. This video has now had 65 million views on youtube, not bad for a Scottish mountain biker.

link to youtube.com

The singer is Fiona Hunter and this is her singing said song last year at the Glasgow Hydro with Danny Macaskill the mountain biker from Skye who features in the first video.

link to youtube.com

While I’m at it. Remember, sex is grounded in biology, gender is grounded in the psychology of the self (as we relate to the world around us). Creating law that conflates sex with gender, undermines legal reason and the potential for rational jurisprudence.

Gender mainstreaming as feminist politics
A critical analysis of the pursuit of gender equality in
Swedish local government
link to oru.diva-portal.org

@Edinburgh University
Better get this sorted before if gets out of hand. No charge, that’s free advice.

Global Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights

Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights

On the re-affirmation of women’s sex-based rights, including women’s rights to physical and reproductive integrity, and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls that result from the replacement of the category of sex with that of ‘gender identity’, and from ‘surrogate’ motherhood and related practices.

Introduction

This Declaration reaffirms the sex-based rights of women which are set out in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1979 (CEDAW), further developed in the CEDAW Committee General Recommendations, and adopted, inter alia, in the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women 1993 (UNDEVW)….

link to speakupforwomen.nz

Bravo Sofonisba Anguissola.

The (dis)establishment of gender:
Care and gender roles in the family as a constitutional matter

Abstract

This article reasons that for women, as constitutional subjects, the emancipatory promise of constitutionalism was – from its inception – fundamentally limited by the entrenchment of the separate spheres tradition. Focusing on evolving constitutional jurisprudence in the US, Germany and Italy, the article describes a gradual and still imperfect process of (dis)establishment of the originally enshrined gender order, as it has unfolded since the 1970s in US and European constitutionalism.

It is argued that these processes have allowed the constitutional doctrine of sex equality to challenge the most forthright expressions of the separate spheres ideology, denying the possibility of according men and women a different legal status of rights and duties and keeping women away from the marketplace. In spite of this, to this day, the sex constitutional equality doctrine has been an inadequate tool to fully subvert the pre=established gender order in both its transatlantic iterations. In the US, we find assimilationist workerism with its anti-stereotyping conception of gender equality, providing no support for working women, and in Europe accommodationist workerism, wherein special measures are fostered at the risk of entrenching rather than subverting existing gender roles.

The article then describes recent evolutions in constitutionalism pointing to a promising third way, with Nordic inspiration, which, challenging traditionally accepted notions of family privacy and foregrounding fatherhood as opposed to just motherhood, would allow us to retain the central importance attached to care and reproduction, but at the same time assist in the process of overcoming traditional gender assumptions and stereotypes built around them.

link to academic.oup.com

@galamcennalath

The song played on the Yes bikers video wasn’t Fiona Hunter after all, it’s the same song but the singer you seek was this one.

link to youtube.com

The clue was on the link you posted lol.

Link
link to journals.sagepub.com

Sorry.

This article also reviews the liberal-hedonistic context of the new postmodern setting, while showing how the concepts of “a subjective feeling of happiness” and “a life fulfilled” do not express similar content.

I’ve just read two news reports: one about how Universal Credit is causing poverty, hunger and homelessness and one about how Harry n Megan are spending 3.2 million doing up their multi-bedroomed ‘cottage’. I am physically incapable of screaming loud enough to express my disgust, anger and despair at what Britain has become. I feel myself becoming more hopeless every day that there will ever be fairness or even simple human decency in UK government. We have to get out of it before it corrodes what little is left of our souls. I wish I knew how to convince nay-sayers to stop supping Westminster’s poison and I also wish that the thieving, heartless bastards that infest the dungheap would all lose their jobs, their homes and their health. Then they might know how real people feel. I know this is pointless but I had to put it down somewhere lest I choke on my outrage.

Now this is sheer class and a version I’d never seen before. Cockney Rebel from 1975 and a top quality video.

link to youtube.com

@CameronB Brodie

I thought it might have been another lengthy essay but I’ll give you 10/10 for that, was cool 🙂

Thepnr
Cheers mate, I’ll need to tag post as ‘heavy’ or ‘light’. 😉

George Baker- Little Green Bag

Yes you do know it 🙂

link to youtube.com

I’m not a cat lover, but if you have chunky bills, I’d join any crowsfund.

Hi Thepnr.

It’s actually on YouTube.

link to youtube.com

Here’s what I’m hoping for in the Tory election contest.

Boris Johnson is victorious and becomes leader of the Tory party, he pulls the UK out of the EU with no deal by 31st October.

Then he sorts out the Scotland “problem” by abolishing the Barnett Formula and lets the treasury decide how much pocket money Holyrood will be allowed to spend with no regard to needs or spending in England, he just cuts our money.

This satisfies the more rabid supporter of the Tories in England and wins him more kudos.

No money now for free university tuition or personal care for the elderly in Scotland. Prescription charges to be the same as the rUK and why not? Holyrood won’t be shutdown it would be neutered, no cash for them.

Bojo WINS Scotland LOL.

In your dreams, bring it on Bojo, I really can’t wait for you to become Prime Minister and guarantee our Independence.

British nationalists really need to take a long look at themselves and the value they place on constitutional democracy, IMHO. So here’s a post-structural analysis inspired interpretation of the neo-feudal structurally racist nature of the full-English Brexit. Nice. 😉

Learning To Play The Shenanigan
link to youtube.com

For Jo Swinson 🙂

link to youtube.com

Stanley Baxter does Regional Accents, 1973. (2mins)
Interesting/ironic to note that the only region to suffer microphone problems in this sketch is, yes you guessed it, Glasgow…

link to youtube.com
Stanley Baxter – Parliamo Glasgow – Mia Farra’s farra, the marra & the barra (6 mins)

link to youtube.com
“3 Ways to Sound More British” | Pronunciation Lesson (6 mins)
“Learn to speak with a British English Accent with this pronunciation lesson! 3 tips to improve your British English accent.”
🙂
Pay attention Jo!

Just want to congratulate Dan on his latest opus, (up the thread) with regard to a new song to promote independence.

From a Taff who (despite his stereotypical nationality) sings like a crow with a sore throat but appreciates creativity.

@OwenJones84
That’s one side of the medical-legal model, so here’s the other side. How you gonna woke your way out of this and why do you want to undermine women’s rights? Remember, according to your former boss, Severin Carrell (a.k.a. the “Semiotic Kid”), ‘we live in a semiotic world’. So stop using words to mean what you want them to mean!

Reporting Sex, Gender, or Both in Clinical Research?

Virtually every clinical research report includes basic demographic characteristics about the study participants, such as age, and how many participants were male/men or female/women. Some research articles refer to this latter variable as sex, others refer to it as gender. As one of the first pieces of data reported, the importance of including sex appears undisputed. But what does the sex-gender category really entail, and how should it be reported?

With emerging evidence that both sex and gender have an effect, for instance, on how an individual selects, responds to, metabolizes, and adheres to a particular drug regimen,1 there is an ethical and scientific imperative to report to whom research results apply. This Viewpoint explains the contexts in which sex and gender are relevant and provides suggestions for improving reporting of this characteristic.

link to jamanetwork.com

@OwenJones84
See if you can get up from this, woke-boy. Natural law is vital to the delivery of justice but the ‘type’ of natural law is important. It can also become harmful if language is dislocated from contextual meaning. It is vital that a “plain language” understanding of “sex” is safeguarded to secure safeguarding and stuff, IMHO. Conflating sex with gender is inherently anti-social and, somewhat paradoxically, undermines the potential for inclusiveness and diversity.

Our statement on sex and gender reassignment: legal protections and language

As the national body charged with protecting and promoting equality and human rights in Britain, we welcome the Scottish and UK governments’ consultations on proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to remove unnecessary barriers trans people currently face in obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) in England, Wales and Scotland.

In UK law, ‘sex’ is understood as binary, with a person’s legal sex being determined by what is recorded on their birth certificate. A trans person can change their legal sex by obtaining a GRC. A trans person who does not have a GRC retains the sex recorded on their birth certificate for legal purposes.

The Equality Act 2010 protects individuals sharing a protected characteristic from discrimination and harassment. Protected characteristics include sex (being a man or a woman) and gender reassignment (an individual who is ‘proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process or part of a process to reassign their sex). There is no requirement for a trans person to have any kind of medical supervision or intervention in order to be protected from gender reassignment discrimination.

Certain exceptions in the Act set out circumstances in which it is permissible to treat someone differently because of their sex or gender reassignment, for reasons of public policy or to protect the rights of others. The use of such exceptions generally needs to be justified as being a proportionate way to achieve a legitimate objective. This will often require a case-by-case approach to determine what is legitimate and proportionate in any given circumstance….

….’Gender’ refers to socially constructed roles of women and men and/or an individual’s conception of their identity. The term is often used interchangeably with ‘sex’, partly in recognition that much of the inequality between women and men is driven by underlying social and power structures rather than by biological sex. Although the Equality Act protects people from discrimination because of their sex, other UK legislation (such as the regulations requiring employers to publish their gender pay gap) refers to gender. This may cause confusion in some circumstances. To avoid any ambiguity, we are reviewing our use of language across our website and publications to ensure clarity and consistency. However, it is important to note that any mistaken or structural use of the term gender does not affect how the law works in practice.

As with the Scotland consultation, in preparing our response to the England and Wales consultation we will consult widely and give careful consideration to the need to respect the rights of all individuals affected by any proposed changes. The issues at stake are complex and personal, and we are aware that some people have expressed concerns and uncertainty about the effect of change. It is essential that we all continue to engage in a constructive and respectful way when we have these important conversations, in order to understand the full implications of the current system and any proposed changes to it. We will respond to the consultation in due course.

link to equalityhumanrights.com

P.S. It is disheartening to note that The Equality and Human Rights Commission appear to conflate sex with gender themselves. But then again, Scots are unable to access constitutional justice and must make-do with the human rights that Westminster considers politically acceptable (see the “Right to Development” and the full-English Brexit, for example).

P.P.S. Has a “constructionist” interpretation of “sex” colonised legal doctrine in Britain?

The trans-rights movement is not selling intersectional feminism, they are selling the colonisation of womanhood by men who’s psychology is disordered from their physiology.

I’m sorry for taking up so much space but I might as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb. So here’s one with The Royal Astronomical Society in mind. The SNP and Scotland’s judiciary could do worse than giving themselves a shake, as well.

Legal Realism and Natural Law

Abstract:

The possibility of any meaningful relationship between the legal realists and natural law looks at first rather far-fetched. When it first appeared on the jurisprudential scene, legal realism was savagely attacked by proponents of natural law theory. To this day legal realism is depicted as a modernist, critical, at times almost nihilist approach to law, the polar opposite of the ancient natural law theory that traces its roots to Greek and Roman philosophy, and insists on unchanging objective values. And yet, two of the most famous legal realists, Karl Llewellyn and Jerome Frank, expressed in some of their writings more than a passing endorsement of natural law theory.

The purpose of this essay is to try and explain this seemingly odd aspect of their work and in this way help in reassessing their work. We do so by explaining how they understood natural law and how they incorporated it in their work. Though they did not understand the term in precisely the same way, for both of them natural law was connected to the values of the community, which both of them thought were central to understanding law, for explaining how it could remain relatively certain, and ultimately, how it derived its authority.

Keywords:
Legal realism, natural law, Karl Llewellyn, Jerome Frank, jurisprudence

digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=olsrps

One for our politicians who think they are advancing diversity and inclusion by disregarding science and law, in order to claim that TWAW.

Why Has the Ethics of Care Become an Issue of Global Concern?

Abstract

Since Carol Gilligan published her masterpiece, In a Different Voice, many scholars, especially feminist scholars in various fields, including moral theory, philosophy, and political and legal theory, have been inspired to establish a more inclusive approach to social injustice as well as sexual inequality. The purpose of this article is to explore the depth and expanse of the ethics of care for its potential as a political philosophy. To pursue this end, the article analyzes first the main claims of care ethics by responding to its typical counterarguments, which criticize the ethics of care as being too dependent on gender differences, particularism, and essentialism.

The second section examines three challenges that care ethics poses to the male-oriented mainstream of political philosophy, especially the theory of justice. The ethics of care provides us with a new approach to moral and political issues because it focuses responsively on social injustice, proposes a new idea of relational self and takes the social connection model to justice. With these three perspectives proposed by the ethics of care in mind, the article turns its eyes to global implications of care ethics by referring to the issue of the “comfort women” of Japanese troops during the Second World War.

link to onlinelibrary.wiley.com

P.S. I wonder how many of these “comfort women” had cocks?

@SNP management
You have a responsibility to manage your team effectively. “Sex” is defined and protected by law. Trans-women do not poses the sexual epistemology of biological women, so they have no right to claim women’s sex-based rights. Get you members telt.

The Tort of Negligence – Establishing a Duty of Care
link to cfrlaw.co.uk

This trans-rights movement has certainly put a fox in the hen-house. Not only in Scotland mind. Like I said, conflating sex with gender undermines women’s rights and, subsequently, their social position.

Backlash in Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Rights

Abstract

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the FEMM Committee, is designed to identify in which fields and by which means the backlash in gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights in six countries (Austria, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia) is occurring. The backlash, which has been happening over the last several years, has decreased the level of protection of women and girls and reduced access to their rights.

Overview of the political and theoretical context. The “gender ideology” debate

There are two terms that are used to refer to a reversal to previously accepted norms and a decline in “progress” in the field of women’s rights and gender equality. Backsliding is used in political science to describe a reversal in transitions to liberal democracies,10 whereas backlash is used in feminist journalism and academia to describe a reversal of progress with implementing feminist equality policies and related language. The latter term was first used by Susan Faludi in her 1991 book on Reagan’s 1980s that, in her analysis, thwarted the progress that women had achieved in the 1970s in the form of a challenge by the New Right.11

The English word “gender” in its sociological-feminist sense has not become mainstream in the languages of the aforementioned countries outside academia, and usually cannot be translated using a single word.12

Discussion of the origin and development of the ideological and popular movement against “gender ideology” or “gender theory” which started in around 2012 in Europe continues to be a hot topic, but appears to be based on some earlier (mainly religious) schools of thought from the early 2000s.13 Outside Europe, other words are being used to describe the phenomenon such as “Cultural Marxism”, “Gayropa” (post-Soviet countries and Russia) and “political correctness” (USA). Different human rights issues are under attack in these mobilisations, from women’s reproductive rights through LGBTQI rights to technical governance methods (gender mainstreaming) and the academic discipline of gender studies.

Much of the analysis is placed in this ‘backlash’ framework that is shared by academia, gender experts, feminists, and LGBTQI activists. However, there is also growing left-wing criticism of the (often also left-wing) backlash discourse, especially focusing on East-Central Europe, which seeks to examine regional differences and to move away from ideological oppositions to understand how the transition to the market economy policies have affected women and why this region has become susceptible to such attacks on modernism.

The human rights paradigm of the EU, it is argued, while focusing on the individual rights of women, does not treat the injustices emerging from the economic order that developed after the transition of 1989 and the austerity policies after the 2008 crisis which affect the everyday lives of women.14 The two most comprehensive edited volumes on the topic are: Gender as Symbolic Glue (Kovacs & Poim, 2015)15 and Anti-Gender, Mobilizing against Equality Campaigns in Europe (Kuhar & Paternotte, 2017).

On the one hand, it is argued that such attacks represent cultural backsliding against social changes (gender equality, sexual rights, abortion, in-vitro and assisted fertility treatments, interpretation of the causes of violence against women as contained in the Istanbul Convention, gay and trans rights and same sex marriage, and adoption by same-sex couples), a critique of modernity, or a “conservative revolution”.16 To quote one academic analysis: “To use a substantive but contextualized approach we define backsliding as states going back on previous commitments to gender equality norms.

We operationalize policy backsliding in the field of gender equality along four complementary dimensions: 1) discursive (de)legitimation of gender policy objectives; 2) dismantling and reframing existent policies, 3) backsliding in implementing institutions, coordination, policy programming and funding, 4) dismantling accountability and inclusion mechanisms.”17

On the other hand, it has been shown that the meaning of “gender” itself has changed over time, and may be being used differently by policy-makers and activists. Some issues monopolised by the “war on gender” also deeply divide the feminist movement (e.g. gender as an innate feeling in identity politics vs. gender as social construction, trans rights for children, and surrogacy, just to name a few). To quote one expert, Kováts states that:

“First, in the English speaking context gender became widely a substitute of biological sex (e.g. in the case when we speak about gender quotas or gender pay gap, what is meant is male-female ratio). Second, it came to mean women, e.g. gender analysis in policy-making is often used to describe how this or that measure would affect women (and less, as intended, gender relations). Third, it is an analytical category to describe the social quality of distinctions based on sex, the power structures in a given society, between men and women, and the roles, possibilities and constraints in society, assigned on being born male or female (e.g. if we speak about gender-based violence, it refers to the gendered nature of a specific type of violence, rooted in the prevailing patriarchal structure of our societies). Fourth, many use it in the trans and genderqueer activism to mean gender identity18 (a person’s felt sense of identity and expressions, meaning identifying or not with being born male or female).”19 The same author argues that “…the vehement debates on the continent about “gender ideology” seem to be connected to the current contestations in the Anglo-Saxon world about identity politics, a simplified notion of intersectionality and gender understood as identity.”20

In our study we claim that a backlash in women’s rights is on-going in relation to certain topics (sexual and reproductive health and rights, institutional mechanisms, Istanbul Convention’s ratification, rhetorics, women’s rights civil space, etc.) while there is progress in other areas, mostly disguised as family policy (in family and care policies and the reconciliation of work and private life) at the same time. Sometimes, as in the case of work-life balance, rhetoric about mothers as innate primary caretakers of children contradicts the actual practice of helping working mothers with new policies re-enter the labour market after childbirth earlier, although these are not framed as being related to gender equality. A comprehensive picture can only be created by understanding both these trends.

link to europarl.europa.eu(2018)604955_EN.pdf

re. the popular urban myth of ‘lady-dick’ and how lesbians must accept them. This rhetorical device is used by trans-activist to shame women into submission, and is an infringement of basic human rights. No man has a right to have sex with a woman. Trans-women are not women, they are trans-women.

Do We Need a Sex/Gender Distinction?

1. The Context of the Distinction

The original context of the distinction was given by Robert
Stoller:

With a few exceptions there are two sexes, male and female. To determine sex one must assay the following conditions – chromosomes, external genitalia, internal genitalia, gonads, hormonal states, and secondary sex characteristics …. One’s sex, then, is determined by an
algebraic sum of all these qualities, and as is obvious, most people fall under one of the two separate bell curves, the one of which is called ‘male’, the other ‘female’.

Gender is a term that has psychological and cultural rather than biological connotations; if the proper terms for sex are ‘male’ and ‘female’, the corresponding terms for gender are ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’, these latter being quite independent of (biological) sex. Gender is the amount of masculinity and femininity found in a person, and obviously, while there are mixtures of both in many humans, the normal male has a preponderance of masculinity and the normal ‘female’ a preponderance of femininity.4

Ann Oakley, whose book Sex, Gender and Society helped popularise the distinction, sums up: ‘Sex is a biological term; “gender” a psychological and cultural one.’5

The concept was developed further by sex-role theory, in terms of ‘sex-role stereotyping’. If sex is given in terms of the biological characteristics set out above, one’s gender is given by one’s sex-role, that behaviour which forms a role or is deemed appropriate for a person of a given sex. Such a notion is both heavily normative (although the role notion is neatly ambiguous between a normative and descriptive sense of role6) and relative to a particular society, place and time where the deeming is done.

This notion of gender assumes a simple set of uniform social expectations for gender apparently taken as shared by all members of society, and neglects or fails to invite questions about social dynamics, power, and whose expectations are relevant. The degree of conformity to one’s sex-role is the measure of gender, one’s degree of masculinity, femininity, and one’s successful socialisation into the appropriate role.

But although the distinction initially appeared within this context it would be a mistake to view it as irrevocably tied to such a behavioural context, or to a context of role theory, or socialisation theory. Many current aspects of the use of the distinction do not need to rely on the extra theoretical baggage which these contexts impart to it. The distinction does not stand or fall then with the context in which it was introduced, and now leads a somewhat independent life.

In order to see how far the distiction is necessary and how far it might be reconstructed in a different context, it is important to look at its major functions and uses. I don’t want to suggest that the use of the distinction is always clear-cut. In fact there seems to be a good deal of confusion about some areas of use. For example, we usually speak of love between the sexes. But if it is as social beings, both embodied and as a part of society which treats that body in certain ways, that men and women love one another, then it is love between the genders which is in question.

Clearly there are confused uses about, and often the distinction seems little more than a nuisance, insisting that we make a choice and division (is it biological or social love?) where no choice seems needed or indeed possible or relevant. We need a piece of inclusive terminology too it seems, for when we can’t or we don’t need to make a distinction. Nevertheless the distinction does have a real point, as I argue below.

link to radicalphilosophy.com

P.S. As far as I’m aware, martial rape was outlawed in Britain as recently as the 1990’s. Legal doctrine is inherently sexist, hence feminist jurisprudence.

Is it not obvious why lesbians are being discriminated against? Firstly, their sexual preference means they have no need for men, which is an affront to patriarchy. Second, they are the ones most threatened by “lady dick”, so most resistant to law that would endanger them. Third, a large portion of Britain’s homosexuals are misogynistic dickheads (see Owen Jones, for example), so lesbians can whistle if they expect any solidarity from the homosexual mainstream. As such, lesbians will be excluded from woke society.

Veruca Salt – Seether
link to youtube.com

The last paragraph wasn’t meant to be indented, as i wasn’t part of the quote. Sorry.

Just in case the Rev. is too busy to clean-up after me.

Feminism, Foucault, and R4ape: A Theory and
Politics of R4pe Prevention
link to scholarship.law.berkeley.edu

Not been much in here of late, it seems, so here’s a wee musical interlude with a message of which you might all possibly approve:

link to youtube.com

As that one wasn’t particularly ‘easy-access’.

Human Rights Advocacy on Gender Issues: Challenges and Opportunities
link to academic.oup.com

O/T
I will be talking to a bad boy tonight (just outa the jile) who has quite a lot to say about how we deal with crime and prisons etc on my Roundabout show at 7 pm on Argyll Independent Radio online -if he turns up (or hasn’t been nicked again).

Some real stuff

link to youtube.com

Can I talk about sex again? Well, I’ve a bit of a one-track mind, tbh. Sex-classes must remain grounded in biology if they are to have any practical value, so here’s an ethical way to determine whether trans-women are women or whether they are trans-women. 😉

Why Are There So Many Theories for Sex,
and What Do We Do with Them?

Abstract

It is widely known that there exists a multitude of possible explanations for the maintenance of sex; however, it is less clear how to handle such an explanatory pluralism. In this paper, we address one older and one more recent discussion on what might constitute a good theory for sex and find that they reflect a trade-off between maximizing the scientific virtues of generalism, realism, and precision.

A historical analysis indicates that varying research interests and research backgrounds of the different biologists shape the trade-off. We use the reflection on the trade-offs in order to understand the existence of the diversity of theories in the field and discuss how to address the explanatory pluralism.

We find that the existence of multiple theories for sex, that is, explanatory pluralism, is not surprising or embarrassing but can be seen as a resource. Still, it is important to clarify the possibilities of integration of different theories. Integration between certain theories might be complex, however, as they involve models and theories from different disciplines that have diverged historically in both conceptual and methodological aspects.

explanatory pluralism, Levins, maintenance of sex, philosophy of science, trade-off

link to academic.oup.com

The reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 is so named, as it refers to the re-assignment of “gender” and not “sex”. It is not possible to self-determine one’s sex.

Aretha Franklin – (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
link to youtube.com

P.S. I like the role reversal in Shania’s backing band, compared to Robert Palmer’s earlier hit “Addicted to Love”.
Shania went with himbos, where Robert went with bimbos. 🙂

link to youtube.com
Robert Palmer – “Addicted To Love” (1986)

Evenin’ aye anna recent WingsScotland twitter re-tweety:

link to twitter.com

Q. Take away ALL of the WORDS from the ad board, what do you see?

A. Cunt.

@Jo Swinson
In order to believe that trans-women are literally women, one has to reject the biopsychosocial model of health. Queer theory in law seeks to challenge existing norms, which is nice, but should not trump ethical reason. Trans-women are trans-women, so they do not have any human right to claim sex-based rights accorded to biological women.

Or do you think “womanhood” is solely an emotional state relating to patriarchal stereotypes?

The Neuropsychology of Sex Differences in Human Brain Organization

Abstract

Over the past decade, the media have focused much interest on the topic of sex differences in cognitive abilities, behavior and human brain organization. As the demand for information increased, so too did the amount of speculation, distortion and oversimplification of the original facts and theories. Indeed, there seemed to be an inverse relationship between the limited knowledge base and the proliferation of non-scientific publications.

This paper intends to redress the imbalance by summarizing some important clinical discoveries in the past five years pertaining to sex differences in human brain organization of verbal and spatial abilities (for review of previous data see McGlone, 1980). Emphasis will be placed on prospective studies of neurological patients with localized brain dysfunction caused by disease, surgery, drug injection or direct electrical stimulation.

Keywords
Mental Rotation Spatial Ability Verbal Skill Hemisphere Lesion Cerebral Organization

link to nobaproject.com

Oops, I’m sure folk could have search for themselves, but here’s the correct link to the brain science above.

link to link.springer.com

@BDTT –

FFS! That’s the first time I’ve seen that longer version, only ever saw clips before.

Feels like an awful long time ago now. And how much credit has to go to a certain Ronnie Anderson for making those demos so effective?

😉

I forgot to sign-off but I appear to be on a bit of a role, not a bap.

N.B. From the perspective of Critical Philosophy and Critical Sociology, “performativity” should be viewed as mode of being that conforms to the neo-liberal transformation of society, i.e. it appears to offer choice but actually bolsters patriarchy.

Gender Trouble in Social Psychology: How Can Butler’s Work Inform Experimental Social Psychologists’ Conceptualization of Gender?

Abstract

A quarter of a century ago, philosopher Judith Butler (1990) called upon society to create “gender trouble” by disrupting the binary view of sex, gender, and sexuality. She argued that gender, rather than being an essential quality following from biological sex, or an inherent identity, is an act which grows out of, reinforces, and is reinforced by, societal norms and creates the illusion of binary sex.

Despite the fact that Butler’s philosophical approach to understanding gender has many resonances with a large body of gender research being conducted by social psychologists, little theorizing and research within experimental social psychology has drawn directly on Butler’s ideas.

In this paper, we will discuss how Butler’s ideas can add to experimental social psychologists’ understanding of gender. We describe the Butler’s ideas from Gender Trouble and discuss the ways in which they fit with current conceptualizations of gender in experimental social psychology. We then propose a series of new research questions that arise from this integration of Butler’s work and the social psychological literature. Finally, we suggest a number of concrete ways in which experimental social psychologists can incorporate notions of gender performativity and gender trouble into the ways in which they research gender.

Keywords: gender trouble, gender, gender performativity, social psychology, non-binary gender, genderqueer, Judith Butler

link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Jokers – Soul Sound
link to youtube.com

Ultimately, most of us just want to be healthy, happy and left in peace to do our own thing. Unfortunately, modern politics in the immanent state of Brexitania, is not conducive to respecting inalienable human rights of many (see austerity and the full-English Brexit). So I’m a wee bit sorry for the length of this post, but sometimes stepping back from a situation can reveal illuminating context.

Rereading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Plurality and Contestation, not Consensus

3. Contested Dignity, or, Where Agreement Stops and Politics Begins

The idea of human dignity is central in the UDHR. Parekh sums up the issue, saying ‘Ultimately the assumption of the natural dignity of human being became part of the UDHR despite the attempts by the drafters to keep the language neutral on this topic.’ (Parekh 2007, 763) Supporter and critic alike agree that “human dignity” in the UDHR points to the essential human characteristics that give rights their authority, where they part company is on whether a neutral and consensual definition was achieved – or is possible at all.

There are two problems with this understanding. First, the focus on a neutral account of dignity, or its absence, is required by the legislative understanding of rights, which sees them as moral principles that determinately limit the boundaries of politics. If we reject this view in favor of an agonistic one, then the contestation over, and ambiguity of, human dignity is as important as the consensus, or lack thereof. This highlights the second problem with conventional understandings of human dignity in the UDHR: they only focus on those elements emphasizing the need for, and achievement of, consensus – leaving the contest over the meaning of dignity under-examined.

In this section, I focus on why the drafters19 thought human dignity was so important to the UDHR, as well as how they disagreed about the meaning of dignity, which suggests that rather than achieving a consensus, the UDHR is an early opening in an ongoing discussion of human dignity and its significance in world politics. Reading histories of the UDHR, and transcripts of the drafting process, one is struck by how long the drafters spent suggesting, debating and revising individual articles. Yet, an important philosophical conversation prefaced this practical work and constantly re-emerged.

As P. C. Chang, the primary Chinese representative, stated in a meeting of the UNCHR intended to define their task, ‘I am afraid when we are asserting rights, rights, and rights, we are apt to forget the standard of man. It is not merely a matter of getting things, getting things, but also: what is the objective of being a man?’ (UN Commission on Human Rights 1947b) The discussion of human dignity was seen by many of the drafters to be a vital part of the declaration, for it served as justification in the preamble for the rights articulated.

While others, notably Colonel Hodgson, representing Australia, and Hansa Mehta, representing India, were critical of the extended philosophical debates that were had throughout the drafting process. Yet, despite trying the patience of some, there was an overall sense that these philosophical issues mattered. Charles Malik, of Lebanon, responded to Mehta’s impatience with philosophical talk by underlining that ideology informs all thought and insisting that the UNCHR deal with such matters in the open.

Then, the honourable representative from India said that the Charter already contains a mention of human dignity and worth and that we should not enter into any ideological maze in our discussion here. Well, unfortunately, whatever you say, Madam, one must have ideological presuppositions and, no matter how much you fight shy of them, they are there and you either hide them or you are brave enough to bring them out into the open and see them and criticize them. Furthermore, it is precisely my intention to give meaning to that vague phrase, human dignity and worth, which is used in the Charter to give it content and,
therefore, to save it from hollowness and emptiness. (Charles Malik quoted in UN Commission on Human Rights 1947e)

The discussion of dignity was important in revealing the different views of why human dignity justified the new human rights declared, but it did more than that. By focusing the drafters on the task of, as Chang put it, ‘making the standard of man respected,’ (UN Commission on Human Rights 1947b) the focus on human dignity clarified the problem they were addressing. The declaration of these new human rights was intended to affirm universal moral principles for
international politics based not on the authority of states but the value of human dignity. Early on Chang grasped the novelty of what they were doing, saying, ‘we are dealing with something which has not been dealt with before, namely the international aspect of equality.’ (UN Commission on Human Rights 1947e)

While it is possible to overstate the importance of Nazi atrocities to the UDHR drafting (Waltz 2001, 53), the wider context of WWII was the immediate backdrop. In particular, there was a sense that the defense of human dignity provided by a new human rights institution was called for by the mistreatment of, and extreme demands placed on, individuals (Lauren 2003, 204–205). Assistant Secretary General, Henri Laugier, opened the 1st meeting of the UNCHR with a clear evocation of this purpose:

With your boundless devotion to the cause of human rights and to the cause of the United Nations, let us here gather strength for our fight from the recent memory of the long darkness through which we have come, where tens of millions of human beings died so that human rights might stay alive, from the memory of all those men and women who have found in their dignity alone the strength to sacrifice their lives in order, obstinately, to proclaim, amidst the depths of surrounding darkness, the presence and the permanence of the stars. (UN Commission on Human Rights 1947a)

The work of defending human dignity was seen as a deeply moral task demanded by concrete political tragedy. In particular, there was a sense that a common humanity had to be affirmed and that individuals protected from the power of the state. Cassin expressed these commitments often:

We have seen and lived through a period when human society has been practically destroyed by the application of a concept of race, or concept of the nation, or concept of the volk, I will call it; and it is a most important fact that we should have lived to see this possibility of men crushing and denying the rights of man, both as communities and as individuals. I think we must insist upon this fact: that we must finally reach the fusion of the idea of man as a community and man as an individual. (UN Commission on Human Rights 1947b)

The State, in other words the collectivity, has asked the maximum from millions of people, the greatest thing they could offer – their lives. (Drafting Committee 1947f)

The sacrifice demanded by the state played a key role in understanding both rights to membership and welfare provisions as central to human dignity.16 This is important because the discussion of human dignity was not simply an abstract philosophical discussion, but a form of practical moral reasoning at work, articulating a moral ideal to guide political change. Human dignity was defended against a backdrop of real offenses – all encompassing interstate war, mass slaughter, enormous civilian casualties, nationalist and racist ideology, statelessness, economic depression – and the debate reflected that situation even as it revealed a pluralism of views on how to address it.

Malik, Chang and Cassin are widely considered to be the primary intellectual forces involved in the drafting (Glendon 1997, 1157–1159).17 This, however, did not mean they were of one mind on the meaning of human dignity. In an early UNCHR meeting, Malik focused on dignity in terms of conscience, defined as the ability to change one’s mind:

If we have any contribution to make, it is in the field of fundamental freedom, namely, freedom of thought, freedom of conscience and freedom of being. And there is one point on which we wish to insist more than anything else, namely that it is not enough to be, it is not enough to be free to be what you are. You must also be free to become what your conscience requires you to become in light of your best knowledge. It is therefore freedom of becoming, of change that we stress as much as freedom of being. (Malik 2000, 16–17)18

This led him to focus on the protection of persons from the power of the state, to accord a special place to civil society, and to support the preservation of space for free thought, opposition and even rebellion against established authority (Malik 2000, 26). Further, he was among the strongest advocates of human rights because he thought they ensured that the people determined the state. ‘We intend to say that the people are active and take the initiative in the determination of the State. It is not as though you come to the people, offer them something, and they consent to it. It is our intention that originally the people, themselves, take the initiative in determining what the state should be.’ (Drafting Committee 1947f)

So, while it is accurate to point to Malik’s emphasis on ‘natural rights’, we see that his understanding of their justification was hardly orthodox and attempted to preserve, in the concept of human dignity, what he saw as essential in human being and becoming.19 There is a tension in Malik’s view, or perhaps blindness, in asserting that the most important freedom to protect is a person’s freedom to change and become, while also asserting that we can build a social order upon man’s essential nature that does not limit that very freedom. Yet, despite his essentialist rhetoric, Malik continuously put the protection of the freedom of the person into the context of his times.

Who is this person? This person, Mr. President, is the living, dying man who suffers and rebels, is scared, is often undecided, makes mistakes, the man who thinks, hesitates, decides, and gossips, and who needs to be lifted when he falls. It is the being even who blushes, laughs, and changes his mind when he knows better. This being, Mr. President, in his own personal dignity and self-respect is in danger of being drowned and obscured by political and ideological systems of all sorts. (Malik 2000, 60)

Whatever the consistency of his metaphysical beliefs about human nature, Malik’s defense of human rights was based on an opposition to forms of social order that failed to respect persons as feeling, thinking and creative beings increasingly subject to the power of the nation-state, at the cost of intermediate ties, and devalued by contemporary conditions and ideologies. Along with Malik, Chang was probably the most philosophically inclined participant.20 In addition to clearly articulating the task the drafters had before them in terms of human dignity,

Chang also made important contributions the idea as it developed in the UDHR. His primary thought was that conscience, as an essential aspect of dignity, involved what he called ‘two-man mindedness.’ (Drafting Committee 1947d) The idea of two-man mindedness implies sympathy as fellow feeling, but also something deeper and more demanding, what Chang described as ‘extending our consciousness to others.’ (Drafting Committee 1947d) This involved both recognition of mutual duties between all human beings and respect for the values of others. ‘The definition of man is to be human-minded – namely, that whatever he does, he thinks of the other person as if the other person were in his place.’ (UN Commission on Human Rights 1947b) This entailed not only the acknowledgment of a common humanity, but also an insistence that two-man mindedness enabled understanding across cultural barriers and could inspire consideration for others….

openaccess.city.ac.uk/2201/1/HOOVER_Rereading_the_UDHR_FINAL.pdf

For today in particular

link to youtube.com*

Oh how much is Smallaxe missed on here…
The man with the ability to shut shit down in one sentence..
I so hope you are well my friend and looking after Mrs Smallaxe xxx
Don’t be thinking I just miss ye when there’s an idiot on the main thread…. I think of you and Mrs Smallaxe often….
And am always sending ye both my very best XXX from me and mine to you and yours X

@Liz g- yes me too.

I often think of them and hope that they are doing all right.

I wonder what happened to my dancing partner Tinto Chiel, he’s been missing for a while as well. Hope he is okay, miss his humour,oh and Harvey of course.

I’m open to individuals declaring themselves the opposite gender to their biological sex, but I can not support gender-ID as the basis for gaining access to sex-based rights. Allowing self-ID of sex would make a mockery of human rights.

Natural law, human rights and women’s rights: an investigation into the foundations and limitations of appeals to women’s rights outside the law

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, human rights language has become the dominant discursive framework within which issues of ethics, politics and international law are debated and contested. There is a widespread acceptance of the concept of universal human rights, even although this has paradoxically occurred at a time when postmodernism has called into questions all values and practices based on appeals to universal values or norms.

Human rights theorists and practitioners continue to debate the extent to which the concept of human rights may be ‘nonsense on stilts’ (Jeremy Bentham), a pragmatic ethical system which abandons the quest for foundations in favour of ‘sentimental education’ designed to inculcate western democratic values into societies and individuals (Richard Rorty), or a concept which is implicitly dependent upon theological perspectives associated with natural law and divine justice (Michael Perry).

This research project examines the natural law tradition and its relationship to human rights theory and law, with a particular emphasis on questions of women’s rights. It argues that natural law theology and philosophy provide a resource for reflection on the relationship between law, rights, gender and justice, while affirming the affinity between humankind and the natural world in a way which has implications for environmental concerns and the understanding of nature….

link to gtr.ukri.org

Forgot to sigh off there but it gives me the opportunity to remind folks that from a Scottish and N. Irish perspective, the full-English Brexit is discrimination on stilts.

Brexitania: the psychotic fantasy of zombie, neo-liberal, neo-consevative, nationalists. Not those who voted for it, well not all of them anyway, those who paid for it.

Jonathan Coulton – Your Brains
link to youtube.com

The cost has still to be reckoned obvs., and we’ll be the suckers if we let it engulf Scotland. I meant the individuals/parties who paid for the criminal electioneering and stuff. And the media barons who’ve been selling Euroscepticism since the 1960’s. Well, England had to define a new role in the world for itself after loosing an empire, innit?

Ian Brotherwood

My favourite Fela piece
“Yellow Fever”
His blast against the Nigerian ladies who used bleaching creams to try to look more white. I did 25 years in Nigeria, mostly in a womens’ teachers college, and they looked just fine the way they were. And some.
What great musician and band leader.

link to youtube.com

re. Malcolm Clark @TwisterFilm, and his comparison between gender-modification surgery and legal amputation. Why do you think I’ve already posted about the ethical and legal implications of voluntary amputation, already? 🙂

Gender modification is definitely not a life-changing decision that children are capable of making, and it is not a decision their parents should be able to take for them. Those that suffer gender dysphoria experience a disorder between their mental and physical states. The danger of a constructavist interpretation of what sex is, is that it leads legal and medical practice to affirm disorder, rather than addressing it properly, as an incongruence of cognition. Worryingly, these are the two professions where a gender-critical, biologically grounded, perspective must remain the mainstream. Otherwise, women can kiss goodby to any ideas of further social emancipation.

Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID)—Is the Amputation of Healthy Limbs Ethically Justified?
link to tandfonline.com

I forgot to sign-off, so here’s a wee insight into the concept of “legal personality”. We all have one, not only those who support British nationalism, though the British constitution only recognises and protects those who believe Britain is ‘One Nation’, apparently.

Book Reviews

J. E. Nijman. The Concept of International Legal Personality, An Inquiry into the History and Theory of International Law. The Hague : T. M. C. Asser Press, 2004. Pp. 494.

This book offers a solid and detailed inquiry into the doctrinal evolution of the concept of international legal personality (ILP). Its main purpose is to show in what socio-political context and with what legal-political aim a certain
understanding of ILP has been advanced by a specific author or group of authors at a specific time. The concept of ILP is not only a theoretical notion, which underlies the construction of international law. It is also a political notion, a locus of change or of conservation.

It is a locus of change when new subjects are postulated or admitted to the arena of international law; it is a locus of conservation when international law is shielded from the penetration of new subjects into its body. It is these dynamics which the book seeks, in the first place, to uncover. The keyword for the book as a whole could thus be ‘context’….

link to ejil.org

Link Wray – Fire And Brimstone
link to youtube.com

Ian Brotherhood at 7.52

A very brave man indeed.

Got a beautiful piece of music from Texas,beautifully sung and beautifully backed. Going to get it onto CDs and prepared for distribution

Here’s the words

Ancient Home
Can you hear, Can you hear the sounds in the distance! Voices calling with growing insistence! Listen closely and you will hear! The time for redemption is growing near.!

Scotland’s Pride in its sons and daughters! No longer lambs for the English slaughter! Thin red lines in foreign lands! To stand and die at their commands!

Growing whispers calling for freedom! Want no part of the United Kingdom! For the Blood is strong!
The Heart is Highland!
The pipes play on, We’ll make a stand!
Let the Brits begone from this sacred land!

Scots taking back their own ” Ancient Home.!

No more hat in hand in our land!
With Scotland’s resources ours command!
No more crumbs from our own tables!
We can’t stand alone is an English fable!

Too long to suffer such injustice!
Stolen lands that the Lord entrusted!
We shall rise for those that have fallen!
Could the English conscience be calling!

As these voices become a roar!
Freedoms’ call can’t be ignored!
‘Cause the Blood is Strong!
The Heart is Highland!
The Pipes play on, we’ll make a stand!
Have the Brits begone from this Sacred Land!

Scots taking back their own Ancient Home!
Scots taking back their own Ancient Home!

Can you hear, can you hear the call for freedom”

” Copyright Claimant: Elizabeth D. Tucker, Brooks R. Tucker! Words & Music: Elizabeth D. Tucker, 1951-, Brooks R. Tucker, 1970-.! Date of Creation: 2005

Thanks, Smallaxe.This will be widely shared

Solomon Burke: “None Of Us Are Free”
link to youtube.com

The Fureys & Davey Arthur: “When You Were Sweet Sixteen”
youtube.com/watch?v=PTNPgRK0PK8

Eddie Cochran: “Three Steps To Heaven”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxj–MkqACY

Hey Smallaxe
So good to see you posting.:-)
Hope you and Mrs Smallaxe are well… XXX

Hi, Liz. Peace and Love to you and yours, I’m never far away just reach out!

The Four Tops;
link to youtube.com

I’ll be there.
😎

‘My People My People’ Goori classic by the late Chris Phillips;
link to youtube.com

“Man of the World”: Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green)
link to youtube.com

Shall I tell you about my life?
😎
No Chance!

Goodnight folks.

Sweet Dreams;
link to youtube.com

Thank’s Alex. I’ve overdone it a wee bit, bed calls but I’ll leave you in the very capable hands of…

Rory Gallagher: “Going to my Home Town”
link to youtube.com

Goodnight my friend.
🙂

Smallaxe and Sybil, lovely to see you here ! Take care of you.

And Sybil , I remain passionate about my country and any time anyone tells me I’m raving on I tell them I’m just passionate about my country – you taught me that response so Ta!

Love to you both.

From a ComRes poll reported in Telegraph. (Daily, not Greenock)
4 possible UK general election scenarios. The ONLY one where Tories are likely to win is if election is held after October 31, and UK has left EU with No Deal by then. Otherwise the Tories get punished by people voting for the Brexit Party.

Boris Johnson thinks of party not country, and has:
NO incentive to hold a general election before Oct 31.
NO incentive for any Withdrawal Agreement with EU.
NO incentive to ask EU for an extension.
We’re heading for the EU exit door.

Poll date was from 16 July, so *maybe* it needs updating, but it is still grim reading:
link to britainelects.com

Image:
link to pbs.twimg.com

Bobby McFerrin – Don’t Worry Be Happy

link to youtube.com

The union

youtu.be/X9uav5Je9Kg

Dave McEwan Hill;

Fixed that link for you, Dave.

link to youtube.com
😉

No problem, Dave.

Just take away the (https//) bit before posting and it appears back again when you post.

You only have to do this with youtube, everything else is ok as far as I know.
link to youtube.com
🙂

Well, that was a flurry of excitement when Smallaxe appeared.

We now resume normal service i.e. torpor and doldrums…

🙁

But here’s a crackin Stone Roses track anyway, and it’s a bit reminiscent of Smallaxe’s constant message to us all.

‘Love Spreads’

link to youtube.com

@Ian Brotherhood

Your last tune reminded me of a Dundee band, there not the same at all but I was reminded of them none the less LOL

link to youtube.com

@Brian Doonthetoon

Hi Mr B, I was off to bed but thought I’d give your links a quick listen. The opening to that first track by Honeybus was definitely Bowies Jean Genie don’t you think? Then it goes all Simon and Garfunkel on you LOL, good pick and a new one for me 🙂

The second one, never heard that either. Sounded OK to me, surprised it didn’t make any waves back then. People can be fickle as fuck lol.

I liked the last one the best and I’ve never heard that either, just a catchy tune and a decent video. was good 🙂

Hi Thepnr.

That riff is well known amongst us music aficionados.

This is the track that inspired Bowie:-

link to youtube.com

Then listen to this and compare it to “All The Young Dudes” also ‘written by’ Bowie…

link to youtube.com

@Brian Doonthetoon

Now that WAS Jean Genie, I suppose there are only so many musical notes and so many tempos and so many orders they could be played and so many…

The second one had no resemblance to all The Young Dudes for me.

Here’s the most famous example of plagarism in the music industry and for which George Harrison had to pay out more the $1m in the 1970’s for ripping off a Chiffons song.

Here’s the comparison a “side by side” video. You’ll know this tune.

link to youtube.com

Hi Thepnr.

Reputation/All the young dudes…

I find myself silently singing “All the young dudes” as a counter melody/harmony when I’m listening to “Reputation”. Jiss me, I suppose.

RE: He’s so fine and plagiarism. I read years ago, that you can’t copywrite an arrangement. So, as far as I’m aware, composer royalties from these two tracks would go to the writers of “He’s So Fine” and “Wild World”. Cat Stevens wrote the latter.

Disclaimer: the inclusion of the following two links in this comment in no way endorses the sexual proclivities of the artiste involved.

link to youtube.com

link to youtube.com

————————————

Hi hackalumpoff.

Peat and Diesel was fine!

Met an old friend today that I haven’t seen for nearly 10 years. He’s an Englishman living in Scotland arghhh!

He never voted in the last Indyref but he will be in the next. He’s now a Yes and so is his two sons, just by doing nothing we are gaining support. We must thank the Tory party for that 🙂