Tor 🦕

I needed to move a sofa. I mentioned this to an American. He said, "You know anybody with a truck?" I did not know anybody with a truck. He looked at me with real concern. Not pity. Concern. The way you look at a man who has told you he does not have a name. "You gotta know somebody with a truck." I asked how one acquires such a person. He said, "You just do." This is the third time I have received that answer in this country. It is the answer to everything here. You just do. There is no process. There is only the eventual fact of having. He said, "Ask Kevin." I do not know a Kevin. He said Kevin like I should. He said it the way you say a shared uncle. I met Kevin four days later. Kevin owns a truck. Kevin does not own a truck for himself. Nobody owns a truck for themselves. Kevin owns a truck for a fifteen mile radius. Inside I said: THIS MAN HAS TAKEN A VOW. HE DID NOT ANNOUNCE IT. HE SIMPLY PURCHASED A BED AND ACCEPTED THE CONSEQUENCES. Kevin arrived on Saturday. He brought the truck. He also brought a second man. I had not asked for a second man. The second man's name is Tony. Tony came because Kevin came. Tony did not know me. Tony did not ask what we were moving. Tony brought gloves. They moved the sofa in eleven minutes. I offered them money. Both of them laughed at the same time, which felt rehearsed and was not. I asked what I owed them. Kevin said, "Buy the pizza." That is the price. That is the entire economy. The truck costs one pizza and the pizza is not negotiable and the pizza is also not expensive and everyone knows what size. Inside I said: THE FEE IS FIXED ACROSS THE ENTIRE NATION AND WAS SET BY NO ONE. We ate on the floor because the sofa was against the wall and none of us wanted to be the first to sit on it. Tony told me his daughter plays soccer. I asked if she is good. He said, "She's aggressive." I still think about that. Three weeks later, Kevin texted me. "You free Sunday? Helping Tony move a fridge." He did not ask if I wanted to. He informed me of a fridge. Inside I said: I HAVE BEEN CALLED UP. I DID NOT ENLIST. THE PAPERS WERE FILED ON MY BEHALF. I went. I moved the fridge. I have no truck. I contributed only arms. Afterward, a man I had never met asked me if I knew anybody with a truck. I said, "Yeah, I got a guy." I have a guy. I am somebody's guy now, too. Tony has told two people about me. He describes me as "the guy who's strong for his size." I have never been prouder of a sentence in my life.

@kd2mill @iseult A man who has had his penis removed is still a man and has no place in female spaces

@iseult What "rights" exactly do "trans people" not have? If you are transitioning from male to female, and haven't had the surgery yet, you have NO PLACE in women's bathrooms or locker rooms.

Revenge for what exactly?

@maddy_el @Dr_TheHistories Stick to BSky

@Dr_TheHistories ‘The War for Independence’, the one where they murdered British troops, bombed the King David hotel, massacred Palestinian civilians and murdered UN officials, that war?

On September 6, 1970, Captain Uri Bar-Lev was preparing to pilot an El Al plane full of passengers from Amsterdam to New York. It was the second leg of a trip that started in Tel Aviv. Just before takeoff, a security officer at Schiphol airport told him that there were four passengers who seemed suspicious: two had Senegalese passports that contained consecutive numbers, and the other two had Honduran passports. All of these passengers booked their tickets right before the flight. Bar-Lev made sure the Senegalese passengers couldn’t board, and asked for a thorough security check of the other two passengers – but, unbeknownst to him, it never happened. He thought that when the “Hondurans” boarded the plane that they were cleared. But just to be safe, he asked a security officer, Avihu Kol, to accompany him to the cockpit instead of sitting in first class. There had been many hijackings on different flights lately, and Bar-Lev didn’t want to take any chances. El Al was the only airline to have security officers on their planes; this rule was instated after an El Al flight to Algeria had been hijacked in 1968. As the flight was climbing at 29,000 feet, the emergency light went on in the cockpit. Bar-Lev knew right away that the plane was being hijacked and that the “Hondurans” were responsible. A flight attendant announced on the intercom that two people with guns and grenades wanted to get into the cockpit, and if they couldn’t, they would kill everyone on board. When flight engineer Uri Zach looked through the peephole, he saw a hijacker holding a gun to a flight attendant’s head. The hijacker was Patrick Argüello, who was part of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a Nicaraguan-American Sandinista supporter. The flight attendant said Argüello was going to kill her if Bar-Lev didn’t open up the cockpit and let him and the other hijacker inside, Leila Khaled. Bar-Lev had to think quickly. El Al had trained its pilots to give into the hijackers’ demands instead of trying to be a “hero.” A crewmember urged Bar-Lev to let the hijackers in. But Bar-Lev, who was a teenaged pilot in the 1948 War for Independence and served in the 1956 war, knew he couldn’t do that. If he did, they might kill everyone on board. He announced: “They will not hijack my plane.” He then made a move like the “Split S” combat maneuver used during World War II, initiating a nose dive. This would knock the hijackers off their feet and protect the passengers who were strapped in. This dive would also ensure that a grenade explosion or bullet would not be as dangerous. The plane dove 10,000 feet in just one minute. The hijackers were thrown to the ground. When Bar-Lev completed the dive, Kol quickly killed Argüello. Leila Khaled, a Palestinian who had hijacked other planes, rolled out a grenade down the aisle but it didn’t go off. She passed out and was arrested by British authorities. (She was released a month later in exchange for hostages who were taken in another hijacking.) The whole incident happened in two and a half minutes. © aish.com- #drthehistories

The golden age of school trips telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2026/0…

Oooh it's got a swimming pool! That's nic- oh. rightmove.co.uk/properties/912…

i can’t believe someone solved recipe design decades ago and everyone just decided to ignore it

@JocastaMoney Sightly out there, but you like your Discworld so you may fall in love as I have with the Chronicles of St Mary's

I have about one book left in my 12 book series (Poldark) and I know when it ends I will feel bereft. Have any of you got any suggestions? I'm really enjoying book set in Europe before the 20th century. A series of books is preferable but any good yarn will do. Bonus points if it involves Napolean era British navy or is set in or around a Cathedral. (and no, not Master and Commander or Pillars of the Earth and its sequals, I already eat those books.)

I’ve just seen a post from yet another man who thinks my position has shifted since I wrote my 2020 essay about gender identity ideology and the consequent clash of rights jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-r… For the avoidance of doubt, I stand by every word I wrote then. For instance: ‘woman isn’t a costume.’ If it surprises you that I say men don’t become women by wearing make up and dresses, you didn’t understand the essay. I’ve been crystal clear all along that I believe people are free to live and present themselves as the opposite sex if that’s what feels comfortable and authentic TO THEM. This appears to have been interpreted (most often, tellingly, by men) as ‘and it naturally follows that I, as a woman, will validate a man’s belief that he is now, to all intents and purposes, the same sex as me, and I will use only the speech he deems appropriate and will be very careful to protect his sensitive ego, no matter the cost to myself in pretending to believe a falsehood, or the loss of my own rights due to this pretence.’ Dress as you like within normal bounds of situational decency, wear lipstick, sequins and a beard if you want, call yourself whatever you like, have sex with any consenting adult you please: I wish you health, happiness and safety. What you don’t get is the power to compel my speech and belief. When I call a man a man, I am speaking verifiable truth. It is essential to be able to accurately name sex when discussing fair sport, facilities and services for women and girls and the right of gay people not to be demonised for their same-sex attraction. In years to come, a lot of useful idiots are going to awake to the fact that they’ve been complicit in enormous harm done to women, girls, gay people who stood against the insanity, and some extremely vulnerable young people. I don’t doubt we’ll hear a lot of, ‘I thought I was just being kind.’ Such individuals, especially those in positions of power, should be asked why they never had anything to say about the loud, public, widespread unkindness directed against those who refused to adopt their fashionable, elitist beliefs, eg, the detransitioners being bullied and vilified by former ‘allies’, the whistleblowers who tried to stop an unregulated experiment on troubled children, the women who lost their careers and livelihoods by standing up for all women’s rights. Some people appear to believe it a worse crime for a woman to call a man a man than for trans activists to call loudly and publicly for the assault and assassination of all women who refuse to bend the knee. I have never wished violence or any other kind of harm on a trans-identified person, but, like many other people who’ve defended women’s and girls’ rights over the past few years, I have received thousands of threats of death, rape and torture. The wilful blindness of those who bleat ‘both sides’ will rightly be judged harshly in times to come. TL;DR Trans women aren’t women, and if that hurts your feelings, be grateful you live in a society where you are just as free to espouse gender ideology as I am to speak the truth. As Orwell said: ‘Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.’

@goducksmendoza @starrfieldroad @runthinkwrite Are you saying that all changing rooms where you live are mixed-sex with individual cubicles? Again, my example is girls changing for swimming lessons. You swerve this every time

@GriffynTor @starrfieldroad @runthinkwrite Where are kids forced to get naked around each other? What the fuck kind of country are you from?

The majority of commentary I've seen against Sophie Cunningham is not of the form: 'Cunningham is wrong, it's a good policy (ie. allowing M in F sport.) but: 'Cunningham is mean, I'm a nice person' This substitution is, paradoxically, and in itself, mean and dishonest.

@goducksmendoza @starrfieldroad @runthinkwrite You don't think children deserve sex-separated spaces for changing? Until what age?

@starrfieldroad @GriffynTor @PeopleofEarth12 @runthinkwrite That doesn’t answer the question.

@goducksmendoza @slipkn0t8 @svf65 @PeopleofEarth12 @runthinkwrite You're carefully ignoring swim teams again.

@slipkn0t8 @svf65 @GriffynTor @PeopleofEarth12 @runthinkwrite You think a 6th grade cross country team is required to shower together? I would wager a good deal of money they all shower and change at home. I played youth sports and that’s what we did.

@goducksmendoza @PeopleofEarth12 @runthinkwrite Are you saying it would be inappropriate for swim teams or gym teams? What age and which sports make it okay for boys to be in girls' spaces?

@GriffynTor @PeopleofEarth12 @runthinkwrite A 6th grade cross country team isn’t getting naked around each other. JFC

@goducksmendoza @PeopleofEarth12 @runthinkwrite Are you arguing that children should be forced to use mixed-sex changing spaces?

@GriffynTor @PeopleofEarth12 @runthinkwrite It’s a child. Please outline the harm.

@goducksmendoza @PeopleofEarth12 @runthinkwrite Still a boy. Will still have a competitive advantage (prepubescent boys still have an advantage over girls in running). Will still have a penis and should keep out of female spaces.

@GriffynTor @PeopleofEarth12 @runthinkwrite This was a case the Supreme Court ruled on. The girl started transitioning in 3rd grade and didn’t go through male puberty.

@goducksmendoza @PeopleofEarth12 @runthinkwrite An 11-12 year old boy wanting to change with and compete against girls? It's not just the competitive advantage he has, it's also that he shouldn't be in female spaces. Simple

@PeopleofEarth12 @runthinkwrite Explain how this relates to a 6th grade trans girl joining the girls’ cross country team.

@ndighweda No. Sex is determined by the father's sperm.

@GriffynTor If sex is determined at conception then everyone's female.

Just a reminder that Michael Phelps won the 100 meter butterfly by 0.01 seconds at the Beijing Olympics. He beat the women's gold medalist in that event by 6.15 seconds. Michael Phelps was beaten by another man in the 200 meter butterfly at the 2012 London Olympics. He still beat the women's gold medalist by over 11 seconds. This is the difference between the "Michael Phelps advantage" and male advantage.

@ndighweda No, sex is determined at conception. No human being is a third sex

@GriffynTor Outdated for you who need it outdated to push your malice. Every human being is born a human being. You decide they're male or female based on genitalia, and bigotry.

@ndighweda @hecheateddotorg Intersex is an outdated word. Every human being is born male or female: differences in sexual development are sex specific

@hecheateddotorg An anti human terror not knowing testosterone doesn't equate to testes, and intersex women exist. Water is wet.