RUTHFULLY YOURS

“On this record, there is no cause to question that Complainant—who was assigned the sex of male at birth but identifies as female—is female.” (Emphasis in original.)

Never mind that the record in question indicates that the complainant, who recently changed his legal name from Todd Lusardi to Tamara Lusardi, wasn’t arbitrarily “assigned the sex of male at birth” but is in fact genetically male and, yes, even retains (or, at least at the time of the events in question, retained) male genitalia. Anyone who thinks that “there is no cause to question” that Lusardi “is female” is an idiot or a lunatic.

Alas, it turns out that three members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—Jenny R. Yang, Chai R. Feldblum, and Charlotte A. Burrows—are idiots or lunatics, for the passage I quote is from a recent EEOC decision, adopted by a 3-2 vote on, fittingly, April Fool’s Day. That decision, rendered against the Department of the Army, holds that Lusardi was “subjected to disparate treatment on the basis of sex” when he (the decision uses female pronouns for him) “was denied equal access to the common female restroom facilities.” It also holds that he was subjected to a hostile work environment “based on sex.” Part of the evidence in support of that holding was that a supervisor used male pronouns to refer to him (and “Sir” to address him).

How do you explain the efforts of liberated Western women to see less fortunate sisters consigned to spend their lives inside head-to-toe sacks? Incurious and unoriginal journalism, the sort that accepts without question the orthodoxy of political correctness, just might have something to do with it.

In the unlikely event that recent Afghan refugee Mrs Ziarata Zia is overcome by the urge to join Melbourne’s men-only Athenaeum Club she will know the lawyer to contact for help in smashing another of those patriarchal bastions of sexist discrimination and oppression that stop women living full and equal lives. And if Age reporter Miki Perkins feels like taking it easy, eschewing curiosity and journalistic diligence for cutting and pasting a press release that she can present as original work under her picture byline, she will know who to call as well.

Yes, Melanie Schleiger’s phone will be ringing off the hook that day. Indeed, she can expect to be almost as busy as the medicos and schedulers at the Monash Women’s Clinic, who as a consequence of the Victoria Legal Aid lawyer’s latest crusade must now amend their protocols and office procedures to avoid offending and disconcerting Muslims. Especially pleased will be those husbands who insist on keeping fearful, brainwashed and terminally submissive wives in head-to-toe sacks.

The opt-out movement against taking the tests is growing, and so is the Obama administration’s ire.

The term “soccer mom”—political shorthand for the upscale suburban women President Clinton courted so successfully in the 1990s—may have fallen out of use with the Beltway set in more recent years, but this swing voting bloc is still around. Just ask Arne Duncan.

As President Obama’s education secretary and the administration’s head cheerleader for the new Common Core academic standards, Mr. Duncan has spent four years trying to convince the country that the biggest problem with K-12 schooling is insufficient federal intervention. His problem is that the more parents learn about this federal effort to impose uniform math and reading standards across state lines, the less they like the idea. And women, who are more likely than men to rank education as “very important” in political surveys, seem to harbor a special disdain for Common Core.

In an historic announcement, all-women Smith College has announced it will admit men pretending to be women to its school. All a man has to do is say on his application that he “feels like” a woman, and he is eligible. However, women who “feel like” they are men are no longer invited to apply to Smith. It all depends on what you say you feel like the day you fill out your college application.

Other schools like Mount Holyoke and Wellesley are also accepting disguised men. I suppose the men from Harvard and Yale who go on road trips to pick up women from these schools will have to be extra-careful now!

Rather than criticizing this move, I applaud it! I think this is great, but just the first step. If Smith can admit men disguised as women, it can go the next logical step and admit…normal men.

From my own experience in college, here is what I have observed that women are able to do in schools that have men:

Hibernian Anti-Semitism By G. Murphy Donovan
Ireland is no stranger to religious or racial hatred. Part of the trouble is geography. Nurtured by religion and isolation, island monocultures often breed narrow minds and asocial practice. Clerical pedophilia and chronic alcoholism might be two Irish markers. Vendetta and honor killings would be examples from other island cultures such as Sicily and Corsica. Ireland’s antipathy for English Protestants is surely a legacy of colonial repression and a Reformation that never came to the Emerald Isle. Absence of religious reform is something that Irish and Muslim worlds have in common. Irish cultural attitudes were surely influenced by English imperial overlords too who were for centuries the gold standard for presumptions of sectarian, class, and racial superiority. Not much of that history was lost on the Irish.

British influence may have been formative, yet a monolithic Catholic Church was dominant in Ireland for over a thousand years. Many Irishmen like to think of Eire as the land of “saints and scholars,” the most Catholic country in Europe. Many an Irish anecdote reveals, however, a darker side of Gaelic tribalism. The civilized way was thought to be, “Don’t get angry, get even.”

Indeed, another aphorism suggests the Irish make good soldiers because they will take any side of an argument as long as it ends in a fight. Brouhaha, blarney, boycott, donnybrook, Finnian, hooligan, kybosh, shillelagh, smithereens, paddy wagon, Irish wake, and whiskey are all Irish contributions to Anglo-American rhetoric, as is the word “phony.” The meme that binds linguistically might charitably be described as pugnacious chauvinism.

The latest fight in Ireland is about Jews, although the run-of-the-mill Finnian socialist is quick to claim that real issues are human rights, the so-called “occupation” of Palestine, or the oppressive policies of a “Zionist” Israel. Nonetheless, just as the Continent is plagued again by anti-Jewish hate, tiny Catholic Ireland is now thought to be the most anti-Semitic nation in the European Union. The evidence for Irish bigotry is overwhelming.

The children are coming, again.

Tens of thousands of children, none of whom will be joined by their parents, are expected to leave their homes in Central America this spring and summer. They are likely to swarm through Mexico before winding up at the southern door of the United States.

The Migration Policy Institute estimate of close to 40,000 children is about half the number of the kids who arrived at our nation’s border with Mexico last year. But still, 40,000 children is a substantial number. They would easily fill one of our nation’s smaller cities, towns or villages.

At best, it is amateur hour.

At worst, the rash decision by Marilyn Mosby, the Maryland state’s attorney for Baltimore City, to bring an array of internally inconsistent charges, including murder, against a half dozen police officers in connection with the death of Freddie Gray is a frightening display of state complicity in mob justice.

Three of the arrested officers, including the one facing the most severe charge of second-degree murder, are African-American. We’d better hope that black cops’ lives matter.

I was attending a conference on Friday. It was thus my good fortune, when asked for a first impression of the charges, not to have heard Ms. Mosby’s embarrassing speech announcing them.

On April 25, a Haifa theater staged a play that could be construed as a show of solidarity with a terrorist who kidnapped and murdered Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984. One of the organizers of the play was the group Coalition of Women for Peace. This group supports boycotts against Israel and is funded by the European Union, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

On Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism last month, while Israelis attended ceremonies honoring Israel’s fallen, the organizations Combatants for Peace (funded by Spain, Germany and the Netherlands) and the Parents Circle Families Forum (funded by the U.S., the European Union and Switzerland) held an “alternative” ceremony, to which families of terrorists were invited.

On Independence Day, the organization Zochrot (funded by Germany, Belgium, Finland, the U.K., Switzerland and the Netherlands), which seeks the dissolution of the State of Israel and the return of Palestinian refugees, was especially active.

Clinton signs on to the campaign to rewrite the First Amendment to limit political speech.

Progressivism’s ever-tightening grip on the Democratic Party is on full display in Hillary Clinton’s presidential platform. Starting with her kickoff speech in Iowa, and in subsequent venues across the country, she spoke of her campaign’s “four fights,” one of which is a constitutional amendment on campaign finance. This marks Mrs. Clinton as an adherent to one of the newest and most fervently held tenets of modern progressive teaching: Citizens United v. FEC is an evil that must be destroyed at any cost.

Sen. Cotton won an election for standing on conservative principles and if he ruffles the feathers of establishment “corkers” good for him and the country….rsk

Arkansas lawmaker has been unusually vocal, drawing the ire of some Republican colleagues

WASHINGTON—Freshman Sen. Tom Cotton’s temporary office is located in the less-than-desirable basement of the Russell Senate building, reflecting his rookie status. Like other junior senators, he performs his share of Senate chores, including presiding over the chamber. But the similarities end there.

Among this year’s crop of 13 newly minted senators, Mr. Cotton, who served one term in the House, has emerged early on as the most vocal and polarizing newcomer, set apart by his headline-grabbing foreign policy.

The Arkansas Republican’s tactics have drawn praise from his conservative supporters, but irritated some GOP colleagues when his moves have conflicted with their efforts.

Long gone are the days when Senate freshmen were expected to keep their heads down and mouths closed for their first months in office. Still, even in a chamber where newcomers, such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Ted Cruz (R., Texas), have entered with a national following and not shied away from bucking their leaders at times, Mr. Cotton has drawn unusual attention, particularly for inserting himself into negotiations with Iran.