the new york post reports that a yeshiva university professor left two years ago on leave, and returned today as a woman. since judaism, in my opinion, is at the root of modern judeo-christian “disapproval” of all things trans and gay, one can imagine the reaction of some members of the staff and faculty.

“He’s not a woman. He’s a male with enlarged breasts,” said Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a senior dean at Yeshiva’s rabbinical school and a professor of biology and medical ethics. “He’s a person who represents a kind of amorality which runs counter to everything Yeshiva University stands for. There is just no leeway in Jewish law for a transsexual.

“There is no niche where he can hide out as a female without being in massive violation of Torah law, Torah ethics and Torah morality.”

holy mortal sin, batman! of course, the new york post doesn’t waste a second reporting the most important aspects of this story:

Literature Professor Joy Ladin, formerly known as Jay Ladin, 47, showed up for her first day of school sporting pink lipstick, a tight purple shirt and a flirty black skirt. She cheerfully strutted through the doors of the Midtown campus’ main building, where she oversees the writing center.

um, a skirt that hits below the knees is “flirty”? perhaps the new york post’s “journalist” rebecca rosenberg needs to get out a bit more. the article goes on to say:

Many at the Jewish university are horrified by the presence of the transgender professor. Some fear the news could cut alumni donations.

there you have it - the real meat of the story. the jews are horrified that money will be lost.

holy stereotypes, batman!

of the top 21 internet searches that hit my site, 16 are for some version of pink firearms. the top 67 hits were all about pink firearms. pink. it’s the new black. or something.

my husband bought me this wonderful diamond back ascent ex 21 speed mountain bike a few weeks ago. he got a great bargain at our local thrift shop, st. vincent de paul, where they run a half price sale a few times a week. he picked this up for $25.00.

we added the vertical long bar ends to the handle bars for comfort, a headlight, and rear view mirror (which still needs some kind of repositioning to be useful).

he picked up this vitus 10 speed this past week for $15.00, needing just a couple of inner tubes and a tire. we added the light, rear reflector, and a center pull rear brake.

so we rode around for about an hour today, making final adjustments, and just enjoying the day. i’m thinking bike riding will make for a fine addition to our fitness regimen. once i start going back to the gym, that is

we also made a new friend at try me bicycle shop not too far from our home. we’ve spent more there for parts than we did for the bikes themselves.

it was my 3 year anniversary on wednesday, so we loaded up and headed up to laughlin and the aquarius hotel.
(more…)

they’re everywhere.

these were in a couple of recent cabela’s flyers over the past week. the top one, a .22lr crickett single shot bolt action is billed as “my first rifle”. they actually have several models, three of them in varying pink options.

the marlin model 60, is apparently available in pink laminate, though i couldn’t find it on their website. marlin has recently been purchase by remington, (careful clicking that link, a video loads automatically when the site loads) though i’m not sure what kind of an effect that will have on their product line. the marlin model 60 has been called “the most popular 22 in the world”. though i know a few ruger 10/22 owners who would argue that. ruger’s site suggests that the 10/22 “is the most popular .22 rifle of the last 40 years”.

edited to add:

the ruger 10/22 comes in several pink versions which can be seen here.

we had a bit of weather on thursday night here in phoenix. 100 mph winds were observed in places, and power went out for upwards of 100,000 residents, myself included. by 2:00 am friday, after tossing and turning in the phoenix heat, we decided to check into our local motel 6, which still had power. sleep ensued, but i was pretty much a zombie all day friday at work.

fortunately, i’m on vacation all this week, so i’ll have plenty of time to recover. and the power finally came back on friday late afternoon.

i took my husband to the range yesterday. he’s been wanting to shoot the smith & wesson 637-2 revolver, and i’d been wanting to shoot the remington 870™ magnum 12 gauge shotgun. (apparently, remington no longer makes this exact model, replaced by the “express” line). it’s been over 15 years since i’ve last fired it, so i figured i’d check to see if it still works.

i’ve heard that the best home defense ammo for the 12 gauge is 00 buckshot, so that’s what we keep it loaded with. i had a couple of boxes of the remington, but purchased 25 rounds of the winchester stuff. it features “low recoil”, but even so, each shot pushed me back pretty hard. my shoulder is still pretty sore today. i compared that to the remington stuff, which is not low recoil, and sure enough, it pushes back noticeably harder. after 2 shots of that, i handed the shotgun to my husband to finish off the box.

this is what 25 rounds of 00 buckshot does to a paper target, at 7, 10, and 15 yards. i did fairly well, considering i haven’t had much practice lately. my husband did very well, considering that was the first time he ever fired a shotgun.

of course, when we got home, i took it apart to clean. it comes apart pretty easy, and most everything is easily accessible for cleaning. it took a little effort to reassemble, as the directions were a little confusing, but it’s back together and loaded up. with the low recoil winchester ammo.

no doubt you’ve seen the media coverage on isis, the transgender woman who has been cast in the upcoming americia’s next top model 11th season. according to this article:

According to America’s Next Top Model executive producer Ken Mok, the decision to cast a transgender contestant in the show’s upcoming eleventh season was done to help further one of Tyra Banks’ initial reasons for launching the long-running reality series.

“We want to redefine what beauty is,” Mok told ABCNews.com in a Friday report. “You can be tall, you can be short, you can be plus size, you can be transgender; you don’t have to be what the modeling industry says you have to be. That was one of Tyra’s original missions.”

that’s right ken, because a mere trans woman can’t fit into the regular old definition of beauty. you must “redefine” beauty in order to include the likes of us.

jerk.

according to this article from ascribe:

New figures released today by the Transgender American Veterans Association reveal that transgender service members and veterans, like many transgender people in the U.S., face a variety of forms of discrimination based on their transgender status. The survey of 827 U.S. military veterans and active-duty personnel mark the first major empirical findings on transgender people in the military.

ya think? well, at least now there’s actual empirical documentation.

kinds gives this issue some teeth.

according to this press release, the apa resolves to play leading role in improving treatment for gender-variant people. i have to wonder if it was their resolution before, to treat gender variant people poorly.

in any event, the news looks good.

The American Psychological Association urged psychologists today to take a leading role in ending discrimination based on gender identity, calling upon the profession to provide “appropriate, nondiscriminatory treatment to all transgender and gender-variant individuals” and encouraging more research into all aspects of gender identity and expression.

read the entire press release here.