Gender-Affirming Care

 This is worth a read.

If it's tl;dr for you, it's making the point most of us know and understand. Gender-affirming care for cis kids is and always has been fine. We can shave a cis boy's head, we can put artificial eye and lip color on cis girls (even very little girls) while giving them perms and teaching them how to walk and sit and dance in dresses. 

We can alter cis child's breasts to make them more like their gender: removing breast tissue from cis boys, adding it to cis girls. Or just put cis girls in padded bras, or push-up bras.

We call children by gender-affirming names as a matter of course. (See "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash.) No one thinks twice about this.

It's only trans kids we deny this basic care and basic civility too. I'd ask why, but we know why. Transphobes are bigots, and the GOP is getting elected  by pandering to them -- as they did in the 1960s and 1970s by playing to bigotry against black people, and in the 1980s and 1990s by playing to bigotry against immigrants and gay men.

Why can't MAGA voters and Evangelicals see what dupes they are? Well, they can. They know perfectly well that they're bigots. They like having someone to hate. And, of course, they still hate brown people and immigrants and gay men: they just know it's not okay to say so anymore.

Hate is their religion, and spite their motivation. I'd feel sorry for them if they weren't doing so much damage to the rest of us.

Happy Anniversary to Us

Dr. Skull and I actually remembered our anniversary this year, and we're going on a date.

Usually we remember our anniversary a couple of days afterwards. "Hey, wasn't Monday....?"

"Oh yeah, it was, wasn't it."

"Well, happy anniversary anyway."

"Same."

Bigots Hurt Everyone

They even hurt themselves, though I find it difficult to care about self-inflicted damage among that class of people. They should get therapy, but of course they'd rather hurt themselves, their own children, and everyone around them rather that admit they need help.

This post is brought to you by a report of yet another cis-woman accused of being a man in a changing room. This one had had a double mastectomy due to cancer, so the attack doesn't even make fucking sense. If this person were trans, the mastectomy would signal that they were a trans man, who would, according to the transphobes, be a "biological woman" with "her breasts chopped off," as they love to put it. So why challenge her (since she wasn't trans) right to be in a woman's locker room?

Well, because they don't actually care what "biological" gender someone has. They care about their right to attack people. They care about being bigots.

Like KJ Charles here in the post below, I feel odd getting upset about cis women being attacked by these haters, since it seems to say cis women don't deserve to be attacked because they aren't trans, when in fact trans women and trans men also don't deserve to be attacked. 

But in fact the attacks are not meant to protect women, or women's spaces. They're meant to make trans people, and non-gender conforming people, afraid to exist in public. And that's what they're doing. 

I cannot tell you how much I am beginning to hate these scummy, bigoted pieces of trash. Therapy is too good for them, frankly. I hope they continue to live their limited, hate-filled, shitty little lives, and I hope they die miserable and alone. And I hope they step in dogshit every single day. I also wouldn't cry if someone keyed their car.

Obviously this crap is primarily going to hurt trans people and it is wrong on that alone, but it's instructive just how willing the GCs are to deprive everyone else of dignity and privacy, as long as they get to deprive trans people of those things.

— KJ Charles (@kjcharleswriter.com) May 21, 2025 at 4:38 AM

Shamus Pix

 He's all tuckered out:

A Good Point

The radical right is using trans people as a way to whip up their base. We all know this, so this post isn't about that. It's about the way the right pretends to care about trans kids, and other kids, as an excuse. 

Most of them don't know any trans kids. Hell, most of them don't know trans adults. (They will often claim they have a "best friend" who is trans, but you can be sure that if you spoke to the trans person -- assuming that trans person isn't invented entirely -- they would frown and say, "Now who is that again?")

They don't care about trans kids, trans people, trans athletes, or for that matter women's athletics in general. They care about having an excuse to hate. That's all they want. That's their entire motive.

They join churches that encourage them to hate. They follow blogs that encourage them to hate. They watch Fox News, which whips their hatred into a frenzy. They use violent, hateful, bigoted language. They vote for MAGA politicians, whose entire platform is aimed at creating hatred and bigotry.

And then they claim they just want to "protect" trans kids -- and trans adults -- who after all can't possibly know what they need. No, only this transphobic stranger who has never even met you knows what you need. 

One of the weirdest tenets of mainstream transphobic thought is how the genteel transphobe believes they're more concerned about trans people's health than trans people themselves are.

— Evan Urquhart (@evanurquhart.bsky.social) May 18, 2025 at 7:33 AM

Officially No Longer Professing

I have cleared out my office, turned in my keys, given back my laptop and iPad, and gotten my very last paycheck.

As they say in French, Bye, Felicia!

It's True

Conservatives aren't opposed to immigration. They're opposed to certain kinds of people immigrating. Namely, brown people, black people, poor people. Thus, white "refugees" from South Africa? Perfectly fine. White guys who can bribe Trump sufficiently? Fast-track that citizenship!

Conservatives aren't opposed to education. They're opposed to certain people getting an education. Poor kids. Middle-class kids. Brown kids. Public schools are evil not because they teach kids that trans people exist. They've evil because they teach kids whose parents can't send them to private schools.

Conservatives aren't against abortions. Conservatives get (and pay for) abortions all the time. They're opposed to those people getting abortions. You know. Poor people. Young people. Working people. Brown people. Those people should be raising a raft of future low-wage workers, or future prison fodder who can be used as slave labor. Also those parents should be working two or three jobs to feed those children they didn't want and can't afford. If they really can't afford them, why, their children should be seized and given to deserving (white, Christian, wealthy) parents. Or else funneled into the prison pipeline, see above re slave labor.

Conservatives aren't against government-funded healthcare. For example, in our grate state of Arkansas, Sarah Huckster Sanders is having her Ozempic paid for by our tax payers. And when Conservatives retire, they're entitled to their Medicare and social security checks. No, what they're opposed to is those people getting "free" healthcare. (Poor people, brown people, disabled people.)

And so on. Conservatives believe the law exists to control and punish other people. Not them. 

It's why they get so upset when other conservatives define them as part of the class of "those people." Wait, they cry. Our law was supposed to hurt those people. Not me!

From here, where the comments are great.

It's Still MAY

 I mean, look at this:

UGH.

Nineteen more weeks of summer.

Puppy

Having an eight week old puppy is just like having a toddler, except the puppy pisses on the floor more. (At least, from what I can remember, this is true.)

Also, like my toddler, the puppy doesn't like to walk on grass if the grass is wet. (Well, my kid never liked to walk barefoot on grass at all, even if it wasn't wet.) This is a problem since the housebreaking guides all say take him out first thing in the morning and last thing at night, which is when the dewy, dewy grass is the wettest here.

On the other hand, unlike my particular toddler, Shamus does sleep all night. 

Conversation in the delagar household

My computers have always been school-issued, but since I am retiring, I have to hand in my old Dell laptop. (I asked the school if I could buy it but they said no.) So I looked around and decided on a Macbook Air, and bought it before Trump's tariffs could drive up the price.

This is my first Mac. I've always been a Dell/Windows person, because the school always bought my computers (see above). Today as we were driving home from the dentist, Dr. Skull asked me how I was enjoying my Mac experience.

Me: I like it, now that I'm starting to figure it out.

Dr. Skull: I knew you would.

Me: It lets me log in with my fingerprint.

Dr. Skull: That's cool.

Me: What would happen if my finger got amputated, though?

Dr. Skull: Well, I guess...I don't....

Me: Or what if I got acid burns on my fingers? How would I log in then?

Dr. Skull: WHY WOULD YOUR FINGER GET AMPUTATED?

Me: I just mean, what if --

Dr. Skull: WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO FIND ACID?

Me: I just meant if.

So What Are the GOP up to Now?

 Over on Fraser Sherman's blog, he has a collection of the appalling (and sickening) lies being pushed by the Right. I saw someone on FB just yesterday repeating the lie about litter boxes in classrooms because kids "identify as cats."

P.Z. Myers details his family's attempts to obtain the Real ID now necessary for air travel. I'm not flying anywhere anyway, not with airport security as over the top as it is at the moment, but you do have to wonder why conservatives are so intent on limiting the ability of (certain kinds of) people to travel.

Alas, A Blog gives us a visual aid:

Conservatives continue to think white people are the real victims. Well, and cis straight men. They're the real victims.

A cis woman gets kicked out of a Boston hotel for not performing her gender correctly. Conservatives insist it's just trans people they hate, but actually they hate anyone who doesn't fit their narrow definitions of what "normal" is -- in the case of women, that's skinny tiny blonde Christians who smile pretty and wear "nice" dresses. And are submissive to male authorty, of course.

Shamus Picture

 The dog formerly known as Finn (now named Shamus) is settling in well. He wants to play with the cats, but they will have none of it. Junti has gone so far as to hiss at him, but Jasper just gives him looks of cold disdain.

He is hard to take a picture of since he only keeps still when he is sleeping.

Finn Achieved

ETA: We have decided on Shamus as his name.

We still haven't decided on a final name, but he is home and beginning to adjust.

 He's just a little guy.

He's still a little nervous about stairs, but he's an excellent writing partner:

Puppy

We decided against the Corgi puppy when we heard the price -- four thousand dollars, to which I say, holy shit, are people really paying four thousand dollars for a dog?

Instead, we are adopting this little guy:

He's a mix-breed from a shelter, part Australian shepherd and part unknown. His current name is Finn, and we are debating what name to give him once he's ours. I was for Boyd. Dr. Skull proposed Spot. (The dog has no spots.) We are tentatively considering Bowser, but we will see.

Finn's a nice name also. We could keep it..

Feel free to propose names in the comments!

So What Will I DO with My Retirement?

(1) Read a lot of books. 

(2) Write a lot of books, stories, and reviews.

(3) Take many walks and ride my bike on the many, many bike trails in this town.

(4) Dr. Skull wants a puppy. We might get a puppy. If so, I'll be housebreaking a puppy, and also taking it to the nearby dog park.

The puppy we're looking at on Saturday

(5) Sleep late, like every single day. 

(6) Grow some plants. Not like a serious garden, but herbs and the fig tree and such.

(7) Hike more.

(8) Visit art museums. Our financial advisor guy asked if we have plans to travel, but that's the only plans to travel we have -- we'll go to Crystal Bridges more and maybe overnights to nearby cities that have good art museums. I'm not that in to travelling, which makes me anxious. I like to be home in my own house with my books. 

(9) Take Greek and Latin at the University here in town. I've already applied for admission, which struck me as kind of funny. Yes, I have a doctorate from you guys, can I come back and take some undergraduate classes?

That's my plan so far. That's my agenda.