Our thanks to a number of people for this. Extracts:

The court heard she drank white wine with friends after lunch last October, before purchasing another bottle from an off licence.

She knocked back the alcohol before crashing her Ford Ka in an area busy with pedestrians.

Fowler was so drunk that she was barely able to speak when police arrived at the scene, where officers found an empty wine bottle in the footwell of her car.

She was bailed but was stopped again less than two months later after she had drunk half a bottle of vodka before getting behind the wheel.

Fowler drove around a hotel car park near her family’s luxury home near Wilmslow, Cheshire. Tests showed she was over three times the drink drive limit…

Prosecutor Joseph O’Connor said: ‘Police attended a minor road traffic collision and met the defendant who was clearly intoxicated.

‘She was swearing and slurring her words and they could smell intoxicants on her breath.

‘When they tried to speak to her they had trouble understanding what she was saying, she was incoherent and the officers assumed she was drunk.

‘As she was arrested she admitted that she had drunk two bottles of wine and was taken to the police station.

‘She was described as acting very emotionally and she failed to provide a specimen of breath because she was so upset.’

She was bailed to face court but was held again on December 9 after being caught drinking driving at the Stanneylands boutique hotel in Wilmslow.

Mr O’Connor added: ‘She collided with another car whilst trying to leave the car park of the Stanneylands Hotel.

‘When the police arrived they tried to speak to her, but they noticed a smell of intoxicants on her breath and she was slurring her words.

‘She was taken to the police station and gave two samples of breath. In interview she made admissions and told then she had drunk half a bottle of vodka before deciding to go to the gym.

‘She accepts she shouldn’t have driven. The second offence was committed whilst she was on bail, which is an aggravating factor. She was inebriated during the accident.’

Tests showed Fowler had 112 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg…

JP Martin Drake told her: ‘We have considered all the facts of this case and there are aggravating features; the first offence was committed during the day when there were pedestrians around and the second offence was committed on bail and it was a very high reading.

‘This does cross the custody threshold but the sentence will be suspended and this mean you will not be going to prison today because vagina.

We’ve added two words at the end, but they’re clearly implied.

A piece by Charles Bremner in today’s Times:

A group of 100 eminent Frenchwomen yesterday denounced the #Metoo movement as a puritan backlash that treats women as children and denies their sexual freedom.

The actress Catherine Deneuve, 74, along with authors, journalists, psychiatrists and intellectuals — and Catherine Millet who wrote a bestseller about her own sex life — signed a manifesto in Le Monde deploring the flood of public accusations prompted by the Harvey Weinstein scandal in Hollywood. Men’s careers were being ruined when “their only wrong was touching a knee, stealing a kiss, talking of intimate matters at a professional dinner”, they wrote.

“Far from helping women to become independent, this… in reality serves the interests of the enemies of sexual freedom, religious extremists, the worst reactionaries and those who believe in the name of Victorian morality that women are children with the faces of adults.”

They said that the post-Weinstein awakening to abusive men was justified. “But insistent or clumsy pick-up attempts are not a crime and gallantry is not male aggression.” Puritans, they wrote, were using the old technique of “arguing for the protection of women… in order to chain them down in their status of eternal victims, of poor little things under the power of male chauvinist devils like in the good old days of witchcraft”. [J4MB: The notion that puritanism is driving #MeToo and other feminist initiatives around sexual matters is nonsense. This is all about the feminist imperative to increase women’s power over men.]

Men were being forced to repent for inappropriate behaviour up to 30 years ago, they noted. Works of art, including paintings by Egon Schiele and Balthus, and films such as Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, faced censorship in the name of a “wave of purification”. The women said they wanted nothing to do with a feminism which “assumes the face of hatred of men and of sexuality”. The sex drive “is by nature offensive and untamed but we are sufficiently clear-sighted not to confuse a clumsy pick-up attempt with sexual aggression”. If women were free to refuse a sexual advance, men must be given the right to importune them, they said. “You have to know how to respond… other than locking yourself into the role of prey.”

There was no conflict between being serious and enjoying one’s sexuality, they said. “A woman can, in the same day, direct a professional team and enjoy being the sex object of a man without being a slut or a vile accomplice of the patriarchy.”

As mothers, the women said they brought up their daughters to enjoy life without being intimidated or made to feel shameful. Physical events that could hurt women must not turn them into perpetual victims.

French feminists have long argued that many “Anglo-Saxon” militants for women’s rights are driven by a hatred of men, and deny female sexuality.

A French version of the #Metoo movement called “report your pig” has led to the naming and shaming of several politicians, business leaders and a television boss. The phenomenon has stirred misgivings in some quarters where it is perceived as being influenced by American puritanism and hysteria.

Ms Deneuve, who earned fame abroad in Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour, the 1967 story of a housewife prostitute, often criticises American political correctness over relations between the sexes. In October, she said that the onslaught on men after the Weinstein affair went too far. “I don’t think it is the right method to change things, it is excessive,” she said. “After ‘calling out your pig’ what are we going to have, ‘call out your whore’?” Last March, she supported Roman Polanski, the film director, who is still wanted by Californian prosecutors for the alleged rape of Samantha Geimer, who was 13 at the time, in the home of Jack Nicholson in 1977.

President Macron’s government has taken an opposite tack, using the Weinstein affair to support a drive against harassment. It is also about to introduce a law that will define all sex with girls aged 15 and younger as rape.

Even as the 100 Frenchwomen made their stand, the 95-year-old comic book legend Stan Lee emerged as the latest celebrity to be accused of sexual harassment. The co-creator of Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and other characters is alleged to have groped young women employed to care for him, according to the Daily Mail. A lawyer for Mr Lee said that he “categorically denies” the “despicable” allegations.

You can subscribe to The Times here.

Our thanks to Ray for this. Written by a female journalist – that makes a change – the theme throughout is that white men ‘believe’ they’re being discriminated against, as reported in a Pew survey, but in reality they’re not. Excerpts (the emphases are ours):

An engineer who was fired by Google for circulating an anti-diversity memo sued the company this week, alleging that the tech giant discriminates against white, conservative men. He’s likely not alone in that belief.

There are other white men working in tech who believe their gender and race are making it difficult for them to get ahead, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center about diversity in the science and technology fields…

Of course, data, including much of the rest of the Pew report released Tuesday, indicates that women and minorities are under-represented in many STEM fields…

But in sectors like computer science, women account for a small share of workers…

Despite these trends, there are a variety of factors that may make white men in STEM perceive themselves as victims of discrimination. Men have a tendency to believe that decreasing bias against women is associated with increasing bias against men, said Clara Wilkins, a professor at Wesleyan University who studies the psychology behind reverse discrimination.

“There’s this perception of a zero sum relationship, men and women are in competition,” she said. “So if things are better for women, things are worse than men.” [J4MB: Well, duh! This is a constant and idiotic refrain from parasitic feminist ‘academics’. Her last sentence in plain English, “So if there is positive discrimination for women (and minorities), there is negative discrimination against white men.” It IS a zero sum game, how could it not be?] Other research indicates whites perceive [J4MB emphasis] a similar relationship to minority groups.

Though women and black and Hispanic workers may still face discrimination in STEM, there are reasons for white men to believe that bias against these groups is decreasing…

The Pew survey indicates that some white and some male STEM workers believe they’re being harmed by this move towards gender and racial parity…

In addition to a focus on diversity in STEM fields specifically, there are other broader forces that may be pushing white or male workers to perceive they’re losing ground…

And education and economic data — which suggest women are getting farther in school and having better luck in the job market — can also fuel men’s perception that bias against women is decreasing at their expense.

Despite these feelings, there’s little evidence that reverse discrimination actually exists. Even programs like affirmative action, which typically look to have schools and institutions mirror the population at large, benefit white men in some cases, Wilkins said. [J4MB: And those cases would be…?]

On average, women do better in school, but in order to have some semblance of gender parity, colleges will seek to admit less-qualified men in some cases.

“There is this perception that programs like affirmative action are biased against whites,” she said. “Even that is not a simple case.” [J4MB: News just in. It is not a simple case that the Pope is a Catholic.]

Needless to say, the article doesn’t link to the Pew survey.

A piece by James Gillespie in The Times two days ago:

Up to seven witnesses in a sex abuse trial endured by the brother of the former Eurovision song contest winner Dana could face prosecution for giving false evidence.

The Metropolitan police have sent a file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) regarding the evidence given by the seven in 2014 when John Brown, 61, from Berkshire, was unanimously cleared of five historical counts of indecent assault.

The charges being considered against the former prosecution witnesses include perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

During the trial, two women claimed to be victims of abuse that they alleged happened when they were under the ages of 13 and 16 at locations in Northern Ireland and England during the 1970s.

Brown, who works in PR and the music industry, denied all the claims. It was also suggested by the prosecution that Dana — whose full name is Dana Rosemary Scallon and who won Eurovision in 1970 with the song All Kinds of Everything — helped him cover up the alleged offences.

If the CPS decides to prosecute, it will be the first time witnesses in a historical sex abuse case have faced trial for making false accusations. 

Brown and his sister are being supported in their campaign to see prosecutions by the singer Sir Cliff Richard, the Radio 2 presenter Paul Gambaccini and the X Factor judge Louis Walsh, all of whom have faced false allegations, although they were not prosecuted. [J4MB emphasis]

A decision to prosecute in the Brown case would also increase the pressure to charge the witness known as “Nick”, whose claims of a Westminster VIP paedophile ring led to the £2.5m Operation Midland inquiry, which collapsed when it became clear he was a fantasist.

Brown said it was important that the witnesses in his case should face justice. The allegations surfaced for the first time only during a protracted commercial dispute between Dana, 66, and others.

The judge said during the trial that the two main complainants had put “their heads together” in making allegations.

“It [the claims] just came out of the blue,” Brown said. “The investigation took three years; I was on bail 773 days and I was rebailed seven times. There were as many as 32 police officers, four departments and up to £1.5m of taxpayers’ money involved. We had to sell our home and it cost my family £200,000. I didn’t see a penny back despite the fact that I am an innocent man.” After his acquittal he said: “In effect, both Dana and I were put on trial.”

In the trial, the evidence of the two main complainants was flawed to the extent that one was not even in the country at the time of the alleged abuse. There were also claims of abuse at a property that had not been built at the time. [J4MB emphasis]

Dana, who stood for the presidency in Ireland in 2011 and was an MEP from 1999 to 2004, said: “The fallout goes very wide . . . The worldwide damage to your reputation, integrity and good name can never be undone.

“We are seeking justice and truth . . . It is not just about one individual; it is really important for people to keep faith in the justice system. It is a message on behalf of the genuine victims of abuse.”

Solicitor Kevin Winters, of KRW Law, said: “Mr Brown and his sister Dana suffered a life-changing and terrible ordeal due to untrue accusations. Both have suffered incalculable damage to their good names, reputation and family life.

“The court transcripts, fabricated evidence and signed prosecution witness statements prove police had been knowingly misled by complainants and prosecution witnesses and that perjury was committed. There is sufficient evidence for prosecution.”

Brown’s case came at a time when the Jimmy Savile scandal had broken and police had set up Operation Yewtree to investigate allegations of sexual abuse against celebrities.

Richard, who was falsely accused in 2014 of historical sex abuse although he was not part of the Operation Yewtree investigation, said: “I would like to join the growing band of those people who, like me, have been put through the most agonising emotional trauma and I pray that together we, with Dana and John, will eradicate that destructive act known as ‘a false accusation’.”

Gambaccini was the subject of unfounded claims in 2013 and said he supported Brown. “No man can acquiesce in his attempted annihilation. I fully support John Brown and Dana.”

The Met are due to have a meeting with the CPS to discuss the case within the next few weeks.

SIR CLIFF PLEDGES HIS SUPPORT
Sir Cliff Richard, falsely accused in 2014 of historic sex abuse, said: “I pray that, together, we with Dana and John will eradicate that destructive act known as ‘a false accusation’.”

Paul Gambaccini, the DJ who was the subject of unfounded claims in 2013, said: “I fully support John Brown and Dana and urge them to see their legal action through to their conclusion.”

The X Factor judge Louis Walsh, who faced false allegations in a newspaper in 2011, said: “I have known Dana and John for many years. I fully understand the terrible time they went though.”

You can subscribe to The Times here.

Our thanks to Martin for this. Who’d employ a woman in today’s cultural climate?

Our thanks to Alexander for this (video, 3:36).

Our thanks to Martin for this. The piece includes a video of the silly woman assaulting the man who had the nerve to touch one of her Special Snowflake breasts for a moment. We look forward to men removing their trousers and underwear and swinging their genitalia around in the vicinity of this woman, and seeing if the defence she employs – the right to wear what you want – applies to men, too.

Bravo, Philip Davies!

Oprah Winfrey might be standing for the Democrats at the next US general election. Our thanks to Stu for this (video, 1:07).

Following the dire performances of Laura ‘Special Snowflake’ Bates and Sophie ‘Doughnuts’ Walker on University Challenge – both could have been replaced by a pot plant, without their teams scoring fewer points – our thanks to William for this. Extracts:

It is supposedly meant to pit famous faces against one another in tests of intelligence, while letting them pick their own ‘specialist subject’.

But Celebrity Mastermind has been ridiculed by viewers for featuring unknown Z-listers who struggled to answer ‘primary school’ level questions.

In the latest series of the long-running BBC quiz show, chosen subjects included Kim Kardashian, Beyoncé and the TV show Sex and the City, while four celebrities failed to make it into double figures.

Several fans failed to recognise a number of the contestants, who included Irish model and presenter Vogue Williams, The Only Way is Essex’s Lydia Bright and Radio 1 Xtra presenter Yasmin Evans. [J4MB: Is there a man in the country who would have recognized all three? I didn’t recognise even one of them.]