Programming note: Please join us this weekend for a special edition of The Mark Steyn Show.
~Re the state of the State of the Union, you know my thoughts because I've been recycling them for the last decade. Upshot:
Ersatz monarchism does not become a republic.
The only thing different when a squinting waxwork does it is that it seems more like the Lying in State of the Union.
The wretched GOP plays along, of course. And, in case you were wondering how serious they are about that "profound course-correction" I was talking about, well... Just when you think the Republican response can't get any worse, it does:
Katie Britt delivered it from her kitchen, which I assume is a twelve-million-dollar purpose-built set constructed in RNC headquarters. Clever: the GOP wants America to know that, like so many other formerly butch types, it identifies as a confused weepy schoolgirl. But maybe it would have been better to cut to the chase and have Mitch McConnell give it during hormone treatments from the transitioning clinic.
JK Rowling reported to UK police for 'misgendering' trans broadcaster as a 'man'
As Steyn Show aficionados well know, Britain is the land where everything is policed except crime. So the Northumbria Constabulary will be all over their first case of celebrity "misgendering".
JK Rowling does not need to fight this battle. And almost everyone her prodigious talent has enriched this last quarter-century - publishers, film studios, theatrical producers, movie stars, merchandisers - will be on the side of the litigious tranny. But in no free society should "misgendering" occasion a visit from the coppers. So God bless her.
~Re my free-speech cases on either side of the Atlantic:
My case against the UK state censor Ofcom over my coverage of the appalling Covid vaccines has been postponed from March, because Ofcom is washing its hair all this month. It will now come to the King's Bench Division of the High Court on June 11th.
GB News will not be alongside me at the plaintiff's desk. This week, following yet another adverse ruling by the British censors, they parted company with yet another presenter - the late-night king Dan Wootton. It might be easier if Sir Paul Marshall and Angelos Floppadopoulos just outsourced the presenter-hiring direct to Ofcom.
By the way, I miss the nine o'clock handovers with Dan. They were great fun - unlike those with Farage, who couldn't be arsed to do it properly. Having picked off two-thirds of GBN's most successful primetime line-up (Steyn, Wootton), Ofcom has, entirely predictably, moved on to Nigel himself.
Meanwhile, following last month's verdict, Mann vs Simberg and Steyn is cruising into its thirteenth year and the appellate phase. We shall have more news on that later today.
~Many readers have inquired about how to support my free-speech suits on either side of the Atlantic. Well, there are several ways to lend a hand, including:
a) signing up a friend for a Steyn Club Gift Membership;
b) buying a near-and-dear one a SteynOnline gift certificate; or
c) ordering a copy of Mark's latest book, The Prisoner of Windsor (you won't regret it - ask Kathy Gyngell).
With the first two methods, one hundred per cent of the proceeds goes to a grand cause - and, in the last, a significant chunk thereof. And, in all cases, you or your loved one gets something, too.