Protesting too much? As you can see from the above picture, these students reject gender apartheid. That is, separate lectures in some subject areas. You can tell that they reject gender apartheid, because the placards all say that. The only thing missing is why they reject it. In the background there is a placard which, in close-up, shows apartheid in South Africa based on race. It’s irrelevant, but it’s there. In the near foreground, the earnest chap wearing headphones holds a placard saying ‘Separate is never equal’. This is palpable gibberish, as millions of EU citizens separated by national borders are entirely equal: they are all of zero importance to their legislators.

Educational studies have been showing for decades that some classes and lectures in some circumstances are better conducted while the genders are separate. I don’t say they’re conclusive, but they exist: that is, they cast doubt. 100 people turned up to protest the existence of gender apartheid. I think those hundred souls should be studied in depth, because they probably hold the key to a thorough understanding of fluffy flake syndrome.

Western rethink in Syria. Reuters reports this morning that the United States and Britain have suspended non-lethal aid to northern Syria after Islamist fighters seized Western-backed rebel weapons warehouses, highlighting fears that supplies could end up in the wrong hands.

I’ll just run that across your bows again: they stole lethal weapons, so we suspended supplies of non-lethal weapons. In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that humanitarian aid would not be affected by the ban, sorry, suspension. So we’ve suspended the supply of what exactly?

Well, it’s only as mad as having backed the Brotherhood and their allies in the first place. You always know where you are with Islamists: they always let you down.

Not all that listens is gold. Gold fell from a three-week high amid concern that the Federal Reserve will reduce QE. Gold is a safe-haven investment to which people turn when the economy and the public finances are in a mess, and/or it looks probable that the stock markets might plummet. If the Fed stops or tapers QE, one or all of these events are highly likely. But gold fell.

This is neither normal nor logical. But then, the banking firms will keep trying to scare the authorities into leaving QE where it is, and they aren’t fussy about the rationales employed. QE tapering sparks new ecoli virus. Withdrawing stimulus upsets Earth orbit. Man knocked down and killed by reversing QE.

More arresting news about State privatisation. The Spanish congressional interior committee yesterday approved a bill granting ‘authorised’ private-sector security personnel some of the same powers as the police, such as the right to arrest people.

They approved the use of the authorised people (without asking how they’d be authorised) “in response to the need to qualify the general principle of excluding private security from acting in public places, which in its current form is excessively rigid and has made more difficult or impeded the necessary authorisation of services to the benefit of the public.’ And if you believe that heap of old doodah etc etc etc.

Sounds to me like big business gaining the right to do WTF it likes in dealing with unions and other protesters. If they want to use these rights against gender apartheid protesters, they have my blessing. Otherwise, it’s a terrible idea representing more of the same transfer of power from labour to capital. But I think only authors should be authorised, and cannons canonised. In particular, diaries should never be diarized. It is a filthy American habit and must be stopped. I demand noun-verb apartheid now.

Earlier at The Slog: why Berlin will eventually give Greece debt relief

Geli offering Samaras a little debt relief