Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Hurtling down the path to extinction.

In War of the Worlds, the Martians meet their demise through lack of foresight, because they have no resistance to Earth germs; they are killed “after all man’s devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth.” Now, with our devices and technology working all too well, and plenty of warning (but still, no foresight, beyond the quarterly statement), we may bring about our own end by killing off the insects. Who knows, this might have a bigger, faster impact on human thought (and numbers) than the comparatively slow motion disaster that is climate change.

Time to nationalize agriculture.

I’m not sure that would really help at this point. We would probably have to internationalize agriculture. For the time being, because of our numbers, I think we are trapped in industrialized, mechanized, chemical and energy intensive agriculture. Shifting over to methods that are less destructive would likely require more people working in the agricultural workforce. It would take time, and a lot more state intervention in the economy than many are going to welcome, but whatever we do, whatever happens, there is going to be massive societal and economic disruption as knock on effects of the ongoing ecological and climate disruption we have loaded the system with. The longer we wait to act, the less we will be able to control or mitigate that disruption, and the worse it is going to be. We are racing headlong into crisis and the earth is going to slough off a few billion humans (and countless other species) before it reaches some new equilibrium.

Too few people (and certainly too few people in power) are aware of the fundamental connections between the human sphere and the biological foundations from which it arises and upon which it depends. We’re still learning about those connections in our slow, halting way. Traditional societies that are/were more immediately tied to the cycles of the living world around them might have had some awareness of this, but perhaps in too much of a mythological or metaphorical sense (where propitiation of spirits might be seen as more important than not actually overhunting an animal or exhausting the land), rather than the nuts and bolts causality that the scientific method offers. Whatever traditional awareness of the intimate bond humans have to all other life, that awareness was lost, set aside or ignored as we adopted agriculture and adapted our ways to it.

Bad Astronomy:

That lovely photograph was taken on February 3, 2019, by the Chinese Longjiang-2 satellite, which is orbiting the Moon. It’s a small photo, just 640×480 pixels, but what it shows belies its size; that is the Earth and Moon in one shot, a single image framing all of humanity.

Doesn’t the Moon look strange? That’s because you’re seeing the far side — in fact, the geometry dictates the only way to see the Earth and Moon together in one shot from lunar orbit is if you are over the far side at the time.

But that’s the side forever pointing away from Earth, so we cannot see it from the ground, or even low Earth orbit. To see this terrain you have to go to the Moon and then a bit past it; this view is a gift of the space age.

As is the famous earthrise photo.

It’s sad, isn’t it. We start to discover amazing things about space and even land research vehicles on Mars, and at the same time we wipe out all the insects and keep racing down a path leading to environmental disaster.

Oops.

The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review.

More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.

That’s not good. Lots of mammals, birds and reptiles eat insects, so you do the math.

The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported in larger animals that are easier to study. But insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times. They are “essential” for the proper functioning of all ecosystems, the researchers say, as food for other creatures, pollinators and recyclers of nutrients.

The human species turns out to have been just intelligent enough to destroy planetary life but not intelligent enough to stop doing that.

The analysis, published in the journal Biological Conservation, says intensive agriculture is the main driver of the declines, particularly the heavy use of pesticides. Urbanisation and climate change are also significant factors.

More efficient (intensive) agriculture–>more people–>need for even more efficient agriculture–>repeat repeat repeat–>goodbye insects–>goodbye everything.

One of the biggest impacts of insect loss is on the many birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish that eat insects. “If this food source is taken away, all these animals starve to death,” he said. Such cascading effects have already been seen in Puerto Rico, where a recent study revealed a 98% fall in ground insects over 35 years.

The way to stop the decline would be to stop intensive agriculture. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where that would go well.

This again. University of Bristol Free Speech Society:

We are saddened to inform you that due to Student Union bureaucracy we have been forced to cancel the invitation we extended to Angelos Sofocleous to be on our panel discussion on free speech. We have given the SU plenty of notice for this event. But they felt it proper to cancel his attendance in the last minute, citing “security concerns”. For context, Angelos is a full time student at Durham University who lives amongst students on campus. We leave it to the public to reach their own conclusions with regards to the SU’s intentions.

In the government’s guidance for students on free speech released last year it states, “Students should not be deterred from organising events due to over-bureaucratic procedures”. Ironically, the first question we intended to put before our panel – ‘is there a problem with free speech on campus?’ – has been answered for us loud and clear.

Our event will still be going ahead with the other panellists and will be open for students as well as to the public. We encourage anyone who cares about free speech to turn up to show their support for the cause. Tickets are free, but mandatory.

We are happy to give statements to the press. Message us on our page.

That “citing ‘security concerns'” is an especially nice touch. What security concerns? The ones about the rumpus we will raise if you don’t cancel the invitation to Sofocleous. We know there will be a fuss because we will create one. Nice little place you got here, would be a shame if you provoked me into smashing it up.

Angelos comments:

I have just been de-platformed by @Bristol_SU from a panel debate on ‘Free speech on campus’ organized by the University of Bristol Free Speech Society due to concerns that “my presence might spark protests which might lead to physical violence”. pic.twitter.com/2U9ChkVFGL

— Angelos Sofocleous (@Sofocleous_A) February 10, 2019

Which, being interpreted, means not so much that his appearance might spark anything, as that people there would see to it that his appearance met with boisterous opposition. If opposition is boisterous enough it can be said to be a security concern, and boom, there’s your pretext for telling this person whose ideas you dislike to stay away.

Spotted at the Trump Hotel earlier tonight – Matt Whitaker, post-testimony.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 9, 2019

Let’s see, can we improve on that at all? Matt Whitaker after that grotesque performance at the hearing going to the Trump Hotel and…ordering the dolphin steak, painting “Mueller is a witch-hunter!!” on the wall, wearing a “Bring Back Rape!” T shirt?

They just don’t get it.

The bishop, who has maintained his innocence, will be charged and face trial by a special prosecutor on accusations of rape and intimidation, the police investigating the case said. But the church acknowledged the nun’s accusations only after five of her fellow nuns mutinied and publicly rallied to her side to draw attention to her yearlong quest for justice, despite what they described as heavy pressure to remain silent.

“We used to see the fathers of the church as equivalent to God, but not anymore,” said Darly, her voice shaking with emotion. “How can I tell my son about this, that the person teaching us the difference between right and wrong gave him his First Communion after committing such a terrible sin?”

The church is an institution that divides humanity into two halves for the purpose of making one half subordinate to the other. If you do that, there is going to be abuse. It can be the Mafia or the church, it makes no difference; telling people that these other people over here are your inferiors is an invitation to abuse the putative inferiors. That’s how humans work. An institution that not only does that but makes it sacred and holy and mandated by an all-powerful god who belongs to the superior caste is making it all but mandatory. Of course priests rape women; priests have been trained to look down on women, under instruction from Mister God Himself.

“The church is losing its moral authority,” Father Vattoly said. “We are losing the faith of the people. The church will become a place without people if this continues. Just like in Europe, the young will no longer come here.”

Good. Find a better source of moral authority, one that doesn’t carve people up into superior and inferior.

Via clamboy – a long thread on Seattle and SOME INCHES OF SNOW OMIGOD.

I’ve never witnessed anything quite like Seattle grocery stores when locals are preparing to brave 4-5 inches of snow.

— Daniel Silvermint (@DSilvermint) February 8, 2019

Oh no. They’ve started looting. People running out of stores with armfuls of Yerba Mate tea.

— Daniel Silvermint (@DSilvermint) February 8, 2019

People are bartering monogrammed yoga mats for just a single slice of cauliflower pizza.

— Daniel Silvermint (@DSilvermint) February 8, 2019

I awoke to the sight of Dickensian orphans picking through my compost. I don’t even know where they found those flat caps. The snow is still 10 hours away. #SeattleSnowpocalypse #Snowmageddon

— Daniel Silvermint (@DSilvermint) February 8, 2019

The snow has started falling eight hours ahead of schedule. People are resorting to the politest cannibalism I’ve ever seen.

— Daniel Silvermint (@DSilvermint) February 8, 2019

They just ate Howard Schultz.

— Daniel Silvermint (@DSilvermint) February 8, 2019

People are crocheting beanies as fast as they can.

— Daniel Silvermint (@DSilvermint) February 8, 2019

It’s been snowing for an hour and a half, and the roads are now white. People are gathering on their roofs, but no rescue is coming.

— Daniel Silvermint (@DSilvermint) February 8, 2019

That’s only a small sample. Guy has a fertile brain!

This is hilarious.

Seattle hears snow forecast, descends on grocery stores like the apocalypse is coming

The weatherman said that, worst-case scenario, 14 inches of snow might blanket Seattle over the weekend.

Hearing this, Seattle made like Supermarket Sweep and bought, literally, all the things.

Cue photo of empty shelves.

I can confirm. I went (on foot) up to the shopping street of my neighborhood a couple of hours ago (when the snow was well under way) because I needed milk and orange juice. Safeway: no milk, no orange juice, bare shelves all over the place! Trader Joe’s: one last carton of orange juice, which I grappled to my soul with hoops of steel; no milk, empty shelves! Bartell Drugs: milk at last! But gallons when I wanted a half gallon, but never mind, I got the gallon. Also: traffic at a complete standstill. A line of cars stretching as far as I could see, not moving.

People, come on. This is a city, not the prairie. We’re not going to be pinned helplessly inside for weeks. It will be ok.

(Granted it is a little tougher where I am, because the delivery trucks can’t get up the hill, as the guy at Trader Joe’s explained to me. There might be more milk on Sunday but don’t count on it. I’m glad I remembered Bartell carries milk.)

At the Trader Joe’s in the University District a few hours earlier, lines stretched to the back of the store. Produce was still doing fine around 5 p.m., we heard, but sweet yums were out. We see you, college students.

At the Fred Meyer in Greenwood, shoppers vying to get into the parking lot caused a small traffic jam around 7 p.m.

At the Safeway in the University District, salt was completely sold out. “And it’s not just the rock salt,” said Steve Bailey, who was stocking shelves. “What was weird is that every single table salt was bought in one day.”

That makes me laugh and laugh.

Swung by the U District Safeway.

Employee tells me they completely sold out of salt yesterday. Every shaker in the building.

The other hot item: soups. #SeattleSnow pic.twitter.com/5GBJdSkwCY

— Casey Martin (@caseyworks) February 8, 2019

Soup! Soup!! Snow is on the way, we have to have plenty of soup!!!

Paul Waldman at the Post argues that Whitaker and Barr are under such fierce scrutiny now that they can’t obstruct the investigation, however much they want to.

Democrats are trying to do two things simultaneously with this hearing in particular and their broader efforts with regard to the Mueller investigation. The first is to discover whether there has been any improper interference from the White House to limit the probe. The second is to apply enough pressure that even if Whitaker — or the White House, or William Barr — wanted to hinder Mueller, they’d decide that doing so would be too much of a risk.

The truth is that Democrats have probably succeeded in the latter goal, which must be spectacularly frustrating for President Trump…

All evidence suggests that after pushing Sessions out he appointed Whitaker in an acting capacity precisely because Whitaker had been publicly critical of the Mueller investigation. Yet Whitaker was under so much scrutiny on this question from the moment he took that position, he was almost certainly prevented from doing anything significant to impede Mueller. The same is likely to be true of Barr, who despite being critical of the investigation before his appointment now knows that if he really tries to protect Trump, eventually everyone will know and he’ll be disgraced.

If Trump had actually persuaded anyone to obstruct the Mueller probe on his behalf, he wouldn’t be tweeting “Witch hunt!!!” every few days. Those are the desperate cries of a man who wishes his underlings would obstruct justice on his behalf, but isn’t getting what he wants.

Well…I’m not so sure. Trump tweets what he feels like tweeting, just as he says what he feels like saying. He doesn’t have a whole lot of impulse control, and he keeps flying into rages at the shocking way some people persist in not bowing to him.

But I hope Waldman is right about the larger point.

The Whitaker hearing is happening today. The tweets emanating from there are startling.

!!!

Nadler asks Whitaker if he's been asked to approve any of Mueller's moves.
Whitaker: “Mr Chairman, I see that your five minutes is up I’m here voluntarily I agreed to five-minute rounds”

Gasps in the room

— Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) February 8, 2019

Jerry Nadler asks Matthew Whitaker if he has ever been asked to approve any request or action to be taken by the Special Counsel.

Whitaker: "Mr. Chairman, I see that your five minutes is up."

The response in the room is remarkable. Via CSPAN2 pic.twitter.com/UAcOyulX46

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 8, 2019

Whitaker makes a snide remark about Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's time.

Her response: “Mr Attorney General, we’re not joking here and your humor is not acceptable”

— Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) February 8, 2019

Whitaker makes another remark about members' time, this time in regards to Rep. Shiela Jackson-Lee.

Jackson-Lee: "Mr Attorney General, we're not joking here. And your humor is not acceptable. Now, you're here because we have a constitutional duty to ask questions." Via CSPAN2 pic.twitter.com/IY5UZh8uvU

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 8, 2019

With the possible exception of Martin Shkreli, it's hard to remember a more disrespectful congressional witness than Matthew Whitaker.

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) February 8, 2019

FBI Director Chris Wray has said the Mueller probe isn't a "witch hunt."

Rosenstein, who oversees it, has said it's not a witch hunt.

But Whitaker won't say it.

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) February 8, 2019

Well now what do you think is going to happen in a secretive all-male organization that employs women to do the scut work?

In his typically free-associating riff, Francis acknowledged “there have been priests and bishops” who have committed sexual abuse against nuns, and that “it’s continuing because it’s not like once you realize it that it stops.” He said the church needed to do more.

Priests and bishops in the Catholic church are all, by definition, men. Women are officially barred from being priests and bishops. That’s step one right there, or steps one and one. It’s a double whammy: women are an inferior caste who may not hold the important jobs, and women are all subordinate to the superior caste who do hold the important jobs and are thus free (and entitled, and inspired) to prey on the inferior caste whenever the mood takes them.

But while attempting to show that his predecessor, Benedict XVI, took tough action on the issue of sexual abuse against nuns, he recalled a separate case of a religious order marred with sexual and economic corruption, but apparently was not one involving nuns.

Francis recounted that Benedict, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the church’s doctrinal watchdog, marshaled all his evidence against the complicit order in a meeting with Pope John Paul II. Francis said Benedict returned defeated and told his secretary, “The other side won.” Francis added in an aside, “We should not be scandalized by this — it’s part of a process.”

His point seemed to be that pursuing justice in the church takes time and he said that when Benedict became pope he immediately told his secretary to get him the files “and he began.”

But his example confounded advocates of nuns abused by priests, who noted that the pope is the single person within the church with absolute authority to take action at any time.

I guess by “process” he meant “waiting for the current pope to die or resign”?

Many members of the church, experts said, suffer from a medieval mind-set and consider the priests who commit abuse against nuns to be the victims of seductive temptresses. Since the victims in these cases are adults, the experts say, there is also a reflexive tendency to blame them. The reductive public image of the nun as existing to serve the priest and to pray quietly also undercuts those who speak up.

As does the fact that all women are officially an inferior caste within the church, vide supra.

In 1994, Sister Maura O’Donohue sent the Vatican the results of a multiyear, 23-nation survey about such abuse, which was especially rampant in Africa where nuns were considered safe sexual partners for priests who feared infection by H.I.V.

One 1998 report focused on Africa observed that “sexual harassment and even rape of sisters by priests and bishops is allegedly common.”

“When a sister becomes pregnant, the priest insists that she have an abortion,” the report added. ‘‘The sister is usually dismissed from her congregation while the priest is often only moved to another parish — or sent for studies.”

Let’s hear that again.

“When a sister becomes pregnant, the priest insists that she have an abortion,” the report added.

Oh does he. Does he really.

Jeff Bezos. Today. Reporting attempted blackmail and extortion by the National Enquirer, owned by American Media, Inc (AMI).

Something unusual happened to me yesterday. Actually, for me it wasn’t just unusual — it was a first. I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Or at least that’s what the top people at the National Enquirer thought. I’m glad they thought that, because it emboldened them to put it all in writing. Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten.

AMI, the owner of the National Enquirer, led by David Pecker, recently entered into an immunity deal with the Department of Justice related to their role in the so-called “Catch and Kill” process on behalf of President Trump and his election campaign. Mr. Pecker and his company have also been investigated for various actions they’ve taken on behalf of the Saudi Government.

And sometimes Mr. Pecker mixes it all together:

“After Mr. Trump became president, he rewarded Mr. Pecker’s loyalty with a White House dinner to which the media executive brought a guest with important ties to the royals in Saudi Arabia. At the time, Mr. Pecker was pursuing business there while also hunting for financing for acquisitions…”

Federal investigators and legitimate media have of course suspected and proved that Mr. Pecker has used the Enquirer and AMI for political reasons. And yet AMI keeps claiming otherwise:

“American Media emphatically rejects any assertion that its reporting was instigated, dictated or influenced in any manner by external forces, political or otherwise.”

Other media say otherwise.

Then, whaddya know, The National Enquirer published some texts of Bezos’s, and Bezos hired a lawyer to investigate.

Here’s a piece of context: My ownership of the Washington Post is a complexifier for me. It’s unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy.

President Trump is one of those people, obvious by his many tweets. Also, The Post’s essential and unrelenting coverage of the murder of its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles.

(Even though The Post is a complexifier for me, I do not at all regret my investment. The Post is a critical institution with a critical mission. My stewardship of The Post and my support of its mission, which will remain unswerving, is something I will be most proud of when I’m 90 and reviewing my life, if I’m lucky enough to live that long, regardless of any complexities it creates for me.)

Back to the story: Several days ago, an AMI leader advised us that Mr. Pecker is “apoplectic” about our investigation. For reasons still to be better understood, the Saudi angle seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve.

A few days after hearing about Mr. Pecker’s apoplexy, we were approached, verbally at first, with an offer. They said they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation.

So Bezos has published the whole correspondence. Read on.

From the “oh come on now” files:

Speaks for itself and no one is at all surprised. pic.twitter.com/kLoJzMmY10

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 6, 2019

Yes, running the country like a mob boss is just fine as long as you wear a Flag Pin™ while you do it.

This big measles outbreak down on the border with Oregon is a dangerous thing.

Almost a quarter of kids in Clark County, Wash., a suburb of Portland, Ore., go to school without measles, mumps and rubella immunizations, and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) recently declared a state of emergency amid concern that things could rapidly spin out of control.

Measles outbreaks have sprung up in nine other states this winter, but officials are particularly alarmed about the one in Clark County because of its potential to go very big, very quickly.

The Pacific Northwest is home to some of the nation’s most vocal and organized anti-vaccination activists. That movement has helped drive down child immunizations in Washington, as well as in neighboring Oregon and Idaho, to some of the lowest rates in the country, with as many as 10.5 percent of kindergartners statewide in Idaho unvaccinated for measles. That is almost double the median rate nationally.

And why? Because too many people are too damn gullible and feckless, that’s why.

Libertarian-leaning lawmakers, meanwhile, have bowed to public pressure to relax state laws to exempt virtually any child from state vaccination requirements whose parents object. Three states allow only medical exemptions; most others also permit religious exemptions. And 17, including Washington, Oregon and Idaho, allow what they call “philosophical” exemptions, meaning virtually anyone can opt out of the requirements.

Liberty! Liberty to spread lethal epidemics for no good reason! That is our Liberty Libertarian Philosophy!

“You know what keeps me up at night?” said Clark County Public Health Director Alan Melnick. “Measles is exquisitely contagious. If you have an under-vaccinated population, and you introduce a measles case into that population, it will take off like a wildfire.”

It will be just like the 14th century; what fun.

Measles, which remains endemic in many parts of the world, generally returns to the United States when infected travelers bring the disease back to pockets of the countrywhere some parents have chosen not to vaccinate their children. When immunization rates fall below a certain threshold, outbreaks can occur; pregnant women, young children and people with compromised immune systems who can’t get vaccinated are especially at risk. Last year, 349 cases were confirmed across 26 states and the District of Columbia, the second highest total since the disease was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Since October, an outbreak in New York’s Orthodox Jewish community has sickened 209 people. In the first month of 2019, 10 states, including New York and Washington, have reported cases, all signs of a resurgence of a disease that is entirely preventable with a vaccine that authorities say is safe and effective.

Yes but preventing it is kind of decadent and effete, don’t you think? Life should be more of a struggle than that.

[Officials are] encouraging parents to vaccinate their kids if they haven’t already, and are pushing back against rumors and misinformation, including that self-medicating with vitamin A will prevent measles.

Melnick said the county is also spending precious time and resources addressing false ideas being spread by anti-vaccine advocates, who he said posted “ridiculous” misinformation as comments on the county health department’s Facebook page.

Critics claimed, for instance, that the measles vaccine can cause encephalitis, or brain inflammation, he said. That was documented once in a child who had an immune deficiency and should not have gotten a shot. More commonly, encephalitis is a severe but rare complication of the disease itself. The department has a three-person team countering those assertions and responding to questions.

But what if we like disease and death?

This op-ed about women who resist some items of trans ideology doesn’t begin well:

Last week, two British women stormed onto Capitol Hill in Washington for the purposes of ambushing Sarah McBride, the national press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign.

“Stormed”? Load the dice much? A decent editor would have edited that out. Nobody stormed; they simply went there. They’re allowed to do that. Poisoning the well six words in is just childish, and clumsy.

Ms. McBride, a trans woman, had just been part of a meeting between the Parents for Transgender Equality National Council and members of Congress when the Britons — Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, who goes by the name Posie Parker, and Julia Long — barged in. Heckling and misgendering Ms. McBride, the two inveighed against her supposed “hatred of lesbians” and accused her of championing “the rights of men to access women in women’s prison.”

Ms. Parker, who live-streamed footage of the harassment on Facebook, contended that she had come to Washington because “this ideology” — by which she presumably meant simply being trans — “has been imported into the U.K. by America, so, to stem the flow of female erasure, we have to come to its source.”

No, she didn’t mean “simply being trans.” She meant the ideology: the substantive claims about reality that the movement makes and attempts to enforce with ever-increasing venom and threats of violence.

Sophie Lewis goes on to explain that what she calls “anti-trans lobbying” is more of a thing in the UK than in the US.

Case in point: Ms. Parker told the podcast “Feminist Current” that she’d changed her thinking on trans women after spending time on Mumsnet, a site where parents exchange tips on toilet training and how to get their children to eat vegetables. If such a place sounds benign, consider the words of British writer Edie Miller: “Mumsnet is to British transphobia,” she wrote “what 4Chan is to American fascism.”

Say what? If we don’t know that Mumsnet is evil, consider the words of this random person who says Mumsnet is evil? What kind of argument is that? Where was the editor when this piece got the green light?

It doesn’t get any less stupid as it goes on; why the Times thought this was worth publishing is beyond me. Maybe they have a program for trans-writers (not writers who are trans, but people who Identify As writers without being able to write), and Sophie Lewis is their first winner. Check out this elegant paragraph for instance:

In America, however, TERFism today is a scattered community in its death throes, mourning the loss of its last spaces, like the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, which ended in 2015. And so the strangely virulent form that TERFism takes in Britain today, and its influence within the British establishment, requires its own separate, and multipronged, explanation.

“And so” – nifty.

Then there’s a random paragraph about skepticism, then another grinding change of gears.

It’s also worth noting that the obsession with supposed “biological realities” of people like Ms. Parker is part of a long tradition of British feminism interacting with colonialism and empire. Imperial Britain imposed policies to enforce heterosexuality and the gender binary, while simultaneously constructing the racial “other” as not only fundamentally different, but freighted with sexual menace; from there, it’s not a big leap to see sexual menace in any sort of “other,” and “biological realities” as essential and immutable. (Significantly, many Irish feminists have rejected Britain’s TERFism, citing their experience of colonialism explicitly as part of the reason.)

Oh yes, there was no heterosexuality and no gender binary in India before the colonizers arrived, and that’s why there were no people either.

A reporter for NewsAnglia talked to Margaret Nelson about her encounter with the police.

Police have apologised to a blogger for their handling of a complaint about her online comments which had offended some members of the transgender community.

Margaret Nelson, who’s in her seventies and from near Needham Market in Suffolk, was asked to tone down her web posts and tweets about the sensitive issue

That’s such shit writing, and shit reporting. “Their handling” “was asked” – be specific. Be specific and tell the truth. A police person called her on the phone early in the morning, which would be at least startling and intrusive even if the call were about buying tickets to a fundraiser.

What a way to start the day! 2 early cold callers, one saying they're from the "call-blocking department", and a policewoman to tell me my online activity has caused offense to "transgenders", though she agreed a blog post wasn't untrue. Whoever's been offended tracked me down!

— Margaret Nelson (@Flashmaggie) February 4, 2019

Some of the things the reporter said to Nelson:

Do you accept then that your comments might be seen as hurtful or offensive to some people?

Your views are very old-fashioned.

To us, the listeners:

It won’t stop her saying what she feels.

It’s more to do with what she thinks than what she feels. Feeling as a replacement for thinking is how we get into these stupid messes.

In short the reporter was way out of her depth, which didn’t stop her patronizing Nelson throughout.

After the interview there’s a chat with two “trans rights campaigners,” who say some very gormless things.

She’s a product of her time.

Unfortunately a lot of people aren’t aware of how transgenderism works or gender neutral works.

There’s a profound difference between biological sex and gender. Biological sex is just a label that doctors give you when you’re born.

Ah yes, biological sex is just a label, gender is the real thing.

Speaking of shame and disgust and fear around menstruation – it has killed another woman in Nepal.

A 21-year-old woman has been become the fourth person known to have died this year as a result of the illegal practice of chhaupadi, whereby menstruating women in Nepal are banished from their homes and forced to sleep in huts.

Parbati Bogati, from the western Doti district, is thought to have died from smoke inhalation while sleeping in a small, windowless hut. She was discovered by her mother-in-law on Thursday morning.

Thus women are banished at the risk of their lives because they are the people who grow new human beings inside their own bodies.

Just weeks earlier Amba Bohara, 35, and her two sons, Ramit, nine, and Suresh, 12, were found dead in a cowshed. Their deaths, in neighbouring Bajura district, prompted some people to demolish chhaupadi sheds in their village.

Both women are believed to have suffocated after lighting fires to stave off freezing temperatures. Campaigners fear January may have been the worst month for such deaths in recent years, despite government efforts to end the practice, which has been banned since 2005.

Disgust around women runs very deep.

Last year, penalties including a 3,000-rupee (£20) fine and a three-month jail term were introduced for those convicted of imposing the custom. However, chhaupadi, linked to Hindu religion, is deeply embedded in some parts of Nepal.

All the gods hate women.

The tradition dictates what a woman can eat, where she can sleep and with whom she can interact while she is menstruating.

“It has been followed from the very beginning, from their ancestors, so if they discontinue with that kind of ritual, they fear that the god will punish them,” said Dechen Lama, a lawyer at the Forum for Women, Law and Development.

The god will punish them for not punishing menstruating women.