When I was a schoolgirl, Sundays didn’t really feel like days off. It wasn’t just that I had to go to church, although that was certainly a factor; it was mostly because there was a school day looming over Sunday afternoon like a beetling cliff above a mountain meadow. Even if I didn’t have homework due, my mother still enforced an early bedtime on school nights, and even after I escaped the house the knowledge that I would not be free to spend the next day as I pleased was enough to cast a pall over Sunday activities. And since none of the jobs I had after 1987 had traditional Saturday-Sunday weekends, that inability to feel free of looming responsibilities eventually seeped into every day off, aggravating my lifelong characteristic inability to relax into a lifelong Sunday-shaped pathology: unless I was actually under the influence of a drug, whatever tasks I might have to accomplish were always lurking behind me, impossible to ignore regardless of my efforts to pretend they weren’t there. But now, five years into my retirement, I’m at last starting to have a little success in convincing myself that there really aren’t any obligations haunting my free time. Sure, I need to go to town once a week for groceries, and several times a year I need to go into Seattle, and occasionally I have some other responsibility to deal with (beside my daily blog work and household chores, which are never completely done). But other than that, it matters very little if I choose to spend a few hours reading for pleasure, or occupy my time in some frivolous but interesting pastime, or finish my next book in September rather than July. And maybe sometime in the next few years, I’ll be able to exorcise that Sunday haunt once and for all.
Posted in Biography | Tagged psychology | Leave a Comment »
I don’t think they’re aliens, I think they’re demons. – J.D. Vance
I’m not sure why I’ve never posted this song, since it’s been periodically going through my head for years now and I think you’ll agree that though it has never completely stopped being timely, it’s especially timely right now. The links above it were provided by Franklin Harris, Ed Krayewski, Radley Balko, C.J. Ciaramella, Rick Horowitz, and IncarcerNation, in that order.
- Instant karma.
- Semper fidelis.
- I’m sure you feel much safer now.
- They don’t get this serious about rapist cops.
- He isn’t really this stupid, but he thinks MAGA voters are.
- “Knife attacks” multiplied once cops realized every home has throwdowns.
From the Archives
- This is just LA County; every single jurisdiction in the US has similar rates.
- Overseas pharmacies sell to US customers without “Mother-May-I” games.
- Erosion of civil liberties only starts with those government has demonized.
- Government tried to establish a precedent that it need not feed prisoners.
- All I read about these apps makes me glad I’ve never even looked at one.
- Medical experts speak out against the copaganda term “excited delirium”.
- Irrelevant authoritarian spouts irrelevancies to promote authoritarianism.
- Note that the dysphemism “sex trafficking” is conspicuously absent here.
- Americans think “democracy” means rule by those as stupid as they are.
- Censorship laws favor big companies with full-time “compliance” people.
- Only a politician would “punish” a crime by criminalizing legal business.
- Any loophole in any right will inevitably be expanded by authoritarians.
- Some still believe these sociopaths are motivated by “child protection”.
- The entire “troubled teen” industry needs to be sued out of existence.
- Monsters claim the “right” to persecute and torture sexual minorities.
- How long will Americans accept cops terrorizing traumatized women?
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Clarence “Frogman” Henry, and much more.
- Politicians are always happy to wreck lives by inventing new “crimes”.
- Louisiana politicians can think of a way to make any legal fad worse.
- The resources flushed down the “culture war” toilet are incalculable.
- Indiscriminate murder is so much easier when blamed on machines.
- Why are people shocked when men paid to behave violently do so?
- Regular readers know that I like seasonal weather to be seasonal.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Jay North, Clem Burke, and much more.
- Government propaganda inspires the weak-minded to violence.
- I can’t feel sorry for people with problems of their own making.
- The West is complicit in the Chinese genocide of the Uyghurs.
- Thai sex workers are still fighting US-imposed prohibitionism.
- The program which first recruited kids as spies and snitches.
- Let’s hope we can soon say, “Good riddance to bad rubbish”.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- Watching the fall of Asstoon has been such a pleasure.
- My 25th anniversary of living with my best friend.
- Safetyism is the police state’s most powerful fuel.
- Goodness, who could have ever predicted this?
- On timely blessings and pennies from heaven.
- Many useful idiots want this in the US as well.
- Is this idiotic enough yet? Can we stop now?
- “AI” philistines don’t understand art, period.
- A strange, anticlimactic ending to this saga.
- The Swedish Model claims another victim.
- The Satanic Rites of Throwback Thursday.
- Cops, cheese, Al Jaffee, and much more.
- Burble burble BLUE STATE burble drool.
- No woman is safe from predatory cops.
- A history of the Backpage persecution.
- A nice soak in a recently-repaired spa.
- Turns out he isn’t just a wannabe cop.
- Humpty Dumpty, federal prosecutor.
- The Terror of Throwback Thursday.
- A review of Doctor Who “Flux”.
- The chicks grow quickly.
- Your “leaders” at work.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged Alabama, cops, dirty, ethics, fantasy, Florida, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, illegal aliens, Kentucky, politicians, South Carolina, video | Leave a Comment »
The political incentive to vote for anything labeled “child protection” is enormous. – Juan Vasquez
Most of the victims of serial killers are typically sex workers:
Prosecutors have charged a man [responsible for] some of the deaths linked to the “Texas Killing Fields“, an area near Houston where the bodies of dozens of women were found beginning in the 1970s…the bodies of more than 30 women were found there…[over the years, probably from] multiple perpetrators…[but] James Dolphs Elmore Jr….[has been indicted for the murders] of 16-year-old Laura Miller and 30-year-old Audrey Cook, whose bodies were found…in 1986…prosecutors [were] also…seeking indictments against Clyde Hedrick…Elmore’s longtime friend. But…Hedrick died by suicide last month before the grand jury came back with a decision…
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1503)
Puritans consider damage to women’s livelihoods a feature of their censorship schemes:
…Nearly 50 percent of the U.S. population now lives in states with age verification laws that target adult content on the internet. These laws [not only] restrict freedom of expression for adult consumers, but [also] are proving even more costly for the people who actually work in…adult entertainment…Over 45 percent of sex workers have seen a noticeable drop in their income…[and] nearly 98 percent of [them]…attribute at least some of this to the “war on porn,” which includes age verification laws. The average income for an online sex worker…clocks in around $58,700 annually—but 38 percent…report making only between $10,000 and $40,000 annually. More than half…have income from outside of the adult industry, while about 35 percent are solely dependent on adult work…so when it comes to age verification laws, clearly much more is at stake than the freedom of the consumer…
Microsoft admits its chatbot is merely an error-prone toy:
An update to [Microsoft’s] Terms of Use document for Copilot on October 24, 2025 [states]: “Copilot is for entertainment purposes only. It can make mistakes, and it may not work as intended. Don’t rely on Copilot for important advice. Use Copilot at your own risk”…[unfortunately,] a…[dis]couraging statement from an anonymous Microsoft spokesperson [says] the disclaimer…will be altered [to something less honest] with [the] next update…
Privacy as we once knew it is a thing of the past:
…Ron Wyden [and five other politicians] sent a letter to [Trumpist henchwoman] Tulsi Gabbard, [saying]…“We…urge you to let the American people know what, if any, impact the use of commercial…VPN…services can have on their privacy rights against warrantless surveillance”…since the [politicians] have access to classified intelligence, they may have seen evidence that…VPN providers…might [already] be a target for the…NSA[, which] can conduct [surveillance] …through the controversial [FISA] Section 702…which allows…warrantless surveillance of [any] US persons…communicati[ng with any entity outside] the US[, including VPN companies]…
Hey, female cops; how’s that collaboration with the police state working out?
Washington County [Utah has] agreed to [reward typical and representative] Sheriff Nate Brooksby [with] $100,000…after he abruptly resigned following [his repeated] sexual harassment …[of female staff and at least one] deputy’s wife…Brooksby [also] interfered in an investigation into Jeff Johnson, [his pet] deputy…[who] was charged with…[stalking people via] criminal investigation records…Brooksby [claimed his victims wanted it but also]…offered his resignation [in exchange for a payout]…
Puritanware has a long history of security issues:
At least three people warned Quittr, an app that [claims it can] help men stop masturbating, about serious security issues for months, but the creators of the app didn’t fix them until weeks after 404 Media reached out for comment multiple times [and courteously refrained from naming it until it was fixed]…Quittr’s founder, Alex Slater…[didn’t bother fixing his product because he was too busy living] the opulent lifestyle the success of Quittr has afforded [him], including driving exotic super cars and living in a Miami mansion…
A politician who cares about civil rights is a rare bird these days:
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers [has] vetoed an age verification bill…cit[ing] First Amendment problems and the practical impossibility of implementing age-gating systems without creating new privacy risks for every adult forced to hand over identification just to browse the internet…the age verification bills proliferating across state legislatures share a common DNA — and much of it traces back to lobbying efforts by large technology companies and third-party identity verification vendors who stand to profit enormously from mandatory compliance regimes…who[se]…burden…falls disproportionately on smaller operators while giving large platforms — which already collect vast amounts of user data — a structural advantage…age verification mandates are functionally a surveillance infrastructure project dressed up as child protection…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny | Tagged artificial stupidity, cell phones, censorship, fascism, I Spy, internet, law, Mad Libs, masturbation, Part of the Picture, porn, rape, robots, scams, serial killers, sex work is work, statistics, Surplus Women, surveillance, Texas, The Puritan Recrudescence, To Molest and Rape, Utah, Walled Garden, Wisconsin | Leave a Comment »
Once upon a time there was a vast jungle full of many different kinds of creatures, who made so much noise only the loudest of them, the elephants and the asses, could clearly be heard amid the din. Naturalists often visited the jungle and sometimes focused on one animal or another, filming them and talking about them for nature shows. Now in this jungle there lived a little bird of a fairly rare variety, and though it wanted to be heard the naturalists could never make out its tiny voice amid the cacophony, so they never talked about or even thought about the little bird, and neither did anyone else. Eventually, the little bird got tired of singing its little song for no one to hear, and so it simply stopped singing and minded its own business. Now, a few thoughtful explorers had seen the little bird and knew it existed; an even smaller number had even heard its little song. So they said to the naturalists, “Maybe the naturalists should consider that little bird’s quiet little song, even though few ears are good enough to hear it.” But the naturalists were always accompanied by an unruly gang of fans, and rather than admit that perhaps their idols should be more aware of rare creatures, they blamed the little bird, saying, “If little birds want to be heard, they should peep at the exact same time as the elephant trumpeting or the asses braying, so they can be heard along with those other animals.” When the thoughtful explorers pointed out that merely increasing (by some infinitesimal amount) the noise made by other creatures with whom they had nothing in common was hardly likely to call attention to the little bird in any way, the gang members merely asked if the explorers wanted the “bad” animals to win, and declared that if the little bird really wanted to be heard, it should have been hatched as an ass or elephant. Then they congratulated themselves on their great wisdom, and resumed arguing over whether the elephants’ trumpeting or the asses’ braying made lovelier music. And they were so preoccupied with their argument that none of them noticed when a wildfire started and burned them all up together, elephants and asses and naturalists and fans and explorers, and the little bird too. 
Posted in Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged imaginative fiction, politicians | Leave a Comment »
The concept of “free sex” is largely a male fantasy. – “Waiting for Lightning”
In the online world, as in the real one, you don’t get something for nothing. –
“Something for Nothing”
Even the finest thespian can’t conjure Hamlet out of lackluster dialogue draped carelessly over a checklist. – “In Flux”
[Those] who declare CGI “art”, or even declare it superior to real human-created art, are soulless clowns whose opinions should be rejected by anyone who cares about beauty, life, and humanity. – “The Philistine Majority“
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy | Tagged acting, artificial stupidity, blogging, ethics, fantasy, imaginative fiction, internet, psychology, Reviews, sex work is work, Who in Review, yin and yang | Leave a Comment »
Librarians should not be used as a filter for political agendas.
– Luanne James
Two years later, this decision is still standing:
…Indiana’s…Religious Freedom Restoration Act…[of] 2015….was one of many such state laws passed [by]…evangelical Christians to [privilege]…their beliefs [above those of other religions]…Hoosier Jews for Choice saw an opening for Jews to…[use] the same law…to [protect Jews’] access to abortion…[and] Judge Christina Klineman [recently] upheld a 2024 decision…permanently blocking enforcement of the state’s abortion ban for plaintiffs with sincere religious objections…the case is [now] headed to the Indiana Supreme Court…[Naturally, forced-birth fanatics are angry.] “Indiana’s religious freedom laws were passed for the purpose of [enshrining Christian] religious practice [in law], not to protect the [beliefs] of [others from laws justified by Christian dogma],” [said] Alexander Mingus…of the Indiana Catholic Conference, [absurdly declaring Judaism a] “Religion…that preach[es] violence [which is] not protected by religious freedom claims”…Jews [view] the fetus as “potential life,” gaining the legal status of nefesh, or personhood, at birth…
This is the second article I’ve seen on this fungus in two years:
Infectious disease experts…are working to educate doctors about a new…STI…which recently caused an outbreak of at least 30 cases in Minnesota…the fungus Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII (TMvii)…spreads through intimate contact and has predominately been seen among…gay men. It causes painful, coin-sized rashes on the arms, buttocks, trunk, legs and genitals. While infections can be treated with oral antifungal medications, treatment can take several weeks [and]…TMvii can resemble other skin conditions…so proper evaluation is important…TMvii [was first] identified in 2023 in Europe among men who had recently traveled in Southeast Asia. The first U.S. case was reported in New York in 2024…[and] the Minnesota outbreak…began [last] July…
Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#1463) 
It’s heartwarming to see goons snitching on each other:
The national chief of the Border Patrol, Michael Banks, was known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to [hire] sex w[orkers in places where it is legal, such as]…Colombia and Thailand[, instead of simply raping them in the US as CBP policy demands]…Kristi Noem [covered for him, but once she got the sack the snitches got loose. One said,] “If you have the character where you’re going to go [hire consenting] third-world country women [instead of deceiving, raping, and robbing migrant women right here in the US and then deporting them], it’s just not cool in my book”…
Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet:
By pushing a 75 percent wholesale tax on nicotine pouches, New York…Gov. Kathy Hochul [claims she’s] address[ing] “a public health concern.” That rationale is absurd on its face, since this tax would sharply raise the cost of a nicotine product that is far less hazardous than cigarettes, perversely discouraging smokers from making a switch that could save their lives…tobacco smoke…contains myriad toxins and carcinogens, and…the Biden [FDA]…authorized the marketing of Zyn nicotine pouches [because]…”nicotine pouch products…benefit…adults who use cigarettes and/or smokeless tobacco products and completely switch to these products”…the Royal College of Physicians estimates that “the hazard to health” from e-cigarettes, which likewise do not contain tobacco or burn anything…”is unlikely to exceed 5% of the harm from smoking tobacco”…
Due to its absurdly-high taxes, 55% of cigarettes smoked in New York are black market. But I guess Hochul wants that to also be true of smoking-replacement products, and to give the NYPD another excuse for violence against citizens.
Colorado recently enacted a law protecting [citizens from wrongful] arrest…due to [cops’ misuse of unreliable] roadside tests for drugs…police can no longer make arrests solely for misdemeanor drug possession based on the results of colorimetric field drug tests and instead must issue suspects a summons to appear in court. The act also requires courts, before a defendant enters a plea in a case where a field test was used, to inform defendants of the known error rates for the tests and their right to request testing from a forensics laboratory…[cop]s’ use of unverified drug field tests…result[s] in [an estimated 30,000] innocent people being arrested, jailed, and prosecuted…[every year. Cop]s around the country have jailed innocent people…[for] “presumptive positive” results on bird poop, donut glaze, cotton candy, and sand from inside a stress ball…
Field tests are exclusionary tests; in other words, they are designed to tell whether something is not X substance. A positive result does not mean “This substance is X”; it means “this substance might or might not be X”. But cops are too stupid to understand the difference, and wouldn’t care if they could.
We are now in the early days of a dark age:
[Lazy, dishonest] researchers are increasingly using…LLMs…to…conduct literature searches, write manuscripts and format bibliographies…[resulting in a flood of] non-existent academic references…One analysis of nearly 18,000 papers…found a sharp increase in [fake] references…tens of thousands of 2025 publications, including journal papers and books, as well as conference proceedings, probably contain [incorrect or fake] references generated by [chatbots]…researchers are concerned that the problem will soon get out of hand…[and academic publishers are trying to] decid[e]what to do about hallucinated citations that make it into the published literature…
A Tennessee library board has fired the county’s top librarian for refusing to comply with its [demand] to [hid]e more than 100 LGBT…books f[or juveniles in]…the adult section…Luanne James…said that [hid]ing the books would violate…residents’ First Amendment rights and compromise her professional obligation against government-mandated [censorship]…Last fall, a…Wyoming library director w[as awarded] $700,000 to settle a lawsuit after her firing [but wannabe censors]…Cody York…and…Caleb Tidwell [don’t care because it isn’t their money James will get when she wins a similar lawsuit]…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged A Moral Cancer, abortion, artificial stupidity, censorship, Colorado, consensual crime, cops, Dirty Amateurs, disease, Divination, Do As I Say, drugs, ethics, Indiana, law, libraries, Mad Libs, Minnesota, New York, scams, sex work is work, Size Matters, Tennessee, The Punitive Mindset, The Vultures Descend, Thought Control | Leave a Comment »
As you can see, the chicks are in the nursery now. And even though the turkey is two weeks younger than the chickens, she’s nearly as big already. They’ll be confined full-time for two more weeks, then starting on the 19th they’ll be allowed to roam around the chicken yard during the day and only confined at night. Since they’re faster than the adult hens they can get away from aggressive hens in the daytime, whereas at night the door is closed so they’re cooped up in a small space. But after being near them for seven weeks, the adults generally lose interest, so I don’t have a pecking problem. And despite the turkey being younger, her (?) size will soon protect her.
Posted in Diary | Tagged animals, Sunset, video | Leave a Comment »
I recently discovered this funny recording, which was Chubby Checker’s first hit (a year before “The Twist”); in fact, he got his nickname “Chubby” due to his spot-on imitation of Fats Domino. The links above the video were provided by Mike Siegel, Kevin Wilson, Ryan Marino, IncarcerNation, Mistress Matisse, and The Onion, in that order.
- SCIENCE!
- I’m sure you feel safer now.
- A Trumpist living her values.
- What part of “never” is so hard to grasp?
- Now this explanation is one I want to see.
- The best satire cleaves closely to the truth.
From the Archives
- Safetyism has become the go-to excuse of censors pretending they aren’t.
- Seems as though it wasn’t really the OnlyFans account that got him fired.
- As long as sex workers are marginalized, we will be targeted for violence.
- You won’t find that word, nor the word “slavery”, anywhere in this article.
- A few sane judges are the only thing protecting libraries from politicians.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- These attempts to destroy the internet are going to keep getting worse.
- Texas politicians disguise an attack on women as protection for women.
- In the online world, as in the real, you don’t get something for nothing.
- UK officials are as dedicated to hiding the truth about cops as US ones.
- If you thought “asset forfeiture” was brazen robbery, get a load of this.
- These psychopaths want actual criminalization of librarians & teachers.
- It’s a bad idea to try the work of any professional without any training.
- Living within my means is now easier most of the year, except in April.
- The State tortures thousands of people for crossing an imaginary line.
- Politicians compete to make their new laws the most unconstitutional.
- This will never stop while violent thugs have total power over women.
- In the US she’d have no recourse, but prohis say decrim is a “failure”.
- No laws protect this data from being handed to cops to root in at will.
- Crypto-moralists pretend that avoiding pleasure leads to immortality.
- This is vile even by the abysmally-low moral standards of politicians.
- If he’d succeeded, he would’ve claimed it was an accident or suicide.
- As empires age, they rot from the inside out and from the top down.
- The kind of man the State gives nigh-unlimited power over women.
- “Search” is the most common government euphemism for “molest”.
- Twitter has always claimed that this surveillance isn’t surveillance.
- Chicks always start out so cute, but don’t stay that way very long.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from March 2013, 2014, and 2015.
- Sometimes, evil dead things really can return to haunt the living.
- If you’re sick of pictures of chickens, how about pictures of eggs?
- The legacy of To Catch a Predator just keeps on hurting people.
- It’s difficult to read this without feeling a bit of schadenfreude.
- All too often, evil arrives cloaked in the mantle of expediency.
- Cops, Lovecraft, Barbara Rush, Joe Flaherty, and much more.
- Homeless people are another group new evils are tested on.
- Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness.
- This is only going to get worse for the foreseeable future.
- This fascist evil needs to be eradicated, root and branch.
- The crusade to reduce Americans to serfdom continues.
- Another example of the cop/religion molestation nexus.
- Politicians keep using sex as an excuse to destroy lives.
- I wasted a lot of my life by trying to live in the future.
- Old-fashioned Stasi-type surveillance isn’t dead yet.
- There’s at least one principled judge in Texas.
- Washington passes a “strippers’ bill of rights”.
- Cops, shapes, demon lords, and much more.
- Cops, MAGA, Val Kilmer, and much more.
- At least this one wasn’t a “youth pastor”.
- Why does anyone still trust Facebook?
- Your “leaders” call this “correction”.
- Throwback Thursday A.D. 1972.
- A new bar atop the utility room.
- The chicks were late in 2024.
- Young Throwback Thursday.
- Vote Blue no matter who!
- Rapist cops of the week.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny | Tagged artificial stupidity, California, cops, I Spy, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, illegal aliens, Kentucky, Maryland, Never Call the Cops, politicians, STEM, video | Leave a Comment »
A book that unexpectedly explodes upon opening it would be good grounds for a product liability claim; a book whose content inspires someone to act recklessly should not. – Elizabeth N. Brown
The government is now demanding banks not do what it has repeatedly demanded they do:
Federal Trade Commission…sent letters…to the CEOs of PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard, warning them against debanking practices — including denying access to services due to a customer’s…“political affiliations, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities”…last year…the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a report on debanking…in which it named adult entertainment as one of several sectors facing discrimination for engaging in activities contrary to banks’ “values”…[and threatening] an FTC investigation…but those rules will not stop banks from making decisions regarding their customers in a way deemed “consistent with safety and soundness.” This leaves broad leeway for banks to continue discriminatory or exclusionary practices toward adult industry creators and businesses…
When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1450)
Politicians increasingly use nuisance lawsuits to circumvent the Constitution:
[Facebook] has been ordered to pay New Mexico [politicians] $375 million, in a verdict that paves the way for more states to [rob] social media companies under the guise of child protection—and demand changes that will compromise everyone’s online speech and privacy…the lawsuit [misused]…the state’s Unfair Practices Act…States [ab]using…consumer protection laws [to achieve unconstitutional tyranny they could not otherwise accomplish] have been a big trend lately. This ruling all but ensures it will intensify…Section 230…is supposed to protect against this sort of thing. If someone uses Facebook to engage in illegal activity, it’s that person…who may be criminally liable…[but] state attorneys general have been fighting against this…for nearly two decades…[because] they’re stuck prosecuting individual criminals…not [deep-pocketed corporations they can pillage]…The verdict in this case…”will be terrible for the open internet,” said Techdirt[‘s]…Mike Masnick…
It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other:
…two [North Carolina pigs who lived together got in a fight which ended with a sow shooting her pig boyfriend]…Adam Bean [dead. Because the murderer is also a cop, the pig herd is attempting to hide as much]…information [as possible]…
The only way to rein in chatbot pushers is to threaten their cash flow:
OpenAI won’t be rolling out an erotic version of ChatGPT any time soon…the controversial plan has been shelved “indefinitely”…as even its own advisors warned that ChatGPT users could form unhealthy attachments, which might harm their mental health. One advisor chillingly suggested that the tweak risked turning ChatGPT into a “sexy suicide coach”…[and lawyers warned] it [would be] hard to keep illegal behavior out of outputs, like bestiality and incest…investors questioned why OpenAI would risk its reputation on a product with “relatively small upside” for…[a company regularly] linked to mental health harms in both kids and adults [which have led to] lawsuits…
“LLMs…train the brain to disengage…[leading] to passivity…and low integration of concepts“:
…chatbots have become a common part of many [fools’] daily lives, even though they…[give] wrong answers…45 percent of the time. But [stupid people] don’t understand that reality…and…tend…to take…chat[bot vomit] at face value, even when it [gives] them the incorrect answer…experiment…participants were asked to answer a variety of reasoning and knowledge-based questions. Despite making the use of ChatGPT optional, over 50 percent…chose to use the chatbot to answer the questions…researchers…[found almost 80% of chatbot] users w[ere] willing to believe what[ever nonsense it barfed up] regardless of accuracy, in what [researchers] termed a “cognitive surrender” that effectively overrode their intuition and deliberation process…“to outsource thinking itself”…[and] give up their own agency…further cementing [their dependency] on [machines]…
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” – Frank Herbert, Dune
To Musk, this is pocket change:
Elon Musk’s [pet] chatbot [MechaHitler has] been banned from [gener]ating non-consensual…[sexual] images…by a Dutch court…the…order [applies to all of]…Europe…and…[includes] a [token] penalty of 100,000 euros ($115,000) for every day it [refuses] to comply…with a maximum fine of 10 million euros…Numerous lawsuits have [also] been filed…[including one from] Baltimore [abusing] the city’s consumer protection laws and…[an]other…[from] three teenagers in Tennessee [who were actually victimized by MechaHitler]…
Compared to Musk’s net worth, this is like me being fined 6¢ a day, maximum $6.
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1621) 
Another broadside against the dangerous “semen retention” cult:
Regular ejaculation — for example, by masturbation — produces higher quality sperm…according to a comprehensive new…meta-analysis of more than 115 studies…that cumulatively involved nearly 55,000 men, as well as 56 studies of 30 non-human species…The results revealed that stored sperm deteriorates over time, resulting in DNA damage, reduced motility, and other defects that can affect fertilization and embryo outcomes…The study…sheds light on the possible evolutionary origins of masturbation, which has been observed in…dozens of [nonhuman] species including dolphins, elephants, lions, and many primates. Masturbation may have emerged as a way to avoid leaving sperm in the tank for too long. Indeed, even species that don’t masturbate in the traditional sense of self-stimulation have still been observed offloading sperm in a practice called “sperm dumping”…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged Aladdin’s Satellite, artificial stupidity, censorship, Choke Point, cops, dirty, domestic violence, Facebook, internet, Mad Libs, masturbation, New Mexico, North Carolina, porn, psychology, robots, scams, semen, Shame Shame, The Cop Myth, The Puritan Recrudescence, When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals | Leave a Comment »
Visit my bookstore
This Month
Old Posts
Call me
Become a Blog Patron
If you want to donate but don't want a recurring charge, you can send any amount you like via PayPal to my email address (see below). Be sure to include a note so I can thank you!Contact Maggie
Boring but necessary legal stuff