We didn’t have a bumper crop of plums this year, but the ones we got are plump and juicy. I made a plum pie, and though Jae loves plum pastries I find them more tart than I care for. I do like plum bread, though, and plum sauce, so I think I’ll make some this week. The tomatoes are just about big enough to make fried green tomatoes; this year I bought only two of a cherry-tomato variety and four of a table-tomato variety, but the former grew so quickly and so large they’ve really overwhelmed the latter, so next year I’m only going to buy one and plant it in a separate planter so the table-tomato plants have more room to grow. I’ve never had a green thumb and I don’t particularly like digging in the dirt, so my gardening is limited to plants I can basically ignore other than ensuring they get enough water. And that typically works out just fine for me.
Posted in Diary | Tagged Sunset | Leave a Comment »
He doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar. – Jon Ossoff
One thing that never ceases to amuse me is the inability of vanilla squares to see something so obvious it’s practically dancing on their noses, because their understanding of human sexuality is so limited and ignorant that they completely lack the ability to recognize a kink relationship when they see it. Case in point the mad emperor’s aide Natalie Harp, who has been in the news lately because the epigram above cast light upon their relationship, which Trump’s followers and enemies alike seem confused and embarrassed by. Harp first came into the public eye in 2019, when she credited Trump for saving her from cancer; she joined his losing 2020 campaign and soon unsettled his other aides (and the Secret Service) with her obsessive, slavish devotion, following him around with a portable printer so she could print out laudatory articles for him to read. For one of his New York court appearances in October 2023, his other staffers tried to ditch her by leaving no seat for her in a motorcade; she rode along in a vehicle’s trunk, like a piece of cargo. During his 2024 campaign, they tried to keep her away from staying with him at his golf club by denying her a room; she responded by sleeping in the women’s locker room all summer. When she accompanies him out on the golf course, he does not let her ride in his golf cart but forces her to trot along behind like a dog; she has written apology letters to him for being unable to keep up. She has access to his “Truth Social” account and was responsible for the infamous tweet depicting the Obamas as apes. And she writes him love letters which include phrases like “You are all that matters to me“, and signs them, “With all my heart, Natalie“.
Many on social media are implying that she is essentially the mad emperor’s favorite concubine, and of course his followers insist that their relationship is “chaste” and “spiritual”. And both sides are right, and both are wrong. Because any kinky person knows a D/s relationship when we see it, and it’s blatantly obvious that this is the psychosexual dynamic involved here (though neither of them probably recognizes it for what it is). It’s not “chaste” in any way; it’s deeply sexual. But not all sex involves genitalia or orgasm, despite the inability of squares to grasp that.
Posted in Biography, Current Events, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged BDSM, disease, politicians, psychology, Washington DC | Leave a Comment »
I just love a captive audience. – Whitney Lynn
I always enjoy sharing my earworms, especially when they explain things about my daily life such as why I often call my pig Louie by singing, “Louie Louie Louie Loo-eeeee”. The links above the video were provided by Mike Siegel; Shiv Ramdas; Angela Keaton and Mike Masnick; Radley Balko; IncarcerNation (x2); and Mike Siegel again, in that order.
- Not the Onion.
- So funny I don’t care that it’s 13 years old.
- R.I.P. Hayden Panettiere and Juan Tamariz.
- I’m glad I haven’t used eBay in about 20 years.
- Another triumph for the police suicide-assistance service.
- This won’t stop until payouts come from the cop pension fund.
- Everything I see makes me more determined never to fly again.
From the Archives
- I’m sure they occasionally yelled “Stop faking!” at him as he wasted away.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- This time, a “sex trafficking” lie was told to divert blame for bad behavior.
- Is there no concise term for “commission of a nonconsensual sexual act”?
- Uber encourages its drivers to spy on riders and betray them to the pigs.
- Blaming torture & neglect on a building is brazen even by cop standards.
- Erosion of civil liberties starts with “undesirables”, but never stops there.
- Compare with the “nail parlor trafficking” & “car wash trafficking” myths.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- Burying government in lawsuits is the only way to slow its depredations.
- Only a prohibitionist could imagine that 10 subjects constitute a “study”.
- I’m sure the people of Maui didn’t want her dirty whore money anyhow.
- This is exactly why chatbot “therapy” needs to be banned immediately.
- Can you imagine any non-cop getting such a love tap for forcible rape?
- Cops, mass hysteria, Tommy McLain, Terence Stamp, and much more.
- One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- Apparently this preacher wasn’t the molester, but is covering for him.
- If you didn’t see this one coming, you haven’t been paying attention.
- A few judges are still willing to choose the Constitution vs politicians.
- A program that did one thing well tried to be all things to all people.
- It’s almost like the judge is intentionally setting up another mistrial.
- Why are people shocked when men paid to behave violently, do so?
- Sometimes I just can’t take cops’ sophomoric pomposity seriously.
- The “forced sex trafficking abortions” trope never quite caught on.
- Local media obediently parrots copaganda, no matter how foolish.
- The front of a wedge must by its nature be thinner than the rest.
- It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other.
- Florida censors lose every challenge, but it doesn’t stop them.
- The claims in these nuisance lawsuits are increasingly absurd.
- Cops, signs, Johnny Hardwick, Bob Barker, and much more.
- Cops, cults, Gena Rowlands, Wally Amos, and much more.
- Curated selections of tweets from August 2023 and 2025.
- Anyone who thinks this is “justice” is part of the problem.
- Sleeping with a cop is just as dangerous for female cops.
- Artificial stupidity makes those who use it stupid as well.
- There are many ways for governments to rob people.
- Another “youth pastor”, another distancing “former”.
- Some rapist cops are indiscriminate in their habits.
- This situation is not going to get better on its own.
- The open internet is becoming a thing of the past.
- Sleeping with cops isn’t even safe for male cops.
- The 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art.
- What kind of warped mind thinks this is OK?
- All cops will have these within a few years.
- This is an extremely dangerous precedent.
- Your “leaders” refer to this as “correction”.
- On the pervasive rot of enshittification.
- The atrium bathroom is finally done!
- A bad year for fruit at Sunset.
- Expanding the chicken coop.
- Son of Throwback Thursday.
- Much more of this, please.
- Throwback at Thursday.
- The Throwback Theory.
- The Beat Generation.
- Meet the Flintstones.
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged acting, censorship, Colorado, cops, Idaho, imaginative fiction, internet, language, Never Call the Cops, Ohio, psychology, racism, video | Leave a Comment »
Torture, brutality, and abuse [are] endemic to New York’s prisons. – Jerome Wright
I doubt this will do very much good until the current SCOTUS is neutralized:
…a U.S. district court judge in Idaho ruled that women have a constitutional right to abortion to preserve their physical and mental health. Not just to save their lives, and not just to prevent a major health catastrophe—but to protect their ongoing health…Dr. Stacy Seyb challenged Idaho’s [near-total] ban…argu[ing] that the U.S. Constitution also protects abortion in cases where pregnancy worsens existing conditions, could lead to suicide, or involves fatal or severe fetal diagnoses…Judge Lynn Winmill largely agreed, ruling that health-preserving abortions are constitutionally protected…[but] declined to block Idaho’s ban on abortions for doomed pregnancies…Judge Winmill ruled that ending a pregnancy for health reasons is rooted in American history and tradition, writing that Idaho’s ban is an “outlier position that contravenes basic principles of our constitutional order”…
Much, much more of this, please:
California prison officials have [allowed female prisoners to be subjected to] sexual abuse and harassment…for years, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a new report…[compiled] after hundreds of [the victims] filed legal claims [because of rape and other] sexual exploitation by staff…investigators said they found an “unbroken pattern” of staff sexual assault dating back over 20 years at California’s two women’s prisons. The department concluded that prison officials knew women faced a substantial risk of sexual abuse but [simply did not care]…Investigators pointed to gaps in surveillance camera coverage, a lack of confidential reporting options, inadequate investigations and [refusal] to hold staff accountable…[due] to “deliberate indifference”…
One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality:
A [California] probation [cop named]…Damon Jon Luecke…[has been arrested] and…held without bail…[for talking a] 13[-year-old boy into sending him]…sexually explicit…photographs and [trying to talk him into] meeting in person…the mother…fo[und out]…and…re[ported him]…Luecke [has an]…extensive history working with youth…[embroiled with the in]justice system…[including] 16 years…as a [screw in a] juvenile [prison camp]…
Your “leaders” call this “correction”:
[New York screws]…locked Rahkeem Brown in a [cell with]…a mattress on the floor and…no running water…[after barfing the magic word “]contraband[“] in his [face]…they replaced his prison uniform with a [stained] hospital gown…which…smelled like feces…gave him…a…bucket…and told him to [magically produce an unnamed] item [from his anus] and give it to them [as though he could lay golden eggs]…he spent the next eight days in the room, giving [pervert pigs] stool after stool…but [they kept robotically declaring that]…the stool was…an “insufficient amount”…They gave him cups of water, but it was barely enough to drink and…the room’s overhead lights never turned off…[screws torture their victims] in similar rooms across New York’s state prison system…[all they need to do is barf the magic word] “contraband”…in 2019, [one victim] sued [a prison] for holding him in a “[shit] room” for 61 days…[but] courts dismissed the suit, [barf]ing…the [magic torture-justifying word] “security”…In 2021, another man sued the s[ame prison] for [lock]ing him in a [shit] room…for over two months…a court…award[ed] him [a mere] $6,390 …Yet another [gang of screws tried to justify two weeks of the torture by]…plant[ing drugs in the room after their victim was released]…
I’m afraid this will be far too little, far too late:
France’s top court has struck down a ban on social media for under-15s…[because] it infringed upon freedom of expression…the French president immediately [vowed to ram through]…a new [version designed]…to [circumvent] the cou[rt’s objections despite]…the Constitutional Council…[finding] that…the legislation…”is neither appropriate, necessary, nor proportionate”…
Pigs in schools should be abolished, not given torture devices:
[Pigs paid to lurk in] 29 public schools across the Omaha area have access to gloves capable of [painfully] shock[ing students into submission] — the same technology [ICE]…is [handing to its goons]…The Omaha P[igsty admits] that the gloves have been used [at least] twice…on students [they wished to brutalize, an atrocity spokespigs euphemized as]…”the officer was able to secure that individual”…
Amazon only cares about books as a path to profit:
Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for [chatbot] training…and destroying them in the process…404 Media…plac[ed] a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by a…[chatbot pusher] and follow[ed] it around the country to its final destination…[which] was an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas…[where] all they do is receive massive shipments of printed books which they then cut the bindings off in order to scan the books more quickly. The printed book is destroyed in the process. The logo of the Amazon team that works at this warehouse, called VGT3, is a dinosaur, brandishing its teeth and with a book in its hands…
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, Tyranny | Tagged abortion, agency denial, artificial stupidity, California, censorship, cops, Creepy Coppers, France, homosexuality, Idaho, internet, law, Mad Libs, Moloch, Nebraska, New York, No Escape, porn, prisons, rape, teachers, The Vultures Descend, Torture Chamber, Walled Garden, weaponry | Leave a Comment »
Sex workers have been asking this question for 20 years.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-16T16:58:18.635Z
There is a product called "Suddenly Salad" which I've always thought had the most bizarre name. In my imagination, the ways that product works is one opens the box, then at some unknown point in the next 24 hours the salad suddenly appears in front of one without warning, which could be dangerous.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-19T03:37:39.650Z
Absolutely. Some pictures wordlessly sum up a moment in history.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-20T16:38:43.159Z
Post a Photoshop of Trump wandering aimlessly into an historical event:
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-21T18:06:59.488Z
When you were a weird kid in the '70s and you saw this on your TV, you KNEW you were in for some good viewing!
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-23T06:41:38.881Z
Good thing they added the extra 40 years, just in case he manages to die and come back as a vampire twice.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-23T19:15:36.022Z
The only moral form of warfare is War of Assassins, in which only the rulers of the warring nations, plus their deputies, agents, and operatives, are legitimate targets. In other words, nobody who does not CHOOSE to be a combatant is in direct physical danger except by accident due to proximity.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-24T07:44:29.870Z
People who cannot understand friendship, and truly believe that all close friendships are motivated by a mutual desire to rut, are both pathetic and contemptible.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-25T17:45:06.947Z
Is a "health movement" anything like a bowel movement?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-26T03:21:25.961Z
I'm sure you feel safer now.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-27T17:21:46.847Z
"The Singularity" is the God of the futurist religion. If you want perspective on anything any tech cultist says about "The Singularity", simply substitute "God", "Providence", "The Force", or any similarly-vague and irrational name for "magic"."The Singularity is coming" = "The Second Coming".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-28T17:49:37.779Z
Sex workers always warn y'all about predators, and y'all never listen.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-29T17:42:59.877Z
Absolutely. I still laugh at the memory of Mr. Moose and his various tricks to win the Captain's consent to having ping-pong balls dropped on him.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-30T18:28:53.057Z
Apparently it will take more than self-induced terminal illness to teach him to behave normally in public.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-31T17:05:53.189Z
It wasn't really Yoko's fault.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-01T07:48:22.576Z
I'm not especially concerned with anyone mistaking my writing for something a chatbot shat out, nor am I willing to change my style in any way to keep stupid people from doing so. I write as the Muse moves me, not by working from some tedious set of guidelines or to please some specific audience.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-02T07:51:12.904Z
I miss my late best friend Grace every single day. And yet, there is a part of me which is glad she passed away a few days after Trump's inauguration, so she never got to see what Musk, who was a hero to her specifically BECAUSE of SpaceX, was really like. I'm glad she was spared disillusionment.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-04T18:26:25.697Z
Nutritionism is not science, exhibit umpteen thousand, nine hundred eleventy-seven.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-05T17:18:45.827Z
Suggestion: limit data centers to whatever size they can power with on-site solar. It would remove the noise & pollution factors, and if the company wanted to go bigger they'd have to have more land, creating more buffer between them and neighbors.Don't bother to point out flaws; I'm just musing.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-06T18:07:11.455Z
Oh look, Maggie was right once again, what a shock, etc.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-07T17:09:01.629Z
Like all those Bond girls who were the supervillain's mistress, only the villains' schemes are more pathetic, like "I will ruin a beloved corporation, hahahahahaha!" instead of "I will cause World War III so my organization can rule over what is left, hahahahahaha!"
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-08T17:07:29.519Z
Your regular reminder that desalination has existed for decades; Americans just don't want to build the plants because REASONS.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-10T02:49:12.833Z
If skills were sexually transmitted, I'd be a Renaissance polymath with *exceptional* ability in medicine, engineering, physics, law, politics, music, and several sports including golf and fishing.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-10T17:30:33.743Z
The US has become a global laughingstock.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-11T17:21:45.852Z
This is breathtakingly brilliant. I don't think I've ever seen such a deft collection of clever, striking, and above all *apt* insults and condemnation of a well-known specimen of poisonous vermin.Well done, @jojofromjerz.bsky.social!
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-14T18:31:38.573Z
What avatar will he replace it with next? This?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T17:36:54.670Z
Librarians' chief duty is preserving human culture from the stupidity of other humans.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T17:31:00.759Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-19T03:52:13.785Z
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Music, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words | Tagged abortion, Aladdin’s Satellite, artificial stupidity, blogging, Bluesky, China, cops, crypto-moralism, dating, fascism, Grace, homosexuality, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, illegal aliens, imaginative fiction, language, lawheads, libraries, Madonna/whore, Minnesota, politicians, porn, prisons, psychology, rape, sporting events, STEM, United Kingdom, violence vs. sex workers | Leave a Comment »
Posted in Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged blogging, Bluesky, imaginative fiction, internet, left-right myth, politicians, Twitter | Leave a Comment »
Fuck everything about this. – anonymous BMW owner
There are many ways for cops to enrich themselves at others’ expense:
[Cops typically] use…their authority to line their own pockets…[but] members of Georgia State Patrol…[came up with a new scam: they] filed or attempted to file insurance claims against drivers they…in[tentionally rammed with malicious intent to cause a wreck]…a…tactic…[euphemized as the “]PIT maneuver[“. They were caught when a superior over]hear[d them teaching others about this new scam]…to receive a “check”…[the cops] sent crash reports to [shyster] Tina Maddox, who then issued demand letters to insurance companies seeking payouts for alleged injuries such as stress, soreness and anxiety…despite not reporting injuries at the time of the incidents…[the scammers] received…settlements of $25,000 each, [of which the shyster skimmed off a third. When interrogated, Hunter Waters admitted to getting three settlements]…Tyler Byrd…admitted to submitting more than a dozen crash reports…and receiving two [payou]ts…Isaiah Francois…expected a settlement but [had] not rec[eived it yet]…The…demand letters…never identified the claimants as [cops, n]or [admitted] that the[y had intentionally caused] the [accidents]…Joseph Curlee [is] a supervisor who was aware of the practice, took no action to stop it and even consulted Maddox about filing a claim of his own…In…an…“extremely unusual” [outcome]…all four [conspirato]rs have been fired…
Is a shiny new status symbol really worth being spied on and harassed?
BMW…suddenly started pushing ads for Spider-Man: Brand New Day onto [its] dashboards…and some drivers who forked up to $160,000 for a [status symbol] aren’t very happy about being spammed when they start their cars…BMW has been pushing increasingly intrusive videos onto its dashboard…[one owner explained] “They started off with mostly just celebratory videos, which slowly became ads about their own products, and now…third-party ads…with the screen controlling almost every feature of the car, you’re essentially forced to watch the ad before you can interact with your own property.” Several commenters compared the…ad to Apple’s famously backfired 2014 stunt of putting a U2 album into the iTunes libraries of more than half a billion customers. BMW’s press release branded the [intrusive, unwanted commercial] “a special surprise”…[even though the] company previously [lied] it wouldn’t sell ads on its dashboards…
Thanks to the Trump regime, Tim Ballard’s partners in profiteering have salvaged their scam:
A…[rescue industry] profit[eer] in Utah whose [disgraced] founder [became notorious for]…sexual abuse [of his marks] has [been corruptly handed] a federal contract to provide legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children in [concentration camps, netting the con-men]…$244,034,658…seven times…[their total assets] in 2025…Our Rescue conducts [grotesque theatrical “]operations[“] to [frame people as “]sex traffickers[” in foreign countries where officials can easily be paid off to look the other way while their citizens’ lives are destroyed for the self-aggrandizement of soi-disant “heroes”, because US officials recognized his “operations”]…as stunts to lure donations…[while callously discarding its minor] victims…[by condemning them] to…an orphanage in Haiti where…[they] are raped and subjected to forced abortions…the [current] CEO is Derek Benner…a [veteran] of [Father]land Security…[who] set up a fake university in Michigan to lure foreign nationals…[so they could be robbed of millions, then deported for] obtaining student visas [to attend]…the school…the [government had tricked them into thinking was real]…
Some readers implied I was a crank when I predicted this exact development 13 years ago:
…hundreds of [US cop shops are now]…deploy[ing] autonomous…surveillance drones…capable of following a single vehicle across an entire city, capturing footage through apartment windows, and generally [spy]ing [on people] from the sky without [a warrant. These]…surveillance [programs are euphemized] as…”drone-as-first-responder“(DFR) programs…[using] fire departments and other [actual] first responders [as cover for the fact that] the vast majority are [spying for] law enforcement [purposes]…The automated drone push comes as…residents are packing city council meetings across the country to demand restrictions on…mass surveillance…as new surveillance tech empowers the state to violate privacy in entirely fresh ways…Flock…boasts that its automated “first responder” drones…can read license plates from above up to 2,000 feet away…
See also “Panopticon” below.
Women should assume any man wearing pervert glasses is up to no good:
A woman who accompanied a friend to a post-op [breast lift] appointment [strenuously objected] when she saw…the doctor was wearing…[pervert] glasses…“Why, why, why are you wearing [those] in this room with a patient’s titties out?”…The doctor[‘s idiotic defense was]…that he likes to see his text messages coming in…“There’s no reason for you to be worried about texts when you’re in here,” she said…he…then f[ollowed that with a series of disingenuous excuses culminating with]…“[I have] a nine-year-old and a wife,” [to] which…she [replied] “Am I supposed to believe that every man with a wife and kids is a saint?”…
Fascists will destroy society to make a few more bucks:
Flock S[surveillance]…cameras…are…stationary, [so]…to track where a vehicle travels…Flock would need mobile ALPR coverage. That is why it planned [a collaboration] with Nexar, a dashcam company, [to]…expand…its network to around 350,000 Uber, Lyft, and…delivery…vehicles…turn[ing] their vehicles into mobile surveillance platforms…the [scheming corporations were not able to agree on the division of loot, but that is only a temporary reprieve]…Uber [and] Lyft drivers would [not] have been [asked for their consent to be part of the fascist panopticon. Rival copsucking corporation]…Axon…al[ready] supplies ALPR cameras to [cop shops] for use in p[igmobiles]…and…two ALPR companies now owned by Motorola, Vigilant…and…DRN…install…[ALPRs] in [repo men’s] vehicles…
Being kin to a cop is no protection from his violence:
A…[typical and representative] Philadelphia [cop named]…Kenroy Cummings…[murdered his uncle] and fle[d his fellow cops]…on Friday, July 24…[the victim,] Shakair Moncrieffe, began to threaten hi[s son]…the boy [ran away and told] other family members, including…Cummings, [who decided]…he [was justified in shooting] Moncrieffe in the head multiple times…[which he] later [absurdly claimed]…was in self-defense…Cummings [then] fled the scene in a…[car]…at…over 100 mph and weaving in and out of traffic…[as fellow cops pursued. The boss hog thought the most important fact] was [that Cummings was not wearing his magical clown costume when he callously murdered another man]…
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 advertising, cops, fascism, Georgia, imaginative fiction, lawyers, Out of Control, Panopticon, Pennsylvania, Policing for Profit, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, rescue industry, robots, scams, Served Cold, surveillance, The Cop Myth, Utah, Welcome to the Future | Leave a Comment »
One really nice thing about the climate here at Sunset is that when I pick blackberries, I can wear a long-sleeved top to protect my arms from the thorns; in Louisiana and Oklahoma it’s much too hot for that. So when I noticed late last week that there were plenty of ripe blackberries, I put on this old work shirt of Matt’s that I have used as a light jacket for almost 15 years, and in half an hour I had what you see here. And this represents only about a third of what was there; because I’m the only one eating them I didn’t bother with anything but the biggest, nicest ones. Another nice thing was that, since it was overcast (as it so often is here), I was not fooled into picking some of those that were still somewhat red, as happens regularly when it’s very sunny; as you can see, all of these were at the peak of color, which is also the peak of sweetness. On Saturday I made a blackberry pie, and it was one of the best ones I’ve ever made, as sweet and flavorful as one could wish. There are also lots of plums on the trees, and it looks like I’ll be getting enough tomatoes and apples for my needs as well. So because I know this year’s weather was a fluke of the changing climate and it may not be this way next year, I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.
Posted in Diary | Tagged Sunset | 2 Comments »
Computers can be useful tools or servants, but they are not human; they have no feelings and no dignity, and humans have no more obligation to treat them as equals than we have toward any other machine. If you don’t think humans need to get the consent of a power saw or dishwasher before using it, you also shouldn’t think computer programs are owed good manners. Yet since the 1980s, humans have been presented with an ever-increasing number of circumstances in which we are confronted by machines whose owners and operators apparently expect others to treat them as though they were sentient beings. It was already bad enough when the machines were merely recordings of human voices intended to guide customers through an ersatz replacement for a phone operator by advising us to press this number to speak to that human; by the ’90s they started expecting us to talk back to them, then in this century humans began to be replaced by machines at every step of the process, so a computer operator would switch callers through to other computers which can virtually never do what their corporate owners pretend they can.
But now that we’re several years into the chatbot invasion, a large number of people have not only conceded their right to be helped by other people, but actually expect others to do the same. Sorry, but no. When a computer answers a phone I’ve called, I do whatever is necessary to get to a human operator, and when a computer calls me I immediately hang up and block the number, because in my view if something isn’t important enough for a human to make that call, it also isn’t important enough for me to waste my valuable time with. As if it isn’t bad enough that we’re expected to treat objects as equals, many people apparently feel comfortable taking a subordinate position to objects! I can no longer use social media without philistines presenting things shat out by chatbots as “art” or “writing”, and though I block strangers who do this, a few of those who have succumbed to this aesthetic disorder are people I otherwise enjoy talking to. It’s just too much, so I’ve decided on a more aggressive policy: I’ve already muted a number of phrases such as, “I asked ChatGPT…” yet I am still assailed by people who have surrendered so much of their human dignity that they consider deluxe autocomplete an “authority”. So from here on out, I’m going to block anyone who quotes a chatbot at me, and I’m only going to give one warning before I do it.
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy | Tagged artificial stupidity, ethics, psychology, robots | 1 Comment »
Jail erodes every aspect of a person’s agency. – Lindsey Krinks
I recently watched all the Charlie Chan movies Chekhov had in his collection. The low-budget Monogram Chan pictures of the 1940s weren’t as good as the 20th Century Fox ones of the 1930s, but though Mantan Moreland, who played Chan’s chauffeur in the ’40s pictures, was typically paired with Benson Fong as “Number Three son” for comic relief, a couple of the films included guest appearances by Moreland’s former vaudeville partner Ben Carter, allowing the two to show off the very funny ‘indefinite talk” routine which made them famous. The links above the video were provided by Jesse Walker, Anarres Ansible, Mistress Matisse, IncarcerNation, Nun Ya, T. Greg Doucette, and IncarcerNation again, in that order.
- R.I.P. John Crowley.
- The ultimate online art search.
- Artificial stupidity vs. the marmots.
- Teen murdered by cops for being thirsty.
- Cops hound teens to death over petty theft.
- Another triumph for the police suicide-assistance service.
- Violently sweeping the failure of the American dream under the rug.
From the Archives
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- Swedish model is not decriminalization of any kind, “partial” or otherwise.
- Trump claims to love the military, yet his regime keeps harming veterans.
- If only there were a concise term for “having sex with someone helpless”.
- Clearview was invented as a tool to use against migrants and minorities.
- Cop deals with problems exactly as trained to; reporter calls it “unusual”.
- Once bitcoin exchanges got in bed with government, this was inevitable.
- 41% of cops admit to beating their wives; some don’t stop with beating.
- If you need this to control your teen offspring, you’ve already lost them.
- Cop deals with problems exactly as trained to, and everyone is shocked.
- The 100% predictable results of bad laws are coming right on schedule.
- Using women’s murders as an opportunity to moralize via scare quotes.
- Cops really don’t care how many false positives these systems shit out.
- Censors, ambulance-chasers, and imbecilic judges vs the Constitution.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, William Friedkin,Robbie Robertson, and more.
- More states need to protect vulnerable people from this evil nonsense.
- The hotel industry is going to regret having collaborated with fanatics.
- It looks like British subjects will soon need a VPN to access Wikipedia.
- The entire “troubled teen” industry needs to be sued out of existence.
- Texas tacitly admits it wants women with problem pregnancies to die.
- Government wants total control of both internet & financial system.
- Funny how many cops who are willing to pay prefer underage girls.
- Why are people shocked when men paid to behave violently, do so?
- One of the most flagrant abusers of this unconstitutional practice.
- It’s lovely to be told that it really is OK to be a little bit frivolous.
- Another credulous regurgitation of prohibitionist propaganda.
- This is such a sterile way to say, “repeatedly raped them”.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- In surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- Cops, “environmentalism”, Jim Lovell, and much more.
- “Prostitution” is such a handy excuse for surveillance.
- Seems like there’s more to this than we’re being told.
- These companies need to be bankrupted by lawsuits.
- No religion has a monopoly on preachy molesters.
- The open internet is becoming a thing of the past.
- Texas wants to have its blood and drink it as well.
- A curated selection of tweets from summer 2024.
- Working to eliminate a few stubborn roof leaks.
- Republics take work, and most people are lazy.
- All types of prohibition are doomed to failure.
- Cops, satire, horror movies, and much more.
- This raid was not remotely “unprecedented”.
- Laws are for the peasantry, not the rulers.
- What is wrong with doctors who do this?
- Granddaughter of Throwback Thursday.
- Better late tomatoes than no tomatoes.
- Another fine example of McNeill’s Law.
- And now for a word to my sponsors.
- Phrenology for tech worshipers.
- In remembrance of Jim Larkin.
- A year of perfect fruit weather.
- Bride of Throwback Thursday.
- Cop is a cop is a cop is a cop.
- Throwback Thursday’s Army.
- Note that little word “yet”.
- Rapist cops of the week.
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged animals, artificial stupidity, California, cops, imaginative fiction, internet, language, psychology, Tennessee, Texas, universal criminality, video | Leave a Comment »
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