At this time of year, the chickens tend to dominate the animal news in these diary columns, but they’re not really doing anything right now; this has been a rather timid brood, so I’m currently engaged in trying various maneuvers to coax them out during the days, so they’re used to it before I kick them out of the nursery for good a week from Sunday. Axel is doing well; as of Friday I cut his trazodone in half again, down to 12.5 mg/day, a mere 3.125% of the dose he started with at the end of November. The only really noticeable difference in his behavior is that he seems a lot more attention-starved since I cut him down to 25 mg at the beginning of April, but I’m sure he’ll adjust, and I hope to have him off of the meds entirely by the end of spring. Last Saturday I caught Lilith sunbathing on the atrium roof, but by the time I got downstairs to grab my phone and back upstairs, she had decided to get up. She has become the main pest control cat now that Rocky is getting old (I believe he’s ten now), and I often see her ranging around the area, from the roof to the atrium to the basement to the paddock, and even out on the driveway. Several times a week I find that she’s left me tribute of a dead mole or mouse, and last Friday I went out in the morning to find a rather large and rather dead rat right in front of my boots; I’m glad she rids me of vermin, but I must admit it was a bit startling to encounter a dead rodent nearly as large as my foot before breakfast. The only real complaint I have is that I wish she wouldn’t devour birds in the atrium, because it leaves a mess of feathers sprinkled with unidentifiable but definitely avian offal that I then have to vacuum up. I was concerned she might attack the pullets, but they’re nearly as big as hens now so I think they’re safe, even though I’ve actually found her in the henhouse a few times.
Posted in Diary | Tagged animals, Sunset | Leave a Comment »
Every so often, I need to remind my readers that because, like the old MAD Magazine and PBS stations, I don’t accept paid advertising, every so often I need to ask my readers for their voluntary support. And when I say “voluntary”, I mean truly voluntary, not extracted from y’all by paywalls, nag screens, annoying popups, or other methods of coercion. Other than a reasonably-inobtrusive little paragraph three times a week which most of y’all probably don’t even notice any more, I limit myself to asking for your support in a full column like this one about three times a year (last year it was only twice) unless there’s some sort of emergency need. And now that I’m only supporting one and have throttled my driving back to one weekly trip to Aberdeen and 4x a year to Seattle, even the emergencies come less often (and I certainly hope that remains the case from now on). But fewer and smaller bills is not the same as no bills, and while I’m not currently having trouble making ends meet, the unexpected is always possible and a certain fraction of supporters do fall by the wayside every year. Furthermore, regular readers know that I have never and will never delegate my work to employees or chatbots; every word was written by me, and nobody or nothing else. So if the mad emperor’s attempts to demolish the world economy haven’t hurt you too badly, please consider subscribing at one of the regular levels in the right-hand column, or even one of the superstar levels listed here; if you can’t do a monthly expense, you could show your appreciation by a gift from my Amazon wishlist. As always, thank y’all for reading, and for your generosity!
Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged advertising, blogging, ethics, internet | Leave a Comment »
In lying fashion you ignore what even children know. – Martin Luther
Although I’m not especially fond of this song, its lyrics make it the appropriate sendoff for the man who wrote it. The links above the video were provided by Anarres Ansible, Mike Siegel, Ryan Cooper, Nun Ya, Alex Vitale, and Shiv Ramdas, in that order.
- R.I.P. Dave Mason.
- The Lutheran insulter.
- Old, clean, and very funny.
- They used to blame underground rivers.
- Just another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
- Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.
From the Archives
- Australia’s rulers are even more eager to destroy the internet than the US.
- Should’ve donned his magical Clown Costume of Legal Invulnerability 1st.
- “Disciplinary action” for UK rapist cops can be early retirement at full pay.
- Is a shiny new status symbol really worth being spied on & price-gouged?
- Cops say reporting their crimes is “an inherent danger to the community”.
- 41% of cops admit to beating their wives; some don’t stop with beating.
- On the evil dogma that offspring are owned like slaves by their parents.
- Surveillance pretexts won’t remain limited to “child porn” & “terrorism”.
- The wholly-predictable results of bad laws are happening as predicted.
- This will never stop while violent thugs have total power over women.
- When will the federal government finally read the writing on the wall?
- Cops, air hostesses, Harry Belafonte, Jerry Springer, and much more.
- Another challenge to the government’s “religious freedom” hypocrisy.
- Prohibitionists still cite the bogus Neumayer, Cho, and Dreher study.
- “Porn filter” bills are back on the “monkey see, monkey do” agenda.
- Censors now pretend thoughts they don’t like constitute a “crime”.
- Let’s hope many more challenges to these medieval laws succeed.
- Corporations have become the favored tool of censors worldwide.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from April 2013, 2014, and 2015.
- Non-cop molester exploits grooming scheme for predatory cops.
- Couldn’t she have done this before driving Jim Larkin to suicide?
- Big websites could curtail totalitarian threats if they wanted to.
- Previous columns for May Day and May Eve (Walpurgisnacht).
- Twelve years of puritanism badly disguised as “public health”.
- Politicians really believe everyone lies as blithely as they do.
- It’s not like they’ve ever been secretive about their goals.
- Even by the standards of rapist cops, this is horrifying.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Jill Sobule, and much more.
- Gifted children are America’s most wasted resource.
- Matthew 21:31 seems pretty straightforward to me.
- Cops, Greenpeace, Terry Carter, and much more.
- Prohibitionists want this to happen more often.
- Continuing activities I used to do with Grace.
- No, that woman wasn’t “praying to Shrek”.
- I expand my paddock to the north lawn.
- Another Australian state sees the light.
- Sunset’s apple trees are in full bloom.
- A proper ceiling for my new shower.
- Throwback Thursday Hospital.
- House of Fridaystein.
- I can’t breathe.
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, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged animals, cops, language, New York, STEM, video | Leave a Comment »
Why are immigrant businesses being targeted by large-scale investigations…over fire code violations? – MPOP
An Avalanche of Bullshit (#976)
If your raid can’t find evidence of any real crime, just punish your victims with “code violations”:
…police [raids in Bothell, Washington] are simply the latest example of discrimination and state violence against Asian women and immigrant workers. “You’re patting your own back for solving fabricated issues based on your own sexist, racist ideas, and Asian massage workers are paying the price,” said Lee Chen at an April 20 rally outside of the King County Jail…organized by the Massage Parlor Organizing Project …Whose Streets? Our Streets, Red Canary Song, and the International Migrants Alliance…Two of the raided businesses—including one just feet away from the Bothell police headquarters—are owned by Lizhen Yang…who was booked into the King County [jail but]…released the next day, without charges. All five massage businesses were shut down, with authorities citing fire code violations…[as justification for] “ripp[ing] security cameras from walls…knock[ing] down doors, [tearing] signage…and artwork from the walls…[and robbing] workers” …[who] are now [all] out of jobs…[as cops] offered no indication if or when the five [targeted] businesses may be allowed to reopen… “advocates said the [pogroms] were a publicized effort to ‘clean up’…ahead of this summer’s FIFA Men’s World Cup matches in Seattle”…
Clearly, they were concerned he’d carry dangerous sex rays to other wrestlers:
…Jamie Bigg, known as Giant, has left the BBC show [Gladiators] following the end of this series. Bigg…said: “I made it clear that I was planning to go public with my relationship, including the fact my partner works as an OnlyFans creator, and shortly after that I was told I wouldn’t be continuing on Gladiators“…
The American Library Association…has reported a record high in the number of books banned in US libraries. In 2025, 5,668 books were banned – representing 66% of the total number challenged – with an additional 920 censored through access restriction, such as relocation …The most-banned book in 2025 was Sold, a [tragedy porn] novel by Patricia McCormick [sensationalizing “]sex trafficking[“] in India…challenges were recorded against 4,235 unique titles…the second highest since the organisation began tracking censorship data…topped only by 4,240 titles in 2023…40% of the materials challenged…involved representations of LGBT…people or people of colour…challenges are becoming more coordinated and politically driven: 92% came from pressure groups, [politician]s or [bureaucrat]s, compared with 72% in 2024…2.7% were attributed to [random busybodie]s and [only] 1.4% to [act]ual library users…
Sold was once so highly regarded among “sex trafficking” fetishists that the 2014 film adaptation was later released in a PG-13 digital version for propaganda use in schools and churches.
A Books Unbanned library card gives teens across the United States free digital access to ebooks and digital resources, including banned and challenged books—no matter where they live. Books Unbanned helps ensure teens can read what they like, explore new ideas and form their own opinions. This is a free digital library card for teens, created to protect the freedom to read in the face of growing book censorship…
Though this article is a year and a half old, it has statistics and reports I haven’t seen elsewhere:
…Several courts have ruled that extreme temperatures in prison violate the Eighth Amendment’s provision against “cruel and unusual” punishment. But these rulings have not led to a widespread adoption of…methods to cool prison facilities or prevent heat-related deaths. Public health researchers at Brown University estimate that just one day of above average summer temperatures is associated with a nearly 4% increase in prison deaths. Suicides spike 23% in the three days following a heat wave. And for every 10 degrees above the average summer temperature, prison deaths increase 5%…Below, we’ve published stories from 42 writers across 27 states…reveal[ing] the brutal reality…
In today’s digital landscape, corporate interests, shifting distribution models, and malicious cyber attacks are threatening public access to our shared cultural history…When digital materials are vulnerable to sudden removal—whether by design or by attack—our collective memory is compromised, and the public’s ability to access its own history is at risk. Vanishing Culture: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record [is a free, downloadable collection of] essays from…the Internet Archive…and [many]…humanities scholar[s]…detail[ing] recent instances of cultural loss…and emphasiz[ing] the critical role that public-serving libraries and archives must play in preserving these materials for future generations…
Surely you didn’t think this would stop with the internet?
If some [politician]s get their way, Americans could have to show IDs or submit facial scans to so much as open a laptop or power up an iPhone. A [uniparty] federal bill [with the propaganda name] the Parents Decide Act would require age verification at the operating system level. That means most computers, smartphones, and tablets would all be age-gated…It would also require operating systems to share “any information as is necessary…to verify the date of birth of a user” with app developers…
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 activism, agency denial, An Avalanche of Bullshit, Banned Books Week, brothels, cell phones, censorship, cops, dehumanization, dirty, Enshittification, fascism, hysteria, internet, libraries, Link Rot, Morality Lessons, Nightfall, Permanent Record, prisons, propaganda, racism, sex rays, Something Rotten In Sweden, sporting events, statistics, surveillance, Thought Control, Torture Chamber, United Kingdom, Walled Garden, Washington (state) | Leave a Comment »
Looking at the world through only one eye, whether it be right or left, reduces it to two dimensions.
– “April Twitters”
Providing new excuses for police violence is exactly the point of new prohibitions. –
“A Moral Cancer (#1334)”
It’s worth every free-thinking person’s time and effort to thoroughly grasp the lengths to which modern “democratic” governments will go to destroy innocent people’s lives in order to advance a propaganda narrative those in power find convenient to their agenda.
– “Traffic Jam (#1433)”
[Since] Hiroshima…rulers now need new forms of war that don’t risk destroying them along with the peasants. – “A War By Any Other Name“
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged A Moral Cancer, blogging, consensual crime, cops, crypto-moralism, hysteria, language, left-right myth, politicians, propaganda, Traffic Jam, universal criminality | Leave a Comment »
Unserious leaders are unsafe. – Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai
The internet’s global scope is the main reason politicians hate it and want to destroy it:
An escort website [based in Spain]…“makes a mockery” of Ireland’s law criminalising the purchase of sex, [babbled politician]…Sharon Keogan[, adding nonsense about “]direct defiance[” even though Spanish businesses are not subject to] Ireland’s [puritanic]al law…[she also barfed out the word “]trafficking[” in order to infantilize] migrant women…[and demanded] the law [be made into]…a “ma[gic]al operation[” so as to “]take action against such sites[” despite their being based in other sovereign nations]…She [further slandered]…independent escorts [by claiming they are] often controlled by organised crime groups that dominate the sex trade [in the sick fantasies of prohibitionists, and vomited out the word “]pimping[” before admitting that]…the business…[is] a Spanish-registered company[. She appeared surprised to learn that] multimillion euro [businesses are]…organised…
“Search” is the most common government euphemism for “molest”:
Black [minors] across England and Wales are almost eight times more likely to be [molested under guise of a “]search[“]…by police than their white counterparts…The findings…come more than five years after the case of…a Black 15-year-old schoolgirl who was [molested by cops] while menstruating b[ecause a teacher claimed she had touched a plant. Surprisingly]…a disciplinary panel [later sacked the] two [molesters for] gross misconduct…[Such sexual assaults are] usually [justified by belching “]drugs[” in the victim’s face]…from July 2023 to June 2024…there were a total of 362 [“]search[” branded molestations] of under-18s…Half were white, 31% were Black, 11% Asian, 1.7% of mixed ethnicity and 12% other…[at least] 30% [of the victims had been assaulted by cops]…at least once before…[in the case of] Black [victims the assaults] were almost five times as likely to [be violent]…than [if the victims were] white…
Because this kind of prohibition will surely be different!
[British subjects] aged 17 or younger will face…lifelong [criminalization of] buying cigarettes…Parliament….[has] settled on a final draft of the “[monkey see, monkey do]” legislation that aims to [magically] stop anyone born after 1 January 2009 from [getting cigarettes from the black market] to [magically] create a smoke-free generation [with a wave of politicians’ wands. The government is also giving itself]…new powers to regulate tobacco, vaping and nicotine products, including their flavours and packaging. It is part of a series of measures aimed at [creating a dangerous new front in the drug war]…one of the [world]’s leading causes of preventable death, [state violence,] and [human misery. Cops will also be given new powers to spy on]…cars…playgrounds…schools and…hospitals…
Apparently white people can only care about one group of Muslims at a time:
…hundreds of thousands…since 2016 have suffered the Chinese government’s grave human rights violations in…Xinjiang…[where] authorities have subjected Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims to mass arbitrary detention, unjust imprisonments, intrusive surveillance and forced labor. The UN Office of…Human Rights concluded in a landmark 2022 report that the Chinese government may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang….Yet…efforts by…countries who tried to place Xinjiang on the formal agenda of the UN Human Rights Council were narrowly defeated after heavy pressure from Beijing…Yet China’s success in shifting the narrative is not solely the result of repression. It also reflects…an increasingly unpredictable US foreign policy…[because] as governments line up to meet [Emperor] Xi Jinping as a hedge against [mad Emperor] Trump…human rights concerns…are routinely sidelined…allowing Beijing to effectively whitewash its crimes and recast China as a reliable…alternative to the United States…
Cops are nothing more than state-sponsored terrorists:
…the Atlanta…“Cop City” [scheme] is at the center of a much larger experiment…[to replace an] urban forest…[with] the most expansive surveillance network of any city in the U.S…supercharg[ing] a pattern of digital tracking in Black neighborhoods…Georgia-based surveillance companies [are already] market[ing] this model nationwide…[despite] its ties to immigration [pogroms] and protest policing…A 2025 mapping project estimated that Atlanta now has about 124 surveillance cameras for every 1,000 residents…higher than any city in the world outside of a handful in China…The network…metastasized through the city’s Connect Atlanta program, which lets [useful idiots give pigs] live access to their private feeds…
The Last Shall Be First (#1600)
Judges need to start presenting a united front against monarchical diktats:
A federal judge…issued a written opinion blasting [Trump henchman] Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for…wanton disregard…for the rule of law in restricting federal funding for gender-affirming care for minors…The judge made it clear he was throwing out the Kennedy declaration…[and] granted an injunction prohibiting the federal government from trying to supersede professionally-recognized standards [again because]…the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lack[s] the authority to unilaterally establish standards of medical care…[government] lawyers [backpedaled, claiming]…that Kennedy’s declaration reflected his personal opinion…and was not binding…[but] the judge found it was “strikingly apparent” that the…federal government’s arguments are based on [a] “bald-faced lie”…[saying] he was not persuaded by the federal government’s “attempts to gaslight” the court…
Politicians want to “regulate” consensual sex, but not this dangerous toy:
When researcher Nicholas Tiller began to feed health questions into chatbots as a test, he [did not] expect…this level of failure. Five [chatbot]s, 250 questions and a total score of just over 50 percent correct responses. And 1 in 5 of the…wrong [answers] were…dangerous[ly wrong]…A separate…study…in JAMA Network Open…gave 21 [chatbots all]…failing grades…[Another] recent experiment [show]ed how easily…chatbots [can be made to spout complete nonsense]…the problem is not an isolated quirk [but is intrinsic to the way chatbots function]…
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, agency denial, artificial stupidity, China, cops, drugs, fantasy, fascism, Georgia, internet, Ireland, Islam, law, LGBT rights, License To Rape, Mad Libs, Panopticon, politicians, prisons, Quiet Genocide, racism, Spain, statistics, surveillance, teachers, The Last Shall Be First, Thou Shalt Not, transgender, Under Review, United Kingdom | Leave a Comment »
Though I’ve opened the nursery every morning for over a week now, the pullets are still largely uninterested in coming out yet. This is not unusual; there was a flurry of activity on the first day which resulted in one of the pullets going missing, but since then they have stayed where they feel safe. That includes the missing one; Wednesday I needed to drive into Seattle, so I planned to let them stay in the nursery that day. But when I went out to check their food and water, whom should I find wandering around the chicken yard but the missing pullet, very hungry and very vocal, but otherwise none the worse for wear. I was able to catch her and put her in with the others, and there she has stayed since. I have no idea where she went; I spent over an hour looking for her the day she vanished, to no avail. My best guess is that she managed to get through the narrow gap under the ramp and had been hiding under the house for three days; even though I crawled under there with a flashlight as part of the search, it’s a large area and even a thorough, hours-long search wouldn’t have sufficed to peer into every space under there large enough for a pullet. I’m just glad I didn’t lose her, and choose to view her mysterious return as a good omen for this year.
Posted in Diary | Tagged animals, Sunset, video | Leave a Comment »
It was very difficult to pick a song with which to send off Moya Brennan, so I finally decided on a live video of one of their early, more traditional songs rather than their more pop-influenced work of the ’80s and ’90s. The links above the video were provided by Anarres Ansible, Shiv Ramdas, Jesse Walker, Radley Balko (x2), and Popehat, in that order.
- R.I.P. Moya Brennan.
- Talk about lost continents…
- “Alarming”. Words mean things.
- Penn & Teller file a SCOTUS brief.
- I’m sure you feel MUCH safer now.
- “Ghoulish” doesn’t even begin to describe this.
From the Archives
- Using sleazy means to violate people’s civil rights with the typical excuses.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- When a cop tries to pass murder as suicide, it’s usually his wife/girlfriend.
- Overseas pharmacies will sell to US customers without asking permission.
- The current “monkey see, monkey do” parade escapes the US to Europe.
- Politicians no longer care about making their new diktats Constitutional.
- Surely you didn’t think they’d stop at threatening librarians & teachers.
- “Journalists” lionize a sexual predator who gets off on destroying lives.
- The first exoneration of a victim of “sex trafficking” hysteria has come.
- This will never stop until there are criminal charges for cops who do it.
- Still think realistic porn cartoons are the worst use for this technology?
- This will never stop while violent thugs have total power over women.
- They try to make it sound like the rapist was doing his victim a favor.
- Cops, Pope Francis, Brad Holland, Wink Martindale, and much more.
- Your periodic reminder that a child-shaped toaster is still a toaster.
- Note that cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths.
- Cops, space travel, Lovecraft, Barry Humphries, and much more.
- Cops are sexual predators who often target traumatized women.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from April 2013, 2014, and 2015.
- Government uses a shell game to avoid making actual reforms.
- How a country treats its prisoners reveals a great deal about it.
- The claims in these nuisance lawsuits are increasingly absurd.
- Economic war, propaganda war, and “cyber” war are still war.
- This clown wants to criminalize amateur promiscuity as well.
- Never forget that “filter” is merely a euphemism for “censor”.
- Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet.
- Texas censors have descended completely into self-parody.
- The government calls this “correction”; you don’t have to.
- The open internet is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.
- Cops, black humor, chemistry, Bob Heil, and much more.
- A psychopathic rapist-murderer cop is still unconvicted.
- Cop violence is never limited to members of the public.
- It’s getting harder to tell the preachers from the cops.
- Authoritarians want to have their cake and eat it, too.
- Surveillance beyond the wildest dreams of the Stasi.
- Just another kind of cop, with typical cop behavior.
- Don’t think this was an unintended consequence.
- Medical privacy will soon be a thing of the past.
- The reporter appears to have misspelled “care”.
- Cops are a menace to women of all ages.
- Yet another curated selection of tweets.
- Burble burble BLUE STATE burble drool.
- You just can’t keep a bad law down.
- Your “leaders” call this “correction”.
- Wacky warmish weather at Sunset.
- Throwback’s Great Aunt Thursday.
- Batman vs. Throwback Thursday.
- Phrenology for tech worshipers.
- The goose that didn’t live long.
- Many rapist cops of the week.
- A week in the playpen.
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, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged cops, domestic violence, False Witness, games, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, illegal aliens, language, Louisiana, prisons, psychology, STEM, Texas, Under Duress, video, yellow journalism | Leave a Comment »
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