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In the News (#1618)

March 7, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

In a sane culture we wouldn’t praise people for baselessly calling the cops on strangers.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

[Texas politician] Tony Gonzales…faced growing pressure to resign…[because] he [raped] a staff member [and sexually harassed her so severely afterward that she committed suicide by self-immolation]…Gonzales…has denied [sending the texts, claim]ing…the[y]…were part of a smear campaign by his top rival in the race, Brandon Herrera[, apparently expecting people to believe that Herrera repeatedly spoofed his phone number]…

Signs (#751)

The moral panic is over, but useful idiots still love to sic cops on strangers:

…Jonathan Puddle…had the audacity to take his teenage daughter to an Ontario coffee shop.  When another patron saw the pair together—an older man with a teenager!—he…followed the Puddles to their car, questioned them, and then called the police…[who took] an image of the pair…from a security camera and [blasted it out] online…[to] tens of thousands of people as [though they were fugitives]…”See something, say something” started as a War on Terror slogan and eventually morphed into a mantra employed by the Department of [Father]land Security…in anti–sex…campaigns…so…large swaths of the public [now believe that]…spying on and reporting fellow citizens based on vague vibes is the key to keeping everyone safe…

Welcome to the Future (#1544)

Everything I read about modern corporate work makes me happier I became a whore:

…“Bossware” refers to the technology some managers use to s[py on] employees…The term was popularized by a 2020 report from the [EFF]…Managers have always sought to keep an eye on employees to make operations more efficient.  But the rise of [machine learning systems]…has [made it more demoralizing, humiliating, and toxic]…In…trucking, for example, [computeriz]ed video tools can trigger real-time alerts if a driver looks [anywhere but straight ahead, and]…in some white-collar desk jobs…employers are using algorithmic and biometric tools to [micromanage employees]…The use of work-surveillance technology took off during the pandemic.  As many people started working remotely, [nosy control-freak] employers began…tracking keyboard strokes, taking screenshots and monitoring pauses [because they were no longer able to lurk behind employees and breathe down their necks]…The goal of these tools is to [wring] more out of workers…but [they are typically poor indicators of]…how much work someone is actually getting done…Beyond the psychological toll, “bossware” tools…present “serious health and safety risks for workers,” including potential physical injury…

The Cop Myth (#1583)

Belief in the magic power of “protective orders” gets women killed:

The town of Kenbridge [Virginia] and its [cop shop have been sued for]…$140 million…by Heather Burrow…[for] gross negligence among other claims…[because she] asked the police chief for protection from [her cop ex-boyfriend] Charles Aaron Stokes.  Instead of providing protection, the chief [told]…Stokes [so he could retaliate, and he did so by shooting] her…multiple times within minutes of being told…Stokes is facing separate criminal charges [but]…is not named in the civil lawsuit…

This is your regular reminder that SCOTUS has ruled that the police have no duty to protect citizens.

Walled Garden (#1588)

Surely you didn’t think this would stop with the internet?

California’s Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043), signed by…Gavin Newsom in October…[demands that] every operating system provider in California…collect age information from users at account setup and transmit that data to app developers…with the law taking effect on January 1, 2027.  The law’s broad definition of an “operating system provider”…pulls in not just Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, but Linux distributions and Valve’s SteamOS…Developers…are [thereby] “deemed to have actual knowledge” of their users’ age range under the law, [thus] shift[ing] legal liability for [enforcing politicians’ notions of] age-appropriate content…onto [people the state can more easily and profitably rob via fines]…up to…$7,500…Despite signing it, Newsom issued a statement urging the legislature to amend the law before its effective date, [thus allowing him to have his cake and eat it as well.  Since politicians are too stupid to understand the concept of open source software, it should be amusing to watch their moronic flailing when they try to]…enforce…[their stupid law] against Linux distributions, [which]…have no centralized account infrastructure…

Torture Chamber (#1607)

It doesn’t help young victims of state violence to infantilize them:

All unaccompanied immigrant [minors] who are pregnant, many by rape, are being [concentrated in] a single [camp] in Texas in order to avoid providing abortion services…Since July, more than a dozen pregnant [girls] have been [traffick]ed to…the [camp, near the] town of San Benito…[most are 15 to 16, but some] are as young as 13, and about half are pregnant because of rape, [though] in Texas, [that makes no difference]…When a pregnant [minor] is moved to Texas…she can’t access an abortion – without a federal official needing to deny [it]…Because of their young age, “many of them will be comparatively high-risk pregnancies” who need specialized care…[but] the south Texas [concentration camp has no such] facilit[ies and]…is hours away from [any] major cities…equipped to offer that care…

Mad Libs (#1613)

Politicians want to “regulate” consensual sex, but not this dangerous fantasy:

ChatGPT Health regularly misses the need for medical urgent care and frequently fails to detect suicidal ideation…[yet] OpenAI…promotes [it] as a way for users to “securely connect medical records and [health surveillance] apps” to generate health advice…The first independent safety evaluation of ChatGPT Health…found it under-triaged more than half of the cases presented to it…[in comparison with] three [actual] doctors…In 51.6% of cases where someone needed to go to the hospital immediately, the platform said stay home or book a routine medical appointment…[they] wouldn’t live to see…Meanwhile, 64.8% of completely safe individuals were told to seek immediate medical care…

 

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!

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Perspective Shift

March 6, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

A few years ago, in “The Sparkle of a Star“, I wrote:  “When I last watched [Bewitched], in my late teens or very early twenties, I naturally identified most with Samantha.  But on this rewatch, I found myself identifying with her mother, Endora…”  But Bewitched isn’t the only show about witches I’ve loved, and Endora not the only no-longer-young woman character I find myself increasingly identifying with as I myself progress into cronehood.  Obviously, this isn’t surprising, but I do find it amusing.

I ran into another example of it recently when I decided to revisit Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Witch series.  My own period of reading YA fiction was short, and largely confined to when I was 8 to 9; by 10 I was mostly reading light adult fantasy and sci-fi, mixed with some of the juveniles written by more typically adult authors like Robert Heinlein (Red Planet, Podkayne of Mars, etc) or those borrowed from the library by my younger siblings whose covers caught my eye (which is how I discovered one of my favorite books, Magic in the Alley by Mary Calhoun.  And by 12 there weren’t many even in that category.  So though I was of the right age to read Witch’s Sister when it was published in 1975, it never popped up in the Scholastic Books flyer we got at school, nor did I spot it in the library back then.  In fact, I only discovered it in a rather roundabout manner, through my habit of scanning the new TV Guide magazine each week in search of anything I might enjoy (since in the days before home video, that was the only way to discover treasures).  One week, in the spring of 1980 IIRC, I noticed a listing in the Saturday morning show Big Blue Marble (which I didn’t watch even before I gave up on Saturday morning fare) for a 6-part TV movie called Witch’s Sister.  Naturally the title caught my attention, so I watched it and was immediately hooked; besides being an interesting story, I identified with both 10-year-old Lynn Morley (because I had a hyperactive imagination at her age also) and her 16-year-old sister Judith (because I was Goth before there was such a thing, and like her enjoyed spooking my younger siblings).

It only aired once or twice (I only saw it once) and I despaired of ever seeing it again, but during a short period when I had free premium cable in 1988 it turned up on Showtime as a unified TV movie.  I of course taped it, and on a rewatch during my time as a librarian I noticed in the credits that it was based on a book; we had it in the library so I read and enjoyed it and its two sequels, which had been published in 1977 and 1978.  Sometime later I transferred the movie to DVD and discovered several more sequels (published in the early ’90s) and bought them on Amazon, but never got around to reading them until recently.  The reason was simple: after starting this blog in 2010 I had very little time for pleasure reading, and that only changed a year ago with Grace’s death.  So for the past year, I’ve been scanning my shelves for books I own but had not yet read, and a couple of weeks ago realized I had never read those later books in the series.  Since it had been over 30 years since I read the first three I started with them, and discovered to my amusement that while I still remembered feeling like Lynn as a tween and Judith as a teen, I now found myself more than a little sympathetic with Mrs. Tuggle, the elderly Englishwoman who was Lynn’s nemesis in the books!  Though in the later books she was definitely a wicked witch, in the first (and IMHO the best) of the series that was portrayed with far less certainty (and in the movie which inspired my love for the stories, she was almost certainly not a real witch).  So as I read, I started thinking about how I’d feel if a couple of nosy 10-year-old girls started making strange accusations, sneaking into my house to steal my things, and terrorizing my cat.  And now I’m a bit wary of watching Bell, Book and Candle again.

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The Blood-Spattered Throwback Thursday

March 5, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

“Make The Empire Great Again!” is not a new idea.  –  “Blake’s 5”

When governments are allowed to be arbiters of fact…they wrongly label as “disinformation” facts which those in power find inconvenient.  –  “Disinformation About Disinformation”

Though politicians and profiteers still use “sex trafficking” as a handy excuse for tyranny, other excuses have become more fashionable and at least the endless stories about idiots with taped mouths parading around to “raise awareness” of cops’ wanking fantasies have largely dried up.  –  “Four Times Four“

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In the News (#1617)

March 4, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

People [can] just tell them politely to fuck off.  –  Yves Jeanrenaud

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

A[n assistant politician in Alaska named]…Craig Scott Valdez…[has been] indicted by a federal grand jury…[for] production of child pornography…he [regularly]…used Snapchat to “groom and entice juvenile [girls]”…The indictment references a specific…15-year-old girl in Anchorage last October, though the FBI has identified at least 11 other…victims…

If Men Were Angels

“Having a sexual relationship” is such a nice way to say “molesting”:

A [typical and representative] pastor at a Western Kentucky church has been arrested for [repeat]edly [molest]ing…a minor [for four to five years, starting when she was 12 or 13]…David Rodgers…was immediately fired and prohibited from participating in church-sponsored functions…he…admitted to the [crime and then killed himself]…after posting a $75,000 bond…

No Difference (#1443)

History will remember the early 21st century as a time of worldwide repression:

Two young women in their early 20s were arrested in Northwestern Uganda…after neighbors r[att]ed [on] them [to cops for] kissing in public and hosting other women in their one-room apartment…Wendy Faith…and Alesa Diana Denise…[had only been] in…the…apartment [for a] week…[when evil monsters sicced the cops on them] on February 18…Human rights activists…condemned the arrests…[explain]ing the “Kill the Gays” law fuels blackmail and extortion against…LGBT…[people.  Earlier in the month] a…court rejected the first case brought under the [law because]…the [victim’s health had deteriorated so badly] due to his extended detention in [a filthy cage] between arrest and trial…[and politicians] associated with the [unpopular law, pushed and bankrolled by US evangelical groups including Morality in Media and Family Watch International, have been]…defeated in [recent] reelection bids…

Eavesdropping (#1482)

“Smart” devices aren’t, part umpteen thousand:

A software engineer’s earnest effort to steer his new DJI robot vacuum [cleaner] with a video game controller inadvertently granted him a sneak peak into thousands of people’s homes…Sammy Azdoufal…reverse-engineer[ed] how the robot communicated with DJI’s remote cloud servers…[and] discovered that the same credentials that allowed him to see and control his own device also provided access to live camera feeds, microphone audio, maps, and status data from nearly 7,000 other vacuums across 24 countries…[which] could have [allowed cops or spooks]…to [use them as] surveillance tools…without their owners ever knowing…DJI [claim]s…the issue has been “resolved”…[but] experts who have long warned that internet-connected…devices present attractive [opportunities] for [surveillance]…

Mad Libs (#1595)

This was 100% predictable:

Anthropic, the wildly successful [“]AI[” scam outfit] that has cast itself as the most safety-conscious of the top [chatbot makers], is dropping the central pledge of its flagship safety policy…In 2023, Anthropic committed to never train a…[chatbot] unless it could guarantee in advance that the company’s safety measures were adequate…But in recent months the company decided to radically overhaul the [policy by] scrapping the promise to not release [chatbots] if Anthropic can’t guarantee proper risk mitigations in advance…Anthropic’s c[o-found]er Jared Kaplan…[said] “We didn’t really feel, with the rapid [inflation] of [the “]AI[” bubble], that it made sense for us to make unilateral commitments…if competitors are [making more money than us]”…When Anthropic introduced the [policy] in 2023, Kaplan…hoped it would encourage rivals to adopt similar measures…But [since they didn’t]…the company [realized that]…“If one [chatbot maker] paused development to implement safety measures while others moved forward [recklessly]…that could result in a world [where we make less money than them]”…

Panopticon (#1614)

A good idea that needs to increase by several orders of magnitude:

…in La Mesa, a small city just east of San Diego, California, observers happened upon a pair of destroyed Flock cameras…just weeks after the city decided, in [spite] of public protest, to continue its contracts with the surveillance company…In recent months, people have been smashing and dismantling the surveillance devices, in incidents reported in at least five states, from coast to coast…reflect[ing] growing anger…over the surveillance technology…Flock…readers…gather not just license plate images, but other identifying data used to ‘fingerprint’ vehicles, their owners, and their movements.  This data can be collected, stored, and accessed without a warrant, making it…popular w[ith cop shops, spook houses, and goon squads]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1615)

Every weapon eventually begets a defense:

A new…app warns if people nearby may be wearing s[urveillance] glasses…which stalkers and harassers have repeatedly used to film people without their knowledge or consent.  The app scans for smart glasses’ distinctive Bluetooth signatures and sends a push alert if it detects [one]…in the local area…“I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech,” [said] Yves Jeanrenaud, the…sociologist who made the app…[which] works by looking for Bluetooth “advertising frames”, which are small bits of data devices regularly broadcast as part of their normal operation.  Jeanrenaud…decided to make the app after reading [about men]…filming [sex workers and ICE goons wearing them during pogroms.  He said]…after identifying a device, a user “may act accordingly”…

 

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!

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Sex Worker Rights Day 2026

March 3, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

Happy Sex Worker Rights Day to all my sisters and brothers, and our supporters.  Here’s a linked list of everything I’ve written for the occasion.

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Diary #818

March 2, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

As you can see, Axel has continued his progress from nervous wreck to very good boy.  I caught this picture of he and Speck bathing together on the 14th, and I’ve seen them even closer than that on occasion.  Speck has returned to her habit of wanting to be close to me while I’m unwinding on the sofa, though not as much while I’m working at the computer (which is probably for the best); he lies on the other side of me, sometimes cuddled very close to my legs, so he and Speck are less than an arm’s length apart for hours.  He doesn’t even stare at her any more, nor does he try to chase Rocky or Lilith when he’s in the atrium, so last week I took a chance on bringing him through the chicken yard with me to go up the ramp, and he barely even looked at the hens.  Yesterday, I decreased his trazodone from 75 mg/day (where he was for all of February) down to 50, and in two more weeks I plan to just start giving him 50 at bedtime rather than splitting it into two doses; I figure that will give me an idea if we’re getting close to taking him off of the meds entirely, since his blood levels should be pretty low by the time each evening rolls around.  I think the warmer, drier weather is also helping, because he can spend a lot more time running around and sunbathing outdoors and playing with Trip, so he has less pent-up energy at the end of the day.  Assuming that all goes well, it looks like he’ll be off the meds by June, and I imagine by the end of the summer his bad times should be no more than a dim memory in his little doggie brain.

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Links #817

March 1, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

Ah, a proud assitarian.  –  MechaHitler

Here’s another unusual cover from a performer we’ve seen before; it was provided by Asawin Suebsaeng.  I’d argue that “Purple Rain” as performed by Prince was already blues, but this more traditional arrangement makes that more obvious.  The links above it were provided by Phoenix Calida; Nun Ya; Desiree Alliance and Dan Savage; T. Greg Doucette; and IncarcerNation (x2), in that order.

From the Archives

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In the News (#1616)

February 28, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

We should not expect maintenance staff to report people for having too much lube.   –  Elizabeth Nolan Brown

A Broker in Pillage

This will continue until recognized as unconstitutional:

Oklahoma City’s…former city attorney Orval Jones blew the whistle…[on] the city[‘s]…”nefarious scheme” to divert [money stolen by cops under color of law] into police coffers instead of returning property to owners or using it to reimburse victims and the courts…Jones compiled a list of seizures spanning over 20 years that totaled over $400,000 in misappropriated funds…many [cops]…labeled [“unclaimed property”] owners as unknown even though their information appeared in police reports….[and] when the owner sued, he was reimbursed with taxpayer funds while police kept the cash…Jones was [forced to resign because the boss hog demanded it]…

If Men Were Angels

They’re not even all “youth pastors”:

[The] pastor [of] a Miami-Dade church was arrested [for repeatedly molesting] a 15-year-old [girl since she was 13]…Elco Vallier…[repeatedly groped] her and “attempted to kiss her”…[in addition to sending her sleazy] text messages…

Above the Law (#1012)

Your “leaders” at work:

Butler [Ohio] Mayor Wesley [the] Dingus…has been charged with…misdemeanor …voyeurism after…an underage…female [relative grew]…suspicious that Dingus was entering her room and purchased a small camera to document it…she received a motion alert on her phone approximately 15 minutes after leaving for school and later reviewed footage showing Dingus entering her room and sniffing her [dirty] underwear.  The following day, she received a second alert…[and] again [saw him] entering her room, smelling her worn underwear, and [this time starting to masturbate]…Dingus [is] out on bond awaiting trial on separate felony charges…[for] a [hit-and-run on] July 11, 2025…

Welcome to the Future (#1351)

They’re disappointed it didn’t help them arrest more people:

Dutch police haven’t used the[ir magic] Crime[-predicting computer] since mid-December…[because despite] the [hype] with which the police launched the system [it does not actually work]…Dutch police…were e[ager to create their own dystopia]…like Minority Report…in[spired by] American [abus]es of “predictive policing”…[but] it soon becomes clear that the promises cannot be fulfilled…[and civil liberties advocates pointed out] that systems like [these]…reinforce inequalities…The result, all in all, is a black box full of biases and without proven results…

Crying for Nanny (#1564)

Surely you didn’t think this ambulance-chasing would stop at hotels?

…in…California…a woman is suing two high-end apartment buildings for failing to stop prostitution…in their units…A.V. alleges that she was coerced into prostitution in San Francisco…and…[her pimp] rented an expensive apartment at the Avalon…and…complain[s]…that…the doormen or security…[should have harassed] the…visitors…and…residents of this $5,000- to $10,000-a-month building…[because] “she was dressed provocatively” and…was only 17…for [the first] few months of her time there…Are [staff] supposed to [harass any]…woman dressed provocatively?…Should they check the IDs of any female who looks young?  And then what?  There’s no law against teen girls visiting apartment buildings on their own…We need more and better services for people looking to leave…abusive partners, not a surveillance network of hotel maids and apartment-building doormen ready to call the cops on women in short skirts…

Walled Garden (#1613)

Last week I called this “a disaster waiting to happen”.  It didn’t have to wait long:

[After] the social chat app Discord [demand]ed…all new and existing users worldwide…[submit to face-]scan[ning as a condition for full]…platform…[access]…security…researchers…set out to look into Persona, the [fascist Thiel company]…used by Discord for biometric [surveillance]…and found [2,456 files] exposed to the open internet on a US government…server…the code revealed…that…Persona…compares your selfie to watchlist photos using facial recognition, screens you against 14 [government lists] from…terrorism to espionage…the software performs 269 distinct verification checks and scours the internet and government sources for potential matches…[then retains the results] for up to three years…[If] the software “flags you as a ‘suspicious entity’ based on your face alone”…[which is not unlikely given] Persona’s software has rep[ea]tedly made significant mistakes…[merely attempting to use a social media site] can quickly lead to the unjust termination of bank accounts…[which is] exactly what Persona was built to do…

Panopticon (#1613)

No, really?  Who could ever have guessed?

…Ring’s…founder, Jamie Siminoff, [admitted] to…Ring employees…[that “]Search Party[“, its]…automated surveillance system…[is not really] “for finding dogs”, but…[rather] to “zero out crime in neighborhoods”…[sane people recognized the system] as dystopian…[even before] Ring…launched a feature called “Familiar Faces,” which uses facial recognition to identify…friends and family members..[but] Siminoff [bizarrely tried] to [confuse the company’s useful idiot clientele by randomly belching “]Charlie Kirk[” at them]…

 

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!

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Back Issue #152

February 27, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

Had the LGBT “community” devoted its energies to securing the basic rights of all sexual minorities instead of wasting them in trying to force Christian fundamentalists to bake fucking overpriced cakes for their fucking bourgeois weddings, we’d be well on the way to decriminalization by now.  –  “The Big Table”

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Twin Throwback Thursday

February 26, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

Accept no source as an absolute authority, especially when they demand you should.  –  “No Absolute Truths”

Many criminals are entrepreneurs; it’s just that their business happens to be illegal.  –  “Midwinter Tweets”

It’s always rather funny when a fanatical devotee of fundamentalist Christianity or fundamentalist feminism (they’re hard to tell apart) tries to attack me on some post from over a decade ago, and the best they can come up with is “You’re a whore!” And I’m like, “Yes, and?”  –  “Tweets for the Tweet”

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