I’m pleased to report that Axel is completely off of the trazodone which the shelter had him on. When I first got him at the end of November, he was on 400mg/day, an immense dose for a 20kg animal. So I immediately started weaning him off, at first reducing the dose by 50mg/day every week, then once we were down to 100mg/day slowing the reduction to 25mg/day every few weeks. At the end of April he was down to 25mg/day, then for all of May 12.5mg/day, and then at the beginning of June I started skipping days between doses; since I saw no difference in his behavior between med days and no-med days, his last dose was a week ago, Monday the 22nd, and he’s just fine. He no longer chases the cats or snaps at strangers, and he isn’t nearly as high-strung as he was just a few months ago; about the only relics of his former problems are a tendency to eat cat shit (I know it isn’t an unusual dog behavior, but I’ve never owned a dog that did it before) and some separation anxiety. He no longer gets upset when he doesn’t see me, unless I go off in a car; when I get back, even if I’m only gone for a couple of hours, he cries and runs around when I return until I pet him and calm him down. Given that I was told his first owner died when he was seven, my guess is that the owner went off to the hospital in a car and never came back, so he is afraid when I leave in a car. But other than those comparatively minor issues, I’d say he has passed his good boy tests with flying colors, and demonstrated that he was exactly the right choice to bring into our Sunset family.
Posted in Diary | Tagged animals, drugs, psychology, Sunset | Leave a Comment »
The reality of human sexuality is a whole world; describing it requires at least four dimensions plus time. – “Two-Dimensional”
- One who thinks a dog must be forced to lick humans has never met a dog.
- Prohibition turns people into “crime scenes”, to be violated by cops at will.
- It’s good to see “sex trafficking” lies being attacked from many directions.
- Even USA Today rags are reporting debunkings of “sex trafficking” myths.
- I hope “sex trafficking” doesn’t become an all-purpose excuse for women.
- Amateurs: a menace to public health who should be licensed & regulated.
- Violet Blue exposes the connection between a number of anti-sex op-eds.
- Just in case you think being a “legal” sex worker protects you. And again.
- Thai whores love contradicting prohibitionists who claim they’re “victims”.
- 140-year-old myths used to justify same old pogroms vs consensual sex.
- Massage parlors are popular cop targets ’cause they’re low-hanging fruit.
- Pigs & prosecutors destroy yet another site sex workers use to stay safe.
- Another sleaze tricks young would-be sex workers in order to rape them.
- So nice when “sex trafficking” bullshit is called out in mainstream media.
- Those behind this train wreck should consult theologian Benjamin Corey.
- Popular porn site shames customers for enjoying a popular type of porn.
- I suspect these rapists are the ones discussed in the original of this title.
- Say you’re “fighting sex trafficking” & stupid people will give you money.
- Control freaks clutch pearls about a thing that doesn’t exist & never will.
- Tax money used to vomit anti-whore propaganda all over the landscape.
- Only parts not profoundly ignorant are those that’re profoundly obvious.
- Naturally, Baton Rouge couldn’t let itself be out-pruded by New Orleans.
- Cops are “excited and jazzed up” to trick people and destroy their lives.
- Say what you like about Larry Flynt; he’s a dedicated foe of censorship.
- Cops, historical figures, ignoramuses, Cassandra, Senpai & much more.
- How “Walk Free Foundation” comes up with ridiculous “slavery” figures.
- Cops discarding pretense that this is about anything other than pillage.
- Kari Lerum on the wrongheadedness of opposition to decriminalization.
- Theologian Benjamin Corey: most outspoken Christian sex worker ally.
- In US media, “sex trafficking” is now just a dysphemism for “sex work”.
- Ladies, please stop putting hotel-room selfies in your ads immediately.
- Politicians realize cops’ scam is too obvious, pretend to be “concerned”.
- Up by 27% from the last nonsense “estimate” less than two years ago.
- The first pretense that there is an “FBI list” of “top 15 trafficking hubs”.
- It’s especially pleasing for me when my friends write about each other.
- Even where sex work is legal, whore stigma is an ever-present danger.
- It’s so funny to watch prudes’ heads explode over something so banal.
- Articles on sugar dating appear to be starting to shed the moral panic.
- If this dude clutched his pearls any more tightly, he’d strangle himself.
- Should a sexually-traumatized man go to a whore to lose his virginity?
- State allows religious fanatics to brainwash women at a remote cabin.
- Because anything can be “evidence of prostitution”, even if you’re 12.
- The people prohibitionists want in charge of “protecting” sex workers.
- Remember when busybodies actually had to spy on people in person?
- Deon Haywood of Women With a Vision on The Girlfriend Experience.
- A vacation in Southeast Asia makes anyone a “sex trafficking expert”.
- Two dimensions of sexuality isn’t much of an improvement over one.
- This fascist group is the most terrifying of the whole rescue industry.
- Most people are so naive they don’t realize this is par for the course.
- I wonder what % of those who spout this rubbish actually believe it?
- Close enough considering human aesthetics are the main attraction.
- Canadian prohibitionists desperate to cash in before panic implodes.
- Monthomery County produces some of the sweetest schadenfreude.
- Another overly-broad and mindlessly-draconian “revenge porn” law.
- “Residential farm” = “doing menial agricultural labor for their keep”.
- Politicians say too few lives are being destroyed for consensual sex.
- Should a woman control her sexuality to make others comfortable?
- The bullshit is so deep in this, you’ll need waders to get through it.
- At least one actress won’t be vomiting out anti-whore propaganda.
- Cops openly admit being lazy fascists; the public just stays asleep.
- SCOTUS demolishes what little was left of the Fourth Amendment.
- Does this writer actually understand the meanings of these words?
- I’m not sure how working for free could be considered a “protest”.
- Cops claimed they didn’t know if this murder was hate-motivated.
- Feminist pornographer wins right to re-launch her fetish website.
- Another good interview with Chester Brown about his new book.
- This looks like another case in which everyone involved is awful.
- Rolling Stone tries to fish its credibility out of the anti-sex toilet.
- Even horrifying cases don’t look like the “sex trafficking” myth.
- Irish iterations of the “gypsy whore” myth are the silliest ones.
- What “legal but heavily regulated” actually looks like in action.
- Louisiana decides to create EVEN MORE “children” to “protect”.
- That whole “freedom of speech” thing was nice while it lasted.
- The reporter seems to be trying to hide what happened here.
- Why do massage parlors bring puritans out of the woodwork?
- Prohibition turns every individual’s body into a “crime scene”.
- Glenn Kessler has had to debunk this prohibitionist lie twice.
- Sex rays can penetrate walls, locked doors & privacy panels.
- Being an ignoramus is no impediment to a career in politics.
- Facebook demonstrates the dirty-mindedness of its censors.
- Now just imagine if this were the law, and always available.
- Dan Savage interviews Emily Bazelon and Mistress Matisse.
- RAPING a whore is OK; it’s only paying her that’s an issue.
- Planning to fly to New Orleans for the Desiree Conference.
- The people prohibitionists want in control of sex workers.
- An anti-whore propaganda show disguised as a “debate”.
- “Sex trafficking” laws keep getting broader and scarier.
- Innocent young man caged for 9 years by lying cops.
- Surveillance beyond the wildest dreams of the Stasi.
- This just keeps getting stupider with every iteration.
- You know that “negative secondary effects” bullshit?
- An ignoramus makes a film about “sex trafficking”.
- How can I get established as a booker & screener?
- Once in a while an insanely-broad law is defeated.
- A ludicrous masturbatory fantasy from San Diego.
- Possibly the last appearance of Aella the Amazon.
- Cops, pets, Florida, Mozart, scams & much more.
- Cops, insanity, one-sided fistfights & much more.
- On Rolling Stone‘s descent into total irrelevance.
- Cops, laws, toys, Picasso, 2001 and much more.
- Once again, actual figures disprove the hysteria.
- So this happened to my friend Maggie McMuffin.
- A Swedish cop’s self-congratulatory pig porn.
- Cops say having sex is “as serious as it gets”.
- Why hike or stand when you can motorcycle?
- Mike Crawford on being a male sex worker.
- A huge victory for the adult video industry.
- Because prohibition always works so well.
- What makes your favorite clients special?
- Sometimes the changes are incremental.
- Another cop, another prostitution sting.
- Not quite a rapist cop, but bad enough.
- In which I officially become a celebrity.
- Definitely not a police state, no sirree.
- “Authorities” secretly analyze tattoos.
- Study shows kids believe stupid shit.
- How I became one of the cool kids.
- The many rapist cops of the week.
- So you wanna work in a brothel?
- Self-care and whale-watching.
- I’m sure you feel safer now.
- Is P411 actually dangerous?
- A very busy month.
- Red Light Legal.
- Mea Culpa.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged blogging | Leave a Comment »
They were having a pancake and sushi luncheon.
I was not familiar with Ibrahim’s work, but I quite liked this piece Jesse Walker selected to accompany his obituary. The other links above the video were provided by IncarcerNation, Nun Ya, Mike Siegel, T. Greg Doucette, Radley Balko, Missy Mariposa, and IncarcerNation again, in that order.
- No, your reason is not an exception.
- Dr. Lilly never considered this possibility.
- R.I.P. Abdullah Ibrahim and Daveigh Chase.
- Cops are a menace to everyone in their vicinity.
- More cops demonstrating exactly what they are.
- Every once in a while, justice makes an appearance.
- Crime: suspected petty theft. Penalty: summary execution.
From the Archives
- Everyone who spread “sex trafficking” hysteria contributed to this tragedy.
- Vast sums of time, money & energy, flushed down the “culture war” toilet.
- Why do we need “permits” to exercise our speech rights in the first place?
- Both sides in the culture war have completely taken leave of their senses.
- Cops won’t drop this fantasy until “reporters” stop obediently parroting it.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Donald Sutherland, Martin Mull, and much more.
- “Inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” = “molesting a 12 YO”.
- Australia expands Drug War, feigns surprise at predictable consequences.
- The government thinks you shouldn’t be allowed any privacy whatsoever.
- How much will the ER cost when someone punches you for filming them?
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- These algorithms make those who use them as stupid as the algorithms.
- Cops aren’t the only violent trade whose members feel sexually entitled.
- To “admit” something is to confess to something true, not to a delusion.
- I doubt this is the kind of lawsuit Louisiana politicians wanted to attract.
- Cops simply ignore putative cop-control laws without criminal penalties.
- Canadian politicians ignore events in other parts of the Commonwealth.
- France’s lust to spy on citizens and censor the internet hits an obstacle.
- One who ruins lives over arbitrary diktats trips up over a similar diktat.
- Cops, fantasies, Sheldon Harnick, John Goodenough, and much more.
- This silly tale is more pathetic now that the trope has largely died off.
- This barbarity began using the excuse of “fighting human trafficking”.
- Kool-Aid drinking politicians refuse to believe their own experiences.
- Are there actually naifs who believe speed traps are about “safety”?
- This is too useful a tool of state control for the rulers to give it up.
- One of the most flagrant abusers of this unconstitutional practice.
- Corporations have become the favored tool of censors worldwide.
- It’ll take a lot more such rulings before this political fad is buried.
- Reporter tries to bury the lede; headline writer won’t participate.
- Uber already encourages its drivers to spy on riders for the pigs.
- Seems like a significant fraction of child porn is spread by cops.
- The claims in these nuisance lawsuits are increasingly absurd.
- Assange was freed as soon as it became politically expedient.
- When a woman dies by hanging, it’s nearly always a murder.
- Even cops are starting to admit Shotspotter is a boondoggle.
- Chinese rename other people’s villages against their wishes.
- Composing and performing a kind of music only I can hear.
- Don’t think this will only be used to persecute the “other”.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Dr. Demento, and much more.
- The dystopian future of Minority Report has arrived.
- The only moral form of warfare is War of Assassins.
- Just another kind of cop, with typical cop behavior.
- A curated selection of tweets from June 2024.
- Prohibitionism is a dangerous mental illness.
- Throwback Thursday’s Bloody Nightmare.
- The annex bathroom is almost finished.
- No shit. Sensible people did tell y’all.
- It wasn’t the best year for tomatoes.
- The tiniest pullet egg I’ve ever seen.
- Throwback Thursday’s Great Love.
- Working on Sunset’s outbuildings.
- Your “leaders” at work.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged acting, cops, disease, drugs, Georgia, lawyers, Michigan, Never Call the Cops, New York, prisons, The Punitive Mindset, video | Leave a Comment »
The state does not have a free-floating power to restrict…ideas.
– Judge Kevin G. Ritz
How long will America ignore the costs of its sick worship of police violence?
…In the decade to 2024, the number of Americans killed by police jumped [from] about [one in twelve violent deaths in the decade ending in 2018 to] one in ten [now]…the problem [is getting closer to that of Brazil, the world’s] wors[t, where 25% of all violent deaths are at the hands of police]…barely a dozen [cops] each year [in the entire US] are charged with a crime after [murdering] a civilian…
Another look at the totally-predictable results of bad laws:
A new study…shows total abortion bans in nine states [Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia] are forcing doctors across multiple specialties to delay or withhold standard pregnancy care…doctors are delaying treatment for conditions like early pregnancy loss, ectopic pregnancy and…serious maternal illness because of legal uncertainty—not clinical judgment…The…delays…“endanger patients” and “undermine patient autonomy and physician-patient trust”…Pregnant women in states with total abortion bans are nearly twice as likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum period…and pregnant Black patients face more than three times the mortality risk compared to their white counterparts…the average economic cost of abortion restrictions will be $140 billion this year…
Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:
A [typical and representative California screw named Richard Phillip Bardouski was] convicted…of molesting three [young] relatives…more than a decade ago…[as usual, the] District Attorney [used the occasion to bloviate about how this typical behavior was somehow shocking]…Two of the victims came forward in 2023 and reported they were molested between the ages of 4 and 9…[and] the third victim…was assaulted in 2010 around the age of 14. Bardouski was living in Montgomery, Alabama…and [was] extradited to California…
Every study shows that chatbot usage harms brain function:
As more professionals begin to rely on [chatbots] in their work…their hard-earned skills atrophy…[chatbot]-driven “deskilling” is [already] happen[ing] in medicine, computer science and other fields…A study of physicians…who specialize in endoscopy…[last year demonstrated] how quickly [computerized] tools can erode human abilities…[and now] researchers at…Anthropic…designed a randomized controlled trial in which 52 software engineers were asked to perform a basic coding task…half…were prompted to use a…[chatbot and] all…were asked to complete a quiz about what they had learnt from the task. Th[os]e…who had [let a chatbot do the work] did significantly worse on the quiz than those who hadn’t: the average score was 50% in the [chatbot] group versus 67% in the [actually-doing-the-work-themselves] group…Tapani Rinta-Kahila [of] the University of Queensland…[compares this to the way] GPS navigation systems have eroded people’s navigation skills…To prevent [chatbot]-driven skill erosion, people need to [stop using fucking chatbots, as any fucking idiot could have predicted]…
The actual story here is that a few cops are actually being prosecuted:
…Local news reports from around the country repeatedly detail police abusing the Flock surveillance system…to stalk their partners…ex-partners[, or intended victims they don’t even know]…The cases highlight the fact that Flock can be used to track the whereabouts of individual people, that police do not get a warrant in order to use the system, and that, if they have access to the system, they [will routinely abuse it]…for any reason they want…The known cases of police stalking are [without a single shred of doubt] a vast underreporting of the overall abuse, because they largely include only cases in which the behavior was so egregious that it led to [cops] being fired, arrested, or both…a Flock [mouthpiece ludicrously claimed that it’s not their fault their fascist warrantless surveillance system is used for warrantless surveillance, because]…private citizens, journalists, and stalking victims…have [been able to later discover the abuse by]…public records [requests or via the third-party]…website HaveIBeenFlocked.com…[which] Flock has repeatedly tried to get…taken down…
In the 20th century, this was called a “price-fixing cartel”:
A new federal lawsuit [has been filed against] gas station companies across California [who] are engaged in an illegal conspiracy…to raise prices. The…lawsuit [includes] the corporate owners of over 1,700 California gas stations — including Marathon…7-Eleven, Walmart, and Circle K — [who] are using Kalibrate, an [algorithm designed]…to extinguish retail price competition…[by] coordinat[ing] high prices…gas stations that use Kalibrate software charge between 6 cents and 30 cents more per gallon…gas stations traditionally “competed for customers by aggressively undercutting one another’s retail prices”…[but] Kalibrate encourages gas station owners to abandon this system and allow [its] software to automatically determine prices…[by] connect[ing] directly to gas station signs and pumps…Kalibrate’s interface…[includes] a feature that allows gas stations to coordinate a “restoration,” [a euphemism for]…an area[-wide joint] price…[hike which any Kalibrate user can] initiate…to…“squeeze out profits” [from marks]…in [defiance of]…a…California…law…[which] “was [specifically] enacted to make clear that companies cannot evade liability for fixing prices by delegating their illegal trusts to an algorithm”…The new law was passed in response to companies like RealPage, which uses an…algorithm to [hike] rents in apartment buildings…cost[ing] renters $3.8 billion in 2023…
Court declares that minors are chattel, so adults have no privacy rights:
A federal appeals court has signed off on Ohio’s ban on people under age 16 using social media without parental consent…[which] means all Ohioans could soon have to show ID to use such platforms…Similar laws have been either temporarily or permanently blocked by federal courts in other states, such as Arkansas, Louisiana, and Utah. That makes the 6th Circuit’s decision something of an aberration—and a worrying sign…[considering that] the 6th Circuit judges think [having people’s identities permanently linked in government records to social media accounts] constitute[s] only “a marginal burden”…
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, Alabama, artificial stupidity, Brazil, California, Censor Chic, censorship, cops, fascism, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mad Libs, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, rape, Stalkers in Blue, statistics, surveillance, Tennessee, Texas, The Cop Myth, The Puritan Recrudescence, The Vultures Descend, To Molest and Rape, Walled Garden, Welcome to the Future, West Virginia | Leave a Comment »
I’ve always loved maps, from old-time gas-station road maps to historical maps to maps of imaginary places. As a child, I delighted in preparing maps of places I’d dreamed up for make-believe play, and in my teens that turned into preparing maps for the world of my D&D campaign, ranging from dungeons my players would explore all the way up to the entire world they lived in. And though I rarely draw my own any more, I’m still always excited to find maps which show me something I didn’t know before, or at least didn’t know in sufficient detail. Case in point, the map at right, which some of y’all may recognize as depicting the western half of New Orleans; the part that was important to me is a small detail which those of y’all unfamiliar with New Orleans history may not recognize as interesting without explanation.
Last month I wrote about discovering a guide (including maps) to New Orleans’ extensive streetcar system of the early 20th century. But before the streetcars there were canals, leading from the then-much-smaller city through the swamps to the north, ending in Lake Pontchartrain (which connects to the Gulf of Mexico through a tidal channel named The Rigolets). I always knew about the New Basin Canal because it was not filled in until the 1940s, and in my youth I knew several older folks who remembered it. But in one of those strange oversights which often affect even people with relatively sharp minds, it had never occurred to me to ask where the Old Basin Canal had been! Furthermore, I never realized just how far the New Basin Canal came into the city until I found this map while researching for The Big Boom. If you zoom in you’ll see a straight channel running from the end of Bayou St. John (the wriggly thing just to the right of the map’s centerline), labeled “Carondelet Canal“. That’s what it was officially named from 1794 until the 1830s, when people started calling it the “Old Basin Canal” in contrast with the newly-completed New Basin Canal. If you look at a modern map of New Orleans, you can see a narrow strip of green running from Louis Armstrong Park to the end of the Bayou (very close to where I lived from 2004-2006, incidentally); that’s the former route of the canal, which was filled in by the city in the 1920s after the new Industrial Canal opened in 1923. The famous Basin Street of Storyville fame and jazz legend was named for the turning basin at the terminus, just north of the Vieux Carre.
That was exciting enough, but the part I got really jazzed about (ahem) was realizing that the New Basin Canal went so far into the city. If any of y’all have ever driven on West End Blvd in New Orleans, you’ve probably been impressed with its incredibly wide neutral ground (grassy median); the reason it’s that wide is it’s the filled-in route of the canal. But at the foot of that Boulevard, where it meets I-10 today, the canal once jogged over and continued almost to the river. After the canal was closed in the late 1940s, the Pontchartrain Expressway was built over the route in the 1950s; in the 1960s the expressway became part of I-10. The area of the filled-in turning basin was used by the city for storage until the late ’60s, when it was decided to build the Superdome there. So if you ever drive through New Orleans toward the Superdome on I-10 coming from the direction of the airport, you’re following a transportation corridor which has been there for just short of 200 years, only now on land rather than water.
Posted in Biography, History | Tagged New Orleans, psychology, The Big Boom | Leave a Comment »
There is nothing as good for anxiety as feeling supported and cared for! – “Diary #625”
It’s hardly incisive criticism or inspired analysis to point out that children see and enjoy different things in a movie or show than adults do, or that young adults and older adults may enjoy different things about the same show. –
“The Eye of Childhood”
Art cannot exist as handmaiden to politics. This is not to say that art cannot be political; “Guernica” is art. But if the artistic impulse does not precede the political one, the result is mere propaganda. Artists can make political statements, but partisans can’t make art. – “Tweets Aplenty”
Grief, loss, and pain are transmuted [by the brain’s alchemy] into art, much like a compost heap transmutes organic garbage into humus for growing new plants. – “Diary #782“
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, Philosophy | Tagged blogging, imaginative fiction, left-right myth, propaganda, psychology, Twitter | Leave a Comment »
Hello, I am…a…toaster. – Google’s “AI summary” algorithm
The UK wants a flawed computer algorithm to officially override migrants’ self-reported ages:
Age verification is consuming the internet…[and] is about to seep into the offline world…Starting next year, the British government is planning to introduce facial age [guessing software]…to [overrule] the [self-reported] age of asylum seekers…[using the excuse that] many asylum seekers…[do] not have documents proving their age, [so the government can officially]…class…[many legal minors] as adults…strip…[them of] legal protections and [hurl them into] adult-only [concentration camps]…an internal UK government report…shows how the systems regularly mistake [adolescents] for adults…[especially when] deployed against…Sub-Sarahan Africans…[which are typically] off by an average of 4.6 years, meaning that a 13.5-year-old girl could be assessed as an 18-year-old adult…
How long before Google becomes completely useless?
If you Google “SCP-565” — an iconic entry in the collaborative fan fiction universe known as the “SCP Foundation” — the [so-called “]AI Overviews[“] describes the nonexistent entity as though it were entirely real, without a single acknowledgement that it’s a piece of online horror fiction…Ed’s Head is a made-up “anomaly” among the many fictional “objects, entities, and phenomena” dreamed up by members of the SCP Foundation fandom. As the lore goes, the SCP Foundation is a non-government organization that collects and contains supernatural discoveries. Writers catalogue these fictional phenomena — which range from the terrifying to the downright bizarre — in the form of fake records, studies, research documents, and logs, all of which are indexed in a sprawling archive…[but] Google’s [Chatbot] Overviews…[predictably] present…entities from the expansive SCP universe as real items, events, or beings…We first caught wind of th[is when]…social media discovered that a Google search for “SCP-426” — a fictional toaster that causes anyone talking about the toaster to refer to it in the first person — returns an…Overview in which the [chatbot] discusses the mysterious entity in the first person, as if [it had] itself…been impacted by the toaster’s supernatural effect…
Once again: chatbots are incapable of telling fantasy from reality because they are incapable of understanding that the word fragments (“tokens” in industry jargon) they process correspond to anything outside of the chatbot itself. 
A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners:
It has always been difficult to get help inside federal prison. But in recent years, it has become nearly impossible…The rate at which the bureau granted [relief] has fallen from just under 7% in 2000 to less than 2% in 2023…[the vast majority] are rejected without consideration for the content of their complaint, for arcane reasons such as including too many pages or not filing enough copies…[and] a 1996 federal law requires prisoners to complete the internal grievance process before filing a lawsuit…healthcare-related requests…[a]re the third most common reason for…complaint, behind [dehumanizing living conditions] and [sexual or physical abuse by] staff…Of all medical grievances [clos]ed in 2023, fewer than 1% were granted…state [dungeons typically give slightly more relief, with most]…grant[ing it in] roughly 15% of [cases, though some like]…Texas…[h]over [around] 4%…reasons for rejections [are often ludicrously cruel], like writing with a pencil instead of a pen, or a woman reporting sexual abuse who was rejected for misspelling her abuser’s last name. One…Spanish-speaking prisoner filed a grievance asking for translation services, but was rejected for writing it in Spanish…
African anti-LGBT campaigns are a lot like US anti-sex work campaigns:
Niger’s military junta announced a new penal code that criminalizes…anyone who “commits or attempts to commit an immodest or unnatural act or practices lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, Queer, intersex, Asexual…acts”…What does it mean to punish “acts” that are “asexual”? Does having a platonic relationship constitute an “asexual act” that violates this prohibition? Ghana’s parliament recently criminalized [merely] “identifying” as [LGBT and invented]…a “duty”…to [rat out one’s friends, family, and confidantes to] police…On the other hand, the high court in Namibia…recently struck down laws against gay sex…[as did] Angola in 2021, Gabon in 2020, and…Botswana…[in 2019]…
His involvement with a grooming program isn’t mentioned until 5 lines from the end:
Bethel [Ohio boss hog] Chad Essert [has been arrested] in Florida after a…grand jury indicted him on 70…sex crime…[charges for repeatedly molesting at least one] minor…from…2005 [to] 2010…Essert…served as an instructor with the Young Marines [at] the time…Essert [fled to Florida]…in May [after being rewarded with a paid vacation for some other unnamed crime]…
It’s OK; soon all “healthcare” will just be chatbots anyway:
For more than two years, a D[anish chatbot]…has been listening to Seattle residents’ 911 medical calls without their knowledge…to [algorithmically determine] which callers don’t deserve a[ctual help, but are instead]…route[d]…to a nurse-staffed Texas call center [with a wait time of several hours. And as is typical for so-called “AI” systems, this is done]…without any disclosure to callers [or] public review…Seattle [bureaucrats describe this as]…a conservative approach [despite]…the…wrongful death of one 911 caller…
How clueless would a woman have to be to give busybodies this kind of data?
Stanford graduates Jenny Duan and Abhinav Agarwal want to solve two hard problems: create a [gewgaw fools will buy] and measure hormones to help [the government track women’s pregnancies]. The pair is building a startup called Clair Health to track inflammation and bloating markers, energy levels, and cycle phase classification to give [government bureaucrats] insights into cycle irregularities and perimenopause, as well as hormonal fluctuations, and how to [target women for violence using] those changes [as justification]. The company has raised $11.6 million in [fascist] funding…and…uses [buzzwords like “]onboarding[“]…[“]AI[“]…[“]biomarkers[“] and…[“]voice stack[” to dazzle marks with bullshit]…Clair Health’s device has 10 biosensors, including a novel biomagnetic sensor for hormonal [surveillance]…of…women [who can get pregnant]…
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, Fiction, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny | Tagged Africa, Angola, artificial stupidity, Botswana, cops, Enshittification, fascism, Florida, Gabon, Google, homosexuality, I Spy, illegal aliens, imaginative fiction, internet, law, LGBT rights, Mad Libs, Namibia, Niger, No Difference, Ohio, politicians, pregnancy, prisons, Pyrrhic Victory, racism, Stop faking!, surveillance, teachers, To Molest and Rape, Torture Chamber, United Kingdom, Washington (state) | Leave a Comment »
Well, I was wrong about the daisies two years ago, because though there are only a few this year, my allergies still reappeared the night of June 1st and have continued since. Fortunately, I got help last year to figure out a proper over-the-counter meds regimen, so within a week or so I had it mostly under control (though my eyes were still bothering me pretty badly until the latter part of last week); I’ve stopped trying to figure out what exactly is causing it and just resigning myself to this being another reason to dislike summer. Usually, I can start stepping down the meds in August, and be back to normal by September. Alas, “normal” ain’t what it used to be; one of the reasons I’ve stopped trying to figure out what environmental factor I’m allergic to is that I’ve had to recognize that my body is aging rapidly, as I always expected it to. What I mean is, I enjoyed excellent health through my forties and the early part of my fifties, then about four years ago that started to change; I figure the allergies are just a part of the whole constellation of physical ailments that have now become part of my life, including anemia, fatigue, diminished physical strength and flexibility, and increased back pain. Given that the latter is due to five fractured vertebrae incurred in a severe car accident in April 1995, and that I learned to manage it well enough that it was only an occasional problem for the past 30 years, I really can’t complain that is finally returning in the last act; I just have to accept it as another way that my body is not merely suggesting I slow down and take things easier, but rather leaving me no other options.
Posted in Diary | Tagged drugs, psychology, Sunset | Leave a Comment »
There were two clients who basically were paying for ChatGPT…to argue against itself. – Rob Freund
My friend Chester Brown, the well-known comic book artist, plays Merlin in this video from Sook-Yin Lee‘s new album. The links above the video were provided by Jesse Walker and Dan Savage; IncarcerNation; The Onion; Mike Masnick; Ryan Marino; and IncarcerNation again (x2).
- R.I.P. Joe Negri and Gene Shalit.
- “Never” really does mean “never”.
- The best satire cleaves close to the truth.
- Another great moment in artificial stupidity.
- In which “nudged” is used to mean “violently rammed”.
- “Crime”: contempt of cop. Penalty: summary execution.
- Another triumph for the police suicide-assistance service.
From the Archives
- I was fated to be threatened with state violence regardless of career path.
- Civil liberties violations only start with targets of politicians’ demonization.
- No parody of puritanism could be as absurd as the current Florida reality.
- Too few states have held this, because the spying is convenient for cops.
- Another textbook example of McNeill’s Law, courtesy “Moms for Liberty”.
- Non-busybodies block Indiana’s “monkey see, monkey do” parade float.
- It’s too bad cops don’t spend all their time role-playing with each other.
- “Died after an altercation” is a sterile way to say “murdered by screws”.
- Are prosecutors going to retroactively label all cults as “sex trafficking”?
- If there’s a camera, cops will conscript it for use as a surveillance tool.
- They’re still not implicating cops we know were Heuermann’s buddies.
- Another cop stalks victims through the official cop grooming program.
- One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- Cops, undead, Sly Stone, James Lowe, Brian Wilson, and much more.
- Backpage was only the test case for this ethically-bankrupt strategy.
- The resources flushed down the “culture war” toilet are incalculable.
- McCarthy, Romita, Jackson, Ellsberg, Williams, Vaziri & much more.
- Sick men may respond violently when they can’t own sex workers.
- This pernicious abuse of power has become more common of late.
- Hanging a camera on an animal turns it into a surveillance drone.
- Dare I hope fewer journalists are willing to cover up cops’ crimes?
- If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been paying attention.
- Cops, elephants, artificial stupidity, Willie Mays, and much more.
- Unbalanced minds use external tools to amplify existing beliefs.
- WaPo has discovered what I’ve been writing about for 14 years.
- Elon Musk’s “DOGE” didn’t “fail”; it worked exactly as intended.
- Politicians will never stop until the open internet is destroyed.
- Your “leaders” work hard to ensure this happens more often.
- Florida censors have descended completely into self-parody.
- Most Americans still believe France is a sex-positive society.
- Ruling thus on standing doesn’t actually mean a great deal.
- Your “leaders” call this “correction”, but you don’t have to.
- You’d think “youth pastor” would be a big red flag by now.
- Any use of this error-prone surveillance system is misuse.
- Gaining a new, adult appreciation of childhood favorites.
- Curated selections of tweets from June 2023 and 2025.
- It’s getting harder to tell the preachers from the cops.
- Some people still claim we don’t live in a police state.
- Honoring what would’ve been Grace’s 67th birthday.
- My three previous columns for the summer solstice.
- This ongoing travesty has a complicated backstory.
- Just another kind of cop, with typical cop behavior.
- Anyone who trusts Zuckerberg is out of his mind.
- Religion is often used an excuse for molestation.
- Scream, Throwback Thursday, Scream.
- Why does anyone still trust Facebook?
- An unusually chilly spring at Sunset.
- Redoing the atrium ceiling lights.
- Another cop following his bliss.
- I’m pretty sure it’s the daisies.
- Why zombies?.
- Fridaystein.
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 acting, Alabama, Arkansas, artificial stupidity, cops, Florida, imaginative fiction, language, lawyers, Mad Libs, Never Call the Cops, New Mexico, Oklahoma, propaganda, psychology, Reviews, robots, Texas, video | Leave a Comment »
The apparent path of the sun reached its northernmost point at 8:24 UTC today, marking the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and the shortest day of the year & first day of winter in the Southern. May all of your plans come to fruition in the fullness of time, and Blessed Be!
Posted in Holidays | Tagged holidays, paganism | Leave a Comment »
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