Once upon a time there was a vast jungle full of many different kinds of creatures, who made so much noise only the loudest of them, the elephants and the asses, could clearly be heard amid the din. Naturalists often visited the jungle and sometimes focused on one animal or another, filming them and talking about them for nature shows. Now in this jungle there lived a little bird of a fairly rare variety, and though it wanted to be heard the naturalists could never make out its tiny voice amid the cacophony, so they never talked about or even thought about the little bird, and neither did anyone else. Eventually, the little bird got tired of singing its little song for no one to hear, and so it simply stopped singing and minded its own business. Now, a few thoughtful explorers had seen the little bird and knew it existed; an even smaller number had even heard its little song. So they said to the naturalists, “Maybe the naturalists should consider that little bird’s quiet little song, even though few ears are good enough to hear it.” But the naturalists were always accompanied by an unruly gang of fans, and rather than admit that perhaps their idols should be more aware of rare creatures, they blamed the little bird, saying, “If little birds want to be heard, they should peep at the exact same time as the elephant trumpeting or the asses braying, so they can be heard along with those other animals.” When the thoughtful explorers pointed out that merely increasing (by some infinitesimal amount) the noise made by other creatures with whom they had nothing in common was hardly likely to call attention to the little bird in any way, the gang members merely asked if the explorers wanted the “bad” animals to win, and declared that if the little bird really wanted to be heard, it should have been hatched as an ass or elephant. Then they congratulated themselves on their great wisdom, and resumed arguing over whether the elephants’ trumpeting or the asses’ braying made lovelier music. And they were so preoccupied with their argument that none of them noticed when a wildfire started and burned them all up together, elephants and asses and naturalists and fans and explorers, and the little bird too. 
Posted in Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged imaginative fiction, politicians | Leave a Comment »
The concept of “free sex” is largely a male fantasy. – “Waiting for Lightning”
In the online world, as in the real one, you don’t get something for nothing. –
“Something for Nothing”
Even the finest thespian can’t conjure Hamlet out of lackluster dialogue draped carelessly over a checklist. – “In Flux”
[Those] who declare CGI “art”, or even declare it superior to real human-created art, are soulless clowns whose opinions should be rejected by anyone who cares about beauty, life, and humanity. – “The Philistine Majority“
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy | Tagged acting, artificial stupidity, blogging, ethics, fantasy, imaginative fiction, internet, psychology, Reviews, sex work is work, Who in Review, yin and yang | Leave a Comment »
Librarians should not be used as a filter for political agendas.
– Luanne James
Two years later, this decision is still standing:
…Indiana’s…Religious Freedom Restoration Act…[of] 2015….was one of many such state laws passed [by]…evangelical Christians to [privilege]…their beliefs [above those of other religions]…Hoosier Jews for Choice saw an opening for Jews to…[use] the same law…to [protect Jews’] access to abortion…[and] Judge Christina Klineman [recently] upheld a 2024 decision…permanently blocking enforcement of the state’s abortion ban for plaintiffs with sincere religious objections…the case is [now] headed to the Indiana Supreme Court…[Naturally, forced-birth fanatics are angry.] “Indiana’s religious freedom laws were passed for the purpose of [enshrining Christian] religious practice [in law], not to protect the [beliefs] of [others from laws justified by Christian dogma],” [said] Alexander Mingus…of the Indiana Catholic Conference, [absurdly declaring Judaism a] “Religion…that preach[es] violence [which is] not protected by religious freedom claims”…Jews [view] the fetus as “potential life,” gaining the legal status of nefesh, or personhood, at birth…
This is the second article I’ve seen on this fungus in two years:
Infectious disease experts…are working to educate doctors about a new…STI…which recently caused an outbreak of at least 30 cases in Minnesota…the fungus Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII (TMvii)…spreads through intimate contact and has predominately been seen among…gay men. It causes painful, coin-sized rashes on the arms, buttocks, trunk, legs and genitals. While infections can be treated with oral antifungal medications, treatment can take several weeks [and]…TMvii can resemble other skin conditions…so proper evaluation is important…TMvii [was first] identified in 2023 in Europe among men who had recently traveled in Southeast Asia. The first U.S. case was reported in New York in 2024…[and] the Minnesota outbreak…began [last] July…
Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#1463) 
It’s heartwarming to see goons snitching on each other:
The national chief of the Border Patrol, Michael Banks, was known among colleagues for taking regular trips abroad to [hire] sex w[orkers in places where it is legal, such as]…Colombia and Thailand[, instead of simply raping them in the US as CBP policy demands]…Kristi Noem [covered for him, but once she got the sack the snitches got loose. One said,] “If you have the character where you’re going to go [hire consenting] third-world country women [instead of deceiving, raping, and robbing migrant women right here in the US and then deporting them], it’s just not cool in my book”…
Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet:
By pushing a 75 percent wholesale tax on nicotine pouches, New York…Gov. Kathy Hochul [claims she’s] address[ing] “a public health concern.” That rationale is absurd on its face, since this tax would sharply raise the cost of a nicotine product that is far less hazardous than cigarettes, perversely discouraging smokers from making a switch that could save their lives…tobacco smoke…contains myriad toxins and carcinogens, and…the Biden [FDA]…authorized the marketing of Zyn nicotine pouches [because]…”nicotine pouch products…benefit…adults who use cigarettes and/or smokeless tobacco products and completely switch to these products”…the Royal College of Physicians estimates that “the hazard to health” from e-cigarettes, which likewise do not contain tobacco or burn anything…”is unlikely to exceed 5% of the harm from smoking tobacco”…
Due to its absurdly-high taxes, 55% of cigarettes smoked in New York are black market. But I guess Hochul wants that to also be true of smoking-replacement products, and to give the NYPD another excuse for violence against citizens.
Colorado recently enacted a law protecting [citizens from wrongful] arrest…due to [cops’ misuse of unreliable] roadside tests for drugs…police can no longer make arrests solely for misdemeanor drug possession based on the results of colorimetric field drug tests and instead must issue suspects a summons to appear in court. The act also requires courts, before a defendant enters a plea in a case where a field test was used, to inform defendants of the known error rates for the tests and their right to request testing from a forensics laboratory…[cop]s’ use of unverified drug field tests…result[s] in [an estimated 30,000] innocent people being arrested, jailed, and prosecuted…[every year. Cop]s around the country have jailed innocent people…[for] “presumptive positive” results on bird poop, donut glaze, cotton candy, and sand from inside a stress ball…
Field tests are exclusionary tests; in other words, they are designed to tell whether something is not X substance. A positive result does not mean “This substance is X”; it means “this substance might or might not be X”. But cops are too stupid to understand the difference, and wouldn’t care if they could.
We are now in the early days of a dark age:
[Lazy, dishonest] researchers are increasingly using…LLMs…to…conduct literature searches, write manuscripts and format bibliographies…[resulting in a flood of] non-existent academic references…One analysis of nearly 18,000 papers…found a sharp increase in [fake] references…tens of thousands of 2025 publications, including journal papers and books, as well as conference proceedings, probably contain [incorrect or fake] references generated by [chatbots]…researchers are concerned that the problem will soon get out of hand…[and academic publishers are trying to] decid[e]what to do about hallucinated citations that make it into the published literature…
A Tennessee library board has fired the county’s top librarian for refusing to comply with its [demand] to [hid]e more than 100 LGBT…books f[or juveniles in]…the adult section…Luanne James…said that [hid]ing the books would violate…residents’ First Amendment rights and compromise her professional obligation against government-mandated [censorship]…Last fall, a…Wyoming library director w[as awarded] $700,000 to settle a lawsuit after her firing [but wannabe censors]…Cody York…and…Caleb Tidwell [don’t care because it isn’t their money James will get when she wins a similar lawsuit]…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged A Moral Cancer, abortion, artificial stupidity, censorship, Colorado, consensual crime, cops, Dirty Amateurs, disease, Divination, Do As I Say, drugs, ethics, Indiana, law, libraries, Mad Libs, Minnesota, New York, scams, sex work is work, Size Matters, Tennessee, The Punitive Mindset, The Vultures Descend, Thought Control | Leave a Comment »
As you can see, the chicks are in the nursery now. And even though the turkey is two weeks younger than the chickens, she’s nearly as big already. They’ll be confined full-time for two more weeks, then starting on the 19th they’ll be allowed to roam around the chicken yard during the day and only confined at night. Since they’re faster than the adult hens they can get away from aggressive hens in the daytime, whereas at night the door is closed so they’re cooped up in a small space. But after being near them for seven weeks, the adults generally lose interest, so I don’t have a pecking problem. And despite the turkey being younger, her (?) size will soon protect her.
Posted in Diary | Tagged animals, Sunset, video | Leave a Comment »
I recently discovered this funny recording, which was Chubby Checker’s first hit (a year before “The Twist”); in fact, he got his nickname “Chubby” due to his spot-on imitation of Fats Domino. The links above the video were provided by Mike Siegel, Kevin Wilson, Ryan Marino, IncarcerNation, Mistress Matisse, and The Onion, in that order.
- SCIENCE!
- I’m sure you feel safer now.
- A Trumpist living her values.
- What part of “never” is so hard to grasp?
- Now this explanation is one I want to see.
- The best satire cleaves closely to the truth.
From the Archives
- Safetyism has become the go-to excuse of censors pretending they aren’t.
- Seems as though it wasn’t really the OnlyFans account that got him fired.
- As long as sex workers are marginalized, we will be targeted for violence.
- You won’t find that word, nor the word “slavery”, anywhere in this article.
- A few sane judges are the only thing protecting libraries from politicians.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- These attempts to destroy the internet are going to keep getting worse.
- Texas politicians disguise an attack on women as protection for women.
- In the online world, as in the real, you don’t get something for nothing.
- UK officials are as dedicated to hiding the truth about cops as US ones.
- If you thought “asset forfeiture” was brazen robbery, get a load of this.
- These psychopaths want actual criminalization of librarians & teachers.
- It’s a bad idea to try the work of any professional without any training.
- Living within my means is now easier most of the year, except in April.
- The State tortures thousands of people for crossing an imaginary line.
- Politicians compete to make their new laws the most unconstitutional.
- This will never stop while violent thugs have total power over women.
- In the US she’d have no recourse, but prohis say decrim is a “failure”.
- No laws protect this data from being handed to cops to root in at will.
- Crypto-moralists pretend that avoiding pleasure leads to immortality.
- This is vile even by the abysmally-low moral standards of politicians.
- If he’d succeeded, he would’ve claimed it was an accident or suicide.
- As empires age, they rot from the inside out and from the top down.
- The kind of man the State gives nigh-unlimited power over women.
- “Search” is the most common government euphemism for “molest”.
- Twitter has always claimed that this surveillance isn’t surveillance.
- Chicks always start out so cute, but don’t stay that way very long.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from March 2013, 2014, and 2015.
- Sometimes, evil dead things really can return to haunt the living.
- If you’re sick of pictures of chickens, how about pictures of eggs?
- The legacy of To Catch a Predator just keeps on hurting people.
- It’s difficult to read this without feeling a bit of schadenfreude.
- All too often, evil arrives cloaked in the mantle of expediency.
- Cops, Lovecraft, Barbara Rush, Joe Flaherty, and much more.
- Homeless people are another group new evils are tested on.
- Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness.
- This is only going to get worse for the foreseeable future.
- This fascist evil needs to be eradicated, root and branch.
- The crusade to reduce Americans to serfdom continues.
- Another example of the cop/religion molestation nexus.
- Politicians keep using sex as an excuse to destroy lives.
- I wasted a lot of my life by trying to live in the future.
- Old-fashioned Stasi-type surveillance isn’t dead yet.
- There’s at least one principled judge in Texas.
- Washington passes a “strippers’ bill of rights”.
- Cops, shapes, demon lords, and much more.
- Cops, MAGA, Val Kilmer, and much more.
- At least this one wasn’t a “youth pastor”.
- Why does anyone still trust Facebook?
- Your “leaders” call this “correction”.
- Throwback Thursday A.D. 1972.
- A new bar atop the utility room.
- The chicks were late in 2024.
- Young Throwback Thursday.
- Vote Blue no matter who!
- Rapist cops of the week.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny | Tagged artificial stupidity, California, cops, I Spy, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, illegal aliens, Kentucky, Maryland, Never Call the Cops, politicians, STEM, video | Leave a Comment »
A book that unexpectedly explodes upon opening it would be good grounds for a product liability claim; a book whose content inspires someone to act recklessly should not. – Elizabeth N. Brown
The government is now demanding banks not do what it has repeatedly demanded they do:
Federal Trade Commission…sent letters…to the CEOs of PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard, warning them against debanking practices — including denying access to services due to a customer’s…“political affiliations, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities”…last year…the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a report on debanking…in which it named adult entertainment as one of several sectors facing discrimination for engaging in activities contrary to banks’ “values”…[and threatening] an FTC investigation…but those rules will not stop banks from making decisions regarding their customers in a way deemed “consistent with safety and soundness.” This leaves broad leeway for banks to continue discriminatory or exclusionary practices toward adult industry creators and businesses…
When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1450)
Politicians increasingly use nuisance lawsuits to circumvent the Constitution:
[Facebook] has been ordered to pay New Mexico [politicians] $375 million, in a verdict that paves the way for more states to [rob] social media companies under the guise of child protection—and demand changes that will compromise everyone’s online speech and privacy…the lawsuit [misused]…the state’s Unfair Practices Act…States [ab]using…consumer protection laws [to achieve unconstitutional tyranny they could not otherwise accomplish] have been a big trend lately. This ruling all but ensures it will intensify…Section 230…is supposed to protect against this sort of thing. If someone uses Facebook to engage in illegal activity, it’s that person…who may be criminally liable…[but] state attorneys general have been fighting against this…for nearly two decades…[because] they’re stuck prosecuting individual criminals…not [deep-pocketed corporations they can pillage]…The verdict in this case…”will be terrible for the open internet,” said Techdirt[‘s]…Mike Masnick…
It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other:
…two [North Carolina pigs who lived together got in a fight which ended with a sow shooting her pig boyfriend]…Adam Bean [dead. Because the murderer is also a cop, the pig herd is attempting to hide as much]…information [as possible]…
The only way to rein in chatbot pushers is to threaten their cash flow:
OpenAI won’t be rolling out an erotic version of ChatGPT any time soon…the controversial plan has been shelved “indefinitely”…as even its own advisors warned that ChatGPT users could form unhealthy attachments, which might harm their mental health. One advisor chillingly suggested that the tweak risked turning ChatGPT into a “sexy suicide coach”…[and lawyers warned] it [would be] hard to keep illegal behavior out of outputs, like bestiality and incest…investors questioned why OpenAI would risk its reputation on a product with “relatively small upside” for…[a company regularly] linked to mental health harms in both kids and adults [which have led to] lawsuits…
“LLMs…train the brain to disengage…[leading] to passivity…and low integration of concepts“:
…chatbots have become a common part of many [fools’] daily lives, even though they…[give] wrong answers…45 percent of the time. But [stupid people] don’t understand that reality…and…tend…to take…chat[bot vomit] at face value, even when it [gives] them the incorrect answer…experiment…participants were asked to answer a variety of reasoning and knowledge-based questions. Despite making the use of ChatGPT optional, over 50 percent…chose to use the chatbot to answer the questions…researchers…[found almost 80% of chatbot] users w[ere] willing to believe what[ever nonsense it barfed up] regardless of accuracy, in what [researchers] termed a “cognitive surrender” that effectively overrode their intuition and deliberation process…“to outsource thinking itself”…[and] give up their own agency…further cementing [their dependency] on [machines]…
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” – Frank Herbert, Dune
To Musk, this is pocket change:
Elon Musk’s [pet] chatbot [MechaHitler has] been banned from [gener]ating non-consensual…[sexual] images…by a Dutch court…the…order [applies to all of]…Europe…and…[includes] a [token] penalty of 100,000 euros ($115,000) for every day it [refuses] to comply…with a maximum fine of 10 million euros…Numerous lawsuits have [also] been filed…[including one from] Baltimore [abusing] the city’s consumer protection laws and…[an]other…[from] three teenagers in Tennessee [who were actually victimized by MechaHitler]…
Compared to Musk’s net worth, this is like me being fined 6¢ a day, maximum $6.
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1621) 
Another broadside against the dangerous “semen retention” cult:
Regular ejaculation — for example, by masturbation — produces higher quality sperm…according to a comprehensive new…meta-analysis of more than 115 studies…that cumulatively involved nearly 55,000 men, as well as 56 studies of 30 non-human species…The results revealed that stored sperm deteriorates over time, resulting in DNA damage, reduced motility, and other defects that can affect fertilization and embryo outcomes…The study…sheds light on the possible evolutionary origins of masturbation, which has been observed in…dozens of [nonhuman] species including dolphins, elephants, lions, and many primates. Masturbation may have emerged as a way to avoid leaving sperm in the tank for too long. Indeed, even species that don’t masturbate in the traditional sense of self-stimulation have still been observed offloading sperm in a practice called “sperm dumping”…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged Aladdin’s Satellite, artificial stupidity, censorship, Choke Point, cops, dirty, domestic violence, Facebook, internet, Mad Libs, masturbation, New Mexico, North Carolina, porn, psychology, robots, scams, semen, Shame Shame, The Cop Myth, The Puritan Recrudescence, When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals | Leave a Comment »
The search bar replaced the reference desk without replacing the skills behind it. – Hana Lee Goldin
When I was in library school in the early ’90s, the internet was very young and largely accessed by libraries, universities, and research corporations via several companies such as Dialog which charged by the minute for access. Because of this, it was considered important for librarians to learn how to formulate effective Boolean searches which would return roughly half a dozen good, solid articles on the topic. It was recognized that a search delivering dozens or hundreds of results was a poor one because it would take too much (expensive) time and (professional) effort to sift through all that to find what one was actually looking for. And I was really good at it; I excelled at crafting “Goldilocks” searches which would return a manageable number of relevant articles, neither too many nor too few, usually on the first try. Then two things happened: AOL started offering unlimited connection time, and Google came up with its non-Boolean search engine which delighted non-librarians by returning thousands of items in the pretense that more is better. And so an entire generation of people has grown up with absolutely no idea how to craft an effective search, leaving them helpless in the face of Google’s rapid enshittification, and therefore easy prey for its predatory and typically-wrong chatbot. As Google has rapidly decayed I’ve tried several other search engines, but none of them are remotely as good as classic Google was.
That’s why I was so excited to discover this article by reference librarian Hana Lee Goldin, explaining not only how to get around Google’s loathsome practice of dishing up swill instead of what you ordered, but also how to use Boolean operators which have apparently always been hidden in the system. Goldin explains the reason for her article concisely:
Google…constantly…swaps in synonyms, personalizes results based on your history, and decides what you probably meant rather than returning what you typed. Most of the time that interpretation is invisible. These tools are how you override it.
Beyond that, I’m not going to quote her excellent article because you should read it all. The link above is to her Substack blog, but to head off the possibility of link rot I’ve also backed it up. And if Hana happens to read this: from a retired reference librarian, thank you!
Posted in Biography, History, Miscellaneous | Tagged advertising, artificial stupidity, Enshittification, Google, internet, libraries | 1 Comment »
Censorship [is] wildly popular among…those who believe the most terrifying fact of the world is that others beside themselves have free will.
– “Ship of Fools”
[In contrast with the] cost…[of] second-rate, weeks-old grocery store eggs…two hours of literally shoveling shit twice a year…begins to seem like a good bargain indeed. – “Diary #665”
“Nonprofit” merely refers to the organization; those who run it often make plenty of profit. – “Schadenfreude (#1425)”
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged animals, blogging, censorship, holidays, language, rescue industry, Schadenfreude, Sunset | Leave a Comment »
I will not comply. – Luanne James
Sows are just as disgusting and predatory as their male counterparts:
A [Massachusetts cop] was [rewarded with a paid vacation for]…sexual abuse [of a minor]…Samantha Pelrine…and her…husband, Daniel Forand, repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted the…[victim for] several years…[after wheedling control from] the victim’s aunt and grandmother[, who had] raised them until they were 12 years old…about one year later, Pelrine and Forand became the…victim’s legal guardians…and…began sexually assaulting the victim a short time after[ward]…continu[ing] until 2025…
Another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists:
Senegalese proponents of a tougher anti-LGBT law [got advice from] a U.S.-based [anti-sex] group that calls homosexuality a public health threat…MassResistance…has advised like-minded African [prohibition]ists for years…but now…is trying to take advantage of …[the] Trump…[regimes]’s [mass destruc]tion…of [US-funded health programs in Africa]…the new law…doubles the maximum prison term for same-sex sexual acts to 10 years and criminalizes so-called promotion of homosexuality…
WebinarTV, a company that bills itself as “a search engine for the best webinars,” is secretly scanning the internet for Zoom meeting links, recording the calls, and turning them into [computer]-generated podcasts [without the consent of the participants]…in an attempt to promote WebinarTV’s services…in some cases the [creators of the] stolen videos…[are informed by computer-generated emails “signed” by imaginary corporate officers that their]…webinar is “featured on the Phil & Amy Show”, [which is a make-believe]…talk…show…[featuring] two [cartoon characters synchronized to chatbots outputting nonsensical “commentary” on]…the [stolen Zoom] call…WebinarTV accesses meetings using links that have been shared publicly, then records the sessions [without any] participant’s [knowledge or consent]…in…violat[ion of] Zoom’s terms of service…
A Woman’s Point of View (#1506)
As with cannabis legalization, if enough of these are thrown at the wall one may eventually stick:
…[If] a [new] bill…[is] passed, Colorado would become the first state to fully decriminalize sex work state-wide…This is not [the Swedish model, but rather] a decisive shift away from criminalization and toward safety…to [placate the very stupid]…the bill draws a firm line between consensual sex work and exploitation…and…would repeal statutes related to solicitation and patronizing…[and] update outdated escort service regulations…Nick Hinrichson…Lisa Cutter…Lorena Garcia and Rebekah Stewart…[are the sponsoring politicians. A similar]…bill…in…Illinois [is still languishing undiscussed]…
In a message…to the Rutherford County Library…board, Director Luanne James said she would not comply with an order to move…LGBT…titles from youth sections to the adult area…[saying] “Restricting access…through subjective relocation or removal constitutes a violation of the community’s right to information”…[which] would violate both the First Amendment and her professional obligations…The…Board [had] voted…to relocate more than 190 books…following a [“]review[” by non-librarians on order of]…Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett…Board Chair [and wannabe Big Brother] Cody York [defended his censorship attempt by bizarrely vomiting out]…“dismembering…healthy sex organs”…during [a] debate…[and threatened to sack] James…
Sanders has announced he next plans to interview a TV set:
[Perennially-clueless politician] Bernie Sanders has a viral video making the rounds in which he “interviews” Anthropic’s Claude chatbot about the dangers of AI and privacy…and it might be one of the most unintentionally revealing demonstrations of…actual problems [with LLMs] that a politician has ever produced — just not in the way Sanders thinks…When you “interview” a large language model you are talking to a very sophisticated text prediction system that is specifically designed to give you responses that are (possibly) helpful, (hopefully) relevant, and (obsequiously) agreeable — shaped entirely by how you framed the question. It’s not there to help you uncover hidden truths. It’s not a whistleblower. It’s not a witness in a congressional hearing, which is exactly what Sanders’ staging is designed to imply. Ask it scary questions, get scary answers. Ask it reassuring questions, get reassuring answers. It is a mirror, not a source. And Sanders’ video demonstrates this…
The internet’s global scope is the main reason politicians hate it and want to destroy it:
Ofcom, the U.K.’s [censorship bureau, is trying to] fine…4chan £520,000 for [refus]ing to implement [user surveillance] procedures and other measures [demand]ed by the U.K.’s Online Safety Act. The [shakedown demand] includes “£450,000 for not having age checks in place”…[and the rest] for [refus]ing to provide Ofcom with [busywork it demands] and for not [submitting to posting compelled speech] in its terms of service…4chan[‘s lawyer, Preston Byrne,] responded to Ofcom with a…[computer]-generated picture of a giant hamster [hold]ing a [giant] peanut…attached to a truly excellent email response [stating]…”As has been explained to your agency, ad nauseam, the United Kingdom lost the American Revolutionary War…We are not in the mood to discuss the matter further, and have not been in the mood for 250 years…[4chan] reserves all rights and waives none…[including] the right to sue you again and/or to respond to future correspondence with an even larger rodent, such as a marmot.” This is exactly the attitude U.S. companies should be taking with foreign authorities intent on forcing their online [censorship] on the rest of us…Ofcom [responded by absurdly claiming that the internet is a bar]…
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 A Woman's Point of View, Aladdin’s Satellite, artificial stupidity, censorship, Colorado, consensual crime, cops, ethics, Illinois, internet, law, LGBT rights, libraries, Massachusetts, No Difference, Opting Out, politicians, robots, Senegal, Shame Shame, Tennessee, Thought Control, To Molest and Rape, United Kingdom, Walled Garden | Leave a Comment »
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