Pretty sure mine is the only blog today where a former call girl teaches you how to make potato salad. – Radley Balko
On January 31st, 2011 the award–winning journalist Radley Balko mentioned me in a one-line link on his blog, The Agitator: “Former call girl Maggie McNeil debunks that CNN scare story on underage prostitutes and Backpage.com.” That simple action gave me the best day I had yet had (3486 views), a record that stood for over a year until it was broken on March 18th of this year thanks to a “tweet” from Nicholas Kristof which produced 3522 hits. But Balko was not to be bested by the likes of Kristof, and so trounced him soundly by giving me 4719 hits last Monday (July 2nd). To be sure, it took a bit more than one line and a link this time, so let me explain.
By the time that first link appeared I was already reading The Agitator; it had been pointed out to me by Dave Krueger, who used to write the Sex Hysteria! blog. And I liked it so much, I soon added it to my link boxes; this was not lost on Radley, who on April 17th of last year posted, “I’d like to thank Maggie McNeil for adding me to her blogroll. I’d like to especially thank her for listing me as a ‘friend of whores’. I think I’m going to add that line to my bio.” Cue another big surge in traffic, which made last April 2011 my busiest month until April of this year. In the meantime we’ve occasionally interacted on Twitter or via email, but I honestly didn’t expect him to ask me to be one of five guest bloggers filling in for him over the next few months while he writes a book: that new activity record I mentioned came on the day I published my introductory post, “Who is Maggie McNeill and What the Hell is She Doing Here?” (longtime readers may recognize a shocking similarity to the title and content of my first post on Nobody’s Business, but that’s OK because I ‘fessed up in the modified text and gave NB a link, too).
I’m pleased as punch to be helping out at The Agitator, and not only because it’s sending me traffic and new readers; it’s also extremely flattering to know that a man like Radley respects me enough to entrust me with this sort of gig, and it’s a powerful validation of my work to be considered a peer to people like my fellow bloggers Ken and Patrick from Popehat, Baylen Linnekin of Keep Food Legal, and Drew Johnson, libertarian journalist and opinion editor of the Chattanooga Free Press. It’s also a lot of extra work, however, so I ask my readers to forgive me for employing a measure to decrease that load by 14% while I’m guest-blogging: every Sunday I’m going to do a sequel to this column, in which I call your attention to what I published at The Agitator in the preceding week. And starting next time, I’m also going to point out especially interesting posts from my fellow guests as well.
Most days, Radley posts collections of links to interesting stories, and I’m continuing that tradition; some of the links were for stories I’ve already covered in “That Was the Week That Was” columns (or links to my own columns), but here are the ones that have not previously appeared on this blog:
- Walter Olson’s “Overlawyered”, which I am told was the very first legal blog, turned 13 last Sunday; here are his first two weeks of posts.
- The Library of Congress picks 88 unobjectionable “Books that Shaped America”.
- House burns down due to faulty radio; officials respond by banning beach bonfires.
- “…a kind of Mann Act for giant, awesome snakes.”
- Just in time for Wonderland Day, scientists announced proof of the Higgs boson, whose field has been characterized as “cosmic treacle”.
- Why not try your hand at writing a short story in only six words?
- I like science fiction, but I don’t want to live in it; this Scientology “assessment” juxtaposes mundane (if nosy) inquiries such as “Have you ever been a coward?” and “Have you ever been a professional prostitute?” with such bizarre queries as “Have you ever stolen a body from another being?”, “Have you ever obliterated a language?” and “Have you ever despoiled a planet of its natural resources?”
- In cash-strapped states, collection agencies are given authority to jail people.
- From the Onion: DNA Evidence Frees Black Man Convicted Of Bear Attack.
- Beware of the Blob.
- Florida Lifeguard Fired for Trying to Save Drowning Man Outside of His Assigned Zone.
- Is an Unknown Drug or an Unverifiable Mental Disorder a Better Explanation for Face Eating Than a Voodoo Curse?
- TSA’s newest policy: demanding travelers “freeze” on command.
- Drug use map of the world.
- “Imagine that drug laws were enacted under Justice Roberts’ limited reading of the tax power rather than under the Commerce Clause as now? What would be different about such a world than ours?”
- Video: Penn Jillette on the two-party system, personal responsibility and why a good person should have no fear of the government.
- Louisiana GOP state rep supports taxpayer funding for religious schools, but only if they’re of the One True Religion.
- A list of Obama’s accomplishments.
All that, plus my very own recipe for potato salad and Bobbie Gentry performing “Fancy”.
One Year Ago Today
The first part of an interview with my husband, using questions supplied by my readers!
congratulations,Maggie on your new column,i hope it gives even more publicity to you,so that more people will actually hear from a sex worker and not the typical propaganda.you know,i got in an argument with an anti sex work feminist recently.she said that for every happy wealthy escort there are 100 streetwalkers selling the bodies for a fix and thats the typical experience.i told her that what shes seen on the street make only for 10% of prostitutes and that escorts are close to 50%.i suggested if she wants to learn what sex workers want to contact sex workers rights organizations.then another jumps in and tells me that the women in theese organisations and those that start blogs are only a tiny fraction of sex workers,those willing to make sex work part of their identity,the privileged class.the vast majority are those that engage in ”survival sex work”,that to them its hell,so they would never join theese organizations.i answered that most sex workers dont join theese organizations, because activism often means showing your face.that if she searched the internet,there are many women who post anonymously in sites and dont even have blogs that are perfectly fine with their line of work.that its idiotic to say”those women in organizations only do sex work because they like it and not to survive”.they also do it for the money,they also want to survive.many of them werent privileged either.you dont have to choose the job of your dreams as a little girl to like what you currently do.besides,theese women know more about what sex workers want than youll ever will,because they see and talk to them every day,they are their colleagues and friends.some had the bravery to show their face with all that this means for them socially,to represent the vast majority that cant afford to.then,the first one asks me that if so many like it so much then why they dont plan to do it for a length of time.i answered that i,a pso plans to do it for a length of time and so are other women in sex work,without feeling trapped.as far the majority who doesnt as she said i answered with this”my cousin was a bartender in college.he really liked his job,but didnt plan to do it for a length of time and when he finished studying,he quit.for the majority,for which you talk about, its a means to an end”.then she got angry and told me that i and all other sex workers,with a similar mindset sell our bodies and we have the nerve to present it as normal.i answered that we still have it when we walk away and its no more selling your body than any other person engaged in corporeal labour.when she says this to a hairdresser,a waitress or a factory worker,then we talk.i always wondered,you know ,where this ”she sells her body”comes from.its been that way since a very long time,and always considered mysogynistic and hypocritical.why sex=yourself,while using all other corporeal labour is using your skills?
The “sex=self” nonsense is the most misogynistic of the many misogynistic statements made by the anti-whore crowd; it’s based in the notion that sex is not a thing in and of itself, but rather only sexual fidelity to a legally-sanctioned husband. In that view such fidelity (often mislabeled “chastity” or “purity”) is all a woman has to contribute, so if she sells it she has nothing left, therefore in “selling her purity” she has “sold herself” or “sold her body”. As I said, it’s a deeply misogynistic concept because it represents not just sex but marital fidelity to one man as the single thing (not her mind, personality, abilities or anything else) that represents her purpose in life. If neofeminists thought about this they would be horrified, but of course if they thought instead of believing and reacting they wouldn’t be neofeminists in the first place.
i find that the second most annoying statement about sex work or sexual openness is ”i cant respect theese women,because especially the latter chose to be that way”,while at the same time respecting blacks and gays,because they were born this way.i dont know about your opinion on this,Maggie,but i honestly think that this is not respect,its pity.the third has to be ”no little girl grows up and says i want to be a sex worker.”
I suspect that if escorts were more visible, and more respected, there would be little girls saying they want to be one when they grow up.
Congratulations Maggie! I can’t think of anyone more deserving of this kind of thing than you are. It’s not that you are “just” another pretty face (or pretty eyes as it were) … it’s the fact that you really are a bust-ass blogger who has her shit in one sock. That’s a compliment. 😀
I’ll take it as one. 😉
If nothing else, it halves the laundry burden. 😉
looks like I chose an auspicious day to return to reading your blog. Thanks, Maggie, and congratulations on your elevation to agitatortot-dom. (you can take the last 3 letters however you’d like…)
Congratulations on the new gig. Your writings and opinions merit a wider audience.
Congratulations Maggie! And thanks to Dave Krueger for bringing me here from theagitator.com.
Today the Agitator, tomorrow the world? Okay, maybe not, but congratulations anyway.
Radley Balko is an outspoken Libertarian targeted by MADD for his controversial stance that DUI laws–gasp!–should actually follow the Constitution and temper civil liberties with public safety in application. He’s an intelligent, thoughtful advocate for libertarian causes, Maggie. I think it’s to your benefit to have him notice your blog.
Woo-hoo! Congratulations, Maggie. The Agitator is one of my favorite blogs, though I don’t read it as much these days, just because my Google Reader list is of epic proportions.
Congratulations, Maggie.
Congratulations on the new gig, and may it be all you dream of.
Now, some of the stuff you linked…
88 Books: Great, now I’ve got “I Am the Walrus” stuck in my head. Glad to see that Tarzan of the Apes made the list, as did On the Road (I’m reading it on the bus and at bus stops).
Drug Use Map: Weed is really popular in Indonesia! And in Japan amphetamines are nearly as popular as weed itself.
World If Drugs Under Justice Roberts Tax Reading: General consensus seems split between “it would be like tobacco and alcohol now,” which would be a huge improvement, and “they’d still find a way to throw your drug-taking ass in prison,” which wouldn’t be. A better question might be “what if drug prohibition had no more teeth than the Obamacare mandate?”
Penn Jillette: Well, he’s basically right: if everybody who didn’t vote got out there and voted for the Libertarian candidate, or the Green candidate, or whatever, but they all voted for the same guy, that guy would be the next president. In other news, if my aunt had balls…
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