A year or two ago, Jae bought me this rose bush as a thank-you gift for taking her on a bunch of errands; at the time it was a wee thing planted in a demitasse cup. But I transferred it to this pot, and since then it has lived on the windowsill of my incall. But as you can see it has grown too large for the pot, and since I’m spending most of my time at Sunset now, I brought it out here when I returned from Seattle early last week. In a few days I’ll pick a good place for it and transfer it to the ground. But it’s not the only thing that has moved out here due to my increased presence; on my previous trip back to town I moved the old desktop computer I use for my emails and book publishing, so that I could finish Ask Maggie, Volume I (uploaded to the publishing site yesterday). I’ve transferred my default mailing address for several things to the farm, and yesterday was also my first appointment with my new doctor; Grace recommended her, and I was pretty tired of being blown off and overcharged by the doctor I was previously seeing at one of those big corporate clinics in Seattle. So I guess you might say the rose bush isn’t the only thing being transplanted from Seattle out to the coast, and may we both thrive out here.
Archive for July, 2020
Diary #525
Posted in Diary, tagged Ask Maggie, psychology, Sunset on July 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Lipstick on a Pig
Posted in Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged cops, Hollywood, Lipstick on a Pig, propaganda, The Cop Myth on July 20, 2020| 7 Comments »
It will probably come as no surprise to my readers that I’ve never liked cop glorification shows. Even before I was old enough to understand why glorifying state enforcers was wrong, and before I was wise enough to recognize that such shows constitute propaganda for a stage-four “might makes right” weltanschauung, they made me uneasy for reasons I could not adequately express. So while one my little sisters was glued to Adam-12 (and later ChiPs), and another never missed an episode of Starsky and Hutch, I went off to my room to read. When one of my university boyfriends told me about the now-infamous Dirty Harry “make my day” sequence, I feigned polite disinterest to cloak not-so-polite disgust, but a decade later, when I came home once to find Jack watching Cops, I flew into a barely-articulate rage whose character you can probably guess without any further elaboration on my part. Such shows, going back at least to Dragnet, Highway Patrol and The Untouchables, have always put lipstick on pigs and presented cops as heroic and principled defenders of the weak from villainous “criminals” with less character development than Snidely Whiplash, incorruptible white knights who would never ever ever rob or frame people, lie under oath, stalk or even rape women, or brutalize, maim and murder people, sometimes by literally shooting them in the back. But while other popular ’50s genres such as westerns, family sitcoms, anthology shows and science fiction have either largely vanished or dramatically changed, cop glorification shows have only proliferated; it seems like every second or third time I run into a television set somewhere, it’s showing an episode of either C.S.I. or Law & Order: SVU (usually with a storyline involving a dead hooker). And every time that has happened since the advent of ubiquitous video recording a few years ago, I’ve idly wondered how the hell such shows, even in the deeply-authoritarian US, could have developed so little since Jack Webb’s Joe Friday deadpanned, “Just the facts, ma’am” (except for the cops becoming even more unbelievably competent via magical “forensics”). Well, recently I read an article on just that subject which interviewed a number of writers, directors, and other staff from such shows, and…well, it’s not pretty. Here are a few short passages to whet your appetite:
No one has done more to propagate the myth of the hero cop than the writers of network-television police procedurals.
“I was told pretty early on to avoid dirty cops as story points.”
“We are in the hero business. There have been times when I’ve felt complicit in what is, essentially, a police department’s PR campaign…If we show B-roll footage, you’re going to see a cop doing a hero walk and getting into his car like a cowboy; we’re not going to show him swinging a baton at some kid on the sidewalk.”
“…we reinforce the idea that police are good so that the world is exactly the way the people in our audience want to believe it is…we rationalize it because this is our job. Even if we know it’s wrong.”
“…we have a police technical consultant…and if the director doesn’t know how to block a certain scene, our consultant becomes the arbiter of what is realistic…he always makes sure we manufacture a reason why the cop would have…the right to get violent. We always have to make sure we show the guy reaching toward his pocket for a gun.”
“For the sake of storytelling, we create myths.”
“The truth is, the day-to-day work of a police officer isn’t exciting enough for television, so we dramatize it.”
The common yokel considers my job degrading, but I’m not the one getting paid to lie about violent thugs so the public stays asleep while a vast police state is constructed around them.
Links #524
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny, tagged animals, California, cops, Florida, I can't breathe, neofeminism, Oregon, racism, Texas, video on July 19, 2020| 2 Comments »
I think my family is dead. – Harper Hansman
I spotted this video on YouTube last week, and it was so silly I had to share it. The links above it were provided by Scott Greenfield, Radley Balko, Amy Alkon, Boatfloating, Jesse Walker, and Mike Siegel, in that order.
- Feminism!
- Oh, what a surprise.
- I hate it when this happens.
- Not a police state, no sirree!
- Some vindication for Heyerdahl.
- Too horrible to make a Florida joke about.
From the Archives
- This looks like a huge victory against the powerful Indian rescue industry.
- Is there any non-prohibitionist who fails to recognize FOSTA is a disaster?
- How countries with healthy ideas about sex react to the Swedish disease.
- In case you thought screws restricted their petty sadism to the prisoners.
- The answer to “Why don’t you do x?” is usually “Because I don’t want to”.
- The incidents we hear about are only a fraction of the ones that happen.
- Cracked has fewer pro-sex work articles than it did, but this is excellent.
- The State keeps contradicting itself to crucify the founders of Backpage.
- Having their lives destroyed so bourgeois Englishwomen can feel good.
- The term “pimp” is hopelessly contaminated and cannot be “reclaimed”.
- Apply a label like “prostitute” or “gang member” and civil rights vanish.
- Picture what you’d think of as “sex trafficking”, then compare it to this.
- Federal appeals court agrees “women who dress like sluts cause rape”.
- Blaming bad behavior on an “addiction” is not accepting responsibility.
- My favorite seems to have ghosted on me; should I try to contact her?
- Cops, Rome, Atlantis, Antarctica, Simpsoni, Denise Nickerson & more.
- Stories about hooker jails are crammed with appalling euphemisms.
- No fad spreads faster than a new way to tyrannize innocent people.
- Cops don’t test rape kits because it doesn’t advance their purpose.
- Everybody knows cops are stupid, but this is a new level of idiocy.
- It’s train-wreck fascinating to watch the lies spiral out of control.
- It’s the same everywhere our work is even partially criminalized.
- The “Good Shepherd Sisters” = Magdalene laundries = Ruhama.
- Shaming clients is an exercise in evil fuckery that just won’t die.
- West African “penis stealing” hysteria has spread to East Africa.
- This abomination started as a means of spying on sex workers.
- Locking pregnant women in cages for “trafficking” themselves.
- Manufacturing data to “prove” a problem exists is not science.
- Dr. David Ley can always be counted on to speak good sense.
- As I keep saying, it’s already far too late to stop this tyranny.
- No one person can undo an entire system of fascist tyranny.
- On the hypocrisy of Democrats cheering for Stormy Daniels.
- Delays in cases like this always benefit the government.
- Another sleazy scam artist raping aspiring sex workers.
- What is it with Alabama politicians and underage girls?
- Why, how could anyone have predicted this outcome?
- Cops, KISS, margarine, Nyalathotep and much more.
- This stopped being a “fringe position” two years ago.
- Stress tends to aggravate chronic health conditions.
- The ugliest part of a peak moral panic: lynch mobs.
- Sex work can also be a boon for disabled workers.
- Spooge-based sexual assaults are growing worse.
- I wonder what biological sex the victims were?
- A productive week despite seasonal anxiety.
- Another week full of gifts and good clients.
- The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
- All laws are backed by a gun in the room.
- Not an article you’d see in the US.
- An update on my fundraiser.
- Fascism in action.
- We told you so.
In the News (#1057)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, cops, Creepy Coppers, drugs, fantasy, fascism, genitalia, harm reduction, hysteria, I Spy, Ireland, Israel, masturbation, Ohio, Pennsylvania, porn, rape, surveillance, Swedish model, The Course of a Disease, The Crumbling Dam, The Implosion Begins, The Puritan Recrudescence, The Widening Gyre, To Molest and Rape, Twitter on July 18, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Tracking protestors…and calling it “news” is still surveillance.
– Andrew Ferguson
Twitter joins the fascists who claim surveillance isn’t surveillance:
…[fascist surveillance company] Dataminr [collaborated with cops to] digitally monitor the protests that swept the country following the killing of George Floyd, tipping off police to social media posts with the latest whereabouts and actions of demonstrators…The monitoring [proves the dishonesty of] claims from both Twitter and Dataminr that neither company would engage in or facilitate domestic surveillance…Twitter, up until recently a longtime investor in Dataminr alongside the CIA, provides the company with full access to a content stream known as the “firehose”…a…privilege…that lets Dataminr…scan every public tweet as soon as its author hits send. Both companies denied that the [surveillance] meets the definition of surveillance…But…Dataminr relayed tweets and other social media content about the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests directly to police, apparently across the country…despite current terms of service that explicitly bar software developers “from tracking, alerting, or monitoring sensitive events (such as protests, rallies, or community organizing meetings)” via Twitter…
Observation: overpriced furniture. Conclusion: “sex trafficking”!
A new [masturbatory fantasy] surrounding products advertised by the home goods and furniture seller Wayfair now joins previous [masturbatory fantasies] like Pizzagate regarding worldwide pedophilic sex trafficking…The Wayfair [fantasy]…began with a[n idiot’s] post to the Conspiracy subreddit…”Is it possible Wayfair involved in Human trafficking with their WFX Utility collection? Or are these just extremely overpriced cabinets? (Note the names of the cabinets) this [gives] me [tingles below] my stomach if it’s true”…[naturally the fantasist] described themselves as “involved in a local organization that helps victims of human trafficking”…
Clearly, Wayfair was envious of all the “sex traffickers” at Ikea, and so decided to get into the business itself.
The Puritan Recrudescence (#892)
It’s sad that in the 21st century we’re still debunking claims that pictures have magic powers:
A new study by a neuroscientist from the Kinsey Institute found no scientific basis to the persistent myth, peddled by religiously inspired War On Porn crusaders and #NoFap semen-retention cultists, claiming that watching porn can cause erectile disfunction in men…[Dr] David J. Ley…explained [that] the lack of correlation between exposure to porn and erectile dysfunction suggests that “rather than getting distracted by pornography use, we can best support men struggling with erections by attending to personal motivational and behavioral factors”…
The Course of a Disease (#925)
Sex workers already gave their views before this tyranny was inflicted on them:
Sex workers and other “stakeholders” involved in or associated with the sale of sex are to be asked for their views on a review of Ireland’s prostitution law [years after their views were ignored to enact the law in the first place]…the act [cl]aimed to decriminalise prostitutes…[bu]t has been widely criticised by the Sex Workers Alliance of Ireland…[because] it actually puts prostitutes at greater risk…The 2017 Act specifically provided for a review…after a period of 3 years…[and SWAI]…said the forthcoming review “will show the current law is a failed experiment”…
The Course of a Disease (#961)
Israel’s plan to force sex workers into low-paid menial “women’s work”:
A law criminalizing the procuring of sex services went into effect…over the objections of some government offices and welfare groups, who [fantasize that the law will magically result in] thousands of newly out-of-work prostitutes [even though that never happens anyplace prostitution is criminalized]. The [Swedish model was] approved a year and a half ago by the Knesset…[but] de[layed until] mid-2020 to give the state time to form re[-education camps]…for sex workers…to [force them into sweatshops and other menial work]…Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn said…“Women are [the] property [of the state and only politicians and bureaucrats may decide how they may use] their bodies”…
Cato & ACLU join forces to stop deranged prohibitionists from killing people:
…Safehouse wants to provide a supervised injection site (SIS) for compulsive opioid users…[but] the federal government is trying to block Safehouse by invoking a 1980s crack‐house law that makes it a crime to provide a place to take illicit drugs, even without compensation. Safehouse won the first round when a federal district court ruled that the Department of Justice couldn’t stretch the crack‐house statute to cover Safehouse’s lifesaving SIS. Now on appeal to the Third Circuit, Cato, joined by the ACLU and the ACLU of Pennsylvania, has filed a brief supporting Safehouse…the federal government is largely responsible for the current overdose crisis…Because of the “iron law of prohibition”…during alcohol Prohibition, beer and wine essentially disappeared and were replaced by hard spirits. For the same reasons, drug traffickers prefer high‐potency opioids like fentanyl even when the users are not demanding it…
Notice how often rapist cops’ victims are underage?
A[n Ohio cop got]…a 12-year-old girl drunk and expos[ed] himself to her during a Father’s Day party at his house. Roy E. Stephens…was [only] charged with indecent exposure and providing alcohol to a minor, which [means]…placing Stephens on the sex offender registry will be up to the discretion of the judge, so there is a chance he will avoid that [because cop]…Stephens gave the…girl between three and five alcoholic beverages throughout the night, and at one point encouraged her to chug one of the drinks down fast so it would “mess [her] up faster”…so he could have his way with her…She…felt the effects of the alcohol, but was luckily still coherent enough to prevent the encounter from escalating. It is not entirely clear how she was able to get out of the situation, or how well Stephens was known by the girl and her family…
Annex 8
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on July 17, 2020| Leave a Comment »
In the first few days of the month, we built the deck between the existing house and Chekhov’s cottage; he was in town doing some repairs for his lady friend, so it was just Grace and I (mostly her planning, mostly my work). Then on the 4th, we built the ramp up from the level of the house floor to the bathhouse deck. I’ve actually always preferred ramps to stairs, plus Grace has difficulty with stairs and none of us are getting any younger. It was a lot of fun working directly with her like this again; we built a deck together 17 years ago in Oklahoma, so there was a lot of laughter and teasing while we worked. In case you’re wondering, Grace wants to leave that rickety old awning in place until we build a proper roof, so the tools can be protected from the rain in the meantime; it looks like crap and is far too low, but doesn’t leak. Anyway, at the beginning of last week, Chekhov and I set the posts for phase 2, the area between his cottage and the shop building; I’ll show you what that looked like next week!
Disqualified
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Q & A, tagged censorship, Disqualified, Facebook, Google, internet, Madonna/whore, Twitter on July 16, 2020| 3 Comments »
Do you have any idea why some people’s Twitter follower count either stays the same or slowly drops? Mine used to climb pretty steadily, but lately I’m losing followers even though I’m not doing anything different.
Most internet companies are more subtle than censorship-happy Facebook, which openly and proudly censors posts and bans users using a set of “community standards” so bluenosed they’d make a Puritan swoon. Google is only slightly less censorious, using secret algorithms to monkey with search results in order to boost its advertisers and “de-weight” any site containing “adult content” (which is why my traffic to this blog from Google is only about 1/6 what it was seven years ago); it also “demonetizes” videos on YouTube (ie, makes them ineligible for moneymaking ads) using similar esoteric criteria. Twitter, by contrast, likes to represent itself as the most free-speech-friendly of the social media sites, and to a degree that’s no empty pose; it’s the only one left which still allows (some) nudity, frank sexual discussion, and the open presence of sex workers. But behind the scenes it still has a number of secret mechanisms, most of which it denies the existence of, that are intended to push nasty, dirty, sex into the shadows to make room for nice, fully-clothed bigots. One of those is the shadowban, a blanket term for a number of occlusions which can be secretly installed by the corporation on the accounts of (mostly but not only) sex workers so as to make their accounts much harder for new readers to find while allowing them to appear normally to those who already follow them: 
Twitter used to deny that there was such a thing as a shadowban, but as of January 1st its TOS states that it “reserves the right to limit distribution or visibility of content”, IOW to shadowban users. But what you’re describing is different. According to the shadowban checker I linked above, I’m not shadowbanned; yet my follower count, which used to increase by hundreds every month, has now been static for over two years. I get at least 10-20 new followers every day, yet my count just bobs gently back and forth like a buoy on a calm sea, as though something were draining away followers at the same rate I gained them. Then since about April, I’ve been slowly losing followers; it’s very gradual, about 220 followers so far, yet I’m still gaining a dozen to a score new followers evey day. The only thing I can figure is that this is part of their anti-bot campaign; apparently, the site is methodically checking every account over time, and when an account trips some condition that Twitter has decided makes it “suspicious”, that account is either closed entirely or at least “disqualified” as a follower. I know I’ve had a number of people tell me that Twitter has “unfollowed” me for them without their permission, such that they wondered if I had left the site until they saw someone else retweet me; I suspect a lot of the lost followers are due to a similar process. But riddle me this: if it’s an innocent by-product of that kind of routine site cleaning, why are all the people who have noticed it either “adult” or otherwise “controversial”?
(Have a question of your own? Please consult this page to see if I’ve answered it in a previous column, and if not just click here to ask me via email.)
In the News (#1056)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged Above the Law, Against Their Will, agency denial, Canada, censorship, China, Dirty Whores, disease, fantasy, Germany, hotels, hysteria, India, Islam, Madonna/whore, neofeminism, Netherlands, politicians, prisons, Pyrrhic Victory, Quiet Genocide, rescue industry, Signs, Social Distancing, surveillance, Texas, The Spiral of Absurdity, United Kingdom, Watershed on July 15, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Criticising China is the new blasphemy. – Nick Cohen
Yet another sociopath with a title:
[UK politician] Charlie Elphicke chased a woman around his kitchen and chanted “I’m a naughty Tory” after sexually assaulting her, a court has heard. Elphicke talked to the woman about bondage then…groped her breast and tried to kiss her…while his wife Natalie Elphicke was away in 2007…Elphicke [also] sexually assaulted a parliamentary worker in her twenties several years later after he became MP for Dover, telling her: “Oh I’m naughty sometimes aren’t I? I can be so badly behaved but I can’t help it.” Both women rejected his advances, with the [second] describing a “disgusting slobbery mess” when Elphicke tried to kiss her before groping her. In a separate incident some time later, Elphicke rubbed his hand up her leg towards her groin…
The U.S. Supreme Court…upheld a Bush-era law requiring overseas affiliates of U.S. organizations to adopt an organization-wide policy explicitly opposing prostitution in order to receive federal anti-HIV/AIDS funds…Serra Sippel…of the Center for Health and Gender Equity…[said] “The [anti-prostitution loyalty oath] hurts public health outcomes and it has always been bad policy”…“The Supreme Court upheld the U.S. government’s quest to impose its harmful ideological agenda on U.S. organizations and restrict their right to free speech,” said Patrick Gaspard, president of the Open Society Foundations…According to CHANGE…“publicly opposing sex work while also providing social and health services to sex workers…is hypocritical”…
The Indian rescue industry is being undone by its own pretense that it wants to “help” its victims:
Holding up the fundamental rights of an adult, [an Indian] court ordered the release of four sex workers [abducted by cops under the pretense of] rescue…The women had argued for their right to free mobility and expressed desire to get back to their hometowns…advocate…Rajesh Katore…submitted a Bombay High Court…ruling…[in support. Natur]ally, the cops had opposed the application filed by the women, [claim]ing that they needed to [keep them locked in a cage to]…conduct an investigation…
How China tries to keep the genocide quiet:
Once, blasphemy was damning the faithful’s gods and sacred books. Now, criticism of the world’s largest dictatorship has become sacrilegious. You shouldn’t be surprised. As some of us tried to say in the 1990s and 2000s, the gap between the sacred and the profane was never as wide as religious sentimentalists and liberal multiculturalists believed…Authoritarian politics and authoritarian religion are just two sides of the same debased coin…One of the great crimes of the 21st century is being committed in front of our eyes…if a western country were to display one-tenth, one-hundredth or one-thousandth of the brutality that China is inflicting on Muslims, the global left would be burning with outrage…But the main reasons why Muslims suffer in silence is that the Muslim-majority countries that raged against Rushdie, Jyllands-Posten and Charlie Hebdo have decided to stay silent. They use the idea of Muslim solidarity only when it suits them…Iran, Egypt, Syria and dozens of other countries that could not tolerate a magical realist novel can live with the mass sterilisation of Muslim women. They will give concentration camps a conniving wink of approval, but draw the line at cartoons in a Danish newspaper…China is now a more active and influential voice at the United Nations because so many countries are benefiting from billions of dollars in Chinese investments through its “Belt and Road” infrastructure programme. As…Australia found…when it asked for an international inquiry into the origins of Covid-19, those who blaspheme against China face cyber-attacks and sanctions. Better to take the rewards and avoid the punishments…
The Spiral of Absurdity (#1027)
[Public disinterest in] human trafficking [propaganda] is…alarming [the rescue industry. In San Antonio, Texas, fetishist]…Chuck Paul [fantasized that] the ability for traffickers to sell a person…was diminished following the COVID-19 outbreak and traffickers began ditching people they had trafficked onto the street…[but] once the state’s restrictions were lifted, traffickers started looking to “re-supply their stock of slaves…There’s a huge population of young people right now that are stuck at home, they haven’t been going to school…the traffickers are working hard on social media to target whichever child they can.” Paul [made furtive movements in his pants while spouting fantasies that being a teenager]…is…a…sign…of trafficking…[another is] if you’re in a hotel or motel and [a] person walks right past the front desk because they are [already] checked in…[or] has…tattoos…
So according to Paul, it’s “suspicious” if a person doesn’t stay in their hotel room the entire time between checkin and checkout. What drugs is he on?
Canada pretends to care about privacy, but has plenty of other snooping tools:
Clearview AI has advised Canadian privacy protection authorities that, in response to their joint investigation, it will cease offering its facial recognition services in Canada. This…includes the indefinite suspension of Clearview AI’s contract with the RCMP, which was its last remaining client in Canada…The authorities still plan to issue findings in this matter given the importance of the issue for the privacy rights of Canadians. An ongoing issue…is the deletion of the personal information of Canadians that Clearview has already collected as well as the cessation of Clearview’s collection of Canadians’ personal information…
“Enlightened” Europe has treated sex workers shamefully during the pandemic:
News that clubs and brothels could reopen in the Netherlands from the start of July took everyone by surprise — including sex workers. Club owners were warned that the industry would remain in lockdown [using the excuse] of the pandemic until September, months after all other sectors had already reopened. But the reality is that many sex workers felt forced to work privately and illegally just to survive. Now, as the industry starts to reopen across Europe, they worry about their earnings and whether they can stay safe…most European governments…paid a percentage of [many] workers’ wages while they were furloughed. But sex workers rarely qualify…In Germany, the sector remains closed under a government ruling [even though]…most German businesses have now reopened, including gyms, bars and hairdressers…In Britain, the industry remains [officially] shut down…and many…women…have not started working again because they are terrified of contracting the virus and passing it on to their families…
Diary #524
Posted in Diary, tagged Ask Maggie, Sunset on July 14, 2020| 1 Comment »
On Thursday, the second cottage was delivered; it takes up quite a bit of space on the floor, but I have a really big garage. This time the pieces were less well-arranged than last time, so it was very difficult to do the inventory. But we eventually got it all sorted and staged, so it’ll be ready to assemble when we are. That will probably be sometime in August; we still need to put in the posts that will be under this cottage’s footprint, dig a new French drain, prepare the area with gravel, level the hot tub (which we’re probably doing this week), run the new electrical line (the cable has been shipped but hasn’t yet arrived), move the paddock gate and Jae’s yurt, and build the deck up to the edge of the second cottage. And I have to run to Seattle at least two or three times in the next month or so. Now do you see why I’ve been posting the bathhouse construction updates on a two-week delay? It’s not that things aren’t going according to plan, because we’re about where I expected to be (if not a little ahead); it’s that a lot of the work for the rest of this month won’t really show in pictures. And that’s not even counting the press to get Ask Maggie, Volume I out on time for my self-imposed deadline of July 31st.
Generous Gents
Posted in Diary, Perception, tagged Oklahoma, pragmatism, Presents, Sunset on July 13, 2020| 1 Comment »
Nearly every established sex worker I know has had generous clients buy big-ticket items for her, and I don’t mean frivolities like designer handbags and 500 pairs of shoes; I mean substantial items, like a central air conditioning system, furniture, a car, that sort of thing. In my case, the most outstanding example is my farm at Sunset. I was able to buy it outright thanks in part to a generous parting allowance from my wasband Matt, and another of my gentlemen bought me the truck Grace and Chekhov used to haul everything we own from Oklahoma to Washington. Once it was no longer needed, I used the truck itself as barter to pay a hired man who has done a great deal of work for me, from setting up the jacks to level my floor, to digging drainage ditches, to helping me rebuild my chicken yard, to helping Chekhov and I build the guest cottage. And of course Chekhov himself has been incredibly generous; not only did he buy both guest cottages and all the lumber for the bathhouse project and the bookshelves, he’s also bought me a number of new appliances and tools. And of course he’s not the only one who’s bought me tools; many of my readers have purchased them for me from my wishlist, and this one in particular has seen very heavy use! Another of my gents tips me with a Home Depot gift card every time I see him, and those have purchased many more tools and supplies. These kinds of gifts may not be the stuff of male fantasy like fancy lingerie and expensive jewelry, but they mean far more to me: they are allowing me to create the comfortable home I plan to spend the rest of my life in. And every time I look at my bookshelves or use my hot tub or just walk on the deck built with gifts from my gents, I cannot help but be reminded of their generosity.
Links #523
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged Alabama, Arizona, California, censorship, cops, drugs, Florida, I can't breathe, Never Call the Cops, racism, video, weaponry on July 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »
I can’t breathe. – Carlos Ingram-Lopez
Ennio Morricone died on Monday, leaving a legacy of film scores that are instantly recognizable to millions who wouldn’t reconize his name. That news comes via Wendy Lyon, and the links above the video from Mike Siegel, Amy Alkon, Mama Tush, Rick Horowitz, and Mama Tush again, in that order.
- R.I.P. Carl Reiner.
- Having a life while black.
- Not a police state, no sirree!
- Just another isolated incident.
- WHY ARE YOU IDIOTS STILL CALLING THE FUCKING COPS?
From the Archives
- More European government humanitarianism to “fight human trafficking”.
- The scheme to cut sex workers off from the healthcare system continues.
- Governments fight profiteers for control of the “sex trafficking” narrative.
- A crime doesn’t magically become a different thing when sex is involved.
- Real humanitarians are fighting against racist “anti-trafficking” schemes.
- The government doesn’t care that its war on thought is unconstitutional.
- Evil douchebags trying to criminalize Nevada brothels fall on their faces.
- In my “ideal world”, hypocritical apologists for feminism wouldn’t exist.
- “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time“.
- Gentrification is a common motivation for persecution of sex workers.
- Scheme to cut sex workers off from the healthcare system continues.
- Useful idiots are surprised, though this was as predictable as sunrise.
- The FBI should’ve just run their child porn sites on DoD computers.
- Scumbags don’t get caging humans induces pathological behavior.
- Adult woman turns into “child” via the power of a magical camera.
- Please tell us more about how legalization “protects” sex workers.
- Indiana pursues the “right” to rob anyone within its borders blind.
- Please, rescue industry, keep attacking your most powerful allies.
- An attempt to slander the good work done by SWOP Behind Bars.
- When giving someone a ride to work is a “felony”. Because “ring”.
- It’s not often a judge rules against cops in favor of a sex worker.
- A pet judge isn’t going to be able to make this scandal go away.
- What happens when you refuse to tailor your pet law narrowly.
- Where “cutting-edge” is used to mean “hopelessly inaccurate”.
- Total number of frogs in Lisa Lewis’ self-destructive chorus: 3.
- Cops, sharks, spiders, Idi Amin, and other dangerous animals.
- Cathy Reisenwitz’ sex-positive libertarian feminist tent revival.
- Americans think their sadfeelz about sex trump human rights.
- Once Patreon started caving in to PayPal, this was inevitable.
- Rapist cop escapes consequences of his actions by croaking.
- Only bootlickers think the “cashless society” is a good thing.
- I’ve been a harsh critic of these do-nothing law for 7 years.
- People sometimes ask me why I moved out of Louisiana.
- What kind of warped “ally” quotes prohibitionist myths?
- More inevitable “monkey see, monkey do” from the UK.
- Seven years in a cage for drawing a fictional character.
- Mike Siegel on the “harm enhancement” of prohibition.
- You may not like my take on the Jeffrey Epstein thing.
- Another victory for feminism against jobs for women.
- Starting the Sunset floor-leveling project at last.
- Yet another perfect example of the McNeill Rule.
- I suspect this sort of story isn’t all that unusual.
- “Written assurance” is like a “restraining order”.
- Another chance for you to help sex workers.
- A functioning police state needs no police.
- My eighth and ninth anniversary columns.
- The Swedish model “helps” sex workers!
- Welcome to our world, infertile women.
- Welcome to our world, cannabusiness.
- Some good stuff is better than none.
- A quiet genocide in China.
- Rapist cops of the week.
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