If the mayor defunds the police, I’m going to shoot her.
– “Officer” Steve Poulos
This week’s video was tweeted by J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5, as a farewell to Mira Furlan (“Delenn”); I think it speaks for itself. The links above it were provided by Mistress Matisse, Sola Love, Phoenix Calida, Franklin Harris, Radley Balko, Amy Alkon, and Gustavo Turner, in that order.
- Headline of the week.
- “Take only as directed“.
- Carrying an umbrella while black.
- R.I.P. Mira Furlan and Hank Aaron.
- Not. For. Any. Reason. Whatsoever.
- At first glance I missed the word “candle”.
- I laughed so hard I literally couldn’t breathe.
From the Archives
- The “Victorian doctors invented female masturbation” myth dates to 1999.
- “Promoting debauchery” in Egypt is as “promoting prostitution” in the US.
- It’s good to see more writers criticizing insulting hooker tropes in movies.
- This’ll never change while screws have absolute power over their victims.
- The public believes anything it sees on billboards, no matter how absurd.
- Authoritarians make an unconstitutional censorship scheme even worse.
- The UK press, partying like it’s 1999 & nobody’s heard of online ads yet.
- Still think those toothless facial recognition bans will rebottle the djinni?
- Actresses & whores were until recently considered the same profession.
- Trump has finally made it acceptable to question “sex trafficking” porn.
- GAATW is the only “anti-trafficking” group concerned with exploitation.
- Another dumb article about a phenomenon that probably doesn’t exist.
- Imbecile “journalists” get tangled up in their own stupid assumptions.
- If you want a good threesome, you really need to hire a professional.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from January 2016 and 2017, mostly.
- 18 months between a blatant offense and actually being fired for it.
- This mass surveillance tool won’t long be restricted to sex workers.
- If I climax quickly in a long date, is it OK to ask for another round?
- Another anti-migrant pogrom using the excuse of “sex trafficking”.
- Truckers Against Trafficking uses sexual fantasies as propaganda.
- There is no “debate”; this was unilaterally imposed by politicians.
- Prohibitionists want people to think the Swedish model is decrim.
- While stigma and criminalization exist, this will keep happening.
- Tumblr made its bed, and now look who’s lying in it with them.
- Many more people die from scalpels than from meat cleavers.
- In this anti-whore climate, a wholly predictable development.
- Cops, metaphors, John Karlen, Terry Jones, and much more.
- Cops never miss a chance to humiliate marginalized people.
- The majority of self-reports about sexual accidents are lies.
- Cops are still masturbating to the “barcode tattoo” fantasy.
- Pig talks dirty to another pig who’s pretending to be a kid.
- Just another typical and representative government thug.
- Not much of a sentence for attempted kidnapping & rape.
- Theresa Flores is still selling her magical anti-pimp soap.
- All Londoners are now part of a perpetual police lineup.
- Cops, Florida, Antarctica, the Muppets and much more.
- How “sex trafficking” myths resemble pulp sci-fi tales.
- In which I finish one video project and begin another.
- It’s rare to see a sympathetic article in the UK press.
- 40% increase in violence after FOSTA became law.
- Hotels are training their staff to harass women.
- More articles about the odious Kamala Harris.
- Another sex worker turned performing artist.
- More of the racist “nail salon slaves” myth.
- A short video of Fredric Wertham in action.
- Rapist cops of the week, 2019 and 2020.
- Good news about the FOSTA challenge.
- My two previous columns for Imbolc.
- Diversifying my income streams.
- 500 weeks of blogging.
- Oh, what a surprise.
Re: Headline of the week.
Pablo Escobar’s “cocaine hippos” are only the most recent and spectacular non-indigenous animals in the Americas.
Goethe’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice retold a classic cautionary tale.
Many species have been imported, become feral and multiplied in the Americas before hippos. Horses, ponies, cattle, pigs, dogs (distinct from wolves), housecats, various vermin, as well as plants such as water hyacinth, kudzu and eucalyptus have been imported either accidentally or intentionally, and proliferated in the wild.
A century before Escobar, the US Congress considered a plan to import hippos to the USA, for production of “lake bacon”, and to eat kudzu (already an invasive imported plant). The plan was not adopted, but some remarkable people at the time considered it a great idea.
Every problematic invasive animal species is small enough to hide, so I doubt the hippopotamus can be such a problem. The only way it’s difficult to eliminate problem hippos is if you’re unwilling to shoot them.
The government could even make a profit on it. I don’t know what hippo steak tastes like, but I know people that would stand in line and pay hundreds for a hunting license just for a chance to find out.