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Archive for April, 2022

Links #614

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 10, 2022| 1 Comment »

This is going to be fun.  –  Ronni Carrocia

Sharing an earworm doesn’t actually cure it, but on some level it makes it more bearable.  The links above this particular earworm were provided by Cop Crisis, David Ley, Clarissa, Cop Crisis again, C.J. Ciaramella, and Elizabeth N. Brown, in that order.

From the Archives

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In the News (#1227)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »

They’re basically training us for a fake world.  –  Lucas, high school student

Zeitgeist

It’s slowly dawning on “feminists” that getting in bed with cops was a bad idea:

Many tend to think of police as the first line of defense for women in need of help. But…sexual misconduct is…pervasive throughout the profession, despite receiving relatively little attention.  After excessive force, sexual misconduct is the second most commonly reported form of police misconduct…and that only includes what’s reported.  “We have no way of knowing how much of this behavior goes on,” [said] Timothy Maher, a criminology professor at University of Missouri… “Many people are [afraid] to report on the police”…[rapist cops usually] target [women]…on the margins of society, such as [sex workers or other] women with criminal records…who[m they know will be dis]believed [by cops and prosecutors] if they do come forward.  While the spectrum of police sexual misconduct is wide, it can include things like unnecessary strip searches or a sexual shakedown, which is when a…[cop demands submission to rape] in exchange for not…arresting the [victim]…[even] female [cops]…can…be victims…

A Broker in Pillage (#1145)

Indiana continues to pursue the “right” to rob anyone within its borders blind:

In April 2015…Indiana [cops stole] almost $10,000 from Terry Abbott after [a snitch claimed] he was…selling drugs…Abbott attempted to challenge that action…but he lost his attorney—as the money he would use to pay for that counsel had been [stolen] by the state…The Indiana Supreme Court…rul[ed] that [victims of robbery by cops] have no right to use their s[tolen money] to finance legal [challenges to the robbery]…This means that…the government is able to put defendants in a chokehold by seizing the very assets that they would use to defend themselves…Fighting to get your cash back is a bit difficult when the government has [stolen] all of your cash…

Property of the State (#1149)

Women of childbearing age should avoid Alabama entirely if at all possible:

It’s astounding how many novel ways politicians can propose to invade privacy.  The latest comes from Alabama, where a new bill would require women from ages 25 to 50 to produce a negative pregnancy test from a doctor or medical lab before purchasing medical marijuana.  The test would have to be conducted within 48 hours of the purchase…Pregnant women on the marijuana patient registry would also be required to report pregnancies to the physician who approved their patient status.  Having to go to a doctor or medical lab and pay for a pregnancy test before every medical cannabis purchase would be not only invasive but inconvenient.  In effect, it’s an added tax on…female patients…

Creepy Coppers

Just another cop demonstrating exactly what he is:

A [typical and representative] Perryton [Texas cop] was sentenced…to 17 years in federal prison for child pornography offenses…Aaron Bennett Daugherty…was [caught uploading]…a video file depicting an adult male [raping]…a blindfolded prepubescent child.  “I’m here to look at CP, everybody”…he…posted…

Thou Shalt Not (#1206)

Prohibitionists refuse to understand why their schemes never work:

Karlyn Gorski…[of] the University of Chicago…[studied the] robust black market for snack foods that persists at Hamilton High (not the school’s real name) despite the best efforts by school administrators, security guards, and teachers to stamp it out…Gorski spent 112 days observing students and adults at Hamilton during the 2019–2020 school year…[and] observed a widespread black market for snack sales…beyond the amusing anecdotes about deception and the heroic struggles of would-be entrepreneurs against the school snack cops, the paper contains some serious implications about what the school is teaching its students…Students in a Spanish club selling cookies to raise money for a field trip to Peru were allowed to “carry their wares openly and advertise on posters throughout the school…when…the school retained control over the proceeds…the [sales were deemed] ‘worthy'”…[but]…when students were caught “selling” [on their own]…their motives were “subject to moral scrutiny”…One student, code-named Lucas, told Gorski that “they’re basically training us for a fake world” in which good behavior is rewarded while trying to make a buck is regarded as valuable only if the seller’s intentions are worthy…

Welcome to the Future (#1214)

Conditioning kids to accept constant, intrusive surveillance:

Even before the pandemic,…exaggerated security fears intersected with the declining cost of technology to turn many schools into panopticons.  ID tags tracked students, cameras watched their behavior, and software monitored their online activity.  Then COVID-19 appeared and safety [theater]…overwhelmed civil libertarian concerns about privacy with public health arguments…contact tracing and social-distancing enforcement…became a new way to sell facial recognition systems…and…all of that surveillance technology remains in place even as pandemic concerns wane across the country.  Badges and cameras purchased at considerable expense aren’t going to be put into storage just because COVID-19 fades into the background…And, of course, the federal government is right there to subsidize schools’ purchase of surveillance tools with gobs of cash.  That makes the transformation of supposed learning environments into entry-level police states surprisingly affordable…

A Moral Cancer (#1223)

Prohibition is too useful an excuse for violence for the state to stop voluntarily:

…Tobacco is still legal for adults to purchase and consume in the United States.  But [state] policy regarding nicotine delivery systems is shifting from taxation and regulation to explicit prohibition of many products.  Some jurisdictions already have banned menthol cigarettes, and the…FDA…is likely to announce a similar ban at the federal level this spring.  Local restrictions on e-cigarettes likewise provide a preview of what will happen nationwide if the FDA continues to regulate vaping products in a way that threatens to wipe out nearly the entire industry…As tobacco, e-cigarettes, and e-liquids transition from legal to illicit, [cop shops] will more aggressively interfere with production, distribution, retail sales, and in some cases even individual use.  Every such interaction carries with it the possibility of freedom lost, perhaps violently.  There is a real risk that American tobacco policy will open a regressive new front in the war on drugs, just as the previous crackdown on psychoactive substances begins to wind down…

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Annex 62

Posted in Diary, tagged on April 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The amount of floor area that stays relatively dry during a rainstorm is growing with every additional roof section I complete.  Of course, the wind can whip rain in from the sides, and in this particular area water running down the cottage roof can of course drip into the covered area.  But the area near the original house wall now stays dry enough for me to have started keeping the tools there; while I still haven’t managed to stop all the leaks from between the rooves, I’ve installed a gutter which carries the runoff to a downspout which drops it into the main drain under the deck, beside the hot tub.  Since we’re getting close to the two-year mark for this project, I’m really pretty tired of the deck getting slick (and in some areas, slimy) when it rains, and icy when it freezes; I’ll be really glad when we can pressure-wash it and expect it to stay dry except for wet footprints or bathroom splash.  By the time you read this, we’ll be working on the framework for the final (complex) roof section over the two cottages; look for a picture next Friday!

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Waiting for Lightning

Posted in Perception, Q & A, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 7, 2022| 3 Comments »

I’m a virgin who will soon be 40, and I’ve been wanting to engage the services of an escort.  I read your piece on the topic in Reason, but I don’t know if going the sex worker route would make me feel any better.  I realize she wouldn’t be hot for me, but I dread the thought that she’d just not want to be there at all.  Sensing that I’m just a chore to get through would make me feel worse. I don’t want to rent a living sex doll, I want…I don’t know how to articulate what I want out of the experience.  I know I want a woman to have sex with me for free, just because she wants to, but it isn’t happening.

The concept of “free sex” is largely a male fantasy.  As Billy Crystal once humorously expressed it, “Women need a reason to have sex.  Men just need a place.”  Sure, there are exceptions to every rule, but waiting for a woman that you personally find attractive who just wants sex with you because she’s “hot for you” to come along is kinda like refusing to demolish that old barn on your property because you figure that that sooner or later it’ll be struck by lightning and burn down.  The great majority of women are going to want something else other than the mere physical act, partly because we’re wired that way and partly because it’s so easy for most women to get sex from men that the chances of one picking you in particular, without any effort on your part, resemble those of winning the lottery.  For the typical woman, the “something else” is likely to be some kind of romantic relationship; for the more pragmatic sort, it’s likely to be money or some other means of support.  And women who are specifically looking for a husband rather than a mere boyfriend combine the two.  You haven’t given me enough to determine why you’ve never stumbled into a romantic relationship over the past two decades, so I’m going to guess you’re shy and lack the self-confidence to ask girls out on traditional dates.  And I further suspect (unless there’s something you aren’t telling me) that the origin of your fear that an escort would view seeing you as especially laborious is that same lack of self-confidence.  Truly professional escorts, women who view sex work as a career and proceed accordingly, have professional ethics and standards; they are no more “living sex dolls” than boxers are “living punching bags”, and the only reason you believe otherwise is all the anti-sexwork propaganda permeating American culture.  Given that, I think you need to adjust your thinking a bit if you’re to correct your problem.  I suggest you peruse my column “From the Top”, which includes links to a number of columns for newbies; also this essay from a guy in a similar position to yours.  If you don’t find anything to help you there, I suggest buying my book Ask Maggie (both volumes) and reading all the essays whose leading questions speak to you (there are probably more of them than you think).  And once you do stop making up excuses to avoid seeing a professional (because that is what you’re doing, honestly), I think you may find the mystique around sex will start to evaporate, and your problem with it.

(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.)

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In the News (#1226)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The number of arrests for human trafficking is zero.  –  Gary Edinger

Above the Law (#136)

Well, this is different:

A female [cop] has been jailed for six months after getting caught with a convicted rapist under her supervision.  Rachel Beale…was caught by her boyfriend…in bed with…Marc Few…with whom she was having an intimate affair.  Beale f[irst]…brought [Few] home to her country cottage to do odd jobs for her…[the boyfriend] became suspicious when he woke up one morning to find Beale missing…[so] he went to [Few’s] address…and caught him naked in bed with…Beale…wh[o]…also used her [cop perks]…to make hotel bookings…for…purposes [other than maliciously tricking people]…

Bullies With Badges (#977)

Everyone harmed by “trafficking investigations” needs to keep suing over them:

Many of Jacksonville’s biggest strip clubs have a new deal with city attorneys that is years in the making…[the city is] paying the businesses and dancers [a paltry] $60,000, [but] police also have new restrictions on how they can in[terfere with the normal operations of] these venues…owners filed a lawsuit in 2018…[due to] the city…violating the businesses’ constitutional rights in a number of ways…Wacko’s [lawyer Gary]…Edinger…[fantasies] city [politicians] have [bloviated about] linking clubs with human trafficking.  “Bullshit…the City of Jacksonville has never made a human trafficking arrest in an adult entertainment system, not in the bikini bars and not in the nude clubs”…

Disaster (#1072)

This Bloomberg reporter slurps up propaganda in such a nauseating fashion, the edits were self-defense:

The U.S. government can continue enforcing a law designed to c[ensor the internet and harm sex workers]…after a federal court in Washington [pretende]d that it’s neither overly broad nor unduly vague.  The [court incorrectly claimed]…FOSTA, doesn’t violate the First Amendment because it doesn’t discriminate against speech based on its content…Woodhull Freedom Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Internet Archive, and two individuals who operate websites that…come within FOSTA sued to invalidate it…correctly interpret[ing] the law as…targeting the online promotion…of sex work [which cops, spooks, politicians, and prosecutors often misrepresent as the “sex trafficking” specifically named in the law]…

Still a Child (#1154) 

Japanese politicians appear to understand that infantilizing legally-adult women in matters of sex is nothing like feminism:

As Japan debates lowering the age of legal majority from 20 to 18, a [politician] asked the prime minister to create an exception in the new laws so that 18- and 19-year-old…[women are still considered legal minors] in the a[rea of sex work]…contract…[law]…Ayaka Shiomura…[appears to imagine this constitutes “feminism”, but to her] dismay…[other politicians] declined to create a specific “porn exception for 18- and 19-year-old women” within Japanese contract law.  The legal age for drinking, smoking and gambling, however, will remain at 20…

Creepy Coppers

This one really was a semi-“former” cop:

A former Tampa [cop] was arrested [March 30th] on 100 counts of child pornography after “disturbing evidence” was found on several of his personal devices…Paul Mumford…retired in 2015 as a sergeant and had been serving as a volunteer reserve [cop] ever since…Mumford…worked in the…Sex Crimes Unit from 2008 to 2009…[but boss cops denied] that…[Mumford] obtained any of the images from [work]…

Negative Secondary Effects (#1212)

In the current climate of oppression I’m not optimistic about the lawsuit’s chance of success:

Amidst a relentless U.K. media campaign demonizing sex work, the Edinburgh Council voted…to impose a “nil cap” on all sexual entertainment venues in the Scottish city, effectively banning all strip clubs…Virtually every prominent sex worker rights organization in the U.K. has sounded the alarm about this dangerous decision…which [left over 100 women suddenly jobless]…United Voices of the World, which also represents sex workers, will file for judicial review, according to legal caseworker Danielle Worden[, who said]…“Not only does this violate the the Equality Act 2010, it is an act of cruelty to remove the livelihoods of hundreds of workers as we enter the worst economic crisis since the 1970s”…

Thought Control (#1225)

Idaho politicians are punishing librarians for refusing to obediently submit to censorship:

Idaho [politicians] announced…that they will be forming a “working group” to study [their own propaganda about supposedly]…“explicit” or “pornographic” materials available to minors…[in] the state’s libraries…The House twice de[railed] the proposed budget for the Idaho Commission for Libraries…[with fanciful] claims that the libraries contain “pornographic material”…the library budget was eventually passed…but only after being cut by around…a third…

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Diary #614

Posted in Diary, tagged , on April 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it before, but the people whose estate I bought Sunset from were quite elderly; the son who signed the sale was 80, so the old folks had to have been over 100.  That means they came of age in the worst part of the Great Depression, and I’ve noticed people who did are generally major pack rats.  It was certainly true of these folks; when we arrived two of the buildings were so crammed with stuff that we couldn’t even use them until we had cleaned them out.  A lot of it was just plain junk, and many other things had been ruined by time, but I kept a lot of the remainder because, truth be told, I’m a bit of a pack rat myself.  We’ve used some of it in our projects; most of the cottage skirting is made from panels salvaged from an old roll-up door, and I found old metal roof panels stored with them that I figured would come in handy someday.  Well, they finally have; as you can see, they made dandy pig shields for the bottom of a stretch of fence (I employed stakes and tensioners to keep them from wobbling).  The stretch in the background, which cuts through the trees all the way to the northeast corner of the barn, is protected by a layer of logs and branches at the bottom, and the entire south side has panels of welded wire fencing at the bottom. The project in now done except for a short stretch just south of the barn, but that’s presently so choked with brambles none of the animals can get through it; after that, the only remaining thing is reinforcing some sections on the south side that are still too floppy to resist a determined pig.  And about time; it’s going to take weeks for the collection of scratches I’ve obtained lately (we have some serious thorn vines here) to heal.

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Finger-pointing and Wing-flapping

Posted in Current Events, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , on April 4, 2022| 4 Comments »

Maybe it’s spreading so quickly due to the rich soil provided by the 20-year bipartisan crusade to pretend supporting sexworker rights is harmful to children.  If you supported “sex trafficking” hysteria and laws (including censorship) targeting sex workers, you helped create this.  So you can squawk out “THE RIGHT!” all you like; your pet politicians have been working on creating this for two decades, and the blood is on your hands just as much as the hands of “conservatives”.  Maybe you should’ve opposed bigotry and censorship vs sexual minorities from the start instead of setting your own ilk up as judges of which sexual minorities are “good” and deserving of rights, and which “bad” and therefore undeserving.  But I’m sure the worst offenders will just keep flapping their “left wing” and running around in circles squawking “TRUMP!” rather than actually taking a hard look in the mirror.

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Links #613

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 3, 2022| Leave a Comment »

You’re lucky I don’t get out of this car and beat your ass.  –  Ronald Serpico

Though to my adult ear this song is terribly silly, I quite liked it when it came out.  Of course I was just a child at the time, and it appealed to my dyed-in-the-wool lack of respect for authority and my growing rebelliousness.  And since C.W. McCall didn’t exactly have a string of hits, here we are.  The links above it were provided by Clarissa, Franklin Harris, Cop Crisis, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Cop Crisis again (x2), and Tim Cushing, in that order.

From the Archives

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In the News (#1225)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Technology is not magic.  –  Andrea O’Sullivan

To Molest and Rape

So many words to downplay a rape:

A Columbia [South Carolina cop]…was arrested…[for raping] an “incapacitated” person…[and] was fired from the department shortly after[ward]…Keith Ryan Williamson [committed the rape]…in October…

“Accomplished sexual battery with the victim and had reason to know that the victim was incapacitated at the time of the assault” is a ridiculously cumbersome way to say “raped a drunk woman”.

To Molest and Rape (#1158)

Rapist cops don’t only target women:

An Indianapolis [cop] is [merely] facing misconduct and battery charges…[despite sexually assaulting] a handcuffed man…multiple times before throwing him to the ground…Travis Lewis…[decided to arrest the] man who called police [in the first place, and when he resisted being forced into a pigmobile]…Lewis…grab[bed] the man’s [testicles]…and…twist[ed them violently.  In video the man can be heard screaming]…”My balls are bleeding”…Lewis [then] threw the man to the ground…

Stalkers in Blue (#1167)

Once in a while, there’s evidence of the way cops act toward women:

A…Charleston[, South Carolina cop]…was fired…after a…[woman he tried] to coerce [into sex at] a department store [secretly recorded his harassment with her phone]…Darryl Felkel…made repeated attempts to coerce the woman…at [her work in] a Dillard’s department store…the woman refuse[d]…him…but…he…[just kept on haranguing her for seven] minutes…

Decentralization (#1181)

Bitcoin is a kind of folk devil for economically-illiterate politicians:

Politicians who don’t like bitcoin rarely have one reason.  They have all of the reasons, and will seize on whichever one is most convenient or newsworthy at the time.  Right now, it’s war.  Hillary Clinton was trotted out to wag her finger at crypto exchanges that did not extralegally ban all Russians from their services. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is on the case, “monitoring” cryptocurrency for its capacity to give aid and comfort to the Ruskies…But [Elizabeth] Warren stole the show with fearmongering about…”criminals and cheats” before…direct[ing confused] questions at a representative from…a blockchain forensics company…which…is…routinely able to unmask transactions…Warren, surprised but undeterred, continued with her confused line of questioning, so proud of herself that she put a transcript of the objectively embarrassing exchange on her government webpage…

Scapegoats (#1210)

No rumor is so stupid that some politician won’t believe and repeat it:

Nebraska [politician] Bruce Bostelman…is the latest [fool] to repeat th[e] urban legend [that] “Schoolchildren dress up as animals—cats or dogs—during the school day…And now schools are wanting to put litter boxes in the schools for these children to use.  How is this sanitary?” he said…during a televised debate, before backtracking hours later amid school district denials…similar myths have made the rounds in Iowa, Michigan, and Texas, prompting the same denials from school administrators…these stories…line up perfectly with conservative fears about transgender and non-binary students and…reminiscent of how [politicians] for years insisted that same-sex marriage legalization would lead to people marrying animals…

Thought Control (#1222)

Every so often the difference between upper and lower house becomes visible:

An Idaho bill that would have cr[iminalized]…librarians who provide minors with content [politicians] deemed inappropriate is now dead in the water; it…[will] not get a hearing in the state Senate…the Idaho Senate has also declined to take up the state House’s anti-trans bill…

Science! (#1223)

“Sex trafficking” fetishists keep publicizing their creepy fantasies about Ukranian women:

Social media posts from a German sex work support network [were dishonestly]…use[d as propaganda by prohibitionists] falsely claiming the group is “recruiting” Ukrainian refugees to work in brothels.  The group was in fact highlighting support for existing sex workers…Trans*Sexworks is a Berlin-based peer support and mutual aid group primarily for transgender, intersex and non-binary people who do sex work…Wren Oscyth, one of the group’s members…explained…“We have absolutely no connection to brothels or places of employment in Germany.  There currently is not a single member of our group who is employed at a brothel or club since it is very uncommon for those places to hire trans and non-binary workers”…

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Ship of Fools

Posted in Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , on April 1, 2022| 1 Comment »

I used to like hoaxing on April Fools Day, until it stopped being fun; five years ago, in “The Rule of Fools“, I explained why:

…the…media are positively riddled with idiotic nonsense about “sex trafficking”, the “War on Cops”, supposed “epidemics” of things that are actually less common than they’ve ever been, and other tall tales that could be easily debunked by ten fucking minutes on Google if reporters actually cared to practice journalism rather than stenographically reporting every moronic, impossible and self-serving lie vomited out by cops, politicians, prohibitionists and all the other bipedal vermin who glut themselves on others’ suffering and profit from human misery.  Mathematically-impossible, scientifically-illiterate and sociologically-absurd poppycock too ridiculous for a ’50s science fiction B-movie is routinely presented as fact even by “respected” sources like The New York Times, and politicians base laws on fantasies roughly as credible as the contents of Malleus Maleficarum, complete with penalties that would’ve found approval from those who employed that book.  Clowns are widely presented as objects of terror (and are the subject of a recurring moral panic), which perhaps makes sense given that our rulers are themselves violent clowns who send forth armed thugs in clownish costumes to terrorize, rape, rob and murder the populace based on excuses Caligula himself might recognize as mad.  And their cringing subjects attempt to impose order on a world gone completely insane by artificially dividing their overlords into teams, swearing fealty to one of those teams and then obstinately ignoring all the evil done by “their” leaders while blaming the other side for everything no matter what the facts show.  In short, we live in a world in which the highest points are all occupied by professional full-time fools, and it seems pointless for a sane person to even attempt to compete with them.

In the five years since, the situation has only grown worse.  The mad emperor had at that time barely even begun his Carnival of Crazy, and the powerful deranging effect he had on minds still harboring some childlike faith in government had only begun to show itself.  The American political stage soon became a Punch and Judy show writ large, and everyone was too busy watching it to pay attention while their hollowed-out rights were reduced to paper-thin facades; a plague of snitches spread across the land; “sex trafficking” hysteria began its implosion in a more spectacular fashion than I had anticipated; another, more literal plague gave tyrants and control freaks the best excuse for a power grab they’d had since 2001; censorship became wildly popular among all those who believe the most terrifying fact of the world is that others beside themselves have free will; and those in power gave up all pretense of even attempting to make their lies resemble some rough fascimile of the truth.  In short, the lunatics are running the asylum; every day is Fools’ Day, and the joke is on us.

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