Now that the weather is slowly getting warmer and drier, we’ll soon be able to start working on the stable again; Jae’s patron had the rest of the materials shipped here, but it has rained nearly every weekend (and he isn’t available on weekdays). But worse come to worst, July and August are generally dry here, so we’ll be able to get it done then if not before (I think perhaps two more dry weekends of good work can probably accomplish it). That means it’ll be all done before the autumn; which is the next time it’ll really be needed; right now there’s very little hay in the barn, so the animals have plenty of room to shelter in there when it rains. But as summer goes on it will fill up with hay, which means Shiloh won’t be able to shelter there because of her bad reaction to hay dust. I think they’ll like the stable; as you can see, they already prefer to be in that part of the paddock when they aren’t doing something important somewhere else.
Archive for May, 2022
Diary #622
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset on May 31, 2022| 1 Comment »
Back Issue #107
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged blogging on May 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »
In the 5000 years since [Gilgamesh] was first pressed into clay, Man’s world has forgotten its debt to us and has generally succumbed to the hubris of believing it no longer needs us. – “The Daughters of Shamhat”
- Would an older escort be more understanding of my kinks & insecurities?
- When I was 12 a strange man helped me escape possible sexual assault.
- The strong resemblance between American and Ugandan prohibitionism.
- Senators “discover” that G-men hire whores, feign surprise and outrage.
- “Sex trafficking” hysteria is really the old “Satanic Panic” in a new guise.
- Tracy Quan on a documentary about whores in three different countries.
- Irish authorities use the label “human trafficking” for almost everything.
- “Abstinence only” sex education is even worse than previously believed.
- Namibians prove they understand human rights better than Americans.
- Reading Pennsylvania sex work articles is like looking into a dirty toilet.
- Another man convicted of “child pornography” for owning comic books.
- Zimbabwean cops claim whores force men to have free sex with them.
- Busting myths about migration, extramarital sex and mythology itself.
- Prostitution is not an evil to be tolerated, but a good to be celebrated.
- Why extrajudicial punishment of whores is a spectacularly bad idea.
- Don’t go on a call without someone reliable knowing where you are.
- “We looked at sex addiction, but there was no science at all. None.”
- Turkish brothels provide an example of the problems of legalization.
- Congresscritters love them some compelled speech and censorship.
- US State Department urges Malaysia to violently persecute whores.
- India: protest vs cops abusing whores. US: cops molest protesters.
- The sleazy deal to impose the Swedish Model on Western Australia.
- Another female academic tells the truth about East Asian sex work.
- I dated an escort for a long time; now I feel guilty when I hire one.
- Los Angeles begins to realize that its condom law is unenforceable.
- How yesterday’s forbidden activity becomes compulsory tomorrow.
- The real purpose and effects of the “Violence Against Women Act”.
- I decide that the outing of anti-whore politicians is commendable.
- How can a man get a driver job with an escort service or brothel?
- The tale of a young woman who wins a chance at her dream job.
- Organized persecution of Canadian whores continues to crumble.
- The FBI wants private companies to enable its spying on people.
- Lawheads delight in charging a crime victim with another crime.
- In which I demolish a load of total nonsense about “sex robots”.
- What a “sex trafficking” trial reveals about the “Swedish Model”.
- Zimbabwean politicians want women forced to be unattractive.
- Cops in riot gear and masks save Houston from evil harlots.
- Compulsory “rehabilitation” is indistinguishable from prison.
- A Japanese service provides sex workers with cover stories.
- This is sleazy even by Ashley Madison’s abysmal standards.
- An early draft of one of my favorite books is auctioned off.
- Another serial killer targeting whores, this time in Detroit.
- A biography of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the “D.C. Madam”.
- Gonorrhea is rapidly becoming immune to all antibiotics.
- Octomom says a masturbation video isn’t “really” porn.
- Did you ever have a client who physically repulsed you?
- Phoenix jumps into “trafficking” hysteria with both feet.
- And all it took was triple jeopardy and lying to the jury.
- Nepal turns low-caste people into persecuted criminals.
- The man who helped bring my favorite heroines to life.
- How the whorearchy is used as a tool of social control.
- Spain continues to turn the screws on streetwalkers.
- Christopher Ryan on sex work and harm reduction.
- Reminiscing about my dear, departed friend Terry.
- South Australia moves toward decriminalization.
- Dania Suarez is interviewed on the Today show.
- The first of several virginity auctions that year.
- Never call the cops for any reason whatsoever.
- On the infantilization of teenagers and adults.
- The arrival of armed drones on American soil.
- Elderly patron dies while getting a lap dance.
- Nobody will admit that the emperor is naked.
- Another of Nick Kristof’s exercises in fatuity.
- Another criticism of “sex robot” foolishness.
- Arthur Huntington, AKA Agent Cheapskate.
- Why Janet Jackson’s nipple won’t go away.
- Genesis, Pretty Baby and Looney Tunes.
- What I really mean by the word “myth”.
- Do working girls really appreciate gifts?
- A two-part look at my favorite poems.
- We have met the enemy and he is us.
- 69-year-old identical twin whores.
- The Wicker Tree and You Will Die.
- Are most clients easy to please?
- The menace of rock and roll.
- Thoughts on Mother’s Day.
- Politician. Whores. Yawn.
- Fake internet girlfriend.
Links #621
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged cops, Florida, Never Call the Cops, New York, Tennessee, Turkey, Under Duress, video on May 29, 2022| 2 Comments »
You did this to yourself. – cop, to grandmother he assaulted
I don’t think I can really explain the silly kitchen banter between Grace and me that resulted in my jokingly threatening to throw a “ricochet biscuit” at her, so I won’t try; I’ll just share this video for those who have no clue what I’m talking about. The links above it were provided by Radley Balko, Franklin Harris, Jesse Walker, Cop Crisis, Boatfloating, Kevin Wilson, and Cop Crisis again, in that order.
- But for video.
- R.I.P. Fred Ward.
- “A temple in Eden“.
- Cops burn man alive for attending a meeting.
- Too bad it won’t come out of the cops’ budget.
- Clearly, the reaction vaporized the entire mass.
- Do I really need to say, “Don’t call on them in person either”?
From the Archives
- Cops raping sex workers is so accepted in PA the state actively defends it.
- Web companies use sex workers to build themselves, then screw us over.
- Sweden’s government thinks it owns the people & legislates accordingly.
- Cops, The Riddler, violins hepa, vagina-scented flames, and much more.
- “A child is 3x as likely to be hit by lightning as kidnapped by a stranger.“
- It boggles the mind that anyone could be gullible enough to install this.
- Even in a crisis, politicians have to advertise their hate for sex workers.
- Bills and hunger don’t “socially distance” from people without income.
- Using “public health” as an excuse for tyranny is increasingly popular.
- Now that the pandemic is fading, cops are back to their usual panics.
- Cops refuse to release the name of a dangerous, violent serial rapist.
- I’m sure you know the answer to the question posed in this headline.
- Civil rights violations often start with whores, but never stop with us.
- This is the woman who beat the pro-decrim candidate Tiffany Caban.
- Proponents of the Swedish rot will use any excuse to push their filth.
- A retrospective of my work from (mostly) May 2016 and May 2017.
- Beneath their “red x” silliness, “End It” are dangerous copsuckers.
- Potty-obsessed politicians attempt to circumvent a federal ruling.
- Another sexual predator specifically targets traumatized women.
- Cops, power-madness, Jane Roe, The Beatles, and much more.
- Looks like we’re going to have to rethink the safety of the mail.
- As I’ve said for decades, so-called “radical” feminism is a cult.
- Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Violence is safety.
- It’s so nice to see them feeding on their own for a change.
- One wonders if any actual crime ever occurs in Redbridge.
- Don’t you amateurs put at least some value on your time?
- Finally getting my “nonessential” grooming back on track.
- The plague year showed me semi-retirement could work.
- My two previous columns for International Whores’ Day.
- My go-to argument for skepticism about flying saucers.
- A retrospective of my blogging, mostly from May 2017.
- I’m sure these pompous blowhards’ scheme will work.
- At their core, the Netherlands are still prohibitionist.
- Susannah Breslin interviews a stripper activist.
- Logging the progress on building a bathhouse.
- Getting ready to remove that shitty awning.
- Our cat Aeryn was born in March, 2002.
- Bewitched as an allegory for sex work.
- Cops, trees, popcorn and much more.
- I love it when they feed on their own.
- Rapist cops of the week, everywhere.
- More blood on prohibitionists’ hands.
- One of my hens is working overtime.
- Clearly, this is all Trump’s doing.
- Still traumatized after 24 years.
- In case you missed this.
In the News (#1240)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Broker in Pillage, abortion, asset seizure, California, censorship, China, cops, drugs, Facebook, FBI, Guinea Pigs, Illinois, Islam, LGBT rights, libraries, Michigan, Oklahoma, politicians, prisons, Quiet Genocide, racism, rape, scams, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, The Mob Rules, The Vultures Descend, Thought Control, To Molest and Rape, Twitter, Virginia on May 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Extortion, there’s no other way to explain it. – Marc Deldin
Distorting a rapist pig’s image is almost as bad as hiding it:
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation arrested a [typical and representative] Canadian County [cop]…who…rap[ed a woman] he [had locked in a cage-truck]…David Wayne Loman [raped her]…three times at three different locations…at [least once anally]…
Wayne County, Michigan has openly extorted money for years with similar tactics:
…in December of 2020…the mayor…and…police chief [of Highland Park, Michigan] dropped by a 13,000-square-foot building owned by Justyna and Matt Kozbial [using the pretext of] an impromptu fire code inspection…[in reality, the politicians needed pretext to pretend to “find” a [state-licensed] marijuana grow operation…[in order to steal] the building…and h[o]ld on to it for 17 months without charging them with a crime…police never alleged there was any major criminal activity…[and] In…response to an interrogatory filed in the Kozbials’ subsequent lawsuit against Highland Park…they received a settlement offer from the town: Stop growing marijuana and buy two [brand-new pigmobiles] for the [cop shop, for]…a…total…[cost of] about $70,000…after WXYZ Detroit reported on the fiasco, Highland Park informed the Kozbials that it would be giving them back their building. Their lawsuit is still ongoing…
How much longer will the Western Establishment ignore this?
Thousands of photographs from the heart of China’s highly secretive system of mass incarceration in Xinjiang, as well as a shoot-to-kill policy for those who try to escape, are among a huge cache of data hacked from police computer servers in the region. The Xinjiang Police Files, as they’re being called, were passed to the BBC earlier this year…and…reveal…in unprecedented detail, China’s use of “re-education” camps and formal prisons…for Uyghurs – and…[makes it harder for Western politicians to pretend to believe its ridiculous] public narrative about…[the concentration camps being] “schools”…The documents provide some of the strongest evidence to date for a policy targeting almost any expression of Uyghur identity, culture or Islamic faith – and of a chain of command running all the way up to the Chinese [dictator], Xi Jinping…
There is nothing as contagious as a bad idea:
[After the] Virginia Beach (VA) school…[board ordered the] remov[al of the book] Gender Queer from [school libraries]…a Virginia [ambulance-chaser seized upon the opportunity to]…fil[e]…suit[s] against [a] school [which stocked the book] and against the Barnes & Noble store in Virginia Beach…[because the book, and another one named] A Court of Mist and Fury are [available]…to minors…[shyster Tim Anderson,who is also (unsurprisingly) a politician, openly admitted his suit is intended as a nuisance and encouraged other wannabe censors to file] “suits like this…all over Virginia. There are dozens of books. Hundreds of schools”…Neither book fits the [legal] definition of obscene and neither book is pornography…
This batshittery is virulent, and will only get worse:
The Oklahoma Legislature gave final approval…to a bill that prohibits nearly all abortions starting at fertilization, which would make it the nation’s strictest abortion law. The bill subjects abortion providers and anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion to civil suits from private individuals…The measure is modeled on a law that took effect in Texas in September, which has relied on civil…instead of criminal enforcement to [circumvent] court challenges”…The bill makes exceptions for cases of rape and incest, but only if [the victims invite cops to gawk at them, ask disgusting questions, and pry into every corner of their lives]…
Oklahoma ladies: please allow me to aid and abet you in having a medication abortion at home.
Cops have been doing this for years, and platforms do nothing to stop it:
…a little-known [gang in the Chicago cop shop]…called the Social Media Exploitation…team…had been set up to [conspire with] the FBI [to] find [weak people who could be suborned] and [spy on citizens] using information gleaned from social sites. The Intercept and Chicago-based transparency groups obtained more than 800 pages of emails and other documents about the [gang] through public records requests. These show that the [gang members] were given broad leeway to [spy on] people across platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, using fake social media accounts furnished by the FBI, in violation of some platforms’ policies…
This cop just keeps demonstrating what he is:
Matthew Dominguez…[the infamous Wanking Pig of] San Jose…[has] sexually harassed and assaulted…other…wom[en]n [in the past]…Dominguez…touched [one woman’s] breasts and thigh and kept trying to touch her even after she rebuffed his advances…she and her boyfriend…reported the…sexual assault…but [of course nothing was done]…Another woman…[w]as…[groped by] Dominguez…[while] arresting [her in December. Conveniently]…the body camera footage [for the arrest is] missing…
Annex 67
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on May 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »
This section of roof went much more quickly than any of the previous ones because the orientation of the leaf allowed me to use the panels with very little cutting; I simply had to trim a short section off of each one and then haul it into place and screw it down. Indeed, since the polycarbonate panels are shorter than the metal ones (12′ vs 16′), all I had to do was cut the metal ones to the same length. The only difficult part is holding each panel in place while drilling the first two holes; once there are two screws in place, the panel can’t shift and the rest of the task is relatively quick and easy. Better still, I was able to climb back and forth between the shop roof and cottage roof on the steel framework, and once the roof panels were in place I could actually walk on them (though I need to step over the polycarbonate panels because they aren’t strong enough to support human weight). You can see the roof peak beam through the transparent panels; each panel goes a little past the peak right now, but when it’s time to install the ridge caps those will be trimmed down until they fit under the caps. This picture was taken on the 9th, and I’ve already finished the section visible on the other side; however, as I’ve written in the past, I like to space out these reports because progress can be very uneven and it might be weeks between developments that will show in pictures. I expect that will be especially true once I start working on the ridge caps, which will involve a lot of waterproofing with Gorilla tape and silicone sealant.
May I Tweet?
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged Twitter on May 26, 2022| 2 Comments »
If there's one thing the 21st century has been notable for, it's demonstrating that both sides in the so-called "culture war" are repulsive authoritarian busybodies who should all be dumped into the sea.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) April 26, 2022
As one who's been selling sex for longer than most current escorts have been alive, I can assure you that this is pure, undistilled bullshit. We had an extensive blacklist in the early Oughts, as did every other agency in town. https://t.co/pR5CR5K71g
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) April 28, 2022
It's fascinating to watch the increasingly-idiotic and increasingly-asymetrical attempts to cram all human political thought into one dimension.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) April 29, 2022
Billionaire's opinions are just as dumb and misinformed as those of most everybody else.
Big fucking headline.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) April 30, 2022
The number of shootings by police which contain the phrase "in the back" should be a source of national shame for Americans. Y'all have empowered a horde of chicken-hearted slimeballs and given them dominion over you. https://t.co/nIBzkfemgu
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 2, 2022
I'm starting to see some "burn down the house to roast the pig" suggestions.
Can we just NOT?
Couldn't y'all just conduct a wee thought experiment on the possible ramifications of your clever plan before belching it out half-digested onto Twitter?
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 3, 2022
To those who are scrpulously avoiding mentioning Alito's invocation of criminalized "prostitution" as though it were a mere trifle rather than a central part of his argument: I see you. And I keep receipts.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 3, 2022
The secret to getting violent authoritarians out of your business is NOT standing behind a different-yet-allied gang of violent authoritarians.
I know its hard for people unused to doing difficult things like thinking & moral consideration for yourselves. But do try.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 3, 2022
"Powerful overlords should be able to do whatever they want to you without any constraints of law or custom" is a helluva take, wokester. I suggest you consider the implications of your stupid opinions before vomiting them out on social media.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 4, 2022
In any conflict between two societal groups, the group who wants the government to have more power than it currently does is in the wrong.
The number of exceptions is so small, each could be fully set forth in the Constitution or amendments.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 8, 2022
Florida man deceives his blind father, steals his brother's inheritance, claims he wrestles angels, then has 12 kids by different mothers. https://t.co/1J8ZPZqQVC
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 11, 2022
I don't know why people are surprised, when polticians at every level of US government have repeatedly voted against bodily autonomy for citizens (especially but not only women) for over a century now. Americans call this "democracy".
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 12, 2022
I have a strong predisposition to rooting for anyone "escaping" from anything. It's not necessarily rational, but it demonstrates how badly I hate authoritarian attempts to restrict individual movement.
No, I don't want to hear whataboutery. This is just an over-tea musing.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 13, 2022
Don't worry, I'm sure Biden has a clever plan such as manufacturing and distributing millions of "WIN" buttons. https://t.co/vZMnjFRDer
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 15, 2022
Given the inflation nd the specter of coming gas lines, it's the 1970s over again. Except without all the good parts. https://t.co/ID2J8x27Zd
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 17, 2022
Reminder that Kamala Harris, now only an old man's heartbeat from the power so desperately craves, made a very similar argument against releasing California prisoners because they're needed as slave labor to fight wildfires. https://t.co/qKo38Sk3Az
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 19, 2022
Your regular reminder that just because someone is attacking or being attacked by a bad person, does not make them a good person.
Adults shouldn't need to be told this, yet here we are.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 21, 2022
I can think of nothing less interesting than the marital problems of two awful millionaires I don't even know.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 22, 2022
That puritans have convinced so many Americans that the relative ages of adults in romantic relationships (much less the relative ages of ACTORS portraying FICTIONAL CHARACTERS in FICTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS) is a matter for Collective Concern, does not bode well for the future. https://t.co/8RvdnNNK6F
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 24, 2022
In the News (#1239)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Buttons Bags & Banknotes, cops, fantasy, I Spy, Instant Criminal, neofeminism, Oklahoma, Out of Control, porn, rape, restaurants, Russia, Surplus Women, surveillance, Tennessee, Texas, The Last Shall Be First, To Molest and Rape, transgender, video, violence vs. sex workers, Washington (state), yellow journalism on May 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The viewpoints…individuals and businesses hold are real, even if they differ from the views of…government officials. – Judge Aleta A. Trauger
The BBC feeds stigma just as much as the Russian media this story criticizes:
On the day she was murdered, 20 July 2020, Olga had a profile on an online escort site where she went by the name Margo. A 53-year-old former convict, Oleg Tochilkin – who had been released on parole after serving part of a 20-year prison sentence for crimes including murder…b[eat] and strangled Olga…then [dump]ed her naked body…at the entrance to [his apartment] building…One headline read, “Do you feel sorry for this kind of victim of violence?” Another was, “The bloody details of how a prostitute from Bryansk was killed”. And there was the one that called Olga a “whore” and referred to her killer as “grandpa”…
This guy is lucky his evil wife wasn’t smarter:
…on April 18…Angel Moore [told cops in]…Wynnewood [Oklahoma that]…she’d [somehow] seen a man using his phone to download child [porn. She claimed]…the man’s wife, Lacey Hucks, managed to get the phone away from her husband and gave it to Moore so she could alert police. The man was swiftly arrested, and…over 800 child sex abuse images [were found] on that phone…[but] deputies noticed that the phone that the husband had on him at the time of his arrest didn’t have any content similar to what was on the phone Moore had given them. They only kept the husband in jail overnight, and got a warrant for Hucks’ phone—which showed that she and Moore had been discussing plans to make the police report before April 18…Moore quickly folded under questioning…an[d]…told a deputy that Hucks had…coached her…to deliver the false report against her husband…in hopes of winning a child custody battle…Hucks and Moore…were arrested on charges of conspiracy and knowingly reporting a false crime. Hucks faces an additional charge of aggravated possession of child sex abuse material; if convicted on that charge, she faces up to life in prison…
Buttons, Bags & Banknotes (#770)
I’m not sure who Bindel thinks she’s convincing with this tedious claptrap, but I’ve got to hand it to Liz Brown for being far more patient with her than I could possibly manage.
Are there really sane adults gullible enough to swallow this?
The NSA — which has undermined encryption standards in the past — says it won’t undermine the next strain of encryption, one being built to withstand the inevitable arrival of quantum computing…“There are no backdoors,” said Rob Joyce, the NSA’s director of cybersecurity…Pardon my cynicism, but that’s exactly the sort of thing someone planning to backdoor encryption would say…While it’s true the NSA has spent less time agitating (at least publicly) for encryption backdoors than, say, the FBI, its troubling past strongly suggests it should not be taken at its word this time around…Quantum computing has the capacity to be the pipe wrench that makes security efforts mostly irrelevant. The sooner a new standard can be put in place, the better. If the NSA can help achieve this more quickly, it should. But it should never be assumed the NSA’s intentions are pure…
The Last Shall Be First (#1140)
One small victory against a rising tide of bigotry:
A federal judge struck down a Tennessee law…that would have [forced] businesses in the state to post warning notices on their public restrooms if they have policies allowing transgender patrons to use the facilities that match their gender identities…Judge Aleta A. Trauger…wrote…that the law violates the First Amendment of the Constitution because it compels speech that is controversial and with which the plaintiffs disagree. “It would do a disservice to the First Amendment to judge the Act for anything other than what it is: a brazen attempt to single out trans-inclusive establishments and force them to parrot a message that they reasonably believe would sow fear and misunderstanding about the very transgender Tennesseans whom those establishments are trying to provide with some semblance of a safe and welcoming environment,” Trauger wrote…
The next level beyond spooge-based sexual assault:
An Arby’s manager…urinated in the milkshake mix…for his own “sexual gratification” on at least two occasions…Stephen Sharp, who was being investigated for child pornography, admitted to police that he enjoyed relieving himself in the restaurant’s milkshake mix while working as a night manager at a Vancouver, Washington, location…[cops found] dozens of [child porn] photos and videos…as well as the urine video on his digital devices…
Investigators are looking for any unlucky customers who bought and drank the urine-contaminated shakes…
So many rapist cops, so many underage victims:
A Dallas [cop who was] arrested last summer [for] sexual assault of a child is now facing a second charge after more victims came forward…Tyrone William Jr….[h]as [been on paid vacation since…June [of last year]…
Diary #621
Posted in Diary, tagged imaginative fiction, nostalgia, Presents on May 24, 2022| 1 Comment »
When I arrived at my Seattle apartment on Sunday, I found a package waiting for me from Amazon, courtesy of regular reader & gift-sender Robin Aguilar. It contained Joe Satriani’s latest disc, plus the DVD of the space vampire movie Lifeforce (1985) and this set of a 1977 TV show most of y’all have probably never heard of. Those who weren’t born yet then may find it hard to believe, but before the debut of Star Wars that same year, science fiction had been very out of fashion since Star Trek went off the air in 1969. And in those pre-home video days, that meant often the only science fiction shows available for viewing were Trek reruns and old movies in syndication packages broadast mostly on Saturday afternoons and late at night. There were certainly a few adventure shows featuring sci-fi elements, such as The Six Million Dollar Man, but new straight-out sci-fi series were rare and generally short-lived. This one lasted only ten episodes, but I liked it very much and had a bit of a crush on Katie Saylor, a leggy blonde who played the Atlantean woman Liana. Given that I haven’t seen this show in 45 years, I have no idea how I’ll appreciate it through adult eyes, but thanks to Robin I’m going to have a chance to find out!
So Long Ago, So Clear
Posted in Biography, Favorites, Music, Obituary, tagged New Orleans, psychology, video on May 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
My favorite musician of all time, Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou (best known by his stage name, Vangelis), died last Tuesday in Paris at the age of 79. And because he was the creator of a large fraction of the soundtrack of my life, I find myself very affected by his passing, more so than by any of the other relatively-recent deaths of musicians whose work I admired. I wrote a Twitter thread featuring many videos, with a few facts and a bit of criticism, but here I’d rather share more personal thoughts about my relationship with his music.
Like many Americans, I was first introduced to his work by Carl Sagan, who used the third movement of Vangelis’ Heaven and Hell (1975) as the theme to his amazing and groundbreaking TV series, Cosmos. And while I found the music lovely and moving, it was the music used in this sequence, demonstrating the evolutionary history of humans, that really took hold of my brain:
In those pre-internet days, there wasn’t any simple way to find the name of a piece of music used in a show if it wasn’t listed in the credits, and it wasn’t. Fortunately, someone thought of writing in to TV Focus, the weekly TV magazine of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, to ask about the main theme, and somebody over there was able to name Vangelis as its composer. Armed with that knowldge, I begged my cousin Jeff to take me to New Orleans’ best music store, Leisure Landing, where I found the Cosmos soundtrack and a number of other Vangelis albums. Fortunately, part of the piece I was looking for was on the soundtrack album, along with its name, “Alpha”, and the name of the album on which it appeared, Albedo 0.39. And it wasn’t long before I made another trip to Leisure Landing to buy it. China soon followed, then Heaven and Hell, then Spiral; I played them all frequently, and copied them to cassette tapes for playing in the car (as we used to do in those long-ago and far-off days, dear reader). They were among my favorite albums for playing while dallying with lovers, and to this day I cannot hear the titular song, which appears on Heaven and Hell, without thinking of lying in the afterglow with my first adult inamorata on lazy Friday afternoons in the early ’80s in my apartment near UNO.
Of course, I was much too young then to really feel in my gut what it meant to remember such things across a gulf of decades; even Vangelis himself was only 32 when it was recorded, and singer Jon Anderson two years younger still. But in the many intervening years my brain has caught up with my very old soul, and the departure of my lifelong musical friend has left me feeling very old indeed.
Links #620
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged animals, Arizona, cops, Florida, Georgia, Israel, Louisiana, racism, sporting events, video on May 22, 2022| 2 Comments »
How did we go from a routine traffic stop to narcotics-sniffing dogs? – Pamella Jenkins
The big news this week was the passing of Vangelis, the Greek composer most famous for his soundtrack work, whose albums from the late ’70s and early ’80s in particular formed a large portion of the soundtrack of my life. I’ve featured many of his compositions over the years, but never the one that first made me a fan, fittingly entitled “Alpha”. The links above it were provided by Franklin Harris, Cop Crisis (x2), Radley Balko, Popehat, and Nun Ya, in that order.
- The secret of bird navigation at last?
- Another brave hero protecting and serving.
- Cops will keep attacking even after you’re dead.
- Cops terrorize busload of girls because they can.
- Cop beats up woman just to show her who’s boss.
- Cops regularly demonstrate exactly what they are.
From the Archives
- People often die of “undetermined causes” while being brutalized by cops.
- “Kraft’s case punctured some of the overheated rhetoric around sexwork.“
- US courts hold that cops are robots devoid of all human moral judgment.
- Puritans hate folks having fun while confined by “leaders” to their rooms.
- Cops abduct & torture people in ways that would be crimes for non-cops.
- The government doesn’t care that its war on thought is unconstitutional.
- These same monsters think it’s OK to cage people for being near others.
- Too bad they can’t see that all criminalization of consensual acts is bad.
- It took almost 7 years, but the press finally caught up with me on this.
- Every so often one of these sadly-typical stories gets media attention.
- A high-profile example of the quiet rebellion going on all over the US.
- “Going after ‘sex stuff’ + ‘helping’ without bothering to understand.“
- Nobody is free while governments claim the “right” to cage people.
- I hope they’re so “disheartened” they go out and find honest work.
- You are not “accountable” to government; it is accountable to you.
- Do tell me more about “wings” and “blue states” and “democracy”.
- “Mind your own damned business” is a solution to many problems.
- US “authorities” keep pretending sex is an excuse for any tyranny.
- Corporations have become the favored tool of censors worldwide.
- Americans pretend “politician hires whores” is more than a yawn.
- Anti-whore stigma even harms sex workers who are therapists.
- There are still some Westerners who insist this isn’t genocide.
- Admitting to anorgasmia is a way to reclaim one’s sexuality.
- It’s good to see so many challenges to these medieval laws.
- Cops, fascism, Grumpy Cat, Tim Conway and much more.
- Cops, cruelty, California, Charles Grodin, and much more.
- Rewiring the mess of a breaker box my house came with.
- Being well-educated doesn’t mean knowing everything.
- Still think this djinni can be stuffed back into its bottle?
- All they were waiting for was a strong enough excuse.
- Politicians finally deign to make rape illegal for cops.
- The ugliest part of a peak moral panic: lynch mobs.
- Cops, ethics, Tolkien, Fred Willard, and much more.
- Prohibitionists want Ontario to be more like the US.
- Traveling in a good, though exhausted, headspace.
- Another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
- Another step forward for disabled Australians.
- Expect a lot more of these before this is over.
- The human cost of a prohibitionist crusade.
- How many times will you let them fool you?
- Politician takes bribes, hires whores. Yawn.
- At its core, Australia is still prohibitionist.
- It’s just going to keep getting worse.
- My new living room floor.
- On replacing my old car.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- More tweets!
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Boring but necessary legal stuff