I decided to cook gumbo on Mardi Gras, so I invited Chekhov and Yellowbird over (because my sister’s recipe makes a lot of gumbo). When I did, Chekhov reminded me that Yellowbird’s birthday is the same week, so I decided to make it a small birthday celebration as well. That of course means cake, in this case devil’s food; I probably should’ve put a thicker coat of frosting between the two layers, but though it may not have been the prettiest cake in the world everyone still enjoyed it. See, though all of my sisters are good cooks. we are all different, and I’m not the one who actually had a side-gig decorating wedding cakes (that sister is also not the one who perfected the gumbo recipe). The other three specialize in one area each, but it probably won’t surprise you to hear that I’m the generalist. And though that’s convenient because I like a lot of variety in my diet, presentation is not exactly my strong point.
Archive for February, 2023
Diary #661
Posted in Diary, tagged holidays, recipes on February 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Back Issue #116
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged blogging on February 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »
If someone were to seriously argue that it was wrong to pay for food, and that the restaurant business was by its very nature exploitative and demeaning, we would dismiss him as a crank or a lunatic. – “Skin To Skin”
- Cops, valentines, librarians, spiders, the Incredible Hulk, and much more.
- DA explains why it’s a good thing he persecutes teenagers for “sexting”.
- When prohibitionists waited for Super Bowl day to trot out their claims.
- Michael Weinstein wants a new city department just to enforce his law.
- Forcing massage parlors to close at 10 PM is the latest anti-whore fad.
- Kansas Supreme Court rules strippers are employees, not contractors.
- “You’re probably safer with a professional than with a gifted amateur”.
- Judge throws out most of the charges in the “zumba prostitute” case.
- Cops save citizens of Connecticut from menace of 71-year-old whore.
- End of government ability to control money can’t come soon enough.
- When the state turns custom into law, most people don’t even flinch.
- “Trafficked children” are a bogus reason to oppose decriminalization.
- A cute little promo video made at the Sex Worker Freedom Festival.
- Should I stop seeing escorts & focus on rekindling marital intimacy?
- The word “trafficking” is a blunt instrument in governmental hands.
- “For $11 per minute, patrons…can ask for the…butt pillow…service“.
- Look past the “sex slave” rhetoric to what’s actually going on here.
- Comic Relief fails to recognize a “pathological liar” comedy routine.
- Atlanta’s police chief wants to “banish” sex workers from “his” city.
- The high standards of American journalism have reached Pakistan.
- Sex workers fight attempt to impose Swedish model on Indonesia.
- “Sex trafficking” rhetoric derives directly from Protestant theology.
- Manipulating statistics to serve an agenda is like a number puzzle.
- Rescue industry tries to defend abduction of sex workers’ children.
- A Chinese province has stopped sending prisoners to labor camps.
- Louisiana’s lesser interest in “Super Bowl sex trafficking” hysteria.
- Article about sex work with the disabled covers good ground, but…
- The damage to sex workers caused by “end demand” campaigns.
- Oklahoma officials’ creepy enchantment with “human trafficking”.
- The vileness of arresting whores in the name of “rescuing” them.
- A must-read profile of neofeminist anti-porn crusader Gail Dines.
- Cops, dildos, Mars, fossils, orgasms, Star Wars, and much more.
- Queensland cops want fetal rights to trump those of the mother.
- Dublin City Council rejects the Turn Off The Red-light campaign.
- More “stripper licensing” idiocy, with “sex trafficking” nonsense.
- A brief history of Monto, once Europe’s largest red-light district.
- How the Irish government enables the awful Magdalene orders.
- The “Juju sex slaves” myth just keeps on going like a zombie.
- Does a bisexual woman dating a man still really want women?
- Fun promotional video from the Sex Worker Freedom Festival.
- Eric Berkowitz, author of Sex and Punishment, on Reason TV.
- Filipino sex worker rights advocates call for decriminalization.
- What advice do you have for an escort who’s losing regulars?
- Another would-be sex worker “ally” who should just shut up.
- Video of a thought forming in the brain of a larval zebrafish.
- Prohibitionist explains that all prohibitions are equally valid.
- North Carolina law could imprison women for going topless.
- On the cruelty of denying commercial sex to disabled men.
- It never takes control freaks very long to prove my points.
- A short biography of the wild and extravagant Cora Pearl.
- The looking-glass world inhabited by Irish prohibitionists.
- Dr. Paul Maginn has published another appeal for sanity.
- Where is the apology from the Magdalene laundry nuns?
- Another article on the PEPFAR “anti-prostitution pledge”.
- Cops, monsters, language, huge ships, and much more.
- What prostitutes, nurses and nannies have in common.
- A methodologically-sound study of 10,000 porn actors.
- Activists fight plan to banish sex workers from Atlanta.
- “Police have a special inclination toward confabulation“.
- Irish judge refers to Nazis as a “Jewish support group”.
- Indian politicians try to quietly criminalize prostitution.
- In Saudi Arabia, a war between humans and baboons.
- Machines built by bigotry work to grind up everybody.
- Another bogus “meat kills” study from radical vegans.
- Four things you should know about women who strip.
- Being attracted to hot chicks is “socially constructed”.
- Wendy McElroy asks, “Is America a Police State Yet?”
- More good stuff about sex work with disabled clients.
- Why are some women attracted to mass murderers?
- Totalitarian laws always spread from place to place.
- An erotic video game with a very special controller.
- Kristof’s fun new way to play God makes its debut.
- How the “gypsy whores” myth harms sex workers.
- Man says female IRS agent coerced him into sex.
- Harvey Silverglate reviews Unlearning Liberty.
- The Push to Decriminalise Sex Work in Kenya.
- Cult hysteria meets “sex trafficking” hysteria.
- Judge sends man to prison for comic books.
- The story of New York City’s “cabaret card”.
- A mobile “panic button” for streetwalkers.
- Dr. Brooke Magnanti on the “pimp” myth.
- Slowly but surely, the press is waking up.
- All the hooker songs I’ve covered so far.
- In which I attend a law symposium.
- Tracy Clark-Flory on “sex addiction”.
- More Nevada brothel gentrification.
- Wisconsin expands its police state.
- New findings on Fredric Wertham.
- Two excellent posts by readers.
- A short tale about perspective.
- The Great Firewall of Iceland.
- King of the Hill: Oklahoma!
- Rapist cop of the week.
- CISPA is back again.
- My favorite games.
- Soiled Doves.
- Sex at Dawn.
Links #660
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged Australia, Believe Them, cops, Florida, I can't breathe, Illinois, imaginative fiction, Iowa, Massachusetts, Never Call the Cops, robots, Under Duress, video on February 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I can’t switch off a feeling that I was stupid in the first place … I trusted [a cop]. – “Sonia”
The work of a prolific TV composer may be much better known than its composer; that’s certainly the case with Gerald Fried, who compositions included the theme to Gilligan’s Island, most of the score for Roots, and a number of scores for Star Trek, including this one you’ll probably recognize. The links above the video were provided by Franklin Harris, Mike Siegel, Cop Crisis (x4), and Lenore Skenazy, in that order.
- R.I.P. Gerald Fried.
- A new twist on “I can’t breathe”.
- No, your reason is not an exception.
- Another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
- I wonder how many tickets he inflicted on others.
- Civilized people see shooting a man in the back as cowardice.
- The systems some people want operating cars at highway speed.
From the Archives
- Never underestimate the human capacity to obsess about the nonexistent.
- Imagine how many others like this are still out there, raping & murdering.
- Prior to 2018, it wasn’t even safe for a politician to support human rights.
- Government invents a new excuse for violently intruding on private lives.
- Even if Clearview is brought down, the djinni is already out of the bottle.
- Australian politicians want to demolish the internet as much as US ones.
- Accept no source as absolute authority, especially when they demand it.
- Just letting sex workers see clients in private never occurs to the Dutch.
- “At least one person noted that the UK was at risk of looking like idiots”.
- The only thing cops seem to love as much as raping kids is kiddie porn.
- Court declares that cops are too stupid and evil to understand morality.
- Oh, oh, my goodness me, who could ever have predicted this outcome?
- Remember this when cops start bloviating about “dangerous criminals”.
- A cop shares his sick masturbatory fantasies about Asian sex workers.
- Why local laws banning surveillance technology are feel-good bullshit.
- A rare case of “authorities” actually charging a serial rapist of escorts.
- Nobody will be safe until this odious practice is ruled unconstitutional.
- Crypto-moralists add nationalism to “health” in their war on pleasure.
- This is at least the fifth iteration we’ve seen of this same inane stunt.
- Why does California want to destroy or drive out a lucrative industry?
- Though pimps are uncommon, many of those who do exist are cops.
- Previous HIV cures were accomplished by bone marrow transplant.
- “Give me your huddled masses, so I can torture and deport them“.
- One day, “professional ‘survivor’” will no longer be a lucrative job.
- Even reporters of these abuses insist on calling them “correction”.
- Anti-trans hysteria has shifted from toilets to high-school sports.
- Two previous columns for International Sex Worker Rights Day.
- Headed toward the end of the hysteria, albeit 3 or 4 years late.
- Cops, absurdism, Blondie, Hieronymus Bosch, and much more.
- A nursing home director explores a deceased patient’s secret.
- It’s been too long since I thanked all of you for your support.
- When government is in charge, things can always get worse.
- AirBnB regrets joining the hotel industry’s eager copsucking.
- Retrospectives of my blogging for February 2011 and 2012.
- Conditioning kids to accept constant, intrusive surveillance.
- The alternative press doesn’t mindlessly parrot copaganda.
- California’s annual anti-whore pogrom is worse than ever.
- The “things on cars” branch of “sex trafficking” scarelore.
- Still think this djinni can be crammed back into its bottle?
- Cops, government, books, sleep farting, and much more.
- Internet companies rushing toward self-lobotomization.
- I won’t be surprised if his sentence is shorter than this.
- What it’s like to be arrested in a “sex trafficking” sting.
- Cops, David Bowie, P. J. O’Rourke, and much more.
- 2011’s fantasy scenario is today’s hysterical reality.
- Taking advantage of freakishly springlike weather.
- Congress won’t stop until it controls the internet.
- Thai sex worker activists are made of awesome.
- A pandemic can’t stop dedicated opportunists.
- Until SCOTUS acts, this will only get worse.
- My two previous columns for Mardi Gras.
- A small but important victory in Canada.
- What is wrong with doctors who do this?
- How Annie became part of the family.
- Quite a good week despite my brain.
- Another curated selection of tweets.
- If a “study” sounds benign to you…
- I’m sure you feel safer now.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- A quadrennial occasion.
- “The least bad option”.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
In the News (#1316)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged acting, agency denial, cell phones, censorship, comics, cops, drugs, fantasy, fascism, Feminine Pragmatism, Florida, Georgia, Hollywood, I Saw My Brain, Ireland, New York, Oklahoma, Panopticon, politicians, porn, pragmatism, propaganda, rape, scams, See No Evil, surveillance, The Clueless Leading the Hysterical, To Molest and Rape, violence vs. sex workers on February 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »
I would have been his next target. – Elesha Bates
Jane Fonda confessed she agreed to a date with 90-year-old Richard Lugner…[because] he…pa[id] her to accompany him to the Vienna Opera Ball…Fonda said…she needed the money to pay her bills and to support her grandchildren…The 85-year-old joins the list of female celebrities that have [accepted professional dates with]…Lugner…including Pamela Anderson, Kim Kardashian and Elle MacPherson…
Every sex worker needs money to pay her bills and many need it to support children, but the cops who hunt them and the press who demonize them don’t care, because they aren’t worth $200 million.
The Clueless Leading the Hysterical (#1185)
Unsupervised kid eats too much candy, gets sick; mom demands politicians DO SOMETHING!
An 11-year-old Staten Island boy was [taken to the emergency room] after [rudely] gobbling up THC gummies [at a family friend’s house]…and now his mom is urging the mayor to do something to pr[otect people from having to teach their kids basic manners]…Veronica Gill noticed her son, Ryan, “acting really strange” after returning home…Gill became concerned when the youngster…[got extremely high]…and [then sick]…After Ryan underwent a series of tests…a urine test revealed he had ingested a considerable amount of THC in the last few hours…Gill was…disturbed to find out that her son had taken the weed-infused gummies [without permission] from a candy drawer at the “straight-laced” party-throwers home…the …friend…[claimed to] “have no idea how the hell this got into my house”…
I’m sure it magically appeared on a grocer’s shelf, where she absent-mindedly purchased it without noting that it cost over $2 per individually-wrapped gummy, and threw it in a drawer for friends’ brats to find while rudely digging in drawers at houses where they don’t live. Therefore a politician should issue an EDICT proclaiming “No edibles for you, New Yorkers!”
Are the Japanese the only people left on Earth who can tell fantasy from reality?
A young man [in Ireland] who downloaded…[hentai] onto his phone has escaped going to jail…after Gardai [rooted through]…his phone after [stealing] it…Davies [is sane and grounded in reality, and] was [therefore]…genuinely shocked when he was told that the images were classed [in Ireland] as child pornography….[despite the fact that they] did not feature real children but were animated images involving [characters resembling] children [to Western eyes]…the…judge…sentenced Davies to 80 hours [slave labor] in lieu of four months in prison…
When it comes to surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:
From Pasadena, California to Lexington, Kentucky to Menasha, Wisconsin, to Newark, New Jersey, the surveillance company Flock Safety is blanketing American cities with dangerously powerful and unregulated automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras. While license plate readers have been around for some time, Flock is the first to create a nationwide mass-surveillance system out of its customers’ cameras. Working with [cop shop]s, [busybody club]s, and other private customers, Flock…runs all plates against state police watchlists and the FBI’s primary criminal database…[it]s goal is to expand to “every city in the United States,” and its cameras are already in use in over 2,000 cities in at least 42 states…Flock is building a giant camera network that records people’s comings and goings across the nation, and then makes that data available for search by any of its law enforcement customers…
Another pogrom from the dangerous clown who rules Polk County, Florida:
Over 200 people were arrested [in the latest pogrom against consensual sex from the deranged]…Grady Judd[, who always gives the entrapment schemes sophomoric titles, in this case] “Operation Traffic Stop”…[and then stands in front of reporters playing with himself while vomiting out lurid sexual fantasies about the people he and his costumed hooligans victimized]…
This will continue until the majority of those arrested fight back with lawsuits, or the voters of Polk County get tired of paying the many lawsuits that are already filed against this cretin every year.
Copaganda erodes the judgment of the naive:
A [typical and representative Oklahoma cop named Cody Even Cheyenne Kackley] faces charges after…he drove home a drunk woman from a casino and [rap]ed her in a bedroom before her brother walked in…the victim…was [heavily drinking] at [a]…Casino…and had called her brother for a ride home…[when cops decided to arrest her] and let her go…she then asked Kackley for a ride home, [foolishly] thinking it was safe “since he was a police officer”…
As usual, this monster’s handlers made a conscious choice to let him run wild, despite red flags:
Elesha Bates…submitted Ring camera video to the Gwinnett County Police Department and the Doraville Police Department in December as evidence after…[typical and representative cop] Miles Bryant was stalking her…Bryant…is now [suspected of raping and murdering]…16-year-old Susana Morales [during the time he was stalking Bates, who]…has known…Bryant since fifth grade…in March…shortly after she [met him again]…he showed up at her…apartment unannounced and uninvited…[she came home from work to find her] door…kicked in…her neighbor…“[told] me that there was like a guy coming and putting his ear to my door and…stuff like that…she said she saw him trying to break in”…Bryant showed up at her door again in October and two more times in December…the Ring video [she gave to cops] showed Bryant stopping by in December while she was hiding inside her apartment with her boyfriend…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Annex 98
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on February 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Jae has been planning this mural for quite a while. She gave me a description of what she wanted to do, and I trust her judgment so I gave my OK. She did most of the two center panels last summer, then started working on the ends a couple of weeks ago; she still has some finishing touches to do (for example, the second coat of blue sky toward the top), but the basic appearance is all done. Other than the paint, the materials are all scrap from other projects or left by the previous owners; for example, the two blond mountains in the middle are made of scraps from the kitchen flooring, and the dark mountain at far right is scrap from the living room floor I installed in ’20. Using scrap was a conscious design choice on her part; given that a lot of the construction itself was similarly built from salvaged materials, she felt it was a kind of unifying theme, and I concur. One final note: in the foreground, you can see that the new hot tub control panel is plugged in, but not affixed to the side yet; I wanted it out of harm’s way while I was working on the plumbing, and installation will only be a five-minute job later. 
Midwinter Tweets
Posted in Miscellaneous, Philosophy, tagged Believe Them, blogging, Canada, consensual crime, cops, dating, ethics, Florida, imaginative fiction, language, politicians, robots, STEM, Tennessee, Texas, Twitter on February 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Like something Bill Theiss would design while very drunk. https://t.co/KzYdGrNeut
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) January 24, 2023
Clearly a very important discovery for building solid machines with no electronic parts which can escape from cages as long as there's a mold handy. 🙄
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) January 26, 2023
For "deleted", instead use "memory-holed" for greater precision. Things can be "deleted" for many reasons, but when it's due to political embarrassment "memory-holed" is more specific. https://t.co/rpYkpTDiyB
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) January 27, 2023
Ray Bradbury was one of the great souls of modern times. He will be remembered when every contemporary power-hungry politician has been reduced to a footnote in history texts or a name in a list of fallen, buried, forgotten "rulers". https://t.co/pFIQDdzYv3
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) January 27, 2023
Your regular reminder that "proactive policing" actually means "terrorizing people who haven't committed any crimes, under the pretext that they *might*". https://t.co/wx4Z4lEyil
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) January 28, 2023
Also, about #5: "Not allowed to listen" is a very different thing from "are unable to listen". https://t.co/0ZurrNGJEc
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) January 29, 2023
Amateurs are so cute. https://t.co/DHsG6jTkvi
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) January 30, 2023
Cops acting as though they're in the entertainment business should be a summary firing offense. https://t.co/FVsep5DmoL
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) January 31, 2023
I'm sure she believes that the sailors on the Flying Dutchman are happy because they have job security. And like the Wandering Jew, they get to travel to many lands on a sort of eternal vacation!
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 1, 2023
“I think that people see police as a part of the government”
Yes, that's because they ARE part of the government. The most visible and violent part, the hand of the state that holds the gun, whip, or club. https://t.co/PkPkr3iATP
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 3, 2023
We *do* understand discretion, honey. After all, it's part of why you pay us, remember? https://t.co/oAVtft9K8q
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 4, 2023
The rise of trucks as passenger vehicles in urban areas is largely the result of government fuel efficiency "regulations" which made station wagons and other large (but low) cars illegal.
This is a striking example of the Law of Unintended Consequences at work. https://t.co/uMH85IhtVk
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 5, 2023
…elaborate protections. Near the end of the cycle, even opening a tap results in a flood of disgusting filth spewing out in every direction, coating walls, floor, and ceiling of the bathroom or kitchen and suffusing everyone's house & clothes with an unbearable reek.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 5, 2023
"Vascular neck restraint" is a scientific-sounding euphemism for "choking somebody to cut off blood flow to the brain so they pass out".
"Pass out" is itself euphemized as "slip into unconsciousness". Choking a victim to within minutes of death depicted as a lullaby. https://t.co/CsKD5MJrR3
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 7, 2023
An orbit is a path described by mathematics; it is not a physical object that can be "crashed into".
Please can we at least have SOME science "reporters" who aren't less scientifically literate than the average @BillNye viewer? https://t.co/3N05AUiYbk
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 9, 2023
Many criminals are entrepreneurs; it's just that their business happens to be illegal. https://t.co/nMqBcW3CmK
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 10, 2023
I don't think it would be bragging to say that I probably have more cerebral capacity than most. And yet, I *still* don't have enough space there to allow various public figures to live rent-free in my head as so many otherwise-intelligent people seem wont to do.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 11, 2023
Cops constantly demonstrate *exactly* what they are; why don't you believe them? https://t.co/Ipnk6dS3Rr
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 12, 2023
Isaac Asimov once described computers as "high-speed morons". He was correct, ad anyone who blathers about artificial "intelligence" is wrong. https://t.co/EzyEU9CdsX
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 14, 2023
And as for "dating apps", I think the less said the better; they concentrate the toxic aspects of both "dating" culture and "looking for relationships" and add a heavy component of superficiality.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 14, 2023
"From behind" doesn't sound nearly as bad as "in the back".
Journalists need to start using those words, rather than mealy-mouthed softeners. https://t.co/DugFSaRgx6
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 15, 2023
This phrasing sounds so much nicer than "cops abduct drunk woman, rip off her clothes, then take nude pictures without her consent." https://t.co/8knRR6TU2z
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 17, 2023
How much longer will Americans allow cops to use robot guns and cars that go berserk and attack people on their own? https://t.co/pW3gzG4ADO
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 18, 2023
Experts: The Drug War increases deaths by overdose and has been catastrophic to civil liberties.
Economists: The Drug War has cost trillions and had absolutely no positive effects.
Civil libertarians: End the damned drug war already!
Your "leaders": https://t.co/OuV6nM5dfJ— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 19, 2023
Many scientists used to claim that the sci-fi concept of a murderous Frankensteinian computer was impossible. https://t.co/cRidQsQwMu
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) February 21, 2023
In the News (#1315)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged child "protective" services, cops, Divided We Fall, Facebook, fascism, Georgia, homosexuality, I can't breathe, I Spy, internet, LGBT rights, Missouri, New York, Opting Out, politicians, prisons, rape, surveillance, Texas, The Last Shall Be First, To Molest and Rape, Torture Chamber, transgender, Twitter, United Kingdom, Without Let or Hindrance, yellow journalism on February 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »
[Chris] Stewart proposes eliminating anonymous speech and effectively creating a database of dissenters. – Ari Cohn
Some people still believe these sociopaths are motivated by a desire to “protect children”:
…after their son Cooper…[was sexually] assault[ed by a cop named Brandon Cook, Tim & Heather]…Hill…[were subjected to] an ever more complicated web of [retaliatory] legal proceedings [by Missouri “child welfare” goons under the direction of a bureaucrat named Spring] Cook…[seven months after a] Review Board…reversed Cook’s finding of neglect…FBI agents knocked on their door…[to interrogate] Cooper’s [sister about his] sex life, much like DSS had. They left and never came back…but [to head off more retaliatory]…investigations, the…[Hills] filed a federal civil rights lawsuit…claiming Cook’s investigation was conducted in retaliation for the family standing up against Scott County after Deputy Cook “groomed Plaintiffs’ minor son through the Scott County Sheriff’s Explorer program”…In June 2021, a federal judge dismissed most of the Hills’ claims. But in a surprising and rare move, she ruled [Spring] Cook wasn’t shielded from a…suit under [qualified] immunity…a…jury [later] found [Brandon] Cook guilty of [molesting Cooper and he]…was sentenced to two years in prison…
…a group of almost 200 journalists and writers released an open letter addressed to the New York Times, sharing their “serious concerns about editorial bias in the newspaper’s reporting on transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people”…In recent years and months, the Times has decided to play an outsized role in laundering anti-trans narratives and seeding the discourse with those narratives, publishing tens of thousands of handwringing words on trans youth—reporting that is now approvingly cited and lauded…by those who seek to ban and criminalize gender-affirming care…
When it comes to surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:
…personal data [from] using the internet…are collected by website cookies, social media platforms, mobile applications, and myriad other digital information hoovers. This information is collected, processed, and sold by data brokers….to the government. The…CDC…for instance, purchased location data to [spy on people using] COVID restrictions [as a pretext]…In 2017–18, the…IRS…paid to access location data to [enable surprise raids]…The Wall Street Journal reported, “In many cases, the data is precise enough to clearly identify the home address of the phone’s user, which can then be cross-checked against public databases showing property ownership records or rental address history.” Under modern case law, the Fourth Amendment does not constrain the government’s purchasing of [this data], as such transactions require neither search nor seizure…
Texas has a long history of “correcting” people to death:
The FBI has opened an investigation into…following the deaths of two [prisoners] at the Harris County Jail in Texas…Jaquaree Simmons…died in February 2021 and Jacoby Pillow…died in January 2023…Houston…attorneys Ben Crump and Paul Grinke…request[ed] the…investigation. “It’s appalling that you would have 32 detainees (die) in the Harris County Jail in a 14-month period,” Crump said…21 [human being]s died [while locked] in [filthy cages in Houston] in 2021, and…at least 28 [last year]…the total number of deaths [so far] in 2023 is “at least four”…”We have credible reason to believe that Jacoby Pillow died from compression asphyxia from being restrained…that [is also] evidence that he was beaten multiple times by [screws]”…
To Molest and Rape (Long Hidden)
The stupidest cop defense after “she wanted to be raped by a random cop”:
A [London cop who sexually assaulted] a woman…claims DNA could have been transferred to her chest after she shook his hand…[in actuality,] Fabian Aguilar-Delgado…followed her upstairs and sexually assaulted her after he was called to a domestic incident at her home in Croydon…most of the DNA found on a swab taken from the woman’s right nipple [belong]ed to Aguilar-Delgado…
Believe it or not, we’ve heard the “magical DNA transfer” rape defense before.
He wasn’t an “ex-officer” when he raped and murdered a teenage girl:
A [typical and representative] Atlanta[-area cop] has been arrested in connection with the death of a 16-year-old girl who vanished from Gwinnett County more than six months ago. Susana Morales…vanished…on July 26, 2022…[she] texted her mother at 9:40 p.m…and was not heard from again…[until her] remains were found [on February 6th], more than 20 miles away…Miles Bryant…has been arrested…[but so far only] charged with concealing the death of another and false report of a crime [even though cops suspect him of raping and murdering her]…
Surely you didn’t think this was just about porn, did you?
Rep. Chris Stewart…introduced a bill that would require social media platforms to verify the age of every registered user and prohibit registering [users] younger than 16…the bill would…require…platforms to verify age using government identification, such as a birth certificate or a driver’s license…[and] would apply to any platform that allows users to make accounts for posting, sharing, or viewing user-generated content…This spacious definition of “social media” could be interpreted by regulators to include messaging, video, and email services, none of which are explicitly excluded from the statute’s provisions. And unlike many recent proposals to regulate online life, the bill does not…spare smaller platforms from having to collect sensitive information from users—which would be costly to protect and would threaten users’ privacy…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Mardi Gras 2023
Posted in Holidays, tagged carnival, holidays on February 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Maybe the places where many of y’all live don’t observe it, but I still do. So Happy Mardi Gras, dear readers!
Diary #660
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset on February 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Though another cold snap is due to roll in late tomorrow night, it’s predicted to move through pretty quickly; in general, we’re seeing some pretty mild early-spring type weather. The animals are grazing on little green shoots and sunning themselves, and when I go out to give Cicero his morning peanuts he usually comes from the barn, where he’s hanging out with Shiloh and Jonathan. I don’t believe he actually eats hay, but he’s a very social animal so he likes to be with Shiloh and Jonathan wherever they are, and lately they’ve been breakfasting on the hay I moved in there last week. Anyhow, I’m not unhappy it’s warming up; though my favorite season is autumn, I prefer spring to winter. I’m not really a fan of extremes, and this winter seemed unusually bitter (of course, that may just be age talking). If I had my druthers, spring and autumn would arrive early and stay late, and summer and winter would be well-behaved temperature-wise and last only a couple of months each. But here in the real world, I’ll be satisfied if the weather doesn’t ruin my apple crop this year, and we get the wood-burning stove installed in the atrium long before the arrival of autumn. 
Links #659
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged acting, California, cops, dehumanization, disability, Florida, Georgia, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, Never Call the Cops, prisons, racism, The Cop Myth, United Kingdom, Unsafe for Human Consumption, video on February 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »
You look like someone who has a warrant. – unidentified Worcester, MA cop
This week saw the passing of Raquel Welch, IMHO one of the sexiest women who ever lived. Though she wasn’t noted as a singer, I think this video captures some of her considerable stage charisma. The links above it were all provided by Cop Crisis except for the first and last, which were from Furrygirl, and the second, from Jesse Walker.
- Paging Larry Niven.
- R.I.P. Raquel Welch.
- I’m sure you feel safer now.
- “Never” really does mean never.
- “Failure” implies an unintentional outcome.
- Crime: trespassing. Penalty: summary execution.
- The Onion is still brilliant when it isn’t doing slideshows.
From the Archives
- Human opinions were never & are never monolithic across a society & era.
- Everyone who spread “sex trafficking” hysteria contributed to this atrocity.
- I don’t usually think ages are an important detail, but this is an exception.
- Why can’t reporters grasp that forced sex is still rape if the rapist is a cop?
- Cops, “land acknowledgments”, Betty Davis, Ivan Reitman, & much more.
- Eroding civil liberties only starts with “undesirables”; it never stops there.
- The government thinks you shouldn’t be allowed any privacy whatsoever.
- Victoria becomes the world’s 4th jurisdiction to achieve decriminalization.
- It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from Annie Lobert of “Liars for Jesus”.
- “Sex trafficking” fantasies induce psychosis in those who promote them.
- TSA goons are allowed to molest citizens, but this was a bit too blatant.
- US institutions often need to be reminded that they do not own people.
- How an entity treats sex workers shows how they feel about all people.
- Politicians are too stupid to understand that all prohibition is the same.
- Utah is another state which pays cops to sexually assault sex workers.
- A politician fails to realize a prohibitionist trope is past its sell-by date.
- They claim gypsy whores failed to materialize because of the hysteria.
- There are no surprises in this article on sex workers accepting bitcoin.
- Prohibitionists invent bogus stats to hide a failed entrapment scheme.
- Women work not to pay bills, but because we have “low self-esteem”.
- Maybe we’re about to see the beginning of the end of these evil laws.
- Nebraska’s claims to be a “sex trafficking hub” are the most pathetic.
- Don’t teach kids about sex; fill their heads with anti-sex propaganda.
- Why are men with so much to lose so goddamned stupid about sex?
- If enough of these are thrown at the wall, one may eventually stick.
- Most “child predators” hold positions of authority over their victims.
- The absurdity becomes more obvious when we substitute “toaster”.
- It’s rare for a UK article on sex work to be so free of dysphemisms.
- Any information you give to cops can and will be used against you.
- This unconstitutional bill has already failed in over a dozen states.
- The first duopoly candidate to actually support decriminalization.
- Another government scheme to normalize constant surveillance.
- Sometimes “trafficking” just means “bringing in brown people”.
- In the West, “trafficking” rhetoric is used to block immigration.
- The state wants vengeance for the loss of future tax revenue.
- In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- Even cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths.
- When “sex trafficking” hysteria started morphing into QAnon.
- Louisiana hides another molester cop from possible lynching.
- Should I tell an escort that her email shows her legal name?
- Cops, Darwin, straight folks, Chick Corea, and much more.
- Governments just love locking people in cages indefinitely.
- Israeli prohibitionists are trying to criminalize all sex work.
- Coverage of these incidents is growing more sympathetic.
- The fourth installment of my six-part review of Blake’s 7.
- My blog and Twitter feed are definitely not “safe spaces”.
- Still doubt that politicians are deranged megalomaniacs?
- Predictable ugliness from “celebrity” prohibitionist trash.
- Your “leaders” know what’s best, so shut up and obey.
- Fascist corporations are happy to assist in a genocide.
- The public masturbatory fantasy of “pop-up brothels”.
- Another claim that disasters cause “sex trafficking”.
- I’m glad I was out at Sunset for this snowstorm.
- Cops, candidates, The Rutles, and much more.
- In the US, this is now illegal thanks to FOSTA.
- Adding a ramp to the north side of my annex.
- My two previous columns for Valentine’s Day.
- My last travel before the pandemic hit us.
- Anti-sex feminism’s days are numbered.
- What did this guy think he was, a cop?
- I’m sure she really had to “force” him.
- Introducing Ask Maggie, Volume II.
- Is this supposed to be comforting?
- Why we can’t have nice things.
- The cashmere sweater club.
- Rapist cop of the week.
- Population 136,885.
- R.I.P. Larry Flynt.
- Stop faking!
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
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