The annex bathroom is finally getting very close to finished! Last week Chekhov was determined to get the bathroom sink connected, because he needs it to shave; there were a few problems with finding the right parts, etc, but we at last got everything connected and the vanity cupboard doors installed. Then a week ago today, I installed the door trim Jae had prepared, so this corner is just about done. She let me know in no uncertain terms that the Durabak wall surface made the job extra-challenging, so she decided to use the texture rather than fighting it by going with a sort of cave wall kind of look. She hid the uneven surface by going with a splotchy paint effect to evoke a tarnished copper feel, and used metal pipe for the various fittings to get a kind of industrial steampunk-style look, complete with fake gauges. The greenery and butterflies connect the interior to the atrium as a whole; there’s even more on the side opposite the door, but I’ll show you that when she’s done with the cupboard doors on that wall (that’s the area built over the window into the lower bathroom, which I use to stock toilet paper and towels from the back). The Durabak texture also makes it difficult to get the floor really properly clean, so I’ve asked Jae to pick out a bathroom rug to cover most of the floor; that will also help insulate the room during the cold months. I’ve been using the shower for several months now, but I’m really looking forward to the no-longer-distant day when everything is done and this bathroom is not only fully functional, but fully company-presentable.
Archive for June, 2023
Annex 113
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on June 30, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Back Issue #120
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged blogging on June 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »
If you meet a cop and he wants to arrest you he will do so…and no magical formula will prevent that. – “Magic Formulae”
- Government actors warn of problem created entirely by government acts.
- Selling Sex: Experience, Advocacy and Research on Sex Work in Canada.
- Using “trafficking” myth to restrict migration isn’t usually so transparent.
- Language, cops, Buzz Aldrin, judges, animals, zombies & Pam Anderson.
- How does a woman terminate all sex with a man she still claims to love?
- “I only started seeing escorts because my wife is extremely sex-averse“.
- When this happens in India: media circus. In Sweden: {cricket sounds}.
- Cops steal man’s whole business as “evidence” of client’s misdemeanor.
- Dear unethical sex businesspeople: Stop videotaping clients, you idiots.
- Matthias Lehmann & Sonja Dolinsek debunk German prohibitionist lies.
- Company which uses exploited labor moralizes about one that doesn’t.
- Sex workers don’t deserve to be stigmatised & don’t want to be pitied.
- Tulsa, OK continues its wicked crusade to charge whores with felonies.
- The ordeal of the victims of New Orleans’ sadistic game is over at last.
- Idiot complains job program helps women find lucrative, flexible work.
- A short biography of Marie Duplessis, the real “Lady of the Camellias”.
- “Pimp” myths used to justify Nevada’s draconian “sex trafficking” law.
- Tyranny isn’t bad if you wave a flag while stomping on people’s faces.
- FBI helps cops harass coffee shops because the baristas wear bikinis.
- Sleazebag prosecutor pretends petty thugs are a gigantic conspiracy.
- Debunking the moronic claim that sex work is immune to economics.
- Tanzanian police torture, rape and assault sex worker, among others.
- Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to 7 years for unproven victimless crime.
- Cop threats to persecute travelling whores aren’t confined to the US.
- Drowning is less exciting than abduction by Russian “sex traffickers”.
- I sometimes feel like the Eeyore of the sex worker rights movement.
- Teachers, robots, cops, toilet paper, games, undead & menstruation.
- Chinese sex worker advocate detained by cops for no actual reason.
- There were a few Magdalene Laundries in the United States as well.
- Chinese cops beat up policewoman after mistaking her for a whore.
- The inevitable result of letting “authorities” investigate themselves.
- Marc Randazza thinks of a clever way to attack revenge porn sites.
- A prime example of Americans’ criminal ignorance about sex work.
- Sex workers who espouse Marxism or misandry are self-defeating.
- Canadian sex workers rally before the Bedford vs Canada hearing.
- Christopher Ryan corrects Hugo Schwyzer on “social construction”.
- A good argument, despite the annoying visuals & clumsy phrases.
- Amateurs refuse to understand that prostitution laws affect them.
- Woman miscarries after attack by two women’s rights champions.
- Ignorant reporter believes “explain” is a synonym for “rationalize”.
- A profile of a former sex worker who’s assisted me with research.
- There is no magic formula which can protect a whore from a cop.
- Amnesty International begins to move toward supporting decrim.
- In which we learn that nail parlors are havens of “sex trafficking”.
- Cops, Batman, carnivorous plants, Scooby Doo, and much more.
- Why do so many politicians think sex overrides the Constitution?
- Several criticisms of an especially-revolting “end demand” sting.
- Cops, body functions, superpowers, Hello Kitty, and much more.
- The rather disgusting sexual fantasies of cops and bureaucrats.
- Anti-trafficking group abducts woman to “cure” her lesbianism.
- If you thought ultrasound requirements for abortion were bad…
- How “Gay, Inc” abandoned anyone who isn’t “normal” enough.
- Try to imagine an editorial like this in an American newspaper.
- Isn’t public sex already illegal even if no money is exchanged?
- US tries to pretend “Trafficking in Persons” report is apolitical.
- Ladies, please don’t let non-doctors inject filth into your butt.
- The “anti-prostitution pledge” is struck down in the SCOTUS.
- How service disputes are handled when a profession is legal.
- New York defines people as crime victims against their will.
- Artist charged with producing child porn for part of collage.
- New Jersey gets an early start on “gypsy whores” hysteria.
- The weird, primitive superstitions which persist about sex.
- Cops, griffins, ants, kittens, communism, and much more.
- The putrid heart of the Ezekiel Gilbert escort murder case.
- A much more firmly anti-hysteria essay from danah boyd.
- Sarah Woolley on the myth of the “damaged” sex worker.
- Gee, I can’t imagine why the police took these paintings.
- Another P411 security breach betrays 22 escorts to pigs.
- How can I make sure my escort experience is enjoyable?
- What about clients who really need a woman to orgasm?
- When “whore as criminal” and “whore as victim” collide.
- Iran is moving in the sexual direction of the UK and US.
- Frantic pearl-clutching over sugar babies from Jezebel.
- Scottish cops embark on a scheme to rob sex workers.
- Scarlet Alliance urges Australia to widen a bottleneck.
- More cracks in the “sex offender” registration regime.
- Man dials 999 to complain about a prostitute’s looks.
- Ronald Weitzer on the mythology of “sex trafficking”.
- More hysteria over structural sex ray contamination.
- The UK emulates China and the Muslim theocracies.
- Another Satanic Panic victim might be exonerated.
- The Czech Republic creates a sex work bottleneck.
- Tracy Quan on strange and unpleasant bedfellows.
- Another UN official recommends decriminalization.
- Bolivian feminists support sex workers’ demands.
- Disney, cops, bureaucracy, Tom Lehrer and more.
- Kelly Michaels on the Sex With Timaree podcast.
- The continuing adventures of Aella the Amazon.
- Yet another Spanish city’s war on streetwalkers.
- The trial of Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema.
- Never call the cops for any reason whatsoever.
- The FBI’s very own child pornography website.
- Somehow, I doubt she thought this through.
- The prevalence of HPV has dropped by half.
- A short photoessay on sex worker protests.
- Archaeologists discover an ancient brothel.
- Dating and highways cause sex trafficking!
- Why Gabriela Leite likes the word “whore”.
- Songs about whores, from blues to opera.
- Sex worker stops a real “trafficking” plot.
- Who really profits from the “pimp” myth?
- Support for “apostrophe laws” is waning.
- A rare defeat for anti-sex control freaks.
- The sixth member of my Hall of Shame.
- Another of the TSA’s many pedophiles.
- Meet the Fokkens and Diamond Men.
- Sweden is the STD capital of Europe.
- A revival of the Myth of the Wanton.
- Canadians heckle prohibitionist lies.
- Lost erotic painting rediscovered.
- The Art of Not Being Governed.
- Jury Independence Illustrated.
- A profile of activist Laura Lee.
- More on orgasm during rape.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- R.I.P. Richard Matheson.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- Do as I say, not as I do.
- America’s War on Sex.
- An American alibi-ya.
- The missing word.
In the News (#1350)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Broker in Pillage, agency denial, asset seizure, Broken Record, California, censorship, Checklist, cops, domestic violence, drivers, drugs, fascism, Florida, Georgia, King of the Hill, law, LGBT rights, Nebraska, politicians, prohibitionist myths, scams, sporting events, surveillance, The Cop Myth, The Last Shall Be First, transgender, Utah, Washington DC on June 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Public spaces are not majority spaces. – Judge David Nuffer
The College World Series is back in…Omaha…[so] human trafficking [profiteer] groups are asking you to be on high alert. “Nebraska’s a hotspot,” [burbled] Julie Shrader…of Restoring Wings. A 2,900-mile corridor connects Nebraska to neighboring states, putting it at the center of a national road system…
Because clearly it’s unusual for a largish midwestern city to be near the center of the country, or connected to other states by highways.
Uber already encourages its drivers to spy on riders and rat sex workers out to the pigs:
[Politician]s are working to [attempt to revive the moribund “]sex trafficking[” hysteria by attempting to stoke panic about] rideshare apps…[after] Uber ma[de] changes to its age requirement…[It now] allows minors ages 13 to 17 to request rides without an accompanying adult…Sabrina Crawford is [a rescue industry profiteer and sex trafficking fetishist who wants politicians to infantilize young people even more than they do now]…
When laws pretended to control cops contain no criminal penalties, cops simply ignore them:
You can sign this piece of paper, abandon the $18,000, avoid arrest and continue on…Don’t sign, and you will go to jail. You could face felony charges. Your van will be towed. Your dog will be taken to the pound…[Pretextual] stops like these, where passing motorists are pulled over, searched and…any cash that’s found [extorted from them], are big business in Seward County, population 17,692…Here, money is routinely s[tolen by police] without anyone being charged or proven guilty of anything. The sheriff’s department has specialized in and perfected the practice, known as civil asset forfeiture, despite a 2016 law meant to ban it in Nebraska….which…was designed to require a criminal conviction before the state could seize money…but [politicians] left two loopholes. Seizures over $25,000 could circumvent state law entirely by being adopted into federal court. And [cops] could still [steal cash] under state law if [they pointed at the money and barfed out the magic word “]drugs[“] even if there are no drugs in the car…It’s the legal tactic Seward County now uses far more often than any other county in Nebraska…
The Last Shall Be First (#1338)
Both sides in the culture war have completely taken leave of their senses:
California…parents could potentially lose custody of their children if they refuse to support their child’s decision to “transition” to another gender…Currently the policy is limited to divorce proceedings, but opponents have argued that it will inevitably expand.
Reporter tries to bury the lede; headline writer won’t participate:
Maryland [cops]…arrested a [typical and representative cop named]…Jason Michael Colley…[for child abuse, only a year after he was let off with a slap on the wrist for beating] his 6-month-old daughter…[to] death…on September 19, 2017…[and trying to pass it off as] seizures…Judge Julia A. Martz-Fisher sentenced Colley to…50 years, suspending all but eight years to be served on private home detention. She also ordered Colley…not engage in physical punishment of children [but he has apparently ignored that]…
As I’ve often said, cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors. And certainly not small children.
The Last Shall Be First (#1345)
Why do people need “permits” to exercise their speech rights in the first place?
The city of St. George [Utah] must issue a permit for a…group…to host an all-ages drag show in a public park, a federal judge ruled, calling the city’s attempt to stop the show unconstitutional discrimination…Southern Utah Drag Stars and its CEO, Mitski Avalōx, sued the city…after [it] denied the group permits…in April…citing a never-previously-enforced ordinance that forbids advertising before permit approval. The permit denial based on that ordinance, [Judge David] Nuffer wrote in his ruling, was a pretext for discrimination…
The Last Shall Be First (#1346)
The time, money, and energy our society is flushing down the “culture war” toilet is incalculable:
A federal judge delivered a stinging rebuke to Florida [politicians]…over…a new state law that banned minors from receiving “puberty blockers” and other types of gender-affirming care…Judge Robert Hinkle…blocked the state from applying the ban to three minors whose parents are part of an ongoing lawsuit…and…the ruling suggests that a key part of the law itself could get knocked down as the legal challenge proceeds…Hinkle’s 44-page ruling called the…ban…“an exercise in politics, not good medicine. This is a politically fraught area. There has long been, and still is, substantial bigotry directed at transgender individuals. Common experience confirms this, as does a Florida legislator’s remarkable reference to transgender witnesses at a committee hearing as ‘mutants’ and ‘demons’…”
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!
Diary #678
Posted in Diary, tagged psychology, Sunset on June 27, 2023| 3 Comments »
For the past three years, I’ve had a regular feature sharing the progress on building the annex to my house, but there’s a lot of work around here that I rarely mention. Of course when I was working on the inside I talked about that, and I recently wrote about extending the paddock. But it wasn’t just the main house that was in poor condition when we bought this property, and we’ve had to do considerable work on the outbuildings as well. Last summer Jae did a lot of work to straighten out the garage, but Grace’s shop was still in such a disorganized shop she felt overwhelmed every time she walked in the door. Then last Christmas two friends gave her worktables, one for woodwork and one for welding, and during the warm spell last month I was able to cajole her out to the garage to set the woodwork table up. As I expected, that got her rolling; she next wanted to set up the welding table, but her shop was such a cluttered mess (due to everyone using it as the default place to stow anything that had no designated place) that she was forced to go through it methodically, putting each tool and other asset into its proper place and getting rid of accumulated junk and trash. I’m letting her set her own pace with it, but if I work nearby I can ask “Where does this go?” and be available to take things away or help her move heavy equipment. Just Saturday I burned three full barrels of garbage and a few extra odds and ends (and our burn barrel is a 55-gallon drum), then swept out a staggering amount of dirt, metal shavings, sawdust and other refuse, so the place is actually starting to look like one where she can work; she also has a wood-burning stove in there which has never been set up, and I plan to run the chimney for it when I run the one for the atrium stove. I also need to get up on the roof sometime in the next two months to lay down a waterproofing coat in order to stop a few persistent leaks, and we need to wire some new outlets in both shop and garage. But with any luck, by this autumn the outbuildings will be more orderly and usable than at any time since I bought the place, and that gives me tremendous satisfaction.
The Music in the Numbers
Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, Music, Philosophy, tagged games, psychology on June 26, 2023| 1 Comment »
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly noticed my passion for structure. I have certain regular features which appear on certain days of the week or parts of the month, I keep tags tied tightly together with links, and features like my news and links columns even follow a certain recognizable format. At home I follow self-made schedules regarding what time to perform chores such as feeding the animals, unloading the dishwasher, etc, and my kitchen is so well-organized I know exactly where to find anything unless someone uses it and fails to put it back properly, which will result in their becoming the target of a short but intense burst of opprobrium. Most of y’all have probably seen photos of my library, and those who own more than one of my books have noticed that they are all formatted in the same way, a format I decided on while putting Ladies of the Night together. Naturally, a lot of this is due to my OCD, but it goes far beyond that; I actually get considerable enjoyment out of the process of organization itself.
Take for example my escort rates. I don’t know how most people calculate the rate reductions for longer sessions, but I’ve always done it by looking for patterns in the numbers. My last hourly rate before retiring was $400, but a 3-4 hour dinner date was $1200 and my rate for dates longer than 4 hours was only $300/hour; after the flat 10-15 hour overnight rate the hourly dropped to $200/hour, and so on. Back when I had a regular D&D group, my friends used to tease me about the prodigious number of tables and charts I devised for calculating everything from training costs to damage incurred by falling to what a magic spell of any given level should be able to do (“Where do y’all want to get dinner from tonight?” “Don’t you have a CHART for that, Maggie?”) And I even devised monetary systems and tables of weights and measures for a dozen different alien races in my game universe despite the fact that nobody but me will ever see them. And these tables, charts, and systems aren’t arbitrary or slapdash, oh no; there are always patterns, sometimes even formulae, to determine what each entry in each little box on the enormous spreadsheet (or in the old days, double notebook page) will be, so once I settle on the formula I mostly just need to follow the arithmetic, geometric, or logarithmic progression to determine exactly what this particular monster’s magic resistance should be or that noble’s entourage should look like. I can actually sit in front of my computer for hours, surrounded by sheets of scratch paper covered with what to others probably looks like hieroglyphics, happily following patterns to create a unified and harmonious whole.
I’ve known I was like this since childhood, when I used to design elaborate family trees for my stuffed animals, prepare maps of the imaginary fantasy realms I envisioned in Maman’s backyard, and make tiny little passports for my and my sisters’ Barbie dolls. But it was the numeric patterns that really fascinated me, and I recently realized that the reward circuits which are stimulated by compiling my ubiquitous tables are at least some of the same ones which are fired when I enjoy music. Music is, of course, mathematical; the relationships between certain notes are harmonious and others not because of the mathematical relationships between those frequencies of sound. Of course, in most people this appreciation is instinctive, and even most musicians aren’t consciously aware that what they’re doing is a kind of applied mathematics. But the realization gave me a new understanding of that particular aspect of my neuroatypicality, one that may help me more often allow myself to spend time composing and performing a kind of music only I can hear.
Links #677
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged acting, comics, cops, FBI, left-right myth, Massachusetts, Ohio, sporting events, Things We Choose To Do Together, video on June 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The idea that [cops] have a protectable right to personal privacy while conducting a search of someone’s home is nothing short of absurd. – David Carey
Wow, there sure were a lot of celebrity deaths in the past couple of weeks; I think the most obits I’ve had in one Links column before was three or four; it was certainly less than six. But none of them were musicians, so here’s a parody of one modern ritual surounding the other end of the human experience. The links above it were provided by Stephen Lemons and Franklin Harris; Dan Savage and Radley Balko; Jesse Walker and Scott Greenfield; C.J. Ciaramella; and Scott Long, in that order.
- R.I.P. Cormac McCarthy and John Romita.
- R.I.P. Glenda Jackson and Daniel Ellsberg.
- R.I.P. Treat Williams and Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri.
- Cops are incapable of separating fantasy from reality.
- Government is just a word for the things we choose to do together.
From the Archives
- Drawing silly lines between different “types” of pragmatic sexual behavior.
- Cops, futurism, immortality, Steppenwolf, John Paragon, and much more.
- While sex work is marginalized, sex workers will be targeted for violence.
- Media stenographers are always happy to indulge cops’ violent fantasies.
- It’s good to see a lockdown house getting some well-deserved pushback.
- Burying government in lawsuits is the only way to slow its depredations.
- Where “rescued” = “arrested” & “safety shelter” = “deportation prison”.
- More queer sex workers are remembering Pride commemorates a riot.
- Cops aren’t only not protectors of women; they are an active menace.
- Domiciling a sex work site in a violent prohibitionist regime is foolish.
- Rulers of majority-black city target black people with police violence.
- Western media are still largely ignoring China’s atrocities in Xinjiang.
- Your regular reminder that rapist screws are not confined to the US.
- The Japanese are much more sensible about sex than Americans.
- Corporations have become the favored tool of censors worldwide.
- OUR’s increasingly-bizarre antics even embarrass prohibitionists.
- Seems like a significant fraction of child porn is spread by cops.
- Government bureaucracy at work, “correcting” people to death.
- The word for corporate/government “partnerships” is “fascism”.
- “Thai prostitutes…[refuse to pretend to be] victimized women…”
- Cops, tattoos, monkeys, Ian Holm, Vera Lynn, and much more.
- The people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- All sex workers victimized by cops should sue if at all possible.
- Violence against trans people is getting mainstream attention.
- Over half of Americans now live in states with legal cannabis.
- Government as domestic abuser is a very useful metaphor.
- “Sex trafficking” is a convenient excuse for any tyranny.
- My answer to the titular question: “I certainly hope not”.
- A Reason interview with Reason alumnus Radley Balko.
- Computers are useful tools, but rotten “authorities”.
- Why “policies” not anchored in law are no solution.
- My two previous columns for the summer solstice.
- Louisiana eliminates an excuse for caging people.
- “Pastor” + “assistant principal” = “youth pastor”.
- My first Who night with Lorelei in over a year.
- The latest chapter in this nasty, twisted saga.
- The only winners are the ambulance-chasers.
- Photos showing the progress on my addition.
- Meanwhile, the West obsesses about porn.
- Beginning the roof structure of my annex.
- Puritanism is throttling the entire world.
- Another sign we’re past the watershed.
- Cops, robots, Picasso, and much more.
- Journalism is slowly dying of gullibility.
- The foundation of Chekhov’s cottage.
- Maggie on the Scot Goes Popcast.
- All prohibitionism is the same.
- Here are FIRE’s first new ads.
- Up on a roof with my Hitachi.
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
- Just protecting and serving.
- Walls made from leftovers.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- Frog, meet scorpion.
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 (#1349)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged animals, Canada, cell phones, censorship, Connecticut, cops, Follow Your Bliss, Georgia, If Men Were Angels, Indiana, Ireland, Italy, Panopticon, Part of the Picture, porn, rape, robots, sporting events, Surplus Women, surveillance, The Last Shall Be First, To Molest and Rape, transgender, violence vs. sex workers on June 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »
All the alarm bells should be going off when [politicians] use their elected power to control…children’s ideas. – Val Benavidez
Sick men may respond violently when sex workers refuse to belong to them:
The neighbor and content partner of [adult] performer Charlotte Angie has been convicted in Italy for her 2022 murder. Davide Fontana was sentenced…to 30 years in prison for beating Angie to death…Angie…[had a short-lived] relationship…[with] Fontana…[in] 2021…and [apparently did not realize]…he was [obsessed with her because she] agreed to shoot a BDSM sex video [with him] in January 2022…after binding…he[r, Fontana] took a hammer and…hit…her all over her body and on her covered head…then cut her throat with a kitchen knife…From January to March, Fontana used Angie’s phone to impersonate her on her social media accounts, and also paid her rent and bills…[while he] traveled around…looking for places to dispose of the…body parts…[cops found them] on March 20, 2022, apparently the same day Fontana finally disposed of them by throwing them down a cliff in Valcamonica…
It’s getting harder to tell the preachers from the cops:
A 75-year-old deacon at a church in Walker County [Georgia] faces hundreds of sex abuse charges…Dennis Carl Laman…[repeatedly molested a] 30-year-old victim [with] cerebral palsy [who] is bound to a wheelchair and has a low mental capacity…she…told [a] doctor…and…her caregiver that Laman had fondled her inappropriately, and that the…abuse had been going on for about 6 years…Laman…confessed [to molesting]…the woman…about 199 times…
Another cop following his bliss:
A [typical and representative Irish cop] who was…questioned [due to] allegations of rape was released without charge…he was [previously] involved in…investigat[ing] multiple high profile sexual abuse cases…
The Last Shall Be First (#1266)
If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been paying attention:
…a…9-year-old daughter was verbally assaulted at a track and field event…[in] Kelowna…[British Columbia]…she was competing in a shot-put event when a grandfather of one of the other participants started yelling at her…[saying], “Hey, this is supposed to be a girls’ event, and why are you letting boys compete”…the man then carried on to demand certification to prove that [the girl] was born female…the man’s wife then started calling [the girl’s mot]her “a genital mutilator, a groomer, and a pedophile”…School District superintendent Kevin Kaardal [said]…steps are being taken to ban the man from all school-related events…
Some people still claim we don’t live in a police state:
Prosecutors in Monroe County [Indiana] charged Hannah’s husband with possession of child [porn, so]…the court ordered that he not have access to any electronic devices as a condition of his pretrial release from jail. To ensure he complied with those terms, the probation department installed Covenant Eyes on Hannah’s phone, as well as those of her two children and her mother-in-law. In near real time, probation officers are being fed screenshots of everything Hannah’s family views on their devices…Covenant Eyes doesn’t permit its software to be used…[for] monitoring people on probation…but…courts in at least five US states have [illegally done so anyway]…Less than a week after Covenant Eyes was installed…her husband’s probation officer [claimed] her husband had violated the terms of his bond…[because] Covenant Eyes [reported] that her phone had visited Pornhub…[in actuality,] her phone had made a network request to the website’s servers as part of a background app refresh…on her Chrome browser…This is a known issue with Covenant Eyes [but prosecutors don’t care]…
It seems I was destined to be threatened with state violence regardless of my career path:
…[Texas] Gov. Greg Abbott [criminalizing librarians who stock books politicians declare “]explicit[“, and]…prohibit schools from purchasing books that [politicians decl]are “sexually explicit, pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable”…Abbott [also declared that books politicians dislike are]…”trash”…Under the bill, [a political] Commission is tasked with [declaring which ideas will henceforth be legal in Texas, and task]…book vendors to [guess what politicians may arbitrarily want censored]…
Hanging a camera on an animal essentially turns it into a surveillance drone:
A case recently filed in a federal district court in Connecticut alleges that a state government agency violated the Fourth Amendment by attaching a camera to a bear they knew frequented the plaintiff property owners’ land…tagged as Number 119…The bear-mounted cam was allegedly supplied…by…the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP)…[which had accused] the plaintiffs…of “illegally” feeding bears on their property. So, this cambear appears to be part of DEEP’s efforts to prove the allegations against the couple (Mark and Carol Brault). This surveillance attempt failed when the couple noticed the bear and its digital appendage…no warrant was obtained before DEEP converted an apparent regular visitor to the Braults’ property into a confidential non-human source. The Braults say this is a Fourth Amendment violation, with the bear acting as a government agent, albeit one incapable of being directly controlled…
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 112
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on June 23, 2023| 1 Comment »
After living with the ceiling lights as we had them for a while, Jae decided they looked much too “college dormish” for her liking, and decided they should go around the edge instead. That of course meant I had to get up there and redo them, because even though she has mostly recovered from her brain injury, she is still subject to intermittent bouts of balance loss, so it isn’t safe for her to be up on tall ladders. I was pretty sure she was right that the new design would look better (because she usually is about such things), and I was willing to do it, but I also dreaded having to go through all the trouble of taking them down and putting them back up. Well, at the beginning of last week I finally got in the mood, and discovered to my relief that while taking them down was indeed an annoyance, putting them back up was relatively easy because now that Jae was sure about the placement, we were able to use the adhesive backing on the strips to affix them to the steel. We’re not really sure it will stick permanently to the wooden members we ran it on, so I also used decorative tacks spaced evenly to give those parts extra support. And once I saw how good the first two strips looked, it was easy to motivate myself to do the other two last weekend.
Tweets for Long Days
Posted in Miscellaneous, Music, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged activism, animals, Arizona, blogging, bogus studies, Connecticut, drugs, ethics, fascism, holidays, hysteria, illegal aliens, imaginative fiction, language, Never Call the Cops, pragmatism, restaurants, surveillance, Sweden, Twitter, Washington (state), With Folded Hands on June 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Maybe it's just me, but “multiple illegal immigrants have trespassed in my yard” sounds like "there are aliens in my refrigerator" or "the ghost of Elvis is living in my den". https://t.co/bIUdRZy9xe
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 21, 2023
Thread on one of my favorite artists; his work appears more frequently in my blog than any other artist except MC Escher. https://t.co/0bqGUTcM1q
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 23, 2023
Score another one for Cassandra McNeill. https://t.co/6C9f9WyBAV
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 23, 2023
So, a different kind of wine than Noah and Lot had? https://t.co/1SiWhOSm4n
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 24, 2023
Watching humans try to parse out ethical issues by *quantifying* them is…SOMEthing, that's for sure. Not something *sensible* or effective, but certainly…something.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 25, 2023
Dunno, but you're supposed to take a drink every time he walks as though he were trying to push down an invisible door with his forehead.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 26, 2023
Or you could, you know, just eat something else. https://t.co/i79MPx2Qm7
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 27, 2023
A lazy dog. https://t.co/iba8Uw9tQ9
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 29, 2023
I guess it gets easier once a person becomes used to letting "thought leaders" tell him what to think, believe, and do.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 30, 2023
That's truly outrageous. Truly, truly, truly outrageous.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) May 31, 2023
https://t.co/JUDNGCbR3q https://t.co/IzMy4ntIh5
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 1, 2023
I understand what people who genuflect to the precious fee-fees of amateurs are trying to do here, but I suggest y'all save that for the other 364 days of the damned year. Don't try to sanitize us on this day of all days.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 2, 2023
My dream BF:
-worth over $1 billion
-no previous marriages
-no kids
-no close relatives
-prefers to spend most of his time away from me, doing dangerous things like skydiving— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 3, 2023
Before I react to this, I'd like them to explain what "s3x" is. It's certainly not a word in any HUMAN language. https://t.co/MzRsDU20EN
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 4, 2023
Tense error. https://t.co/7HECLocyh6
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 7, 2023
Or, given that using a camera is called "shooting", the right to arm bears.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 7, 2023
These are both useful words with specific meanings; it's just that the yahoos seem unwilling or unable to grasp those meanings, and so instead use them as synonyms for "meanie", "doodyhead", and "someone not like me".
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 8, 2023
I'm not one to kink-shame, but I don't think most people want to see strangers doing this while they're eating. https://t.co/rQPW6TwGYR
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 9, 2023
THIS. Food is a need, too, but that doesn't entitle you to knock someone down & steal their cheeseburger. https://t.co/SOP0MYTORm
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 11, 2023
It's ALL performative, in both camps. Pride made sense as a "Fuck you!" to the state from a marginalized population; it's a ridiculous, ostentatious waste of resources and air as a giant "celebration" sponsored by fascist corporations and attended by cops and Dear Leaders.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 12, 2023
NCAA commissioner Harrison Bergeron would like a word. https://t.co/kqSY5x206y
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 13, 2023
There's a giant skeleton statue in the yard of a house on the route I take back from the nearest town. Everybody seems to like it; right now it's wearing very large Hawaiian shirt. https://t.co/zPwymcQOso
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 14, 2023
But pundits and politicians told me banning anonymity on social media would make everyone more civil! https://t.co/a8UNuZHVoo
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 15, 2023
PROTIP: Every gal in Constantinople lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople. So if you've a date in Constantinople, she'll be waiting in Istanbul.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 16, 2023
The US legal & governmental establishment defines "good moral character" as meaning "total, mindless obedience to every diktat of every politician & bureaucrat, no matter how stupid."
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 17, 2023
Of course, facts are of little interest to prohibitionists, except those they cherry-pick and present in a bed of lies. pic.twitter.com/WoVWJbQMdA
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 18, 2023
I don't *want* a safer world. Dreaming is not *thinking*, and people who whine about "safety" are NEVER thinking about what that actually means.https://t.co/OIu2dPAxxMhttps://t.co/XbsmnQXfG7
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 19, 2023
Watching modern puritans attempt to project their own moral beliefs backward onto people in the past is much funnier when one realizes some of them will live long enough to see future generations of pearl-clutchers doing it to them.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 20, 2023
And the other 30% are kinda stupid.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) June 21, 2023
Litha 2023
Posted in Holidays, tagged holidays, paganism on June 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The apparent path of the sun will reach its northernmost point at 14:57 UTC today, marking the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and the shortest day of the year & first day of winter in the Southern. May all of your plans come to fruition in the fullness of time, and Blessed Be!
Visit my bookstore
This Month
Old Posts
Call me
Become a Blog Patron
If you want to donate but don't want a recurring charge, you can send any amount you like via PayPal to my email address (see below). Be sure to include a note so I can thank you!Contact Maggie
Boring but necessary legal stuff