Although there are many ways nowadays for a woman to keep looking young, it’s much harder for even an active woman with few unhealthy habits to keep her insides from aging much more quickly than her outsides. And though I have been on HRT since I was 28, that only replaces the major hormones; my gynecologist tells me that there are a number of minor hormones my body is now losing (or has lost) the ability to produce. That, in conjunction with entropy and ordinary wear and tear, means I’m gradually seeing more signs of age. I have to dress much more warmly than in the past, and I tire more easily than in years gone by; if I have a really busy, active day I find myself dragging all the next. My appetite has decreased, as has my physical strength; I used to be able to carry a 50# sack of feed on my shoulder with ease, and now by the time I lug one from the feed store to my car I’m huffing and puffing. And then there are the various aches and pains, arthritic and otherwise. But I think the one which has irritated me most is my slowly-declining eyesight. I’ve been slightly nearsighted my entire adult life, enough to notice but not enough to need glasses; now I need to strain and use strong light to read very fine print. Then about two weeks ago, I tried to read the small print on a bottle of medicated cream Grace needs for her feet, and found that I absolutely could not make it out, even in full daylight. So I stuck it in my purse and took it to the store with me to buy a pair of cheaters; I’ve been thinking about buying some for a while, but they come in like five different strengths so I wasn’t sure what I needed. So I figured I’d use the bottle as a test, and it worked; turns out I need a 2.5x pair, so that’s what I got. Now all I need to do is somehow find more time for pleasure reading!
Archive for May, 2024
Diary #725
Posted in Diary on May 21, 2024| 1 Comment »
Rapists of the Week #11
Posted in Rapists of the Week, Tyranny, tagged Canada, cops, drugs, homosexuality, Illinois, Indiana, McNeill's Law, New York, No Escape, Oregon, Pennsylvania, prisons, rape, teachers, To Molest and Rape on May 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »
A [typical and representative Pennsylvania] police chief [named]…John Berger…[has been] arrested…[for] sexual assault…[Berger] was fired from [his boss pig job] last May following a raid by federal agents…he [began working] at DreamLife Recovery…in January as a Behavioral Health Technician following a stint at the drug and alcohol rehab center as a patient and his firing as the Ligonier Valley Police Chief…he… “would make unwanted sexual advances towards [one of the patients] almost daily”…and…on [April 29th]…went into [her] room while she was sleeping…and “forcefully started to kiss her”…then groped her and…oral[ly raped her]…Berger [has confessed] to the charges…
Your “leaders” refer to this as “correction”:
An Indiana man is suing [because] he was [repeatedly] sexually assaulted by a [screw named]…Jason Bertram…[while] the man was [on probation]…Bertram…indicated to him that he would keep him out of jail if (he) would s[ubmit to]…Bertram[‘s]…sexual a[dvances]…Bertram [also] gave him methamphetamine, which…he had not used in the past…[when he] was later [back in jail] Bertram [repeatedly] put [him] in areas with…surveillance…blind spots to obtain access to (him)…He was eventually released from jail, but later arrested again on charges related to his meth addiction, which…started after Bertram provided him with drugs. The man went on to report the abuse to multiple [big pigs and screw bureaucrats]…but…they…willfully…[refus]ed to stop Bertram from abusing (the man) and other incarcerated people…On Jan. 11, 2023, Bertram was [finally] criminally charged…[for] abus[ing]…the man…[and] three other[s]…Six days later…[he committed] suicide…
It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy:
A [typical and representative] NYPD [cop]…who w[as also a fine example of McNeill’s Law] has been ordered [to] pay $30 million for [repeatedly rap]ing two of his nieces when they were young girls. Nicholas Mcateer…was sentenced in 2018 to 18 years in prison …The victims…[came] forward [when] they were adults and filed a lawsuit for emotional distress in 2020…
This one prowled for any kind of victim he could find:
A [typical and representative Oregon cop] has been sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for molesting two children in Salem. Cenobio Jauregui…sexually abused two children under 14 years old…on several occasions between 2019 and 2023…Jauregui still has a pending criminal case for a misdemeanor charge…[for repeatedly pester]ing a woman [locked in a cage]…he [sexually harassed her, repeatedly] knocked on her window [to prevent her from sleeping,] and watched her…
Hey, female cops; how’s that collaboration with the police state working out?
A [typical and representative] Hamilton [Ontario cop] will not go to jail [despite repeatedly] sexually assaulting the woman he was mentoring as she pursued her own career in policing. Michael LaCombe…will instead s[kate with a mere] 12 months of house arrest followed by 12 months of probation after Justice Cameron Watson [coddled] him…[by patting his little piggy bottom and assuring him that] he wouldn’t spend any time in jail at a sentencing hearing last month — before…he [even] hear[d]…the arguments of both sides…LaCombe was the victim’s instructor when she was a teenager in the Air Cadets, and then when she was an adult, her mentor…
Give sexually-aggressive thugs power over kids; what could possibly go wrong?
A [cop] assigned to [spy on, harass, and intimidate students at a Pennsylvania] middle school…is being charged with sexual assault…and related crimes…Costas Alestas…was [rewarded with a paid vacation for molesting and raping at least one student]…of…grade…sixth through eighth…on April 24 an[other cop paid to spy on, harass, and intimidate students in the same county, named] John “J.T.” Smoke…[was arrested] for…having sent a [dick pic] to an underage student…
This will continue as long as sexually-aggressive men are given power over young women:
…sexual abuse at Illinois juvenile [cage stacks] was pervasive and systemic for decades, according to…a lawsuit filed…by 95 men and women [locked up in] the [prison]s as [minors]…from 1996 to 2017…[the abuse included] gang rape…oral [rape], beatings and groping of [young prisoners] by [screw]s…nurses, [“]therapists[“], a chaplain and others at nine [cage stacks]…[victims] were threatened or rewarded to keep quiet…The lawsuit…follows similar [wholly predictable reports] of…sex abuse at juvenile [cage stack]s in Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, California and New York City…
Once again: it does not help young victims of state violence to infantilize them as “children”.
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!
Links #724
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, California, cops, crypto-moralism, disease, Hollywood, Never Call the Cops, Texas, video on May 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »
There’s a reason I called the Department of Mental Health, not the police. – Myung Moon Yang
I chose this piece as David Sanborn’s sendoff purely on vibes. The links above it were provided by Carol Fenton, IncarcerNation, Franklin Harris, Mike Siegel, Nun Ya, and The Onion, in that order.
- This week in artificial stupidity.
- No, your reason isn’t an exception.
- R.I.P. Roger Corman and David Sanborn.
- Puritanism is a debilitating mental illness.
- Calling any government office = calling the cops.
- “I am not that daemon swineherd in the twilit grotto!“
From the Archives
- Allowing Clearview to continue arming the State is nothing like a “big win”.
- How long will airlines accept liability for government-brand racial profiling?
- People often die of “undetermined causes” while being brutalized by cops.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- Kinsey has always been a target for bluenoses, fanatics and other creeps.
- NY Times calls hysteria they promoted for 20 years a “conspiracy theory”.
- IRS doesn’t bother to accuse people of crimes before robbing them blind.
- All federal cop shops and spook houses are part of the police-state blob.
- Another firsthand account of the ongoing genocide of the Uighur people.
- Nothing infuriates violent, self-important busybodies more than privacy.
- Letting criminals save face was a cheap way to get their property back.
- A psychopathic wacko who even discomfits some“trafficking” fetishists.
- It took almost 7 years, but the press finally caught up with me on this.
- Politicians increasingly believe they can redefine legal concepts at will.
- There can never be too many articles on sex workers for the disabled.
- This would be a much better article without the ignorant partisanism.
- The government needs to be buried in lawsuits before this will stop.
- I hope they’re so “disheartened” they go out and find honest work.
- “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.
- Cops, politicians, administrators, Tim Bachman, and much more.
- A little story about what happens when one speaks out publicly.
- The people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- Resources for medication abortions, even in totalitarian states.
- There are still some Westerners who insist this isn’t genocide.
- Government at every level crusades against Christian charity.
- Most Americans still believe France is a sex-positive society.
- Admitting to anorgasmia is a way to reclaim one’s sexuality.
- It’s good to see so many challenges to these medieval laws.
- When predators aren’t culled, they just keep on predating.
- Cops, cruelty, California, Charles Grodin, and much more.
- Rewiring the mess of a breaker box my house came with.
- Just another kind of federal cop, with behavior to match.
- It’s nice to see someone who isn’t me writing about this.
- Pigs in schools are a menace which should be abolished.
- “Sex trafficking” is a convenient excuse for any tyranny.
- Politicians finally deign to make rape illegal for cops.
- It’s about time somebody sane spoke up about this.
- Prohibitionists want Ontario to be more like the US.
- A murderer is also a rapist. Gee, what a surprise.
- Cops, bird navigation, Vangelis, and much more.
- Not even a rapist cop’s own daughters are safe.
- Another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
- When ambulance-chasers run the hospitals.
- Where all of my marble statues came from.
- Your “leaders” refer to this as “correction”.
- Another cop demonstrates what he is.
- It’s just going to keep getting worse.
- Most of the roof purlins are in place.
- Creating a vestibule in my annex.
- A week where I just did not stop.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- More tweets!
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 (#1438)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged A Broker in Pillage, Australia, Belgium, brothels, Censor Chic, censorship, cops, fascism, FBI, I Spy, internet, language, law, Leaving the 20th Century, nanny state, Opting Out, Panopticon, pimps, surveillance, Tennessee, The Cop Myth, The Puritan Recrudescence, Twitter, United Kingdom, You Were Warned on May 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Forcing random, innocent individuals to shoulder th[e] cost [of police actions] would be as fair as conducting a lottery to determine who has to pay the police chief’s salary each year. – Slaybaugh v. Rutherford County
Leaving the 20th Century (#1223)
A new law in Belgium…is being touted as a win by UTSOPI, the Belgium Union of Sex Workers…the legislation…outlines that prostitutes will receive health insurance, a pension, maternity and holiday leave, and unemployment benefits. Their pimps will be forced to provide them with a “safety button” to use for emergencies…Prostitutes are to be granted “rights” to refuse sexual acts, stop sexual acts, perform sexual acts in the manner they prefer, and refuse to sit behind Amsterdam-style windows…However, should a prostitute use these “rights” 10 times within six months, their pimp can then call on a government mediator to intervene…
“Pimp” appears to be used here to mean “brothel owner”; the article is silent on what the law says about escorts and other non-brothel sex workers.
Rural residents are less affected by state surveillance than urbanites, but they aren’t safe:
In December 2022, Reason reported that both state and federal wildlife agents routinely trespass onto private land and plant cameras. Two Tennessee homeowners successfully sued the state over the practice…the state appealed…and…the court of appeals [has now] ruled in the homeowners’ favor…In the case of Terry Rainwaters and Hunter Hollingsworth, [agents] not only entered their…properties but also installed trail cameras…without a warrant and ignoring “No Trespassing” signs…
Government censors are growing ever bolder:
…federal agencies such as the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) [have] restarted [their jawboning attempts] with [social media] platforms…[under the tissue-thin guise of] “removing disinformation on their sites as the November presidential election nears”…these [attempt]s resumed in March, around the same time oral arguments in Murthy v. Missouri — which centers on the feds’ censorship efforts — were heard before the U.S. Supreme Court…Neither agency provided an answer when questioned on how they determine what constitutes “disinformation” or what other federal agencies they are collaborating with in these efforts to have “disinformation” removed from social media…
A new censorship regime has been imposed on British subjects:
[The UK censorship agency] Ofcom [wants more censorship power over] Instagram, YouTube and 150,000 other web services [using the popular excuse of “]child safety[“ to push]… tech firms to [deny users anonymity], [censor] and downrank content [the government dislikes], and apply around 40 other steps to [give the government more control over what its]…subjects [can see, hear, and read]…That suggests Brits may need to get accustomed to [us]ing [a VPN if] they [want to] access a range of online content…
There are many ways for governments to steal things that don’t belong to them:
A federal court…heard arguments in an appeal concerning…the…”police powers”…exception to the [Constitution]…Mollie and Michael Slaybaugh…are…on the hook for over $70,000 after a SWAT team destroyed much of their home in Smyrna, Tennessee…in…[pursuit of Mollie’s] adult son, James Jackson Conn—who did not live with her but had recently arrived to visit…she offered to speak to Conn and bring him out of her house, [but the cops prevented]…her [from] re-enter[ing and instead]…broke down the door and launched dozens of tear gas grenades into the Slaybaughs’ home, laying waste to nearly everything…Their insurance [refused] to assist them, as their policy—like many policies—does not cover damage caused by the government…The notion that “police powers” immunize the government from liability is what doomed Leo Lech’s lawsuit, which he filed after a SWAT team did so much damage to his home…that it had to be demolished…Los Angeles refused to compensate Carlos Pena after a SWAT team destroyed his…print shop in pursuit of a suspect who barricaded himself inside, and…Vicki Baker[‘s]…judgment from a federal jury…was ultimately overturned by the…5th Circuit, which ruled there was a “[fuck you]” exception to the Takings Clause…
Civil rights advocates often joke that the Third Amendment is the only one that hasn’t been undermined, but I fail to see any important difference between the government forcibly taking people’s homes to quarter troops and forcibly taking them to enable cops and robbers games.
Why are people shocked when men paid and encouraged to behave violently, behave violently?
A…Memphis [cop in full magic clown regalia] kidnapped a man, shot him in the head and unsuccessfully tried getting rid of his body…Patric J. Ferguson [murdered Robert Howard]…on Jan. 5, 2021, [because Howard was dating Ferguson’s ex-girlfriend. Ferguson then] dumped his body in the Wolf River in Memphis with the help of another man, Joshua M. Rogers…who [has been]…charged with accessory after the fact…
Sleeping with a cop is not only dangerous to the woman who does so, but to everyone else in her life, especially after she stops sleeping with the cop.
At least there are a few judges willing to restrain other judges’ megalomania:
[Twitter] had a win over the Australian government after the Federal Court overturned a legal block on videos of the Sydney church stabbing. The [Australian censorship] Commission won a temporary court injunction last month after [Twitter] refused to comply with a…global [censorship order]…Justice Geoffrey Kennett…rejected a bid to extend the injunction until a full trial…The decision does not represent a final legal win…but senior legal sources…said the interim decision…proved the legitimacy of [Twitter’s] case…
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!
Can You Picture That?
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, Music, tagged STEM, Sunset, video, Washington (state) on May 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Aurora borealis shinin’ down on Dallas
Can you picture that? – Paul Williams
Most of y’all probably know that the world enjoyed some intense auroral activity last Friday night due to unusually powerful solar storms; what made this manifestation especially unusual is that it could be seen well outside of its typical range, even well down into the US South (as far as Florida!) So I thought I’d share a few more of the pictures I took from my office window.
Mary Shelley’s Throwback Thursday
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged activism, agency denial, blogging, consensual crime, games, language, Nonessential, prohibitionist myths, psychology, violence vs. sex workers on May 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »
To put it in D&D terms, a high charisma is no guarantee of a high wisdom. – “Favor”
“Evil” is not something a person is; it’s something a person does.
– “The Essence of Evil”
We all leave this world in the same way we enter it: in blood and pain, wholly ignorant of what comes next. – “Approaching Infinity”
When you tell [prohibitionists], “Please stop because you’re killing us,” you are not dissuading them from their course of action; you are encouraging it. – “Stop Encouraging Them”
No society which pretends to be “free” has any business sorting human beings into categories as though they were produce. – “Nonessential“
In the News (#1437)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged abortion, Alabama, censorship, China, consensual crime, Creepy Coppers, domestic violence, Feudalism Redux, Hot Mess Alabama, hysteria, If Men Were Angels, law, Maine, marriage, Michigan, New Excuse, New York, North Carolina, Panopticon, politicians, porn, prisons, South Carolina, surveillance, TikTok, Torture Chamber, When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals, You Were Warned on May 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The Fourth Amendment is not about the police, it’s about the government. – Robert Frommer
One “war” on consensual behavior is very like another:
A new law in Alabama showcases how the war on sex trafficking is mirroring the war on drugs…”The Sound of Freedom Act“…stipulates a mandatory life sentence for anyone found guilty of first-degree human trafficking of a minor…in fact it will likely to lead to extreme overpunishment for people whose offenses…look…nothing like…the sort of…situations imagined by Hollywood or by groups like Operation Underground Railroad…At a certain point in the drug war, everything was plenty criminalized but…politicians still wanted ways to look like they were doing something about it…So instead of dealing in reality, they proposed harsher and harsher penalties for drug offenses…Over the past two decades, we’ve been seeing this same pattern play out with prostitution-related offenses…harsher and harsher penalties, mandatory minimums, and…at the same time…authorities keep expanding the categories of activities that count as sex trafficking…
Loved ones of a pastor’s wife who was found dead in a North Carolina state park with a bullet wound to her head are not convinced she died by suicide, as her husband claims…they’re pressing authorities to probe Mica Miller’s death as something potentially more sinister…her husband, John-Paul Miller…delivered an entire sermon as usual before revealing…his wife’s passing…to…his congregation [on April 28th]… “She had struggled with suicide before…but God took care of her and got her through it.” Court filings show…Mica Miller had filed for divorce from her husband just weeks before her death…And on March 22, [she had] posted a [Facebook] video in which she discussed “leaving a dangerous situation”…
A federal judge [has] rebuked Republican Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s threatened prosecution of those who help people in Alabama obtain abortions out of state…Judge Myron H. Thompson rejected Marshall’s request that the court toss out a pair of lawsuits brought by an abortion fund and health care providers challenging his threatened prosecutions…in the 98-page opinion [the judge wrote,] “The Attorney General’s characterization of the right to travel as merely a right to move physically between the States contravenes history, precedent, and common sense”…
Court rules that illegal searches are legal if the government circumvents due process:
…the Michigan Supreme Court ruled unanimously that evidence collected illegally c[an] still be used to enforce civil penalties. Todd and Heather Maxon…filed to suppress…evidence [illegally collected by a warrantless drone search] as a Fourth Amendment violation…[but] the court…[claimed] the exclusionary rule [only] applies to…”wrongful law enforcement conduct”…In other words, the state’s highest court decided that it was irrelevant whether the search violated the Fourth Amendment because…the search was conducted to investigate civil and not criminal violations…
Governments are increasingly attacking citizens with civil suits rather than criminal charges because the burden of proof is lower; this gives them another reason to do so.
One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality:
A [typical and representative Maine cop named] Larry Fickett…has been [arrested and] charged with possession of child pornography and endangering the welfare of a child…Fickett…[apparently induced a prepubescent child of indeterminate gender to masturbate while he filmed it, on multiple occasions]…between Jan. 1, 2021 and March 1 of this year…
The inevitable result of a blatantly-unconstitutional law:
TikTok and its parent company [have] filed a legal challenge against the United States over a law…outlawing the app nationwide unless it finds a buyer within a year…”Banning TikTok is so obviously unconstitutional…that even the Act’s sponsors recognized that reality, and therefore have tried mightily to depict the law not as a ban at all, but merely a regulation of TikTok’s ownership,” according to the filing…lawyers for TikTok say the law offers the company a false choice, since fully divesting from its parent company, ByteDance, is “simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally…and certainly not on the 270-day timeline required by the Act”…if TikTok loses this legal fight, it will likely [geoblock users in] the U.S. [who don’t use a VPN]…
Your “leaders” call this “correction”:
When New York banned the use of long-term solitary confinement in its prisons and barred the practice entirely for certain people, including mentally ill prisoners…it was hailed [by naifs] as a groundbreaking measure that would fundamentally change life behind bars. But since the law took effect two years ago, prison officials have [predictably] refused to implement it…[Politicians] and oversight agencies have sounded the alarm in reports and letters to the New York Department of [Locking Human Beings in Filthy Cages] and the state’s Office of Mental Health, warning that the agencies were [predictably] violating the law [because there are no criminal penalties for doing so]…
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 #724
Posted in Diary, tagged STEM, Sunset, Washington (state) on May 14, 2024| 3 Comments »
Ever since I moved to Seattle in 2015, I’ve been hoping to see the aurora borealis, but no luck; even had we not been at the wrong part of the sunspot cycle, Seattle’s light pollution would have made it unlikely at best. So I was pretty jazzed to hear last Friday that the biggest solar storm since 2003 was generating intense auroral activity worldwide. I went outside about an hour after sunset, then again about 11:30, and was disappointed both times; since it wasn’t very cloudy, though, I figured I’d check again later. So when I got ready for bed and went upstairs about 1 AM, I looked out of my office window (which faces east) and saw a faint green glow shimmering in the sky. I shut off my computer and desk lamp, then the lamp beside my bed, and as my eyes adjusted to the darkness I was rewarded with a much brighter glow. I watched for a while, gazing up in wonder at the gorgeous light show the sun, the Earth’s magnetic field, and the laws of physics were putting on for those who cared to look up, and found that my understanding of what caused the phenomenon actually enhanced my appreciation of it. I thought that it might be too faint for my phone camera to capture, but was delighted to discover that the exact opposite was true; the images in my camera were actually bolder than what my aging eyes could make out unassisted. By the time I decided I really should get to bed it was almost 2:30 and I had taken several really good shots, posted them on Twitter, and texted them to several friends I knew would appreciate them; I only hope I don’t have to stick around until 2035 to see it again!
More Often Nowadays
Posted in Diary, tagged activism, blogging, psychology on May 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »
When I first started this blog 14 years ago, I generally wrote each column after breakfast and just posted them when I was done. Even after I started scheduling them in the summer of ’11 I rarely had trouble coming up with a topic to write about; in fact, I had so many I would sometimes write them as I thought of them and simply queue them up. But back then, I had a couple of decades of frustrated self-expression bottled up in my head, and I was one of the few writing on the topic of sex work; blogs had not yet been largely superseded by podcasts and videos, and Google had not yet begun to suppress sites it deemed too dirty for the tender sensibilities of the internet-dwelling public. This site had such heavy traffic I could usually get at least a column or two a week just out of reader questions or comments, and as “sex trafficking” hysteria ramped up in the early Teens it was all I could do to keep up with reporting the hysteria and debunking the myriad lies. But a great deal has changed in the intervening years: outspoken sex workers are no longer rare, the “sex trafficking” hysteria has given way to newer and shinier moral panics, and my lifelong practice of burning my candle at both ends has resulted in my brain aging far more than those of people who haven’t been running theirs on “high” since the Nixon era. And even had I not done that, 14 years is plenty of time for change; earlier today I was speaking to a young man who wasn’t even alive yet in 2010, and consider the cultural shifts from 1910 to 1924, or from 1950 to 1964, or from 1990 to 2004. Hell, I don’t recognize even half of the names of politicians and celebrities I see bandied about on the internet any more, and my emotional reaction to the majority of news items is, “here we go again.” So I reckon it’s not at all surprising that even with five regular features a week, I sometimes have trouble thinking of what to do with the other two days; I think I can trust my loyal readers to forgive me for that. And I’m even learning to forgive myself for it.
Links #723
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged acting, Alabama, animals, artificial stupidity, Catholicism, cops, Florida, games, imaginative fiction, lawheads, Never Call the Cops, Not for Any Reason Whatsoever, politicians, robots, Texas, video, Washington DC on May 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The police are free to ask questions, and the public is free to ignore them. – Judge Charles R. Wilson
Here’s another very early film; this one is the first filmed version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, from 1903; one notable feature is that moviemakers had not yet figured out how to do the titles, which in this case results in the audience being told what they will see before they see it. There also seems to be an assumption that the audience already knows the story and can thus fill in the gaps for themselves. The links above it were provided by Franklin Harris, Jesse Walker, Stephen Lemons, The Onion, Phoenix Calida, Emma Camp, and IncarcerNation, in that order.
- R.I.P. Bernard Hill.
- This week in artificial stupidity.
- Artificial stupidity is destroying fun.
- One of the funniest things I’ve read this year.
- Crime: speeding. Penalty: summary execution.
- “The law” is immaterial; cops act as they please.
- Need I really say, “Not because your neighbor owns a Sawzall”?
From the Archives
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- Both sides in the culture war have completely taken leave of their senses.
- Politicians compete to see how many rights they can violate with one law.
- Ambulance-chasers will target businesses thus until FOSTA is overturned.
- Cop and “church youth leader” is the molester equivalent of a full house.
- Leaked SCOTUS decision spawns wave of opportunistic authoritarianism.
- Undermining rights only starts with “undesirables”; it never stops there.
- Websites targeted by censorship try to turn the mob back on politicians.
- Rapist cops are often rewarded with paid vacations, but this is extreme.
- These attempts to destroy the internet are going to keep getting worse.
- Innocent people accused of “sex trafficking” by attention-hungry loons.
- Your “leaders” sometimes label child molestation “community support”.
- Picture what you’d think of as “sex trafficking”, then compare it to this.
- The Dutch scheme to Disnify De Wallen is no longer merely a scheme.
- The way to address politicians’ demands for website user surveillance.
- Too bad WA only supports self-ownership where drugs are concerned.
- Nobody will be safe until this odious practice is ruled unconstitutional.
- Why are ignoramuses convinced non-vanilla sex is a recent invention?
- Why are people shocked when men paid to behave violently, do that?
- Another version of this story tried to gloss over his being a preacher.
- In which your “leaders” refer to spreading child porn as “correction”.
- When one rewards animals for behaviors, those behaviors increase.
- Note that cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths.
- If the Swedish model is so successful, why increase the penalties?
- Fact: Young woman in illegal casino. Conclusion: “sex trafficking”!
- The “bathroom bill” political fad returns after a three-year hiatus.
- The word for such “partnerships” to further tyranny is “fascism”.
- The difference between real slippery slopes and fallacious ones.
- For a change, this story doesn’t refer to torture as “correction”.
- Another of those cases whose reported details don’t add up.
- Everyone involved in producing this copaganda is garbage.
- What they’re actually targeting are ordinary escort ads.
- This is exactly what those who passed this bill wanted.
- An article utterly permeated with the reek of stupidity.
- Your “leaders” refer to wanton murder as “correction”.
- Cops, bananas, Gordon Lightfoot, and much more.
- Another sign that the moral panic is largely over.
- Cops, metaphors, Naomi Judd, and much more.
- On the asinine authoritarianism of “real names”.
- And yet, that word is still nowhere to be found.
- Cops, blow jobs, Lloyd Price, and much more.
- Amateurs are utterly obsessed with “pimps”.
- Laws are for the peasantry, not the rulers.
- Dr Victoria Bateman on the nudity taboo.
- Rapist cops of the week, 2021 and 2022.
- Lockdowns are to keep people SAFE!
- Trying to get our generator in place.
- The pullets are out of the nursery.
- Another Friday the Thirteenth.
- Dealing with delinquent hens.
- “Pastors” are as bad as cops.
- A small shrine to Aphrodite.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- Bound By the Cloak.
- R.I.P. Smarajit Jana.
- My new cat, Lilith.
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Boring but necessary legal stuff