After Grace was too infirm to work regularly any more, starting about 2013, I supported her completely until she started collecting social security in July of ’23; even after that, her check simply went “into the pot” as all of our income did in the days when we were both working. And though she never complained (and in fact used to brag to her doctors about what good care I took of her), I wanted to be sure she didn’t ever feel too dependent on me; she was not an overly prideful person, but I feel every adult needs as much independence as is practically possible. So we agreed long ago that she should have $400 a month to spend on anything she wanted, no questions asked, above and beyond all of her strictly-necessary expenses that I paid. She used it to get audiobooks, things she wanted from Amazon, special treats at the little convenience store on the highway, tools and parts for her projects, and stuff like that. One of her long-term health problems was arthritis, which she had suffered from since her mid-forties due to a very serious motorcycle accident in her twenties; sometime in 2018, she decided it had become severe enough that she needed a cane. But rather than have me buy something purely functional, she decided to get herself a genuine shillelagh from a craftsman in Shillelagh, Ireland, specifically because it was a weapon in addition to being a walking aid. That stick was symbolic of her whole way of looking at aging: while she didn’t deny the practical need for assistance in getting around, she was damned sure not going to use a walker or anything similar, and insisted that anybody who “messes with my little angel” (as she had invariably referred to me since 1998) would receive the heavy end of her shillelagh. And if I dared point out that she was no longer capable of fighting off a determined grandmother, she would shake that stick and say, “we’ll see!” She remained feisty and crotchety until the end, and her prized cudgel is still standing where she left it, in the corner behind her desk where she could easily reach it. And as you can probably guess, I have no intention of ever moving it from that spot.
Archive for February, 2025
Diary #764
Posted in Biography, Diary, tagged disease, Grace, Ireland, psychology, Sunset, weaponry on February 18, 2025| 1 Comment »
Links #763
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged Alabama, animals, artificial stupidity, California, cops, genitalia, libraries, politicians, psychology, video on February 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The butthole is one of the finest innovations in the past 540 million years of animal evolution. – Amy Maxmen
This silly song reflects my feelings about the silly, vapid portrayal of “love” that makes Valentine’s Day so odious to me, which is so different from the real, deep kind of love that truly bonds people. The links above the video were provided by Jesse Walker, Asawin Suebsaeng, Jesse Walker again, Mistress Matisse, Emma Camp, Kendra Holliday, and Lucy Steigerwald.
- R.I.P. Tom Robbins.
- Mad emperor is mad.
- The world’s oldest asshole.
- This week in artificial stupidity.
- Cops brutalize man for changing a tire.
- Artificial stupidity is creeping into libraries.
- In which artificial stupidity meets idiocracy.
From the Archives
- 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.
- Lawheads still believe barricades magically eliminate the need for money.
- The government thinks you shouldn’t be allowed any privacy whatsoever.
- Victoria becomes the world’s 4th jurisdiction to achieve decriminalization.
- While sex work is marginalized, sex workers will be targeted for violence.
- Bloodthirsty politicians are furious about having their crusades thwarted.
- Censorious politicians compete to make new laws more unconstitutional.
- He aced the predatory pervert job requirement, but failed the lying test.
- The racism of European “anti-trafficking” schemes grows more obvious.
- They figure describing rape as “sex trafficking” will net a larger payout.
- Texas’ ice-pick self-lobotomization is becoming increasingly spasmodic.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Michael Jayston, Mojo Nixon, and much more.
- It’s amazing how often people die mysteriously when cops are around.
- A politician fails to realize a prohibitionist trope is past its sell-by date.
- There are no surprises in this article on sex workers accepting bitcoin.
- Like something written a decade ago at the apex of the moral panic.
- The resources flushed down the “culture war” toilet are incalculable.
- 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.
- Even seemingly-consensual sex with a cop may be something else.
- What kind of defective adult thinks it’s OK to do this to a teenager?
- Any information you give to cops can and will be used against you.
- Another government scheme to normalize constant surveillance.
- Cops use their panopticon exactly as EFF predicted they would.
- Denying bright kids honors or AP classes makes you an abuser.
- The state wants vengeance for the loss of future tax revenue.
- Even cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths.
- Too bad all authoritarian organizations aren’t so short-lived.
- Most Americans still believe France is a sex-positive society.
- I’m glad I was wrong about the lawsuit’s chance of success.
- It seems weird to me when things are open on Mardi Gras.
- Coverage of these incidents is growing more sympathetic.
- The fourth installment of my six-part review of Blake’s 7.
- Sexual violence is endemic to policing as an institution.
- Feeling nostalgic for a time just before I was born.
- Cops, The Onion, Raquel Welch, and much more.
- Adding a ramp to the north side of my annex.
- My two previous columns for Valentine’s Day.
- I don’t go to a gym, but I do own a farm.
- The Rites of Throwback Thursday.
- The cashmere sweater club.
- Fixing a leak in my hot tub.
- Rapist cops of the week.
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 (#1513)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Apple, censorship, Crippling Thought, El Salvador, ethics, Facebook, fascism, I Spy, Idaho, libraries, Massachusetts, New York, politicians, prisons, prohibitionist myths, psychology, surveillance, teachers, Texas, The Prudish Giant, Thought Control, Time Warp, Torture Chamber, United Kingdom on February 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »
[Texas politicians are] trying to drive a car from 30,000 feet in the air by remote control. – Joey Velasco
A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners:
The Trump [regime] and the president of El Salvador…struck a deal allowing the U.S. to ship both detained migrants and imprisoned citizens to the tiny Central American nation…[even though it is illegal for] the U.S. government [to] deport American citizens…Bukele has made El Salvador’s stark, harsh prisons a trademark of his aggressive fight against [civil rights]. Since March 2022, more than 84,000 people have been [locked up without] due process…packed into cells without enough bunks for everyone…Bukele…plan[s] to [cram even] more people in[to his] mega-prison…prisoners…do not receive visits. There are no programs preparing them to return to society after their sentences…[because the government plans to] never allow…[them] outside…ever [again]…
Long Island public radio station WSHU recently published a bizarrely-anachronistic article that reads like something from the height of “sex trafficking” hysteria, 13 years ago; given that NPR was a major font of “sex trafficking” wanking fantasies, I reckon that isn’t too surprising, but it’s still weird to see both politicians and stenographic “reporters” who apparently didn’t read the memo that “sex trafficking” is now a “right-wing conspiracy theory” rather than something taken seriously by people who are not complete lunatics. The piece calls “sex trafficking” an “epidemic” and employs both a “King of the Hill” claim and the “Facebook pimps” myth to infantilize sex workers as “children” looking for “love”, before making the facially-absurd statement that Suffolk County’s is the first “trafficking court” in New York.
In 2021, a school district in Newton, Massachusetts, got rid of advanced classes in a [poorly-considered] bid to…reduc[e] achievement gaps between racial groups, [presumably by osmosis]…several parents brought up…concerns with the…policy—but…were smeared as “racists” and “right-wingers”…But years later…teachers themselves are…openly criticizing multilevel classes, arguing that it isn’t serving students’ needs…”I’ve heard about multilevel classes from many, many parents over the last three years, and the feedback has been consistently negative,” School Committee member Rajeev Parlikar said…”I actually have not heard from a single parent who thought their child benefited from being in a multilevel class”…the district is now working on reinstating leveled classes…
“This isn’t just about privacy — it’s about the future of secure communication itself“:
…the UK government has…ordered Apple to create a backdoor that would allow them to access encrypted content from any Apple user worldwide…Apple [has] warned it might have to exit the UK market if pushed too far…[but] even…[that] won’t satisfy the UK’s demands…for backdoor access to the service in other countries, including the United States…Apple would be barred from warning its users that its most advanced encryption no longer provided full security…the UK isn’t just demanding the power to break encryption globally, they’re demanding the right to force Apple to actively deceive its users about the security of their data…
Morally-bankrupt businesses make morally-bankrupt business deals:
Gambling companies are covertly tracking visitors to their websites and sending their data to Facebook…without consent…the information is then being used by Facebook…to profile people as gamblers and flood them with ads for casinos and betting sites…
Control-freak politicians need to be targeted by so many lawsuits they’re driven into ruin:
Several large book publishers, a tiny public library and others are suing Idaho [politicians] over a law that forces libraries to keep some books in an adults-only section if…[a politician points at them and belches] “harmful to minors.” The Donnelly Library, Penguin Random House and the others [are] suing [because] the law is overly vague and [blatantly] violates the First Amendment rights of students, librarians and other residents by forcing libraries to sequester literary classics like Slaughterhouse-Five and A Clockwork Orange. It’s the second such lawsuit filed in Idaho. A coalition of small private schools and libraries sued last summer, and that case is ongoing. Similar cases have been filed in Arkansas, Iowa, Florida, Texas and other states with laws restricting access to books in libraries or schools…
Surely you didn’t think they’d be satisfied with only vandalizing libraries and primary schools:
This year, the [sociopath]-controlled Texas Legislature is expected to [undermine] liberal [education] at the state’s public, four-year universities…[by further] ban[ning]…programs [they dislike] and tr[y]ing…to…limit the influence of professors on their [students]…they have vowed to crack down on…free speech on campus. And they are proposing again to end in-state tuition for undocumented students…and…eliminate tenure…
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!
Valentine’s Day 2025
Posted in Holidays, tagged holidays on February 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »
As longtime readers know, Valentine’s Day is my least favorite of holidays, and I’m not particularly fond of the typical iconography associated with it, either (which is often weird or violent or creepy as hell). So every year I try to share an exception, like this sweet little kitten.
The Return of Throwback Thursday
Posted in Miscellaneous, Words, tagged blogging, disability, language, masturbation, Mind Over Matter, orgasm, psychology, racism, surveillance, Welcome to Our Updates, yin and yang on February 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »
If ignorance about sex is grounds for a court order forbidding it…religious fundamentalists need to start worrying. – “Welcome To Our World (February Updates)”
Do you really want to live in a world where a complete police dossier on every friend, every neighbor, every co-worker, is only a few mouse-clicks away…and yours is equally accessible to everyone else? – “The Devil’s Toys”
Orgasm isn’t only about “doing it right”, sexual satisfaction isn’t only about orgasm, and nobody has the right to define the parameters of “good sex” for you, or to tell you why you “should” or “shouldn’t” have sex. – “Mind Over Matter”
The “euphemism treadmill” [means] any euphemism eventually becomes the semantic equivalent of the Forbidden Word in the brains of listeners, so that it, too becomes contaminated and must be replaced with a new euphemism. – “Unspeakable“
In the News (#1512)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged Alabama, censorship, cops, Eavesdropping, fascism, internet, law, libraries, Louisiana, Micromanagement, Minnesota, New York, porn, prisons, rescue industry, scams, Served Cold, slavery, surveillance, Texas, The Puritan Recrudescence, Thought Control, Torture Chamber, video on February 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »
[There are] too many examples of investigative tools that become runaway trains. – Rebecca Brown
It seems highly unlikely that anything will be done about this under the Trump regime:
Floors streaked with blood, rat-infested cells, flooded hallways and routine beatings by [psychopathic thugs]…are but some of the degrading conditions within Alabama state prisons revealed by leaked cellphone videos in a…new documentary that premiered at the Sundance film festival…The Alabama Solution, directed by Andrew Jarecki…and Charlotte Kaufman, reports on the inhumane living conditions, forced labor and rampant [screw] violence…as told by [prisoners]…under constant physical threat from prison management. Despite [toothless] federal calls for prison reform, Alabama’s prisons currently operate at 200% capacity…[and] have the highest rates of murder, drug addiction and death in the country…prison[ers used smuggled]…cellphones…to document an outrageously brutal and…corrupt system…incarcerated activists Melvin…Ray and Robert Earl…Council [led a] network of sources record[ing]…beatings, unsanitary conditions…drug[s]…supplied by [screws]…and first-person testimony at great personal risk. Council was nearly beaten to death by guards during the course of production and lost sight in one eye; another source recorded smears of blood trailing from Council’s cell after he was dragged away, unconscious and facedown…
Surely you didn’t think they’d be satisfied with only threatening librarians and teachers:
A broad coalition of educational, civil rights, and literary advocacy organizations are banding together to…[oppose] proposed [book-banning] legislation…in Texas. More than a dozen such bills have been filed this legislative session…[including] one [that] would criminalize almost anyone who allows a [legal minor] to have access to [any] material that [any politician has pointed at while barfing “]harmful to minors[“, such as people who]…put a little free library in [their] front yard…[another] would allow…the…handful of people who…travel…the state with lists of hundreds…of books [they want banned]…to [instead] ban them statewide…
Louisiana imprisons young people in an adult jail where they’re attacked by guards, deprived of an education, and kept away from their families…The new court filings are the latest development in a years-long lawsuit [against]…Louisiana…[for caging legal minors] at adult lockups [instead of]…juvenile facilities. The state’s Office of Juvenile [In]justice…began incarcerating [them]…at Jackson Parish Jail in 2023 after a federal judge ordered them to move all [legal minors] out of…Angola…young [prisoners have since] told the court…that the guards “are very quick to use mace and put their hands on us”…[they’re cag]ed in…“modified shipping container[s]” in the middle of a field…they have been…shot with pepper balls, and had “taser gloves” used on them…there is no school…or…in-person visitation and…they can only call home if they have money in their accounts…the Sheriff’s Office…[lies that prison]ers get 87 minutes a month of free phone call and…and onsite visits are allowed…[but] David Utter…part of the legal team representing the youth, said parents have reported that the Sheriff’s Office told them they cannot visit their children…[and] the legal team had to put money in one client’s account just to be able to speak with him on the phone…
Tim Ballard’s partners in profiteering are trying to salvage as much of the scam as possible:
A [disgraced “]sex trafficking[” hysteria profiteer] group is planning to relocate to Minnesota and hoping to set up shop in a new city-owned…facility in Minneapolis. The prospect that the group, Our Rescue, might be selected to [indoctrinate] police [in “]sex trafficking[” propaganda] in the new South Minneapolis Community Safety Center has drawn criticism from [rival profiteer groups] who call Our Rescue’s approach outdated and poorly informed…Our Rescue was formerly known as Operation Underground Railroad. It’s moving from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis [but can’t escape either its reputation or a pending] federal lawsuit…
Cops just love new ways to railroad people:
…Parabon NanoLabs was founded…[to profit from] DNA [analysis. At first the company pursued the prosocial goal of]…developing cancer therapies…[but soon degenerated] into a prominent purveyor of…DNA phenotyping…to [cop shops]…Parabon [claims] its Snapshot FDP System “accurately” predicts not only eye, hair, and skin color, but also face shape. For a fee, the company will provide [cops] with a rendering of its predictions in the form of a color composite sketch [they can and do run through facial recognition systems]…scientists and legal experts…warn that the company’s sketches are, at best, misleading…Even a scientist who helped develop the technology says it’s not ready for real-world use…In a criminal legal system rife with wrongful convictions and racial bias, there are countless ways…an unproven tool [can be abused]…
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1433)
Burble burble BLUE STATE burble drool:
A New York [politician] is trying to introduce the same age verification legislation that has resulted in massive porn sites…going dark across much of the U.S…The bill, introduced by [sociopaths] Jake Ashby and…Mary Beth Walsh, is almost identical to every other [sex surveillance] law that has passed across the country in the last two years…and…defines “material harmful to minors” as a laundry list of sex acts and body parts…
I have no words sufficient to describe how foolish this is:
Just months after we learned Chinese hackers had compromised US telecom systems through government-mandated backdoors, an inexperienced developer from Musk’s DOGE unit is pushing untested code directly into the Treasury’s payment infrastructure…It seems reasonable to call it one of the most dangerous cyberattacks on the US government. The Treasury Department wants us to believe…Musk’s team’s access…[was] “read only”…But…[in] reality…a 25-year-old…named Marko Elez (who had refused to give any of his brand new colleagues his last name) had been granted…full administrator privileges to the system….and…is…pushing untested changes directly into production on a system that handles trillions in federal payments…the code changes have a very specific purpose: creating mechanisms to block payments while hiding the evidence…
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 #763
Posted in Diary, Music, Philosophy, tagged Grace, Thanatopsis, video on February 11, 2025| 3 Comments »
We both knew Grace was slowly dying for several years now; I just didn’t know it would happen so soon or so suddenly. So even though I’m relieved that she didn’t have to suffer the awful fate of a slow, protracted death as a bedridden invalid, and grateful that I was able to make her last eight years happy ones (despite her considerable pain and inability to do the things she loved, such as riding her motorcycle), I’m also having some trouble coming to grips with the fact that she is actually gone. Even typing that last sentence took me ten minutes, because I can’t look at those words on the screen without being overwhelmed by a wave of grief. She was not good with words herself, but music often gave her a means of expressing deep feelings she could not herself articulate. Ozzy Osbourne was one of her favorite musicians, and on several occasions over the past few years I found her crying while listening to this song; when I went to comfort her she would hug me tightly and say she wasn’t afraid of death because we’d be reunited on the Other Side. So I’ve listened to it quite a few times over the past week, hoping that it will allow me to share just a bit of her unshakable faith in our eventual reunion in another life once I, too, have left this one.
Post-Christian
Posted in Philosophy, Words, tagged language, psychology, Unchristian Nation on February 10, 2025| 11 Comments »
Attention theologians and clergy: So obviously, US evangelicals of the Trumpist variety, with their exhortations to hate their neighbor and calling Christ “weak” and empathy a “sin”, cannot properly be called “Christian”. So what are they? What label should be applied to their belief-system?
For right now, I’m going to go with “Post-Christian”. But I don’t know if that’s really self-explanatory enough. The “prosperity gospel” is in this general grouping, but there are several other heretical movements which belong there too. I’d appreciate input on an umbrella term.
Links #762
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged cops, video on February 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »
There are many less severe and less dangerous ways to garner sympathy that don’t include shooting oneself. – Jeffrey Lichtman
It seems appropriate to send Marianne Faithfull off with her first big hit. The links above the video were provided by Franklin Harris, Jesse Walker, Gustavo Turner, Radley Balko, Lucy Steigerwald, Tim Cushing, and Mike Masnick, in that order.
- R.I.P. Marianne Faithfull.
- A library of imaginary books.
- Our Lord and Savior, Dracula.
- Was this “protecting” or “serving”?
- An empire rapidly descending into madness.
- Another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
- Google should adopt the motto, “Don’t be stupid”.
From the Archives
- Vast sums of time, money & energy, flushed down the “culture war” toilet.
- Amateurs are a public health menace who should be licensed & regulated.
- Defrauding & exploiting workers is only “trafficking” when sex is involved.
- Prohibitionists want people to wrongly think the Swedish model is decrim.
- Everyone harmed by “prostitution stings” needs to keep suing over them.
- This article on the “super bowl sex trafficking” myth is no longer unusual.
- This tells you everything you need to know about politicians’ motivations.
- I’ve always wanted a place big enough to properly host overnight guests.
- Repellent even by the abysmally-low standards of local news copaganda.
- Why can’t amateurs grasp the difference between offering & demanding?
- The government is beginning to grudgingly admit what everyone knows.
- 41% of cops admit to beating their wives; some don’t stop with beating.
- This will continue as long as screws have absolute power over prisoners.
- Another way for governments to steal things that don’t belong to them.
- Who else uses “prostitution” as a label for behavior the regime dislikes?
- Hollywood follows rather than leads, so this is a sign of a cultural shift.
- This would at last truly be the beginning of the end for these evil laws.
- AZ still pushes this mummified fantasy with police violence vs women.
- The “sex trafficking” moral panic is imploding in a spectacular fashion.
- One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- Everyone harmed by “stings” and raids needs to keep suing the cops.
- US states compete to make adolescence most like a prison sentence.
- I think we have enough evidence to start calling this “McNeill’s Law”.
- Cops, Burt Bacharach, Lisa Loring, Cindy Williams, and much more.
- Politicians claim the solution to torture in prisons is MOAR PRISON.
- It’s never called “trafficking” when the government & cronies do it.
- “Porn addiction” is still being used as an excuse for violent crimes.
- Destigmatization of psychedelics is happening amazingly quickly.
- The people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- Cops, disappointment, Melanie, Chita Rivera, and much more.
- It usually starts with sex workers, but it never stops with us.
- There’s a reason I’ve repeatedly called this cult “dangerous”.
- Once again, vanillas reveal themselves as the true perverts.
- Cops, Skynet, Debussy, Douglas Trumbull, and much more.
- A teleplay more relevant today than when it was filmed.
- The third installment of my six-part review of Blake’s 7.
- All that’s left of the once-popular “gypsy whores” myth.
- Copmala will never let go of her hatred of sex workers.
- On the psychology behind cops’ entrapment schemes.
- Yet another opportunistic fraud has been unmasked.
- This would be terrible even if the cops weren’t lying.
- Cops still love their “crackdowns” against gay men.
- My highest subscription levels come with perks!
- There is nothing as contagious as a bad idea.
- Forgetting to take pictures until it’s too late.
- It’s never really about “protecting children”.
- Authoritarian is as authoritarian does.
- You just can’t keep a bad law down.
- This has been going on for years.
- There are no gaps in this roof.
- Anyone can now join BlueSky.
- Lady Throwback Thursday.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- Lighting my atrium.
- Vanishing gumbo.
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!
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