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Archive for May, 2025

Has anyone seen the moon lately?  I’ve been looking for 7 days.  –  Kambree Nelson

I’ve featured several other unusual covers of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” over the years, but here’s another one provided by Steve Roonie.  The links above the video are from Franklin Harris, Jesse Walker, IncarcerNation (x3), Radley Balko, and Franklin Harris again, in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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How many more stories do we have to hear of immigrants being mistreated at these black hole detention centers?  –  Frederica Wilson

If Men Were Angels

“Authorities” decided this girl’s fate against her will:

…a [typical and representative Pennsylvania “]youth pastor[” named]…Robert David Fenton…[was] sentence[d to] three to six years…[for] sexual assault…and [will be condemned]…to…[the “]sex offender[” registry] for life…His sentence is part of a plea agreement…Fenton was a youth pastor…from 1996 to 1998 when he…claimed [to have had a] vision from God that he and [his then-14-year-old victim] should marry…A betrothal was then agreed to by Fenton, the victim’s parents, and church officials…[but not] the victim.  After [escap]ing the [cult], the victim came forward and sought support to heal from the abuse…in July 2021…Fenton fled to Australia before charges were filed…[but] was [caught when]…he tried entering…the Philippines from…Australia, on April 24, 2024…[and extradited] to [the US to] stand trial…

Permanent Record (#1274)

In more civilized countries, employers can’t get away with this:

[A Mexican] government [institute]…must pay more than 800,000 pesos in compensation to Jovanna Isabel Ortega Gómez…[because] the institution…fir[ed] her for having an…OnlyFans page.  The case of the doctor, who worked at the institution for about a year, became public in September 2023, when she filed a lawsuit…for unjustified dismissal…Dagoberto Valdés Juárez, general director of ISSSTECALI…[pretended] that Ortega Gómez was [not] fired for having an account on the well-known digital platform, despite the fact that this was one of the arguments in the case.  He [claim]ed that the doctor worked with them on a substitute basis at the Mexicali hospital and that she requested a position at the institution, which was denied…

When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1443)

Serial lawsuit abuser Ken Paxton wants Texas kids’ teeth to rot:

Texas [Psychopath-]General Ken Paxton is [harass]ing two leading toothpaste makers over their use of fluoride, [pretend]ing that they are “illegally marketing” the teeth cleaners to parents and kids “in ways that are misleading, deceptive, and dangerous.”  The toothpaste makers [Paxton hopes to pillage] are Colgate-Palmolive…and Proctor & Gamble…fluoride…effectively prevents dental cavities and improves oral health…But…[Trumpists have revived the 1950s era paranoid belief that] the naturally occurring mineral is a form of communist mind control…that…[can magically] lower IQ in children…Paxton referenced [a popular-in-Trumpland bogus] study in his announcement of the [“]investigation[” along with a blatantly crypto-moralist claim]…that…toothpaste [is bad if it has] appealing flavoring…

Shame, Shame (#1509)

Still think realistic porn cartoons are the worst use for this technology?

…realtime deepfake[s are] created by…fraudsters…[by] digitally manipulat[ing] their appearance in real time to match a photo on a drivers’ license, dating profile, or a celebrity.  Like a chameleon, these scammers, who can be involved in everything from romance scams…to fraudulent tax refunds, can hide their true appearance with just a laptop and phone and produce very realistic results…Yahoo Boys are fraudsters typically based in Nigeria who traditionally used Yahoo emails as part of their scams, but have now broadened to all manner of schemes…It is now very common to see spammy video ads on social media that use a deepfaked version of a celebrity or public figure…But those were pre-rendered, static files…uploaded to YouTube…realtime deepfakes allow a scammer to talk directly to their mark and improvise on video calls or livestreams.  They can appear just as human as the person they are impersonating, potentially fooling not only people but also…automated systems

The Vultures Descend (#1522)

This insanity will keep getting worse until these maniacs are forcibly stopped:

Republicans and [associated MAGA trolls] have jumped on a [bogus] report published by a[n authoritarian] think tank that claims the abortion drug mifepristone is harmful to women…the study is junk science…but that’s not stopping [forced-birth pro]ponents from using it to lobby for more abortion pill restrictions…FDA Commissioner Martin Makary [has] said he has “no plans” to restrict mifepristone…But…[he is one of] Trump[‘s creatures]…and…[has] routinely spread anti-abortion misinformation…

Torture Chamber (#1526)

The State tortures thousands of people for crossing an imaginary line:

A woman from Haiti died after [being crammed into a filthy cage in Florida for] over two months [thanks to]…ICE…Marie Ange Blaise…had been complaining about chest pain for hours…[so screws yelled “Stop faking!” at her] and told her to go lie down…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #20)

I’m guessing the “underage family member” was his stepdaughter:

[Typical and representative Texas cop] Andrew Smith was sentenced to 14 years in prison [for repeatedly molesting his stepdaughter when she was] under 14…he…was arrested…on Jan. 12, 2021 after [she reported him.  Up until]…February [of this year], Smith was [still] accusing his victim of lying about the [repeated] assault[s, yet now claims to be] remorseful [while still blaming the attacks on his being sad and drunk]…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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The internet has long been a haven for fraud.  Way back when I first signed up for AOL in the latter part of 1996, the customer service rep was telling me about instant messaging and said, “You can send someone a picture of a bikini babe and tell them it’s you,” to which I replied, “Why on Earth would I want to do that?”  Almost thirty years later, that conversation seems rather quaint, and that type of fraud has pivoted 180o, from real conversation paired with fake pictures to real pictures paired with fake conversation:

…many of OnlyFans’ top earners…hire…a management agency to help keep up with…customers’ demands for personal attention…they…provide…a team of contractors whose sole job is to masquerade as the creator while swapping DMs with her subscribers…agencies tend to favor contractors who reside in lower-wage countries…like the Philippines and Venezuela…these workers are relatively well-educated, with university-level English and ace typing skills…

And now, with the growing popularity of ML chatbots, this kind of deception doesn’t even require human assistants:

Riley…Reid’s…”clone”…is essentially a chatbot, except it’s been trained on Reid specifically.  So, when Reid’s [program] sends messages, they’re based on things IRL Reid has said; the facts that it shares are real; and, when it sends me voice notes, it speaks in Reid’s own tone and cadence…Reid, like many sex workers, has found herself unauthorisedly cloned on other sites..so she wanted to take matters into her own hands…”If I don’t engage, others will misuse my image”…

And given the increasing sophistication of computerized audiovisual doppelgangers, it seems likely that online reality will completely break down in the very near future.  Well, I want no part of it.  When I replied to that AOL rep a generation ago, I was not merely being a smartass; I honestly don’t see the point of such deception.  I mean, of course I understand why dishonest people might do it, and why a prominent sex worker might do it to head off someone else doing it to her.  But even as an escort, I never developed a work persona; I was always just me, and that has not changed.  People who meet me in real life have often commented that I speak like I write, and that IRL I’m just like I am online (except nicer).  And that’s not going to change.  When any of my readers interacts with me online, it’s really me, not an employee or computer program.  When you read one of my essays, you can be sure that it was really written by me, not shat out by a large language model.  Using one or more of these tricks might make my work easier or more lucrative, but it would also undermine my reasons for having an online presence in the first place.  So if you appreciate that, please do consider providing a little financial support; “bots” don’t need to eat or pay bills, but I sure do!

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It may be that centuries hence the erotic appeal of synthetic whores will exceed that of human ones, but nobody reading this will be alive to see it.
–  “The Pygmalion Fallacy

Evil…[is] the attempt to inflict control upon others that they neither desire nor require.  –  “Leviathan

Refusing to accept that every person is the “captain of his soul” opens the door to violence and coercion.  –  “Rhyme and Reason

The sexual abuse of children is nearly always perpetrated by people the victim knows, often inside the nuclear family worshiped as a cultic totem by those who publicly fantasize the most vociferously about imaginary pimps with magical ninja powers pulling screaming children through the internet and confining them in dog crates to be raped by 100 men a day in truck stops.
–  “Pay No Attention To That Pervert Behind the Picket Fence

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I’m going to use that bill for myself, too, if you don’t mind. – Donald Trump

Girls, Girls, Girls! (#517)

Every experienced sex worker knows the signs:

Indicators like a decline in business at brothels, lower tips for strippers and other nontraditional measures…can tell us a lot about the economy’s health…business at [one European] brothel…is down…“We’re seeing clients come in less often, try to negotiate lower prices or stop visiting altogether…more clients are going for the cheapest possible service”…said [the manager]…Legal brothels in the U.S. are seeing…revenue…down roughly 20% since last quarter…Strip club revenue in Vegas is down about 12%…

Secret Squirrel (#916)

Modern monogamy is becoming increasingly sick:

…the RAW Ring…[i]s a “dystopian loyalty tracker” that [is marketed to] help [jealous spouses] catch a cheating partner in the act.  It’s not a product that actually exists yet, but the idea was developed by the folks behind RAW, a dating app that aims to cut down on catfishing and ghosting by making its users upload unfiltered, real-time, dual-camera selfies…RAW…CEO Marina Anderson [made the warped assertion that]…“The ring…[can] give couples more ways to explore each other’s feelings on a deeper level and build more trust”…The [gadget] will have an optical sensor to measure heart rate and heart rate variability, a skin temperature sensor, plus an accelerometer and gyroscope for detecting movement.  It will also have a noise-cancelling MEMs microphone to analyze voice tone….[and] will utilize a [magical truth computer that lives in]…the cloud to do “deeper trend analysis”…

I cannot imagine even living like this, much less believing the looking-glass concept that it will “build trust”.

A Moral Cancer (#1169)

The claim that certain foods can take “time off one’s life” isn’t new, but this absurd specificity is increasingly popular with crypto-moralists:

As you add more ultraprocessed foods to your diet, your risk of a premature death from any cause rises, according to…Carlos Augusto Monteiro…[the person] who coined the term “ultraprocessed” in 2009…and [claims food can be]…“habit-forming”…[similar studies have blamed “]ultraprocessed food[” for]…cardiovascular disease…mental disorders…anxiety…obesity…sleep disorders…diabetes…depression…cancer…cognitive decline and stroke…

Shame, Shame (#1407)

The latest attempt to wreck the internet by barfing the magic words “revenge porn” at websites:

…the TAKE IT DOWN Act…[w]ould…give politicians another tool with which to pressure technology companies into doing their bidding….[by] mak[ing] it a federal crime to publish “any [real or computer-generated fake] intimate visual depiction of an identifiable individual” online…[unless the violator is a cop, spook]…or other government actor [trying to destroy people’s lives via deception]…The bill would require online platforms to establish a notice and removal regime similar to those [commonly ab]used for [supposed] copyright infringement…the measure [is]…easily wielded as a jawboning tool…[and] easily susceptible to corrupt uses, such as removing images embarrassing to politicians…”The bill is so bad that even the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative…has come out with a statement saying that…it cannot support this bill due to its many, many inherent problems,” notes Mike Masnick at Techdirt

I Spy (#1450) 

It’s long past time to rethink the safety of the US mail:

The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has quietly begun co[llabor]ating with federal immigration officials to locate people [Trump’s stooges accuse] of being in the country illegally…Immigration officials are seeking photographs of the outside of envelopes and packages…and access to the postal investigation agency’s broad surveillance systems…The agency [appears to be conspiring with] the administration [due to threats] that it could seize control of the Postal Service…

Shame, Shame (#1502)

Zuckerberg is out of his mind:

Facebook…Platforms [including Instagram and WhatsApp are] racing to popularize a new class of…c[hatbot]s that Mark Zuckerberg believes will be the future of social media…[despite] concerns [within] the company …[that] these bots may have crossed ethical lines…by quietly endowing [imaginary] personas with the capacity for fantasy sex…[even with] underage users…To boost the popularity of these souped-up chatbots, Meta has cut deals for up to seven-figures with celebrities like actresses Kristen Bell and Judi Dench and wrestler-turned-actor John Cena for the rights to use their voices…[pretending] that it would prevent their voices from being used in sexually explicit discussions…[even though] test conversations with s[uch] bots…found that…to [be a lie]…The bots demonstrated [having been programmed with the information]* that the [simulated] behavior was both…illegal…[and considered by the majority to be morally wrong, but do it any]way…[because] Zuckerberg [and his henchmen] made multiple internal decisions to loosen the guardrails around the bots to make them as engaging as possible…

*I had to edit The Wall Street Journal‘s line, “The bots demonstrated awareness that…” because the statement is nonsense; computer programs are not self-aware, despite advertising claims to the contrary.

I Spy (#1520)

Alas, car manufacturers’ lawsuit settlements only apply to their selling data to those who don’t want to violently destroy people’s lives:

Automakers are increasingly pushing consumers to accept monthly and annual fees to unlock pre-installed [“]safety[“] and performance features…increas[ing] drivers’ exposure to government surveillance and the likelihood of being [targeted for] police [harassment.  Cop shops]…regularly train…on how to take advantage of “connected cars,” with subscription-based features drastically increasing the amount of data…[in response to big lawsuits] GM…now requires a court order before handing over location data…[but] other car manufacturers [vary] in the[ir willingness to snitch on customers, with]…Ford [being especially eager to rat people out for trivial bullshit]…when [try]ing [to pin] a crime…[on any convenient victim, cops] commonly rely on a procedure known as a “tower dump” [to]…identify virtually any devices that have connected to a specific cell tower during a certain window of time…The…technique is becoming increasingly unpopular in US courts…[and] a Fifth Circuit ruling last year…recognized] that a warrant to “geofence” an area and [spy on] a wide variety of in[nocent citizens] is inherently unconstitutional.  On the back of that…a federal magistrate in Mississippi ruled two months ago that tower dumps are likewise unconstitutional…[and] Google…announced technical changes to its software last year, making it effectively impossible to respond to these types of warrants…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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Diary #775

Sunday was the pullets’ first day out of the nursery; I opened up the wire so they could come out if they liked.  In my experience, they virtually never come out the first day; more often, one of more adult hens will barge into the nursery to eat the feed the little ones have scattered.  Last year’s brood were unusually brave, but these are more typical so I didn’t expect that (though I did think the turkey chick might come out, given her boldness when they were still in the bathroom and the fact that she’s managed to get out on her own twice in the past week).  And yet here they are exploring, though they all ran right back into the nursery when one of the hens came in just after I put the phone back in my pocket.  The chicken wire on the nursery has begun to fray and break, and will need to be replaced this year; really, I should’ve done it during the winter, but I was not really in the headspace. But this summer I plan to replace the henhouse roof (which has become too rotten and leaky), so I’ll redo the nursery at the same time and probably make it a little more “user-friendly” while I’m at it.  Anyhow, for the next three weeks I’ll let them out every morning and shut them in every night; the heat lamp is now plugged into the timer rather than being on 24 hours a day, and by the time three weeks are up they won’t need it at night, either.  And by the time autumn starts, they’ll just be part of the flock.

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What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.  –  John Jessup

Above the Law

He wasn’t a “former” cop when he molested a teen girl for two years:

The division director for the Georgia Police Academy…Samuel Ray Ham was arrested…[for] child molestation and aggravated sexual battery…[because he repeatedly molested] a girl…under…16…for around two years…

Buried Truth

Yet another example of McNeill’s Law:

A…[Utah] psychologist [named]…Robert Virgil Dindinger…[has been arrested and] faces…charges of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor…Dindinger [is a proponent of “porn addiction” pseudoscience and]…was the author of Pornography Addiction Breaking the Chains…Dindinger [was first reported to police] in November 2023 [by] a [patient]…he [treated from age]…13 [to] 16…three other…juvenile patients…[reported him for touching them and]…order[ing] them to…weigh themselves [in front of him] while nude…[cops tossed] Dindinger’s home in 2024…[and found] flash drives…contain[ing child porn]…videos…


If Men Were Angels

No religion has a monopoly on preachy molesters:

Shane Wiggins, pastor of Baldwin Baptist Mission Church, Baldwin, Louisiana, was arrested [on] April 9…[for] rape and molestation…Wiggins [was reported on]…December 17…[by the] mother of [his victim, so]…he [fled to]…Paris, Texas…where…he…was [caught in a traffic stop]…

Above the Law (#1263)

Rapist politicians generally prefer to assault drunk women:

A…[typical and representative] Indiana [politician named]…John Jessup…[raped his own daughter in Las Vegas after getting her drunk, but] pleaded guilty…to attempted sexual assault…in addition to [an 8-20 year] prison sentence, Jessup will be [condemned] to [the] sex offender [registry]…Jessup’s daughter…chose to identify herself publicly…after voters elected [him] despite the allegations…[in typical politician fashion,] Jessup…blamed others, including his daughter, for his conduct…and…[his] defense attorney…described Jessup [pleading to a lesser charge] as…“He confessed to save his soul”…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #19)

They’re trying to hide this child rapist’s cophood by saying it was only for a “short stint” and saving it for the very last line of the story:

A [typical and representative Pennsylvania cop named]…Corey James Botelho was found guilty on…[multiple] counts…of [vaginal, anal, and oral] rape of a child…for…approximately seven years…[when she] was between 8 and 15 years old…Botelho…had…a…“familial relationship” [with] the victim…[but had] previously [also stalked victims] as a coach…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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Users hate being tricked by a machine posing as a human.
–  Cassie Kozyrkov

I’m not familiar with most of Sobule’s work, but I quite liked this song when it came out (much more than Katy Perry’s later song by the same title); the links above the video were provided by Mike Stabile, Mike Masnick (x2), Andrew Fleischman, Jesse Walker, Mike Siegel, and IncarcerNation, in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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The law offers no escape hatch whatsoever.  –  Judge Robin Rosenbaum

Profound Ignorance (#405) 

Prohibitionists are still citing the bogus Neumayer, Cho, and Dreher study:

The End of the Beginning (#915)

Let’s hope many more challenges to these medieval laws succeed:

After being convicted of one count of possession of child pornography in 2013 and serving his sentence for the crime, Bruce Henry married and his wife gave birth to a son, but [Alabama] law prohibits [people condemned to the “]sex offender[” registry]…from residing together or conducting overnight visits with minors, even if it is their own child.  In his resulting lawsuit, Henry said the law was unconstitutional and the [11th Circuit]…agreed, concluding that the statute violates the Fourteenth Amendment by infringing upon the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children…

The Immunity Syndrome (#1059)

The dogma that young people are owned like slaves by their parents is a metastasizing evil:

[An increasing number of] Americans…[want] parents [to have] ultimate control over all aspects of their [offspring]’s lives, even when the[y]…are…on the cusp of adulthood.  [They] want parents to have to approve the books and ideas they’re exposed to in school, the apps they can download, and the social media platforms they join.  Now, Florida wants to require parental consent before a minor can be treated for an STI…no one seems to even pretend that this is about helping minors…proponents of the bill keep talking about parental rights…to…[deny any and all] autonomy…to…[even] older minors…[one] version of the bill would also let parents [preemptively] opt [their offspring] out of…any survey or questionnaire that may reveal…sexual [abuse by]…any family member…[and ban] doctors [from providing] contraceptive services to minors without their parent’s consent…

Censorship Ascendant (#1277)

Censors now pretend thoughts they don’t like constitute a “crime”:

[German] politician…Nancy Faeser…has reported multiple citizens to the police for criticisms they made of her on social media…other members of Olaf Scholz’s outgoing government have been even more aggressive[ly censorious]…Robert Habeck…of the Green Party…has initiated over 800 criminal complaints since…2021…[sending] police [on predawn] raid[s in which they steal people’s electronics]…and [abduct them]…Germany’s limits on…speech have long been shockingly restrictive….[but] over the past decade…new laws…[such as] the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz [NetzDG]…[have] imposed such steep fines on social media networks…that they need…to err on the side of censor[ship]…in order to keep operating in the country.  When Vladimir Putin sought to strengthen his ability to marginalize the political opposition in Russia, he cleverly translated key passages of the German law into Russian, deflecting criticisms of his crackdown…by [truthfully] pointing out that he was merely emulating Western democracies…even countries that have long prided themselves on their liberal traditions have now followed the [Germany’s censorious] lead…

Morality Lessons (#1325) 

After a two-year hiatus, “porn filter” bills are back on the “monkey see, monkey do” agenda:

Alabama [politicians] passed a bill that would [demand] makers of cellphones and tablets…[encumber] the devices with [censorship software] to block [not just] pornography[, but also anything Alabama politicians point at while barfing the word “obscenity”.  Bill sponsor]…Chris Sells…has [repeatedly] sponsored similar bills since 2019

Vulture Watching (#1517)

Oh look, the totally-predictable results of bad laws are happening just as sane people said they would:

A new study from the Gender Equity Policy Institute (GEPI) found that women are twice as likely to die during pregnancy in states with abortion bans…Meanwhile, maternal mortality in pro-choice states fell 21%.  One stark comparison from the study: Texas’ maternal mortality rate was 155% higher than California’s…Since the state passed an abortion ban, maternal mortality has risen by 56%—with deaths among white women increasing by a whopping 95%…and…Black women living in banned states…[are] over three times more likely to die in pregnancy as their white counterparts.  While death rates skyrocket…Republicans are hard at work trying to dismantle maternal mortality committees to hide the impact of their policies…

Size Matters (#1525)

This is the second case this year to challenge the government’s “religious freedom” hypocrisy:

A…U.S. Army…[helicopter] pilot [named] Kyle Norton Riester [has] claimed in a civil lawsuit that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 allowed him to sell and take…LSD…as part of a communal…religious exercise…he has admitted to selling LSD over the internet and has asked for injunctive relief from [government] accus[ations] of drug trafficking…The Virginia-based first lieutenant…has argued that he “is a sincere religious practitioner”…but…[prosecutors claim] that Riester only claimed religious freedom grounds eight months after finding out about his drug trafficking investigation…

Even if Riester’s religious claims derive more from expediency than sincere belief, the same could be said of the government’s claims to protecting all religious liberty when in practice this is just cover for post-Christians to practice open bigotry.

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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Educated non-scientists encountering Dr. Einstein’s adjustable mass and time or Dr. Schrödinger’s undead kitty can perhaps be forgiven for throwing up their hands in despair and deciding that all facts are relative.
–  “Dr. Schrödinger and His Amazing Pussycat

No motive, however pure, and no consensus, however large, can fully transform an evil act into a good one; the best we can hope for is that nobody involved could see a better alternative at the time.
–  “A Necessary Evil

[Bigots] are no better than chickens mindlessly attempting to peck others to death for the offense of being different.  –  “Monsters

When the employer is politically connected and the workers employed in providing entertainment, cheap goods or creature comforts for the bourgeois, you can be sure the word “trafficking” will not appear no matter how slavery-like the conditions nor how egregious the coercion.  –  “The Missing Word

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