As you can see, our turkey has grown quite a bit! She isn’t nearly as skittish as the chickens, which is quite annoying when I come to throw out scratch for them early every afternoon; she will get up right behind me while I’m getting the corn from its bin, which means when I back out of the corner I often step on her toes because she’s directly behind me (and being a literal bird-brain, she never learns it’s a bad idea to stand there). I hope it’ll be better when we expand the coop in the next few weeks, and it’ll be interesting to try her eggs when she finally starts laying. We’re actually not getting as many eggs as usual right now, but that should change once the four white pullets start laying; normally that starts in July, but remember we got these later than usual, so I expect it’ll be a couple more weeks before we start seeing those.
Archive for July, 2025
Diary #786
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset, video on July 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Links #785
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged animals, Arizona, artificial stupidity, asset seizure, cops, disease, Ethiopia, France, lawyers, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, video on July 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »
We don’t think he did anything wrong, obviously. – murderous cop’s lawyer
This has always been my favorite Connie Francis song; I love the way its sweet, slow tone masks absolutely vicious schadenfreude. The links above it were provided by Scott Greenfield, Mike Siegel, Jesse Walker, IncarcerNation, Nun Ya, Jacob Sullum, and Yasmin Nair, in that order.
- R.I.P. Connie Francis.
- Artificially stupid foods.
- This week in artificial stupidity.
- Cops love chasing victims to death.
- Artificial stupidity meets belligerent stupidity.
- Cops do to animals what they want to do to you.
- I keep warning y’all that we’re entering a new dark age.
From the Archives
- My 1st profession becomes as much a target for authoritarians as my 2nd.
- The “Facebook pimps” myth has gone from merely silly to wholly pathetic.
- Those claiming the right to control nonconsenting individuals are my foes.
- While others back away from these medieval laws, Phoenix doubles down.
- Unsurprised at the number of sleazebags who accused the doctor of lying.
- How are this guy & disgraced former Police Chief James Burke connected?
- Americans’ sick lust for torture can turn any prison into a death sentence.
- Nothing will stop those more concerned with burglars than a police state.
- “Marijuana-related” hospital visit = “visit after using cannabis that week”.
- Local media attack the same myths they eagerly spread for two decades.
- It’s striking how the sexual behavior of “pastors” resembles that of cops.
- I’m sure “anti-trafficking” crusaders will be going after this any day now.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- San Francisco pigs are unsatisfied with waiting for useful idiots’ consent.
- Beware of men who “volunteer” to be in positions of authority over kids.
- Violence against a marginalized group never stays limited to that group.
- If “official” thugs can get your data sans warrant, so can unofficial ones.
- Politicians are no longer satisfied with censoring libraries & the internet.
- If I followed up on every rapist, I wouldn’t have room for anything else.
- “Safety” has become the #1 excuse for Orwellian levels of surveillance.
- Crypto-moralists pretend their lust to ban is about “health” or “safety”.
- Cops, Robin, Richard Simmons, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and much more.
- Cops should’ve never been allowed in any doctor-patient relationship.
- People so often die mysteriously while cops just happen to be nearby.
- Ballard’s increasingly-bizarre antics upset his partners in profiteering.
- I’m skeptical this will accomplish anything, but it probably can’t hurt.
- Doctors mock cops’ fentanyl hysteria, so they want new bogeydrugs.
- Politicians now use nuisance lawsuits to circumvent the Constitution.
- Have you ever wondered what a $500 piece of pipe would look like?
- Escaped “monkey see, monkey do” parade careens all over Europe.
- I’ve always been a homebody, but now it’s even more pronounced.
- Useful idiots never see where “hate speech” laws inevitably lead.
- A law journal article demonstrating that, as usual, I was correct.
- I just can’t feel sorry for cops sexually abused by other cops.
- I fully support your right to be a bit tired of pictures of eggs.
- Your “leaders” work hard to ensure this happens more often.
- “The only actual power government has is to inflict violence.“
- Tennessee has a disturbingly high number of such incidents.
- This “youth pastor” appears to have an oddly specific fetish.
- Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet.
- Trans men are also targets of violence and discrimination.
- Rapist cops often specifically target vulnerable women.
- Curated selections of tweets from July 2023 and 2024.
- Cops, Florida, Tony Bennett, and much more.
- Apparently, fentanyl hysteria is contagious.
- Your “leaders” refer to this as “correction”.
- Cops are a menace to women of all ages.
- “Destroying lives in order to save souls.”
- Why does anyone still trust Facebook?
- This “youth pastor” had an assistant.
- The Throwback Thursday Syndrome.
- Cops, Mungo Jerry, and much more.
- My two-week trip to Freedom Fest.
- When writer’s block comes loose.
- The end of another heat wave.
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 (#1556)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Bluesky, brothels, California, Canada, Catastrophic Consequences, censorship, cops, Cops and Robbers, illegal aliens, internet, Ireland, libraries, Oklahoma, Panopticon, prohibitionist myths, propaganda, racism, surveillance, teachers, The Cop Myth, The Implosion Begins, Thought Control, United Kingdom, Welcome to Our Updates, welcome to our world, You Were Warned on July 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »
If they feel emboldened enough to do this to another [cop], imagine what they must do to assault, frame and extort regular citizens. – Julia Yoo
Catastrophic Consequences (#798)
This sleazy harassment tactic spread from Canada to Scotland to England to Ireland:
[Irish cops barged into incal]ls “in every major town and city in Ireland” as part of a major world-wide [publicity stunt to intimidate migrants using the hackneyed excuse of “]human trafficking[“. Cops bragged that] they [had] int[imidat]ed 179 sex workers in 92 [incal]ls and [also harass]ed 5,421 passengers on 37 flights at Dublin Airport over the course of just one week last month. [They thought it was bragworthy that they had managed to find] one man [to accuse of a crime after harassing 5600 innocent people whom they slandered as “]organised crime groups[“; they also stoked racism and xenophobia by specifying the national origin of all the innocent women they terrorized and infantilized as passive, vegetable-like]…victims[”]…
It isn’t only sex workers being hunted to death by armed thugs any more:
A m[igrant worker named Jaime Garcia] is on life support after he was [hunted by ICE goons until he]…fell 30 feet off a building while [fleeing for his life and freedom]…He was taken to the hospital with a broken neck and skull….and…is not expected to survive…
Safetyism is the police state’s most powerful fuel:
Last year, Oakland installed nearly 300…surveillance cameras across the city to track the movement of [anyone using an] automobile…Now, [as predicted, politicians] are taking steps to expand the reach of this…[surveillance. Pigs now want to ape San Francisco by] integrat[ing] privately owned security cameras into OPD’s surveillance system…For years, [useful idio]ts have been able to share their surveillance camera footage with OPD by registering their cameras on a city website. But [now], Oakland…[cops want to do that without the owners’ consent. Trained seals from the Useful Idiots’ Association of Oakland obediently barked “]helping solve crimes[“]…in…[support]. The privacy commission [asked] whether the expanded surveillance…could be used to furnish data to federal agencies, [even though that is already standard procedure despite]…California [supposedly banning] local jurisdictions from sharing data with [cop shops] from out of state, including federal [spook houses and goon squads]…
These crackpots get more dangerous every time we hear of them:
A…[QAnon-adjacent crackpot group] called “Veterans on Patrol” told [KWTV in Oklahoma City] that it is “targeting” Oklahoma weather radars, days after an individual vandalized [the station]’s…radar. The group, which [has previously harassed homeless people in Spokane, Washington and attacked migrants in Arizona], believe[s] weather radars control the weather…Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer, the [group’s] founder…[is not a veteran and is a fugitive from Arizona after skipping his sentencing for destroying humanitarian water stations set up for migrants]…he believes…in [both “chemtrails” and Satanic pedophiles who harvest adrenochrome from children’s blood]…Chief [KWTV] Meteorologist David Payne said that…wh[en] weather radar [is] sabotaged, “We cannot track severe weather…[such as] tornadoes”…
Canadian politicians are eager to join the Trumpist “monkey see, monkey do” censorship parade:
Alberta has issued a ministerial order to [ban] books from school libraries that [any politician points at while barfing “]sexually explicit[“]…libraries will also no longer be permitted to provide students in Grade 9 or below with [anything any politician points at while belching the mouthful “]non-explicit sexual content[“. Politician Demetrios]…Nicolaides [said]…“We believe that students should be curious, inquisitive and exploratory about…[any topic except] sex”…
The open internet is rapidly becoming a thing of the past:
Bluesky is adding age verification to its platform in the UK as part of efforts to comply with the [misnamed] Online Safety Act…the platform says it will let users verify their age by scanning their face, uploading an ID, or entering a payment card…through Kid Web Services (KWS), an Epic Games-owned tool that developers can use to implement age verification and parental controls on their platforms. If users don’t want to verify their age, or if they’re under 18, they will still be able to have an account [if they use a VPN or agree to be infantilized]…
It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other:
A…Homeland Security [goon] is suing a San Diego [pig for]…beating him in a “parking lot rage” at a California Costco, leaving him with a concussion and a dislocated shoulder…Chu Ding…was knocked unconscious by…Jonathan Ferraro…[on] July 2, 2024…then was [locked in a cage without]…food, water and medical care…for five hours…the assault st[arted]…when Ferraro [intentionally] blocked Ding…in a parking space with his truck…Ding tapped on the…truck “to let Ferraro know that he was leaving,” resulting in a violent reaction…[starting with] Ferraro [jumping out]…and call[ing] Ding a “Chinese piece of shit”…Ding’s lawsuit [also] names [a gang of other cops for conspiring with Ferraro]…to falsify an arrest report and…to try to extort an apology to justify [Ferraro’s subhuman brutality]…DHS initiated an internal investigation into Ding, who was [not] cleared of wrongdoing [until] several months later…[even though the DA dropped the bogus charges only] a week [later]…
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!
Tweet to the Beat
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Music, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged advertising, animals, BDSM, blogging, Bluesky, bogus studies, censorship, comics, consensual crime, cops, disease, drugs, Florida, Grace, hysteria, illegal aliens, imaginative fiction, infidelity, internet, Japan, language, left-right myth, libraries, politicians, Post-Christianity, prisons, prohibitionist myths, propaganda, psychology, sex work is work, Twitter, vaccines, Vietnam, Washington (state) on July 18, 2025| 1 Comment »
The world was beautiful for eons before there were self-aware eyes to appreciate it, and it will still be beautiful for eons after we are all gone. And there are countless other beautiful worlds which have never been seen, and never WILL be seen, by thinking beings.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-14T17:08:13.335Z
Intentionally conflating normal people whose lives are ruined by persecution with shameless politicians returned to prominence by a machine is a choice. A stupid or evil choice, but a choice nonetheless.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-16T17:10:38.247Z
It came from the same place as the "300,000 trafficked children being raped 100 times a day" came from: the Justification for State Violence factory.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-19T15:25:32.902Z
"Vice offenses" is a government dysphemism for "poor people enjoying the same adult pastimes as politicians".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-20T17:31:41.920Z
If the HPV vaccine had been available 20 years earlier, my beloved Grace might still be alive.Get vaccinated, while you still can.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-21T17:38:43.497Z
If you had written a satire in the 1980s or '90s where the president of the US wears a freaking BALL CAP everywhere, even in serious situations like giving formal speeches or planning goddamned WAR, critics would've said it was unrealistic.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-22T07:50:44.028Z
Actual LOL.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-23T07:57:01.365Z
PROTIP: If you can't use a word without feeling a psychological compulsion to misspell it by replacing one of its letters with "x", find a different word.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-24T16:51:07.852Z
Now if only we can get the US to abolish summary execution for misdemeanors.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-25T17:45:45.761Z
I'm not one to kink shame, but have these people no discretion? I mean really. bsky.app/profile/meid…
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-26T08:12:44.396Z
Your regular reminder that websites outside the US can ignore US law, and the only way the US can stop them is by playing an endless game of whack-a-mole.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-27T18:27:08.695Z
I've decided the proper term for ICE thugs who hide their faces & leap out of vans to abduct people is "goons". I use the venerable term "spooks" to describe most G-men, but as one born during the '60s spy craze I can't help feeling it implies a degree of cleverness completely lacking in ICE goons.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-28T18:34:21.499Z
At this point, his being made into a martyr is probably less damaging in the long run.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-29T16:53:32.222Z
I'm not one to kink shame, but maybe you should keep this between you and your dominatrix.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-30T03:19:42.645Z
His approval rating is still MUCH too high. We need to see "Mussolini's funeral" approval ratings for him and his whole gang.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-01T02:40:20.242Z
Look at the bright side; the next two or three generations will have new cartoon villains to use in fiction, so they won't have to reach all the way back to the historical German Nazis whom absolutely none of them are old enough to remember as anything BUT cartoon villains.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-02T17:59:01.208Z
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4-G…
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-03T07:57:38.253Z
No. Both used their votes to help THEMSELVES politically. The difference lies not in their motive, but in their interpretation of what kind of vote will improve their political fortunes.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-04T17:52:24.728Z
Actually, YOU don't choose which entity you're praying to; the content of your prayers does that automatically.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-05T17:16:41.634Z
Yes, that's the point.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T03:52:48.861Z
I like to think Grace was there in spirit, jamming along on a ghostly bass; Ozzy was probably her favorite musician.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T17:51:16.476Z
Trump declares that whales can fly.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-08T17:36:38.666Z
THIS. Reporters need to STOP using Trump's second-grade names for everything. STOP calling legislation that will result in millions forced into poverty and a metastasized police state as "beautiful". STOP using cutesy nicknames for concentration camps. Just fucking STOP.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-09T18:21:48.165Z
The most realistic part of this joke is Trump not knowing that $1000 bills were discontinued in 1969 and banks are required to send any they get to the Treasury to be destroyed.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-10T04:21:57.746Z
Reporters: are y'all ready to use the word "megalomania" yet?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-11T07:44:20.516Z
"What we need is not a non-volatile storage medium which is impossible to change once created, allowing dependable preservation of their contents, but rather centralized digital media which can be surreptitiously changed by 'authorities' at will, possibly without people noticing."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-12T17:08:42.978Z
It always astonishes me to see people making the equivalent argument to, "air travel, including both freight and passenger, should be a government monopoly, because billionaires."It *shouldn't* astonish me because people really are that stupid. But that's the last little pest in Pandora's box.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-13T17:27:32.516Z
Watching Trump name things has given me a new respect for the names Eternian villains choose for themselves.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-14T18:34:26.533Z
This looks like liquid fabric softener.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-15T08:15:13.976Z
The way I've explained it friends who don't live here is: "Seattle people drive on the highway as though it were a surface street; on surface streets as though they were parking lots; and in parking lots as though they were at a square dance and the caller has left the room."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T08:22:47.910Z
Guys, I keep telling y'all that seeing escorts is less expensive in the long run.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-17T19:08:26.779Z
Bram Stoker’s Throwback Thursday
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged abortion, artificial stupidity, blogging, consensual crime, cops, evidence, language, Magic Formulae, politicians, psychology, robots, scams, Twitter on July 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »
There are no magic words, practices or talismans that will ward off the evil of state violence any better than carrying a rabbit’s foot or making the sign of the cross.
– “Ward Against Evil”
Greeting to all the “criminals” the Council of Wizards created recently with a single magical proclamation. – “Welcome to the Underworld”
It’s shocking how much pro-mob rule idiocy is emitted by people burbling about the rights of minorities…which essentially don’t exist under the mob rule systems these dolts favor. – “Lazy Tweets”
Anyone who issued a “civil service officer card” to a piece of office equipment should be sacked for incompetence. – “Artificial ‘Intelligence’? (#1454)“
In the News (#1555)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged advertising, Aladdin’s Satellite, artificial stupidity, Australia, censorship, consensual crime, cops, Facebook, fascism, Google, illegal aliens, internet, It's a Start, law, Mad Libs, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, politicians, racism, scams, surveillance, The Cop Myth, The Puritan Recrudescence, Torture Chamber, Twitter, You Were Warned on July 16, 2025| 1 Comment »
We need to take back control over the tools that we use. – Mike Masnick
Let’s see if this lasts any longer in Pittsburgh than it did in New Orleans:
Pittsburgh City Council [has passed] an ordinance that would [allow cops to choose to charge]…sex work[ers with]…a [municipal] summary offense [instead of the state misdemeanor charge, which]…“can involve up to a year in jail, and…fines [of]…up to $10,000”…the m[unicipal offense would inflict]…“just a small fine similar to a traffic ticket”…[state] laws also require those charged with prostitution to show up to court, a requirement that the [optional offense under the] ordinance would do away with… the ordinance would not [remove cops’]…ability…to…charge people [with the existing state prostitution offense]…
These halfway measures are just a bone to activists; they never make a difference and never last more than a couple of years.
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1410)
Burble burble BLUE STATE burble drool:
If [politician]s in New York and Minnesota get their way, social media users will be [harassed by compelled-speech popups making nonsensical claim]s about the [supposed] toll their scrolling habits could be taking on their mental health. Legislatures in both states recently passed legislation requiring [“]warning labels[“] on social media, despite a…federal court…declaring a similar law for porn websites…unconstitutional. The Minnesota [version] says a “conspicuous mental health warning label” must appear each time a user accesses a social media platform and only disappear when the user exits the platform or [clicks a box]…The New York [version]…mandates that any social media platform that provides [typical] basic features…must display a warning label “prescribed by the commissioner of mental hygiene.” This is peak performative lawmaking [which]…lets [politicians]…pretend to be doing something to save us from the boogeyman du jour, Big Tech…In the real world, government goons telling you to put down Instagram and go touch grass would be unlikely to help even if it could pass constitutional muster—which it almost certainly won’t…
Why are people shocked when men paid and encouraged to behave violently, behave violently?
A [North Carolina cop] resigned [after] he threatened a man with [a knife] at a restaurant…and accused [his victim] of touching his daughter. Wesley Lane[‘s victim] has epilepsy, autism and an intellectual learning disability…surveillance video and witness statements [proved Lane’s excuse was full of shit]…
The subtitle above says it all:
…Starting at the end of 2025, Australians [who don’t use VPNs] will [be forced] to verify their ages when…using e[ither]…Google [or] Microsoft [Bing, which were singled out as] the two biggest search engines in the country…search engines [must otherwise “impose] tools and/or settings like ‘safe search’ functionality, at the highest [censorship] setting by default[, assuming every user]…is…an Australian child”…the measures are similar to what’s being considered for the country’s under-16 social media ban…age assurance laws like this…[are known to] be [in]effective[, but politicians don’t care because the “internet safety” theater] is [the entire point]…VPNs allow people to surf from other locations, bypassing location-specific rules…and [sites not based in Australia] may simply choose not to [infantilize their users]…
These algorithms are not only unintelligent; they are making those who use them look stupid as well:
…there’s now something of a cottage industry for writers and coders who specialize in fixing [LLM vomit]…Sarah Skidd, an American product marketing manager…was approached by an agency that urgently needed someone to redo copy…after having a…chatbot do the work to save a few bucks…she spent 20 hours redoing the copy from scratch…[which] meant her client was shelling out $2,000 for copy that likely would have ended up being far cheaper had a human just written it in the first place. With more and more companies rushing to [jump on the fake “]AI[” bandwagon] over the past few years, things are shaking out in [100% predictable] ways…Sophie Warner…of the UK-based digital marketing agency Create Designs..[ha]s been fielding more and more requests from clients to clean up [LLM vomit]…In one recent case, a client ended up going without a website for three days and having to pay Create Designs nearly $500 over a small line of code that ChatGPT had written for them…[when a human could have written] the original…[in] about 15 minutes…but [gullible fools are still buying tech advertising claims]…that [computer programs] can replace expert work…
This will continue until the evil US immigration policy is reformed:
Immigrants being [locked up] in [large closet]s in Lower Manhattan have [reported] being unable to bathe or change clothes, cramped conditions, sometimes being provided just one meal a day, and sleeping on concrete benches or the floor…[for] days at a time… “There’s no room to sit down – standing room only,” said Rebecca Rubin, an immigration attorney…[cowardly] Congress[critter]s, who for weeks have been refused entry at the site…have [merely complained rather than using their authority to enter and inspect]…The [closet]s used to be temporary holding areas where [victims of ICE] were [locked] for a few hours before being transferred to larger…[prisons]…But…in recent months, [victims] have been [packed in like sardines]…for [up to 10] days…
How to make an LLM simulate psychosis:
[Last] week, Elon Musk’s Grok [chatbot] started spewing extreme antisemitism, responding with conspiracy theories about Jewish people, and for a brief period telling people to call it “MechaHitler”. The incident perfectly illustrates why Alex Komoroske’s manifesto about the dangers of centralized AI, which we ran less than a month ago, has been making waves. When a single person controls the dials on an [LLM] system, they…inevitably will…tweak those dials to serve their own interests and worldview, not their users’. Just days [before], Elon claimed that his team had “improved Grok significantly” and that “you should notice a difference when you ask Grok questions”…People sure did notice a difference. The transformation wasn’t subtle, and it wasn’t accidental…a similar [ham-handed “improvement”] two months or so ago [resulted in] Grok bec[oming] obsessed with linking everything to [“]white genocide[“]…as the situation escalated, they [tried to fix it, but]…eventually…[had to take it] offline entirely…
From now on, house style on The Honest Courtesan will be to refer to Musk’s chatbot not by the wildly-incongruous name “Grok”, but by its self-chosen appellation “MechaHitler”.
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 #785
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, language, Sunset on July 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »
For most of the year, this is the perfect place for the animals’ water trough; it’s directly below the highest-volume downspout, not far from the stable, and it’s low enough that the pigs can drink from it as easily as the llama can. But from the beginning of June until mid-September, there isn’t enough rain to keep it full at all times, so earlier this year I hooked up a battered old hose to the faucet directly below the water tank in the utility room, and ran it through the basement to the trough. I check it two or three times a day, and when I find the water level low I turn on the spigot and fill it. But Louie has learned that on hot days, he can actually put his front feet in it and splash water all over his face and back; if the level is low enough or he’s persistent enough, he can actually empty the whole thing and invert it onto his back! I have seen him out there, looking like a tortoise with a rubber shell, but I never have my phone handy when he starts doing it. What all this means is that on hot days, I need to check it even more often because it can go from completely full to bone-dry in a relatively short time, should he decide to have a wade. And that may help those of y’all who have never lived around pigs to understand why we have given the word “pig” the metaphorical meanings we all recognize.
Bronze Age
Posted in Current Events, History, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged Childish Things, ethics, hysteria, illegal aliens, prohibitionist myths, STEM, weaponry, yellow journalism on July 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I know it’s difficult to grasp for the country that took claims of “300,000 sex trafficked children raped 100 times a day” and “invading hordes of terrorist immigrants” seriously, but there are no such things as demons. And whatever God or gods there may be clearly do not tit-for-tat “punish” entire religions, as even the most cursory examination of the historical record will attest. I’m bone-tired of having to endure stenographic “journalists” pretending that people who believe Bronze-Age myths are literally true should be taken as anything other than dangerous, deeply-stupid fanatics who can’t exceed a child’s capacity for rational thought. I love mythology, and I often use idioms drawn from it in my writing; that is not, however, the same as my arguing on national TV that COVID was a pestilence sent by Zeus for our hubris, or claiming that we need a well-funded government program to locate Níðhöggr so we can prevent the collapse of the World-tree. One thing I actually do agree with Carlson on is that nuclear weapons are much too dangerous a toy for a species largely comprised of perpetual moral and intellectual children who believe the kind of nonsense he believes, and still justify murdering and abusing each other by invoking anthropomorphic deities.
Links #784
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged acting, Alabama, animals, California, comics, cops, disease, Florida, hysteria, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, illegal aliens, imaginative fiction, Maryland, Massachusetts, politicians, racism, video on July 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The power of telling people you pray is incredible. – Josh Hawley (sort of)
Since I featured an Avengers-themed music video last week, I figured I’d do it again with one my over-40 readers may remember. The links above it were provided by Phoenix Calida; Greg Lukianoff & Franklin Harris; The Onion; IncarcerNation (x3); and Franklin Harris again, in that order.
- I’m sure you feel safer now.
- R.I.P. Jim Shooter and Michael Madsen.
- The best satire cleaves close to the truth.
- Cops murder man for selling produce while black.
- “Crime”: dark window tint. Penalty: summary execution.
- Too bad they don’t expend all their ammo on each other.
- Hey Alabama, the 1970s called and want their hysteria back.
From the Archives
- There are a few judges willing to block “monkey see, monkey do” parades.
- Was this the person who sent me the proof of Ashley Madison’s con game?
- The state’s sympathy for “trafficking victims” includes only “perfect” ones.
- Crypto-moralists want people to fear even moderate alcohol consumption.
- I’m sure they helpfully yelled “Stop faking!” at him whenever he coughed.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- Another of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- These clowns claim to be qualified to interfere in doctor-patient relations.
- While sex work is marginalized, sex workers will be targeted for violence.
- Politicians are avid devotees of cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
- A weird exception to the rule that the Japanese are sane about sex work.
- If prohibitionists want to “rescue” whores, why shut us out of other jobs?
- It’s only been 4 years since the UK lost in court the last time it tried this.
- Passive voice & obfuscation are used to divert blame for sexual assaults.
- 41% of cops admit to beating their wives; some don’t stop with beating.
- My 1st profession is now as much a target for authoritarians as my 2nd.
- Japanese politicians infantilize all adults rather than just young women.
- Mexican cops are more concerned about sex workers than US cops are.
- New tyrannies are often tested first on whores, but never stop with us.
- Clueless wonders attempt to ape antics they see on copaganda shows.
- It’s not like 2011 is ancient history, or Florida far away from Georgia.
- Cops will continue to do this until there are criminal penalties for it.
- Politicians recognize bank blacklisting when it affects their cronies.
- Politicians send violent thugs to disrupt your life because sadfeelz.
- Kansas courts aren’t allowing politicians to circumvent the voters.
- This kind of surveillance has already been found unconstitutional.
- This surveillance is only “mandatory” for adults ignorant of VPNs.
- Cops, religion, Spencer Milligan, Shelley Duvall, and much more.
- An attempt to push back the swelling tide of adult infantilization.
- There is no part of this reeking pile of shit that fails to be stupid.
- Naturally, because it’s cops’ job to cause harm, not reduce it.
- Cops, Sri Lanka, Doctor Who, Larry Storch, and much more.
- There’s a reason I’ve repeatedly called this cult “dangerous”.
- Even the distancing “former” is the same as for rapist cops.
- My twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth anniversary columns.
- The first installment of my Throwback Thursday feature.
- Cops, crypto-moralism, Balkanization, and much more.
- I was in this Hulu documentary about Ashley Madison.
- An important victory in the fight for sex worker rights.
- US sex laws are nothing but PR campaigns for cops.
- Unfortunately, this is all we could expect right now.
- Another sign that the moral panic is largely over.
- Nosy authoritarians hoist with their own petard.
- Your “leaders” want you to call this “correction”.
- Last summer’s road trip went pretty smoothly.
- All prohibitionism is the same, part umpteen.
- Words fail me in the face of such barbarity.
- A cop posing as a masseur is still a cop.
- How Cicero and Louie keep their cool.
- An awning for the paddock ramp.
- Installing the atrium chimney.
- Throwback Thursday Girl.
- Far too little, far too late.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- My recipe for crumpets.
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 (#1554)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged abortion, Aladdin’s Satellite, artificial stupidity, cops, Creepy Coppers, disease, drugs, fascism, internet, law, Mad Libs, Maryland, Pennsylvania, politicians, porn, prisons, propaganda, psychology, robots, scams, Shame Shame, The Punitive Mindset, The Vultures Descend, Torture Chamber, Wisconsin on July 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The misconception of algorithms as “intelligent” entities is a dangerous one. – Webb Wright
Another attempt to use antique laws to ban abortion is foiled:
On July 2, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled th[at]…an 1849 law…[politici]ans [were trying to use to] ban…abortion from conception to birth [does no such thing]…in 2022, abortion providers in Wisconsin stopped providing services for fear of violating the 175-year-old law, which says that “any person, other than the mother, who intentionally destroys the life of the unborn child” is guilty of a felony and subject to 15 years imprisonment unless the life of the patient is at risk. The state’s…attorney general Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit arguing the law operates only as a feticide law…and does not ban “consensual abortions”…[in addition,] the 1849 law…has been implicitly repealed by later regulations, including a measure criminalizing abortion at 20 weeks…[the] court agreed with Kaul…Justice Jill Karofsky…described the effort to apply a 175-year-old law with almost no exceptions in the present day as a sign of a “world gone mad”…
[Trump hench]man Brendan Carr has dec[re]ed t[hat] prisons and jails [can] keep…price[-gouging the families of people locked in cag]es until at least 2027, delaying implementation of rate caps approved last year…Carr…[bloviated a lot of fascist nonsense justifying] the change…[but FCC] commissioner Anna Gomez [said]…”the FCC made the indefensible decision to ignore both the law and the will of Congress…[in order to] shield…a…system that inflates costs and rewards kickbacks to c[arcer]al facilities at the expense of [caged human beings] and their loved ones”…
Why would anybody waste good money to talk to computer programs pretending to be people?
One of the tech industry’s weirder cycles of brand reincarnation has given us yet another new version of Napster: a site teeming with [cartoons of] well-lit, photogenic people smiling confidently and talking with their hands…This new version of Napster surfaced on June 25 when a Florida company formerly known as Infinite Reality, which leveraged mysterious funding to buy the Napster brand for $207 million in March and then renamed itself after that purchase, announced “Napster Companions”…[with technobabble about] “thirty psychometric parameters that make each agent distinct”…Think of this as trying to put a [pseudo-]human face on [LLM] chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude…the company’s press release says…”If an agent does not already exist, the Napster Companion platform auto-generates a new one on the fly”…Access costs $19 a month or $219 a year…and…you must click a checkbox next to [a] disclaimer [wherein you claim to “understand” that chatbots are neither intelligent nor people and have a tendency to make shit up]…
A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners:
A [victim of the] federal [government] had to have one of his…limbs partially amputated after being kept in restraints for two days. Another [cag]ed person died after being pepper sprayed and left shackled in a restraint chair for five hours. The Department of Justice Office of Inspector General…published those details…after receiving dozens of [repor]ts a year from [prisoners who] were strapped to beds or chairs for long periods of time and assaulted…BOP policy allows [deranged screws] to [ab]use restraints [in virtually any way they please as long as they belch the magic word “]disruptive[” at some point before, during, or after the torture, and pinky-swear that it wasn’t]… a method of punishment…[no] documentation [or] video or audio [of the torture is required, not]…even…medical checks of [human beings left to suffer] in restraints…there [a]re no [time] limits…and [virtually no] review of the use of restraints…
When [large language] models were tested on simulated writing from [people foolish enough to think a word-association algorithm can practice medicine], they were more likely to advise against seeking medical care if the [make-believe] writer [supposedly] made typos, included emotional or uncertain language – or was [pretended to be] female…Abinitha Gourabathina at [MIT]…used [another LLM] to help create thousands of [make-believe] patient notes in different formats and styles…includ[ing LLM imitations of] patients with limited English proficiency…health anxiety…[overly-]emotional tone or gender-neutral pronouns. The researchers then fed the [LLM output] to four [other]…LLMs…commonly used to power chatbots and told the[m]…to answer questions about whether the [make-believe] patient should manage their [make-believe] condition at home or visit a clinic…the various format and style changes made all the [large language] models between 7 and 9 per cent more likely to recommend [make-believe] patients stay home instead of getting medical attention. The models were also more likely to recommend that [make-believe] female patients remain at home, and…more likely than [actual] clinicians to change their recommendations for treatments because of [supposed] gender and [feigned] language style…
One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality:
A [Maryland cop named]…James Dodson Jr. was arrested by Pennsylvania State Police…[for] twice asking a friend [via Snapchat] to see her 11-year-old son naked in a picture or in person…he also admitted to [her that he] watch[es] child pornography…[after she reported him cops raided] Dodson’s [house] and [searched his] phones a[nd]…computers…[his boss hog used the opportunity to strut around and bloviate self-aggrandizing copaganda]…
A shortcut to LLM-induced psychosis:
…A growing number of [fools] are [mis]using…chatbots as “trip sitters”…this is a potentially dangerous psychological cocktail…while it’s far cheaper than in-person psychedelic therapy, it can go badly awry…Throngs of [nitwits] have turned to…chatbots in recent years as surrogates for human therapists…directly encouraged by some prominent figures in the tech industry, who [irresponsibly fantasize] that [word-association algorithms without consciousness] will [magically] revolutionize mental-health care…a profusion of chatbots designed specifically to help users navigate psychedelic experiences have been cropping up online…[but] experts…agree…[that] replacing human therapists with…bots during psychedelic experiences is a bad idea…[because] the basic design of large language models…is fundamentally at odds with the therapeutic process…
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