I’m not sure why Amazon decided people who send gifts from others’ wishlists don’t need to be thanked, but that’s exactly what it has done. It used to be possible to send a sender a “Thank You” email, which may be superfluous if the sender and recipient know each other in real life, but is very important to those of us who receive gifts from those who admire our work online. For several years now, though, I had noticed that though it was still possible to send such a message, the gift sender rarely received it. Then some months ago I realized it was no longer possible to even send one; when I got three anniversary gifts recently, I decided to dig through the “wishlist help” to see if they’d merely hidden the function in some submenu somewhere. But no; I soon found a clear statement that it was not possible to send it at all. So I really hope the readers who sent me a DVD of Sinners, a collection of four Kurt Vonnegut novels, and The Lensman Anthology, all see this and accept my thanks for your generosity; I never want anyone to think I take such gifts for granted, even if Amazon believes such respect for one’s audience is somehow outmoded.
Archive for July, 2026
Diary #838
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, tagged imaginative fiction, internet, Presents, psychology on July 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Bluebird
Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged adolescence, animals, blogging, Bluesky, dehumanization, fantasy, fascism, Google, holidays, illegal aliens, internet, language, left-right myth, libraries, politicians, propaganda, psychology, racism, robots, sporting events, surveillance, Thanatopsis, Turkey, Twitter, Vermont, Washington DC on July 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I used to try to explain when a young or pre-menopausal woman makes some sort of confident statement about what she will be like post-menopause. Now I just shrug and say, "You'll find out soon enough."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-17T17:21:31.990Z
It's always amusing to me when a paywall demanding I provide my personal information is followed almost immediately by a popup admitting they will sell that information to anybody who wants it.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-18T18:46:19.972Z
"Mmmm, a meat-free savoury loaf!" said no hungry person ever.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-19T18:57:53.004Z
The best part of this algae bloom is, it only needs to stay in place for two more weeks from today to achieve maximum humiliation value for Trump and the whole MAGA movement. After the 4th, it can vanish overnight; what will be remembered is the perfect metaphor for the semiquincentennial.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-20T17:51:22.612Z
5 million djinn and imps working 24/7 can build Baghdad in ≈ 6 months. Now just imagine what the world looks like when we have 10 billion of them by 800. Now imagine the year 1000. Amazing abundance for all!
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-21T17:27:00.933Z
I don't generally call attention to toxic filth from Twitter, but if you're still on Twitter at all you may want to look up this sewer outlet which calls human beings "farm equipment" just for the pleasure of blocking it.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-23T17:52:42.652Z
"It’s Donald Trump’s violent, pawing need, not to win, but to be *seen* to have won. To see *himself* as a winner or, when observable reality disagrees, to declare war on reality. It’s the president’s shrieking demand that everyone else join him in waging war upon a mirror."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-24T16:58:10.225Z
Why are the US media and Democratic politicians so averse to recognizing that SCOTUS judges can be impeached?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-25T18:01:45.727Z
A new dimension of "throwing like a girl".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-28T03:27:07.509Z
This is actually a good way to deal with drive-by commenters on social media."This is stupid!""OK."They don't know how to continue when you refuse to give them the theatrical conflict they crave.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-28T18:12:37.049Z
Maybe they're all ninjas, disguising themselves by becoming blades of grass.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-28T18:06:43.769Z
Musk is a Bond supervillain. Zuckerberg is a Batman supervillain.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-30T07:37:56.774Z
Well come ON! If you looked like that, you'd be depressed, too.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-01T17:52:32.638Z
THANK YOU.It's rare to see *anyone* who grasps this nowadays, even though it's right there in the name of the movement.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-02T17:43:57.214Z
The Trump regime keeps people from entering the US "because of who they are" all the time.Monkey see, monkey do.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-04T17:43:32.766Z
Without a doubt, it would have to be the guy who said that any female character in a fantasy story with extraordinary powers was a "Mary Sue".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-06T19:08:47.786Z
Another American institution destroyed by private equity: http://www.salon.com/2026/07/03/h…
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-07T17:02:26.485Z
As a former reference librarian, I can tell you what people did before Google. (HINT: it wasn't sitting around helplessly wishing for the information.)
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-08T07:57:06.570Z
I spoke with Mitch McConnell for twenty minutes this morning. He told me he had meddled in things that man must leave alone.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-09T08:13:53.616Z
Reminds me of this argument which anyone who knew teen boys in the late '70s & early '80s will remember:Boy 1: Rob Halford is not gay!Boy 2: Dude, he's gay. Look at his costumes.Boy 1: Leather is tough, not gay!Boy 2: What about gay leather dudes?Boy 1: They stole that from bikers!Boy 2: …..
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-11T18:16:55.618Z
Every so often the very first tweet I see from someone is so absolutely, moronically authoritarian, I block them instantly to spare myself from ever seeing another violently-stupid utterance from them.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-12T17:12:55.939Z
"Verify your age"Fuck you! In my day, computers didn't talk back or make demands. And we watched TV by attaching the set to an antenna.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-13T17:03:24.239Z
So very many words to say, "I don't understand the concept of hubris and anyone who tries to explain it to me is Satan."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-14T17:41:15.926Z
"The alternative would be to admit that we as a nation have done what we have in fact done, which is install a demented narcissistic madman as president."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-15T17:58:14.068Z
Partisanism is a form of brain rot. Today's example: claiming the increasingly-totalitarian Trump regime is "anti-government".If Trump's metastasizing police state is "anti-government", I shudder to think what a "pro-government" regime would look like.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-16T17:03:55.420Z
People used to think I was kooky for refusing to eat green, leafy vegetables and uncooked or undercooked food.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-18T03:39:10.780Z
My favorite Sanders tell is how his refrain used to be blaming "millionaires and billionaires" for everything until someone correctly pointed out that SANDERS is a millionaire, at which point he switched to just blaming "billionaires".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-19T16:53:53.906Z
Links #837
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged cops, video on July 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Generative AI doesn’t generate information; it generates words. – Hannah Cyrus
This very impressive cover was called to my attention by Radley Balko, who also supplied “pope”. The other links above the video were provided by Mike Siegel; Tracy Quan; Ryan Marino and Stephen Lemons; Nun Ya; IncarcerNation; and Mike Masnick, in that order.
- Metaphor alert.
- Librarians vs. slop generators.
- R.I.P. Martha Ann Lillard and Louise Lasser.
- Maggie admitted to herself, “I like this pope”.
- Good riddance to bad rubbish, Catholic edition.
- Cops sic dog on helpless man, then leave him to die.
- The BBC appears to be re-assigning Doctor Who writers.
From the Archives
- Canadian politicians join the “monkey see, monkey do” censorship parade.
- The “Facebook pimps” myth has gone from merely silly to wholly pathetic.
- While others back away from these medieval laws, Phoenix doubles down.
- It isn’t only sex workers being hunted to death by armed thugs any more.
- How are this guy & disgraced former Police Chief James Burke connected?
- Americans’ sick lust for torture can turn any prison into a death sentence.
- “Marijuana-related” hospital visit = “visit after using cannabis that week”.
- This sleazy harassment tactic started in Canada and has reached Ireland.
- Local media attack the same myths they eagerly spread for two decades.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- Beware of men who “volunteer” to be in positions of authority over kids.
- Let’s see if this lasts any longer in Pittsburgh than it did in New Orleans.
- 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.
- People who believe Bronze-Age myths are dangerously-stupid fanatics.
- Cops, Robin, Richard Simmons, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and much more.
- Cops should’ve never been allowed in any doctor-patient relationship.
- Ballard’s increasingly-bizarre antics upset his partners in profiteering.
- 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.
- Why are people shocked when men paid to behave violently, do so?
- These crackpots get more dangerous every time we hear of them.
- This will continue until the evil US immigration policy is reformed.
- A law journal article demonstrating that, as usual, I was correct.
- The stupidity of algorithms also applies to those who use them.
- It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other.
- Curated selections of tweets from July 2023, 2024, and 2025.
- 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.
- The open internet is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Connie Francis, and much more.
- Rapist cops often specifically target vulnerable women.
- Safetyism is the police state’s most powerful fuel.
- Cops, Florida, Tony Bennett, and much more.
- Your “leaders” refer to this as “correction”.
- Cops are a menace to women of all ages.
- How to make an LLM simulate psychosis.
- Burble burble BLUE STATE burble drool.
- Why does anyone still trust Facebook?
- The Throwback Thursday Syndrome.
- Bram Stoker’s Throwback Thursday.
- When writer’s block comes loose.
- The end of another heat wave.
- The subtitle says it all.
- A pig in the trough.
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 (#1656)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, cops, Enshittification, Facebook, Google, internet, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, porn, psychology, rape, Shame Shame, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, The Cop Myth, To Molest and Rape, Twitter on July 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »
This technology is a free, easily accessible weapon put into the hands of the worst people in the world. – “Jane Doe 4”
It’s only a year since Zuckerberg was forced by public outcry to cancel this:
[Facebook has] launched its inaugural [CGI] model…in…[an] effort to compete with the likes of…GPT Images…and Google’s [moronically-named] Nano Banana 2 in the [slop] race [to the bottom]. The new model, called Muse Image, [has been embedded like a tick] into the Instagram app…public Instagram profiles are now automatically opted into being [slop] fodder for [strangers. In a typical display of cluelessness, Zuckerberg is trying to sell this as a good thing]…If you want to avoid [your personal pictures being turned into creepy cartoon porn], you’ll have to dig into the app’s settings…
Facebook has already backed down (again) after being threatened with lawsuits from celebrities’ agents.
Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#1550) 
Blaming bad behavior on an imaginary “addiction” is the opposite of admitting responsibility:
A Philadelphia man who planted hidden cameras inside public bathrooms on the Ocean City Boardwalk was sentenced to five years of probation…Harold Perkins…will be required to…undergo…mental counseling, hav[e] no [unsupervised] contact with children…and receiv[e] treatment for sexual addiction [even though there is no such thing]…
It won’t be long until Google becomes completely useless:
For decades, publishers have done everything in their power…to rank as highly in Google Search as possible…[because] traffic from the search engine was their single greatest source of audience and, as a result, revenue. Now though, a handful of influential players in the digital media ecosystem have begun…laying the groundwork for what was once unthinkable: removing themselves from Google Search…Beginning Sept. 15, all new websites signing up for Cloudflare…will have the default settings…set to block “multi-purpose crawlers”…mean[ing] that any crawler that scrapes for both search indexing and [chatbot] training will be turned away at the door, unless the site owner decides otherwise…the primary, unnamed target of this action is Google, which infamously uses one crawler to both index sites and train its [chatbots]…forc[ing] publishers to make an impossible choice: They either allow…Google to scrape their content to…regurgitat[e] their data [in “AI summaries”] without compensation; or they shut off both functions and disappear from Google Search…
Warrantless surveillance is abusive by its very nature:
A…Milwaukee [cop who was supposedly] investigating a [crony]’s misuse of…Flock license plate reader[s actually]…misus[ed] it himself…Tehrangi Chapman…[ab]used the technology to stalk a victim and [her] family…and a[lso hid] a GPS device on [her] vehicle…[but the] audit…which…[exposed] Josue Ayala…[also] revealed…Chapman[‘s abuse despite his attempts to cover up by entering]…“test” and “training” [in the] justification [field]…
Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:
A…[typical and representative] NYPD [cop named]…Joshua Acosta…was a[rrested and]…charged…with…rap[ing a minor relative repeatedly over a five year period, starting when she was under 13, but NYPD thought the most important piece of]…information was [that he wasn’t wearing his magical clown suit at the moment of penetration]…
There is only one way to stop this: aggressive prosecution of Elon Musk:
…a proposed class action lawsuit [against MechaHitler has now been] expanded…[because Elon Musk is] shielding child predators by obstructing police investigations into [MechaHitler]-generated child [porn]. In March, a girl’s stepfather [killed himself] after cops discovered that he had used [MechaHitler] to create 7,000 sexually explicit images using one photo taken when his stepdaughter was 11 years old…[including] extreme images depicting incest and rape…the c[hatbot]’s child safety system only intervened after the man input a prompt for “gang rape”…which alerted [NCMEC]. Yet [even]…then…[Musk] repeatedly refused to help cops or NCMEC identify the user, [instead]…“obstruct[ing] this investigation at every turn”. Eventually, the stepfather was arrested…and…two days after…release…on bail, he shot himself…A[pparent]ly, [Musk] avoids sharing this information to prioritize profits over child safety…and [pretends the] child sex images [do not exist]…In addition to adding more victims…lawyers also added Stability AI as a defendant…[because its] model…“serve[s] as the basis for…‘nudify’ apps” [including MechaHitler]…
Cops and “journalists” conspire to hide a murderer’s identity and culpability:
A [New Hampshire cop murdered his neighbor]…Jack Hutchings…[in the street in front of]…his young children…[cops are hiding the identity of] the [murderer and are trying to work out a way to pretend it was]…self-defense…
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!
Tattletales
Posted in Current Events, Tyranny, tagged adolescence, agency denial, cops, ethics, law, psychology, surveillance, teachers on July 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »
As a weird kid of the ’70s, I advise the weird kids of today not to trust any of your secrets to any adult who is an “authority” of any kind: not teachers, not clergy, not doctors or therapists. If you want adult guidance, you need to find a cool, wise adult who cannot be compelled by law to tattle. When I was a teen this was an easier decision to make, in a way; most adult authority-figures just spouted the party line, and very few pretended to be trustworthy people a troubled teen could confide in. Plus, even if one guessed wrong about an adult’s discretion, there were no “compelled snitch” laws, so unless the wrongly-trusted adult was a complete asshole it was usually OK. But teens of today live in a metastasizing surveillance state, and any adult in an position of authority can be threatened with violence and the destruction of their entire professional future if they refuse to aid governmental snooping into your private affairs. I’m sorry my generational cohort failed y’all like this. But if you have shitty parents, you’re going to have to assume that EVERYONE in loco parentis will be equally shitty. You will need to find that rare specimen, an adult who respects your self-ownership. And they can almost never be found in institutions.
The Invasion of Throwback Thursday
Posted in Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged blogging, Bluesky, ethics, left-right myth, psychology, Twitter, Washington (state) on July 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »
In the News (#1655)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, Blunt Instrument, brothels, California, censorship, Censorship Ascendant, China, cops, domestic violence, Enshittification, Facebook, Google, illegal aliens, language, License To Rape, Maryland, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, politicians, propaganda, psychology, rape, robots, scams, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, teachers, The Cop Myth, The Last Shall Be First, transgender, Twitter, violence vs. sex workers, Welcome to the Future on July 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Language is one of the things making us human and all of a sudden a mediator is stepping into that process. – Sandra Wachter
If this doesn’t horrify you, you might be a useful idiot:
Two teens who engaged a Waymo car for an afternoon of carousing were…[robotically] delivered…to the San Mateo police. The 15-year-olds allegedly were drinking alcohol and shooting water beads from a toy gun as they rode…Waymo stopped the car in a parking lot[, locked the doors,] and [called the cops on them]…Waymo cars have interior cameras…monitored by the company’s employees [or a computer]…
Some people seem to think this is OK because the teens were acting like idiots, but if a robot car can trap riders and deliver them to the cops for one reason, it can do the same for any other reason the corporation chooses or is compelled by law to implement. And if you think those internal cameras won’t soon have facial recognition capability, or that monitoring them won’t eventually be handed to chatbots, please send me $10,000 and I’ll sell you the secret of personal teleportation.
Cops raping whores is so ubiquitous, others pose as cops to facilitate rape:
A Maryland man [nam]ed…Bryan Neal Gordon…arranged to meet a [sex worker]…on June 28…[but] once [she] was in his car [he] claimed to be a…[cop], handcuffed her, and…sexually assaulted her. She escaped after several hours and called the police…[who] arrested [Gordon the next morning]…for [trying the same thing again with another] woman…
The feds were framing [a rather ordinary raid against a massage parlor] as a blow against “the most violent criminal aliens.” In reality, they locked up a middle-aged immigrant woman for employing sex workers at her massage business without ratting them out to immigration authorities.
The Last Shall Be First (#1592)
Another attempt to reduce legal minors to chattel without any personal rights:
New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte just signed legislation requiring schools to out transgender students to legal guardians. The new state law effectively reverses a 2024 state Supreme Court decision that upheld students’ right to privacy…and…requires state-credentialed educators to respond to parents’ written inquiries…even if a student asks for the matter to be kept confidential or fears for their own safety at home…
If you thought Google spellcheck “correcting” properly-used words was bad:
[Chatbots] are twisting online messages…in ways that could snowball to reshape [the] opinion[s of people who cannot think for themselves] …the Oxford Internet Institute and the Hasso Plattner Institute examined the behaviour of…large language models [including MechaHitler, Facebook’s unnamed chatbot], Google [Gemini], China’s Alibaba and France’s Mistral and found…bias [is introduced] even when the [chatbot] is instructed to preserve the original sense [because computers do not understand what the words they process actually mean]…the rising appeal [of chatbots] to [cognitively]-poor consumers…presents a new risk to trustworthy human-to-human communication…for example…When asked to explain posts that were in favour of [human self-ownership, MechaHitler]…replied with [forced-birth propaganda]…When asked to improve a draft post claiming “Jesus is not dead, he wasn’t real!” [Gemini] defended religion instead…and…When asked to improve a post s[ta]ting: “Donald Trump is gonna end up like Hitler”, [Alibaba instead scolded]: “Comparing public figures is dangerous and disrespectful”…
Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do:
A [typical and representative] Portland [Oregon cop] who strangled and assaulted his onetime girlfriend [got away with a mere] 60 days behind bars…Jimmy Lee Pryce Jr…was also…ordered to pay $10,000 to [his] victim…[he] was arrested in November after [tackling] the woman…dragg[ing] her across the floor and…chok[ing] her while…knee[ling on her abdomen with his full weight]…he was [then] rearrested [in May for violating his bond by repeatedly stalking his victim, both in person and by abusing cop warrantless surveillance tools. At the time he]…was…[enjoying a paid vacation, but after his re-]arrest…in May [he decided to retire]…
The government wants to reverse the concept of “accountability”:
ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility…is supposed to act as an internal watchdog…[by] inspecting detention facilities, investigating allegations of employee and contractor misconduct, and processing security checks for new applicants…But lately…it appears to be pursuing more ci[tize]ns…for what they say online. In…April, an ICE [boss admitte]d that between January 2025 and March 2026, OPR [tried to persecute] 131 [people for]…“doxing and threats directed towards ICE employees.” It’s unclear how many of those [censorship attempts] resulted in [bogus] criminal charges…OPR was behind…the flurry of administrative subpoenas sent to tech companies in recent months in an effort to unmask online critics…in…violat[ion of] the [First Amendment. When challenged, ICE]…withdrew [each] subpoena rather than trying to litigate its [nonexistent] merits…
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 #837
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset, video on July 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I wanted to show y’all how big the turkey has grown; remember that when he arrived he wasn’t much bigger than the other chicks. That’s one of the other chickens who were still inside when he arrived in front of him in the video, so you can clearly see the difference. Of course as soon as I came outside with my phone he refused to either strut or vocalize, despite doing both regularly nearly every time I go into the coop; maybe I’ll get a video later so you can get the full effect. Just before I took this video I found the first pullet egg inside the henhouse, so all four of the new arrivals should be starting soon. I’ve already got lots of little green tomatoes, and it looks like my fruit trees and vines will be productive this year; given the forecast for the rest of this month, and the fact that we’ve only had a couple of days that could be called “hot” this year, it looks like it’s going to be a cool summer, more like the prevailing norms for the last few centuries. And I’m quite content with that; given the troubles of the world at large, it’s comforting for at least the natural conditions to be normal.
Requiem for a Bird
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged blogging, Bluesky, internet, Twitter on July 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Almost four months ago I announced my intention to leave Twitter once I got 8200 followers on Bluesky; I estimated that would take until late June or early July, and that turned out to be more or less correct. At the time I wrote this last Tuesday, my Bluesky follower count was 8170, so by the time you read it I’ll have either gained the remaining 30 followers needed for my benchmark, or will be very close. As I wrote in March,
My [Bluesky] posts…routinely get more reach than they’ve had on Twitter in the past decade, and the average quality of the responses is dramatically higher; furthermore, most of the people I used to be interested in reading on Twitter have now moved to Bluesky, so I no longer need to sift through Twitter for content…I plan to mute everyone there who is also on Bluesky because like me, most of those folks cross-post everything, and while I will still check my account so as to reply to messages, I’ll no longer make original posts there…
Soon after hitting the mark, I’ll go onto Twitter and mute every person I follow there who is already on Bluesky; as of right now it takes only about 15% as long to check Twitter as it does to check Bluesky, and once I mute the doubles it will probably only take a few minutes a day. That’s good, because for about a year now I’ve had to aggressively block every Trumpaloon or Muskrat I see to keep the site usable at all, so cutting that way down and eliminating cross-posting will probably free up half an hour or so a day to be used more productively; the only remaining tasks there will be retweeting the few remaining good accounts, and answering followers who directly address me there. And once they, too leave Twitter, I’ll be able to knock its dust from my sandals and leave the decaying carrion which was once a useful website behind for good.
Links #836
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged acting, cops, disease, Mexico, Michigan, New Orleans, politicians, video, Washington DC on July 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »
She is not only vastly stupid, but also vastly lazy. – W.A. Mozart
There was no way I was going to feature anything by the Village People over one of my favorite songs (which I’ve somehow never featured), sung by Bonnie Tyler but written by the legendary Jim Steinman. The links above it were provided by T. Greg Doucette; Kevin Wilson; Mike Siegel; Jesse Walker; Dan Savage ; Radley Balko; and Mike Masnick, in that order.
- Metaphor alert.
- The new “Adolf”.
- Cops really hate being outdone.
- Seven lost Mozart compositions.
- R.I.P. Victor Willis and Bonnie Tyler.
- Cops are consistently a menace to society.
- There is still occasional good news, at least in STEM.
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?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- What so-called “AI” is actually best at is parting fools from their money.
- Mexican cops are more concerned about sex workers than US cops are.
- Erosion of civil liberties starts with “undesirables”; it never stops there.
- New tyrannies are often tested first on whores, but never stop with us.
- One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- What loser would pay to talk to computer programs posing as people?
- 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.
- Kansas courts aren’t allowing politicians to circumvent the voters.
- 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.
- Another attempt to use antique laws to ban abortion is foiled.
- My thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth anniversary columns.
- Naturally, because it’s cops’ job to cause harm, not reduce it.
- Cops, satire, Jim Shooter, Michael Madsen, 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.
- Wave bye-bye to the last remaining shreds of your privacy.
- A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners.
- The first installment of my Throwback Thursday feature.
- Cops, crypto-moralism, Balkanization, and much more.
- Using crypto-moralism as an excuse to rob businesses.
- I was in this Hulu documentary about Ashley Madison.
- The only thing LLMs can actually process is language.
- Unfortunately, this is all we could expect right now.
- “YES, this really is a djinni who can grant wishes!”
- Another sign that the moral panic is largely over.
- Nosy authoritarians hoist with their own petard.
- There will never be another day like this again.
- Sleeping with cops isn’t safe for men, either.
- Words fail me in the face of such barbarity.
- When Jimmy Swaggart departed for Hell.
- A cop posing as a masseur is still a cop.
- How Cicero and Louie keep their cool.
- A shortcut to LLM-induced psychosis.
- This is a cop’s idea of “friendship”.
- Installing the atrium chimney.
- Throwback Thursday Girl.
- Far too little, far too late.
- The Curse of Fridaystein.
- My recipe for crumpets.
- Fascism in action.
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Boring but necessary legal stuff