Archive for the ‘History’ Category
Planet Throwback Thursday
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, blogging, California, censorship, cops, Hollywood, language, left-right myth, politicians, propaganda, psychology, racism on August 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Links #840
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged cops, Guatemala, Never Call the Cops, New York, politicians, scams, STEM, Tennessee, Texas, United Kingdom, video on August 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I’ve always believed that music, like space, is about exploration. – William Shatner
Though this Irving Berlin song (provided by Rick Horowitz) is about Hitler, it has taken on a new meaning in our day. The links above it were provided by Anarres Ansible, Jesse Walker, Ryan Marino, Kevin Wilson, Mike Stabile, Nun Ya, and Savannah Sly, in that order.
- The final frontier?
- R.I.P. Mary de Rachewiltz.
- Eighth Circle, Tenth Bolgia.
- Still think this can be “reformed”?
- Some schadenfreude is painfully intense.
- An ancient scientist receives credit at last.
- What part of “never” is so hard to understand?
From the Archives
- I am always in awe of how quickly animals can build enormous structures.
- Kids abducted by the state are usually harmed more than those left alone.
- Establishment media are finally beginning to admit cops are habitual liars.
- When will the mainstream media admit that pigs in schools are a menace?
- I was fated to be threatened with state violence regardless of career path.
- Do airlines really want liability for employees racially profiling passengers?
- Book banning is never well-regarded in retrospect, but they keep doing it.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- Politicians don’t even try to make their new laws Constitutional any more.
- Courts are still more dependable at deleting bad laws than politicians are.
- Using the Cult of the Child to promote justice instead of tyranny for once.
- Promoters of dystopia vomit “security” & “accountability” at useful idiots.
- A whole gang of sexual predators specifically targeting traumatized girls.
- US officials already know prisons exacerbate crime; they just don’t care.
- Courts declare that the worse a cop’s crimes, the less the accountability.
- The costs of America’s sick infatuation with incarceration are staggering.
- Cops can’t be bothered to look into disappearance of black sex workers.
- This totalitarian nonsense is a danger to the entire internet, worldwide.
- This isn’t called “trafficking”; the same people selling sex to survive is.
- Sociopathic clowns use Comic-Con as an excuse to ruin people’s lives.
- This unhinged lunacy will spread like rot until struck down by a court.
- Forced-birth politicians want to encourage lawsuits, but not this kind.
- Garbage uses violence vs women as an excuse to spew propaganda.
- Another bunch of vigilante bigots playing games with people’s lives.
- MAGAists are creepy freaks obsessed with other people’s genitalia.
- The court rejected the charges, but not “fetal personhood” dogma.
- Americans’ sick lust for torture turns prison into a death sentence.
- Constant surveillance damages adolescents’ healthy development.
- Every victim of facial recognition abuse needs to sue the violator.
- Seems like a significant fraction of child porn is spread by cops.
- “Pastor and sex offender” is a large and ever-expanding group.
- Guy obsessed with child-abduction fantasies following his bliss.
- It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other.
- The people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- Florida’s psychopath-general wants to criminalize vaudeville.
- Do I really need to say, “Don’t let one live with you, either”?
- Cops, irony, Paul Reubens, Sharon Farrell, and much more.
- This kind of behavior should be grounds for impeachment.
- Another rapist cop finds a victim via a grooming program.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Loni Anderson, and much more.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- Forced-birth fanatics want state ownership of women.
- Would you please consider becoming a subscriber?
- Federal thugs behave just like state & local thugs.
- That whole internet thing was nice while it lasted.
- This reeks of Satanic Panic “ritual abuse” fantasy.
- Oh look, another “youth pastor”, what a surprise.
- Cops, New Orleans, Bill & Ted, and much more.
- Cop violence is never limited to the public.
- Don’t let your machines call them, either.
- This sickness just keeps getting worse.
- Not a cure, but the next best thing.
- Your “leaders” call this “correction”.
- Throwback Thursday of the Beast.
- Yet another Throwback Thursday.
- From the incall to the atrium.
- The first pullet eggs of 2025.
- Throwback Thursday’s Dog.
- A weird year for fruit.
- R.I.P. Jim Larkin.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Links #838
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged acting, Argentina, cops, disease, genitalia, Idaho, Indiana, Never Call the Cops, New Jersey, politicians, STEM, teachers, vaccines, video on July 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »
You know what you have to do, carry on. – Leandro Andrés Bertazzo
This seemed to me the appropriate song for the passing of Orbison’s longtime songwriting partner. The links above it were provided by Desiree Alliance; Kevin Wilson; Jesse Walker; Dan Savage and Jesse again; IncarcerNation; Angela Keaton; and Ryan Marino, in that order.
- As one does.
- Quite an exit.
- Paging Dr. Frankenstein.
- R.I.P. Sam Neill and Joe Melson.
- What part of “never” is so hard to understand?
- It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.
- Anti-vaxxers’ disregard for children’s lives is rarely so direct.
From the Archives
- I’m sure they occasionally yelled “Stop faking!” at him as he wasted away.
- On Beijing’s aggressive campaign to silence Chinese people outside China.
- Western countries have criminalized politically-unpopular fiction for years.
- Holding up little signs saying, “The house is on fire!” instead of fighting it.
- I’m sure other federal laws could be used vs other state prostitution laws.
- Fanatics claim their propaganda is unprovable ’cause they disseminate it.
- It does not help victims of State brutality to infantilize them as “children”.
- This will continue as long as fools teach children obedience to “authority”.
- As predicted, Amazon’s retreat from fascist collaboration was short-lived.
- The “TIP” crowbar has been largely disused since the first Trump regime.
- The return of a silly fantasy we haven’t seen much in the past few years.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- “This bill is not about kids’ safety, because it will put their safety at risk”.
- QAnon cranks have made “sex trafficking” rhetoric unpalatable to most.
- The practice of banning mail & books from prisons needs to be banned.
- That anyone thinks this is OK shows censoriousness is a mental illness.
- Prohibition can never succeed, regardless of the substance prohibited.
- Several states choose to punish sex workers in this deranged fashion.
- New Jersey residents are compelled by law to surrender DNA to cops.
- Ballard’s increasingly-bizarre antics upset his partners in profiteering.
- “Sex trafficking” hysteria paved the way for anti-migrant pogroms.
- It’s heartening to see so many rescue industry profiteers exposed.
- Pornhub has repeatedly refused to spy on its users for the State.
- Everyone victimized by “child protection” agencies needs to sue.
- Another dodge to pretend a typical and representative cop isn’t.
- The first interesting development in this whole affair since ever.
- If only there were a concise term for “coerced women into sex”.
- Another troubled woman fakes an “abduction” to get attention.
- If you think this will go away when Trump does, you are a fool.
- I’m sure they yelled “Stop faking!” at her several times a day.
- Will this be another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists?
- Partisans deny this when it’s their side making “suggestions”.
- A sex-worker hating psychopath desperately craving power.
- Wave bye-bye to the last remaining shreds of your privacy.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Ozzy Osbourne, and much more.
- This isn’t a “shelter”, “housing”, or “school”; it is a prison.
- Gee, I wonder why violent men often target sex workers?
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- Ever year I honor St. Mary Magdalene on her feast day.
- Another bizarrely-anachronistic “sex trafficking” article.
- Cops are nothing more than state-sponsored terrorists.
- The last time we saw this lawsuit, the number was 95.
- It seems July is nearly always a busy month for me.
- CGI slop is another cause of the coming dark age.
- The urge to censor is a dangerous mental illness.
- Cops love awkward, overcomplicated language.
- Cops, Muppets, Bob Newhart, and much more.
- Cops, satire, animated sci-fi, and much more.
- “You know who doesn’t screen? Cops.“
- Blood for Throwback Thursday.
- Bikini Throwback Thursday.
- A Study in Emerald.
- A growing turkey.
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!
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 #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.
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!
Sixteenth Anniversary
Posted in Biography, History, Philosophy, tagged artificial stupidity, blogging, internet, language, psychology, Walled Garden on July 10, 2026| 1 Comment »
I’ll keep going, just as I always do and always have done, until the day finally arrives when I no longer have to. – “Fifteenth Anniversary”
Sixteen years is a long time by internet reckoning; some of y’all reading this may not have yet learned to read when I started it in 2010, and even I barely remember some of the topics I covered in the first few years because they have since faded from the public consciousness. I daresay very few people were reading this blog on phones in 2010; now I suspect most read it that way. That is, most of those who still read it at all; before the enshittification of Google I averaged some 3000 visits per day, and now 500 is a good day. Of course, that’s not only due to Google; as I wrote three years ago, “the world and the culture have changed quite a bit since I started this project, and in a world of YouTube and TikTok, blogs are beginning to look as quaint as radio shows did in 1959.” But being considered “quaint” doesn’t actually bother me; after all, 25 years ago I was driving around in this car (though the dress and boots were already about ten years old then; if you’ve ever wondered how long I’ve been doing the snakeskin prints, now you know). This blog is on WordPress rather than Substack or whatever has replaced it in popularity, and my email address is on Earthlink. My books are still intended to be read on paper; the Kindle versions are an afterthought I only create to please those readers who prefer electronic texts. And in philistine circles, even writing essays oneself rather than attaching one’s name to something shat out by a computer program is considered hopelessly passé. You know what I think of all that? My 40-years-younger self would’ve rolled her eyes and dismissively said, “Whatever”. Because I plan to keep doing things the way I prefer doing them until I either croak or the increasing walled-gardening of the internet makes it impossible.
The Slaughter of Throwback Thursday
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged Aladdin’s Satellite, animals, artificial stupidity, blogging, cops, ethics, politicians, psychology, Sunset, surveillance, teachers, video, Welcome to the Future on July 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Scientists who create weapons of oppression…are moral imbeciles. – “Welcome to the Future (#1252)”
The best thing schools could do to help the US political situation would be to actually start teaching basic math again. – “Readin’, ‘Ritin’, and…um…”
I’m only just beginning to internalize that yes, it really is okay to keep slowing down, rather than just saying it aloud but not really believing it. – “Fourteenth Anniversary”
Chatbots in computers can appear to the ignorant like djinn in bottles, and instead of correcting this irrational belief with scientific fact, tech company marketers are telling people, “YES, this really is a djinni who can grant wishes!” – “Aladdin’s Satellite”
Links #835
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged acting, Aphrodite, archeofeminism, artificial stupidity, cops, Florida, Mississippi, psychology, robots, Texas, video, Washington (state) on July 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »
You owe me lunch. – “Officer” Caleb Pomazon
Today’s video was called to my attention by Jessica Crabbit on Whores’ Day, but this is the first time I’ve had space for it. The links above it were provided by Dan Savage, The Onion, Jesse Walker, Kevin Wilson, Phoenix Calida, Nun Ya, and IncarcerNation, in that order.
- R.I.P. Ann Blyth and Penelope Keith.
- Sometimes The Onion isn’t really satire.
- Zappa had the courage of his convictions.
- Another great moment in artificial stupidity.
- Why is this reporter fixated on the smoking?
- Just another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
- Crime: shoplifting diapers. Penalty: summary execution of baby.
From the Archives
- Pregnant women & new mothers are uniquely vulnerable to state coercion.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- How long will Western society allow cops to terrorize traumatized women?
- “Claiming age verification preserves online anonymity doesn’t make it so“.
- SCOTUS isn’t quite ready to allow full-on government censorship just yet.
- I’m fine with this as long as it’s only tech companies harming each other.
- Cop violence is never limited to members of the public, nor to male cops.
- Maine defines women as moral imbeciles, and men as our moral betters.
- It’s too bad most authoritarian diktats don’t blow up in politicians’ faces.
- Cop deals with problems as he was trained to, and everyone is shocked.
- “Rescue” profiteers demand government conjure “victims” from thin air.
- SCOTUS rules that the First Amendment does not apply on the internet.
- Contradictory laws are an inevitable result of rampant authoritarianism.
- The first prosocial application of facial recognition technology I’ve seen.
- Pretexts for this would not remain limited to “child porn” & “terrorism”.
- Microsoft makes censorship easier, when it should be making it harder.
- This is what Pride should be: a gigantic “fuck you” to authoritarianism.
- Cops will ignore the Constitution until doing so is actually criminalized.
- Schools could best help the US by actually teaching basic math again.
- The New Orleans city council rewards the NOPD for criminal behavior.
- One of those fools who thinks anything involving gadgets is laudable.
- Cops, pizza, Julian Sands, Sue Johanson,Alan Arkin, and much more.
- shitty laws were used against an actual violent criminal for a change.
- Societies’ tendency to self-lobotomize will probably never be solved.
- “Search” is the most common government euphemism for “molest”.
- He wasn’t a “former” cop when he repeatedly raped a teenage girl.
- There is no “intelligence” in an automated high-resolution scanner.
- Note that cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths.
- A short EN Brown piece on the legacy of the Assange persecution.
- This will continue until the evil US immigration policy is reformed.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from June 2013, 2014, and 2015.
- Cops still use laws overturned in 2003 to harass gay men today.
- Unfortunately, a new Chromebook means more enshittification.
- One reason I added on to my house was to host guests at will.
- Your “leaders” work hard to ensure this happens more often.
- Cops, insects, Gailard Sartain, Bill Moyers, and much more.
- Your “leaders” call this “correction”, but you don’t have to.
- Crypto-moralists believe anything people enjoy is “unsafe”.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Kinky Friedman, and much more.
- I’m happy to have been proven wrong about her chances.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- Cops are not known for intelligence and good judgment.
- In surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- Another of the many reasons not to play with chatbots.
- Good grief, don’t volunteer to be around them either.
- It’s rare that a rapist cop stops at only a few victims.
- The headline writer omitted the word “temporarily”.
- My three previous columns for Independence Day.
- Oh look, another “youth pastor”, what a surprise.
- Anyone “shocked” by this must live in a cave.
- Nearing the end of my annex project.
- The Wedding of Throwback Thursday.
- Good riddance to bad rubbish.
- Expanding my chicken yard.
- The Return of Fridaystein.
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!
The World of Throwback Thursday
Posted in Biography, History, Miscellaneous, Music, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged activism, blogging, censorship, consensual crime, cops, fascism, games, holidays, law, lawheads, LGBT rights, politicians, psychology, universal criminality, weaponry on July 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I liked Pride so much better when it was one day celebrated by grass-roots organizations than a whole month ballyhooed by major corporations with rainbow-hued consumer goods, and with hypocritical expressions of solidarity from politicians and cops.
– “June is Tweeting Out All Over”
One…aspect of my neuroatypicality…[is] that…[I] spend [a lot of] time composing and performing a kind of music only I can hear.
– “The Music in the Numbers”
Unfortunately, societies’ tendency to self-lobotomize into stagnation and decay is something that will almost certainly never be solved.
– “The Eternal Frontier”
The only moral form of warfare is War of Assassins, in which the only combatants and the only legitimate targets are the rulers, their henchmen, and their agents. – “War of Assassins“
The Vanishing Canals
Posted in Biography, History, tagged New Orleans, psychology, The Big Boom on June 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I’ve always loved maps, from old-time gas-station road maps to historical maps to maps of imaginary places. As a child, I delighted in preparing maps of places I’d dreamed up for make-believe play, and in my teens that turned into preparing maps for the world of my D&D campaign, ranging from dungeons my players would explore all the way up to the entire world they lived in. And though I rarely draw my own any more, I’m still always excited to find maps which show me something I didn’t know before, or at least didn’t know in sufficient detail. Case in point, the map at right, which some of y’all may recognize as depicting the western half of New Orleans; the part that was important to me is a small detail which those of y’all unfamiliar with New Orleans history may not recognize as interesting without explanation.
Last month I wrote about discovering a guide (including maps) to New Orleans’ extensive streetcar system of the early 20th century. But before the streetcars there were canals, leading from the then-much-smaller city through the swamps to the north, ending in Lake Pontchartrain (which connects to the Gulf of Mexico through a tidal channel named The Rigolets). I always knew about the New Basin Canal because it was not filled in until the 1940s, and in my youth I knew several older folks who remembered it. But in one of those strange oversights which often affect even people with relatively sharp minds, it had never occurred to me to ask where the Old Basin Canal had been! Furthermore, I never realized just how far the New Basin Canal came into the city until I found this map while researching for The Big Boom. If you zoom in you’ll see a straight channel running from the end of Bayou St. John (the wriggly thing just to the right of the map’s centerline), labeled “Carondelet Canal“. That’s what it was officially named from 1794 until the 1830s, when people started calling it the “Old Basin Canal” in contrast with the newly-completed New Basin Canal. If you look at a modern map of New Orleans, you can see a narrow strip of green running from Louis Armstrong Park to the end of the Bayou (very close to where I lived from 2004-2006, incidentally); that’s the former route of the canal, which was filled in by the city in the 1920s after the new Industrial Canal opened in 1923. The famous Basin Street of Storyville fame and jazz legend was named for the turning basin at the terminus, just north of the Vieux Carre.
That was exciting enough, but the part I got really jazzed about (ahem) was realizing that the New Basin Canal went so far into the city. If any of y’all have ever driven on West End Blvd in New Orleans, you’ve probably been impressed with its incredibly wide neutral ground (grassy median); the reason it’s that wide is it’s the filled-in route of the canal. But at the foot of that Boulevard, where it meets I-10 today, the canal once jogged over and continued almost to the river. After the canal was closed in the late 1940s, the Pontchartrain Expressway was built over the route in the 1950s; in the 1960s the expressway became part of I-10. The area of the filled-in turning basin was used by the city for storage until the late ’60s, when it was decided to build the Superdome there. So if you ever drive through New Orleans toward the Superdome on I-10 coming from the direction of the airport, you’re following a transportation corridor which has been there for just short of 200 years, only now on land rather than water.
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