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Archive for the ‘Perception’ Category

The Mark of Throwback Thursday

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The concept of “free sex” is largely a male fantasy.  –  “Waiting for Lightning”

In the online world, as in the real one, you don’t get something for nothing.  –
“Something for Nothing”

Even the finest thespian can’t conjure Hamlet out of lackluster dialogue draped carelessly over a checklist.  –  “In Flux”

[Those] who declare CGI “art”, or even declare it superior to real human-created art, are soulless clowns whose opinions should be rejected by anyone who cares about beauty, life, and humanity.  –  “The Philistine Majority“

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In the News (#1626)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A book that unexpectedly explodes upon opening it would be good grounds for a product liability claim; a book whose content inspires someone to act recklessly should not.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

Choke Point (#1388) 

The government is now demanding banks not do what it has repeatedly demanded they do:

Federal Trade Commission…sent letters…to the CEOs of PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard, warning them against debanking practices — including denying access to services due to a customer’s…“political affiliations, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities”…last year…the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a report on debanking…in which it named adult entertainment as one of several sectors facing discrimination for engaging in activities contrary to banks’ “values”…[and threatening] an FTC investigation…but those rules will not stop banks from making decisions regarding their customers in a way deemed “consistent with safety and soundness.”  This leaves broad leeway for banks to continue discriminatory or exclusionary practices toward adult industry creators and businesses…

When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1450)

Politicians increasingly use nuisance lawsuits to circumvent the Constitution:

[Facebook] has been ordered to pay New Mexico [politicians] $375 million, in a verdict that paves the way for more states to [rob] social media companies under the guise of child protection—and demand changes that will compromise everyone’s online speech and privacy…the lawsuit [misused]…the state’s Unfair Practices Act…States [ab]using…consumer protection laws [to achieve unconstitutional tyranny they could not otherwise accomplish] have been a big trend lately.  This ruling all but ensures it will intensify…Section 230…is supposed to protect against this sort of thing.  If someone uses Facebook to engage in illegal activity, it’s that person…who may be criminally liable…[but] state attorneys general have been fighting against this…for nearly two decades…[because] they’re stuck prosecuting individual criminals…not [deep-pocketed corporations they can pillage]…The verdict in this case…”will be terrible for the open internet,” said Techdirt[‘s]…Mike Masnick…

The Cop Myth (#1566)

It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other:

…two [North Carolina pigs who lived together got in a fight which ended with a sow shooting her pig boyfriend]…Adam Bean [dead.  Because the murderer is also a cop, the pig herd is attempting to hide as much]…information [as possible]…

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1586)

The only way to rein in chatbot pushers is to threaten their cash flow:

OpenAI won’t be rolling out an erotic version of ChatGPT any time soon…the controversial plan has been shelved “indefinitely”…as even its own advisors warned that ChatGPT users could form unhealthy attachments, which might harm their mental health.  One advisor chillingly suggested that the tweak risked turning ChatGPT into a “sexy suicide coach”…[and lawyers warned] it [would be] hard to keep illegal behavior out of outputs, like bestiality and incest…investors questioned why OpenAI would risk its reputation on a product with “relatively small upside” for…[a company regularly] linked to mental health harms in both kids and adults [which have led to] lawsuits…

Mad Libs (#1595)

“LLMs…train the brain to disengage…[leading] to passivity…and low integration of concepts“:

…chatbots have become a common part of many [fools’] daily lives, even though they…[give] wrong answers…45 percent of the time.  But [stupid people] don’t understand that reality…and…tend…to take…chat[bot vomit] at face value, even when it [gives] them the incorrect answer…experiment…participants were asked to answer a variety of reasoning and knowledge-based questions.  Despite making the use of ChatGPT optional, over 50 percent…chose to use the chatbot to answer the questions…researchers…[found almost 80% of chatbot] users w[ere] willing to believe what[ever nonsense it barfed up] regardless of accuracy, in what [researchers] termed a “cognitive surrender” that effectively overrode their intuition and deliberation process…“to outsource thinking itself”…[and] give up their own agency…further cementing [their dependency] on [machines]…

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.  But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”  –  Frank Herbert, Dune

Shame, Shame (#1612)

To Musk, this is pocket change:

Elon Musk’s [pet] chatbot [MechaHitler has] been banned from [gener]ating non-consensual…[sexual] images…by a Dutch court…the…order [applies to all of]…Europe…and…[includes] a [token] penalty of 100,000 euros ($115,000) for every day it [refuses] to comply…with a maximum fine of 10 million euros…Numerous lawsuits have [also] been filed…[including one from] Baltimore [abusing] the city’s consumer protection laws and…[an]other…[from] three teenagers in Tennessee [who were actually victimized by MechaHitler]…

Compared to Musk’s net worth, this is like me being fined 6¢ a day, maximum $6.

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1621)

Another broadside against the dangerous “semen retention” cult:

Regular ejaculation — for example, by masturbation — produces higher quality sperm…according to a comprehensive new…meta-analysis of more than 115 studies…that cumulatively involved nearly 55,000 men, as well as 56 studies of 30 non-human species…The results revealed that stored sperm deteriorates over time, resulting in DNA damage, reduced motility, and other defects that can affect fertilization and embryo outcomes…The study…sheds light on the possible evolutionary origins of masturbation, which has been observed in…dozens of [nonhuman] species including dolphins, elephants, lions, and many primates.  Masturbation may have emerged as a way to avoid leaving sperm in the tank for too long.  Indeed, even species that don’t masturbate in the traditional sense of self-stimulation have still been observed offloading sperm in a practice called “sperm dumping”…

 

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

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Throwback Thursday After Midnight

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , on April 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Censorship [is] wildly popular among…those who believe the most terrifying fact of the world is that others beside themselves have free will.
–  “Ship of Fools”

 

[In contrast with the] cost…[of] second-rate, weeks-old grocery store eggs…two hours of literally shoveling shit twice a year…begins to seem like a good bargain indeed.  –  “Diary #665”

 

“Nonprofit” merely refers to the organization; those who run it often make plenty of profit.  –  “Schadenfreude (#1425)”

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In the News (#1625)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I will not comply.  –  Luanne James

To Molest and Rape (#1177)

Sows are just as disgusting and predatory as their male counterparts:

A [Massachusetts cop] was [rewarded with a paid vacation for]…sexual abuse [of a minor]…Samantha Pelrine…and her…husband, Daniel Forand, repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted the…[victim for] several years…[after wheedling control from] the victim’s aunt and grandmother[, who had] raised them until they were 12 years old…about one year later, Pelrine and Forand became the…victim’s legal guardians…and…began sexually assaulting the victim a short time after[ward]…continu[ing] until 2025…

No Difference (#1359)

Another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists:

Senegalese proponents of a tougher anti-LGBT law [got advice from] a U.S.-based [anti-sex] group that ​calls homosexuality a public health threat…MassResistance…has advised like-minded African [prohibition]ists for years…but now…is trying to take advantage of …[the] Trump…[regimes]’s [mass destruc]tion…of [US-funded health programs in Africa]…the ⁠new law…doubles the maximum prison term for same-sex sexual acts to 10 years and criminalizes so-called promotion of homosexuality…

Shame, Shame (#1494)

This sleaze is bottomless:

WebinarTV, a company that bills itself as “a search engine for the best webinars,” is secretly scanning the internet for Zoom meeting links, recording the calls, and turning them into [computer]-generated podcasts [without the consent of the participants]…in an attempt to promote WebinarTV’s services…in some cases the [creators of the] stolen videos…[are informed by computer-generated emails “signed” by imaginary corporate officers that their]…webinar is “featured on the Phil & Amy Show”, [which is a make-believe]…talk…show…[featuring] two [cartoon characters synchronized to chatbots outputting nonsensical “commentary” on]…the [stolen Zoom] call…WebinarTV accesses meetings using links that have been shared publicly, then records the sessions [without any] participant’s [knowledge or consent]…in…violat[ion of] Zoom’s terms of service…

A Woman’s Point of View (#1506)

As with cannabis legalization, if enough of these are thrown at the wall one may eventually stick:

…[If] a [new] bill…[is] passed, Colorado would become the first state to fully decriminalize sex work state-wide…This is not [the Swedish model, but rather] a decisive shift away from criminalization and toward safety…to [placate the very stupid]…the bill draws a firm line between consensual sex work and exploitation…and…would repeal statutes related to solicitation and patronizing…[and] update outdated escort service regulations…Nick Hinrichson…Lisa Cutter…Lorena Garcia and Rebekah Stewart…[are the sponsoring politicians.  A similar]…bill…in…Illinois [is still languishing undiscussed]…

Thought Control (#1600)

This is the library whose board chair wanted a snitch list of those who read books he wanted censored:

In a message…to the Rutherford County Library…board, Director Luanne James said she would not comply with an order to move…LGBT…titles from youth sections to the adult area…[saying] “Restricting access…through subjective relocation or removal constitutes a violation of the community’s right to information”…[which] would violate both the First Amendment and her professional obligations…The…Board [had] voted…to relocate more than 190 books…following a [“]review[” by non-librarians on order of]…Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett…Board Chair [and wannabe Big Brother] Cody York [defended his censorship attempt by bizarrely vomiting out]…“dismembering…healthy sex organs”…during [a] debate…[and threatened to sack] James…

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1602)

Sanders has announced he next plans to interview a TV set:

[Perennially-clueless politician] Bernie Sanders has a viral video making the rounds in which he “interviews” Anthropic’s Claude chatbot about the dangers of AI and privacy…and it might be one of the most unintentionally revealing demonstrations of…actual problems [with LLMs] that a politician has ever produced — just not in the way Sanders thinks…When you “interview” a large language model you are talking to a very sophisticated text prediction system that is specifically designed to give you responses that are (possibly) helpful, (hopefully) relevant, and (obsequiously) agreeable — shaped entirely by how you framed the question.  It’s not there to help you uncover hidden truths.  It’s not a whistleblower.  It’s not a witness in a congressional hearing, which is exactly what Sanders’ staging is designed to imply.  Ask it scary questions, get scary answers.  Ask it reassuring questions, get reassuring answers.  It is a mirror, not a source.  And Sanders’ video demonstrates this…

Walled Garden (#1611)

The internet’s global scope is the main reason politicians hate it and want to destroy it:

Ofcom, the U.K.’s [censorship bureau, is trying to] fine…4chan £520,000 for [refus]ing to implement [user surveillance] procedures and other measures [demand]ed by the U.K.’s Online Safety Act.  The [shakedown demand] includes “£450,000 for not having age checks in place”…[and the rest] for [refus]ing to provide Ofcom with [busywork it demands] and for not [submitting to posting compelled speech] in its terms of service…4chan[‘s lawyer, Preston Byrne,] responded to Ofcom with a…[computer]-generated picture of a giant hamster [hold]ing a [giant] peanut…attached to a truly excellent email response [stating]…”As has been explained to your agency, ad nauseam, the United Kingdom lost the American Revolutionary War…We are not in the mood to discuss the matter further, and have not been in the mood for 250 years…[4chan] reserves all rights and waives none…[including] the right to sue you again and/or to respond to future correspondence with an even larger rodent, such as a marmot.”  This is exactly the attitude U.S. companies should be taking with foreign authorities intent on forcing their online [censorship] on the rest of us…Ofcom [responded by absurdly claiming that the internet is a bar]…

 

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

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Throwback Thursday Bites

Posted in Biography, History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »

There really isn’t an excuse for repeated attempts at social engineering that aren’t even tied to some kind of grift, pork, or fascist collaboration.
–  “In the Dark”

Being able to look out a window and see grass and trees and animals…is so much better for my mental and spiritual health then being subjected to a “view” which consists of nothing but concrete, glass, and automobiles.
–  “Diary #664”

“Innocence” is merely a fanciful euphemism for “ignorance”.  –  “Tweetenstein”

For me, no sorrow is ever experienced in isolation; new tears falling into the pool immediately cause it to overflow, and then it’s impossible to tell how much of my anguish is due to the proximate source of the grief, and how much is old pain which has never been fully resolved.  –  “Pool of Tears“

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In the News (#1623)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Privacy and security on social media apps can’t be “optional”—they are life-saving necessities.  –  Leila Nashashibi

Stalkers in Blue

Cops are a constant menace to all women:

[A London cop named] Samson Akinnawo[, who was] featured in [a recruiting poster] in July 2024 d[emonstrated that]…he was a [typical and representative cop by]…stalking and harassing Melieka Daley between June and August last year through repeatedly calling and messaging her, [lurk]ing [around] her home…follow[ing] her from work and [harassing a] friend [of hers who had been] arrest[ed]…Akinnawo…[started out as a screw] and…is currently [enjoying a paid vacation]…

Rough Trade (#881)

Yes, this is absolutely rape.  No, I don’t want to “discuss” it:

In Belgium, a man was convicted of rape [for fak]ing…payment receipts for a sex worker, a scheme deemed by the court to be equivalent to a lack of consent…Belgium is [the only] European countr[y] where sex work is [decriminalized]…but this is the first time that a refusal to pay, or “a ruse” such as the production of a false receipt, has been considered in a trial as a lack of consent…and therefore rape…the Belgian Penal Code [specifically] stipulates that…”there is no consent if the sexual act results from deception”…the man had deliberately deceived his victim by pretending to make a payment via his banking application when…in reality, he was showing her his phone displaying…a screenshot of a previous successful payment…He was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended, with the obligation to undergo psychotherapy and submit to regular checks proving that he no longer uses drugs…

I Spy (#1195)

Four years ago I wrote, “I’ll believe Facebook is going to use encryption when it actually does it”:

[Facebook] is backtracking on [yet another] of its…[emp]ty promises…to implement default end-to-end encryption for direct messages on Instagram…End-to-end encrypted messages are more important than ever…in the face of a…[regime] that will do anything and everything to silence and punish its critics…No better case illustrates the risk…than when [Facebook] handed over private messages…that were…used to prosecute [a] young woman for having an abortion.  If Messenger were default end-to-end encrypted at that time, [Facebook] would never had access to the messages in the first place…But now [Zuckerberg]…is looking for some bogus reason to cancel…[supposed] plans for default E2EE…so that [Facebook] can 1) tap your DMs to train its [chatbots] and 2) curry political favor…by opening up…your private messages for spying and surveillance by the government…

Property of the State (#1245)

Most tyranny starts with governments claiming they want to “protect” people:

Ohio [politici]ans have introduced a bill that would allow the government to track every pregnancy, beginning to end…[the] registry…[would] requir[e] healthcare providers to file a “certificate of life” with the Ohio Department of Health within ten days of examining a pregnant patient and detecting [fetal cardiac myocyte activity].  The bill also mandates that “fetal deaths” be registered with the state, and…requires a “cause of death” to be certified within 48 hours—and if a fetus is deemed to have died in a “violent, suspicious, unusual, or sudden” manner, a coroner or medical examiner would be brought in…Let’s be clear about what this really is: an attempt to build an infrastructure for pregnancy surveillance…and…a pathway for scrutiny if the state decides something looks “off”…

Enshittification

If you thought Google spellcheck “correcting” properly-used words was bad:

…It is now possible to use live translation to communicate in another language in real time…but [the technology is already being abused]…to…rephras[e] profanity…in chat [programs]…Roblox…is [defending the decision to implement this dystopian thought control by spewing out buzzwords such as] “civility”…”leveraging AI”…”respectful”…and…”multilayered safety system”…it creates a dangerous proof of concept that others may build on…It’s easy to imagine situations where Chinese…systems…rephrase people’s language on social media in real time to promote “social harmony”.  Not only the style but even the content’s details could be subtly changed away from controversy towards conformity.  It would be possible for rephrasing to be visible only to others, so the person making a comment might not even be aware that their words were being subverted in this way…

And it gets worse from there:

…Google is beginning to replace news headlines in its search results with ones that are [LLM]-generated.  After doing something similar in its Google Discover news feed, it’s starting to mess with headlines in the traditional “10 blue links,” too.  We’ve found multiple examples where Google replaced headlines we wrote with ones we did not, sometimes changing [or even reversing] their meaning in the process.  For example, Google reduced our headline “I used the ‘cheat on everything’ AI tool and it didn’t help me cheat on anything” to just five words: “‘Cheat on everything’ AI tool.”  It almost sounds like we’re endorsing a product we do not recommend at all…And Google says it’s tweaking how other websites show up in search, too, not just news…this is like a bookstore ripping the covers off the books it puts on display and changing their titles…but Google seems to believe we don’t have an inherent right to market our own work…

The War Goes On (#1585)

This started as a scheme to keep sex workers off of Tinder:

Tinder plans to let machine vision algorithms loose on your camera roll.  Instead of building a profile on their own, [Tinder] will scan users’ locally-stored photos—everything from gym selfies to pictures of their family, sensitive documents and dick pics—to [let a machine] construct profiles by [mahine-guess]ing what users’ interests and values are.  Dating apps are [quickly becoming enshittified]…thanks to [toy]s like ChatGPT…[which allow unscrupulous] users…[to] offload get-to-know-you conversations to [machines]…Although Tinder [spokesgeek Mark Kantor vomits out platitudes about choice, sane]…users may still be concerned with [unaccountable black-box algorithms rooting through] their entire [phone memory, and since]…users can’t pick individual photos they want analyzed or ignored…Tinder’s [so-called “]safeguards[“] are [hardly reassuring, especially given dating apps’ terrible security track record]… Kantor [brushed off valid security concerns by belching “]science[!” in a reporter’s face]…

Shame, Shame (#1612)

Much, much, much more of this, please:

…a group of Tennessee teenagers [are suing Elon Musk’s chatbot company because its MechaHitler chatbot was]…used to create nude images of them by editing photos in which they were clothed.  The edited photos spread across Discord and Telegram in recent months, and some were bartered for [child porn] in online chatrooms…a single perpetrator compiled images and videos of more than 18 girls, many of whom attended the same school, and digitally altered…them using [MechaHitler]…The three plaintiffs, including two minors, seek damages for each [altered photo] and aim to prevent the company from allowing [other such] image editing…Musk [predictably lied]…that [the number]…of…naked underage images generated by [MechaHitler was] “Literally zero”…and…[claimed] the…estimated 23,000 [altered] photos…[of naked legal minors was the result of “adversarial hacking”]…

 

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

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Tweet Germ

Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Music, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

So many people still feel the need to wait for some business entity to temporarily carry a show they want to see, typically polluted with commercials, when home video has existed in one form or another for over 40 years and most shows can be permanently purchased for the price of a decent meal.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-15T18:02:27.299Z

Trump really does believe what he sees in movies.Here we see him attempting the Jedi mind trick.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-17T03:04:37.228Z

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" – Upton Sinclair

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-17T19:00:27.452Z

People who do not eat chips could be ‘left behind’, says Frito-Lay’s CEO

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-18T19:55:52.543Z

Funniest thing I've seen this week.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-20T08:52:14.194Z

It's garbage. It's shit. It's noise. It's paint hurled at a canvas. It's an overflowing toilet. It's hated by anyone who knows anything about art. It enriches fascists. It ignores consent and good taste. It's stupid. It's bad. It's a disease. It's random. It reeks. It's unwelcome. It's everywhere.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-21T18:50:08.193Z

Over a decade ago, I was warning young women not to let random people who aren't doctors inject filth into their butts.Now I'm warning young men not to hit themselves in the face with hammers.Really, y'all, plastic surgery is not something you can learn by watching YouTube videos.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-24T18:24:12.301Z

In traditional scholarship, caring about what other educated people thought about one's ideas was called "peer review", and it was considered intrinsic to the process.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-24T18:39:40.974Z

Concentration camps. Go on, you can type the words if you try. I believe in you. Just keep repeating the mantra, "I have a backbone, I have a backbone, I have a backbone", and you should be able to either type the words or just copy paste from here: "concentration camps".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-25T17:54:59.340Z

Stolen. The word you're looking for is "stolen", not "taken away"; that is a term reserved for parents disciplining their own children, ie "she took away his bb gun until he stopped shooting cats". The term for strangers permanently taking others' possessions is "stealing". They STOLE the crayons.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-26T17:56:06.044Z

Do history classes in New York teach students about William the Acquirer and the Acquisitions of Genghis Khan?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-27T18:20:18.610Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nGK…

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-28T17:52:47.390Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-28T19:35:46.602Z

Those of you who weren't adults at the time of the Gulf War may not remember that it, more than any other event, created the 24-hour news cycle which has bedeviled the US ever since. It turned CNN from a low-rating sideline into a high-rating main event, and gave us the nauseating term "scud stud".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-02T17:39:49.401Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-03T18:01:27.024Z

Honestly, I don't know how you young gals put up with this. In my day (points with cane) all we had to worry about beside cops and bad clients was the puritanical old woman whom the publisher of the Yellow Pages (Barry Co IIRC) allowed to ban certain words in escort service ads.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-04T08:21:33.548Z

Trump replaces Barbie with Mr. Potato Head.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-05T20:02:33.887Z

Challenge for those who aren't religious fanatics: explain to those who *are* that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and that the burden of proof is NOT on those demanding such evidence.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-07T17:31:04.244Z

This is called a "win-win" scenario.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-08T17:44:05.190Z

If they simply phrased the headline truthfully as "women are falling in love with a fantasy of romance", people would recognize that this is nothing new.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-09T17:41:07.413Z

How quaint. Those of us who still play real old-fashioned D&D are going to start looking like people who bake all of their own bread instead of buying Wonder Bread.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-10T17:00:58.084Z

There's illiteracy, and then there's *functional* illiteracy, and then there's…whatever this is.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T03:40:34.394Z

People who are terminally online habitually type out bizarre, unpronounceable sequences of letters and symbols which attest to how little of their lives are spent actually speaking to normal people in real life.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T19:07:51.122Z

Future history students will refuse to believe it when their professors tell them that one of the factors that precipitated the 21st-century dark age was gambling fanatics intentionally falsifying records for profit. Having taught history, I can hear the adolescent voices already: "That's stupid!"

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-13T17:28:41.148Z

On Bluesky this morning, I'm seeing the usual mixture of political & aesthetic posts.On Twitter, I'm being attacked by incensed Millennials apparently unable to comprehend why a 60-year-old woman who neither has kids nor watches TV doesn't know about a gimmick kid food first sold in the late '90s.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-14T18:22:27.167Z

"Police shoot black man in the back."There, FIFY.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-15T17:24:47.878Z

Boo hoo hoo, his diaper is wet and nobody wants to play with him.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T02:40:56.057Z

I think @ryanlcooper.com called it correctly: Trump will go down as one of the Great Idiots of History.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-17T17:24:50.126Z

Deep respect for Tony Moore.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-18T17:14:20.090Z

So THIS is where Big Balls went.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-19T17:41:07.379Z

Après moi, le déluge.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-20T18:08:32.460Z

People idolize flawed human beings, creating statues of them as though they were pharaohs & literally putting them up on pedestals, only to tear them down again as soon as the flawed human is found to have been flawed.We could save so much time and energy by simply not setting up humans as gods.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-21T07:47:25.342Z

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In the News (#1622)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Hawley is…trying to substitute…politicians for…scientists and health professionals.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

Available Weapon

When mere accusation is sufficient, anyone can wield the state’s weapons:

[Actress] Rebel Wilson‘s…public relations team discussed plans to create anonymous websites that [libel]ed the producer of The Deb [by accusing her] of [“]sex trafficking[“]…In a recording obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, digital fixer Jed Wallace instructed…publicist Melissa Nathan to assert without evidence that the producer, Amanda Ghost, is a “madame” whose work involves procuring young women for wealthy and powerful men…Nathan’s The Agency Group…deployed websites featuring character-assassinating claims about Ghost…on [order of]…Wilson’s production company…The now-deleted site…[says] “she turned full pimp”…[and] refers to Ghost as the “Indian Ghislaine Maxwell”…

The Last Shall Be First (#1470) 

Governments are asserting ever-greater control over people’s medical care:

The…4th Circuit…upheld West Virginia’s ban on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming surgeries in a unanimous ruling on…10 March…arguing with little evidence that gender-affirming care for trans adults was [a] “dangerous…experimental procedure”…[and bizarrely] claim[ing] that trans people had become “disdainful of their sex” and [should therefore be forced to]…“appreciate their sex” [by government diktat]…The…ruling is the first time a federal court…[has upheld] a restriction on healthcare for trans adults…human genomics academic Dr Jey McCreight branded the ruling “complete nonsense scientifically,” saying it was based on “fascist eugenics, not biology”…

Enshittification (#1557)  

May the same happen to every company which does this:

In January 2023, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced…that the company was making a hard pivot to…[computer-generated] slop…neither insiders nor the public were particularly compelled by the move…[but] Peretti doubled down…shuttting down its Pulitzer Prize-winning BuzzFeed News division…[in favor of computer-generated] quizzes…and…sloppy…repetitive [chatbot-generated articles]…the company’s stock [predictably] took a massive beating…[and it] reported a net loss of $57.3 million in 2025…an official statement [said]…“there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern”…Peretti [is so delusional he is]…now…hoping to bring “new AI apps to the market”…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1586)

These things are designed to appeal to the dregs of humanity:

A claimant giving evidence in the High Court [of the UK] was fed answers through [perve]rt glasses he was wearing that were connected to his mobile phone…Laimonas Jakstys…[then lied about] the…glasses [when confronted]…Jakstys gave his evidence through an interpreter…After several questions, [Sarah Walker, counsel for the defendants, told the judge]…she could hear an interference coming from around Mr Jakstys and [him to remove] his glasses…After a few further questions…Jakstys’ mobile phone started broadcasting [his coach’s voice] out loud…The following day, the judge directed that the [glasses and phone be held by his solicitor]…

The Vultures Descend (#1600)

Prohibition can never succeed, regardless of which substance is prohibited:

A new bill introduced by [prohibitionist lunatic] Josh Hawley…would [criminalize] medication abortion across the country.  To support this [scheme], Hawley is relying on a…highly deceptive report that purportedly shows abortion-inducing drugs are unsafe…[to force the] FDA…[to rescind] approval of the drug mifepristone…and [also encourage prohibitionist grifters and opportunists]…to sue abortion pill manufacturers…women can still (fairly easily, it seems) have abortion-inducing medications shipped to them, [render]ing [Hawley’s scheme unfit for its stated purpose from square one]…

The Vultures Descend (#1604)

Under a totalitarian regime, medical personnel cannot be trusted with personal information:

…in December…Alexia Moore took 200mg of Misoprostol…[in] Southeast Georgia…[then went to a] hospital…and…[delivered a] premature [girl which doctors kept alive for about an hour]…Moore was arrested [in early March] and charged with murder…Georgia [law]…essentially deems a [fetus] alive once [fetal cardiac myocyte activity can be measured]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1607)

Government thugs don’t care how many lives are destroyed by their evil:

…Angela Lipps…spent nearly six months in jail after Fargo [North Dakota cops carelessly accused her of]…bank fraud [based on nothing more than error-prone] facial recognition software…Lipps told [cops] she had never been to North Dakota [nor]…ever been on an airplane until [the pigs abducted] her to North Dakota…She r[otted away] in a Tennessee jail for nearly four months…awaiting extradition….Her attorney, Jay Greenwood…obtained her bank records and pr[oved]…Lipps was more than 1,200 miles away in Tennessee at the time [cops lied that she was]…in Fargo…[the pigs refused to] pay for her trip home, leaving her stranded [in North Dakota].  Local defense attorneys helped cover a hotel room and food on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and a local non-profit, the F5 Project, was able to help her return to Tennessee…While jailed and unable to pay bills, Lipps lost her home, her car and her dog…

 

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

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Mama Throwback Thursday

Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The surest way to lose my cooperation is to accompany the demand with a phrase like “you must”, “you are required to”, “it’s the law”, etc.  –  “Off the Green”

Some of life’s greatest pleasures are pleasant precisely because they’re so ephemeral; if rainbows were always a feature of the sky, few would ever bother to look up at them in wonderment and appreciation.
–  “Diary #663”

Baby-step reforms…are mostly intended to distract activists and hush timid human rights campaigners.  –  “Lack of Evidence (#1421)”

[Trump] wants to make the US status as the world’s cop official, complete with the cop power to terrorize whoever he likes on a whim without anything resembling consequences.  –  “Client Kingdoms”

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In the News (#1621)

Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Every day felt like a week. Every week felt like a month. Every month felt like a year.  –  Owen Ramsingh

I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now

Cops will victimize anyone they can catch:

An 80-year-old man was recently arrested in Plattsburgh, New York…[during a Father]land Security [raid]…on…a massage business…the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office [collaborated with Father]land Security [to] execute…the [raid, with cops getting]…the…[white male victims while Father]land Security [gets]…the…Asian women [who are typically raped and robbed prior to deportation]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1057)

It’s sad that in the 21st century we’re still debunking claims that semen has magic powers:

…the…centuries-old myth…that sex or orgasm before a competition diminishes athletic performance…has repeatedly failed to [be] support[ed by]…numerous studies…whi[ch]…have shown that sex and orgasm are more likely to increase testosterone than decrease it.  Now, a particularly well-designed laboratory study…[by] Spanish researchers…[has shown that] masturbation produced small but statistically significant improvements in certain performance measures…[including] increased total exercise time…[and] greater handgrip strength…there were no negative effects…[and] testosterone levels were actually higher in the masturbation condition.  Cortisol levels were also elevated, suggesting increased physiological arousal rather than depletion…

Thought Control (#1443)

Politicians really want to be able to define anything as “obscene” at will:

A new Ohio bill seeks to [penalize] companies who provide online resources for the state’s public schools and libraries…[if a politician later points at anything in those resources while belching the magic word] “inappropriate”…the companies would [be subjected to] a three-strike rule, in which they would be notified…and given the ability to “cure” the resources [by censoring them on demand]…The bill would [also censor] resource[s including]…drugs, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, [any] illegal activities…or…LGBT…[people]…

I Spy (#1569)

Elon Musk and all his “DOGE” goons should spend the next few decades in prison:

…a [typical and representative “]DOGE[” goon named John Solly who]…had access to two highly sensitive [Social Security] databases…share[d] the information with his [new] private employer…a c[ompany named Leidos]…an unprecedented breach of security protocols…[foolishly enabled by SCOTUS.  Solly bragged] to…several co-workers that he possessed two tightly restricted databases of U.S. citizens’ information…on a thumb drive.  The databases…include records for more than 500 million living and dead Americans, including Social Security numbers, places and dates of birth, citizenship, race and ethnicity, and parents’ names…he a[sked]…the whistleblower…[for] help transferring data from a thumb drive “to his personal computer so that he could ‘sanitize’ the data before using it at [Leidos” and]…the…colleague…refused to help him…because of legal concerns, [but Solly bragged] that he [did not care that it was]…illegal [because the mad emperor would pardon him]…

To Molest and Rape (#1592)

Good riddance to bad rubbish:

A [typical and representative Pennsylvania cop named]…Francis Connell Collier…was…killed…in a [shootout]…with [other cops]…who…[were trying to arrest him for] rape of a[t least two] child[ren]…beginning when they were about five or six years old…from 2001 through…2004…

Walled Garden (#1616)

The only way to ensure data is not abused is not to collect it:

Spain’s data protection authority…imposed a total fine of €950,000 on Yoti Ltd, the British digital identity and age verification company, after finding three distinct violations of [law]…the AEPD has [also] ordered Yoti to implement corrective measures within six months…Yoti’s…app allows users to create a verified identity account by uploading a government-issued identity document and taking a selfie…Yoti [claimed] that the facial scan it performs does not constitute biometric data…because…the purpose is not to uniquely identify users but to authenticate them.  The authority [sensibly] rejected this [ridiculous] argument…

Torture Chamber (#1620)

Some of these “suicides” are murders; others are people driven to suicide by barbaric abuse:

S[crews] at the nation’s largest [concentration camp] have placed bets on which [of their victims] will be the next to die by suicide…Camp East Montana [was refurbished from a WWII-era concentration camp used to falsely imprison US citizens of Japanese descent]…On an average day…around 3,000 [ICE victims] are [imprisoned there without adequate]…food [or]…medical care…

 

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

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