Since I’ve already said plenty on this subject, it hardly seems necessary to say more about the danger of giving governments too much power, when that is currently being demonstrated clearly and irrefutably every single day. So I’ll just share this image of a sign Grace had near her desk.
Posted in Holidays, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged cops, holidays, left-right myth, politicians | Leave a Comment »
A week ago today, when I went out to feed the animals, I found Jonathan lying on his side in the stable. That’s unusual for llamas; typically they rest sitting upright, with their legs folded under their bodies (the “kush” position). When I went to investigate he tried to spit at me, so I figured he might just be not feeling well and decided to leave him alone to see what he’d do. The next morning he was still in the same position, just chewing his cud and refusing to get up. So I consulted a large animal vet who told me that older llamas (Jonathan is 19 and the vet said the oldest llama she ever heard of lived to 22) sometimes develop neurological issues, and the important thing is to keep him upright because lying on their sides too long is actually harmful to camelids. So I went back out to the stable and tried rocking him and otherwise bothering him, to no avail; I then hit upon the idea of grabbing his right legs (he was lying on his right side) and flipping him over. He struggled a bit, but it was surprisingly easy to flip him, given that he weighs in the neighborhood of 200 kilograms. Once on his left side, he started kicking and twisting and within a minute was in kush position. So I watched him for a little while, and within another minute or two he started to list to the right; I grabbed a hay bale and put it on that side to prop him up. But he didn’t like that either, and much to my surprise was soon standing again. He was extremely wobbly, so I leaned against him to prop him up, and he took a few steps forward and leaned against the stable wall. He then started slowly moving forward, leaning against the wall but remaining upright, and after a while I decided to go about my business and regularly check up on him. About an hour later I returned to find he had left the stable and was browsing along the north fence; he stayed there until after dark, and would not come to the stable for a scoop of oats as he usually does when I call him. Thursday morning I looked out about 90 minutes after sunrise and he was still in the same place, though in kush position; he later started moving around the paddock normally all day and came for his oats when called a little before sunset, and since then has behaved normally. But apparently, I now need to expect occasional repeats of the incident or similar geriatric camelid behaviors, which I guess is only appropriate considering I’m starting to display geriatric problems and behaviors myself.
Posted in Diary | Tagged animals, disease, Sunset | Leave a Comment »
Some of your human visitors could probably take some lessons in behavior from him. – Priscilla Lange
As usual, I found an appropriate seasonal video too late for Halloween. The links above it were provided by T. Greg Doucette (“solidarity”, “memoriam”, and “kids”); Jesse Walker (RIP); Mike Siegel (“Baskervilles” and “money”); and IncarcerNation (“cops”).
From the Archives
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged acting, animals, Arizona, California, cops, imaginative fiction, Indiana, prisons, STEM, teachers, United Kingdom, video | Leave a Comment »
These failings are not isolated incidents. – Jean Philip De Tender
Stephanie Johnson, who performed as a burlesque dancer in New York in the 1960s and ’70s under the stage name Tanqueray, and whose vivid stories of that grittier time in the city’s history…turned her into a viral social media star [in 2019 through the social media account Humans of New York], died on Oct. 11 at her home in Manhattan. She was 81…her son Mitchell Springle…said she had suffered a series of strokes…
When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1536)
Serial lawsuit abuser Ken Paxton wants to profit from Trumpist delusions:
Ken Paxton, the [psychopath-]general of Texas, [has] sued the makers of Tylenol…[pretend]ing that the companies hid the risks of the drug on brain development of children. The lawsuit is the latest [attempt to profit from the mad emperor’s delusion] that use of Tylenol during pregnancy can cause autism…and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder…The [belief is] a longstanding [one] among [anti-vaxxers and similar crackpots including] Robert F. Kennedy Jr…[whom the mad emperor appointed to wreck] the nation’s…health [system]…Hundreds of lawsuits in state and federal courts have been filed in recent years by [crackpots looking for a payout]…the largest group of cases…[has been] dismissed [for being completely unsupported by anything resembling] scientific evidence…
These things are designed to appeal to the dregs of humanity:
I recently reviewed Even Realities G1 smart glasses…and the first real-world thing I used them for was scamming someone. I told a local bartender I had an encyclopedic knowledge of film, and I would answer the hardest movie trivia question he could come up with in exchange for a drink. After a short consultation with Google, dude came back with “Who directed 1922’s Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?” I tilted my head thoughtfully and repeated the question as if verifying I heard him right. The [chatbot] agent silently did its thing, and in about three seconds, the answer was floating before my eyes, totally invisible to everyone around me…Even inspected up close, G1s offer no indication of electronics of any kind: No USB port, no flashing light, no visible controls. The [chatbot] is activated with a subtle tap behind the ear. Repeating the question sends the [chatbot] off for the answer, [which may or may not be correct]…You could do the same trick with a pair of [Facebook] Display glasses…
Oh look, word-guessing programs produce nonsense, what a surprise:
New research coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union…and led by the BBC has found that [LLM “]assistants[“] – already [very popular with] millions of [gullible, lazy] people – routinely misrepresent news content no matter which language, territory, or…platform is tested. The…study…involv[ed] 22…media…organizations in 18 countries working in 14 languages…[with] ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Perplexity…45% of all [chatbot] answers had at least one significant issue…31%…showed…missing…or incorrect attributions…20% contained…[“]hallucinated[“] details…Gemini performed worst with significant issues in 76% of responses…[yet these shitty “]assistants[“] are already replacing search engines for [gullible] users…
Don’t let a fucking computer call them, either:
A…[computerized “gun] detector[“] led police to believe a [student] was armed…at a Baltimore County school…when [in reality] it [was]…a bag of chips. Taki Allen was sitting with friends…outside [the] School, eating a bag of chips after football practice. About 20 minutes later, [cops barged in] with guns, [threatening] Allen [with them and screaming for him to]….”Get on the ground”…police told him [artificial stupidity had declared] his bag of chips…a weapon [and cops’ natural stupidity did the rest]. “They made me get on my knees, put my hands behind my back, and cuffed me. Then, they searched me and they figured out I had nothing…[but] a Doritos bag”…
The State calls torture “correction”. For journalists to parrot that is a choice:
…[Deranged screws] at a Western Maryland prison shut off the water to a mentally ill man’s cell, then allowed him to suffer for eight days before he finally died of dehydration…On July 5, 2023, [one screw]…noted in a logbook that Lamont Mealy, [locked] in [solitary confinement] without even toiletries…looked dazed and was unresponsive…H[is superiors ignored the report and]…hours later, Mealy…was dead….[of] dehydration…with fecal matter in and around his mouth…[yet] the [complicit] medical examiner…ruled the manner of death an accident…[the coverup would have succeeded if not for] letters written by a fellow prisoner…[cag]ed nearby, Danny Hoskins…[who] filed complaints…[report]ing that [screws intentionally deprived] Mealy…[of] water…[and regularly] taunted [him as he was slowly dying]…The first complaint prompted [screws] to come to Hoskins’ cell and beat him [for trying to ruin their fun, then]…he was…transferred to another prison. [But] he then sent letters to the governor, the attorney general and [others]…
This situation is not going to get better on its own:
OpenAI has released a rough estimate of how many ChatGPT users globally may show signs of having a severe mental health crisis in a typical week…a growing number of people have ended up hospitalized, divorced, or dead…[because] the chatbot fueled their delusions and paranoia…OpenAI estimated that around .07 percent of active ChatGPT users show “possible signs of…psychosis or mania” and .15 percent “[show]…explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent.” OpenAI also…found that about .15 percent of active users exhibit behavior that indicates potential “heightened levels” of emotional attachment to ChatGPT weekly…ChatGPT now has 800 million weekly active users…therefore…around 560,000 people [weekly] may be…experiencing mania or psychosis. About 2.4 million more are possibly expressing suicidal ideations or prioritizing talking to ChatGPT over their loved ones, school, or work…
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!
Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, News, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged advertising, Aladdin’s Satellite, artificial stupidity, cops, drugs, Google, hysteria, Mad Libs, Maryland, Never Call the Cops, New York, propaganda, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, scams, statistics, stripping, surveillance, teachers, Texas, Torture Chamber, Welcome to the Future, When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals | Leave a Comment »
Gerontocracy is the enemy of human progress. – “Eros and Thanatos”
Every year on this day I remind my readers about the inevitability and goodness of Death, and this year is no exception. Some may believe that the passing of my beloved friend Grace has changed that, but that is not so; both of us knew we must one day be parted by death, and both of us knew that given her poor health and greater age, it was very likely she would go first. Unlike the powerful and privileged men who embrace childish fantasies about life extension or even immortality to assuage their fear of the dark, I do not whine and stomp my feet in protest of the fact that I and all I love must die, nor waste my life in vain and foolish denial of reality. If anything, my tears spring from the opposite source. I do not weep because my best friend died; I weep because I have to go on living without her.
Posted in Holidays, Philosophy | Tagged Grace, holidays, paganism, Thanatopsis | Leave a Comment »
Happy Halloween, dear readers, and Blessed Be!
Posted in Holidays | Tagged holidays, paganism | 2 Comments »
Both feminists and denizens of the “manosphere” are part of the same continuum of wackadoo. – “Big Dick Energy (#1183)”
The stupider the belief, the harder it is to debunk. – “Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1284)”
Sorry, crypto-moralists, but “addictive” is not a synonym for “yummy”. – “Not An Addiction (#1385)”
I don’t think taking it a little easy on my birthday is too much to ask. – “Diary #748“
Posted in Miscellaneous, Tyranny | Tagged blogging, cops, crypto-moralism, drugs, genitalia, hysteria, language, Not An Addiction, propaganda, psychology, Unsafe for Human Consumption, yin and yang | Leave a Comment »
Oh no, not another youth pastor. – Jessica Nicely
This started as a scheme to keep sex workers off of Tinder:
Tinder [has] announced…that identity verification with facial recognition will now be required for all new users in the U.S. in the coming months. A facial scan is already required for new…users in California as of July…[and] new users in Colombia, Canada, Australia, India, and several countries across Southeast Asia must also complete one…users must take a video of themselves within the app…the…scan…[is used to determine] whether the same face is used in multiple profiles…and stored to verify new photos…
First They Came for the Hookers… (#1508)
There is no such thing as an original idea from a politician:
Pennsylvania [politicians] are proposing a new 10 percent tax on porn. The…”tiddy tariff,” as…Mike Stabile has dubbed it—would be levied in addition to the state’s normal 6 percent sales and use tax. As a means to…raise revenue or discourage porn consumption…this…might make sense if most porn viewers were paying for porn videos or platform subscriptions. But in a world of ample free porn, it seems unlikely to accomplish either of the state’s likely aims…And to the extent that it even further disincentivizes paying for porn, it could actually work against goals like protecting sex workers from exploitation, or keeping people from viewing porn that was made in illegal or exploitative ways…
Pennsylvania, of course, is not interested in protecting sex workers.
Other mobile surveillance platforms aren’t enough; cops now want their own:
The Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Department is the first in the country to test a new [robot pigmobile] decked in surveillance equipment…it is even capable of serving as a launch platform for [flying pig robots]…this is…a pilot program…sponsored by [fascist corporation] PolicingLab…as a feeler for the Sheriff’s public affairs folks…in order to…evaluate [how badly it will damage]…public trust…“Results will inform whether and how the program expands, potentially serving as a national model for [cop shops] across the country”…
What would cops do if you shot someone dead in the street?
An FBI [spook in Virginia who murdered] a neighbor in [cold blood was allowed to skate without]…any time in jail…Benjamin Spinale shot…Jason Chamberlain in the middle of the street in February…he was…never charged for [the murder], but…faced four [slap-on-the-wrist gun] charges [instead. Spinale has a history of threatening neighbors with his gun, having]…previously pulled [it] on a puppy and a group of teens. The county prosecutor [absurdly claimed] there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Spinale [for] the [murder], despite being surrounded by sheriff’s deputies at the time…the first judge to hear the plea agreement called Spinale a vigilante and said he shouldn’t be allowed to have a gun in any capacity[, so the case was transferred to] another judge [prosecutors knew would] accept…the [corrupt deal]…
Alan Hamel is doing everything he can to [profit from his late wife] Suzanne Somers…One of [his creepy schemes] is a [computer-generated image synchronized with a chatbot trained on Somers’ writings and interviews, branded as]…”the Suzanne AI Twin”…Hamel, [who is either deeply senile or lacks the capacity for shame, claims]…”When…I…look at the two of them side by side, I really can’t tell which one is the real and which one is the AI”…
Government thugs hate both queer people and migrants, so queer migrants are especially targeted:
Queer and trans immigrants [locked in a] south Louisiana [dungeon] have…faced sexual harassment and abuse, medical neglect and coerced labor by [screws], and…[were] ignored or faced retaliation for speaking out…they were…forced…to perform hard [and pointless] manual labor [in the middle of the night and]…targeted by an assistant warden…named Manuel Reyes and his [gang, who]… beat them and denied them medical treatment [afterward]. “I was treated worse than an animal,” said Mario Garcia-Valenzuela, one of the [victims]…part of the [torture included repetitively moving]…heavy cabinets [back and forth across a room], and…using industrial-strength [cleaning] chemicals without gloves or protective gear…[all in the middle of the] night…they were persistently sexually harassed by Reyes, who [also] entered their [cells to steal] possessions including [dirty underwear. One of the victims]
…is a [lesbian whom]…Reyes…oral[ly raped]…on a “near daily basis” between February and May 2024, threatening to kill her if she refused…to [submit]…
…a Phoenix…youth group leader…[named] Casey Goslin…was arrested on Oct. 16…for…[possession of] child pornography…Goslin…was…involved with a platform used to livestream child sexual abuse…[from] the Philippines…
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!
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged Arizona, artificial stupidity, Australia, California, Canada, censorship, Colombia, cops, dating, ethics, fascism, FBI, First They Came for the Hookers, Florida, If Men Were Angels, illegal aliens, India, internet, Louisiana, Panopticon, Pennsylvania, porn, prisons, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, robots, Shame Shame, surveillance, The Cop Myth, The Puritan Recrudescence, The War Goes On, Torture Chamber, Washington DC | Leave a Comment »
Usually, I look forward to my birthday, and October tends to lift my spirits from their summer doldrums. But this year it has been difficult; October is the start of the rainy season here, and I suppose the quiet and dark are making the house feel especially empty. My annual tradition of watching horror movies every night in October also feels emptier than usual without my friend here to share them with. I still remember the first time I saw The Haunting; I’d read about it but never seen it, and I found the VHS tape at Big Lots (this was either ’98 or ’99) so Grace and I watched it together on Halloween night, sitting on this old Danish modern couch I had at the time. As it got scarier we slowly moved closer together, and in the infamous knocking scene, we both jumped and grabbed each other at the exact same moment Julie Harris & Claire Bloom did onscreen. It was something we laughed about for years afterward, and even though we rarely sat on the sofa together to watch movies in her later years (because she needed the support of her own chair), she was still a very definite presence in the process, from selection to scheduling to discussion. As a result, it’s just not the same any more. It’s a small thing, I know, but it’s a good example of how a close friendship sends roots and tendrils into every part of a human life, ensuring that practically every part of life afterward is a keen reminder of its loss.
Posted in Diary | Tagged Grace, holidays, imaginative fiction, psychology | Leave a Comment »
It is a sad fact of human existence that one absolutely cannot help someone who doesn’t want to be helped. – “On Horses and Water”
Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged blogging | Leave a Comment »
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