I got word a week or so ago that our cee purlins are on the way from Phoenix, but it’s a route truck so it’ll probably be another week or two before they actually arrive. The roof panel order took longer than I anticipated to process, but they finally charged my credit card last Friday; I then got an email telling me they weren’t able to deliver here, but we could pick the panels up ourselves from the plant…which is in Kent (suburban Seattle). Now, I have no idea why we couln’t find this place when we were searching for local suppliers; the office we dealt with is in Tennessee. But at least I’ll get a refund on my shipping fee, and it’s no big deal to send Chekhov to Seattle with the trailer. A couple of days ago we shifted the steel tubing into Grace’s shop, so she’ll be starting on the trusses next week; since the shop is enclosed she’ll be able to work regardless of rain (which we’ve had quite a lot of lately), and we’ll only need to work around the weather to actually get them in place.
Posted in Diary | Tagged Sunset, Washington (state) | Leave a Comment »
Government is at best a barely-necessary evil, and in most cases just a plain evil. – “Anarchy?”
Every year on this day, following as it does The Day of the Dead, I remind readers that nation-states are, no matter what politicians and other control freaks would like you to believe, every bit as mortal as the humans who create them (albeit somewhat longer-lived on average). And because the day also falls in close proximity to the US election day, I also use it to remind readers that absolutely no one can be trusted with power over others, and a tyranny which claims legitimacy via the charade of “democratic elections” is no more legitimate than any other because it still claims the “right” to inflict violence upon those who want nothing to do with it and have done nothing to harm anyone. Nor does the race, gender, sexual orientation, political party or any other characteristic of the power-holders matter; power corrupts, and every last human being is corruptible. This year, we have seen a greater number of Americans than ever before recognizing that the standing armies created to enforce the arbitrary diktats of sociopathic “leaders” upon their subjects are hopelessly corrupt, evil, and violent, and that their power must be sharply curtailed. But unfortunately, many well-meaning but naive people will fight to prevent that from happening because they have been brainwashed into fearing what politicians like to call “anarchy”, but is actually nothing of the kind. Mob violence is not “anarchy”; it is merely a less-organized, less-established form of Might Makes Right, the same principle used to justify every other form of government and policing. As I wrote two years ago today,
Humans are not yet ready for pure anarchy, and may never be; however, there are functional anarchist societies (I happen to be a member of one), and a small government of strictly-enumerated powers with ironclad guarantees of individual rights is probably the closest we will ever come to a just and incorruptible one…a large part of the problem is that people’s moral perspectives are blighted by a sick infatuation with government, a belief that there are some circumstances in which it’s not only tolerable but desirable to inflict violence on people who have done none to others, in furtherance of some pipe-dream of Utopia…
There is absolutely zero possibility that the United States or any other empire or massive state will ever achieve anything like this, and the empire which will move into the power vacuum left behind by the collapsing US is devoted to exactly the opposite goal. But it is remotely possible that in the Balkanized North America of the near future, some small independent realm will at least make the attempt. 
Posted in History, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged China, consensual crime, cops, holidays, politicians | 2 Comments »
I’m happy to say that I had a very lovely birthday week! I was in an unusually good mood all week, and did a lot of cooking because I felt like it; for inner on Saturday I prepared three kinds of finger foods (deviled eggs, shrimp toast, and crab Rangoon) because I feel as though they’re kind of like adult trick-or-treat, and we watched several spooky shows. An artist friend of mine was with us, and she gave me this paperweight she made from a stone from my property, painted with a lovely snake motif! Jae also gave me a snake, a big plush one which I think I will leave to guard my bed. And I got so many presents from readers and admirers: Mike Siegel sent me Predestination and The Immortality Key; Jeremy Dunn sent me several of the “Shaver Mystery” reprint books and a Japanese horror film, Marebito, based on them; and two other readers sent me a lovely cashmere sweater and a digital kitchen scale, but since some Amazon sellers neglect to send packing skips, I don’t know who to thank! If you sent one of those, please let me know. On top of all that, several readers sent me cash gifts, which are always welcome! All around, it was an exceptional birthday week, and thanks so much to everyone who helped make it so!
Posted in Diary | Tagged holidays, imaginative fiction, Presents | 1 Comment »
James Randi, AKA, “The Amazing Randi”, died last week at the age of 92. If you don’t know who he was, watch this short video for an introduction; there’s also a full-length documentary on his life’s work, An Honest Liar. The links above the video were provided by Mistress Matisse, Nun Ya, Franklin Harris, Radley Balko, Cop Crisis, Walter Olson, and Mike Siegel, in that order.
- Just protecting and serving.
- Almost 10% is a good start.
- Previously-undiscovered Nazca lines!
- The rotten fruit of public-sector unions.
- These driverless pigmobiles are a menace.
- Tom Lehrer has made all his lyrics public domain.
- Do I really need to say, “Not because you dislike someone’s decorations”?
From the Archives
- UK cops, desperately trying to draw others into their “sex slave” fantasies.
- We were warned Israeli whore-censorship was only “part of a wider plan”.
- Redbridge has a history of harassing whores with stupid “crime” rhetoric.
- European Court of Human Rights kissed France’s arse, but the UN didn’t.
- Any elected official who acts in this way should be removed from office.
- The government keeps openly hiding information in the Backpage case.
- The New York Times has discarded whatever credibility it once enjoyed.
- Facebook wants to become one of the cornerstones of modern fascism.
- Tech geeks create a “consent app” that is both useless and dangerous.
- “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time“.
- Nobody will be safe until this odious practice is ruled unconstitutional.
- If you weren’t horrified by China’s “re-education” camps for Uighurs.
- There has never been a case of a kid getting drugged trick-or-treat.
- Nigerian scholar demolishes racist European masturbatory fantasy.
- They actually admit the point is to normalize constant surveillance.
- Pimps are not common, but many of those who do exist are cops.
- UK cops shoehorn migrants into their “pop-up” wanking fantasy.
- How the government created a bogeyman to justify censorship.
- All too often, evil arrives cloaked in the mantle of expediency.
- I hope this doesn’t harm increased awareness of rapist cops.
- Palantir helps cops spy on sex workers and minority groups.
- Bezos wants to provide the engine to power racist pogroms.
- It’s good to see so many challenges to these medieval laws.
- Facebook claims this picture will sexually arouse its users.
- Any internet-connected device can be used to spy on you.
- Another Australian state moves toward decriminalization.
- Your government wants this to happen more often.
- A retrospective of my blogging from October 2016.
- Sex and death are but two sides of the same coin.
- Cops, politicians, a horror story, and much more.
- Sex workers have been saying this for decades.
- Your government refers to this as “correction”.
- In the US, his victims would have no recourse.
- The US is trying to rewrite Backpage’s history.
- A tale of beauty, love, obsession and horror.
- Cops, Pokemon, Halloween and much more.
- My two previous columns for Halloween.
- In which I downshift into Autumn mode.
- A tale of the death of an immortal.
- Welcome to our world, amateurs.
- Population 13,255. Seriously.
- Kaytlin Bailey’s wedding.
- Rapist cops of the week.
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged cops, domestic violence, Florida, holidays, language, Massachusetts, Never Call the Cops, New York, Not for Any Reason Whatsoever, Peru, scams, video, Washington (state), Wisconsin | 2 Comments »
Death is what gives life meaning, and fighting excessively against it is as childish and futile as the behavior of a toddler who refuses to let another child take his place on the carousel once his ride is done. – “Thanatopsis”
Every year on the Day of the Dead I write about the inevitability and goodness of Death. Yes, I said “goodness”; as I wrote in “Eternity“, “Eternal life wouldn’t be a gift; it would be a horror literally beyond imagining.” I’ve never been especially afraid of death; part of that is due to the fact that “I was a strange, wild, moody Wednesday Addams of a child, born on Halloween night and fascinated with horror lore and imagery. Autumn was both my native season and the one in which I felt most comfortable…” The rest, of course, was a combination of chronic depression and ruthless pragmatism; for much of my life I endured long periods in which I would have viewed death as a welcome release, and even when I was in a cheerier frame of mind I was still rational enough to recognize that the continuance of life for any given creature requires the regular deaths of countless others. But it wasn’t until my forties that I started become really philosophical about mortality, and only five years ago did I really start to deeply ponder its spiritual dimension. The latter development was not merely due to age, though that undoubtedly helped put me in the right headspace; a catalyst was required, and that catalyst was edible cannabis. I started experimenting with what are typically and not-entirely-correctly called “recreational drugs” near the end of 2014, and though several of them gave me very rewarding experiences with others, it was the psychedelic experiences I had from using largish doses of edible cannabis alone (or more accurately, without human company) that opened the doors to the Infinite and gave me a perspective on death, the soul and my place in Everything which eventually led to a spiritual peace unlike any I had ever known. I was far from alone; those who refuse to be bound by the Puritanism which has trapped modern humanity in a death-grip have for decades tried to tell everyone else about the healing and mind-expanding power of psychedelic drugs, and since the 1990s studies have increasingly demonstrated the power of such substancies to alleviate depression, PTSD and other mental health issues. But this is not a new discovery, it is, rather, a rediscovery of truths known to our ancestors millenia ago:
…sacred tripping was not simply a function of prehistoric religious rituals and shamanism, but an integral, even central part, of the world of the ancient Greeks….The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion With No Name, by Brian Muraresku…shows…the centrality of psychedelic use…in an elaborate and mysterious once-in-a-lifetime ceremony at the Temple of Eleusis, a short distance from Athens. We’ve long known about…the Mysteries…and the rite of passage they offered — because it’s everywhere in the record. Many leading Greeks and Romans went there, including Plato and Marcus Aurelius…The Greeks and Romans went to Eleusis only once in their lives, like the Muslim hajj, to participate in a nocturnal rite, and were sworn to secrecy as to what went on. But the constant theme in the ancient literature around this ritual is that it somehow took the sting of death away. “Death is for mortals no longer an evil, but a blessing” was the phrase attached to it…Historians and classicists have long pondered what this meant and what exactly happened, but all agree that it required drinking a special brew. And new discoveries of ancient chalices and cups — and new techniques of testing ancient residue — have begun to suggest what made these archaic potions so special…they contained countless herbs and spices and ingredients, among them, critically, elements of ergot, a fungus that infected barley and rye and had potent hallucinogenic effects…Another re-examined excavation in Pompeii found the preserved remains at the bottom of large barrels jars dated to 79 CE: chemical analysis found it included seeds of cannabis, opium, and hallucinogenic nightshades. The recipe for the psychedelic brew and the preparation of it was restricted to women, who passed on the secret recipes from mother to daughter, and was the particular preserve of older women. The effect, we’re told in the sources, was transformative: you saw past life and death, you became unafraid of your own mortality, you gained perspective and inner peace…

Posted in History, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged Day of the Dead, drugs, Greece, holidays, psychology, Rome, Thanatopsis | 3 Comments »
Posted in Holidays | Tagged holidays, paganism | 2 Comments »
Here’s a fun little Halloween game; y’all can play in the comment thread or on Twitter as you prefer. How many TV shows can you think of in which one of the main characters is already dead by the end of the first episode? Characters who appear only occasionally don’t count; it has to be regular screen appearances. Obviously, shows which have vampire characters such as Dark Shadows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood and The Munsters are included, as are ghost characters like Merlyn Temple in American Gothic, Captain Daniel Gregg in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and “Slimer” in the cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters (and since we’re allowing cartoons, half the cast of The Groovie Goolies qualifies). But there are also science-fiction versions of undead, such as Arnold Rimmer in Red Dwarf or Alex Murphy in Robocop, and wholly-mortal characters whose deaths set events in motion and thereafter regularly appear in flashbacks, such as Master Po in Kung Fu and Laura Palmer (mostly in photos) in Twin Peaks. I asked Grace to play yesterday and she came up with Georgia Lass and her fellow Grim Reapers in Dead Like Me; several characters in Glitch, Resurrection and The Returned; Ezekiel Stone in Brimstone; Olivia Moore of iZombie; Sheila Hammond of Santa Clarita Diet; and Kieren Walker of In the Flesh. I’ll bet there are plenty of others, though; how many can you name?
Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged holidays, imaginative fiction | 24 Comments »
Prostitution is to my knowledge the only “crime” which is entirely defined by its motive. – “Lack of Evidence”

- The state keeps trying to crucify a young man after the 1st attempt failed.
- Funny how clients aren’t treated as menaces to society when they’re cops.
- Moral panics only end after they start harming middle-class white women.
- Yet another pogrom in the pocket police-state that is Polk County, Florida.
- Just in case you think it’s only sex workers who will be harmed by SESTA.
- Watching “sex trafficking” hysteria spin out of control is deeply gratifying.
- Everyone harmed by “prostitution stings” needs to keep suing over them.
- A good little article despite a truly stupid statement in the third sentence.
- How can people read this and still think prostitution laws are a good idea?
- Negating women’s consent via psychobabble won’t stop with sex workers.
- Watching “sex trafficking” hysteria spin out of control is deeply gratifying.
- Weinstein made it possible to publicly attack “sex addiction” as malarkey.
- New sleazy government trick: use civil suits rather than criminal charges.
- Claiming this constitutes “slavery” is almost as stupid as calling the cops.
- I always feel dirty when prohibitionists share wanking fantasies in public.
- Anti-trans laws, religion & “feminism” are the theory; this is the practice.
- How dare they interfere with pigs’ “right” to destroy their students’ lives?
- “Authorities” claiming North Dakota is a “sex trafficking hub” is hilarious.
- “Sex trafficking” propaganda will soon be cult faves like Reefer Madness.
- When a non-sexworker uses the term “decriminalization”, read carefully.
- Collaboration between government & private industry is called “fascism”.
- At least this report doesn’t pretend these robbers were real sex workers.
- Oakland allows cops who qualify as “traffickers” by law to get away free.
- Authoritarians keep re-electing this lunatic despite the cost of his antics.
- More hysterics who can’t tell the difference between adults and children.
- Outcry against the grotesque “Operation Northern Spotlight” is growing.
- Amateurs: a health menace who should be licensed & heavily regulated.
- When a law intended as political theater is defeated, politicians still win.
- Leeds is slightly more enlightened about sex work than much of the UK.
- The Unsinkable Liz Brown looks at this year’s “Operation Cross Country”.
- Say what you like about Larry Flynt, but he’s a dedicated foe of tyranny.
- Not the same huge child porn site run by the FBI; this is a different one.
- Volunteers selflessly devote their time to watching porn so others can’t.
- How many kids must be sacrificed to this obscenity before it’s enough?
- Spending as much time as possible in less-haunted parts of the house.
- “Feminist” calls other women “toilets” for ministering to disabled men.
- It’s utterly loathsome to use talk of “slavery” to oppose human rights.
- Why would anybody pay for sex instead of trying to “pick up” women?
- Pearl-clutching is both funnier and sadder when a young man does it.
- 99% of men who claim they don’t like breast implants are full of shit.
- We’re lucky to have such moral exemplars to “protect” and “lead” us.
- Evil is evil, tyranny is tyranny, and I DO NOT CONSENT, now or ever.
- Politicians everywhere are obsessed with regulating women’s bodies.
- How many need to be sacrificed to this obscenity before it’s enough?
- Bad laws disproportionately harm small businesses and poor people.
- Grosso has consistently pursued this course for over two years now.
- Why is “sex trafficking” hysteria is so pervasive? Follow the money.
- The Francophone world is in deep denial about compensated dating.
- When does a “sex trafficking victim” become an “underage hooker”?
- This was only necessary due to idiotic laws against sex businesses.
- I wonder what fraction of his rhetoric is directed toward “perverts”?
- Naturally, because it’s politicians’ job to cause harm, not reduce it.
- Bigoted hotel staff in the US could have ratted her out to the pigs.
- The real purpose of this is to cut sex workers off from healthcare.
- Breaking news! Las Vegas shooter ate food the day of his crime!
- Reporter makes poor attempt to hide envy under pearl-clutching.
- How can a client who was busted by cops help sex worker rights?
- Really not much more repressive than the so-called “free world”.
- Hey amateurs, you want to avoid being profiled as sex workers?
- Combining “sex addiction” nonsense with “sex robot” nonsense.
- Despite this popular UK cop fantasy, none has ever been found.
- Pervert cops and FBI thugs gang up to ruin the lives of women.
- Remember: these people have already served their sentences.
- Just in case you think being a “legal” sex worker protects you.
- Cops are not intended to “protect” you, and never have been.
- Indonesia is trying to criminalize all sex outside of marriage.
- Don’t feel left out, amateurs; they’ll get around to you next.
- The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.
- The BBC has discarded whatever credibility it once enjoyed.
- It looks like Scott Cunningham has finally done a good one.
- Because sex rays can piggyback on radio waves, obviously!
- Deeply stupid reporter confuses BDSM with police violence.
- Why you should be wary of talk about “going after pimps”.
- Cops call children abducted from sex workers “recovered”.
- The beginning of the end for the “sex addiction” scam.
- A grave isn’t a “final resting place”; it’s a garbage can.
- I hope none of you find this even remotely surprising.
- How “feminism”, Gay Inc & ACLU betray sex workers.
- Will Weinstein bring down the “sex addiction” scam?
- A Utah politician’s bizarre anti-porn antics continue.
- It was inevitable they’d get around to transwomen.
- The official completion of my move to Washington.
- Many sex workers really hate the word “prostitute”.
- This will continue for as long as prohibition does.
- People sometimes ask why I’m not on Facebook.
- What really goes on in Seattle’s “john school”?
- Escort advertising is already illegal in Ireland.
- Yet another dumb “awareness-raising” stunt.
- What is wrong with doctors who do this shit?
- Decriminalization does not create a “Mecca”.
- In which I add a bookstore to this website.
- Why hackers should support sex workers.
- Talking is now defined as “sex trafficking”.
- This isn’t “remarkable” or even “unusual”.
- “Sex trafficking” as the new “blood libel”.
- Definitely not the worst pickup line ever.
- The real result of “sex trafficking” laws.
- The dysphemisms are thick in this one.
- The truth about Swedish “feminism”.

- Another whore who thinks she isn’t.
- My creativity is a lot like my libido.
- It’s your turn to help sex workers.
- “This is not about sex trafficking“.
- HIV-positive man cured in Berlin.
- Another setback for due process.
- I really, really don’t like change.
- Rapist cops of October, 2017.
- The ten worst jobs in the US.
- On “evidence of prostitution”.
- The story of a shill for AHF.
- Hooters, Japanese style.
- From moving to fixing.
- R.I.P. Hugh Hefner.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged blogging | Leave a Comment »
McCain and her ilk…never let facts get in the way of a good moral panic. – Julianna Piccillo
Yes, sex workers are more likely to experience violence and coercion under Swedish criminalization than under most legalization regimes, including the British model which was used in Northern Ireland until the Swedish model was imposed there. However, these sex workers are still adults and still capable of adult decision-making; they are not “children”, “victims”, “slaves” or whatever other fashionable dysphemim one cares to apply to them without their consent. So if you’re a reporter who thinks you’re “helping” sex workers by calling attention to this increased violence, yet insist on calling their work “modern slavery”, I suggest you find something different to write about.
A reminder that you shouldn’t let anyone shame you for refusing to vote:
Don’t Call It Trafficking (#911)
Remember, this isn’t “human trafficking”, but consensual sex is:
Lawyers appointed by a federal judge to identify migrant families who were separated by the Trump administration say they have yet to track down the parents of 545 children, and that approximately two-thirds of those parents were deported to Central America without their children…Unlike the 2,800 families separated under [Trump’s] zero tolerance [policy] in 2018, most of whom remained in c[ages] when zero tolerance was ended…many of the more than 1,000 parents separated from their children under the [2017] pilot program had already been deported before a federal judge in California ordered they be found…
The schadenfreude is so sweet, it almost hurts my teeth:
The Arizona…Republic‘s scribes outdid themselves recently in a piece comparing [“Cuckoo Clock” McCain]’s many years of peddling the moral panic of sex trafficking, to the…[fantasy] known as QAnon, which posits that a worldwide ring of Democratic elites sells minors for sex while feasting on the flesh of infants and undermining the presidency of Donald J. Trump. Due to the rise of QAnon…anti-trafficking [profiteers] worry…there will be less [money to] support…the [rescue industry]…In other words, it’s a turf war, with all these unwashed newbies attempting to usurp the anti-trafficking throne currently inhabited by the widow of the late warmonger, Senator John McCain…the McCain Institute issued a statement condemning QAnon, while Cindy McCain took QAnon to task on Twitter for its “lies”…Talk about projection. Aided and abetted, time and again, by mainstream news outlets, Cindy McCain has spread dangerous misinformation and myths about sex trafficking, citing debunked statistics, prevaricating about her own experiences, and falling back on racist tropes — all in a narcissistic bid to maintain her media profile…
“Detention center” is just another euphemism for “prison”, and that means rape:
…since 2017, at least 265 calls…have reported violence and abuse inside California’s four…federal detention centers…Half [reported] sex crimes, including rape, sexual assault and abuse against detainees. The rest were to report assault, battery and other threats of violence against [prisoners, mostly by] staff. In only three cases…[was] a suspect…charged…and…[only] one…is pending. [Since] prosecutors [a]re…[un]likely to pursue cases…what [has] emerged is…a system in which violence can be perpetuated against [prisoners] with impunity, [especially] by…[screws. Prisoners a]re banned from calling 911…and forced to rely on [screws] to report a[ttacks by other screws]…
Turning the police state’s own weapons against it:
…[because cops sent to suppress protests] are…tap[ing] over their name[s]…individuals…are…researching how to build a facial recognition product that could defeat [cop]s’ attempts to [hide] their identity…The authorities targeted so far have not been pleased. The New York Times reported in July 2019 that Colin Cheung, a protester in Hong Kong, had developed a tool to identify [cops] using online photos of them. After he posted a video about the project on Facebook, he was arrested…This month, the artist Paolo Cirio published photos of 4,000 faces of French [cops] online for an exhibit called “Capture,” which he described as the first step in developing a facial recognition app. He…[was forced to take] the photos down after France’s interior minister threatened legal action but said he hoped to republish them…Last month, Andrew Maximov…uploaded a video to YouTube that demonstrated how facial recognition technology could be used to digitally strip away [cops’] masks….[but] it’s unclear if the matches are accurate…
I’m skeptical this will work if the cops wear balaclavas, as they so often do.
The Pro-Rape Coalition (#1071) 
At least a few reporters seem to be beginning to get it:
…While Traffickinghub presents itself as “a non-religious, non-partisan effort,” the organizing force behind it is neither…the organization running the…campaign…is Exodus Cry, a far-right Evangelical group “prayed” into existence in a Missouri church, with the goal of abolishing the commercial sex industry entirely. When Exodus Cry first emerged in 2007, it was little more than a weekly prayer group hosted by a man named Benjamin Nolot at the charismatic Christian enclave known, incredibly, as the International House of Prayer, or IHOP…In recent years, the group has transitioned into a new form of advocacy: making [fak]umentaries. Their cinematic work has yielded Liberated: The New Sexual Revolution…about the [supposed] dangers of youth hook-up culture; [and] Seattle Bikini Baristas, about how “behind the intrigue of lingerie and java lurks a darker side”…IHOP (which was actually sued by the pancake chain in 2010 for trademark infringement; the case was later dropped)…[also stoked] the homophobia that led to Uganda’s notorious Anti-Homosexuality Act. IHOP later rejected the association, but the church’s founder, Mike Bickle, has…claimed that…the “gay marriage agenda” is “rooted in the depths of Hell,” that Adolf Hitler was a “hunter” sent by God to punish the Jews, and that Oprah Winfrey is a footservant to the Antichrist…
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged A Mound of Filth, agency denial, Arizona, California, censorship, Don't Call It Trafficking, Election Day, illegal aliens, Ireland, language, left-right myth, No Escape, politicians, porn, propaganda, rape, rescue industry, So Close and Yet So Far, The Implosion Begins, The Pro-Rape Coalition, Torture Chamber, video | Leave a Comment »



