The apparent path of the sun crossed the equator moving northward at the exact time this posted, 9:01 UTC, signaling the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern. Enjoy the milder weather to come, and Blessed Be!
Posted in Holidays | Tagged holidays, paganism | Leave a Comment »
Should…the United States…abandon the human right to privacy and the U.S. Constitution, everyone will lose. – Fight for the Future
This will continue until fools stop teaching children unquestioning obedience to “authority”:
A…[South Carolina] preacher…[named] William Franklin Galbreath…[has been] arrested…[for repeatedly] sexually assaulting a victim in 2019 while she was a child and [continuing to do] so in her teenage years from 2022 until this year…[there also appears to be] a 2nd [teenage] victim…
During the…reading of…[a] bill…[a UK politician named] Rebecca Paul [suddenly started bloviating about]…“the scourge of commercial sexual exploitation” [and demanded] banning advertising of prostitution online[, no doubt via a giant firewall which would keep Brits from accessing any site outside the country]…Paul [seemed to be having some kind of retro seizure, vomiting out decayed garbage from 2012 about]…“young people…treated as merchandise…[by] pimps and traffickers”…“the Etsy of sexual exploitation”…[and] “pizza”…
Using the mad emperor’s two favorite bugaboos to ramp up surveillance:
More than one million Americans are about to [be subjected to] a new level of financial surveillance. The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network…announced that the threshold for currency transaction reports has been lowered from $10,000 to $200 for Americans living in 30 zip codes in California and Texas…[using the excuse that it’s] “to further combat the illicit activities and money laundering of Mexico-based cartels…along the southwest border of the United States”…Alex Nowrasteh…[of] the Cato Institute…warned people in February that…Trump’s decision to [falsely] designate cartels as terrorists could have repercussions for civil liberties and the economy at large…the designation would allow the government to freeze assets, enact secondary sanctions, and take greater control of the financial system generally…
In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:
A contractor for…ICE…and many other U.S. government agencies has developed a tool that lets analysts more easily pull a target individual’s publicly available data from a wide array of sites, social networks, apps, and services across the web at once, including Bluesky, OnlyFans, and various [Facebook properties], according to a leaked list of…more than 200 sites that…ShadowDragon…[illicitly] pulls data from and makes available to its government clients, allowing them to map out a person’s activity, movements, and relationships. The news comes after ICE detained Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Columbia University protester and green card holding legal permanent resident…with the intention of deporting him…Multiple tech companies and websites whose public data ShadowDragon pulls [complain that] the contractor [is] violating their terms of use around scraping…
This insanity will keep getting worse until these maniacs are forcibly stopped:
States have long kept centralized databases to monitor prescriptions for…drugs [they think politicians should control instead of doctors]. Now, abortion pills are being [added to the list]…in [forced-birth states]. Last May, Louisiana [launched that particular “monkey see, monkey do” parade]…Bamboo Health, the [fascist] company running Louisiana’s prescription [surveillance] database, is ready to track the drugs. As of March, Louisiana clinicians are required to log every mifepristone and misoprostol prescription they write in Bamboo’s database…[and] Texas, Indiana, and Idaho are considering similar [spying]…Prescription monitoring programs…are routinely [ab]used to [persecu]te doctors for…doing [their jobs when politicians have decided they know better. Similar campaigns were used to make examples of doctors for giving suffering patients]…much-needed [pain] care [in order to terrorize] doctors…for doing their jobs…[doctors practicing] reproductive medicine could share the same fate…
The inevitable result of giving aggressive men total power over women:
In women’s prisons, sexual intrusion, harassment, coercion and violence are daily realities. And in solitary confinement, this conduct is so routine that many women — particularly the younger ones…believe it’s simply an inevitable part of their incarceration…This isn’t just a few rotten apples in one facility. In 2023, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TCDJ) reported over 700 [incident]s of staff-on-prisoner sexual abuse and harassment to the PREA Ombudsman…Almost 90 of those cases involved sexual harassment, nearly 150 were categorized as voyeurism, and a little more than 500 were classified as sexual abuse…[but] only 20% met the prison system’s onerous criteria for sexual assault or “improper sexual activity with a person in custody”…these stats only scratch the surface…prisons…make the grievance process too painful to be worth it. Women who make reports can end up being cited for having an “inappropriate relationship” with a guard, which is grounds for being sent to solitary…[which] means no phone calls, and contact visits can also be suspended during investigations, which I’ve seen last 60 to 90 days, or even longer. In the hole, guards use a variety of methods to retaliate against women who complain about their abuse. They can write bogus disciplinary infractions that can lead to the loss of visits and phone calls, more time in solitary confinement, and ultimately a longer sentence. [Screws] can also turn off the electricity and running water in women’s cells and refuse to serve them meals…
The South Dakota Senate gutted a bill…that would have subjected librarians to criminal prosecution for [working in a library containing any book any politician decided to point at while belching “]obscene material[“]…and replaced that language with a [demand] that [wannabe censors be]…allow[ed to] appeal…[any decision by any librarian in]…court…Supporters of the original version [foamed at the mouth while making barbaric threats. Pro-censorship politician]…Taffy Howard…[actually called for literally lynching librarians]…
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 abortion, advertising, agency denial, Bluesky, California, censorship, consensual crime, cops, drugs, fascism, I Spy, Idaho, If Men Were Angels, Indiana, libraries, Louisiana, No Escape, pizza!, politicians, prisons, racism, rape, South Carolina, South Dakota, surveillance, Texas, The Vultures Descend, Thought Control, Under Review, United Kingdom | Leave a Comment »
As I’ve written before, Grace loved dragons and had many different pictures and figures of them, from stuffed toys to music boxes to decals to T-shirts. This one in the picture was designed to melt fragrant wax; there are two of them, one in the lower bathroom and one beside her desk on the little shelving unit I built for her just after the bookshelves. The bulb in the one beside her desk burned out last autumn, but because it was not in my direct line of sight I kept forgetting to buy a replacement bulb for it. Then just a few days after her passing, the one in the bathroom also burned out, and since that one doubles as a night-light it was impossible to forget for very long. So I pulled out the bulb and asked Chekhov to pick me up a package of them at Home Depot; though there was no number or the like on the bulbs, he has a good eye for that sort of thing. Paradoxically, even though I break down in tears whenever I handle her personal things (as in trying to straighten her room), I find comfort in maintaining things like these little lamps or her shillelagh as if she were still here to use them. And soon I’ll have another reminder. Grace didn’t really like taking pictures, but I coincidentally took one just two weeks before her death which is a good likeness that captured her personality. I had it printed on photo paper and it’s currently being framed; when it’s done I plan to hang it on the wall just above the place this little dragon guards. And I think that will be a comfort as well.
Posted in Diary | Tagged Grace, Sunset | 2 Comments »
Do they want more "moderate" in the artificial playground "left-right" sense, or do they just mean more NORMAL, ie being able to go through their lives without having to be concerned that deranged politicians will set it on fire or send armed thugs to murder them for stuff that was legal yesterday?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-13T18:10:38.994Z
As will all the politicians who stood by making speeches while it happened.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-16T03:16:41.915Z
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTP2…
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-17T18:19:44.079Z
It's amazingly sad that even with things going as they are, a huge number of fools STILL think it's a GOOD thing to have political extremists running a country unchecked by other views.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-18T18:12:52.796Z
THIS THIS THIS!
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-19T18:39:26.767Z
THIS THIS THIS.Protest their homes, their workplaces, any public places they appear in. Never give them one minute's peace.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-20T18:38:39.433Z
"The finest legal minds of the Trump DOJ" is akin to "the loftiest mountains in Louisiana".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-22T03:37:32.541Z
{sings}No need to remember when'Cause everything old is new again!
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-22T17:48:06.420Z
This is like testing your brakes by heading at 120 mph toward a cliff on loose sand.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-23T17:43:09.252Z
Yes, this is a grown man (who is a billionaire and soi-disant "genius") responding to criticism with, "No I'm not, you are."How long before he progresses to, "I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you say…"
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-24T18:38:25.391Z
Remember when a large number of argumentative morons needed to agree before we were saddled with economy-damaging tariffs, instead of ONE moron being able to inflict them on a whim?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-25T17:44:09.460Z
Which is why boots should be Constitutionally prohibited from touching anyone above the knee.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-26T18:05:07.827Z
Presumably, politicians and cops will be granted standing immunity to this law.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-28T18:11:27.161Z
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” – H.L. Mencken
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-03-03T18:12:31.925Z
In the entire history of "futurism", has anyone calling themselves a "futurist" ever been right about ANYthing that wasn't already a foregone conclusion?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-03-04T08:55:30.615Z
Actually, trusting tech "geniuses" is a lot like trusting the algorithms they dishonestly & inaccurately call "AI".Both have their uses for organizing and delivering information, but it's a disaster to pretend either has the capacity for normal human judgment.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-03-05T18:00:42.050Z
"Drifting"? More like "hurtling".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-03-06T18:22:05.707Z
Future historians will tag "American exceptionalism" as a big factor in the country's downfall; most Americans are so wedded to the concept that the US is an exception to any and every sociopolitical process, that they're unable to recognize what they'd see immediately if it were another country.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-03-09T19:24:46.058Z
"I'm willing to let my own kids die rather than admit I'm an ignoramus who believes the claims of idiots," said Slackjaw H. Yokel.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-03-11T17:15:43.471Z
Please, journalists, follow this man's example in calling a spade a spade. Trump is a madman; he is utterly deranged and completely delusional, and y'all need to start saying so. Continuing to pretend a raving lunatic is a "stable genius" will only multiply the damage he's doing.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-03-12T18:01:05.833Z
I really, really wish Americans could develop a moral sense more complex than "if x is the bad guy, anti-x must be a good guy".In real life (as opposed to TV), evil people's PRIMARY opponents are other evil people of a different faction.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-03-14T17:29:55.060Z
It would be such a beautiful thing if history were to repeat itself today, March 15.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-03-15T07:37:47.212Z
Qui cum canibus concumbunt cum pulicibus surgent.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-03-16T17:49:03.670Z
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Music, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words | Tagged animals, artificial stupidity, blogging, Bluesky, California, consensual crime, disease, ethics, Facebook, fascism, hysteria, Idaho, internet, language, law, lawyers, left-right myth, politicians, psychology, robots, Rome, Sold Out, Texas, Twitter | 2 Comments »
I wanted them to die. – Marco Evaristti
As I so often do for non-superstar musicians, I’m sending Roy Ayers off with his best-known performance. The links above the video were provided by Brooke Magnanti; Kevin Wilson and Aaron Ross Powell; C.J. Ciaramella; Stephen Lemons; and T. Greg Doucette, in that order (I don’t recall who contributed the last one).
- R.I.P. Roy Ayers.
- R.I.P. Carl Dean and George Lowe.
- Man without taste declares his product tasty.
- Cicero says he had absolutely nothing to do with this.
- It’s hard to tell whether this was “protecting” or “serving”.
- Thought you’d seen the stupidest excuse for carding people?
From the Archives
- Appeals for financial support from my readers are difficult for me to write.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- Both sides in the culture war have completely taken leave of their senses.
- Somebody who isn’t me is actually applying critical thought to this claim.
- A timid but possibly important challenge to FOSTA from inside Congress.
- I dislike St. Patrick’s Day almost as much as I dislike St. Valentine’s Day.
- “Multiple sex-trafficking charges and continuous sexual abuse of a child“.
- Bird-brains still believe realistic porn cartoons are the worst use for this.
- Puritans claim consensual sex constitutes “a dangerous criminal record”.
- “Bathroom bills” are back after blessedly vanishing for over three years.
- Give sexually-aggressive thugs power over teens; what could go wrong?
- Must be well-connected for Big Pigs to care about his girlfriend’s report.
- The main principle of politicians’ behavior is “monkey see, monkey do”.
- Politicians no longer care whether their new diktats are Constitutional.
- Exploitation is, sadly, more common than not in the “rescue” industry.
- Cops usually make up some pretext for their armed robbery schemes.
- An attempt to take one weapon of racist persecution away from cops.
- They’ve chased this ambulance from Austin to Washington and back.
- The government needs to be buried in lawsuits before this will stop.
- Another cost of America’s sick worship of state-sanctioned violence.
- Another study shows what’s already been shown over & over again.
- Major events provide an excuse for State violence vs “undesirables”.
- It looks as though at least one court is attempting to grow a spine.
- Absolutely nothing is “safe” if government actors know where it is.
- Note that cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths.
- Amazon’s fascist collaboration with cops just keeps getting worse.
- It didn’t take long for this one to demonstrate exactly what he is.
- Prohibitionists claim surprise at predictable effects of their bans.
- A precedent here could be used against all such evil “registries”.
- Cops, businesses, Steven Banks, William Hurt, and much more.
- Another specimen of the garbage the state pays to violate kids.
- Prohibition turns the body of every citizen into a “crime scene”.
- In mass surveillance, fascism runs rings around communism.
- Some US states are trying to bring back a form of serfdom.
- Baby-step reforms are mostly intended to distract activists.
- I always manage to be surprised by how fast chicks grow.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- Clearly “lay pastors” are no better than “youth pastors”.
- Your “leaders” know what’s best, so shut up and obey.
- “Criminality” is a status defined entirely by the State.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Joe Camp, and much more.
- Chicago originally hid this costumed rapist’s picture.
- Matthew 21:31 seems pretty straightforward to me.
- Why is Florida such a perpetual cavalcade of crazy?
- A tutorial on ethanol extraction of THC from resin.
- Actual pigs, singing cartoon pigs, and much more.
- Tracking down persistent leaks in the atrium roof.
- The 5th Circuit is, as usual, somewhat confused.
- A box of tiny dinosaur clowns in my bathroom.
- The framework for the wall of a new full bath.
- These ghouls have absolutely no shame.
- It’s good when they feed on each other.
- What did this guy think he was, a cop?
- Why does anyone still trust Facebook?
- I’ll bet you knew this was coming.
- This is a cop’s idea of “friendship”.
- Flesh for Throwback Thursday.
- On the atrophy of literacy.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- Chick days.
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, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged adolescence, animals, artificial stupidity, California, consensual crime, cops, Denmark, law, Vermont, video | Leave a Comment »
Now I have to worry about being harassed just for needing to pee?
– Kalaya Morton
Never call the cops for any reason whatsoever:
A Los Angeles sex worker called 911 to report being held in a motel room against her will. When the [cops]…showed up, one of the[m] shot her. The woman, Linda Becerra Moran, died on February 27 after nearly three weeks on life support…Moran [had] called 911 on February 7 and…spoke a mix of Spanish and English…[she] was crying…and…clearly very upset…[when the cops arrived] it [was] clear that she [was having some kind of mental health episode but the cops ganged up on her in an intimidating manner and]…back[ed her] into [a] corner…The supervisor instruct[ed]…one [of them] to “be lethal” and…he…immediately fire[d] at her…the cops then…cuff[ed] her…before administering any medical care…
A [typical and representative] London [Ontario cop] with a…[pretend]ed sex addiction [received a slap on the wrist]…for sexually assaulting a woman he met online. [Cop Stephen Williams also recently changed his name to Will Stephens as part of his effort to avoid consequences for deceiving and attacking at least three women, but despite that a judge let him skate with a mere] 90 days under house arrest, followed by 90 days under a curfew…and…prohibit[ion] from…accessing online dating websites [during that time. But]…Stephens [alias Williams still plans to]…appeal…that [love tap]…Stephens…quit his [cop] job…to a[void a] suspension…following [yet another sexual assault]…
The Last Shall Be First (#1361)
What kind of warped mind thinks it’s OK for male cops to barge into a women’s bathroom?
…two male [cops barged into] a Tucson Walmart women’s restroom…[to harass] Kalaya Morton…a…masculine-presenting [lesbian, because]…a [busybody] store employee…assumed she was…transgender…Morton…said that…the…[thugs] stormed in, shining flashlights into the stall and demanding she exit. Morton, still using the toilet, was stunned…When she finally exited the stall, she said she lifted her shirt to prove she was not a man, expecting the ordeal to end. Instead…one [of the pigs kept oinking that]…she “looked like a man”…The Pima County Sheriff’s Department c[laim]ed that the incident is under internal affairs investigation…[but only because Morton recorded the cops and posted the video to] social media…
I just can’t feel sorry for cops sexually abused by other cops:
A Philadelphia [cop] who was named police chief [of] Hartford, Conn…[backed out] after it was revealed he was under investigation for sexual harassment…[and] has been sued by [one of his victims]…Tyrell McCoy…creat[ed] a “hostile environment” of pervasive sexual harassment in the workplace, including unwanted groping and kissing and [demands] for oral sex…[from cop] Mark Casey…[who reported that] McCoy had pursued him for years…and then retaliated against him when he refused [to put out]…McCoy t[old] Casey…he was “untouchable” because of his close…relationship with the then-head of…Internal Affairs…Casey and another [cop victim] filed complaints last year…and…McCoy [had hoped to escape consequences by taking the job in] Hartford…
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1473)
Politicians like to pretend that their entry in any “monkey see, monkey do” parade is different:
A new bill…in…North Carolina…aims to ban [people] under 14 from social media…like…Australia’s [float in this “monkey see, monkey do parade]…this bill would prohibit anyone under 14 from creating an account on social platforms that meet certain [arbitrary] criteria…like having 10 percent daily active users under 16 and…scrolling…[people] aged 14 to 15 would need parents’ permission to make an account…[and demands] age verification [for any] site [any politician has pointed at while belching]…”harmful to minors”…Unlike…North Carolina’s [existing] age-verification law…this one requires these site visitors to be 16 years or older, not 18…Findings from a recent study on age verification laws [demonstrate] that these laws don’t work…
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1508)
A new working paper from various university researchers suggests that age-verification laws aren’t effective…Since 2022, 19 states have passed age-verification laws…[despite warning from] free speech and digital privacy experts…that age-verification laws won’t work [as politicians pretend]…Through analyzing Google Trends data, researchers found a 46.6 percent traffic reduction of searches to Pornhub, the biggest platform compliant with the laws. Pornhub has blocked most states with age-verification laws because of the burden of complying…researchers saw a 48.1 percent increase in searches for a large non-compliant platform, XVideos…and a 23.6 percent increase in searches for VPNs. This occurred in the states with age-verification laws on a rolling timeline based on when the laws were enacted…
Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#1509) 
Laws are for the peasantry, not the rulers:
A [Utah] judge has been arrested and accused of enticing minors through sexual conversations on a chat app. Kevin Robert Christensen…was booked into jail…for…[talking to] FBI [agents fantasy role-playing] on…KIK…as [a] 13[-year-old] and…a…16[-year-old]…Christensen allegedly made “multiple references” to sexually abusing [actual minors]…
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, Tyranny | Tagged Arizona, California, Canada, censorship, Connecticut, cops, dating, Do As I Say, Google, homosexuality, internet, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, porn, psychology, rape, scams, statistics, Surplus Women, surveillance, The Last Shall Be First, The Puritan Recrudescence, To Molest and Rape, transgender, Utah, violence vs. sex workers | Leave a Comment »
It’s clear to any but the most economically-illiterate that the mad emperor has absolutely no idea how tariffs actually work; it’s especially obvious in his claims that they are paid by foreign countries, and that he wants to establish a new “External Revenue Service” to collect them. Given the complete disconnect between Trump’s idea of tariffs and the actual reality of tariffs, the only logical conclusion is that when Trump barfs up the word “tariffs”*, what he is really imagining is “tribute”: money paid by client kingdoms for protection by an empire. Listen to his rhetoric about Ukraine and NATO; he wants to be paid annual tribute for protection. Basically, he 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.
*Exactly like a dog barfing up something unidentifiable but undoubtedly disgusting right in the middle of the living-room rug.
Posted in Current Events, History, Tyranny | Tagged language, politicians | 1 Comment »
One of the absurdities which inevitably arise from the concept of a “consensual crime” is that a person can simultaneously be a “criminal” and a “victim” in the eyes of the law, which is rather like someone playing tennis with himself.
– “Check Your Premises”
It is government which creates the legal climate which allows oppression to flourish; remove the laws which chain people to their captors and there is nothing other than plain brute force…to keep the serfs, slaves, captives, debtors or bondsmen from simply walking away. – “Enabling Oppression”
Three cases in a country of 300 million do not an epidemic make. – “Texas Tall Tales (#310)”
The sad fact is that some human beings are willing to directly subject their fellow creatures to coercion, and most human beings are willing to allow others with fancy titles and interesting costumes to inflict coercion as long as that violence achieves results they like. – “Nobody Asked”
Small-minded people are often upset by the mere existence of others who are different from them. – “I Know You Are, But What Am I?“
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Tyranny, Words | Tagged agency denial, blogging, Check Your Premises, consensual crime, Enabling Oppression, language, pragmatism, prohibitionist myths, propaganda, psychology, racism, sex work is work, slavery, Texas Tall Tales | Leave a Comment »
With a data set of any size, you can always find a pattern…all you have to do is ignore other information. – Jennifer Granick
Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet:
New York politician…Brad Hoylman-Sigal…[wants] to outlaw…nicotine pouches…[which] contain a derived version of the…compound that tobacco users crave without the carcinogenic sluff that comes with cigarettes and smokeless tobacco…Nicotine pouches contain no tobacco leaf and no known carcinogens. They just deliver nicotine—potentially addictive, yes, but not known to be inherently harmful…According to the FDA, these products met the public health standard legally required by the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act…[but] Hoylman-Sigal [wants cops to have more excuses for destroying lives, so he barfs “THE CHILDREN!” at anyone who opposes his scheme]…
Cop excuses produced by human bootlickers are bad enough:
Cellebrite, the company which makes near ubiquitous phone hacking and forensics technology [ab]used by [cop shops] around the world, has introduced [machine learning] capabilities into its products, including summarizing chat logs or audio messages from s[tolen] mobile phones…“[Computer] results…are not transparent…you cannot trace back where a conclusion came from, or what information it is based on”…[said] Jennifer Granick…[of] the…ACLU…“The Fourth Amendment does not permit [cops] to rummage through data, but only to review information for which there is probable cause….you are not allowed to fish through [all available] data on a hunch, in the hopes of finding something”…Cellebrite’s newly announced capabilities sound somewhat similar to Draft One, a tool from contracting giant Axon…[which] uses [algorithms] to automatically generate police reports from bodycam audio….
Beware of men who “volunteer” to be in positions of authority over your kids:
A Bentonville [Arkansas]…church…volunteer…[named] Andrew Apple…[has been] arrested…[for] child [molestation after a boy Apple molested in autumn of 2023 reported him on]…Feb. 1…[to the church’s credit] the report was relayed to [cops] that same day. A second person later [reported Apple]…to another church staff member…
The Last Shall Be First (#1470)
Florida’s insurance regulator has demanded an unusually intrusive trove of data on millions of prescription drugs filled in the state last year, including the names of patients taking the medications, their dates of birth and doctors they’ve seen. The [politicized] office…sought this information from pharmacy benefit managers…companies that oversee prescription drugs for employers and government programs….[and is pretending] the state required the data to review whether the benefit managers…were compliant with a 2023 state law aimed at lowering drug prices…But…“You don’t need such granular patient information for purposes of oversight,” said Sharona Hoffman, a health law and privacy expert…[so it seems likely] the government [is] actually trying to get information about reproductive care…transgender care…[and] mental health care…Federal privacy law allows benefit managers to hand over limited data about individual patients in certain circumstances…But…Florida’s [demand] could violate the law because it is so broad and…go[es well] beyond what the regulator needs to conduct [any legal and legitimate] review…
One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality:
A Detroit [cop named Earl Anderson was fired and arrested] for [attempting to groom] his 12-year-old stepdaughter [via]…text messages…[after he threatened] “to take [her on] a family trip”…[and] offered to get [her] a second phone…[with] a new number…[so her real] father, [Brandyn] Harris, [couldn’t see their texts]…the [girl]…reported the messages to her aunt…[who told] Harris…[who in turn] told…the [cops]…
The government calls this “correction”; for journalists to parrot that ugly euphemism is a choice:
[New York] State Police are investigating the [murder] of a prisoner…in a…central New York prison [adjacent to another prison] where another [human being] was…[recently] beaten [to death] by guards in [an attack that even their own union called “incomprehensible”]…Officials did not identify the [new victim, whom]…nine [witnesses saw]…brutally beaten [to death] by [screws]…amid a mounting crisis in the New York State prison system, where…thousands of [screws are]…on strike since Feb. 17 — without the backing of their union and in defiance of a judge’s order — to protest…the…state…[not letting them torture people as they want to, and]…to try to distract attention from [December’s] beating death of [Robert] Brooks…
Maybe a few more big lawsuits will teach these corporate busybodies a lesson:
General Motors is facing yet another legal battle over…illegally [selling] driver data to third parties, who then provided it to insurers…to use [as an excuse] to raise premiums or deny coverage…GM has been [thus illegally] selling driver data since 2015…Unlike [other corporations’] telematics programs that [at least nominally] require users to opt in by installing a device, GM allegedly collected this data without explicit consent…consumers were misled into believing OnStar primarily enhanced vehicle safety and performance, while in reality, it was used to generate revenue through data sales…In January, the automaker settled [a similar suit] with the Federal Trade Commission …[serial lawsuit abuser] Ken Paxton filed a [similar]…suit…in August 2024…[and] 27 class-action lawsuits…have been consolidated into a multi-district litigation case…
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Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny | Tagged A Moral Cancer, abortion, Arkansas, artificial stupidity, cell phones, consensual crime, cops, Creepy Coppers, drugs, fascism, Florida, Follow Your Bliss, homosexuality, I Spy, Michigan, New York, politicians, prisons, scams, surveillance, The Last Shall Be First, The Vultures Descend, Torture Chamber, transgender, Welcome to the Future | Leave a Comment »
Grace always loved animals. When we first met in November 1997, her circumstances weren’t really conducive to keeping pets, so she didn’t have any. But I had my cat, Sheena, and Grace was quite fond of her. After she died in the summer of 2000, we had no pets for two years, but Grace talked often about the other pets she’d had in her life, including dogs, pigs, and a half-bobcat named Louie whom she had really loved. So I wasn’t surprised when she wanted another cat; that was Aeryn, who came to live with us in the first week of July, 2002 (and only passed away two years ago). Once we moved to Oklahoma late that same year, we started collecting other animals: dogs, chickens, livestock, etc. In March of 2016 she found a tiny lost kitten literally in the middle of the road in the town nearest our ranch; that was Speck, whom you see in this picture cuddling with Annie. It wasn’t only our pets she was good with; other people’s pets gravitated to her, including the ones their owners claimed were unfriendly. Even wild animals, especially birds, would approach her a lot more closely than I’ve ever seen them approach anyone else; I used to tease that she was like Snow White.
Speck had always been much more closely-bonded with Grace than is typical for cats, but almost a year ago she started demanding Grace’s attention, habitually sitting on Grace’s desk right next to her computer, and vocally expressing her displeasure if Grace wasn’t holding or petting her. And now, in retrospect, I wonder if she didn’t know that something was wrong. The throat infection that led to the diagnosis of her cancer first appeared last summer, but the doctor who diagnosed it told us the infection had been caused by the cancer’s rapid growth; it therefore seems very likely that it was already present last spring, and altering her biochemistry enough that animals could smell the change even if humans couldn’t. I don’t recall any similar change in the dogs’ behavior, but the day after Grace’s death Annie started whining to go outside 7 or 8 times a day rather than her usual twice, and once let out she would run around the paddock for a long time as if looking for something; she only stopped doing that a couple of weeks ago. Given that Annie is a dedicated people-puppy who enthusiastically greets any friends who come to visit, I have to wonder if she wasn’t looking in her little doggy way for Grace, who was previously almost never absent for more than a few minutes unless I was as well.
Maybe I’m being silly; maybe my grief is causing me to try to find some kind of order and meaning in the loss of my loyal companion. But is it so farfetched to believe that Grace had such a close bond with animals that they reciprocated in kind, and mourned her passing in their own, albeit nonhuman, fashion?
Posted in Biography, Diary | Tagged animals, Grace, psychology | 4 Comments »
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