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February 23, 2024 by Maggie McNeill

 

 

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Dracula vs. Throwback Thursday

February 22, 2024 by Maggie McNeill

I’m…reliably informed by “sex trafficking experts” that “mature” means “underage”, “downtown” means “suburbs”, and “no drama” means the escort and her “pimp” will entertain you with a performance of the climactic scene of Othello.
–  “Not Worth the Paper”

A phrase used to mean everything means nothing at all, and a phrase that means nothing isn’t a useful term for serious adults; it’s a fad for the immature and silly.  –  “Meaningless”

A society more concerned with…politicians’ language and manners than the fact that they are murdering their own people by the thousands, is long overdue for collapse.  –  “Overdue”

Human opinions were never and are never monolithic across a society and era, no matter what authoritarians want you to believe.  –  “Monolith“

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In the News (#1414)

February 21, 2024 by Maggie McNeill

This is treating people like inventory in a way I’ve not seen.
–  Jutta Williams

Torture Chamber

This will continue until journalists stop obediently referring to senseless violence as “correction”:

A [typical and representative New Hampshire screw has been] charged…with [the] murder…of a patient at [the] prison psychiatric unit [last year]…Matthew Millar [committed the murder by] kneeling on Jason Rothe’s torso and neck for several minutes on April 29 while Rothe was face-down and handcuffed…Rothe…[never] committed [any] crimes but…was committed…in 2019…and transferred to the prison unit in 2022 [under the claim that] he posed a risk to himself or others…

A Broker in Pillage (#1074)

This will continue until there are federal criminal charges for “officials”, both political and corporate, who conspire to rob people this way:

In Arizona, citizens can still lose their houses over minuscule tax bills, despite a unanimous 2023 Supreme Court ruling that was supposed to paralyze the practice nationwide…Christine Searle, a 70-year-old retiree, faces the loss of her home—valued at [$376,800]—over a mere $1,607.68 in back taxes…Maricopa County…[inflicted] a tax lien…on her home…then allowed [a] company [to] purchase…the lien [and] foreclose on her home, meaning Searle lost her home and all its equity…Arizona is not the only state that has permitted local governments to transfer tax liens…to [cron]ies.  In Nebraska, for example, private investors have been known to buy out tax debt without formal correspondence with the homeowner.  Once notified, those unable to satisfy their debt in full—plus interest and fees—have watched as the county treasurer gave the deed to their property away to the [legalized]…robb[er]…

Welcome to the Future (#1265)

Everything I read about modern corporate work makes me happier I became a whore:

Depending on where you work, there’s a significant chance that [computer algorithms are] analyzing your messages on…popular apps.  Huge U.S. employers such as Walmart, Delta Air Lines, T-Mobile, Chevron, and Starbucks, as well as European brands including Nestle and AstraZeneca, have turned to a seven-year-old startup, Aware, to [eavesdrop on] chatter among their [peons.  Their masters]…can see how employees of a certain age group or in a particular geography are responding to a new corporate policy or marketing campaign…[the software] can also identify bullying, harassment, discrimination, noncompliance, pornography, nudity and other behaviors…[yet supposedly] doesn’t have the ability to flag individual employee names…[except] in the event of [whatever the corporate client chooses to define as “]extreme threats or other risk behaviors[“]…

The Red Umbrella (#1327)

As long as sex work is marginalized, sex workers will be targeted for violence:

A St. Louis man [has been] charged…with shooting a sex worker at his residence…Norman B. Nelson…[shot the woman] around 3:18 a.m. on Jan. 22…[she] was taken to a hospital and listed in stable condition…

The Next Target (#1332)

Prohibitionist politicians’ real goal is total government control of the internet:

Belgium’s Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) is [using censorious German politician Tobias Schmid’s KIVI tool to]…“automatically search…the Internet, looking for freely accessible pornography, among other things.”  Adult content is…automatically flagged by the system as “suspicious,” triggering human review…In addition to pornography, KIVI is also trained to detect categories like “extremism, hate speech, swastikas or the glorification of drugs”…in…images, texts and videos on all websites, as well as apps like “Telegram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok…VKontakte and…Bitchute”…With the Belgium partnership, Germany’s provincial regulatory authority from North Rhine-Westphalia is now on the road to becoming…“largely responsible for the introduction of a European porn detector”…Belgian authorities…[are also planning] “to expand the use of KIVI to cover hate speech”…

The Last Shall Be First (#1350) 

Both sides in the culture war have completely taken leave of their senses:

A new bill in Wyoming…would declare that gender-affirming care is “not in the best interest” of transgender youth within the state.  The bill would apply this presumption to custody battles, guardianships, and even the rules around Child Protective Services…A non-affirming parent who divorces an affirming parent could use the provisions to take a transgender child in a custody battle…A grandparent or relative who does not approve of a transgender youth’s gender transition could…[demand to] be appointed emergency guardian…Even worse, Child [“]Protective[“] Services could be weaponized against transgender youth in the state…

Creepy Coppers (#1397)

Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness:

A Racine [Wisconsin cop] was arrested after [exposing himself to another man in a gas station bathroom, and when his fellow cops searched his phone they found]…videos of child pornography…Preston Kite…[contacted the other man on] the [gay hookup] app Sniffies…[but] he…was not expecting…to…see a [wanking pig] in full [magic clown regalia, and was therefore understandably]…scared [that this was a porcine scheme to ruin his life.  The man beat a hasty retreat] and…took a picture of the [pigmobile] parked [outside, which]…was [the one] assigned to Kite…

 

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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Diary #712

February 20, 2024 by Maggie McNeill

We’ve come to that part of the winter where the monsoons are past, but there’s till too much rain for the paddock to dry up; this means there’s mud everywhere, especially in areas frequented by the animals.  Every day when I go into the chicken yard, Shiloh and the pigs come to the fence to beg for corn; I used to toss it on the north side, but the mud there has now become so bad that I started throwing it on the south side instead.  However, as you can see in this photo, that’s pretty muddy as well, and I don’t foresee it getting much better until the rain slacks off some more and the air warms up.  Once we get into spring, the growing grass sucks up a lot of the rain so the ground isn’t nearly as soft, but until then it’s all muck, and it gets all over everything.  Good thing I got some new Wellies for Christmas; anytime between Halloween and Easter, I don’t dare step off of concrete without them.

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Rapists of the Week #6

February 19, 2024 by Maggie McNeill

To Molest and Rape (#1328)

Cops view alcohol as a means of facilitating rape:

A [typical and representative] Cheshire [cop] who [raped] a woman while responding to a 999 call at her home has been [merely] found guilty of misconduct…Jordan Masterson [committed the rape] on Tuesday 28 December 2021 a[nd she] report[ed him as soon as she sobered up]…she had called 999 to report a disturbance..[but was] drunk and her memory of the time was “hazy”…Masterson [claimed she wanted it]…

Sometimes they even facilitate the alcohol:

A [typical and representative Kentucky cop named]…Brent Hall [raped]…an “extremely inebriated” woman [in December 2020]…the woman was taken to the hospital, but Hall returned to her home with a…[bottle of vodka] 13 hours later [in order to get her drunk so he could rape her]…Hall told investigators after his arrest that the woman [wanted it]…

If Men Were Angels (#1376)

This will continue until fools stop teaching children unquestioning obedience to “authority”:

A [California] High School assistant wrestling coach has been arrested [for] molest[ing children]…more than a decade ago…Derek William Young…[molested at least] three ch[ildren, including at least one] under 14…and o[ne]…under 10…

Schadenfreude (#1386)

It’s heartening to see so many rescue industry profiteers exposed as the sociopaths they are:

A third woman has come forward…[to report that] International House of Prayer…Founder Mike Bickle…groom[ed] and sexually abus[e] her, beginning when she was 15 and Bickle was a 20-year-old…youth group intern…in Kansas City…Though the…[molestation] ended in 1976…she and Bickle re-engaged in the 1980s and had an inappropriate…relationship…when Bickle was [already] married…

To Molest and Rape (#1393)

Give aggressive thugs power over teens; what could possibly go wrong?

A [typical and representative Alabama cop named Jairo Alexander Castillo, who was assigned to spy on, harass, and intimidate students,] was arrested…[because he predictably molested] a student…

This is pretty typical, representative behavior for school-lurking pigs:

A [typical and representative thug paid to to spy on, harass, and intimidate Florida students has been] arrested…for [repeat]edly [molesting] a [15-year-old girl]…Christian Linan…[groomed the girl] on Snapchat, and…[manipulated her by claiming he was “in love” because] “she was mature for her age”…Linan [demonstrated his “love” by]…stalking…her…[and spying on] her mother….she never told anyone about [Linan]…until…she eventually told her therapist, and [then the cops]…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #5)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:

…Indianapolis [cop] Paul Humphrey was charged…with [a number of]…counts [deriving from his seduction and molestation of the 15-year-old daughter of a family who thought he was their friend]…Humphrey was [the girl’s] soccer coach and her former boss when [she] worked for [his] lawn care business…“She felt pressured because he was a father figure and a cop”…and [during the period he was molesting]…her…he…installed [spyware] on [her] phone [to track her]…[once he] learned that…[she had reported the molestation,] Humphrey…attempted suicide at his lawncare business [by running] two gas-powered generators…[to] emit…carbon monoxide [into a small room, but his fellow cops revived him so they could arrest him]…

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, Rapists of the Week, Tyranny | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Links #711

February 18, 2024 by Maggie McNeill

They just shot him down like a dog.  –  Bonnie Pigram

Mojo Nixon has gone to be with Elvis, but since I already featured his masterpiece in October ’21, please enjoy this one instead.  The links above it were provided by Jesse Walker, IncarcerNation, Phoenix Calida (x2), Franklin Harris, Walter Olson, and IncarcerNation again, in that order.

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, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

In the News (#1413)

February 17, 2024 by Maggie McNeill

People might [not] be sick of book bannings, but are they sick of having their money wasted?  –  anonymous Texas teacher

The Red Umbrella 

As long as sex work is marginalized, sex workers will be targeted for violence:

Non-[Irish] sex workers were targeted by a recent scam where a person or people pretended to work for a major advertising website and asked them to provide personal information…[when] the workers did not realise it was a scam and replied to the messages…a number of them were…threatened with physical or sexual violence.  Linda Kavanagh…[of] SWAI…said non-national sex workers were deliberately targeted…She said m[ost] workers don’t report threats, or actual assaults, to gardaí because they…[reasonably] fear they’re going to be blamed for the work that they do…

Panopticon (#1277)

Cops use their panopticon exactly as EFF predicted they would:

In 2022, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance that would allow the city’s police…to access footage from private security cameras [as long as they could invent a credible-sounding excuse]…the SFPD [is required to] compile quarterly reports detailing how many times it [abused the privilege]…The report released in January shows that in the third quarter of 2023…[64 pigs] spent a collective 193 hours and 19 minutes [rooting through] live surveillance footage…Police made 49 arrests as a result of surveillance, of which 42 were for narcotics…[only] four were for “theft/larceny,” and one was for [contempt of cop]…all of the r[oot-f]ests [centered on] just five [neighborhoods, one of them the Tenderloin]…the longest [root]ing session was during the Outside Lands Music Festival in August in Golden Gate Park, when [pigs rooted through] 42 total hours of live footage…in [defense of this creepy spying, the]…District Attorney…b[elch]ed [out] the [word]…”fentanyl”…San Francisco is [also]…rolling out new traffic cameras, which are more effective at filling government coffers than preventing traffic fatalities…

The Last Shall Be First (#1351) 

The time, money, and energy Americans are flushing down the “culture war” toilet is incalculable:

[Murfreesboro] Tennessee…must pay $500,000 as part of a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups over an ordinance designed to ban drag performances…Last year, the Tennessee Equality Project…filed a federal lawsuit after leaders announced they would no longer be approving any event permit requests submitted by the organization…[due to what politicians absurdly labeled] “illegal sexualization of kids”…the city not only vowed to deny TEP permits but also decided later to update its “community decency standards”…to [include merely being gay as]…“obscene or harmful to minors”…Under the [settl]ement, the city…[mus]t also…repeal the ordinance and process any upcoming event permit applications submitted by TEP…

Thought Control (#1376)

Texas’ ice-pick self-lobotomization is becoming increasingly spasmodic:

In November…Conroe…Texas public school [board members]…decided…to g[ive themselves]…final say of what [books are] in libraries and classrooms….[since then] books are being removed to meet the preferences of individual board members, parents or other individuals through “internal review”…one teacher says…thousands of books from…classroom collections [were seized by] the district.  At the teacher’s school alone, over 550 books, equivalent to more than $7,300 were packed and moved out of…[class]rooms…over 30 library titles have been banned…[and] another ten books [are likely to follow]…later this month.  Within the past two school years, at least 125 of all the titles banned from the district libraries came from internal reviews…112 books have been prohibited from being on classroom shelves…last week, [one self-appointed censor demanded the removal of]…Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, Geography Club by Brent Hartinger, Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok, American Girls by Alison Umminger and Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson…When [a] teacher asked what administrators…planned to do with the [seized] titles, [she]…was told…the books would await “disposal”…

Thought Control (#1389)

Too bad all authoritarian organizations aren’t so short-lived:

…Moms for Liberty experienced a meteoric rise at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, as local chapters sprang up to push back against coronavirus restrictions in schools.  The organization soon expanded to pushing book bans and o[ther censorship]…But…the local chapter in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, [has] shut down due to lack of interest…[and] participation also appears to be flagging for…the…organization’s first chapter…in…Brevard County [Florida; at a]…school board…meeting…to discuss a[n attempt to censor]…The Kite Runner and Slaughterhouse-Five…only one Moms for Liberty member showed up…and eventually snuck out of the room [when speakers compared the pro-censorship cult to the Taliban]…The national…organization…has started to see its [15 minutes ending]…as the group was rocked by a sexual assault scandal…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1409)

Censorious politicians are vying to see who can make their new laws the most unconstitutional:

The U.S. Congress’ top anti-porn crusader, Utah Senator Mike Lee, [has] introduced a bill last week that would effectively outlaw all sex work…by classifying any consent influenced by a person’s economic circumstances as coercive…“This is, of course, the dream of the faith based ‘anti-trafficking’ folks — and SWERFs — who believe that no true consent can exist for sex work when money is involved,” [the Free Speech Coalition’s Mike] Stabile added. “It would essentially codify their white slavery panic into law”…

This warped attempt to infantilize women has been part of evangelical feminist dogma for some time, despite its self-evident absurdity.

The Last Shall Be First (#1410)

How defective does an adult need to be to think doing this to a teenager is OK?

A Utah school board member caused a social media firestorm when she publicly singled out and suggested a high school athlete was transgender with no evidence.  She later [uselessly] apologized…[long after her flying monkeys had] personally attacked the player, the student’s school district had to provide extra security for her, and the [politician] who wrote the state’s anti-transgender athlete bill [vomited out her own stupid opinion]…in violation of her own [law].  The post from Natalie Cline…set…off 16 hours of hateful speculation that continued even after she deleted it…

 

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, The Dark Side, Tyranny | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The Space Age

February 16, 2024 by Maggie McNeill

As regular readers know, we don’t watch regular TV or “streaming”; when we want a TV series we buy it on DVD and then watch it at our leisure.  Typically, we watch an hour at dinner and then a couple before bedtime while the edibles kick in, and when we’re done with one series we move on to another.  And though we didn’t really plan it that way, lately we’ve been watching a lot of shows from the Kennedy era and immediately after.  The pattern was ushered in by Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1965), but since then we’ve watched Thriller (1960-1962), The Flintstones (1960-1966), and The Outer Limits (1963-1965).  I’m not old enough to remember any of these series from their initial runs, but I discovered and enjoyed all of them in syndication, then obtained the discs later; I think most of my favorite shows were discovered that way, years after their first broadcast, and a lot of them are from the ’60s and early ’70s.  But watching a number of shows from the early ’60s relatively close together has had a kind of synergistic effect, and I’ve found myself going through a phase of nostalgia for the period – its music, its movies, its cars, its fads, and other assorted bits and pieces of that odd little interlude, no longer the ’50s but not yet what we think of as the ’60s.  It won’t last long; in just a few days we’ll be moving on to more modern shows waiting in the wings.  But in the meantime, I’m rather enjoying feeling nostalgic for a time just before I was born, which I know only through the medium of recorded entertainment.

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The Rites of Throwback Thursday

February 15, 2024 by Maggie McNeill

Who but a government functionary would see nothing wrong with calling a two-week period a “day”?
–  “Vendetta (#512)”

Like Biblical literalists searching for the remains of Noah’s Ark [“sex trafficking” fetishists] continue their quixotic crusades to find victims and “pimps”, and they’re never daunted by the fact that the few who turn up aren’t actually very much like the characters in their scriptures.  –  “Phantasm”

Until mainstream feminism starts calling for decrim – not Swedish model or other BS falsely represented as decrim – they can fuck themselves.  –  “Beck and Call”

I think the naive and idealistic idea of sex as an actual good is just as harmful, and causes nearly as much societal ill, as the primitive and warped notion that it’s an active evil.  –  “Sex Neutral”

You cannot exorcise…thoughts which haunt you by repeating them endlessly in public as though they were real, demanding that others join you in these fantasies against their consent, and providing the police state with new excuses to oppress people based on your sexual fantasies.  –  “Can We Talk?”

One would have to contort one’s brain in a manner worthy of a Cirque du Soleil performance to ignore the facts that cops more heavily patrol poor and minority neighborhoods and actively look for people to arrest.  –  “As Always“

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Valentine’s Day 2024

February 14, 2024 by Maggie McNeill

As longtime readers know, Valentine’s Day is my least favorite of holidays, and I’m not particularly fond of the typical iconography associated with it, either (which is often weird or violent or creepy as hell).  So every year I try to share an exception, like this lovely lady with a not-terrible Cupid on a Victorian Era card.

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