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Posts Tagged ‘adolescence’

There is no reason for the pervert glasses to exist.  –  Jesse L. Taylor

To Molest and Rape

It’s not safe for anyone to be anywhere near a cop:

A Hennepin County [Minnesota cop was rewarded with a paid vacation for]…sexual[ly assaulting a woman while drunk]…Jared Sprunk…[was out drinking] on March 1…when the…[victim foolishly] invited him [along with a group] to a friend’s house…he [started acting up]…but [was too drunk] to drive…[so] she and her friends helped Sprunk into a bedroom downstairs so he could “sleep it off”…[he repaid her kindness by] clos[ing] the bedroom door while [she] was still inside…and…tried to [rape her.  The friends responded to her]…screaming for help while pounding the door….they…escorted Sprunk upstairs and pushed him [outside]…after Sprunk a[ttacked one of them]…Sprunk…denied…[every]thing [to cops], despite [also] saying he [was too drunk to remember]…

For a different unhinged Hennepin County cop, see “The Cop Myth” below.

Torture Chamber (#1313) 

This mindless evil will continue as long as useful idiots allow it to:

…Walker County, Alabama…Sheriff Nick Smith…[presides over a chamber of horrors].  About 100 feet from [his office, screws]…jeered as [Anthony] Mitchell shivered in his own waste…A short walk from that cell…a g[ang] of [screw]s beat a man until one of their uniforms was soaked with his blood…In the infirmary down the hall, [screw]s pummeled a man so hard they broke bones…none of it has come back on Smith…despite…20 of his employees — nearly half the jail staff at the time of Mitchell’s death — [being] indicted in a sweeping federal investigation…13 [have already] pleaded guilty…One of the [thug]s who a[bduc]ted Mitchell [after his cousin Steve Mitchell foolishly called 911 on him] stomped on his groin as he lay handcuffed on the ground, telling him, “This is how we treat seizures in Walker County.”  A [screw] tased Mitchell as he shivered in his cell…they [intentional]ly [denied] him [water and refused to allow him]…medical care…for two weeks.  When they finally took him to the hospital, he was unconscious in]…the final stage of hypothermia…On Facebook…[Smith crowed that his thugs torturing a severely mentally ill man w]as a brave win….wh[ile] the…office [staff]…lied…to…his mother and sister [that] Mitchell was safely detoxing…

Enshittification (#1468)

How long before Google becomes completely useless?

Google’s gluttonous [“]AI Overviews[” have wrought havoc on]…online media publications…[whose] web traffic…has dropped off significantly …At their peak, the media companies brought in 112 million site visits per month from Google users in the US.  By January of this year, that number was down to a little under 50 million…Mashable fared the best, losing a grim 30 percent of its web traffic…Wired…lost 62 percent…[and] HowToGeekThe Verge, and ZDNet…each lost over 85 percent…[worst hit] is…Digital Trends, which went from 8.5 million clicks a month in March 2024 to a heartbreaking 264,861 in January 2026…a drop-off of 97 percent of US web traffic from Google…

You may remember that this started with “adult” and “mature” websites (such as this blog) being “downranked”, but as I repeatedly say, such attacks only start with those the Establishment demonizes.

Walled Garden (#1594)

Politicians love infantilizing people and then using that as a excuse for oppression:

Indonesia is [attempting] to block teenagers from social media apps, [try]ing [to] prevent anyone under 16 from having accounts on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live, and Roblox…Dozens of other countries around the world — including…Canada, Germany and Brazil — have either banned or are considering bans on social media for [young adults using spurious]…reasoning [supported by buzzwords such as “]pornography[“]…and…[“]addictive algorithms[“]…Spain said it would ban anyone under 16 from using messaging apps…France also wants to ban [people] under 15 from social media, with President Emmanuel Macron blaming it for youth violence, and the United Kingdom is also mulling a…ban…in the US…Florida has a partial ban for [people] under 14, and California and New York are trying to regulate “addictive feeds.” Utah, Texas, and Arkansas have tried to require parental consent for minors to have social media accounts.

The Cop Myth (#1618)

Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do:

A Hennepin County [Minnesota cop ran amok]…in…a hospital [maternity ward]…in February.  Dillon Field…was [estranged from]…his wife [due to prior abuse, but she foolishly allowed him to visit while she] was preparing to give birth…He started yelling at [her, so she]…asked that he leave, and his mother-in-law went to get a nurse…Field shoved her and tried to lock himself in the bathroom with his wife.  [When] nurses responded…Field [fled]…and…the hospital…[was put] into lockdown.  He…[was] charged with…domestic assault [but also rewarded with a paid vacation]…

Torture Chamber (#1618)

Regular readers know this kind of evil is endemic to US jails and prisons:

A diabetic Norwegian woman [married to a US citizen] who was a[bducted from her green card interview on November 17 by ICE thugs nearly died in a filthy cage because]…her requests for insulin were repeatedly ignored.  Hanne Daguman…was advised by multiple immigration attorneys that [her visa expiring] “would not be an issue” due to [her marriage, but thugs ambushed her at her] green card interview…[dragged her away in chains and stole] her Continuous Glucose Monitor…she…could not safely eat without insulin…yet [was denied both insulin and contact with] a doctor until November 20…[at which point a] glucose test…[showed her blood sugar] was 508[but was still given] insulin in [incorrect] dosages [and in]consistently…[despite becoming] severely ill…the available food was carbohydrate-heavy (such as rice, pasta and oats), which requires careful insulin dosing before and after.  As that was not provided, Hanne lost 10 pounds in just nine days…she was [finally]…released on November 25 and was required to wear an ankle monitor until her court hearing on January 26.  The case was [then immediately] terminated [because there were no grounds to arrest her in the first place]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1619)

I’ve been calling these “spy” or “surveillance” glasses, but this is much better:

…Many have quickly embraced a term for [Facebook surveillance] devices that’s presumably sending…Mark Zuckerberg into paroxysms of fury: “pervert glasses”.  “I’m taking a brave stance that may get me canceled: there is no reason for the pervert glasses to exist,” one user wrote.  “Glad people are settling on the term ‘pervert glasses,’” another agreed. “Bonus points if you also say it while posting a picture of Mark Zuckerberg or call them Mark Zuckerberg’s pervert glasses”…Yet another [wrote]…“I would prefer technology to make it more difficult to skeez, creep or perv on the world.  I would like tech to protect me from creeps, not smooth the runway for them”…

 

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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Nuance doesn’t make for good headlines or popular books.  –  Mike Masnick

To Molest and Rape (#1335)

The UK is just as dedicated to protecting rapist cops as the US is:

When Ruth walked into a police station to [report her cop ex-boyfriend for] rape…she did not think that she…would later be accused by [his fellow gang members] of making a false rape allegation, charged and put on trial.  It led to a years-long struggle to clear her name, before she was eventually acquitted…her…ex-partner[‘s “defense”]…was…an audio file he had secretly recorded on his mobile phone [without her consent] during the sex, which he [pretended] proved Ruth was lying…[the pig herd] agreed with him that they could hear her “laughing and consenting”…but [when her defense] chose…to play the audio to the jury…[she] could be heard saying she was in pain and telling her [rapist] “no” and “get it out”.  The sounds of laughter and enjoyment…had in fact been made by actors in a porn film that was playing in the background…The [rapist] is currently s[till enjoying a paid vacation but]…faces a misconduct hearing later this year into whether making the audio recording of the sexual act without her knowledge breached the police code of ethics…The jury took just over an hour to find Ruth not guilty of perverting the course of justice…

Part of the Picture (#1349)

Puritanware has a long history of security issues:

An app that purports to help people stop [looking at] pornography has exposed highly sensitive data, including its users’ masturbation habits…We’re not naming the app because the developer has not fixed the issue, which was discovered by an independent security researcher who asked to remain anonymous…The issue is a misconfiguration in the app’s usage of the mobile app development platform Google Firebase…the creator of the app…[called the issue “]fake[” and]…“a joke”…[but when 404 Media] created an account on the app…the researcher was able to see [it] appear in the misconfigured Google Firebase, showing that user information is still exposed.  This…Firebase misconfiguration issue has been known and discussed by security researchers for years…

Panopticon (#1471)

As surveillance technology becomes ubiquitous along the U.S.-Mexico border, the equipment is still sometimes unknown or invisible to even the activists, humanitarians, researchers, and journalists working everyday in the borderlands.  Based on public records research, open source intelligence, and fact-finding trips, EFF has compiled this zine to serve as an illustrated guide to border security technology

Censor Chic (#1598)

Civil rights mean nothing if fascist corporations eagerly dance to the government’s tune:

M[ark Zuckerberg] has started blocking [his subject]s from sharing links to ICE List, a website that has compiled the names of…Department of [Father]land Security employees…[in an effort] to hold th[em] accountable.  Dominick Skinner, the creator of ICE List [says] links to the website have been shared without issue on [Zuckerberg]’s platforms for more than six months [but that changed on January 26th].  “I think it’s no surprise that a…man who sat behind Trump at his inauguration …[is helping] ICE [goons] retain anonymity”…posting links to the site [is now] blocked on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads…[but] can still be sent on WhatsApp…[the excuse is Facebook’s go-to for all of its censorship,] “Community Standards”…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1603)

More studies prove censorious politicians are full of shit:

For years now, we’ve been repeatedly pointing out that the “social media is destroying kids” narrative…has been built on a foundation of shaky, often contradictory research…and that policy responses built on that panic might end up causing more harm than they prevent.  Well, here come two massive new studies—one from Australia, one from the UK—that land like a sledgehammer on…social media ban[s]…The Australian study…followed over 100,000…adolescents across three years and found…the relationship between social media use and well-being isn’t linear.  It’s U-shaped…kids who use social media moderately have the best outcomes. Kids who use it excessively…[or] don’t use it at all…have worse outcomes…Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Manchester just published a separate study that followed 25,000 11- to 14-year-olds over three school years.  Their conclusion?  Screen time spent on social media or gaming does not cause mental health problems in teenagers.  At all…Zero.  Not “small.”  Not “modest.”  Zero…

Other studies have demonstrated that soaring rates of depression and mental disorders are actually caused by pervasive infantilization and surveillance of young adults, including laws banning them from social media.

Shame, Shame (#1605)

It’s good to see ambulance-chasing politicians attacking an actual evil for a change:

At least 37 attorneys general for US states and territories are t[hreaten]ing action against [Elon Musk] after people used [hi]s chatbot, [MechaHitler], to generate a flood of sexualized images earlier this year…during an 11-day period starting on December 29, [the MechaHitler Twitter] account…generated around 3 million photorealistic sexualized images, including around 23,000 sexualized images of [legal minors]…people were [also] generating far more explicit videos using the…Imagine model available on the [dedicated MechaHitler] website…[without] any sort of age verification…[though Musk] claims [MechaHitler] has [been] stopped…from undressing people, th[at is a lie]…the [politicians threatened Musk with a]…non[existent]…federal law…[and demanded Musk] remove [MechaHitler]’s ability to depict people in revealing clothing or suggestive poses [entirely, plus act as a fascist collaborator by]…report[ing anyone who even tries] to [pigs]…

Mad Libs (#1609)

A perfect storm of stupidity, gullibility, and greed:

…the [Irish] Department of Justice [is using chatbots]  programmed to answer asylum and citizenship queries.  And [predictably,] its bots sometimes got it wrong, throwing up misleading or inaccurate responses. It has since retired its asylum chatbot, Erin, but has [“]upgraded[“] its citizenship chatbot, Tara, with [equally-error prone but more expensive software.  Politician]…Gary Gannon…said he has immense concerns about the use of chatbots…in serving up legal counselling to people seeking sanctuary…It all feels “dystopian”, he said…[but] the Minister for Justice…Jim O’Callaghan…continues to stay vague on what legal counselling is and how it’s going to be offered…

 

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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Assault…is discipline when you’re a juvenile.  – “Officer” Blake Willer

This is among the best examples of Donna Jean Godchaux’s work with the Grateful Dead, so how could there be a more appropriate sendoff for her?  The links above it were provided by Ryan Marino, C.J. Ciaramella, Radley Balko, Ryan Marino again, IncarcerNation, Carol Fenton, and The Onion, 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!

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They're absolutely DESPERATE to force people to listen to them.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-14T04:16:00.895Z

Dr. Zaius' ancestor.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T04:37:49.434Z

Textbook megalomania.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T17:28:24.241Z

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51233

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-17T18:00:54.379Z

Creating "criminals" with the stroke of a pen is one of the oldest governmental tricks there is. It allows the government to invent enemies where none existed, in order to justify the expenditure of manpower and treasure to "fight" the imaginary self-created evils.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-19T17:06:09.131Z

"Senate Republicans went nuclear" is a hyperbolic lie. Which is a damned shame.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-22T17:32:04.679Z

On top of being unethical, CGI pictures on social media are nearly always ugly, and often creepy.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-23T17:05:40.213Z

Too bad, so fucking sad.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-24T17:31:59.000Z

Some people on here really are so much in love with being outraged that the evil circus centered in Washington STILL isn't enough for them, so they have to invent deeply stupid things that are nothing to do with themselves to be outraged about.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-25T16:46:54.149Z

One of the things I despise most about Musk is that he has provided ammo to the "solve earthly problems first, hurp derp derp" crowd which has bedeviled space exploration at least since Gemini.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-28T17:51:58.270Z

And since they're FEDERAL secret police, we could even call them the "Secret State Police", or SESTAPO for short.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-29T17:23:32.825Z

I am begging reporters, in the name of journalistic dignity, to STOP calling Trump's package of tyranny the "One Big Beautiful Bill". It doesn't matter that the regime calls it that; find another term. This one makes anyone who uses it sound like a rather stupid first-grader.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-30T16:50:26.544Z

I must point out that "Swedish model" regimes have tried to do this with sex work clients for years, prosecuting them for paying sex workers in other countries where it's legal. Nobody cared, and the precedent was set.The avalanche has already started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-31T17:06:35.965Z

Mad emperor is still mad.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-01T07:32:33.397Z

It's a testament to the human ability to Not Get It that, in a world where the writing of every critic, philosopher, and scholar in human history is available at their fingertips for reading and consideration, most people still have absolutely no clue what "art" is.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-02T17:54:04.679Z

Cops are overgrown children cosplaying War, with all the rest of us forced into their stupid, childish game without our consent, consuming vast funds from the public treasury and ruining lives by the hundreds of thousands.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-03T17:24:16.608Z

If your response to governmental attempts to ban things is to complain that they should be banning something you dislike instead of something you like, you are part of the problem.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-04T17:17:38.599Z

Your regular reminder that "illegality" is a status defined entirely by the state, which can be changed at the whim of politicians.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-05T16:30:56.462Z

In related news, the administration has announced it will be releasing a PDF of all Trump's sayings from his speeches and social media writings, to be called the "Little Red Book", which will be pushed into all US cell phones via the national emergency alert system and will be impossible to delete.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-06T17:51:08.259Z

If you want people to believe that cops who rob, rape, or murder are a "small and unrepresentative" minority of "bad apples", you must also admit that looters are a "small and unrepresentative" minority of "bad apple" protesters. And the latter aren't protected by QI.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-08T16:59:07.930Z

ORDNUNG WIRD WIEDERHERGESTELLT!

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-09T18:32:57.685Z

Once again: PLEASE stop calling LLMs "AI". When you keep reinforcing the techlord-promoted fantasy that these algorithms are a kind of "intelligence", YOU are helping to push mentally-ill people into belief that these systems are more than electronic parrots. futurism.com/chatgpt-ment…

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-10T17:47:16.452Z

Remember how bird-brains kept claiming that the WORST POSSIBLE USE for this technology was putting celebrity faces on porn actresses, and I warned y'all it would soon be used to manufacture police state propaganda?I won't even *bother* saying "I told you so" this time. Except I guess I just did.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-11T17:14:26.984Z


I have a joke about Tantalus, but I won't tell it to you.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-13T17:52:16.380Z

Politicians don't think like that. To a politician, for adolescents to be Schrödinger people, either adult or "child" as an "official" requires, is a FEATURE, not a bug. That's why they're now trying to extend adolescence to 25 for men and menopause for women.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-14T17:57:21.198Z

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

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-15T17:07:24.060Z

Politics has never been "cool" at any point in human history. It's just that politicians and their fans DELUDE themselves into BELIEVING that they are cool. Even dour shitheads like Cromwell, Robespierre and Mao thought they were fucking rock stars.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-16T17:07:32.168Z

Since this is all fantasy anyhow: I use my time line converter to dramatically slow my progress through the time stream so that I can set free everyone tied to the tracks, remove all the passengers from both trolleys, then tie the person who proposed the problem to the tracks and walk away.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-17T17:20:27.161Z

It's always interesting to watch people who truly believe in "right-left" idiocy get all confused when politicians or other "officials" behave in a way that doesn't neatly fit into one or the other of those boxes.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-18T17:11:18.210Z

Accurate headline: "Women are 20% less likely than men to be intellectually lazy, and 25% more likely to recognize that computers can't actually think, regardless of advertising claims to the contrary."www.ft.com/content/7f0f…

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-19T15:34:37.150Z

 

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There is no therapy for poor judgment.  –  “Public Service Announcement

Just as we ignore those topological elements of a cloud or inkblot which do not fit the meaning our minds have imposed upon it, so do we forget or distort elements of a memory which fail to conform to the schema in which we have embedded it, or even invent elements which were not in reality present, but which the schema predicts should be.  –  “Imagination Pinned Down

As long as we allow and even encourage our governments to criminalize private, consensual behaviors with no clear victim and no actual corpus delicti, lots more people are going to be senselessly killed and lots of senseless killers are going to get away with it.  –  “Rotten to the Core

Most modern prohibitionist propaganda is based upon depicting the prostitute as a mentally inferior creature whose statements about her own thoughts and feelings cannot be trusted.  –  “Ninon de l’Enclos

There is no magical moment of “Shazam!” at which teens are mystically imbued with the ability to consent.  –  “Legal Fiction

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The law offers no escape hatch whatsoever.  –  Judge Robin Rosenbaum

Profound Ignorance (#405) 

Prohibitionists are still citing the bogus Neumayer, Cho, and Dreher study:

The End of the Beginning (#915)

Let’s hope many more challenges to these medieval laws succeed:

After being convicted of one count of possession of child pornography in 2013 and serving his sentence for the crime, Bruce Henry married and his wife gave birth to a son, but [Alabama] law prohibits [people condemned to the “]sex offender[” registry]…from residing together or conducting overnight visits with minors, even if it is their own child.  In his resulting lawsuit, Henry said the law was unconstitutional and the [11th Circuit]…agreed, concluding that the statute violates the Fourteenth Amendment by infringing upon the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children…

The Immunity Syndrome (#1059)

The dogma that young people are owned like slaves by their parents is a metastasizing evil:

[An increasing number of] Americans…[want] parents [to have] ultimate control over all aspects of their [offspring]’s lives, even when the[y]…are…on the cusp of adulthood.  [They] want parents to have to approve the books and ideas they’re exposed to in school, the apps they can download, and the social media platforms they join.  Now, Florida wants to require parental consent before a minor can be treated for an STI…no one seems to even pretend that this is about helping minors…proponents of the bill keep talking about parental rights…to…[deny any and all] autonomy…to…[even] older minors…[one] version of the bill would also let parents [preemptively] opt [their offspring] out of…any survey or questionnaire that may reveal…sexual [abuse by]…any family member…[and ban] doctors [from providing] contraceptive services to minors without their parent’s consent…

Censorship Ascendant (#1277)

Censors now pretend thoughts they don’t like constitute a “crime”:

[German] politician…Nancy Faeser…has reported multiple citizens to the police for criticisms they made of her on social media…other members of Olaf Scholz’s outgoing government have been even more aggressive[ly censorious]…Robert Habeck…of the Green Party…has initiated over 800 criminal complaints since…2021…[sending] police [on predawn] raid[s in which they steal people’s electronics]…and [abduct them]…Germany’s limits on…speech have long been shockingly restrictive….[but] over the past decade…new laws…[such as] the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz [NetzDG]…[have] imposed such steep fines on social media networks…that they need…to err on the side of censor[ship]…in order to keep operating in the country.  When Vladimir Putin sought to strengthen his ability to marginalize the political opposition in Russia, he cleverly translated key passages of the German law into Russian, deflecting criticisms of his crackdown…by [truthfully] pointing out that he was merely emulating Western democracies…even countries that have long prided themselves on their liberal traditions have now followed the [Germany’s censorious] lead…

Morality Lessons (#1325) 

After a two-year hiatus, “porn filter” bills are back on the “monkey see, monkey do” agenda:

Alabama [politicians] passed a bill that would [demand] makers of cellphones and tablets…[encumber] the devices with [censorship software] to block [not just] pornography[, but also anything Alabama politicians point at while barfing the word “obscenity”.  Bill sponsor]…Chris Sells…has [repeatedly] sponsored similar bills since 2019

Vulture Watching (#1517)

Oh look, the totally-predictable results of bad laws are happening just as sane people said they would:

A new study from the Gender Equity Policy Institute (GEPI) found that women are twice as likely to die during pregnancy in states with abortion bans…Meanwhile, maternal mortality in pro-choice states fell 21%.  One stark comparison from the study: Texas’ maternal mortality rate was 155% higher than California’s…Since the state passed an abortion ban, maternal mortality has risen by 56%—with deaths among white women increasing by a whopping 95%…and…Black women living in banned states…[are] over three times more likely to die in pregnancy as their white counterparts.  While death rates skyrocket…Republicans are hard at work trying to dismantle maternal mortality committees to hide the impact of their policies…

Size Matters (#1525)

This is the second case this year to challenge the government’s “religious freedom” hypocrisy:

A…U.S. Army…[helicopter] pilot [named] Kyle Norton Riester [has] claimed in a civil lawsuit that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 allowed him to sell and take…LSD…as part of a communal…religious exercise…he has admitted to selling LSD over the internet and has asked for injunctive relief from [government] accus[ations] of drug trafficking…The Virginia-based first lieutenant…has argued that he “is a sincere religious practitioner”…but…[prosecutors claim] that Riester only claimed religious freedom grounds eight months after finding out about his drug trafficking investigation…

Even if Riester’s religious claims derive more from expediency than sincere belief, the same could be said of the government’s claims to protecting all religious liberty when in practice this is just cover for post-Christians to practice open bigotry.

 

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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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 PowellC.J. Ciaramella; Stephen Lemons; and T. Greg Doucette, in that order (I don’t recall who contributed the last one).

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!

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To say that this designation…is without scientific or medical merit is an understatement.  –  Julianne McShane

A Broker in Pillage

The government’s lawyers have grown increasingly shameless in inventing bizarre justifications for its crimes against citizens:

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that [steal]ing $50,000 from a small business did not infringe the business’ right to private property because money is not property[, claiming]…(1) the government creates money, so you can’t own it; (2) the government can tax your money, so you don’t own it; and (3) the Constitution allows the government to spend money for the “general welfare”…Chuck Saine, the owner of C.S. Lawn & Landscaping…became a client of the Institute for Justice…when the federal government sought to impose over $50,000 in liability on his business through a “trial” held deep inside the bowls of a federal administrative agency…[where] both the prosecutor and the judge were employed..the DOJ argued that Saine has no right to a real judge and jury because the government was only trying to take his money, not his property…prominently cit[ing] the Legal Tender Cases—where the Supreme Court upheld laws forcing people to accept paper currency, rather than gold and silver, as payment for debts…

Guinea Pigs (#656)

This abomination began as a way for cops to target sex workers:

A powerful [computer] tool can predict with high accuracy the location of photos based on features inside the image itself—such as vegetation, architecture, and the distance between buildings—in seconds, with the company now marketing the tool to [cop shops] and [spook houses].  Called GeoSpy, made by a firm called Graylark Technologies out of Boston, the tool has also been used for months by [trolls]…and…stalk[ers].  The company’s founder has aggressively pushed back against such requests…[from anyone without State permission to destroy people’s lives.  Cops]…with very little necessary training, private…companies, and stalkers could, and in some cases already are, using this technology.  Dedicated open source intelligence (OSINT) professionals can of course do this too, but the training and skillset necessary can take years to build up.  GeoSpy allows essentially any…[sociopath] to do it…

I Spy (#1353)

Americans aren’t going to like what it will take to stop this coup:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave [Elon Musk and his henchmen] access to the federal payment system [last week]…handing [people neither elected nor hired by the American people]…a powerful tool to monitor and…unilaterally restrict disbursement of money approved for specific purposes by Congress…Musk…has recently fixated on Treasury’s payment processes, c[laim]ing the department [should be falsely] rejecting more [authorized] payments as fraudulent or improper…Similar…teams [of Musk henchmen] have begun demanding access to data and systems at other federal agencies, but none of those agencies control the flow of money in the way the Treasury Department does…the system…includes sensitive personal information about the millions of Americans who receive Social Security checks, tax refunds and other payments from the federal government…

Feudalism Redux (#1472)

Texas’ ruling psychopaths wanted every one of these girls saddled with a baby before they even graduated high school:

…the Houston Chronicle…reports that in 2023, at least 100 minors had to leave Texas for abortion care; at least six of the minors were children under 12 years old.  This number…is ninefold from what it was five years ago.  Prior to 2022…between 1,000 and 1,400 Texas minors received abortions in the state annually.  That number fell to zero in 2023…many of the minors’ pregnancies resulted from rape [including] every…pregnancy in the youngest age category…[but] Texas’ abortion ban, which threatens providers with life in prison among other steep penalties, offers no exception for rape…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1489)

Looks like it’s time for veils to come back into fashion:

Kroger…[has formed a] partnership with Microsoft to install facial-recognition technology in stores, which could be used to identify individual customers: When a shopper approaches the shelf, she would see a price calibrated specifically for her.  The next shopper might pay a different amount based on their profile.  Retailers could use shopper data to charge higher prices to those who can afford to pay more, but…stores do not have to disclose who is making pricing decisions or why…in October 2024, Kroger [claimed] it had ended its facial recognition pilot program…

The Vultures Descend (#1500)

Moral imbeciles can always be trusted to abuse any power they’re given:

In January, [psychopath]s in [Indiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Carolina] introduced proposals to make…harming a fertilized egg or fetus punishable under homicide statutes, with no exceptions for women who get abortions…These measures would leave pregnant women who [miscarry or] seek abortions subject to criminal charges such as murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, and attempted manslaughter and open to wrongful death lawsuits brought by [abusive] partners or family members.  They could also seriously imperil care for women experiencing pregnancy complications and have major implications for in vitro fertilization practices…

Feudalism Redux (#1500)

Forced-birth fanatics are trying to extend their crazed jihad outside their own borders, so as to establish ownership over their subjects:

…a New York-based telemedicine provider has been indicted in Louisiana…for supplying the abortion pill to a teenage patient in that state.  The [attack on]…Dr. Margaret “Maggie” Campbell signals a major escalation in legal challenges by [forced-birth] states against telemedicine providers…who are dispensing abortion drugs under shield laws meant to protect them from prosecution…The…case involves a pregnant minor whose mother allegedly purchased abortion medications from Campbell…in April 2024…In addition to Campbell, [the state is targeting]…the mother…[trying to lock her in a cage for] five years…and [rob her] to [the tune of] $50,000…

 

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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I’ve always been dedicated to the idea of this as the time of year for spooky fun.  So every year I collect all the spooky, creepy or scary content from the previous year into one place just before Halloween.  If you’ve come to my blog in the past year, or don’t remember previous editions, they are “Trick or Treat”, “More Trick or Treat“, “Tricks and Treats“, “This Trick’s a Treat”, “Tricky Treats“, “A Trickle of Treats”, “Tricking and Treating“, “Tricks for the Treat“, “Tricked Out Treats“, “Tricks and Treats and Such Small Deer“, and “Trick Treatment“.  Horror, death or Halloween-themed columns of the past year included Day of the Dead 2023, Diary #697, and “Why Zombies?” There are creepy or spooky-fun videos in Links #695, #698, #721, #722, #739, #745, and #746, and a collection of seasonal links appears below.

 

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Any alternate channel devoted to access by one party will undoubtedly be discovered, accessed, and abused by another.  –  David Ruiz

If Men Were Angels

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

…an [Oklahoma] pastor…[named] Roy Shoop was…[found guilty of molest]ing several girls during horse riding lessons at Shoop’s ranch, or while the girls stayed at the family’s home…

Eavesdropping (#1195)

If a system lets “authorized” busybodies spy on you, “unauthorized” ones can do the same:

…A recent Chinese incursion into U.S. internet providers using infrastructure created to allow police easy wiretap access offers [more] evidence…that weakening security for anybody weakens it for everybody…Among the companies breached by the [Chinese governmentsupported] hacker group, dubbed “Salt Typhoon” by investigators, are Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen TechnologiesJoe Mullin and Cindy Cohn of the…EFF…believe the wiretap-ready systems penetrated by the Chinese hackers were “likely created to facilitate smooth compliance with wrong-headed laws like CALEA”…[which] dates back to 1994 and “forced telephone companies to redesign their network architectures to make it easier for [cop shops and spook houses] to wiretap digital telephone calls”…This isn’t the first time that CALEA-mandated wiretapping backdoors have been exploited by hackers…[because] “virtually every phone switch sold worldwide contains ‘lawful intercept’ functionality”…[such as] was subverted by hackers targeting Vodafone Greece…in…2004…

License to Rape (#1234)

Cops raping whores is so ubiquitous, others pose as cops to facilitate rape:

A [young] Delaware man…[named] Jemeire Perry…was [arrested and] charged with se[veral crimes]…after he threatened a woman with arrest unless she [submitted] to [rape]…Perry [pretend]ed to [be a client, but when she showed up]…he…identifying himself as a “Confidential Informant”…[and] threatened to have the woman arrested…The woman…fle[d] and reported the incident to police…

Eavesdropping (#1300)

Why does a vacuum cleaner need either a speaker or a wifi connection?

Robot vacuums made by Ecovacs have been reported roving around people’s homes, yelling profanities at them through the onboard speakers after the company’s software was found to be vulnerable to intrusion…The most common issue people have with so-called “smart” home devices is that they often require a software subscription…and if the manufacturer goes under or stops supporting the device, it simply becomes a paperweight…Remote access is [pointless and unnecessary, and]…every couple of years we hear about something egregious, like intruders accessing a baby monitor and whispering through it at night

I Spy (#1415)

This is only going to get worse:

A Massachusetts woman used an online platform to schedule an appointment seeking abortion medication from a local clinic in May.  Two minutes after she uploaded her insurance information to finalize the appointment, a representative from a nearby “pregnancy crisis center”…called the woman and, purporting to be the clinic, told her she needed to come in for an ultrasound prior to obtaining the medication.  The crisis center…[called] AWHC…had intercepted the electronic communications between the abortion clinic and the woman, according to a lawsuit filed by the clinic, Four Women Health Services…the federal judge presiding over the case [has] ordered AWHC to stop [eavesdropping] and refrain from contacting [Four Women’s] patients…AWHC has long sought to confuse Four Women patients and has…deceived them when they have inadvertently come into its offices…[after it] moved directly next door to Four Women years ago…AWHC workers [regular]ly patrol a shared parking lot, giving Four Women patients anti-abortion literature…

Thought Control (#1457)

Anyone with a functional brain could’ve predicted this outcome:

[Under] new [censorship] rules enacted by the Alabama Public Library Service in July…libraries can lose their state funding if [a politician points at any book]…in the children or teens section of the library [and belches the magic word “obscene”, “sexually explicit”, or “inappropriate”.  So the] Cullman County Public Library…[has] gotten rid of their entire young adult section…[and] moved everything [in it] to the adult fiction section…over 2,000 books [in all.  The library director]…said they d[id this] because the new rules from the state are [intentionally vague and] confusing…Minors who want to check something out from the library must get…their parents…[to] sign a waiver, saying that they understand exactly what their child is checking out…

Paying the Bills

Three weeks ago, I told y’all that I’m facing a projected $3000 shortfall for my annual operating budget, and asked for help making up that difference.  Well, several of my loyal readers have already stepped up, generously helping me to the tune of $1100.  So now I’m only facing a $1900 shortfall; if you aren’t yet a subscriber, won’t you please consider becoming one?  A $1/day subscription would take $90 off of that total, and other levels would help in proportion.  Or if you’re already a subscriber but can spare some extra right now, I’d really appreciate it; it would be great if I can catch up by my birthday!

 

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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