The modern US is the most litigious society which has ever existed, and is likely to be the most litigious one that ever will exist, because when any organism, including a society, exceeds a certain critical parasite load, it is unable to take in enough nourishment to sustain itself. It’s bad enough that the US body politic is struggling to sustain the massive and malignant tumor called “government”, but that’s only the largest drain on resources; it also must contend with a horrifyingly-huge number of disgusting parasites, both internal and external, eating away at whatever tissues have somehow managed to remain healthy. And rather than combat these parasites, the government cancer instead enables and even encourages them by dreaming up an ever-larger number of ways for them to further clog the already-overburdened courts with ridiculous demands for blood from whichever structures seem likely to provide the most for the sucking. In “The Mob Rules” I wrote,
…at least eleven school districts around the country have sued the owners of such platforms as Snap, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok seeking financial compensation for the “increased mental health services and training they’ve ‘been forced’ to establish” as a consequence of student use of social media…Cash demands aside, the schools say they want to [control]…the platforms to change how they operate. These are bad lawsuits that courts should reject. The suits’ announced goal…is in itself debatable, but the means employed…vaults the whole thing into the realm of the absurd…[politicians] have been advancing proposals lately to regulate social media in the name of protecting minors from its bad influence. Among the goals are to require age verification and…ban or severely restrict social media access below some threshold age…A recent paper by…Jennifer Huddleston outlined some major objections to the proposals…simply cutting off minors from social media use entirely would ban a great deal of communication almost everyone concedes to be wholesome…and…age verification…can result in the gathering…of sensitive and readily misused personal information…it’s inevitable that some content providers will decide to play safe by not making available certain kinds of sensitive content at all, even for adult eyes…
The article, by the ever-reasonable Walter Olson, is well worth reading in its entirety. Where and when this insanity will stop, no one can predict. But it had better be soon, because enabling politicians to continue siccing hordes of useful idiots on anyone or anything they perceive as an enemy is a sure-fire recipe for social and economic collapse.
A Mississippi minister…[molested] several underage boys he knew from his position as their pastor, tutor, or employer…Daniel Paul Harris…was arrested [on May 4th] and charged with [various molestation offenses]…he…is [the]…pastor…of Olive Branch Christian Church…and [runs]…the Kaimen Center, which provides resources for children and [disabled] adults…Victims told police that they were assaulted on multiple occasions…
Two [London cops] were arrested…[for] kidnapping and raping a woman…in Kingston…[she appears to have foolishly imagined they could be trusted to pal around with until] they took her by taxi to an address in North London [to]…rape…[her] and h[old her] against her will…The woman reported them on [April 30th]…
A [typical and representative boss cop in]…Hopkinton, Massachusetts…has been charged with…child rape over [assaults] that [he committed] in 2004 and 2005…John “Jay” Porter…[repeatedly raped] a 15-year-old student…while [he was assigned to spy on, harass, and intimidate students] in the town’s school system…
The Florida Senate passed what opponents are calling the Florida “abduction” bill (SB 254)…[because it] would allow [legal minors] to be “kidnapped” by…parents [who oppose their receiving care for gender dysphoria] — even if the opposing parent lives across state lines…The bill would grant Florida courts temporary emergency jurisdiction over a [legal minor] present in the state if the [legal minor] has been subject to or is “threatened” with being subjected to sex-assignment prescriptions or procedures…it…would effectively let courts modify out-of-state custody agreements by allowing dissenting parents to petition courts to take [their side in the dispute]…Parents, guardians and medical providers helping minors receive gender-affirming care would be subject to criminal penalties for violating the new law…and medical providers who provide care to trans people under 18 would risk revocation of their medical licenses and could be charged with a…felony…
The porn industry is warning Virginians could lose access to adult sites if Gov. Glenn Youngkin signs strict new age verification legislation currently on his desk…That’s exactly what [recently] happened…in Utah when a similar bill went into effect…Virginia’s proposed law requires sites verify users are 18, but the state does not yet offer a digital ID that companies can tap into, an adult industry trade group…issues with commercial age verification alternatives make them a no-go for the industry…”Platforms that want to comply will not be able to, but will still be liable for lawsuits for non-compliance”…said [Mike Stabile of the Free Speech Coalition]…
…a [South Carolina cop] arrested for [molesting teenage boys] was also a church youth leader…Erickson Douglas Lee [assaulted one boy about 30 times] between December 2020 and July 2022…at Lee’s house [after getting him drunk]…
The report is deliberately confusing, but it appears to refer to multiple adolescent male victims of various ages in their mid-teens.
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!
What determines a woman’s worth? Is it her conscientiousness, her open-mindedness, how kind and generous she is to others? Or is it what she shows, or doesn’t show, of her body that somehow determines whether a woman is valued and respected by society? I pose this question not only as a woman but as someone who has, among other things, delivered public lectures, attended a Royal Economic Society gala, and appeared on national television, all while wearing no more than shoes and a smile (albeit accompanied by my trusty handbag). While you might imagine that women today would be free to do what they want with their own body, the reality, as I have seen for myself, is otherwise. Women who refuse to “cover up”, and who embrace sexiness, femininity and beauty, are seen as the maidens of patriarchy, and certainly not as “real” feminists. Since using my naked body in art and protest, I have been called a “whore”, “common”, “trashy” and “stupid”, and have been cast out by many of my fellow feminists, some of whom like to hold me personally responsible for womankind being treated like “sex objects”. It seems that immodest women are not only expected to face the forces of patriarchy, we are also expected to face the judgement of the sisterhood.
Nakedness is, however, certainly not a Western invention. In 1929, thousands of Igbo Nigerian women used their bodies in a show of resistance to colonial authority, in what became known as “the Women’s War“. Alongside attacking symbols of colonization, such as cutting telegraph wires and attacking post offices, they used “lewd gestures”, and they danced and they sang. On numerous other occasions, African women have used naked protest to fight violence, corruption and multinational oil companies, facing criticism well before any modern-day naked protesters. As Tricia Twasiima writes:
Nudity as a form of protest upsets the very ideas of what respectable womyn should be…The belief that womyn’s bodies must be clothed, until decided otherwise, is why womyn’s nudity as a form of resistance is exceptionally remarkable. The reclaiming of our bodies, and the self-determination of what they will be used for, undermines the patriarchal narrative which makes it even more powerful…By freeing ourselves from the limits of what is acceptable, we give room to new ways of resisting and ultimately new ways of liberation…This of course is difficult considering the consequences dealt to those who reject the set standards, but perhaps we can begin by unlearning our own biases and internalisations about our bodies. Questioning ourselves, and pushing back against the narratives that take self-determination away from us is a good place to start.
Nevertheless, Gabby Aossey argues that while “women who wear hijab have freed themselves from a man’s and a society’s judgemental gaze; the Free the Nipplers have not…they have fallen deep into the man’s world”. Following a series of my own naked protests, a member of a Radical Feminist group tweeted: “Does it not even make you pause for thought when you realise that men overwhelmingly support your feminism”. Many women offer a comment along these same lines: aren’t you just giving men precisely what they want? But to resist naked protesting so as to avoid the male gaze is, to my mind, allowing the male gaze to dictate what I do or do not do with my own body. I am perfectly capable of respecting myself and confident enough to pursue my goals, irrespective of what men might think or feel. For women to live their lives in a way that is limited by the male gaze as a means of escaping the male gaze is a pyrrhic victory. As I argue in my new book, Naked Feminism: Breaking the Cult of Female Modesty, a puritanical strain of thought runs deep within feminism. This feminist puritanism is not only bodyphobic, whorephobic and femmephobic, it is intellectually elitist, hypocritical and unfair. Implicit is a view that while it is perfectly acceptable, even to be encouraged, for a woman to “show off” and monetise her brain, it is not acceptable for her to do the same with her body. And by holding immodest women responsible for womankind being treated like sex objects, women themselves are expected to shoulder the sins of men. Our bodies become “the problem”, rather than what goes on in other people’s heads – how they choose to judge (and thereby treat) their fellow human beings.
Explicitly or implicitly, and inside as well as outside feminism, a woman’s worth and respect still hangs on her bodily modesty – on the degree to which her body is “unseen” and “untouched”. As a result, crimes and inappropriate behaviour committed against what society judges to be “immodest” women are trivialised, with women who “show off” their bodies, along with those who are deemed “promiscuous”, being seen as “fair game”, and deserving of punishment. The consequences affect all women; from virginity testing and honour killings to revenge porn and female genital cutting. No woman is left unscathed – from sex workers and strippers to schoolgirls. Feminists need to stop problematising what they see as immodest women and instead switch their focus to challenging, rather than reinforcing, the belief that a woman’s worth and respect hangs on her bodily modesty. Challenge that belief and you challenge the whole set of policies and practices that constrain women’s lives across the globe.
If you only watch one video this week, make it this one.
This woman is heroic, and y'all know I do *not* throw that term around lightly as so many do now. She could comfortably enjoy old age, but instead she's still fighting for what is RIGHT at 100 years old. https://t.co/KRQFXVa9JU
Cops molesting kids is epidemic; just because some of them prefer to call the molestation a "search" doesn't make it a different issue. https://t.co/uKOtSJOQVl
If you really want a book for more than one-time light reading, you need to actually buy it. Kindle "buying" is really just a kind of renting from a lessor who can change the terms of the contract at any time, even to substituting a different text without your consent. https://t.co/IdG64L2nny
THIS. At one time, a prescription was simply a note from one professional to another, explaining exactly *which* drug the patient needed in clinical terms the patient could not be expected to understand or repeat accurately. Prohibition turned that into a legal document. https://t.co/mCc71HL81E
These publishers are like fast-food chains who intentionally ruin menu items in order to please people who aren't their customers and never will be no matter HOW much they change. https://t.co/E3x7qiBPWs
Whenever I see people surprised that "their" politicians behave exactly like everybody knows politicians behave, I'm reminded of a quote from Rita Mae Brown (not Einstein, sorry internet): "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results."
In which "progressive" NPR calls for more of the police interactions that result in the deaths or incarceration of many thousands of Americans a year. https://t.co/tEcVJ4BMOT
That's probably the most incompetent. But the most pretentious rhymes definitely come from Sting; I mean, rhyming "apprentice" with "Charybdis" and "shake and cough" with "Nabokov" is pretty impressively pompous.
Outrage based on conscious ignorance is driven by the need or desire to be outraged; it's that need which motivates the intentional ignorance. Therefore such outrage MUST be stronger than mere organic outrage, in the same way refined products are more potent than raw ones.
"Speaker Paul Renner had to close the public viewing galleries…"
He "had to"? Was he forced to do so by an evil spell or Platonian psychokinesis? Were terrorists holding a gun to his head? Would someone have inevitably died had he not acted?
The state thinks that legal minors are children; that children are property; and that it's the government's "right" to steal the property of any citizen as it pleases.
This article may help y'all to understand what I've said since the 1980s: "nutritionism" is, to a large extent, simply puritanism disguised by a pseudoscientific veneer. https://t.co/wK3jnviqMP
Recognizing that most people who identify as "left-wing" are useful idiots.
Not coincidentally, my "most left-wing coded attribute" is recognizing that most people who identify as "right-wing" are useful idiots. https://t.co/KUIUBwvi25
From a sociological perspective, it's interesting to watch the last adherents of a moral panic clinging desperately to whatever feeling (safety? importance? validation?) the panic gave them after everyone else has lost interest.
Phrasing this as "Americans buy more of one processed plant product with mood-altering effects that's disliked by some puritans than another processed plant product with mood-altering effects that's disliked by other puritans" really puts the absurdity of prohibition on display. https://t.co/R6x7LfOchO
Your regular reminder that trying to define other people's experiences for them, or claiming they're "wrong" because they're fine with experiences (*especially* sexual experiences) that YOU think would harm YOU, is the behavior of a creepy control freak.
…an app called Life360…which claims over 50 million active users across 195 countries, is among the most popular [surveillance] apps in America. It lets parents [track their] kids…at all times, displaying their live coordinates on a map. But, according to nine federal cases dating back to at least 2018, it has also been used by sexual predators to monitor and control their victims. And privacy and trafficking experts say such misuse is hardly an anomaly; it’s becoming an issue with other apps like it including Apple’s “Find My Friends” and Google’s “Find My Phone” tools…
German police have been targeting and intimidating specific Twitter users who post or retweet explicit material, in an attempt to move forward local bureaucrat Tobias Schmid’s campaign to purge all open platforms of adult content…Der Spiegel…devoted an entire feature to the authorities’ campaign to deter users from sharing sexual content…NetzPolitik’s Sebastian Meineck has been covering Schmid’s meticulous, obsessive attempts to ban all sexual content from open platforms in Germany and Europe. In an in-depth report…Meineck wrote that authorities had already [censored] some 150 Twitter accounts for “distribution of pornography”…using the police to confront and threaten adult performers, creators and other sex workers over explicit videos and images they tweeted or promoted…Paulita Pappel, German porn producer and spokeswoman for the Free Speech Coalition Europe, [said]…“We are treated like criminals”…
Florida’s…Legislature…passed a ban on most abortions after six weeks…Ron DeSantis…has said he would sign the measure into law…House Speaker Paul Renner [chose] to close the public viewing galleries [using the absurd excuse that] a…protester…threw…a…[piece of] paper on the…floor…the…[only] exceptions [are] for rape and incest up until 15 weeks. The measure does not change the exceptions for the life and health of the mother up until 15 weeks that are in current law…the six-week ban will be on hold pending a ruling from the Florida Supreme Court on the constitutionality of a 15-week abortion ban DeSantis [recently] signed into law…[politician] Yvonne Hinson…[said] “I wonder how much Florida money is being spent on legal fees attempting to defend that bill”…the six-week…ban is not popular among Florida residents of either [duopoly faction]…A…poll in March showed 75%…opposed the six-week ban. That included 61% of Republicans…
Texas Jail Project…[h]as [collected hundreds of]…stories of medical neglect and abuse during pregnancy in county jails…We started bringing these stories and impacted community members to the quarterly meetings of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards…[where] we were mocked and brushed off by the commissioners and sheriffs as indulging in “mama drama”. This kind of dismissive response continued at the county commissioner’s court as well…a sheriff once alleged that we were making up these horror stories of pregnant women being neglected, miscarrying, and giving birth alone on dirty cell floors because “we don’t really have that many pregnant women in our jails”…[in reality] pregnant [women]…were rendered invisible in an already opaque system designed primarily by men, for men…The first successful bill we advocated for in 2009…mandated that jails [keep] count…[which showed that]…300 to 500 pregnant…[women] are booked monthly into Texas county jails…
A NYPD captain allegedly sent [dick pics] to a female detective and offered her favors if she would send him her panties, during a “relentless” 18 months of sexual harassment…Brian Flynn…sent more than 45…inappropriate photos and messages to…Michelle Almanzar…and retaliated against her when she spurned his advances…by making her stay late and redo reports and denied her personal time off…”he would often take his frustration out on her work partner as well as her team,” [her] lawsuit [explain]s…
Ammy Ventura…a…civilian [NYPD] employee…[foolishly submitted to the advances of] her supervisor, Widler Lucas…[who claimed] he was…going through a divorce at the same time she was…The pair then started dating in April 2021, with Ventura believing Lucas was divorced…They broke up around September 2021, after…Lucas [started behaving abusively]…Nine months after the pair’s break up, during a shift in August 2022, Lucas…grabbed Ventura by her hair, pulled her behind his desk and forced her to give him oral sex while his office door was wide open…Lucas [later] told Ventura never to speak about the affair, saying, “I’ll fucking kill you” and threatening to “push [her] in front of a train”…
The Missouri attorney general, citing a consumer protection law normally used to prosecute fraudulent business practices, issued a new state directive…that would severely restrict gender-transitioning treatment for both adults and minors…[based on the false claim that] they were considered “experimental”…[and claim]ing that the attorney general “is charged with protecting consumers, including minors, from harm”…While there is some debate among medical professionals about how to put in place gender-transitioning treatment for [legal minors], leading medical groups in the United States…oppose legislative bans…
The Washington state House approved a bill that would authorize state agencies to hide [legal minors] seeking transgender medical intervention from parents…under the bill, a disagreement between a[n adolescent] and parents over the [adolescent]’s desire for a medical transition constitutes “abuse and neglect,” only because the parent hasn’t “properly affirmed what the child [sic] wants”…
The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked heavy restrictions on the use of mifepristone…and will allow…physicians to continue using mifepristone for abortions past seven weeks and distributing the pill by mail and without an in-person visit…Kacsmaryk[‘s decision] in Texas…was robustly criticized by legal scholars and medical experts…[and] was in conflict with another decision issued by a district judge in Washington state…Judge Thomas Rice said that the FDA could not change how it regulates the drug in the locales that had filed suit…the…5th Circuit…partially blocked Kacsmaryk’s ruling, but said that instead, the FDA had to revert its approval of mifepristone to what was permitted in 2016: only allowing the drug to be used for people up to seven weeks of pregnancy, prohibiting its provision through telemedicine and requiring three in-person physician visits for anyone getting a prescription. Currently, the FDA permits mifepristone to be used up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, and the World Health Organization recommends its use up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Both endorse telemedicine for medication abortions…
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!
A [typical and representative] Orange County [California] pastor has been convicted of sexually abusing two young girls he is related to…Jose Andres Lopez…[committed the assaults from] 1991 through 2020…[he was caught] on Aug. 21, 2020, [when] the [second] victim…was…13…but the abuse started when she was 3…The victim’s brother…was…in the house and…[over]heard…“noise he describes as a rhythm that sounded like having sex”…the victim [later told] her brother…what was happening…[and] the next day, the brother told his mother and the tearful victim confirmed it…During the investigation, deputies “stumbled on a police report” out of Massachusetts from a 12-year-old who said [Lopez] had molested her for years…
Indianapolis pastor…Tyree Coleman…offered to pay…a…17-year-old…[for sex and] the teen told police…they got a search warrant for Coleman’s cell phone and…discovered that Coleman…the founder of…[a charity] which feeds homeless people in Indianapolis…was using donations to his non-profit to pay [male sex workers]…During that investigation, police received a new complaint from a…man who accused Coleman of raping him…[after] he missed his bus…and was left stranded…Coleman offered him a room at his home…Coleman would pay him [for]…oral sex and later [for intercourse, but]…the victim [later changed his mind and] told Coleman to stop several times but Coleman refused…Coleman [also] threatened to kill him if he had a sexually transmitted disease…
A man [named Matthew Sean Donaldson who is] obsessed with video games…brutally bludgeoned [a sex worker] with a hammer in a luxury hotel…with intent to murder [her]…on February 23, 2021…Donaldson bought a hammer and read numerous news articles about women being murdered before he brought the [victim]…to his hotel room…He used a knife to cut off the woman’s underpants in what was to be his first ever sexual experience…the[n started]…a heated argument about the ethics of sex work [to give himself an excuse to attack her]…He left her lying in a pool of her own blood with severe cranial and body injuries as he fled the scene. Later that night…Donaldson sent the victim a cruel taunting text that said: “Should have picked a different career, honey”…and…also posted a photo of the luxury hotel room to social media with the caption: “game over”…
Panera Bread is rolling out palm scanners that will link customers’ handprints to their loyalty accounts — a move the company paints as convenient but that privacy advocates have decried. The biometric…technology, developed by Amazon, will hit stores in the next few months…The gadgets will [also] suggest menu items based on customers’ order histories…Amazon One technology is [already] in use at some 200 locations across the country, including Amazon’s Whole Foods Market subsidiary and Amazon Go stores. Panera says the technology will securely store its customers’ biometric data. However, digital rights activists [correctly point out] that [any] information [which exists] could be [demand]ed by federal agencies or accessed by hackers…
…Idaho Republicans…seek…to limit minors’ ability to travel for abortion care without parental consent. The legislation would create a whole new crime — dubbed “abortion trafficking” — which is defined in the bill as an “adult who…either procures an abortion … or obtains an abortion-inducing drug” for the minor…The legislation also includes a statute allowing the Idaho attorney general to supersede any local prosecutor’s decision, preemptively thwarting any prosecutor who vows not to enforce such an extreme law…The legislation doesn’t actually say anything about crossing state lines, but…since nearly all abortions are illegal in Idaho…[the people politicians want to terrorize are] traveling to the border with the intent of crossing state lines, likely into Washington, Oregon or Montana, to get an abortion there…
There is perhaps no stretch of American land as politicized as the U.S.-Mexico border…There are towering fences and walls. Border agents…patrol…the boundary in trucks. But border security is becoming increasingly stealthy…as the government erects a “virtual wall”—a fortification not made of steel and concrete, but drones, surveillance towers, and artificial intelligence…border [hawks pretend] this…is a more humane and efficient way of keeping undocumented immigrants out…but in reality, the virtual wall has…been expensive, broadly expanded the surveillance abilities of unaccountable government agencies, and forced migrants into taking more dangerous journeys rather than keeping them out. More dollars are being spent, more migrants are dying, and more civil liberties violations are occurring…
Police are [molest]ing children in their p[igmobile]s…Almost 3,000 children were [molested under the pretext of a “]search[“]…by police in England and Wales between 2018 and mid-2022, [650 between 2018 and 2020 and 2197 in the next two years]…Nearly a quarter of [molestation]s involved a child aged between 10 and 15, while the youngest [victim was]…an eight-year-old…1 per cent were [molest]ed within public view, and 6 per cent…with at least one [cop] of a different gender than the [victim lurking to watch]…
[Cop shops] in England and Wales have been…[caught] trying to “evade public scrutiny” after an Observer investigation found that the outcomes of dozens of officer misconduct cases have been deleted from their websites. They include some of the most serious cases of criminality, including that of the serial rapist David Carrick…the vast majority were either failing to publicise cases, despite a legal obligation to do so, or deleting misconduct cases from their websites after 28 days…including cases related to sexual offences or domestic violence…The law specifically calls on forces to publicise the results of misconduct hearings “as soon as practicable after the officer has been notified of the outcome”…but…the records at 72% of forces were incomplete. Many were missing more than half or all of the misconduct outcomes…
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!
The number of women whose lives were ruined by sex work is dwarfed into utter insignificance by the number of women whose lives were ruined by unwanted pregnancies.
This is rhetorical sleight of hand. There's no such thing as a "prostituted woman"; it's an imaginary construct based in the fantasy that sex workers are passive, vegetable-like entities. Since there ARE no such creatures, talking to none is talking to all.
One of the most important principles of existing in a world full of violent authoritarians and their pet snitches is, "Never give anybody any personal information that they do not absolutely need".
Most sex workers understand why this is important; I wish the rest of y'all did.
Politicians and bureaucrats are ALWAYS in favor of more laws, rules and "regulations" about every single aspect of human existence, so THEIR preferences are not arguments in favor of ANYthing. It would be like trying to advertise a food product by proclaiming that dogs like it.
Catastrophist authoritarians love saying "planet" when they actually mean "human society", and "universe" when they actually mean "this one tiny planet".
I first encountered coconut milk when I was about 5; it was obvious to me even then that it got the name from its appearance and had nothing to do with dairy.
Make cops carry individual insurance, and pay for it themselves. When a cop has too many suits to be insurable, he can no longer work as a cop. This may be the only way to stop the carnage, considering politicians are too spineless to fix it themselves. https://t.co/WszZaYpkMU
I beg to differ about it not being healthy; it saved my sanity, my health, and very possibly my life, far more effectively than any prescription drug could've, for a fraction of the cost, and fully under MY control rather than some doctor's. And I'm far from alone.
This is your regular reminder that infantilizing young adults as "children" does not actually help them, and if anything makes them MORE vulnerable to whatever it is you're claiming you want to protect them from.
Gotta say I'm amused by the sudden realization by both reporters and social media denizens that politicians lie, constantly and egregiously. Now if they can just grok that this is neither new nor novel nor limited to politicians of only one party, we might actually get somewhere.
I have never and will never understand the childlike faith people put in "restraining orders". But then, perhaps because I've played D&D for over 40 years, I *know* magic is just make-believe.
I wish people would stop using this backward phrasing invented by journalists.
It's "1/50 as fast", not "50 times slower". Slowness is a lack of speed, just like cold is a lack of heat. That's why your car has a "speedometer" not a "slowometer". https://t.co/bXJ7JXFc7r
Many years ago, Robert Heinlein proposed a Constitutional amendment requiring all laws to be written in plain English comprehensible to average high-school graduates. https://t.co/ov9M5Nz5yp
Every time one of these "feminist" prohibitionists opines, she demonstrates that she not only fails to comprehend that is a wide variety of clients who want all sorts of different experiences, but also that she has absolutely not the faintest clue what any of them is like.
CSPI has nothing to do with science; it’s an authoritarian organization dedicated to promoting the latest nutritional pseudoscience. These are the same people who once said that raw poppy seeds are "contaminated" with opium (which comes from, you guessed it, poppy seeds). https://t.co/l8fneOWKfu
Oh yes, statism is just another religion. The gods have been replaced by parties and agendas, and the prayers go by other names. But the adherents are still expected to mindlessly regurgitate dogma, and heretics and infidels are punished as ruthlessly as ever.
The problem with "progressive" types & "parental rights" types BOTH is that they view young adults as "children" & children as objects, to be managed & programmed by state or family. Neither gives a damn about the young people themselves; they're just quibbling about ownership.
One of the stupidest things about modern culture wars is that, when culture warriors' opponents CLEARLY STATE what's bothering them, the warriors deny it and say, "No, your problem is REALLY 'x' motivation from our dogma about you" rather than using the knowledge.
Why do prohibitionists make ridiculously-obvious statements like "people only do work if they feel the money is worth their time" and then pretend it's somehow a "gotcha"?
I mean really; this is the online equivalent of taking your dick out at a party and wriggling it around while pretending it's talking, as though it were a puppet. Only the online behavior is more sophomoric.
Rikki de la Vega is a writer and activist in Boston. She has written 17 books of erotica and erotic science fiction through Sizzler Editions. Her nonfiction book Prudery and the War on Sex (from which this is excerpted) is due for publication by Digital Parchment Services sometime in April 2023.
Among the indictments included in the Declaration of Sentiments, issued in 1848 from the Seneca Falls Convention on women’s rights, was this condemnation of male privilege: “He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated but deemed of little account in man.” We still face this gendered double standard today, where men suffer far fewer consequences for sexual license, and women much more. Many first-wave feminists, as they were strongly influenced by the religious attitudes of the time, believed that the answer was to insist on male chastity. But another branch of the movement was convinced that a radically different approach was needed, that of empowering women to insist on equal partnerships based on mutual choice, affection and pleasure. This was the Free Love movement.
Most people these days associate the phrase “free love” with the hippies of the 1960s and their unbridled approach to sexuality. The original movement, however, was focused more on the legal, religious and social strictures that went hand in hand with marriage at the time. Marriage in the nineteenth century meant women were subsumed under their husbands, with no legal identity or rights; divorce was also difficult to obtain, and virtually impossible for women even in cases of abuse by the husband. Free Love advocates proposed the alternative of “free unions” of consenting partners, without the need for any legal or religious sanction, and likewise dissolved by mutual agreement. The freedom they were calling for was freedom from archaic and oppressive laws and attitudes which kept women in bondage, as well as perpetuating the link between marriage and social or financial status. Free Love advocates also affirmed women’s right to sexual pleasure, and of decoupling sex from reproduction by promoting the use and availability of contraception. This was controversial primarily because it went against the Cult of True Womanhood’s view that women were (or ought to be) only interested in sex as a means of fulfilling the goal of becoming mothers, but also because birth control was seen as obstructing God’s design. While the movement to promote birth control availability was separate from the Free Love movement, there was considerable overlap between the two, due to their commonly shared belief that women should have more choice and independence around sex and procreation.
Two other movements that intersected with Free Love, and one another, were the political Left and the freethinkers. Utopian socialists such as the followers of Robert Owen, as well as various stripes of anarchists, often saw the oppressive marriage and divorce laws of their day as part of capitalist and state oppression, and many Free Love advocates embraced radical political views. The freethought movement’s rejection and critique of religious beliefs and institutions, and their devotion to free and rational inquiry, led to at least an open discussion of Free Love ideals, and acceptance of them in practice as well as theory by many of their leaders. One of the earliest and most vocal advocate for all three of these was Frances “Fanny” Wright, a Scottish-born intellectual, writer and activist who had established one of the first utopian socialist communities in Nashoba, Tennessee, and gave public lectures on labor rights, freethought, Free Love and women’s equality at a time when it was considered taboo for women to speak in public at all. The Free Love movement’s overlap with both anticlerical freethought and political radicalism was one reason why so many feminist leaders regarded them as something of a liability. But more pronounced was the entrenchment of Social Purity advocates within the drive for women’s suffrage and their mischaracterization of the Free Love agenda. British feminist Elizabeth Wolstenholme had scandalized more conservative women’s rights activists with her free union with Benjamin Elmy, a freethinker and feminist like herself. While she was initially recognized for her tireless efforts, British historian Laura Schwartz of the University of Warwick notes: “Wolstenholme became the subject of an orchestrated campaign against her continuing public association with feminist organisations.” In the United States, mainstream feminist leaders turned against Victoria Woodhull for openly stating in a public address in 1871: “Yes, I am a Free Lover. I have an inalienable, constitutional and natural right to love whom I may, to love as long or as short a period as I can; to change that love every day if I please, and with that right neither you nor any law you can frame have any right to interfere.”
While it may be argued that the Free Love movement did influence other feminists of their time to demand substantive reforms in marriage and divorce laws, the influence of the Social Purity wing still predominated well into the twentieth century. This is exemplified by British suffragist Christabel Pankhurst’s 1913 book on sexually transmitted disease, The Great Scourge and How to End It, which insisted that votes for women be linked to the imposition of “chastity” for men and the ending of prostitution, dismissing questions about the role of poverty in pushing women into commercial sex, and not once mentioning the use of condoms (which were not only available at the time but often distributed by various armies to their soldiers). To her, the spread of syphilis and gonorrhea was the result of a male conspiracy, and women needed political power to rein in men’s sexual appetites.
This division within first-wave feminism over responding to the sexual double standard runs along a continuum between two poles which I’ll call restrictive (as in restricting options for sexual expression, especially for men) and expansive (as in favoring an expansion of such options, especially for women). It goes on into the second wave and beyond, fueling conflicts over how feminists respond to sexual imagery and literature, sex work, transgender issues, and the inclusion of men in the movement. This is not to say that every feminist neatly fits on one pole or another, but their place on a spectrum depends upon a number of attitudes and approaches. The first is the attitude towards gender, and especially men. There is a tendency for those leaning towards the restrictive pole to uphold the gender binary, to describe gender in collective or even essentialist terms, and especially to view men with skepticism at best and outright hostility at worst (sometimes even ignoring the contributions of men to early feminism, such as John Neal, Marquis de Condorcet, Frederick Douglass, and John Stuart Mill). When you consider the focus on sexuality issues, it would seem that the restrictive tendency has embraced the old-fashioned stereotype that: “Men only want one thing from women, so watch out!” But it is more specific than that; the restrictive attitude is that men are likely to link sexuality with dominance, aggression and even violence. Hence Robin Morgan’s maxim: “Pornography is the theory, and rape is the practice” – even when careful studies show no link between viewing porn and acceptance of sexual violence. In contrast, the expansive view embraces a more fluid, nuanced and individualistic view of gender, affirming transgender and nonbinary people, as well as seeing that men’s attitudes and behaviors fall on a continuum and can change with education.
The second pair of tendencies is based on how each group tries to achieve their goals. The restrictive side tends to seek to protect women from real or perceived harms, often through laws that prohibit or punish; the expansive side tends to favor efforts that empower women to find the solutions that would work best for their individual situations. This difference also shows how the two sides tend to analyze and understand a problem. The restrictive side takes a more simplistic approach; they see something as bad, they want to do away with it, so they embrace a single approach (such as the Dworkin-MacKinnon model ordinance on pornography, or the Swedish model for dealing with prostitution) and hang onto it for dear life. By contrast, the expansive side tends to take a more nuanced and pluralistic approach; they will look at the issue, the factors behind it, and the consequences of various approaches, sometimes advocating a more multifaceted strategy that addresses the matter more holistically, such as providing nonjudgmental harm reduction for street-based sex workers, including changing the law towards decriminalization so that sex workers have better tools to deal with the issues in their lives.
The irony that seems lost on members of the restrictive group is how easily political and religious conservatives appropriate their tactics and language. It should come as no surprise, considering the conservative tendency to adapt in order to gain and maintain their hold on politics, not to mention the tendency of both conservatives and restrictive feminists to see women in almost infantilized terms. By contrast, the expansive feminist group’s dedication to individual autonomy puts them more in the position of critics to any political administration regardless of ideological label. Indeed, it would seem that the expansive group is the one which is ultimately more skeptical of government, and thus less likely to be co-opted as their restrictive counterparts appear to have been.
Jane Fonda confessed she agreed to a date with 90-year-old Richard Lugner…[because] he…pa[id] her to accompany him to the Vienna Opera Ball…Fonda said…she needed the money to pay her bills and to support her grandchildren…The 85-year-old joins the list of female celebrities that have [accepted professional dates with]…Lugner…including Pamela Anderson, Kim Kardashian and Elle MacPherson…
Every sex worker needs money to pay her bills and many need it to support children, but the cops who hunt them and the press who demonize them don’t care, because they aren’t worth $200 million.
An 11-year-old Staten Island boy was [taken to the emergency room] after [rudely] gobbling up THC gummies [at a family friend’s house]…and now his mom is urging the mayor to do something to pr[otect people from having to teach their kids basic manners]…Veronica Gill noticed her son, Ryan, “acting really strange” after returning home…Gill became concerned when the youngster…[got extremely high]…and [then sick]…After Ryan underwent a series of tests…a urine test revealed he had ingested a considerable amount of THC in the last few hours…Gill was…disturbed to find out that her son had taken the weed-infused gummies [without permission] from a candy drawer at the “straight-laced” party-throwers home…the …friend…[claimed to] “have no idea how the hell this got into my house”…
I’m sure it magically appeared on a grocer’s shelf, where she absent-mindedly purchased it without noting that it cost over $2 per individually-wrapped gummy, and threw it in a drawer for friends’ brats to find while rudely digging in drawers at houses where they don’t live. Therefore a politician should issue an EDICT proclaiming “No edibles for you, New Yorkers!”
A young man [in Ireland] who downloaded…[hentai] onto his phone has escaped going to jail…after Gardai [rooted through]…his phone after [stealing] it…Davies [is sane and grounded in reality, and] was [therefore]…genuinely shocked when he was told that the images were classed [in Ireland] as child pornography….[despite the fact that they] did not feature real children but were animated images involving [characters resembling] children [to Western eyes]…the…judge…sentenced Davies to 80 hours [slave labor] in lieu of four months in prison…
From Pasadena, California to Lexington, Kentucky to Menasha, Wisconsin, to Newark, New Jersey, the surveillance company Flock Safety is blanketing American cities with dangerously powerful and unregulated automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras. While license plate readers have been around for some time, Flock is the first to create a nationwide mass-surveillance system out of its customers’ cameras. Working with [cop shop]s, [busybody club]s, and other private customers, Flock…runs all plates against state police watchlists and the FBI’s primary criminal database…[it]s goal is to expand to “every city in the United States,” and its cameras are already in use in over 2,000 cities in at least 42 states…Flock is building a giant camera network that records people’s comings and goings across the nation, and then makes that data available for search by any of its law enforcement customers…
Over 200 people were arrested [in the latest pogrom against consensual sex from the deranged]…Grady Judd[, who always gives the entrapment schemes sophomoric titles, in this case] “Operation Traffic Stop”…[and then stands in front of reporters playing with himself while vomiting out lurid sexual fantasies about the people he and his costumed hooligans victimized]…
A [typical and representative Oklahoma cop named Cody Even Cheyenne Kackley] faces charges after…he drove home a drunk woman from a casino and [rap]ed her in a bedroom before her brother walked in…the victim…was [heavily drinking] at [a]…Casino…and had called her brother for a ride home…[when cops decided to arrest her] and let her go…she then asked Kackley for a ride home, [foolishly] thinking it was safe “since he was a police officer”…
Elesha Bates…submitted Ring camera video to the Gwinnett County Police Department and the Doraville Police Department in December as evidence after…[typical and representative cop] Miles Bryant was stalking her…Bryant…is now [suspected of raping and murdering]…16-year-old Susana Morales [during the time he was stalking Bates, who]…has known…Bryant since fifth grade…in March…shortly after she [met him again]…he showed up at her…apartment unannounced and uninvited…[she came home from work to find her] door…kicked in…her neighbor…“[told] me that there was like a guy coming and putting his ear to my door and…stuff like that…she said she saw him trying to break in”…Bryant showed up at her door again in October and two more times in December…the Ring video [she gave to cops] showed Bryant stopping by in December while she was hiding inside her apartment with her boyfriend…
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!
…we need to recognize that [sexual violence] is systemic…it is built into policing cultures…Last year, the B.C. Municipal Undercover Program, was shut down…following [revel]ations [of the extreme lengths to which cops would go to “prove” they weren’t cops]…14 women working for the Ottawa Police…reported that they were sexually assaulted or harassed by male [cops] over the previous three years…The 2022 Tiller report…said, “The all-too-common attitude was that women were in the workplace for the sexual amusement and gratification of male members”…Even more, what happens in the force does not stay in the force…[cops regularly inflict sexual violence on women they encounter, with] Indigenous women [being] disproportionately impacted…police do not protect individuals and communities from sexual violence. The history of police mishandling sexual assault cases, and further traumatizing victims in the process, is well documented…an[d]…policing institutions themselves are sites of sexual violence. Police are often the perpetrators…
A [Utah politician] committee…gave unanimous approval to a bill that would prohibit the possession, purchase, or distribution of [toasters] made to look like minors or children…a representative from the Utah Attorney General’s Office said there is a “high correlation” between possession of the [appliance]s and [possession of marijuana. Politician]…Nate Mutter…said…s[toners often smoke up all their weed, so rooting pigs]…aren’t able to find evidence [that doesn’t actually exist]…”What we do know about the [toaster]s, though, is that there’s a high correlation between them being found in homes with [weed, because stoners get the munchies and use them to heat pop-tarts] or [frozen waffles]…So, in those cases where we [want to harass someone who hasn’t actually done anything wrong], this would be an additional tool to [arrest] someone…and [lock] them in…[a cage]”…
Sergio Celaya arrived at the El Mirage [Arizona] Police Department on February 6 hoping to get hired as a police assistant. However…whilst doing a polygraph test Celaya reportedly confessed to having videos showing underage girls having sex on his computer…police [then] searched his home…and…found a flash drive holding thousands of pornographic videos and photographs, including one of children aged 12-13…
Edinburgh sex workers prevailed…when a judge ruled that the city council’s attempt to ban all strip clubs was unlawful. The council’s policy, known as “nil-cap,” effectively banned all “sexual entertainment venues”…in the…capital. Local sex workers, alongside the clubs where they make their living, launched a judicial review and…Lord Richardson released an 82-page judgment ruling the policy unlawful…
Republican…[politicians] frustrated by…district attorneys who have publicly pledged not to bring charges under their state’s abortion laws…have introduced bills that would allow state officials to either bypass the local prosecutors or kick them out of office…In Texas, [two mob-rule] bills…would allow [lawsuits against]…a district attorney who fails to prosecute abortion-related offenses…[or] anyone suspected of “aiding and abetting” an abortion. In Georgia, [politicians] want to create a…commission that could…remove local prosecutors who [offend state politicians]…A…South Carolina [bill] would give the state attorney general the power to prosecute abortion cases…And [an] Indiana…[bill]…would allow a…special prosecutor to enforce laws when a local prosecutor declines to do so…
A Walton County [Florida cop named]…Artie Rodriguez…was immediately removed from his position [as a thug paid to spy on, harass, and intimidate students] at Walton Academy after…a [genderless person reported] Rodriguez attempted to [molest them]…in person and [groom them] via text…Rodriguez showed the student explicit photos, [grop]ed them…and provided them with a vape pen…
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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