This is the time of year when the pigs, guided by their amazingly acute sense of smell, start spending a lot of time under the apple trees, feasting on drops. Then in the late afternoon, when they know dinnertime is approaching, they head back to the east paddock, where they know I’ll be bringing their dinners. Last week I heard them through the open window, and managed to catch them heading toward dinner; the fuzziness is due to the window screen because I knew if I took the time to go outside, they’d already have passed. Bonus: y’all get to see and hear Louie being a drama queen when Cicero just looks at him too hard.
Posts Tagged ‘animals’
Diary #845
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset, video on September 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The Throwback Thursday Demon
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Music, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged animals, Arizona, bad customers, blogging, ethics, fascism, illegal aliens, language, left-right myth, politicians, video, yin and yang on September 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Diary #844
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset, video on September 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I did realize that a full-grown turkey could not live comfortably in a henhouse with chickens, but what I did not realize was just how much trouble it would be. First, he injured himself trying to get through the chicken door, so I had to let him in and out through the walk-through door for the past couple of months. He also kept trying to flap his wings inside, which meant every day I had to deal with the feeder getting knocked loose (and the feed consumed 50% faster), most of the water being dumped on the ground, electrical cords being knocked loose, and nasty shit getting everywhere, producing a reek that was intolerable even by chicken standards. But then I realized that in addition to all that, the hens were pecking him so badly he had bloody sores under his tail and on his back between the wings. So last week I shooed him out into the paddock, which was not easy; he whacked me with his wings (which are much stronger than one would expect) and kept running in every direction other than the one where I wanted him to go. That was through the open gate, which meant several of the chickens took advantage of it even though he wouldn’t, which meant they needed to be shooed back in once I finally got him out. He then spent several days just lurking outside the fence, staring in with an expression I interpreted as the avian equivalent of a child with no money pressing his runny nose against the window of a candy store. But on Saturday he started wandering around a bit, and on Sunday he was up in the north paddock hunting for bugs in the grass. He later joined the pigs and goat eating the corn I throw over the fence; I’d been giving him some separately from the pigs, but on Sunday he joined them so I just doubled the amount. All in all, this looks like the way to do it, should I choose to raise more large fowl in the future, but next time I’ll do it before the injuries start accumulating.
Links #843
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged acting, animals, Antarctica, cops, disease, Florida, illegal aliens, Illinois, Never Call the Cops, Norway, prisons, psychology, STEM, Texas, Torture Chamber, video, Washington (state) on August 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Get on the fucking ground…I will fucking tase you. – cop to “missing child”
Even with all of her songs to choose from, this felt to me like the most appropriate tribute to one of the world’s most beloved human beings. The links above it were provided by Radley Balko; Mistress Matisse; T. Greg Doucette; Ryan Cooper and Scott Long; Nun Ya (x2); and IncarcerNation, in that order.
- At the Mountains of Madness.
- Aboard the SS Queen of Ulthar.
- No, your reason is not an exception.
- R.I.P. Dolly Parton and King Harald V.
- Dust storms are back, now with added fungus!
- They keep demonstrating exactly what they are.
- What part of “never” is so difficult to understand?
From the Archives
- Google has made violating its users’ consent a standard business practice.
- Ignoramus censors don’t understand why people ignore their stupid laws.
- It’s been a while since we’ve heard from the “Campaign Against Toasters”.
- Cop deals with disagreement in typical cop fashion; the press is shocked.
- Pigs may only excuse sexual assault as a “search” if the victim is female.
- Young women are using “sex trafficking” as an excuse for violent crimes.
- Feigned sympathy for “trafficking victims” applies only to “perfect” ones.
- Had he not been caught at this stage, he’d have soon moved on to rape.
- Amateurs repeatedly botch what sex workers have done for many years.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- Politicians embrace “magic fentanyl” myth; will the media finally drop it?
- Totally-predictable results of bad laws are happening right on schedule.
- Some believe they can live forever by eliminating all pleasure from life.
- The government will say anything to ensure Lacey dies in a filthy cage.
- Politicians really believe they can control people’s thoughts via threats.
- A newspaper publisher dies on her feet, at least figuratively speaking.
- The fascist owners of most of these allow cops to root in them at will.
- Unembellished “sex trafficking from a store” scary tales are now rare.
- The sick lust to know everything about everybody has consequences.
- This will continue until there are federal criminal charges for doing it.
- Americans flush incalculable resources down the “culture war” toilet.
- That word appears, but 15 paragraphs in and blunted by qualifiers.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from August 2013, 2014, and 2015.
- This will continue until the evil US immigration policy is reformed.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Morgus, Phil Donahue, and much more.
- Tyrannies often start with sex workers, but never stop with us.
- The cop establishment is trying hard to hide this one’s crimes.
- Cops, faux environmentalism, Arleen Sorkin, and much more.
- In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- An especially vile Gestapo weapon: fake “child porn” charges.
- Bootlickers say child porn is OK if the criminal is a good shot.
- Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness.
- You’d think “youth pastor” would be a big red flag by now.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- Politicians can always mine tragedy to justify more evil.
- A new film adaptation of Chester Brown’s Paying For It.
- How long before Google becomes completely useless?
- Prohibitionists always end up with egg on their faces.
- This sleazebag tried to frame a woman for his crime.
- Cops, useful idiots, cultural shifts, and much more.
- Con artists use moral panics to fleece the gullible.
- Modern monogamy is becoming increasingly sick.
- Privacy as we once knew it is a thing of the past.
- It was obvious this would turn out to be sordid.
- The best year for fruit since I bought Sunset.
- It only starts with demonized minorities.
- The US Constitutional order is no more.
- Rapist cops don’t only target women.
- Throwback Thursday’s Hungry Dead.
- Fracchia vs Throwback Thursday.
- Don’t fret, it’s for your “security”.
- Ghost of Throwback Thursday.
- Redoing the atrium lighting.
- Another round of Durabak.
- Much more of this, please.
- Good weather for slugs.
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!
Links #841
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged animals, artificial stupidity, California, cops, imaginative fiction, internet, language, psychology, Tennessee, Texas, universal criminality, video on August 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Jail erodes every aspect of a person’s agency. – Lindsey Krinks
I recently watched all the Charlie Chan movies Chekhov had in his collection. The low-budget Monogram Chan pictures of the 1940s weren’t as good as the 20th Century Fox ones of the 1930s, but though Mantan Moreland, who played Chan’s chauffeur in the ’40s pictures, was typically paired with Benson Fong as “Number Three son” for comic relief, a couple of the films included guest appearances by Moreland’s former vaudeville partner Ben Carter, allowing the two to show off the very funny ‘indefinite talk” routine which made them famous. The links above the video were provided by Jesse Walker, Anarres Ansible, Mistress Matisse, IncarcerNation, Nun Ya, T. Greg Doucette, and IncarcerNation again, in that order.
- R.I.P. John Crowley.
- The ultimate online art search.
- Artificial stupidity vs. the marmots.
- Teen murdered by cops for being thirsty.
- Cops hound teens to death over petty theft.
- Another triumph for the police suicide-assistance service.
- Violently sweeping the failure of the American dream under the rug.
From the Archives
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- Swedish model is not decriminalization of any kind, “partial” or otherwise.
- Trump claims to love the military, yet his regime keeps harming veterans.
- If only there were a concise term for “having sex with someone helpless”.
- Clearview was invented as a tool to use against migrants and minorities.
- Cop deals with problems exactly as trained to; reporter calls it “unusual”.
- Once bitcoin exchanges got in bed with government, this was inevitable.
- 41% of cops admit to beating their wives; some don’t stop with beating.
- If you need this to control your teen offspring, you’ve already lost them.
- Cop deals with problems exactly as trained to, and everyone is shocked.
- The 100% predictable results of bad laws are coming right on schedule.
- Using women’s murders as an opportunity to moralize via scare quotes.
- Cops really don’t care how many false positives these systems shit out.
- Censors, ambulance-chasers, and imbecilic judges vs the Constitution.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, William Friedkin,Robbie Robertson, and more.
- More states need to protect vulnerable people from this evil nonsense.
- The hotel industry is going to regret having collaborated with fanatics.
- It looks like British subjects will soon need a VPN to access Wikipedia.
- The entire “troubled teen” industry needs to be sued out of existence.
- Texas tacitly admits it wants women with problem pregnancies to die.
- Government wants total control of both internet & financial system.
- Funny how many cops who are willing to pay prefer underage girls.
- Why are people shocked when men paid to behave violently, do so?
- One of the most flagrant abusers of this unconstitutional practice.
- It’s lovely to be told that it really is OK to be a little bit frivolous.
- Another credulous regurgitation of prohibitionist propaganda.
- This is such a sterile way to say, “repeatedly raped them”.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- In surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- Cops, “environmentalism”, Jim Lovell, and much more.
- “Prostitution” is such a handy excuse for surveillance.
- Seems like there’s more to this than we’re being told.
- These companies need to be bankrupted by lawsuits.
- No religion has a monopoly on preachy molesters.
- The open internet is becoming a thing of the past.
- Texas wants to have its blood and drink it as well.
- A curated selection of tweets from summer 2024.
- Working to eliminate a few stubborn roof leaks.
- Republics take work, and most people are lazy.
- All types of prohibition are doomed to failure.
- Cops, satire, horror movies, and much more.
- This raid was not remotely “unprecedented”.
- Laws are for the peasantry, not the rulers.
- What is wrong with doctors who do this?
- Granddaughter of Throwback Thursday.
- Better late tomatoes than no tomatoes.
- Another fine example of McNeill’s Law.
- And now for a word to my sponsors.
- Phrenology for tech worshipers.
- In remembrance of Jim Larkin.
- A year of perfect fruit weather.
- Bride of Throwback Thursday.
- Cop is a cop is a cop is a cop.
- Throwback Thursday’s Army.
- Note that little word “yet”.
- Rapist cops of the week.
Diary #841
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, tagged animals, recipes, Sunset on August 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Chekhov and Yellowbird gave me this cool egg rack last Christmas. Typically, I use it to hold regular “large” size eggs (and put the extra-large and jumbo ones in the basket at the bottom). But right from the start I realized that it would be an excellent way to hold undersized pullet eggs once the young hens started laying. And as you can see, they have! When I first started keeping chickens 20 years ago, I realized that when a recipe calls for x number of eggs, that meant large-grade eggs, so if I wanted to use pullet eggs in a recipe more would be required. So while I still had my last carton of store-bought eggs around, I measured the volume of a typical egg and discovered it to be 1/4 cup. So if a recipe calls for 3 eggs, that really means 3/4 cup of eggs, and if I want to use pullet eggs I just crack them into a measuring cup until I get to the right amount. If I’m cooking something less finicky (for example, just regular scrambled eggs) I just use 2 for 1 at this stage, then later when they are just small rather than tiny I move to roughly 3 for 2. And if I want to use normal-sized eggs for whatever reason (or give them to friends), the eggs from the mature chickens are still stored in the cupboard like usual.
Cave of Throwback Thursday
Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged animals, blogging, imaginative fiction, internet, language, politicians, prisons, psychology, Washington DC on August 6, 2026| 1 Comment »
Links #839
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged Alaska, animals, artificial stupidity, cops, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, libraries, Nebraska, propaganda, video on August 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »
It’s ridiculous to spend more than $100,000 so they can chase after cats. – Matt Leif
Though I’ve always loved The Pink Panther theme, I’ve never featured it, so here’s the title sequence from the movie in memorial to the saxophonist who provided its slinky magic. The links above it were provided by T. Greg Doucette (x2), Jesse Walker, Mike Stabile, Nun Ya, Ryan Marino, and IncarcerNation, in that order.
- I’m sure you feel safer now.
- Cops are a menace to society.
- R.I.P. Plas Johnson and Freddy Cannon.
- Things sure have changed since my time.
- An example of what America really means.
- Another great moment in artificial stupidity.
- “Crime”: Broken taillight. Penalty: summary execution.
From the Archives
- Everyone abused by cops using this error-prone surveillance needs to sue.
- They make these cases sound like the rapist was doing his victims a favor.
- I was fated to be threatened with state violence regardless of career path.
- The problem isn’t religion; it’s teaching kids to blindly submit to authority.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- These evil schemes need to be completely shut down as unconstitutional.
- The government thinks you shouldn’t be allowed any privacy whatsoever.
- Erosion of civil liberties starts with “undesirables”, but never stops there.
- The bipartisan war on the internet moves us inexorably toward idiocracy.
- To flush civil rights, just apply a label like “prostitute” or “gang member”.
- Texas stops judges overruling library censorship by eliminating libraries.
- What’s the connection between this guy & disgraced Chief James Burke?
- Politicians no longer care about whether their diktats are Constitutional.
- “Lewd and lascivious conduct” sounds nicer than “raping a 10-year-old”.
- Cops; Cat, I farted; Sinead O’Connor; SunRay Kelley; and much more.
- Blaming bad behavior on imaginary “addiction” ≠ taking responsibility.
- Give aggressive thugs power over kids; what could possibly go wrong?
- The State tortures thousands of people for crossing an imaginary line.
- Watching Tim Ballard’s reputation go down in flames is so very sweet.
- A little (fictionalized) taste of Grace’s personality and our chemistry.
- Why are people shocked when men paid to behave violently, do so?
- Low-population states cling desperately to “sex trafficking” myths.
- This will continue until the evil US immigration policy is reformed.
- Cops won’t drop this fantasy until “news” media stop parroting it.
- The latest in the case of the lunatic-infested Millersville cop shop.
- “Collective Shout” believes no women should have lucrative jobs.
- If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been paying attention.
- Forced-birth fanatics are now actively empowering abusive men.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from July 2013, 2014, and 2015.
- It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other.
- Calling “child protection” is merely a quieter form of “swatting”.
- Cops, The Onion, the Antichrist, John Mayall, and much more.
- It’s rare these days for a US court to uphold the Constitution.
- What really happens when a wannabe “pimp” abducts a girl.
- I’ve loved The Muppet Show since it first premiered in 1976.
- Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness.
- He wasn’t a “former pastor” when he murdered a little girl.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Tom Lehrer, and much more.
- “Sexual offenses” sounds so much milder than “rape”.
- This situation is not going to get better on its own.
- This will continue until it is federally criminalized.
- Privacy as we once knew it is a thing of the past.
- Fascism in action, profiting from human misery.
- Oh look, sensible people were correct as usual.
- Trying to eliminate small but persistent leaks.
- Judge rules that a spade is actually a spade.
- My three previous columns for Lammas.
- One of the images of my childhood.
- At least this one confessed quickly.
- Just another Throwback Thursday.
- Another example of McNeill’s Law.
- Throwback Thursday and Son.
- The Bride of Fridaystein.
- Your “leaders” at work.
Bluebird
Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged adolescence, animals, blogging, Bluesky, dehumanization, fantasy, fascism, Google, holidays, illegal aliens, internet, language, left-right myth, libraries, politicians, propaganda, psychology, racism, robots, sporting events, surveillance, Thanatopsis, Turkey, Twitter, Vermont, Washington DC on July 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I used to try to explain when a young or pre-menopausal woman makes some sort of confident statement about what she will be like post-menopause. Now I just shrug and say, "You'll find out soon enough."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-17T17:21:31.990Z
It's always amusing to me when a paywall demanding I provide my personal information is followed almost immediately by a popup admitting they will sell that information to anybody who wants it.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-18T18:46:19.972Z
"Mmmm, a meat-free savoury loaf!" said no hungry person ever.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-19T18:57:53.004Z
The best part of this algae bloom is, it only needs to stay in place for two more weeks from today to achieve maximum humiliation value for Trump and the whole MAGA movement. After the 4th, it can vanish overnight; what will be remembered is the perfect metaphor for the semiquincentennial.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-20T17:51:22.612Z
5 million djinn and imps working 24/7 can build Baghdad in ≈ 6 months. Now just imagine what the world looks like when we have 10 billion of them by 800. Now imagine the year 1000. Amazing abundance for all!
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-21T17:27:00.933Z
I don't generally call attention to toxic filth from Twitter, but if you're still on Twitter at all you may want to look up this sewer outlet which calls human beings "farm equipment" just for the pleasure of blocking it.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-23T17:52:42.652Z
"It’s Donald Trump’s violent, pawing need, not to win, but to be *seen* to have won. To see *himself* as a winner or, when observable reality disagrees, to declare war on reality. It’s the president’s shrieking demand that everyone else join him in waging war upon a mirror."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-24T16:58:10.225Z
Why are the US media and Democratic politicians so averse to recognizing that SCOTUS judges can be impeached?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-25T18:01:45.727Z
A new dimension of "throwing like a girl".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-28T03:27:07.509Z
This is actually a good way to deal with drive-by commenters on social media."This is stupid!""OK."They don't know how to continue when you refuse to give them the theatrical conflict they crave.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-28T18:12:37.049Z
Maybe they're all ninjas, disguising themselves by becoming blades of grass.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-28T18:06:43.769Z
Musk is a Bond supervillain. Zuckerberg is a Batman supervillain.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-30T07:37:56.774Z
Well come ON! If you looked like that, you'd be depressed, too.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-01T17:52:32.638Z
THANK YOU.It's rare to see *anyone* who grasps this nowadays, even though it's right there in the name of the movement.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-02T17:43:57.214Z
The Trump regime keeps people from entering the US "because of who they are" all the time.Monkey see, monkey do.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-04T17:43:32.766Z
Without a doubt, it would have to be the guy who said that any female character in a fantasy story with extraordinary powers was a "Mary Sue".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-06T19:08:47.786Z
Another American institution destroyed by private equity: http://www.salon.com/2026/07/03/h…
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-07T17:02:26.485Z
As a former reference librarian, I can tell you what people did before Google. (HINT: it wasn't sitting around helplessly wishing for the information.)
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-08T07:57:06.570Z
I spoke with Mitch McConnell for twenty minutes this morning. He told me he had meddled in things that man must leave alone.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-09T08:13:53.616Z
Reminds me of this argument which anyone who knew teen boys in the late '70s & early '80s will remember:Boy 1: Rob Halford is not gay!Boy 2: Dude, he's gay. Look at his costumes.Boy 1: Leather is tough, not gay!Boy 2: What about gay leather dudes?Boy 1: They stole that from bikers!Boy 2: …..
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-11T18:16:55.618Z
Every so often the very first tweet I see from someone is so absolutely, moronically authoritarian, I block them instantly to spare myself from ever seeing another violently-stupid utterance from them.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-12T17:12:55.939Z
"Verify your age"Fuck you! In my day, computers didn't talk back or make demands. And we watched TV by attaching the set to an antenna.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-13T17:03:24.239Z
So very many words to say, "I don't understand the concept of hubris and anyone who tries to explain it to me is Satan."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-14T17:41:15.926Z
"The alternative would be to admit that we as a nation have done what we have in fact done, which is install a demented narcissistic madman as president."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-15T17:58:14.068Z
Partisanism is a form of brain rot. Today's example: claiming the increasingly-totalitarian Trump regime is "anti-government".If Trump's metastasizing police state is "anti-government", I shudder to think what a "pro-government" regime would look like.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-16T17:03:55.420Z
People used to think I was kooky for refusing to eat green, leafy vegetables and uncooked or undercooked food.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-18T03:39:10.780Z
My favorite Sanders tell is how his refrain used to be blaming "millionaires and billionaires" for everything until someone correctly pointed out that SANDERS is a millionaire, at which point he switched to just blaming "billionaires".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-19T16:53:53.906Z
Diary #837
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset, video on July 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I wanted to show y’all how big the turkey has grown; remember that when he arrived he wasn’t much bigger than the other chicks. That’s one of the other chickens who were still inside when he arrived in front of him in the video, so you can clearly see the difference. Of course as soon as I came outside with my phone he refused to either strut or vocalize, despite doing both regularly nearly every time I go into the coop; maybe I’ll get a video later so you can get the full effect. Just before I took this video I found the first pullet egg inside the henhouse, so all four of the new arrivals should be starting soon. I’ve already got lots of little green tomatoes, and it looks like my fruit trees and vines will be productive this year; given the forecast for the rest of this month, and the fact that we’ve only had a couple of days that could be called “hot” this year, it looks like it’s going to be a cool summer, more like the prevailing norms for the last few centuries. And I’m quite content with that; given the troubles of the world at large, it’s comforting for at least the natural conditions to be normal.
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