Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

Not of Throwback Thursday

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

If there is one succinct statement which sums up my political philosophy, it’s “Every adult individual owns themselves and absolutely nobody has the right to overrule that.”  –
“Your Body, Your Choice”

Politicians can always be counted on to pander to hordes of ignorant lackwits who view any knowledge that might contradict their deeply-stupid weltanschauung as an existential threat.  –  “The Kinsey Factor”

I fail to see any important difference between the government forcibly taking people’s homes to quarter troops and forcibly taking them to enable cops and robbers games.  –  “A Broker in Pillage (#1438)”

Prohibitionists have learned…that decriminalization is viewed by all experts as the best framework, so now they’re all lying by calling whatever modified criminalization scam they’re selling “decriminalization”, so as to trick ordinary voters into believing they actually support human rights. – “Not Decriminalization“

Read Full Post »

On the Tweet Where You Live

Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Music, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Old-style criminals ran their criminal activities as businesses; techies run their businesses as criminal enterprises.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-18T07:51:15.991Z

These things look like the wearer's head shrunk, which makes them a perfect visual metaphor for chatbot usage.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-21T03:54:52.643Z

"She swindled him out of the $40,000 he spent on her…"Make up you minds; either he spent it or she swindled him. Buyer's remorse does not a "swindle" make.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-23T03:32:42.585Z

In my youth, nobody used a word any harsher than "eccentric" to describe old ladies who refused to drive economy cars, insisted big tube radios sounded better than transistor radios, or was unimpressed with cinema special-effects spectacles.I hope to be afforded the same courtesy.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-23T17:07:28.260Z

Not crushing enough.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-24T17:45:48.193Z

"Sam Altman, the head (in the nautical sense) of OpenAI…"Please proceed.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-25T17:29:34.342Z

A sophomoric twit proposes a stupid thought experiment involving button-pushing. If more than 50% of people on social media respond, other sophomoric twits will continue to propose stupid thought experiments, but if less than 50% respond the fad will die. Do you participate?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-26T16:31:10.502Z

I'm sick to death of hearing this nonsense about "girl dads" and "boy moms". How about just being parents who actually CARE about their children, regardless of gender? And I don't mean "help them achieve arbitrary standards of success" or "keep them physically 'safe' at the cost of personal growth".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-27T17:44:27.936Z

I do not keep cursed objects in my home, and furthermore as a wise old crone who lives near a damp, creepy forest I advise y'all not to keep them in your homes, either.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-27T18:01:27.631Z

Dude looks like he just got a facefull of Joker toxin.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-30T03:59:39.099Z

A housecat is much smaller than a human, and absolutely cannot win in a fight with a determined human. But it doesn't need to; all it NEEDS to do is make grabbing it so painful and bloody that the human decides grabbing it isn't worthwhile.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-30T18:23:30.477Z

The Bluesky autocensor has labeled this "explicit or potentially disturbing". If you're disturbed by the Three Stooges' cartoon violence, I suggest you just mute or block me now, because it isn't going to get any better for you.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-01T18:04:59.499Z

I stopped considering myself a Christian about 50 years ago, and I am still nauseated by the level of blasphemy constantly pouring out of Gomorrah-on-the-Potomac.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-02T02:52:58.126Z

I propose we change the name from the Department of Justice to the Department of Vengeance, so as to more accurately describe its activities. If a hypothetical future regime somehow changes that in a way that will make abuse much harder*, we can consider changing it back.*This will never happen.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-03T17:54:28.666Z

Millennials and Gen Xers may recognize this song as the main title of "The Adventures of Pete & Pete". But what Polaris didn't dare tell Nickelodeon, for fear of losing the gig, is that the song is about the Kent State massacre. The titular "Sandy" is Sandra Lee Scheuer.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-04T16:59:54.865Z

It's true, I was there.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-05T04:03:23.278Z

A lot of people (ESPECIALLY in cities like Portland or Seattle) use the term "anarchist" as a synonym for "hooligan", when in actuality they're closer to antonyms. True anarchists have their own moral code which they firmly adhere to, for reasons which should be obvious.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-05T16:45:46.775Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-09T04:45:27.463Z

So the antecedent of "you" here is…countries? Or is he saying all "not stupid" countries should shoot at an individual, such as a US local cop, who shoots at me, Maggie McNeill? Or does he mean there should be a grand free-for-all in which all national militaries avenge all individual shootings?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-09T17:26:29.171Z

"it is context window buffers""I thought a string of instructions could be my friend""Mensa"{insert "I am very smart" meme}

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-11T17:19:05.355Z

This looks worse than "Reptilicus".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-12T17:34:06.980Z

My favorite subgenre of country is philosophical country, epitomized by songs written by Jimmy Webb.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-13T16:47:24.314Z

Roughly 1/3 of US voters are authoritarian.Roughly 1/3 are liberal.And the remaining 1/3 are spineless reeds who will bend with the political winds.The entire history of US politics, from the founding generation until now, is the struggle to capture the middle third.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-14T17:45:43.395Z

He also announced future initiatives to fight saline bags, stints, dental chairs, and MRI machines, but he's leaving the fights against vaccines and antibiotics to his buddy Frankennedy.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-16T17:31:42.572Z

 

Read Full Post »

A Novel Process

Posted in Biography, Fiction, Miscellaneous, tagged , , , on May 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »

For most of my life, my writing process was more like gestation than construction; an essay or story would grow in my head until I put it on paper fully-formed.  When a high-school English teacher wanted us to include a “jot outline” of rough ideas along with the essay, I would do the outline after I finished (sometimes as late as the beginning of class) because writing down half-formed notions was simply not part of my writing process, and even in university I typically wrote my term papers at the (manual) typewriter, and the only necessary revisions could be accomplished with Liquid Paper.  When I got my first computer in the spring of 1989 this process became even quicker and more seamless, because with a word processor I could revise without even leaving a detectable trace.  And while this may sound wonderful to those of you who struggle to write, it meant I never developed the cognitive tools to write anything more than a few thousand words long, just as I never developed the cognitive tools to gain understanding of any topic I couldn’t master by simply paying attention to the book or teacher.

It has certainly not escaped the notice of my long-term readers that most of my fiction is in the short-short category (< 2000 words), with only occasional forays into the full-length short story category (< 10,000 words).  So last summer, when I wanted to tell a story that needed more time and space for character and setting development, I needed to learn a new skill: actually plotting a story rather than simply shouting “Eureka!”, reaching up to grasp the light bulb over my head, and quickly inserting it into a document.  Most of the work was still done in my head, and my first two novellas were written all out of sequence, with each scene or section written as it developed in my mind, then put together in proper sequence and polished.  And what I learned from that process made me confident enough to embark on a still-larger project, a short novel (in the 45,000 word range) set in the spring of 1925 and tentatively entitled The Big Boom.  So far, I’ve finished the first draft of the prologue and first three chapters, and yesterday I started chapter four (which will trigger some additions to chapter one).  This story seems to be developing more in sequence than the other two, though it may not continue in that wise; still, given that “Hellhound” was written in sequence to a greater degree than “Until the End of Days“, who knows?  I’m taking my time and enjoying the process, and I hope y’all will enjoy the result.

Read Full Post »

Throwback Thursday’s Coffin

Posted in Biography, History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Calling the name on government records “real”, rather than the name by which people are widely known, the name they chose for themselves and built a career on, is a sickening obeisance to the State.  –  “What is Real?”

True principles and valid ethics don’t depend on the gut-level preferences of any one person.  –  “Under the Sun”

My lifelong practice of burning my candle at both ends has resulted in my brain aging far more than those of people who haven’t been running theirs on “high” since the Nixon era.
–  “More Often Nowadays”

Catholic education has traditionally put such a strong emphasis on critical thinking skills that some wit once pointed out that the Church was its own worst enemy because it provided children with the tools that undermine faith.
–  “Just As Good“

Read Full Post »

Moth-eaten Throwback Thursday

Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , on May 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The whole “wing” nonsense became totally arbitrary in the US right around the time they moronically assigned the color traditionally associated with nationalism to the “left” and the color traditionally associated with the “left” to the “right”.  –
“Far Beyond the Glass”

Physical objects don’t determine spirituality; the intent of mind and heart do.
–  “Praying to Shrek?”

Exceptional children…[are] bored to tears…in a system designed to churn out docile, obedient factory workers.
–  “Unwanted Gifts”

Computer programs are not self-aware, despite advertising claims to the contrary.  –  “Shame, Shame (#1535)”

Read Full Post »

Voluntary Support

Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged , , , on May 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Every so often, I need to remind my readers that because, like the old MAD Magazine and PBS stations, I don’t accept paid advertising, every so often I need to ask my readers for their voluntary support.  And when I say “voluntary”, I mean truly voluntary, not extracted from y’all by paywalls, nag screens, annoying popups, or other methods of coercion.  Other than a reasonably-inobtrusive little paragraph three times a week which most of y’all probably don’t even notice any more, I limit myself to asking for your support in a full column like this one about three times a year (last year it was only twice) unless there’s some sort of emergency need.  And now that I’m only supporting one and have throttled my driving back to one weekly trip to Aberdeen and 4x a year to Seattle, even the emergencies come less often (and I certainly hope that remains the case from now on).  But fewer and smaller bills is not the same as no bills, and while I’m not currently having trouble making ends meet, the unexpected is always possible and a certain fraction of supporters do fall by the wayside every year.  Furthermore, regular readers know that I have never and will never delegate my work to employees or chatbots; every word was written by me, and nobody or nothing else.  So if the mad emperor’s attempts to demolish the world economy haven’t hurt you too badly, please consider subscribing at one of the regular levels in the right-hand column, or even one of the superstar levels listed here; if you can’t do a monthly expense, you could show your appreciation by a gift from my Amazon wishlist.  As always, thank y’all for reading, and for your generosity!

Read Full Post »

Yet Another Throwback Wednesday

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Looking at the world through only one eye, whether it be right or left, reduces it to two dimensions.
–  “April Twitters”

Providing new excuses for police violence is exactly the point of new prohibitions.  –
“A Moral Cancer (#1334)”

It’s worth every free-thinking person’s time and effort to thoroughly grasp the lengths to which modern “democratic” governments will go to destroy innocent people’s lives in order to advance a propaganda narrative those in power find convenient to their agenda.
–  “Traffic Jam (#1433)”

[Since] Hiroshima…rulers now need new forms of war that don’t risk destroying them along with the peasants.  –  “A War By Any Other Name“

Read Full Post »

Back Issue #154

Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged on April 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Self-appointed guardians of the public morals are always looking for new ways to ensure that absolutely no one can escape their snooping.
–  “The Puritan Recrudescence”

Read Full Post »

Mother Riley Meets Throwback Thursday

Posted in Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , on April 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I actually like winter, as one of four well-defined seasons; what I do not like is when winter is a bad guest which arrives earlier than it is supposed to or overstays its welcome.
–  “Rain, Rain, Go Away”

Would that all of us could leave this earth so gently.  –  “Diary #668”

911…systems treat cops like Spam in the famous Monty Python sketch: a form of pork that you get with every order whether you like it or not.  –  “Dangerous Spam”

Smuggling is, was, and always will be a social good, providing to individuals what collectives and/or tyrants wish to deny to them or bleed them for wanting.  –  “The Tweets Go On“

Read Full Post »

In the Tweet of the Night

Posted in Biography, Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, Music, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 20, 2026| 1 Comment »

Change one single vowel in this headline, and it would be a VERY different story.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-20T01:59:52.797Z

Probably the same way that holding a knife to a child's throat can open a guarded door.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-20T18:03:29.896Z

Beware of Davros.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-25T03:17:35.675Z

#3 is a very, very bad idea.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-25T17:50:01.254Z

Spring this on family members in New Orleans, and they may not stop at disowning* you.*And disowning people is mighty difficult under Napoleonic Code.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-26T17:26:22.068Z

It's fascinating to watch men with severe, easily-recognized mental illnesses publicly blaming others' mental illness on behaviors that the speakers are incapable of due to their own undiagnosed, untreated psychopathologies.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-27T17:09:35.827Z

My teen self would be confused by this.1981 Maggie: So there are new "Star Trek" shows all the time, but you haven't watched one in 20 years?2026 Maggie: CorrectM81: Ditto "Star Wars"?M26: YepM81: Plus all kinds of D&D fantasy stuff?M26: Right again.M81: I DON'T KNOW YOU

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-28T17:19:00.870Z

Reporters: doing something willfully is not a "failure", regardless of what politicians call it. If a party refuses to comply with some illegal diktat, that party has not *failed* to comply with said diktat; he has REFUSED to comply. The former is an omission; the latter an active rejection.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-29T16:55:44.729Z

This monster's face appears to have been designed by Jack Pierce. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm06823&#8230;

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-30T17:38:45.538Z

"Dabbled in cross-dressing" makes it sound like alchemy or some other occult practice.(Yes, I know about the shamans and mystery religions; this isn't that, so let's not)

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-31T17:37:38.961Z

Oh please, PLEASE let them use a chatbot as architect, so we can have a "Galloping Gertie" moment on live TV soon after it's done.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-01T17:35:58.519Z

This is how partisanism warps minds.Distrust of politicians *in general* for wholly rational reasons is subjected to the duopoly's Procrustean bed, then for 21st century readers must be trivialized & infantilized. So anarchists & true libertarians are described by the asinine tag "double haters".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-03T17:28:10.591Z

WAAAAAAAAAH! I'VE POOPED MYSELF AND I DEMAND SOMEONE CHANGE IT! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-04T17:16:42.139Z

Please, people, I beg you not to rely on spellcheckers at the cost of your own vocabulary skills.Trade languages have nothing to do with birds.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-07T17:10:46.810Z

Meanwhile, books on my shelves which were published as far back as the 1920s, and which I purchased as far back as the 1970s, are still 100% readable. And all I have to do to access them is walk over to my bookshelves.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-08T17:13:17.853Z

Due to the high volume of "You were right all along" emails, I will not be responding to them individually. Thank you for your understanding.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-08T17:29:33.587Z

A friend who grew up on Country/Western was unfamiliar with Zeppelin, and when "Ramble On" came on she asked me what it was about. I replied, "A dude who gets his girlfriend stolen by Gollum."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-10T07:34:41.637Z

Trump is someone who consistently cheats at Solitaire and still repeatedly loses, and when he's done the deck only has about 49 cards. And some of those are from kids' game decks, like one with a picture of an old maid.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-12T17:44:13.156Z

 

We need Captain Kirk.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-13T03:26:13.653Z

If you want to reveal a crypto-authoritarian, just start him talking about virtually anything to do with cars.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-13T17:21:33.262Z

THIS.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-16T17:53:47.686Z

Your regular reminder that it is 100% legal to fictionally depict murder, rape, and mayhem in movies.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-17T17:19:44.529Z

I especially love that the stupid thing flew apart on impact.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-17T19:17:10.473Z

First Palantir came for the sex workers, but nobody cared because "sex trafficking".Then Palantir came for young minority men, and nobody cared because "gangs".Then Palantir came for migrants, and nobody cared because "illegals".Now it's coming for you, and I think you know the rest.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-04-19T17:28:11.213Z

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »