A classicist recently pointed out on social media that the ancient Greek notion of heroism is so different from the modern idea that mythological heroes like Odysseus must either be adapted for modern audiences, or else they end up looking at least somewhat villainous. It’s especially apparent when moderns try to adapt Hercules into what we would call a hero, and end up with a character who only barely resembles the one in the myths, because the ancient Greek word which is generally translated as “hero” has nothing to do with morality, self-sacrifice, etc. As a kid who loved both mythology and comic books, it was always a little jarring to see how differently mythic characters like Hercules were portrayed in the one vs the other. The most accurate depiction of Hercules on the big screen that I can recall was in Jason and the Argonauts, where he is clearly shown to be a bully, braggart, and delinquent who gets his friends killed and nearly wrecks the entire mission. Of course, the same movie elides Jason’s awfulness, and ends abruptly to avoid having to deal with the whole ugly business of Jason and Medea, which only goes to demonstrate our initial premise once again.
Posts Tagged ‘comics’
Heroes of Song and Story
Posted in Current Events, Music, Philosophy, Words, tagged comics, Greece, Hollywood, imaginative fiction, language, video on August 10, 2026| 1 Comment »
In the News (#1659)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, censorship, comics, Crippling Thought, dehumanization, Facebook, Florida, Google, internet, libraries, Mad Libs, New York, Not To Be Taken Internally, politicians, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, racism, robots, surveillance, teachers, Thailand, The Pygmalion Fallacy, Thought Control, Twitter, United Kingdom, Welcome to the Future on August 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »
[Zuckerberg]’s vision of the future may be antisocial and bleak, but we have the power to reject that reality. – Amanda Silberling
Surveillance, propaganda-spouting, and thought-crippling in a repurposed sex doll:
A [repurposed sex doll] is being [synchronized with a chatbot and fobbed off on American Indian students]…at Salamanca high school in…New York…The robot, [call]ed Sally, was…[built by] Realbotix, formerly Tokens.com, [which]…purchased [sex-doll manufacturer] Simulacra…in April 2024…Realbotix [l]ied [that it did not buy] the sex doll company [despite the acquisition being public record], and denied…that the dolls – [which are obviously repurposed sex dolls to anyone with eyes] – are re[purposed sex dolls]…Melinda Pearson…of the New York State United Teachers…said…“The answer to the challenges in education is not more screens, it’s not more algorithms, not more robots. What we need in our schools right now are more caring adults and more human connection”…
Note they aren’t trying this in a school for white kids. See also “Mad Libs” below.
Another of the many reasons not to play with chatbots:
A trove of chat logs and projects created with Anthropic’s Claude [chatbot]…have been left exposed to Google, making them searchable to anyone on the web…when Claude users opt…to distribute a given chat or project to colleagues or associates using the chatbot’s “share” feature…[the program] notes that sharing will create a “public” link, and “anyone with the link can view.” The warning, though, doesn’t alert users that shared content could wind up being indexed by a search engine…Such artifacts…include…a detailed medical report of a real patient, clinical trial results that include…patient names, documents sharing the names and phone numbers of primary school-aged children…and employee reviews that include…personal information…This isn’t the first time this has happened at Anthropic…and…[both] ChatGPT and [Mechahitler] chat logs…have [been] discover[ed] in Google…
The logical endpoint to Florida’s censorship jihad:
Florida has been ground zero for book bans in the United States…under…[censorship] laws…[which demand banning] any book [even] a single [Froot Loop points at, even if they aren’t a] resident…of [the] district…[now the lunatics who run Clay County are] considering…eliminating school libraries altogether…[because although it] has removed more books than…any [other] district in the state…[that still isn’t enough to satisfy their crazed lust for thought control. These people are so stupid they actually can’t grasp that the reason]…the circulation rates [of their libraries] are less than in most schools—less than one checkout a day…[is because there aren’t enough books left to check out. And yet local politicians]…are frustrated by the inefficiency of [the censorship process]…their discussion centered not on whether to ban books but on how to do it faster…when asked what might replace the library space…[politicians absurdly suggested “]school stores[“]…and [“]computer labs[“]…
Not To Be Taken Internally (#1641) 
Apparently this nitwit never heard of heavy metal poisoning:
[Online idiot] Connor Murphy [poisoned himself by] injecting gold into his body [because he imagined he would] gain “superhuman” powers…he…also [believed he was]…increas[ing] his attractiveness [by deforming his head into a distorted parallelepiped] as…[part of “]looksmaxxing[“. One of his disciples described the cognitive damage done by toxic metal injection as]…“tapp[ing] into a level of consciousness that most people never will”…Police in Thailand were…called to [his] rental…after complaints of a man screaming inside, where they…found him in an “agitated” state. He…fle[d] the [cops and then jumped in]…a…[nearby] lake [and drowned himself]…
Is there some reason this dude wanted to look like Sinestro? And what are those neck lumps? Was he carrying acorns in there?
Training kids not to think from an early age:
[Facebook] is working on a…storytelling [chatbot] called StoryKit, which creates [autocomplete]-generated children’s stories with custom characters, settings, lessons, and music. As the App Store listing assures parents, “You don’t need to write a single word.” At last, a tech company has found a way to outsource humanity’s oldest pastime: using our imaginations…To generate a story in the app, [nitwits] first select a character…by “[snapping] a photo of their favorite toy or person”…then…choose a lesson…it could be a lot worse. [Facebook] regularly ships boneheaded ideas like Instagram deepfake generators…“pervert glasses”…[and] virtual reality work meetings…but it has always been possible to survive bedtime without using an inherently uncreative technology that calculates the most predictable response to a prompt…Perhaps the moral of the story here is that we can choose not to live in a world where children are raised on bedtime stories written by large language models…
Pyrrhic Victory (Nosey Parkers)
These things need to be banned entirely:
The promoter behind some of the biggest comic and entertainment conventions in the UK has banned [pervert] glasses from its events to stop…secret filming…of guests and attendees. Monopoly Events said a number of guests had told the company they would be reluctant to appear at Comic-Con shows again after cases of recordings taking place without their knowledge. The ban is [also] applicable to…any other “wearable recording devices”. Attendees caught using the devices will be asked to leave the convention…Earlier this week the ferry operator CalMac paused bridge visits on its vessels after a passenger used [perve]rt glasses…without permission…
Every weapon eventually begets a defense:
A growing number of eyewear brands are developing glasses designed to interfere with facial recognition systems and surveillance cameras,…Solir Optics…sells “anti-facial recognition” sunglasses priced between $70 and $100…[which] are designed to block a broader range of light, including infrared and blue light…[so as to] interfere with retinal scans…Zenni Optical is also offering a lens coating called “ID Guard,” which…adds a pink tint to the surface of the lenses that reflects infrared light used by some facial recognition cameras…[and designer] Kerin Rose Gold…created Handle With Care, a[n overpriced] line…[which] use[s] black-and-white patterns intended to disrupt the sensors used by some facial recognition systems…
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 Emperor of America
Posted in Current Events, Fiction, Tyranny, tagged comics, politicians, Washington DC on July 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I recently decided to reread my entire comic book collection, and this splash page from Action Comics #52 (September, 1942) caught my attention for reasons that should be obvious. In the story, the soi-disant emperor is a mad scientist who has invented a machine that broadcasts rays which nullifies resistance, so people will agree with anything anyone tells them to do, regardless of how ridiculous. Naturally Superman is immune, and early in the story utters the soliloquy, “What’s happened to everyone? Have they gone insane?” before flying to Washington to defeat the villain in his usual style. But in the course of the story, the madman takes actions which may seem familiar 84 years later: pillaging the treasury, replacing the cabinet and Supreme Court with his hoodlum henchmen, etc.
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
Blue Skies Above
Posted in Biography, History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged advertising, artificial stupidity, blogging, Bluesky, Catholicism, censorship, China, comics, crypto-moralism, fascism, games, Google, Grace, illegal aliens, imaginative fiction, Japan, language, left-right myth, libraries, Massachusetts, Michigan, politicians, prisons, propaganda, psychology, racism, restaurants, robots, scams, sex work is work, sporting events, STEM, Thanatopsis, United Kingdom on June 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »
They'll need to figure out how to send a letter back in time to threaten Warner Brothers as well.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-14T18:02:09.514Z
This is called "the martial arts".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-17T04:09:51.125Z
I reckon this must be a tataille, because it sure ain't a lougarou.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-17T17:54:41.692Z
"When somebody offers you a seat on the rocket ship, just get on" http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5…
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-18T03:50:10.197Z
Reporters, please stop saying "pod" to mean "cell block". Imprisoned people are neither whales nor alien body snatchers; they don't come from "pods". Just because the monsters in the US carceral system use euphemisms to hide their evil, doesn't mean you need to parrot them.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-19T16:59:03.072Z
If you think THAT'S something, just wait until you see Ram Man.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-21T04:12:32.430Z
People are doing "10 bands you've seen live" on Twitter & it keeps reminding me of Grace, who was a studio musician for years. Once we were at a party where this girl was bragging about getting backstage passes & Grace said to me, "I've *blown* more big name rock stars than she's seen in concert."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-21T16:52:25.724Z
"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them." – Frank Herbert, "Dune"
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-22T17:29:39.662Z
It boggled my mind that a restaurant would be named after a dessert. It still does. I mean, nobody goes to "Flan Bell" or "Hand Pie King" or "Spumone Hut".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-23T18:42:01.117Z
No D&D player should be surprised when a high-level cleric quotes a high-level wizard.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T17:06:01.707Z
Crypto-moralists never let little things like facts get in the way of barfing the word "unhealthy" in people's faces every time they do anything more exciting than eating raw vegetables & water once a day after their toil & drudgery, then going to sleep on the floor in an un-climate-controlled room.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-26T16:52:56.642Z
"Are we just going to give up and breathe?""Are we just going to give up and eat?""Are we just going to give up and be affected by gravity?""Are we just going to give up and have mass?""Are we just going to give up and emit heat?"This is what you sound like to sane people.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-27T17:35:31.457Z
You'd think that after all these decades as an adult, I'd have grown jaded enough to feel something milder than utter contempt for nitwits who believe the entire world of human political thought can be reduced to a single one-dimensional axis. But in actuality, my contempt merely grows more bitter.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-29T17:23:12.409Z
If you're a scientist on social media who wants to be accepted as an authority in your field, it's probably a bad idea to claim that a cause can be responsible for "more than 100%" of an observed effect.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-30T17:01:30.319Z
"Trump is acting like an authoritarian" = "Einstein is acting like a scientist" = "Streisand is acting like a diva" = "Spielberg is acting like a director" = "Kermit is acting like a Muppet" = "Lassie is acting like a dog" = "Yersinia pestis is acting like a disease organism".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-31T17:08:54.673Z
Hey fellow old folks, remember the late '80s, when food companies were trying to cram oat bran into everything because "nutritionists" told the hoi-polloi it had magical life-extension powers?Some things never change.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-01T17:10:49.087Z
Sooner or later, sensible people will need to just tell anti-immigration bigots to go to hell. archive.is/ZwLwc
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-02T17:26:11.101Z
Also, electricity and the microcomputer actually did most of what they were claimed to be able to do.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-04T03:33:10.119Z
Imagine having enough money to do basically anything which doesn't actually violate physical laws, and instead choosing to live your life like this.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-04T17:58:36.047Z
The heckler's veto as US government policy.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-05T17:57:26.404Z
Nobody who ever watched a single episode of any '60s spy show involving double agents should be surprised at this.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-07T17:51:58.453Z
You know how "I had sex with your dad" has become a way for sex workers to mock squares? Well, I had sex with a lot of people's grandpas. A lot of great-grandpas too.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-09T17:31:16.476Z
Fucking a lot of people of both sexes, reading omnivorously, writing A+ essays, running a D&D campaign, hanging out with my friends and predicting the eventual disasters that would result from bad US politics?Yep, checks out.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-10T17:31:49.443Z
I know it's difficult for males stuck at 12, but not everything is a pissing contest.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-11T17:21:28.738Z
Can we please stop saying [name of Trumpified institution] to mean "Trump"? Don't tell me "The Pentagon" or "The Department of Justice" or "The Kennedy Center" did something; the management of those places are just sock puppets speaking in Trump's voice, like an evil Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-12T17:30:43.841Z
"Mythos".They are taunting y'all, and few are literate enough to recognize it.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-13T17:38:37.133Z
Doctor Dolittle books. As players rise in levels, they learn more animal languages and gain more animal helpers. Experience is earned by traveling around the world, making friends with animals & with people of different races; by finding unique beings; and by visiting fantastic places like the Moon.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-15T03:51:15.730Z
If it looks like a circle jerk, sounds like a circle jerk, smells like a circle jerk, and jerks around like a circle jerk, it's probably a circle jerk.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-17T04:07:56.859Z
One of the most important causes of the Great Depression was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-17T18:05:59.672Z
People who accept domination by "leaders" cannot be free.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-18T18:42:45.618Z
Links #832
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged acting, advertising, animals, Arkansas, artificial stupidity, comics, cops, dirty, games, Indiana, Italy, Korea, masturbation, psychology, racism, recipes, restaurants, Sweden, video on June 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »
You don’t fucking hate them enough. – “Officer” Michael Kennedy
I’ve always counted Warner Brothers’ Merrie Melodies as the first music videos (short films intended to market a song), but I recently discovered this video, which pushes the mark back almost as far as it can go, to barely after the advent of sound movies. This is a sequence from King of Jazz (1930), a two-strip technicolor feature which is apparently a compilation of such videos; this is an abridged arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and I’ve recently added the disc to my Amazon wishlist because I’d love to see the whole thing. The links above the video were provided by Shiv Ramdas; Nun Ya; IncarcerNation; Radley Balko; Popehat; C.J. Ciaramella; Jesse Walker and Franklin Harris, in that order.
- As one does.
- I hate it when this happens.
- Another case of driving while black.
- The puritans are really out of control.
- Another great moment in artificial stupidity.
- Another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
- R.I.P. Marjane Satrapi and Anthony Stuart Head.
From the Archives
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- HuffPost asked several well-known sex workers about the the Trump trial.
- Pornhub has repeatedly & commendably refused to facilitate state spying.
- How long will Western society allow cops to terrorize traumatized women?
- Prison bureaucrats quash information about the conditions in their cages.
- Every Friday 13th, I ask those who aren’t sex workers to stand up for us.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Prentis Hancock, Clifton Jones, and much more.
- If cops weren’t allowed to rob people, there’d been nothing to embezzle.
- Maine is once again attempting to impose Swedish-style criminalization.
- Government reform policies, like other political promises, are worthless.
- Some believe they can live forever by eliminating all pleasure from life.
- The only way to stop these maniacs is to hit them where it hurts most.
- Cops, Rube Goldberg, Pat Robertson, Barry Newman, and much more.
- Politicians so mindlessly censorious they imagined they could win this.
- Give aggressive thugs power over kids; what could possibly go wrong?
- The State tortures thousands of people for crossing an imaginary line.
- Don’t teach kids about sex; fill their heads with anti-sex propaganda.
- Musk steals every American’s data to feed his surveillance machine.
- Why are people shocked when men paid to behave violently, so so?
- Just when you thought this kangaroo court couldn’t sink any lower…
- As I keep saying: these algorithms are not “intelligent” in any way.
- If one virus can be cured this way, there is hope for others as well.
- Amateurs could learn so much about safer sex from professionals.
- Censors now pretend thoughts they don’t like constitute a “crime”.
- It’s rare these days to see a judge side with justice against power.
- Prosecutors have backed away from labeling this “sex trafficking”.
- Other California cops are learning from drone-happy Chula Vista.
- There’s psychopathy and there’s pure evil, and then there’s this.
- Any country which does this has no business calling itself “free”.
- Too many people still believe in the innate goodness of religion.
- Crypto-moralists will declare any widely-enjoyed food “unsafe”.
- The people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- For a warden to be charged, there must be much more to this.
- Hordes of useful idiots want this kind of repression in the US.
- Another shameless reminder that I depend on your support.
- Oh look, it’s what I was saying FOUR FUCKING YEARS AGO.
- Kansas politicians want to circumvent the will of the voters.
- Government will always use any excuse to expand tyranny.
- Texas cops are trying to pretend this isn’t hate-motivated.
- A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- Another of “rescue” conman Tim Ballard’s many frauds.
- Throwback Thursday vs. the Creature from Blood Cove.
- Is an “associate pastor” anything like a “youth pastor”?
- Life now for the subjects of a surveillance state.
- Your “leaders” want this to happen more often.
- Cops, punctuation, kung fu, and much more.
- I’m glad to see FIRE getting involved in this.
- The worst sinus allergy I’ve ever endured.
- Cops are a menace to women of all ages.
- On the occasion of Grace’s 66th birthday.
- A welcome visit from two dear friends.
- Throwback Thursday vs Frankenstein.
- Introducing Throwback Thursdays.
- How to be a stupid, greedy whore.
- A simple stile does the job.
- The vestibule shapes up.
- Your “leaders” at work.
- Gere Curam Mei Finis.
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!
In the News (#1643)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged A Moral Cancer, artificial stupidity, Canada, comics, consensual crime, cops, drugs, Enablers, ethics, fascism, France, I Spy, Illinois, internet, Moloch, Ohio, Panopticon, politicians, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, robots, Shame Shame, Spain, surveillance, Sweden, teachers, Texas, To Molest and Rape, universal criminality, violence vs. sex workers, Welcome to the Future on June 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »
AI will be used to create a hellscape of over-enforcement. – Jay Stanley
Pigs in schools are a menace which should be abolished:
Since the massacre…in Uvalde in 2022, school districts across Texas have spent billions of dollars to [cram pigs into] every campus in the state…[despite the obvious fact that cops did nothing] to protect students from [that] traged[y. Predictably]…the constant presence of [armed thugs] has transformed the way many public schools manage discipline, subjecting students to heavy-handed police tactics for behavior that once would have landed them only in the principal’s office…[as in the adult world, cops] display…startling belligerence…grabbing or tackling students a fraction of their size over [ordinary juvenile] misconduct…Children in elementary school…as young as 6…[a]re handcuffed. Teenagers [a]re arrested, charged with crimes and even jailed. In [many] cases, they [need to be taken to] hospitals, bruised or concussed, after [deranged thugs] body-slam…[them] or shock…[them with] Tasers, which are prohibited in the state’s juvenile d[ungeons] but allowed in its public schools…[and these are a mere fraction of the atrocities, because school] districts and [cop shops hide the full scope of the violence from the public]…
The rise of computerized zombies:
[The corpse of] Stan Lee is [be]ing…digital[ly paraded through the streets] through a new [collaboration] between ElevenLabs and Stan Lee Universe…[which] will [synchronize a cartoon of] the Marvel legend…to [a chatbot trained on his]…voice…The [abomination] is part of a growing [moral corruption] in entertainment to use [computers] to [exploit] the [reputation]s and legacies of iconic creators. The [scheme was first tested]…at L.A. Comic Con…and [because they didn’t get lynched] ElevenLabs is now…[cramm]ing [the cartoon and chatbot] into multiple [exploit]ative products…Late last year, Michael Caine [sold his soul to] them as well…
Safetyism is destroying society:
BusPatrol, a company that has installed [computeriz]ed cameras in tens of thousands of school buses around the U.S., now plans to turn those cameras into automatic license plate readers…capturing the location of every vehicle the buses drive past, and [throwing] that data [in]to [pigsties]…essentially transform[ing] school buses into roaming surveillance vehicles, taking a technology that was originally [sold to useful idiots] to issue tickets to people illegally passing stopped buses and using it for…warrant[less surveillance in partnership with fascist]…giant Axon…BusPatrol [already] has cameras in more than 40,000 buses across 24 states. [Present]ly, those cameras [only photograph]…vehicle[s which]…pass…the school bus while it has its stop signs…extended…[but] the planned changes would…expand that system to scan the license plates of all vehicles the buses pass…and…record the car’s…GPS location…in order to…generate more revenue…[for] BusPatrol [investors]…
Not as good as destroying them, but courage is alien to politicians:
The city of Dayton, Ohio has covered its Flock automated license plate reader cameras with black trash bags…because police there are unsure whether the cameras are still active and the city also doesn’t seem to know whether [the devil’s bargain it made with fascists] allowed [it] to take the cameras down. The move comes after months of resident outrage…[over] the city [“accidentally”] sharing Flock camera data for [Trump’s pogroms]…Dayton is not the first city to cover its Flock cameras with trash bags because they can’t figure out how to immediately terminate the use of the cameras. Late last year, the city of Evanston, Illinois also covered its cameras with trash bags while it was waiting for the company to remove them [for the second time, because]…after…Evanston terminated its contract with Flock…and…removed [the cameras]…Flock “reinstalled the cameras without the city’s permission” and [Evanston had to] sen[d it] a cease-and-desist [to get them permanently removed]…
Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet:
France ha[s] banned “a number of popular nicotine-based products including Zyn pouches.” Those caught violating the measure could face up to five years in prison and a fine of $436,600…Swedish Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa…called the ban…on these pouches, which originated in Sweden, an “attack on the Swedish way of living”…Sweden, Italy, Greece, and four other countries have raised “formal concerns”…that the…ban violates the E.U.’s single market laws…[pointing out that pouch-using] members of the European Parliament…[which meets in] the French city of Strasbourg…risk [police violence by] traveling to France…tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable deaths [in France], and…55 percent of…French smokers…want…to quit…[but] a lack of access to nicotine pouches will keep many people addicted to cigarettes. Meanwhile, Sweden…has the lowest smoking rate in Europe…predominantly thanks to oral nicotine products. Since the 1980s, it has seen its smoking rate fall from 30 percent to less than 5 percent…
Medical privacy will soon go the way of house calls:
Headway, a popular online therapy platform, says it will require clients and providers to undergo biometric scanning, and there’s no way to opt out other than leaving the platform…Headway [justifies the privacy violation by barfing] “safe[ty]”…at…patients…[and] providers…Many mental health providers or the practices they work for use Headway to help them get credentialed with insurance companies and process billing and other administrative tasks. Through Headway, providers can be in-network with a much wider variety of insurance plans…it will use the [Palantir-linked fascist organ] Persona to verify identities, a[d]ding [their data] to…Peter Thiel’s [huge trove of information he happily sells to anyone who can pay, including Trump stooge]…Robert F. Kennedy Jr…
A gang of pigs tried to poach on another gang’s rape territory:
[Three]…Toronto cops [tried to escape consequences for violently sexually assaulting a]…Spanish [escort in Barcelona by announcing that they were fellow pigs] and flash[ing] a Toronto badge…Evan Penner Glennie and Richard Theodore Rand [were caught] just [after attacking the] escort [in a taxi, leaving her] bloodied and shaken. She had…been [both] sexually groped…and physically assaulted inside the vehicle. A third…[culprit named] Caglar Yigit…fled the scene…to [escape] Spanish [cops] who had responded to the woman’s cries for help…[and] was later arrested on the…island of Mallorca…all…three [made bond and]…have since been allowed to return to Canada, [where they] have been [rewar]ded with pa[id vacations]…
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!
On the Tweet Where You Live
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Music, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged Aladdin’s Satellite, artificial stupidity, blogging, Bluesky, comics, consensual crime, dirty, drugs, ethics, fascism, imaginative fiction, internet, Iran, language, politicians, Post-Christianity, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, robots, sex work is work, video, Washington DC 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
Tweet Wave
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, Words, tagged activism, advertising, animals, artificial stupidity, blogging, Bluesky, censorship, comics, cops, crypto-moralism, disease, fascism, holidays, imaginative fiction, internet, language, left-right myth, New Orleans, politicians, porn, propaganda, psychology, Russia, scams, STEM, surveillance, The Puritan Recrudescence, Turkey, Twitter, witchcraft, yellow journalism on December 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Who first used the German word "blitz" ("lightning") to describe sudden, intense bursts of violence? I forget.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-14T19:43:33.619Z
I just can't get beyond the resemblance.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-16T19:29:02.571Z
When cops use profanity at us, think of what they're telling us. Would you ever curse at your boss? No, but he can curse at you because he has power over you. What would happen if you cursed out a cop? But they curse at us routinely. That tells you how they perceive their relationship with us.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-17T08:31:30.244Z
The universe does things on a subatomic level that would get you arrested for bank fraud if you tried the financial equivalent.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-19T04:59:00.841Z
People suffering from advanced dementia often fall back on old "scripts". It's why your senile great-grandmother calls you by your mother's (or even grandmother's) name, and it's why Trump seems to think he's still on a TV show he did two decades ago.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-19T18:14:28.117Z
Magnificent. Words that deserve to be included in future editions of Bartlett's.If you're not following Ken, why are you even on here?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-20T18:37:49.142Z
Reporters need to ditch the word "taken" when writing about actions of government thugs.The property wasn't "taken" by goons; it was STOLEN.The person wasn't "taken to the ground"; he was TACKLED.The person wasn't "taken into custody" as if on a date; he was ABDUCTED.Stop soft-peddling evil.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-21T18:12:37.117Z
Reading what people say about Twitter makes me realize that the vast majority online expend absolutely no effort on account hygiene. If they treated their bodies like they treat their social media accounts, they'd never bathe, brush their teeth, or change their clothes, and would eat only junk.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-23T18:27:53.081Z
I will never cease to be amused by the notoriety Fate chose to bestow upon a minor Sumerian merchant of the 18th century BCE.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-24T18:42:59.559Z
Crypto-moralists believe anything unpleasant must be “good for you”.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-25T08:41:09.810Z
In the late 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was called "the sick man of Europe". Now the American empire has become the sick man of the entire planet.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-26T19:46:57.721Z
I found my own solution to Thanksgiving guest tensions many years ago: I host. Nobody dares start shit in MY house.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-27T17:53:29.116Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-29T03:35:45.932Z
I have lived my life in such a way that I can't picture either of these women accurately enough to compare them in my mind. And I'm very pleased about that.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-29T18:42:27.556Z
I block every single MAGA account and every associated lunatic on Twitter the first time I see it. As a result, I now see far more Trumpery on Bluesky than on Twitter, because people keep screenshotting and calling attention to accounts I blocked long ago.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-03T18:04:51.442Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-04T09:14:45.895Z
What's the Greek word for rule by mathematical imbeciles?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-05T18:10:12.603Z
I'm so exhausted by journalists, who should know the meaning of the words they use, referring to people who are not cautious of change but rather mindlessly destroy every Chesterton's fence they can find, as "conservative".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-05T20:21:41.880Z
"We are not the party of participation trophies…"I hate to break this to you, but…
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-07T03:39:24.651Z
Maybe this misuse of the word "democracy" is a problem of Millennials and Zoomers, who are too young to remember that about half the communist dictatorships of the late 20th century had the word "Democratic" in their names, eg "Deutsche Demokratische Republik" (German Democratic Republic).
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-07T18:47:29.470Z
Mad emperor babbles like a baby: "A pwus pwus pwus pwus pwus!!" {claps tiny pudgy hands and gurgles}
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-09T20:02:40.319Z
Ahem.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-10T09:23:43.373Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-12T19:50:01.065Z
OK, y'all, we all get it: politicians and partisans are all huge hypocrites who theatrically perform anger when the "other team" does the same thing they do when in power.Find another goddamned tweet boilerplate. Holy shit.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-13T18:34:07.084Z
The problem is that the tech industry is intentionally conflating two different things under the fantasy label "AI". Machine learning is a real, useful tool; chatbots are a toy and a technological blind alley. Conflating the two is like pretending color TV is the same technology as a hula-hoop.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-14T18:46:37.811Z
I'm sick of the idiocy of the term "kinetic strike".As opposed to what, a static strike?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-16T17:48:03.150Z
My home town, ladies & gents.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-18T08:51:51.030Z
Links #805
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, comics, cops, Italy, Montana, Never Call the Cops, Ohio, politicians, psychology, racism, restaurants, Texas, United Kingdom, video on December 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I feel the tallow’s bovine powers eliminating the vaccines from my blood! – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (sort of)
Since I’m not really a reggae fan, I wasn’t familiar with Jimmy Cliff, but I really dig this song. The links above it were provided by Anarres Ansible, Nun Ya, The Onion, T. Greg Doucette, Jesse Walker, and IncarcerNation (x2), in that order.
- Merry Cthulhumas!
- The power of superheroes.
- The Onion scores another bullseye.
- No, your reason is not an exception.
- R.I.P. Jimmy Cliff and Tom Stoppard.
- Being anywhere near cops can be deadly.
- What part of “never” is so hard to understand?
From the Archives
- Parents don’t feel guilty enough for an ugly violation of a daughter’s trust.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- “Bathroom bills” are a political fad undeterred by courts or public protest.
- I wish news outlets would stop publishing their rulers’ wanking fantasies.
- Cops, Charles Dumont, Marshall Brickman, Hal Lindsey, and much more.
- “Deprivation of rights” is the feds’ catchall charge vs embarrassing cops.
- If prohibitionists want to “rescue” whores, why keep us from other jobs?
- Progressives keep backing police violence in the name of “public health”.
- A bureaucratic disaster viewed through the lens of a dying moral panic.
- It’s unsurprising that cops treat family members like they treat others.
- More folly from the UK’s decade-long campaign to censor the internet.
- Another fine example of McNeill’s Law, courtesy of “Moms for Liberty”.
- Let’s hope every one of Ballard’s profiteer partners go down with him.
- This obfuscatory language is more intentionally-confusing than usual.
- Texas doesn’t care how many women die because of its terrible laws.
- I think we have enough evidence to start calling this “McNeill’s Law”.
- Cops, nightmares, Shane MacGowan, Elliott Erwitt, and much more.
- Texas’ ruling psychopaths blame doctors for being afraid of prison.
- “Law enforcement worker” is a new low in cop-crime obfuscation.
- Politicians tried to slip one of their rapist cronies back into power.
- Cop shops don’t actually give a damn about sexual “misconduct”.
- It’s only one step from “all commercial vehicles” to “all vehicles”.
- Totally credible, especially considering he was a cop at the time.
- It usually starts with “vice criminals”, but it never stops with us.
- Never forget that this started with censorship of internet porn.
- Politicians’ obsession with citizens’ genitalia has gone federal.
- A detailed account of one Uyghur man’s escape from China.
- Cops, curses, Christine McVie, Robert Clary, and Greg Bear.
- Charity is especially important when prices keep going up.
- A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners.
- Anything can be “trafficking” if you use your imagination.
- It isn’t often cops reap the consequences of their crimes.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- FBI thugs are just federal cops, and behave accordingly.
- It’s getting harder to tell the preachers from the cops.
- A new nadir for photographs in the US news media.
- Cop + preacher = sexual menace to legal minors.
- The old strip club business model is a dead duck.
- Throwback Thursday Meets the Space Monster.
- St. Nicholas loves whores. Yes, that St. Nick.
- Your “leaders” refer to this as “correction”.
- Tracy Quan remembers Carol Leigh.
- Christmas trees and Toys for Tots.
- Improvements to my bathroom.
- On the magic of morning snow.
- Good riddance to bad rubbish.
- This just keeps getting better.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- Throwback Wednesday.
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 #803
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, California, comics, cops, games, imaginative fiction, New York, politicians, robots, video on November 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Premium users can also converse with Satan. – Chrissy Callahan
When I opened YouTube in search of something last week, this was at the top of the page. Naturally I could not resist. The links above it were provided by Jesse Walker, Ryan Marino (x2), Mike Masnick, The Onion (x2), and IncarcerNation, in that order.
- R.I.P. Burt Meyer.
- Artificial blasphemy.
- Teddy Ruxpin, enshittified.
- A LOT more of this, please.
- If only satire were a blowtorch.
- The best satire cleaves closely to the truth.
- Crime: petty theft. Penalty: summary execution.
From the Archives
- It’s good to see someone with a functional moral compass addressing this.
- It’s no longer unusual to see this type of article on “sex trafficking” myths.
- The latest entry in the now-fashionable “monkey see, monkey do” parade.
- When will the mainstream media admit that pigs in schools are a menace?
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- When rapists only face consequences ’cause a prosecutor is squicked out.
- Unless people learn to respect free speech again, this will only get worse.
- All promoters of state violence conspire for cops to get away with crimes.
- Your “leaders” want more such hell-holes to torture even more people in.
- A reminder that Grady Judd is an utterly loathsome excuse for a human.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- These attempts to destroy the internet are going to keep getting worse.
- Unusually, this isn’t slanted like the rapist was doing his victims a favor.
- Cops are now being dispatched to intimidate people for “bad” thoughts.
- Useful idiots destroy any hope of rebottling the facial recognition djinni.
- On Beijing’s growing campaign to silence Chinese people outside China.
- At the height of “trafficking” hysteria, this wasn’t considered a problem.
- When it comes to surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down.
- What moral imbeciles condemned him to the registry in the first place?
- This is inevitable when men are given this kind of power and privilege.
- Some still believe these sociopaths are motivated by “child protection”.
- A detailed look at what happens when an entitled rapist cop is caught.
- Watching Tim Ballard’s reputation go down in flames is so very sweet.
- Surely you didn’t think this would stop with libraries and the internet?
- For those laboring under the delusion that Nevada is whore-friendly.
- Authoritarians want more hell-holes to torture even more people in.
- If only US cities could flush their toxic waste before somebody dies.
- Long, bright days disrupt my sleep even after the sun finally sets.
- This insanity will worsen until these maniacs are forcibly stopped.
- Cops, Kevin O’Neill, John Aniston, Ned Rorem, and much more.
- Never forget that this started with censorship of internet porn.
- I’m sure they helpfully yelled “Stop faking!” at him as he died.
- “Feminism” is slowly, falteringly, moving away from misogyny.
- Another reminder that my writing depends on reader support.
- This creepy shit appears to be a cop’s twisted idea of “flirting”.
- Dumb “anti-trafficking” events are now mostly ads for sports.
- Ambulance-chasers can’t wait to capitalize on mob rule laws.
- Michael Lacey writes from the government censorship cage.
- You’d think “youth pastor” would be a big red flag by now.
- A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners.
- Cops, imaginary flights, Lou Donaldson, and much more.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- The main phase of this evil self-parody is finally over.
- It’s always lovely to see them feeding on each other.
- Can’t y’all settle on one term for preachy molesters?
- A curated selection of tweets from November 2023.
- This would be hilarious if it were their own money.
- There is no such thing as “artificial intelligence”.
- I don’t actually mean to collect stray animals.
- Just another typical and representative cop.
- Cops, grisly murder, Alien, and much more.
- Toward the end of privacy, everywhere.
- Grace is diagnosed with throat cancer.
- More curated selections of tweets.
- Throwback Thursday’s Creature.
- Rapist cop of the week.
- R.I.P. Carol Leigh.
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!















