Long-time readers need no introduction to Chester Brown, the well-known Canadian graphic novelist who came out as a regular patron of sex workers in Paying For It, his autobiographical 2011 graphic novel; Chester is a friend and a regular reader of this blog who occasionally shows up in the comments (and the blog itself!) and did the covers for both Ladies of the Night and The Forms of Things Unknown, and has agreed to do the cover for Lost Angels (which I’m currently working on) as well. As I announced last August, Canadian actress and director Sook-Yin Lee has adapted Paying For It into a film, and it made its long-awaited US premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival last Saturday! Chester was kind enough to send me a complimentary ticket (for some reason the producers did not opt to send him to Seattle), and I was excited both to see the film and to meet Sook-Yin in person, since Chester has spoken so highly of her. Apparently, he also spoke highly of me to her, because when I went up to introduce myself after the showing, she immediately recognized me before I could say more than her name. We didn’t get to talk long, but I’m hoping it won’t be our last meeting. I’m also happy to tell you that I enjoyed the film very much; I think Sook-Yin did an excellent job of adapting Chester’s documentary style into a cinematic one, with additional material depicting the romantic ups and down of “Sonny”, the character based on her, as a way of translating Chester’s expository text to the screen and allowing the viewer to make their own judgments about the subject. The visual style of the film references Chester’s artistic style as closely as possible, including the use of his own lettering font and sketches of the characters in the end credits, and I found the whole funny, sweet, and very moving. Judging by the positive reaction of the audience, none of whom had read the book but me and one other, I don’t think that’s because I’m biased; I’m unsure where and how the film will be shown next, but I’ll keep y’all posted and I’d definitely recommend seeing it when you get the opportunity. P.S. – no, that’s not a cane I’m holding, but my red umbrella; the weather was quite rainy and I had to park on the street, and Sook-Yin suggested the picture after I was ready to walk outside. Since Chester’s artist’s eye caught that detail, I figured I’d mention it should anyone else wonder.
Posts Tagged ‘comics’
Paying For It: The Premiere
Posted in Biography, Perception, Philosophy, tagged Canada, comics, Ladies of the Night, Lost Angels, Reviews, Stand-Up Guys, The Forms of Things Unknown on May 23, 2025| 1 Comment »
Links #769
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged animals, artificial stupidity, comics, cops, drugs, language, Never Call the Cops, New Hampshire, psychology, Things We Choose To Do Together, video, Washington (state), Washington DC, Wyoming on March 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »
You wake up one day and discover you’re dead. – Ned Johnson
Windsor McCay, the cartoonist who created the classic comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, was also an early animator; I recently found this century-old example of his work. The links above the video were provided by Mike Masnick, Jesse Walker, T. Greg Doucette, Scott Long, Ryan Marino, and Walter Olson, in that order.
- Government efficiency.
- Editors are not optional.
- No, your reason is not an exception.
- Imperial goons torture migrant at airport.
- This is pure fantasy by psychological illiterates.
- Government is just a word for the things we choose to do together.
From the Archives
- Give aggressive men power over teen girls; what could possibly go wrong?
- Journalists keep obediently referring to senseless violence as “correction”.
- Want “safe” schools? Stop paying sexually-aggressive thugs to lurk there.
- In addition to being a “pastor”, he’s also a wannabe cop. Quelle surprise.
- “Sex trafficking” fetishists share creepy fantasies about Ukranian women.
- Sometimes the difference between upper & lower house becomes visible.
- Politicians can’t resist using popular web services to expand surveillance.
- Stories about child-molesting cops are larded with obfuscatory language.
- The mainstream media won’t admit to their part in creating this disaster.
- A politician with even a vestigial sense of morality is a rare thing indeed.
- Teachers are supposed to be robots who have no lives outside of school.
- It’s past time cops stopped being allowed to cover up murders so easily.
- A decent article despite journalistic credulity about prohibitionist claims.
- Apparently, I was destined to be criminalized regardless of career path.
- Some censors are so mentally ill they feel threatened by tree sexuality.
- Sows love fantasy role-playing as sex workers in order to harm people.
- Only the organization is “nonprofit”; those who run it can make plenty.
- Even lurking in schools part-time is as much opportunity as cops need.
- The people who need “correction” are the ones who enable this horror.
- Airports are among cops’ favorite places to lurk in order to rob people.
- The zeal for censorship isn’t limited to the US or so-called “right wing”.
- Seemingly-consensual sex with a cop may actually be something else.
- No rumor is so stupid that some politician won’t believe and repeat it.
- Cops really don’t care if they ruin people’s lives with wild accusations.
- Censors are now pretending ideas they don’t like constitute a “crime”.
- Once in a while, there’s evidence of the way cops act toward women.
- Ambulance-chasers don’t care who gets hurt as long as they cash in.
- This will make little difference until cops’ power is severely curtailed.
- I used to like hoaxing on April Fools Day, until it stopped being fun.
- Savannah Sly & Tarah Wheeler, writing for the Brookings Institute.
- Tennessee’s float in the current “monkey see, monkey do” parade.
- At least some minds aren’t warped by the moronic “wing” fantasy.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from March 2012, 2013, and 2014.
- A roundup of efforts in various states to change prostitution laws.
- Bitcoin is a kind of folk devil for economically-illiterate politicians.
- This evil fascist scheme needs to be eradicated, root and branch.
- What Swedish criminalization proponents do: lie & harm women.
- This is the first time I’ve seen a woman falsely accused of rape.
- Rather than actually filing a lawsuit, ACLU prefers to dilly-dally.
- Cops, parodies, King Lear, Louis Gossett, Jr, and much more.
- Cops and other control freaks, C.W. McCall, and much more.
- Another authoritarian “monkey see, monkey do” parade.
- Why are amateurs so damned averse to using condoms?
- Cops, the undead, lemon pound cake, and much more.
- Can’t y’all settle on one term for preachy molesters?
- Another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists.
- There’s at least one principled librarian in Texas.
- Throwback Thursday and the Monster from Hell.
- Giving the henhouse its semi-annual cleaning.
- Curiosity offends the state, comrade.
- The pullets move into their playpen.
- Another curated selection of tweets.
- My two previous posts for Easter.
- On pigs, fences, and chainsaws.
- Fancy lighting for my atrium.
- Once a cop, always a cop.
- A “Tornado of Bad Ideas”.
- Rapist cops of the week.
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!
Throwback Thursday of Darkness
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, blogging, Caring Professionals, comics, disability, ethics, holidays, hysteria, Not the Same Tree, propaganda, psychology on February 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Those who foolishly insist on viewing the world through the filter of dogma are blind to everything that dogma will not admit, even when the truth lies right before them.
– “Not the Same Tree”
To “live” in the biological sense while being denied volition, agency and the control of one’s own body and mind is not to be a man or woman; it is to be the equivalent of a cabbage or a sponge, a thing without freedom, dignity or humanity. – “The Anti-Life Equation”
Yes, there are unethical sex workers, but the same could be said of physicians.
– “Caring Professionals”
Lovers tend to seek every available excuse to be alone together anyway; it hardly seems necessary to set aside a special day for that, especially one on which the show is celebrated above the substance. – “Valentine’s Day 2014“
Links #761
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, comics, cops, illegal aliens, Illinois, imaginative fiction, Never Call the Cops, New Mexico, STEM, Things We Choose To Do Together, video on February 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »
Tim Burton once did the exact same thing to my cousin. – The Bog Freak
Remember that new Chopin waltz discovered back in October? Mike Siegel found a video of That Internet Pianist with the Creepy Stare playing it. The links above it were provided by Tracy Quan, Ryan Marino, IncarcerNation (x2), The Onion, and Asawin Suebsaeng, in that order.
- R.I.P. Jules Feiffer.
- This week in artificial stupidity.
- Cops murder man for being Hispanic.
- Never call the cops for any reason whatsoever.
- The Onion is at its best when doing horror or sci-fi.
- Government is just a word for the things we choose to do together.
From the Archives
- Better cops escape consequences than this ugly trope be reinforced again.
- Cop deals with disagreement in typical cop fashion & the press is shocked.
- Texas is completely uninterested in controlling its psychopathic politicians.
- Remember that legal protection we used to have against double jeopardy?
- All laws should sunset in 10 years unless specific action is taken to renew.
- This piece is so restrained it doesn’t even use the term “super gonorrhea”.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- The way local media parrots clearly-foolish copaganda is utterly pathetic.
- Laws enabling nuisance lawsuits will multiply until ruled unconstitutional.
- I wonder how many more fakeumentaries we’ll see before the implosion?
- Woman paid to cause non-consensual harm thinks sex work is shameful.
- Hey, female cops; how’s that collaboration with the police state working?
- Cops really don’t care how many false positives these systems shit out.
- Raping women & clumsy censorship attempts must run in cop families.
- Trans people have become another canary in the civil rights coal mine.
- Declare anything a “public health crisis” and it can be harassed at will.
- Politicians compete to make their new laws the most unconstitutional.
- “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time“.
- This’d be a real improvement if the release conditions were objective.
- Dr. David Ley schools his fellow therapists on the reality of sex work.
- Just as we said would happen before this terrible law was imposed.
- Give aggressive thugs power over teen girls; what could go wrong?
- If only there were a concise term for “having sex without consent”.
- Note that cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths.
- CGI women are replacing “sex robots” in prohibitionist fantasies.
- Cops, prohibition, Mary Weiss, Carl Weathers, and much more.
- This will keep happening, because too many people want it to.
- In which natural stupidity masquerades as artificial stupidity.
- A small obstacle to Amazon’s fascist collaboration with cops.
- Just another kind of federal cop, with behavior to match.
- Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.
- Cops, Gina Lollobrigida, David Crosby, and much more.
- Rapist cops often specifically target vulnerable women.
- Rapist cops are rarely caught after only one victim.
- Cops, headlines, Don Wilson, and much more.
- They only start with relatively minor offenses.
- There is nothing as contagious as a bad idea.
- Until SCOTUS acts, this will only get worse.
- Caring for our elderly cat in her last days.
- There is nothing contradictory about this.
- Part 2 of my six-part review of Blake’s 7.
- It looks like Florida is aping Texas again.
- This is why we can’t have nice things.
- My two previous columns for Imbolc.
- The Horror of Throwback Thursday.
- The second leaf of my atrium roof.
- On movies I’ve never seen.
- Beginning the annex decor.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- The Omega Factor.
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!
Treats and Tricks
Posted in History, Links, Miscellaneous, tagged adolescence, advertising, Antarctica, Arizona, artificial stupidity, California, China, comics, cops, disease, Florida, Georgia, holidays, Hollywood, illegal aliens, imaginative fiction, libraries, Missouri, Nevada, New York, psychology, recipes, robots, South Carolina, United Kingdom on October 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I’ve always been dedicated to the idea of this as the time of year for spooky fun. So every year I collect all the spooky, creepy or scary content from the previous year into one place just before Halloween. If you’ve come to my blog in the past year, or don’t remember previous editions, they are “Trick or Treat”, “More Trick or Treat“, “Tricks and Treats“, “This Trick’s a Treat”, “Tricky Treats“, “A Trickle of Treats”, “Tricking and Treating“, “Tricks for the Treat“, “Tricked Out Treats“, “Tricks and Treats and Such Small Deer“, and “Trick Treatment“. Horror, death or Halloween-themed columns of the past year included Day of the Dead 2023, Diary #697, and “Why Zombies?” There are creepy or spooky-fun videos in Links #695, #698, #721, #722, #739, #745, and #746, and a collection of seasonal links appears below.
- Sounds legit.
- Nightmare of the week.
- Lovecraftian algorithms.
- Alien: The Short Version.
- Horror movie locale map.
- This is a really scary story.
- I hate it when this happens.
- At the Mountains of Madness.
- Lovecraftian romance comics.
- I’m also not very fond of this.
- The Onion, on a seasonal roll.
- Recipes from Aleister Crowley.
- I hate when this happens, too.
- Black humor is the best humor.
- The Onion has a gift for horror.
- Another nightmare of the week.
- The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil.
- The legend of the black-eyed children.
- I don’t use the word “ghoulish” lightly.
- Mummy cheese from the Leng Plateau.
- On Corman’s Masque of the Red Death.
- The US only thinks it has immigration issues.
- Cop shoots up a grade-school Halloween party.
- This happens more often than you might think.
- Strange immigrants in small New England town.
- “I am not that daemon swineherd in the twilit grotto!“
- It’s almost like scientists never watch science fiction shows.
- “Haskell tried to pass the body parts off as Halloween props.“
- “There is always this urge to use [new technology] to contact the dead“.
Paying For It: The Movie
Posted in Biography, Current Events, Perception, tagged acting, Canada, comics, pragmatism, sex work is work, Stand-Up Guys on August 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »
For quite some time, Canadian actress and director Sook-Yin Lee worked to get a film made of Paying For It, Chester Brown’s graphic-novel memoir of seeing sex workers on a regular basis after the breakup of his real-life romantic relationship with Lee. A couple of years ago she managed to make a deal with a production company, and the film is now finished; it will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6th. Chester is played by Dan Beirne and Sook-Yin’s alter ego “Sonny” by Emily Lê; real-life sex worker Andrea Werhun plays Chester’s long-time favorite Denise. Chester doesn’t know when or how (theaters? Netflix?) the film will be shown in the US, and there’s no poster yet because apparently the producers have not been clear about whether they want Chester to do the poster or if they’re doing it some other way. However, there’s a new movie edition of the book, whose cover is pictured here; the girl is based on the actress who plays the first pro Chester sees. I’m looking forward to seeing the film when it becomes available on DVD, and I really hope it’s successful, not only because it will mean more money for Chester, but also because I’m happy for anything that helps normalize pragmatic sexual relationships.
In the News (#1462)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged abortion, activism, agency denial, Arizona, Broken Record, California, censorship, comics, cops, fascism, hysteria, Kansas, law, libraries, Michigan, Missouri, politicians, prisons, prohibitionist myths, propaganda, Pyrrhic Victory, sporting events, surveillance, teachers, The Last Shall Be First, The Punitive Mindset, The Vultures Descend, Thought Control, Torture Chamber, transgender, Utah on August 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Making money is not an excuse to separate families. – Maggie McDonald
All 32 NFL stadiums will start using [facial recognition] technology this season, after the league signed a contract with a company that uses facial scans to verify the identity of people entering event venues and other secure spaces. The [surveillance company called Wicket], which counts the Cleveland Browns’ owners as investors, will be used to “streamline and secure” entry for thousands of credentialed media, officials, staff and guests so they can easily access restricted areas such as press boxes and locker rooms…Some teams also have extended their use of the technology to scan the faces of ticket holders. The Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons and New York Mets all have used the company’s…software to authenticate fans with tickets…The Browns also use Wicket to verify the ages of fans purchasing alcohol at concession stands…Soccer stadiums worldwide are…[also us]ing facial recognition technology to surveil fans…
Book banning is never, ever well-regarded in retrospect, but they keep doing it:
The Utah state school board [has] ordered the removal of 13 book titles from every public school in the state, in accordance with a new [mob-rule censorship] law passed earlier this year…schools must now dispose of the following titles[: Blankets by Craig Thompson; A Court of Frost and Starlight, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Silver Flames, A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Wings and Ruin, and Empire of Storms, all by Sarah J. Maas; Fallout and Tilt by Ellen Hopkins; Forever by Judy Blume; Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur; Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood; and What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold]…The books on this list had already been banned by [three] school districts [each], but because of the new law…they will now be banned statewide [by mob rule, even in school districts where officials have more sense and better moral grounding]…
The Last Shall Be First (#1361)
This kind of behavior from a public employee should be grounds for impeachment:
A transgender woman’s use of the women’s locker room at a…[Missouri] fitness center has [been used by a politician to drum up] an outcry [among his supporters]…Eris Montano…has [not] violated any laws or the polices of Life Time fitness center. But [politician] Justin Sparks…[sees an opportunity to stir up shit by demanding “]investigations[” into people he dislikes having civil rights]…Montano has…[followed] the center’s policies regarding transgender members…and has…largely had positive interactions with other gym members…Many people have gone out of their way to make her feel welcome, she said…[with] the lone exception…[of] a woman in the center’s sauna [who]…“kept telling me that I was a man, that I didn’t belong there,” Montano recalled…Life Time’s members are assigned to locker rooms based on the gender listed on their state-issued photo ID…[on which] she…is now listed as female…[but] Sparks [apparently] wants the Missouri…[policy on] driver’s license [gender to be] changed…
Most major cities have quietly backed away from “sex trafficking” hysteria, but not San Diego, long a hotbed of this ugly, misogynistic wanking fantasy. So it’s not especially surprising to see these sociopathic clowns using Comic-Con as an excuse to ruin people’s lives while publicly sharing their fantasies and making furtive movements in their pants. But what is pleasantly surprising was to see the public response to this tired copaganda; I guess we weren’t just shouting into the void for all those years, after all.
My dad has been in the St. Clair County Jail in Port Huron, Michigan, since October, and I’m not allowed to see him. So, other kids and I sued the county and others for the right to hug our parents, as part of a larger Right 2 Hug project that aims to restore family visits and stop companies from making money off family separation…In America, around 5 million children like me have experienced a parent being incarcerated at some point in their life…The jail my dad is in got rid of in-person visits in 2018 and replaced them with phone and video calls only…This is happening all over the country, meaning lots of kids like me can’t spend any time together with their parents…Now I just message my dad on the app that the jail uses, but it’s not at all like actually talking to him. It’s not like DMs or texting; it’s more like email, and it’s really clunky to use…Plus, I think it’s really creepy that someone can read all the messages between me and my dad. All communication between us is recorded — the video calls, phone calls, messages. Talk about a major invasion of privacy…in response to a similar lawsuit from the Right 2 Hug campaign in Genesee County, Michigan…the sheriff admitted in an interview with NBC that they had eliminated in-person visitation to make more money…My dad’s release date is soon, and I’m excited to see him again. But I won’t stop fighting in this lawsuit, because I’m also fighting for all the other families who can’t visit their loved ones…
Forced-birth politicians want to encourage lawsuits, but not this kind:
[After] Mylissa Farmer was denied an emergency abortion…while experiencing a miscarriage…she filed a lawsuit against…The University of Kansas Health System…[because] it violated a federal law [named EMTALA which requires] doctors [to] treat patients who come into the emergency room…doctors told Farmer that she was at risk of infection, severe blood loss, the loss of her uterus and death. But they…refused to perform an abortion…because it would be too “risky” in Kansas’ “heated” political environment to do so…the hospital refused to even perform routine checks such as taking her temperature and assessing her pain. She was turned away without so much as Tylenol or antibiotics to ward off potential infection despite…being at high risk for infection and experiencing heavy bleeding, mental fog and acute pain…Farmer eventually traveled several hours to Hope Clinic in Granite City, Illinois, for an abortion…The damage to Farmer’s health and wellbeing was long-term…she was hospitalized several times after the miscarriage…was unable to work for months…[and] eventually lost her home…The federal lawsuit comes in the wake of an Idaho EMTALA case recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court…Unlike the Idaho case, which was brought by the government, Farmer’s is the first high profile EMTALA lawsuit brought by an individual denied their federal rights while pregnant…
Your “leaders” call this “correction”:
Forty-three people are known to have died in the Maricopa County jail system [in 2022]. More than one-quarter of those deaths were suicides. Forty-three more people died in the jails in 2023…the death rate was among the highest of major jail systems in the country. Scholars who study in-c[age] deaths in U.S. jails and prisons said those numbers are incredibly high when compared with similarly sized jail systems and even jails with much larger populations…Drug overdoses, drug withdrawals and suicides were among the leading causes of death…[but] one-third of the deaths…are [the] natural [result of keeping]…old…and sick…[people locked in cages as though they posed a danger to anyone]…the current and former Sheriff’s Office administrations…hindered operations and challenged efforts to maintain safe conditions…
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 #733
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged animals, California, comics, cops, Illinois, Missouri, Never Call the Cops, New York, video on July 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow. – SiegedSec
Since I’ve featured a number of Batman-related videos lately (both here and in my “Video of the Day” feature on Twitter & BlueSky), I figured I’d share this one, performed by Burt Ward but written and produced by none other than Frank Zappa. The links above it were provided by IncarcerNation (x2); Radley Balko; Phoenix Calida; Franklin Harris and Gustavo Turner; and IncarcerNation again, in that order.
- “Never” really does mean never.
- Cops drown man for snubbing them.
- If you’re goin’ to Saaan Fraaan ciscooo…
- Who had “gay furry hackers” in the pool?
- R.I.P. Richard Simmons and Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
- Don’t answer when they knock at your door, either.
From the Archives
- My 1st profession becomes as much a target for authoritarians as my 2nd.
- The “Facebook pimps” myth has gone from merely silly to wholly pathetic.
- Those claiming the right to control nonconsenting individuals are my foes.
- While others back away from these medieval laws, Phoenix doubles down.
- Unsurprised at the number of sleazebags who accused the doctor of lying.
- How are this guy & disgraced former Police Chief James Burke connected?
- Nothing will stop those more concerned with burglars than a police state.
- “Marijuana-related” hospital visit = “visit after using cannabis that week”.
- This psychopathic wacko even makes some “rescue” fans uncomfortable.
- In case anyone still doubts that politicians are deranged megalomaniacs.
- It’s striking how the sexual behavior of “pastors” resembles that of cops.
- I’m sure “anti-trafficking” crusaders will be going after this any day now.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- San Francisco pigs are unsatisfied with waiting for useful idiots’ consent.
- Is “this tool of oppression is only sold to oppressors” meant to reassure?
- Violence against a marginalized group never stays limited to that group.
- Politicians are no longer satisfied with censoring libraries & the internet.
- Politicians’ war on the internet moves us another step toward idiocracy.
- Crypto-moralists pretend their lust to ban is about “health” or “safety”.
- The European Court of Human Rights just keeps kissing racists’ arses.
- Nobody will be safe until this odious practice is ruled unconstitutional.
- People so often die mysteriously while cops just happen to be nearby.
- Ballard’s increasingly-bizarre antics upset his partners in profiteering.
- I’m skeptical this will accomplish anything, but it probably can’t hurt.
- Doctors mock cops’ fentanyl hysteria, so they want new bogeydrugs.
- The biggest problem with working through someone else’s platform.
- Have you ever wondered what a $500 piece of pipe would look like?
- I’ve always been a homebody, but now it’s even more pronounced.
- Useful idiots never see where “hate speech” laws inevitably lead.
- Cops, sharks, Henry Mancini, William F. Nolan, and much more.
- I fully support your right to be a bit tired of pictures of eggs.
- “The only actual power government has is to inflict violence.“
- Tennessee has a disturbingly high number of such incidents.
- Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet.
- This “youth pastor” appears to have an oddly specific fetish.
- Internet-connected devices surreptitiously eavesdropping.
- Trans men are also targets of violence and discrimination.
- Just another of those nonexistent false rape accusations.
- US newsmedia panic over hysteria of their own making.
- Anything that helps demystify sex work is a good thing.
- Cops, Florida, Tony Bennett, and much more.
- A curated selection of tweets from July 2023.
- It’s that whole “could vs should” thing again.
- For me, travel never fails to provoke anxiety.
- This is quickly moving into the mainstream.
- Apparently, fentanyl hysteria is contagious.
- Your “leaders” refer to this as “correction”.
- To St. Mary Magdalene on her feast day.
- “Destroying lives in order to save souls.”
- Why does anyone still trust Facebook?
- In which I learn the basics of welding.
- This “youth pastor” had an assistant.
- Cops, Mungo Jerry, and much more.
- My two-week trip to Freedom Fest.
- Rapist cops of the week.
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 Return of Fridaystein
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged blogging, comics, holidays, law, LGBT rights, psychology on July 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The safeguards installed by the Founders [have been] undermined, abrogated, annulled, ignored and repealed to make way for laws and practices based upon the real beliefs of the majority of Americans: fear, hate, superstition, intolerance, greed, violence, control-freakishness, lust for power, and, above all, prudishness. – “Successor”
I see history as a continuously-unfolding process stretching into the far future rather than as a collection of moldering facts about the dead past.
– “Divided We Stand”
Queer bigots are the most revolting bigots because theoretically they should know better.
– “These Kids Today”
Nations and empires are as mortal as the humans who build them, if somewhat longer-lived; and despite the childish beliefs of many Americans, the US is not an exception. – “Post-Imperial“
Links #730
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged acting, animals, Arizona, Arkansas, artificial stupidity, China, comics, cops, Denmark, drugs, Missouri, New York, video, weaponry on June 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »
They want to put someone away, so they can say the case is solved. – Sandra Hemme
This week’s video was suggested by one of my generous gentlemen, who correctly surmised that I would enjoy it. The links above it were provided by Stephen Lemons; Mike Siegel; Dan Savage and Genya; Popehat, IncarcerNation (x2), and J.D. Tuccille, in that order.
- This week in artificial stupidity.
- Grace found this very amusing.
- R.I.P. Donald Sutherland and Martin Mull.
- Cop murders 7 dogs; cop shop blames their owner.
- So was this “protecting”, or “serving”? It’s hard to tell.
- Cops cage mentally-ill woman for murder cop committed.
- Crime: failing to fill out forms Penalty: summary execution.
From the Archives
- Everyone who spread “sex trafficking” hysteria contributed to this tragedy.
- No public library is safe from censorship by politicians who hold the purse.
- Vast sums of time, money & energy, flushed down the “culture war” toilet.
- Why do we need “permits” to exercise our speech rights in the first place?
- Both sides in the culture war have completely taken leave of their senses.
- SCOTUS expands one of the greatest legal abominations ever conceived.
- Contrast the speed with which states pass laws increasing cops’ powers.
- Yet another rescue industry “hero” is revealed as an opportunistic fraud.
- I doubt this is the kind of lawsuit Louisiana politicians wanted to attract.
- Cops simply ignore putative cop-control laws without criminal penalties.
- A government allowed to censor one thing can also censor other things.
- Cops arbitrarily group unrelated arrests & call it a “sex trafficking sting”.
- Canadian politicians ignore events in other parts of the Commonwealth.
- The State’s insulting idea of compensation for a mass public gang rape.
- Is there any non-troglodyte who still denies police violence is epidemic?
- Why are most people surprised to find out that cops are habitual liars?
- Authoritarians love their wanking fantasies of mind-reading machines.
- Cops, fantasies, Sheldon Harnick, John Goodenough, and much more.
- This silly tale is more pathetic now that the trope has largely died off.
- How many mass graves before people stop believing religion is good?
- The ACLU has finally noticed financial discrimination vs sex workers.
- It only took the courts five years to recognize the obvious this time.
- Even if this wasn’t a commercial transaction, it’s certainly adjacent.
- The “missing” children were actually abducted by the government.
- They won’t stop until privacy of any kind is absolutely impossible.
- Corporations have become the favored tool of censors worldwide.
- It’ll take a lot more such rulings before this political fad is buried.
- Reporter tries to bury the lede; headline writer won’t participate.
- Uber already encourages its drivers to spy on riders for the pigs.
- Even the government itself recognizes what a disaster FOSTA is.
- Prohibitionists’ real goal is to completely ban online sex work.
- Cops, futurism, dead people, Cab Calloway, and much more.
- Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet.
- Conditioning kids to accept constant, intrusive surveillance.
- Composing and performing a kind of music only I can hear.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from June 2012 and 2013.
- Anything can be “trafficking” if you use your imagination.
- Cops, heat, appliances, John McAfee, and much more.
- There are many ways for governments to steal things.
- The dystopian future of Minority Report has arrived.
- So many rapist cops, so many underage victims.
- Taking that nasty old roof off of the wellhouse.
- Still another abomination from Alabama.
- Another barely-into-summer heat wave.
- The annex bathroom is almost finished.
- No woman is safe from predatory cops.
- I’m pretty tired of climbing on rooves.
- No, your reason is not an exception.
- Another curated selection of tweets.
- Working on Sunset’s outbuildings.
- 22 vultures coming in for the kill.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- The arrival of Cicero.
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