To prohibit vice is not ordinarily considered within the police power of the state. – Justice Jackson Temple, 1887
There is nothing as hard to kill as a bad law:
Twelve years ago, internet users spoke up with one voice to reject a law that would build censorship into the internet at a fundamental level. This week, the Motion Picture Association…announced that it hoped we’d all forgotten how dangerous this idea was…What the MPA wants is the power to block entire websites…using the same tools as repressive regimes like China and Russia. To it, instances of possible copyright infringement should be played like a trump card to shut off our access to entire websites…It is not simply calling for the ability to take down instances of infringement—a power they already have, without even having to ask a judge—but for the keys to the internet…The bills known as SOPA/PIPA would have created a new, rapid path for…major studios to use court orders against sites they accuse of infringing copyright. Internet service providers…receiving one of those orders would have to block all of their customers from accessing the identified websites. The orders would also apply to domain name registries…registrars…and…other companies and organizations that make up the internet’s basic infrastructure…all of those would have to build new infrastructure dedicated to site-blocking, inviting over-blocking and all kinds of abuse…In other words, the right to choose what websites you visit would be taken away from you and given to giant media companies and ISPs. And the very shape of the internet would have to be changed to allow it…
As I have said many times, all prohibition is the same, yet people often fail to understand just how much the same it is. In this article, Reason‘s Jacob Sullum traces the origin of the US drug war back to exactly the same root as the US War on Whores: the deeply racist anti-Chinese moral panic of the 1870s. Unless you’re already intimately familiar with the topic, you will definitely want to read this one in its entirety.
Seems like a significant fraction of child porn is spread by cops:
[A Phoenix, Arizona cop named] Alaa Robert Bartley…[regularly engaged in ageplay with] a Michigan woman [named] Sarah Elizabeth Chadwick…via…WhatsApp…[Chadwick] transmitted child pornography to Bartley on several occasions, and…[when she] was arrested in November 2023…and…federally charged with…child pornography…[the] FBI [rooted in her]…phone[, thus leading them to] Bartley…On April 4, co[ps tossed]…Bartley’s person, residence, personal vehicles, and…phone…[and found] over 49,000 images and 700 videos…of [child porn]…
The Last Shall Be First (#1332)
Missouri seems completely uninterested in controlling its psychopathic politicians:
…a St. Louis judge has allowed Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s investigation into…gender-affirming care services to proceed. Last year, Planned Parenthood…sued Bailey over his [illegal] demand that they turn over patient documents disclosing private information on minors to whom the clinic provided gender-affirming care…Judge Michael Stelzer denied Bailey’s [illegal] Demand for these [HIPAA-protected] patient documents, but has allowed his investigation into the clinic’s care to continue…Bailey treated the decision as a political win [despite its stopping his attempt to criminalize and harass the parents of trans youth]…
Texas’ attorney general is conducting a similar theatrical “investigation”.
“Monkey see, monkey do” politicians never bother to observe the consequences of laws they ape:
Google has temporarily blocked links from local news outlets in California from appearing in search results in response to the advancement of [yet another arse-backward “link tax”] bill that would require [internet] companies to pay publications for [sending them free traffic]…Google will also…cut…California publications from its…News Showcase…[Facebook has] said it would be forced to [take similar measures if politicians foolishly pass the law]…The California bill is the latest [mind-bogglingly stupid attempt] to [break the internet]…Facebook…and…Google…have [been forced to take] similar [action due to similar idiotic] legislation in Australia and Canada…Similar legislation is being considered in Illinois [despite the obvious fact that the outcome will be exactly the same]…
Give sexually-aggressive thugs power over teens; what could possibly go wrong?
A…Wisconsin [cop assigned to spy on, harass, and intimidate students] has been arrested on a felony sexual assault charge for [molesting] a female student…after [her] parents reported…his…behavior…Kewaskum Police Chief Thomas Bishop immediately [started bloviating hot air about isolated incidents and “high moral standards”, yet is hiding the identity of the porcine molester]…
UPDATE: Molester cop Steven Rosales’ name and picture were revealed after he was also caught fucking his dog.
This will continue for as long as cops are allowed to “police” themselves:
David Gregson was around 12 years old…when…[New York cop] Roger L. Coon Jr…[began to subject him to] four years of sexual abuse…Coon — who died in 2003 at age 73 — molested him at his house, at a camp he furnished behind his property, and “dozens” of times in his [pigmobile] during a period stretching from around 1977 to 1981…Gregson is [now] suing the state of New York…under the 2019 Child Victims Act, which temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for…child sexual abuse. Although Coon…sexually abus[ed] numerous boys over a period of decades, and [was] convicted twice…[for it], the state is fighting Gregson’s lawsuit…[cops covered for Coon until] September 1982, after a [different] teenager [reported] Coon…[who was allowed] to retire two weeks later…without facing any discipline or criminal consequences…Two years after his retirement, Coon pleaded guilty…to molesting three boys between the ages of 10 and 12 years old…he…was sentenced to three years’ probation…but [insisted] he [ha]dn’t…done anything wrong [because] there was “never any force” used in his sexual abuse…In 2001, Coon was sentenced to six months in jail and five years probation for sexually abusing a 9-year-old boy…
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!
