Every year on this day, the traditional beginning of the Yuletide season in the US, I remind my readers that the real spirit of the season involves giving to others rather than literally fighting to get more for yourself. Children and whores are St. Nick’s two favorite groups of people; you can help the latter by donating to a sex worker charity such as SWOP Behind Bars, or you can help both by booking a session with a sex worker you know has kids. If you don’t know any, you can help by participating in my annual toy drive! Regular readers know how it works: from today until Tuesday, December 12th, I’m collecting donations with which to buy toys, which I then donate to Toys for Tots. Send your donation via PayPal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net, and please put “Toys for Tots” in the subject line so I’ll know it’s not a regular blog donation; I can also accept donations via Zelle if you prefer not to use PayPal. If you’re not hurting economically yourself, please consider donating (either to my drive or to one near you); rising inflation is taking a bite out of many people’s income, so there will be less money for toys this year. And while we adults can understand that, it can be heartbreaking for very young children to think Santa Claus has forgotten them or bypassed them because they were naughty. Please help if you can!
Posts Tagged ‘games’
Yuletide 2023
Posted in Holidays, Miscellaneous, tagged activism, games, holidays, Presents, Toys for Tots on November 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »
In the News (#1376)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged Alabama, censorship, consensual crime, fantasy, fascism, Florida, games, hysteria, I Spy, If Men Were Angels, internet, libraries, Oklahoma, pregnancy, Property of the State, rape, rescue industry, scams, Schadenfreude, Served Cold, South Carolina, surveillance, teachers, Tennessee, Texas, Thought Control, United Kingdom, Utah on September 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »
[This] is…a slap in the face to free speech advocates around the world. – Corey Silverstein
The entire Utah rescue industry appears to be collapsing:
The CEO of a Utah-based [company which]…profit[s from hysteria over “]human trafficking[” has been charged with]…communications fraud, theft, and forgery among others. In total, she was [charged] with 35 different offenses, 32 of which were felonies…
Oh look, another “youth pastor”:
David Robinson…was arrested for sending [porn to] at least two minors, ages 12 and 17…Robinson would send the victim’s bible [sic] verses and then ask them questions including, “Are you sexually active?” and “Are you pregnant?”…Robinson was a youth pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church…and would volunteer at Seffner Christian School[, both in Florida]…
Of course, not all molesters at schools are preachers:
Matthew Galhouse, a…[girls’] softball coach…in Pasco County, [Florida,] was arrested…for
s[tatutory rape of] a 17-year-old [player]…Galhouse…hired her to be his babysitter for his child…[to hide their trysts from her parents]…
And not all molesty preachers have their own church:
An evangelist is facing a slew of child rape and sexual abuse charges in Murfreesboro, [Tennessee]…Benjamin Garlick has been charged with…aggravated rape of a child…and [related offenses, and] his wife…Shaantal Garlick, is also facing charges…[as an accessory]…
[One] day in February 2016…Operation Underground Railroad…[launched] a bumbling and ineffective mission to [“rescue”]…Gardy Mardy, a missing Haitian boy whose abduction Ballard has portrayed as “the case that led us to found OUR.” Joining him and his team of [cosplayers, profiteers and loons] was Janet Russon—a psychic medium from Utah whose supposed visions were guiding the mission…Gardy was not found that day, or any day since. There is no evidence to suggest that he was ever in the village where Russon’s visions led OUR and his hopeful father…Now…files reveal for the first time the level of influence Russon had within the organization, how much she was paid…and how little intelligence there was to back up some of the missions…beyond [the] word…of a Utah psychic who claimed to be able to communicate with the prophet Nephi, a [mythical] figure from the Book of Mormon…
Texas’ ice-pick self-lobotomization is becoming increasingly spasmodic:
Katy [Texas is hiding]…$93,000 in new [library] books [under the pretext of “]review[“, and refuses to state] the reasons 14 additional books were [censored], despite a public p[retense] of transparency on book banning…Drew Daywalt’s The Day the Crayons Quit was one of 44 books flagged for review in August that was later retained. An illustration depicts a beige crayon that has lost its wrapper, becoming “naked”…Other titles [censored] from elementary schools include Eric Carle’s illustrated classic Draw Me a Star, Judy Blume’s coming of age novel Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret, Dr. Seuss’ Wacky Wednesday, and Robert Munsch’s The Paper Bag Princess, all of which have been in circulation for more than 40 years…
Women of childbearing age should avoid Alabama entirely if at all possible:
The number of arrests of women for allegedly harming their fetuses has increased sharply since 2006, and almost half those cases happened in Alabama, according to a new report by the advocacy group Pregnancy Justice…[which] followed up on prior research that found 413 criminal cases against pregnant women from 1973 to 2005. The [new] study…found more than four times that number, 1,396 cases, from 2006 until last year, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Alabama accounted for 649 of those cases, followed by South Carolina with 180, Tennessee with 131 and Oklahoma with 113…Etowah County had the highest number of cases for any county in the country,..
In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:
ShadowDragon…[is] a government contractor…selling social media surveillance technology…[to] ICE…[DEA, FBI, and the State Department.] It..can be used to monitor protests…and…gather[s] data [not only from large social media sites, but also smaller ones such as] video games like Fortnite and [specialty sites like] BabyCenter, a reference and pregnancy tracking site…as well as social media sites for Black people, bodybuilders, and the fetish community…In one video on ShadowDragon’s website, Elliott Anderson, president and targeting instructor at ShadowDragon, says that with [its chief product] SocialNet “You can pop in an email, an alias, a name, a phone number, a variety of different things, and immediately have information on your target. We can see interests, we can see who friends are, pictures, videos.” [Anderson further describes pregnant women, gamers, black people and kinky people, among others, as] “the bad guys”…
A new censorship regime has been imposed on British subjects:
The U.K. Parliament [has] passed the much-delayed Online Safety Bill, despite vocal criticisms by virtually all digital rights and free speech organizations and advocates…the…law [is] aimed at making social media firms…responsible for users’ s[peech]…and will force firms to…censor any content [arbitrarily] deemed “harmful” or “pornographic” by the politicians who happen to be in power in the U.K. at any given time…The bill grants broad powers to the politicians and bureaucrats appointed to the UK’s regulation agency, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), to target material they [declare] “harmful,” essentially reestablishing content-based state censorship in the U.K…
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 (#1374)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged A Moral Cancer, Alabama, Australia, comics, cops, domestic violence, games, imaginative fiction, internet, Louisiana, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, New York, Out of Control, politicians, porn, prisons, psychology, rape, See No Evil, The Cop Myth, The Public Eye, Torture Chamber, United Kingdom, Virginia on September 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The modern porn-addiction treatment industry…seem[s] to be feeding and enabling narcissism. – David Ley
We’ve seen sex workers win elections in Latin America, but can one win in the puritanical US?
A [nurse practitioner] running for [office] in Virginia…performed sex acts with her husband for a live online audience and encouraged viewers to pay them with “tips” for specific requests…Susanna Gibson…streamed [the performance] on Chaturbate…and…more than a dozen videos of the couple…were archived on [another] site…[called] Recurbate…a Republican operative [snitched to] The Washington Post about them…in…an [attempt to harm her campaign. Gibson called the outing]…“a sex crime”…[alleging that sharing the] videos [without her permission] constitutes a violation of the state’s revenge porn law, which [criminalizes]…“maliciously” distribut[ing] nude or sexual images of another person with “intent to coerce, harass, or intimidate”…
What is wrong with doctors who do this?
For decades, patients warned Columbia about the behavior of obstetrician Robert Hadden. One even called 911 and had him arrested. Columbia let him keep…practicing for another five weeks. Eight patients say he assaulted them in that time…To date, more than 245 patients have alleged that Hadden abused them, which by itself could make him one of the most prolific sexual assailants in New York history. But the total number…may be far higher. On any given day during his two decades…at Columbia, Hadden saw 25 to 40 patients. Tens of thousands came under his care. A baby girl he delivered grew up to be a teenager he allegedly assaulted. Hadden…was sentenced in July to 20 years in federal prison — the result of a long, arduous process that Columbia often undermined…In agreeing to pay $236.5 million to resolve lawsuits brought by 226 of Hadden’s victims, Columbia admitted no fault…But the university’s own records show that women repeatedly tried to warn Columbia doctors and staff about Hadden…
Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#1278)
Anyone who’s ever been involved with a narcissist will see the truth of this:
In 2012, when I first began publishing challenges to the concepts of sex addiction and pornography addiction, one concern I raised was whether these diagnoses enabled persons with personality disorders to externalize responsibility for their often selfish behaviors…Now, new research justifies my early concerns, finding that personality features associated with narcissism contribute to viewing oneself as a porn addict. Past research has found that persons high in narcissism report higher levels of pornography use in general, and…recent research has found that persons higher in narcissism…are more likely to identify themselves as victims…Externalizing responsibility and blaming others are common features of narcissism, as persons high in narcissism rarely see themselves as at fault for problems or misbehaviors…
Australian cops, bravely protecting imaginary children from imaginary abuse:
A[n Australian] man has been charged over allegedly creating and operating an online child exploitation game used by…paid subscribers…The…game…[featured lolicon] images, which [are criminalized] in Australia…[cops swaggered around pretending they had saved the world from some] insidious [evil while vomiting out moral panic shibboleths such as] “in our own backyard” [and]…”hold them to account”…
Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do, even if she’s a cop herself: “[An Alabama cop named] Kenneth Booth shot and killed…[his cop girlfriend] Lexi White, then took his own life during an argument…”
Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet:
Disposable vapes will be banned [in the UK under the pretext that children [are] becoming addicted to the devices…health ministers …[have] decided [to borrow the American propaganda that no adults like]…bright colours and [sweet] flavours…
It does not help young victims of governmental brutality to infantilize them as “children”:
A federal judge ordered Louisiana officials…to begin moving kids out of the former death row unit at Angola, one of the nation’s most notorious prisons…U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick accused state officials of breaking “virtually every promise” they had made when announcing the plan to move [legal minors] to the prison…[screws] had locked [minors] up in cells for days at a time as a form of punishment, punished detained youth with the use of handcuffs, mace, and denial of family visits, and failed to provide appropriate educational and social services and mental health treatment…The ruling gives the state one week to move youth out of Angola…
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 (#1371)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged A Tale That Grew in the Telling, abortion, activism, Alabama, Arkansas, California, censorship, Ecuador, Feudalism Redux, games, hysteria, If Men Were Angels, internet, King of the Hill, law, porn, prisons, propaganda, psychology, Texas, The Mob Rules, The Next Target, The Punitive Mindset, The Puritan Recrudescence, Torture Chamber, Venezuela on September 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »
It’s the fear that’s the point. – Neesha Davé
“Pastor and sex offender” is a large and ever-expanding group:
A [typical and represntative] Green Bay [Wisconsin] pastor will spend at least 15 years in prison after…[buying porn from and sending dick pics to] a minor [of unspecified gender] in Venezuela. Cory J. Herthel…[was turned in by an informant at his own] church…Herthel said he met the [minor] begging on the streets during a mission trip to Ecuador. After…the [minor and their] mother returned to their native Venezuela, Herthel kept in touch…
A Tale That Grew in the Telling (#1021)
The [San Diego] county Board of Supervisors [has] approved a policy to increase [“]human trafficking[” propaganda indoctrin]ation in public schools…[politicians led by fanatical prohibitionist] District Attorney Summer Stephan…[want all students from] kindergarten through 12 [brainwashed to fear sex and view women as moral imbeciles. The politicians vomited out ancient, rancid nonsense about how “]San Diego is one of the nation’s 13 hot spots for human trafficking[“]…and [“]there are 8,000 victims per year in the county, with average age being 16[“]…
Hey, San Diego! 2013 just called and it wants its “sex trafficking” fantasies back.
The American Civil Liberties Union [has] filed a formal complaint asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Mastercard for discriminatory practices against sex workers and adult content websites. The ACLU filed the complaint along with sex worker collective Hacking//Hustling and a coalition of sex worker…and LGBTQ+ organizations…express[ing] its opposition to Mastercard’s 2021 policies for adult content websites using its credit card or payment options, and urged the FTC “to…put an end to these discriminatory and dangerous practices”…[includ]ing requirements such as pre-approval of all content before publication, forbidding certain search terms, and keeping records of age and identity verification for all performers…
Two forced-birth states are moving to legally reduce women to serfdom:
Alabama’s attorney general is insisting that he has the right to prosecute people who help pregnant women obtain out-of-state abortions…[absurdly claiming] such actions amount to criminal conspiracy. [Steve] Marshall’s filing comes as part of a case involving the Yellowhammer Fund…an “abortion advocacy and reproductive justice organization”…[which] sued Marshall in July over [previous iterations of the same claim]…Marshall “specifically referenced the accessory liability and conspiracy provisions of Alabama law as the basis for prosecuting abortion funds”…
Texas prefers a more piecemeal version of its fashionable mob-rule approach:
More than a year after Roe v. Wade was overturned, many [authoritarian]s have grown frustrated by the number of people able to circumvent [totalitarian] laws — with some [wannabe tyrants] grasping for even [more draconian and unconstitutional] measures they hope will fully eradicate abortion nationwide. That frustration is driving a new strategy in…cities and counties across Texas. Designed by the architects of the state’s “heartbeat” ban that took effect months before Roe fell, [these] ordinances…[criminalize] transport[ing] anyone to get an abortion on roads within the city or county limits. The laws [encourage and enable] any private citizen to sue a person or organization they [decide to accuse] of violating the ordinance. [Prohibitionist fanatics] behind the measure are targeting regions along interstates and in areas with airports, with the [impossible and deranged] goal of blocking off the main arteries out of Texas and keeping pregnant women [trapp]ed within the confines of their…state. These provisions have already passed in two counties and two cities, creating legal risk for those traveling on major highways including Interstate 20 and Route 84, which head toward New Mexico, where abortion remains legal and new clinics have opened to accommodate Texas women. Several more jurisdictions are expected to vote on the measure in the coming weeks…
I’ve linked a number of articles about D&D in prison under this tag, but I’ve never before read one that actually brought tears to my eyes. Journalist Keri Blakinger worked on this story about men playing the game on Texas’ death row for The Marshall Project for several years, so it seems to me only fair that anyone who cares about humanity should at least spend a few minutes reading it in its entirety.
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1344)
Politicians don’t even try to make their new laws Constitutional any more:
Free Speech Coalition and…a coalition of major adult platforms and creators…have been granted a preliminary injunction against the Texas antiporn law…The Court agreed…[that] the law violates First Amendment rights of creators and consumers…[and] has a chilling effect on legally-protected speech…[that] parental filters are a less restrictive and more effective method of protecting minors…[and that] the state does not have the right to compel speech in the form of…pseudoscientific “health” warnings…
…the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas has halted enforcement of an Arkansas age verification law that…bans minors from using social media platforms…unless they prove they have parental consent…all social media users—including adults…would be forced to turn over official IDs in order to speak or access information online…the state [absurdly] suggested that all of social media should be treated like “a bar” for purposes of excluding minors…[Judge Timothy] Brooks [wrote]…”minors have no constitutional right to consume alcohol…By contrast, the primary purpose of a social media platform is to engage in speech, and…social media platforms contain vast amounts of constitutionally protected speech for both adults and minors…it is likely that many adults who otherwise would be interested in [using]…social media platforms will be deterred—and their speech chilled—as a result of the age verification requirements, which…will likely require them to upload official government documents and submit to biometric scans”…
Americans’ sick lust for torture is turning ordinary prison sentences into death sentences:
As brutal heat waves continue to engulf large sections of the country, hundreds of thousands of prisoners are being forced to endure deadly temperatures inside heat-retaining steel or concrete facilities that offer little, if any, access to air conditioning or circulation…Despite its notoriously hot summers, Texas is one of at least 44 states that does not offer universal air conditioning in its prisons…70 percent of units in its prisons are entirely or partially uncooled…this year…dozens of incarcerated people have died due to cardiac-related or unknown causes in sweltering Texas prisons…[but] state officials [simply lie]…Texas…has not officially classified a prison death as heat-related since 2012, even as research has shown that intense heat is associated with an increased risk of mortality behind bars, including due to heart disease and suicide…[instead,] Texas…prison commissaries…raised the price of bottled water by 50 percent as temperatures spiked in June…
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 Music in the Numbers
Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, Music, Philosophy, tagged games, psychology on June 26, 2023| 1 Comment »
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly noticed my passion for structure. I have certain regular features which appear on certain days of the week or parts of the month, I keep tags tied tightly together with links, and features like my news and links columns even follow a certain recognizable format. At home I follow self-made schedules regarding what time to perform chores such as feeding the animals, unloading the dishwasher, etc, and my kitchen is so well-organized I know exactly where to find anything unless someone uses it and fails to put it back properly, which will result in their becoming the target of a short but intense burst of opprobrium. Most of y’all have probably seen photos of my library, and those who own more than one of my books have noticed that they are all formatted in the same way, a format I decided on while putting Ladies of the Night together. Naturally, a lot of this is due to my OCD, but it goes far beyond that; I actually get considerable enjoyment out of the process of organization itself.
Take for example my escort rates. I don’t know how most people calculate the rate reductions for longer sessions, but I’ve always done it by looking for patterns in the numbers. My last hourly rate before retiring was $400, but a 3-4 hour dinner date was $1200 and my rate for dates longer than 4 hours was only $300/hour; after the flat 10-15 hour overnight rate the hourly dropped to $200/hour, and so on. Back when I had a regular D&D group, my friends used to tease me about the prodigious number of tables and charts I devised for calculating everything from training costs to damage incurred by falling to what a magic spell of any given level should be able to do (“Where do y’all want to get dinner from tonight?” “Don’t you have a CHART for that, Maggie?”) And I even devised monetary systems and tables of weights and measures for a dozen different alien races in my game universe despite the fact that nobody but me will ever see them. And these tables, charts, and systems aren’t arbitrary or slapdash, oh no; there are always patterns, sometimes even formulae, to determine what each entry in each little box on the enormous spreadsheet (or in the old days, double notebook page) will be, so once I settle on the formula I mostly just need to follow the arithmetic, geometric, or logarithmic progression to determine exactly what this particular monster’s magic resistance should be or that noble’s entourage should look like. I can actually sit in front of my computer for hours, surrounded by sheets of scratch paper covered with what to others probably looks like hieroglyphics, happily following patterns to create a unified and harmonious whole.
I’ve known I was like this since childhood, when I used to design elaborate family trees for my stuffed animals, prepare maps of the imaginary fantasy realms I envisioned in Maman’s backyard, and make tiny little passports for my and my sisters’ Barbie dolls. But it was the numeric patterns that really fascinated me, and I recently realized that the reward circuits which are stimulated by compiling my ubiquitous tables are at least some of the same ones which are fired when I enjoy music. Music is, of course, mathematical; the relationships between certain notes are harmonious and others not because of the mathematical relationships between those frequencies of sound. Of course, in most people this appreciation is instinctive, and even most musicians aren’t consciously aware that what they’re doing is a kind of applied mathematics. But the realization gave me a new understanding of that particular aspect of my neuroatypicality, one that may help me more often allow myself to spend time composing and performing a kind of music only I can hear.
Links #668
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged Arizona, cops, crypto-moralism, disease, games, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, imaginative fiction, Kansas, Montana, Never Call the Cops, teachers, Texas, United Kingdom, video on April 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »
One of the great things about the internet is that it’s a lot easier to share fan-made films than it used to be; here (just in time for May Eve) is a funny little Lovecraft video from creators we’ve seen here before; next week I’ll share another one. The links above the video were provided by Clarissa, Mike Siegel (x2), Radley Balko, and Cop Crisis (x2).
- R.I.P. Mary Quant.
- Juvenile delinquents.
- Another metaphor alert.
- I’m sure you feel safer now.
- Not a police state yet, no sirree!
- “Flagging cops down” is the same as calling them.
From the Archives
- Sex work businesses are ineligible for loans; individuals still get the check.
- Declaring things “non-essential” is a versatile excuse for authoritarianism.
- As long as our work is marginalized, whores will be targeted for violence.
- It’s good to see a few government employees with spines and principles.
- Do I really have to add, “Not because you saw your neighbors outdoors”?
- So many “enlightened” countries still pretend disease is caused by “sin”.
- The state cages women to force their participation in its morality plays.
- I’ve been pointing out the inherent violence of prohibitionism for years.
- Another dog’s-breakfast record review billed as a “sex trafficking sting”.
- Notice how fanatics like to focus on demonizing one website at a time?
- Violence against trans people is finally starting to get media attention.
- Does anyone still believe that this is about anything other than profit?
- Liz Brown takes a detailed look at the current US pro-censorship cult.
- The prohibitionist crusade against all adult material online continues.
- Innocent people targeted by attention-hungry loons are hitting back.
- I find it funny so many get so bent out of shape by the Babylon Bee.
- The more complicated a plan, the more there is to go wrong with it.
- A headline writer without a boot permanently lodged in his mouth.
- Pro-Swedish criminalization politicians will lose their shit over this.
- China attacks those who tell the truth about the Uighur genocide.
- Abrogating freedom of religion and freedom of assembly at once.
- Female victims of violence are increasingly treated like criminals.
- Sex workers are always among the first targeted for deportation.
- Desire in the abstract is often different from partaking in reality.
- Cops, pets, bullshit, Mr. Electrico, song covers and much more.
- Cop murders pregnant girlfriend, claims it was suicide. Again.
- It’s good to see the “sex addiction” myth slowly falling apart.
- Cam work isn’t just a stopgap measure; it’s a specialization.
- Wealth and power do not create evil; they merely enable it.
- And guess who gets to declare that an “emergency” exists?
- Cops, lost cities, Jim Steinman, Felix Silla, and much more.
- Laws enabling nuisance lawsuits will only keep multiplying.
- Maya Morena on yet another gang of prohibitionist nitwits.
- Kaytlin Bailey presents a “whore’s eye view” of US history.
- Anything can be “trafficking” if you use your imagination.
- Documenting my progress toward crazy cat lady status.
- Cops, pigs, Robert Morse, Bertha Butt, and much more.
- A psychopathic rapist-murderer cop is still unconvicted.
- Hey lede writer, the word you’re looking for is “abolish”.
- They’ve chased the ambulance back to Texas again.
- Compare to the ugly behavior of France & the US.
- A murderer is also a rapist. Gee, what a surprise.
- It’s so lovely to see them feeding on each other.
- Sociopaths claim this is what sex workers want.
- Five months of winter is two months too much.
- On century-old houses and “clean enough”.
- How to challenge Swedish criminalization.
- Another example of sex worker ingenuity.
- Another collection of bits from Twitter.
- It’s just going to keep getting worse.
- The “Swedish model” helps women!
- “Youth pastors” are as bad as cops.
- Cashmere and chainsaws.
- April 2017 in retrospect.
- Rapist cop of the week.
- What a koinkydink.
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 (#1327)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged abortion, agency denial, Australia, California, cops, Feudalism Redux, games, Idaho, If Men Were Angels, illegal aliens, Indiana, License To Rape, Mexico, Panopticon, Pyrrhic Victory, racism, rape, restaurants, surveillance, The Cop Myth, The Red Umbrella, United Kingdom, violence vs. sex workers on April 5, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The political discourse around the border tends to be built around a fantasy. – Dave Maass
At least this one wasn’t a “youth pastor”:
A [typical and representative] Orange County [California] pastor has been convicted of sexually abusing two young girls he is related to…Jose Andres Lopez…[committed the assaults from] 1991 through 2020…[he was caught] on Aug. 21, 2020, [when] the [second] victim…was…13…but the abuse started when she was 3…The victim’s brother…was…in the house and…[over]heard…“noise he describes as a rhythm that sounded like having sex”…the victim [later told] her brother…what was happening…[and] the next day, the brother told his mother and the tearful victim confirmed it…During the investigation, deputies “stumbled on a police report” out of Massachusetts from a 12-year-old who said [Lopez] had molested her for years…
Indianapolis pastor…Tyree Coleman…offered to pay…a…17-year-old…[for sex and] the teen told police…they got a search warrant for Coleman’s cell phone and…discovered that Coleman…the founder of…[a charity] which feeds homeless people in Indianapolis…was using donations to his non-profit to pay [male sex workers]…During that investigation, police received a new complaint from a…man who accused Coleman of raping him…[after] he missed his bus…and was left stranded…Coleman offered him a room at his home…Coleman would pay him [for]…oral sex and later [for intercourse, but]…the victim [later changed his mind and] told Coleman to stop several times but Coleman refused…Coleman [also] threatened to kill him if he had a sexually transmitted disease…
As long as sex work is marginalized, sex workers will be targeted for violence:
A man [named Matthew Sean Donaldson who is] obsessed with video games…brutally bludgeoned [a sex worker] with a hammer in a luxury hotel…with intent to murder [her]…on February 23, 2021…Donaldson bought a hammer and read numerous news articles about women being murdered before he brought the [victim]…to his hotel room…He used a knife to cut off the woman’s underpants in what was to be his first ever sexual experience…the[n started]…a heated argument about the ethics of sex work [to give himself an excuse to attack her]…He left her lying in a pool of her own blood with severe cranial and body injuries as he fled the scene. Later that night…Donaldson sent the victim a cruel taunting text that said: “Should have picked a different career, honey”…and…also posted a photo of the luxury hotel room to social media with the caption: “game over”…
All too often, evil arrives cloaked in the mantle of expediency:
Panera Bread is rolling out palm scanners that will link customers’ handprints to their loyalty accounts — a move the company paints as convenient but that privacy advocates have decried. The biometric…technology, developed by Amazon, will hit stores in the next few months…The gadgets will [also] suggest menu items based on customers’ order histories…Amazon One technology is [already] in use at some 200 locations across the country, including Amazon’s Whole Foods Market subsidiary and Amazon Go stores. Panera says the technology will securely store its customers’ biometric data. However, digital rights activists [correctly point out] that [any] information [which exists] could be [demand]ed by federal agencies or accessed by hackers…
The crusade to reduce Americans to serfdom continues:
…Idaho Republicans…seek…to limit minors’ ability to travel for abortion care without parental consent. The legislation would create a whole new crime — dubbed “abortion trafficking” — which is defined in the bill as an “adult who…either procures an abortion … or obtains an abortion-inducing drug” for the minor…The legislation also includes a statute allowing the Idaho attorney general to supersede any local prosecutor’s decision, preemptively thwarting any prosecutor who vows not to enforce such an extreme law…The legislation doesn’t actually say anything about crossing state lines, but…since nearly all abortions are illegal in Idaho…[the people politicians want to terrorize are] traveling to the border with the intent of crossing state lines, likely into Washington, Oregon or Montana, to get an abortion there…
This is only going to get worse for the foreseeable future:
There is perhaps no stretch of American land as politicized as the U.S.-Mexico border…There are towering fences and walls. Border agents…patrol…the boundary in trucks. But border security is becoming increasingly stealthy…as the government erects a “virtual wall”—a fortification not made of steel and concrete, but drones, surveillance towers, and artificial intelligence…border [hawks pretend] this…is a more humane and efficient way of keeping undocumented immigrants out…but in reality, the virtual wall has…been expensive, broadly expanded the surveillance abilities of unaccountable government agencies, and forced migrants into taking more dangerous journeys rather than keeping them out. More dollars are being spent, more migrants are dying, and more civil liberties violations are occurring…
“Search” is the most common government euphemism for “molest”:
Police are [molest]ing children in their p[igmobile]s…Almost 3,000 children were [molested under the pretext of a “]search[“]…by police in England and Wales between 2018 and mid-2022, [650 between 2018 and 2020 and 2197 in the next two years]…Nearly a quarter of [molestation]s involved a child aged between 10 and 15, while the youngest [victim was]…an eight-year-old…1 per cent were [molest]ed within public view, and 6 per cent…with at least one [cop] of a different gender than the [victim lurking to watch]…
UK officials are just as dedicated to hiding the truth about cops as US ones:
[Cop shops] in England and Wales have been…[caught] trying to “evade public scrutiny” after an Observer investigation found that the outcomes of dozens of officer misconduct cases have been deleted from their websites. They include some of the most serious cases of criminality, including that of the serial rapist David Carrick…the vast majority were either failing to publicise cases, despite a legal obligation to do so, or deleting misconduct cases from their websites after 28 days…including cases related to sexual offences or domestic violence…The law specifically calls on forces to publicise the results of misconduct hearings “as soon as practicable after the officer has been notified of the outcome”…but…the records at 72% of forces were incomplete. Many were missing more than half or all of the misconduct outcomes…
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!
Diary #662
Posted in Diary, tagged games, Grace, imaginative fiction, nostalgia on March 7, 2023| 5 Comments »
I was first introduced to Dungeons and Dragons in the spring of 1981 or maybe a bit earlier; I started my first campaign in the summer of 1981, and I’m sure it will surprise absolutely no one to hear that I rapidly began filling up notebooks with additions, modifications, and what I thought of as corrections to the game system; by the early ’90s the game I was running for my players had diverged so much from the “official” system (was it 2nd edition then? I wasn’t really paying attention) that they could only barely be considered the same game. When Grace and I became roommates early in 1998, I was delighted to discover that she had played a little herself and was eager to expand on that experience. Matt, too, enjoyed it, and I was happy to run a solo game for him as well. But eventually, life intervened as it is wont to do; by the late Oughts we rarely got the chance, and by the early teens we had let it lapse altogether. It wasn’t for lack of desire; it was just that I was so busy with everything from blogging and activism to trying to build a house to dealing with financial disaster to going through a divorce and moving to Washington, that I simply didn’t have the energy. Those who have never played may be unaware that the game takes a lot of preparation on the part of Game Master (AKA “Dungeon Master”) – creating a world and everything in it, and preparing adventures for the players to enjoy – and I had precious little creative energy to spare. Oh, sure, some people enjoy running premade adventures created by others, but to me that was as unsatisfying as a TV dinner, and besides those were created in a version of the system I couldn’t even have recognized. By the late Teens I was really missing all the fun; I considered starting a new game several times, but things just never came together. Then finally this winter, I brought it up to Grace again, and she was enthusiastic; around mid-January we started playing every Sunday, and though neither of us is young any more, we can still recapture a little of the youthful joy of fantastic adventures in a magical land of imagination.
Yuletweets
Posted in Miscellaneous, Philosophy, tagged bad customers, BDSM, blogging, Canada, Catholicism, censorship, drugs, ethics, games, language, left-right myth, Mars, New York, politicians, psychology, robots, Twitter on December 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
TFW the name of a dude you blackballed from your escort service suddenly seems very popular on Twitter.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) November 23, 2022
Because obviously what the world REALLY needs is an artificial liar which is better at political deception and "strategic lying" than humans. https://t.co/yTOlaCVAlv
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) November 23, 2022
Not entirely wrong. https://t.co/YOWPVJHWdz
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) November 25, 2022
Humans have such silly ideas. https://t.co/kCAzzPyWx1
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) November 28, 2022
Sometimes history reflects itself rather than repeating or rhyming. https://t.co/ebgtxoFRed
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) November 29, 2022
It really irritates me when I see a tweet that makes a great point, but then tacks on some inane culture war shibboleth at the end, making it un-retweetable by any intellectually honest person.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) November 30, 2022
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 1, 2022
As so often in these exonerative voice constructions, the sentence is structured to place the blame on the gun. It's especially loathsome this time by including the unusually-specific detail that it was an AR-15, a note calculated to ignite readers' hysteria vs that model.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 2, 2022
Never trust someone who tries to convince you that something isn't a problem by contrasting it with a more serious problem.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 4, 2022
One of the most important differences between physics and political "science" is that in physics, nobody pretends "entropy increases" is controversial or unduly pessimistic.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 4, 2022
Do you think you'd escape consequences for grand theft if you pinky-swore to the judge that you'd pay it back? https://t.co/Bpqakk5YjA
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 5, 2022
And yet they all want to impose their "solutions" upon, and extract the things they want from, YOU. By force and by threat of violence. https://t.co/q6tMZEvnXt
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 6, 2022
Sex workers have been telling y'all this for years. https://t.co/XzKAzGRtyG
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 9, 2022
I don't even OWN any yellow clothes because they make me look ill due to skin undertones.
Brides like this need to be shut down from the get-go; her fiance should also deeply consider whether he should get legally entangled with such a narcissistic control freak. https://t.co/tDlu4ILlTE
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 9, 2022
That's called the exonerative voice.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 10, 2022
The greatest source of evil in the world is a pair of linked cravings: the desire for power over others, and the desire to be controlled by "leaders". Each is reinforced and supported by the other.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 11, 2022
Corollary: "Follow your dreams" is text for a Hallmark card or a poster on a '70s teenager's wall, not serious life advice for adults with a realistic view of the world.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 12, 2022
Gotta say, I did not expect to read something as stupid as "Ugh ugh, me hate books" today.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 13, 2022
If someone tells you that you're so stupid you can only subscribe to beliefs in big packages approved by one of the Culture War Clubs, so that if you are skeptical of "X" you *must* believe "Y", that person is not your friend and cannot be trusted. Shun them.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 15, 2022
Doctors are always fascinated by idiots; they provide natural experiments it would be unethical to subject normal people to.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 16, 2022
"And what do *you* want to do when you grow up, little girl?"
"I want to align with industry demands as a cog in tomorrow's global workforce."— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 17, 2022
85. I've discovered 10 mph over is usually the best setting to make good time without attracting predatory cops or having to come out of cruise too often due to obstruction by slower-moving traffic. https://t.co/ogdm8cThEC
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 18, 2022
Everything not forbidden is compulsory. https://t.co/K8DRkNi5Dp
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 20, 2022
Never trust a man who uses "pleasure" as a verb.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 21, 2022
Who the hell decided "factory" was a good word to include in the names of chain restaurants? I can't think of a lot of less-appetizing words they could've used without being actually off-putting.
— Maggie McNeill (@Maggie_McNeill) December 22, 2022
Yuletide 2022
Posted in Holidays, tagged activism, games, holidays, Presents, Toys for Tots on November 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Every year on this day, the traditional beginning of the Yuletide season in the US, I remind my readers that the real spirit of the season involves giving to others rather than literally fighting to get more for yourself. Children and whores are St. Nick’s two favorite groups of people; you can help the latter by donating to a sex worker charity such as SWOP Behind Bars, or you can help both by booking a session with a sex worker you know has kids. If you don’t know any, you can help by participating in my annual toy drive! From now until Monday, December 12th, I’m collecting donations with which to buy toys, which I then donate to Toys for Tots. In the past I tied session-time to the donations, but since I’m semi-retired that’s not really a workable deal any more; besides, my readers have always been so generous I’ve only had a few collect on the bargain! 
If you’re in the Seattle area, we may be able to meet in person; otherwise you can send it via PayPal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net. Since I’m also working on my own blog’s funding right now (see that thermometer in the right-hand margin?), make sure you put “Toys for Tots” in the memo so I’ll know where you intend the donation to go. And if you can afford only one, please make it to the toy drive!
As you can see from the pictures, my readers have always risen to the occasion to help provide some simple joy to needy children who might otherwise have nothing on Christmas morning. If you’re not hurting economically yourself, please consider donating (either to my drive or to one near you); rising inflation is taking a bite out of many people’s income, so there will be less money for toys this year. And while we adults can understand that, it can be heartbreaking for very young children to think Santa Claus has forgotten them or bypassed them because they were naughty. Please help if you can!
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