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Posts Tagged ‘Idaho’

In the News (#1441)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 29, 2024| 1 Comment »

What is presented as an effort to stop…violence…ends up being the main source of violence.  –  Erika Lust

The Red Umbrella 

If he truly had trouble before, why did he call the same agency again?

Varinder Singh Deo…was celebrating with a friend…in Deo’s detached garage, drinking alcohol and consuming cocaine, while Deo’s wife and child slept…Deo arranged for a sex worker to come over…[but] didn’t think she looked like her online photograph. Deo [and]…the woman, referred to as B.K…argued over a cancellation fee…Deo [brandished]…a handgun…later [claiming to] police…he’d had a traumatic experience with the same escort service a few years earlier when he was supposed to meet up with a sex worker but was instead robbed by multiple men at knife point…B.K. and [her duo partner] M.C. started retreating back to their vehicle…[and] Deo fired two shots at them.  One…struck the back of M.C.’s left shoulder…[she] spent three days in hospital and suffered nerve damage…and…scarring…and…also had to pay a more than $7,000 bill for blood stain removal from the rental car…[the British Columbia judge] chose to sentence Deo to four years in prison…[and] ordered [him] to reimburse B.K. for the blood stain removal bill…

Link Rot

It’s good to see someone actually studying this problem:

A new Pew Research Center analysis shows just how fleeting online content actually is:  A quarter of all webpages that existed at one point between 2013 and 2023 are no longer accessible…For older content, this trend is even starker.  Some 38% of webpages that existed in 2013 are not available today, compared with 8% of pages that existed in 2023…23% of news webpages contain at least one broken link, as do 21% of webpages from government sites…54% of Wikipedia pages contain at least one link in their “References” section that points to a page that no longer exists…Nearly one-in-five tweets are no longer publicly visible on the site just months after being posted…

The Course of a Disease (#1244)

The Spanish case of the Swedish rot has been especially virulent, so this is encouraging:

Spain’s Socialist Party…[has] suffered a sound defeat…in its attempt to recriminalize sex work…[after] the party’s ruling coalition allies…withdrew their backing from the widely reviled “Abolition of Prostitution” law…PSOE’s…Laura Berja, unequivocally stated last year, “We must abolish [women’s sexual freedom] because it is incompatible with human rights.”  El Mundo [said the]…defeat holds “symbolic weight” and sends the abolition law “right to the trash bin.”  It is the first time, the newspaper noted, that the PSOE has failed to rally its coalition allies in support of an important piece of legislation, which may indicate a “crack” in the coalition that could further endanger its chances to remain in power…

Thought Control (#1379)

The censors got what they wanted in this case:

A public library in Boise is transitioning to an “adult only” library.  The Donnelly Public Library s[tated]…that the change is due to the passage of HB710…that en[courages] anyone to sue the library if [they claim] children are exposed to…adult material…due to its small size and the…ambiguous…language of the bill, the change is the only way the…[library] can assure compliance with the law, which goes into effect on July 1…The bill…was signed into law by Governor Brad Little earlier this year, [despite his veto of an earlier version]…

Torture Chamber (#1415)

The inevitable result of locking mentally ill people in filthy cages and entrusting sociopathic thugs to mind them:

…in April 2021, Georgia Baldwin…was clearly in the throes of a severe mental health episode…[but] she was arrested…[on a trumped-up] felony charge [anyway] and sent to jail in Tarrant County, Texas.  Six weeks later, in June, a psychiatrist determined Baldwin was “incompetent and thus unable to stand trial”…[but instead of sending her to] a state hospital…”Tarrant County chose to [keep] Ms. Baldwin [locked] in a small cell, where she could not see through a window or view other human beings,” remaining there from July 27 until her death on September 14…from…”severe hypernatremia” —high levels of sodium in the blood typically resulting from dehydration… [two other prisoners] with severe mental illness [also died] of dehydration in Tarrant County’s c[ages] over a two-year period…Abdullahi Mohamed [was arrested] in June 2020 for…[a violent] manic…bipolar [episode]…Nine days later, jailers…found him unresponsive in his cell, and he died soon after.  And in December 2021, Edgar Villatoro Alvarez was [caged]…after having been hospitalized for a bipolar episode the previous month…he died [the following] February…

Dangerous Speech (#1435)

The government doesn’t care about all those charges, as long as Lacey dies in a filthy cage:

Government attorneys in the Backpage case…want…Lacey and two co-defendants to be sentenced on their respective guilty verdicts so the three men can appeal to the Ninth Circuit…[before] the government will decide if it will retry Lacey…Judge…Humetewa vacated Lacey’s previously scheduled Aug. 6 retrial date and set sentencing for July 9 for Lacey…Scott Spear and Jed Brunst…Humetewa [refused to consider]…the possibility that Lacey be allowed to remain out on bond pending the outcome of any appeal…The one thing the judge and the parties agreed on was that there are weighty matters to be decided by the Ninth, including [multiple kinds of] prosecutorial misconduct…It could take anywhere from eight months to two or three years before the Ninth issues a decision.  Which means there is no immediate end in sight for this vindictive prosecution, now in its seventh year…

The Cop Myth (#1438)

Why are people shocked when men paid and encouraged to behave violently, behave violently?

A [typical and representative Kentucky cop] has been found guilty of murder[ing the husband of his girlfriend, Lena North]…Jeremy Lewis…murder[ed]…Tyler North…[in 2018, but it took the Kounty Kops] two…year[s to find the remains]…

 

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!

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Yes, They’re Still Tweets

Posted in Biography, Fiction, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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In the News (#1434)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I can’t breathe.  –  Demetrio Jackson

I Can’t Breathe

Paramedics should not be injecting people with powerful drugs for the convenience of cops:

…The practice of [forcibly inject]ing sedatives [in]to people detained by police [without the victim’s consent] has spread quietly across the nation over the last 15 years, built on [pseudo]science…backed by police-aligned experts…At least 94 people died [in this way between]…2012 [and] 2021…That’s nearly 10% of the more than 1,000 deaths identified during [an] investigation of people subdued by police in ways that are not supposed to be fatal.  About half of the 94…were Black…Behind the racial disparity is a [make-believe] medical condition called excited delirium, which fueled the rise of sedation outside hospitals…the [investigation] found…[that most of the victims were] agitated people…held by police facedown…handcuffed and with [pigs sitt]ing on their backs…[while they] struggled to breathe and tried to get free.  [Barfing out the magic cop word “]combativeness[” justified cops demanding] paramedics administer…sedatives, [predictably] slowing their breathing.  Cardiac and respiratory arrest often occurred within minutes…

Censorship Ascendant

Cops claim reporting their crimes is “an inherent danger to the community”:

Calling her “an inherent danger to the community,” prosecutors [have] asked a Miami judge to throw a 51-year-old [woman] back into jail for posting news articles on Facebook recounting her arrest on charges of stalking a Miami [cop] who had [murder]ed her mentally ill son.  Prosecutors say Gamaly Hollis violated a judge’s order against using social media by sharing several stories this week about the June 2022 [murder] of her son…Richard Hollis…by [cop] Jaime Pino…a year earlier, [Pino] had [threate]ned [to murder] her son if he ever [saw him holding] a gun…Hollis…took to the streets and the internet, [truthfully] calling [murderous pig] Pino a killer and once confronting him [in public.  Cops] arrested her on charges of aggravated stalking, resisting arrest and trespassing.  After a year in jail, she was [recently] released on bond…[but cops are scheming to] jail [her] again — this time simply for sharing news stories, without comment, on Facebook…

You Were Warned (#1383)

Australia’s rulers seem even more eager to destroy the internet than US rulers:

…An Australian judge…[petulantly demanded] that [Twitter] must block every user in the world from accessing video of a bishop being stabbed in a Sydney church…Despite disagreeing with the…takedown order, [Twitter]’s Global Government Affairs team…”complied with the directive pending a legal challenge“…[but now Australian politicians and bureaucrats want to] control…what can be seen by people…every place on the globe outside Australia’s borders.  If Canberra can impose its rules across the world on any online platform that happens to do business in Australia, why can’t China, or Russia, or Saudi Arabia do the same?…If [Australia is] successful [in its megalomanical demands], the same reach would be available to every government everywhere, including those even more authoritarian than the notoriously illiberal democracy…Australia’s censorious officials…may be exploiting the conflict…to promote legislation restricting “misinformation”…

Vulture Watching (#1404)

Politicians really believe everyone lies as blithely as they do:

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador c[laimed that] doctors…[are lying about] transferring an increasing number of patients out of state for care to comply with the state’s strict abortion laws…[at] a U.S. Supreme Court hearing…[to] de[cid]e whether Idaho abortion law conflicts with…EMTALA…St. Luke’s chief physician executive Dr. Jim Souza…[said] the hospital system has transported six patients out of state for obstetric emergencies since January, when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Idaho’s law to fully take effect.  In 2023, St. Luke’s transferred a single patient out of state for an emergency abortion…Labrador…implied that those transfers either didn’t happen or were unnecessary…“It’s really hard for me [as a medical ignoramus and moral imbecile] to conceive of a single instance where a woman has to be airlifted out of Idaho to perform an abortion,” Labrador said…

Dangerous Speech (#1409)

Couldn’t she have done this before driving Jim Larkin to suicide?

A federal judge has acquitted Backpage co-founder Michael Lacey of dozens of counts, including a majority of those on which federal prosecutors planned to retry [him] later this year.  U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa also acquitted former Backpage executives Jed Brunst and Scott Spear on multiple counts of which they were convicted by a jury last fall…In November, a jury found Lacey guilty of just one the 86 counts against him and not guilty of one count…[but] hung on the other 84 counts…The feds then decided to retry Lacey on those 84 counts, despite the fact that there had already been two [mis]trials on the same charges…Lacey is still looking at a retrial later this year on the [31] remaining counts…and on June 17, Lacey is scheduled to be sentenced on the one count…on which the jury found him guilty…[which] Lacey plans to appeal…Brunst is scheduled to be sentenced along with Lacey in June and…still faces sentencing on 14 counts.  And Spear, who is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9, still faces sentencing on 29 counts.

I Spy (#1422)

Is having a shiny new status symbol really worth being spied on and price-gouged?

…I’m the reporter who broke the story [about GM’s spying on its customers, and] I recently discovered that I’m among the drivers who was spied on…This month, my husband received his “consumer disclosure files” from LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk, two data brokers that work with the insurance industry and that G.M. had been providing with data…I had requested my own LexisNexis file while reporting, but…though both of our names are on the car’s title, the data from our Bolt accrued to my husband alone because the G.M. dealership listed him as the primary owner.  G.M.’s spokeswoman had told me that this data collection happened only to people who turned on OnStar…and enrolled in Smart Driver, a[n ironically-misnamed] program that offers feedback and digital badges for [“]good[“] driving…I had connected our car to the MyChevrolet app to see if we were enrolled in Smart Driver.  The app said we weren’t…But in April, when we found out our driving had been tracked, my husband signed into a browser-based version of his account page, on GM.com, which said our car was enrolled in “OnStar Smart Driver+.”  G.M. says this discrepancy between the app and the website was the result of “a bug”…We couldn’t get insights into our driving, but insurance companies could…

To Molest and Rape (#1431)

Even by the standards of rapist cops, this is horrifying:

A…Pennsylvania [cop named]…Steven Kyle Cugini was arrested [for raping]…a 13-month-old child [sometime] between April 11 and April 15…the infant had a broken tibia and fibula in her left leg and other injuries that showed evidence of sexual abuse…Cugini blamed the injuries on diaper rash, a fall and the family dog…police were notified by a day care center after the [victim] was dropped off with “severe bruising” on her face and head and wounds on her left foot…

 

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!

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In the News (#1404)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 14, 2024| 1 Comment »

They just threw him out like trash.  –  Gretchen Hankins

If Men Were Angels

This will continue until fools stop teaching children unquestioning obedience to “authority”:

A [typical and representative] pastor of an independent Baptist church in…Warsaw [Virginia] is facing 30 felony charges [for molesting and even raping children]…at the church between 1981 and 1997.  Albert Benjamin Wharton…has [worked for]…seven churches in Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida over the past four decades[, so there may be many more victims]…

Don’t Call It Trafficking (#667)

It’s never called “trafficking” when the government or a crony corporation does it:

Universal Health Services…is the nation’s largest psychiatric hospital chain, with 185 inpatient…facilities and dozens of acute care hospitals…More than 21,000 inpatient psychiatric beds—or one in six across the country—are operated by UHS, which brought in $13.4 billion last year.  In recent years, the company has been the subject of several high-profile lawsuits and investigations…UHS facilities admitted patients who didn’t need to be there…failed to provide adequate treatment…billed insurance for unnecessary services…improperly used physical and chemical restraints and isolation….[and] used suicidal ideation to “justify almost any admission”…thousands of foster kids have been [condemn]ed in recent years to UHS’s psychiatric facilities, where they typically stay for weeks or months, sometimes leaving far worse off than when they arrived…a symbiotic relationship has developed between…[“]child welfare[“] agencies, which have too many kids in custody and not enough places to put them, and [fascist] companies like UHS…Kids often come back to facilities again and again, acting out more with each admission…To UHS and its competitors…foster kids are “a gold mine”…

Believe Them

Mississippi demonstrates exactly what it thinks of its subjects:

Some 215 bodies were found in a pauper’s cemetery… just outside of Jackson, [Mississippi]…intended for people who have no known family, but…relatives…were never contacted by officials.  Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is representing the families of Marrio Moore, Dexter Wade, and Jonathan Hankins, who were all buried in the cemetery without the knowledge of their families…the deceased are put in body bags and placed into…graves [so shallow that]..the stench [of decomposition is]…drawing buzzards…Wade was [not a prisoner; he was run over by a cop driving a pigmobile, then his]…identification [was ignored and his]…family was not notified…[so they] thought he was missing until…recently…

The Mob Rules (#1322)

Partisan fanatics want you to believe this is fundamentally different from very similar laws in Arkansas and Utah, because “red and blue”:

…the supposed “harm” of social media to teen mental health just isn’t supported by the data.  But it seems it’s never enough to stop savior-complex folk…[like] Jim Steyer, who has more money and ignorance than sense, trying to quietly push a California ballot initiative that would adjust the California constitution in an unconstitutional (by the US Constitution) manner to falsely claim that social media is deliberately harmful to kids, and that people should be able to sue social media for a million dollars any time any kid anywhere is “harmed” in a manner…that the…company should have magically stopped.  He submitted the proposal…right before the holidays when most people weren’t paying attention, and California Attorney General Rob Bonta has a comment period open that ends on January 17th…Bonta’s office has supported a variety of problematic “protect the children online!” laws, including the Age Appropriate Design Code that a district court has already noted was pretty clearly unconstitutional…

Winding Down (#1342)

Politicians are terrified that the state is losing ways to destroy peaceful citizens’ lives:

California’s…governor…Gavin Newsom…[vetoed] bills that would have decriminalized four naturally occurring psychedelics and authorized Amsterdam-style cannabis cafés.  Senate Bill 58…was similar to a groundbreaking ballot initiative that Colorado voters approved in 2022, [and] would have eliminated criminal penalties for adults 21 or older who use psilocybin, psilocyn, mescaline, or dimethyltryptamine…But [Newsom claims]…it would be [“]reckless[“] to stop threatening psychedelic users with arrest and jail…Assembly Bill 374…would have allowed dispensaries, with local approval, to serve marijuana along with noncannabis food and beverages, which is currently illegal.  It also would have explicitly allowed live music…[but] Newsom [is] “concerned this bill could undermine California’s long-standing” [war on]…smoking…

A Moral Cancer (#1388)

SCOTUS says it’s OK for politicians to specifically target black people with prohibitionist laws:

The Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a challenge to a California law that bans the sale of flavored cigarettes, leaving the state law in place…The ban’s challengers…told the justices that the law “has shut the doors to one of the Nation’s largest markets for flavored tobacco products and thereby banned a product (menthol cigarettes) that has been lawfully sold for nearly a century,” [and which are used by 77-88% of black American smokers]…

Vulture Watching (#1394)

SCOTUS also says it’s OK if deranged Idaho politicians let women die and ruin doctors’ careers if they try to prevent that:

The Supreme Court [has] allowed Idaho to enforce its strict abortion ban, even in medical emergencies, while a legal fight continues.  The justices said they would hear arguments in April and [if any women die before that it’s just tough luck]…the Biden administration has argued that hospitals that receive Medicare funds are required by federal law to provide emergency care, potentially including abortion, no matter if there’s a state law banning abortion…

 

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!

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In the News (#1398)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Things…only violate law when they actually violate law.  –  Tim Cushing

A Broker in Pillage

Nobody will be safe until this odious, contemptible practice is recognized as unconstitutional:

Wyoming’s top court…[has declared] that says money obtained from legal drug sales in other states can be stolen by cops who operate in a state where this drug isn’t legal…[cops stole]  $75,000 f[rom]…a man [named Lorenzo Gallaga] who was…transporting the cash and marijuana…from Illinois to California…the government…suffered a loss in the lower court…[because] if any criminal activity occurred, it did not occur in Wyoming…The higher court says…it’s [OK for cops] to steal stuff…[if it] might have been obtained by actions that are illegal in Wyoming…this means Wyoming cops can cite people for not having a front license plate (even if it’s not required in their home state) or for emissions violations (even if the driver’s home state has no such emissions requirement)…

If Men Were Angels

This will continue until fools stop teaching children unquestioning obedience to “authority”:

A [typical and representative South Carolina] pastor [named]…William “Bill” Oswald…was sentenced to two consecutive 20-year prison terms…[for repeatedly molesting] two children [in the 1990s]…the witnesses…included his victims, now adults…

Churches, like cop shops, work hard to cover up sex crimes by their operatives.

Monsters (#1024)

Apparently, this psycho acts out his self-hatred on unsuspecting victims:

A suspect in the brutal killing of a gay Phoenix man in November has…confessed to killing another gay man…by shooting him in the head after meeting for sex…Leonardo Santiago…was already in a Maricopa County jail on a $2 million bond for…killing and mutilating…Bernardo Pantaleon.  After his Dec. 2 arrest, Phoenix police tied Santiago to the March slaying of…Osvaldo Hernandez Castillo through a…[snitch, and] Santiago confessed when [confronted]…and…told police that he recorded the homicide with his cell phone…

I Spy (#1228) 

If “official” thugs can obtain your data without a warrant, so can unofficial ones:

The FBI investigated a man who…posed as a [cop] in emails and phone calls to trick Verizon to hand over phone data belonging to a [woman]…he…met on the dating section of porn site xHamster…Despite the…[absurd] story concocted by the [stalker], including the use of a clearly non-government ProtonMail email address, Verizon handed over the victim’s data…including [her] address and phone logs…[enabling him] to…driv[e] to where he believed the victim lived while armed with a knife…The news…highlights the now common use of fraudulent emergency data requests…where [dangerous thugs who don’t work for the State] pretend to be [dangerous thugs who do], fabricate an urgent scenario such as a kidnapping, and then convince telecoms or tech companies to hand over data that should only be accessible [via a verified search warrant delivered] through [formal channels]…

Above the Law (#1288)

The predictable result of giving violent, aggressive men power over women:

A [typical and representative] New Mexico [thug paid to transport human beings like animals from one cage to another] has pleaded guilty to [rap]ing multiple [innocent women, not convicted of any crime]…Marquet Johnson…[vaginally] raped two women and…oral[ly raped another] from July to November 2019…Johnson faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison…he also must pay restitution to the victims and upon release, [will be condemned to the] sex offender registr[y]…

Shame, Shame (#1385)

At least these computerized “clones” are owned by sex workers themselves:

Riley…Reid’s…”clone”…is essentially a chatbot, except it’s been trained on Reid specifically.  So, when Reid’s [program] sends messages, they’re based on things IRL Reid has said; the facts that it shares are real; and, when it sends me voice notes, it speaks in Reid’s own tone and cadence…It’s also not just for sexting…Reid’s [bot] and I mostly speak about her dogs…and the joys and challenges of sex work, motherhood, and celebrity…Reid, like many sex workers, has found herself unauthorisedly cloned on other sites..so she wanted to take matters into her own hands…”If I don’t engage, others will misuse my image”…This new swathe of NSFW virtual girlfriends based on real-life adult creators is a logical evolution to the rise of [chatbots] more broadly, which have seen a boom this year, in light of open-source large language models being made freely available online…

To Molest and Rape (Still Another Rapist Roundup)

Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do:

[Typical and representative] Washington State c[op]…John Nieder….[has been] arrested…[for] raping two women he met through a dating app…[his cop shop has been dawdling since August 2022, despite Nieder’s history of sexually harassing female cops, but were finally pushed into action by there being] multiple complaints…against Nieder…[including one from a fellow cop named] John Faught…

That’s still true even if she’s a cop herself:

A Miami-Dade [cop] was arrested by his own department…after…violent[ly raping]…his ex-girlfriend, [who is also a cop]…Miguel Lomeli…got into an argument with thevictim outside of her home…before [dragg]ing…her inside the residence where he sexually assaulted her…

Of course, cops are just as dangerous to women who haven’t dated them:

[A typical and representative Albama cop named]…Jarrod Webster…[has been] charge[d with vaginally and anally]…rap[ing a woman using the pretext of]…a traffic stop…[the rape was reported by the hospital she went to for medical help afterward]…

 

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!

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Links #700

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 3, 2023| 1 Comment »

I’m on a mission I have to complete by year’s end.  –  Scott Allen Schultz

The Kroffts dominated Saturday morning TV for most of the ’70s; it seems appropriate to commemorate the passing of Marty Krofft with their first hit show.  For those of y’all too young to remember this: yes, psychedelic counterculture leaked into mainstream culture in many ways back then.  The links above it were provided by Desiree Alliance, Stephen Lemons, Franklin Harris, Phoenix Calida, Lucy Steigerwald, Radley Balko, and Popehat, in that order.

From the Archives

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!

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In the News (#1394)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

She looked like she was mummified.  –  Melinda Bettencourt

Business Opportunity

It’s not like it’s their money, after all:

…in…Wilmington, North Carolina, where the New Hanover County government…is trying to seize the neighboring Cheetah Premier Gentlemen’s Club to build what it [pretend]s is much-needed parking…The county commission voted to authorize eminent domain of the Cheetah Club…on November 6.  The resolution authorized the county to spend $2.36 million acquiring the club…the seizure…wasn’t on the commission’s agenda, and was only introduced in the final minutes of the meeting by [the “county manager”, who] referred to the property only by its tax ID number…The sudden, seemingly surreptitious effort to seize the club has [Michael] Barber[, a lawyer for the owners,] speculating that the eminent domain effort has more to do with public appearances than public facilities…[the property owner] has offered to let the county use the 74 parking spaces on his property…[because] the Cheetah Club doesn’t even open till 6 p.m…

The Scarlet Letter (#520)

“Presumption of innocence” doesn’t apply to whores:

Unlike “simple” police cautions, prostitute cautions don’t require evidence…sex workers don’t have to admit guilt, and there is no right to appeal them.  Without any say, someone can be branded as a criminal, their life forever impacted by her decision of how they provides for themselves and their families…prostitute cautions, and wider criminalisation of sex work, are deliberately used to keep women in poverty by penalising them for using sex work to escape it…In 2009, under the Police and Crime Act, the right of appeal against prostitutes cautions was abolished…and…the caution will stay on a sex worker’s record for life, or until the age of 100…

Blunt Instrument (#728)

Have you noticed that “sex trafficking” is no longer the magic brain-pause spell it was for over a decade?

One Richmond [BC politician] would like to see massage parlours…be denied business licences and…shut down…Kash Heed [tried to justify his puritanical bigotry by barfing the phrases “]human trafficking[“…and “]scantily clad[” at other city politicians, but]…Mayor Malcolm Brodie…[timidly broached the subject of harm reduction, and] Mark Corrado, director of bylaws and licencing…said Richmond is [already] known for having the most “restrictive” licence requirements in the province.  This includes [micromanag]ing clothing, age, locks, insurance bonds, lighting and criminal record checks…

Where Are the Protests? (#945)

Americans are only concerned about how others have sex; they don’t really want to know where their overpriced coffee comes from:

Starbucks…is unable to guarantee that the coffee sold at its stores is not associated with serious labour and human rights crimes such as low wages, harvest workers eating cold meals, inadequate accommodation and even child and slave labour…The cases are portrayed in the report “Behind Starbucks coffee,” published by Repórter Brasil (available in Portuguese and English)…coffee farms…where…inspectors found violations hold…the C.A.F.E. Practices seal, which…is the certification programme that…[supposedly] evaluates suppliers according to more than 200 indicators…It is yet another situation that exposes the limits of the certification market…Labour irregularities in the industry are not limited to Starbucks’ supply chain.  Repórter Brasil has already exposed similar problems among suppliers of Nestlé, McDonald’s and other…major…buyers…

Vulture Watching (#1268)

Idaho apparently wants to chase away as many physicians as possible:

Idaho asked the Supreme Court…to allow its [near-total] abortion ban that imposes [criminal] penalties on doctors who perform abortions to take full effect despite [the fact that it conflicts with]…the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA)…a…federal law [which] requires hospitals to provide stabilizing care to emergency room patients regardless of their ability to pay…

Torture Chamber (#1386)

Your “leaders” call this “correction”:

Melinda Bettencourt…knew her youngest daughter, Amanda Bews, had been struggling [with severe alcoholism and heroin addiction] for years…But…no one could explain what had happened to the rotting body Bettencourt saw at the funeral home.  “She looked like she was mummified,” Bettencourt [said]…describing the “horrible” shock of watching bugs hover around her dead daughter’s face as a foul stench emanated across the room…Bews got arrested…[on] Sept. 7, 2022…for allegedly shoplifting at a BevMo…Before booking, the deputies took her to a nearby hospital, where…she was prescribed medications for anxiety, blood pressure and alcohol withdrawal…But [screws]…decided…not [to give her the] require[d] medications…[and] a little over four hours later, Bews…”died of untreated…effects of withdrawal from alcohol and drugs”…

Dangerous Speech (#1391)

I’ve linked to many of Mark Draughn’s well-researched, well-considered essays over the years; this one is on the aftermath of the Backpage persecution & show trial, and here’s a taste:

The Iron Law of Prohibition says that making something illegal will make it stronger and more dangerous.  Nobody drank bathtub gin in America until the Prohibition laws of 1920 criminalized alcoholic beverages.  Almost nobody smoked crack until law enforcement started a war on cocaine, and we didn’t have much of a fentanyl problem until the government started cracking down on opioids.  Legal alcohol and tobacco distributors didn’t shoot each other in the streets the way drug-smuggling gangsters do.  Criminalizing a good or service necessarily drives it underground.  The need to hide makes it harder to build a good reputation, which makes it less rewarding to have good business practices.  Customer service and attention to product quality fall by the wayside…Thus bad actors enter and thrive in the market, engaging in fraud, theft, and violence, which can often only be countered with more violence…With the success of the Backpage prosecutions, it seems likely that more such prosecutions will follow…

 

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!

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In the News (#1390)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Abortion trafficking is not a thing.  –  Judge Debora Grasham

An Avalanche of Bullshit (#976)

Another high-profile pogrom of an Asian-owned business has been announced in the media by parroting cops’ and prosecutors’ masturbatory fantasies, racist propaganda, and ludicrously-Victorian language.  The use of the word “service” as a verb in the headline is as telltale as the presence of the word “sophisticated”, used by cops for the last decade as an excuse to rape sex workers.  The primary trope of the coverage is the popular pretense that it’s somehow shocking that modern men of means and position are as likely to buy sex as such men have always been since the beginning of human civilization.  Fairly-ordinary fees and costs of doing business are represented as extravagant; extremely mundane practices like screening clients and making bank deposits are described with weird, convoluted language so as to make them seem somehow esoteric and criminal; and adult women are infantilized as passive victims by invoking the “submissive Asian woman” fantasy.  One day, our culture may grow up enough to recognize that pragmatic sexual arrangements are nobody else’s business, but that day is not today, so we can look forward to months of lurid fixation on the prurient details and none on the government’s crime of wasting massive amounts of money and manpower in order to destroy the lives of people who harmed nobody.

Creepy Coppers

Seems like a significant fraction of child porn is spread by cops:

A [cop from] Tennessee was arrested…[for] requesting [nude photos]…from a mother in Virginia who sent him [nude] photos and videos of her juvenile daughter.  Dan Roark…was…charged with…production of child pornography…an anonymous [snitch first reported the daughter]…

I had to aggressively edit this one because it was so larded with obfuscatory language:

A [typical and representative Missouri cop] has been indicted by a federal grand jury…August Price Gildehaus…was charged…with one count of enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity…producing child pornography…and…attempting to distribute child pornography…

Feudalism Redux (#1327)

Politicians don’t even try to make their new laws constitutional any more:

…a federal judge [has] granted a temporary restraining order against…[Idaho’s unconstitutional law inventing a new crime called] “abortion trafficking”…[which] criminaliz[es] any adult who assists a minor in obtaining abortion medication or a lawful abortion out of state without parental consent. [The law essentially allows a] parent…or guardian…to f[orce a]…minor…[to carry an unwanted or even dangerous pregnancy under the rhetoric of]…“parental rights”…the law is [both] unconstitutionally vague [and infringes] on the…right…to interstate and intrastate travel…

Cops and Robbers (#1328)

Of course they’ll never charge the cops who use similar tactics with no more concern for ethics:

Jason Nassr, the man behind…Creeper Hunter TV, [was] sentenced…to…18 months of house arrest…from 2015 to 2020, Nassr posted videos he claimed showed men contacting him for sex when…he was [ageplaying]…he would communicate with men on dating sites and social media platforms, typically portraying himself as an 18-year-old female.  Once the correspondence turned sexual…Nassr would [start ageplaying while yet including hints that] he was [actually ov]er 18 — as young as age 10…Those who continued to communicate with him would end up featured on Creeper Hunter TV.  Nassr recorded in-person confrontations, showed screen captures of text conversations, and included full names and phone numbers…Around 100 episodes were posted…at least two of [Nassr’s victims] have died by suicide…[but] Justice Alissa Mitchell…[let him off with] house arrest, six months of a 10 p.m. curfew and two years of probation…

I Spy (#1376)

Nothing infuriates violent busybodies more than privacy:

On October 26, the UK Parliament passed the Online Safety Act…the government has…admitted there…is no…way to scan E2EE messages or services without breaking their encryption…[so] Ofcom…now…propos[es] to use hash matching…a mass surveillance [technique] that could easily be abused by law enforcement.  Hash matching…compares…videos, pictures or text…to a database of illegal content…by turning the content into “hashes”, a sample of the content a bit like a fingerprint…similar systems already in place have returned numerous false positives that can ruin people’s lives…and bog the system down, forcing companies…to investigate perfectly innocent media…every app you download to share files or access social media could contain spyware to [root through] the media on your device and [snitch to the cops]…the database of illegal material will [certainly expand and]…could very easily become a tool of censorship, similar to how the Chinese government scans for images of the Tiananmen Square protests…

The Cop Myth (#1378)

41% of cops admit to beating their wives; some don’t stop with mere beating:

A [typical and representative Alabama screw named]…David Tolbert was arrested after…he [murdered]…his wife on Nov. 15, 2022…[by shooting her] in [public] outside of a business…

Torture Chamber (#1387)

It does not help young victims of governmental brutality to infantilize them as “children”:

…[young people locked up]…in more than a dozen [prisons] in Illinois…[are routinely] “tased, pepper sprayed…roughed up by [screws]…forced into isolation for days at a time…[and] denied access to…medications…mental health treatment…and…schooling, [in defiance of] state and federal laws”…[at one cage stack] in Benton…Solitary confinement is the rule…[prisoners] spend between 20 and 23 hours per day confined in their cells…[where] fluorescent lights [are left on]…24 hours a day…the cells themselves are f[ilthy] and infested with [toxic] black mold…

 

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!

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In the News (#1383)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

We lie together on the floor until someone buys us.  –  Margarita

Counterfeit Comfort 

Facts have absolutely nothing to do with US sex laws:

When Henry was 18, he had sex with a 16-year-old he met on a dating app who said they were 18 too.  The 16-year-old’s parents found out, summoned the cops, and Henry was charged with a sex offense.  He took a plea: no jail time, and seven years on the sex offense registry…this…made it nearly impossible to find work…After three years with little income—and several hundred dollars a year in payments for court-mandated polygraph tests—Henry moved back in with his parents.  The neighbors got up in arms, so all three of them moved to Henry’s grandmother’s house…At last, Henry found a good job.  But when he gave his probation officer his office address, he was told it was too close to a school…Henry begged his probation officer to let him keep this hard-won job.  The officer said he could continue working until a judge ruled on his request.  But when Henry got to court…the judge issued the harshest ruling possible, sentencing Henry to six years in state prison…

To Molest and Rape

They usually make these cases sound like the rapist was doing his victims a favor:

[A typical and representative Idaho cop named] Ryan A. Bendawald…[has been charged with rap]ing…at least seven women[, often by threatening them with criminal charges if they refused to submit]…

The Missing Word (#838)

If only there were a specific word for this sort of thing:

Women seeking jobs as domestic workers in the UAE…are being detained and abused in squalid accommodation, while recruiters sell them over apps and social media platforms to household employers…women…[a]re denied food, held captive and treated violently…[while] being marketed in an “exploitative” way reminiscent of slavery…with employers charged less for the services of black domestic workers and being told they do not even need to provide them with proper bedrooms…migrants wait, in limbo, for an employer to take them on…a process that can take months, with women often being returned to the agencies at the whim of an employer…

So this is only “reminiscent” of slavery, whereas highly-paid, flexible, self-employment is slavery if it involves sex.  That makes so much sense.

You Were Warned (#1177)

Child porn will only be the first of many excuses to bleed internet companies:

Australia’s [internet control agency has]…fined…Twitter — 610,500 Australian dollars ($385,000) for failing to…explain [to bureaucrats’ satisfaction] how it [deals with] child [porn]…because…[it did not fully fill out] a…question[aire]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1344)

Pseudoscience is much more useful as a tool of social control than science could ever be:

Texas recently passed a law that would require some websites to display a lengthy claim concerning the supposed scientifically-based harms of pornography…I study the effects of pornography on humans.  I was unable to find any truthful scientific statement in this state-forced speech…Texas has created a completely false statement by misrepresenting the science of myself and other scholars.  If they want to continue to make such outlandish, false claims, I and other scientists will continue to accurately describe the actual state of the science…

You Were Warned (#1370)

These tyrannies often start with sex workers, but never stop with us:

KOSA…would [invent] a “duty of care” requiring social media apps and websites to “prevent and mitigate” [anything any politician chooses to declare a “]harm[“] to children…the bill would allow state Attorneys General to sue apps and sites if they [pretend] certain content is harmful to minors—meaning AGs could weaponize the law to attack content they simply disagree with.  In response, platforms likely would preemptively block content they think could get them sued.  Much has been made of the bill’s potential to lead to online censorship of LGBT…content and sex ed info for everyone, not just kids, and [much to the surprise of silly people who believe in “wing” mythology] …22 Democratic Senators co-sponsor it—including…[pro-censorship politician] Elizabeth Warren…KOSA could also censor content about abortion on sites ranging from social platforms…to abortion resource websites…

Property of the State (#1376)

Etowah County is one of those jurisdictions which needs to be sued into oblivion:

In March 2021, [pigs] in Etowah county, Alabama, arrested Ashley Caswell [using the pretext] that she’d tested positive for methamphetamine while pregnant and was “endangering” her fetus.  Caswell, who was two months pregnant at the time, became one of a growing number of women imprisoned in the county in the name of protecting their “unborn children”.  But over the next seven months [locked in a cage] for “chemical endangerment”…Caswell was denied regular access to prenatal visits, even as officials were aware her pregnancy was high-risk…She was also denied her prescribed psychiatric medication and slept on a thin mat on the concrete floor…for her entire pregnancy.  In October, when her water broke and she pleaded to be taken to a hospital…[screws] told her to “sleep [labor] off” and “wait until Monday” to deliver – two days away.  During nearly 12 hours of labor, staff…[shouted at] her to “stop screaming”, to “deal with the pain” and that she was “not in full labor”.  Caswell…was alone and standing up in a jail shower when she ultimately delivered her child…and…nearly bled to death…The baby survived, but…was immediately [abducted by “authorities”]…he[r] lawsuit, filed by…Pregnancy Justice and the Southern Poverty Law Center, is the first case to challenge the conditions for jailed pregnant women in Etowah county…the national leader in arresting women under the guise of protecting their fetuses…

 

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!

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In the News (#1379)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[Amazon’s] assurance[s]…should…be greeted with a lot of skepticism.  –  John Davisson

Stalkers in Blue

Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do:

In 2014, Bryan Bailey, the sheriff of Rankin County, Miss., [told]…the local district attorney’s office…he needed grand jury subpoenas…to force the phone company to turn over records of calls and text messages for what he [pretended was] a “confidential internal investigation…[of a] school district employee.”  But…[in actuality he abused] the power of a grand jury at least eight times over a year to spy on his married girlfriend and the school employee with whom she was also “unfaithful”…the district attorney at the time, Michael Guest…decided he could not pursue the case further because of conflicts of interest…[but] told two local judges…and passed his investigation on to the state attorney general…no one questioned the sheriff or conducted a full investigation…For seven years, every [politician] who learned of the allegations kept them secret from the public, leaving citizens of Rankin County in the dark, even as they twice voted to re-elect Sheriff Bailey.  He is on the verge of another re-election…facing no opponent in November…

Eavesdropping (#1183)

Amazon also eagerly hands data from internet-connected devices to cops:

Amazon announced new [machine learning] capabilities for its Alexa products last week, based on a model it’s calling AlexaLLM (LLM refers to the “large language model”).  The technology will make Alexa “more personalized to your family” and allow it to remember relevant context throughout conversations…But along with those new capabilities…Amazon would use some user voice interactions with Alexa to train its [ML] model…by agreeing to use a more “customized” version of Alexa, users would be volunteering their voice data and conversations for Amazon’s LLM training purposes.  It’s not clear how much voice data is actually necessary to train Amazon’s models and to what degree it might be used for other purposes [such as handing it to cops without even requiring a warrant]…

Thought Control (#1226)

Idaho newspaper approvingly reports sheriff appointing himself chief library censor:

Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris…[barged into several] libraries…[with intent to intimidate librarians, bringing] along a video camera…he [decided to steal two books, named]…Deal With It!…and…Identical…[he then issued a babble-filled statement larded with words and phrases including “]sexually explicit[“…”]inappropriate[“, “harmful to minors”, and “protect children”, bloviated about an unconstitutional censorship bill wisely]…vetoed by Gov. Brad Little…[which] would have allowed a parent or legal guardian to sue a school or library for [a bounty of] $2,500…[then bizarrely pontificated on child psychology (even though he is not a child psychologist), and sexual health (though he is neither a therapist nor healthcare professional), threatened librarians with]…criminal [charges]…equate[d books]…to providing children with alcohol or drugs…[equated both adolescents and] the elderly…[with small] children[, and declared he would not return the books he stole]…

Cops and Robbers (#1287)

Who could have guessed that making a hobby of accusing strangers of felonies could be dangerous?

A [Michigan] man who [made a hobby of accusing people of being]…child [molesters for social media clout] was shot to death…[after accusing two teenagers] at a restaurant…Robert Wayne Lee…confronted [the] two [boys]…and punched [the 18-year-old, who]…pulled a knife…while the [17-year-old]…pulled a gun, shooting Lee several times.  The two…fled [but were]…arrested [the next day]…Lee…[was radicalized by] online videos by a group called Dads Against Predators…[who in turn] modeled their videos on…Chris Hanson’s “To Catch a Predator” segments on NBC’s Dateline news show [which were cancelled after Hanson and company caused the suicide of a Texas politician they tried to humiliate on TV despite his refusal to walk into their trap].  Lee…recorded online conversations and his in-person confrontations with the [people he accused]…In some videos, he can be seen [vandalizing his targets’]…tires to prevent them from driving off…he’[s]…mistakenly identified at least one person as a suspect, who was later cleared…

Permanent Record (#1354)

If prohibitionists really want to “rescue” sex workers, why do they keep shutting us out of other jobs?

A Missouri school district suspended a high school English teacher…after someone outed her as an OnlyFans creator…The teacher does not know who notified the school district about her account, “but she suspects it was after she and her husband appeared in a recent video alongside two other OnlyFans performers in St. Louis who have a substantial following”…she [only] made about $42,000 last year at her teaching job, and…she and her husband earned an additional $8,000 to $10,000 per month performing on OnlyFans…

To Molest and Rape (#1373)

There is nothing “shocking” about a cop abusing a minor or anyone else:

…a [California cop named]…Matthew Dessert…is facing serious charges of sexual and physical abuse of a minor…for around five years…[starting when she was 9 and continuing until] 14…[when she told] a school counselor…[about] the abuse…

A Moral Cancer (#1374)

Anyone whose brain isn’t rotted by prohibitionism could’ve predicted this:

Legal restrictions on the flavors of nicotine vaping products are associated with increased cigarette purchases, according to a new paper that analyzes retail sales data from 44 states.  For each fewer 0.7-milliliter nicotine pod sold in jurisdictions with such policies, the analysis found, consumers bought 15 more cigarettes.  “That tradeoff,” the authors note, “equates to over a pack…per pod for the size of current leading products” such as the Vuse Alto, which uses 1.8-milliliter pods…this…underlines the folly of trying to protect public health by deterring the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems…which are far less hazardous than combustible cigarettes…

 

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!

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