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Posts Tagged ‘Imagination Pinned Down’

Rapists of the Week #22

Posted in Current Events, Perception, Rapists of the Week, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Border Patrol agents are taught that women lie, and that…agents…are the victims.  –  Jenn Budd

Imagination Pinned Down

As much as I’d like to believe this of a boss hog, this reeks of Satanic Panic “ritual abuse” fantasy engendered by false memory syndrome:

The daughter of a New Jersey police chief claims he repeatedly raped her for more than a decade as part of a “ritualistic” cult allegedly involving their neighbors…Courtney Tamagny’s [lawsuit includes her father] Scott Tamagny, his neighbor Kevin Slevin and others…Slevin has…countersued Courtney for defamation…the 20-year-old claims her father and Slevin…and…other middle-aged men…with masks on their faces…[lit a] fire and [burned] animals…[while] chant[ing, starting]…in 2009 when [she] was around 4…until 2020, when she was 15…[she] claims she suppressed memories of the abuse for years…and…began recalling them after [seeing] a…therapist…in 2022…[her] alleged[ly recovered] memories in[clude] the…claim…that generations of her father’s “bloodline” had been in a satanic cult…that…raped…children and burned them alive in…“tunnels” [where] they would…covertly [hold] their rituals…as part of a national cabal of satanists engaged in child trafficking…she claimed [her sisters and]…upward of 10 [other] kids were…in[volved even though nobody else has similar “memories”]…her [lawsuit]…also named the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, the State of New Jersey, various state child protective services and others…

This girl clearly needs competent professional help, not encouragement from lawyers and quack “therapists”.

Creepy Coppers

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

A Montgomery County [Maryland cop named]…Mark Burhoe…[was arrested on child pornography charges.  In an unusual move], he…was suspended without pay, [but both his boss and an ex-cop criminologist used the opportunity to bloviate copaganda about how he would get]…”no special treatment”…

This one has double-distancing: “former” and “probationary”:

A [typical and representative Wisconsin cop named]…Owen Halls was [typical and representative]…when he was fired in March fo[r being caught with…child pornography[.  Halls was] reported [by one of his roommates] in June of [last] year…[but] police [dragged their feet for six months]…Halls [has already confessed but pled not guilty to child porn charges anyhow]…

Above the Law (ROTW #14)

Federal thugs behave just like state & local thugs:

A…Border Patrol [goon named]…Bart Conrad Yager…[has been] charged with…pandering…child sex trafficking…[drug dealing] and…fraud, [all committed] between July 2023 and March 2024…A decade ago, [he raped a woman in] Tucson…But CBP [didn’t bother to] investigate…Yager, a[nd]…Tucson Police [put] the…victim [through such an ordeal she eventually dropped the charges because]…Yager [kept] threaten[ing her] with violence a[nd neither]…police [nor CBP did shit about it.  The fraud charges against]…Yager [are because he] misrepresented his location during work hours and fraudulently claimed travel reimbursements…for…hotels…he…[used to see] underage [sex workers]…as young as 13…[he was also known for] sexual harassment…[of] nursing and contractor staff [who] “knew him to be ‘crazy with a hatred towards women’”…Yager is [only] the latest…Arizona-based CBP [goon to]…be…charged with…sexual misconduct…crimes…Ramon Marquez…was arrested in May…[for repeatedly molesting] a 16-year-old…[and] in January…Efren Lopez Cornejo [escaped with]…lifetime probation, but no jail time [and no condemnation to the “sex offender” registry], after he accepted a…plea [bargain for]…indecent exposure….[and] sexual abuse of a…family member…[who] was 9…

To Molest and Rape (#1523)

When will the mainstream media admit that pigs in schools are a menace?

[A] Chino [California cop named]…Matthew Solano, who had been [paid to lurk in]…school[s to spy on, harass, and intimidate students, predictably molested]…two [underage girls.  When the school told the cop shop]…Solano was immediately [rewarded with a paid vacation, but]…was [not] arrested [until six months later]…Solano was [also involved in the snitch-training DARE scheme]…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #21)

Another rapist cop finds a victim via a grooming program:

A San Jose [California cop named]…Saul Duran, was [arrested for]…sexual assault of a minor…[because he raped two teenage girls] about 13 years ago…[he met his victims through] a…police department [grooming] program called the Parent Project…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #21)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:

A [New York cop named]…Sydney Mills…rape[d]…a…14 [year old girl while]…wearing…[his magical clown costume.  He was arrested and charged with multiple sex crimes.  In a rare moment of honesty], Ulster County District Attorney Emmanuel Nneji said…“I’d like to be shocked or surprised, but I’m not”…

 

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Throwback Thursday vs Frankenstein

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

There is no therapy for poor judgment.  –  “Public Service Announcement”

Just as we ignore those topological elements of a cloud or inkblot which do not fit the meaning our minds have imposed upon it, so do we forget or distort elements of a memory which fail to conform to the schema in which we have embedded it, or even invent elements which were not in reality present, but which the schema predicts should be.  –  “Imagination Pinned Down”

As long as we allow and even encourage our governments to criminalize private, consensual behaviors with no clear victim and no actual corpus delicti, lots more people are going to be senselessly killed and lots of senseless killers are going to get away with it.  –  “Rotten to the Core”

Most modern prohibitionist propaganda is based upon depicting the prostitute as a mentally inferior creature whose statements about her own thoughts and feelings cannot be trusted.  –  “Ninon de l’Enclos”

There is no magical moment of “Shazam!” at which teens are mystically imbued with the ability to consent.  –  “Legal Fiction“

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The X-Files, Continued

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged , , , , , on March 10, 2025| 1 Comment »

To appreciate The X-Files as an intelligent, well-informed person requires a strong sense of irony and an equally-strong capacity for willing suspension of disbelief, because in the X-Files universe nearly every myth, folk belief, superstition, pseudoscientific premise, conspiracy theory, and science-fiction plot has at least a basis in fact.  While in real life Agent Dana Scully would be the sane, grounded one, and her partner, Agent Fox Mulder, would be a paranoid, unhinged crackpot (read the first half of this review, if you haven’t yet), in the topsy-turvy, looking-glass world inhabited by these characters, their viewpoints are much more equally balanced.  Mulder’s willingness to believe in anything and everything doesn’t always prove useful, and indeed the writers often have fun with it, especially in later seasons.  But when balanced by Scully’s scientific skepticism, the two can often uncover the solution to the mysteries they probe (unless, of course, the writers have decided that they can’t).  In most cases, this is typical of shows in which the heroes go up against supernatural or sci-fi menaces; after all, neither Kolchak: The Night Stalker nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer would’ve been nearly as interesting had every threat been revealed as a fraud, a la Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?  But by adding many of the 20th century’s most popular conspiracy theories into the mixture, the show begins to bear a much closer resemblance to the Illuminatus! trilogy than to any of its other inspirations.

This is not a criticism, though in its first two seasons, written and broadcast toward the end of the Satanic Panic, dangerous nonsense like recovered memories and Satanic ritual sex abuse are treated seriously at a time when those beliefs were not only not considered total hokum by the Establishment, but were actually being used by cops and prosecutors to destroy lives.  I found those episodes difficult to enjoy, though by the third season the Satanic Panic was being treated far more dismissively, and Scully even has a few speeches about it being an evidence-free crock of shit (unfortunately, actress Gillian Anderson lacks her character’s disciplined skepticism).  And while some of the other conspiracy theories the show used as plot devices may have adherents who make trouble for others, they were usually treated in such an over-the-top fashion (eg, the Smoking Man being the true assassin of JFK, RFK, and MLK) they couldn’t be taken seriously by any audience member who wasn’t already entirely convinced of their veracity.

As is so often the case, the show took a few seasons to really hit its stride; while I found the first season and most of the second entertaining enough, It wasn’t until the third season that I found the majority of episodes truly engaging and entertaining.  The show’s creator originally intended to produce only five seasons and then transition to a series of movies, but only the first one was made because the still-adolescent Fox network had no intention of retiring its most highly-rated show just yet, and so wrangled the creators into four more seasons.  The sixth was still quite good; one excellent two-parter was obviously adapted from the script for the never-made second movie, and there were a number of the same type of experimental episodes which were becoming fashionable in other imaginative shows of the time (including Deep Space Nine, Stargate SG-1, and the aforementioned Buffy).  But by the seventh the show was noticeably aging, and the eighth and ninth seasons largely seemed to be looking for a reason to still exist; I know that two more seasons were produced in the Teens, but frankly they just looked embarrassing, and neither Grace nor I was interested.

All in all, I found the show a worthwhile use of my relaxation time, but I don’t think it’s likely that I’ll ever re-watch it.  And if I had tried to watch on a weekly broadcast TV schedule rather than a DVD set of known length I could watch on my own schedule, I suspect I would’ve lost interest long before it was over, unless I was watching with a loved one who was more excited about it than I was.

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Under the Sun

Posted in Biography, History, Perception, tagged , , , , , , , on May 11, 2023| 4 Comments »

Why, oh why are so many ignoramuses convinced that non-vanilla sex is a recent invention? And why are they so certain in this stupid belief that they want to proclaim their status as dullards to the entire internet?

This also implies that every kinky person who came of age before the advent of internet porn is lying.  My first recollection of “funny feelings” (as I thought of them) goes back to 1970, but this soi-disant Sage of Sexuality claims they derive from kinky porn I’ve never seen.  And that is, BTB, not an exaggeration; I became tired of, and uninterested in, porn several years before I had an internet connection.  The only kinky porn I’ve ever seen was a German “wet sex” magazine my first husband bought in Bavaria sometime in the mid-’80s.  And yet, despite my dislike of porn, I do not think it should be banned.  I also dislike drag shows, but I don’t think they should be banned either.  Funny how true principles and valid ethics don’t depend on the gut-level preferences of any one person.

But I digress.  The core of this is, of course, sexual shame; people (especially, though by no means exclusively, those reared in sexually-repressive religions) cannot admit to any sexual feelings outside of straight vanilla monogamy, so when they experience such feelings it’s both convenient and comforting to blame them on porn, “sex addiction“, alien abduction, demonic possession, hypnosis, or any other thing outside the darker recesses of their own brains.

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In the News (#1195)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »

The people having the greatest sexual fulfilment were [those] who…discarded the entire package of paint-by-numbers ideas about sexuality.  –  Peggy Kleinplatz

The Truth About “The Truth About…”

Another of those nonexistent false rape accusations:

Alice Sebold’s bestselling 1999 memoir Lucky tells the story of a young woman raped by a stranger…Sebold went on to write the bestseller The Lovely Bones, a fictional account of a teenage girl raped and killed.  But last week Anthony Broadwater, the man who served 16 years in prison for raping Sebold, was exonerated.  Timothy Mucciante, a producer working on a film adaptation of Lucky, was fired after raising questions about inconsistencies in Sebold’s story…[and] discrepancies between the memoir and the facts of the case, to the point where he…ended up hiring a private investigator [who]…broke the case.  Broadwater’s conviction…rested on shaky evidence: Sebold had…initially picked a different man out of a lineup—and the only forensic evidence was a form of hair analysis that [even] the government now [admits is] junk science…Broadwater was [condemned to] the New York Sex Offender Registry after his 1999 release, and…remained on it until a few days ago.  His case starkly highlights the needless cruelty of sex offense registries…

Between the Ears (#322)

Professionals have been telling y’all this for decades:

…truly magnificent sex has very little to do with daring feats of seduction or screaming orgasms…erotic intimacy is more a state of mind than a physical act.  In a recent study, Magnificent Sex, psychologist and sex therapist Dr Peggy J Kleinplatz and her colleagues at Ottawa University…recruited people from around the world across the age, gender and sexuality spectrum – who self-reported having had, at some point in their lives, truly mindblowing sex.  Through a series of interviews, researchers began to build up a picture of what “the best sex ever” looks, feels and sounds like…Despite the different ways each participant actually had sex, at the very peaks of the experience, everyone was feeling the same kinds of things: total absorption in the moment, deep connection with their partner, and openness and a willingness to take a few emotional risks…

The rest has the same kind of advice sex educators have been giving people for as long as there’s been such a thing (see the subtitle of this item?) but it won’t do any good, because most people just want a magic pill.

Checklist (#685)

Thought you could avoid the “sex trafficking” Gestapo by taking a bus rather than a plane?  Think again:

Denver [cops swarmed]…a Greyhound bus [on November 29th]…[they delayed the bus for hours, interrogat]ing…passengers and [root]ing [through people’s] luggage [without their consent, using the excuse of “]a possible human trafficking situation[” reported by a busybody indoctrinated by government “signs of trafficking” propaganda]…an adult female was [on the bus] and…The Denver Police Human Trafficking Unit is investigating [why she was traveling without a male]…no one has been arrested at this time…

Monsters (#863) 

All internet “porn” censorship schemes have similar endgames:

A powerful Russian [politician]…unveiled…a bill proposal that would classify all depictions of LGBTQ+ relationships in the same banned or restricted categories as pornography…[while] another [politician announced]…he had prepared a catalog of “toxic content,” using a system that labels content from “completely banned” to “simply undesirable”…Vitaly Milonov…[said] “the state…[should] not allow the broadcast of films with LGBTQ+ content”…and…Igor Ashmanov… “would flag topics such as radical feminism [and] ‘child-free’ lifestyles, as well as the promotion of homosexuality and bestiality”…Last month, an[other politician blathered toxic nonsense about]…“the rights of law enforcers [to inflict violence upon individuals for their thoughts]”…

Winding Down (#1114)

Your “leaders” know what’s best, so shut up and obey:

South Dakota voters made history last November by simultaneously approving ballot initiatives aimed at legalizing recreational and medical use of marijuana…Amendment A…prevailed by an eight-point margin in a state that is…largely conservative.  But thanks to…legal [obstructionism]…by [prohibitionist] Gov. Kristi Noem, Amendment A was almost immediately tied up in litigation, and…[now] the South Dakota Supreme Court [has] definitively overturned it…[on a technicality the amendment’s backers called “a far-fetched legal theory”, an assessment the dissenting judge agreed with]…unless the state legislature independently implements the policy embodied in Amendment A, the ruling means supporters…will have to try again next year with an initiative that addresses the court’s legal objections…

The Crumbling Dam (#1153)

Will the feds interfere with this as they did in Philadelphia?

In an attempt to curb a surge in overdose deaths caused by [street drugs made] increasingly potent [by the iron law of prohibition], New York City will authorize two supervised injection sites in Manhattan…New York…will become the first U.S. city to open officially authorized injection sites…other cities including Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston and Seattle have taken steps toward supervised injection but have [been blocked by prohibitionists both in and out of government]…Mayor Bill de Blasio…sent a letter to the providers promising “not to take enforcement action” against their operations and…four of the city’s five district attorneys — [in]cluding [crypto-prohibitionist]…Cyrus R. Vance Jr…

I Spy (#1173)

I’ll believe Facebook is actually going to do this when it actually does it:

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp’s parent company…doesn’t plan to roll out end-to-end encryption…by default on Messenger and Instagram until 2023…Antigone Davis, Meta’s head of safety, attributes the delay to concerns about user safety…[which does not]…mean…[actual safety, but is in actuality an Orwellian euphemism for copsucking]…UK…[politicians are trying to criminalize encryption in their fiefdom] and…the US…Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, and Japan…all [subscribe to mathematically-illiterate lawhead beliefs that it’s possible]…to give [pigs and spooks a “backdoor” to root around in people’s private affairs while magically preventing thugs and busybodies who don’t work for the State from exploiting the same intentional gap in security]…

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In the News (#1123)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 27, 2021| 1 Comment »

This guy lay in shit and…died in [a] cell that looks like a friggin’ horse stall.  –  unnamed investigator

Imagination Pinned Down

Like seeing pictures in clouds or inkblots:

When the unrecognizable body of Jeannette DePalma…was found atop a…wooded hill…called the Devil’s Teeth in 1972, rumors spread quickly that the [16-year-old] was killed in some sort of satanic rite…Police…[claim]ed…they had found signs they thought might be related to the occult, including crosses made of sticks and branches arranged in a coffin-like outline around her body…But crime scene photographs released for the first time [last month]…debunk those claims, showing that DePalma’s body was simply lying in a dense, brushy area…facedown with an arm draped over a downed tree branch…Jason Coy, a history professor…who researches witchcraft…said he can’t find any sign of the occult or any other symbolism in the jumble of brush and branches.  It suggests that investigators, looking for something sinister, saw patterns that weren’t there…“Everything in th[e police] sketch that was marked out as a cross, in these crime scene photos just looks like a pile of underbrush…it’s a perfect example of how…i[f] someone…[has] the idea that something could be occult, they remember things that way”…

The Naked Anthropologist

Here’s Dr. Laura Agustín with GAATW on the rescue industry:

Torture Chamber 

For a change, this journalist doesn’t refer to torture as “correction”:

…Reginald Wilson spent more than 1,300 days in and out of jail since 1997 for charges often related to his fragile mental health…in December 2018 [Georgia cops abducted and caged him] for a probation violation…[dur]ing a mental health crisis…he was [lock]ed in a padded [cell and given no professional help, even after]…he smeared his own feces on the wall.  “He never slept. He was constantly just up, doing almost like gymnastics when you watched the video,” one [screw admitted to]…investigators…Wilson stopped eating, drinking and refused to take medication…[yet] the jail’s psychiatrist never saw [him].  In[stead,] staff [just repeatedly yelled “stop faking” at]…him…[and cop]s tased him at least tw[ice].  After… eight days…a [screw] found Wilson not breathing…[and] covered in…feces…[he had] died from…dehydration…

Not for Any Reason Whatsoever

Do I really have to add, “Not because a little boy picked a flower”?

[A] 6-year-old…was accused of picking a tulip from a yard at his bus stop, his attorney Julie Boyer said, and…was on trial…for injury to real property.  The boy’s attention span was too short to follow the proceedings…[so] Boyer…handed him crayons and a coloring book…she…and others [explain that] children that age don’t have the mental capacity to understand the juvenile justice process and…can’t make informed decisions…[yet at present North Carolina]…expect[s them to]…”Should a child that believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy be making life-altering decisions?” asked…Judge Jay Corpening…[local] advocates…recommend…the age be raised to 12…The National Juvenile Justice Network recommends 14…

End Demand (#893)

It’s good to see a story like this quote at least one knowledgeable person:

Columbus [Ohio politicians] are weighing changes to local solicitation laws that would emphasize pu…shing [propaganda about] those who pay for sex [in addition to propaganda about] those who sell it…[politician] Mitchell Brown [vomited out popular nonsense about]…sex trafficking…chief [copagandist and rape apologist] Jennifer Knight…[salivated about forcing people into “re-education”] sessions…[but actual] researchers like Jennifer Suchland argue “end demand” policies often backfire…“Because there’s now substantial evidence to show that they are, one, not actually reducing the amount of exploitation, and two, they are increasing the precarity of those people who are in the sex trade”…Suchland says…the “end demand” model is based on a faulty assumption…

Knight is the sow charged with making excuses for the Columbus rape gang, and claims the way to “build trust” with women is to hunt, rape and cage them.

Safe Position (#1058)

Don’t be deceived by Katz, a duplicitous proponent of Swedish criminalization:

Queens, New York, District Attorney Melinda Katz moved…to dismiss nearly 700 cases against people charged with loitering for the purpose of prostitution…[on] the same day…Mayor Bill de Blasio pushed [Swedish-style]…criminaliz[ation]…The…law was repealed last month out of concern it too often targeted…people…based solely on their appearance…Katz [followed up by bloviating about]…sex trafficking…

Katz is dismissing these cases because she has to, since the law they were charged under was repealed.  This isn’t some kind of personal move on her part toward sex worker rights, despite claims to the contrary.

Predictable Consequences

Lots of sex workers are quoted in this rebuke of prohibitionist yellow journalism:

…The New York Times re[acted to]…the recent slayings of eight persons at three “Asian” spas…by a deranged religious nut…with a self-[indulgent article]…adopting the rhetoric…of…sex work…pro[hibitionists], painting the spas as havens for sex trafficking…without one quote from sex workers or sex worker rights advocates, the Times piece [claim]s that “experts say there are more than 9,000 such businesses” in the U.S. which are “fronts for prostitution,” and that “many of the women working there are being exploited.”  That dubious statistic hails from a particularly odious non-profit, the Polaris Project, which has long conflated consensual adult sex work with sex trafficking and has a history of dealing in fake statistics and urban legends…Massage workers…have no agency, nor any voice, in this scheme or this article…

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In the News (#1105)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 20, 2021| Leave a Comment »

We open or we die.  –  open letter from Mexico City restaurateurs

Feminine Pragmatism (#913)

One day, reporters will learn that “people work to make money” is not news:

Like many other young Venezuelans, Valery Lopez has found a way to survive the…country’s crippling economic crisis…[by selling] online sexual content…she has found a way to avoid joining the exodus of five million migrants [who] have left the country since 2015.  “I was…[able] to stay in Venezuela thanks to OnlyFans,” [said] Lopez…[her] channel has more than 50 [international] subscribers…each one pays $10 a month: a figure six times the minimum salary in Venezuela…[but professional busybodies like] Abel Saraiba…[bemoan Lopez’ and others’ entrepreneurship, absurdly referring to merely selling pictures from the privacy of her own home as]…”a risky (line of work)”…

Hot Mess Alabama

Alabama is trying to make up for its late start by spewing “sex trafficking” idiocy most other states have quietly dropped:

…the purpose of the event series is “to promote…myths surrounding [sex work]”…focusing on…the sex [fantasies of prohibitionists about]…how traffickers recruit and subjugate young women and children…[chief busybody] Julia Meyers [recited the Shahada and tired old “King of the Hill” tropes about]…I-20 and I-65 as…major human trafficking corridors…the commercial sex industry generates $110 million each year in the Birmingham-metro area…this does not include illegal activity that occurs in massage parlors or strip clubs…90 percent or more people that are prostituted people are actually being trafficked…

“People that are prostituted people” is a tautology that well encapsulates the circularity of these wankers’ parade into their own rectums.

False Witness (#980)

Once the Satanic panic returned as “sex trafficking”, charlatans began to work on rehabiltating the dangerous and discredited doctrine of “repressed memories”, which was use to destroy so many lives in the 1980s and ’90s.  In this article from The Cut, writer Katie Heaney pretends that the science debunking “repressed memories” is “controversial” (it isn’t), and that the theory behind what is now called false memory syndrome originated in a couple’s defense against accusations of abuse from their adult daughter (it didn’t).  She also tries her best to smear Elizabeth Loftus, whose work in the field of memory was the actual origin of the theory.  Heaney’s motivation is probably just page-clicks, but the people who want to re-convince courts that memories can magically reappear decades after the end of a statute of limitations (and the disintegration of any evidence or alibi) have a decidedly more sinister motive, and unless mental health professionals nip this in the bud, we’re once again going to start seeing people’s lives destroyed based on nothing more than delusions created or validated by unscrupulous, malicious cops, bureaucrats and prosecutors.

Nonessential

Working people all over are done with arbitrary authoritarian “lockdowns”:

It was assumed that…[on] January 11, Mexico City and the State of Mexico would [be done with the government-assigned COVID risk category called “]the red light[“, the most restrictive designation, but politicians arbitrarily] decided to extend it for another week.  Given this, many restaurateurs decided to ignore this measure and under the social media hashtag #AbrimosOMorimos, they announced that as of today they will reopen…”Open or die is a reality in the industry in general, from the taco stand to the most sophisticated restaurant…and the oxygen is over,” said José Sánchez…of Sonora Grill…Manolo Ablanedo…of…Fisher’s, said…more than 500 restaurants in [Mexico City] will open…”because…the next option to survive is to fire waiters and cooks”…[in] a letter addressed to the…government…the…restaurateurs requested to be considered essential…”They are extinguishing us…Let’s not condemn restaurant workers to unemployment, or thousands of businesses to bankruptcy!”

The Crumbling Dam (#1057)

Remember this when apologists claim prohibitionists are “well-intentioned”:

A divided federal appeals court…blocked…the nation’s first supervised drug-injection site from opening in Philadelphia, saying it ran afoul of a federal law originally passed to [further criminalize] drug [users]…The decision overturned a lower court ruling in favor of Safehouse, a non-profit that aims to open a facility where drug users can safely inject heroin, fentanyl or other drugs in the presence of medical professionals who could treat them for overdoses…[attorney] Ilana Eisenstein…who represents Safehouse [said]…”We remain confident that the law was not intended to force Americans to stand by as idle witnesses while our brothers and sisters are dying.  Conscience compels us to pursue all legal options, and we shall”…The government[‘s case relies on]…a provision of the Controlled Substance Act commonly known as the “crack house statute,” which makes it a crime to knowingly open or maintain a place for distributing or using controlled substances [such as a doctor’s office, hospital, or pharmacy]…

Quiet Genocide (#1086)

Another firsthand account of China’s torture of Uighurs:

My [family] fled to France…in May 2006, just before Xinjiang entered an unprecedented period of repression.  My daughters, 13 and 8 at the time, were given refugee status, as was their father.  In seeking asylum, my husband had made a clean break with the past.  Obtaining a French passport in effect stripped him of his Chinese nationality…[but] I couldn’t bring myself to do [the same]…so instead, I’d applied for a residence permit that was renewable every 10 years…[then in November 2016] I [was tricked into] going back to Xinjiang…[so the police could] pull [me] in for questioning…[about] a photo…[of] my daughter Gulhumar…in Paris…[holding] a miniature East Turkestan flag in her hand, a flag the Chinese government had banned…I…was [condemned]…to…two years…of…violent…brainwashing…[until] on 2 August 2019…a judge…pronounced me innocent…[after] they had tortured my body and brought my mind to the edge of madness…

One of the more subtle ways that Western governments enable this abomination is by supporting the evil doctrine that countries permanently own their citizens, even if those citizens choose to live elsewhere.

You Were Warned (#1099)

Remember that whores are even less popular with the Establishment than MAGA types are:

Parler has — for now, at least — vanished, after Amazon canceled its web hosting contract with the company…Google also banned Parler, on [January 8th], with Apple following suit [the next]…day.  The companies cite posts making threats against Mike Pence, organizing last week’s events in Washington, D.C., and making plans for further action to challenge the 2020 election results…Plenty of digital platforms — including those much bigger and more mainstream than Parler — provide a place for conspiracy theorists, MAGA riot organizers, and threats of violence, as well as the politicians who back and encourage these forces.  To take action against Parler and no other social media sites or web forums — and to do it so swiftly, without providing them with a little buffer to find new options — feels…designed to stave off becoming a target themselves…this provides…a…glimpse of what a world without Section 230 would look like all the time, not just in the wake of incidents that rattle us.  Nobody would want to even tangentially do business with apps and other web forums that don’t aggressively police and limit user speech, for fear that liability would work its way up the food chain to them…

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In the News (#1012)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 12, 2020| 6 Comments »

Judging from the epic case of [“Super Bowl sex trafficking”] mass psychosis…Floridians could easily give the Flat Earth Society a run for its ducats.  –  Stephen Lemons

Not for Everybody

Another ex-sex worker thinks it’s her job to cheat her sisters out of money:

…dominatrix Francesca Freeman…has become a sex therapist [of the puritanical, exploitative kind and now claims she can]…straighten out men’s kinks…“thank goodness I had this spiritual ­­awakening or I could have ended up in prison.  The things I was doing to these men were becoming increasingly extreme and could’ve easily gone wrong”…[she claims she can “help” men] beat their sex addictions [even though there is no such thing]…“I had an ­incredible lifestyle as a…dominatrix and thought I was really happy.  But after I was dumped [by some dude] I was heartbroken and fell into depression…[she also claims that people are kinky due to] ­traumatic pasts [though there is no evidence for this, and wrongfully called consensual kink] “a cycle of abuse”…“Leaving the industry was an easy decision and I cried with disgust at the end of my last session”…

Sounds like somebody needs therapy, but it ain’t the clients.

Above the Law

If a non-cop had done this, he’d be facing “sex offender” registration:

A [typical and representative] federal [cop] in Arizona was sentenced to probation…after being caught on video smelling a 3-year-old girl’s underwear. The girl’s unnamed father received a motion alert from the nanny cam in his daughter’s room last May…when he checked the video recording he saw Deputy U.S. Marshal David Timothy Moon digging through the laundry hamper in the girl’s room and pulling out a pair of dirty underwear…[and] sniff[ing it] as he brought it to his face. He returned to the child’s room a second time just minutes later…[and] notice[d] the nanny cam.  “Goddamn it,” he can be heard saying while covering his mouth…the U.S. Marshals Service fired him when it heard the allegations…Moon’s girlfriend said “he threw out his computer” [probably to hide evidence of child porn] after learning police were looking for him…[he] was initially charged with two counts of felony trespassing with sexual motivation, but [the judge let him] plead down to misdemeanor trespassing [so he wouldn’t have to endure “sex offender” registration]…Judge Katherine Cooper [also] denied requests from prosecutors that Moon be subject to psychological evaluations and…said [the lenience was specifically because he was a cop]…

Guinea Pigs (#690) 

To flush civil rights, just apply a label like “prostitute” or “gang member”:

The [California] Department of Justice [claims it] has been working to fix CalGang for two years…but…state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra signaled last month that he may backtrack…[cops have repeatedly lied about how] additions [are made on mere] rumor[s and cop guesses] without evidence — until [long-hidden paperwork finally became available to public scrutiny]…CalGang…currently [even] allow[s] inclusion of people such as girlfriends or family members.  Its precursor began in the 1980s…and [cops]…can use anything from a sports jersey to a casual conversation with a [passerby to claim as supposed]…proof that a person belongs on CalGang…Concerns [were first publicly admitted by bureaucrats during]…a scathing 2016 state audit, which found it lacked oversight, and…could not substantiate the claims.  Auditors found records for children as young as 1 year old when their names were uploaded, prompting the Legislature in 2017 to put the database under the purview of the attorney general and demand new rules for its use…[but] thousands more [people] have been added while new rules are debated [by politicians]…

Think of the Children! (#696) 

“Community concerns” is a euphemism for “busybodies”:

Because of community concerns, Cary [North Carolina] police… conducted a [pogrom on two] massage businesses and]…arrested [two migrant women]…Both women are charged with practicing massage without a license…Moana Anderson and her husband brought their four daughters to the indoor playground next door…”That’s kind of scary because we wanted our kids to be safe [from sex rays, except for the sex rays generated by our barebacking often enough for me to pop out four brats]” Anderson [said]…”there’s no place for [safe sex] here in Cary”, said Angel Island Fun Park manager Cecilia Soto.  “Cary is a nice city…[where consensual sex] has no place [unless it results in spawn]…It has to go”…

Morality Lessons (#783)

Another Utah politician thinks he’s discovered a way to circumvent the First Amendment:

Any pornography distributed in Utah must carry a warning label describing [fantasized] negative impacts to youth, under…House Bill 243, sponsored by…Brady Brammer…The warning label would read:  “Exposing minors to pornography is known to the state of Utah to cause negative impacts to brain development, emotional development, and the ability to maintain intimate relationships. Such exposure may lead to harmful and addictive sexual behavior, low self-esteem, and the improper objectification of and sexual violence towards others, among numerous other harms”…the [label is intentionally] similar to California product label requirements…For videos, the [compelled speech] must be up for 15 seconds.  On printed publications, it must be prominently displayed…the Free Speech Coalition…[will] oppose the bill [as]…”compelled speech…unconstitutional on its face”…the bill…[is also unconstitutionally over]broad and could cover “basic nudity” and even “non-explicit sexual situations” such as a Kim Kardashian selfie or the TV show Game of Thrones…”It’s a lawsuit bonanza,” [FSC spokesman Mike] Stabile wrote…

Note that the censors are still pursuing the idea of using “public health” rhetoric, supported by nonsensical Gail Dines propaganda about “health effects” of porn, as a model for trumping free speech.

Traffic Jam (#905)

“Sex trafficking” hysteria is just a new excuse for persecuting the same groups as usual (sex workers, racial minorities, migrants, young people, etc), and as I have explained many times its mythology bears a strong resemblance to that of the Satanic Panic.  So it’s really fascinating to see prohibitionists comparing “sex trafficking survivors” to cult members; that is actually true, but in the opposite way prohibitionists claim.  This group appears to imagine that doing flexible work to earn a living is somehow cultlike, when in actuality it’s the process of stereotypic conformation and “reframing experiences” imposed on “exited” sex workers by prohibitionists which displays cultlike characteristics. Furthermore, take a look at the speaker list:  all cops and “rescue” profiteers, authority figures in the “sex trafficking” cult who can be counted on to belch forth the “correct” dogma and shut down independent thought.  Moral panics become increasingly extreme until implosion, and this one is from way beyond the Looking Glass.

A Broker in Pillage (#918)

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

For decades, Detroit [cops]…and…prosecutors have systematically abused…drivers by [stealing]…and sell[ing] thousands of cars…from completely innocent owners…the Institute for Justice…has partnered with a group of Detroit drivers to…file a class action lawsuit in federal court seeking to end the cont[emptible] practice once and for all.  Melisa Ingram, [one of the] plaintiff[s, had]…her car [stolen]…by [cops] after she lent it to her then-boyfriend…[and cops claimed he] slow[ed] down in an area known for prostitution…he was never charged with a crime [but] police nevertheless [stole] Melisa’s 2017 Ford Fusion…[when] she explained that the car wasn’t his…the clerk explained that Melisa’s only option was to pay the city $1,800…she did not have…plus the cost of towing and storage…she was forced to give up her car and declare personal bankruptcy…

Prudesville (#954) 

Baristas are again appealing Everett’s legal claim that it has the right to police their clothes because “women who dress like sluts cause rape”:

…Everett’s bikini baristas and their lawyers [have] petition[ed] the Supreme Court…[to resolve the] issue [of] whether serving coffee wearing a bikini…is…free speech…the city of Everett [has been harassing] espresso kiosks staffed by [bikini-clad] women [for the past ten years.  Since November 2017, it has even claimed that the kiosks cause rape to justify]…ordinance[s] impos[ing] a minimum dress code on drive-thru food and drink stands…[and criminalizing the exposure of] specifically-defined parts of the butt or female breast…Two lower courts have…agreed [to pretend that the actual issue is]…the term “bottom one-half of the anal cleft” [rather than women’s ownership of our own bodies]…

Blunt Instrument (#963)

The Unsinkable Liz Brown takes a deep dive into the ongoing racist government campaign against massage parlors:

…law enforcement agencies frequently go on fishing expeditions, searching for needles in a haystack and then arresting anyone in the vicinity of the barn…and…the people most harmed by the attention…are the ones cops…claim they’re out to save…[in this] carceral charade…the twisted “help” offered to “exploited” women includes jail, seized assets, and deportation…Federal law enforcement officials are being enlisted…to [help local cops] round up women for giving unapproved hand jobs or offering ordinary back and foot massages without the right paperwork…these workers—mostly middle-aged Asian immigrant women—are treated as victims long enough to get authorities in the door and then as criminals once law enforcement officials are done playing hero to the press…

Pyrrhic Victory (#984) 

They actually admit that part of the point is to normalize constant surveillance:

A campaign to ban facial recognition on college campuses has just been launched by the non-profit organizations Fight for the Future and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.  Facial recognition technology is already being deployed in some public school systems…[and] Vendors like FaceFirst and Ellucian are already offering biometric surveillance…Raja Saravanan…of…Ellucian…cheerfully [explain]s that facial recognition software can be configured to check class attendance while also monitoring students’ nonverbal reactions in real-time as they listen to lectures…[and] noted…”Beijing Normal University…[uses] facial recognition system to prevent intruders entering student dorms.”  That…is not…reassuring considering that China’s authoritarian government is deploying hundreds of millions of cameras hooked to facial recognition as a mainstay of its social credit surveillance state.  In order to “foster a culture of [false] trust around facial tracking,” Saravanan recommends that campus facial recognition be rolled out incrementally [so the frogs don’t simply leap out of the pot]…

Micromanagement (#999)

They didn’t refuse on principle, but because the warrant was “improperly served”:

Ancestry.com, the largest DNA testing company in the world, was served a search warrant to [let pigs root in] its database of some 16 million DNA profiles, but the company did not comply.  “Ancestry…challenged the warrant on jurisdictional grounds…[it] was improperly served…and we did not provide any access or customer data”…Ancestry and its main competitor, 23andMe…have publicly vowed to defend their customers’ genetic privacy, and say they will fight efforts to open up their databases to [rooting] by police…Until now, only two [DNA] databases…GEDmatch…now owned by the f[ascist copsucking] company Verogen, and…FamilyTreeDNA — have been open to search requests from police…[but] GEDmatch contains [only] about 1.3 million profiles and Family Tree DNA has around 1.1 million.  So if cops were to gain access to the much larger databases operated by Ancestry or 23andMe, it would make s[urveillance of everyone in the US] much easier…

To Molest and Rape (#1007)

Ever notice what a large fraction of rapist cops’ victims are teenagers?

A Las Vegas [cop] has been arrested [for rape]…Christopher Peto [raped]…two girls between the ages of 13-17…at Laughlin…High School.  Peto was arrested…on charges [rape]…soliciting a child for prostitution, kidnapping…[raping] a minor under 14 and child abuse…Peto has been [rewarded]…with [a paid vacation] pending official charges…

Stupor Bowl (#1011)

The Miami Herald‘s Chicken Licken act is at the center of this debunking:

Doubling and tripling down on the most debunked and disproven zombie lie of all time, politicians, the press, law enforcement and an array of money-grubbing non-profits plunged Miami, and Florida in general, into a bizarre state of paranoia and panic over the myth that the Super Bowl is “the largest human-trafficking event on the planet”…Alex Andrews…of…SWOP Behind Bars…says Miami-Dade County has been awash with legions of “rabid prayer people”…on the lookout for sex trafficked children, talking to the media, passing out promotional stickers, and in a bizarre, puritanical touch, bars of soap… According to the FBI’s own crime statistics, sex trafficking is a relatively rare phenomenon…but you wouldn’t know that to read or watch Florida’s mainstream media, particularly the daily Miami Herald, which has done its best to ramp up the anti-trafficking hysteria by trading in bogus stats and narratives…

Here’s one especially-horrifying example of this freakshow, in which local news station WPEC pretends to be surprised when prohibitionist rent-a-pig John Rode gets a lot of answers when he calls a bunch of mid-range escort ads (in other words, less-established ladies who don’t screen) pretending to be a client; that the women he slanders as “sex trafficking victims” deny to busybody reporters that “they were being forced to sell their bodies“; and that when the reporter tries to embarass the manager by shoving a camera in his face and demanding to know why he isn’t spying on his guests, “he made us leave the property”.

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Links #427

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 9, 2018| 1 Comment »

A phantom pregnancy is actually a real pregnancy but you have a phantom inside you rather than a human baby.  –  Amethyst Realm

Our society is in love with unnecessary warning signs, but the ones in this video (courtesy of Lenore Skenazy) are absurd even by modern US standards.  The links above it were provided by Mistress Matisse, Franklin Harris, Radley Balko, Walter Olson, Phoenix Calida, Emma Evans, and David Ley, in that order.

From the Archives

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In the News (#832)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 25, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Because our political class believes in myths, not solid evidence, they keep creating policies directed at an imaginary bogeyman, not real criminals.  –  Jenny Heineman & Brooke Wagner

A Tale That Grew in the Telling 

A MILLION!!!!!

La Porte County [Indiana] Prosecutor John Espar [fed ludicrous propaganda to] local residents at First Baptist Church on human trafficking…He [lied that] the rate of sex crimes spiked between 1998 and 2007 with the growing popularity of Internet usage, which gave offenders access to children…to whom they did not have access previously…As many as one million children are exploited for commercial sex annually…children who become victims typically do so between the ages of 12 and 14…“So many of these (sex) workers, even if they’re not realizing it at this point in their lives, are still victims of exploitation”…

The Proper Study

Ric Curtis, who headed the Jon Jay study, is still debunking prohibitionist lies:

As they crack down on sex workers and pass outrageous new laws, our politicians and moral crusaders make some bold claims: Hundreds of thousands of children…at an average age of 13…is any of this true?…from 2012 to 2014, we spent nine months walking a [stroll] in Las Vegas…We handed out condoms and other harm-reduction material…The primary investigator, Ric Curtis, designed the study based on his experience collecting data from other “hard to reach” populations…The study had several teams collecting data in major cities across the US that had been dubbed as “hubs of sex trafficking”…after interviewing 949 people across 6 cities…[we found] the assumptions that inform government policy on sex workers are merely myths.  And those myths are easily disproved once you bother to get the data, which we did…In our subsample of youth under the age of 18…engaged in survival sex…24%…had a pimp…liberally defined as someone with whom the respondent shared their earnings…one young woman’s experience stood out as representative …Rena, who was 16 at the time of the interview, laughed when we asked if she had a pimp. She tipped her head toward one of her friends.  “That’s my pimp,” Rena giggled.  She was an 18-year-old woman who helped Rena use the internet to get clients and was herself engaged in survival sex. The two young women pooled their money together to meet their shared living expenses…Rena’s friend could be considered a sex trafficker under the current legal regime…

Droit du Seigneur 

Though pimps are not common, a disproportionate number of the ones who do  exist are cops:

Police are choosing to allow brothels to operate providing they create a safe environment for women, one former detective – now a brothel owner – has told the BBC…Despite it being illegal to operate a brothel in England and Wales – although not illegal to buy and sell sex – Karl says he has no moral qualms about breaking the law because he does not agree with it, and he says he is not exploiting the women who work for him…

The Widening Gyre 

New York is way behind cities like Seattle, Phoenix & Houston in promoting the hysteria:

Inside a handsome brick building on a tree-lined street near Brooklyn’s Prospect Park lay one of the city’s dirtiest secrets…two 16-year-old girls were allegedly being kept inside as sex slaves…the teens’ captors forced them to strip to their underwear, pose for Backpage.com ads and have sex with up to 10 johns a day…thousands of sex slaves being trafficked under the noses of New York City residents every day…[vice cop] Jim Klein [said]…“It’s modern-day slavery”…the average victim is…as young as 12…“One guy kept [a girl] in a dog cage because she wasn’t cooperating”…a…14-year-old…was found locked in a closet surrounded by pots of urine…

Original Sin

Welcome back to the 16th century:

Priests attending an annual exorcism conference in Rome are set to discuss whether pornography has a demonic influence.  Over 250 priests and theologians as well as criminologists and psychologists from 51 countries have gathered at the week-long Exorcism and Prayer of Liberation conference…attendees will discuss the prevalence of pornography in modern society, and consider if it is a “modern cultural phenomenon of an evil that harms people,” and to what extent it may have what he described as a demonic influence…

Imagination Pinned Down (#551)

Stereotypic conformation in progress:

Jessa Dillow Crisp has spent the better part of the last decade learning who she is…as a child victim of human trafficking.  Now, she works to help others who are or have been in the same situation.  She is co-founder and executive director of Bridgehope…As a child…in…Canada, Crisp was abused and sold into the sexual human trafficking sector by her family…she would eventually be sold to a circuit operating in the United States…“during the 2010 Winter Olympics, it was…sadistic pain and horrific evil.”  Clarksville Police Chief Mark Palmer said that he sees more sex trafficking in the way of consensual sex workers, not forced abusers…during large events like Thunder Over Louisville or the Kentucky Derby…her identity was also stripped away by her abusers, who controlled where she went, what she ate, how she sat, how she talked…Some of the signs are behavioral, like having a…phone, the connection to [a partner]…styles of dress that [busybodies claim] are way beyond their years…

Most professional “survivors” don’t last long; it’ll be interesting to see if this one graduates to including classic elements like brutal clients and being dragged behind a car.

Devil’s Advocate (#761) 

Your periodic reminder that a child-shaped toaster is still a toaster:

…in the United States, Rep. Dan Donovan…introduced legislation to ban [child-shaped sex] dolls, in a bill named Curbing Realistic Exploitative Electronic Pedophilic Robots, otherwise known as the CREEPER Act…some [actual experts] suggest…dolls could be used to deter the real-life fulfillment of pedophilic urges…[but politicians and other prohibitionists pretend human sexual impulses are learned and can be eliminated via threats of violence] Donovan [claims] “Once a child sex abuser tires of practicing on a doll, it’s a small step to move on to an innocent child…[puritans pretend] these dolls reinforce, normalize, and encourage pedophilic behavior”…

Elephant in the Parlor (#825)

Ken White explains the latest wrinkle in the Stormy Daniels case:

…Conventional wisdom is that federal courts are better for the defense and more likely to enforce arbitration agreements.  However, federal judges move faster and abide by deadlines and rules more closely, and are substantially less tolerant of bullshit than state judges.  If substantial portions of your defense are premised on bullshit and delay, don’t remove to federal court…the main issue is whether the nondisclosure agreement [is]…enforceable.  If [so]…Trump…could conceivably get a gag order against Clifford and get massive damages against her for breaching the confidentiality agreement, and could do so through a private arbitration proceeding instead of in public…

It’s complicated, so you’ll need to read the whole thing.

Disaster (#831)

Judging by the breadth of responses from all over the political map, FOSTA may have been a serious miscalculation on the part of the government:

The US’ latest attempt to silence sex workers…has begun to chill free speech across the internet.  A number of websites have had to either shut down or actively distance themselves from the notion that they support sex work. And the problem is only going to get worse as time goes on…It’s not just…adults-only websites and platforms that are now having to crack down on discussions of sex.  Microsoft and Google have moved to alter their terms of service…and…not even private discussions are safe…Microsoft…claim[ed] the right to examine your content…[and] Google is purging adult content from private Drive accounts…sex workers are attempting to protect themselves against the bill by building platforms beyond the reach of American authorities….Red Umbrella Hosting…offers judgment-free, anonymous and sex-worker-friendly hosting.  Then there is Switter…launched in response to FOSTA-SESTA and Twitter’s alleged shadowbanning practices.  In a few short weeks, it has already acquired nearly 23,000 followers…

But it didn’t take long for Switter to feel the government’s boot:

[Last] Wednesday,  Cloudflare terminated its content delivery network services for…the weeks-old Switter…Cloudflare has confirmed…that the company terminated service to Switter because of FOSTA, but also said it’s “a very bad law”…When [Switter] organizers…reached out to Cloudflare for explanation, they were met with a vague notice  that Switter violated the company’s Terms of Service…Switter moved to a new content delivery network and is still up, but Cloudflare’s decision to terminate service was jarring…Cloudflare, historically, has been a vocal supporter of the open internet…

And here’s a heads up from a confidential source: the sleazebags behind FOSTA are butthurt that everyone sees their tyranny for what it is and they’re preparing for a major PR offensive to convince people that censorship isn’t censorship.  The first of it started on Sunday.

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