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Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Here at Sunset, we burn our garbage. In Washington, they pile it up behind a desk, put a hat on it, and then interpret the noises it makes as it decays as pronouncements from a god.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-12T16:51:59.685Z

Stop using cutesy names for atrocities.This is the Dade-Collier Concentration Camp. Calling it that (or something similar) should be style for every US news outlet. "Cute" names are soft collaboration.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-17T17:17:26.728Z

Remember when I said the TRULY dangerous animals at the Dade-Collier Concentration Camp were not alligators and pythons, but rather mosquitoes?Thread.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-18T03:58:27.048Z

Trump's ratings are not far enough "underwater" until he and all his henchmen are drowned.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-18T18:36:15.452Z

Politicians are not your friends. They are not "leaders". And they will throw their constituents under the bus to save their own rotten hides any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-19T07:37:33.762Z

Our culture pretends that computer programs can think, but human beings can be programmed like computers.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-21T19:37:40.849Z

These people believe that their imaginary weather control conspiracy is run by The Riddler.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-22T17:54:11.274Z

In the 19th century, it was believed that for the whites of the eyes to show all around the irises was a sign of severe congenital mental illness.We don't believe that anymore, but sometimes we get a clear example of why they believed it.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-23T08:07:10.204Z

Notice how childishly idiotic Trump sounds when babbling about "The Left" as though it were one big corporation?Guess how it sounds when somebody babbles about "The Right" in that same way?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-24T17:02:37.657Z

Maybe they should just make Garanimals for adult men?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-25T17:59:57.802Z

Plus, women don't allow themselves the kind of laziness that many men do. Using LLMs to write bullshit because they're too lazy to do it themselves is something men are FAR more likely to rationalize is OK; women tend to know it isn't and would feel healthy shame if they did it anyway.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-27T07:48:44.022Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-28T17:24:17.763Z

Actually, this is a severe understatement. It's more like a toddler threatening to beat up the combined armed populace of the entire world, including all military and police.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-29T17:44:41.893Z

Metaphor alert.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-30T17:27:17.729Z

TV adventure show continuity girl. "No, Kirk McGoody *cannot* blast through Unobtanium,because in season 2, episode 6 it was an important plot point that his blaster could not do that. Now on page 32; it's well-established Tricia Buxom is an only child, so she can't have an evil sister."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-31T07:59:07.911Z

Collectivism is a mental illness and one of the greatest evils in the world. archive.is/bWikm

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-01T16:41:08.164Z

It "promised ways to cheat Death"? If you believe that, for only $1000 I'll promise you a way to turn yourself into a god.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-03T02:57:50.213Z

Just imagine how low your self-esteem has to be to willingly take a job which is the functional equivalent of letting all your viscera be ripped out through your anus so a politician can shove his hand up there and use you as a hand puppet.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-03T17:15:12.324Z

The way architects feel looking at this is the way I feel when some nitwit says robots will soon take sex workers' jobs.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-04T07:41:48.689Z

Post two characters who always bring you joy.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-06T03:09:55.088Z

When there was noise late in the evening in my neighborhood in Seattle, it was because two carloads full of young men were driving down the avenue shooting at each other.When there was noise late in the evening here at Sunset, it was because a neighbor's cows got out.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-06T07:52:37.252Z

When a single person anywhere in the world can generate a turd, what do fertilizer companies still represent?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-08T04:48:42.525Z

Gee, I wonder whose idea it was to put the letter "X" above the door.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-08T17:56:12.166Z

As one does.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-09T17:26:18.604Z

I cannot envision a world where an email or pop-up saying, "We reimagined _________!" gets any response from me other than, "How nice for you."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-10T17:54:30.687Z

For decades, I've warned "progressives" that pretending government officials with fancy titles are "experts" was a very dangerous idea. And now people have learned what they were taught.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-11T17:44:07.884Z

Universally evergreen tweet: It is always a bad idea to live in the capital city, close to the rulers.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-12T16:40:31.515Z

I am not a violent person, but that face is asking to be hit repeatedly with a baseball bat.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-14T04:23:24.475Z

That's not what this shows. It does not show "Republicans are abstaining from alcohol"; it shows that Republicans are self-reporting to polls that they don't drink. They're not at all the same thing, as any competent psychologist or social scientist could tell you.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-14T07:34:01.210Z

He looks like the victim of a botched head transplant.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-16T07:35:13.255Z

What's the penalty for "resisting" or trying to escape if these evil goons attack? Is it worse than being crammed into a filthy dungeon in a swamp for months, and then being deported to El Salvador or the Sudan with no due process? Because if not, resistance is ALWAYS the sensible course of action.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-17T17:27:42.971Z

 

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Links #789

Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I am a biohazard.  –  Meghan Reinertsen

I’m still working on “Until the End of Days“; it’s up to 12,000 words now, into the novelette range, and I’m really enjoying the process.  This week’s video is the song I hear playing during the last scene, when our heroines have defeated the baddies and are unwinding in front of the big console radio at home.  If you listen to it, I think you’ll get a taste of the tone I’m going for.  The links above it were provided by Kevin Wilson, Ryan Marino, IncarcerNation (x2), Marc Randazza (x2), and Eleanor Janega, 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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Throwback Thursday and Son

Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Yes, representation is important, and never more so than when the type being represented is those who refuse to allow themselves to be sorted into herds and driven to build up power for those who would rule others.  –  “Representation”

People who refuse to consider ideas on their own merits, preferring to assign value based upon their personal opinions about the speaker of said ideas, are not serious thinkers and should not be treated as such.  –  “Julius Tweeter”

“Rescue” narratives are not only nonsense, but distracting from measures that really help sex workers.
–  “Served Cold (#1359)”

I will always be grateful to QAnon cranks for making “sex trafficking” rhetoric unpalatable to anyone outside of the MAGA cult.  –  “Small Mercies“

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Diary #787

Posted in Diary, Fiction, tagged , , , on July 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

As I mentioned in my anniversary column a few weeks ago,

…my Muse of Fiction wants my attention again; perhaps she feels I don’t need her when I’m happy.  Whatever the reason, I’ve written three new stories since finishing Who in Review, and I’m starting on a much longer one than I’ve ever written before, in part as a tribute to Grace…

Because I did want to write a much longer story than is typical for me, I’ve had to develop a new technique; typically, even my full-length short stories come into my head almost fully formed, and all I need to do is write them down and fill in a few details.  But that won’t work for this one, which is currently over 7000 words and only in the vicinity of half-done (generally speaking, anything under 10,000 words is considered a short story; longer than that is in novelette territory).  So what I’m doing is writing each episode of the tale as it comes into my head, then fitting the pieces into the larger whole and editing as necessary.  The first scene I wrote was a pivotal one perhaps halfway through the narrative; I then wrote the first full scene, then the climax and denouement, and now I’m beginning to fill in.  The characters are based upon Grace and myself, the setting is New Orleans in 1931, and the genre is adventure mixed with black comedy (which is why I recently re-watched The Avengers and watched The Thin Man series for the first time).  I’m enjoying the process, and writing action and dialog for Grace’s character is almost like having her nearby, which is part of why I’m doing it.  And I’m already thinking of other situations for the characters.  So even though the word “therapeutic” is probably overused in this sort of context, it’s the right one.  And I hope it will give my readers a little (fictionalized) taste of Grace’s personality, and the chemistry that made us such a great team.

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Tweet to the Beat

Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Music, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 18, 2025| 1 Comment »

The world was beautiful for eons before there were self-aware eyes to appreciate it, and it will still be beautiful for eons after we are all gone. And there are countless other beautiful worlds which have never been seen, and never WILL be seen, by thinking beings.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-14T17:08:13.335Z

Intentionally conflating normal people whose lives are ruined by persecution with shameless politicians returned to prominence by a machine is a choice. A stupid or evil choice, but a choice nonetheless.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-16T17:10:38.247Z

It came from the same place as the "300,000 trafficked children being raped 100 times a day" came from: the Justification for State Violence factory.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-19T15:25:32.902Z

"Vice offenses" is a government dysphemism for "poor people enjoying the same adult pastimes as politicians".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-20T17:31:41.920Z

If the HPV vaccine had been available 20 years earlier, my beloved Grace might still be alive.Get vaccinated, while you still can.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-21T17:38:43.497Z

If you had written a satire in the 1980s or '90s where the president of the US wears a freaking BALL CAP everywhere, even in serious situations like giving formal speeches or planning goddamned WAR, critics would've said it was unrealistic.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-22T07:50:44.028Z

Actual LOL.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-23T07:57:01.365Z

PROTIP: If you can't use a word without feeling a psychological compulsion to misspell it by replacing one of its letters with "x", find a different word.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-24T16:51:07.852Z

Now if only we can get the US to abolish summary execution for misdemeanors.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-25T17:45:45.761Z

I'm not one to kink shame, but have these people no discretion? I mean really. bsky.app/profile/meid…

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-26T08:12:44.396Z

Your regular reminder that websites outside the US can ignore US law, and the only way the US can stop them is by playing an endless game of whack-a-mole.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-27T18:27:08.695Z

I've decided the proper term for ICE thugs who hide their faces & leap out of vans to abduct people is "goons". I use the venerable term "spooks" to describe most G-men, but as one born during the '60s spy craze I can't help feeling it implies a degree of cleverness completely lacking in ICE goons.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-28T18:34:21.499Z

At this point, his being made into a martyr is probably less damaging in the long run.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-29T16:53:32.222Z

I'm not one to kink shame, but maybe you should keep this between you and your dominatrix.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-06-30T03:19:42.645Z

His approval rating is still MUCH too high. We need to see "Mussolini's funeral" approval ratings for him and his whole gang.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-01T02:40:20.242Z

Look at the bright side; the next two or three generations will have new cartoon villains to use in fiction, so they won't have to reach all the way back to the historical German Nazis whom absolutely none of them are old enough to remember as anything BUT cartoon villains.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-02T17:59:01.208Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4-G…

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-03T07:57:38.253Z

No. Both used their votes to help THEMSELVES politically. The difference lies not in their motive, but in their interpretation of what kind of vote will improve their political fortunes.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-04T17:52:24.728Z

Actually, YOU don't choose which entity you're praying to; the content of your prayers does that automatically.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-05T17:16:41.634Z

Yes, that's the point.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T03:52:48.861Z

I like to think Grace was there in spirit, jamming along on a ghostly bass; Ozzy was probably her favorite musician.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-07T17:51:16.476Z

Trump declares that whales can fly.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-08T17:36:38.666Z

THIS. Reporters need to STOP using Trump's second-grade names for everything. STOP calling legislation that will result in millions forced into poverty and a metastasized police state as "beautiful". STOP using cutesy nicknames for concentration camps. Just fucking STOP.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-09T18:21:48.165Z

The most realistic part of this joke is Trump not knowing that $1000 bills were discontinued in 1969 and banks are required to send any they get to the Treasury to be destroyed.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-10T04:21:57.746Z

Reporters: are y'all ready to use the word "megalomania" yet?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-11T07:44:20.516Z

"What we need is not a non-volatile storage medium which is impossible to change once created, allowing dependable preservation of their contents, but rather centralized digital media which can be surreptitiously changed by 'authorities' at will, possibly without people noticing."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-12T17:08:42.978Z

It always astonishes me to see people making the equivalent argument to, "air travel, including both freight and passenger, should be a government monopoly, because billionaires."It *shouldn't* astonish me because people really are that stupid. But that's the last little pest in Pandora's box.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-13T17:27:32.516Z

Watching Trump name things has given me a new respect for the names Eternian villains choose for themselves.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-14T18:34:26.533Z

This looks like liquid fabric softener.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-15T08:15:13.976Z

The way I've explained it friends who don't live here is: "Seattle people drive on the highway as though it were a surface street; on surface streets as though they were parking lots; and in parking lots as though they were at a square dance and the caller has left the room."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T08:22:47.910Z

Guys, I keep telling y'all that seeing escorts is less expensive in the long run.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-17T19:08:26.779Z

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Links #784

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The power of telling people you pray is incredible.  –  Josh Hawley (sort of)

Since I featured an Avengers-themed music video last week, I figured I’d do it again with one my over-40 readers may remember.  The links above it were provided by Phoenix Calida; Greg Lukianoff & Franklin Harris; The Onion; IncarcerNation (x3); and Franklin Harris again, 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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Fifteenth Anniversary

Posted in Biography, Philosophy, tagged , , , on July 10, 2025| 1 Comment »

I’m only just beginning to internalize that yes, it really is okay to keep slowing down, rather than just saying it aloud but not really believing it.  –  “Fourteenth Anniversary”

When my dearest friend and companion passed away in January, I wrote:

When my marriage was starting to fall apart, I threw myself into this blog, churning out essays at a prodigious rate so my mind would have something to chew on other than my pain.  But Grace was with me that whole time, quietly offering her unflagging support; I’m not sure what will happen to my creative energy this time, so it’s possible you may notice some changes to adapt to that.  Because there has never before been an Honest Courtesan site without her.

Well, it has now been long enough that I’ve begun to see the answer.  It has, for the most part, become easier to get my daily work done, because I no longer have my Grace to care for, and focusing on my writing crowds out the pain just as it did fifteen years ago.  And strangely, I’ve found that my Muse of Fiction wants my attention again; perhaps she feels I don’t need her when I’m happy.  Whatever the reason, I’ve written three new stories since finishing Who in Review, and I’m starting on a much longer one than I’ve ever written before, in part as a tribute to Grace.  They’ll all be included in Lost Angels, which I expect will be published around this time next year.  And in the meantime I’ll keep going, just as I always do and always have done, until the day finally arrives when I no longer have to.

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Links #783

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

People don’t even dare to go on holiday any more as they fear that the ants will move into their home in their absence.  –  Manfred Verhaagh

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’ve been re-watching The Avengers lately, and perusing a venerable fan site; in the process I discovered a mention of this song I believe I vaguely remember from the MTV era.  One interesting footnote: The Allies were a Seattle band, and I know this video was filmed there because I’ve been in that elevator many times!  The links above it were provided by Radley Balko; Mike Siegel; IncarcerNation (x2); Jesse Walker & Mike Masnick; and IncarcerNation (x2 again), 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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Throwback Thursday’s Great Love

Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, The Dark Side, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The only people who can truly claim to have made an absolutely free choice to do any kind of work are the Paris Hiltons of the world, those who have a guaranteed inheritance, income and secured future no matter what they choose to do with the present.
–  “A False Dichotomy”

Though I will never set physical foot on another world myself, I have walked a thousand of them in my imagination.
–  “Ad Astra”

If you meet a cop and he wants to arrest you he will do so, even if you aren’t even a hooker, and no magical formula will prevent that.  –  “Magic Formulae”

The whole “pimp” and “sex slave” mythology derives from the need to deny the legendary sexual powers of whores by pretending that we’re the pathetic, powerless victims of men.  –  “Don’t Try This At Home”

Computers are useful tools and (usually) dependable servants, but apparently generations of science-fiction writers have failed to pound into the heads of the intellectually lazy what a colossally bad idea it is to accept them in positions of authority.  –  “Mechanocracy“

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Diary #782

Posted in Diary, Fiction, Philosophy, tagged , , , , , , on June 24, 2025| 1 Comment »

We had another unusually-chilly spring this year, so I didn’t trust my tomato plants outside until this past weekend; if they can’t survive in the first week of summer, I’ll just have to throw up my hands in despair.  But though the temperatures haven’t been quite summery, even by Olympic peninsula standards, the days are as long as they’re going to get, and that means my seasonal anxiety is back.  As I’ve noted in the past, it isn’t nearly as bad since I moved to Sunset as it was in Seattle, probably because the quiet of the countryside counteracts some of it, while the noise and commotion of the city aggravates it.  But this year, it sneaked up on me because I’ve been attributing my emotional stress to grief.  It wasn’t until a week or so ago that I asked myself why that should be worse now than it was immediately after Grace’s death, or in the first few months afterward; I only just realized that as is typical for me, the anxiety runs under the surface and breaks out at weak points.  Expressed another way, the anxiety is acting as fuel for my grief, making it just as intense as it was in January and February, and more intense than it was in March and April.  But now that I’m done with Who in Review (and have even set up my store to sell autographed copies), I have time and space in my life to do some creative writing again.  I’ve already written two new stories for Lost Angels, with a third probably coming this week; it’s percolating through my brain, going through the alchemy by which grief, loss, and pain are transmuted into art, much like a compost heap transmutes organic garbage into humus for growing new plants.  When the tomatoes are ready, I’ll use some of them to make salsa from the recipe Grace and I developed late last summer.  And when Lost Angels is published, the pain I’m enduring now will have given rise to beauty I can share with the world.

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