Once upon a time there was a vast jungle full of many different kinds of creatures, who made so much noise only the loudest of them, the elephants and the asses, could clearly be heard amid the din. Naturalists often visited the jungle and sometimes focused on one animal or another, filming them and talking about them for nature shows. Now in this jungle there lived a little bird of a fairly rare variety, and though it wanted to be heard the naturalists could never make out its tiny voice amid the cacophony, so they never talked about or even thought about the little bird, and neither did anyone else. Eventually, the little bird got tired of singing its little song for no one to hear, and so it simply stopped singing and minded its own business. Now, a few thoughtful explorers had seen the little bird and knew it existed; an even smaller number had even heard its little song. So they said to the naturalists, “Maybe the naturalists should consider that little bird’s quiet little song, even though few ears are good enough to hear it.” But the naturalists were always accompanied by an unruly gang of fans, and rather than admit that perhaps their idols should be more aware of rare creatures, they blamed the little bird, saying, “If little birds want to be heard, they should peep at the exact same time as the elephant trumpeting or the asses braying, so they can be heard along with those other animals.” When the thoughtful explorers pointed out that merely increasing (by some infinitesimal amount) the noise made by other creatures with whom they had nothing in common was hardly likely to call attention to the little bird in any way, the gang members merely asked if the explorers wanted the “bad” animals to win, and declared that if the little bird really wanted to be heard, it should have been hatched as an ass or elephant. Then they congratulated themselves on their great wisdom, and resumed arguing over whether the elephants’ trumpeting or the asses’ braying made lovelier music. And they were so preoccupied with their argument that none of them noticed when a wildfire started and burned them all up together, elephants and asses and naturalists and fans and explorers, and the little bird too. 
Posts Tagged ‘politicians’
A Fable
Posted in Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged imaginative fiction, politicians on April 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Links #822
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, California, cops, I Spy, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, illegal aliens, Kentucky, Maryland, Never Call the Cops, politicians, STEM, video on April 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I recently discovered this funny recording, which was Chubby Checker’s first hit (a year before “The Twist”); in fact, he got his nickname “Chubby” due to his spot-on imitation of Fats Domino. The links above the video were provided by Mike Siegel, Kevin Wilson, Ryan Marino, IncarcerNation, Mistress Matisse, and The Onion, in that order.
- SCIENCE!
- I’m sure you feel safer now.
- A Trumpist living her values.
- What part of “never” is so hard to grasp?
- Now this explanation is one I want to see.
- The best satire cleaves closely to the truth.
From the Archives
- Safetyism has become the go-to excuse of censors pretending they aren’t.
- Seems as though it wasn’t really the OnlyFans account that got him fired.
- As long as sex workers are marginalized, we will be targeted for violence.
- You won’t find that word, nor the word “slavery”, anywhere in this article.
- A few sane judges are the only thing protecting libraries from politicians.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- These attempts to destroy the internet are going to keep getting worse.
- Texas politicians disguise an attack on women as protection for women.
- In the online world, as in the real, you don’t get something for nothing.
- UK officials are as dedicated to hiding the truth about cops as US ones.
- If you thought “asset forfeiture” was brazen robbery, get a load of this.
- These psychopaths want actual criminalization of librarians & teachers.
- It’s a bad idea to try the work of any professional without any training.
- Living within my means is now easier most of the year, except in April.
- The State tortures thousands of people for crossing an imaginary line.
- Politicians compete to make their new laws the most unconstitutional.
- This will never stop while violent thugs have total power over women.
- In the US she’d have no recourse, but prohis say decrim is a “failure”.
- No laws protect this data from being handed to cops to root in at will.
- Crypto-moralists pretend that avoiding pleasure leads to immortality.
- This is vile even by the abysmally-low moral standards of politicians.
- If he’d succeeded, he would’ve claimed it was an accident or suicide.
- As empires age, they rot from the inside out and from the top down.
- The kind of man the State gives nigh-unlimited power over women.
- “Search” is the most common government euphemism for “molest”.
- Twitter has always claimed that this surveillance isn’t surveillance.
- Chicks always start out so cute, but don’t stay that way very long.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from March 2013, 2014, and 2015.
- Sometimes, evil dead things really can return to haunt the living.
- If you’re sick of pictures of chickens, how about pictures of eggs?
- The legacy of To Catch a Predator just keeps on hurting people.
- It’s difficult to read this without feeling a bit of schadenfreude.
- All too often, evil arrives cloaked in the mantle of expediency.
- Cops, Lovecraft, Barbara Rush, Joe Flaherty, and much more.
- Homeless people are another group new evils are tested on.
- Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness.
- This is only going to get worse for the foreseeable future.
- This fascist evil needs to be eradicated, root and branch.
- The crusade to reduce Americans to serfdom continues.
- Another example of the cop/religion molestation nexus.
- Politicians keep using sex as an excuse to destroy lives.
- I wasted a lot of my life by trying to live in the future.
- Old-fashioned Stasi-type surveillance isn’t dead yet.
- There’s at least one principled judge in Texas.
- Washington passes a “strippers’ bill of rights”.
- Cops, shapes, demon lords, and much more.
- Cops, MAGA, Val Kilmer, and much more.
- At least this one wasn’t a “youth pastor”.
- Why does anyone still trust Facebook?
- Your “leaders” call this “correction”.
- Throwback Thursday A.D. 1972.
- A new bar atop the utility room.
- The chicks were late in 2024.
- Young Throwback Thursday.
- Vote Blue no matter who!
- Rapist cops of the week.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
In the News (#1625)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged A Woman's Point of View, Aladdin’s Satellite, artificial stupidity, censorship, Colorado, consensual crime, cops, ethics, Illinois, internet, law, LGBT rights, libraries, Massachusetts, No Difference, Opting Out, politicians, robots, Senegal, Shame Shame, Tennessee, Thought Control, To Molest and Rape, United Kingdom, Walled Garden on April 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I will not comply. – Luanne James
Sows are just as disgusting and predatory as their male counterparts:
A [Massachusetts cop] was [rewarded with a paid vacation for]…sexual abuse [of a minor]…Samantha Pelrine…and her…husband, Daniel Forand, repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted the…[victim for] several years…[after wheedling control from] the victim’s aunt and grandmother[, who had] raised them until they were 12 years old…about one year later, Pelrine and Forand became the…victim’s legal guardians…and…began sexually assaulting the victim a short time after[ward]…continu[ing] until 2025…
Another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists:
Senegalese proponents of a tougher anti-LGBT law [got advice from] a U.S.-based [anti-sex] group that calls homosexuality a public health threat…MassResistance…has advised like-minded African [prohibition]ists for years…but now…is trying to take advantage of …[the] Trump…[regimes]’s [mass destruc]tion…of [US-funded health programs in Africa]…the new law…doubles the maximum prison term for same-sex sexual acts to 10 years and criminalizes so-called promotion of homosexuality…
WebinarTV, a company that bills itself as “a search engine for the best webinars,” is secretly scanning the internet for Zoom meeting links, recording the calls, and turning them into [computer]-generated podcasts [without the consent of the participants]…in an attempt to promote WebinarTV’s services…in some cases the [creators of the] stolen videos…[are informed by computer-generated emails “signed” by imaginary corporate officers that their]…webinar is “featured on the Phil & Amy Show”, [which is a make-believe]…talk…show…[featuring] two [cartoon characters synchronized to chatbots outputting nonsensical “commentary” on]…the [stolen Zoom] call…WebinarTV accesses meetings using links that have been shared publicly, then records the sessions [without any] participant’s [knowledge or consent]…in…violat[ion of] Zoom’s terms of service…
A Woman’s Point of View (#1506)
As with cannabis legalization, if enough of these are thrown at the wall one may eventually stick:
…[If] a [new] bill…[is] passed, Colorado would become the first state to fully decriminalize sex work state-wide…This is not [the Swedish model, but rather] a decisive shift away from criminalization and toward safety…to [placate the very stupid]…the bill draws a firm line between consensual sex work and exploitation…and…would repeal statutes related to solicitation and patronizing…[and] update outdated escort service regulations…Nick Hinrichson…Lisa Cutter…Lorena Garcia and Rebekah Stewart…[are the sponsoring politicians. A similar]…bill…in…Illinois [is still languishing undiscussed]…
In a message…to the Rutherford County Library…board, Director Luanne James said she would not comply with an order to move…LGBT…titles from youth sections to the adult area…[saying] “Restricting access…through subjective relocation or removal constitutes a violation of the community’s right to information”…[which] would violate both the First Amendment and her professional obligations…The…Board [had] voted…to relocate more than 190 books…following a [“]review[” by non-librarians on order of]…Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett…Board Chair [and wannabe Big Brother] Cody York [defended his censorship attempt by bizarrely vomiting out]…“dismembering…healthy sex organs”…during [a] debate…[and threatened to sack] James…
Sanders has announced he next plans to interview a TV set:
[Perennially-clueless politician] Bernie Sanders has a viral video making the rounds in which he “interviews” Anthropic’s Claude chatbot about the dangers of AI and privacy…and it might be one of the most unintentionally revealing demonstrations of…actual problems [with LLMs] that a politician has ever produced — just not in the way Sanders thinks…When you “interview” a large language model you are talking to a very sophisticated text prediction system that is specifically designed to give you responses that are (possibly) helpful, (hopefully) relevant, and (obsequiously) agreeable — shaped entirely by how you framed the question. It’s not there to help you uncover hidden truths. It’s not a whistleblower. It’s not a witness in a congressional hearing, which is exactly what Sanders’ staging is designed to imply. Ask it scary questions, get scary answers. Ask it reassuring questions, get reassuring answers. It is a mirror, not a source. And Sanders’ video demonstrates this…
The internet’s global scope is the main reason politicians hate it and want to destroy it:
Ofcom, the U.K.’s [censorship bureau, is trying to] fine…4chan £520,000 for [refus]ing to implement [user surveillance] procedures and other measures [demand]ed by the U.K.’s Online Safety Act. The [shakedown demand] includes “£450,000 for not having age checks in place”…[and the rest] for [refus]ing to provide Ofcom with [busywork it demands] and for not [submitting to posting compelled speech] in its terms of service…4chan[‘s lawyer, Preston Byrne,] responded to Ofcom with a…[computer]-generated picture of a giant hamster [hold]ing a [giant] peanut…attached to a truly excellent email response [stating]…”As has been explained to your agency, ad nauseam, the United Kingdom lost the American Revolutionary War…We are not in the mood to discuss the matter further, and have not been in the mood for 250 years…[4chan] reserves all rights and waives none…[including] the right to sue you again and/or to respond to future correspondence with an even larger rodent, such as a marmot.” This is exactly the attitude U.S. companies should be taking with foreign authorities intent on forcing their online [censorship] on the rest of us…Ofcom [responded by absurdly claiming that the internet is a bar]…
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!
Links #821
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged acting, cops, Florida, games, hotels, Indiana, politicians, porn, vaccines, video on March 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Teleporting is no fun. – Gregg Phillips
It’s difficult for young people nowadays to understand just how badly our culture has backslid into sexual repression during my lifetime. Here’s an example from the 1978 Broadway musical On the 20th Century in which fairly typical 21st century sexual attitudes are the subject of mainstream mockery. The links above the video were provided by Nun Ya; Reason; T. Greg Doucette; Jesse Walker and Popehat; Nun Ya again; and T. Greg Doucette again (x2), in that order,
- Your “leaders” at work.
- Home-brewed vaccines.
- The Babycandian paradox.
- R.I.P. Chuck Norris and Nicholas Brendon.
- Florida Man’s got nothing on Florida Woman.
- Grace loved crazy engineering projects like this.
- It’s too bad they don’t spend all of their time attacking each other.
From the Archives
- Give aggressive men power over teen girls; what could possibly go wrong?
- Texas pretends to care about women’s health as it crusades to kill women.
- Journalists keep obediently referring to senseless violence as “correction”.
- In addition to being a “pastor”, he’s also a wannabe cop. Quelle surprise.
- Using copaganda to wreck the medical system and excuse state violence.
- Since politicians have no spines, it’s good to see some physicians still do.
- Computer-generated garbage is making records of this period unreliable.
- Politicians can’t resist using popular web services to expand surveillance.
- Stories about child-molesting cops are larded with obfuscatory language.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- Teachers are supposed to be robots who have no lives outside of school.
- It’s past time cops stopped being allowed to cover up murders so easily.
- “Sex addiction” is a shared delusion of quacks and guilt-ridden patients.
- A decent article despite journalistic credulity about prohibitionist claims.
- Texas starts to realize how bad it looks to keep killing pregnant women.
- Apparently, I was destined to be criminalized regardless of career path.
- Some censors are so mentally ill they feel threatened by tree sexuality.
- Sows love fantasy role-playing as sex workers in order to harm people.
- Only the organization is “nonprofit”; those who run it can make plenty.
- Even lurking in schools part-time is as much opportunity as cops need.
- The people who need “correction” are the ones who enable this horror.
- Airports are among cops’ favorite places to lurk in order to rob people.
- The zeal for censorship isn’t limited to the US or so-called “right wing”.
- Seemingly-consensual sex with a cop may actually be something else.
- Censors are now pretending ideas they don’t like constitute a “crime”.
- One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- Ambulance-chasers don’t care who gets hurt as long as they cash in.
- This will make little difference until cops’ power is severely curtailed.
- “Fetal personhood” policies are going to keep getting more absurd.
- Tennessee’s float in the current “monkey see, monkey do” parade.
- A roundup of efforts in various states to change prostitution laws.
- This evil fascist scheme needs to be eradicated, root and branch.
- What Swedish criminalization proponents do: lie & harm women.
- This is the first time I’ve seen a woman falsely accused of rape.
- Rather than actually filing a lawsuit, ACLU prefers to dilly-dally.
- Cops, parodies, King Lear, Louis Gossett, Jr, and much more.
- Another authoritarian “monkey see, monkey do” parade.
- A pool of tears which has steadily grown for six decades.
- Why are amateurs so damned averse to using condoms?
- Cops, the undead, lemon pound cake, and much more.
- An interesting development in these repressive times.
- Can’t y’all settle on one term for preachy molesters?
- There won’t be any shortcut to stopping Clearview.
- Another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists.
- Throwback Thursday and the Monster from Hell.
- Giving the henhouse its semi-annual cleaning.
- Just how defective are these political vermin?
- Laws are for the peasantry, not the rulers.
- Cops, editors, centaurs, and much more.
- Curiosity offends the state, comrade.
- The pullets move into their playpen.
- On the passing of my dog Annie.
- The sleaziness has no bottom.
- Scars of Throwback Thursday.
- Fancy lighting for my atrium.
- The Trumphole on display.
- Once a cop, always a cop.
- A “Tornado of Bad Ideas”.
- Rapist cops of the week.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
In the News (#1624)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged abortion, agency denial, artificial stupidity, cops, drugs, ethics, fascism, Florida, I Spy, law, Michigan, politicians, pregnancy, prisons, propaganda, Property of the State, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, surveillance, The Vultures Descend, To Molest and Rape, Torture Chamber, Walled Garden, Welcome to the Future, West Virginia on March 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »
When we use the courts to…bully someone into an unnecessary medical procedure against their will, it’s akin to torture. – Cherise Doyley
When this evil started a decade ago, potential victims were warned in advance:
Cherise Doyley…wanted to try for a vaginal delivery, but she understood from years of experience as a professional birthing doula that things don’t always go as planned…Doctors told her they were concerned about the [<2%] risk of uterine rupture…[but] she understood th[at negligible] risk…and repeatedly told doctors she wouldn’t consent to a cesarean without trying to have a vaginal delivery first…Then a nursing supervisor wheeled a tablet up to her bed and informed her she was in court….[for] failing to agree to a C-section…abortion restrictions can lead to pregnant women being denied lifesaving care…[bu]t the opposite problem, forced treatment, could also become more common in states like Florida that have fetal personhood policies [which place politically-determined “rights” of a fetus above that of an adult]…woman…who…is…[essentially considered an] incubator…
Most rapist cops use their cop power, but some prefer the brute-force approach:
Detroit…[cop] Benjamin Wagner…is now facing life in prison on numerous kidnapping and [rape] charges…[for at least] five [attacks carried out] between 1999 and 2003…Wagner targeted girls and young women between the ages of 15 and 23, approaching them while they were walking and then forcing them at gunpoint into secluded areas…The charges are tied directly to sexual assault kits collected at the time of the attacks…[which the police] never [bothered to] investigate…[a “new broom” politician named Kym] Worthy launched a sweeping initiative to [make political coin]…It took nearly a decade just to test all of the kits…
Your regular reminder that used cars still exist:
…a federal mandate requiring surveillance technology that monitors your every blink, glance, and head nod…[will empower a computer to] decide…whether you’re fit to drive. If [a computer program] determines you’re impaired (blood alcohol ≥0.08% or showing fatigue), it can prevent ignition startup or limit vehicle speed…[buy]ing…a 2027 model means accepting this digital copilot…[worse still,] these systems [will be] updatable [without owner consent, allowing]…monitoring capabilities [to be expanded] post-purchase [at a political whim]…manufacturers [will almost certain]ly upload biometric data to corporate servers…[for] sharing with insurance companies to [raise] your premiums…Car manufacturers [point out that]…false positives [will regularly] strand drivers. They’re concerned about customer backlash and [100% predictable] sales declines as buyers seek older, unmonitored vehicles. The federal government [justifi]es this surveillance [by barfing the word “]safety[” at useful idiots]…
This twisted scheme was first attempted in Wyoming:
…The [latest attempt by forced-birth politicians to make abortion more difficult, odious, and stigmatized]…would [criminalize] flush[ing] abortion or miscarriage remains down a toilet “to protect both human dignity and America’s water systems”…The bill[‘s sponsor, Mary]…Miller[, vomited a lot of bizarre claims and convoluted dysphemisms all over reporters while attempting to justify her attempt to]…force women [using abortion pills] to [bleed into a bag marked “BIOHAZARD”]…and bring the [expelled tissue] to their physician. [Presumably, women who miscarry unexpectedly would be expected to leave the results in the toilet, go and get one of these scarlet bags, and then scoop the mess, feces and all, into it, upon pain of]…a $50,000 fine and up to five years in prison…Trace amounts of all medications…can be found in wastewater…but there is no scientific evidence to back up the [prohibitionist propaganda] that abortion pills are polluting drinking water or harming [anyone]…
Looks like it’s time for veils to come back into fashion:
Walmart has recently been awarded patents…for [algorithms which enable]…surveillance pricing, the practice of charging people different prices for the same goods and services based on their unique [facial-recognition-linked profile in the software]…Another patent recently granted to Walmart…involves the use of machine learning to predict the demand of various items and recommend prices…[using] third-party data…
West Virginia prisoners [have filed a class action lawsuit against] Aramark Corporation [because it] serves inedible, low-quality food in its prison cafeterias to drive customers to its [overpriced] food-for-purchase programs…Aramark is the largest food provider in the United States to prisons and jails…and…brought in $18.5 billion [last year. It has a long history]…of serving inedible or spoiled food, prepared in kitchens where workers have [regular]ly found maggots…In Kentucky, Aramark’s [terrible] food…led to a prison riot [in 2015]…
As the old adage says, “Three can keep a secret if two are dead”:
…an unprotected database [belonging] to IDMerit, a company that claims to help businesses verify identities, exposed roughly 1 billion sensitive records across 26 countries. In the United States alone, more than 203 million records were left unsecured…researchers…discovered [the] exposed…database on Nov. 11…anyone who knew where to look could access it. Inside were full names, home addresses, postal codes, dates of birth, national ID numbers, phone numbers, email addresses and gender information…Researchers notified the company, and the database was secured the following day…[bu]t automated bots constantly scan the internet for exposed databases and can copy them within minutes…
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!
Throwback Thursday Bites
Posted in Biography, History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Tyranny, Words, tagged animals, blogging, censorship, fascism, language, law, politicians, psychology, Sunset, Twitter on March 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »
There really isn’t an excuse for repeated attempts at social engineering that aren’t even tied to some kind of grift, pork, or fascist collaboration.
– “In the Dark”
Being able to look out a window and see grass and trees and animals…is so much better for my mental and spiritual health then being subjected to a “view” which consists of nothing but concrete, glass, and automobiles.
– “Diary #664”
“Innocence” is merely a fanciful euphemism for “ignorance”. – “Tweetenstein”
For me, no sorrow is ever experienced in isolation; new tears falling into the pool immediately cause it to overflow, and then it’s impossible to tell how much of my anguish is due to the proximate source of the grief, and how much is old pain which has never been fully resolved. – “Pool of Tears“
In the News (#1623)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged abortion, advertising, artificial stupidity, Belgium, censorship, cops, dating, Enshittification, ethics, Facebook, fascism, games, Google, I Spy, internet, language, law, Leaving the 20th Century, Nightfall, Ohio, politicians, porn, pregnancy, Property of the State, rape, Rough Trade, scams, Shame Shame, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, The War Goes On, Twitter, United Kingdom on March 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Privacy and security on social media apps can’t be “optional”—they are life-saving necessities. – Leila Nashashibi
Cops are a constant menace to all women:
[A London cop named] Samson Akinnawo[, who was] featured in [a recruiting poster] in July 2024 d[emonstrated that]…he was a [typical and representative cop by]…stalking and harassing Melieka Daley between June and August last year through repeatedly calling and messaging her, [lurk]ing [around] her home…follow[ing] her from work and [harassing a] friend [of hers who had been] arrest[ed]…Akinnawo…[started out as a screw] and…is currently [enjoying a paid vacation]…
Yes, this is absolutely rape. No, I don’t want to “discuss” it:
In Belgium, a man was convicted of rape [for fak]ing…payment receipts for a sex worker, a scheme deemed by the court to be equivalent to a lack of consent…Belgium is [the only] European countr[y] where sex work is [decriminalized]…but this is the first time that a refusal to pay, or “a ruse” such as the production of a false receipt, has been considered in a trial as a lack of consent…and therefore rape…the Belgian Penal Code [specifically] stipulates that…”there is no consent if the sexual act results from deception”…the man had deliberately deceived his victim by pretending to make a payment via his banking application when…in reality, he was showing her his phone displaying…a screenshot of a previous successful payment…He was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended, with the obligation to undergo psychotherapy and submit to regular checks proving that he no longer uses drugs…
Four years ago I wrote, “I’ll believe Facebook is going to use encryption when it actually does it”:
[Facebook] is backtracking on [yet another] of its…[emp]ty promises…to implement default end-to-end encryption for direct messages on Instagram…End-to-end encrypted messages are more important than ever…in the face of a…[regime] that will do anything and everything to silence and punish its critics…No better case illustrates the risk…than when [Facebook] handed over private messages…that were…used to prosecute [a] young woman for having an abortion. If Messenger were default end-to-end encrypted at that time, [Facebook] would never had access to the messages in the first place…But now [Zuckerberg]…is looking for some bogus reason to cancel…[supposed] plans for default E2EE…so that [Facebook] can 1) tap your DMs to train its [chatbots] and 2) curry political favor…by opening up…your private messages for spying and surveillance by the government…
Most tyranny starts with governments claiming they want to “protect” people:
Ohio [politici]ans have introduced a bill that would allow the government to track every pregnancy, beginning to end…[the] registry…[would] requir[e] healthcare providers to file a “certificate of life” with the Ohio Department of Health within ten days of examining a pregnant patient and detecting [fetal cardiac myocyte activity]. The bill also mandates that “fetal deaths” be registered with the state, and…requires a “cause of death” to be certified within 48 hours—and if a fetus is deemed to have died in a “violent, suspicious, unusual, or sudden” manner, a coroner or medical examiner would be brought in…Let’s be clear about what this really is: an attempt to build an infrastructure for pregnancy surveillance…and…a pathway for scrutiny if the state decides something looks “off”…
If you thought Google spellcheck “correcting” properly-used words was bad:
…It is now possible to use live translation to communicate in another language in real time…but [the technology is already being abused]…to…rephras[e] profanity…in chat [programs]…Roblox…is [defending the decision to implement this dystopian thought control by spewing out buzzwords such as] “civility”…”leveraging AI”…”respectful”…and…”multilayered safety system”…it creates a dangerous proof of concept that others may build on…It’s easy to imagine situations where Chinese…systems…rephrase people’s language on social media in real time to promote “social harmony”. Not only the style but even the content’s details could be subtly changed away from controversy towards conformity. It would be possible for rephrasing to be visible only to others, so the person making a comment might not even be aware that their words were being subverted in this way…
…Google is beginning to replace news headlines in its search results with ones that are [LLM]-generated. After doing something similar in its Google Discover news feed, it’s starting to mess with headlines in the traditional “10 blue links,” too. We’ve found multiple examples where Google replaced headlines we wrote with ones we did not, sometimes changing [or even reversing] their meaning in the process. For example, Google reduced our headline “I used the ‘cheat on everything’ AI tool and it didn’t help me cheat on anything” to just five words: “‘Cheat on everything’ AI tool.” It almost sounds like we’re endorsing a product we do not recommend at all…And Google says it’s tweaking how other websites show up in search, too, not just news…this is like a bookstore ripping the covers off the books it puts on display and changing their titles…but Google seems to believe we don’t have an inherent right to market our own work…
This started as a scheme to keep sex workers off of Tinder:
Tinder plans to let machine vision algorithms loose on your camera roll. Instead of building a profile on their own, [Tinder] will scan users’ locally-stored photos—everything from gym selfies to pictures of their family, sensitive documents and dick pics—to [let a machine] construct profiles by [mahine-guess]ing what users’ interests and values are. Dating apps are [quickly becoming enshittified]…thanks to [toy]s like ChatGPT…[which allow unscrupulous] users…[to] offload get-to-know-you conversations to [machines]…Although Tinder [spokesgeek Mark Kantor vomits out platitudes about choice, sane]…users may still be concerned with [unaccountable black-box algorithms rooting through] their entire [phone memory, and since]…users can’t pick individual photos they want analyzed or ignored…Tinder’s [so-called “]safeguards[“] are [hardly reassuring, especially given dating apps’ terrible security track record]… Kantor [brushed off valid security concerns by belching “]science[!” in a reporter’s face]…
Much, much, much more of this, please:
…a group of Tennessee teenagers [are suing Elon Musk’s chatbot company because its MechaHitler chatbot was]…used to create nude images of them by editing photos in which they were clothed. The edited photos spread across Discord and Telegram in recent months, and some were bartered for [child porn] in online chatrooms…a single perpetrator compiled images and videos of more than 18 girls, many of whom attended the same school, and digitally altered…them using [MechaHitler]…The three plaintiffs, including two minors, seek damages for each [altered photo] and aim to prevent the company from allowing [other such] image editing…Musk [predictably lied]…that [the number]…of…naked underage images generated by [MechaHitler was] “Literally zero”…and…[claimed] the…estimated 23,000 [altered] photos…[of naked legal minors was the result of “adversarial hacking”]…
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!
Tweet Germ
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Music, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged advertising, Aladdin’s Satellite, animals, artificial stupidity, Barbie, blogging, Bluesky, censorship, cops, cosmetic surgery, dirty, Facebook, games, hysteria, imaginative fiction, Iran, language, New York, Not To Be Taken Internally, politicians, prisons, propaganda, psychology, racism, Twitter, video, yellow journalism on March 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »
So many people still feel the need to wait for some business entity to temporarily carry a show they want to see, typically polluted with commercials, when home video has existed in one form or another for over 40 years and most shows can be permanently purchased for the price of a decent meal.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-15T18:02:27.299Z
Trump really does believe what he sees in movies.Here we see him attempting the Jedi mind trick.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-17T03:04:37.228Z
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" – Upton Sinclair
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-17T19:00:27.452Z
People who do not eat chips could be ‘left behind’, says Frito-Lay’s CEO
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-18T19:55:52.543Z
Funniest thing I've seen this week.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-20T08:52:14.194Z
It's garbage. It's shit. It's noise. It's paint hurled at a canvas. It's an overflowing toilet. It's hated by anyone who knows anything about art. It enriches fascists. It ignores consent and good taste. It's stupid. It's bad. It's a disease. It's random. It reeks. It's unwelcome. It's everywhere.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-21T18:50:08.193Z
Over a decade ago, I was warning young women not to let random people who aren't doctors inject filth into their butts.Now I'm warning young men not to hit themselves in the face with hammers.Really, y'all, plastic surgery is not something you can learn by watching YouTube videos.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-24T18:24:12.301Z
In traditional scholarship, caring about what other educated people thought about one's ideas was called "peer review", and it was considered intrinsic to the process.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-24T18:39:40.974Z
Concentration camps. Go on, you can type the words if you try. I believe in you. Just keep repeating the mantra, "I have a backbone, I have a backbone, I have a backbone", and you should be able to either type the words or just copy paste from here: "concentration camps".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-25T17:54:59.340Z
Stolen. The word you're looking for is "stolen", not "taken away"; that is a term reserved for parents disciplining their own children, ie "she took away his bb gun until he stopped shooting cats". The term for strangers permanently taking others' possessions is "stealing". They STOLE the crayons.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-26T17:56:06.044Z
Do history classes in New York teach students about William the Acquirer and the Acquisitions of Genghis Khan?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-27T18:20:18.610Z
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nGK…
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-28T17:52:47.390Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-28T19:35:46.602Z
Those of you who weren't adults at the time of the Gulf War may not remember that it, more than any other event, created the 24-hour news cycle which has bedeviled the US ever since. It turned CNN from a low-rating sideline into a high-rating main event, and gave us the nauseating term "scud stud".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-02T17:39:49.401Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-03T18:01:27.024Z
Honestly, I don't know how you young gals put up with this. In my day (points with cane) all we had to worry about beside cops and bad clients was the puritanical old woman whom the publisher of the Yellow Pages (Barry Co IIRC) allowed to ban certain words in escort service ads.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-04T08:21:33.548Z
Trump replaces Barbie with Mr. Potato Head.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-05T20:02:33.887Z
Challenge for those who aren't religious fanatics: explain to those who *are* that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and that the burden of proof is NOT on those demanding such evidence.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-07T17:31:04.244Z
This is called a "win-win" scenario.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-08T17:44:05.190Z
If they simply phrased the headline truthfully as "women are falling in love with a fantasy of romance", people would recognize that this is nothing new.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-09T17:41:07.413Z
How quaint. Those of us who still play real old-fashioned D&D are going to start looking like people who bake all of their own bread instead of buying Wonder Bread.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-10T17:00:58.084Z
There's illiteracy, and then there's *functional* illiteracy, and then there's…whatever this is.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T03:40:34.394Z
People who are terminally online habitually type out bizarre, unpronounceable sequences of letters and symbols which attest to how little of their lives are spent actually speaking to normal people in real life.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T19:07:51.122Z
Future history students will refuse to believe it when their professors tell them that one of the factors that precipitated the 21st-century dark age was gambling fanatics intentionally falsifying records for profit. Having taught history, I can hear the adolescent voices already: "That's stupid!"
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-13T17:28:41.148Z
On Bluesky this morning, I'm seeing the usual mixture of political & aesthetic posts.On Twitter, I'm being attacked by incensed Millennials apparently unable to comprehend why a 60-year-old woman who neither has kids nor watches TV doesn't know about a gimmick kid food first sold in the late '90s.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-14T18:22:27.167Z
"Police shoot black man in the back."There, FIFY.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-15T17:24:47.878Z
Boo hoo hoo, his diaper is wet and nobody wants to play with him.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T02:40:56.057Z
I think @ryanlcooper.com called it correctly: Trump will go down as one of the Great Idiots of History.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-17T17:24:50.126Z
Deep respect for Tony Moore.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-18T17:14:20.090Z
So THIS is where Big Balls went.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-19T17:41:07.379Z
Après moi, le déluge.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-20T18:08:32.460Z
People idolize flawed human beings, creating statues of them as though they were pharaohs & literally putting them up on pedestals, only to tear them down again as soon as the flawed human is found to have been flawed.We could save so much time and energy by simply not setting up humans as gods.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-03-21T07:47:25.342Z
Mama Throwback Thursday
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged activism, animals, blogging, cops, holidays, Lack of Evidence, language, law, politicians, psychology, video on March 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The surest way to lose my cooperation is to accompany the demand with a phrase like “you must”, “you are required to”, “it’s the law”, etc. – “Off the Green”
Some of life’s greatest pleasures are pleasant precisely because they’re so ephemeral; if rainbows were always a feature of the sky, few would ever bother to look up at them in wonderment and appreciation.
– “Diary #663”
Baby-step reforms…are mostly intended to distract activists and hush timid human rights campaigners. – “Lack of Evidence (#1421)”
[Trump] wants to make the US status as the world’s cop official, complete with the cop power to terrorize whoever he likes on a whim without anything resembling consequences. – “Client Kingdoms”
In the News (#1621)
Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged asset seizure, brothels, censorship, cops, fascism, I Spy, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, illegal aliens, law, libraries, masturbation, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, politicians, prisons, racism, rape, semen, Spain, sporting events, statistics, surveillance, teachers, The Puritan Recrudescence, Thought Control, To Molest and Rape, Torture Chamber, United Kingdom, Walled Garden on March 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Every day felt like a week. Every week felt like a month. Every month felt like a year. – Owen Ramsingh
Cops will victimize anyone they can catch:
An 80-year-old man was recently arrested in Plattsburgh, New York…[during a Father]land Security [raid]…on…a massage business…the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office [collaborated with Father]land Security [to] execute…the [raid, with cops getting]…the…[white male victims while Father]land Security [gets]…the…Asian women [who are typically raped and robbed prior to deportation]…
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1057)
It’s sad that in the 21st century we’re still debunking claims that semen has magic powers:
…the…centuries-old myth…that sex or orgasm before a competition diminishes athletic performance…has repeatedly failed to [be] support[ed by]…numerous studies…whi[ch]…have shown that sex and orgasm are more likely to increase testosterone than decrease it. Now, a particularly well-designed laboratory study…[by] Spanish researchers…[has shown that] masturbation produced small but statistically significant improvements in certain performance measures…[including] increased total exercise time…[and] greater handgrip strength…there were no negative effects…[and] testosterone levels were actually higher in the masturbation condition. Cortisol levels were also elevated, suggesting increased physiological arousal rather than depletion…
Politicians really want to be able to define anything as “obscene” at will:
A new Ohio bill seeks to [penalize] companies who provide online resources for the state’s public schools and libraries…[if a politician later points at anything in those resources while belching the magic word] “inappropriate”…the companies would [be subjected to] a three-strike rule, in which they would be notified…and given the ability to “cure” the resources [by censoring them on demand]…The bill would [also censor] resource[s including]…drugs, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, [any] illegal activities…or…LGBT…[people]…
Elon Musk and all his “DOGE” goons should spend the next few decades in prison:
…a [typical and representative “]DOGE[” goon named John Solly who]…had access to two highly sensitive [Social Security] databases…share[d] the information with his [new] private employer…a c[ompany named Leidos]…an unprecedented breach of security protocols…[foolishly enabled by SCOTUS. Solly bragged] to…several co-workers that he possessed two tightly restricted databases of U.S. citizens’ information…on a thumb drive. The databases…include records for more than 500 million living and dead Americans, including Social Security numbers, places and dates of birth, citizenship, race and ethnicity, and parents’ names…he a[sked]…the whistleblower…[for] help transferring data from a thumb drive “to his personal computer so that he could ‘sanitize’ the data before using it at [Leidos” and]…the…colleague…refused to help him…because of legal concerns, [but Solly bragged] that he [did not care that it was]…illegal [because the mad emperor would pardon him]…
A [typical and representative Pennsylvania cop named]…Francis Connell Collier…was…killed…in a [shootout]…with [other cops]…who…[were trying to arrest him for] rape of a[t least two] child[ren]…beginning when they were about five or six years old…from 2001 through…2004…
The only way to ensure data is not abused is not to collect it:
Spain’s data protection authority…imposed a total fine of €950,000 on Yoti Ltd, the British digital identity and age verification company, after finding three distinct violations of [law]…the AEPD has [also] ordered Yoti to implement corrective measures within six months…Yoti’s…app allows users to create a verified identity account by uploading a government-issued identity document and taking a selfie…Yoti [claimed] that the facial scan it performs does not constitute biometric data…because…the purpose is not to uniquely identify users but to authenticate them. The authority [sensibly] rejected this [ridiculous] argument…
Some of these “suicides” are murders; others are people driven to suicide by barbaric abuse:
S[crews] at the nation’s largest [concentration camp] have placed bets on which [of their victims] will be the next to die by suicide…Camp East Montana [was refurbished from a WWII-era concentration camp used to falsely imprison US citizens of Japanese descent]…On an average day…around 3,000 [ICE victims] are [imprisoned there without adequate]…food [or]…medical care…
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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