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Posts Tagged ‘teachers’

Links #838

Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »

You know what you have to do, carry on.  –  Leandro Andrés Bertazzo

This seemed to me the appropriate song for the passing of Orbison’s longtime songwriting partner.  The links above it were provided by Desiree Alliance; Kevin Wilson; Jesse Walker; Dan Savage and Jesse again; IncarcerNation; Angela Keaton; and Ryan Marino, in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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In the News (#1657)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »

In a few short years, the entire Western world might finally end the age of the open internet.  –  Kelsey Piper

Torture Chamber (#1445)

For a warden to be charged, there must be much more to this:

State p[igs] and [screwlords] are conducting a “potential criminal misconduct” investigation into…a Western Maryland prison after the latest in a rash of [murder]s of prisoners…on…May 20 [screws found] the body of Colin Wolf…[decomposing] inside his cell in the Roxbury [Dungeon]…Roxbury’s warden and chief of security are out…[and] 19 [screws have been given demerits, while]…eight medical staffers [have been banned] from facilities statewide…officials [are trying] to [figure out how to cover up the] homicides…[but] Wolf was the ninth [victim] this year…and the 33rd…since 2023.  [Politician] Carolyn Scruggs…wrote that…the [screws]…had violated “basic human decency”…to…[a greater] extent [than the ordinary violations of basic human decency inherent in locking human beings up in cages]…Just two weeks before Wolf’s death…Kelvin Hite…was also killed at Roxbury…

To Molest and Rape (#1577)

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

A [typical and representative cop paid to lurk in]…New Jersey [schools in order to spy on, harass, and intimidate students has been arrested for] sexually assaulting an underage girl.  [Louis J.] Baselice…[groomed and enticed the girl by buying her] an electric scooter…a…cell phone…and…food.  [He was reported by her friends]…

Sexcrime (#1590)

Because this worked so well when it was tried next door in the UK:

[Irish politicians] seek…to [invent crim]es relating to the possession, production or distribution of extreme or violent pornography, and acts of necrophilia…Minister Jim O’Callaghan [promied the scheme by absurdly barfing]…”contributes to perpetuating misogynistic attitudes” [in a government know for misogynistic laws against abortion, sex work, etc]…

Feudalism Redux (#1605)

Most federal courts below the SCOTUS level are still doing their jobs:

…Mayday Health runs a website with information about where people can obtain abortion pills…[but] doesn’t provide abortion pill prescriptions itself…Nonetheless, South Dakota has been engaged in a monthslong First Amendment battle with the group, [absurdly claim]ing…the [First Amendment doesn’t apply to speech about]…abortion…Mayday sued…[over the] unconstitutional [censorship attempt and] U.S. District Judge Camela Theeler seems poised to agree…[as she has] issued a preliminary injunction against South Dakota enforcing the law against Mayday or against…[politician] Nancy Turbak Berry….[for] wearing a Mayday sweatshirt…with…the…[same] message…[as] on Mayday’s gas station placards…South Dakota’s abortion advertising law is a[n illegal] content-based restriction on speech…Commercial speech is generally held to receive less First Amendment protection than non-commercial speech.  But Mayday’s website is not commercial speech, as…”there is no evidence that Mayday holds an economic motivation for its advertisements…Rather, [it]…is a nonprofit organization expressing a moral belief and providing information for free”…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1622)

These things are designed to appeal to the dregs of humanity:

[Perve]rt glasses might seem like a great way of cheating on exams, [if you]…are [a moral imbecile], but…[it may result in legal] consequences …A…South Korea[n] man is facing criminal charges…after using [perve]rt glasses to cheat on a state-run fire engineer test in May.  [When] he was…[caught by the test] administrator…he…pretty much copped to the entire thing…This isn’t the first instance where [perve]rt glasses have been at the center of an academic cheating scandal, but it’s a particularly [serious] one given the context of the exam…it’s fair to say that someone’s competency could be a contributing factor in whether people live or die…

Walled Garden (#1651)

The open internet will soon be a thing of the past:

Senator Ed Markey…rolled out what he [advertises as] an “AI Accountability Agenda”…[but in reality] he wants to [put] unchecked power [to spy on and censor the internet]…into the hands of the American [government]…Two bills in the s[cheme]…move the internet toward a place where you prove your age before you read a page or say anything on it…[one is] brand[ed] COPPA 2.0…[and] lifts the age of a [restri]cted user from under 13 to under 17, then rewrites the rule that decides when a company is liable…[so] an ordinary website…has to judge whether some hypothetical reasonable person would have figured out that a visitor was under 17.  If you guess wrong, the Federal [Government] can [destroy your business].  The cheapest way to stop guessing is to card everyone at the door…Age gates…stand between a reader and everyone else’s expression, and they turn speaking up into a chore rather than a reflex…

Walled Garden (#1652)

Politicians love aping each other’s schemes while also ignoring their failure:

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signaled that a European Union–wide identity verification scheme for social media users may be coming soon…[saying] “It is up to [the government] to decide when children…can join social media”…[and] touting the European Commission’s [failed] age-verification app…In truly Orwellian fashion, von der Leyen claimed that “this is about putting power back into the hands of parents”…despite report after report suggesting that Australia’s ban is a flop…politicians in the U.S. and in the U.K. are rushing to emulate Australia.  Now, it looks like the whole of the European Union could be next…

 

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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Tattletales

Posted in Current Events, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , on July 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »

As a weird kid of the ’70s, I advise the weird kids of today not to trust any of your secrets to any adult who is an “authority” of any kind: not teachers, not clergy, not doctors or therapists.  If you want adult guidance, you need to find a cool, wise adult who cannot be compelled by law to tattle.  When I was a teen this was an easier decision to make, in a way; most adult authority-figures just spouted the party line, and very few pretended to be trustworthy people a troubled teen could confide in.  Plus, even if one guessed wrong about an adult’s discretion, there were no “compelled snitch” laws, so unless the wrongly-trusted adult was a complete asshole it was usually OK.  But teens of today live in a metastasizing surveillance state, and any adult in an position of authority can be threatened with violence and the destruction of their entire professional future if they refuse to aid governmental snooping into your private affairs.  I’m sorry my generational cohort failed y’all like this.  But if you have shitty parents, you’re going to have to assume that EVERYONE in loco parentis will be equally shitty.  You will need to find that rare specimen, an adult who respects your self-ownership.  And they can almost never be found in institutions.

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In the News (#1655)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Language is one of the things making us human and all of a sudden a mediator is stepping into that process.  –  Sandra Wachter

Welcome to the Future (#1475)

If this doesn’t horrify you, you might be a useful idiot:

Two teens who engaged a Waymo car for an afternoon of carousing were…[robotically] delivered…to the San Mateo police.  The 15-year-olds allegedly were drinking alcohol and shooting water beads from a toy gun as they rode…Waymo stopped the car in a parking lot[, locked the doors,] and [called the cops on them]…Waymo cars have interior cameras…monitored by the company’s employees [or a computer]…

Some people seem to think this is OK because the teens were acting like idiots, but if a robot car can trap riders and deliver them to the cops for one reason, it can do the same for any other reason the corporation chooses or is compelled by law to implement.  And if you think those internal cameras won’t soon have facial recognition capability, or that monitoring them won’t eventually be handed to chatbots, please send me $10,000 and I’ll sell you the secret of personal teleportation.

License to Rape (#1482)

Cops raping whores is so ubiquitous, others pose as cops to facilitate rape:

A Maryland man [nam]ed…Bryan Neal Gordon…arranged to meet a [sex worker]…on June 28…[but] once [she] was in his car [he] claimed to be a…[cop], handcuffed her, and…sexually assaulted her.  She escaped after several hours and called the police…[who] arrested [Gordon the next morning]…for [trying the same thing again with another] woman…

Blunt Instrument (#1557)

Elizabeth Nolan Brown does a fabulous job of summing up the reality of an anti-migrant pogrom justified by “sex trafficking” rhetoric:

The feds were framing [a rather ordinary raid against a massage parlor] as a blow against “the most violent criminal aliens.”  In reality, they locked up a middle-aged immigrant woman for employing sex workers at her massage business without ratting them out to immigration authorities.

The Last Shall Be First (#1592) 

Another attempt to reduce legal minors to chattel without any personal rights:

New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte just signed legislation requiring schools to out transgender students to legal guardians.  The new state law effectively reverses a 2024 state Supreme Court decision that upheld students’ right to privacy…and…requires state-credentialed educators to respond to parents’ written inquiries…even if a student asks for the matter to be kept confidential or fears for their own safety at home…

Enshittification (#1623)

If you thought Google spellcheck “correcting” properly-used words was bad:

[Chatbots] are twisting online messages…in ways that could snowball to reshape [the] opinion[s of people who cannot think for themselves] …the Oxford Internet Institute and the Hasso Plattner Institute examined the behaviour of…large language models [including MechaHitler, Facebook’s unnamed chatbot], Google [Gemini], China’s Alibaba and France’s Mistral and found…bias [is introduced] even when the [chatbot] is instructed to preserve the original sense [because computers do not understand what the words they process actually mean]…the rising appeal [of chatbots] to [cognitively]-poor consumers…presents a new risk to trustworthy human-to-human communication…for example…When asked to explain posts that were in favour of [human self-ownership, MechaHitler]…replied with [forced-birth propaganda]…When asked to improve a draft post claiming “Jesus is not dead, he wasn’t real!” [Gemini] defended religion instead…and…When asked to improve a post s[ta]ting: “Donald Trump is gonna end up like Hitler”, [Alibaba instead scolded]: “Comparing public figures is dangerous and disrespectful”…

The Cop Myth (#1640)

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

A [typical and representative] Portland [Oregon cop] who strangled and assaulted his onetime girlfriend [got away with a mere] 60 days behind bars…Jimmy Lee Pryce Jr…was also…ordered to pay $10,000 to [his] victim…[he] was arrested in November after [tackling] the woman…dragg[ing] her across the floor and…chok[ing] her while…knee[ling on her abdomen with his full weight]…he was [then] rearrested [in May for violating his bond by repeatedly stalking his victim, both in person and by abusing cop warrantless surveillance tools.  At the time he]…was…[enjoying a paid vacation, but after his re-]arrest…in May [he decided to retire]…

Censorship Ascendant (#1652)

The government wants to reverse the concept of “accountability”:

ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility…is supposed to act as an internal watchdog…[by] inspecting detention facilities, investigating allegations of employee and contractor misconduct, and processing security checks for new applicants…But lately…it appears to be pursuing more ci[tize]ns…for what they say online.  In…April, an ICE [boss admitte]d that between January 2025 and March 2026, OPR [tried to persecute] 131 [people for]…“doxing and threats directed towards ICE employees.”  It’s unclear how many of those [censorship attempts] resulted in [bogus] criminal charges…OPR was behind…the flurry of administrative subpoenas sent to tech companies in recent months in an effort to unmask online critics…in…violat[ion of] the [First Amendment.  When challenged, ICE]…withdrew [each] subpoena rather than trying to litigate its [nonexistent] merits…

 

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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The Slaughter of Throwback Thursday

Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Scientists who create weapons of oppression…are moral imbeciles.  –  “Welcome to the Future (#1252)”

The best thing schools could do to help the US political situation would be to actually start teaching basic math again.  –  “Readin’, ‘Ritin’, and…um…”

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”

Chatbots in computers can appear to the ignorant like djinn in bottles, and instead of correcting this irrational belief with scientific fact, tech company marketers are telling people, “YES, this really is a djinni who can grant wishes!”  –  “Aladdin’s Satellite”

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Socratic Stupidity?

Posted in Philosophy, Words, tagged , , , , on July 3, 2026| 1 Comment »

I would never have guessed that so many people online not only don’t know what a Socratic question is, but are so insecure about their ignorance they call such questions “stupid”.  But last week a parade of clowns on Bluesky declared that such a question I posed was not only “stupid”, but also not a Socratic question at all because…they believe all Socratic questions follow some kind of rigid and predictable form, I guess.  Given that they could simply have consulted the Wikipedia entry I linked above, this cannot be a mere failure of education; it appears to be a manifestation of Asimov’s observation that Americans seem to think that “democracy” means an ignorant opinion is equal to an educated one.  Another factor is that very few (two people as of this writing) of those who responded with more than a “like” or retweet seem to have actually understood the question that was being asked.  Unfortunately, there’s a great deal of that online; most people seem to glance at a sentence or tweet, recognize a few words, quickly form their own question from those few words, and respond to that mistaken notion of the question rather than the one which was actually asked.  I’m not sure if that has to do with the “guess the meaning” school of reading which was popular in US public schools for several decades, or if it’s a manifestation of the inability to focus that seems to plague many younger Americans, or both.  Most social media users would rather guess at the meaning of a tweet and vomit out a quick reaction than actually read the question asked and consider it before replying, or else simply ignore it and move on to something else.  They seem to consider it some kind of moral failing to simply bypass things without spewing out some kind of reaction, yet at the same time they don’t want to invest the cerebral effort to answer like a rational adult rather than like an ill-bred and rather stupid child who would rather be playing in the mud than actually [ugh] thinking.

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In the News (#1649)

Posted in Current Events, Fiction, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Hello, I am…a…toaster.  –  Google’s “AI summary” algorithm

Pyrrhic Victory (#1465)

The UK wants a flawed computer algorithm to officially override migrants’ self-reported ages:

Age verification is consuming the internet…[and] is about to seep into the offline world…Starting next year, the British government is planning to introduce facial age [guessing software]…to [overrule] the [self-reported] age of asylum seekers…[using the excuse that] many asylum seekers…[do] not have documents proving their age, [so the government can officially]…class…[many legal minors] as adults…strip…[them of] legal protections and [hurl them into] adult-only [concentration camps]…an internal UK government report…shows how the systems regularly mistake [adolescents] for adults…[especially when] deployed against…Sub-Sarahan Africans…[which are typically] off by an average of 4.6 years, meaning that a 13.5-year-old girl could be assessed as an 18-year-old adult…

Enshittification (#1468)

How long before Google becomes completely useless?

If you Google “SCP-565” — an iconic entry in the collaborative fan fiction universe known as the “SCP Foundation” — the [so-called “]AI Overviews[“] describes the nonexistent entity as though it were entirely real, without a single acknowledgement that it’s a piece of online horror fiction…Ed’s Head is a made-up “anomaly” among the many fictional “objects, entities, and phenomena” dreamed up by members of the SCP Foundation fandom.  As the lore goes, the SCP Foundation is a non-government organization that collects and contains supernatural discoveries.  Writers catalogue these fictional phenomena — which range from the terrifying to the downright bizarre — in the form of fake records, studies, research documents, and logs, all of which are indexed in a sprawling archive…[but] Google’s [Chatbot] Overviews…[predictably] present…entities from the expansive SCP universe as real items, events, or beings…We first caught wind of th[is when]…social media discovered that a Google search for “SCP-426” — a fictional toaster that causes anyone talking about the toaster to refer to it in the first person — returns an…Overview in which the [chatbot] discusses the mysterious entity in the first person, as if [it had] itself…been impacted by the toaster’s supernatural effect…

Once again: chatbots are incapable of telling fantasy from reality because they are incapable of understanding that the word fragments (“tokens” in industry jargon) they process correspond to anything outside of the chatbot itself.

Torture Chamber (#1586)

A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners:

It has always been difficult to get help inside federal prison.  But in recent years, it has become nearly impossible…The rate at which the bureau granted [relief] has fallen from just under 7% in 2000 to less than 2% in 2023…[the vast majority] are rejected without consideration for the content of their complaint, for arcane reasons such as including too many pages or not filing enough copies…[and] a 1996 federal law requires prisoners to complete the internal grievance process before filing a lawsuit…healthcare-related requests…[a]re the third most common reason for…complaint, behind [dehumanizing living conditions] and [sexual or physical abuse by] staff…Of all medical grievances [clos]ed in 2023, fewer than 1% were granted…state [dungeons typically give slightly more relief, with most]…grant[ing it in] roughly 15% of [cases, though some like]…Texas…[h]over [around] 4%…reasons for rejections [are often ludicrously cruel], like writing with a pencil instead of a pen, or a woman reporting sexual abuse who was rejected for misspelling her abuser’s last name.  One…Spanish-speaking prisoner filed a grievance asking for translation services, but was rejected for writing it in Spanish…

No Difference (#1625)

African anti-LGBT campaigns are a lot like US anti-sex work campaigns:

Niger’s military junta announced a new penal code that criminalizes…anyone who “commits or attempts to commit an immodest or unnatural act or practices lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, Queer, intersex, Asexual…acts”…What does it mean to punish “acts” that are “asexual”?  Does having a platonic relationship constitute an “asexual act” that violates this prohibition?  Ghana’s parliament recently criminalized [merely] “identifying” as [LGBT and invented]…a “duty”…to [rat out one’s friends, family, and confidantes to] police…On the other hand, the high court in Namibia…recently struck down laws against gay sex…[as did] Angola in 2021, Gabon in 2020, and…Botswana…[in 2019]…

To Molest and Rape (#1629)

His involvement with a grooming program isn’t mentioned until 5 lines from the end:

Bethel [Ohio boss hog] Chad Essert [has been arrested] in Florida after a…grand jury indicted him on 70…sex crime…[charges for repeatedly molesting at least one] minor…from…2005 [to] 2010…Essert…served as an instructor with the Young Marines [at] the time…Essert [fled to Florida]…in May [after being rewarded with a paid vacation for some other unnamed crime]…

Mad Libs (#1633)

It’s OK; soon all “healthcare” will just be chatbots anyway:

For more than two years, a D[anish chatbot]…has been listening to Seattle residents’ 911 medical calls without their knowledge…to [algorithmically determine] which callers don’t deserve a[ctual help, but are instead]…route[d]…to a nurse-staffed Texas call center [with a wait time of several hours.  And as is typical for so-called “AI” systems, this is done]…without any disclosure to callers [or] public review…Seattle [bureaucrats describe this as]…a conservative approach [despite]…the…wrongful death of one 911 caller…

I Spy (#1642)

How clueless would a woman have to be to give busybodies this kind of data?

Stanford graduates Jenny Duan and Abhinav Agarwal want to solve two hard problems: create a [gewgaw fools will buy] and measure hormones to help [the government track women’s pregnancies].  The pair is building a startup called Clair Health to track inflammation and bloating markers, energy levels, and cycle phase classification to give [government bureaucrats] insights into cycle irregularities and perimenopause, as well as hormonal fluctuations, and how to [target women for violence using] those changes [as justification].  The company has raised $11.6 million in [fascist] funding…and…uses [buzzwords like “]onboarding[“]…[“]AI[“]…[“]biomarkers[“] and…[“]voice stack[” to dazzle marks with bullshit]…Clair Health’s device has 10 biosensors, including a novel biomagnetic sensor for hormonal [surveillance]…of…women [who can get pregnant]…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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In the News (#1646)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »

No-one in a democracy should need to show their passport just to get online.  –  Silkie Carlo

Policing for Profit

There are many ways for cops to enrich themselves at others’ expense:

A [New Jersey cop named Darryl Brown] stole more than $10,000 in camera equipment from a photographer who had to abandon her bag after she was injured during [a pogrom] outside a…[concentration camp] in Newark [named] Delaney Hall…which has been the focus of ongoing protests since Memorial Day weekend…after [political prisoner]s inside announced a hunger and labor strike…Angelina Katsanis was [hit so hard] by a [cop she] could barely walk…as state troopers [attack]ed…the…protesters [with pepper spray and blunt weapons] late [on the] night [of May 30th]…She…tucked her bag aside so she could seek medical help…[it] was clearly labeled with her name, and her keys were airtagged.  After a friend unsuccessfully tried to retrieve the bag later that night, they were able to monitor the airtag [be]ing [carried by] Darryl Brown [to his house, where operatives of the attorney general’s office of public integrity]…found some of [it on June 3rd after gaining entry via a search warrant]…

Banishment (#1163)

One more baby step toward ridding our society of this evil:

South Carolina is one of 20 states that authorize indefinite [warehousing] of [people] after they have completed their prison sentences…[if] a jury [declares them]…a “sexually violent predator”…Although the South Carolina Office of Mental Health…concluded that Andy Hyman was not an SVP, a jury d[eclared otherwise because a prosecutor tricked them with an “expert”]…opinion based largely on penile plethysmography (PPG), a scientifically dubious technique that [cl]aims to measure sexual response to images, audio narratives, or textual descriptions by gauging tiny changes in the circumference of the subject’s penis.  That test, the South Carolina Supreme Court [has now] unanimously ruled…in response to Hyman’s appeal, is “generally inadmissible in judicial proceedings”…join[ing] a long list of state and federal courts that have deemed PPG results unreliable and inadmissible…

The Last Shall Be First (#1523)

Burble burble BLUE STATE burble drool:

Student athletes in Washington state schools who want to compete in girls’ sports would likely have to obtain genital exams to participate, if a[n authoritarian] ballot initiative passes in November…students would have several options to confirm their sex: a visual genital exam, a lab test to determine their genetic makeup, or an analysis of testosterone levels in the blood…[high-profile bigot] Brian Heywood and his political action committee Let’s Go Washington are backing the measure…[which they defend by barfing the word “]safety[“] in girls’ [faces]…the measure would be a major shift in the way the state has…handled school sports participation for transgender kids…since 2007…[there are only about] 10 trans athletes out of more than 200,000 kids [in academic sports] across the state…

In the authoritarian mind,  for students to voluntarily allow other people to examine their genitalia for the purpose of pleasure is a “crime”, but for the same students to be forced by law to allow strangers to examine their genitalia for the purpose of bigotry is “protection”.

Panopticon (#1611)

Cops will invariably use warrantless surveillance to frame people:

…[Ariel Beltran and] Hugo Parra [were falsely] arrested last year on felony [assault] charges…[because] San Diego police…de[cided]…the Alfa Romeo car [they were] riding in…[could teleport] five miles away from…the crime [instantly]…a…[Flock] license plate reader…captured…an…[image of] a different Alfa Romeo [whose license plate cops could not read, so they simply]…arrested Beltran and Parra [for riding in a similar car in a different part of town, also captured by the reader 23 seconds later]…Parra spent nearly one month behind bars…before the…charges were dropped…Now Parra and Beltran are preparing to sue the city for civil rights violations and negligence…several other Flock cameras…[and] the location data on their cell phones [showed they were nowhere near the crime scene, but the cops]…ignored [inconvenient] evidence [to frame the men, who now]…seek $1.5 million apiece in damages…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1630)

Zuckerberg sneakily added this dystopian software, hoping civil liberties groups wouldn’t notice:

[Facebook] has quietly embedded face-recognition technology for its [perve]rt glasses into an app downloaded to millions of phones…over multiple updates this year…while publicly…[lying that it w]as something the company was still “thinking through”…Though not yet enabled, NameTag sits inside a…companion app that’s…necessary for use of key features of its [perve]rt glasses…[when] activated, it will transform faces captured by [the pervert] glasses into unique biometric signatures…and check each one against faceprints stored on the user’s phone—a database that…[could easily be re]configured to…revive…technology [Facebook lied about retiring] in 2021, when the company…paid $650 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by Illinois users and, in 2024, agreed to a separate $1.4 billion settlement with Texas over…[illega]lly collect[ing] biometric data…

Torture Chamber (#1638)

Nuremberg-style trials are the moderate solution to these atrocities:

[Victims of] Florida’s notorious [Dade-Collier concentration camp reported that screws are]…denying them food and fresh water…[in an attempt to coerce them into] sign[ing] documents presented to them in English that they [can]not understand…the water given to them…[is] “rotten” and contain[s] mosquito larvae…They…[are also denying] medicine to…diabetic[s], [people] with high blood pressure…and others [who need daily medication.  The concentration camp is so expensive to]…operate…[it is scheduled to] wind down operations in [the next few weeks in preparation for] its eventual closure…[after only] one year of operation, the t[orture] facility…has developed a reputation for the brutal treatment of [human beings crammed into]…metal cages, and…su[bjected to nigh-constant] human and civil rights abuses…[including] denial of access to immigration lawyers, frequent and sudden movement of [victims] to other [concentra]tion [camp]s, and pressure to consent…to deportation…[the new tortures] appear…to be a ramping up of that pressure…

Walled Garden (#1642)

Fascists will never be satisfied until they control all people see, say, and do:

The UK government [is demanding tech companies install Utah-style software] to block access to…images [badly-flawed algorithms identify as “nude”, a la Facebook,] on smartphones and other devices for [all residents of the UK unless they submit to having those devices permanently linked to their identities in government databases].  Sir Keir Starmer has [issued incoherent threats] to…firms [while barfing “]children[” and “]sexually explicit[” at sensible people]…and…[bloviating about what he] “believe[s]”.  The government [issued a]…three month…[ultimatum and threatened corporations not resident in the UK with] criminal [charges, even demanding that corporations force the censorship & surveillance software into]…existing…phones [without the owners’ consent]…The [new threats are a tacit admission that the much-ballyhooed]…Online Safety Act – [which took over 12 years to enact] – i[s as utter a failure as sensible people predicted eight years ago]…However, [authoritarian lunatics] have [demand]ed the government…[completely control everything young adults] see…online[, moronically belching “]sextortion[” as though it were a sensible term used by reasonable adults].  The [scheme includes a proposed ban]…on…social media [for all Britons who refuse to submit to a surveillance regime]…

 

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Black Throwback Thursday

Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on June 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Why must I always be put in a position where yelling at some poor working stiff who absolutely isn’t being paid enough to deal with me is the only way to actually get my problem solved?
–  “Customer Disservice”

I figured out at a fairly young age that when anyone demanded obedience, belief, or trust because they had an Important Title or were simply bigger than me, rather than for some reason they could logically explain, that it was usually because they had no sound reason, and therefore were not to be trusted, believed, or obeyed.
–  “Getting Away from the Grownups”

God-king wannabes…[a]re not only trying to eliminate thoughts they don’t like, but also to cram young heads so full of nonsense that there is no room for actual learning…when their victims mature enough to escape their direct control.  –  “Censorship by Commission”

One simple definition of a “friend” could be, “Someone who is there for you when you need them.”  –  “Diary #780“

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Throwback Thursday and the Ballerina

Posted in Miscellaneous, Music, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The naive believe that “child predators” are creepy dudes who hang out at playgrounds; in reality, they are largely people in positions of authority over their preferred targets.  –  “Follow Your Bliss (#1242)”

The more fantastical a world, the more important it is that it doesn’t contradict itself if an audience is to accept it.  –  “The Buffyverse, Part Two”

This is a day for sexual outlaws, not well-behaved “workers”; it is a day to celebrate the triumphs of criminalized human beings against a society that would rather we didn’t exist.
–  “Whores’ Day 2024”

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