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Posts Tagged ‘Thanatopsis’

I used to try to explain when a young or pre-menopausal woman makes some sort of confident statement about what she will be like post-menopause. Now I just shrug and say, "You'll find out soon enough."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-17T17:21:31.990Z

It's always amusing to me when a paywall demanding I provide my personal information is followed almost immediately by a popup admitting they will sell that information to anybody who wants it.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-18T18:46:19.972Z

"Mmmm, a meat-free savoury loaf!" said no hungry person ever.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-19T18:57:53.004Z

The best part of this algae bloom is, it only needs to stay in place for two more weeks from today to achieve maximum humiliation value for Trump and the whole MAGA movement. After the 4th, it can vanish overnight; what will be remembered is the perfect metaphor for the semiquincentennial.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-20T17:51:22.612Z

5 million djinn and imps working 24/7 can build Baghdad in ≈ 6 months. Now just imagine what the world looks like when we have 10 billion of them by 800. Now imagine the year 1000. Amazing abundance for all!

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-21T17:27:00.933Z

I don't generally call attention to toxic filth from Twitter, but if you're still on Twitter at all you may want to look up this sewer outlet which calls human beings "farm equipment" just for the pleasure of blocking it.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-23T17:52:42.652Z

"It’s Donald Trump’s violent, pawing need, not to win, but to be *seen* to have won. To see *himself* as a winner or, when observable reality disagrees, to declare war on reality. It’s the president’s shrieking demand that everyone else join him in waging war upon a mirror."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-24T16:58:10.225Z

Why are the US media and Democratic politicians so averse to recognizing that SCOTUS judges can be impeached?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-25T18:01:45.727Z

A new dimension of "throwing like a girl".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-28T03:27:07.509Z

This is actually a good way to deal with drive-by commenters on social media."This is stupid!""OK."They don't know how to continue when you refuse to give them the theatrical conflict they crave.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-28T18:12:37.049Z

Maybe they're all ninjas, disguising themselves by becoming blades of grass.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-28T18:06:43.769Z

Musk is a Bond supervillain. Zuckerberg is a Batman supervillain.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-30T07:37:56.774Z

Well come ON! If you looked like that, you'd be depressed, too.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-01T17:52:32.638Z

THANK YOU.It's rare to see *anyone* who grasps this nowadays, even though it's right there in the name of the movement.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-02T17:43:57.214Z

The Trump regime keeps people from entering the US "because of who they are" all the time.Monkey see, monkey do.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-04T17:43:32.766Z

Without a doubt, it would have to be the guy who said that any female character in a fantasy story with extraordinary powers was a "Mary Sue".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-06T19:08:47.786Z

Another American institution destroyed by private equity: http://www.salon.com/2026/07/03/h…

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-07T17:02:26.485Z

As a former reference librarian, I can tell you what people did before Google. (HINT: it wasn't sitting around helplessly wishing for the information.)

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-08T07:57:06.570Z

I spoke with Mitch McConnell for twenty minutes this morning. He told me he had meddled in things that man must leave alone.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-09T08:13:53.616Z

Reminds me of this argument which anyone who knew teen boys in the late '70s & early '80s will remember:Boy 1: Rob Halford is not gay!Boy 2: Dude, he's gay. Look at his costumes.Boy 1: Leather is tough, not gay!Boy 2: What about gay leather dudes?Boy 1: They stole that from bikers!Boy 2: …..

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-11T18:16:55.618Z

Every so often the very first tweet I see from someone is so absolutely, moronically authoritarian, I block them instantly to spare myself from ever seeing another violently-stupid utterance from them.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-12T17:12:55.939Z

"Verify your age"Fuck you! In my day, computers didn't talk back or make demands. And we watched TV by attaching the set to an antenna.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-13T17:03:24.239Z

So very many words to say, "I don't understand the concept of hubris and anyone who tries to explain it to me is Satan."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-14T17:41:15.926Z

"The alternative would be to admit that we as a nation have done what we have in fact done, which is install a demented narcissistic madman as president."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-15T17:58:14.068Z

Partisanism is a form of brain rot. Today's example: claiming the increasingly-totalitarian Trump regime is "anti-government".If Trump's metastasizing police state is "anti-government", I shudder to think what a "pro-government" regime would look like.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-16T17:03:55.420Z

People used to think I was kooky for refusing to eat green, leafy vegetables and uncooked or undercooked food.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-18T03:39:10.780Z

My favorite Sanders tell is how his refrain used to be blaming "millionaires and billionaires" for everything until someone correctly pointed out that SANDERS is a millionaire, at which point he switched to just blaming "billionaires".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-07-19T16:53:53.906Z

 

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They'll need to figure out how to send a letter back in time to threaten Warner Brothers as well.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-14T18:02:09.514Z

This is called "the martial arts".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-17T04:09:51.125Z

I reckon this must be a tataille, because it sure ain't a lougarou.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-17T17:54:41.692Z

"When somebody offers you a seat on the rocket ship, just get on" http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5…

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-18T03:50:10.197Z

Reporters, please stop saying "pod" to mean "cell block". Imprisoned people are neither whales nor alien body snatchers; they don't come from "pods". Just because the monsters in the US carceral system use euphemisms to hide their evil, doesn't mean you need to parrot them.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-19T16:59:03.072Z

If you think THAT'S something, just wait until you see Ram Man.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-21T04:12:32.430Z

People are doing "10 bands you've seen live" on Twitter & it keeps reminding me of Grace, who was a studio musician for years. Once we were at a party where this girl was bragging about getting backstage passes & Grace said to me, "I've *blown* more big name rock stars than she's seen in concert."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-21T16:52:25.724Z

"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them." – Frank Herbert, "Dune"

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-22T17:29:39.662Z

It boggled my mind that a restaurant would be named after a dessert. It still does. I mean, nobody goes to "Flan Bell" or "Hand Pie King" or "Spumone Hut".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-23T18:42:01.117Z

No D&D player should be surprised when a high-level cleric quotes a high-level wizard.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T17:06:01.707Z

Crypto-moralists never let little things like facts get in the way of barfing the word "unhealthy" in people's faces every time they do anything more exciting than eating raw vegetables & water once a day after their toil & drudgery, then going to sleep on the floor in an un-climate-controlled room.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-26T16:52:56.642Z

"Are we just going to give up and breathe?""Are we just going to give up and eat?""Are we just going to give up and be affected by gravity?""Are we just going to give up and have mass?""Are we just going to give up and emit heat?"This is what you sound like to sane people.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-27T17:35:31.457Z

You'd think that after all these decades as an adult, I'd have grown jaded enough to feel something milder than utter contempt for nitwits who believe the entire world of human political thought can be reduced to a single one-dimensional axis. But in actuality, my contempt merely grows more bitter.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-29T17:23:12.409Z

If you're a scientist on social media who wants to be accepted as an authority in your field, it's probably a bad idea to claim that a cause can be responsible for "more than 100%" of an observed effect.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-30T17:01:30.319Z

"Trump is acting like an authoritarian" = "Einstein is acting like a scientist" = "Streisand is acting like a diva" = "Spielberg is acting like a director" = "Kermit is acting like a Muppet" = "Lassie is acting like a dog" = "Yersinia pestis is acting like a disease organism".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-05-31T17:08:54.673Z

Hey fellow old folks, remember the late '80s, when food companies were trying to cram oat bran into everything because "nutritionists" told the hoi-polloi it had magical life-extension powers?Some things never change.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-01T17:10:49.087Z

Sooner or later, sensible people will need to just tell anti-immigration bigots to go to hell. archive.is/ZwLwc

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-02T17:26:11.101Z

Also, electricity and the microcomputer actually did most of what they were claimed to be able to do.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-04T03:33:10.119Z

Imagine having enough money to do basically anything which doesn't actually violate physical laws, and instead choosing to live your life like this.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-04T17:58:36.047Z

The heckler's veto as US government policy.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-05T17:57:26.404Z

Nobody who ever watched a single episode of any '60s spy show involving double agents should be surprised at this.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-07T17:51:58.453Z

You know how "I had sex with your dad" has become a way for sex workers to mock squares? Well, I had sex with a lot of people's grandpas. A lot of great-grandpas too.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-09T17:31:16.476Z

Fucking a lot of people of both sexes, reading omnivorously, writing A+ essays, running a D&D campaign, hanging out with my friends and predicting the eventual disasters that would result from bad US politics?Yep, checks out.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-10T17:31:49.443Z

I know it's difficult for males stuck at 12, but not everything is a pissing contest.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-11T17:21:28.738Z

Can we please stop saying [name of Trumpified institution] to mean "Trump"? Don't tell me "The Pentagon" or "The Department of Justice" or "The Kennedy Center" did something; the management of those places are just sock puppets speaking in Trump's voice, like an evil Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-12T17:30:43.841Z

"Mythos".They are taunting y'all, and few are literate enough to recognize it.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-13T17:38:37.133Z

Doctor Dolittle books. As players rise in levels, they learn more animal languages and gain more animal helpers. Experience is earned by traveling around the world, making friends with animals & with people of different races; by finding unique beings; and by visiting fantastic places like the Moon.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-15T03:51:15.730Z

If it looks like a circle jerk, sounds like a circle jerk, smells like a circle jerk, and jerks around like a circle jerk, it's probably a circle jerk.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-17T04:07:56.859Z

One of the most important causes of the Great Depression was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-17T18:05:59.672Z

People who accept domination by "leaders" cannot be free.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-06-18T18:42:45.618Z

 

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Trauma, like everything else, is typically effaced by time.  The anniversary of the events of Memorial Day, 1995 still affected me deeply at the 24-year mark, but once I moved to Sunset full-time the following year, those old serpents began to grow quieter; last year they were overshadowed by the death of my best friend, and this year the anniversary was marked by little more than unpleasant memories despite spending it alone, which in the past was a bad idea.  The weathering away of the aftereffects of trauma appears to have been mostly the result of a combination of time, therapy, and daily cannabis usage, but I can’t discount the contributions made by age, wisdom, and perspective.  Those who fear mortality are fixated on the fact that all good things die, ignoring the fact that bad things do as well.  Spiritual immaturity obsesses about the former to the exclusion of the latter, but the insight which comes in the fullness of time, assuming we allow it to, brings the realization that this is not only as it should be, but as it must be.  And, if we’re fortunate, the recognition that this is not only good, but beautiful.

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The happy ending here is that despite all their ridiculous mumbo-jumbo and frantic posturing, Death will win as it always does.Ave Mortis, Imperator Mundi.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-13T18:51:08.690Z

Lost Generation: 1890-1910 (roughly)"Greatest" Generation: 1911-1928Beat generation: 1929-1945Baby Boom: 1946-1963Generation X: 1964-1981Millennials: 1982-2000Generation Z: 2001-2018Generation Alpha: 2019-2036 (end subject to change, depending)

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-13T21:00:54.989Z

Given the corrupting effect of power, the most powerful person on the planet will INEVITABLY become the worst person on the planet, even if he wasn't to start with.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-15T18:12:36.252Z

"What if flapping your arms very hard will enable you to fly?"

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-16T18:08:56.505Z

A *big* step up from letting politicians decide.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-18T18:06:59.349Z

A one predisposed to disobedience since childhood, who has suffered social censure for that inclination since the early 1970s, I've always viewed the American self-image as "rebellious" as a crock of self-aggrandizing bullshit.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-19T19:42:19.764Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-20T02:48:07.776Z

My paternal line did not emigrate to America; America bought our home from Napoleon. IOW America chose *us* rather than vice-versa.My late friend Grace's ancestors were here long before the 1st Europeans.And both of us would tell you that people sworn in this morning are just as American as us.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-20T18:19:01.037Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-22T03:55:50.740Z

My X's anniversary is also MY anniversary, though I would nor more expect a computer to grasp that than I would trust it to compose a post on the topic, presuming I was such a narcissist that I would request such a childish thing.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-23T18:10:08.836Z

On the First Day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-25T17:28:38.681Z

The process of obtaining a literature degree taught me that "literary" fiction is rarely better than genre fiction, and frequently worse.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-26T18:03:49.571Z

I have often said that modern US "conservatives" long for an imaginary past, while modern US "progressives" long for an imaginary future.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-27T18:28:49.015Z

The very fact that there is no murderer registry tells you everything you need to know about the "sex offender" registry.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-29T18:15:33.474Z

So basically, the entire movie is a Rickroll.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-30T08:08:05.987Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-31T17:50:42.716Z

What book is sacred enough to you to get sworn in on?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-02T18:45:41.673Z

Slopmaker who makes money from slop wants you to move beyond wanting quality and embrace his slop.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-03T08:33:17.438Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-04T02:41:43.416Z

Axolotls always make me smile. I mean, look at this cute little booger! See its happy little face? How could you not smile?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-04T08:10:14.387Z

How many branches of the Vichy government did General de Gaulle control?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-05T18:17:30.100Z

Psychosis is a reason, just not a sane one.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T07:57:18.251Z

Collectivism is a mental illness.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-08T18:07:26.157Z

Mammon. The Biblical name for this deity is Mammon. As in, "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-09T17:59:08.165Z

Mrs. Boudreaux, please get off the line; we really need to make a call. I promise we'll be off in five minutes.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-10T18:01:58.758Z

My turn! It just dawned on me that if the ICE agent were a circus clown, and the woman the ghost of Anne Boleyn, and the roles were reversed, but the ghost threw her head at the clown instead of shooting him, he could juggle it and The Coulrophobia Lobby would be fully on the side of the ghost.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-11T03:59:55.538Z

That is such a cute little piggy though, definitely MUCH cuter than any cop deserves.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-12T19:58:14.596Z

Good grief, my Barbie was a scientist despite having come in an ordinary Barbie box rather than a "scientist" box with a lab coat.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-13T18:48:52.787Z

"Sorry, neither."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-14T08:56:39.781Z

Perhaps if you'd stop calling politicians "leaders", they'd stop treating y'all like followers.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-15T08:27:31.066Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-16T19:00:03.300Z

A national treasure.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-17T18:58:44.504Z

Mu.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-18T18:25:47.300Z

 

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If you think I’m going to let the people who aided and abetted the most violent and widespread campaign of persecution against sex workers in American history get away with pretending they were on the side of truth all along, you must not have read very much of my work.
–  “New Year’s Eve 2021”

People would be a lot happier if they could truly learn the difference between “I want” and “I reasonably expect to get in the actual world that exists”.  –  “Life As It Is”

In the big picture, any order we manage to impose on the universe is as ephemeral as a sand castle, and will soon be obliterated by time and tide.  –  “The Big Picture”

The moral panic is over, but its rotten fruit have burst, spewing xenophobic, anti-sex, authoritarian poison all over American society.  –  “New Year’s Eve 2024“

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I never thought I’d be doing this blog for so long I’d start repeating myself, yet here we are.  –  “Countless Times”

Though all things must pass, none are so ephemeral as those good times with good friends that, in retrospect, seem almost magical.  –
“Day of the Dead 2022”

All government is rooted in the idea that might makes right.  –
“Guy Fawkes Day 2023”

For over 200 years now, Americans have stood by while the executive branch increases its own power, then leaves the newly-expanded powers to anyone their ideological enemies manage to get into the White House.  –  “Guy Fawkes Day 2024“

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Gerontocracy is the enemy of human progress.  –  “Eros and Thanatos”

Every year on this day I remind my readers about the inevitability and goodness of Death, and this year is no exception.  Some may believe that the passing of my beloved friend Grace has changed that, but that is not so; both of us knew we must one day be parted by death, and both of us knew that given her poor health and greater age, it was very likely she would go first.  Unlike the powerful and privileged men who embrace childish fantasies about life extension or even immortality to assuage their fear of the dark, I do not whine and stomp my feet in protest of the fact that I and all I love must die, nor waste my life in vain and foolish denial of reality.  If anything, my tears spring from the opposite source.  I do not weep because my best friend died; I weep because I have to go on living without her.

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I love that so many media outlets are now using the most ridiculous-looking Trump photos they can find, such as this one which makes him look constipated. LOOK HIM WUB HIS TUMTUM!

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-15T02:26:10.801Z

Since he's over a decade younger than I am, statistically I won't live to see him go. But it'll be pretty funny when this dude dies of a statistically typical cause at a statistically typical age despite wasting a quarter of his life chasing the illusion of "immortality".Behold the folly of Man.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-17T17:04:43.609Z

Dementia doesn't always present as befuddlement a la Biden; it can also present as confusion and disinhibition, both of which Trump displays with increasing frequency and severity. You ever hear nursing home nurses talk about being grabbed by dirty old demented men? Disinhibition. As is this.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-19T07:47:06.295Z

One of the rewards of being old is you get to smile sweetly when the young people finally start recognizing the wisdom of a position you've espoused for decades that THEY previously proclaimed wrong.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T17:06:21.614Z

How is that even supposed to be pronounced, "Kadollar-huh"?Holy heavy metal umlaut, Batman!

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-21T17:15:31.307Z

Looks like Trump isn't the only well-known psychopath who has a fetish for pretending to be an inflatable sex doll.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-22T03:30:51.581Z

There are TWO links between acetaminophen and autism!1) Both start with "A"2) Both are subjects you might ask a doctor about.SMOKING GUN!!!

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-24T16:25:49.304Z

I hate living in a time where I know who the fucking *education superintendent* of fucking OKLAHOMA is.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-25T17:55:25.694Z

A look at Antichrist prophecies by an actual theologian (as opposed to a Thiel-origin): archive.is/SGZcS

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-26T03:16:23.700Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-26T18:36:48.693Z

Anyone familiar with the folklore of primitive cultures will recognize this. It's based on the idea of names having magical power, so if the name of some evil thing is mentioned it may appear (hence the traditional phrase "Speak of the Devil…") Not speaking of something robs it of power.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-27T17:24:42.257Z

I don't believe @alyankovic.bsky.social had anything to do with this video.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-28T16:48:49.339Z

Beginning to look more and more like this:

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-30T17:23:36.102Z

Trump inflatable sex dolls come in several sizes, to fit all needs:

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-01T17:57:06.284Z

Also: the groundwork for this was laid by US courts repeatedly excusing cops for smashing into random people's homes in the middle of the night because they didn't care to get the address correct. And in a larger sense, by allowing unconstitutional "no knock" warrants in the first place.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-02T18:10:58.682Z

Better headline: "Extremely Stupid People are Angry at Pope for Being Catholic".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-04T02:24:46.168Z

Before you dash off some sophomoric apologia of police-statery, ask yourself if you *really* want one of the best living American journalists thoroughly vivisecting you in a multi-part essay.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-04T17:43:15.609Z

It's funny how many nitwits have no problem with all the businesses they hate as long as politicians they hate get to run it roughly half of the time.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-05T18:33:43.795Z

Post a "demonic sexual performance" at Superb Owl halftime.I'll start.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-06T16:31:59.573Z

Can you imagine going through life as a quadriplegic because your parents were too stupid and evil to vaccinate you?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-08T02:44:54.470Z

We really need Anglophone journalists in the UK, Canada, and Australia to start writing about the political situation in the US using the same kind of language they use when writing about political situations in developing countries. "the regime", "dissidents", "the regime's secret police", etc.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-08T17:05:00.733Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-09T17:50:30.707Z

Someone needs to invite Miller to a late-night tea party.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-10T16:31:59.503Z

Reporters: stop using the deferential term "detaining" when talking about ICE goons' abduction of innocent people from US streets. You proper term would indeed by "abduction", but if you want to pretend neutrality you could use "capture", which at least says nothing about the captors' motives.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-11T17:22:08.981Z

So long, Mommy.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-13T02:17:15.023Z

It would be a far better world if things like this happened more often.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-14T17:32:47.303Z

21st-century soi-disant "Christians" commit blasphemy as casually and often as Marquis de Sade characters.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-15T18:10:07.405Z

Thinking is, always has been, and always will be the greatest enemy of power; that's why the powerful always want to shut it down.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-16T19:42:10.008Z

Is it completely impossible for MAGA creatures to keep their mouths SHUT for long enough to take a fucking picture?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-18T07:29:32.013Z

The mad emperor is now tweeting cartoons of himself making poo-poos on people who are mean to him.You thought there were a lot of books and documentaries about Hitler over the past 80 years? You ain't seen NUTHIN' yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWHD…

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-19T19:59:02.583Z

 

 

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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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Diary #763

We both knew Grace was slowly dying for several years now; I just didn’t know it would happen so soon or so suddenly.  So even though I’m relieved that she didn’t have to suffer the awful fate of a slow, protracted death as a bedridden invalid, and grateful that I was able to make her last eight years happy ones (despite her considerable pain and inability to do the things she loved, such as riding her motorcycle), I’m also having some trouble coming to grips with the fact that she is actually gone.  Even typing that last sentence took me ten minutes, because I can’t look at those words on the screen without being overwhelmed by a wave of grief.  She was not good with words herself, but music often gave her a means of expressing deep feelings she could not herself articulate.  Ozzy Osbourne was one of her favorite musicians, and on several occasions over the past few years I found her crying while listening to this song; when I went to comfort her she would hug me tightly and say she wasn’t afraid of death because we’d be reunited on the Other Side.  So I’ve listened to it quite a few times over the past week, hoping that it will allow me to share just a bit of her unshakable faith in our eventual reunion in another life once I, too, have left this one.

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