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Posts Tagged ‘Thanatopsis’

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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They want to restore the "integrity" of an agency built by J. Edgar Hoover.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-14T18:58:24.002Z

Brussels sprouts are disgusting; they even SMELL disgusting. As do all their siblings.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-15T18:18:53.218Z

Not to mention that being restricted to idiotic, simplistic 18th-century notions of "right" and "left" reduces all political thought and commentary to a second-grade level.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-17T16:31:24.699Z

He also seems ignorant of the fact that Canada is geographically larger than the United States.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-18T18:22:25.152Z

A truly Ozymandian monument to futility and the hubris of politicians.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-19T17:00:46.680Z

And yet some think I'm a weirdo for refusing to eat uncooked or undercooked food.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-21T03:41:07.764Z

We *really* need mandatory retirement ages for politicians.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-22T04:53:57.294Z

Another timeline cleanse.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-22T18:34:52.255Z

206-year-old Christmas carol annoys rando, and the Atlantic is ON IT

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-25T18:08:12.311Z

Finding "trending topics" in my margin this morning was like finding a big cat turd on the kitchen floor. Luckily, a "sweep this shit away" button was included.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-26T18:07:13.546Z

Because a healthy brain can't help learning?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-27T18:59:40.901Z

Why don't techies who name their software after mythical people, places, and things bother to think about the implications of the name they choose?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-30T22:33:12.105Z

"As Attorney General, I will not permit steroidal Oklahoma thugs to face criminal prosecution for conduct adhering the state principle of violence toward all minorities who fail to abase themselves and unquestioningly obey state actors."

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2024-12-31T16:34:59.336Z

When a headline asks a question, the answer is nearly always “no”.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-03T04:05:11.236Z

THIS RIGHT HERE.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-03T18:22:20.545Z

I sometimes wonder what kind of abuse it takes to reduce a human mind to a collectivist one. In darker moods, I assume it's a disease of the soul itself.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-04T18:02:54.971Z

In real life, I was 25 from the time I was about 15 until the time I was about 35. Professionally, I was 28 from 33 to 40, then aged about 1 year for every 2 until 2015, when I turned 49.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-06T05:30:30.070Z

The real reason for this is not "AI", but that most teachers are lazy thinkers who predictably reward certain statements and conclusions which can be tracked and tabulated by machine learning algorithms, rather than rewarding actual thinking ML systems cannot parrot.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-06T18:51:13.912Z

Very close: the full picture is that a democracy in which there are functionally only two parties is not sustainable.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-07T05:45:48.471Z

Some of us warned y'all about allowing chief executives to govern by monarchical diktat by declaring "emergencies".Y'all were all for it when the executives were on "your" schoolyard team.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-08T18:24:52.542Z

"No civilization—no matter how resilient—is actually permanent."

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-09T18:12:38.106Z

Reporters: please stop saying a law is "meant to" do such-and-such when it's obvious it was never ACTUALLY intended to do any such thing, but rather to convince the gullible that it was.The phrase you're looking for is, "the law was PRETENDED to do such-and-such".

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-10T18:09:50.321Z

"Looks like your adblocker's on!"Yes, I turned it on a decade ago and left it that way. What next, Captain Obvious? "You're breathing"?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-14T16:41:16.344Z

He "looked like" a hypocrite for the simple reason that he *is* a hypocrite; it kinda goes with the territory. Republics are like cesspools: the biggest chunks float to the top.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-15T18:44:02.688Z

 

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The dictatorship of the majority is…the most oppressive tyranny of all because it has a huge army of sympathizers and informants with which to enforce its demands.
–  “Guy Fawkes Night

People love to say, “if you don’t vote, you have no right to complain,” but this is completely backwards:  it is the voters who have no right to complain, because by signing on to this devil’s bargain they agree to be bound by it.
Honored in the Breach

The rulers [of modern republics]…treat government as a colossal game of hot potato, eternally passing the ball forward in the hopes that it will be in someone else’s hands when the music at last stops as it inevitably must.  –  “Cleansing Fire

The continuance of life for any given creature requires the regular deaths of countless others.  –  “The Mysteries

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Though worlds and suns are considerably longer-lived than we, they too must eventually perish in the fullness of time.  –  “Let There Be Dark

Every single thing in the Cosmos is mortal, and will pass away in its time.  [Organisms and empires alike] rise, thrive, decline, and fall, to be replaced by younger ones which then decline and fall in their time…crumbling into dust and passing first into memory, then legend, and eventually beyond the horizon of sentient knowledge.

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