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Posts Tagged ‘Thought Control’

In the News (#1391)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

When have the people who ban books ever been the good guys?
–  Keri Lambert

Stalkers in Blue

This creepy shit appears to be a cop’s twisted idea of “flirting”:

[Florida cop] Dylan Fruh [resigned before he could be fired for stalking]…a 17-year-old girl whom he traffic-stopped [on a flimsy pretext and demanded]…her phone number…[he then] followed her and parked 3 spaces over…and…[started repeatedly] texting and calling her…When this was reported…[he claimed to his] superiors…that he had followed her to make her more comfortable with cops…While investigating this, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office searched his phone and found yet another c[reepy stalking of] yet another [underage] girl…No photo [of Fruh] can be found on the Marion County Sheriff’s Office page or elsewhere…

Why do so many cops seem to believe that stalking and harassing women will “build trust“?

Thought Control (#1356)

Surely you didn’t think this crusade would stop with libraries and the internet?

Murfreesboro [Tennessee] passed an ordinance in June banning “indecent behavior”…[and] specifically [referencing] Section 21-72 of the city code…[which defin]es homosexuality [as “sexual conduct”]…An ACLU-backed challenge…has already been launched, but that hasn’t stopped [politicians] from [us]ing the measure [for its intended purpose, banning LGBT-themed]…books…from the public library…[including] the books Flamer, Let’s Talk About It, Queerfully and Wonderfully Made, and This Book Is Gay.  The board also implemented a new library card system that categorizes books into certain age groups…[so] children and teenagers will only be able to check out books that correspond to their age group; they will need permission from a parent or guardian to check out “adult” books…[including] many classic high school books, such as To Kill a Mockingbird…

Dangerous Speech (#1373)

The main phase of this evil self-parody is finally over:

After a dozen years of legal tussles, seven years in the crosshairs of ambitious prosecutors, and five-and-a-half years fighting a federal case that saw his business forcibly shuttered, his assets s[tolen], and his longtime partner [harrassed into] suicide, alt-weekly newspaper impresario Michael Lacey was found guilty Thursday on just one of the 86 criminal charges levied against him…But the government’s fanatical pursuit of Lacey and his four other Backpage co-defendants is far from over…[the] award-winning investigative journalist…was found guilty of international concealment money laundering, which could land him in prison for up to 20 years, and not guilty of international promotional money laundering.  But after a week of contentious deliberations, the jury could not come to agreement on the other 84 charges, prompting U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa to declare a second mistrial…That means Lacey could face a third federal trial…for the crime of running a classified ads site…executives Scott Spear and John Brunst were found guilty of…over 20 counts apiece…[and] could very easily spend the rest of their lives in prison…Andrew Padilla and Joy Vaught, [who were charged specifically to goad them into testifying for the prosecution,] were found not guilty on their 51 prostitution counts…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1375)

Opportunists taking advantage of cop gullibility by selling them ordinary gear at inflated prices just by slapping the word “fentanyl” on it would be hilarious if it were their own money these idiots were throwing away, but of course it isn’t; it’s money they steal from others, either indirectly (by taxation) or directly (by pointing at it and belching “drugs”).  And now that they’ve extended their panic to dogs, there are even more opportunities to wreck lives by accusing victims of the made-up crime of “exposing” others to fentanyl.

Counterfeit Comfort (#1383) 

It’s good to see someone with a functional moral compass addressing this topic:

Meaghan Ybos…is president of Women Against Registry, an organization dedicated to ending sex offender registration…when her rapist was finally caught, nine years after the attack…she…learned that the Memphis Police Department had neglected to test the majority of the rape kits it collected, including hers.  Since then, she’s been pushing back against the myth of the rape kit “backlog”…[which she describes as “]political theater…It’s…politicians and law enforcement…using victims like me as a currency…A lot of times the retort to people arguing against the registry is, “You should tell that to so-and-so who was raped when she was 16 by a stranger.” OK: Well, I was. That was my case. I actually have a rare type of stranger rape that doesn’t even happen to that many people, and I’m still against this…Is it good for a society to be able to punish people after they’ve served their punishment? Is it good for our society to accept the government keeping lists of people for whom constitutional rights can be suspended?…the registry is counterproductive as any supposed crime reduction goal[“]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1389)

The latest entry in the currently-fashionable “monkey see, monkey do” parade:

Indiana [politician] Mike Bohacek…has filed a bill that he [doesn’t admit is to monitor adults] online…[it] would require age verification for websites [politicians summarily deem] pornographic…[and invent a new crime for] a website operator [to fail to guess what politicians might declare]…pornographic material without [spying on users]…

To Molest and Rape (#1389)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:

A [typical and representative Colorado cop named]…Dylan Miller…was arrested…[for] kidnapping [and] sex[ually] assault[ing]…a 15-year-old girl…in July at the North Lake Park in Loveland [Colorado]…Miller…[target]ed the girl [by using the pretext that she was] in [the] park after-hours…[he demanded she] walk with him to a secluded area of the park…[and] sexually assaulted her…

 

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 (#1389)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Apparently, some adults find it appropriate to contact the police over a fictional book involving gargoyles.  –  Jennifer Armentrout

If Men Were Angels

Even the distancing “former” is the same as for rapist cops:

Corey White…a [typical and representative] youth pastor…[in] Midland [Texas] was arrested [for possession of child porn] on Oct. 23…White has waived his rights to a preliminary hearing and…will be held in jail without bond as he waits for trial…New York [cops discovered someone] distributing child [porn] via…Omegle…New York [cops found White among his customers and reported him to their counterparts in Texas]…

Is an “associate pastor” something like a “youth pastor”?

…an…associate pastor in McAlester [Oklahoma named]…David Prince was [apparently] involved in…sexually explicit online chats [with a cop fantasy role-playing as a legal minor, during which he]…claimed to [molested someone the cops defined as a]…child…[Cops then descended upon] Prince[‘s]…residence [and arrested him after finding child porn]…on [his]…computer…

Torture Chamber (#1253)

Your “leaders” call this “correction”:

An inspection…of a women’s prison in Tallahassee[, Florida revealed]…significant [sanitation] issues…[including] moldy bread…discolored and rotting vegetables…rodent droppings, warped food containers, and bags of cereal with insects in them…roofs routinely leak…[and the cells have] worn bedding, rusted…lockers, issues with showers and toilets, and [toxic] black [mold] on walls and ceilings…[lazy] staff [randomly changes]…the time of day it distributes insulin and drugs…”which may limit the therapeutic benefit of these drugs”…

Crying for Nanny (#1326)

This will never stop while politicians and ambulance-chasers claim heckler’s veto over the entire internet:

The owner of video chat platform Omegle has taken the site offline…[and] replaced [it] with a lengthy message about free speech…In 2021, a woman filed a lawsuit against Omegle for $22 million.  She claimed that she was paired with an adult man wh[ile violating the site’s TOS, which prohibited users below 18, wh]en she was 11 years old, and that he manipulated her into masturbating and urinating on camera in front of him over the course of three years…In July, a judge [declared] that Omegle can’t be shielded by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, [because he didn’t like]…Omegle’s design itself…[which allowed] speech between [anonymous] users…Another lawsuit…makes similar claims…[in his post-shutdown message, site owner Leif K-Brooks criticized the government-encouraged] “constant barrage of attacks on communication services, Omegle included, based on the behavior of a malicious subset of users…The only way to please these people is to stop offering the service.  Sometimes they say so, explicitly and avowedly; other times, it can be inferred from their act of setting standards that are not humanly achievable.  Either way, the net result is the same”…

Winding Down (#1343)

When will the federal government finally read the writing on the wall?

Ohio…[has] becom[e] the 24th state to legalize recreational use [of cannabis]…Issue 2…allows adults 21 or older to publicly possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and grow up to six plants at home…[and] also will create a system to license and regulate commercial sales.  That’s assuming Ohio legislators do not [hobble] or [castrate] the rules…which they have the power to do with any “initiated state statute,” as opposed to a constitutional amendment.  Before Issue 2 was submitted to voters, the…General Assembly passed up a chance to enact it, and now the measure returns to the legislature, which can [wreck] it before it takes effect…

Thought Control (#1362)

Do I really need to say, “Not because someone borrowed a book from a library”?

Two Florida members of the [pro-censorship cult] Moms for Liberty…called police on a pair of school librarians over a book in a bestselling young adult fantasy series…[cult member] Jennifer Tapley [bizarrely claimed]…“Pornography [was] given to a minor in a school”…[because] Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout…[was borrowed by] a 17-year-old…The…book centers around an 18-year-old heroine who is losing her vision but can see and talk to ghosts… To keep her abilities hidden from demons…gargoyle shape-shifters guard her…The [wannabe censors object to]…“one [scene] where the main character almost has sex”…Tapley [tried to hide her identify from well-deserved] …public r[idicule] of her…[attempt to inflict state violence on librarians while fellow cultist] Tom Gurski [vomited out “]Ron DeSantis…says this is child pornography.  It’s a serious crime”…T[o its credit,] the sheriff’s office [sent the complaint to the school board]…and closed its case…Gurski…[previously attempted to subject librarians] in Milton, Florida…[to police violence] over Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, which has an LGBTQ character…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1371)

Politicians don’t even try to make their new laws Constitutional any more:

Monitoring what [citizens] do online is something [politicians] want to make easier for p[olice].  That’s why they’ve proposed a bill…that would block [web]sites [Alabama politicians deem “pornographic”] from anyone under 18 years old…Ben Robbins…plans to sponsor a [“monkey see, monkey do” age verification] bill [with extra-asinine features unique to Alabama.  He wants to force]…companies to register with the state as adult content distributors…and tax…Alabamians [for visiting such sites].  Lastly, the bill will require distributors to have written consent from people who are posted on the site.  Louisiana, Texas, and Utah have similar[ly-unconstitutional] laws.  Each state faces ongoing lawsuits from the Free Speech Coalition because of them…[politician] Robbins [parroted the “internet is a bar” argument a federal judge mocked and rejected in a challenge to the Arkansas version of this same law]…

To Molest and Rape (#1387)

Though the reporter used the distancing “former”, the headline writer didn’t cooperate:

A [typical and representative screw] was sentenced in federal court…for traveling [from Tennessee] to…North Carolina [to rape a toddler]…John Allen Biggins [was condemned to] 17 years in prison…[followed by] a lifetime of…[probation and condemnation to the] sex offender…[registry.  While communicating with a fantasy role-playing] Homeland Security [spook]…Biggins…claim[ed] he had [raped]…his underage stepdaughter and express[ed] interest in [raping]…the [roleplaying spook’s imaginary] 4-year-old daughter.  At one point, Biggins discussed…in detail [how exactly he wanted to violate] the [imaginary] toddler…

By contrast, in this case everyone involved tried to bury the lede as far down as possible:

A [typical and representative Missouri screw] and [his wife have] pleaded guilty…to recording their sexual assault of a child.  Paul Emerson Schofield…and his wife, Sara Ellen Emerson…admitted they had recorded images of child sexual abuse over a three-year period from July 29, 2019, to June 7, 2022…[they were caught because Schofield] uploaded the images to a social media platform…a…search…[revealed] several videos showing the two sexually assaulting an unconscious child, as well as other images of the sexual abuse of children…

 

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 (#1384)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Data matters, research matters, and it all shows that the con[flation of sex work and “trafficking”] is just based on ideology.  –  Melissa Broudo

A Woman’s Point of View (#1228)

In Rhode Island’s case, this would be re-decriminalization:

A new report by a Rhode Island study commission recommends the full decriminalization of consensual adult sex work in the state.  The commission of thirteen individuals, including [politicians], sex workers, medical professionals, and [spokespigs], spent two years reviewing research and evidence, and listening to lived-experience testimonials, before releasing the report, which highlights multiple reforms intended to…promote the health and safety of sex workers…

Thought Control (#1256)

The more vague the law, the more authoritarians like it:

Iowa…[has pass]ed a law…that…requires schools to remove books that depict a “sex act”…unleash[ing] a frenzy of book-banning across the state, one that illustrates a core truth about these types of censorship directives.  Their vagueness is the point…Uncertain whether books…might run afoul of their state’s law, [bureaucrats nearly always]…decide nixing them would be the “safer” option…This week…Iowa…School[s]…released a list of 68 books…removed from schools to comply with the law.  Among the titles: Ulysses by James Joyce, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood…The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison…1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Forrest Gump by Winston Groom…

A Broker in Pillage (#1326)

Airports are among cops’ favorite places to lurk in order to rob people:

[Pigs and spooks lu]rking at…Atlanta International Airport rarely find drugs on passengers at departing gates.  More often, they find money.  Records show [thugs] have s[tolen] millions of dollars from passengers at boarding gates.  The [robbery] is administratively [justified by belching out the magic words “]proceeds of drug trafficking[“] even [though] no drugs are [ever] found…[they] do not arrest the passenger.  They [simply rob them]…Most cases never go before a judge….passengers are forced to [somehow] prove their money “innocent’ on the spot at the airport gate or it’s s[tolen]…passengers are forced to pull up bank statements on their phones or otherwise provide proof the money isn’t from drug trafficking.  Merely flying from Atlanta to Los Angeles is suspicious, according to [porcine fantasies], because it’s a “known drug trafficking route”…

Stalkers in Blue (#1334)

Cops are sexual predators who often specifically target traumatized women:

A Greenville [South Carolina cop has] resigned after[being caught lying] about whether he had sex in his patrol car with another [cop.  But just a few months ago]…Timothy Matthews…was the subject of an anonymous complaint by a woman in the charitable organization Jasmine Road, a residential program for…wom[en who had bad experiences in]…prostitution…[because] he [repeatedly pressured her for]…her phone number [and bombarded her with texts after she gave it to him]…

Panopticon (#1346)

Bureaucrats who committed illegal surveillance refer to their victim as a “public nuisance”:

…the Michigan Supreme Court…has the chance to decide whether a municipal government…can circumvent constitutional protections by farming out the task to a private company…warrantless drone surveillance is [explicitly un]constitutional…[but] the appeals court…said that excluding any evidence gathered would be inappropriate, so the state Supreme Court can functionally determine whether local governments can do this and get away with it.  Multiple civil liberty advocacy organizations have submitted amicus briefs…argu[ing] that “if the Township gets its way, it will not only profit from its privacy violations, but open the door to other local governments deploying cheap, pervasive, flying surveillance devices to surveil private property for the smallest of civil infractions…Without consequences for arbitrary invasions into [Fourth Amendment] rights, no one can be secure in their person, house, papers, or effects”…

Shifting the Blame (#1360)

How many women died as a result of inaction by the murderer’s cop buddies?

Rex Heuermann, the New York architect accused of being the Gilgo Beach serial killer, has been linked to…the deaths of Shannan Gilbert and Karen Vergata…four witnesses [have come] forward with information about Heuermann…The first…went to Heuermann’s house for a sex party in February 1996 with her boyfriend, who was a cop, and Vergata…During that time, she spoke with [Heuermann’s wife, Asa] Ellerup, who…told the witness that she was “afraid of Rex”…the second witness…[i]s a taxi driver…[who] saw Gilbert and Heuerman together when she picked her up in the fall of 2009…[Gilbert was] “crying and shaking”…[because Heuermann had tried to cheat] her [with] an envelope of paper scraps instead of money…

The Next Target (#1371)

While Mastercard chooses to discriminate vs sex workers via an elaborate concern kabuki derived from “sex trafficking” propaganda, Visa prefers to burble reasonable-sounding rhetoric about “risk” in order to justify charging sex workers more money to access their services than other businesses.  Back in the old agency days, I simply lied to my card processor and called my company a consulting firm in order to avoid high fees, excessive scrutiny, or arbitrarily being dropped by the processor.  But things have changed a great deal in the past two decades, and there’s no way for an online provider to cloak herself as I did.  This article in XBiz is too dense for me to understand, but if you’re an online sex worker you probably already understand many of these terms, and may find it helpful.

 

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 (#1379)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[Amazon’s] assurance[s]…should…be greeted with a lot of skepticism.  –  John Davisson

Stalkers in Blue

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

In 2014, Bryan Bailey, the sheriff of Rankin County, Miss., [told]…the local district attorney’s office…he needed grand jury subpoenas…to force the phone company to turn over records of calls and text messages for what he [pretended was] a “confidential internal investigation…[of a] school district employee.”  But…[in actuality he abused] the power of a grand jury at least eight times over a year to spy on his married girlfriend and the school employee with whom she was also “unfaithful”…the district attorney at the time, Michael Guest…decided he could not pursue the case further because of conflicts of interest…[but] told two local judges…and passed his investigation on to the state attorney general…no one questioned the sheriff or conducted a full investigation…For seven years, every [politician] who learned of the allegations kept them secret from the public, leaving citizens of Rankin County in the dark, even as they twice voted to re-elect Sheriff Bailey.  He is on the verge of another re-election…facing no opponent in November…

Eavesdropping (#1183)

Amazon also eagerly hands data from internet-connected devices to cops:

Amazon announced new [machine learning] capabilities for its Alexa products last week, based on a model it’s calling AlexaLLM (LLM refers to the “large language model”).  The technology will make Alexa “more personalized to your family” and allow it to remember relevant context throughout conversations…But along with those new capabilities…Amazon would use some user voice interactions with Alexa to train its [ML] model…by agreeing to use a more “customized” version of Alexa, users would be volunteering their voice data and conversations for Amazon’s LLM training purposes.  It’s not clear how much voice data is actually necessary to train Amazon’s models and to what degree it might be used for other purposes [such as handing it to cops without even requiring a warrant]…

Thought Control (#1226)

Idaho newspaper approvingly reports sheriff appointing himself chief library censor:

Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris…[barged into several] libraries…[with intent to intimidate librarians, bringing] along a video camera…he [decided to steal two books, named]…Deal With It!…and…Identical…[he then issued a babble-filled statement including words and phrases including “]sexually explicit[“…”]inappropriate[“, “harmful to minors”, and “protect children”, bloviated about an unconstitutional censorship bill wisely]…vetoed by Gov. Brad Little…[which] would have allowed a parent or legal guardian to sue a school or library for [a bounty of] $2,500…[then bizarrely pontificated on child psychology (even though he is not a child psychologist), and sexual health (though he is neither a therapist nor healthcare professional), threatened librarians with]…criminal [charges]…equate[d books]…to providing children with alcohol or drugs…[equated both adolescents and] the elderly…[with small] children[, and declared he would not return the books he stole]…

Cops and Robbers (#1287)

Who could have guessed that making a hobby of accusing strangers of felonies could be dangerous?

A [Michigan] man who [made a hobby of accusing people of being]…child [molesters for social media clout] was shot to death…[after accusing two teenagers] at a restaurant…Robert Wayne Lee…confronted [the] two [boys]…and punched [the 18-year-old, who]…pulled a knife…while the [17-year-old]…pulled a gun, shooting Lee several times.  The two…fled [but were]…arrested [the next day]…Lee…[was radicalized by] online videos by a group called Dads Against Predators…[who in turn] modeled their videos on…Chris Hanson’s “To Catch a Predator” segments on NBC’s Dateline news show [which were cancelled after Hanson and company caused the suicide of a Texas politician they tried to humiliate on TV despite his refusal to walk into their trap].  Lee…recorded online conversations and his in-person confrontations with the [people he accused]…In some videos, he can be seen [vandalizing his target’s]…tires to prevent them from driving off…he’[s]…mistakenly identified at least one person as a suspect, who was later cleared…

Permanent Record (#1354)

If prohibitionists really want to “rescue” sex workers, why do they keep shutting us out of other jobs?

A Missouri school district suspended a high school English teacher…after someone outed her as an OnlyFans creator…The teacher does not know who notified the school district about her account, “but she suspects it was after she and her husband appeared in a recent video alongside two other OnlyFans performers in St. Louis who have a substantial following”…she [only] made about $42,000 last year at her teaching job, and…she and her husband earned an additional $8,000 to $10,000 per month performing on OnlyFans…

To Molest and Rape (#1373)

There is nothing “shocking” about a cop abusing a minor or anyone else:

…a [California cop named]…Matthew Dessert…is facing serious charges of sexual and physical abuse of a minor…for around five years…[starting when she was 9 and continuing until] 14…[when she told] a school counselor…[about] the abuse…

A Moral Cancer (#1374)

Anyone whose brain isn’t rotted by prohibitionism could’ve predicted this:

Legal restrictions on the flavors of nicotine vaping products are associated with increased cigarette purchases, according to a new paper that analyzes retail sales data from 44 states.  For each fewer 0.7-milliliter nicotine pod sold in jurisdictions with such policies, the analysis found, consumers bought 15 more cigarettes.  “That tradeoff,” the authors note, “equates to over a pack…per pod for the size of current leading products” such as the Vuse Alto, which uses 1.8-milliliter pods…this…underlines the folly of trying to protect public health by deterring the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems…which are far less hazardous than combustible cigarettes…

 

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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Banned Books Week 2023

Posted in Current Events, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I’m honestly unsure where this [new wave of censorship] will end; we’re well into uncharted territory my librarian self would’ve found unbelievable.  –  “The Book Burners”

It may be difficult for my younger readers to believe that when I was a librarian, “Banned Books Week” was little more than an academic exercise.  The first few years of my blog demonstrate just how negligible a threat so-called “book banning” actually was.  In 2010, I didn’t even remember to write about the observance; in 2011 I simply noted a number of frequently-challenged books (because the number was small enough to do that), and in 2012 and 2013 I used the occasion to attack the concept of censorship from a philosophical perspective.  2014’s “Censor Chic” was the first harbinger of things to come, as I discussed the new indirect form of censorship: authoritarians both in and out of government getting risk-averse corporations to do their dirty work for them by issuing threats to either smear those companies’ reputations or attack them with increased government meddling.  The latter tactic has grown from the relatively-veiled threats issued by the Obama administration’s “Operation Choke Point” to the Biden administration’s jawboning so egregiously even federal judges couldn’t be persuaded to give it a pass.  And in the past two years, pro-censorship politicians have crafted terrible laws to empower isolated cranks to censor any books their “thought leaders” tell them are “bad”:

…School book challenges reached historic highs in America in 2021 and 2022, according to the American Library Association.  And just a handful of people are driving those records.  A Washington Post analysis of thousands of challenges nationwide found that 60 percent of all challenges in the 2021-2022 school year came from 11 adults, each of whom objected to dozens — sometimes close to 100 — of books in their districts….

2015’s “Moral Climate” pointed out that most censorship nowadays is neither top-down nor obvious nor based in pearl-clutching about “obscenity” (though in the past two years that has again become a popular excuse among censor-morons who label themselves “conservative”); rather, it is disguised lateral censorship by censor-morons who label themselves “progressive”:

…What if you read different words in your books and never even knew the original language was changed?  That’s where publishers’ growing penchant for revisionism and censorship of written works comes in — often through the use of so-called “sensitivity readers” — to eliminate “problematic” content…From Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming to R.L. Stine and Agatha Christie, this trend of editing and rewriting authors’ books…without their consent…should alarm us all…the publishers who commission it foster a chilling effect on free speech, a sanitization of art, and a corrosion of our larger cultural discourse…

Of course, some “progressive” censorship is just as blatant and top-down as that of “conservatives”:

Peel District School Board…students, parents and community members…are concerned about a [bizarre] approach to a new equity-based book weeding process implemented by the board last spring in response to a provincial directive from the Minister of Education.  They say the new process, intended to ensure library books are inclusive, appears to have led some schools to remove thousands of books solely because they were published in 2008 or earlier…neither Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce’s office, nor the Education Ministry, would comment on PDSB’s implementation of Lecce’s directive…But in a [later] statement…the education minister said he has written to the board to immediately end this practice…

By 2017, my “Banned Books Week” essays had pivoted to dealing with the new reality of “adults…not merely accepting, but demanding they be shielded from ideas they find uncomfortable for one reason or another“, and in 2018 top-down censorship enforced by violence returned with a vengeance, starting with the internet.  In 2019 I summarized developments as follows:

…in this century, the sick need to control others’ thoughts grew as the internet made it easier for those thoughts to be shared, and early last year top-down government censorship returned with a vengeance thanks to the Great Unwashed eagerly swallowing racist claims about “human trafficking” and magically baneful effects of anything to do with sex.  The US enacted FOSTA, leading to a wave of internet censorship; the UK is trying to build a massive firewall comparable to China’s; the EU has enacted law after law allowing greedy corporations and finger-pointing Prunellas alike power over others’ web-browsing; and every two-bit dictatorship has recognized that all it needs to do to justify thought control is parrot Western “hate speech” idiocy…

The pandemic gave governments a new excuse, “misinformation” (a euphemism for “disagreeing with the government”), and that year I wrote, “We are watching the advent of a new dark age, and in such times no light is entirely safe from being snuffed out by zealots, speech-cops and bureaucrats whose ideal model for human society is the anthill.”  I was, as usual, not wrong; the following year saw the arrival of a wave of censorship even the mainstream media couldn’t ignore, excuse, or hand-wave away.  My primary tag for filing items about written-word censorship is “Thought Control”; only 7 items appeared there in 2012-2020; then there were 9 in ’21 alone; 27 in ’22; and 14 so far in ’23.  And that does not include the explosion of attempts to shut down large portions of the internet because politicians, useful idiots, and other censor-morons don’t like what other people say or watch.  As I said at the top, I have no idea where this will end, but in the meantime all ethical people need to resist the book-burners and website-wreckers, loudly and defiantly, in the hopes that at least some of our fellow-humans will come back to their senses before it’s too late.

 

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In the News (#1376)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[This] is…a slap in the face to free speech advocates around the world.  –  Corey Silverstein

Schadenfreude 

The entire Utah rescue industry appears to be collapsing:

The CEO of a Utah-based [company which]…profit[s from hysteria over “]human trafficking[” has been charged with]…communications fraud, theft, and forgery among others.  In total, she was [charged] with 35 different offenses, 32 of which were felonies…

If Men Were Angels

Oh look, another “youth pastor”:

David Robinson…was arrested for sending [porn to] at least two minors, ages 12 and 17…Robinson would send the victim’s [sic] bible [sic] verses and then ask them questions including, “Are you sexually active?” and “Are you pregnant?”…Robinson was a youth pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church…and would volunteer at Seffner Christian School[, both in Florida]…

Of course, not all molesters at schools are preachers:

Matthew Galhouse, a…[girls’] softball coach…in Pasco County, [Florida,] was arrested…for s[tatutory rape of] a 17-year-old [player]…Galhouse…hired her to be his babysitter for his child…[to hide their trysts from her parents]…

And not all molesty preachers have their own church:

An evangelist is facing a slew of child rape and sexual abuse charges in Murfreesboro, [Tennessee]…Benjamin Garlick has been charged with…aggravated rape of a child…and [related offenses, and] his wife…Shaantal Garlick, is also facing charges…[as an accessory]…

Served Cold (#1120) 

Thirteen years after I started writing about it, the press is finally recognizing that “sex trafficking” hysteria rests on pseudoscience, woo, and plain nonsense:

[One] day in February 2016…Operation Underground Railroad…[launched] a bumbling and ineffective mission to [“rescue”]…Gardy Mardy, a missing Haitian boy whose abduction Ballard has portrayed as “the case that led us to found OUR.”  Joining him and his team of [cosplayers, profiteers and loons] was Janet Russon—a psychic medium from Utah whose supposed visions were guiding the mission…Gardy was not found that day, or any day since.  There is no evidence to suggest that he was ever in the village where Russon’s visions led OUR and his hopeful father…Now…files reveal for the first time the level of influence Russon had within the organization, how much she was paid…and how little intelligence there was to back up some of the missions…beyond [the] word…of a Utah psychic who claimed to be able to communicate with the prophet Nephi, a [mythical] figure from the Book of Mormon…

Thought Control (#1267)

Texas’ ice-pick self-lobotomization is becoming increasingly spasmodic:

Katy [Texas is hiding]…$93,000 in new [library] books [under the pretext of “]review[“, and refuses to state] the reasons 14 additional books were [censored], despite a public p[retense] of transparency on book banning…Drew Daywalt’s The Day the Crayons Quit was one of 44 books flagged for review in August that was later retained.  An illustration depicts a beige crayon that has lost its wrapper, becoming “naked”…Other titles [censored] from elementary schools include Eric Carle’s illustrated classic Draw Me a Star, Judy Blume’s coming of age novel Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret, Dr. Seuss’ Wacky Wednesday, and Robert Munsch’s The Paper Bag Princess, all of which have been in circulation for more than 40 years…

Property of the State (#1306)

Women of childbearing age should avoid Alabama entirely if at all possible:

The number of arrests of women for allegedly harming their fetuses has increased sharply since 2006, and almost half those cases happened in Alabama, according to a new report by the advocacy group Pregnancy Justice…[which] followed up on prior research that found 413 criminal cases against pregnant women from 1973 to 2005.  The [new] study…found more than four times that number, 1,396 cases, from 2006 until last year, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.  Alabama accounted for 649 of those cases, followed by South Carolina with 180, Tennessee with 131 and Oklahoma with 113…Etowah County had the highest number of cases for any county in the country,..

I Spy (#1369)

In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:

ShadowDragon…[is] a government contractor…selling social media surveillance technology…[to] ICE…[DEA, FBI, and the State Department.]  It..can be used to monitor protests…and…gather[s] data [not only from large social media sites, but also smaller ones such as] video games like Fortnite and [specialty sites like] BabyCenter, a reference and pregnancy tracking site…as well as social media sites for Black people, bodybuilders, and the fetish community…In one video on ShadowDragon’s website, Elliott Anderson, president and targeting instructor at ShadowDragon, says that with [its chief product] SocialNet “You can pop in an email, an alias, a name, a phone number, a variety of different things, and immediately have information on your target.  We can see interests, we can see who friends are, pictures, videos.”  [Anderson further describes pregnant women, gamers, black people and kinky people, among others, as] “the bad guys”…

I Spy (#1372)

A new censorship regime has been imposed on British subjects:

The U.K. Parliament [has] passed the much-delayed Online Safety Bill, despite vocal criticisms by virtually all digital rights and free speech organizations and advocates…the…law [is] aimed at making social media firms…responsible for users’ s[peech]…and will force firms to…censor any content [arbitrarily] deemed “harmful” or “pornographic” by the politicians who happen to be in power in the U.K. at any given time…The bill grants broad powers to the politicians and bureaucrats appointed to the UK’s regulation agency, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), to target material they [declare] “harmful,” essentially reestablishing content-based state censorship in the U.K…

 

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 (#1366)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »

They never actually say, “Go do this or else you’re going to have this consequence.”  But everybody just knows.  –  Judge Jennifer Elrod

To Molest and Rape

If only there were a concise term for “commission of a nonconsensual sexual act”:

…a [typical and representative] Savanna [Oklahoma cop named]…Jeffery Scott Smith Jr…[us]ed a traffic stop [as a pretext]…to [violently rape a passenger in the car]…and…deactivat[ed] his…body…camera and…dashboard camera…with the intent to [get away with violent aggravated rape]…

Life Imitates Artifice (#849)

Every so often the failed “forced sex trafficking abortions” trope bobs up, like a turd that just won’t flush:

[Without presenting any evidence,] Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen…accused [Planned Parenthood]…of falsifying records…about sexual assault against minors and statutory rape, suggesting th[is]… “could be happening with human trafficking victims.”  The…comments in a July 31 radio interview echo a decade-old…[evangelical trope from the popular “sex trafficking” mythology claim]ing that the national Planned Parenthood organization abets human trafficking…

I suspect that the reason the “forced sex trafficking abortions” myth didn’t become more popular is that, despite the considerable overlap between anti-whore and anti-abortion activism, abortion rights constitute a sacred cow among the “progressives” who did much of the heavy lifting promoting the moral panic.  This same discomfort with logical developments of their pet hysteria resulted in organs like The New York Times distancing themselves from their own propaganda once it developed into QAnon.

Thought Control (#1285)

Just keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually:

Florida’s…”Don’t Say Gay” law…was expanded on 31 March, to prohibit instruction on gender and sexuality up until the eighth grade, and on reproductive health until the 12th grade.  The legislation also…[censors] material that [politicians or bureaucrats choose to arbitrarily label] “pornography or obscene depictions of sexual conduct”…[in order to protect teachers from persecution by the State,] the Hillsborough County schools district announced it will now only teach excerpts from some of Shakespeare’s most-famous works…On 3 August…Florida’s Department of Education…ruled that AP psychology classes were a violation of the law due to LGBTQ+ content…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1309)

The way local media parrots copaganda in the face of clear evidence of its foolishness is utterly pathetic:

A deputy’s first-person perspective during a [panic attack] was captured on his body camera, along with a[dministration of a placebo]…by a fellow deputy that [helped him calm down despite having no actual medical effect]…Nick Huzior, who is now [enjoying a vacation at taxpayer expense, claimed]…he felt extremely lightheaded, shaky and [numb, none of which are symptoms of]…fentanyl…Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly [used the panic attack as an excuse to claim a cop panicking like a little girl over wholly imaginary terrors is somehow heroic]…

Checklist (#1150)

Uber already encourages its drivers to spy on riders and rat sex workers out to the pigs:

Texas law will now require all drivers of Transportation Network Companies…to receive [even more of the same absurd and overbroad “signs of human trafficking“ indoctrination they’ve been forced to endure for almost a decade now]…The bill comes after [rescue industry corporations recognized they are losing an]…easy…[way to milk] their victims [for donations]…and [enlisted politicians in fear of losing a powerful excuse for police-statery]…

I know that’s a huge edit, but there really is nothing new to see in this asinine regurgitation of tired old tropes, including “King of the Hill“.

Torture Chamber (#1359)

I’m sure they occasionally yelled “Stop faking!” at him as he wasted away:

…Florida prison officials and medical staff allowed an incarcerated man’s prostate cancer to spread untreated until he was left paralyzed, terminally ill, and afflicted with infected bed sores that rotted to the bone.  When he wrote desperate pleas for help, one official concluded, “This is not an emergency.”  In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed last year…Elmer Williams [explain]s that [screws] and nursing staff denied and delayed medical treatment for months after he filed a grievance against them.  The…delays were not just bureaucratic incompetence but retaliation…medical records…reveal [that] staff were aware of his extremely high indicators for prostate cancer, aware of a long-overdue “urgent” referral to a urologist, and aware of his rapidly deteriorating condition…

Censor Chic (#1359)

It’s good to see at least some judges still respect their oath to uphold the Constitution against the government:

Federal judges hammered fresh nails into the coffin of the Biden censorship regime…[in] the Justice Department’s appeal of a July 4 decision in Missouri v. Biden…[where] Federal Judge Terry Doughty…delivered 155 pages of damning details of federal browbeating, jawboning and coercion of social-media companies…The Biden administration…then sought to redefine all its closed-door shenanigans as public service…[claiming that] since federal SWAT teams did not assail the headquarters of social-media firms, the feds are blameless…[and pretending] it’s irrelevant that…Biden publicly accused social-media companies of murder for not censoring far more material and that Biden appointees publicly threatened to destroy the companies via legislation or prosecution…

 

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 (#1362)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Once you get the scarlet letter, nobody wants you anymore.
–  Kristen DiAngelo

If Men Were Angels

Oh look, another “youth pastor”, what a surprise:

A [typical and representative] youth pastor at a Twin Falls [Idaho] church faces sexual battery charges after…[molesting] a girl in 2021 when she was 16 years old.  Dakota Austin Kennemer…was charged…after…the pastor [reported him to cops]…

This one, on the other hand, is a bit surprising:

Amanda Buchanan Justice…of [North Carolina]…was charged with sexually assaulting a child…She…was a youth leader at New Life Family Worship Center in Kings Mountain…her…husband…is still serving as a pastor…[but] stepped down from his role as a youth minister following…his wife [admitting the molestation to him]…

Torture Chamber (#690)

US officials already know prisons exacerbate crime; they simply don’t care:

In 1999 Connecticut had so many people in prison that it paid to send 500 of them to be [cag]ed in Virginia.  Nearly 25 years later, the state has not only sliced its number of imprisoned people in half, but been able to close more than 10 prisons while keeping its crime rate at its lowest level in more than 40 years…Connecticut currently runs 13 prisons, which [cag]e about 10,000 people.  Two-thirds of these are serving sentences; the other third are those who have yet to be sentenced…The state’s rate of 155 people imprisoned per 100,000 residents is now the ninth lowest in the country and well below the national average of 350 people per 100,000…

Guinea Pigs (#1307) 

Another bunch of vigilante bigots playing games with people’s lives:

Victor Marx…is…a [jarhead and] self-proclaimed exorcist…[who] helped launch the Skull Games, a privatized intelligence outfit that purports to hunt pedophiles, sex traffickers, and other “demonic activity” using a blend of sock-puppet social media accounts and commercial surveillance tools — including face recognition software…Recent games have been [sponsored] by the [Israeli] surveillance firm Cobwebs, and an upcoming competition…[by] Anomaly Six…Marx has savvily ridden recent popular attention to the [propaganda] film Sound of Freedom…and conservative “groomer” panic…to [sell harassment of sex workers as somehow]…Christ[ian]…Skull Games…is…a sort of hackathon for would-be Christian saviors…play[ers win] points based on their sleuthing.  Finding a [sex worker]’s high school diploma…nets 15 points, while finding [a common] tattoo on multiple women would earn…300…as they prepare intelligence dossiers on women before turning them over to p[igs]…what sets Skull Games apart from other amateur predator-hunting efforts is its reliance on “open-source intelligence”…a military euphemism…[for] surveilling the public internet and purchasing sensitive information from commercial data brokers…one [recent participant was]…able to use PimEyes to find a sex worker’s driver’s license…Clearview [and Amazon’s Rekognition were]…heavily used in the January 2023 Skull Games…

Lack of Evidence (#1312) 

Courts are still more dependable sources of relief from bad laws than politicians:

…The Dallas County Criminal Court of Appeals has struck down a law against “manifesting the purpose of engaging in prostitution.”  The law…”trespasses on the constitutional rights of Dallas citizens,” wrote Judge Kristin Wade…The Dallas law…[basically] prohibits looking like [a whore, and can bring]…a fine of up to $500…there’s been a growing movement against these laws, which make it easy for police to hassle and arrest people without cause…The case that led to the law being struck down involved the arrest of Iqbal Jivani, who “was in a known prostitution area and stopped to engage passers-by in conversation,” per a police complaint…

Thought Control (#1343)

It seems I was destined to be threatened with state violence regardless of my career path:

A federal lawsuit…challenges an Arkansas law that would subject librarians and booksellers to criminal charges if they provide…materials [politicians have pointed at while belching out “harmful”] to minors.  A coalition that includes the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock filed the challenge to the law, which [took] effect Aug. 1.  The law also creates a new process [for any busybody] to [demand] library materials…be [censored]…The number of attempts to ban or [censor] books across the U.S. last year was the highest in the 20 years the American Library Association has been tracking such efforts…at least 121 proposals introduced in state legislatures this year target…libraries, librarians, educators and access to materials…39 of those…would allow for criminal prosecution…

Creepy Coppers (#1348)

The people the government empowers to police your sexuality:

A Vevay, Indiana [cop named]…Kyle Davis…was arrested…[for] attempt[ing] to video record an underage [girl]…while she was using the bathroom…on May 30, 2020, she was at his home when she wanted to use the bathroom…Davis went in…before her…and she noticed an iPhone pointed toward the toilet set to record video…[when later questioned] Davis…[tried to blame] his teenage son…[but] Davis’ phone…[held a nude photo] of two pre-pubescent girls about 8 years old…[and] searches related to “voyeurism” [and] “spy cams”…

I Spy (#1352)

This totalitarian nonsense is a danger to the entire internet, worldwide:

…the privacy of people around the world…[will be undermined by] the Online Safety Bill, now at the final stage before passage…which will destroy end-to-end encryption.  No amendments have been accepted that would mitigate the bill’s most dangerous elements…If the Online Safety Bill becomes British law, the damage it causes won’t stop at the borders of the U.K…because…undermining encryption, whether by banning it, pressuring companies away from it, or requiring client side scanning, will be a boon to bad actors and authoritarian states…That’s [why]…U.K. civil society groups have condemned the bill, as have technical experts and human rights groups around the world…In response to this outpouring of resistance, the U.K. government’s response has been to wave its hands and deny reality…

 

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 (#1361)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 5, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Anytime there’s a bipartisan consensus and a preachy New York Times op-ed, you can assume something you enjoy is about to get regulated out of existence or made worse in quality.  –  Liz Wolfe

Broken Record (#687) 

Sparsely-populated states are still clinging desperately to “sex trafficking” myths that larger states have quietly backed away from:

The Sturgis Motorcycle rally officially begins on August 4th.  [Blah blah pearl-clutching, lies about criminal charges, infantilization of women, and cop swagger]…South Dakota’s pheasant hunting season also causes a spike in sex trafficking in South Dakota…

The Last Shall Be First (#924)

If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been paying attention:

Christine Gallinaro [took] her [deeply autistic] 15-year-old son…[to a cinema] in…New Jersey…[and brought him] into the women’s toilets because there was no family one…her son, who…is non-verbal, “is not equipped to go into a men’s bathroom in a public setting alone”…However, the…theatre’s manager approached them in the…crowded lobby, shouting…“a grown man should not be in the women’s restroom” and “this is not a transgender bathroom”.  He then told an assistant manager to call the police [on them]…

Above the Law (#1142)

They usually make these cases sound like the rapist was doing his victims a favor:

A disgraced Wisconsin prosecutor secretly recorded himself having sex with three women, including one he was prosecuting.  Daniel Steffen…[of] Wisconsin…was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he was convicted in April…“While the defendant and Victim #1 are still engaged in sex, the defendant looks at the camera, sticks his tongue out, and winks several times,” and can be heard repeatedly telling the victim, “Who’s in charge?” the complaint said…In addition to his prison time, Steffen must serve two years of extended supervision, four years of probation, and placement for 10 years on Wisconsin’s sex offender registry.

You Were Warned (#1279)

The bipartisan war on the internet moves us another step closer to idiocracy:

“[The internet causes] sex…trafficking, drug[s and death”, bloviate perennial nuisances] Lindsey Graham…and Elizabeth Warren…in t[he] New York Times…What follows is a litany of untrue statements and gross exaggerations about the way Big Tech operates and the purported harm done by the cluster of websites that millions of Americans willingly use on a daily basis…Warren and Graham go on to announce they’re introducing [another terrible internet-breaking law] to create [yet] an[other government agency]…”charged with licensing and policing…tech companies” which will be “nimble” and “adaptable” (just like all those other government agencies).  The regulator will “prevent online harm” (by waving a magic wand and ensuring no bad actors ever go online); “promote free speech and competition”…by scrapping Section 230 and…”guard Americans’ privacy” (because government agencies do a great job at cybersecurity!…

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#1293)

Blaming bad behavior on an imaginary “addiction” is the opposite of admitting responsibility:

[Actor] Terry Crews recently [attempt]ed [to avoid responsibility for abusive behavior toward his wofe and kids by blaming it on an imaginary “]porn addiction[” he melodramatically described as a]…”battle”…

It isn’t only celebrities who use this dodge to lessen their culpability:

[Indiana teacher] Christopher “Kit” Degenhart…[pled] guilty…to…seduc[ing a 17-year-old student in the theater department he headed]…Degenhart will spend one year behind bars while participating in a work release program.  After one year, he’s scheduled to move into home detention while working in the program for six more months…he…will [then] be on two and a half years of probation…[inclu]ding sex addiction meetings…[and] regist[ration] as a sex offender…

Thought Control (#1328)

Texas has figured out how to stop judges from overruling library censorship: simply eliminate libraries:

Houston…will be eliminating librarian positions at 28 schools this upcoming year and converting the libraries into “[punishment] centers” where kids [declared to have] behavioral issues will be [confined]…This…[is] part of the new superintendent Mike Miles[‘  “]reform[“] program…[with the Orwellian title] New Education System…a total of 85 schools…have joined Miles’ program, and of those, 28 campuses will lose their librarians.  The district said th[ose 28] will have the opportunity to transition to other roles within the district…[but] the [employment of the] remaining 57 NES schools’ librarians will be assessed on a case-by-case basis…

To Molest and Rape (#1358)

“Sexual offenses” sounds so much milder than “rape”:

The [typical and representative] chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police is being investigated over serious allegations of sexual offences in Northern Ireland.  Will Kerr was a [cop] in Northern Ireland for 27 years before [being promoted] in 2018…he said [she wanted it]…

 

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 (#1356)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Parents…are…capable of deciding for themselves what bibs are welcome…as a gift at their baby showers.  –  Walter Olson

If Men Were Angels

Tennessee has a disturbingly high number of such incidents:

Videos of the rapes of 10 unconscious boys were found on the cellphone of a Tennessee soccer coach after he left it behind at a restaurant…Camilo Hurtado Campos…was booked on allegations of child rape and sexual exploitation of a minor…”During off-hours, Campos frequented nearby school playgrounds…where he approached kids and recruited them as players on his team…After gaining their trust, Campos invited many of the kids to his home where he drugged and then raped them”…

Here’s another one:

Top leaders at…[the] Apostolic Christian Academy…of Maryville [Tennessee]…knew of at least two separate times…teacher Joseph “Kade” Abbott se[xted]…a 14-year-old girl [student]…but he was allowed to maintain contact with students…Abbott was suspended both times, but Apostolic leaders did not notify the parents of the girl about the messages, nor is there any evidence…they [called the cops]…Abbott al[so] sexually assaulted her multiple times, including in a stairwell of a Gatlinburg hotel while he was chaperoning students on an overnight trip.  He is now facing criminal charges…

The Widening Gyre (#1145) 

The “Facebook pimps” myth has gone from merely silly to completely pathetic:

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is demanding Mark Zuckerberg e[nable his weird sexual fantasies about] human trafficking across Meta platforms after a…[creepy internet fantasy about] pedophiles [magically sucking children into the computer via Facebook’s so-called “]metaverse[“].  Moody sent a letter to Zuckerberg Monday, [attemp]ting [to recruit] the CEO [into bolstering his political ambitions by pret]end[ing] human trafficking on sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp…is [an actual] public safety threat [rather than the pro-censorship copaganda it is]…

Thought Control (#1250)

Politicians are no longer satisfied with merely censoring libraries and the internet:

Republican attorneys general from seven states signed a letter…to Target…[absurdly claim]ing clothes and merchandise sold as part of…Pride month campaigns could violate their state’s child protection laws...[politicians] from Indiana, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina signed the letter, [blovia]ting [that] they were “concerned by recent events involving the company’s ‘Pride’ campaign”…[and belching nonsense about] “protecting children” from “content that [magically] sexualizes them,” including obscenity laws.  The letter also [bizarrely claim]s Target may be breaching the law by making decisions that are allegedly…not in the best interests of its shareholders, citing it as a violation of the company’s fiduciary duty…

The Prudish Giant (#1263) 

Why does anyone still trust Facebook?

A Nebraska mother pleaded guilty…to giving her 17-year-old daughter pills for an…abortion [politicians wanted to deny her] last year and helping to burn and bury the [remains of the] fetus.  Under a plea agreement, Jessica Burgess…admitted to providing an abortion after 20 weeks of gestation, false reporting and tampering with human skeletal remains…Celeste Burgess, now 18, was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty in May to removing, concealing or abandoning a dead body…She faces up to two years in prison [for daring to exert control over her own body in defiance of the State]…the two [foolishly] discussed terminating the pregnancy [over Facebook, which eagerly handed]…the messages [over to the pigs]…

Torture Chamber (#1322)

Your “leaders” refer to this as “correction”:

The RCMP are launching a confidential hotline to assist with their investigation into…[rapes and other] sexual abuse at the Nova Scotia [Teenage Cagestack] between 1988 and 2017.  Police…have already taken statements from more than 70 people who…were [raped and sexually] abused at the…jail in Waterville, N.S., but believe there could be up to 200 in total.  They ask…anyone with relevant information about the case…to come forward…to date, all 70…[victims] have been male, but police…are not ruling out that girls could also have been abused…

Thought Control (#1331)

Just keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually:

Gerard Kleinsmith [pretend]s he hates the idea of censorship…[yet] wants to pull the lease for the city’s public library because he doesn’t like books about transgender people…He is supported in this stance by the other members of St. Marys’ five-person city commission, a heavily religious group that attends the Society of St. Pius X…a…[heretical sect]…that broke away from the Catholic church…The public library…narrowly surviv[ed] an attempt to pull the lease at the end of last year…“We’re not part of the city structure and the lease agreement is the only leverage that they have seemed to be able to find,” [library director Judith] Cremer said…the library…would be forced to shift locations if the lease isn’t renewed, giving up a community spot it has held for decades…

A Moral Cancer (#1334)

Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet:

New York Mayor Eric Adams has gone to federal court to stop the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, [spouting the puritanical drivel that they are intended specifically to] appeal to kids…The mayor a[lso made the bizarre and specious claim] that some of the vape products are equal to between 175 and 350 single cigarettes.  The suit was filed against four distributors…and…[pigs have] already [stolen] many thousands of dollars worth of those products [from the companies.  Adams’ cronies vomited out other lies and propaganda, and]…the suit [absurdly] accuses the distributors of violating a host of city, state and federal laws, including the federal RICO statutes…

 

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