The police are free to ask questions, and the public is free to ignore them. – Judge Charles R. Wilson
Here’s another very early film; this one is the first filmed version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, from 1903; one notable feature is that moviemakers had not yet figured out how to do the titles, which in this case results in the audience being told what they will see before they see it. There also seems to be an assumption that the audience already knows the story and can thus fill in the gaps for themselves. The links above it were provided by Franklin Harris, Jesse Walker, Stephen Lemons, The Onion, Phoenix Calida, Emma Camp, and IncarcerNation, in that order.
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!
A…Bothell [Washington politician named James McNeal]…was arrested [on April 30th] after a 20-year-old woman was found dead inside [his] home…”laying face up in a bed, fully nude” and covered by bedding…the King County Medical Examiner’s Office found “injury marks” on [her] neck and “under the left side of her jaw”…the woman had been dead for about 24 hours at the time [cops] found [her]. Evidence …“indicates death from asphyxia”…
A Sumatran orangutan in Indonesia has self-medicated using a paste made from plants to heal a large wound on his cheek…It is the first time a creature in the wild has been recorded treating an injury with a medicinal plant…A research team…spotted Rakus with a large wound on his cheek in June 2022…then saw Rakus chewing the stem and leaves of plant called Akar Kuning – an anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial plant that is also used locally to treat malaria and diabetes. He repeatedly applied the liquid onto his cheek for seven minutes…then smeared the chewed leaves onto his wound until it was fully covered. He continued to feed on the plant for over 30 minutes…the researchers saw no sign of infection and the wound closed within five days. After a month, Rakus was fully healed. The scientists concluded that Rakus knew he was applying medicine because orangutans very rarely eat this particular plant and because of the length of the treatment…
A criminal investigation into the Archdiocese of New Orleans is based on a suspicion that it may be linked to child sex trafficking…The affidavit requesting the search warrant…alleges that multiple sex abuse victims…were transported to other parishes and outside of Louisiana, where they were sexually abused. It further alleges a scheme…in which abused children were instructed to provide “gifts” to certain priests…to signal that the children were targets for sexual abuse…multiple victims reported that they were brought to the New Orleans Seminary, where they were instructed to “swim naked in the pool and would be sexually assaulted or abused”…the information that led to a suspicion of sex trafficking was obtained by police during an earlier investigation into a retired priest named Lawrence Hecker, who is accused of raping an underage teenage boy in the 1970s…
As soon as Collin Davis found out his ex-partner was planning to travel to Colorado to have an abortion in late February, the Texas man retained a high-powered antiabortion attorney — who…immediately issued a legal threat…[of] “wrongful-death claims”…Davis…is…[now] asking for the power to investigate…[so he can] sue either under the state’s wrongful-death statute or the novel Texas law…that allows private citizens to file suit against anyone who “aids or abets” an…abortion…The case also illustrates the role that [abusive] men who [want revenge on former] partners…could play…either by filing their own civil lawsuits or by [snitching] to [the pigs like bootlicking little tattletales]…Davis’s petition — filed…by Jonathan Mitchell, a prominent antiabortion [fanatic]…follows a lawsuit filed last spring by another Texas man, Marcus Silva, who is attempting to sue three women who allegedly helped his ex-wife obtain abortion pills…
South Australia’s upper house voted 10-9 to reject…“Nordic model” [criminalization of] prostitution…[beside the usual Swedish rot features] the Bill…would also have compelled government to [treat] sex workers [as cases of arrested development unable to make work decisions without State]…assistance…Greens member Tammy Franks led the charge against the [criminalization attempt] in a furious speech, denouncing the Bill as “slavery” for sex workers…Franks and other members of the Labor Party…expressed support for full decriminalisation of the industry…Franks…expressed alarm about how close [the vote] was and…said…“I think they’ll be back for another attempt at some stage”…
Apparently, the world needs even more terrible bills that let ignorant senators grandstand to the media about how they’re “protecting the kids online”…This one is called the “The Kids Off Social Media Act” (KOSMA) and it’s an unconstitutional mess built on a long list of debunked and faulty premises…The…bill…would be an outright ban on social media accounts for anyone under the age of 13…we kinda already have a “soft” version of that because of COPPA, which puts much stricter rules on sites directed at those under 13. Because most sites don’t want to deal with those stricter rules, they officially limit account creation to those over the age of 13…all this generally did was to have parents teach kids that “it’s okay to lie,” as parents wanted kids to use social media tools to communicate with grandparents. Making that “soft” ban a hard ban is going to create a much bigger mess and prevent all sorts of useful and important communications (which, yeah, is a 1st Amendment issue)…
Utah set up an online form for people to accuse other[s]…of violating the state’s… “bathroom bill”…[which] is being flooded with memes and troll comments…the auditor also left the submissions database open to the public—without…protections [to prevent] viewing other people’s submissions…One can also attach images to the form…those included photos of Barry Wood, characters from Bee Movie, and Shutterstock images of bull testicles…Trolling snitch lines set up to enforce bad laws is a time-honored tradition online. When Indiana launched a form for reporting schools “that teach about LGBTQ+ issues…[or] Black history”…people flooded [it] with memes…A similar outcome happened for Virginia’s tip line against teachers who taught “critical race theory”. In 2020, New York City[‘s]…snitch line to report [people]…not social distancing…[was] filled…with dick pics…
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!
Memory is such a funny thing sometimes. When I was very young, I spent most Friday nights at the home of my paternal grandmother; on Saturday I’d wake up and watch cartoons, and she’d make me pancakes or beignets for breakfast. Then in the later morning, a big step van would pull up in the street in front of her house and blow his horn. It was the van for a local butcher; in those days a lot of the older ladies had never learned to drive, so the van was a shop on wheels, which had a route through all the older neighborhoods. Saturday was one of the days he visited Maman’s neighborhood, so when he came I’d go in with her and she’d buy me a candy bar while she got her meat and bread and whatever. The last time I stepped into that truck was half a century ago, yet when I went outside to give the piggies their breakfast peanuts half an hour ago, some quality of the sunlight combined with some quality of the air, and the sound of the chickens, and memories of those Saturday mornings of so long ago came flooding back. And with them came memories of Maman in general, who died in the spring of 1997, and I found myself tearing up. Damn, I sure miss her.
Under criminalization…the foxes are set to guard the henhouse, and nobody notices or cares how many chickens they satisfy their appetites upon. – “In Charge of the Henhouse”
The love and friendship between two people is an organic thing which has to be taken for what it is; any attempt to rebuild it into something else is as doomed to failure as a scheme to turn one animal into another by cutting it apart and putting it back together in a different shape.
– “A Living Thing”
This is the level of critical thinking I’d expect from someone who still believes in the Easter Bunny.
– “The War Goes On (#736)”
There is no such thing as changelessness; there are only differing rates of change. – “Eternity”
A potential serial killer has been caught after he [raped] two [sex workers], strangled them to death, and dumped their bodies at the same intersection about a month apart…Carlos Yadiel Baez-Nieves was arrested…for driving with a suspended license…[and while in jail confessed to] killing…Fatia Flowers and…Nichole Daniels…Sheriff John Mina [used the excuse of women’s tragic deaths to swagger and brag about cop magic even though the killer was caught due to other sex workers reporting that] Daniels got into a white pickup truck [at a 7-Eleven] and…video surveillance [from] the [store clearly showed]…his truck…
During the Red Scare, [Americans] believed that Soviet agents were everywhere, having secretly infiltrated all levels of society…The Satanic Panic convinced Americans of the 1980s that absurd claims of ritual abuse and sacrifice were somehow credible…At any given time, America is moving in and out of some moral panic or another. Harm to children is a persistent theme. In recent years, however, our national obsession with these moral panics has consumed our politics…The…current obsession with “child sex trafficking” — the animating force behind such conspiracy theories as QAnon and Pizzagate, as well as coded political insults like “groomer” — has roots in this moral panic hyped by powerful Republicans and Democrats alike. The panic reached its crescendo with the 2018 federal indictments related to a sex ad hub called Backpage.com…
The article is a tie-in to a podcast series called “Hold Fast“, about the persecution of Backpage and its owners, which I’ve heard is very good. But please allow me some small bitterness about the fact that I shouted about this for a decade before the “Fourth Estate” began to pay attention.
The youth program that introduced [Sarah] Birchmore to [her molest]ers is among hundreds of such chapters at [cop shops] around the country…law enforcement Explorer posts are d[isguis]ed [as programs] to help teens…learn about policing…[but in reality they are grooming schemes for predatory cops]. At least 194…[cops] have [been caught] groom[ing], sexually abus[ing] or [raping]…Explorers since 1974…The vast majority of th[e victims] were teenage girls — some as young as 13…In many [of these] programs, armed [thugs] were allowed to be alone with teenage Explorers…[and as is usual in cases of criminal cop behavior, cop shops] minimized or dismissed the concerns of those who reported creepy] behavior…[rare] cases led to criminal charges. [A much smaller number] went to prison, while others received probation or weren’t required to register as sex offenders. [Most cop shops] allowed [rapists and molest]ers to keep their jobs after a reprimand or short suspension…
A new filing in the lawsuit brought by five women [whom] Tim Ballard…sexual[ly] assault[ed] has added an allegation of rape, as well as a [report]…that a witness saw Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes using cocaine at a private club in downtown Salt Lake City…Operation Underground Railroad…had given nearly $1 million in grants to Reyes’ office “in order to motivate…Reyes to protect Ballard and OUR.” After a criminal investigation was opened by the Davis County attorney’s office, Ballard was upset, the suit asserts, “especially since Ballard made arrangements for…Reyes to use a penthouse at Mac’s Place with women and cocaine”…
India’s…assassination plots in the United States and Canada are part of an expanding wave of aggression against dissident groups seeking protection in other countries. Their home governments are increasingly willing to disregard the sovereignty of those nations and send agents across borders to subdue political enemies…India has faced few consequences for its use of violence and intimidation against dissident groups, in part because the United States and its allies want closer ties with India in a new era of competition with China. Cross-border repression takes various forms including violence, harassment and surveillance. India, which eclipsed China last year as the world’s most-populous country, is part of an expanding roster of dozens of nations now employing such tactics…
“A darker side of Modi’s India”? Darker than censorship, religious repression, and institutionalized racism?
Louisiana [politician]s are considering adding mifepristone and misoprostol…to the list of controlled dangerous substances in the state, creating penalties of up to 10 years of prison time for anyone caught with the drugs. It’s the latest move by anti-abortion politicians trying to control access to abortion pills, which people are ordering online…and using to end their pregnancies, despite Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban…
…From the beginning, this prosecution has been premised on a bogus rationale (authorities yammer on about sex trafficking though none of the defendants are charged with sex trafficking), overreaching in its scope (attempting to hold a web platform accountable for user-generated speech, in contradiction to Section 230), offensive to the First Amendment, and relentless in its attempts to handicap the defense…[Judge Diane] Humetewa’s [most recent] order showcases how this case has turned normal content moderation into criminal activity—in what should serve as a warning to tech companies of all sorts. The government’s demands are simply impossible…
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!
I’ve never had pullets grow as quickly as this bunch; not only are they already beginning to look like adult hens, they’re boldly shooting out of the nursery every morning and have already started exploring outside, as you can see. One of them is already clucking, which surprised the hell out of me because normally they’re still peeping until around the time they start laying, around midsummer; I wonder if they’ll start laying early as well? It wouldn’t surprise me, nor will it surprise me if the biggest of the three ends up being the alpha hen despite her youth, given that I’ve never seen one so bold at this age. The other two already follow her lead, and none of them are as nervous as most chickens; while most of them apparently find my moving around while I deal with their food and water every day to be cause for alarm, these three seem perfectly comfortable scratching near my feet while I work. Perhaps that calm energy will even spread to the older chickens, and wouldn’t that be nice? The only thing that remains to be seen before I give this breed my stamp of approval is how well they lay, but given that they haven’t disappointed me yet, I’m quite hopeful.
A…[leaked document reveals that a]n Iranian teenager was sexually assaulted and killed by three…Iran[ian cops]…16-year-old Nika Shakarami…vanished from an anti-regime protest in 2022. Her body was found [by her mother] nine days later. The government claimed she killed herself…[but] the report summarises a hearing on Nika’s case…[which] includes…the names of her [murderers: Arash Kalhor, Sadegh Monjazy, and Behrooz Sadeghy,] and [identifies] the senior commanders who tried to hide the truth…[cops pulled her into] an un[marked] van…[and Monjazy] molested her while he was sitting on her…Despite being handcuffed and restrained, she fought back, kicking and swearing…[which the three cops then used as an excuse] to beat her [to death] with batons…
…a [typical and representative] youth group director [named] Brett Franklin Bymaster…is charged with committing sex crimes against a young girl, starting when she was 8 years old…For years, teenagers and their parents raised concerns about Bymaster’s conduct…[but] church leaders covered up [the truth]…Bymaster “groomed” teens, took naked showers with minors on field trips, sexually harassed minors with unwanted touching, groped underage girls, and pressured youth group members into sexually explicit conversations…he…was manipulative, a “bully,” psychologically abusive, “toxic,” and spiritually abusive…A teen girl attempted suicide in September 2018 in response to Brett’s…”slut shaming”…Bymaster left the church in 2019 and became…a faith…[healer]…
Three [women] who…were sexually abused as minors by a youth pastor at Champion Forest Baptist [have] sued the Houston megachurch and the Southern Baptist Convention…[for enabling and covering up the depredations of typical and representative] minister Timothy Jason Jeltema[, who] was sentenced in 2022 to five years in prison…church leaders [ignored the victims’] reports of [Jeltema’s] crimes and [even] interfer[ed] with police investigations…there remains a federal investigation into the SBC’s handling of sexual abuse…
A federal grand jury indicted a Columbus [Ohio cop named]…Nicholas Duty…[for] purposefully deactivating or removing his police body camera…on Oct. 31, 2023, and March 22, 2024…Duty [wanted to hide that he was harassing one woman and]…sexual[ly assaulting anoth]er…[as usual, his supervisors are more obsessed with the disposition of his magical clown costume than with his victims’ welfare. However, even if he skates on the assault]…altering records to obstruct a federal investigation is a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison…
…sexual…abuse…[of] juvenile detainees [by screws and probation officers was common]…in Los Angeles County for more than three decades. Now, [over 2500] victims are taking action with a lawsuit against LA County…an LA Times investigation in 2010 found at least 11 probation officers had [already] been convicted of crimes or disciplined for [molesting, raping, or beating] the youth [the state gave them total power over, yet as usual]…the [rapists] are…protected…[by] the department…and…some are still on the job…In February, California’s Board of [Caging Human Beings]…voted to close the remaining juvenile halls in LA within 60 days unless numerous changes were implemented…[yet] the facilities…continue operating — at least, for now…Of the [known rapists], some are deceased, others retired so long ago their records have been purged and those…currently with the department have been [rewarded with paid vacations]…Probation Officer Thomas Jackson…[one of the worst offenders,] announced his retirement…A few days later, [fellow serial rapist] Ernest Walker also announced his retirement…
[A typical and representative] Washington…cop who [raped his girlfriend’s drunk friend in February recent]ly slaughtered his ex-wife and underage girlfriend before [kidnapp]ing the teenager’s infant on [April 22nd,] the[n shot himself in]…the head…[when] Oregon [cops caught up with him the next day]…The 1-year-old child…was taken into custody…[Elias] Huizar…[shot his] ex-wife Amber Rodriguez eight times outside the elementary school where she worked…[in front of their] 9-year-old son…While looking for the maniac, [cops] found the body of his underage girlfriend…Angelica Santos…in his home…
[A thug sent by the state of Wisconsin to spy on, harass, and intimidate students, whose name is] Steven Rosales…[now faces] bestiality charges [on top of his previous charges for molesting a teenage girl]…Rosales [fucked] his pet dog several times…and photographed it…
A [Florida cop named]…Jose Robell Hernandez…accepted a plea agreement where he would be guilty of aggravated child abuse. He was also facing charges [for] having sex with a minor…but those have been dropped as part of the agreement. [The] judge…sentenced [him] to 10 years of probation…Hernandez met a 17-year-old on Tinder. Her profile said she was 23…Police discovered this when the teen called 911 frantic and reported a body in a garbage bag. There was no body, and she told [cops] she had not taken her medication…[when they] asked…for her personal information…she handed them her phone [and they rooted through it, reading]…text messages between her and Hernandez…including one in which she accused him of getting her pregnant…she told [cops] she misled Hernandez about her age in person and on Tinder…
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!
How many poor people in the world must die before we consider this a “crime against humanity”? – open letter from 100 Nobel Laureates
I think this video, made in 1899, might be the oldest one I’ve ever featured on this site (though the soundtrack is 21st-century). The director, Georges Melies, is perhaps best remembered for “A Trip to the Moon” (or at least one famous image from the film); he invented many special effects, a number of them visible here, which were used for a century until replaced by CGI. The links above the video were provided by Clarissa, Emma Camp, Ronald Bailey, Radley Balko, and IncarcerNation (x3), in that order.
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!
…The practice of [forcibly inject]ing sedatives [in]to people detained by police [without the victim’s consent] has spread quietly across the nation over the last 15 years, built on [pseudo]science…backed by police-aligned experts…At least 94 people died [in this way between]…2012 [and] 2021…That’s nearly 10% of the more than 1,000 deaths identified during [an] investigation of people subdued by police in ways that are not supposed to be fatal. About half of the 94…were Black…Behind the racial disparity is a [make-believe] medical condition called excited delirium, which fueled the rise of sedation outside hospitals…the [investigation] found…[that most of the victims were] agitated people…held by police facedown…handcuffed and with [pigs sitt]ing on their backs…[while they] struggled to breathe and tried to get free. [Barfing out the magic cop word “]combativeness[” justified cops demanding] paramedics administer…sedatives, [predictably] slowing their breathing. Cardiac and respiratory arrest often occurred within minutes…
Calling her “an inherent danger to the community,” prosecutors [have] asked a Miami judge to throw a 51-year-old [woman] back into jail for posting news articles on Facebook recounting her arrest on charges of stalking a Miami [cop] who had [murder]ed her mentally ill son. Prosecutors sayGamaly Hollis violated a judge’s order against using social media by sharing several stories this week about the June 2022 [murder] of her son…Richard Hollis…by [cop] Jaime Pino…a year earlier, [Pino] had [threate]ned [to murder] her son if he ever [saw him holding] a gun…Hollis…took to the streets and the internet, [truthfully] calling [murderous pig] Pino a killer and once confronting him [in public. Cops] arrested her on charges of aggravated stalking, resisting arrest and trespassing. After a year in jail, she was [recently] released on bond…[but cops are scheming to] jail [her] again — this time simply for sharing news stories, without comment, on Facebook…
…An Australian judge…[petulantly demanded] that [Twitter] must block every user in the world from accessing video of a bishop being stabbed in a Sydney church…Despite disagreeing with the…takedown order, [Twitter]’s Global Government Affairs team…”complied with the directive pending a legal challenge“…[but now Australian politicians and bureaucrats want to] control…what can be seen by people…every place on the globe outside Australia’s borders. If Canberra can impose its rules across the world on any online platform that happens to do business in Australia, why can’t China, or Russia, or Saudi Arabia do the same?…If [Australia is] successful [in its megalomanical demands], the same reach would be available to every government everywhere, including those even more authoritarian than the notoriouslyilliberal democracy…Australia’s censorious officials…may be exploiting the conflict…to promote legislation restricting “misinformation”…
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador c[laimed that] doctors…[are lying about] transferring an increasing number of patients out of state for care to comply with the state’s strict abortion laws…[at] a U.S. Supreme Court hearing…[to] de[cid]e whether Idaho abortion law conflicts with…EMTALA…St. Luke’s chief physician executive Dr. Jim Souza…[said] the hospital system has transported six patients out of state for obstetric emergencies since January, when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Idaho’s law to fully take effect. In 2023, St. Luke’s transferred a single patient out of state for an emergency abortion…Labrador…implied that those transfers either didn’t happen or were unnecessary…“It’s really hard for me [as a medical ignoramus and moral imbecile] to conceive of a single instance where a woman has to be airlifted out of Idaho to perform an abortion,” Labrador said…
A federal judge has acquitted Backpage co-founder Michael Lacey of dozens of counts, including a majority of those on which federal prosecutors planned to retry [him] later this year. U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa also acquitted former Backpage executives Jed Brunst and Scott Spear on multiple counts of which they were convicted by a jury last fall…In November, a jury found Lacey guilty of just one the 86 counts against him and not guilty of one count…[but] hung on the other 84 counts…The feds then decided to retry Lacey on those 84 counts, despite the fact that there had already been two [mis]trials on the same charges…Lacey is still looking at a retrial later this year on the [31] remaining counts…and on June 17, Lacey is scheduled to be sentenced on the one count…on which the jury found him guilty…[which] Lacey plans to appeal…Brunst is scheduled to be sentenced along with Lacey in June and…still faces sentencing on 14 counts. And Spear, who is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9, still faces sentencing on 29 counts.
…I’m the reporter who broke the story [about GM’s spying on its customers, and] I recently discovered that I’m among the drivers who was spied on…This month, my husband received his “consumer disclosure files” from LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk, two data brokers that work with the insurance industry and that G.M. had been providing with data…I had requested my own LexisNexis file while reporting, but…though both of our names are on the car’s title, the data from our Bolt accrued to my husband alone because the G.M. dealership listed him as the primary owner. G.M.’s spokeswoman had told me that this data collection happened only to people who turned on OnStar…and enrolled in Smart Driver, a[n ironically-misnamed] program that offers feedback and digital badges for [“]good[“] driving…I had connected our car to the MyChevrolet app to see if we were enrolled in Smart Driver. The app said we weren’t…But in April, when we found out our driving hadbeen tracked, my husband signed into a browser-based version of his account page, on GM.com, which said our car was enrolled in “OnStar Smart Driver+.” G.M. says this discrepancy between the app and the website was the result of “a bug”…We couldn’t get insights into our driving, but insurance companies could…
A…Pennsylvania [cop named]…Steven Kyle Cugini was arrested [for raping]…a 13-month-old child [sometime] between April 11 and April 15…the infant had a broken tibia and fibula in her left leg and other injuries that showed evidence of sexual abuse…Cugini blamed the injuries on diaper rash, a fall and the family dog…police were notified by a day care center after the [victim] was dropped off with “severe bruising” on her face and head and wounds on her left foot…
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!
I’ve written on many occasions of the difficulty exceptional children have in schools. My mother could never understand why I got straight “A” grades but straight “C” in conduct; why I ended up in the principal’s office as often as any of the “bad” kids; why I got detention on numerous occasions in 7th and 8th grades, and two suspensions in 12th; and why I was nearly expelled mere weeks before graduating from high school. The answer of course, is that I was bored to tears and no less talkative than I am now (a deadly combination in a system designed to churn out docile, obedient factory workers). I realized that before I turned 18, but it wasn’t until I already had a Master’s degree that I understood how I could be so intelligent, yet also so abysmally bad at any subject I couldn’t master just by sitting in class and taking the tests: I never learned to study, because in my formative years I never needed to. So this passage in an essay I recently read caught my attention:
Gifted children usually sail through their first years of schooling without ever having to develop what psychologists call executive functions — a broad category of mental skills, two of which are self-control and planning. Why would you need to plan your homework nights, for example, if you can finish the whole worksheet in under a minute because you mastered the material three years prior without any real effort?
As I read, I saw a lot more that intrigued me, especially this:
…in most western countries, the intellectually challenged receive much more funding than the intellectually gifted, despite the obvious benefits the gifted bring us. Gifted children’s needs are rarely met and rarely recognised in law…they often suffer immensely in outdated and ill-equipped school systems. These are children who read classic novels under their desks yet are forced to circle adjectives in class. Children who write twenty-page short stories about string theory, yet must endure mundane assignments about their summer holidays. Children who have mastered multiplication and division long before entering school, yet are forced to learn to count to ten with the rest of the class. Children who spend all night coding, yet must sit through six hours of other subjects they have no interest in. Children who are our greatest and most wasted resource…
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