From new world to old country and back
Ever since Sir Keir Starmer personally told me to go fuck myself, it's been looking more and more likely I'll be returning to Canada. Which is just as well, since the UK is getting weirder.
One example: the Online Safety Act, a law passed under the premise that only internet users over the age of 18 should be able to access "adult" sites. There is, of course, a logistical problem at the core of that idea: how do you tell which users are over 18, and which are not?
The British government's solution to that problem appears to be "compel everyone in the country to hand over sensitive personal data to US-based tech companies, many of whom will completely fail to secure it properly."
On top of the fact that everyone in the UK now has to doxx themselves to watch videos on PornHub, it turns out the government's idea of "adult" websites is, uh, broad. For example, they're attempting to age-gate Wikipedia. There are various reports that mental health resources, LGBTQ+ communities, and sites documenting war crimes in Ukraine and Palestine are all under pressure to block any user who hasn't verified their identity.
The true purpose of the Online Safety Act appears to be twofold: to block access to information the British government has deemed "sensitive," and to chill online speech by ensuring every post made by a UK resident is tied in some way to their legal ID.
Nobody likes this! In fact, there's a petition on the UK parliament's website to repeal the Online Safety Act. If a petition reaches 10 000 signatures, the government must issue a written response; if it reaches 100 000 signatures, the issue must be debated on the parliament floor. The OSA petition has, at time of writing, just under 500 000 signatures. Several opportunities for debate have come and gone, and the written response issued boils down to "we are doing this whether you like it or not."
So ... yeah. Time to go home. Although this does mean I must now submit myself to the annoying and expensive process of transporting my cat from the UK to Canada.
She's lucky she's cute.
Incidentally, if you've been thinking about buying any of my books, subscribing to The Casefile of Jay Moriarty, or dropping a few bucks into my Ko-fi, now would be a good time to do that. (And if you've read my work and enjoyed it, try recommending me to a friend!)
New Serialized Chapter: "Sebastian Moran Gut-Punches a Pimp," Chapter 5
Frustrated and furious, Lucas took to hanging around the borough. He spotted Moriarty more days than not, and even managed to follow him a few times—although he always managed to slip away sooner or later.
Then he’d tailed Moriarty to that restaurant, and seen him with the man from the photos: Sebastian Moran.
And Jay had kissed him.
Chapter 5 of "Sebastian Moran Gut-Punches a Pimp" is now available to read on the Casefile of Jay Moriarty website! If you don't want to read the story in serialized form and would prefer to get it all at once, you can also buy the entire novelette as an ebook.
This Week's Links
Self-proclaimed 'gay furry hackers' breach nuclear lab
"We're willing to make a deal with INL. If they research creating irl catgirls we will take down this post," SiegedSec wrote in a post announcing the leak on Monday.
One of the great ironies in the history of sex is that pathologization used to be a way of controlling sexual desire. (All are familiar with the many myths that masturbation would turn one blind.) Now it is a way of exempting oneself, of relinquishing control of one’s actions so as to absolve them of scrutiny. My little bondage moment couldn’t be problematic if it couldn’t be helped. It couldn’t be subjected to interrogation if there was something I could point to to say “it’s beyond my control, don’t judge me!”
We watched activists disrupt a ‘gender-critical’ meeting dressed as clowns
“This is more than just a panel discussion for us,” says Lorde, explaining why the Dyke Project chose to target this particular event. “We want to disrupt it because it’s a symbol of the threat which these people in power have: their biological essentalist values and gender rigidity will roll back hard-won feminist victories, from abortion acess [sic] to queer rights.”
The damn cat's plane ticket is more expensive than mine.
-K
