Elizabeth Nolan Brown

Homeland Security helps nab 80-year-old man for paying a sex worker Do you feel safer yet?

Homeland Security helped nab an 80-year-old man for paying a sex worker. Do you feel safer yet?

The arrest was part of yet another federal investigation into potential prostitution at a massage business reason.com/2026/03/09/h...

My son you will never meet On December 31, at a routine OB appointment, the doctor couldn’t find our baby’s heartbeat.

“This way, we got to see him. To hold him. To say goodbye face to face.

That was two months ago.”

substack.com/home/post/p-...

Thank you

Thanks Maggie

Canadian cops questioned dad about human trafficking after he took his daughter to a coffee shop Plus: AI for mass surveillance, Alaskan lawsuit to decriminalize prostitution, "enhanced" British regulation of streaming services, and more…

Quote of the Week: “In a sane culture we wouldn't praise people for baselessly calling the cops on strangers.” - @enbrown.bsky.social reason.com/2026/03/02/c...

Yep. But don't worry, the guy who hatched the rape bait plan I tries "not to feel bad about the continuation of the sexual misconduct."

The good (surprising?) news: no qualified immunity for the warden & investigator. "Using a prison inmate as unwitting bait to catch a staff member in the act of sexually abusing her is obviously an outrageous response," court says. "No reasonable prison official could have considered it acceptable."

Prison staff gets report about a counselor raping an incarcerated women. Do they...

a) immediately move to protect the woman & investigate the counselor or

b) plan to use her as "bait" while hiding in the ceiling?

I think you can, alas, see where this is going...
reason.com/2026/03/04/w...

(a) Beginning July 1, 2027, an operator shall annually report to the office all of the following: (1) The number of times the operator has issued a crisis service provider referral notification pursuant to Section 22602 in the preceding calendar year. (2) Protocols put in place to detect, remove, and respond to instances of suicidal ideation by users. (3) Protocols put in place to prohibit a companion chatbot response about suicidal ideation or actions with the user. (b) The report required by this section shall include only the information listed in subdivision (a) and shall not include any identifiers or personal information about users. (c) The office shall post data from a report required by this section on its internet website. (d) An operator shall use evidence-based methods for measuring suicidal ideation.

Apparently California will also create a state suicide office empowered to compel chatbot companies to turn over data about users’ mental-health conversations and publish a public report about it online.

What could go wrong.

Trying to get some early work done but there is a haunted toy somewhere in my house that just keeps chirping “we’re here! Let’s get out and play!”

If I don’t post ever again, you know what happened

A gray shorthair cat at the moment of release upside down, with its tongue out looking derpy

A new paper on falling cat science came out and I just have to draw people's attention to this image

I find it revealing btw that women tech reporters who cover this topic are constantly questioned about how many kids they have, while men who report on it like those at TechDirt, are never asked this question. The Heritage Foundation makes this same argument btw.

the two phases of writing: (1) writing and (2) wandering aimlessly like an unmoored ghost and complaining about not writing

Community pool or GTFO

Amazing.

I would like to know more about how yoga gets women to leave their husbands and give away all their money. You know ... for science.

... why ... are your fruit loops flouroescent?

When Yoga Sparked a Sex Panic Yoga and meditation were once seen by Americans "as weird and culty," Nicole Daedone tells Reason. "Any new, profoundly healing…

This is a fun one: reason.com/2025/02/19/w...

1908: the Lancet, one of the most respected scientific journals, calls for 18 age limit on reading in bed amidst a moral panic surrounding children becoming "addicted" to novels, which were "designed to keep kids hooked" and destroy their attention/mental health

YouTube video by ReasonTV 3 of the Most F*cked Up Ways the Feds are Controlling Sex Work

Video of the Day: Still relevant ten years later: www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5Hf...

“voluntarily” www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2026...

The world wants to ban children from social media, but there will be grave consequences for us all | Taylor Lorenz Age-verification systems require collecting sensitive data to support the biometric information. In no time, the internet will become a fully surveilled digital panopticon, says technology journalist ...

“All lawmakers will claim that they are [enacting age verification] to protect youth from some harm, but they fail to mention the convenient power it hands to government to control and chill speech they oppose, and even punish their critics.”

Dirty rice. In Louisiana, a mixture of cooked meat and rice is called "dirty rice". It's not new, it's not just for boys, and it's not "kibble". It's one of the sides on Popeye's menu, y'all (though I think theirs is made from ground chicken).

<Giant cockroach monster bursts out of Trump flesh suit>
Fox: President’s bold new look too tough for simpering libs
NYT: In the insectoid president’s new “devour all humans” initiative, a break from tradition

Also in today’s newsletter: Anthropic good, OpenAI bad… Alaska court case seeks to decriminalize sex work… the UK comes for streaming services… Neanderthal sex… and more! (Subscribe for free here: reason.com/newsletters/...)

Canadian cops questioned dad about human trafficking after he took his daughter to a coffee shop Plus: AI for mass surveillance, Alaskan lawsuit to decriminalize prostitution, "enhanced" British regulation of streaming services, and more…

Dad dares to go out with teen daughter in public, gets accused of human trafficking 🙄 reason.com/2026/03/02/c...

The cops, of course, commended the guy who gave them the totally baseless tip and blasted out the dad & girl’s pics on social media

"(C) SEXUALLY ORIENTED MATERIAL.- The term 'sexually oriented material' means material that — "(i) includes any depiction, description, or simulation of sexually explicit conduct (as defined in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of section 2256(2) of title 18, United States Code); or "(ii) involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism."

Congressional Republicans have introduced a bill that strips federal funding from any school that allows any book or resources that so much as references trans existence.

They're doing it by redefining anything trans as "sexually oriented material."

marymiller.house.gov/media/press-...

The NSA has a long history of word games, and it woukd be best to understand them before taking reassurances at face value. From 2013. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Reading this, again, you get the sense that someone at Anthropic knows how the intel community misleads by using definitions of words that are different than everyone else believes. And the people at OpenAI simply don't know or don't care about that.

Well, yes, trans people are getting drugs; yes, from entirely unregulated sources; yes, without counselling; yes, without blood tests; yes, they are self-administering; yes, without clinical oversight; yes, risking long term harm; yes, it is highly suboptimal.

What did you think would happen?