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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 20h

This is confusing. Two secondary sources seem to be contradictory. First two from Brian Levack's entry "Lawyers", in Richard Golden's Encyclopedia of Witchcraft (2006). Third and fourth from Michael Wasser's "Defence Counsel in Early Modern Scotland" (2005). #skystorian #skystorians #earlymodern

Although witches were entitled to defense counsel in all continental European and Scottish trials, few lawyers took such cases during the
peak periods of witch hunting.

The large volume of business that was directed to the appellate courts of France by itself accounts for a great part of this increase, because legal representation at appeals was mandatory.

This usually concentrates on civil rather than on criminal law, and this is especially true in the early modern period in Europe because most jurisdictions either forbade or restricted defence counsel to a person accused of a crime.

In France, article 162 of the 1539 criminal code likewise forbade the use of defence counsel to any person accused of a crime, and this was reinforced by the next major code in 1670.

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 20h

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The equivalent of celebrating 9/11 in Superman's universe:

Comic panel depicting Bizarro and Bizarro Lois from Superman comics. Bizarro is dancing and says "Us glad Krypton blew up!" Bizarro Lois responds "Too bad whole universe didn't blow up with it! Haw!"

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Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

It’s very simple. A reality TV host became dictator because he turned down a role for Sharknado 4 and that’s why the king of outer space, who cheats at Diablo, got to kill Africa. Now the economy is controlled by a sex cult that has something to do with Harry Potter fanfic because of robots.

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Probably the most important passage in William Blatty's The Exorcist (1971):

“Then what would be the purpose of possession?” Karras said, frowning. “What’s the point?”

“Who can know?” answered Merrin. “Who can really hope to know?” He thought for a moment. And then probingly continued: “Yet I think the demon’s target is not the possessed; it is us... the observers… every person in this house. And I think—I think the point is to make us despair; to reject our own humanity, Damien: to see ourselves as ultimately bestial; as ultimately vile and putrescent; without dignity; ugly; unworthy. And there lies the heart of it, perhaps: in unworthiness. For I think belief in God is not a matter of reason at all; I think it finally is a matter of love; of accepting the possibility that God could love us…”

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jenny tightpants @jtp.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

"the author of that harry potter story leads an insane cult that's captured much of the media in this country" is a different person if you're in the UK or the US

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Ian Miles Schlong @tedcruznipples.com · 10/09/2026

Some of those that work forces Are the same that fuck horses

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Pat Shaughnessy @pbshaughnessy.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

The reason Anthropic and OpenAI are both calling for a “safety” pause in model development is because they’re going broke. The skynet shit is a smokescreen.

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The Onion @theonion.com · 10/09/2026

This Weeks Editorial Cartoon: The World According to Harp theonion.com/the-world-according-to…

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It's not a demon; there's a perfectly rational, scientific explanation. It's merely an "unknown energy that seems to move objects around at a distance".

“Then explain all those rappings and things.”
“I haven't heard them.”
“Well, they heard them at Barringer, Father, so it wasn't just here in the house.”
“Well, perhaps, but we’d hardly need a devil to explain them.”
“So explain them,” she demanded.
“Psychokinesis.”
“What?”
“Well, you have heard of poltergeist phenomena, haven’t you?”
“Ghosts throwing dishes and things?”
Karras nodded. “It’s not that uncommon, and usually happens around an emotionally disturbed adolescent. Apparently, extreme inner tension of the mind can sometimes trigger some unknown energy that seems to move objects around at a distance. There's nothing supernatural about it. Like Regan’s abnormal strength. Again, in pathology it’s common. Call it mind over matter, if you will.”

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This is awful. A long derelict building in Possil, Glasgow being renovated to provide social housing has been deliberately torched. In July and August the development was the target of anti-immigrant protests based on the false claim that it would house migrants. #Glasgow

bbc.co.uk

Police probe deliberate fire at Glasgow tenement amid asylum seeker rumours

The building in Stonyhurst Street, Possilpark - which has been derelict for 20 years - had received £3m to be renovated as affordable homes.

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

In colonial Salem, Superman wants Batman to be burned for witchcraft. But Benjamin Franklin shows up with a protest petition signed by the Founding Fathers. World's Finest Comics #187 (1969).

Four panel comics page. Batman is in the stocks. Superman says that he has "been found guilty of witchcraft... the law must take its course... Batman must be destroyed by fire!" In the last panel Batman is tied to a stake. Benjamin Franklin appears. He says that "witches and sorcerers don't exist, except in superstitious minds!" He has a petition with the names of the "signers of the Declaration of Independence protesting such barbaric punishment!"

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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Why would you read nonfiction. That stuff already happened, it doesn't matter anymore. Do you look up yesterday's weather before you go outside too

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Have been enjoying reading some absolutely ridiculous superhero comics from the early 60s this evening. I love how gleeful and cocky Paste-Pot Pete is about his paste, which, on the face of it, is not a particularly potent weapon. "Anyone who tries to stop me will get a taste of paste!"

Two comics panels featuring Paste-Pot Pete, a supervillain who wears a purple beret. Some ordinary citizens try to capture him but he glues their feet to the ground, proclaiming "Paste is the supreme weapon!"

Paste-Pot Pete uses his paste on some soldiers. As he does so he laughs and says "Anyone who tries to stop me will get a taste of paste!"

Paste-Pot Pete again, firing his paste gun and saying "Here's a nice sticky present for you, Torch!" The gun looks somewhat phallic suggesting a double meaning.

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Looks like William Blatty used the Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) as a source for a passage in The Exorcist about a midwife in Switzerland who murdered "thirty or forty babies". The first two excerpts are from Blatty, the third from Montague Summers' translation of the Malleus.

“Well, I really don’t know about ritual murder,” said Karras. “I don’t. But a midwife in Switzerland once confessed to the murder of thirty or forty babies for

use at Black Mass. Oh, well, maybe she was tortured,” he amended. “Who knows? But she certainly told a convincing story. She said she'd hide a long, thin needle up her sleeve, so that when she was delivering the baby, she’d slip out the needle and stick it through the crown of the baby’s head, and then hide the needle again. No marks,” he said, glancing at Kinderman. “The baby looked stillborn. You've heard of the prejudice European Catholics used to have against midwives? Well, that’s how it started.”

Moreover (as was said in the First Part of the work), it was shown by the confession of the servant, who was brought to judgement at Breisach, that the greatest injuries to the Faith as regards the heresy of witches are done by midwives; and this is made clearer than daylight itself by the confessions of some who were afterwards burned.

For in the diocese of Basel at the town of Dann, a witch who was burned confessed that she had killed more than forty children, by sticking a needle through the crowns of their heads into their brains, as they came out from the womb.

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Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I feel like I’m on fraud watch as an international relations scholar because I honestly kinda don’t fucking know why this country does anything anymore. If you held a gun to my head and demanded to know why we’re at war with Iran or feuding with Canada or want Greenland, I’d say the Lord’s Prayer.

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I feel like I’m living In a dystopian novel written in 1993 that was rejected by dozens of publishers because it was incredibly stupid.

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The Coward Papa Joe @iamjoseph.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

As the saying goes Some of those who work forces Are the ones who fuck horses

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Welcome to Bluesky. Please familiarize yourself with the following accounts to understand the range of opinions it is acceptable to express

The twelve apostles on the base of the Moone High Cross in County Kildare, Ireland.

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

A valuable piece of writing, dispelling many popular myths about the witch trials. It's from H. C. Erik Midelfort's Witchcraft entry in "Europe 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World" Vol 6 (2004).

Witchcraft. Despite a generation of excellent research, the history of witchcraft remains bedeviled by a host of misperceptions. Ordinary readers often assume that the major witch-hunts occurred in the Middle Ages, that they were conducted by the Catholic Church, and that they reflected the prescientific notions and sexual fantasies of fanatics and neurotics. Elsewhere one can read that huge chain reaction witch trials constituted a ‘‘women’s holocaust’’ accounting for millions of deaths, and that the witch-hunters especially targeted midwives and female healers. All of these conclusions are both wrong and misleading. The great age of witchcraft trials came after 1430, and
primarily after 1570. The prosecuting magistrates were almost always secular officials, imbued with the best thinking of prominent theologians, philosophers, and even scientists. The numbers of those
executed have often been exaggerated by a factor of one or two hundred. Men made up perhaps a quarter of those executed, and there is little evidence that midwives or healers were singled out for suspicion anywhere. But historical prejudices are hard to uproot.

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James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Every hour there's a story of like a Norwegian death metal guy saying hey I never met Dolly Parton but she sent me a handwritten note saying she loved our song Corpse in the Copse and to keep speaking our truth

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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

“if we don’t stand up for the free speech of racists, it puts everyone’s free speech in danger.” - guy who only ever talks about free speech when it’s racism

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 22/08/2026

So, it’s not a conspiracy, and you are not imagining it. The biggest and wealthiest tech leaders are genuine fascists. They are leading an active and intentional systematic attack on labor. And they have radicalized each other while sidelining or removing the remaining decent execs in the industry.

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

This passage, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, could be the basis for a whole fictional world. The creature has demanded that Frankenstein create for him a female companion "of the same nature as myself". The pair would then live in the "vast wilds of South America".

Even if they were to leave Europe, and inhabit the deserts of the new world, yet one of the first results of those sympathies for which the daemon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth, who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror.

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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Looking forward to the transition from a dead mall economy to an abandoned data center economy.

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Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

It is my professional opinion as a highly educated expert on national security matters that this could be a sign of low morale. Be sure to like and follow for more insightful content.

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Frankenstein's monster is an incel.

As I fixed my eyes on the child, I saw something glittering on his breast. I took it; it was a portrait of a most lovely woman. In spite of my malignity, it softened and attracted me. For a few moments I gazed with delight on her dark eyes, fringed by deep lashes, and her lovely lips; but presently my rage returned: I remembered that I was forever deprived of the delights that such beautiful creatures could bestow; and that she whose resemblance I contemplated would, in regarding me, have changed that air of divine benignity to one expressive of disgust and affright.

“You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do; and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse to concede.”

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

No it isn't. It says "Page 116 blank".

Almost empty page with the words "Page 116 blank".

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

I loved Backrooms. The backrooms are a lot like a vast old school D&D dungeon, but weirder in terms of their layout, and more mundane in terms of their content (crappy 1980s interior decor). There's a wandering monster. 1/2

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Django Wexler @djangowexler.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Somehow things that would have been a background gag in a Verhoeven movie are now just real

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Mike Rothschild @rothschildmd.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

The overwhelming right wing sentiment is that COVID was an engineered bioweapon that was also harmless. Trump overreacted to it by shutting down the country, then engineered a drive to create a vaccine that was the real bioweapon that killed millions, and it's Joe Biden's fault.

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Very much the sort of thing you'd expect Frankenstein to say, tbh. #ClassicFrank

Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

The next trend will, I'm sure, be nose nose nose piercings.

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fingerless 🎃 @f1ngerless.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

there's an anecdote I heard about the early alt-right guys meeting the boomer white supremacists at the charles martel society, and the old guard were shocked at how much open spite the millennial fascists had towards women.

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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 30/10/2025

When I worked in WaPo Opinions in 2017-2018, senior editors specifically told junior editors not to factcheck Marc Thiessen and other MAGA columnists, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to publish anything by them at all, and “we need them for intellectual diversity.”

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Doug McCrae @dougmccrae.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

The ttrpg Paranoia (1984), draws a lot of its inspiration from the sci-fi film, Logan's Run. Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is also an important source. The world of Logan's Run is hedonistic so I think the idea in Paranoia that humans no longer reproduce "by rutting" is from Orwell.