6EAD: http://www.mclu.org/node/653
WATCH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK5bMSyJCsg
ANOTHER CASE: http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/man_arrested_for_video_taping_police/
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Make Free Calls in Gmail With Google Voice
Just in case you missed it in the news, the rumors are true...
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Maybe You Really Can Blame Your Weight on Something Else
Does a virus cause us to gain weight? It's a possibility some medical researchers are exploring, according to suspense writer Tess Gerritsen. Until we have the answer, she suggests keeping our weight down this way.
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Thought For Today
"Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made." - Otto von Bismarck
Friday, August 13, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
The Hard Truth From Orlando
The story of another Christian graduate student being expelled
from the counseling program because she refuses to counsel
homosexual clients based on her "religious" beliefs was in the
news. Julea Ward, a purported counseling major, lost her
lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University which she filed
because she was expelled. Students under the ACA code are
required to counsel clients without imposing their personal
values. Ms. Ward could not refrain from imposing her world
views on her clients.
Paraphrasing, the university apparently realized that Ms.
Ward was never going to change her behavior and would
continue to refuse to counsel clients who did not meet her
"Christian" standards before she would consent to counsel
them. (And of course, if they're already good Christians,
what do they need counseling sessions with her for?)
There's another virtually identical case going on in Georgia
right now with another purportedly "Christian" grad
student, who also refuses to counsel homosexuals.
(Allegedly, the Georgia girl is also no great shakes at
written communication either, as she's been ordered into
so remedial training for that as well.)
This is the same Fundamentalist tactic that has some
pharmacists trying to refuse to give the morning-after
pill to people with valid prescriptions because they don't
believe in abortion. The rationale these "Christians" are
using is that making them comply with the ethical codes
of the professions they have chosen is an infringement on
their religious freedom guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
These hard-core, hard headed Fundamentalists don't see
their behavior as infringing on the rights of the clients, who
have a reasonable expectation of receiving services from a
certified member of a given profession. They don't see the
invidious divisiness of cherry-picking which people are
entitled to professional services. Suppose they were
indulged in their fanaticism so they don't have to counsel
anyone who doesn't meet their Christian standards. Should
we then allow only homosexuals to counsel homosexuals
heterosexuals need not apply? And only Jews can counsel
Jews, Muslims for Muslims, and only women can counsel
women, and on and on.
And then we can just isolate people in their own separate
little ghettos so they don't have to run into any of "those
people." And it depends on which ghetto you live in as to
who "those people" might be. And then eventually, we can
each only obey those laws which we think apply to our
ghetto and then find ways to punish "those people" so
they'll see our way is the only way. And maybe we can
rename ourselves something like, oh, I don't know, the
Taliban, and make sure EVERYONE knows the
consequences of not believing like we do.
Or we can be Americans and practicing Christians and say,
"There but for the grace of God go I" and reach out with
compassion and kindness to those in need and leave the
religious drumbeating to the intolerant jackasses of the world.
Florida Cracker
from the counseling program because she refuses to counsel
homosexual clients based on her "religious" beliefs was in the
news. Julea Ward, a purported counseling major, lost her
lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University which she filed
because she was expelled. Students under the ACA code are
required to counsel clients without imposing their personal
values. Ms. Ward could not refrain from imposing her world
views on her clients.
Paraphrasing, the university apparently realized that Ms.
Ward was never going to change her behavior and would
continue to refuse to counsel clients who did not meet her
"Christian" standards before she would consent to counsel
them. (And of course, if they're already good Christians,
what do they need counseling sessions with her for?)
There's another virtually identical case going on in Georgia
right now with another purportedly "Christian" grad
student, who also refuses to counsel homosexuals.
(Allegedly, the Georgia girl is also no great shakes at
written communication either, as she's been ordered into
so remedial training for that as well.)
This is the same Fundamentalist tactic that has some
pharmacists trying to refuse to give the morning-after
pill to people with valid prescriptions because they don't
believe in abortion. The rationale these "Christians" are
using is that making them comply with the ethical codes
of the professions they have chosen is an infringement on
their religious freedom guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
These hard-core, hard headed Fundamentalists don't see
their behavior as infringing on the rights of the clients, who
have a reasonable expectation of receiving services from a
certified member of a given profession. They don't see the
invidious divisiness of cherry-picking which people are
entitled to professional services. Suppose they were
indulged in their fanaticism so they don't have to counsel
anyone who doesn't meet their Christian standards. Should
we then allow only homosexuals to counsel homosexuals
heterosexuals need not apply? And only Jews can counsel
Jews, Muslims for Muslims, and only women can counsel
women, and on and on.
And then we can just isolate people in their own separate
little ghettos so they don't have to run into any of "those
people." And it depends on which ghetto you live in as to
who "those people" might be. And then eventually, we can
each only obey those laws which we think apply to our
ghetto and then find ways to punish "those people" so
they'll see our way is the only way. And maybe we can
rename ourselves something like, oh, I don't know, the
Taliban, and make sure EVERYONE knows the
consequences of not believing like we do.
Or we can be Americans and practicing Christians and say,
"There but for the grace of God go I" and reach out with
compassion and kindness to those in need and leave the
religious drumbeating to the intolerant jackasses of the world.
Florida Cracker
Monday, August 09, 2010
The Thought For Today
"Seek the wisdom of the ages, but look at the world through the eyes of a child." - Ron Wild
Friday, August 06, 2010
The Thought For Today
"Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction; for we have made fiction to suit ourselves." - G.K. Chesterton
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Ghostery
"Be a web detective.
Ghostery is your window into the invisible web – tags, web bugs, pixels and beacons that are included on web pages in order to get an idea of your online behavior.
Ghostery tracks the trackers and gives you a roll-call of the ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers, and other companies interested in your activity."
Ghostery is your window into the invisible web – tags, web bugs, pixels and beacons that are included on web pages in order to get an idea of your online behavior.
Ghostery tracks the trackers and gives you a roll-call of the ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers, and other companies interested in your activity."
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
The Hard Truth From Orlando
RANT # 2 More on Immigration Reform
The biggest negative consequence of illegal immigration we
can show with hard data is financial. And the financial impact
is disparately suffered by the middle-class Americans who
pay the largest portion of this nation’s taxes. And that’s not
to say illegals don’t pay tax; they do. But they don’t kick in
as much as they take out of the system. As a group, the
illegals represent a part of the U.S. population which is
poorly educated, earning less, paid less by corporate
America to maximize profit while evading taxes on that
profit and often collecting taxpayer-funded government
subsidies for businesses. Furthermore, a big part of what
the illegal immigrants earn is not spent locally but is sent
back to other countries to support families there. That’s
products we’re not selling locally by local businesses and
sales and income taxes we’re not seeing in local communities
because the consumers aren’t citizens spending their income
in our communities.
Meantime, the American consumers continue to pay for
over-priced goods produced by corporations with underpaid,
illegal labor, while simultaneously shelling out the taxes
which support the social program expenses incurred by
“undocumented workers.” And corporate owners pocket
their inflated profits, tax-free government subsidies, and
deposit their inflated incomes in tax shelters not available
to the American middle-class.
The other negative of rampant immigration that’s harder
to measure, except anecdotally, is the impact of the third
world cultures which refuse to assimilate in modern
American society. We see it in the high domestic violence,
street crimes, rampant thievery and other stats; the
unwillingness to promote education or to ensure their
children participate in and complete school; the social
expectation that the girls will not finish school, but start
popping out babies in their teens, almost guaranteeing a
lifelong embrace of poverty; the culture of extortion,
corruption and bribery among government employees
and a general attitude of take what you can get and live
for the moment. You don’t build anything for the future
with that kind of value system.
There’s also the immigrant community leadership which
is increasingly demanding its own separatist courts and
governing bodies for determining matters which are
currently exclusive to the jurisdiction of U.S. and local
governments. In Europe , national governments are
already struggling with a highly vocal and disruptive
foreign immigrant community which insists that it
govern itself – yet benefit from the host countries’
economic successes – which were created by the
culture which the immigrant community disdains
and actively seeks to undermine.
We have residents of the United States , some citizens,
who don’t speak English, who have lived in this country
for upwards of 30 years and never learned English
because they live in isolated foreign-language speaking
communities within communities. They don’t regard
themselves as Americans and see no loyalty to a nation
that protects and provides for them, nor any loyalty to
their English-speaking neighbors – however, they’ll fight
you to the ground for what they have come to perceive as
their “entitlements” under the very U. S. laws they flout.
And middle-class Americans taxes pay for those so-called
“entitlements” of food stamps, health care, welfare, child
services, subsidized housing, criminal justice proceedings,
legal aid, and on and on.
In Orlando , there’s the Chamber of Commerce – and,
believe it or not, there’s the Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce; and they are separate entities, with separate
memberships and separate agendas within the same
geographical community. There’s the Orlando community
and there’s the Haitian community in Orlando or the Puerto
Rican community in Orlando or the Mexican community in
Orlando . It’s not one community. It’s not one language.
There’s no unity of purpose or focus or function. It’s a
bunch of vying interests, clawing for local middle-class
American tax dollars to promote their separate agendas
at the expense of, and with total disregard for, the whole.
This nation is in trouble. It’s time to enforce the laws –
all of the laws on all of the people, all of the businesses,
all of the time; time to break up these conclaves of
foreign influence and bring them into mainstream
American values and standards or expel them from our
country; time to put an end to the deficit social costs of
immigration and end automatic citizenship for any child
born on U.S. soil, with attendant “entitlements” just for
sucking U.S. air. It’s time to make corporate America
pony up when they employ illegals at reduced wages for
the sole reason of padding their profits and avoiding the
tax consequences for themselves and their owners, leaving
the hard-pressed middle-class to pick up the tab
consumer goods and social services costs.
If you’re a middle-class American, you better start
fighting for yourself and the hard-working ethics that
made this country the envy of the world or be prepared
to hand over everything you’ve ever worked for to a
Big Business-controlled Big Government that’s trading
your children’s legacy of American self-sufficiency and
self-government to buy the reduced-rate labor of any
Joe Snuffy the Ragman who staggers across our border
with his hand out.
Florida Cracker
The biggest negative consequence of illegal immigration we
can show with hard data is financial. And the financial impact
is disparately suffered by the middle-class Americans who
pay the largest portion of this nation’s taxes. And that’s not
to say illegals don’t pay tax; they do. But they don’t kick in
as much as they take out of the system. As a group, the
illegals represent a part of the U.S. population which is
poorly educated, earning less, paid less by corporate
America to maximize profit while evading taxes on that
profit and often collecting taxpayer-funded government
subsidies for businesses. Furthermore, a big part of what
the illegal immigrants earn is not spent locally but is sent
back to other countries to support families there. That’s
products we’re not selling locally by local businesses and
sales and income taxes we’re not seeing in local communities
because the consumers aren’t citizens spending their income
in our communities.
Meantime, the American consumers continue to pay for
over-priced goods produced by corporations with underpaid,
illegal labor, while simultaneously shelling out the taxes
which support the social program expenses incurred by
“undocumented workers.” And corporate owners pocket
their inflated profits, tax-free government subsidies, and
deposit their inflated incomes in tax shelters not available
to the American middle-class.
The other negative of rampant immigration that’s harder
to measure, except anecdotally, is the impact of the third
world cultures which refuse to assimilate in modern
American society. We see it in the high domestic violence,
street crimes, rampant thievery and other stats; the
unwillingness to promote education or to ensure their
children participate in and complete school; the social
expectation that the girls will not finish school, but start
popping out babies in their teens, almost guaranteeing a
lifelong embrace of poverty; the culture of extortion,
corruption and bribery among government employees
and a general attitude of take what you can get and live
for the moment. You don’t build anything for the future
with that kind of value system.
There’s also the immigrant community leadership which
is increasingly demanding its own separatist courts and
governing bodies for determining matters which are
currently exclusive to the jurisdiction of U.S. and local
governments. In Europe , national governments are
already struggling with a highly vocal and disruptive
foreign immigrant community which insists that it
govern itself – yet benefit from the host countries’
economic successes – which were created by the
culture which the immigrant community disdains
and actively seeks to undermine.
We have residents of the United States , some citizens,
who don’t speak English, who have lived in this country
for upwards of 30 years and never learned English
because they live in isolated foreign-language speaking
communities within communities. They don’t regard
themselves as Americans and see no loyalty to a nation
that protects and provides for them, nor any loyalty to
their English-speaking neighbors – however, they’ll fight
you to the ground for what they have come to perceive as
their “entitlements” under the very U. S. laws they flout.
And middle-class Americans taxes pay for those so-called
“entitlements” of food stamps, health care, welfare, child
services, subsidized housing, criminal justice proceedings,
legal aid, and on and on.
In Orlando , there’s the Chamber of Commerce – and,
believe it or not, there’s the Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce; and they are separate entities, with separate
memberships and separate agendas within the same
geographical community. There’s the Orlando community
and there’s the Haitian community in Orlando or the Puerto
Rican community in Orlando or the Mexican community in
Orlando . It’s not one community. It’s not one language.
There’s no unity of purpose or focus or function. It’s a
bunch of vying interests, clawing for local middle-class
American tax dollars to promote their separate agendas
at the expense of, and with total disregard for, the whole.
This nation is in trouble. It’s time to enforce the laws –
all of the laws on all of the people, all of the businesses,
all of the time; time to break up these conclaves of
foreign influence and bring them into mainstream
American values and standards or expel them from our
country; time to put an end to the deficit social costs of
immigration and end automatic citizenship for any child
born on U.S. soil, with attendant “entitlements” just for
sucking U.S. air. It’s time to make corporate America
pony up when they employ illegals at reduced wages for
the sole reason of padding their profits and avoiding the
tax consequences for themselves and their owners, leaving
the hard-pressed middle-class to pick up the tab
consumer goods and social services costs.
If you’re a middle-class American, you better start
fighting for yourself and the hard-working ethics that
made this country the envy of the world or be prepared
to hand over everything you’ve ever worked for to a
Big Business-controlled Big Government that’s trading
your children’s legacy of American self-sufficiency and
self-government to buy the reduced-rate labor of any
Joe Snuffy the Ragman who staggers across our border
with his hand out.
Florida Cracker
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