The key phrase in this article is:
I have endured unwanted approaches by male cadets for fear of being accused as a lesbian by rejecting or reporting these events.
Pam’s House Blend: Top Ten West Point Cadet Resigns Over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
Fri 13 Aug 2010
Link: Top Ten West Point Cadet Resigns Over DADT
Posted by Jadxia under LGBT rights
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Wed 11 Aug 2010
Article Link: How Facebook Betrayed Users and Undermined Online Privacy
Posted by Jadxia under Personal Safety, Privacy Rights
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This is why I only play games on Facebook.
ARTICLE: How FB betrayed users and Undermined Privacy
SUGGESTIONS TO PROTECT YOURSELF:
- Don’t use your real name on the internet. Always, ALWAYS use some kind of alias not related to your real name. (i.e. if your name is John Smith saying SmithJ069 is not a suitable alias)
- Don’t use your real birthday on the internet. That’s right, I have a different fake birthday for online accounts. Actually, I have several fake birthdays, but that could be confusing if you are prone to forgetting your password and need to then remember your correct fake birthday to login to an account.
- Do not post pictures of yourself, your friends, your coworkers, or your kids on the internet. It is probably okay to share by email or secure server privately. Those can both be easily hacked, but let’s face it, if someone is targeting you that closely you are probably screwed anyway. Facebook is NOT a secure server. It always drives me bonkers when parents who join Facebook groups like “let’s burn pedophiles at the stake” then post cutesy pics of their kids on Facebook to share with their ‘friends’ — many of whom they have never met in real life. Where do you think online predators get pics from? That’s right, they get them from YOU. And, since you same people have no clue as to security, they probably also have your telephone, email, and hometown, which you were dumb enough to put on your profile.
- Don’t tell online people where you are going. Sure, everyone wants to brag that they have tickets to some fabulous sold-out show. But tweeting about it? Do that AFTER the concert. Announcing to the world that you are in the Bahamas for the next two weeks is announcing that your home is ripe for a robbery. Instead, wait until you get home and THEN you can post pics of the fabulous beach sunset and talk about how sunburned you are.
- The Internet is like a megaphone. Did you know social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc) are admissible in court? You can be fired for griping about work. You can lose your divorce case if there is proof of an affair. You can even lose custody of your kids if caught saying nasty things about an ex. Our brains are wired to think of these sites as cozy, private spaces where we can vent. Not so. Pretend everything you post is being shouted on the street to random passersby.
- If it sounds too good to be true, it is. You are not really going to win a free iPad or iPhone, just like you won’t win that car on display at the mall. They use those entries to sell your information to spammers. There is no such thing as a UK national lottery which picks winners by random email.
- Check the address bar before you login to a site. This is the primary way accounts get hacked. Maybe one of your friends on Facebook has been hacked. The bot sends out a message to everyone on that person’s friend list, saying “check out this vid of mine”. You click on it, and it asks you to log in. Only that login isn’t real. The minute you type in your name as password, you have been screwed. How do you protect yourself? Check the address bar before you type in that information. Sometimes they will try to use similar names to confuse people. “facebook.com” might become “faccbook.com” or even “loginserver.ru/facebook.com” which just means they’ve named their page “facebook” when you are really going to “loginserver.ru” instead. If you aren’t sure, type in the address manually.
- Beware of certain countries. Scammers tend to work out of countries with lax internet laws or law enforcement, because then they don’t have to worry about being busted. Russia and Nigeria host internet scammers in the same way Somalia has pirates. I say this as someone who knows people who, in fact, have married Nigerians and/or Russian brides. The odds of that happening are less than 1000 to 1. You are more likely to win that car. Chances are, your Nigerian prince or Russian bride is just a scam artist sitting in an internet cafe overseas, who makes a living by tricking people just like you.
- Everyone’s account gets hacked from time to time. It happens. If you think your friend has been hacked, send them a quick note telling them so. Chances are, they aren’t even aware of it. (I’m finding this alot lately on yahoo email accounts.) Usually just changing the password is sufficient. If you aren’t sure if you have been hacked, change your password. Very simple. Also, if you know your account has been compromised, a quick note sent to all your friends apologizing for any spam you may have sent and telling them not to click on any previous links, etc, from you (or if they have, that they need to change their password) is considered polite.
Stay safe, everyone, and stay secure!
Wed 11 Aug 2010
Article Link: Why Conservative Lies Spread and What Progressives Can Do to Fight Them
Posted by Jadxia under Morality, Uncategorized
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This is an article from alternet by George Lakoff discussing the concept of ‘framing’. There are alot of high-level think-tanks out there which do nothing but try to figure out how to get the public to believe one thing or another to further a particular ideological agenda. ‘Framing’ is the latest tool, which uses some pretty sneaky psychological tricks to actually trick a person’s brain into thinking some idea as their own belief. Now this particular article is more liberal than I generally lean, but understanding how framing works is important. It is not conservativism that bothers me, it is that these conservative higher-ups are LYING TO THEIR OWN GROUP to further their political power base. Once you understand how this sneaky marketing ploy works, you can better avoid its effects.
Alternet: Lakoff Why Conservative Lies Spread and What Progressives Can Do To Fight Them
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(social_sciences)
Fri 26 Feb 2010
(Editorial) A Simple Step Can End Political Madness
Posted by Jadxia under Uncategorized
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What is sinking this country today isn’t the American populace, it is the bad politicians and the greedy corporations. In an ideal world, all politicos would be working solely for the public good. In an ideal world, big corporations would use their power to help large quantities of people, both by providing desirable jobs and spending money on community enrichment programs. Both of these things do happen; neither occur often enough.
But the American people ultimately control the power. Without our consent, their can be no governance. The outcry of a nation can be heard throughout the universe. It is past time to be heard.
It starts, of course, with campaign contributions. For too long we’ve allowed our attention to be diverted to minor issues while the elephant sits bloated in the room. We’ve prevented lobbyists, who may be well educated in a subject, from becoming advisories. My friends, it is not their knowledge we need fear, it is their money. We’ve prevented them from giving large gifts, convinced by the very politicians themselves that this will end thee powerful influence of lobbying. This is, in effect, dancing nimbly around the true sources of injustice, which are campaign contributions.
There is a rule in place which allows for candidates to use public money to run their campaign. And it seems every year, in a show of fairness, some campaigning politician promises to use this money to run their campaign… up until the point their private contributions exceeds the amount of the public fund. See, if you use the public’s money, you can no longer use private contributions.
If we were to end all campaign contributions and require all major politicians to run using only this set fund, the most effective campaigns would belong to those who handled their budget with thrift and efficiency. This is in stark contrast to today’s campaign races, where often enough when the money starts to run dry, they put out a call for a fresh influx of dollars.
Who do you want creating the new national budget? You have a choice, America.
Tue 23 Feb 2010
Tribute to Shin Sook-ja
Posted by Jadxia under War and Peace
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Img src http://www.hrnk.org/hiddengulag/toc.html
Oh Kil-nam is a South Korean economist who moved his family to Pyongyang, North Korea when officials promised him a good job and treatment for his wife’s hepatitis. They recieved neither. Instead, the couple spent several months studying the teachings of Kim Il Sung, the “Great Leader” and founding dictator of North Korea. They were given jobs in a radio station, broadcasting political propaganda.
Oh was ordered to leave for Germany to recruit South Korean students to live in North Korea. Neither his wife nor his two daughters were allowed to go with him. Initially, he planned to return. Oh recalls that he and his wife argued bitterly about what he should do.
“She hit me in the face when I said I would come back with some South Koreans,” Oh said. “She said I could not have that on my conscience. She told me to leave North Korea and never come back. She told me to think of her and our daughters as being dead from a car accident.”
Upon reaching Germany, Oh defected and was granted political asylum. His family disappeared within the North Korean gulag ‘camps’. It is unknown whether they are alive or dead.
I would like to honor the brave Shin Sook-ja, who knowingly gave up the future and possibly the lives of herself and her family, so that her husband could escape. Through her self-sacrifice, she also protected the lives of any students he may have brought back. There is no greater act of nobility than to submit yourself to endless torture and degradation so that another can be free. Let her story not be forgotten. Let us always remember that these gulags exist in many countries around the world.
We will not be free until all of humanity is freed, for our obligation binds us to aide our distressed brothers and sisters.
REFERENCE ARTICLE:
Washington Post Article: A family and a conscience, destroyed by North Korea’s cruelty
1994 Amnesty International Appeals Information on Shin Sook-ja (scroll down)
The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK)
Sat 20 Feb 2010
Sexual Abuse in Juvenile Detention Centers
Posted by admin under Uncategorized
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The latest US report shows that more than 1 in 10 juvenile offenders are molested or raped. Around 85 percent of these occurences are at the hands of a staff member, rather than another inmate. Surprisingly, 95 percent of all youth reporting staff sexual misconduct said they had been victimized by a female.
For the full article, read:
Alternet: Shocking Report Reveals Epidemic of Sexual Abuse in Juvenile Prisons
Fri 5 Feb 2010
Article Link: Obama’s Secret Prisons
Posted by Jadxia under War and Peace
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I have the unenviable position of being neither for nor against this war. Of course, I support the soldiers. Then again, I also support humane treatment of all prisoners, even ones that don’t deserve it. But whether or not you can justify the war at its inception, you can’t just send everyone home overnight, especially not when a war has been going on for as long as Afghanistan. There’s probably a whole war-based economy by now that would collapse, for one (and no, I am not talking about the dealing of weapons). Once you get past the inflammatory title, this is actually a well-rounded article that touches, if however briefly, on how complex these issues can be when viewed from different angles.
Sat 30 Jan 2010
Quick Example of Ridiculous Abstinence-Only Education
Posted by Jadxia under Education Programs
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In the “Not Now” abstinence-only-until-marriage program, delivered to students in part of Mississippi, students participate in a mock wedding ceremony. As part of the ceremony, the bride presents the groom with a dirty sneaker as a wedding present. The dirty sneaker signifies “a lifestyle of impurity” and relays the message that no sock (representing a condom) could ever fully protect the foot from dirt and diseases. The groom, on the other hand, gives the bride a clean sneaker representing his “purity up until marriage.” At the end of the wedding activity, the students “pledged to remain pure” and bring clean tennis shoes to marriage.
While this is awful messaging in and of itself, research also shows that 88 percent of students who pledge to remain abstinent until marriage fail to keep this pledge and have the same STD rates as those who didn’t take a pledge. They are also less likely to use contraception when they do become sexually active.
All I can say is, what the hell?
REFERENCE:
This is an except pulled from http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/.
Thu 21 Jan 2010
2010 Roe vs. Wade Anniversary
Posted by Jadxia under Abortion Issues
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Each year on January 22nd, folks on both sides of the abortion issue descend on the Capitol.
This year the March for Life (pro-life) will begin with a rally on the National Mall & 7th Street at noon. The march will go down Constitution Avenue and end at the Supreme Court.
Pro-choice organizations such as the National Organization for Women, Choice USA, and NARAL Pro-Choice will gather at noon at the Supreme Court, on 1rst Street NE between Maryland Avenue and East Capitol. Also, if you are registered as a clinic escort please contact the Planned Parenthood in the District. As the March for Life goes by the clinic, every year escorts are asked to stand together to help protect the clinic from potential acts of violence.
All groups will need to take the metro and, as many streets downtown will be closed, driving in the District is not advised.
Tue 3 Nov 2009
Finding the Spin
Posted by Jadxia under Morality, Personal Safety, War and Peace
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The nice thing about being a extrovert in DC is I often learn the truth behind the fantastic news spewed from the press. The media has this way of looking at issues from only one side, and then pushing that side as the only reasonable and sane way of looking at something. It sounds perfectly logical when it is said on the television, but when I hear an opposing viewpoint from some knowledgeable soul in the city, their way sounds just as correct. It pays to remember that the louder someone screams, the more obvious and simple the press makes their viewpoint out to be, the more likely it is some information just as relevant and diametrically opposed to that opinion exists.
Still, I can’t find the spin in the Franken rape amendment. What happened at Halliburton was atrocious, to be sure, but it may be something in the wording of the bill itself (as presented by Franken) that caused thirty Senators to oppose it. Congressman and senators love to pass feel-good fluff bills, so the fact that so many opposed this amendment makes me smell a dead rhinosaurus in the room. My natural inclination is to believe in the utter corruption of Congress (which I know to be an unjust assumption) and I generally want to villify big business, male dominated environments, and sexual offenders. This emotional charge makes it hard for me to take a step back and look at the facts logically, to ask the mundane questions. Remember that even a miraculously wonderful bill may be scratched if the wrong miniscule clause is thrown in, and it is a common political tactic to hide sneaky self-serving (or publicly damaging) tidbits into much needed amendments. Politics is all about throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
Where’s the damn spin?
For more information, visit: Huffington Post article