DOES FACEBOOK HAVE MORE OF YOUR DATA THAN THE NSA?

You know that your children happily uploaded ALL of their email addresses in the "see how many friends you can get" era? Facebook SAVED all info on user and nonuser alike. Facebook adds to your nonuser information in an attempt to help users "get more friends."

When Facebook had a bug (for about a year), Facebook gave out private information on nonusers, but failed to notify the nonusers as required by US law and a US consent decree.

Marketing companies compare and converge data bases all the time. But at least they work for the data and pay for the data. Facebook encourages people to just "share" all their most private information. Honestly, I do not care if you share how many times you get drunk. I do care that Facebook encourages you to share private information about ME, which they then sell to lazy marketing companies.

If I was really doing conspiracy theories, I would point out that, for many years, Facebook was funded by Russians.

At least the NSA gets warrants from a secret court.

Facebook believes that any data is their data.

SCOTUS GOT IT RIGHT

I have read the US Supreme Court opinions on gay marriage. I think SCOTUS got it exactly right.

DOMA is now unconstitutional. Of course, there will be people still trying to enforce DOMA, especially the part regarding states that do not want to give "full faith and credit" to the laws of other states regarding marriage. But the language in the DOMA decision states that ALL of DOMA is unconstitutional.

SCOTUS also made a good decision to let the NINTH CIRCUIT's decision on Proposition 8 stand. The defenders of Proposition 8 did not have standing in federal court. I also would not want to have a final decision on the constitutionality of gay marriage if one of the parties so misunderstood the issues that they believe that gay marriage is not now legal in California. (You can always tell incompetent attorneys, because they attack the judge or the opposing attorney, rather than address the issues.)

All persons who want marriage equality must now concentrate on electing people who believe in marriage equality.

I am celebrating!

MASSACHUSETTS VOTE!

When you are trying to save the world, there is NOTHING more important than VOTING. The vote tomorrow in Massachusetts is one of the more important elections. PLEASE VOTE!

In exchange, I will give you a fun history lesson. The probably drunken rebels, who dumped the tea into the Boston Harbor in 1773, were protesting "taxation without representation". In other words, they wanted to be able to vote on the taxes they paid. They also hated the monopoly on tea imports.

After the revolution, the colonists promptly voted in a tax on tea.

HAPPY VOTING!

MANNING MITIGATION

Please watch the video 'I am Bradley Manning'. It outlines the mitigating circumstances in the Manning case.

Additional mitigation is that, as far as I can tell, the data dump by Manning helped the world. The Arab Spring was born out of an outrage fueled by the honesty in US State Department emails released by Manning.

SInce the time of the US revolution, our constitution and courts have held that, if you torture someone, you can not then convict that person. Bush was told this when he allowed torture of the prisoners in Guantanamo. He, being really stupid, did not listen.

I am sorry that the military was stupid about Manning. However, one cannot change the past. Manning was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment before trial and should be released because of this gross violation of the US Constitution and the values for which our military fights.

LET NSA DROWN IN THE DATA

The internet was designed to be open and redundant. There is NO WAY we can stop governments from accessing internet information. So the best response is to give them LOTS of data and let them drown in it. Feel free to change formats every once in a while. Let them DROWN IN THE DATA.

Two examples of this from history.

When the Romans asked, "Who is Spartacus?", many stood up and said, "I am Spartacus." It is difficult to post a head on the city walls if everyone claims to be the prospective head.

When the Nazis told the Danish Jews to wear yellow Stars of David, the next day the King rode in the park wearing a yellow Star of David. Almost all Danes then wore the Stars of David. It is difficult to round up and kill Jews if everyone claims to be a Jew.

If you are so STUPID as to use an internet cafe to send secure communications, you deserve to have your communications compromised. It is well known that you can not even safely complete an internet purchase at an internet cafe.

It is paranoid and completely crazy to go to a communist country and expect to have due process of law. Of course, the US has encouraged this type of paranoia by over prosecuting cases. The Manning case is different as he is in the military. I am sorry his commanders are not also being charged with dereliction of duty. To give so much information to a mixed up kid is asking for trouble.

If you are thinking of whistleblowing in the US, you need to hire a world class civil rights attorney BEFORE you tell the world who you are. Then, if you "disappear", someone with clout will be on your side. The Chinese have clout, but I am not certain that they will protect Snowden.

A PBS show on Shakespeare showed all of the volumes written by Queen Elizabeth's spies. All I could think of was that NOBODY could read all that stuff. And even if someone read all that stuff, it would take a person with intelligence and perspective to pick out the 'bad guys'. It is rare that a person with intelligence and perspective is willing to spend a lifetime reading really boring gossip.

THE NO SHOPPING GAME

It is really fun to play the game where you have to complete a project with only what you already have in the house. You make up new dishes by combining the ingredients that you have. You wrap presents with whatever interesting stuff you can find.

It is a great game to play with kids, who need to learn that there are more ways to solve a problem than what first appears.

My most successful projects include:

Using aluminum foil or newspaper comics as wrapping paper.

Using children's hair decorations as an "extra" touch on the ribbon around a present. Christmas decorations are also a stunning first impression tied into a bow.

I like my oysters cooked in milk. I usually add garlic, but one boring day I added fresh spinach and blue cheese. YUM! You eat it with lots of crushed table water crackers. (Crushing two or three crackers into the soup, eating them and so forth.) I use canned oysters as I can not afford fresh. Drain the oysters, put into a large glass serving bowl, add three inches of milk, a handful of spinach and a quarter cup of crumbled blue cheese. Heat in microwave about 4 minutes until blue cheese is melted and soup is HOT.

Note that if you are cooking with milk it is better to use the microwave as then the milk does not burn.

I made a fabulous notebook cover by making a large cloud like glob of puffy paint on the notebook and carefully putting down a dragon patch. Puffy paint take 24 hours to dry so put it up somewhere until it is ready.

Puffy paint also can be used to cover up the part of the Velcro hooks that you do not use on your shoes. These hooks tear on clothes and collect nasty dust stuff. So carefully put puffy paint (the stuff you use to decorate t-shirts with your own writing) on the Velcro and push it into the Velcro with a wooden chop stick.

Excercise your creativity. Do NOT go shopping. %<)

SIXTEEN TONS, DEEPER IN DEBT

Students are going to be reamed by Republicans AGAIN.

Last summer, students had to pay higher interest because the Republicans had to be FORCED to help the best and the brightest. No wonder Republicans are losing market share.

When I was young, I could work for a non profit and still pay my student loans. Kids today have to "sell out" and still they can not pay their loans.

We are continually led by brilliant kids who start an Apple or a Togo's. How can they start a business if they have tens of thousands of dollars in student loans?

Perhaps Republicans are afraid of the competition.

IRS STAR TREK VIDEO

It is great fun to watch the IRS Star Trek video. This is the first 'Trek fan flick' that I have found LOL funny. Believe me, I have seen LOTS of Star Trek fan flicks. Science fiction conventions used to run original Star Trek videos interspersed with fan flick videos.

I am surprised the IRS still has a sense of humor considering that the IRS is everyone's favorite whipping boy. Thank you, Tea Party. Without you, I would have missed seeing the IRS Trek.

I know you all want me to blog in indignation about the Verizon subpoena. Honestly, if this NSA program is news to you, then you have not been paying attention.

I am not certain what to do about domestic surveillance. Queen Elizabeth I had her spies in every English town. (Shakespeare scholars have used the voluminous notes of her spies to find new info about Shakespeare.)

Back during the Vietnam war protests it was a 'badge of honor' to have an FBI file. I am fairly certain that I did not have such a file. Lowly nonviolent peaceful protesters did not make the grade.

SO -- Are we better off letting the NSA drown in data? The Chinese can probably also mine this data, because the NSA probably did not require military grade computer chips for it's super computers.

PEACE IS BETTER THAN WAR

Sometimes war is necessary to fight bullies who use intimidation tactics to force people to accept evil actions.

But if your war is being supported by allies who ask that you attend peace talks, you should attend peace talks. However, you should be careful about how you approach the proposed peace negotiations. Here are some simple rules.

You will NEVER get everything you want. NONE of us, especially including me, can have everything they want.

Do NOT send military commanders to negotiate. Send LAWYERS to negotiate. Military commanders are used to obedience, so they are not good at compromise. It is imperative that you send negotiators who can correctly notice that some statements mean exactly the opposite of what the words seem to mean. Being able to correctly spot the hidden agenda in the words spoken is an art that most military people lack.

If you are being supported by a larger country, LISTEN to the advice from the larger country. Larger countries generally have more experience in international negotiations. Trust me, you will need the advice.

Make certain that your delegation contains people that know both the social costs of the evil you are fighting and the social costs of the fight. This means that you send people who are dealing with the refugee problem caused by the war. You should also send people who dealt with the evil intimidation tactics used prior to the war.

You are ALWAYS going to have to learn to live with people who disagree with you. You need to separate normal disagreements from the intimidation tactics of a Stalin or an Assad.

NO ONE can decide to end a war except the people fighting the war.

Do not forget that you will need MONEY to fix the problems caused by the war and caused by years of living under evil intimidation.

You can not solve all of your problems overnight.

GOOD LUCK!

THE WRONG IRS SCANDALS

It should be a SCANDAL that the IRS is targeting medical marijuana clinics. The IRS contends that you can NOT take business deductions if you are doing something nefarious, such as selling medical marijuana.

This means that a medical marijuana clinic can NOT deduct employee wages, purchase of supplies, rent, etc.  How can it go wrong if we allow the IRS to enforce our drug prohibition laws? Let me count the ways.

It should be a SCANDAL that ANYONE can use a nonprofit corporation to turn a nondeductible political contribution into a tax deductible political contribution. Either we ALL get to deduct political contributions or NO ONE gets to deduct political contributions.

There is NOTHING that you and I can do about the idiocy of the Citizens United decision. But Congress can pass a law stating that any contributions to a nonprofit will NOT be tax deductible if those contributions are used for a political campaign.

Personally, I think that we should make political contributions tax deductible and PUBLIC. I think it is really important that we know where the political contributions are coming from.

But you all would rather beat up on underpaid, undertrained, and overworked people in Cincinnati. Or better yet, to dream that anyone in authority would have allowed agents to make decisions based on the name of an organization. People in authority in the IRS, and indeed the entire US, know better than to make decisions based only on an organization's name.