Sometimes the most important parts of news stories get buried far down in the text by the corporate media, and the tragic killing of anti-choice extremist James Pouillon is no exception. Take for instance, these paragraphs buried in the 9/11/09 Detroit News article on the killing.

"We believe Mr. Drake was not happy with the way Mr. Pouillon was protesting," said Chief Shiawassee County Assistant Prosecutor Sara Edwards.

"Mr. Drake did not believe children should view the graphic material on the signs Mr. Pouillon carried," said Police Chief Michael Compeau.

Sound familiar?

It should. This is the same ideology expressed by Christian Right hate groups like the so called "Parents Television Council" in order to justify their censorship campaigns. They routinely say that TV shows should be censored in order to keep children from seeing violent and sexually suggestive materials.

Censorship as a way of child proofing the world is one of the favorite fundamentalist talking points. It gets repeated constantly by Christian Taliban.

In other words, Pouillon was killed because a nutjob bought into the censorship ideology promoted by the Christian Right, not because Pouillon opposed abortion.

The militant, anti American fundamentalists and some of their enablers in the corporate media are already trying to blame people who support the inalienable right of women to decide on abortion for this killing, even though the facts prove otherwise.

The killing of Pouillon also brings up another question. Will the rightist nutjobs finally realize that gun control is necessary when some of their own get killed with guns?

 

The technology blog Ars Technica had a homophobic posting last month. I know it happened a little while ago, but it illustrates an important point.

From that 8/3/09 posting:

Hidden gay slur, search terms, get campaign site blacklisted

US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is running for governor of Texas, but her new campaign website has already managed to get itself blocked from Yahoo and Google. Stuffing a site with 2,000+ hidden search terms, including "rick perry gay," is a good way to get the wrong kind of attention.

The idea that saying someone is gay is a "slur" is based on the homophobic notion that there is something wrong with being gay, which is absolutely ridiculous.

There may be some limited tolerance for lgbt people in this society, but this shows how casual heterosexism permeates the media, even in the disproportionately queer tech field.

We still have a long way to go before we are equal in this society.

 

I checked my Google Analytics, and my blog had 609 unique visitors last week. The viewership for my blog keeps going up. It shows that if you are honest and don't pull punches, there is an audience for that.

Keep reading, and if you have a blog, keep writing. If you look at your stats, you will be surprised how big your audience is. Don't assume your audience size is anywhere near as small as the number of people writing comments.

 

This 8/19/09 Career Builder press release shows a relatively new and growing area of corporate misconduct.

Forty-five Percent of Employers Use Social Networking Sites to Research Job Candidates, CareerBuilder Survey Finds
Career Expert Provides DOs and DON'Ts for Job Seekers on Social Networking

Forty-five Percent of Employers Use Social Networking Sites to Research Job Candidates, CareerBuilder Survey Finds

CHICAGO, Aug. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- As social networking grows increasingly pervasive, more employers are utilizing these sites to screen potential employees. Forty-five percent of employers reported in a recent CareerBuilder survey that they use social networking sites to research job candidates, a big jump from 22 percent last year. Another 11 percent plan to start using social networking sites for screening. More than 2,600 hiring managers participated in the survey, which was completed in June 2009.

Of those who conduct online searches/background checks of job candidates, 29 percent use Facebook, 26 percent use LinkedIn and 21 percent use MySpace. One-in-ten (11 percent) search blogs while 7 percent follow candidates on Twitter.

The top industries most likely to screen job candidates via social networking sites or online search engines include those that specialize in technology and sensitive information: Information Technology (63 percent) and Professional & Business Services (53 percent).

The press release is written in neutral language, but this is really disturbing. Career Builder is focused more on helping job seekers cope with this environment, but civil liberties supporters should work to change that environment. Corporations seem to think they have more and more of an entitlement to snoop into employees' private lives. Now, they extend that to new hires. Privacy is eroding in an era of growing corporate power. Here's more:

Why Employers Disregarded Candidates After Screening Online

Job seekers are cautioned to be mindful of the information they post online and how they communicate directly with employers. Thirty-five percent of employers reported they have found content on social networking sites that caused them not to hire the candidate. The top examples cited include:

* Candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information - 53 percent
* Candidate posted content about them drinking or using drugs - 44 percent
* Candidate bad-mouthed their previous employer, co-workers or clients - 35 percent
* Candidate showed poor communication skills - 29 percent
* Candidate made discriminatory comments - 26 percent
* Candidate lied about qualifications - 24 percent
* Candidate shared confidential information from previous employer - 20 percent

The first three are incredibly disturbing. Now, corporations feel entitled to have control over what people say to their friends. The fourth is bizarre. Why should someone supposed to devote a lot of effort to highly skilled communication in an informal medium that is for people who are close to them?

There need to be much stronger privacy laws in the online era. Employers and interviewers should be prohibited by law from doing any of the following:

1) Making friends requests, either overtly or covertly.

2) Googling current or potential employees.

3) Asking for any social networking information not available to the general public.

Also, any hiring, promotional, and firing decisions based on these privacy violations should be subject to wrongful termination and invasion of privacy suits.

I've heard that young people are leaving Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace in droves. I'm beginning to see why.

 

The Pagan Sphinx has been fighting hard for healthcare reform, and her recent posting with a brief message supporting single payer is one of many examples of the efforts she is making. Here's the video:



The organization that produced the video, 1Payer.net, has a lot of resources and action items on its website. Please call their toll free number, 1-800-578-4171. It will reach the White House comment line when that office is open. Otherwise, you can leave a message that will be transcribed and sent to the White House and to the people who are supposed to be representing us in the House and the Senate.

There also is a section of the site with videos you can snag for your blog and/or email to your friends. Getting single payer may be a long struggle, but it's worth it to keep fighting, no matter who is in Congress or the White House. Here's a clip from a speech by Barack Obama in 2003. He makes a lot more sense than he's making now.



If all your news comes from the corporate media, you may not be that familiar with single payer healthcare. Healthcare Now has a description of HR 676, the single payer legislation in the House. This legislation is often referred to as "Medicare for All," which gives an accurate label of what it sets up.

 

Let's look at the official explanation of 911. 19 hijackers conspired to take over four planes on the same day and conspired to take them down. Al Qaeda engineered and financed the hijackings in a conspiracy to attack the United States of America.

Can you imagine such an attack without a conspiracy? Could you even take seriously 18 Muslims coincidentally deciding to attack the US on a day that holds little significance in Islam or the Middle East? When they saw each other on the planes, they then randomly took actions in concert to bring the planes down, independently deciding to use the plane as weapons?

The fact is that if you accept the official explanation of 911, you are a conspiracy theorist.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

The 911 Attacks were horrible for us and our country. However, that's no excuse for completely turning our brains off. With a subject this important, rational analysis is even more important.

 

Since GE led a corporate takeover of the Weather Channel (TWC) a while back, I've noticed the following changes.

1) Older meteorologists have been replaced by younger ones.

2) The background music for the local forecast has gotten a little better.

3) There is a morning show with Al Roker that has a lot of content that has nothing to do with weather.

4) Global Warming has become a taboo topic.

5) Forecast Earth was canceled.

TWC used to be at the forefront of educating people about Global Warming. Yet, now that GE, a company that makes turbines, light bulbs and electrical appliances, owns TWC, it has been erased from mention. This was particularly glaring given that the coverage of the California wildfires didn't mention climate change despite the fact that computer models predicted that global warming would increase the intensities of fire seasons in Mediterranean climates, predictions that have been shown accurate by fires in California, Australia, Spain, and Greece.

This is a rather blatant example of why progressives care so much about media ownership.

 

So much for press freedom in Canada...(From Green Is the New Red 9/3/09)

Last year, Canadian police arrested Sea Shepherd’s First Officer, Peter Hammarstedt, and Captain, Alex Cornelissen. In Canada, it is illegal to witness or document the slaughter of the seals. They were charged with approaching, witnessing and documenting the killing.

This law is a tacit admission by the Canadian government that the practice of clubbing baby seals is something that repulses reasonable people. The fact that Canada uses government funds to subsidize this brutal and senseless way of killing the seals is breathtaking.

I also wonder if the particularly violent way of killing the seals affects the people involved. Are they more likely to get involved in domestic violence?

 

If my Phonycrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand votes for a fake "healthcare reform" plan without at least a public option, I will make a donation to her primary challenger, Jonathan Tasini in honor of the occasion. I know how to fight back against politicians that tell me to shut up and die without healthcare by not insisting on an opportunity for myself and others to get away from the deadly HMOs and health insurers.

You can't be on the same side of middle class and poor Americans and still be on the side of the HMOs. Every politician will have to show where her or his loyalties lie.

 

We don't have a monopoly an batshit crazy Christian extremists here in the US, even though it seems like it at times. From a 9/23/09 press release on noted UK queer activist Peter Tatchell's website:

Fundamentalist Christian churches in Britain are performing exorcisms on lesbian and gay people in a bid to purge them of their homosexuality.

“The exorcism rituals involve the casting out of alleged demons and witches that supposedly possess a gay person’s soul and turn them away from heterosexuality,” said LGBT human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of OutRage!

“There are claims that gay teenagers and young adults are being subjected to exorcisms at the insistence of their parents and pastors, in an attempt to rid them of same-sex attraction.

“The exorcisms can include traumatic emotional scenes where the victims are surrounded by a group of church elders who scream at them to drive out the evil spirits and who sometimes shake their bodies.

“When this is done to youngsters under 18, it is a form of child abuse and the police should intervene to stop it

“Some gay adults have been pressured into exorcisms by their family members or faith communities. Other victims are people with learning difficulties or mental health problems. They have been preyed upon when they are in a vulnerable state and are not capable of giving fully informed consent.

“There needs to be a thorough police investigation of all the churches that are doing these exorcisms,” said Mr Tatchell.

One London church admits it does exorcisms on four or five gay people every year. This church, United Pentecostal Ministry in Harrow north London, was exposed by The Metro newspaper late last month:

Link to The Metro Article

The church pastor, Rev John Ogbe-Ogbeide, said he did the ritual to cast out the demons and evil spirits that he believes are responsible for homosexuality. Sometimes people were calm during the process but sometimes their body convulsed, he conceded.

Exorcisms can be performed on gay children or on those who are suspected to be gay. There is no minimum age for the exorcism ceremony because a demon could possess a person at any age in life and could incline them to “wrong” sexual thoughts and behaviour, said Rev Ogbe-Ogbeide.

“United Pentecostal Ministry says it performs four or five exorcisms on gay people each year. It is just one of hundreds of fundamentalist churches in Britain. Gay exorcisms are likely to be performed in many of them. It is possible that dozens or even hundreds of LGBT people could be subjected to exorcism abuse in the UK. Because it takes place behind closed church doors and is kept secret, it is impossible to give an accurate assessment of the numbers involved,” added Mr Tatchell.

Christian religious extremism is dangerous and vicious wherever it is found. Christian supremacist bigots are proselytizing all over the world. As the AWOL Rapture is reducing their numbers in the US, the rest of the world is being colonized by the fungus of militant Christianity.

If you live in the UK, the full press release has information on actions you can take.

 

When the Goppers say that private insurers can't compete with a public insurance option, what they are really admitting to is that private insurance and HMOs are so costly, are so inefficient, and provide such lousy care that no sane person would choose them.

Thank about it.