One of the reasons I signed up for all the major social media outlets I could think of was an effort to protect my “Net name”… such as it is.  I figure if my “name” and reputation are damaged it should be me doing the damage.  While the internet has done much to level the playing field for the vast majority of people, not unlike the printing press did in its day, it certainly has its dark and damaging side.

There is no doubt that the law, and its ancillary legal precedent, are catching up to the way people use – and abuse – the internet.  Like laws and enforcement issues there will be those that we find we agree with and those that we won’t, but like with all laws and enforcement, there is usually a reason they have come about.  That reason is not because of the 95% who understand social norms and acceptable behavior, but because of the remaining 5%.

Rules and laws are a natural consequence of civilization and societies, or even when two or more people find themselves interacting.  Even a family unit has rules of what is and what is not acceptable behavior.  Just because the internet is a virtual interaction doesn’t mean it isn’t an interaction just the same.

I am not a fan of cyber anonymity, yet I know that there is a genuine time and place for such.  Frankly if you can’t “own” what you say, openly acknowledge that what you write [or say] is yours I don’t have much interest in reading or hearing what you have to say.

Yes, much of my writing is published under a pseudonym, but in each outlet that it is I also publish my real name and the area in which I reside, as well as my picture if the outlet provides the means to upload one in a profile.  Studies show that when people hide behind the anonymity of the web they can be far more abusive and ill-mannered than they would be in their real world lives.

As the internet evolves and our usage evolves things will change.  The internet will change and we will change.  I have no delusions that those changes will all be positive, but I hope that at least some of them will.  But I cannot fault people, even police and public officials, wanting to protect their names and reputations.  Not one iota.

Posted via web from SophiaZoe

The anarchists came to Pittsburgh to prepare to disrupt the G-20 summit. They quickly saw signs that made them believe that someone, or some entity, was prepared for them too. “Obviously, repression has already started,” Pittsburgh anarchist Alex Bradley told a gathering of anti-authoritarians — the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project — in a closed-door meeting on Sept. 20. Members of the group say they have been followed, photographed, stopped and searched in the run-up to their protests of the Group of 20 meeting of the world’s leading economic powers on Sept. 24 and 25. The 40 people in the room were urged to write local lawyers’ phone numbers on their bodies in case of arrest.

via time.com

Article continues at above Time.com link

The right to protest, even “energetically”, is a fundamental right of every American [on American soil]. However, the anarchists are just a bunch of thugs who go far beyond protest… they destroy private property. Property owned by folks who usually have nothing at all to do with what the anarchists are protesting.

The rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights have an unstated, but well understood, clause: “My rights stop at your nose.” In other words, I cannot harm you [or anyone else] in the exercise of my rights. No matter how angry or aggrieved I may feel.

I am not unsympathetic to the anarchist’s complaints. I do not like exploitation of peoples or natural resources either. Some of my personal boycott of Chinese products are based in these very issues [among a list of morally repugnant issues I take exception with the Chinese government over].

But no matter how morally repugnant I find the Chinese government and its policies, I understand that I don’t have the right to damage or destroy the products imported from that country, or the businesses that import them. My right is to not participate in enriching the Chinese government. Period.

Thuggery is thuggery. Even if it’s dressed in the garb of moral indignation.

The anarchists are thugs… period.

Posted via web from SophiaZoe

Posted via email from SophiaZoe

Demogorgon:

This is the day, which down the void abysm
At the Earth-born’s spell yawns for Heaven’s despotism,
   And Conquest is dragged captive through the deep:
Love, from its awful throne of patient power
In the wise heart, from the last giddy hour
   Of dread endurance, from the slippery, steep,
And narrow verge of crag-like agony, springs
And folds over the world its healing wings.

Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance,
These are the seals of that most firm assurance
   Which bars the pit over Destruction’s strength;
And if, with infirm hand, Eternity,
Mother of many acts and hours, should free
   The serpent that would clasp her with his length;
These are the spells by which to reassume
An empire o’er the disentangled doom.

To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
   To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
   Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory.

Posted via web from SophiaZoe

UNITED NATIONS – President Barack Obama challenged world leaders Wednesday to shoulder more of the globe’s critical burdens, promising a newly cooperative partner in America but sternly warning they can no longer castigate the U.S. as a go-it-alone bully while still demanding it cure all ills.

[snip]

U.S. presidents — Bush included — have come to the United Nations year after year with a wish list of action items and preaching the gospel of working together. The U.S. is rich and powerful, but cannot solve problems without help, they say, whether Democrat or Republican.

[snip]

“In the year 2009 — more than at any point in human history — the interests of nations and peoples are shared,” Obama said.

Following a president pilloried for arrogance, Obama talked more modestly about the United States.

[snip]

Even while offering new cooperation from Washington, Obama was blunt that others must step up or face dire consequences: “extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world, protracted conflicts that grind on and on, genocide, mass atrocities, more nations with nuclear weapons, melting ice caps and ravaged populations, persistent poverty and pandemic disease.”

[snip]

“The world must stand together to demonstrate that international law is not an empty promise,” Obama said.

I’m not a very big fan of the UN. OK, I am not only not a fan, I tend to assign all sorts of of miscellaneous pejorative terms to the United Nations when either speaking or writing about the organization as a whole.

The UN is a classic example of a good idea, backed up with the best of intentions, going horribly wrong.

I wouldn’t bet money that President Obama’s words and points made any impression whatsoever. Countries will continue to blame everything on the US, find fault with the US [and there is fault], and the moment that any action is required… look to the US to perform that action…and bear the cost of that action as well.

I don’t expect any changes, either in perception or demands, but at least they are now officially acknowledged by this new administration.

Posted via web from SophiaZoe