I've changed by profile picture to support EFF's anti-censorship campaign, and I have donated $100 to their cause. This is a protest and I urge you to participate. We are protesting the use of political pressure by American politicians to shut down a website.

If you believe in due process of law and the right to freedom of expression you should join us in taking a stand. It is important that we take a stand right now.

It doesn't matter whether or not you support what Wikileaks is doing. If I were handed such a rich trove of private information I might have moral qualms about dumping the whole thing on the Internet. That is totally irrelevant.

In the United States of America we are a country of laws. If Wikileaks has violated a law than the appropriate way to respond to that is through the use of the legal system. In fact, like it or not, it is most likely the case that Wikileaks has not violated the law. Therefore, senior politicians in this country have taken it upon themselves to use their personal influence to shut the website down, and a number of corporations, large and small, have obliged them.

In a free country with a strong legal system and a tradition of upholding the right to freedom of speech, this sort of thing is not acceptable. Life, liberty, and property should only be taken away through due process of law and not simply because some powerful people desire it and present thin arguments in favor of it.

As The Internet Society recently stated in their newsletter:

[Wikileaks] must be subject to the same laws and policies of availability as all Internet sites. Free expression should not be restricted by governmental or private controls over computer hardware or software, telecommunications infrastructure, or other essential components of the Internet.

Unless and until appropriate laws are brought to bear to take the wikileaks.org domain down legally, technical solutions should be sought to reestablish its proper presence...

Anger about these events runs deep. Right now, many of the companies who assisted in cutting off Wikileaks have been subjected to distributed denial of service attacks. While I share the anger of those who are launching these attacks, I cannot condon... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ]

Taking a principled stand on Wikileaks

Best compilation I've seen floating around, but they missed God Hates Figs.

Seen any others?

The 100 Best Signs At The Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear: Pics, Videos, Links, News

In 1915, ...the richest 1 percent possessed about 15 percent of the nation's income....Today, the richest 1 percent account for 24 percent of the nation's income.

I haven't yet fact/back-checked all of the authors figures, but so far this is turning out to be a fascinating piece of journalism. Somewhat depressing, of course, but it contextualizes what we already know about stagnate real wages, income disparities in light of tax breaks for ultra-rich people, etc.

-janelane

Did federal government policy create the Great Divergence? (1) - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine

Certainly worth the price of admission. Extremely intense intellectual scifi.

YouTube - INCEPTION Trailer 3 - Official HD

As Tim Franks finishes his spell as the BBC's Middle East correspondent, he explains how his own background made it inevitable that some people would make certain assumptions.

First an admission: I am a Jew, and a journalist.

And now an apology: I hate the solipsistic writing I am about to be guilty of, where the journalist puts himself at the centre of the story.

But let me try to explain.

BBC News - Remaining impartial in the Middle East

Stillness, meditation, reflection, silence. Radio documentary maker Alan Hall goes in search of refuge from the noise and bustle of the modern world, looking for moments of peace amid the hurly-burly of daily life.

BBC News - The joy of daydreaming

I'll make this simple.

It doesn't matter where you came from now that you are here. If you're here legitimately, you're an American.

You're either an American or you're not. "Mexican-American" is bullshit. If you don't have dual-citizenship (which very few people do) you are not a "Mexican-American", you're an American.

You absolutely don't get to complain about students wearing shirts with an American flag on them, Cinco de Mayo or not. You particularly don't try to force them to be sent home from school because you want to feign being offended. If you want to celebrate a "Mexican" holiday without anything of this country being involved, do it in Mexico. ...otherwise you're just another selfish asshole trying to force other people do to things your way.

Doing such a thing completely disrespects why this country was created in the first place.

Acclimate or GTFO. It's that simple.

Students sent home for wearing American flag shirts

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
Buddha

Buddha Quotes

Hope its a great one!!!!:)

Happy Birthday Decius!!!!!

“Online culture,” he writes, “is dominated by trivial mash-ups of the culture that existed before the onset of mash-ups, and by fandom responding to the dwindling outposts of centralized mass media. It is a culture of reaction without action.”

Reading and the Web - Texts Without Context - NYTimes.com