In this Huffington Post article, a Microsoft senior researcher outlines the many ways in which the recent censoring of Craiglist's adult services section quite effectively makes life easier for the bad guys.  It's an interesting and eye-opening essay.

As a general rule, I am personally opposed to any and all forms of  censorship, most especially anything which prevents adult access to information in a misguided effort to protect kiddies.  Nothing good ever comes of censorship, and when the facts finally become public, they typically result in more damage and scandal than public knowledge would have ever created.  Further, one does not close a busy highway simply because kiddies might foolishly want to play in the middle of it.

Of course I believe that children should be protected from anything they're incapable of adequately handling, including dangerous traffic, poisonous plants, vicious animals, and serious diseases.  That protection must, however, begin first and foremost with their parents or guardians.

But better than parental censorship is teaching kids what the world is all about, and how to recognize the good stuff while ignoring the bad. Adults are capable of walking past an adult bookstore without suffering psychological trauma.  So are kids, providing they've been taught good reasons to do so.

Should parents choose censorship over education, however, there are excellent tools out there to assist in their efforts.  During my years as an ISP, I researched the many ways parents can use excellent, affordable, and easily available software programs to prevent access by their kids to adult online content, and I received many notes of thanks from grateful parents for that information.  So I know whereof I speak.

Sex is the strongest drive in human nature.  We're created that way so as to naturally and normally ensure survival of the species.  Thus, efforts to stifle it (in all of its variations) or to hide its expression  under the rug simply guarantees that it will emerge somewhere else.  And just as that article describes, "somewhere else" will always be a place much more difficult to recognize and manage than Craigslist could ever be.

There are certainly bad guys out there waiting to prey upon kids and adults alike.  But the solution to that problem lies not in censorship but in open, frank, and forthright education for one and all.

While politicians and others across the country in an election year debate the propriety of building a Muslim center, including a mosque, two blocks from the former World Trade Center site in New York, there's no sign of such debate at the Pentagon.

Instead, about 400 worshipers, including Muslims, attend prayer services every week in the chapel, a non-denominational facility built over the rubble left behind when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon.

Opponents of the New York mosque say it would be disrespectful of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, to allow Muslims to pray near the World Trade Center site.

That's never been an issue at the Pentagon, where 125 people who worked there died that day.

Read the entire Washington Post article.

In a rousing address before a predominantly Muslim audience Tuesday night, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg reaffirmed his commitment to the controversial Islamic cultural center near the former site of the World Trade Center. Central to his speech are these quotable statements:

"Islam did not attack the World Trade Center -- Al-Qaeda did. To implicate all of Islam for the actions of a few who twisted a great religion is unfair and un-American. Today we are not at war with Islam -- we are at war with Al-Qaeda and other extremists who hate freedom." ... "But if we do not practice here at home what we preach abroad -- if we do not lead by example - we undermine our soldiers. We undermine our foreign policy objectives. And we undermine our national security."

Factory livestock farms are slowly, really, and truly killing us.  But it doesn't have to be that way.  All it takes to end it is Senators and Representatives with spines.  If you don't believe it, please read this:

If you're from the Pittsburgh area (like I am) or you know anyone from there, this song says it all ...

Comedian Mark Eddie sings about Pittsburgh in "The Dahntahn Song", the title being a reference to the thick Pittsburgh slang and great traditions of the city.

And for those of you who may not speak Pittsgurghese, the lyrics (sung to the tune of "Downtown" by Petula Clark):

When Joe Gruschecky and The Clarks ain't around and you feel all alone ...
Dahn Tahn!
The Box office lost your reservations for B.E. Taylors Christmas Show.
Dahn Than!

Go down to the Edison, the girls are really pretty,
The 31st Street Pub serves up the coldest Iron City!
Mt. Washington ...
They got a cool view up 'ere.
Then you can hop on the incline, down to Station Square and go ...

Dahn Tahn, yenz can get eggs 'n 'at
Dahn Tahn, Shadyside chicks are phat!
Dahn Tahn, sumpin is waitin for yenz!

Don't hang around in the wrong parts of town, where all the jag-offs go ...
Dahn Tahn!
Go see the Buckos, the Penguins or the Donnie Iris Show!
Dahn Tahn!

Go to Charlie Murdocks you can check out the Granatis.
Or head over to Matrix, you can look at all the hotties!
Liberty Avenue ...
You don't know what you'll find 'ere,
Maybe hookers or trannys with high heels and big hair! Just go ...

Dahn Tahn, a sammich at Primantis!
Dahn Tahn, happy endings at Silkys!
Dahn Tahn, sumpin's waiting for yenz!

Tailgatin, drinkin and dancin the polka at the Stillers game.
Dahn Tahn!
Don't make fun of the way we talk, don't call our Mayor Opey.
Pittsburgh's home of Myron, Mr. Rodgers and Sophie.
Squirrel Hill!
Homewood / Wilkinsburg if you dare,
And then we'll ride on The "T"and have lunch at Market Square, and go ...

Dahn Tahn! French fries at the O.
Dahn Tahn! Southside is where we go!
Dahn Tahn! cause sumpin is waitin for yenz!

CNN host and Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria has returned a prestigious award given to him by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), saying he is “stunned” at their decision to oppose the construction of an Islamic community center near Ground Zero.

Kudos to a man courageous enough to stand up for rational and reasonable principles of fairness.  Obviously, the ADL is itself an organization of bigots.

I am sick to death of the broad-brush painting of all members of any group as a result of a rogue few within it.

Just as we gay people as a group often suffer the slings and arrows of hatred resulting from the small numbers of mentally ill pedophiles in our midst (while the greater numbers of non-gay child-molesters go unnoticed), people of the Muslim faith frequently suffer similar hatred though only a small minority do unspeakably twisted terrorism in the name of their religion.  The world is not black and white, and the Muslim (or gay people) living next door may in fact be loving, law-abiding, contributing members of our human family who deserve our respect and support of their individual dignity.

Any organization of any faith, ethnicity, political position, or sexual orientation which claims to speak for a larger community when in fact it represents only the bigots within it deserves the very condemnation it unjustly inflicts upon its targets. Shame on ADL.

Have you heard that Social Security is going bankrupt? Driving up the deficit? In crisis?

Well none of that is true. These are all myths that opponents of Social Security have been spreading to scare people into accepting benefit cuts this fall. But the myths are taking hold—so we have to fight back with the facts.

Moveon.org has put together a list of these top five myths about Social Security, along with the real story.
 

Reality: There is no Social Security crisis.  By 2023, Social Security will have a $4.6 trillion surplus (yes, trillion with a 'T').  It can pay out all scheduled benefits for the next quarter-century with no changes whatsoever. After 2037, it'll still be able to pay out 75% of scheduled benefits—and again, that's without any changes. The program started preparing for the Baby Boomers' retirement decades ago.  Anyone who insists Social Security is broke probably wants to break it themselves.

Myth #2: We have to raise the retirement age because people are living longer.

Reality: This is a red-herring to trick you into agreeing to benefit cuts. Retirees are living about the same amount of time as they were in the 1930s. The reason average life expectancy is higher is mostly because many fewer people die as children than they did 70 years ago. What's more, what gains there have been are distributed very unevenly—since 1972, life expectancy increased by 6.5 years for workers in the top half of the income brackets, but by less than 2 years for those in the bottom half. But those intent on cutting Social Security love this argument because raising the retirement age is the same as an across-the-board benefit cut.

Myth #3: Benefit cuts are the only way to fix Social Security.

Reality: Social Security doesn't need to be fixed. But if we want to strengthen it, here's a better way: Make the rich pay their fair share.  If the very rich paid taxes on all of their income, Social Security would be sustainable for decades to come. Right now, high earners only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,000 of their income.  But conservatives insist benefit cuts are the only way because they want to protect the super-rich from paying their fair share.

Myth #4: The Social Security Trust Fund has been raided and is full of IOUs

Reality: Not even close to true. The Social Security Trust Fund isn't full of IOUs, it's full of U.S. Treasury Bonds. And those bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. The reason Social Security holds only treasury bonds is the same reason many Americans do: The federal government has never missed a single interest payment on its debts. President Bush wanted to put Social Security funds in the stock market—which would have been disastrous—but luckily, he failed. So the trillions of dollars in the Social Security Trust Fund, which are separate from the regular budget, are as safe as can be.

Myth #5: Social Security adds to the deficit

Reality: It's not just wrong—it's impossible!  By law, Social Security's funds are separate from the budget, and it must pay its own way. That means that Social Security can't add one penny to the deficit.

To see the documented sources for this information, visit moveon.org.

None other than Ronnie Reagan's son Michael is launching a new e-mail service he hopes will attract conservatives and their extremist teabagging friends.

I certainly hope it succeeds spectacularly.  If all those nutcases who seem to take great delight in e-mailing their bigoted and hate-filled screeds stampede to get their very own "@reagan.com" e-mail addresses, it will certainly make automatically filtering out their spam ever so much simpler.

Go for it, Mikey! Read more about this wonderful idea here.

Do you offer a photo of yourself on-line?  Say, in Facebook, or MySpace, or on your web page?  Maybe in your profile on an Internet dating or matchmaking service?

Ever thought about whether it presents you at your very best?  The way you really want to be seen?

Here are the results from a study of over 7000 such photos by a popular Internet dating service, and the results may surprise you.  Assumptions everyone makes about smiling, backgrounds, looking at the camera ... often turn out to be wrong, and quite different between photos of men and women (and how men and women perceive them differently).  Read this, and you might consider updating your personal photo ...

Would you believe that those cash register receipts you get in stores expose you to a dangerous chemical?  Apparently so.  According to a recent Washington Post article:

As lawmakers and health experts wrestle over whether a controversial chemical, bisphenol-A, should be banned from food and beverage containers, a new analysis by an environmental group suggests Americans are being exposed to BPA through another, surprising route: paper receipts.

Geez ... and to think that for more than ten years I personally mailed out thermal receipts like that to several thousand GLIB and ZZAPP! subscribers.

Think I'll go wash my hands ...