Today's Overreaction: Cop Has Ex-Wife Jailed For Griping About Him On Facebook

The Facebook post that got Anne King arrested by
her vengeful ex-husband cop. He's now being sued

There's a strange lawsuit bubbling down in Georgia that started with this Facebook post by Anne King, griping about her ex-husband.

"That moment when everyone in your house has the flu and you ask your kids' dad to ge them (not me) more Motrin and Tylenol and he refuses."

OK, so that doesn't put the ex-husband in the best light possible, but hey, everybody complains on Facebook right?

Well, if the allegations in a lawsuit are correct, the ex-husband now looks much, much worse.

The ex-husband is Washington County sheriff deputy Corey King, who, according to the lawsuit filed  Anne King, had her arrested and jailed for posting the complaint. He also had Anne King's friend Susan Hines, who posted a response in support on the Facebook message.

All Hines said was "POS. Give me an hour and check your mailbox. I'll be GLAD to pick up the slack."

A local magistrate called the comments a criminal defamation case and threatened to an Mrs. King from Facebook says television station WRDW.

The case finally went to a more professional state court judge, who told the women, "I don't even know why you're here," as he promptly dismissed the charges, as Popehat notes.

Small town "justice" being what it is sometimes, Corey King and a local magistrate didn't seem to have a firm grasp of the niceties of First Amendent law.

The local magistrate, Ralph O. Todd, who is not a lawyer, somehow got elected to be that local judge, but boy does he seem to relish the role.

According to Popehat, Todd's criminal complaint against the women said, "Subject did, without privilege to do so ad with intent to defame another, communicate false matter which tends to expose one who is alive to hatred, contempt or ridicule, ad which tends to provoke a breach of the peace, specifically subject did make derogatory and degrading comments directed at and about Corey King, for the purpose of providing a breach of the peace."

Them there's some hifalutin' words, but of course, sometimes people who don't worry all that much about what's legal when they get into petty feuds over an insult.

Anne King could well get the last laugh with her lawsuit. She had the constitutional right to her opinion, expressed on Facebook, and her sheriff deputy ex might himself end up on the wrong end of the law after all.

Pettiness boomerangs sometimes, doesn't it?

Subway Passengers Armed With Hand Sanitizer Scrub Out Nazi Idiot

Armed with hand sanitizer and tissues, people scrub Nazi
graffiti away from inside a New York City subway car.

Some jerk got his or her Sharpie out and put swatikas and other Nazi images on just about every advertisement and window of a New York City subway car a few days ago.

People who boarded the subway were - surprise! -- not happy to see this stuff, but nobody knew what to do about it.

But in a Facebook post that has gone totally viral, a guy named Gregory Locke said one person spoke up and said, "Hand sanitizer gets rid of Sharpie. We need alcohol."

The guy also found some tissues to soak up the hand sanitizer and went to work.

The scene on the subway car quickly became remiscent of that old game show, "Let's Make A Deal" when host Monty Hall had people dig into their purses and wallets to find odd things to win prizes.

This time, though, everybody was digging into their backpacks and such to find hand sanitizer and tissues.

Within a few minutes, subway passengers, armed with such dangerous weapons as Purell and Kleenex, had purged the car of all Nazi symbolism.

One passenger, lamenting about the Nazi graffiti,  "I guess this is Trump's America."

Locke wrote in response: "No sir, it's not. Not tonight and not ever. Not as long as stubborn New Yorkers have anything to say about it."

Yes, yes, I know, Donald Trump is not a Nazi (at least I'm pretty sure.) But some of his supporters are white supremicists and they think they've got their big chance now that Donald Trump is president.

New York City resident Chelsea Clinton, (You might know her as Bill and Hillary's daughter) heard about this incident and tweeted, "We will not let hate win. And, another reason to carry hand sanitizer."

This is a small incident, granted. But there's a lot of forces of evil running amok in this nation right now and there's a lot of other people running around who will not stand for it. Stories like this make me feel just that much better about things.

I'm planning a brief visit to New York City in a couple weeks. I'd better pack some hand sanitizer for the subway rides, right?

This Republican Wants Another Kent State To Teach 'Em Good!

This idiot from Michigan was just
wondering if shooting a couple
protesters would help end all those
anti-Trump demonstrations. 

Every once in awhile, a public official accidentally tells us what he or she is really thinking, with disastrous, jaw-dropping results.

Our latest exhibit in this wall of shame is Dan Adamini, the Secretary of the Marquette (Michigan) County Republican Party. And possibly soon to be former Secretary.

Adamini was apparently upset by a demonstration that turned violent in Berkeley, California and forced the cancellation of a talk by odious weird right-winger Milo Yiannopoulos.

Adamini tweeted this gem in response:  "Violent protesters who shut down free speech? Time for another Kent State. Perhaps one bullet stops a lot of thuggery."

He also went on Facebook and said this, grammer issues included:

"The violent protests at universities certainly indicate Portage acacian at the lower level. I'm thinking another Kent State might be the only solution protest stopped after one death. They only do it because there are no consequences at all."

That's quite a bit of word salad there, but you can see what Adamini seems to be suggesting.  Just shoot somebody and that will make people just shut up already.

Kent State, as you might remember, was the 1970 anti-Vietnam protest at Kent State University in Ohio. Some of the protesters threw rocks and such at police and National Guardsmen. The Guard opened fire, killing four of the demonstraters.

So yeah, that's right,  Adamini was suggesting what happened at Kent State back in 1970 was a swell idea.

Of course, if you want demonstrators to quiet down and stop, maybe shooting them isn't the best idea for many reasons, beyond the crime of killing people.

It'll backfire, pardon the awful pun. People were so outraged by Kent State that many believe it hastened the end of the Vietnam War. Which wasn't exactly what the Nixon administration wanted back in 1970.

Would violence against anti-Trump protesters hasten the end of the Trump era? I frankly don't want to find out, and I'm sure most other people feel the same way.

Since posting and taking down those offensive posts in social media, Adamini says he's against violence, too.

He posted this on Twitter, says MLive:

"Taking a lot of heat for a very poorly worded tweet yesterday. Sorry folks, the intent was to try to stop the violence, not encourage more."

Well, maybe, if he considers all demonstrations against Trump and his actions and his minions "violence." It doesn't seem to daw on Adamini that telling people to shut up when the criticize an elected official is also an attempt to squelch First Amendment rights.

I'm being Captain Obvious here, but sometimes, you gotta spell it out.

Calling his bad tweet "poorly worded?" I think the problem here goes way beyond grammar issues.

Extreme Vulgar Temper Tantrums On Facebook Won't Get You Elected To Office

Weirdo former GOP candidate Michael Krawitz
and his hate messages to a reporter.  

Breaking news out of New Jersey: Republican Michael Krawitz is no longer a candidate for the West Deptford Township Committee.

OK, this isn't earthshattering news.  With all due respect to the fine citizens of West Deptford, we normally wouldn't care about this bit of election news.

Except for the reason why Krawitz has withdrawn his candidacy. He's a big Donald Trump fan, and wasn't happy at all that Daily Beast reporter Olivia Nuzzi posted on her Facebook page a critical article about Trump written by a colleague.

So Krawitz took to Facebook to criticize Nuzzi. So far, we're OK. You can criticize a reporter's work. Journalists tend to have thick skin.

But the problem is Krawitz's, um, way with words.   

He wrote to Nuzzi: "Fuck.You. Olivia. I. Hope. Somebody.Rapes.You.Today. :)

Nuzzi responded by writing: "This man who wants me to be raped today was a Republican candidate for office in NJ."

To which Krawitz responded. "Hope.You. Get. Raped. By. A. Syrian. Refugee. :)

You can see the obvious problem here.   Not a nice guy.  Not somebody who would get a lot of votes for the West Deptford Township Committee. Or any other office.

I'm also curious about his style. Every word is followed by a period. And he ends his hate sentences with a smile emoticon. Like the little smile makes the nastiness go away or something?

Definitely some issues here.

Krawitz apparently said his Facebook account got hacked the day his messages appeared so it wasn't him. With that, Nuzzi produced another Facebook love note she received from Krawitz back on August 10:

"Hows. The. Gun. Crime. In. Democrat. Chicago. Olivia. You. Ugly. Stupid. Cunt. :)

Again with the periods after every word and the smiley emoticon!

Nuzzi said she's been harassed by Krawitz since 2014. And as a female reporter, she always gets totally misogynistic comments from guys - mostly on the far right of the political spectrum, who don't like her work.

I guess they can't criticize the quality and accuracy of Nuzzi's reporting because it's solid, so their onl recourse is to call her every horrible name in the book. That accomplishes a lot!

In a statement before Krawitz withdrew his candidacy, Nuzzi said she trusted the voters of West Deptford Township to make the right election decision.

And Nuzzi said this:

"As a reporter, bullying of this kind from would-be politicians makes you fear for your First Amendment rights. As an American and a woman, it makes you fear for the state of our country and the safety of half the population that inhabits it."

She's got a great point: We can laugh at the stupidity and awfulness of Krawitz. But the legions of Internet trolls and such out there like Krawitz really do degrade this nation.

Krawitz is no longer running for office and has crawled back under his rock.  So that's good. I just wish the rest of the trolls out there would crawl under rocks and go away, too. But there's so many trolls, I don't think there's enough rocks out there for them.

Scamming The Scammer: Fake Trump Site Collects Donations For An Iffy 25-Year0Old Guy

Is the man on the left, Ian Hawes, scamming Trump supporters,
and by extension Trump himself?

Lots of people really want to donate to the Donald Trump campaign.

That's fine: If you like your candidate and want to donate, go for it!

However, it turns out you really, really have to be careful to figure out if you are indeed contributing to the Trump campaign, or any other legit campaign for that matter.

There are scammers out there pretending to be part of the Trump team.

Like Ian Hawes,  He launched a website called dinnerwithtrump.org which Politico says netted $350,00 in donations. Of that, $133,000 went to a company Hawes founded and owns called CartSoft LLC.

At last check, none of the money has gone to Trump, says Politico.

The site's home page tells visitors to "Enter for a chance for you and a guest to have dinner with Donald Trump. The flight, food and stay are no us."

The site invites people to enter their name, email address and zip code and the site says people can double their chances of winning by submitting a donation.

However, the web site has fine printe that says the prize is not a private dinner with Trump, but rather a chance to attend a Donald Trump event with other attendees. So maybe you get to go to a Trump rally if you win.

If you want to call a Trump rally "winning."

And if the web site actually declares a "winner." Or will they just keep the money and move on?

Hawes launched another web site, crookedhillary2016.org, purporting to have a contest to revoke Hillary Clinton's security clearance. Hawes is also raking in the dough with that one, as he's playing off Trump's penchant for always calling Clinton "Crooked Hillary."

It's unclear whether any of the money Hawes collected has or will go to the Trump campaign. But it looks like he's making pretty damn good money for himself.

Politico says the Federal Election Commission is pretty powerless to go after potential fraud cases, like this one might be.

The takeaway: No matter who you support in any give election, be careful how you donate money.

Politico says that scam political action committees that act on "behalf" of candidates are cropping up all over the place. The scam web sites are designed to look like the actual candidates' sites, and the scammers buy Google and Facebook ads to lure unsuspecting donors.

Trump's fans are particularly enthusiastic about the candidate, so they are an appealing target for scammers.

Some people say the candidates lie to use. Some people say Trump is a con man. But the scammers scamming the people - and scamming Trump - are even worse.

Money in politics is awful these days. It even creates a GREAT environment for scammers. Buyer beware.

Milo Yiannnopoulos Can Just Shut Up Now, Thank You

Tech guy, all around troll and jerk Milo Yiannopouos
is whining that Twitter finally kicked him out
because of his abusive Tweets and how he
encouraged others to attack people online.  

Poor Milo Yiannopoulos.

He's this weird guy, a former tech startup sort of guy who is gay and seems to hate gays, loves Donald Trump, and is more than a bit of an Internet troll who also has a somewhat shaky background in the tech industry.  

Last week, he launched a Twitter attack against Leslie Jones, the comedian and actor currently starring in the "Ghostbusters" reboot.

That part is unremarkable. People criticize and troll public figures such as actors and politicians on Twitter all the time.

What happened next turned into a big fight over free speech, and how awful you can get with your free speech before somebody tells you to shut up already. Twitter told Yiannopoulos to shut up already.

A lot of people cheered that move. Others didn't.

Yiannopoulos has got a great big posse of fans. A lot of them are trolls, and as Yiannopoulos egged them on, the trolls unleashed a huge and unrelenting racist and sexist attack on Jones, calling her a gorilla, saying she was the source of AIDS, you know, nice things like that.

The "problem" largely stems from Ghostbusters. The misgynistic trolls can't stand the fact the new movie has a female cast. And worse, Jones is African-American. Egads! On top of that, she's not a toothpick skinny supermodel with breast implants the size of watermelons. How dare she!

Also, female comedians are supposedly not funny, according to these idiots. (I'm sure my fellow fans of female comedians starting with Lucille Ball and Phyllis Diller going all the way up to today's Jones, Samantha Bee, Tina Fey and many others would beg to differ.).

In any event, Yiannopoulos and the followers he was encouraging  finally got so odious that Twitter permanently kicked him out, says BuzzFeed News.

"'People should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on Twitter,'  a company spokesperson said in a statement provided to BuzzFeed News. 'But no on deserved to be subjected to targeted abuse online, and our rule prohibit inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others."

Yiannopoulos and his legions of follows  (almost 400,000 of them before Twitter suspended his account.) are crying foul, saying Twitter is suppressing free speech and squelching comments that don't adhere to a liberal, politically correct skew.

Yiannopoulous was quick to respond that it was just Twitter hating on conservatives. "With the cowardly suspension of my account, Twitter has confirmed itself as a safe space or Muslim terrorists and Black Lives Matter exremenists, but a no-go zone for conservatives."

Twitter does make its terms of service pretty clear. "You may not incite or engage in the targeted abuse or harassment of others" You could get kicked off Twitter if you incite others to harass another account or if the primary purpose of an account is to send abusive messages to others.

Twitter's terms of service do not say conservative opinions can't be held. There's tons of conservatism on Twitter, actually. Take a look if you don't believe me.

Still, Yiannopoulos said of his banishment: "This is the end for Twitter. Anyone who cares about free speech has been sent a clear message You're not welcome on Twitter."

First off all, Yiannopoulos is confusing Twitter with the government. The First Amendment says that the government cannot squelch free speech. Like it or not, a private company can.

Still, the more free speech the better, and it's always a good thing for social media and media in general allow a full-throated airing of diverse opinions.

I generally don't like it when any business or institution, say, cancels a speech because activists don't like the speaker's opinion.  But it's a different thing entirely when the speech becomes harassment. Would you want somebody constantly yelling on your front lawn that they want to kill you? Well you shouldn't be doing that on Twitter either.

If you don't like somebody, you can say so on Twitter. Just don't turn the dislike into threats and harassment. Look, I'm saying here that I don't like Yiannopoulos, and I bet Twitter won't throw me off. Especially since I don't want to see him suffer any harm and I DON'T  want armies of trolls attacking him online.

However, Yiannopoulos forgets that free speech has consequences. Free speech is a right and a responsibility.

When you start massively harassing a person, and get your friends to pile on, there's going to be pushback, and a lot of us will tell you to shut up already, just like Twitter did.

So quicherbitchin' Milo, and remember that just because you're yacking up a storm doesn't mean we have to listen. You don't deserve a special platform any more than the next guy.

Yiannopoulos isn't the first person to whine about not being guaranteed a free public forum to spew garbage and he won't be the last.

According to Tech Dirt, the odious Pamela Geller, she of her virulent, wildly wrong All Muslims Are Murdering Assholes activism, is suing the federal government, and by extention Facebook, I guess.

Pamela Geller is also demanding a guaranteed
platform on social media, but fuhgetaboutit
 n

Geller says that Facebook would take down her page somehow is wrong, and the federal Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment because she says it enables censorship.

Says her lawsuit:  

"Denying a person or organization access to these important social media forums based on the content and viewpoint of the person's or organization's speech on matters of public concern is an effective way of silencing or censoring speech or depriving the person or organization of political influence and business opportunities."

But, again, the First Amendment bars the government from censoring people. All the Communications Decency Act does is allow private companies to take down content they deem "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing or otherwise objectionable."

As noted, I do think major social media outfits like Facebook and Twitter have the responsibility to let people air controversial topics, and they do.  But legally, they can take stuff down. And if the content relentlessly harasses anybody, including Muslims and Jews like Geller, it should be taken down.

Still, we have First Amendment rights, but we don't have a right to use a private platform for whatever we want. Almost all businesses, including Twitter and Facebook, have their own ethics policy and are free to adhere to them, unless they discriminate against a whole class of people based on things like religious affiliation, gender and race.

As Tech Dirt states: "(Geller's) lawsuit is the legal equivalent of that idiot who claims that any company moderating content is violating the First Amendment."

But as we all know, there's a LOT of idiots on social media.

Gays And Lesbians Should Not Have Birthdays, Ohio Baker Decrees

Wedding cakes have become the odd cliche and the meme in the ongoing battle between members of the LGBT community and so called religious bakers who don't want to make wedding cakes for said couples, lest that be conscrued as endorsing gay marriage.

The law generally comes down on the side of "bake the damn cake,"  because bakeries are public businesses and accommodations.

Generally speaking, you can't refuse to bake a cake because the couple is black, so by extension, you can't deny the gay couple.

Of course, if I were to re-do my wedding day, I wouldn't want someone who hates me and my marriage to bake the cake. (Luckily, my 2012 wedding ceremony to Jeff was perfect, and so there's no need for a do-over.)

Still, the law isn't completely settled and the War Of The Gay Wedding Cakes drags on.

An Ohio baker has managed to take this one step further and decided not to bake a birthday cake for a lesbian because of her sexual orientation. Her "religious" objections to baking the cake were downright creepy.

We're talking a simple birthday cake here, not a wedding cake.

Candace Lowe of the Toledo, Ohio area is a newlywed whose new wife had a birthday just two weeks after their lovely wedding.  She decided to surprise her wife with a nice treat from Take The Cake bakery in Toledo, says television station WTVG in Toledo.

Lowe ordered the cake from the bakery without mentioning her sexual orientation. Why would she?  Pretty much nobody announces such personal information when they stop by a store to purchase something.

Most shopkeepers figure a customer has come into the shop and wants to give him money, so what the hell, treat the guy or gal nicely.

The owner of Take The Cake bakery then did something strange once Lowe left the store. She looked up Lowe on Facebook.

Now, that's weird. Why would a store owner  take the time to stalk somebody on Facebook? You'd think she would just get busy baking the cake or helping other customers.

So we've come to this. Some people object to background checks on people wanting to buy guns. Here we have a background check on somebody wanting to buy a birthday cake.

Weird.

Anyway, lo and behold on Facebook, there was Lowe, smiling in photographs of her recent wedding to her wife.

Uh-Oh.

The bakery owner send Lowe a text, in a very cutesy childlike font that said: "I'm sorry. I just realized your (sic) in a same-sex relationship and we do not do cakes for same-sex weddings or parties.... I'm so sorry I just wasn't aware of this exactly until I saw your page. Take care:)"

Yes, the baker put a smiley face emoticon at the end of her bizarre, hateful text message.  That'll make everything OK, right?

Uh, no.

Lowe, undestandably upset, posted the message from the bakery on her Facebook page. It went viral, naturally. WTVG picked up the story and people around the world saw the weird story of the baker who wouldn't make a birthday cake for a lesbian.

Dan Savage, the writer, sex advisor and gay activist, had this good nugget to say about so called Christians who would agree with our Toledo baker:

"But it's not just our weddings they object to - it's our existence. Refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding says, 'I don't think you people should be able to celebrate or solemnize your relationship because same-sex marriage is a sin.'

Refusing to bake a birthcake for a lesbian says 'I don't think your birth is something to celebrate because the world would be better off if you didn't exist.'"

This whole mess in Toledo will play out just like all the other disputes over gay wedding cakes and gay marriage licenses vs. evangelicals play out.

The owner of Take the Cake will get death threats. I never understand why people do that. Like sending a death threat will actually help the situation. Others will boycott the bakery, which is certainly a more understandable reaction.

Religious conservatives will howl in protest, saying we're taking away Christians' right to be Christian. (I guess refusing to bake a cake is a very Christian thing to do, and never mind nobody is taking away anybody's right to think gay people are awful.)

The religious right will probably launch a GoFundMe campaign to keep the bakery afloat, since so many people aren't shopping there anymore

The bakery's Facebook page is already chock full of people objecting to the owner's bigotry.

Then the whole thing will fade away and this little kerfuffle will be forgotten.

It probably should be forgotten eventually. But it's still a nice illustration of the bizarre lengths some people in society will go to practice their bigoted lifestyles and mindsets.

Bar Manager Thankfully Blows Off Woman Who Says Heart Attack Victim "Ruined" Dinner

Kilroy's Downtown Indy
handled a situation involving a
customer's heart attack just right.
Too bad one its patrons didn't. 

Imagine you're out for a nice New Year's Eve dinner in a very busy but nice bar and restaurant, and a woman near you suddenly suffers a nasty heart attack.

I'm thinking you'd do something like call 911, give CPR if you know it, back away to let paramedics rescue her, try to comfort the heart attack victim's friends and family, or at the very least, not complain if it takes a little longer to get your next drink because, you know, the lady suffering the heart attack is probably the priority at the moment.

If you were a woman named Holly Jones who was at Kilroy's Downtown Indy in Indianapolis on New Year's Eve, you'd whine that the heart attack victim ruined your New Year's Eve, and that the staff at the restaurant should have made Holly the priority, not the lady having a heart attack.

Wrote Holly on a Facebook post that has gone viral and has also since been deleted:

"I will never go bak to this location for New Year's Eve!!! After the way we were treated whe we spent $700+ and having our meal ruined by watching a dead person being wheeled out from an overdose my night has been ruined!!! Every year we come to Kilroy's to enjoy New Years Eve and tonight we were screamed at and had the manager walk away from us while (we) were trying to figure out our bill being messed up 

The manager also told us someone dying was more important than us being there making us feel like our business didn't matter, but I guess allowing a Junkie in the building to overdose on your property is more important than paying customers who are spending a lot of money!! 

By the way, before you go looking for Holly Jones on Facebook to yell back at her, forget it, she's taken herself off line. There are other people named Holly Jones on Facebook that are getting hate messages over this, but none of the Holly Jones' on Facebook now had anything to do with this incident.

All the Holly Jones' on Facebook now are nice people who would not act like this. So please leave them alone.

By the way, Bad Holly claimed right before taking down her Facebook page that somebody else hacked into her account and wrote that nasty post, but I don't buy it.

A couple weeks ago, I posted something on this here blog thingy that maybe, just maybe, the customer in retail and eating establishments shouldn't be

It sound like Kilroy's manager, Chris Burton heard me and he responded to Bad Holly it just the perfect way on the restaurant's Facebook page:

"First of all, the 'overdosing junkie' that you speak of was a 70-year-old woman who had a heart attack. Thankfully, she was revived at the hospital and survived. It sounds like you were very concerned about her so I thought you should know."

 (SNARK!))

Burton goes on:

"This poor lady, who was celebrating New Year's Eve with her husband and son, had to be placed onthe floor of a completely packed bar and have her shirt removed in front of everyone so the paramedics could work on her.

But I completely understand why you think being an intoxicated (expletive) that didn't understand your bill should take priority over a human life. I especially appreciate you making your server (who doesnt curse) cry as well. I'm sure she really enjoyed working on New Year's Eve just to deal withi people such as yourself."

Burton also said that his restaurant will do fine if Bad Holly never comes back, "because we wouldn't wnt anyone as cold hearted and nasty as you returning."  

The restaurant is also promoting a GoFundMe page to help with the heart attack victim's medical bills.

Bad Holly apparently works at an Indianapolis hair salon, so you'd think she'd know a thing or two about customer service. I guess not. Note that the hair salon itself was not involved in this incident, expresses support for the heart attack victim and will deal with Bad Holly internally.

Not surprisingly, people have been flocking to Kilroy's Facebook page to praise Burton.

According to the Indy Star, people tend to spout on the Internet without thinking about the consequences. It certainly blew back on Bad Holly.

The Indy Star notes that Burton's response was not only kind, but made good business sense, since it sends the message that it cares about the vast majority of people who are nothing like Bad Holly.

The way I figure it, if I'm ever in Indianapolis, I'm heading straight to Kilroy's for a lunch and a drink. Sounds like a very cool place.

Karma Brings Great Lesson To Caitlyn Jenner Critic On Facebook

The Mark Hogancamp artwork
Facebook user Terry Coffey
used in a viral post last week.  

You've probably seen this meme all over social media:

People are criticizing those who are calling Caitlyn Jenner brave for her very public transition from the former Bruce Jenner to a glamorous looking woman on the cover of Vanity Fair.

In that criticism was people pointing to heroic U.S. soldiers and calling them the brave ones, not Caitlyn Jenner.

To me, these critics missed part of the point. There are different kinds of brave. Huge numbers of U.S. soldiers are undeniably brave, and we should be forever grateful for their service.

That should go without saying, but the current state of public discourse forces me to state that obvious fact.

At the same time, Caitlyn Jenner is brave, too, for encouraging other transgender or would-be transgender people to be themselves in spite of bigots and worse.

One of the people who cited brave U.S. soldiers as being much braver than Jenner was a person named Terry Coffey of Oregon, who pointed out the bravery of soldiers as incomparably greater than U.S. soldiers.

Coffey wanted an photo to match his Facebook post regarding this, so he found what appeared to be a photo of two World War II soldiers.

It showed one soldier carrying another wounded soldier on his back. That wounded soldier is pointing a gun, presumably returning enemy fire. These me, he said, represented bravery.

According to Huffington Post, Coffey found the uncredited image online, and put it in his post. This Facebook post went totally viral, with more than 800,000 page views.

Give that, Coffey decided it would be good to find out who took the photo, so the photographer could be credited.

The two soldiers in the image Coffey used are actually toy figurines made by artist Mark Hogancamp. 

It turns out Hogancamp was beaten almost to death in 2000 because he dressed like a woman. (Hogancamp was not transgender; he liked to cross dress.)

Coffey learned that information while looking up details of the figurines.

On Facebook, Coffey followed up with another post:

"In an ironic twist, I have discovered that the photo is part of a documentary created by a man who was beaten nearly to death outside a bar in 2000.

After spending 9 days in a coma, suffering severe brain damage and being unable to walk or talk for a year, he chose to deal with the pain of the tragic event by creating an imaginary world of characters and photos and stories, all set in WWII. His work is the subject of an upcoming documentary. 

Why was he nearly beaten to death by 5 strangers?

Because he was a cross-dresser. 

I could have chosen any one of hundreds of photos  depicting bravery, but I chose this one. Do I think it was an accident?

No, I don't. 

What happened to this man was cruel, wrong and unforgivable.

Hate helps nothing.

Love wounds no one.

and God heals all.

(and irony makes you think.)"

You know what?

I believe U.S. soldiers are brave. I believe Caitlyn Jenner is brave. And I believe Terry Coffey is brave.

Coffey's original post criticizing the idea that Jenner was brave probably appeals to conservatives who have an unyielding, unchanging view of what is right and wrong.

Coffey learned a good lesson and took it to heart. The fact that he broadcast that lesson probably raised the ire of people who can't stand the fact that an experience changed Coffey for the better. So Coffey is brave for admitting his mistake and noting that he changed his mind.

All kinds of media outlets want to interview Coffey, but he says he's politely turning down all media requests.

Which is good. Everything that needed to be said was said in his post.

Well done, Mr. Coffey!

Vermont State Police Resolve Rush Hour Traffic Jam

A Vermont State Police trooper
workes to clear this traffic
blockage (the little turtle)
 on a southern Vermont road last week. 

Those of you who live in the Big Cities are used to the frustration of terrible traffic as you're trying to get to work in the morning

We have that problem in Vermont, too, though sometimes the traffic jam isn't necessarily caused by stupid motorists.

So it was in southern Vermont last week, when Vermont State Police were called to the traffic problem you see in the photo. Police posted news about the incident on Facebook.

The caption:

"Trooper Walker came by this Vermont Traffic Jam yesterday afternoon. After a brief negotiation and counseling session on the dangers of playing in the roadway the offender was escorted out of the roadway."

This inspired some great responses on Facebook.

Some of my favorites:

"You guys are doing one shell of a job!"

"The offender withdrew and had no comment."

"Turtle Lives Matter!"

"He wasn't speeding was he?"

(Allegedly quoting Trooper Walker at the scene,) "Don't get snappy with me!" 

While in Maryland yesterday, Jeff and I encountered the usual horrible traffic jams on the highways. There appeared to be no particular reason for the backups, they just were. The traffic was so bad it made us miss our flight to South Dakota. (We booked a later one)

Now we're in Yankton, South Dakota, where traffic isn't so bad. But we look forward to returning to Vermont when our visit is done, when we'll probably get stopped on the roads in the Green Mountain State by a traffic tie-up like this one.

Maybe if I put Turtle Wax on both the car and the turtle things would run faster?

Stupid Facebook Commenters Unsure Of Difference Between Latin Language and Latin America

This is Latin America. Very few people in this region
speak the ancient Roman language of Latin.
Just to clear up the obvious, stupid confusion.  

WCAX-TV in Vermont recently ran a minor little feature about an 8th grader in the state who thought it would be a nice idea to have a state motto in Latin.

There's already an English language one, but why not celebrate with a Latin language one, too?

So she came up with "Stella quarter decimal fulgeat," for "May the 14th Star Shine Bright."

A state lawmaker, Joe Benning, thought he'd honor the kid by introducing a bill establishing the Latin Motto.

It's one of those things all legislatures do, these little student-inspired bills that aren't important but educational.

They don't take much time from more pressing duties, it's a feel good celebration, and it it also is meant to make constituents feel all warm and fuzzy.

What could go wrong?

Plenty. According to the Vermont Political Observer, the article was flooded with TONS of angry comments when WCAX posted it on its Facebook page.  

Worse, a frightening number of people are incredibly clueless: In their minds a Latin motto is just another example of those heathen Hispanics illegally crossing over the border, invading us and taking over our culture.

Get it? They don't understand the difference between Latin the old Roman language, and Latin America, the place where many Hispanics come from.

Yeah, I know.  Forehead slap.

Really! Below are some of the comments Vermont Political Observer noted.  Go to their site to see the whole list. I'm glad VPO also noted the commenters names, to call them out in their ignorance.

These are some of my "favorites":

--- Dorothy Lynn Lepisto: "I thought Vermont was American not Latin? Does any Latin places have American mottos?

--- Norman Flanders: "What next Arab motto??"

--- Ken P. Hahn: "How about 'go back south of the boarder (sic)'"

--- Lori Olds: "I thought this was USA why are they trying to make Americans aliens"

--- Chris Ferro: "That's a BIG NO if you life in the United States YOU need to learn ENGLISH!!"

--- Kurtis Jones: "No cause vt ain't no Latino area (whole sentence sic) Leave the motto alone."

--- Ken Curtis: "Just when I felt our represenatives (sic) could not possibly get any dumber, they come up with this..get real...this is the USA not some Moslim (sic) or Mexican country... stop given (sic) in to these people...."

I'm really starting to get sick of writing "(sic)" over and over again, but what can you do in this situation?

Here's a couple more comments on that WCAX article. What the hell. I'm having fun.

--- Kristen Wright "thats (sic) un (sic) called for this is the usa." (sic)

---Kelley Dawley: "How do you say idiotic senator in spanish. (sic) I'd settle for deport illegals in spanish (sic) as a back up motto."

--- Heather Chase: "Seriously?? Last time I checked..real vermonters (sic) were speaking English, NOT LATIN...good god (sic)"

Geez, I wish some of the people who commented on this article could get a grip on the English language.

Or as one other, slightly more sane put it as she commented to WCAX via Facebook: "I do hope the State House looks at this thread and realizes there are serious flaws in our state education system."  

Ya think?!?

Joe Benning, the lawmaker who introduce the Latin motto bill, was philosophical:

"I figure this is a good opportunity for my now ninth grader to learn how to respond to such attacks with fortitude and grace. I hope to be meeting with her and her parents this weekend to continue the educational experience."

Hey, at least our ninth grader seems to know the difference between Latin, the ancient language and Latin America, the region on the globe.

That's a start.

Kirby Delauter Wants Permission Before Media Publishes His Name. Now Kirby Delauter Is This Week's Big Internet Meme.

People are laughing at Kirby
Delauter because Kirby Delauter
does not want Kirby Delauter's
name published anywhere unless
Kirby Delauter grants permission
for the use of the name "Kirby Delauter"  

UPDATE: 

After a 24 hour media storm, in which Kirby Delauter was in EVERY news outlet, he's apparently come to his senses about demanding that people ask him permission before mentioning his name in a news story.

Here's what he said today in a news release:

"I thought I had long ago learned the lesson of waiting 24 hours before I hit the send key, but apparently, I didn't learn that lesson as well as I should have....

Of course, as I am an elected official, the Frederick News-Post has the right to use my name in any article related to the running of the county --that comes with the job.

So yes, my statement to the Frederick News-Post regarding the use of my name was wrong and inappropriate. I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong."

Well, good. We've got that straightened out.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION: 

Like it or not, if you're a politician from local city councilor on up to President of the United States, your name is going to get in the paper. Or any media for that matter.

You might like the coverage you get. You might hate it. But you're name is going to be in the paper.

According to the Frederick (Maryland) News-Post, Frederick County Councilman Kirby Delauter decided, hey, First Amendment, Smirst Amendment.

Anybody has the right to print a name in the media, as long as they're not being libelous. But Delauter decided the News-Post's coverage of him was unfair, so he demanded they ask his permission before even mentioning him anywhere in the publication. 

Now Kirby Delauter says he's going to sue the paper because the paper put his name in a story anyway.

Kirby Delauter! Kirby Delauter! Kirby Delauter!

Oh, sorry, I got carried away there with my First Amendment enthusiasm. My bad.

Kirby Delauter learned today that if you want to keep your name out of the media, you don't demand that people keep your name out of the media. #KirbyDelauter was among the Top 10 most trending hashtags on Twitter Tuesday evening.

The popularity of the name "Kirby Delauter" really got underway when the Frederick News-Post decided to have fun with a little editorial highlighting how ridiculous Kirby Delauter is for demanding publications ask his permission before mentioning his name.

The paper has trolled Delauter in the most fun way with an editorial headline: "Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter."

The editorial goes on to mention him by name 27 times. Plus the first letter of each paragraph in the editorial spells out "Kirby Delauter."

Here's the Facebook exchange, since
deleted, of the exchange between
Kirby Delauter and a Frederick, Maryland
News-Post reporter. Click on the image
to make it bigger and more readable.  

The paper speculated, tongues firmly in cheek, that they could get around Delauter's edict by giving him sort of a hip hop name like K-Del.

Or just change letters around to make him Sherbert Deluder, Derby Kelauter or Shirley Delaughter.

Of course, the editorial made its serious point:

"Kirby Delauter's ignorance of what journalism is and does is no joke and illustrates one disturbing aspect too prevalent in conservatives' beliefs: That the media are all-liberal stooges hell bent on pursuing some fictional leftwing agenda."

As Washington Post blogger Eugene Volokh put it: "Uh, Council Member: In our country, newspapers are actually allowed to write about elected officials (and others) without their permission. It's an avant garde experiment, to be sure, but we've had some success with it. You know that whole First Amendment thing."

Back to the Frederick News-Post editorial:

"Enough. Seriously. What's Kirby Delauter going to do? Sue everyone who's making fun of him on Twitter using the #kirbydelauter hashtag or on Facebook? Boy, his attorney will be able to retire off that."

Kirby Delauter's attorney is going to be extremely busy, since most major media outlets in the nation have picked up this story. Even the BBC is covering it. And there's a Kirby Delauter parody Twitter account. He's being skewered on Facebook, too. 

So many Kirby Delauter jokes and parodies!  

This is a classic example of the Streisand Effect, named for the time Barbra Strisand tried to stop people from photographing her Malibu home.

Her efforts garnered lots of attention and suddenly the whole world heard about it, and was laughing at the attempts.

Now, though, we're all paying attention to Kirby Delauter, who at this rate is going to be more famous in the Internet than Kim Kardashian.

As long as Kirby Delauter doesn't post a photo of his butt on the Internet like Kardashian did, I'm happy.

Thanks, Kirby Delauter for entertaining us today.

Sexist Moron Objects to Female Pilot; Rest of World Rolls Their Eyes

A note scrawled on a napkin during a WestJet flight recently has gone viral.  

The sexist note read around the world  

In it, some moron wrote: "To Capt/WestJet. The cockpit of an airline is no place for a woman. A woman being a mother is the most honor, not a "captain."

Our Neanderthal goes on to wish that somebody would have alerted him before the flight that the pilot was a woman, so he could have rebooked.

Of course, I don't have to tell you this guy is more screwed than he thinks.  Imagine how many women besides the captain contributed in some way to the fact the his flight went smoothly and uneventfully.

I did a quick check of WestJet's top level staff and found many positions are held by women. Those positions include business solutions analyst, information technology manager, business analyst, corporate executive, contact for maintenance, materials manager and it goes on and on.

Our napkin scrawler is really screwed because, as the rest of the world knows, the large number of women at WestJet is typical of most companies. First of all, women probably had a hand in building and maintaining the engines in the plane that got Neanderthan Man to his destination safely.

And he's screwed in the rest of his life, too. Women probably helped design and build the car he drives, they probably had a role in designing and building the road he drives on, the house he lives in, and the laptop he might have used to book his WestJet plane tickets.

The pilot in question, Capt. Carey Smith Steacy, posted a photo of the loser's note on Facebook, which is how the world found out about it.

Steacy accompanied the photo with these words, which are in agreement with the points I just made:

"To David: Thank you for the note, you discreetly left me on your seat..... I respectfully disagree with your opinion that the 'cockpit' (we now call it the flight deck as no cocks are required) is no place for a lady. In fact, there are no places that are not for ladies anymore."  

So, Hide, David Hide!   Run! The 17th century is calling for you! Hurry!

Maybe a woman will invent a time machine for you so you can go back to the days of yore, where you belong.

"Suspended Coffee" To Treat Needy People Bad Idea, Says Consumerist

One of the latest crazes on Facebook is a story about "Suspended Coffee:"

How that works is, people go into a coffee shop and order maybe two coffees, "one for me, one suspended."

Nice idea, but some say the "suspended
coffee" movement is misguided

The customer pays for both coffees, and later, a person without money theoretically comes in to get their free coffee.

The customer feels good for being charitable, the coffee shop personnel feel good about helping others with free coffee and the needy person feels good for getting free coffee.

I can't criticize the idea behind Suspended Coffees. It's a really nice gesture.

However, Consumerist throws cold coffee water on this seemingly nice, giving idea, however.

It all goes to prove that being nice to strangers, to anybody, is more complicated than we want it to be, or even think about.

First of all, says Consumerist, "suspended coffee" is mostly a creature of Facebook. Many homeless or low income people aren't on Facebook. So the people who aren't on social media get left out of all the help, because many of these people don't even know to ask for their "suspended coffee"

Second, Consumerist asks, is this idea means tested? What's to stop somebody who can well afford a whole coffee plantation, much less one cup of coffee, from coming in and asking for a free "suspended coffee"?

Consumerists also points out coffee isn't particularly nutritious. Plus, they ask, isn't it nicer to just show up at a food pantry or something to volunteer and have actual contact with the people seeking help?

A British coffee shop owner also blogged about suspended coffee being a bad idea.

First of all, if somebody staggered into a coffee shop desperately poor, freezing cold and starving, the owner would give away a warm drink to that person whether or not somebody already paid for a suspended coffee.

Small, independent local coffee shops often already give back to the community without well meaning but flashy campaigns like suspended coffee.

And, says the blogger, there's a chance an unscrupulous coffee shop owner could take money from people buying "suspended coffee" then just pocket the money without giving anything away.

So, if you want to help a poor person out in the street, you're just going to have to deal with him or her directly.

On Cue, Here Come the Sandy Hook Massacre Scam Artists

All of us want to show our support for the people of Newtown, Connecticut, who lost so much and are suffering so terribly in the wake of Friday's Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Well, most of us anyway. You might have noticed on Facebook and Twitter and other social media invites to "like" or otherwise acknowledge or donate money to memorial pages and memes for the shooting victims.

It's easy and natural to respond to the invites. We want to do something to help. But according to Consumerist.com, most of those invites are scams.

The ones that ask for money are often run by people who will just pocket the money.

The memorial sites that just want you to "like" or support turn out to be dangerous, too. They seem safe. A friend you know on Facebook has liked the page, and invites you to like it, too. Since your friend is trustworthy, you like the page, too, to show support for both your friend and the Newtown victims.

What you and your friend don't know is this process means the memorial pages and memes get a lot of traffic and likes and whatnot. That, in turn, means these pages become financially valuable. The operators of these pages later sell the site on an online market, and somebody makes a lot of money of your good will.

Plus, these pages and such get converted to some sort of lousy product advertisement, and then a few months down the road you and friends get spammed.

Charming, no?

Obviously, the people who do these sorts of scams deserve a really horrible place in hell. Really, using the nation's grief to make a buck. I don't know what the criminal penalties are for all this, but I hope it's extreme.

So, go ahead and donate money through a known, reputable organization that you've researched. Show your support for the people of Newtown.
But ignore those prepackaged Facebook memorials that are popping up in your feed over and over again. Most communities hit by tragedy post information about reputable organizations on their Web sites, so check that out, according to Technorati.

I noticed the Town of Newtown, Connecticut has information on their Web page on how to donate, how to help.

That's the best way to ensure your support is really felt. They sure need it.

More Frauds, Scams Confusion for Everybody Who Goes On Line, i.e. All of Us.

Seems every day, I see awful new ways were awful people screw up your life via computer.

Online scams are old hat. Now, the New York Times is reporting on "ransomware" in which creeps infect your PC with a virus that freezes up everything, except for the message they send, saying if you send them a bunch of money, they'll unfreeze the thing.

Of course, they don't unfreeze the computer when victims send the money, but people try anyway, and the criminals get the money.

Most of the criminals seem to be those shadowy overseas figures you always hear about, usually from Eastern Europe. I imagine prosecuting these creeps isn't going to happen too often. I guess all you can wish for is karma.

The stolen money isn't the worst of it. Basically, when this happens, you have to call in an expert to rid your computer of the virus. And in doing so, the expert has to wipe away all your files. I guess this will encourage me to back up stuff, won't it?"

Things really have gone beyond the Nigerian money scams, haven't they?

In a much less serious bit of Internet weirdness, many people on Facebook are saying they are on the social networking site as having "liked" a company or cause and they insist they have done no such thing, according to Bernard Meisler at readwrite.com

There's some nonsensical likes, according to Meisler. A liberal supposedly liked Mitt Romney, an opponent of big box retailers is purported to have liked Walmart, and a vegetarian liked McDonald's.

Even dead people on Facebook are reported to be "liking" things. Really, how many dead people shop or order things through Amazon.com?

My understanding is Facebook "likes" can make money for whoever is liked, and that could tempt people into finding fraudulent ways to get liked.

I really, really unlike all of this.

Meisler links to an October Business Insider piece that suggests if you reference a URL on your Facebook page, that might translate to a like, even if you were hating on whatever was in the Web site whose URL you referenced.

Facebook cracked down on fake likes earlier this autumn, but the problem seems to persist.

Facebook insists that people are probably liking things by accident as they fumble with the wrong buttons on their tiny smartphones, Meisler writes. The dead people liking things are probably a function of them hitting like buttons before they died, and the likes subsequently show up post mortem.

Meisler said maybe Facebook isn't doing this. It could be the retailers found a way to have their products, services or people liked by people who had no idea somebody was liking something on their behalf. Or a third party is selling the fake likes, Meisler speculates.

The bottom line is, it's more true than ever that many of us really don't know what we like.

Facebook Angst Brings World to a Stop

As you undoubtedly heard or saw, Facebook made some changes today that are causing worldwide gnashing of teeth and a crisis mentality that seems to be outstripping concerns about war, economic meltdowns, and the global sense of relief that Chaz Bono survived the first round of cuts in Dancing With the Stars.

I admit I have been among those who is reacting to  Facebook changes as if they were the biggest crisis since The Gong Show went off the air around 1980 And believe me, the demise of the Gong Show was a terrible crisis.

The biggest problem I and a lot of other people are having with the new Facebook is friends' posts no longer appear in chronological order.

Instead, they appear in a way that Facebook thinks users would prioritize their incoming messages in order of importance or level of interest.

I  can't speak for everybody, but really, if Facebook thinks they can figure out how my mind works, they're in trouble. Figuring out how my mind works is like determining in precise detail the logic of the thought process in a puppy sufferng from OCD, ADHD and bipolar disorder.

Facebook should just back sloooowwwlly away from my mind and let it wander as it sees fit. Nobody gets hurt that way.

Facebook says this new arrangement will help people who haven't been to their Facebook pages lately and just want to look at the high priority stuff first. Logical enough, but some people, like me, think linearly, so we can process information as it came in.

Here's how Facebook engineer Mark Tonkelowit  put it:  

'When you pick up a newspaper after not reading it for a week, the front page quickly clues you into the most interesting stories. In the past, News Feed hasn't worked like that.  Updates slide down in chronological order so it's tough to zero in on what matters most.  Now, News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper. You won't have to worry about missing important stuff.'

Fine, but why not give us a choice? Some people can choose the new Facebook system if it works for them, and us weirdos who like things in chronological order can keep doing that.

My suspicion is that Facebook is forcing these changes, rather than giving us options, because advertisers rule. Maybe this new setup will somehow enable marketers to target our interests, so advertisers will flock to Facebook to ensure its profitability.

Look, Facebook is a business, and businesses exist to hopefully make money for owners and investors. Businesses do not owe us free stuff, free of attached strings.

So they have to do stuff that maximizes profits. Which is probably the real reason why these changes went into effect.

Of course, a business has to make changes in a way that doesn't annoy customers to the point where they flee to somewhere else.

In Facebook's case, they can get away with this, despite angering lots of people because they are too big to fail. Not too big to fail like banks during the financial crisis, which would have toppled the global economy if they'd failed.

Failing in Facebook's case might be, say,  losing a quarter of its customers. Which would leave millions of people still with Facebook. Which would mean it would remain a going entity.

This is why I like smaller companies. Big outfits, like airlines for instance, can enact this mishmash of fees that we don't understand and piss us all off, and make us feel cheated because we kind of need the planes to travel. Big outfits can essentially tell us to go pound sand.

Small companies to me seem more willing to work with customers, to make money but at the same time don't bury people in red tape and frustration.

The problem is, a lot of us need Facebook, too. Sure, I can just quit Facebook, but nowadays, when you want to promote yourself or let people know you exist, or build a business, you have to use social media like Facebook or Twitter.

This new Facebook set up annoys me, but it's not like they're demanding my right arm, or that I give up all my worldly possessions and join some Facebook cult.

So, I'll deal with it.  In the grand scheme of things, the Great Facebook Crisis of '11 is about is important as whether Charlie Sheen can revive his career.

In other words, I doubt I'll lose much sleep over this.  Unless I'm up all night trying to figure out how to see Facebook posts from friends I want to connect with.














Analysts have said that by doing this it will give Facebook even more data about its users and enable them to target adverts with greater precision than they can now.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2039726/Facebook-changes-News-ticker-stories-meet-mixed-reception.html#ixzz1YbMizSwG


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2039726/Facebook-changes-News-ticker-stories-meet-mixed-reception.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Sifting Through Tornado Photos

One of the many awful things about those extreme tornadoes in the South this week is that the storms literally scattered residents' memories to the winds.

Photos found after the Tuscaloosa tornado
this week

Close to 300 people died in the storms.

Many of the survivors lost everything, including treasured family photographs. Many pieces of homes in devastated Tuscaloosa, Alabama,  probably including photos and important papers, rained down from the sky as many as 60 miles away. The tornado was that powerful.

As a small way to help, and as a memorial of sorts, a Facebook page of found photographs from the tornado has appeared.

People who found the photos are scanning them and posting them on the page. Maybe some people will find the photos and claim them. It might help a little.