Crusader's Corner

Online Privacy Is An Oxymoron

2011-09-12T11:36:00.001-07:00

If you want privacy, stay off of social networking sites. (Now you don't have to read the rest of this blog, unless of course you are curious.)

Here's where social networking can come back and bite you in the ass without you (or me) even knowing about it!

I happen to be signed up with LinkedIn, Spacebook and Twitter. I like to reserve LinkedIn for its intended purpose (professionals hooking up with other professionals), while using Spacebook and Twitter as my playground or sandbox to say whatever the fuck I like.

After all, I am self-employed and it's not healthy living in a closet of any kind. No, I am not going to tell folks on social network sites what I ate for breakfast or how bad my sex life is, but if I think of something funny, I have no problems putting it up on Twitter and/or Spacebook, no matter how crude. (And you thought Beavis and Butt-head and the South Park gang were the only ones with "potty mouth syndrome"!)

I just learned that the viewing of "My Activity" on LinkedIn appears to have a default setting of "ALL CONNECTIONS," which I had no clue until I heard from a friend of mine who happens to be a professional in the real estate industry (no, not my FB friend A.J., but someone else).

For convenience, I have my Twitter linked with Spacebook so that friends of mine on Spacebook who are NOT also signed up with Twitter can see my posts on Spacebook. I like to use Twitter to post my one-liners.

So I posted a tweet in late July that read, "Weird that I keep getting emails about how I can make my penis bigger. Don't these people already know that I am a real big dick?"

I had no clue at the time that those feeds were also ending up on LinkedIn, which is set up for professional social networking, not really a place to goof around. All of my connections who wanted to could see the post in question.

My good friend, who was one of my connections on LinkedIn, decided to comment on the penis post from within the LinkedIn site. She simply wrote, "I get the SAME emails. What a hoot!" She was unaware that by doing that, ALL of her LinkedIn connections (many of whom are professionals within the real estate industry) would see her comment AND my original Twitter/Facebook post.

I had no clue either, and wasn't real thrilled to learn about all this after the fact. I have since changed my LinkedIn settings so that "My Activity" on social networking sites is seen "ONLY BY ME."

About one week after my penis post, my real estate friend emailed me and told me she would have to unfriend me on Spacebook and that she was actually "cancelling" her LinkedIn account as a result of all this.

Her e-mail to me said, in part:
"When you remarked about the ads for p---- enlargements and I responded that I get the same ads, it showed up on Facebook, LinkedIn, and EVERYONE I'm connected with . . . One of the agents mentioned it after our office meeting today, while there were still plenty of agents standing around . . . ."

I thought to myself, "Holy crap, Batman, how does this shit happen?" Well, now we know.

Bottom line: If you have a sensitive job (pole dancing, for example), are cheating on your spouse/lover, doing one thing when you told someone you are really doing something else, it just might end up in cyberspace.

If you want privacy (which really no longer exists), keep a low profile and stay off of ALL social networking sites. Or if you do go on those sites, just stay in the closet (which isn't a whole heck of a lot of fun).

Perhaps Spacebook founder Mark Zuckerdoodah was right when he talked about the issue of privacy in 2010. I was critical of him then, but now I totally get it: what privacy?

How I Got AT&T and Samsung to Show Me the Money!

2011-06-23T06:06:00.001-07:00

Let me start with: Pay the extra $5.00 every month for cell phone insurance; it's cheaper than Xanax!

Well, it's been nearly a year since I have had any major disputes with my wireless carrier (AT&T); pretty amazing, considering my overall experience with them as a longtime customer.

After months of research, in August 2010, I purchased a Samsung Galaxy S Android Captivate phone.

About two months after purchasing the phone, I noticed what folks are terming "screen burn" or "screen burn-in" on my phone display. Remnants of my applications, battery indicator, signal strength indicator, time of day (you name it) are forever burned into the display of a phone that I paid nearly $200 for (and retails now for around $450).

I started researching the issue online and found hundreds of reports in the reputable tech forums, such as Android Forums, ADA Developer, etc. Other folks were experiencing the same problem with the AMOLED or Super AMOLED displays on their cell phone, no matter the carrier. (Please see references at the very end of my blog for links to the forums and articles with detailed info on this topic.)

At first I thought the screen burn was something that I was responsible for, like charging the phone too long, having the display on a lot (even at dim level), etc. But when I got anal about unplugging the phone as soon as it was fully charged, reducing my "display time" each day, and double-checking to make sure it was on "auto dim," the problem still became worse each and every month.

A few months back I showed the phone to a rep at an ATT store and she said, "Yeah, that's not right, I'm sure our warranty department will fix it, but you have to go to a special ATT store for same-day exchange, transfer of data from one phone to another," etc. That "special store" was at least 80 miles away and I didn't care to make a 160-mile round trip.

My friends think I'm kidding when I tell other ATT customers to always take at least one Xanax an hour before calling ATT Customer Service and literally plan to spend one, two, or even up to three hours on the phone with reps, supervisors, or even the Office of the President at ATT.

I called ATT about a month ago regarding my Captivate and was transferred to the Warranty Department and she confirmed the information what was told to me by the ATT store rep.

I said, "Don't you still drop-ship new phones to customers who have a broken phone under warranty so they aren't stuck without a phone?"

To my surprise (and dismay) the lady in ATT Warranty said, "We don't do that anymore, sorry." Silly me, I took her word for it. Ends up, I find out later, she was wrong.

In addition to the ongoing display problem, the earphone plug started crapping out on me in late May, so I figured I better get the phone exchanged because it will be out of warranty this August.

Based on previous information given to me, I played it safe and upgraded the second line I have for a colleague and paid cash out of pocket for a new Captivate ($135, including tax). After I placed that order (on June 7), I called 611 from my phone to make sure I am prepared before my new phone arrives to follow the proper procedures for swapping numbers to different SIM cards because when you upgrade one number and install a SIM from another number, it can create problems.

I forgot to take my own advice (regarding Xanax) before calling 611, but ended up with a very nice and competent rep, which helped. I told her my saga, and she said, "What Warranty told you a few months ago is not correct. We still drop-ship phones to customers and then they have 14 days to return the damaged phone to us under warranty."

She even double-checked on her computer and confirmed that the policy had not changed. When she connected me with a Warranty rep, she again confirmed with that rep that the policy had not changed.

While the original rep stayed on the line, the Warranty rep asked me to describe the problems with my phone. She put me on hold, came back on the line and says, "Sorry, that's not covered. When you go to the Market Place and download apps, things can happen to your phone" blah blah blah.

I quickly interrupted her and said, "What does the Google Market Place have to do with whether screen burn is covered under warranty," and she gave me another song-and-dance number.

I told her I had seen hundreds of apparently reputable posts on tech and cell phone forums online (including ATT's own forum) and she said, "We don't pay attention to what people post in forums." "Okay," I thought to myself; whatever.

I told her this was unacceptable, that ATT is basically saying I did something to cause the problem on my phone, which is not the case; that it is clearly a known issue and they (and/or Samsung) should cover the phone under warranty.

She called Samsung while the original rep and I chatted. During that hold time, the rep credited my ATT wireless account for $55.00 for the inconvenience of the whole thing and waived the $18.00 upgrade fee I had to shell out for a new phone because of no fault of my own.

The Warranty rep came back on the line and said, "I just spoke to a rep at Samsung Warranty and they say screen burn isn't a known issue and they won't cover the repair or replacement, so there's nothing we can do about it at AT&T." She sympathized with me and agreed it didn't sound like I damaged the phone in any way, but the warranty language is very clear about all of this stuff. Yeah, I thought to myself, it's clear if you're an attorney.

I then said, "Well, what about the earphone jack being broken by no fault of my own. Can I at least get that fixed under warranty?"

She said, "No, you can't. If we send that phone in for repair under the warranty for the earphone jack and Samsung sees screen burn, which they don't cover, they won't fix the earphone jack." She said they would also charge me the retail price of the phone if they repair or replace anything that is not covered by the warranty.
I was thinking to myself, but didn't tell the rep, "Is this where I hire a class action attorney?"

So we dumped the Warranty rep from the line and the original rep and I chatted. I asked her to escalate this higher and a very nice supervisor came on the line. He also sympathized with my plight, but said I would have to take it up with Samsung directly, there was nothing ATT could really do at this point.

When I pressed him about me having to shell out money for an upgrade that I really shouldn't have had to do, he gladly credited my wireless account another $50.00, so that plus the other credits nearly covered my out-of-pocket expense for the new Captivate. I thanked him and told him the original rep went above and beyond the call of duty and to please put a commendation in her file.

I then called Samsung and explained the entire situation to the first rep who answered (he clearly was an outsourced worker in some distant land) and he said, "No problem, we will fix your problems with your phone; I am issuing an RMA number and a free shipping label which will come to you via e-mail." I told him "thanks" and that I wanted to speak with a supervisor so that hopefully the screen burn issue would be properly handled in the future by ATT Warranty AND Samsung Warranty departments; other consumers shouldn't be put through this nonsense.

He transferred me to a supervisor and that person promised they would make a note, blah blah blah.

About a week after shipping my phone to Samsung, I received it back, expertly repaired with a NEW display, touchscreen and earphone jack. As such, the phone qualifies as “refurbished by manufacturer,” so I can fetch a decent price for it on eBay; sweet!

Since screen burn is obviously a "known issue" with phones (and even TVs) that have this type of display, I recommend that everyone who invests good money in a smart phone take out the $5.00 monthly insurance plan because then NO MATTER WHAT, even if you drop the phone in a swimming pool or toilet or throw your phone at Donald Trump, you get a replacement phone without dickering around for hours, days, or weeks with ATT and/or Samsung!

I'm not sure it was worth the aggravation, but I did get what was owed to me and then some. ATT reimbursed most of my new phone replacement expense and Samsung restored my broken phone to original working condition free of charge.

When a consumer has reasonable issues with a company, it is important to never take "no" for an answer. Just be patient, keep taking it up the ladder from supervisor to supervisor; threaten to take your business elsewhere; or, if relevant, tell them you are calling the tech journalists at the major newspapers about the problem.

Last June when I had an issue with ATT changing my data plan without proper notification, as soon as Rob Pegoraro, then a tech journalist at the Washington Post, contacted the spokesperson for ATT, I heard right back from the Office of the President at ATT. I just learned that Pegoraro, a very talented journalist, parted ways with the Post in April of this year and is now with Discovery News.

Quite frankly, I would be happier if ATT wasn't the lowest-rated wireless carrier (per Laptop magazine and J.D. Power and Associates), but if they want to keep putting money in my pocket, I will tolerate when they craptivate on me.

Anyhow, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

REFERENCES:

1) Wikipedia article "Organic light-emitting diode":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_light-emitting_diode
*includes link for "Screen burn-in"; article also refers to Samsung's screen.

2) Wikipedia article, "Active-matrix OLED":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoled

3) Android Forums recent posts regarding screen burn-in:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s2/280935-screen-burn-galaxy-s2.html

4) XDA-Developers forum posts from owners of both the Samsung Captivate and Focus experiencing screen burn:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-937667.html

5) Burn-in on Nexus One Google phone:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?tid=57325a5900f1a491&hl=en

6) Whirlpool forums re Galaxy S, which is the class of phones that Captivate, Fascinate, etc. belong to:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1705139

Top 10 Reasons Why Christine O'Donnell is Not a Real Witch

2010-10-25T05:14:00.001-07:00

10) A real witch pays for his/her own stuff, while O'Donnell steals campaign funds to pay for her stuff.

9) Since a real witch might have problems hooking up for sexual relations, masturbation might be very important.

8) A real witch definitely does not wear white pearls with a black dress.

7) Historically speaking, homosexuals are huge fans of real witches, but they don't care for O'Donnell, so she can't be for real.

6) A real witch isn't as scary as O'Donnell serving in the Senate.

5) A real witch would take pride in her witchery and never say "I'm not a witch."

4) A real witch would never go to a tea party, since a witch prefers witch's brew.

3) A real witch knows that the freedom to cast spells and make potions is not protected by the First Amendment.

2) A real witch knows that "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" is a movie, not a case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

And, finally, the Number 1 reason why Christine O'Donnell is not a real witch:

A real witch uses a broomstick for transportation, whereas Christine O'Donnell shoved a broomstick so far up her ass that it caused permanent brain damage!

Radio for Outcasts Across the Globe

2010-10-04T05:29:00.001-07:00

Citizen Who? Jamie Who? Allison Who?
Read on to find out about a radio program that has fired me up enough to write my first blog article in more than four months!

Now that I have a real cell phone (Samsung Captivate Android), there is no excuse for me not to stay informed about what's going on in the world.

Unlike my former Zune 120GB MP3 player (since sold on eBay), managing podcasts is much simpler, less time-consuming, and more immediate utilizing a smart phone.

My news interests are as varied as my musical interests. Yes, I very enjoy Rachel Maddow, Anderson Cooper, and a very cool news app (Newsy.com) right from my cell. However, I am not bashful to admit that I also watch Fox News and rarely miss a Bill O'Reilly Talking Points Memo (for educational purposes only; kinda like how my dad used to subscribe to Playboy for the articles, not the pictures).

Call me a size queen, but four inches just isn't big enough for my viewing pleasure, so I simply connect my cell phone to a computer monitor in my home office using a cable that costs less than $10 on Amazon. The quality of the picture isn't fabulous, but is tolerable for watching news programs.

How Citizen Radio Found Me

Mistakes are great because that is how we learn. In my case, after accidentally deleting the Rachel Maddow podcast from my playlist, I went back into my podcast app (DoggCatcher) to search for her show. "Citizen Radio" pops up in the search results along with a brief description that of Maddow being interviewed on the show. I said to myself, "What the fuck is Citizen Radio?" followed by, "If Maddow is a guest, how bad can it be? I will check it out."

Wow, what a discovery! For me, the program is like a time warp back to the 1980s when I was just a teenager and serving on the Orange County (California) Central Committee of the Peace and Freedom Party. Having grown up Behind the Orange Curtain in oppressive Anaheim, that was the party for me; it had my name written all over it.

At the moment, I am so fed up with the Democratic party that I have downloaded a voter registration form as I am likely to change back to Peace and Freedom, because there really hasn't been (in my 49 years) and probably will never be a place at the table for true progressives in the Democratic party.

In any event, the folks behind Citizen Radio (now broadcasting their 170-something episode from New York) are Jamie Kilstein (some type of comic) and his wife, Allison Kilkenny (some type of columnist). It really isn’t important "who" they are, because the show is just phenomenal. It is fresh, funny, and most importantly UNCENSORED, just like Crusader’s Corner.

I was rolling on the floor laughing my ass off while listening to a recent segment of "One-Minute Fuck You." Kilstein's "fuck you" to Sarah Palin had me in stitches. In fact, I hope I can find an app to make a copy of just that one segment so I can store it on my phone to listen to whenever I get depressed.

What's So Great About Citizen Radio?

Citizen Radio goes where no program has gone before. Goes beyond Rachel Maddow, Keith Olberman, and even way beyond Bill Maher (which I never thought possible). Simply put, Citizen Radio picks up where Democracy Now! (The War and Peace Report) leaves off.

Jamie and Allison have very animated discussions about politics, animal rights, veganism, foreign affairs, and other stuff. The show is totally independent and receives no corporate sponsorships (sorta like the concept behind Consumer's Union / Consumer Reports).

Educational

The program is helping me to rediscover my inner progressive child as I quickly approach 50 and I am getting an education which supersedes anything I might learn from watching CNN, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, etc.

Speaking of education, I was not aware of the progressive punk group Rise Against until listening to their recent interview on Citizen Radio.

A great book title comes to mind: "All I Really Need to Know I Learned on Citizen Radio."

What About Fat People?

My only major criticism is Citizen Radio doesn't have T-shirts in their online store big enough for fat asses like me (a large, their biggest size, will only fit over half of my stomach). Maybe they need a call from the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA)?

Despite Citizen Radio being T-shirt-size challenged, count me in, Jamie and Allison, as a devoted godless maniac!

What Death Penalty?

2010-05-11T09:10:00.001-07:00

(San Quentin, CA) Associated Press writer Paul Elias recently reported that California's death penalty is "dysfunctional." Tell us something we don't already know.

"Only 13 condemned inmates have been executed from the time capital punishment resumed in the state in 1977 until February 2006, when U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel halted executions until prison officials revamped their lethal injection process," the article stated.

Elias reports that capital cases cost the state an additional $125 million a year to administer and the Department of Corrections has spent $400 million for a new death chamber and death row.

I can't help but wonder how many children that money could feed and educate.

In California, all death penalty cases are automatically appealed and cannot be waived by the inmate who has been sentenced to death. In fact, the inmate cannot represent him/herself in these appeals.

There's Something Good in Everybody

I have been corresponding with inmates throughout the United States for decades, primarily to assist with civil and human rights issues, wrongful convictions, and that type of thing. However, I have also corresponded with "bad guys" because my father (to this day) tells me there is something good in everybody.

I recently received a letter from one of those "bad guys" (or in this case, a badass mofo), San Quentin death row inmate Daniel Carl Frederickson.

According to an archived article in the Los Angeles Times, Frederickson shot and killed Santa Ana HomeBase manager Scott Wilson (of Costa Mesa) during a June 13, 1996, botched robbery at the store. Wilson was 30 at the time and Frederickson was around 33.

In 1998, Frederickson, who acted as his own fool -- er, I mean attorney -- at trial, was convicted and sentenced to death by an Orange County Superior Court jury. We have been corresponding sporadically since he's been on death row.

Although we have been at odds with each other the majority of the time, I have to admit that Frederickson's letter to me in late March presents some interesting and challenging issues (legally and morally) when it comes to California's death penalty.

In the letter to me, Frederickson says he doesn't want to represent himself, he simply wants to waive all appeals. "I never asked them to let me represent myself on appeal. I don't want an appeal, never did . . . . Everything has been against my right to be a man and step up to accept my culpability and punishment. The system is set up to favor all liars and cowards and unrepentant people of no conscious (sic)."

California Supremes Say Forgeddaboutit!

"The Supreme Court has received your undated pro se documents . . . in which you again seek to waive or abandon your automatic appeal . . . from the trial court's judgment of death," states a March 16, 2010, letter to Frederickson from Supreme Court of California Automatic Appeals Monitor Robert D. Reichman. (Gee, is this the guy who always wanted to be hall monitor as a kid?)

The letter goes on to cite various California cases and statutes that hold solid current law that criminal defendants have no right to "represent himself or herself on appeal" and that the supreme court has sole discretion to appoint "counsel on appeal from a judgment of death."

Finally, the letter closes: "Your appeal cannot be abandoned or waived. The documents you submitted will not be filed. The court will not respond to any further correspondence regarding these issues."

Personally, I am (and have always been) opposed to the death penalty. At the same time, since criminal defendants (even those facing the death penalty) have the right to represent themselves at trial, why shouldn't the same hold true on appeal? Furthermore, if they want to waive their right to appeal, so what?

Sorry for sounding like a Republican, but if the State of California were to grant Frederickson's request, it will save the taxpayers (and a nearly bankrupt state) lots of money which could be better spent in other areas of criminal justice. Isn't that true justice?

Professor Jessie Daniels: The Complete Interview

2009-07-27T03:47:00.001-07:00

Jessie Daniels, PhD, is an author and professor at Hunter College in New York City.

Recognized as a national expert on white racism, she was featured in Elizabeth Thompson’s award-winning documentary (Nashville Film Festival, 2000) "BLINK," about a supposedly reformed white supremacist. Dr. Daniels is a frequent contributor to the blog Racism Review.

She is the author of two books, White Lies (Routledge, 1997) and Cyber Racism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).

Shortly after the horrific hate crime and execution that took place at Washington, DC's United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Crusader's Corner interviewed Dr. Daniels for the June 19, 2009, article How We Can Conquer Hate: An In-depth Analysis.

Because of the length of that article, I had to leave out a lot of good comments from the people that I interviewed. Here is the entire e-mail interview between Crusader's Corner and Dr. Daniels.

Crusader: After 9/11, many Muslims and people from the Middle East fell under the law enforcement radar in the United States. Many who had absolutely no connection to terrorism were interrogated and/or arrested. Here we have an elderly Caucasian convicted felon (von Brunn) who has clearly been espousing hate for decades, yet no one was keeping an eye on him on the day of the Holocaust Museum incident. Your thoughts?

Dr. Daniels: Clearly, who is - and who is not - regarded as a "terrorist" or a "threat" to national security was greatly influenced by the events of 9/11. And the fact that 19 hijackers were from the Middle East (most were from Saudi Arabia, by the way) gave people in the U.S. a strong association. But, it is quite simply wrong to equate "Middle Eastern with "terrorist.

What most people tend to forget is that prior to 9/11/2001, the largest incident of domestic terrorism was the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh - a Caucasian, and like von Brunn, a white supremacist.

It's unfortunate that law enforcement has been distracted by the false equation of "Middle Eastern" with terrorist, but we have to remember that this shift in focus was led by the federal government under Bush with his creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The Bush DHS had an explicitly "Other" (read: Middle Eastern) focus when it came to addressing terrorism.

I'm hopeful that this is changing under President Obama as indicated by the release of the DHS report from Napolitano recently, which urged a renewed focus on "domestic terrorism." I certainly think that von Brunn qualifies as a "domestic terrorist."

Crusader: Had you known about von Brunn prior to the museum incident? If so, does it surprise you that no one in Law Enforcementland was watching him?

Dr. Daniels: No, I wasn't familiar with von Brunn specifically because he was not the focus of my research (and I leave 'tracking' to the experts at ADL, Wiesenthal and SPLC).

To your second question here, no, I'm not at all surprised to learn that Law Enforcement wasn't watching von Brunn. As the FBI spokesperson said at one of the press conferences recently, they interpreted his website (and by extension all hate speech online) as 'protected speech' under the First Amendment so they took no action to monitor him or his website.

Crusader: According to Time, on the day before the museum incident, Rev. Jeremiah Wright is quoted as saying, "Them Jews ain't going to let him [Obama] talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office . . . They will not let him to talk to somebody who calls a spade what it is. . . . I said from the beginning: He's a politician; I'm a pastor. He's got to do what politicians do."

Your reaction?

Dr. Daniels: A number of people in the news, primarily at FoxNews, have made a great deal out of Rev. Wright's statements. I abhor anti-Semitism in any form and think it should be condemned, even when it comes from a member of the black community. That said, I think it's wrong to equate Rev. Wright's statements with the actions of von Brunn, which is what a lot of people are doing when they bring this up in this context.

There are many ways that 'hate speech' is implicated in the death of the guard, Mr. Johns, at the Holocaust Museum -- von Brunn's hate speech, the hate speech of right-wing pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly that give space to such violence -- and this hate speech is almost exclusively generated and distributed by white people.

Raising the issue of Rev. Wright's statements is a red herring to deflect from the Caucasian problem that connects von Brunn, McVeigh, Limbaugh and O'Reilly.

Crusader: Should websites (and pages from social networking sites) espousing racism, anti-Semitism, and other hate be banned or barred in any way shape or form, or is it better to know thy enemy?

Dr. Daniels: In my view, any website that espouses racism, anti-Semitism or other hate should be removed (either by law enforcement or by the ISP) and the publisher of that hate speech should be held accountable.

While I strongly believe that the U.S. should adopt laws that are more in line with other democracies that regulate hate speech, I'm realistic enough to realize that this kind of change may take long years to accomplish.

In the meantime, most of the ISP (Internet Service Providers) and hosting services that provide the server space and Internet connections that make publishing hate online possible are actually in violation of their own TOS (Terms of Service) agreement. If other people - other customers - get upset and demand that the hosts or ISPs no longer publish the sites, that's a step in the right direction.

Crusader: For whatever reason, von Brunn's website is no longer active (although cache pages can be viewed via various search engines).

Dr. Daniels: Right, not surprising. See my comment above about the ISP/hosting service. My guess - and it's just a guess - is that whatever service was hosting his page suddenly took notice and decided that they didn't want to be in the business of publishing such hatred.

It could also be that his website received so much traffic over such a short period of time that it caused the server to crash.

Either one of these is a likely scenario for why his website is no longer active.

A third option could be that von Brunn failed to pay his last bill for the service. I understand he was struggling financially.

Crusader: Have you read any portion of von Brunn's book, "Kill the Good Gentiles"?

Dr. Daniels: No, I haven't. I might read it at some point for research, but I read the book written by Wm. Pierce, von Brunn's mentor. That book, "The Turner Diaries," was a blueprint and inspiration for Timothy McVeigh. I don't imagine there's much that's new in von Brunn's book.

Crusader: What are some of the best ways to educate people about hate?

Dr. Daniels: That's a good question and one I've spent most of my adult life trying to answer. There are the 'professional' ways - the sorts of things that I do like research and write books and articles, or teach as a college professor. All of that work for me is in some form or another about unlearning intolerance.

And, I think there are all sorts of ways that people can educate each other about hate that have a less 'professional' focus - blogging, for example. Part of the reason that Joe Feagin and I started our blog RacismReview.com was to educate people beyond our usual audience of college students and the few people that read academic articles and books.

I also use a lot of documentary films to educate about hate, and today, it's possible to make a short film for very little money. I wish more people would do that.

And, of course, what's perhaps most important is for everyone to use those occasions - the books, articles, classes, films - to talk to people in your daily life, in one-on-one conversations. Ultimately, it's in those conversations that people's thinking gets changed.

Follow-up Q&A:

Crusader: If government or private web hosting services regulate what they believe to be "hate speech" from the Internet, can't that backfire and lead to other controversial or unpopular views being suppressed?

Dr. Daniels: There's always the possibility that there will be unintended consequences for any effort to address hate or hate speech. I don't think that our fear or concern about those unintended consequences should stop us, as a society, from addressing hate and intolerance.

Crusader: Also, wouldn't it be a dangerous thing to push hatemongers into the closet? Isn't it better that they be in the open so we know who they are and what they believe?

Dr. Daniels: This is often referred to as the "light of day" argument, in other words, the most effective means of fighting hate speech and hate groups is to "expose" them to the "light of day." And, quite frankly, I'm not persuaded by this argument for a variety of reasons.

First, the notion that exposing hate speech will stop it assumes that all the (potential) listeners are immune from hate or opposed to it. Unfortunately, this isn't the case.

Second, there's little evidence that this is an effective strategy for combating hate speech. In fact, "exposing" hate speech is little different than "broadcasting" and it does little to improve the public sphere or the discourse in a democratic society.

I think it's important that we in the U.S., like those in other democracies, find a way to take seriously the right to be free from exposure to hate speech (guaranteed by the 14th Amendment - which assures equal protection under the law) and balance that with the right to free speech (guaranteed by the 1st Amendment).

Right now, the U.S. is really out of step with other democratic nations in our approach to hate speech. I discuss efforts to combat hate speech online in great detail in Chapter 9 of Cyber Racism.

How We Can Conquer Hate: An In-depth Analysis

2009-06-19T04:53:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday, June 10, James von Brunn allegedly shot and killed a security officer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

A brief news advisory online from one of the wire services that day said there was a shooting "near" the museum. My first thought was, "That's odd, there's usually nothing like that going on in that area."

I went to Twitter where my local news channel KESQ-TV (@KESQ) had a tweet stating that the shooting was "at" the museum. I immediately confirmed the story online at the Washington Post and then felt it was important enough to turn on the TV and see what was going on.

Shortly after the incident, MSNBC had identified the alleged shooter as James W. von Brunn, an 88-year-old Caucasian man from Maryland. They were reporting about the perpetrator's history of white supremacy beliefs and then the newscaster read information directly from his racist, anti-Semitic, and hateful website Holy Western Empire (holywesternempire.org), which is not active at the time of this writing.

During the initial MSNBC news report, I figured the life of von Brunn's website would be short, so I immediately visited it and downloaded (free of charge) the first six chapters of his book, "Kill the Good Gentiles." I have it in PDF format and am happy to email it to anyone upon request. I've only been able to get through 15 pages or so because it is a vile book filled with very hateful writing, but definitely required reading for anyone interested in helping to combat hate. Instructions on how one can view cached pages of von Brunn's website are located at the end of this article.

On June 11, the day after the shooting, MSNBC reported that authorities charged von Brunn with first-degree murder in the June 10th attack and were considering additional charges relating to hate crimes.

On the day of the incident, alert and heroic museum security guards stopped von Brunn cold in his tracks on and he was taken to an area hospital. On June 14, according to UPI, "The suspect [von Brunn] wounded in the killing of a guard at Washington's Holocaust Memorial Museum is expected to recover, the FBI said."

Von Brunn reportedly shot and killed 39-year-old Holocaust Museum security officer Stephen Tryone Johns during the incident. The museum has set up the USHMM Officer Johns Family Fund for people who wish to donate in his memory to assist his family in their time of need. Those who prefer to donate the old-fashioned way should make checks payable to USHMM Officer Johns Family Fund and mail them to USHMM, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW, Washington, DC 20024.

Rabbi David Vorspan, Founding Rabbi of Congregation Shir Ami in the San Fernando Valley and a rabbi for conservative congregations in California for decades, is no stranger to anti-Semitic incidents.

"I myself experienced anti-Semitism as a counselor at Camp Ramah in Ojai, when the 'Ojai Boys' and sometimes the dreaded 'Ventura Boys' would, on rare occasion, yell anti-Semitic curses from the roadside," Vorspan told "Crusader's Corner." Vorspan was a counselor at the camp in the mid to late 1960s.

In the mid to late 1970s, I was a student at Loara High School in Anaheim and a member of Temple Beth Emet, which was located directly across the street from the high school. At that time, Vorspan was the temple's rabbi.

On the first day of school one year (or right after a vacation break), students arrived at school to see a huge swastika painted on the school auditorium wall facing the temple. In addition, white supremacy newspapers were inserted through the slots of all student lockers.

Upon my arrival to school that day, I became very upset about the incident and immediately went to visit Rabbi Vorspan at the temple. He was instrumental in consoling me and coordinating an investigation with an Anaheim Police Department detective regarding the matter.

In the 1980s, when Vorspan was rabbi at Temple Beth Ami in Reseda, he once discovered "a paper with a swastika taped to our front door."

Jessie Daniels, PhD, is currently Associate Professor of Urban Public Health at Hunter College in New York. According to her website, "In every course I teach there is a focus on the intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality . . ."

I conducted lengthy e-mail interviews with Professor Daniels and Rabbi Vorspan for this article. Daniels' interview with "Crusader's Corner" will be published in its entirety in my next blog post.

Was Law Enforcement Lax re von Brunn?

I seem to recall that shorty After 9/11, many Muslims and people from the Middle East fell under the law enforcement radar in the United States. Many who had absolutely no connection to terrorism were interrogated and/or arrested.

In the Holocaust Museum shooting, we have an elderly Caucasian convicted felon who has clearly been espousing hate for decades, but I have to wonder whether law enforcement dropped the ball by not keeping a watchful eye on him.

"From what I've read in the news, law enforcement was very much aware of this man," Vorspan said. "However, when one gets to his late 80s, people like this don't register as too threatening."

"What most people tend to forget is that prior to September 11, 2001, the largest incident of domestic terrorism was the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh - a Caucasian, and like von Brunn, a white supremacist," Daniels told "Crusader's Corner."

Rev. Wright Adds Fuel to the Fire

According to Time magazine, on the day before the museum shooting, Rev. Jeremiah Wright is quoted as saying, "Them Jews ain't going to let him [Obama] talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of
office . . ."

I asked Vorspan and Daniels for their reaction to Wright's comments.

"My reaction is one of sadness that a man could espouse such misguided hatred, especially being a 'man of the cloth,' Vorspan said.

"Jews do not hold sway over President Obama, any more than Rev. Wright could as his pastor. He is very much his own man, reflected on the positions he is taking in regard to Israel and the Middle East," he added.

"I think it's wrong to equate Rev. Wright's statements with the actions of von Brunn, which is what a lot of people are doing when they bring this up in this context," Daniels said.

"There are many ways that 'hate speech' is implicated in the death of the guard, Mr. Johns, at the Holocaust Museum -- von Brunn's hate speech, the hate speech of right-wing pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly that give space to such violence. . ."

Should Websites Spewing Hate Speech Be Banned?

A poll at Racism Review asks: "Do you think social networking sites (like Facebook) should remove groups with racist content?" Results (as of this article): "Yes" (74.0%, 221 Votes); "No" (26.0%, 76 Votes)
Total Voters: 297.

I inquired about this very issue with both Rabbi Vorspan and Professor Daniels.

"Such web sites should be banned," said Vorspan.

"I believe it is better that they not be given any platform to spread their hatred. One can know one's enemy without giving him license to gain additional adherents," he added.

"In my view, any website that espouses racism, anti-Semitism or other hate should be removed (either by law enforcement or by the ISP) and the publisher of that hate speech should be held accountable," said Daniels.

"While I strongly believe that the U.S. should adopt laws that are more in line with other democracies that regulate hate speech, I'm realistic enough to realize that this kind of change may take long years to accomplish."

Best Ways to Educate People About Hate?

"I have found that such places as the Museum of Tolerance become excellent educational experiences to help people understand the power of words and hate-filled actions," said Vorspan.

"That's a good question and one I've spent most of my adult life trying to answer," said Daniels

"I think there are all sorts of ways that people can educate each other about hate that have a less 'professional' focus - blogging, for example. Part of the reason that Joe Feagin and I started our blog Racism Review was to educate people beyond our usual audience of college students and the few people that read academic articles and books."

An interesting aside, I discovered Professor Daniels on Twitter (@JessieNYC), which despite its naysayers has become a very valuable tool for me (and millions of others) to hook up with others in Cyberspace to work on important social issues.

I had my doubts as first, but am now beginning to see firsthand that Twitter is a beneficial conduit that can be used to educate people all over the world about hate and its consequences, which include the recent tragedy at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Professor Jessie Daniels, the author of "Cyber Racism: White Supremacy Online and the New Attack on Civil Rights," also helps produce and maintain Racism Review, a blog which explores racism and hate. Racism Review is a must for any diehard activist!

As of this writing, requests for e-mail interviews from "Crusader's Corner" with spokespeople from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) have not been acknowledged. Attempts to reach Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism were also unsuccessful.

Quotes Worth Repeating

"I loved my father. But what he did was unforgivable . . . You know, the only bond we had was father and son. We didn't like each other very much." - Alleged shooter's 32-year-old son, Erik von Brunn (ABC's "Good Morning America")

"I think it's important to come back because if you don't, they win . . . It's a form of terrorism," museum visitor Tammi Miller, 17, said of the facility's reopening following the June 10th incident. - UPI

@hotlou (on Twitter): "Holocaust Museum shooter expected to survive ... as does the opportunity for me to kick him in the fucking testicles."

Suggested Reading
(if any of the links below have expired, please search for the articles via Google or similar search engine.)

"FBI: Child porn found at von Brunn's home" - MSNBC News 6/19/09

"The Internet Angle: Cyber Racism and Domestic Terrorism," blog article posted on that site by Professor Daniels in "Racism Review."

"The ugly consequences of open hatred," commentary by "Miami Herald" columnist Leonard Pitts.

"Thoughts on the Holocaust Museum"
by Gina Acosta and Andrew Hiller, "Washington Post."

"My mother, the Jew Judge" by Lauren R. Taylor, "Washington Post."

"Where Anti-Semitism is Mainstream" by Richard Cohen, "Washington Post."

"Elderly Criminals: Lessons from the von Brunn Case" by Raina Kelley, "Newsweek."

"Was Holocaust Museum Gunman Really a Lone Wolf?" by Eve Conant, "Newsweek."

"Von Brunn, Bad Apples, and Hegemonic Whiteness"
by Matthew W. Hughey, assistant professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Mississippi State University.

How to View Cached Pages of von Brunn Website

To view cached pages of the website, simply go to Gigablast, type in "holywesternempire.org" (without the quotes) and then click on "cached" (which will include more graphics and other info than cached pages from Google).

I was only able to find the front page of his site cached, but people who want to spend more time searching Gigablast can probably find the other pages.

Gigablast also has a cool feature where one can click on "older copies" from the cached page to see the history of the page and it's various revisions. For von Brunn's site, the available history dates all the way back to August 2002!

Fuck Censorship!

2009-06-03T02:13:00.001-07:00

I've been writing articles with this headline for decades because censorship really pisses me off, especially when it involves Wal-Mart (or other huge retailers) selling co-called "clean" versions of music CDs to consumers. They've been doing this for more than a decade, so this isn't a new issue.

These so-called "clean" albums totally fuck with the concept of artistic freedom and I hope more people (and artists) will understand the concept of censorship and take action. Consumers should stop purchasing “clean” albums and artists should stop consenting to their production! (The movie industry with their stupid MPAA rating system is also to blame for much censorship, but that's an article for another day.)

When it comes to "clean" albums, most artists look the other way because apparently they rather make money by having Wal-Mart sell censored versions of their work than not to sell their work at all. Popular music group Green Day appears to be a rare exception to the rule and has basically told Wal-Mart to fuck off. Other artists should follow their lead.

"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't carry our record [21st Century Breakdown] because they wanted us to censor it," Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview published in the Washington Post and other media outlets.

"They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there," he said. "We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."

Hopefully this recent controversy will only help Green Day sell more copies of 21st Century Breakdown, their latest album, which I recently downloaded from Zune Marketplace and listened to in its entirety. It happens to be a great album that I probably would never have known about had it not been for the censorship story.

Oddly enough, Wal-Mart sells "clean" CDs of rapper Eminem? They might as well just take a blank CD-ROM, stick it in an Eminem CD cover and put that up for sale. More profits for everyone involved! A "Clean" Eminem CD is an oxymoron, the equivalent of "clean" CDs for comedy greats George Carlin, Lewis Black or Cheech & Chong. All I can say is "no fucking way!" Thank God, if there is one, for Zune Marketplace, Napster, HBO, and others who offer uncensored material for people with discriminating tastes such as me.

As far as I am concerned, Wal-Mart will be (or has been) responsible for the ruination of America as we know it, so if you are a staunch supporter of fair labor practices, civil and human rights, and other freedoms, just say no and stop shopping there! Also, please support artists who oppose censorship of any kind!

Be sure to check out Green Day's website.
and also the Wal-Mart Watch website.

On a related note, U.S. librarians are facing a growing number of complaints about the books on their shelves these days, according to a recent article distributed by United Press International (UPI).

Written complaints to public and school libraries seeking the removal or restriction of materials rose from 420 in 2007 to 513 in 2008, The (Nashville) Tennessean reported recently. The challenges led to 74 books being taken off shelves.

The newspaper said the Library Association of America recently issued its list of the 10 most-challenged books of last year. Among them was "The Kite Runner," a New York Times best-seller, and the teen drama series "Gossip Girl."

These book censorship stories remind me of when I was a teen growing up in Banaheim, California, in the 1970s when the Anaheim Union High School District school board became nationally famous for book banning. At that time, books we could not read in the classroom included the likes of "Sounder," "Catcher in the Rye," and almost anything written by Mark Twain.

Several months ago, I read an article about a Corona del Mar High School school teacher (in Orange County, California, of course) who was told he couldn't have drama students perform the play "Rent" because it evidently was too gay. According to several media sources, the school principal said she needed to review the script's inclusions of "prostitution and homosexuality." In lieu of "Rent," the drama teacher had the students perform "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," which certainly no one would find offensive.

My philosophy is that books are like the radio, TV, or Internet. If you don't like a book, don't read it. Don't like what you hear or see on the radio, TV, or Internet, change the "station" or turn it OFF. But please keep your paws off the on/off switches of my radio/TV/Internet and don't ban or censors books, plays, movies, CDs or other media in stores, schools or libraries! After all, the year is now 2009, not 1984!

Bumhole of the Month: Hollywood Publicist Howard Bragman

2009-05-11T05:17:00.001-07:00

Enquiring minds want to know why openly gay Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman is representing at least one homophobic business owner, hotelier Doug Manchester. Has Howard "The Fagman" Bragman overdosed on poppers or is the recession really that bad that he has to work for his oppressors in order to pay his mortgage?

Manchester, who owns two Hyatt Hotel properties in San Diego, donated $125,000 to the successful just-say-no-to-gay-marriage Proposition 8 campaign, which was approved by California voters in November 2008. (It is important to note that the Hyatt Corporation is said to have an excellent record when it comes to the rights of sexual minorities, according to Human Rights Campaign, a leading lesbitrangay lobby group in Washington, DC.)

In July 2008, Californians Against Hate, headed by Laguna Beach activist Fred Karger, co-launched a very successful boycott of Manchester's businesses with Unite Here! Local 30, since Manchester also has a terrible record on labor issues.

The world famous El Coyote Mexican Cafe in Los Angeles was also added to the gay community's shit list after the manager gave $100 to a Yes on 8 group. Many people boycotted the restaurant and patrons were often greeted by angry protesters.

Most of the world found out about Bragman's association with homophobe Manchester in a May 8, 2009, Michael Stetz column published in the San Diego Tribune. Oddly, the only quote from Bragman in the column is: "I understand what he [Manchester] did and why he did it." Wow, could we be any more vague than that? Spoken like a true publicist!

According to information in the Stetz column, none of which has been confirmed, Manchester is offering money to LGBT groups and $100,000 in conference rooms for them to hold events. Manchester has repeatedly refused to rectify his problems with labor unions, so I cannot fathom that any deserving LGBT group (or individual) would now go to his properties and take advantage of these so-called free rooms.

Perhaps Bragman needs his meds adjusted because his current representation of gay-hater Manchester is a far cry from Bragman's own words in a November 2008 column published in The Huffington Post. At the time, Bragman wrote, "So am I really under some obligation to give El Coyote money that may eventually be given to groups that oppose my civil rights? I think not. I will guac elsewhere." [Lie #1]

In the same column, Bragman writes, "But unlike El Coyote and other 'Yes on 8' supporters, I am willing to stand by and own my political beliefs -- even when they may cause me economic harm." [Lie #2]

He ends his column with: ". . . don't expect to see me sipping a margarita at El Coyote. I will not fund my own demise and I won't go where I'm not wanted." [Lie #3; any more lies, Howard, and your nose will be bigger than Pinocchio's!]

After reading his forceful column in support of gay marriage, gay rights, but opposing those who oppress us, why on earth is Bragman now defending Manchester's actions? The $125,000 donation from the hotelier to Yes on 8 is way more than the mere $100 from the El Coyote manager. (If I scratch my head any longer trying to figure all this out, I may draw blood and won't be able to finish this column.)

I realize this is harsh, but Bragman brings the word "whoremonger" to an entirely new level! There's no better way to define the award-winning Bragman (APLA and GLAAD) who comes across as a staunch gay rights activist but then just six months later is getting a paycheck from a man who oppresses sexual minorities. "Whoremonger" can also be used to define former President Bill Clinton who refused to honour the gay rights/labor movement boycott by recently appearing at a function (for money) at one of Manchester's hotels.

What Bragman has failed to realize, according to Karger, is that Manchester's $125,000 donation was basically seed money for Yes on 8 in the early stages of the signature process. Without that seed money from Manchester (and from Terry Caster, owner of A-1 Self Storage), "There probably would not have been a Prop 8 and same-sex marriage would still be the law in California," Karger said.

Karger told Crusader's Corner that others in the LGBT community that he has recently talked with do not want to accept Manchester's offer of money.

"It is a very sad situation that Bragman has created. On one hand you have so many LGBT organizations that are in need of money, but they do not want to cross the picket line and accept his offer of free conference rooms for events at the boycotted hotel. It's a cruel strategy to try and divide the gay community like he is doing. That's very surprising for anyone who has an ounce of self-respect."

According to Wikipedia, Bragman resides in Los Angeles with his male partner, a horse trainer, which is a very good thing now that Bragman is most certainly a horse's ass!

Will the Real Wentworth Miller Please Stand Up!

2009-04-13T17:37:00.001-07:00

Within just a short time after posting "Tripping Through Twitterland" over the Easter holiday weekend, I was inundated with comments and e-mails stating that @millerwentworth posing as actor Wentworth Miller on Twitter is a fake, as presumably are the other so-called cast members from "Prison Break" (PB) that follow (or followed) each other on Twitter, as well as the so-called "official" username for the TV show (@pbofficial).

Early Monday morning (April 13), I did a quick Google search for Miller's handlers and faxed a letter to his publicist at PMK/HBH. I copied the letter via fax to his attorney and emailed a copy to Twitter. In the letter, I asked the publicist for a confirmation that Wentworth Miller is actually sending Tweets with the @millerwentworth username. If not, my letter stated, then the parties should take appropriate action to end this elaborate fraud taking place as it is an insult to PB fans (including myself) throughout the world.

I asked Miller's agent Jennifer Allen for a brief statement for my blog to set the record straight, but I have had no reply from her (or Miller's attorney) as of press time.

At around 12:00 Noon PDT on April 13, I noticed that earlier posts from @AmauryNolasco, posing as PB star Amaury Nolasco, disappeared from my Twitter. I thought to myself, "Oh, maybe someone finally shut this scam down." When I clicked on his profile, I received “That page doesn’t exist!" I then tried accessing the profile for @millerwentworth and also received the same message. @pbofficial is still up, but since all of these fake people were following each other, it has to be a fake too.

Needless to say, it is also highly likely that Dominic Purcell(@DominicTweets) was also a fake since he was following and being followed by the fake "Wentworth Miller." DominicTwets' postings, however, actually had me convinced weeks ago that he was the real deal because of family photos he was posting via Twitpic. It just seemed so authentic. My thinking at the time was, if he was real, so were the co-stars.

Playing short-term practical jokes or an April Fool's prank is fine, but the ongoing stunt of one person (or maybe a group of people) impersonating several actors isn't funny. It's an outright fraud, plain and simple, and should have been shut down a lot sooner.

People in Twitterland should take responsibility for the community by sending complaints to support@twitter.com when things just don't look right. Twitter obviously can't monitor everyone in the community 24/7, so it's up to the common folk (like me) and others to take action to keep the Twitter community as real as possible.

A shout out and thanks to those of you who contacted me on this issue.

Tripping Through Twitterland

2009-04-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I can't promise that the peeps mentioned in this article are still in Twitterland. The world of Twitter is very similar to Munchkinland: "My! People come and go so quickly here!"

Just because I've been inundated with media stories about Octomon doesn't give me the urge to have eight babies; however, I just had to find out what all the fuss was over Twitter, a social networking service on the Wild Weird Web.

Colleagues and friends keep asking me whether I have a Facebook or MySpace page and I tell them, "I'm not signing up for one more thing on the Internet." Shortly after that, Twitter kept appearing in my daily read of Reuters, UPI, TMZ, you name it. So I thought to myself, "What the fuck, let's see what the orgasm is all about."

Twitter has its own lingo (Twitterspeak), but as a newbie, I'm not up to speed on that yet, so forgive me if I get it wrong (or make up my own). Please see the end of this article for Twitter usernames (or Twitnames) for some of those mentioned in this article.

Ashton Kutcher
Kutcher, the King of Twitter (with nearly 800,000 followers as of this writing), is honouring the "Twit with the mostest" with the Platinum Twitter Award (PTA). He's taking nominations from fellow Twits (or Twitterers) through the end of April. Since Kutcher has been rather busy filming "Five Killers" in France, to make it easier for him to get through all the nominations, he asks that anyone who wants to nominate a fellow Twit to be sure to include #pta in their Tweet nomination so that he can easily keep track of the nominations. There's a brief video of Kutcher discussing the PTA which one can view by clicking here.

I had a helluva time figuring all this out, but what one does if they want to nominate someone for the PTA -- and it can be confusing to us new Twits -- in that blank space where one types a new message or replies to another Twit, simply type "@aplusk #pta" (without quotes) followed by something like "Nominate @crusader666 because his life wouldn't be the same without a small silver-coloured bird."

Kutcher's Twitter followers are growing faster than an 18-year-old boy on Viagra. When I started Tweeting just two weeks ago, his followers were "only" around 600,000. Amazing that in that short period of time, they have grown by nearly 200,000.

Some news really is learned on Twitter first. I first learned from Kutcher (via Twitter) about the unanimous Iowa Supreme Court decision in favor of same-sex marriages. He is a native Iowan and huge supporter of civil rights, so I presume he was monitoring his hometown paper online the day the decision was expected.

Also, before it was covered in the mainstream news, I was able to follow Tweets from Kutcher about his "wifey" (his word) Demi Moore helping save the life of a California women in distress. More about that later.

Kutcher publicly opposed Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative which did pass last November, barring same-sex marriages. Quite the activist, he is now raising awareness about malaria in his Tweets and asking his followers to make small donations to end this disease once and for all by visiting Malaria No More. The honorary chairs will remain nameless on my blog, but one of the board members is Timothy Shriver (Chairman, Special Olympics), so that works for me.

Sandie Guy
I am reminded of that commercial that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton aired during the presidential primaries when she was running against Obama: Who do you want answering the phone at the White House at 3:00 AM?
For a California woman suffering from depression and suicidal tendencies, she chose actress Demi Moore to cry out for help in Twitterland.

On one recent morning at around 3:00 AM PDT, Sandie Guy (whose Twitter profile showed her residing in the Silicon Valley), sent a distressful and detailed reply post (Retweet, I think is the term) to actress Moore about how Guy was going to kill herself. Moore posted it for all of her fans to see, and it was not long before some of them contacted police and Guy was found unharmed at her home and taken to a facility for evaluation.

Evidently, her mental illness wasn't too serious, because that very evening, Guy was at home and sending Tweets out to state she had been discharged from the unnamed psychiatric facility and thanked everyone who has helped her with her problems.

Out of curiosity, I followed Sandie Guy for a few days, but then on April 6, I noticed she was no longer on my "following" list. When I tried to confirm her account via a Twitter search, the results came back with "That page doesn't exist!," so I guess she had too much attention from all the news articles about her ordeal.

"Prison Break" Celebs
Kutcher may be the Twitking, but he definitely isn't the only game in Twitterland. I follow three stars (now down to two) of the hit TV program "Prison Break" (which sadly comes to an end this spring): Wentworth Miller (Michael Scofield), Dominic Purcell (Lincoln Burrows), and Amaury Nolasco (Fernando Sucre).

These guys have great senses of humour and their posts are generally entertaining. As a result of following their Tweets, I found a very funny and racy South Park song about tacos, burritos, and the Mexican border! You can listen to it too by clicking here.

Miller was also gracious enough to post a link to a "super cool" rap, "Prison Break Anthem," by Kaye Styles.

At one point recently, Miller teased his followers with a post asking whether he should delete his Twitter. Not long after the post (probably because of the negative replies he received), he simply posted "staying." As of this writing, Miller has more than 3,500 followers, and I imagine that should pick up considerably when "Prison Break" starts airing its remaining episodes this month after a long hiatus. Unlike Miller, though, it appears Dominic Purcell has flown the Twitter coop, because an error message is received when trying to access his profile.

"Winchester Brothers"
No, one won't find hunky "Supernatural" stars Jared Padalecki or Jensen Ackles (say that three times fast) Tweeting here, but rather Elizabeth & Katherine, two very dedicated fans of the program and, of course, die-hard fans of the very yummy actors who play brothers Dean and Sam Winchester on this hit TV show.

Lots of links for pix and other cool show-related stuff can be found by following "Winchester Brothers" (see usernames below). Elizabeth & Katherine are very cordial and friendly. They also have a "Supernatural" blog, which I haven't had a chance to read yet, but am adding it to my list of things to do.

"Winchester Brothers" on Twitter will definitely supplement the life of any "Supernatural" fan!

Ben Gleib
Call me an ignoramus (you won't be the first), but I literally don't know this guy from Adam. He started following me (on Twitter, not in the streets) a few days before this article went to press. He's some kind of comedian or something? Anywho, I will check out his web site and then search Zune Marketplace to find out whether his material is available for me to listen to on my Zune after a hectic day of proofreading legal documents for a living.

John Mayer
Last (and least, I hate to admit, especially since I often fantasize about him dating my niece).

I have been a huge fan of Mayer for years because his musical talents are truly amazing (and he's easy on the eyes). Awhile back, I listened to an exclusive interview he did on XM Satellite Radio, and I was very impressed. However, his Tweets leave much to be desired.

After international publicity about him Tweeting, I started following him for about a week, but then stopped because I was bored to tears. Not sure if he was having a "bad week" or what. Sorry, John, but consider sticking with what you're great at: singing, playing the guitar, and smiling!

Evidently, Mayer's Tweets don't put everyone to sleep, as he is quickly approaching 600,000 followers at the time of this article! Maybe he will bypass Kutcher and be crowned the new Twitter King? Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the biggest Twit of all?

To Mayer's credit, it was the publicity about him Tweeting (and his former girlfriend bitching about it) that got me to finally sign up for Twitter. So Mayer was the hook, but Ashton, Wentworth, and the "Winchester Brothers" clinched the deal for me.

It would bee cool if there were a Twitter school or Twit-tutor available to help some of us figure all this out because I often feel I am in the dark on how to best follow certain people and their followers without spending 20 hours a day in Twitterland.

The Keys to Twitterland (usernames):
(Note: To view a profile (or Twitterfile), simply insert ones username at the end of the final slash in http://www.twitter.com/)

Ashton Kutcher (aplusk)
Wentworth Miller (millerwentworth)
Dominic Purcell (was DominicTweets)
Amaury Nolasco (AmauryNolasco)
Prison Break (Official) (pbofficial)
Winchester Brothers (_supernatural_)
Ben Gleib (bengleib)
Demi Moore (mrskutcher)
Sandie Guy (was sandieguy)
John Mayer (johncmayer)

Oh, and don't forget me:
http://www.twitter.com/crusader666

Octomom Gets Eaten by Octopus: Film at 11!

2009-04-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

April Fool's!

All kidding aside, enough is enough already. I don't think a day has gone by without the world being fed news about a woman whose greatest accomplishment is unloading 8 babies from her vagina at a time. Not sure what's worse: Incessant news stories about Octomom or the nonstop international news stories regarding the Twittering activity of celebs like music heartthrob John Mayer and singer/actress Courtney Love.

Anywho, since Octomom is a story that just won't die (unless someone carries out their threats against her), here are some of my provoking thoughts about Nadia Sudafed (or whatever her name is) that might actually make for good Twittering, but since I do not consider myself much of a twit, I'll put it on my blog instead.

Octomom now has 14 kids and Save the Children UK has the gall to bitch and moan about Madonna adopting ONE more kid from impoverished Malawi. What's up with that?

Of course, slick, butch lawyeress Gloria Allwrong manages to find her way into any event that is this huge. To her credit, however, she is on the correct side in this battle; making sure that the welfare of these 8 children is protected by the appropriate child service agencies.

Without further adieu:

Crusader's Octomom Top 10

10) Will the Octobabies have a genetic propensity to also have multiple babies in one sitting?

9) Eight is Enough, but she has 14 kids already!

8) After having 8 babies at basically the same time, Octomom's whatsit must be so stretched out that no man will ever be intimate with her again!

7) What ever happened to the one-baby-per-vagina-per-day rule?

6) Why abortion education should be mandatory in school, beginning in kindergarten!

5) This lady unloaded more fallout than the A-bomb at Hiroshima.

4) Octomom's "exit wound" of her whatsit has got to be bigger and wider than anything caused from a round of AK-47 bullets!

3) I have loggers that weigh more than any of her babies at birth.

2) Gives an entirely new meaning to Octopussy.

And, finally, No. 1:
If God wanted women to have 8 babies at one time, she would have given women 8 tits for breastfeeding and a larger vagina. Duh!

Homophobic Ex-Police Chief Pleads Guilty to Financial Crime

2009-03-01T18:17:00.001-08:00

(Canyon Lake, CA) Former Garden Grove, California, police chief Frank Kessler (and his wife) are finally getting payback for the years of torture and hate that at least Mr. K inflicted on the Orange County lesbitrangay community while he was the top cop in Garden Grove decades ago.

Kessler, who is also a former city councilmember of Canyon Lake (a gated community near Lake Elsinore), plead guilty to one count of embezzlement on February 24, according to North County Times. The plea deal was reached after this jerk went to town with a city-issued credit card! His wife, Suzanne, only recently got out of jail pending her anticipated criminal trial for 23 criminal counts, including borrowing nearly $1 million on false promises to repay AND writing nearly $100,000 worth of checks from a phony account.

When this writer was secretary to the board of directors of the Orange County Gay and Lesbian Community Center decades ago, Kessler came to one of our board meetings after the center had become a frequent target of vandalism, fire bombs, death threats (what today would amount to terrorism). At that time, Kessler told the board something like, “Just take that damn sign down and you won’t have so many problems,” which was in reference to a large sign with the name of the center on it in front of the facility on Euclid Avenue.

I actually testified about this incident as a witness in a federal civil rights case against the City of Garden Grove brought by Mac’s Landing, a gay-friendly bar.

Click here for an in-depth 1987 Los Angeles Times article that discusses the Mac’s Landing case and documents the history of anti-gay harassment by Garden Grove police under Kessler’s watch (and with his full knowledge and support).

California's Proposition 8: The Aftermath

2008-12-17T11:46:00.000-08:00

Here's an e-mail I sent today (December 17, 2008) to Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez:

Dear Steve,

I am the activist formerly known as Andrew Exler who overturned Disneyland's ban on same-sex dancing in the 1980s. I legally changed my name to Crusader more than a decade ago since the media often refers to me as a "civil rights crusader."

Your recent columns regarding Prop 8 have been excellent and have greatly encouraged dialogue between both sides of this controversial issue.

Yes, lesbigays should have the right to legally marry (forget about civil unions which are insulting and are not the same as real marriage, the same between men and women). Personally, I am totally anti-marriage (gay or straight), but I support it for those who want it.

Yes, people are free to donate to the political cause or candidate of their choice, and also have the right to speak out for or against those political causes and candidates.

Yes, consumers have a right to not do business with individuals or businesses for any reason whatsoever; it's called the free enterprise system.

No, people who donate to candidates or political causes do not have a right to hide their true occupations on the donation paperwork. After spending about ten hours of volunteer research for one No on 8 organization, I discovered numerous contributors to Yes on 8 (in the $25,000 range) were not really "housewives" or "retired," but actually owned small or large businesses and in fact had a real occupation.

State law requires donors to list their true occupation/business, yet I am convinced that there is definitely a pattern of Yes on 8 donors intentionally keeping that information secret, which violates the law, is dishonest and unethical. What and who are these folks hiding from?

The bottom line is that I'm more concerned about large contributors to Yes on 8 that hide behind occupations of "housewife" or "retired" than a small $100 contribution from a self-admitted Mormon restaurant worker.

Just the same, people have a right to protest and boycott El Coyote (or any other business) if that is what they want to do. A small amount of their tips and money spent at the restaurant did end up in the Yes on 8 side, so the protesters make a valid point. I just feel energies are better spent to expose and boycott the huge corporate donors to Yes on 8, which is a hateful and discriminatory law.

In the same light, if people are upset that Apple (and other corporations and individuals) donated large amounts to No on 8, then those people don't have to do business with Apple. They can also refuse to purchase or rent movies with Brad Pitt or directed by Steven Spielberg (both who are said to have donated $100,000 each to No on 8).

Quite frankly, I'm really sick of the religious zealots who say that they love lesbigays, they aren't bigots, they aren't homophobic, etc. It is an oxymoron to love people and then take steps to violate the basic rights of sexual minorities (or anyone else).

Crusader
Palm Springs, CA
(760) 799-xxxx (direct line) [redacted for blog post]
http://crusading4u.googlepages.com/

Calilesbigays Can Now Marry

2008-05-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

(May 15, 2008) In a surprise ruling, the California Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriages in California today. In a nutshell, the gist of the 172-page decision is found on page 120:

"Plaintiffs are entitled to the issuance of a writ of mandate directing the appropriate state officials to take all actions necessary to effectuate our ruling in this case so as to ensure that county clerks and other local officials throughout the state, in performing their duty to enforce the marriage statutes in their jurisdictions, apply those provisions in a manner consistent with the decision of this court. Further, as the prevailing parties, plaintiffs are entitled to their costs."The majority decision was written by Chief Justice Ronald George with Justices Joyce Kennard, Kathryn Werdegar, and Carlos Moreno concurring.

"Although I agree with the majority's conclusion, I have to disagree with its path," Santa Ana civil rights attorney Ron Talmo told Crusader's Corner.

"I believe that a prohibition on same sex marriages is best analyzed as gender discrimination. The Court's distinction of the race cases made no sense. Equally burdening two groups on the basis of their gender is still gender discrimination. I fear the ramifications of that analysis in other civil rights areas. On the plus side, the Court's error on that point required them to address the sexual orientation classification issue. Here the majority concluded that sexual orientation discrimination is subject to strict scrutiny review. This is probably the more important conclusion than the broad view of marriage as a fundamental right conclusion."

Talmo is the attorney who successfully argued before the California Supremes that ladies' day discounts violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Koire v. Metro Car Wash, 1985). He also was victorious in convincing a conservative Orange County jury that Disneyland violated the rights of two young gay men who were ejected from The Gayest Place on Earth after disco dancing together at the Tomorrowland Terrace in 1980.

Gay Marriage Ban May Return in November

According to their website, a group calling itself Protect Marriage is waiting for the California Secretary of State to qualify Proposition 22 for the November 2008 Primary Election. That constitutional amendment seeks to legally define marriage in California as between a man and a woman.

"The Constitutional Amendment cannot pass," West Hollywood city council member John Duran told Crusader's Corner. "It is worth each of us giving everything we have to hold the court decision."

Duran, a longtime civil rights lawyer said that if the amendment passes, the only recourse is in federal court, which will be disastrous. "The US Supremes will not give us a favorable decision, so the federal courts will not protect us," he said.

Crusader's Corner recommends that people supportive of marital equality for everyone donate money to Human Rights Campaign California Marriage PAC.

Personally, I feel that marriage is highly overrated, but if lesbigays want to have the same rights, responsibilities, and heartache that their straight counterparts currently enjoy, so be it.

Today's gay marriage ruling was surprising to me because the California Supremes (with Chief Ronald George at the helm) ruled in favour of Boy Scouts of America's oppressive policies in two 1998 court rulings: one involving gay Eagle Scout Timothy Curran; the other dealing with two twin Boy Scout brothers (Michael and William Randall) who happen to be atheists.

Sony Makes Good on eBook Reader Falsely Marketed to Sight-Impaired Readers

2008-01-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

In November 2007, after much research for eBook readers, I finally settled on the new Sony PRS-505 Reader. What closed the sale for me was information I read on the Sony Style web site. Under the heading "Impressive, paper-like display," Sony made the following claim: "The text can also be magnified for sight-impaired readers."

As a loyal Sony customer (speakers, headphones, you name it), I relied on their marketing when I made my purchase. I even had the eBook reader engraved for free by Sony with "Crusader Rocks!" and my telephone number, because I figured the Reader would be a keeper.

Overall, I was content with my purchase. The device is light, thin, classy looking, easy to operate, and provides a nice feature of being able to create folders for organizing hundreds of books to easily locate when needed.

Within a few days of purchase, I downloaded my free 100 classic books and had no problem reading text for most of them, so long as I used the Large Font selection in Landscape Mode. Anything short of that was too small for me to comfortably read.

As weeks went by, I noticed there was no consistency with the font and line spacing with the books Sony sold in their proprietary online store. Several eBooks (from various publishers) had much smaller fonts and different line spacing than previous books I read on my Sony device with ease. Upon further investigation, I even found several classic books that Sony formatted themselves to be in smaller fonts than the ones I had previously read.

To confirm that the Sony PRS-505 Reader is actually capable of handling better formatting of eBooks, I went to MobileRead.com (a must for anyone into eBooks), and downloaded some of the free public domain books their members upload to the site on a regular basis. Those books were formatted in such a way that made use of Sony's entire screen, thus having fonts in bold and much easier to read than ANYTHING available from Sony's bookstore. I had similar results (but not as good as MobileRead) with with free books from Manybooks.net and paid books from Fictionwise.com.

This "test" of sorts proved that it is simple to have the books properly formatted for the sight-impaired reader, but Sony just didn't make an effort to do that prior to marketing their device for those who want or need better formatting of their eBooks.

After shelling out $300 (plus tax) for the device, $30 (plus tax) for an adapter - - which Sony does NOT include with the device - - plus about $120 for eBooks from Sony, I expected their product to work as advertised.

I e-mailed Sony Customer Service a very strongly worded demand that they remedy the situation with their fonts or refund all my monies for purchased materials that are not in the proper format, or permit me to return my Reader to them for a full refund. I advised them that if they did not resolve the matter, I would be filing a complaint with the California Attorney General (since that is where I live and the product shipped from a California location) for false advertising.

Two weeks later, on January 11, a Sony rep contacted me and provided me with RMA numbers for both the Sony Reader device and AC Adapter. They also provided a prepaid FedEx Ground label to return the products to them for a full refund. Between January 11 and 22, Sony provided a full refund for the Reader, adapter, and eBooks purchased.

After I sent my e-mail complaint to Sony, I stumbled upon a December 2007 Consumer Reports review of the PRS-505. The review clearly stated, "There's no size that corresponds to large-print books, so the Reader isn't a good choice for anyone who's visually impaired."

Sony should immediately stop marketing their device for the sight-impaired, but that is a decision for them to make. I will be more than happy to volunteer my assistance for other sight-impaired Reader customers who are not happy with the device and want a refund for either the books and/or device(s) from Sony.

On a related note, consumers should note that Sony customer service via e-mail for the Reader is VERY slow. Relating to their eBookstore, there are often numerous bugs, including incorrect links for purchases, incorrect book titles, nonfunctioning favourite author notification, and very outdated RSS feeds, to name but a few.

Convicts (Even Sex Offenders) Are Entitled to Basic Civil Rights Upon Release

2008-01-08T06:49:00.000-08:00

A recent murder of a registered sex offender in California demonstrates that some people just don't get it. Like it or not, once a person is released from jail, they basically are entitled to (or should be) to the same rights as everyone else.

By his own admission, 29-year-old construction worker Ivan Garcia Oliver killed 67-year-old convicted rapist Michael A. Dodele in Lakeport, California, just 35 days after Dodele's release from prison.

A December 10, 2007, article in the Los Angeles Times ("Megan's Law listing may have lead to slaying"), discusses the fact that the killing may have stemmed from a listing in a California Internet database that lists information about registered sex offenders.

I believe the basic concept of Megan's Law is that people be notified and have access to information about registered sex offenders so they can prevent themselves (or children) from being victimized by the offender. Unfortunately, the law has clearly been responsible for the violation of the civil rights of thousands of released offenders.

Not only has the law lead to witch hunts of registered sex offenders throughout the nation, but the information supplied on California's database is very vague and confusing. At quick glance, nearly everyone on the database appears to be a child molester because of the very brief description of the offender's crime(s), which is based on how the penal code is vaguely worded.

I even thought an acquaintance of mine in Palm Springs is a child molester because of how the penal code violation is worded next to his name on the State of California Meagan's Law webiste. Even after reading the penal code in detail, I'm still not sure what's what, and I'm a seasoned paralegal. If I can't figure it out, How on earth do we expect the "average Joe" to interpret the crime descriptions on these public databases?

The killer made the same mistake I did about my acquaintance, and thought Dodele was a child molester. According to the Los Angeles Times article about the killing in Lakeport, Dodele was convicted of violating adults, not children. Unwanted acts against adults and children are both bad, however Michael A. Dodele may still be alive today if it weren't for the sloppiness of California's database. His killer made it clear he went after Dodele because he thought he was a child molester.

I realize that I am in the minority, but whether someone molested, raped, sodomized, killed, stole, whatever; once they are released, they should be treated humanely so long as they are abiding by the rules.

A convict should be permitted to have a place to live, shop, eat, work, etc. without threat of eviction or disruptions from protesters who feel the convict should receive more punishment after their release.

On the flip side, it goes without saying that a child molester should not be permitted to work in a school (or live near one); an embezzler shouldn't be permitted to work in a bank; terrorists shouldn't be permitted to work in airports or for public transit entities.

More food for thought on this very topic is provided by veteran journalist Patt Morrison in her excellent December 13, 2007, commentary published in the Los Angeles Times ("Megan's law of unintended consequences").

BuyMyTronics.com is the Real Deal!

2008-01-01T08:54:00.001-08:00

I heard about this new venture at the same time that I was contemplating selling two of my high-end smartphones (Nokia 9300 and Cingular 8125)that I recently replaced with other models.

I have had lots of success in the past with eBay for these types of items, and even had a draft ad written for one of the telephones. I decided to check out BuyMyTronics because it appeared to be a good "Plan B" for me to get a fair price for my preowned devices with less effort on my part.

Even though the BuyMyTronics website wasn't officially set up to handle high-end cell devices when I was ready to sell my Nokia 9300, owner Brett promptly responded to my first e-mail and that same evening arrived at a price quote for my phone. I was then able to complete the quick steps on his web site to input my information, and then sent off my phone to him the very next day from California.

He received my phone a few days later in Colorado and I was paid that same day via PayPal. It doesn't get any easier than that.

Now that we had established a good working relationship, I asked him for a price quote on my Cingular 8125, and that transaction went as smoothly as the first.

Yes, if one wants to take the time and effort to put up their small electronic devices for auction or sale on eBay, they will probably get more money for their item that way. However, for those who prefer to sell their devices at a fair price and get paid right away, with little effort, BuyMyTronics.com is the answer.

Tronics the company is currently buying include iPods, iPhones, game consoles, cell phones, PDAs, laptops, digital cameras, and camcorders.

Beaver-Butt Juice, Crushed Beetles, Calf Tongues in Our Food, Oh My!

2007-12-27T09:49:00.000-08:00

As creative as some people think I am, I really do not make this stuff up.

An excellent article in the November/December 2007 issue of VegNews magazine ("Code Red: Deciphering the Discombobulating Language of Food Labels") discusses crap that is in our food that the government permits without us being notified.

Vegetarians, vegans, and meat-eaters alike should be horrified that certain ingredients are not specifically spelled out for us on our food labels.

According to the article, the Code of Federal Regulations "permits food manufacturers to list a gaggle of ingredients as 'natural' flavors, so long as they are derived from 'nature' without undergoing excessive physical processing conditions during development, such as extreme temperatures or pressures."

WARNING: Don't read the following while (or shortly after) eating!

One such ingredient the federal code covers is castoreum, which is literally extracted from a beaver's anal glands. According to VegNews, the pungent, creamy substance has been used for more than 80 years in baked goods, condiments, and candies. Can you say "gross," boys and girls!

The article goes on to discuss other crap that might be in our food without us knowing it, such as carmine or cochineal, which is the ground-up carcasses of beetles. The additive is said to be used as a coloring in processed foods.

Consumers should be revolting about the practice of food manufacturers not informing us about what is really in our food. Not sure if letters to our representatives or FDA would do any good in changing the law, but feel free to spread the word (instead of a beaver's butt) about this topic to others.

Be sure to order a back issue of the November/December 2007 VegNews magazine to read the in-depth article which gives a detailed list of what is what.

Bumhole of the Month: Diamond Valley Middle School (for suspending student with blue hair)

2007-12-21T12:21:00.000-08:00

(Hemet, CA) With all the very serious things taking place at public schools throughout the nation these days, it amazes me that administrators at one California school have the colour of a student's hair as top priority!

These morons, who probably all have one or more college degrees and had to have a full body cavity search prior to being hired, actually SUSPENDED 13-year-old student Leona Searan because a portion of her hair was coloured midnight blue.

According to a recent article in The Press-Enterprise newspaper (Riverside, CA): "The Diamond Valley Middle School student was sent home for violating the school dress code rule prohibiting 'purple, green, blue or other unnatural color' in hair. She returned, still with blue hair, and was suspended for a day. She can't go back unless the coloring is rinsed out or covered. Unwilling to immediately do so, she is on home study until Jan. 11 with permission of the school."

The student's mother, a hairdresser, told the newspaper she wasn't aware that the school had a rule regarding hair colour and was shocked to find her daughter suspended. The mother and father are considering legal action against the school district, according to the newspaper article.

Sadly enough, several local residents sent letters to the editor of The Press-Enterprise chastising the student for considering legal action and said that the student should learn to follow the rules.

Hello? This is the US of A, long may she wave, the land of liberty, of thee I sing, unless, of course, I'm a teenager who wants to be different and express myself by colouring my hair!

Shame on the Hemet school and all the so-called educators and administrators involved in this dispute. I hope they get a much needed education from the 13-year-old student and her parents about civil liberties and freedom of expression, which do NOT necessarily (or at least should not) stop at the schoolhouse door.

Whole Foods CEO is Corrupt and Should Resign!

2007-12-14T07:30:00.000-08:00

Because of my sometimes very busy proofreading business, I only recently learned what a slimeball Whole Foods CEO John Mackey is. As a result, I will never spend one dime at Whole Foods or their newly acquired Wild Oats companies. Furthermore, I have written Mr. Mackey directly and asked that he resign as CEO of the company immediately.

Thanks to the December 2007 issue of VegNews magazine, I became educated very quickly about how Mackey manipulated information and outright lied to the public regarding Wild Oats in order for him and and Whole Foods to benefit financially.

According to the article (originating from The Wall Street Journal), the Federal Trade Commission revealed that Mackey posted more than 1,100 messages over an eight-year period on Yahoo! Finance stock forums under a false identity, trashing rival natural foods grocer Wild Oats before trying to buy the company out. Mackey, according to the article, is asking everyone to forgive him, which is grand of him, but he should still resign his post.

I urge all concerned consumers to join me in demanding the immediate resignation of Mackey. Please send him a letter directly at:

John Mackey, CEO
Whole Foods Market, Inc
550 Bowie Street
Austin, TX 78703

Fuck Censorship!

2007-12-13T08:51:00.000-08:00

This isn't the first and won't be the last time I write a column with this heading. I am sick and tired of other people judging me and trying to control what I read, listen to, watch, eat, and so on. Is anyone else as mad as hell and not going to take it anymore?

When I read the latest assault on free speech, the first thing that came to mind was Saturday Night Live's character from the "old days," Roseanne Rosannadanna, who used to say, "I thought I was going to puke!"

Back in November of this year, some holier-than-thous went on the rampage about rap lyrics. According to United Press International, New York's public advocate (Betsy Gotbaum) sent letters protesting revenue generated through the use of degrading lyrics and racial slurs.

According to the article, the New York City retirement fund holds $5 billion in entertainment and broadcast stocks. The article, which originated from the New York Daily News, went on to state that her criticism comes on the heels of a surge of attacks against offensive lyrics prevalent in rap and hip-hip music.

Just when I thought I was feeling sick enough, I read further on in the article how the Rev. Al Sharpton has rallied in Times Square protesting offensive lyrics and music producer Russel Simmons called for voluntary bans on degrading slang.

At that point, I was literally forced to stop reading the article and guzzle the entire contents of a bottle of Emetrol!

Tipper Gore went crazy with music lyrics decades ago. More recently, I believe the U.S. Congress held hearings about rap lyrics when Eminem became popular, and Senator Joe Lieberman had his day in the sun with that. Lynne Cheney, if I am correct, was involved in all the hoopla too. What's up with vice presidents' wives and censorship anyway?

As far as I am concerned, folks like bad boy rapper Eminem and sex mogul Larry Flynt have done more for upholding freedoms in American than any politician or wife of a politician.

Anyone interesting in reading a "fair and balanced" article about rap lyrics and how they affect (or don't affect) society, please read my 2001 article, EMINEM'S LYRICS: Is Society Rewarding Hate? (2001).

Sex Education Saves Lives

2007-12-12T15:30:00.000-08:00

By accident, thanks to the Internet, I happened to catch a recent letter to the editor of Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel newspaper in Wisconsin. I have no clue how old the writer of the letter is, but it is an important commentary (but sad one) on the status of sex education in many parts of the nation.

I am providing a copy of the letter here, followed by a link to a similar letter to a newspaper I wrote about the subject in 1979, when I was about 18.

Here's the recent Wisconsin letter:

Your Opinions

From Journal Sentinel readers (Wisconsin)

Posted: Dec. 10, 2007

SEX EDUCATION

Youth need open, thorough discussion

I was appalled by the Elmbrook School District task force's discussion to shy away from proper sexual education ("Task force debates sex ed lesson timing," Dec. 6). I am thankful I was taught in Brookfield's public school system in a comprehensive manner about sex and disease prevention. To deprive children of that in a culture laced with provocative media and sexual innuendo is both a contradiction and a disservice.

Children should learn about sex not only for the prevention of unwanted pregnancies but for the fact that more than half of all sexually active people in the United States will have a sexually transmitted disease at some point in their lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Depriving children of education about sexual behavior when they reach the age of curiosity is damaging to them and to society. Young teens should feel comfortable discussing the matter of sexual health with their doctor and their sexual history with their partner. The rising statistics of diseases show the need to be rid of stigmas associated with sexual behavior.

Teaching teens to be ashamed and embarrassed to talk about sexual behavior by beating around the bush with abstinence-only education is asking for ignorance and an increase in diseases among the young population. I encourage the district to reconsider.

Katherine Groth

Brookfield

********

Click here to read a 1979 letter I wrote to a newspaper on the very same topic in California when I was about 18.

Click here to read a 1979 news article regarding the school board voting against sex ed!

WiredPlastic.com

2007-11-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

WiredPlastic.com (prepaid debit card)

This company really sucks. That strong opinion is based on my 6+ months of experience trying to do business with these folks. WiredPlastic offers a prepaid Visa debit card (issued by BankFirst in South Dakota). They really have no clue how to treat their customers and prey on people who have little or no credit history.

I started out with an excellent prepaid debit card (STASH) which Virgin Mobile provided as a service to its customers. They offered a Bill-Pay-type feature that I really liked and the customer service was excellent. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and for whatever reason Virgin Mobile abruptly stopped providing the STASH card to their customers.

That was when I discovered WiredPlastic. From the get-go, it was a nightmare for me when one of their online third-party affiliates captured ALL of my personal information that was submitted on the application form and I started receiving 50 spam e-mails every few hours to my Gmail account. My persistent phone calls and even complaint letters didn't result in one response from WiredPlastic or BankFirst or anyone connected with these companies. I was greatly inconvenienced by having to start a new Gmail account because of the spams that they wouldn't put a stop to.

The reason I signed up with WiredPlastic was to take advantage of the benefits that STASH had offered, which included a Bill-Pay-type feature so I could pay a collection agency for an old debt without using my real bank account (something you definitely want to keep secret from ANY collection agency).

Recently, I scheduled payment to the collection agency in advance using the WiredPlastic Click-N-Pay feature (just 95 cents per check issued). Soon after, my dental insurance carrier notified me that if I didn't pay my dental premium right away, they were canceling my insurance. The only place I had money at the time was on my WiredPlastic card, but only if I were to cancel the Click-N-Pay previously scheduled for the collection agency.

I tried everything I could on the WiredPlastic web site, but there was no option whatsoever to cancel a scheduled Click-N-Pay on their web site. After numerous calls to the WiredPlastic customer support (which I later learned I was charged 95 cents for, per call), I was informed the only way to cancel a prescheduled Click-N-Pay was to delete the collection agency altogether. I immediately did that and the next day confirmed I had enough of a balance on my WiredPlastic debit card to pay my dental insurance premium.

Unfortunately, for technical reasons no one has yet explained why the balance showing on the WiredPlastic web page was negative, as was the balance given to me using the free automated telephone number. For weeks, the only way to find out my true balance was to pay 95 cents per call and ask a live person what it was. Needless to say, I was really pissed off that I had to pay for something that was their fault, and although they did not reverse all of the 95-cent charges, some were eventually reversed. I even had to pay 95 cents when speaking with supervisors to request that previous charges be removed, and that just isn't right!

Countless calls and e-mails to WiredPlastic customer service reps, managers, and even two calls to BankFirst in South Dakota resulted in NO resolution to the ongoing problem with my negative balance showing when I utilized the web site features. Numerous times, I threatened to file complaints against them with the Federal Trade Commission and Ralph Nader at Public Citizen, but still received no resolution to the problems.

Then out of the blue, I received a call from BankFirst and presumed that someone was finally listening. Guess what? They weren't responding to my numerous complaints; they wanted a copy of my California Driver License and Social Security Card under The Patriot Act to prove that my full legal name is Crusader. I was told that until I provided said documentation, my WiredPlastic account was "being placed on hold" and couldn't be used.

I was told by BankFirst that they call people at random, but I am convinced that they were harassing me because of my threats to take action against them. Since my balance was at zero dollars and zero cents, I told them just to cancel the card, and informed them I was going to write an article about them so others can be educated to stay far away from WiredPlastic.com. The BankFirst employee could care less when I told her that.

Hopefully others will also care less about doing business with these jerks!

GrandCentral

2007-11-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

GrandCentral (easy-to-use phone management)

Now, here is a "telephone management" service that actually works! Another Google "invention," this service is free during the beta phase. One can go to GrandCentral to request to be a masterbeta tester, just like me.

The best part about their service, which I quote directly from their FAQ: "We've tapped into VoIP technology to build our service, but GrandCentral works with cell phones, desk phones, VoIP lines, and everything in between. There's nothing to download, upload, or install. And you don't have to make or take calls using a computer."

In less than 30 minutes, I signed up for a "virtual phone number" in my area (Palm Springs, CA), and was able to diddle with a few of the settings and place several "test calls" to ensure that the features actually worked as described.

My situation involves always forwarding my business cell and personal cell to my GrandCentral number; that way, I can manage all my cell phones (3 total) from one phone.

I programmed GrandCentral to forward all of those calls (plus any calls directly made to my GrandCentral number) directly to my unlisted private cell number. When I make a call from the GrandCentral web page (or via their site on my MOTO RAZR V3xx web browser), the caller sees my GrandCentral number in their Caller ID, not any of my other phone numbers, which is sweet.

The features that GrandCentral offer are too numerous to mention here, but include audio Caller ID (for when visual Caller ID just isn't enough or the caller is Unknown); listening in while someone is leaving a voice mail message and then pushing a button on the keypad to retrieve the call while the caller is leaving the message; customized voice mail messages specific to callers in your GrandCentral address book; a variety of phone rings (or humorous voice announcements) the caller hears when they contact you at GrandCentral (customizable for each address book contact); compatibility with some cell phones to access some GrandCentral features via a mobile web browser. (Be sure you have a flat rate data or web package with your phone carrier if you plan on using this feature often.)

It's important to note that not all features of the mobile access work on all cell phones. Case in point, on my MOTO RAZR V3xx, I cannot play the voicemail messages because of how my phone defines those particular MP3 files. I thought the workaround for this would be to install the Opera Mini browser application (which GrandCentral recommends); however that did not resolve the issue. I sent some feedback to GrandCentral to find out if they have any suggestions.

On a positive note, since downloading the Opera Mini browser application on my phone, I have to say that it is 1,000 times better than the Opera 8.0 browser that MOTO (or AT&T) preinstalls with this model phone. In fact, it's definitely the best browser I've used on any cell phone.

From a business standpoint, GrandCentral really helps me because I am able to place a WebCall button on my proofreading web site (several styles to choose from) for potential clients to call me. All they have to do is click on the button and enter their telephone number. GrandCentral then calls me and connects me seamlessly to the potential new client. I also put a GrandCentral button on my activism web site and this blog to make it easy for folks to reach me.

Tired of annoying sales calls? calls from ex-significant others? calls from pesky collection agencies? Simply add the person or company to your address book and program that caller to 1) Always go to voice mail; 2) Always go to SPAM voice mail; 3) Play a recording such as "The number you have reached is no longer in service." If you select No. 3 above, you'll never get the call, but GrandCentral will keep track of the attempted call in your phone log, which is nice in case you want to be aware of who tried to contact you.

These are some of the features that paid services such as TalkPlus supposedly offer; however as mentioned in a previous post on this blog, many of the TalkPlus features failed more often than not. A similar outfit, RingCentral (which offers even more features than TalkPlus), has failed to return my inquiry to them after more than 24 hours, which is surprising as their web site is rather impressive.

Apparently, from my recent experience, GrandCentral should take off like wildfire and put any competition to shame. Many thanks again to Google for providing me (and others) with tools to stay informed and organized.

Click here to see the skinny on how GrandCentral works.

TalkPlus

2007-11-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

TalkPlus (manage all your telephone numbers from one phone)

This would be a great service if only it worked. TalkPlus claims to offer all types of really cool features to manage several telephones (cell or land line phones) from one phone number.

In my situation, I have three cell phones. TalkPlus was supposed to make it convenient and possible for me to receive and make calls from one number, and program their system so that my call could be "mirrored" from either my business line or personal line. The outgoing call features appear to work; however, their incoming call features have failed repeatedly!

From the very start, it is extremely complicated to program the features the consumer or business owner wants to use with TalkPlus. Worse yet, once everything is programmed properly, the features do not work as advertised. Since the entire reason for paying for their service is to make telecommuting easier for business owners and consumers, that is what I expect TalkPlus to deliver. Unfortunately, they have failed miserably in that regard.

I have been paying about $30.00 per month for two "mirrored numbers" and two "virtual numbers" with 200 minutes. The minutes are only used when I accept a call on my "native phone" that is forwarded by TalkPlus OR when I make a call from my "native phone" (in this case, my private cell phone) and route it through TalkPlus to make it look like the call is coming from my personal OR business line. An application from TalkPlus needs to be installed on the "native phone" to use the outgoing call features.

After using the service for about five weeks, every time I attempt to add a telephone number to the Call Screening feature (which programs a call from a specific number to go directly to voice mail or replicate a busy signal), I receive an error message that I must input a valid numeric telephone number.

Other issues involve the fact that even though I have programmed the TalkPlus service to send all UNKNOWN callers directly to voice mail, that feature usually does not work, and the calls are routed to what TalkPlus calls my "native phone," the one

I am supposed to be able to manage all my phone numbers from. Anotherfeature that does not work consistently is when I have programmed a number in my Call Screening profile to replicate a busy signal, those calls sometimes come through on my main number, which isn't supposed to happen.

Finally, repeated phone calls and e-mails to TalkPlus about their glitches remain unanswered. In fact, I notice that during the past several days, it is impossible to reach a live person at their customer service number.

If TalkPlus expects to be a serious contender in their field, they need to fix their glitches and provide improved customer service, which right now is a big fat zero!

Note: Just a little update that on Tuesday, November 26, a live person finally called me from TalkPlus after my 10+ business days of trying to reach them via e-mail, online feedback forms, and telephone. They promised to cancel my account and refund me the equivalent of one month's service. I gave the employee and earful about their customer disservice AND technical problems, which they were happy to hear about. For now, I recommend that people pass on TalkPlus and RingCentral.com (still hasn't returned my inquiry after FIVE business days), and try out GrandCentral.com, a free service that actually WORKS!