We must speak for those whose voices have been silenced. #FREEPUSSYRIOT
In my 2007 book, ‘The Future of Marriage,’ and in my 2010 court testimony concerning Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that defined marriage as between a man and a woman, I took a stand against gay marriage. But as a marriage advocate, the time has come for me to accept gay marriage and emphasize the good that it can do. I’d like to explain why.
David Blankenhorn, founder of the Institute for American Values who testified in favor of Proposition 8 during the trial in California
(source: New York Times op-ed, 22 June 2012)
Tumblr's Contemplated Self-Harm Content Policy
Dunno about others, but I find this disturbing. Tumblr’s “Content Policy” statement already forbids “Hate Content, Defamation, and Libel” and “Sexually Explicit Video” submission, despite staff’s statement that it is “…deeply committed to supporting and defending our users’ freedom of speech.” Libel is illegal in many jurisdictions, certainly, as is other banned content like identity theft and copyright. Hate speech is illegal in some jurisdictions reached by Tumblr, as is pornography. Fine. Self-harm is a form of expression that is not per se illegal in many parts of the world; some artists consider it part of their oeuvre, whereas others simply view it as a way they communicate to the world. Tumblr’s decision to block this content is not consistent with “..supporting and defending [its] users’ freedom of speech.” It’s rendering a judgment about content which is typically not illegal.
Self-harm bothers me. It bothers a lot of people. Most view it as a manifestation of psychological or pathological disorder. But there are people in the world who would consider my political beliefs, for example, somehow psychologically disordered. What about speaking out in defense of science and scientific principles? I disagree with people who don’t believe in climate change or evolution, for example, but I don’t want Tumblr censoring their content. And that’s where the self-harm issue crosses a very uncomfortable threshold. In fact, this sounds a LOT like Twitter self-censoring in order to expand its user base (and its business bottom-line), or Google giving in to Chinese demands that it censor its search results to block politically-sensitive sites or in India to avoid angering the cultural and religious elite. Social media were crucial in fomenting the tide of revolution in the Arab Spring, yet all these social media outlets seem to stunt their own growth as powerful agents of communication and social change. But at the end of the day, these are all corporations with financial obligations of various stripes, and the arc of corporate will bends towards the dollar rather than always doing what’s right. Suppressing speech may be good for the bottom line, but it doesn’t serve society. What Tumblr needs is more voices, not fewer. In his concurring opinion in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927), U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the process of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
If this concerns you as much as it does me, and you want to see the flow of legal information via Tumblr unencumbered by social and political judgments, I urge you to email Tumblr and tell them — just as I have.
One of the great things about Tumblr is that people use it for just about every conceivable kind of expression. People being people, though, that means that Tumblr sometimes gets used for things that are just wrong. We are deeply committed to supporting and defending our users’ freedom of speech,…
MythBuster Adam Savage: SOPA Could Destroy the Internet as We Know It
Soon the U.S. Congress will reconvene to consider the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Mythbuster and PM contributing editor Adam Savage says that if these sweeping pieces of legislation pass, the U.S. will join the likes of China and Iran in censoring the Internet, and destroy the openness that made the Web perhaps the most important technological advance of his lifetime.
“The Internet is probably the most important technological advancement of my lifetime. Its strength lies in its open architecture and its ability to allow a framework where all voices can be heard. Like the printing press before it (which states also tried to regulate, for centuries), it democratizes information, and thus it democratizes power. If we allow Congress to pass these draconian laws, we’ll be joining nations like China and Iran in filtering what we allow people to see, do, and say on the Web. And we’re better than that.”
Say No To SOPA
A List Apart strongly opposes United States H.R.3261 AKA the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), an ill-conceived lobbyist-driven piece of legislation that is technically impossible to enforce, cripplingly burdensome to support, and would, without hyperbole, destroy the internet as we know it.
We at ALA are not alone in our opposition to SOPA. Other opponents of the bill now before the U.S. House of Representatives include Google, Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla, Yahoo!, AOL, LinkedIn, eBay, Tumblr, Etsy, Reddit, Techdirt, Wikimedia Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, and the Center for Democracy and Technology.
The bill has its supporters, too, including Hollywood, media firms, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and their lobbyists, who have spent over $91 million to push this new law through.
- Americans, Tumblr has created a system that will call you with talking points, and then connect you to your representative.
- You can contact your representatives and your senators.
- Those outside the US can sign this petition. Registration is required. A US zip code is not.
We urge everyone reading this to take action today. Only an overwhelming show of solidarity gives us a chance of defeating this poorly written, dangerous bill.
Our federal government should not be in the business of selecting which married couples it supports and which it treats with contempt. States define marriage among couples, and, once married, all those couples and their families should have the same protections, the same benefits, and the same tax treatments. Fairness and equality are foundational values in our country, and nowhere is that more important than in our families.
Atheist Messages Displace CA Park Nativity Scenes
(Image credit: AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the three wise men are being crowded out by atheists.
Most of the Christmas nativity scenes that churches had placed in a Santa Monica coastal park for decades have been displaced by non-religious displays — and the churches are crying conspiracy.
The Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee, a coalition of 13 churches, and the Santa Monica Police Officers Association, has traditionally claimed 14 of the 21 display spaces, which are vandal-proof, cage-like areas surrounded by chain-link fencing.
The coalition displays have featured life-size depictions of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. But atheists got all but three of the spaces this year because of a new lottery system. The coalition got two spots to display Jesus, Mary and the wise men. The third went to Isaac Levitansky of Chabad Channukah Menorah.
Adding to the loss, the atheists have used only three of the display areas to promote their message. One reads: “Religions are all alike — founded upon fables and mythologies. — Thomas Jefferson.” “Happy Solstice,” reads another.
And a display with photographs depicting King Neptune, Jesus Christ, Santa Claus and Satan reads, “Million Americans know MYTHS when they see them. What myths do you see? American Atheists. Since 1963. athiests.org.”
At many stages in the advance of humanity, this conflict between the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress. In our day it appears as the struggle of freemen to gain and hold the right of self-government as against the special interests, who twist the methods of free government into machinery for defeating the popular will. At every stage, and under all circumstances, the essence of the struggle is to equalize opportunity, destroy privilege, and give to the life and citizenship of every individual the highest possible value both to himself and to the commonwealth.
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
Osawatomie, Kansas
31 August 1910
Today is Human Rights Day.
Human rights belong equally to each of us and bind us together as a global community with the same ideals and values. As a global community we all share a day in common: Human Rights Day on 10 December, when we remember the creation 63 years ago of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Accumulating random crap since 1976! Mostly strange humor, fountain pens, history, politics, LGBT issues, art, odd pictures from my iPhoto library, and irrelevant status updates. I'm an ESTJ. In my day job I'm a scientist or something. And I like boys.
