| Really sad to hear the news of Carrie Fisher and now Debbie Reynolds. Love them both. |
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Carrie Fisher and Mom
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Why I Defend Cops
When I'm in trouble I call the police and they come and they help me.
And while I'm a defender of victims of police brutality and unwarranted police shootings, I also am a defender of police.
As someone who has never been arrested, never been brutalized by police, never been in trouble with the police, and has had police officers in her family (I'm white and female, so that helps keep me out of trouble, too), I defend police because their job is one of the shittiest, most thankless and most dangerous jobs in America. I personally would not want to be the first to respond to an armed robbery or a domestic dispute or be the one to pull over a car full of men who look like they're up to no good ... late at night, in the dark, all by myself. No, I'm not that brave, but I give credit to the officers who are. They have the daunting task of dealing with the criminal element day in and day out to keep people like me safe.
Not everyone should be a cop ... just like not everyone should be a nurse or a florist or a photographer or a chef. There are people in every profession who are shitty at their job and police officers are no different. Some of them are abusers who are too angry to do the job, and some of them are just too afraid and too skittish to be cops. Unfortunately, law enforcement officers who are not good at their jobs have the power to really hurt or kill people through misdeed or misjudgement. That's a problem. Shitty cops also put their fellow officers at risk.
I think it's also important to remember that cops only have a split second to make decisions about who is dangerous and who is not. Who wants to shoot them and who is just reaching for their wallet. They deal with mentally ill people, suicidal people, people waving knives at them, people who want to kill their spouses, and people who are high on drugs. They also deal with bad guys with guns who aren't afraid to use them. There are plenty of cop killers out there and no one knows that better than cops. Police officers don't have the luxury of leisurely contemplating what action needs to be taken. So, sometimes they mess up and shoot someone they shouldn't. And sometimes they mess up and don't shoot someone that they should.
Sometimes cops kill people and sometimes people kill cops.
Hindsight is always clear-sighted.
Deciding right and wrong from after-the-fact videos on YouTube is easier than making decisions in real time.
Everyone needs to chill the fuck out and give cops a break.
According to the National Law Officer's Memorial Fund, gun-related police deaths are on the rise with 2016 already surpassing the number of officers shot to death in 2015.
Last month, four officers were shot in four different cities in a 24 hour period. In July, six Louisiana officers were shot while protesters marched in the street in opposition of police shootings. Six officers were shot in Georgia in the past week, and a Tennessee police officer was shot two days ago.
It's time for people to speak out and defend the good cops who protect us and keep us safe.
And while I'm a defender of victims of police brutality and unwarranted police shootings, I also am a defender of police.
As someone who has never been arrested, never been brutalized by police, never been in trouble with the police, and has had police officers in her family (I'm white and female, so that helps keep me out of trouble, too), I defend police because their job is one of the shittiest, most thankless and most dangerous jobs in America. I personally would not want to be the first to respond to an armed robbery or a domestic dispute or be the one to pull over a car full of men who look like they're up to no good ... late at night, in the dark, all by myself. No, I'm not that brave, but I give credit to the officers who are. They have the daunting task of dealing with the criminal element day in and day out to keep people like me safe.
Not everyone should be a cop ... just like not everyone should be a nurse or a florist or a photographer or a chef. There are people in every profession who are shitty at their job and police officers are no different. Some of them are abusers who are too angry to do the job, and some of them are just too afraid and too skittish to be cops. Unfortunately, law enforcement officers who are not good at their jobs have the power to really hurt or kill people through misdeed or misjudgement. That's a problem. Shitty cops also put their fellow officers at risk.
I think it's also important to remember that cops only have a split second to make decisions about who is dangerous and who is not. Who wants to shoot them and who is just reaching for their wallet. They deal with mentally ill people, suicidal people, people waving knives at them, people who want to kill their spouses, and people who are high on drugs. They also deal with bad guys with guns who aren't afraid to use them. There are plenty of cop killers out there and no one knows that better than cops. Police officers don't have the luxury of leisurely contemplating what action needs to be taken. So, sometimes they mess up and shoot someone they shouldn't. And sometimes they mess up and don't shoot someone that they should.
Sometimes cops kill people and sometimes people kill cops.
Hindsight is always clear-sighted.
Deciding right and wrong from after-the-fact videos on YouTube is easier than making decisions in real time.
Everyone needs to chill the fuck out and give cops a break.
According to the National Law Officer's Memorial Fund, gun-related police deaths are on the rise with 2016 already surpassing the number of officers shot to death in 2015.
Last month, four officers were shot in four different cities in a 24 hour period. In July, six Louisiana officers were shot while protesters marched in the street in opposition of police shootings. Six officers were shot in Georgia in the past week, and a Tennessee police officer was shot two days ago.
It's time for people to speak out and defend the good cops who protect us and keep us safe.
Corporate Data Breaches Becoming The Norm
Woke up to another computer hacking/data breaching/customer compromising, this time from Quest Diagnostics which means sensitive, personal, private medical information has been exposed to whoever hacked it, but (as always) the company released a statement that said there is "no indication" that the information has been misused. It just got me wondering what, exactly, that bullshit statement means. It seems corporate data breaches are becoming the norm but miraculously, they keep telling us these breaches are not harming customers at all. I find that unbelievable.
There is a Wikipedia page of data breaches that lists hundreds of companies that have been hacked. This is, of course, only a partial list and only includes companies whose breaches involved 30,000 or more customers records. That narrows the playing field way the fuck down, since smaller breaches in smaller companies occur "continually" according to Wiki.
The companies listed encompass multiple aspects of our lives and include (in no particular order) Home Depot, JP Morgan, Hyatt Hotels, Uber, 21st Century Oncology, Fidelity National, Hannaford Supermarkets, British Airways, Twitter, TD Bank, Walmart, The State of Texas, The Washington Post, Scribd, Sony Pictures, UPS, Domino's Pizza, Ohio State University, Trump Hotel, Monster.com, Adobe, Medicaid, The Veteran's Administration, The National Guard, Verizon, and (my favorite) ... The Internal Revenue Service.
Should we mention the Yahoo data breach that has been going on for two years and effects 1 Billion email users. This is the biggest data breach in history, and Yahoo has kept it under their hats until now ... maybe because they are negotiating a sale price with Verizon and don't want to lower their worth? ... don't know ... just thinkin' out loud here.
Customers are controlled by companies that demand over-the-top amounts of information about us before honoring us with the privilege of doing business with them, yet, they offer no guarantee of being able to secure the personal information they are collecting. Even a job application requests name, date of birth, social security numbers, work histories, past and present pay scales, personal references, places of birth, places of residence ... before we even know if we will be interviewed or what the job even pays. We often don't even know who actually owns the company we are applying to ... yet, they demand that we neatly enter our private stuff into their databases for not-so-safe keeping. Of course, their defense is the old "you don't have to work here if you don't like it", but the majority of us don't own our own businesses and are not independently wealthy, we need to work and all the companies are following suit and demanding the same information of job applicants. (We haven't even touched on employer demands for background checks, credit checks, and drug testing).
Here is a list of statements that companies use to bullshit us after the personal date they demanded from us has been stolen from them:
"...there was no evidence of fraud involving the use of customer information."
"...customer financial information remains secure."
"...no evidence that any person involved was harmed by the breach."
"...no indication that patient or customer information has been misused in any way."
"We have not received any reports of actual misuse of any information."
"...no evidence that users have been exploited malicioulsly."
"... no evidence that stolen information is being used for anything but marketing."
"... can't guarantee that it won't result in fees to customers."
And while I acknowledge that computer hackers are costing these companies lots of money to fix these breaches (issuing new cards to customers, offering free credit reports, changing account numbers, sending out notification letters to customers ... I know all this costs money), I just want companies to acknowledge that they are powerless in securing our personal information; I want them to stop demanding so much of our information; And I want them to stop telling us that we have not been harmed by having our personal information dropped into the hands of criminals.
There is a Wikipedia page of data breaches that lists hundreds of companies that have been hacked. This is, of course, only a partial list and only includes companies whose breaches involved 30,000 or more customers records. That narrows the playing field way the fuck down, since smaller breaches in smaller companies occur "continually" according to Wiki.
The companies listed encompass multiple aspects of our lives and include (in no particular order) Home Depot, JP Morgan, Hyatt Hotels, Uber, 21st Century Oncology, Fidelity National, Hannaford Supermarkets, British Airways, Twitter, TD Bank, Walmart, The State of Texas, The Washington Post, Scribd, Sony Pictures, UPS, Domino's Pizza, Ohio State University, Trump Hotel, Monster.com, Adobe, Medicaid, The Veteran's Administration, The National Guard, Verizon, and (my favorite) ... The Internal Revenue Service.
Should we mention the Yahoo data breach that has been going on for two years and effects 1 Billion email users. This is the biggest data breach in history, and Yahoo has kept it under their hats until now ... maybe because they are negotiating a sale price with Verizon and don't want to lower their worth? ... don't know ... just thinkin' out loud here.
Customers are controlled by companies that demand over-the-top amounts of information about us before honoring us with the privilege of doing business with them, yet, they offer no guarantee of being able to secure the personal information they are collecting. Even a job application requests name, date of birth, social security numbers, work histories, past and present pay scales, personal references, places of birth, places of residence ... before we even know if we will be interviewed or what the job even pays. We often don't even know who actually owns the company we are applying to ... yet, they demand that we neatly enter our private stuff into their databases for not-so-safe keeping. Of course, their defense is the old "you don't have to work here if you don't like it", but the majority of us don't own our own businesses and are not independently wealthy, we need to work and all the companies are following suit and demanding the same information of job applicants. (We haven't even touched on employer demands for background checks, credit checks, and drug testing).
Here is a list of statements that companies use to bullshit us after the personal date they demanded from us has been stolen from them:
"...there was no evidence of fraud involving the use of customer information."
"...customer financial information remains secure."
"...no evidence that any person involved was harmed by the breach."
"...no indication that patient or customer information has been misused in any way."
"We have not received any reports of actual misuse of any information."
"...no evidence that users have been exploited malicioulsly."
"... no evidence that stolen information is being used for anything but marketing."
"... can't guarantee that it won't result in fees to customers."
And while I acknowledge that computer hackers are costing these companies lots of money to fix these breaches (issuing new cards to customers, offering free credit reports, changing account numbers, sending out notification letters to customers ... I know all this costs money), I just want companies to acknowledge that they are powerless in securing our personal information; I want them to stop demanding so much of our information; And I want them to stop telling us that we have not been harmed by having our personal information dropped into the hands of criminals.
Monday, December 12, 2016
Brainstorm: Let's Ban Pregnancy!
Ok.
At the risk of sounding like a callous, uncaring asshole, I have a brainstorm about the news reports and fears and CDC warnings about travel bans regarding the Zika virus and pregnant women.
Why don't we just ban all pregnancies until Zika is eradicated?
What's that you say?
You think that's a crazy idea?
You think interfering with reproductive freedoms is a bad idea?
What's that ... you think it would be a human rights violation to interfere with and try to dictate a woman's freedom to control her own body ... her uterus ... her reproductive health ... her sexuality ... her decision to conceive?
Oh, you mean the same way anti-choice legislators who pass anti-choice laws interfere with and violate human rights?
Yea ... I agree. We should all keep our noses out of the reproductive health of others ...
glad we're all finally on the same page.
At the risk of sounding like a callous, uncaring asshole, I have a brainstorm about the news reports and fears and CDC warnings about travel bans regarding the Zika virus and pregnant women.
Why don't we just ban all pregnancies until Zika is eradicated?
What's that you say?
You think that's a crazy idea?
You think interfering with reproductive freedoms is a bad idea?
What's that ... you think it would be a human rights violation to interfere with and try to dictate a woman's freedom to control her own body ... her uterus ... her reproductive health ... her sexuality ... her decision to conceive?
Oh, you mean the same way anti-choice legislators who pass anti-choice laws interfere with and violate human rights?
Yea ... I agree. We should all keep our noses out of the reproductive health of others ...
glad we're all finally on the same page.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
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