About That Mission

Enhanced Recriminations

Here is the latest in my #timremix series. H/T to Eddie Grant for the lyrical inspiration.
Copy, share or forward to every crazy uncle who forwards you a Benghazi email or mentions Obama as the cause for Ebola. Gently remind them that we will never be able to convict Obama for injecting Ebola into Texas without a proper court of justice!.  Do it for the sake of our children. There’s always a possibility that they might yet get to live in the kind of free society most of us grew up in.  Let’s all pitch in and help “enhance” their chances.

We Don’t Torture, We Enhance

The battle wasn’t over when the “Mission was Accomplished”. There is still a hugely important mission that needs to be completed. Support the troops, and the rule of law they thought they were fighting for. Purge the war prostitutes and fill those seats with citizens who represent law and order as it was constitutionally enshrined. #finishthemission

Enjoy.

DisgraceBook Update

Another day, another holler.  Just found the feedback box to protest my ban from DisgraceBook over allegations of posting pornography.  I just sent them a web link from the story I posted here yesterday.  I will be sure to report on the action taken, but since there’s only fourteen hours left on my “ban” at this point, the clock will probably run out before Facebook pulls their head out of their ass.  And it’s sad (for them..lol) really, because in the meantime I’m already working out an exit strategy.  Given the trampling of the weeds at the edge of the compound from the massive amount of traffic they’ve lost in the rush of exiting teens, the route is already cleared.
I’ve another interesting and slightly distressing observation to share with you.  I went to post on USA Today and there was no way to get into their system because of my Facebook interconnection.  That in and of itself is enough for me to sever ties with Facebook and I’m thinking of avoiding USA Today (and any other site I find that is so reliant on Facebook for “approval” on my character before posting that I can’t participate in OUR SHARED public arena).

Note To Self: Stop Shaving

 .

Did you see how livid the GodSquad was when their momentary hero got temporarily banned from the Duck Sucker Show?  OMG, the pearl-clutching and hand wringing!!  In relation to the stuff he got slapped on the wrist for saying, in comparison to my “offense”?  No comparison at all, but then like most of you, I obviously don’t command the necessary divine blessings (or ZZ Top stylist) necessary for the adequate protection of my free speech rights!  They say it’s a free country, and I’ll bite.  I’m free to leave Facebook and tell my story on the way out as they continue to free-fall like so many other “broken” social networks of bygone eras.  That trail is so littered with the rotting hubris of bulk, it’s a wonder that Facebook hasn’t gotten any smarter than their predecessors.

That said, I think it’s important to make a point of exposing this abuse of membership for both their survival and the survival of free speech rights for the average Joe.  Now that Facebook has become such a gatekeeper and monolithic entity it resides (along with my beloved Twitter) in the bowels of my iOS devices, I’m forced to hold them to a higher “public” standard on issues affecting my ability to comment and post on issues important to me.  Ferchrissakes, people are posting calls to assassinate the President through flimsy “tongue-in-cheek” cartoons and dog-whistle rightwing code on their social network and they don’t get blocked or banned!  Great, let the Secret Service sort them out.  I’m not going out of my way to squelch their rights (and neither is Facebook for that matter), but here I sit, unable to even submit a public reply on my own Facebook account at this point!!

I am in the process of offloading/downloading my entire Facebook profile now.  I can’t wait to see the file size on that!  I will likely delete everything and leave a skeletal profile for ease in logging onto other services.  I’m also still able to “direct message” followers on MySpaceBook, so there’s that to consider.

At the end of the day, Facebook has shown itself to be entirely more reckless and out of control than even I am and that my friends, it the path to complete and total destruction.  You can be ABSOLUTELY SURE that just as soon as my 24 hour ban gets lifted I’m going to be reposting the ‘pornography’ that got me banned in the first instance, just out of principle alone.  I’m going to force their hand one way or the other and let the world have a ringside seat to the circus.

Obligatory.  I’m an outlaw on a steel horse I ride…

Enjoy.

Me and Larry Flynt

Welcome to the 21st Century on Facebook, where images that weren’t even considered pornographic in the Cold War Era are now being effectively suppressed by the American Taliban.  I’m opening this up for public discussion as I ponder, at the bare minimum, the degree of incompetence of a company that has such a complete track record of nearly every aspect of my life, and yet could so easily be misled into taking what I believe many of you will agree with is a customer service social faux paux of the highest possible order.  They didn’t just ban the picture, they banned me from any posting on Facebook over an illusory violation of a breach in their “terms of service”!

For fuck’s sake they’ve never so much as lobbed a first warning at me in response to any of the umm…more colorful language I use on Facebook with enthusiastic reckless abandon.  I’d at least have a bit more sympathy for Facebook, but no more respect, if that was the issue under consideration.

Keep in mind I ignored their first warning to remove the photo after reading that if I didn’t remove it immediately it would be put under a higher level of scrutiny, which I naturally assumed would involve some actual person at Facebook Central Command laughing his ass off while deleting the “complaint” that spawned the banning.  A complaint lodged by what I suspect was some militantly pissed off rightwing goober offended by my liberal politics or lack of proper respect to the memories of their imaginary Jeebus.  

Before you take the trouble of wasting your time trying to explain to me how it’s all automated, I’m going to respond that it hardly matters to me from my perspective.  If they are willing to pass off this decision to artificial logic, they need to do a much better job of programming, and I’m willing to make an example out of myself in the greater interest of maintaining free speech on the internet.  

Facebook may well be a private company, but they are operating in the public space on infrastructure built and maintained at great taxpayer expense and have a certain responsibility in regard to that position which is totally independent from their ham-handed customer service policies.  And let’s be clear, that’s what is ultimately at stake here unless we’re willing to push back against the religious trolls intent on defining pornography down to a level where a picture of a naked Barbie doll gets you banned from all social media for life.  Slippery slope and all.

In any event, I think it’s highly ironic that at a time where tech, mainstream and financial news headlines are filled with stories of youth fleeing Facebook in droves, they are willing to risk offending someone of my advanced age (and online spending habits) by willy nilly banning me over the aforementioned “pornography”.

What rights of mine have been violated, if any?  Have I not been recklessly slandered by someone that Facebook could easily identify to me (under court order e.g.) so that I may seek compensation for damages in a court of law against this defamation (I’ve essentially been accused of being a public pornographer).  If there’s an eager young lawyer out there looking for a pro bono case to make a name for himself (win, lose or draw), I’m easy to get ahold of.

It’s “only” a 24 hour ban right now, and a minor perturbation in terms of access to Facebook, but  in the overall picture of which social media service I intend to give the bulk of my data (and hence their income stream), you can bet that unless I get some type of feedback from Facebook in the form of an apology (at a minimum), I’m going to be moving off their service (like so many others have lately) and will share my marketing information with a data management service that has the competency to judge my character more judicially based on the weight of a hundred thousand web postings I’ve already shared with them against the baseless complaint of one lunatic pearl-clutching prude intent upon helping them ruin their market share.  In the meantime I encourage those of you who support or sympathize with me on this issue to help spread this blogpost as far and wide as possible.  All it takes for evil to take over is the lack of action by a few good men.

Enjoy.

Best of Gay Drama from Americablog

AMERICAblog Gay | A great people deserve their rights: White House censored “pro-gay” video for two days while deciding whether to issue permanent gag order to college.

This controversy centers around a recorded comment on the subject of gay marriage,  spoken Monday by White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes at Boston College.  John Aravosis at AMERICAblog is the world’s best at finding and ferreting out the hypocrisy of political leaders (Reps and Dems).

At the end of the drama, Melody has a personal viewpoint more liberal than her boss.  Crises averted?

Enjoy.