BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

The more I learn about psychology and destructive narcissism (as opposed to healthy narcissism) the more I understand how terrorists, how sexual and emotional predators, religious and spiritual cults, those who exploit the vulnerable, outright abusers -- do it. And continue to. Some people feel America has been "dumbed down." I believe its societal. To use my favorite movie series: The Matrix , only a few of us have taken the red pill . I call this the "Lemming Effect." In my observation, a sadly large proportion of society either won't or don't want to think for themselves. They will go along with the prevailing tide. Heaven forbid they be independent thinkers sending their brains outside the box! They will be shunned by everyone. So, they choose "The Lemming Effect." Or, as I said above, you have the exploiters, who wait until people are filled with fear, beaten down, vulnerable or unknowledgable - and then they throw the power of sugg...

The Mobosphere Unveiled Ever since Congress passed Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act giving immunity to interactive service providers for publishing the defamation of others, a wide range of characters has arisen and infiltrated the mainstream blogosphere. Instead of becoming a source for obtaining reliable information, the blogosphere, and user generated content, is at risk of becoming a less credible information source. Dozier Internet Law defamation lawyers are constantly battling these “black hat” forces and over the past several years we have acquired quite an insight into this underworld; an anonymous and covert society bent on terrorizing businesses. These are our internal thoughts on the matter, and not scientific analyses. We are not psychiatrists; just defamation lawyers and trial lawyers trained for almost fifty years to figure out the human nature of clients, witnesses, and juries. All too often blog attacks are simply protection rackets and extortion schemes i...

By Eric Goldman Davis v. Google, 09 CH 15753 (Cook County Ct. complaint filed April 9, 2009) Venkat sent a very interesting lawsuit this morning that raises some complex policy issues. The complaint alleges that Sean Healy created a blog at unknowncolumn.blogspot.com and posted defamatory content about speedskater Shani Davis' mom, Cherie Davis. [I believe the post in question is at http://unknowncolumn.blogspot.com/2006/02/memo-to-cherie-davis.html -- I'm not going to link to it, but it did show up as my first search result for "Cherie Davis"]. The complaint further alleges that Healy is now deceased, so he can no longer remove the content on Cherie's demand, and he did not have a "probate estate" to take over his blog. As a result, Cherie feels like she has nowhere to turn to clean up the alleged defamation, so she is suing Google's Blogspot for a takedown injunction. On the face of it, the lawsuit is clearly preempted by 47 USC 230, and Google oug...

by David Klinghoffer A point I try to impress on my children is one that the Jewish community would do well to consider. If you spend a day continually whining about trivia, by the end of the day, even if you've got something legitimate to complain about, mommy and daddy aren't going to be in a frame of mind to listen to you very seriously. This lesson can be difficult for a little kid to grasp. The Anti-Defamation League has a hard time with it, too, otherwise the group wouldn't profess to be "stunned" that the Vatican had "ignored our concerns" and reversed the excommunication of four previously outlawed rebel bishops, leaders of the reactionary Society of St. Pius X. The Pius X organization opposes the reforms of Vatican II, including its olive branch to the Jews and Judaism. One of the bishops is a flagrant anti-Semite, Holocaust denier and conspiracy theorist. Bishop Richard Williamson remains in hot water with the Catholic Church for having accepte...

What a complete moron! Why, oh, why did he do that? Talk about no class, no shame, no boundaries. Like that old male saw from the 1950s and 1960s maybe he was really one of those "find 'em, feel 'em, f**k 'em and forget 'em!" types and the girlfriend dumped his sorry self before he could drag her down even further. But he had to make it look like it was the other way around, and do it in a humilitating and downright sick way. No, Pauly-Bear couldn't just go to her like an adult and tell her it was over. He reached in his pocket and paid for a humilitating advertisement. The article itself ticked me off by using the dustiest cliche on the shelf - that she's "a woman scorned." Why is a woman who is rightfully upset, hurt and angry suddenly scorned? A term that purposely carries with it shades of a crazed "Fatal Attraction" character boiling bunnies in some guy's kitchen. I know people who have been accused by exes of posting...

Lawsuits Against Bloggers Seen Rising Since 2004, 159 Court Actions Have Targeted Citizen Journalists for Libel and Other Charges By HUMA YUSUF When Christopher Grotke answered a late-night knock on the door, he did not expect to find the deputy sheriff on his doorstep serving notice that he was being sued. Nor was he prepared for the charge: libel. Someone had posted a comment on his citizen-journalism Web site, iBrattleboro.com, stating that a woman in Brattleboro, Vt., was having an extramarital affair. The accused woman then sued Grotke and his Web site co-founder for failing to edit or delete the comment. The blogging community increasingly is subject to lawsuits and threats of legal action running the gamut from subpoenas to cease-and-desist notices. Since blogging became popular in about 2004, there have been 159 civil and criminal court actions involving bloggers, according to the nonprofit Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) in New York. Seven cases have resulted in verdicts agai...

Cross posted in support of HARRY's PLACE Last Friday, in the wake of a closely argued debate about whether Mohammed Sawalha, the President of the British Muslim Initiative, had used the phrase “Evil Jew” or “Jewish Lobby” in a speech, Harry’s Place received a letter . The letter is from Dean and Dean, a firm of solicitors who are acting for Mr Sawalha. Mr Sawalha has demanded that we take down certain articles from Harry’s Place, and publish an apology “in the attached wording”. The solicitors have failed to attach the apology that Mr Sawalha insists we publish. That omission matters little, as we have no intention of apologising to him at all, nor of taking down any article. We have responded to Mr Sawalha’s solicitors, through Mishcon de Reya, who are acting for us. Mr Sawalha claims that we have “chosen a malevolent interpretation of a meaningless word”. In fact, we did no more than translate a phrase which appeared in an Al Jazeera report of Mr Sawalha’s speech. When Al Jazeer...

Any of this sound like a politician you know? or a few of them? by Kathy Krajco Here's a way to spot projection even when you haven't enough direct knowledge of a controversy to know through observation where the truth lies. It's something I suppose only a writer would notice about human dialog. One of those things we notice about the way people talk that we use to make fictional characters realistic. Projection is of course intellectual dishonesty. People may project their own character off onto a another person, or they may project the character of one person in a conflict onto the other. In the second case, people are siding with the bad guy, such as the bystanders do when they blame the victim. A sure sign is their diction - word choice. It's always ironic. Why? Because they're always busy "cleansing" their guy of wrongdoing with their talk. So, to erase any glaring character flaws coming through in his behavior, they (perhaps almost subconsciously) d...

WHO'S WATCHING US ONLINE? "This is damning evidence that privacy is being destroyed by the very nations that proclaim to respect our rights," he said. "It is clear that there is a systemic failure of legal mechanisms to protect us against the emerging surveillance society. Those responsible for protecting our rights have failed to do so ... Australia, Britain and the United States have not only performed abysmally but they are embracing surveillance at an alarming speed." LINKS ON PRIVACY, THE FIRST AMENDMENT and THE INTERNET LEGAL ENFORCEMENT VERSUS DATA MINING JUST BECAUSE ITS LEGAL DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT BLOGGING SAFELY GOOGLE FINALLY! DECIDES TO KEEP IT PRIVATE! KEEP IT VERIFIABLE One for ATLAS : A statement that the plaintiff is a "Dumb Ass," even first among "Dumb Asses," communicates no factual proposition susceptible of proof or refutation. TEXT MESSAGE SNAGGING: CHILD'S PLAY OR CLOAK AND DAGGER by Bob Sullivan Lost in ...

BLOG BULLIES & BLOG SNOBS - PART II Two months ago I blogged about the universal blogger experience of Blog Bullies & Blog Snobs. True to the phenomena - it has cycled around again. Last week I was treated to a slew of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist messages on this blog. I simply deleted them. I don't do HATE. I can deal with debate and disagreement but I won't promote hate. This is my blog so I can do what I like on it. Of course, we have those who can't take that. So they hack your blog. Mine was hacked this past May. Then there's the people my buddy Keli Ata wrote about - those who go to aggregators where you may be and rate your posts 0 or 1 (out of a possible 5). My rule is - if you can't give a 5 or 4 or say something nice... move on - it's a big blogosphere. ( Keli Ata, btw - has a great post about helping persecuted Journalist Bloggers that everyone should see ) I simply don't have the ego involvement with blogging some do. I blog becau...