California voters back pot legalization, but support is shaky

Will a majority of Californians vote for legalized marijuana in the Fall? Here’s the most recent survey on the subject. I’m sure there’s going to be many more before people go to the ballot boxes.

Survey finds 49% support the ballot measure but a third of those only "somewhat" support it. Of the 41% who oppose it, a vast majority believe it will worsen social problems. One in 10 are undecided.

Deepwater Horizon disaster was no accident – it was a certainty

By Dave Stancliff/for ALL VOICES

Have you ever seen those old movies that ask you to “Follow the bouncing ball?” Using this analogy, let’s follow the bouncing ball that led to the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

Before we follow what led to this ecological disaster that took the lives of 11 workers on the oil rig, let’s take a quick look at the political climate regarding Big Oil. Ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a patriotic pal of the oil industry, told her followers the country still needs to “Drill, baby, drill” despite what happened in the Gulf.

 
Kentucky Republican Senate candidate, Rand Paul, wailed about Obama’s criticism of BP in the wake of the Gulf oil debacle and called it "really un-American." Then he told the press “accidents happen” to explain the catastrophic spill. A truly classic disingenuous statement.

Paul, already facing a backlash over remarks about civil rights legislation, defends Big Oil because he seeks financial support from the GOP to go along with his Tea Party backing. The GOP has been in bed with Big Oil since the first Bush took over the White House. That’s when the ball got rolling.

Read the rest at ALL VOICES  online magazine.         

Photo source

Photo Above: Sperm whales like this one are one of two resident species near the leak area. Like dolphins, whales have no fur that can get oiled, but oil on their skin and eyes can cause irritation and infection.

Mother of All Sinkholes in Guatamala Caused by Tropical Storm Agatha

Central America floods, mudslides kill scores

More than 110,000 in Guatemala flee as first storm of season lashes region

Storm, volcano pummel Guatemala
In addition to Tropical Storm Agatha taking at least 63 lives, the Pacaya volcano started spewing lava and rocks, killing at least one person.

More photos

Lakers meet Celtics in Finals for 33rd time in NBA History

The teams, which have combined to win 32 NBA titles, will play Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday.

Take the time to thank a veteran today

Randy Bish / Politicalcartoons.com

SF BAY GUARDIAN runs 5/31/09 As It Stands ‘Trolls Exposed: What kind of troll is disrupting your online community?’

FROM THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN ONLINE (Scroll halfway down)

           UNDER ENDORSEMENTS:

Here's some troll information for those of you who may be wondering about the paid political trolls who saturate this and other websites with pro-party line garbage (and who are constantly whining about The Guardian yet they constantly come here and read the articles and comment on them).

From my experience, whenever I talk about trolls it's only the trolls who get upset about me bringing the topic up. So they really identify themselves by their protest of the topic....while the rest of us just go about our business and don't worry about the topic of trolls being mentioned. So who else would care that someone has mentioned something about trolls... other than trolls? Get it?

One of the things that's obvious about trolls is that they change their screen name from, let's say, "apples" to "scrapples." And then next week they may change their screen name to "blabbles" or "Mr blabbles" pretending to be yet another person. Sometimes they will even talk to themselves on message forums because they wrote BOTH comments as 2 different people

Here's an article about trolls and the next-to-last paragraph talks about them being paid. As election time gets closer, the more paid political trolls there will be showing up on message forums cheerleading for their D or R "team." Oh look, here's "clapples." Or is it "raccles" today? It doesn't matter really....it's just a political troll.

And if one doesn't like the Guardian endorsements, no one is forcing you to vote for the candidates they endorsed.

Trolls Exposed: What kind of troll is disrupting your online community?
Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard
Posted: 05/31/2009 01:27:12 AM PDT

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NOTE: This column ran exactly one year ago today. It still resonates for some.                             

                            Don't feed the trolls

    (from: Trolls Exposed: What kind of troll is disrupting your online community?)
“You know the ones I'm talking about. They prey on news forums, chat rooms, and other online communities. Their purpose: to disrupt any conversation or thread, and to get an emotional response from some unwary person. Ignoring them and not responding to their posts is your best option.

What kind of people are trolls? They're cowards. Lonely cowards. Their posts seldom show any real imagination and often resort to childish name-calling.

Trolls are often extremely pedantic and rarely answer direct questions. There are some exceptions, but most aren't smart enough to make a reasonable argument. They're not interested in reason. They repeat themselves and say stupid, off-focus things to disrupt conversations.

Some trolls like to brag about their IQ. They try to come across like rocket scientists to lure the unwary and then pounce with a verbal attack. Trolls count the responses they get. [Sam's editorial: That answers my question that I've wondered about.] It must be highly pleasurable for the poor creatures to count coups if they disrupt other people's emotional equilibrium.

Trolls call it “Lulz,” a corruption of “LOL” (laugh out loud). Jason Fortuny is the most famous troll in America (using his real name in an interview). He was interviewed in the New York Times on August 3, 2008. This article is the best read I've found on the subject of trolls.

Fortuny's passion for “pushing people's buttons” made him the most prominent troll on the Internet according to the Times. He managed to thoroughly embarrass a lot of men with his infamous “Craigslist Experiment” as described in the Times article.

Like many trolls, Fortuny claims his pastime is just a big joke, a social experiment. He lives alone, spends countless hours anonymously insulting people, doesn't have a full time job, is 32 years old, and brags (to anyone who will listen) about being a troll.

For all of Fortuny's faults, no one has ever accused him of murder, like the woman in the Megan Meier cyberbullying case.

The suicide of a teenage girl highlights another type of troll. A deadly troll, sometimes called a cyberbully, took on a fake identity and seduced a vulnerable girl in MySpace. When the troll was sure she had fallen in love with the fake identity she (this woman posed as a man) broke up with the girl and said terrible things to her.

It was more than Megan Meier could stand and she killed herself. The warning is clear here. You never really know who you are talking with on the Internet, especially in online communities like FaceBook and MySpace.

For a guide on trolls go to flayme.com, which offers an Intelligence Test for Trolls. For an insight into cyberbullying check out the book “BullyBaby: Portrait of a Cyberbully,” by Andrew Heenan. “Dealing with Internet Trolls,” posted on lockergnome.com on April 17th, 2009, is another good information source.

Legislating cyberspace to go after trolls isn't feasible in my opinion. The web is a new frontier for freedom of speech and I don't want to see that changed by Orwellian laws that make it a crime to hurt someone's feelings.

So what do you do about trolls? Recognize that they are part of the Internet community and will be there as long as there are lonely misfits and people who have trouble communicating in the real world.

They crawl through cyberspace seeking to create chaos. It gives them a sense of power when they feel powerless in the real world. They get to say things they'd never dare say to people directly. At best, they are lonely cowards. Ignore them and don't let them spoil your use of the Internet.

Trolls are not hard to spot. For example, go to an online newspaper community like the Times-Standard's Topix Forum. In no time, you'll begin to recognize some names posted in every topic. Realizing this, trolls will sometimes change their identities, but their repetition and negative comments generally “out them” to an aware community.

There are also paid political trolls. They actually get paid to surf through online communities and disrupt meaningful conversations while touting their party line. Both Republicans and Democrats are guilty of this underhanded practice.

As It Stands, there's really only one practical way to deal with trolls: don't feed them!”

Posted by Sam

As It Stands: Arizona immigration law creates deeper racial divide among Americans

Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 05/30/2010 01:27:14 AM PDT

Simmering racial tensions boiled over the moment Republican Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona signed immigration law SB-1070 on April 23rd. Outraged Hispanics, religious leaders, Democratic lawmakers and left-wing activists across the country quickly responded. They organized boycotts against the state of Arizona. They all fear racial profiling will happen when this new law goes into effect in July.

Illegal immigration is dividing this nation, according to recent polls. The latest Rasmussen poll found that 70 percent of Arizonians actually support the controversial new law. The poll also noted that 53 percent of those questioned had concerns the law would violate the rights of U.S. citizens in Arizona.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans -- 64 percent -- approved of the law in an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. The Pew Research Center for the People and Press reflected those findings. Lawmakers have introduced similar measures, or have announced plans to do so, in 12 other states.

A new NBC/MSNBC/ Telemundo poll shows that White and Latino Americans are deeply divided over immigration. The poll shows 70 percent of whites support the law, versus just 31 percent of Latinos. In fact, 58 percent of Latinos say they strongly oppose it. Only 22 percent of the country's Latinos have a favorable view of the GOP, according to the poll.

Go here to read the rest.                                      Photo source

Remembering California’s War Dead: profiles of all of them

Select from California's 584 deaths for a full profile of  each person who died. Better yet, check them all out. It’s  time to remember them, and their ultimate sacrifice.

image source: Randy Bish / Politicalcartoons.com

RIP: Movie star Dennis Hopper dead at 74

Actor had praised Hollywood as his 'home and my schooling'

Dennis Hopper is one of my all-time favorite actors. I enjoyed all of his movies, even the poorly made productions he played in later in his career.

Gary Coleman died a couple of days ago. Some people I know say that when one movie star dies there’s always a couple of more who do around the same time. They go in three’s according to some.

I wonder how true this is. Let’s see.

What memorial day parades have become…

David Granlund / Politicalcartoons.com

Signs of the Apocalypse: Part One

Chill the VodKa and get out your Martini Glass: James Bond is back in a new novel

“My name is Bond. James Bond.”

He’s back! For all of you 007 Fans this is big news.

________________________

With code name ‘Project X,’ the book set to be released in 2011.

Video of Daniel Craig, the most recent Bond actor.

Video of Roger Moore reflects on playing Bond.

Image source

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Ron Artest rescues the Lakers with last-second shot

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a Laker fan (have been since they moved to LA and played at the old Sports Arena).

The Laker’s trip to the finals has been fascinating, frustrating, and it’s still not over. They have to beat the Sun’s in Phoenix. If they don’t, the seventh game will be at Staples Arena where the Lakers are unbeaten in the series.

Ron Artest pulled the Laker’s out of the fire at the last possible moment.

The forward's follow of Kobe Bryant's miss gives the Lakers a 103-101 victory over the Suns and puts them one victory from the NBA Finals.

Internet addicts guilty of starving baby to death

A South Korean couple were convicted Friday of abandoning their newborn daughter, who starved to death while they addictively played an online game raising a virtual child.

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Related story:

Chinese Teen Beaten To Death At Internet Addiction Camp

Internet addiction is a controversial topic, its very existence is debated, but that hasn't stopped China from classifying ten million teens (about 10 percent of all teenagers) as Internet addicts. Treatment camps for the affliction have sprung up in China, but the reported tactics and methods of the doctors are often questionable
Top image source                     Bottom image source

Arizona Sing-A-Long: Read Immigration Law!

Here’s another take on the controversial immigration law

SEE SUNDAY’S (5/30) “As It Stands” in The Times-Standard for my views on Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

LIVE COVERAGE of the oil spill in the Mexican Gulf Coast

Obama and experts are now saying this is the worst oil spill ever. Anywhere.

It’s a catastrophic event caused by numerous reasons, but the underlying reason was there was NO REGULATIONS in place to prevent it.

It’s blame game time. I’m disgusted with everyone involved. There should be criminal charges brought to everyone responsible for this massive spill. Today we have live coverage of an attempt to stop it. Go here for LIVE COVERAGE of the Deepwater Horizon spill

Post Card Memoriablia: from mundane to the outrageous

--------------------------

I discovered this link this morning while surfing in Cyberspace. It has a list of categories that range from funny to shocking.

Each photo provides an interesting connection to a certain time period and culture.

Go to Bizarre Photographs to see a large assortment of thought-provoking postcards.

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Guest Opinion: How will YOU vote in November 2010?

(Please note you the taxpayer are paying members of Congress to play computer games and on Facebook)

By Jim Davis/Veterans For Change

Come this November 2010 there will be 30 members of the Senate and 435 members of the House up for re-election! Of the 435 in the House, 32 will be retiring (see below)!

Many Americans will sit back, complain, gripe and moan about the economy, world trade, gas prices, contamination by various chemical agents and molds, care and treatment of veterans, jobs, illegal aliens, amnesty, imported foreign workers, the ever growing national deficit, you name it.

Have you tracked how your elected members of Congress have voted and on which bills that you feel are important? Did they vote for any or all veteran bills? Do you know their attendance records in Congress?

These are all very important issues, and it’s the responsibility of every single American Citizen to pay attention, learn, and decide is the person in office doing the job they promised to fulfill? Are they meeting your expectations? Are they voting for, against, or abstaining from important issues?

I took the time for you, and I personally checked the voting records of all 535 members of Congress, and not one member voted for any veteran bill in 2009 that was passed and signed into law! NOT A SINGLE ONE in 2009!

Veteran’s one and all, I am asking you to please, think carefully before casting your vote this coming November, we need to rid ourselves of all career politicians, bring in fresh blood, fresh perspectives, and at the end of their term if they too cannot perform, vote them out too.

We voted them into office, we can vote them out of office! It’s that simple!

Veterans make up 8-9% of the voting population in any state or county, and that number, small as it is can mean the difference between winning or losing a re-election campaign, and it’s time we show those in office now that WE DO COUNT! WE the people are in control!

Please be wise, don’t just vote for name sake, or re-elect someone just because they’ve been there forever, be strong, be courageous, be bold!

When you cast your vote in November 2010 make it mean something, show those in Congress now WE ARE BACK IN CHARGE and put a new body in the seat who just might be the better person!

Below are two lists, one is of all members of the US Senate who are up for re-election this year, please note the number of years in office and that not a single one of these members voted for any veteran bills! (Updated 02/18/10 2:09pm PST)

This is a Country of the People, by the People and for the People! And in case you’d forgotten WE ARE THE PEOPLE! So I urge you to please vote smart, lets not have two more years of the same House members or six more years of the Senate members who have only disappointed us beyond belief!

As It Stands goes to school: class critiques my column

I got a pleasant surprise yesterday, when a friend told me that her son read my column “Why Humboldt County Will Survive Marijuana Legalization” in his class. I thought she just mentioned it, but as it turns out, she assigned it as a project.The teacher, Ms Wozny, gave the class an assignment to critique my column.

She’s going to share those critiques with me. I’m really looking forward to seeing what these students have to say. I’ll post their comments for you. Ms Wozny looks for a controversial topic every week and selected my column to share. I’m humbled by this, and appreciative of the opportunity to get input from the next generation of Humboldtians:

May 25, 2010 - email

Hi Dave,
I didn't just mention it, it was an assignment!  They had to read it and respond to it with their own essay.  If you'd like, I'll ask if they wouldn't mind and I could send you what they write.

They are in an English class equivalent to CR's 150, even though they are in high school, and they respond to editorial pieces/controversial pieces etc., once a week.  They are usually pretty good, if I do say so myself, and this is definitely a topic they had a lot of opinions on! Thanks for taking the time to email!
From Gini Wozny - Fortuna Union High School District-Academy of the Redwoods Campus
http://redwoods.edu/eureka/academy/  (707) 601-0966 Cell  (707) 476-4203 Office (707) 476-4439 Fax

image source

After Graduation Blues: College Students Face Reality

Bob Englehart / The Hartford (CT) Courant, Politicalcartoons.com