Love is love

I am so happy that basic human rights have been upheld this week at the Supreme Court of the United States.  Days ago we learned that federal subsidies for healthcare can occur in states that have not set up clearinghouse/market places for affordable healthcare (instead leaving that to the Feds)…making healthcare available to more Americans than ever before…AND, today, the Supreme Court ruled that all citizens have a RIGHT to “Equal Dignity in the Eyes of the Law.”  Same-sex marriage is now a guaranteed constitutional right across the United States. 

What more can be said.  Right-wing conservative presidential candidates immediately started spewing that BS rhetoric that this is a slam against religious freedom.  And, upon thinking about that, I would really like to know how.  It seems to me that “separation of church and state” would take precedence.  And then I realized what it was.  Religion tends to be a very “I’m right, you’re wrong” entity.  Name a major war where religion had no part.  People are deeply passionate about their belief system, some to the point of blindly following the teachings of the clergy without questioning or applying logic.  And all religions are guilty of it: from the Mormons who decided to baptize Jewish victims of the Holocaust to ensure they get into heaven, to the Jews themselves who believe they are the “Chosen People.”  Thoughts like that don’t leave a lot of meat on the bone for people who don’t share identical beliefs.  In fact, the cry of “religious freedom” strikes me funny because it make the assumption that we’re all working towards Mike Huckabee’s brand of evangelical Christianity and this decision, which is clearly not an ideal of his church, stands in the way of the “rest of us” from being saved.  What would Jesus do?  He certainly wouldn't be in favor of that shit. 

No offense meant to other religions…or religion as a concept, but people should be able to carry on with their personal affairs as long as it doesn’t impact YOUR ability to practice as you like.  That’s true religious freedom.  I know; it’s a very mind your own business mentality, but isn’t that healthiest?  Apparently, the Supreme Court believes that to be the truth…that a mandate from the people is more important than government oversight on a, largely, religious belief.  Goes right back to separation of Church and State, and, this time, they got it right.

"Love is love."

 President Barack Obama

Society's Gross Acceptance

I’m going to make some broad-based assumptions and talk out of my ass for the next few paragraphs, so if that’s not your sort of thing then you can wait until the next post.

There’s a lot of talk about what to do when a terrorist shooter enters a movie theater, an elementary school, or, most recently a church, to carry out atrocities so gross I won’t mention them here.  Frequently they point to the assailant’s drug use, unstable mental state, and access to guns as the main reason why this occurred.  And, yes, at the time of the killings, these are all in play.  However, I doubt very much that the rage and initiative to carry out the murders was spurred on by sudden episodes of psychoses close to the time when the atrocities occurred.

No, my guess is that these people have been sick for a long time.  In the coming days, as the true victims are ignored, profiles of the killers will build, showing a history of neglect, abuse, drugs, and non-normative thinking.  The Left will claim that this is gun violence and something must be done about the guns.  The Right will ensconce themselves in the 2^nd amendment…which speaks more to the formation of militias than to individuals purchasing semi-automatic weapons for “sport hunting.”  (Side note: it’s not a sport when your opponent doesn’t know it’s playing.)

But, what’s the real issue here?  I’m going to argue that it’s how we treat our children with regards to mental health, and healthcare on the whole.  Having just gone through a major medical need, I will tell you that our medical professionals aren’t the ones to blame.  They’re diagnosing.  However, due to ridiculous insurance costs, the insurance companies frequently ignore the medical professional and prescribe what’s cheapest for them to treat.  Not only that, but until the Affordable Health Care Act, it was extremely difficult for low-income/lower-middle class families to afford comprehensive healthcare that provided for things aside from physical injury…things that were harder to define, such as mental health, and therefore, outside of what insurers would consider paying for.  Hell, this is the reason why most therapists don’t accept insurance.  They’ve got as many years under their belts as doctors, but the healthcare insurance companies treat them like they’re an auxiliary service, and don’t fully compensate them for their professional expertise!

Also, talk to any teacher, and they can immediately point out the students with issues.  But are they qualified to force a family to take them to a doctor?  And, frequently, our society is so obsessed with having children be or exceed the norm, that it’s potentially embarrassing to have the kid who needs extra attention.  So, what’s happened?  As a society, we’ve decided that it’s more important to appear normal and keep our issues to ourselves, until there’s a tipping point, when a perfect storm occurs and someone gets hurt.  And, even if it makes the most sense to get them to a medical healthcare provider, it’s not included under insurance policies.

We need to be better about reacting to our mental healthcare needs.  We need to stop these events years before they have the potential to happen.  We need ownership of our faults.  We also need to stop relying on law enforcement to take the brunt of the responsibility for these sick individuals.  The Right is correct: it’s not wholly about guns and the Left is correct that it is, somewhat on the abundant availability of weapons.  But, what is the most critical part is our ability to treat mental illness, affordably, without guilt, and years before an incident occurs.  Yes, there will always be assholes out there, but we need, again, to think about preventative treatment and not just superficial political band aids.

Paranoia Strikes Deep

My paranoia may not be your paranoia, but I wanted to share.  We, the privileged group of (largely) affluent society, which is to say, middle, upper-middle and upper-class Americans, are sharing way too much about ourselves both on the internet and off.  And, we’re being preyed upon and exploited without (sometimes) even knowing it.  So, it behooves us to be mindful of what we share and with whom. 

For one, your pictures.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. have you sign user agreements when you first sign up.  Embedded in there are promises about privacy and not sharing your personal information…but it also lays claims to any content you post.  This includes stuff they can use to sell to advertising companies like sites you frequent, subject of links you re-post, and general demographic information.  But, they also have free access to your personal photos that you put up there.  That’s right, if you post it, they can use it for marketing or pretty much whatever they’d like.  AND, what most people don’t realize is that, when you take a picture with your cell phone, you’re not just sending a picture, but you’re also sending geographic information: i.e. where you took that picture.  Now, FaceBook probably doesn’t give a crap where you are in the world (aside from stealing the associated demographic information and selling that), but anybody who can see that picture can lift it and, potentially, see the metadata/geographic information, to find out just where you were when you took it.  Yes, there are ways to limit your audience on the social media sites, but there are also way too many ways where those protections don’t work and your information is lifted by someone else for their own purposes:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/27/richard-prince-instagram_n_7452634.html

Please don’t be the one to change your FaceBook status to say something like:

“In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, crafts, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention).  For commercial use of the above my written consent is needed at all times!  (Anyone reading this can copy this text and paste it on their Facebook Wall. This will place them under protection of copyright laws.)  By the present communiqué, I notify Facebook that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, disseminate, or take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents. The aforementioned prohibited actions also apply to employees, students, agents and/or any staff under Facebook's direction or control. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of my privacy is punished by law (UCC 1 1-308-308 1-103 and the Rome Statute).  Facebook is now an open capital entity. All members are recommended to publish a notice like this, or if you prefer, you may copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once, you will be tacitly allowing the use of elements such as your photos as well as the information contained in your profile status updates...”

It flat out doesn’t work.  I’ll let GAWKER rip it apart, but the cold hearted truth of it is that, while you own the picture, Facebook (et. al.) is allowed to do whatever they want as part of a licensing agreement YOU SIGNED when you joined their website. 


Don’t believe me?  Then read this.

OK, so that’s online.  What about off-line?  Let me say something about this stick-figure fad on the back of people’s car.  You’re basically driving around with an advertisement about whether you’re married, how many kids you have and whether you have any pets…all on a status symbol that broadcasts how much you’re willing to spend on a vehicle.  Right, you’ve just proven that you’re affluent and have little ones at home.  A creative creep can easily follow you home, scope your house, and make a judgment about grabbing a kid or if you’re home or not so they can loot it.  Plus, they already know if there are any obstacles like pets.  OK, no stick figures?  What about the “My kid is an honor-roll student at ____.”  Now you’ve given the age of the kids as well.    

I wrote a little about cyber-security and passwords a coupleof months ago, now it’s time to think about strengthening your real life security as well.  If you’re paranoid, like me, you should treat social media more like interacting with strangers.  Be sparse with very personal posts and photos, because you’d never walk up to a stranger and volunteer that information unsolicited.  Be knowledgeable about your digital rights and what you agreed to when you signed up for something.  And, be mindful that everyone out there is generally nice, but it only takes one creeper to ruin it for all of us. 

http://www.wnct.com/story/25548333/police-warn-families-about-stick-figure-car-decals

http://7online.com/family/police-urging-parents-to-remove-stick-figure-bumper-stickers-/59676/

http://www.indystar.com/story/life/2014/06/10/stick-figure-families-on-cars-dangerous/10283741/

http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/Family-stick-figure-decals-could-lead-to-danger-police-say-261175581.html