The Minority Report is here 

The Minority Report has arrived into our lives, & by Minority Report, I do not mean a world where 

psychic people, also known as precogs in the movie Minority Report foretell the committing of a crime, thus allowing the authorities to arrest someone before a crime has been committed. However, like the movie, I am talking about people being arrested for thought crime, or more accurately; they are being arrested for speaking their mind. 

The Internet has become a place where people can share ideas, life events, photos, videos, play on-line games together, make friendships, & even fall in love. However, there is a dark side to the net, there are hate sites, predators,  sites that spread viruses & spam, etc. Unfortunately one big side of the net is unfortunately people will often brake social norms within digital social networking sites, within chat rooms, & even chatting or talking to one another in on-line games. On-line, people's annanimity empowers & emboldens them to verbally attack people, to say extremely hateful things that they would never say in public, or to even tear someone apart, threaten them, report someone to authorities as a terrorist, simply because they find their views offensive. 

It is acceptable to voice the opinion you disagree with other religious views, or to even say you don't agree with people's political views, or people being gay. However, threatening, harassing someone, etc, simply because their religious or political views differ from your own, or that they happen to be of a different gender, are older, or of a different sexual orientation. 

Social networks & gaming networks are finally cleaning up there site, as those who use hateful of threatening language are in fact violating their terms of use. Of course they are only doing this due to pressure from users. However, the authorities in their unending efforts to find a terrorist behind every corner, & those users who will yell terrorist at any off collar remark. 

For example, A Texas teen maked a violent joke during video game, and was jailed for months
It started in February when, Justin Carter was playing “League of Legends”, an online, multiplayer fantasy game, when another player wrote a comment calling him insane.“He replied ‘Oh yeah, I’m real messed up in the head, I’m going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts,’ and the next two lines were lol and jk,” Carter’s response, which  was intended as joke was seen by a user in Canada. The woman who saw the post looked up Carter’s Austin address, determined that it was near an elementary school, and called the police. Carter was arrested one month later, and has been in jail until a charitable person recently paid his bail. Authorities charged him with making a terrorist threat. If convicted, he will face eight years in prison.
“These people are serious. They really want my son to go away to jail for a sarcastic comment that he made,” said Carter's father.

Authorities said that recent school shootings like the one in Newtown, Connecticut have caused them to evaluate all potential threats seriously. They said Newtown was still fresh in their minds at the time of Carter’s arrest. An Austin police detective said in a statement “In light of recent situations, statements such as the one Justin made are taken seriously,”. 

Are we supposed to guard everything we say out of fear that, someone else might take it the wrong way, and report us to the authorities, that the authorities will lack the judgement to determine a youthful joke or laps of good judgement, from a real threat of violence or terrorism. I mean, the police could have asked the company that hosted the on-line game to allow them to read the post, if the women didn't give them the full transcript of the post, or they could have interviewed the young man & his family. Instead, the police decided to jump the gun, & this young man has spend several months in jail, where he doesn't belong. 

To me, this situation goes far beyond this young man & what he said, for I wonder if people with as fragile a sensibility or lack of judgement as the woman in Canada will report bloggers, those who create youtube videos, those who post in social media sites like twitter, instagram, Facebook, MySpace, etc. Will those in the GOP & far right use this as a tool to silence the opposition, & to silence the masses, or will those with saner minds keep the Internet a place as a place for the free exchange of ideas, opinions, & freedom of expression.

priests

The biggest lie the church puts forth is, that this is a problem with gay priests. They do this to make it a gay problem, rather than a problem with priests in general. What the church and the media ignore is, far more young girls are being molested by priests than boys. They also ignore the fact that, pedophilia is about control, and that, these criminals go after what they have access to. Society will pay more attention to a man, especially a priest or teacher, when they hang around girls, than when they hang around boys. So, pedophiles tend to do whatever enables them to commit their acts of sexual violence against the innocent. The church can't deny the numbers of gay priests, some are driven to the church out of devotion, other out of guilt. The latter hope to deny their sexuality via devotion, which never works in the end. Many gay priests have been active in the church as alter boys and such, from a vary young age, and they truly desire to continue their service to the church as priests, its a natural progression. So, when they discover their sexuality before or after entering the priesthood, removing them from the church would deny their many years of devotion. The Boy Scouts have the same issue, how can you tell a child most of his life that, you have unconditional love and respect for all segments of society, and when the kid now a teenager realizes their sexuality, deny them that respect once they reach 18. It is the loss of that comradeship and respect that drives many a boy scout to be in denial or to hide in the closet, as due many of those young men who become priest, as they don't want to loose what they have experienced being part of their church growing up. So, there are many layers to this issue, and denying its existence is an operation in futility. Also, as someone pointed out, many of the apostles were married. So, if its good for the apostles of Jesus, it should be good for any priest.

Don't blame Ronald Mc Donald

Its not entirely the fast food industry's fault, consumers need to take the responsibility to read the nutrition charts at fast food restaurants, and/or the ones they provide on-line. I mean, how can you eat a triple or quad stacker at Burger King, A Quarter Pounder stacked with bacon, etc, and not know its unhealthy. Simply by ording a regular hamburger, a small fry, and a small drink, you can cut out a huge amount of calories. You can do more, by swapping a side salad for the fries, and getting water rather than a soda. Try a salad without the dressing, or use the low fat dressing. Even worse than fast food, is most of the food in grocery stores. Its full of hydrogenated vegetable oils, which are linked to strokes, hear attacks, and cardiovascular disease. High fructose corn syrup, which is linked to obesity, and is also found in most processed foods. High salt, sugar, and saturated fat levels also are everywhere. Even many so-called healthy TV dinners have hydrogenated oils, so don't let healthy or smart in the brand name fool you. Also, most luncheon meats, and other processed meats like hot dogs, hams, etc contain phosphates, which are linked to cancer & a shorter lifespan. Many artificial sweeteners also have issues with actually promoting diabetes & obesity. So we must educate ourselves, by not buy products with such ingredients, protesting the use of such ingredients, until the companies will start making food better for us. Studies also show, we get far too few fruits and veggies in our diets. Last but not least, we need to move our bodies, 10,000 steps a day, or 30min of vigorous exercise. Moderate alcohol consumption is also encouraged, and please stop smoking.

Are government leaks always a bad thing?

When members of congress agree that the government has overstepped its boundaries in regards to invading the public's private information, that it is snooping through our digital records, cell phone & telephone conversations, e-mail, web surfing, etc, without due cause just for the sake of possibly finding someone who is off their radar engaged in possible terrorist & or otherwise illegal activity. The big point here is possible, just like all the searches & scans at airports, how much is too much to ask. The government justifies their actions by saying that, they have prevented terrorist acts, but how do we know this, should we take their word for it. How do we know those pushing for such actions aren't the same radical element in politics today who are against non-Christians, Atheists, immigrants, people of color, gays, & countless other groups. In Texas history books in the schools have been rewritten to edit out Jefferson & other historical figures seen as too controversial for our kids. These political leaders want to edit our Television, our radio, certain magazines, & our music & video games, how long before they start editing & or blocking web sites, not for illegal activity, but for controversial content, or that which goes against their political ideals. How long before we become like North Korea & China, where even google searches & other sources of information from the world at large are blocked, or the companies that run the sites are forced to create special edited versions, where specific information is blocked. Some politicians have agreed that, the Wiki-leaks release of government information may have been a good thing, for they feel the government was stepping over its boundaries, & again with the Edward Snowden case, some politicians agree that the government has violated the rights of the general public. As John Steinbeck said, “Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.” I fear this is behind the government's ever encroaching invasion into our digital lives...