Hello N.S.A.-- The List, Alphabetized

The original list appeared with categories.  This list is alphabetized.  I suspect that the list that has been published was not a completed list because the first letter of every word appearing after the "Enter" key had been hit was capitalized.  In the original list "agriculture" appeared as "Agriculture," "bridge" was "Bridge," "car bomb" read as "Car bomb" and so forth.  The simplest explanation is that the program was set to capitalize the first letter of the first word on each line and this wasn't corrected in the settings.  I suspect that the list that has been published is a draft. The possibility exists that the list was intended to have more words on it-- or that there is in existence a finished list which may indeed have more words on it.

It is possible that in transposing the list, I may have erased or neglected to type some words.  That would be my error alone and I regret it if such an error in fact occurred.  

One "solution" that a buddy of mine suggested was "Don't use any of the list words in any e-mails."  I consider that workaround to be impractical.  Attempting to implement such a strategy means that folks would not be able to use certain medical words, geographical locations, weather descriptors, or talk about recovery from narcotics in their correspondence.  

Although I found many of the target words to be an obvious choice, there were a few whose inclusion gave me pause-- "artistic", "Red Cross", and "wave".  The mystery phrase is "Basque separatists."  I was saddened to see "2600" and "phreaking" included as worthy of suspicion.  The problems that the magazine 2600 has had with authorities in the past have been extensive and legendary.  The phone phreakers were the original hackers [back in the days when Ma Bell was still a conglomerate].  I have known and loved a few of them in my past.  

Without further ado, here then is The List, alphabetized:  

2600
+ H1N1

Abu Sayyaf 

Afghanistan
agent
agriculture
agro
aid
air marshal
airplane (and derivatives)
airport
Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)
Al-Shabaab 
Al Qaeda (all spellings)
Ammonium nitrate
AMTRAK 
anthrax
antiviral
AQAP (AL Qaeda ArabianPeninsula)
AQIM (Al Qaeda in theIslamic Maghreb)
Arellano-FelixBeltran-Leyva
artistic
assassination
assassins
attack 
authorities
avalanche
avian flu
Azteca

bacteria
barrio
BART
Basque separatists
biological
biological infection (or event)
biological weapon
black out
blister agent
blizzard
body scanner 
bomb (squad or threat)
border
Border Patrol
botnet
bridge
brown out 
brush fire
brute force / brute forcing
burn
burst
bust

Cain and Abel
Calderon
cancelled
car bomb
cartel
Cartel de Golfo 

center 
Center for Disease Control(CDC)
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
chemical
chemical agent
chemical burn
chemical fire
chemical spill
chemical weapon
China
CIKR (Critical Infrastructure& Key Resources)
Ciudad 

closure
cloud plume
Coast Guard (USCG)
cocaine
collapse
Colombia 

command
communications infrastructure
computer 
Conficker Worm
consular
consulate
contamination
conventional weapon 

cops
crash
crest
critical infrastructure
Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
cyber
cyber attack
cyber security
cyber terror

DDOS (dedicated denial of service)
deaths
decapitated
delays
Denial of Service / denial of service
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
dirty bomb 

disaster  
disaster assistance
disaster management
Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT)
DNDO (Domestic Nuclear Detection Office) 

dock
domestic
domestic security
drill
drug 
Drug Administration (FDA)
drug cartel
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
drug trade
drug war 

earthquake
ebola
e. coli  
eco terrorism
electrical failure or outage
El Paso
emergency
Emergency Broadcast System (EBS)
emergency landing
emergency management
emergency response
enriched
environmental terrorist
epidemic
erosion
ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna)
evacuation
execution
exercise 
explosion or explosive
exposure
extreme weather 
extremism

facility
FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia)
Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS)
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
first responder
flood
food poisoning
Foot and Mouth (FMD)
forest fire 
Fort Hancock
fundamentalism
Fusion Center

gang
gangs
gas
grid 
Gulf Cartel
gunfight
Guzman

H1N1
H5N1
hacker
hail
Hamas
hazardous
hazardous material
Hazmat 

HAZMAT & Nuclear
health concern
help
heroin
Hezbollah
home grown
Homeland Defense
Homeland Security
hostage
human to animal
human to humanhurricane

ice
illegal immigrants
Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Improvised Explosive Device, IED 
incident
industrial spill
infection
influenza
infrastructure
infrastructure security
initiative
interstate
Iran
Iraq
IRA (Irish Republican Army)
Islamist

jihad
Juarez

keylogger 
kidnap

lab 
laboratory
La Familia
law enforcement
leak
lightening
listeria
lockdown
looting
Los Zetas

malware
magnitude
Mara
marijuana
Maritime Domain Awareness(MDA)
MARTA
Matamoros
meth
methamphetamine
meth lab
Metro
Mexican Army
Mexicles 
Mexico
Michoacana
militia
mitigation
MS13 or MS-13
mud slide or mudslide
mutation
my sql injection
my SQL injection

narco banners
narcos
narcotic
national
National Guard
nationalist
national infrastructure
National Operations Center (NOC)
national preparedness
national security
NBIC (National Biosurveillance Integration Center)  
nerve agent
New Federation
Nigeria
Nogales
North Korea
Norvo Virus
nuclear
nuclear detention
nuclear facility
nuclear threat
Nuevo Leon 

organized crime
outbreak

Pakistan
pandemic
phishing
phreaking
pipe bomb
pirates 
plague
PLF (Palestine Liberation Front)
PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) 

plot 
police
pork
port
Port Authority
powder (white)
power 
power lines 
power outage
prevention
Public Health
 
quarantine

radiation
radicals
radioactive
recall
recovery
recruitment
Red Cross
relief  
resistant
response
Reynosa
Reyosa
ricin
riot
rootkit

salmonella
salvatrucha
San Diego 
sarin
scammers
Secret Service (USSS)
Secure Border Initiative (SBI)
security
security breach
service disruption 
shelter-in-place
shooting
shootout
shots fired
sick 
Sinaloa
sleet
small pox
smart
smuggling (smugglers)
snow
social media
Somalia
Sonora
southwest
southwest border violence
spammer
spillover
SQL
SQL Injection
standoff 
state of emergency
storm
strain
stranded/stuck 

subway  
suicide attack
suicide bomber
suspicious device
suspicious package
suspicious substance
SWAT Screening 
swine
symptoms

Taliban
Tamaulipas
Tamiflu 
Tamil Tigers
target
task force
telecommunications
temblor
terror
terrorism
threat
Tijuana
tornado
Torreon
toxic
trafficking
transportation 

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
tremor 

trojan
tsunami 
TTP (Tehrik-i-TalibanPakistan)
tuberculosis (TB)
Tucson
twister
typhoon

United Nations (UN)
U.S.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS)
 
vaccine
violence
Viral Hemorrhagic Fever 
virus


warning
watch
water/air borne
wave
weapons cache
weapons grade
wildfire
World Health Organization(WHO) /and its' components
WMATA

Yemen
Yuma

What If Ed Snowden Isn't Who He Says He Is: An Opinion

     The following post is composed of my opinions.  My opinions may be right, wrong, or somewhere in-between, but they are my opinions.  F.Y.I., I am not a dem lib and I have not been for quite some time now. 


     I think Ed Snowden is who he says he is.  I do not believe that he is an operative working for the C.I.A.  I do believe that he exists.  Yes, people can and do change their viewpoints on a variety of issues and sometimes a bit dramatically throughout the years.  That Ed Snowden was against leaking stuff a couple of years ago [according to information given to Ars Technica by folks who saved their typed conversations with Ed Snowden] really doesn't bother me in the least.  Furthermore, there is a real danger in labeling someone as having narcissistic-like tendencies sight unseen, especially when this label is based on media reports and opinions of various people who did not professionally evaluate Ed Snowden.  In short, I do not believe that there is evidence for that particular claim.  I don't think he exposed the leaks because he wanted to be in the spotlight.  I think Ed Snowden's motives lie within the realm of realizing that what is happening within the N.S.A. is incorrect.  

     I believe there is some amount of misinformation being fed to us-- intentionally or otherwise-- by the media.  One example is the reports I read at first did not admit that Ed Snowden could stay in the transit area of the Russian airport without a three day visa.  The initial reports admitted that he did not have a three day visa but not that he would only need such a document in order to leave the transit area of the airport.  Another example is the idea that both China and Russia have harvested [interviewed] Ed Snowden in hopes of gaining information from him or offering him work as their spy or something like that.  I don't believe that has happened.

I cannot understand:
1.  why the N.S.A. cannot locate Ed Snowden.
2.  why Congress isn't asking the N.S.A. some very pointed questions about exactly how it is that Ed Snowden was able to download some heavy duty stuff onto a thumb-drive.  All in a day's work, is it?
3.  why Obama and other politicos think that China; and now Russia, should just willingly deport Ed Snowden just because the American government and its' various shadow organizations want them to.
4.  why people assume that Ed Snowden must be at a Russian airport in the transit zone just because we are told that is where he is.   
5.  why some country doesn't just jump up and say "Come over here, Ed.  Stay with us."  Considering the circumstances, Ed Snowden needs immediate protection and immediate citizenship someplace else.
6.  why the conversation has centered around that bad boy hacker Ed Snowden instead of what the N.S.A. is doing.
7.  why the conversation has centered around that bad boy hacker Ed Snowden instead of why the N.S.A. appears to be able to dictate its' own doings without any real oversight from any other organization or from Congress or frigging anybody.
8.  why people are at all surprised by the recent revelations of exactly how deeply the N.S.A. is into monitoring all of us here and everyone in the whole world.
9.  why there is not more in the news about Boundless Informant.

 
Furthermore, the definition of a "terrorist" needs to be refined a bit.  I may be wrong but at least to me, it appears that:
1.  people who support or are in Anonymous are considered to be friends of terrorists or terrorists.  
2.  people who use encryption are considered to be suspect.
3.  people who use V.P.N.s or TOR are considered to have some kind of inherent criminal intent.


Problem #1:  I thought things were a bit odd last year and earlier this year when I realized that FedBook wanted our wallet names and wallet info [picture that!], when Google and Twitter and Yahoo and AOL wanted our cell phone numbers in order to open an e-mail account, when Google suddenly changed their TOS to be all inclusive when using any Google service, when the push was on to link various accounts together.  I distinctly remember the days before Google transformed into a Big Brother sort of outfit. 

Partial solution:  Don't use Fedbook.  No new e-mail accounts.  Search for an email account with a company that does not have dot com or dot net or dot biz after their name.  Use e-mail minimally and certainly not for communication purposes.
Drastic solution:  Get off of the internet entirely.  [For now, I will take my chances]. 
 
Problem #2:  I first suspected something was wrong this year when suddenly Google appeared to be vomiting on my searches when my computer was shielded under a proxy.

Solution:  Use another search engine.

Problem #3:  I first noticed something was wrong this year when suddenly Yahoo would not show up in a search engine when behind a proxy.

Solution:  Use another search engine. 

Problem #4: Obummer has offered "reassurance" that no one is listening in on our phone calls.

Solution:  Figure that A.I. bots which have been scripted to recognize certain code words are listening in on phone calls. 

Problem #5:  It is hard to know who is telling the truth and who is spinning a yarn.

Solution:  Carefully evaluate the evidence from a variety of source material.  Take nothing at face value.  

radical sapphoq says:  We the People have a right to know what is going on when a powerful shadowly agency is performing broadly based Big Data collections.  So much info has been collected and is being collected that a facility in Utah is being built to house it in.  Utah is an ideal location for such a facility to be built because a large number of National Guard recruits originate in Utah.
 
When an agency or organization [like the N.S.A.] is given carte blanche to do as it will with little to no meaningful oversight, a distinct possibility of abuse of power exists.  Meta-data is not innocuous.  If it were, the N.S.A. would not be interested in organizing meta-data through Boundless Informant. 

I like my privacy-- even though I in fact "have nothing to hide."  I am aware that if someone or some agency is hunting for something to report, the information will be found or manufactured or spun to suit the purposes of said person or agency.  Drama begets drama.  If the job order says "Find something," then something will be found.  I've learned that from investigations work.   

I prefer some transparency in my government to lies.  Certainly I prefer a smaller non-interfering (in my personal life or other peoples' personal lives) government to this stuff that is going on right now.  What the N.S.A. is doing under the guise of offering us security is unacceptable to me.  Security is not the opposite of privacy.




 
       

Sung to the Tune of Blessed Assurance

Boundless Informant, you are so fine.
It is so glorious-- the Big Data you mine.
All metadata you organize.
All peoples' privacy is on the demise.

Tons of information you aggregate,
And so many idiots you aggravate!

PRISM collects it and gives it to you.
Your bots shift through it.  That is what they do.
Snowden flees his country.  The story gets worse.
The FISA and Patriot Act both are a curse. 

Our information you aggregate,
We are the people you aggravate!

Extraordinary oversight does not exist.
You analyze the data although citizens resist. 
They'll never stop you try as they may.
We'll send them to Gitmo overlooking the Bay.

Tons of information you aggregate,
And so many idiots you aggravate!
  
The liar Obama and the NSA too
Don't really want anyone to get a clue.
The court rubber-stamps this so it's legal I guess.  
All of this spying has led to a mess.

Our information you aggregate,
We are the people you aggravate!

Boundless Informant, you are so fine.
It is so glorious-- the Big Data you mine.
All metadata you organize.
All peoples' privacy is on the demise.

Tons of information you aggregate,
And so many idiots you aggravate!

We will not give up fighting with you.
We hate the excuses for the evil you do.
It started before nine-eleven and the TSA.
Shadow government has become the American Way.

Our information you aggregate,
We are the people you aggravate!

    
 
 

PRISM is not just rainbows anymore

Anonymous header which appeared on Twitter.

On June 6, 2013, Americans found out officially that the N.S.A. has been spying on bunches of people.  I say "officially" because this is something that has been suspected.  This happened through some documents that were found and leaked.  There are tons of articles all over the net detailing the story.  We are still waiting to find out what will happen to whistle-blower Ed Snowden who allowed his identity to come out via the media on June 9, 2013.  Great Britian has officially denied Snowden entry.  There has been some speculation that Snowden could apply for political asylum in a South American country or in Iceland.  Iceland is currently being ruled by conservatives so that may not actually happen.  One article suggested that Snowden could go to New Zealand where he could hang out with Kim Dot Com as both battle extradition to the United States.  June 11, 2013 was the day when Edward Snowden appeared to have vanished from his Hong Kong hotel room.  As far as I can make out right now, his whereabouts are currently unknown.

Obama has indicated that this spying is a-okay with him.  Clapper testified that this shit wasn't happening but of course it was. Americans are butt-hurt because who we are calling and how long each call lasts has been collected.  We've been informed that the e-mail snooping is limited to non-citizens living in other places and that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to them.  The F.I.S.A. court has been rubber-stamping anything that the government wants to do.  No warrants are necessary.  Internet companies denied that the government has access to their servers.  Maybe yes through a backdoor or maybe no.  At any rate, Google has admitted to giving the N.S.A. info on thumb drives.  How high tech of them.  Obama says, "American citizens, no one is listening in on your phone calls."  Well okay.  Maybe there are bots trained in voice recognition with a vocabulary list.  Folks from other countries are looking at the uproar and saying, "Hey the U.S.A. has been spying on us for years.  Where was your outrage about that?"  Some Anonymous folks have trolled the N.S.A. with communication utilizing the naughty word list that was published several years ago on the Internet.

PRISM is part of a larger program called Echelon. The word list circulating the Net came from Echelon.  Apparently, knowing geography or talking about the weather can get you under surveillance for using those words on-line.  The logo for PRISM seems to have been influenced in part by a certain Pink Floyd album cover.  At least one person on the net was blocked from selling t-shirts on the internet with the PRISM logo or something like it.  Now we have federal copyright trolls.  

radical sapphoq says:  I hope that Iceland or Ecuador or some other place gives Ed Snowden political asylum.  If not, I don't see this as ending too well for him.  A few of the articles I've read have maintained that there was at least one other whistle-blower in times past regarding spying on foreigners and that every big government spies on its' enemies.  If you read any articles about N.S.A. and PRISM, be sure to read the comments.  Often the comments are more informative than the articles.  An example is reproduced below:

 
[Comment from Scarlett in one of the comment sections of an article about PRISM:]

Don't ask your government for your Privacy, take it back:

• Browser Privacy: HTTPS Everywhere, AdBlock Plus + EasyList, Ghostery, NoScript (FireFox), NotScript(Chrome)
• VPNs: BTGuard (Canada), ItsHidden (Africa), Ipredator (Sweden), Faceless.me (Cyprus / Netherlands)
• Internet Anonymization: Tor, Tor Browser Bundle, I2P
• Disk Encryption: TrueCrypt (Windows / OSX / Linux), File Vault (Mac).
• File/Email Encryption: GPGTools + GPGMail (Mac), Enigmail (Windows / OSX / Linux)
• IM Encryption: Pidgin + Pidgin OTR
• IM/Voice Encryption: Mumble, Jitsi
• Phone/SMS Encryption: WhisperSystems, Ostel, Spore, Silent Circle ($$$)
• Google Alternative: DuckDuckGo
• Digital P2P Currency: BitCoin
• Live Anonymous/Secure Linux: TAILS Linux

If you have any problems installing or using the above software, please contact the projects. They would love to get feedback and help you use their software.
Have no clue what Cryptography is or why you should care? Checkout the Crypto Party Handbook or theEFF's Surveillance Self-Defense Project.
Just want some simple tips? Checkout EFF's Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy.
If you liked this comment, feel free to copy/paste it.


A few references:  

http://www.tscm.com/NSAsecmanual1.html

http://rense.com/political/weapons/nsa.html

http://www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-v-nsa-challenge-illegal-spying

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/

https://epic.org/privacy/nsa/epic_v_nsa.html
 
http://www.nsawatch.org/

http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/ECHELON/echelon.html
 
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/National_Security_Agency

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_nsa.htm

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/13377-nsa-we-will-illegally-spy-on-citizens-only-when-absol

http://www.pcworld.com/article/188581/The_GoogleNSA_Alliance_Questions_and_Answers.html

http://www.fastcompany.com/3000879/nsa-wants-hackers-and-it-wants-them-its-side

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/03/04/nsa-utah-data-center-visit/

http://nsa.gov1.info/utah-data-center/ 

http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/dead_drop/nsa/
 
http://www.naturalnews.com/NSA.html

http://www.examiner.com/topic/nsa

https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?tag=nsa

http://mashable.com/category/nsa/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/nsa

http://www.ndtv.com/topic/nsa

https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying

6/6/2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-collection-documents/
6/7/2013
http://www.nsa.gov/    *last modified 6/7/2013
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/nsa-memo-4th-amendment-92416.html
6/8/2013

6/9/2013
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/09/usa-security-identity-boozallen-urgent-c-idUSL2N0EL0A120130609
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-09/nsa-whistleblower-reveals-himself
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance 
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/10/1214996/-Ed-Snowden-Broke-The-Law
http://www.fourwinds10.net/siterun_data/government/homeland_security_patriot_act_fema/news.php?q=1370873093
6/10/2013
http://abcnews.go.com/US/secret-history-nsa-contractors/story?id=19366914#.Ub03ci_hdTE
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2013/06/hong-kong-edward-snowdens-mistake/66054/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/10/us-usa-security-iceland-idUSBRE9590OK20130610
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/06/snowden-us-china-hacking/66242/ 
http://americablog.com/2013/06/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance.html
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130609/22400623385/nsa-whistleblower-ed-snowden-my-desk-i-could-wiretap-anyone-you-federal-judge-president-us.shtml
6/11/2013
http://mg.co.za/article/2013-06-11-nsa-offers-intelligence-to-uk-counterparts-to-skirt-uk-law
http://world.time.com/2013/06/11/last-seen-in-hong-kong-edward-snowden-slips-away/
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/06/what-extradition-proceedings-against-ed-snowden-would-look-like----and-how-the-us-might-get-around-t.php
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/11/report-nsa-contract-worker-is-surveillance-source/ 
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-06-11/news/bs-te-lindsay-mills-edward-snowden-20130611_1_nsa-laurel-girlfriend 
6/12/2013 
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/06/12/tester-actually-snowdens-leak-didnt-damage-national-security/
http://pundit.co.nz/content/ed-snowden-could-come-to-nz
6/13/2013
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/13/congress-interrogates-intelligence-officials-on-da/
http://news.yahoo.com/ed-snowden-got-secrets-185839357.html
6/14/2013
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/14/nsa-leaker-ed-snowden-used-banned-thumb-drive-exce/
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/17490723465/leaked-nsas-talking-points-defending-nsa-surveillance.shtml
http://mg.co.za/article/2013-06-13-ed-snowden-the-geek-who-blew-prism-to-pieces
6/15/2013
http://news.yahoo.com/companies-disclose-surveillance-deal-u-010442116.html;_ylt=Ah4lxcswrq.qP0oFzDdi4tus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTRhaHU0Z3Y5BG1pdANTZWN0aW9uTGlzdCBGUCBUZWNobm9sb2d5BHBrZwMzM2Q1N2IwMS1hMjUzLTNhZDktYWJiNC01MWNjMjMxYjhhNDYEcG9zAzMEc2VjA01lZGlhU2VjdGlvbkxpc3QEdmVyA2RhMDkzOGEyLWQ1N2EtMTFlMi04ZWVmLTYzMDAwYzc0YTI0MA--;_ylg=X3oDMTFkcW51ZGliBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3BtaA--;_ylv=3
http://news.yahoo.com/officials-nsa-programs-broke-plots-20-nations-233703820.html
6/16/2013
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/16/us-usa-security-idUSBRE95F00B20130616?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

 

Principles and Responsibilities

Every day I make decisions.  Hopefully the way that I live my life on a daily basis clearly reflect the principles that I hold dear to me.  Here are some of the things that make me a unified me: 

1.  Addiction is not freedom.  These four words are from a pamphlet produced by Narcotics Anonymous World Services.  When I was in my active addiction, I was not free.  I could not exercise much responsibility as an adult or as a citizen of my community or the world.
     Recovery is not necessarily freedom either.  I must not allow myself to use my past, present, or future states of being as an excuse to perpetuate a refusal to take on responsibility for myself.  When I do so, I short-change myself.  If I want something different, I have to do something different.  Move a muscle, change a thought.  Those are not empty words.  They are challenges to me to extend myself and to continue growing as a mature, responsible adult.

2.  I am at my core an atheist.  I have an extensive history of membership in a large variety of religious groups.  I have found that I genuinely do not believe in any gods.  I prefer natural explanations to supernatural explanations and to preternatural ones.  I like the patterns that I find in science and nature and maths and music.  And yes, morals certainly can and do exist without the interference or encouragement of any type of deities. 
     I believe that public schools should provide a public secular education including but not limited to the teaching of evolution.  Evolution is the basis of science.  We have fallen behind in sciences and in maths.  It is the job of the student to learn the material that the teacher is presenting.  It is the job of the parents to bring up the child in the religion of their choosing.
     If I was a Christian parent, would I want a teacher to try to convert my kids to Sufi-ism?  If I was a Muslim parent, would I want a teacher to try to convert my kids to Judaism?  If I was a pagan, would I want a teacher to try to convert my kids to the Bahai faith?  Or if I was a Christian parent, would I want a teacher to try to convert my kids to a different Christian sect? 

3.  I support the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, inter-sexed, asexual, queer, and questioning communities.  As a bisexual, my issues are closer to those of trans-folk than to those of mono-sexuals.  I have marched in solidarity with my trans-sisters and brothers in the Gay Pride Marches.  Our communities have a long history of struggles for recognition as people worthy of the same basic human respect that all people are worthy of.  I believe in civil rights for all civils. 

4.  I am against the troubled teen teen trouble industries.  The programs which are included are things like boot camps, wilderness expeditions, residential facilities, and rehabilitation centers which have as their basis the misnomer called "tough love."  These behavioral modification placements, replete with paid educational consultants and transporters a.k.a. paid kidnappers, have known histories of abuse.  Teens and pre-teens are "treated to" face-plant [ground] restraints, food deprivation, sleep deprivation, unsanitary and unsafe living conditions, rape, verbal and physical abuse, isolation, and an occasional suicide or death.  The parents pay huge sums of money to these places.  A few parents and teens write glowing testimonials all over the web.  Recently, survivors have begun to tell their stories.  These stories are not easy to listen to.  The organizations that run the abusive facilities invariably use the excuse that "the clientele we serve are prone to lying and exaggeration."  This is unsatisfactory to say the least.  Our teens are the future.  They will be here running the show after many of us older ones are dead.  If I cannot honor them now, how will they honor the younger people coming up after them?

5.  I am against abuse of any kind toward anyone.  From the brutality that is honesty in the absence of any compassion to the parent who assaults their child of any age, from elder-abuse to the mishandling of disabled people by their professional caregivers, from the cops who beat on a detainee to the actions of a government that imprisons someone without a trial-- it is wrong.  Being "against" abuse is not enough.  I have a responsibility to report the things that I suspect.  I have a responsibility to speak out, protest, blog, make phone calls, write letters.  If I am able to, I have a responsibility to help someone get to safety.  I am against pedophilia and sexual slavery.  

6.  I am an advocate for animal welfare, not animal rights.  I am not a member of P.E.T.A.  The PETA folks are animal rights activists.  I support responsible animal husbandry.  I eat meat.  I wear cotton [but not wool because I find wool to be itchy, and not fur because I don't see any reason why I should spend that kind of money on clothing].  I have animals who live with us.  Those animals get my love and attention.  In return, they have rules that I have trained them to follow.  I commit to my animals for the duration of their natural lives or until disease or infirmity forces me to decide to put them down.  I believe that cows on a farm should be milked.  My grands had a farm.  To allow a cow to go without milking is to cause her pain.  I have frogs.  I only buy captive bred frogs, not captive caught ones.  I do not believe that my frogs or my dog or my cats should have the same "rights" that I do.  If there is a mosquito in my kitchen, I kill it.  
     The animal rights folks believe that an ant and a frog and a dog and a cat and a cow and a cockroach have the same right to be here that we human beings do.  Over at Penns' Cove, the PETA folks came in and began to complain loudly that the wolves there did not have dog houses.  Since dogs are descended from wolves, the wolves [which had several miles of an enclosure which included a few mountains and dens that the wolves had carved from them] ought to have dog houses.  This is what the PETA folks were insisting.  They came on the tours and began talking loudly about how the wolves at Penns' Cove were being mistreated for the lack of dog houses.  The owner had no choice.  He finally had to airlift the dog houses in and dropped them into the wolf enclosure.  The wolves trashed the dog houses and pissed all over them.  This is the kind of thing that happens over and over again when well-meaning people confuse animal rights with animal welfare.
     The animal rights folks are against euthanasia-- even in the cases of long-suffering, painful, terminal illnesses.  And they detest zoos, in spite of the fact that the zoos are often at the forefront of animal conservation efforts.  They do not believe in the use of lab animals even in the interest of saving human lives in respect to medical research.  For those reasons, I am not a supporter of animal rights.

7.  I think marijuana should be legalized.  Adults should be able to use pot at will as long as they do not put me at risk by driving when they are stoned [that is how I got my traumatic brain injury].  Any human being suffering from a disease or condition that the use of marijuana or a derivative can alleviate or ameliorate should have access to it.  It's called compassionate use for a reason.  The drug war is major fail.  So let's quit fighting it people.
     I cannot use safely.  It does not follow that no one should use pot.  If I am allergic to peanuts, do I legislate that peanuts should be banned entirely and that anyone caught eating them should go to prison?  Should possession of a pound of peanuts yield charges that someone is pushing?
     Along with the legalization of marijuana, I believe the morning after pill should be available to any victim of rape.  I think abortion is a tragedy yet I remember the days of back alleys and coat hangers.  I think abortion should be legal.  I think same gender marriage should be legal.  Actually, I think the government should get out of the marriage business altogether.  If a couple, regardless of gender, gets hitched in a place of worship via the use of clergy, that should be considered marriage.  If a couple, regardless of gender, gets hitched by a judge, that should be considered domestic partnership.  No place of worship would be forced to unite a same-gendered couple.  [That's silly].  Whether a couple is formally partnered in a religious or secular ceremony the rights and responsibilities should be the same.

8.  I can no longer call myself a Democrat.  But I am not a Republican or Tea Party Patriot either.  I am non-partisan.  I agree with the left on some things, with the right on others, and with no one on still others.  If the Republican Party hadn't been hijacked by the Christians, I might have been one by now.  I believe in small government and fiscal responsibility.  I think charity should begin at home.  I think the government owes us some type of accountability.  And I am vehemently opposed to censorship and the increasing demands of internet social media for our wallet info.  I know that privacy is not the same thing as security.  I am hoping that cooler heads will prevail, I just don't know when that will happen.  I think we have to become self-sufficient as a nation.  If we develop our own fuels for our own consumption instead of having to depend upon other countries that hate us, I think we would be much better off.  I want the government out of my Internet.  I don't think I should have to give up a cell phone number just to obtain a freebie e-mail account.  I am against internet censorship.  I believe parents should be knowledgeable about what their kids are doing with their computers.  And I would be willing to pay more for stuff that is made and assembled in the United States of America.  I don't believe in giving any of my filthy atheist bucks or filthy atheist tax monies to places that hate and disrespect us for the nation that we are.

9.  I am for civil commitment for all pedophiles, even after they have served out their prison sentences.  Little houses behind the electrified fences of penitentary grounds sounds about right to me.  Kiddie rapists sicken and repulse me.  Period.  Some people cannot be relied upon to function in society in a manner that keeps all of us safe.  Inhumane?  The real shame is that someone can sex up a child and then claim they couldn't help it.  Once you've laid your hands on a child in a sexual manner, you have lost all of your rights to function in a free society as far as I am concerned.

10. I am against amnesty for illegal aliens, period.  Sneaking across our borders is a crime.  My grands came here legally.  They were proud to have the opportunities to work for better lives for themselves and their children.  Fence the borders.  Electrify the fences.  Do whatever you have to do to staunch the flow of coyotes bringing people over here.  If I wanted to migrate to another country, I would have to go through the red tape.  I would have to fill out the paperwork.  I would have to submit it.  I would have to wait for the approval or disapproval.  I would want to take language lessons so I could be fluent in the language of the country that I am moving to.  And I would have to have something to offer the place I am re-locating to.  


What are my responsibilities as an adult who has these principles?

I have a responsibility to speak out against abuse in general of human beings and animals and the ecology.  If I want to speak out in support of a specific case of abuse, I must do my own research first.  I have to ascertain, as far as I possibly can, the veracity of any claims of abuse made by adults on behalf of children in sticky situations.  The kids mostly may not lie about abuse.  But parents with vendetta do.  My mother did.  I know it happens.  If it is abuse of animals or the environment, I must do my own research in order to familiarize myself with the issues.  I must use information presented by all sides, and not just those that I agree with.

I have a responsibility to help the people who want my help and who are asking for it.  And I have a responsibility to not help the people who are functioning competently and do not want my help.  I cannot be all things to all people.  There's a bunch of people around who do not want my help, who are living just fine without my help, and who will continue to live without my help after I am dead.

I have a responsibility to care for the animals that share our home.  We also have a plan for any animals should we predecease them or become too ill to care for them.

I have a responsibility to vote on the issues that concern me, crossing party lines if I must.  I have a responsibility to vote for the people who can lead us.  As a citizen, I have to know what is happening politically around me.  I have to do the research so that way I can form educated opinions, take a stand, and choose my battles.    

radical sapphoq