From EFF comes the news that the FCC has issued rules expanding the scope of Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).
The new twist?

The ruling...will force Internet broadband providers and certain Voice-over-IP (VoIP) providers to build backdoors into their networks that make it easier for law enforcement to wiretap them.

This decision was driven by a petition to the FCC by the FBI,DOJ and the DEA. To again quote EFF:

The FBI used the "tappability principle" to justify the demands in its petition. This principle holds that if something is legally searchable sometimes, it should be physically searchable all the time. But there is a vast difference between a computer network switch created precisely to be tappable and one that can be tapped with the right tools under the right circumstances. If we applied the FBI's logic to the phone system, it would state that every individual phone should be designed with built-in bugs. Consumers would simply have to trust law enforcement or the phone companies not to activate those bugs without just cause.

The icing on the cake of this decision, besides making our online data that much more vulnerable to theft and misuse? We get to pay for the privilege.

The NPRM's(Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) proposed expansion of CALEA would also punish broadband providers and consumers, concluding that carriers should forced to spend millions of dollars on CALEA compliance. The FCC explores a mechanism by which these costs will pass to their customers, including a Commission mandated flat monthly charge. Quite literally, then, consumers would be subsidizing the surveillance state.

I don't know if they supply the orange jumpsuit with the monthly fee or if it's extra...

Anyone remember the less than dazzling premiere of 4parents.gov-the government site purporting to advise parents on how to answer questions about sexuality from their children?
The website contained the usual misinformation regarding condom use and much extolling of the abstinence only approach.
And of course just the barest hint that some children just might be under the impression that they were not heterosexual. What to do about that?

If you believe your adolescent may be gay, or is experiencing difficulties with gender identity or sexual orientation issues, consider seeing a family therapist who shares your values to clarify and work through these issues.

Note that as usual, the heck with finding a well trained, reputable therapist, shared values are so much more important than, say, facts.

There was also the usual labeling of GLBT people as having a life style, versus a real life. This was after one rewrite, first time around we got only the nebulous label "alternative lifestyle".

This may change thanks to an Amendment to the HHS funding bill put forward by Sen.Arlen Specter and approved by the Appropriations Committee.Rep. Henry Waxman had four scientists who work in related fields go over the web site for inaccuracies
and their findings were pretty damning.

The authorities found that the site still contains inaccurate information about sexually transmitted diseases and understates the effectiveness of condoms, provides false information about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and misstates the risks of various types of sexual behavior.

They also pointed out:

that HHS continues to use inappropriate language and provides incomplete information about sexual orientation. The sites errs, the scientists said, by referring to gay and lesbian "lifestyles" rather than "people," and does not explain to parents that youth questioning their sexual orientation are at increased risk for suicide most often because of rejection, ostracism, harassment, and violence by other peers and adults.

While the amendment only calls for review it's a first step, if a baby step, toward getting some rational voices into the "official line".

via 365GAy
http://www.365gay.com/

I read a recent diary by diane101 about hope and it motivated me to find at least one positive event and diary it.
And to my delight I found this:
Evangelical Doctor to Leave FDA Advisory Panel

Dr. W. David Hager, appointed to the FDAs's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee after ardent opposition from women's reproductive health and rights groups, including the Feminist Majority, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he will no longer be on the advisory committee after June 30.

The rest of the story is here
http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=9040

The article references the expose in the Nation that brought to light allegations of rape from Hager's ex-wife.

It also mentions the attempt of Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA) to  force a closer look at the process that led to the denial of otc status to emergency contraceptive Plan B. Please take a moment to write/call or email support to both Senators and then, take a moment to smile a little. It may be only a baby step but still, even a baby step in the right direction is worth a smile.

Child Abuse as Family Value

I saw a post at DailyKos this morning that brought me wide awake quicker than a double espresso.

ABC to Run Focus on the Family Ads, Rejected Ads from United Church of Christ Last Year
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/2/24343/06904

Yes, that FoF, the hate in the name of Christ people. And the comments led me to do a bit of digging on the issue of child abuse in the name of religion. Not a nice way to spend the morning, I can tell you. But it may help to spread the information, and pain around.

So, some interesting ideas from the American Taliban.

My first stop was the No Greater Joy Ministry page and unfortunately,( or fortunately, I'm not sure which), there was enough there for a diary.

http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/

This site offers parental advice along with books and a magazine.
It also offers a charming little article called:
Training Roseanna's Flesh
 by Michael Pearl, the male half of the website.

Even the title gives me the creeps. But forging ahead I find a lot of tips to raising the obedient child-some excerpts follow.

Twelve-month-old Roseanna has one adoring mama, one adoring daddy, one adoring five-year-old sister, one adoring seven-year-old brother, and dozens of adoring friends.
But Roseanna has one enemy--her flesh.

Yes, that pesky flesh, she has it just to annoy you too. If she were a good child she'd be incorporeal.

...if you wait until actions become irritating before you discipline, you have allowed them to confirm selfish habits that are then hard to break. You must begin training before the need to discipline arises. There will be fifty occasions a day where you will want to train your one-year-old.

Never too early to break the spirit. And it's a hobby that never grows stale.

If you are consistent, the assertion of your authority will be such a non-event that others looking straight at you will never know anything occurred.

Which will be handy at the trial later on. I think it's called plausible deniability?

If your little fourteen-month-old makes an attempt to dismount your lap, and you indicate that you do not want him to, and he makes a protest by jerking away or whining, then by no means can you allow him to intimidate you into compliance. For, by so doing you have allowed the authority to pass to him. You would be encouraging rebellion. YOU MUST ALWAYS BE PERCEIVED TO WIN ANY CONTEST. It is all determined by what the child thinks. If there is a seed of resistance in the child, it must never be allowed to grow. Don't allow that spirit of rebellion to become profitable.

Heaven forbid.
I keep comparing this with Pastor Dan's diary from yesterday morning, and can I just say a hearty Bless you Pastor Dan!

Back into the darkness:

If, during the course of a day, no contest arises naturally, you should arrange one. Seek opportunity to thwart the child's will, to cause him to submit to your command. If you cause him to surrender his will to you twenty times during the course of a day, he will not disappoint you with disobedience in public. Tell him to stop, sit, don't speak for five minutes, etc. Play the half-hour "quiet time game," the half-hour "don't wiggle and squirm game." Refuse him a treat when he is wanting it badly. Give it to him only when he is joyously submitted to your timetable.

And this is only the school of psychological torture, when this crowd gets into the physical torture they really go to town.

But my stomach can't take much more and it's almost time for work so, one hopeful note.

There seems to be an enemy of total domination child rearing lurking about. Or possibly, eight!
On the front page there is a link titled-
   Our own set of possessed Damsels
It seems eight or so women have been making life a bit difficult for the NGJ folks! They've been warning ministers that allow this group to use their church for NGJ seminars that the authorities are watching this group and that the church may be risking their tax  exempt status.
They apparently had a hand on getting the Dept. of Human Services in Tennessee to look into this group, but that seems to have come to nothing.
They have reportedly left nasty reviews of the group's products on sites that sell them.
While if they have also, as reported, messed about with the web site, this is a step too far but the earlier reported actions give me hope. So I say, bless the damsels and I wish them success.
A good example of creative action, although it doesn't seem to have made a dent, maybe if it grew to 80? Or 800? Food for thought, I hope.

Yes, it's come to this. First it was the burning question marks and now...the world?

"Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad."

See the letter for yourselves at
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/04/08/DDG27BCFLG1.DTL

"We are Unitarian Jihad. We will appear in public places and require people to shake hands with each other. (Sister Hand Grenade of Love suggested that we institute a terror regime of mandatory hugging, but her motion was not formally introduced because of lack of a quorum.)"

Enjoy