it's basically you getting trolled by proxy

image credit: rawstory.com

Tennessee woman arrested for counterfeiting after reading on the internet how obama made it legal.

okay, so now i have to wonder:  are there going to start being legal ramifications for poe posts?  because whatever poe posted to this woman's newsfeed that obama said it was legal to print your own money is at least partly responsible for this woman's fate.

i mean, yeah, she should have been smarter than that, and i see that kind of wholly unbelievable nonsense about obama this or obama that all day every day.  i've got people on my friends list who post several times a day about how obama is personally coming to my house to take my gun and force me to have gay sex with the immigrant he's giving my job to (that i do not have a gun and most mexican ladies think i'm way too full of shit to sleep with notwithstanding, i suppose).

it never even occurs to me that any of it even might have even a glimmer of truth to it... but not everyone is me.   sure, i can be left to my own devices and trusted to either figure it out for myself or survive the consequences.  you (i would hope) can be similarly left to the wisdom of your own judgment.

but apparently, not everyone can.

legally, it's the same question that gets brought up with hardcore porn and books like "the anarchist cookbook".  "Can the author/creator of a work be held responsible for damages if the consumers of that work follow its precepts or believe its premises?"  the fact that the information came via facebook opens up a whole new can of lawyers with, "what constitutes an individual, original work of art, education, or information?"  does the poster have responsibility only if they created the post, or does simply reposting someone else's work spread the liability the same way it spreads the (allegedly) damaging idea contained within the meme?

because this woman is having real world consequences as a result of believing something she saw on facebook, and we all know that there are people posting that kind of stuff who are purposely going out of their way to appear legitimate.  admit it, you've all been taken in, however briefly, by some bit of nonsense on the internet. i know i have (kony2012, anybody?).  i'm not saying she should be held personally blameless.  it should be obvious to any reasonable person that no government is going to ever allow its citizens to print their own money, and the reasons for that should be largely self-evident upon very little reflection.  if i were a betting man, i'd bet that she was already half interested in ways to justify counterfeiting when whatever infowars/newsmax/daily fail post it was scrolled down her newsfeed and she decided to give it a shot.  

the law, however, will not be taking my uninformed conjecture into account.  if she has legal ground to stand by her "facebook made me do it" story, the ride around here might get a little bumpy for all of us.  facebook is neither a government agency nor a public service (it's mostly a marketing firm, if you think about it), so they don't have to honor any of anyone's rights at all.  if it's going to cost them money, no rights for you.

Restricting Kids' Screen Time for Their Own Good?

NYTimes.com blog article on "Screen Addiction" and the psychological effects of electronic multimedia exposure on children.



it would be a very bad idea to prohibit your children from using media devices entirely for at least two reasons.

1) they're absolutely going to need to know how these devices work, what they do, and how to use them if you intend for them to have any job more responsible than municipal speed bump.  cutting kids off from electronics and the things they do would be equivalent to having put them in a wheelchair instead of letting them learn to walk.  you wouldn't have done that, would you?

2) you don't live alone on this planet, tech toys are cool, and children have poor judgement about people's motives.  so where would you rather your kids play x-box:  your living room, or the mancave of some suddenly present Mr. Cool Guy from the Community Center or Church Youth Group or Summer Sports Camp or wherever else might have something of a reputation for being a traditional pedophile hunting ground?  entertainment is something you have to provide for your children, if not for their psychological well-being, then at least because if you don't, someone who doesn't care about their well-being at all will.


people talk a lot of crap about the schools, but your kids' teachers really do know an awful lot about kids in general, how kids learn, your kid in particular, and what works best to motivate him or her to learn.  call your kids' school at about three pm on any school day and ask to speak to their teacher about how to turn the rules you have for their electronics use into an experience that will make them better adults.

remember, that's the goal.