I saw an item in today's news that alarmed me. It said, "Google bans porn from Blogger." As you know, this blog does not contain porn, but Google's computers might decide that frequent use of the word dick here implies porn. (My phone absolutely refuses to let me type my name in a text message.)
Twice in the past, Google abruptly terminated free services that I used and like. Since they were free, I have no recourse. Google could delete my blogger account and Gmail account tomorrow. What could I do, call Google Customer Service?
I could always create a new blog somewhere else, but if I did how would you find it? If you google search for dickandlibby or Tarwathie, you'll find thousands of hits to the archived articles of this blog, not a new blog. The readership of this blog has built year after year, and it would be a very big loss if I had to start from scratch.
Therefore, I think I have an emergency backup. I created a group on Facebook, that contains a link to my blog. If you loose contact with me or with this blog, just go to Facebook, and search there for dickandlibby or Tarwathie. If I have to start a new blog with a new address at a new site, I'll post a link there.
By the way, Facebook could also terminate me without notice because I violate their terms of service by not using my real name on my Facebook account.
Did you know that violating a web site's terms of service is a federal crime (see CFAA) with a penalty of up to 35 years? I'm pretty sure that I do that with 8 or more web sites. That means that a fed, or a US attorney could threaten me with 240 years in jail as leverage to force me to cooperate with them or to confess to a crime. Ridiculous you say? Not in today's America.
Police have adviced teen girls to not use their real names on Facebook to protect them from sexual predators. If they do so, they too are federal felons.
There is the famous and horrific case of Aaron Schwartz, who was hounded into suicide by federal prosecutors for violating the terms and conditions of a web site. Another woman (I can't find the link) was convicted of a CFAA violation for not using her real name on Facebook (but the judge set aside the verdict.) There is the Supreme Court Case (Bond v U.S.), where a woman who put noxious chemicals on her husband's lover's doorknob was charged as a terrorist waging chemical warfare. There is the Supreme Course Case (Yates v U.S.) of a fisherman given 15 years for throwing an undersized fish overboard.
In those two cases, the Supreme Court justices, called the government's decisions to bring those charges ridiculous and stupid. In the last case, the Solicitor General admitted that Obama administration DOJ guidelines require prosecutors to apply the most severe charges in every case. No room for common sense. If I am charged with failure to show proper navigation lights on my boat, the prosecutor would be required to add those other 240 years of felonies to my charges (but then he could drop all charges in exchange for a plea bargain).
Pardon my rant against overcriminalization. I have a pending Captain's Table blog post about that.
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Why not just use Rich instead of Dick? My fathers name was Richard and everyone called him Dick-- That was before everyone got anal about every thing.. Oh wait-- Is that considered porn now too??
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