Recently in controversy Category

I was going to write a short, although sarcastic, piece about yet another image of the Virgin Mary appearing in a doctor's window in Springfield, MA. I found this via Google News. I was taken to the Boston Globe's website and landed at the article which described the turn of events. I had hoped to see a picture of the image, instead the lead image above the text of the article was that of a crowd of awe-inspired onlookers.

After examining the page for a few seconds I found the image gallery for this particular news event. It consisted of six images that recounted a few other Virgin Mary image sightings in varying settings.

Here's where it got interesting, and is the real point of this post. Being at the final image in the series I wasn't sure if the first image in the series was the one that the article referred to. So I clicked on what I expected should take me to the first image in the series.

But I didn't get to look at it. Instead, I was prompted to login. Lame . . .

There's been no shortage of news that conventional news outlets are losing profits. Even the local paper where I live has raised their rates citing increased costs. Has your local newspaper raised their rates lately?

Previously when I linked to local news stories I also had to add that they still hadn't quite gotten used to the fact that they really should consider NOT forcing people to login just to read the news article. Perhaps they got the message. You can read the news without logging in. Of course they did re-design their site and improve it such that they can now load even more ads of which some are really, really ugly. How many ads does the online version of your paper have?

As much as "The Press" wants to throw around the adage that "the people have a right to know" you would think that they would be able to wrap their head around the fact that they shouldn't need to login to exercise that right. Do you have to login for any particular function of your local paper? To read the article or view photographs?

Local news outlets just aren't getting it. They don't understand the Internet and much like the music industry, they are clinging to a dying model in which they grossly overcharge for classifieds and ad space on their online and print versions. Have you paid for a classified ad lately? How much was it? Did it actually pay off for you?

I think this topic deserves a little more research and will most likely be something I'll post about again in the near future. Anything you think deserves mentioning?

Anybody who checks out my blog from time to time knows a few things:

1. I'm a pretty liberal, idealistic guy.

2. I'm for free speech.

3. I'm not very religious.

With that in mind when I came across this news in one of the video podcasts, I had to do a little more research.

In Clay County, Florida a girl by the name of Lexi is running for student council president and created the sign you see in this post. As is so often the case, a bunch of stuffy parents are upset about the fact that the sign reads, "Jesus loves you! Lexi for Prez!" Some have been even so motivated as to write a letter to the principal of the school.

However, school officials said the sign may stay because it is neither "sponsored speech" nor "offensive."

Good for them!

According to Lexi:

"My friend told me that this dude said it's a little cheesy, but I don't listen to that kind of stuff," Lexi said.

Good for you Lexi!

Stick to you beliefs no matter what some people may say. If only our elected politicians had the same fortitude the world would probably be a better place.

I hope you become student council president! If I could, I'd vote for you!

One of the feeds that I subscribe to is Wired Magazine. I saw this article about the kid that hacked Palin's email account at Yahoo! and just kind of shook my head in disgust.

I, in no way, condone what this kid did. Personally, if he was my kid, I would most likely eliminate the possibility of him ever using a computer, watching television, playing video games, or anything remotely related to enjoyment for a long, long, long time. But as it stands he will most likely be charged with a crime and put on display as an example and deterrent for the whole world to see.

Should it really be that way? My argument is not that he didn't break the law or only broke it a little bit and therefore deserves no punishment. If someone broke into my email account I would most certainly be furious.

What intrigued me the most were some of the comments I read:

This "hacker" deserves to spend a whole lot of time in jail. Here's hoping the Feds catch his a** soon.

and

"poor kid"?? really? do you live in bizzaro world? he broke in to someone's private email account, then posted the information to a hacker forum. her privacy is violated and you support the "poor kid."

disagree with her politics. but the hacker violated several laws and should receive a lengthy jail sentence.

Seems to me people get a little outraged over stuff like this. And rightly so, as I said I'd be furious. But a lengthy jail sentence?

Why aren't people demanding something else? Like a little more security put in place to protect from this kind of stuff happening. Why was it so easy to break into her email account? It seems all that was needed to reset her password was the answer to few questions that were easily found by a few Google searches. Do you really consider your email account private if all you have to do is answer a few very common and simple questions to reset your password?

Where is the outrage when an unprotected wireless network exposes millions or records of customer data? Where is the outrage when unprotected laptops are stolen and people's credit is destroyed?

Where is the outrage when our phone calls and email are subject eavesdropping by our own government?

Did you really think your Yahoo! email account was secure in the first place?

Seems to me that people are all to eager to throw a college student in prison, but I don't hear anyone asking questions about the security in place that should have prevented the breach.

Have an opinion? Feel free to weigh in . . .