thedailywhat:

CISPA Update of the Day: CISPA, the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act that passed the House in April, likely is headed for a Senate vote in early June.

To drum up opposition to the legislation, which would create “a ‘cybersecurity’ exemption to all existing laws,” Fight for the Future, Democrats.com, The Liberty Coalition, and the Entertainment Consumers Association have created a new website called Privacy Is Awesome. The site outlines the top five ways to help defeat CISPA:

• Call your senators and tell them to oppose the Lieberman-Collins bill (CISPA), and ask for a constituent meeting during the Memorial Day recess to help change their mind.
• Email senators offices about CISPA, expressing your opposition.
• Keep calling senators until they plan a constituent meeting.
• Donate to anti-CISPA organizers — the same teams that helped defeat SOPA/PIPA.
• Share your opposition online — Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is spearheading opposition to the legislation, concluding a recent Senate floor speech with:

I believe these bills will encourage the development of a cyber security industry that profits from fear and whose currency is Americans private data. These bills create a Cyber Industrial Complex that has an interest in preserving the problem to which it is the solution.

Watch the full video here. It’s terrific.

[death+taxes}

ronniexpunani:

STROKE: Remember The 1st Three Letters… S.T..R …
My friend sent this to me and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. I agree. If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks.

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
During a party, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine and just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. (they offered to call ambulance)

They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00pm , Ingrid passed away.)
She had suffered a stroke at the party . Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today.

Some don’t die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead. It only takes a minute to read this…

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke…totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Remember the ‘3’ steps, STR . Read and Learn!
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster.
The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions :

S * Ask the individual to SMILE ..
T * = TALK. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (eg ‘It is sunny out today’).
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS .

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call the ambulance and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

NOTE : Another ‘sign’ of a stroke is
1. Ask the person to ‘stick’ out their tongue.
2. If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other that is also an indication of a stroke.

A prominent cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.

And it could be your own.

mirandaadria:escapistinwonderland:checkdatprivilege:

K: and people who are actually in the LGBTQ community argue that trans* people don’t completely need and deserve the support of the rest of the LGBTQ community more than any other part of it?

(via here and here)

This is horrible…….. : (

Signal boost. Wake up, world. Stop erasing trans* people.

humansofnewyork:as-fine-as-dandelions:

PLEASE REBLOG, ESPECIALLY IN THE AREAS OF NEW YORK, PITTSBURGH, PHILADELPHIA, AND NEW JERSEY!!!!

One of our followers asked us to share this image with the rest of the HONY community.  Please do anything you can to help.

stfuconservatives:

Yay, we got Natalia’s loan fully funded! But there are so many unbelievably worthy causes on Kiva, and you can still give your first $25 loan for free, so here’s another one. Carmen Rodriguez is another woman entrepreneur in Colombia. She’s raising money to buy more washing machines for her laundromat. Get your first loan for free with this link and donate to Carmen (only 5% funded right now), or one of the thousands of other borrowers on Kiva.org!

-Jess

thedailywhat:

This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day: Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald, a 23-year-old transgender woman, was walking in Minneapolis after midnight last June with a group of friends, all black and either queer or allied. As they passed the Schooner Tavern, the group was harassed by several older, white bar patrons, who called McDonald and her friends “fa**ots,” “ni**ers,” and “chicks with d*cks.” Allegedly, the group even suggested that McDonald — who is in transition from a man to a woman — was “dressed as women” in order to “rape” Dean Schmitz, one of the harassers.

McDonald defended herself and her friends, saying they didn’t tolerate hate speech. But when one of the bar patrons smashed a glass in McDonald’s face, puncturing her cheek, a fight ensued, and Schmitz, 47, was fatally stabbed. McDonald now faces two charges of second-degree murder in his death; in a videotaped interview with police after the fight, she allegedly admitted that she took out a pair of scissors to scare Schmitz, and that Schmitz ran into them during the fight. McDonald says the stabbing was accidental, and that she acted in self-defense.

Supporters say the case is symptomatic of the bias against transgender people and African-Americans in the criminal justice system. More than 15,000 have signed an online petition asking the Hennepin County Attorney to drop the second-degree murder charges against McDonald.

“Amazingly, in the aftermath of this racist and transphobic attack, the only person facing charges is CeCe McDonald- the victim…We refuse to allow racism and transphobia, on Minneapolis streets or in Minneapolis courts. We support CeCe. We are waiting for County Attorney Michael Freeman to honor his commitment, in his words ‘to serve all of our citizens with understanding, dignity, and respect’ by dropping the charges against CeCe McDonald.”

McDonald’s trial begins Monday.

[startribune]

freececemcdonald:

Please visit http://supportcece.wordpress.com/ to find out more!

Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald is a young African American transgender woman who is charged with two counts of “second degree murder” after an incident that began when she was violently assaulted because of her gender and race. We say NO to racism and transphobia, and call on Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to DROP THE CHARGES!

Her trial starts Monday, April 30th at 9am.

thedailywhat:

Kickass Dad of the Day: When Stuart Chaifetz learned that his 10-year-old son, Akian, was being violent and disruptive in class, he was puzzled. He knew Akian, who has autism, to be mild-mannered and sensitive, and had a hunch that something more was going on. But after several meetings with a team of school officials created to help special-needs students, nothing changed. So Chaifetz did what any concerned parent would do.

On the morning of Friday, February 17, 2012, I wired my son and sent him to school. That night, when I listened to the audio my life changed forever. I heard my son being bullied by his teacher and aide. The six and a half hours of audio I had proved that my son wasn’t hitting the teacher because there was something wrong with him — he was lashing out because he was being mocked, mistreated and humiliated. His outbursts were his way of expressing that he was being emotionally hurt at school.

The New Jersey father has since launched a website full of damning evidence and aFacebook page, and he is petitioning the state to change legislation so that teachers who bully children are immediately fired. The aide has been fired, but the rest of the staff have merely been relocated.

“I seek a full and public apology from all those adults who were in my son’s class for what they did to him,” Chaifetz says. “It is also far past time that these issues are allowed to be hidden from public view.”

[vvv]