Wikileaking Wikileaks

Any of you who have been following the drama over at Wikileaks will be glad to know that following this here linkage: http://88.80.13.160/wiki/Wikileaks will get you there (a mirror site from Sweden) for the time being anyways. Alternate linkage outside of the United States was part of the original plan-- to have sites set up in various countries should the courts of one country succeed in getting a shutdown order. Here's another one, this one is based in England: http://www.wikileaks.org.uk/wiki/Wikileaks .

Wikileaks protects whistle-blowers from corporations (or governments) who would much rather not have folks tattling on any suspicious practices. Recently, a Swiss bank challenged Wikileaks and now the site is facing a court battle with the United States versus responsible exercise of the First Amendment. Bloggers across the internet have protested the February 15 court decision and this blogger too joins in the fray. Buzz-flash has quite a few things to say about this whole mess over at: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/1545 .

Quite amazing to me is that the court case took place in the United States. While the order to erase the D.N.S. from U.S. servers will certainly not hold up on appeal,http://commons.globalintegrity.org/2008/02/us-court-order-shuts-down-activist-site.html<--- here it is disconcerting that this case involving documents regarding a Swiss bank doing business in the Cayman Islands made it court on United States soil. Still, we are far better off living here than in places like Egypt where one can be severely physically beaten for dissident web-surfing and document leaking or in Red China or even Vietnam where folks have been imprisoned for similar activities.

radical sapphoqcross-posted all over

Wikileaks
first amendment
censorship
sapphoq

Three Little Words: A Memoir

Three Little Words: A Memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

On our weekly jaunt to the bookstore yesterday I picked up this book and read the whole thing in the cafe. I was immediately captivated by the author's vivid descriptions of her life and the people in it. Ashley and a younger half-brother were removed from her mother and step-father's care and moved around in the Florida foster-care system for years. Foster homes ranged from okay to really really bad. Most were overcrowded. [One couple was prosecuted for the things they did to the children in their care but received very little punishment for their crimes.] Finally landing in a children's orphanage, Phil and Gay Courter came forward to adopt Ashley. Tragically, the younger half-brother's adoption didn't work out and he was returned to the orphanage.

The conversations ring true, the feelings are very poignant, the healing shows in this book. This book will not rip you raw in the way that Dave Peltzer's writing does. It may leave you with a gut feeling that the foster care system is broken and a desire to be part of the change necessary.
Especially compelling is the list toward the end of the book of the sheer numbers of people who were supposed to protect Ashley while she was in the system.

Recommended for those readers who like this sort of thing and wish something beyond the oh-poor-me syndrome.

sapphoq reviews books and more

Viking Kitties

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Es Traicionero

Al pan, pan y al desprecio, al desprecio.
Y el diablo ha vendiendo iconos religiosos para los lameculoses.

¿Puede usted decir muchachos y a muchachas de las "alimentaciones agregadas"?

Ha Ha. Opt OUT!
Parado el incomodar de mí. No más de mi dinero para LJ.

¿Y dónde es la nueva TOS? Ahogado en mierda.
Ponte mosca, ponte mosca.

spike