Linden Lab on Trump's Ban on Immigration

Statement issued by Linden Lab on Trump's Executive Order on Immigration 2017-02-02 00:00:00 UTC

"We at Linden Lab are extremely disappointed in and adamantly opposed to Trump’s recent executive order on immigration. We reject racism, intolerance, and xenophobia.

We are proud to include immigrants among our leadership, colleagues, and customers, as well as our families, friends, and communities. We value diversity, compassion, and understanding, and we are proud that our products enable people to come together and form meaningful connections regardless of differences in their offline lives.

Trump’s order is counter to what we value and antithetical to American ideals. We join the many voices calling on the US government to remove this restriction as quickly as possible and to refrain from imposing additional barriers that threaten opportunities for immigrants, under-represented minorities, and women."

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You make me proud guys!

SaveMe Oh Release Party Today @ Josef K's

The famous - or perhaps infamous - SecondLife performance artist Ms. SaveMe Oh today celebrates the release of her eBook in three languages!

We are all invited! Apmel promises no bans today, but let's wait and see how that goes...

Read more about this event, which starts at 1 PM today, in my friend Apmel Goosson's blog post My Avatar's Name Is Apmel: SaveMe Oh Release Party Today @ Josef K's.

In his post Apmel supplies you with a SLurl to the party and links to iTunes store where you can purchase the Spanish, Swedish and English editions - or why not all three? - of the eBook.

A Failed Friendship

For several weeks now, I have been mulling over a friendship that ended disastrously. What went wrong? Could I have said or done some thing differently to stop this from ending with unfriending, blocking, muting and banning?

© Pink Sherbet Photography

I am getting nowhere and am just winding around in circles, most likely because the breakup is still too close in time or that I am too involved and unable to be objective in my inquiry. It simply hurts too much to think about it. Nonetheless I blame myself for the failure.

Every failed friendship should be followed by an autopsy of sorts to establish when, where and how everything went totally wrong, so that we can learn and avoid the same pattern from occurring again.

I may return to this subject in the future, but for now it seems pointless. All I know is that, to paraphrase the Roxette song, "there must have been love, but its over now". A residue of the love we had still remains and a hope - at least on my part - that somehow this will not be the end.

NSFW Month on Ello

The social network Ello responds to Google.

"Following Google’s decision to ban NSFW content from Blogger (followed by an awkward reversal), we decided to celebrate freedom of speech on Ello by naming March NSWF Month.

You can’t ban some content without seriously impacting freedom of speech for everyone.

The last people we want to dictate what we can't say on the Internet are the advertisers that control big ad-based social networks. Ello doesn’t believe in censorship, and because Ello is ad-free, we will always be a dependable haven for free speech.

Help us celebrate NSFW Month on Ello by posting and discussing ideas about free speech, censorship, and why it's important that Internet remain open and free.

Much Love,
Ello

PS. Some people love adult content. Other's don't. Ello is all about respecting each others' point of view. You can always turn NSFW content on or off on your Ello settings page."

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Chew on that Google & Blogger!

Bock & Facebook, Friday June 20 2014

We had an interesting day together yesterday, Facebook and I.

Early in the day, I could log in as usual and do everything one does on that site; Post stuff, like, comment, share, poke and chat with friends. In short everything was quite normal.

Later the same day, I got the following message when I tried to post a blogpost to Facebook:

You’re Temporarily Blocked From Posting

This temporary block will last 24 hours, and you won’t be able to post on Facebook until it’s finished.

Please keep in mind that people who repeatedly post things that aren't allowed on Facebook may have their accounts permanently disabled.

I was seemingly suspended for 24 hours for breach of their rule against "nudity". Read more about that in the postscript and post-postscript in this blogpost: Second Pride Festival Starts Today!.

My account was still available, but I had certain restrictions on how I could interact with the website: No posting, no liking, no commenting and no sharing, but poking and chatting was still allowed.

Even later yesterday, I got this message when I tried accessing my account on Facebook.

Now I was permanently banned and my account was disabled. So if you missed me late yesterday, you should know that I have not removed you from my friends list.
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Considering what has been going on lately with Facebook's purge directed at SecondLife avatars, the last message did not come as a complete surprise. Ever since my previous voluntary departure from Facebook, I have had mixed feelings about my return.

It is a very convenient way to keep in touch with my Tomais and some my close friends out-of-world, but it is also extremely time consuming and hours can sometimes pass without you even noticing.

After my return I have also had a rather lax friending-policy. I accepted anyone who asked. The only exception being the jerk who was the last straw for my voluntary departure last time. Can you imagine, he actually asked to be my friend when I returned after having posted the most vile and viscous comment on the timeline of my previous account, deleting the comment (I saw it in my email, which was the reason I turned off that option on my return) and then unfriending and blocking me?

Well, I was to tired to make a decision on what to do about it yesterday, but I will discuss the matter with my sane and balanced hubby and we will see what comes out of our deliberations.

India: Government Asks For Court Review

Through Joe Jervis at J.M.G. I see that the BBC News website (url to full article)  today has this encouraging news.

"The Indian government has filed a petition in the Supreme Court asking it to review its decision to reinstate a 153-year-old law that criminalises homosexuality.

The government asked the court to review its order saying it believed it "violated the principle of equality".  There has been outrage over the ruling seen as a huge blow to gay rights. There have been street protests and many activists and even government ministers have criticised it. The Supreme Court order on 11 December overturned a landmark 2009 Delhi High Court ruling which had decriminalised gay sex.

In its ruling, the Delhi High Court had described Section 377 - the colonial-era law which says a same-sex relationship is an "unnatural offence" and punishable by a 10-year jail term - as discriminatory and said gay sex between consenting adults should not be treated as a crime.
But the Supreme Court said it was up to parliament to change the law and the courts did not have the mandate to rule on it.

"The government has filed the review petition on Section 377 in the Supreme Court today. Let's hope the right to personal choices is preserved," Law Minister Kapil Sibal tweeted on Friday.

In its petition filed in the Supreme Court, the government says "the position of the central government on this issue has been that the Delhi High Court verdict... is correct".

The Supreme Court's earlier order was widely criticised in India. The president of the ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi described it as "an archaic, unjust law" and Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the ruling had taken India "back to 1860".

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Let's maintain our support for our Indian brothers and sisters up and keep hoping that something good comes out of this.

Mark the Day

This was indeed a day to remember!

Oh, a federal judge in Utah also struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional.

District Court Judge Robert J. Shelby in his decision said: "Few questions are as politically charged in the current climate. This observation isespecially true where, as here, the state electorate has taken democratic action to participate in a popular referendum on this issue. It is only under exceptional circumstances that a court interferes with such action. But the legal issues presented in this lawsuit do not depend onwhether Utah’s laws were the result of its legislature or a referendum, or whether the laws passed by the widest or smallest of margins. The question presented here depends instead on the Constitution itself, and on the interpretation of that document contained in binding precedent from the Supreme Court and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Applying the law as it is required to do, the court holds that Utah’s prohibition on same-sex marriage conflicts with the United States Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process under the law. The State’s current laws deny its gay and lesbian citizens their fundamental right to marry and, in so doing, demean the dignity of these same-sex couples for norational reason. Accordingly, the court finds that these laws are unconstitutional."

Saggy Pants Ban

"Mayor Ernest Troiano Jr. thinks he's found a way to put one of this Jersey shore resort town's problems behind it. Wildwood is ready to ban overly saggy pants, no ifs, ands or butts.The city is set to pass a law Wednesday regulating how people dress on its boardwalk. It bans going shirtless, as well as walking on the boardwalk with bare feet.But the provision that has gained widespread attention is a prohibition on pants that sag more than 3 inches below the hips, exposing either skin or underwear. Troiano said Wildwood has been inundated with complaints from tourists upon whose money the popular beach town depends for its survival. "

Read the whole article at Huffington Post - Weird News Saggy Pants Ban Set To Pass In Wildwood, New Jersey

The Laird Is Banned From Burn2

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, today took it upon himself to make a manifestation for the artists rights to freely express their opinions at Burn2.

Suddenly and without even a word of warning - which is usually common practise everywhere else in SecondLife - the laird found himself at home. He had been banned from Burn2 and could no longer return.

This is outrageous! The organizers are dictatorial and totally undemocratic.

Bock Gets Banned

This blog was today informed by a friendly reader that The Much Honored Bock McMillan, Laird of Southern Charm and CEO of the BMcM Corporation has - for the first time ever - been banned from a sim in SecondLife (see picture).

When the blog contacted the McMillan household for a comment on this surprising news Mr. Wild Zepp, spokesman for the clan McMillan, gave the following statement:

"Laird McMillan is proud and honored to receive such singular attention from a minor shopkeeper and club owner in SecondLife, especially since neither he or his family have any intentions of ever visiting that particular avatars establishments for reasons which he choses not to elaborate on. The Laird however extends his regrets to all other shop owners on that sim that he and his household cannot grace them with their business."