Petitions, protests, and political positioning

I just had an honest-to-god "kids these days" moment. Which is odd, considering that I don't actually have any frame of reference for how kids in days gone by were, only what I read in books and the admittedly-biased tales of my parents possibly-but-probably-not-misspent youth.

There's currently a lawsuit brewing around Facebook, because someone who is not the creator claims the original idea was his. Whether or not the suit has any merit is still kind of up in the air. That's not my issue, though.

In response to this lawsuit, someone started a Facebook group trying to "save Facebook". I've only seen one, but I have no doubt that there are others. Join and show your support for Facebook, sign the petition, etc.

Of course, this will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on the lawsuit. Or perhaps it might, but it shouldn't. If the judge is out there looking at Facebook groups as part of his deliberation, then there's a big problem with how that judge does his job. And if not, then no one's going to see the groups who has any effect, which is the way it should be. Whether or not something is popular doesn't mean it is or isn't in violation of the law.

My main qualm isn't that it's irrelevant, it's that so many people seem not to realize it's irrelevancy. Social activism is great, I'm all for it, but in order to actually do it, you need to have a basic understanding of how the issues work. If music and intellectual rights are your 'thing', as is a popular cause to take up with my age group, great. Can you tell me what exactly the issues in the RIAA lawsuits are? Can you explain what judicial precedent there is for the various suits? Do you know what the strengths and weaknesses of both sides' arguments are? If not, you should go and do some heavy reading before deciding to affiliate yourself with a cause. When people don't, when people mindlessly take up a cause and start chanting slogans without actually knowing the history and facts, it works against your cause, because it makes you look like a bunch of stupid kids.

The few, the not-so-proud?

So here's an interesting story. It's been on the front page of the New Mexican lately as it involves a guy from NM, but I haven't really paid much attention to it (as I generally disregard everything in that paper - it's either local human interest stories or wire pieces). It finally caught my interest today.

This guy Adam Kokesh joins the Marines. He goes and serves in Iraq, then gets to come home with an honorable discharge. He's not, however, entirely free of the military; he's in the "individual reserves", which means keeping Big Brother Sam informed as to where you are, and they can summon you back to active duty essentially whenever they see fit.

Kokesh has, at some point, decided he's not OK with America's actions in Iraq. He takes to protesting. He, on at least once occasion, does so wearing his military-issue camo, but he's stripped it of all military insignia as far as possible. There's a Marines emblem embroidered into the fabric, but other than that there's nothing identifying him as a (former) Marine.

Then someone from the Marines sees a picture of Kokesh at said protest. It is technically against regulations for a member of the US armed services to protest while in uniform. They decide that A) Kokesh is still a member of the Marines, despite not being anywhere near on active duty, and B) he needs to be disciplined.

So in order to do so, they had a trial and retroactively 'downgraded' his discharge, from honorable to general. I'm not certain if this has any true significance - it apparently isn't expected to effect his benefits - but regardless, it's kind of a sleazy thing to do. My objections can pretty much be divided into three categories:

1. Why the hell are the people who are allegedly fighting for our "freedom" and in support of democracy and such not given, y'know, basic American freedoms? By this point I know it's hopelessly idealistic but I can't quite rid myself of the hope that, someday, our military (which is composed entirely of people who've sworn or affirmed to "support and uphold the Constitution" will in fact have to follow the rules set down in the Constitution.
2. This reeks of the military trying to cover itself up so that, a hundred and fifty years down the line once society is rebuilding itself from the disaster we're racing towards, people don't look at this incident and say, "Dear god those people were jerks." He didn't do anything wrong or offensive; he did something extremely "patriotic" and is being unjustly punished for it because his higher-ups disagree with him. And if anyone would argue that protesting against things your government does that you think are wrong, I'd like to direct you here.
3. Sweet bleeding Jesus, between Iraq and Afghanistan do the Marines not have anything truly important to do?

Oh, for the love of whatever non-benevolant deity!

Fred Phelps and his clan of lunatics are planning on protesting at Jerry Falwell's funeral.

This makes me feel odd and indecisive.

On the one hand: I don't like either of them and think that they both are (to slightly different degrees) idiotic, bigoted assholes who use a position of authority to teach hatred and encourage injustice. While I'm not rejoicing at Falwell's death - the man had a family, and rejoicing at a death of someone you didn't know personally if rather crude - I'm certainly not shedding any tears. Similarly, if Phelps were to get, say, stabbed in the heart with one of his picket signs, I wouldn't be particularly upset. The fewer screaming, bible-waving, religious zealots, the better.

On the other hand: Oh come on, you're making me feel something like sympathy for Jerry Falwell? How is this happening?

Falwell, in case you've forgotten, is the guy who went on TV shortly after September 11, 2001, and said that the death of several thousand people was God's punishment. Why is God punishing us? Because of feminism and abortions and homosexuals, mostly.

Personally I think that the best way to resolve this issue would be for Phelps (and his followers, please) to also die. Then they're no longer our problem, and they can duke it out for eternity in whatever fairlyland the Booming Voice in the Sky sends them to. Good riddance.

One for the anti-Islam crowd out there

There's been massive protests in Turkey over the creeping influence of Islam in their currently-secular government. Over 300,000 people peacefully staged a protest in Ankara, hoping to help keep Turkey secular.

Turkey, which is almost entirely Muslim. Wikipedia says 99.0%; the CIA says 99.8%.

Just another thing to point out whenever certain people (not that I have anyone in mind, especially not anyone who failed to engage in debate the other day in the cafeteria, cough cough) say that all Muslims favor extremism or you never hear the Muslim community denouncing terrorism/Sharia law/etc.