The way they left us all in the dark

I would love to blog regularly about silly news items and also about the more serious issues that are important to me. That's what I want this journal to be for now, but my life at the moment is quite the mess. That means that this desire of mine to write and "report" has taken a backseat to more important matters.

I still keep and update my LiveJournal because I have friends there who have no desire to change journals and who know the story of what's going on. It's too much for me to crosspost everything from there to here and also f-lock things. I'm growing weary of hiding so much, and I want this journal to be different.

To those I've friended here: I do still read my f-list everyday. I've tried to comment where I can, but it's been hard. I try not to let my own struggles blind me to my friends, but I'm not perfect and there are days when I just want to throw myself down on the ground and scream at the Universe At Large about the unfairness of it all.

I guess this is my way of saying stay tuned.

Why do I vote Pro-Choice?

In June of 2003, I sat by the bathroom sink and waited three agonizing minutes to read the results of a home pregnancy test. Turns out, I did not even need to wait the full three minutes before a second line appeared in the test window. Tofu was standing by me at the time and prevented me from panicking by reassuring me that everything was going to be fine. A few weeks later I told my father and then my mother, both of whom were supportive and eager to become grandparents. Tofu's mother was surprised, but his entire family supported us as well.

I was and have been incredibly lucky when it came to my choice to keep an unplanned pregnancy. However, there are many women out there who are not as fortunate as I am. There are women whose partners leave them. There are women who are raped. There are women who can not afford the cost of pre-natal care and who may not qualify for assistance. There are women who have children and another child is a financial and emotional burden too big to bear. There are women whose very lives are at risk should they become pregnant. These women are why I vote pro-choice.

Being pro-choice is not soley based on my desire for abortion to remain legal, safe, and rare. It means I support comprehensive sex-education that not only helps women and men make informed decisions that can affect their physical and mental health, it also helps prevent unintended pregnancy and thus prevents the need for abortions. It means I believe in a woman's autonomy over her body and in all women's rights to better reproductive health.

Unplanned pregnancy is a terrifying prospect. I lived through the fear and anxiety of making a life-altering choice to keep and raise my son. The choice I made was my own and it was ultimately in my hands.

I vote pro-choice because I had a choice and I believe all women deserve that choice.

Actor Heath Ledger dies at 28

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Actor Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday of a possible drug overdose in a Lower Manhattan apartment, the New York Police Department said.

The Academy Award nominated actor was 28.

"Pills were found in the vicinity of the bed," police spokesman Paul Browne told CNN.

"This is being looked at as a possible overdose, but that is not confirmed yet."

Police later said the pills "appear to be over the counter" sleeping medication.

Ledger was unresponsive when he was found by a housekeeper who had gone to wake him for an appointment with a masseuse in the Soho apartment, Browne said.

He was declared dead at about 3:30 p.m., Browne said.

In 2005, the actor played Ennis Del Mar in "Brokeback Mountain," about two cowboys who had a secret relationship.

The role earned him the Oscar nomination.

Ledger was born in Perth, Australia. He has a young daughter with actress Michelle Williams, his co-star in "Brokeback Mountain."

"He was just so respected in the industry," said Kim Serafin, senior editor of In Touch Weekly. "It's just horribly tragic. He was just a fine actor and a good person, so this is horribly sad and very unexpected."

I've seen a preview for Dark Knight and he looked so amazing as The Joker. My first memory of him is A Knight's Tale, which I was going to watch tonight, now I don't think I can do it without crying. This is so sad.

It's the 35th anniversary of Roe vs Wade today and in honor of that NARAL Pro-Choice is sponsoring Blog for Choice Day. They've asked one simple question: Why do you vote pro-choice? Here are some links I've enjoyed thus far today:

10 Reasons to Support Reproductive Justice on Roe Day - By Jill over at Feministe. A must read.

For the New Anti-Choice Movement, It's All About the Men - A lengthy Alternet article by Sarah Blustain concerning a growing number of men who claim to suffer from Post Abortive Syndrome, a supposed mental illness that has never been recognized by the American Psychiatric Association.

In a recently released study, The Guttmacher Institute has reported a continued decline in U.S. abortion rates. However, the study also states that there is still a need to reduce unintended pregnancy. A PDF of the study is available for download.

"The Radical Idea that I am a Person" - A powerful essay by AnnaJCook. Here's a snippet I had to quote:

Over the last twelve years, however, I have been forced to recognize how fragile my right to bodily integrity and self-determination is. I have gotten the message loud and clear from politicians, judges and activists: My personhood is conditional. My body is not my own. I am one broken condom, one impulsive sexual encounter, one sexual assault, one anti-abortion, conscience-ridden pharmacist away from becoming less than a person in the eyes of the law.

...We have forgotten to consider an equally important question: regardless of how we determine when human life and constitutional rights begin, when do women’s basic human rights end? [Emphasis in Original]

"The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion" - An oldie but a goodie by Joyce Arthur who collected stories from doctors and other abortion clinic staff from around the globe. Whose right is it to decide who is or is not worthy of an abortion?

More to come as the day wears on I'm sure.

This editorial cartoon appeared in the Washington Post over the weekend. I realize this is in reference to Hillary Clinton's show of emotion in response to a question after the Iowa caucus, but I don't want to focus on the politics for the moment.* Instead, I want to share a little insight into being a woman and why the sexist stereotype about "female" hormones needs to go the way of the dodo.

When I was 13, I got my first period (on my birthday of all days because I am lucky like that). Like all young women, I was happy and excited that I had finally caught up with a few of my peers. I was becoming a woman! I was one step closer to adulthood. Then the cramps set in and I wondered why I ever wanted to be a woman in the first place. That first period was an education in the ways of womanhood. I learned that maxi pads were a pain in the ass and my mother had me too terrified of TSS to ever want to even attempt inserting a tampon. I was fortunate to have known about menstruating from the age of eight and I had giggled immaturely when the school nurse came and spoke to my classmates and me about puberty. However, it wasn't until after my first period that three letters entered into my vocabulary and became the bane of my existence for many years. PMS.

PMS changed my life considerably. Whenever I got mad, it was PMS. Whenever I cried, it was PMS. If I made a smart remark to my parents, I was disrespectful and it must be PMS. I was constantly asked, "Is it that time of the month?" The more I was told I had PMS, the more emotional I became and life at home became increasingly harder. My father would joke to my mother and other family members that I suffered from PMS, AMS, and DMS. (Pre, During, and After.) Anti-Depressants were given to me when I was diagnosed with mild depression at 15 by the family physician, but even after the affirmation that something else was going on, if everything was not perfect with me, I was suffering from PMS.

I was told that every single woman, no matter how intelligent or well-educated she might be, could not be trusted for one week out of every month. Why, it wasn't her fault, the poor dear. Those nasty hormones made her into an emotional wreck and she simply couldn't help that she became unreasonable, unreliable, and overly sensitive. It's part of "the curse" when you become a woman. And so it was with me. I became a slave to my hormones. At first I resisted, but soon I started to buy into the idea that my emotions were no longer my own. If I was angry, it was that damned estrogen. If I cried, it was that damned depression and the fact that my ovary was releasing an egg. Oh, sure, I laughed at the jokes and even made cracks about my teachers and peers being "on the rag," when they were especially crabby. It was what we were all told, and we all believed.

When I left for college at 18, something changed. I came to realize that when I got angry, it was because someone had made me angry. When I became sad, it was because life was stressful or some event had triggered a natural and healthy response inside of me. No one around me ever blamed my hormones when I was moody, though I still did sometimes because it was easier to say "PMS" than to tell my ex "You hurt me" or to own up to the fact that, yes, I could be mean for no reason whatsoever. I became angry anytime someone tried to use the the PMS argument with me, and I made sure to tell them what complete and total bullshit it was.

Fast forward a few years later when I was pregnant with the kiddo. I got upset one day in an online forum and someone laughed and said, "Must be those pregnancy hormones." I became so angry and I remembered what it felt like when I was living at home and the old jokes about PMS. Years worth of frustration came to the surface and I had to take a step back and figure out what was happening to me. I had an epiphany then. I had been dismissed. My feelings and thoughts had been discounted as nothing more than chemicals that were at that moment at work in my body nourishing my son and giving him a safe place to grow so that he would have a chance at life. Yet, I certainly felt those emotions and I experienced them. That person, whether he/she knew it or not, had completely invalidated me as a thinking, feeling human being. My parents had done the same thing for years, too, and it was all done with a simple, seemingly innocuous statement. "It's PMS/your period/hormones/because you're a woman."

Take a look up there at that cartoon again. Forget that it's Hillary Clinton (who, by the way, is over 60 and likely post-menopausal) and leave your political beliefs at the door. Picture a woman you know sitting there, any woman will do. Look at what that image says again. "Women are too emotional to be in a position of authority. A woman is controlled by her hormones and she cannot be trusted to do her job."

I don't care if your girlfriend/wife/mother/aunt/lady-who-lives-down-the-street will "admit" that she gets a little crabby every 28 days. To dismiss a woman's anger as PMS is to invalidate her. When you tell women they are nothing more than walking time bombs of hormones, you negate us as equals. The fact that I menstruate does not mean my emotions don't count. It also doesn't mean that I am incapable of rational thought. I am an intelligent, thinking, feeling, and competent human being, just like every other human on the planet. So, please, let's focus on the politics of the candidates and not what is or isn't in their pants.

Besides, if you really thought women are so unreliable and unstable to have any power whatsoever, why is it you expect mothers to nurture and rear your daughters and sons?

* = If you do want to know what I think of Clinton's "meltdown," I shall refer you to Jon Stewart's reaction. I in no way endorse her, but I will never stoop to citing gender and a show of actual emotion as a reason not to vote for anyone.

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?:
Um...I have no idea.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?:
Up until this year I never made a New Year's resolution. For 2008 I've made a few.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?:
I'm having a hard time recalling if it was 2006 when one of my lj friends gave birth or '07. Other than that, no.

4. Did anyone close to you die?:
No, but a close and dear friend lost his mother.

5. What countries did you visit?:
Haha. I've never been out of the US. I go down to Georgia (the US state, not the country) a lot, but that's because Augusta is only an hour from here.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?:
I'm not really sure.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?:
May 5, 2007. It was when Dad left for Baltimore for the surgery that nearly killed him.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?:
Not completely losing my mind and winding up in the looney bin. Though I suppose giving Tet the big boot was an achievement of sorts.

9. What was your biggest failure?:
It's not really specific to this year. I have a history of accepting behavior from others I shouldn't tolerate.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?:
I had a stomach flu in March or April that really sucked. And around Christmas I caught a cold, but that was about it.

11. What was the best thing you bought?:
No clue. There's been some good music choices at least.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?:
He knows who he is.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?:
Ha, I am so not going there right now.

14. Where did most of your money go?:
Food and bills, but after that I'd say music and books.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?:
Going to Atlanta for my birthday.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?:
"Dance of the Manatee" by Fair to Midland

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or hardened?: Both, I guess, though I'd lean more toward hardened for most areas of my life.
ii. thinner or fatter?: I think my weight stayed pretty much the same.
iii. richer or poorer?: Uh, about the same.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?:
Getting outdoors, expressing myself...

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?:
Feeling sorry for myself.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?:
Christmas is already over.

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?:
Heh. Yes, and probably against my better judgement.

23. How many one-night stands?:
I don't do one-night stands. Not that I have a reason to anyway.

24. What was your favorite TV program?:
Heroes though I've only seen season one.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?:
I don't hate. I hurt and I miss someone I was close to up until a couple of weeks ago.

26. What was the best book you read?:
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?:
Fair to Midland, Queens of the Stone Age

28. What did you want and get?:
*coughs*

29. What did you want and not get?:
Again, don't want to go there.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
I didn't really watch any movies that were made this year. Beowulf was pretty good. I'd say Sweeney Todd, but I saw that for my birthday which is on January 1 and would thus be in 2008 and not count.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?:
Last year? I turned 26 on January 1, 2007, and um, I spent it at home. It wasn't much to write about.

32. What's one thing that would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?:
Resolving some things with Tofu back in April when I should have, but it's being handled now.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?:
"Black is sooo a color!"

34. What kept you sane?:
Good friends, good music, and good books.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?:
I'm fond of so many...

36. What political issue stirred you the most?:
Legislation targeted at making abortion illegal.

37. Who did you miss?:
My grandmother. I think sometimes I could still use her wisdom. (She died back in 2005.) Deec.

38. Who was the best new person you met?:
This year? Hmm... I didn't really meet anyone new.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:
That sometimes being alone is the better option and that I seriously need to learn to love myself.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
I'm gonna suture up my future,
I ain't jaded, I just hate it.
See, I been down too long,
It's kinda hard to explain.
Done and buried all I carried.
All my evil is through a needle,
As it pull through the eye,
What was and what will are now gone.
- "Suture Up Your Future" Queens of the Stone Age

And I'll cheat and add one more:

go on, paint the whole town red
I'd rather follow who cleans up the mess
And so I wait.

Sufficed to say there's a time and a place
So I wait
For the tug-of-war and who you'll pull for
While between you and me from point A to point B is a fine line
That burns at both our good ends
- "The Wife, The Kids, and the White Picket Fence" Fair to Midland

1. What bill do you hate paying the most?
Electric because it fluctuates depending on the time of year. Though I don't mind paying it so much in the winter months. August and September are the killer months.

2. Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner?
Romantic dinner? Well, the last time Tofu and I went out to eat it was at this place called Bonefish Grille in Augusta, GA. It was great and I guess you could call it romantic, but ironically I'm still thinking of the third (and last) anniversary with the ex. He took me out to the Melting Pot in Columbia, SC. It's a fondue restaurant and I know the meal was in the near triple digits. He wanted to surprise me, and he did. The last time I got flowers, too. One month later, he dumped me. (Wow, I so didn't mean to be depressing. :P)

3. Do you regret losing your virginity to who you lost it to?
I don't regret losing my virginity when I did, nor do I regret who I lost it to (the ex). What I regret is that I stayed in that relationship for too long because of stupid misguided notions about sex and relationships.

4. If you could go back and change one thing what would it be?
Dropping out of college. I'd go back and stick to it.

5. Name of your first grade teacher?
Mrs. Gilliam. She retired after my senior year of high school.

( 50 questions total. )

So, I'm trying to decide how I want to use my IJ. I would like to get back into doing more "blogging" as opposed to the personal journaling I'm doing over on my LiveJournal (though I think I'll likely end up doing personal journaling here as well depending on what groups I find).

2008 is going to be a year of major changed for me and I forsee many ups as well as downs ahead. I want to do more writing and I want to be able to maintain focus on some goals I will be setting for myself. I want to express myself and I want to record the progress I make next year. Mostly, I just have the itch to write.

So, I do intend to use this blog more often in the coming days, I just have to figure out how I want to use it.

I've always loved this song. I don't have Lennon's version sadly, but I do have Jimmy Buffet's cover from his Christmas Island album. I think there's a beautiful message in the lyrics and the song is never outdated.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to my Christian friends, a belated Happy Solstice to my pagan friends, and Happy Holidays to everyone!

"Happy Christmas (War is Over)"
John Lennon

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over over
If you want it
War is over
Now...

Something came up today where a friend said something that made me laugh and I said, "You have no idea why that's so funny" and then promptly refused to tell him what I was laughing about. It's not that I distrust this friend with information or anything like that, it's that what I found so funny is something of an inside joke with someone special. (Well, "inside joke" is really the wrong term to use, but it's the best way I can describe it so you can understand why he didn't get it.)

My friend continued to pester me for a few minutes (jokingly, of course) and I would not budge. I could have told, and in the past I think I would have, but I thought that if someone else knew, it'd take away some of the specialness somehow. I'm certainly not forbidden to tell by any means, but I wanted to keep it a secret. It's something that goes back over a year and a half and I've never "kissed and told" anyone about it, something I used to often do. Not because I wanted to brag or anything like that, but because it was something fun and I wanted to share it. (OK, sometimes it was because I wanted to brag.) I guess this time around, I see things differently. I get that there are just some things that are more fun if it's only between you and one other person.

So, I'm sitting here smiling at a good memory that brings up all sorts of happy feelings and only one other person knows why. I'm perfectly ok with that.

I'm maturing, aren't I?

X-posted to my LJ.

Yay for Twitter. Now my stalkers can keep tabs on me without ever leaving their homes.

http://twitter.com/jadedinsc

Insomnia used to work for LiveJournal and offers some interesting and somewhat concerning insight on the SUP buy-out:

Here's a secret that few people have talked about within LiveJournal. Code was put into the site back when I was working for it that allowed administrators to track a user's IP address and notify administrators when they're online. It was added for the best of reasons because of a very serious criminal investigation in the US, but it could be misused by request of the Russian government if that authority and those privileges are unmonitored and that power is put into the wrong hands.

To be fair, given the large number of Russian ZhivoiZhurnal users, there could potentially be situations in the future where it might be the right thing to do to allow Russian law enforcement agencies access to personal user information to assist with criminal investigations... and, infact, it could've already happened for all I know. But given the Russian government itself, what assurances would LiveJournal have that any such investigation request wouldn't be politically motivated? There are already moves in the works to tighten Kremlin control of the internet.

He also has some choice words about the (in)famous Brad and why he would not trust him to be on this newly proposed LJ advisory board. A definite must read.

Those of you leaving LiveJournal for good, bear in mind that LiveJournal is one of many companies that use Beacon software to track user activity. Clean out your cookies.

And the censorship has already begun. Check out the list of newly banned interests.

More news when I have time to go journal hopping today.

So, if anyone was still curious about the current LiveJournal buyout, I've found a couple more interesting tidbits.

Wemyss has a somewhat in-depth (and humorous) explaination of just who Aleksandr Mamut is and how he links to Vladamir Putin. If you want to know what a Russian oligarch is, Wemyss explains:

I believe it was Simon Heffer who noted recently that it was a tragedy, with daily emerging consequences, that the fall – or eclipse – of Communism was not followed by its own Nuremburg tribunals, as befell its twin, Nazism. Had that transpired, perhaps the Bear That Walks Like a Man would not again be ramping about, red in tooth and claw. But this did not transpire, alas, and there have been consequences.

Amongst these consequences is the rise of that class of base, vicious, moneyed thug to whom we politely refer, collectively (ah! Collectivisation, comrade!), as the ‘Russian oligarchs’: in fact, they are a kleptocracy at best, and most commonly (there’s a mot juste for you) a kakistocracy. It is not by any means easy to determine, in assessing these gentry, who amongst them are (or fondly believe themselves to be) pulling the Kremlin’s strings, and who are Mr Putin’s puppets, but this is in practise a distinction without a difference.

Really, read the entry and note the articles he quotes. One is an opnion piece from the International Herald Tribune.

All ingredients are in order. The oligarch (Aleksandr Mamut, one of the few oligarchs who made a smooth transition between the regimes, owns Sup); the upcoming 2007 and 2008 elections; the independent media asset with tremendous popularity; and the controversial figure in charge (Sup's chief blogging officer is Anton Nossik, the father of the Russian Internet and, among other things, a former associate of Gleb Pavlovsky, the Kremlin's spindoctor).

(Wemyss quotes a bit more, but that paragraph might be more interesting for a few of you.) Mamut has been accused of money laundering before, and it is curious that a man who has no interest in blogging and seems more interested in book publishing would set his sights on LiveJournal. Granted, not owning a blog has nothing to do with a desire to make money, but from the perspective of a customer, it does make me worried about the quality of service if someone does not understand the ins and outs of blogging.

So, is Mamut's acquisition of LiveJournal purely for financial gain, money laundering, the chance to silence political opposition, or some combination of the three?

One other thing to consider is an article from Radio Free Europe citing a report from US-based pro-democracy organization Freedom House.

"One of the worrying developments in one of the areas that had at least until recently been left unmolested, is in the cyber sphere," he says. "We saw in late 2006 a Kremlin-friendly company take over the Russian-language portion of 'Live Journal,' which was the most heavily used blogging platform in Russia. [This] has only had a negative impact on blogging activity in the country, which is very serious and very negative development."

According to some reports blogging -- particularly blogging related to political issues -- has significantly decreased in Russia over the course of 2006 because bloggers are concerned that their activities may have been secretly monitored by authorities.

As the most formidable player from the former Soviet Union, Russia sets the tone for many of the CIS countries some of which are closely following in Moscow's footsteps to quash dissent, Walker says.

"The focus on the media sector in most of the former Soviet Union has been very systematic and very intense over the last cycle," Walker says. "They've really been fine-tuning the control using legal, economic, and political means to control the media. And this is one of the features of the current wave of control and denial of freedom in the region." [Emphasis Mine]

And that was only as far back as January of this year. The more I look at it, the more worried I get, not for my freedom, but for the freedom of Russian users. I really would like to know just where my money is going and what it's funding. Yes, $25 is not much at all, but it's still something to consider. I suppose it's just more "wait and see" for now.

I have to say I'm a fan of Amnesty International's new ad campaign to bring awareness to the horrors of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). (WARNING: The Wikipedia link describes various types of FGM. There are no graphic images, but the subject matter may not be suitable for younger audiences.) It's powerful and really drives the point home in an unexpected way. It's not exactly "in your face," and, yet, at the same time it is in your face. The ads were created by the ad agency Publicis of Stockholm, Sweden. Here's the ad (you can click on the images to see a larger version):



According to the World Health Organization, 100 million to 140 million girls and women have had some form of FGM. Amnesty International's new campaign says that two million girls are victims of FGM every year. Kudos to Amensty International and Publicis for fnding a truly creative way to bring attention to an ugly practice.

This is cross-posted from my LiveJournal. For now, I'll probably be making less-personal posts here and just put up rants and other blogging stuff here.

In case you've been living under a rock, LiveJournal has been sold to the Russian company Sup. [Insert "In Soviet Russia" joke here. I would do it, but all the good ones are in the comments in the news post. :(] One thing that piqued my interest is the fact that Russian users don't care too much for Sup. It seems there's concerns over privacy invasion and I saw some comments that accused Sup outright of handing over sensitive information to government officials. It's no secret the head of Sup is in bed with Vladimir Putin (he's the Russian President in case you don't have access to Wikipedia under your rock), and I'd imagine if you're old enough to remember living under Soviet rule you're not likely to trust anything involving your government, particularly one that is still undeniably corrupt.

Then again, it's not paranoia if people really are out to get you. The Kremlin has already admitted it's turning its focus to the vast cyberspace.

Allies of President Vladimir Putin are creating pro-government news and pop culture Web sites while purchasing some established online outlets known for independent journalism. They are nurturing a network of friendly bloggers ready to disseminate propaganda on command. And there is talk of creating a new Russian computer network -- one that would be separate from the Internet at large and, potentially, much easier for the authorities to control.

[snip]

Allies of the Kremlin have also begun buying some of the companies that have helped make the Internet a bastion of free expression in Russia. Gazeta.ru, long the country's most respected online newspaper, was sold in December to a metals magnate and Putin loyalist.

And last October, Sup, which is owned by Alexander Mamut, a tycoon with ties to the Kremlin, bought the rights to develop the Russian-language segment of U.S.-based LiveJournal. The segment, with half a million users, is Russia's most popular blog portal.

"Mr. Rykov is pro-Kremlin. Mamut and Sup are pro-Kremlin. The social networks are all being bought by pro-Kremlin people," Ruslan Paushu, 30, a popular blogger who works for Rykov, said in an interview. "Everything's okay."

So far, Gazeta.ru has continued to publish articles critical of the Kremlin, and no widespread censorship has been reported on blogs run by Sup. But as the government wakes up to the Internet's potential, many of Putin's critics are growing nervous.

Prosecutors have begun to target postings on blogs or Internet chat sites, charging users with slander or extremism after they criticize Putin or other officials. Most such incidents have occurred outside Moscow, and federal officials deny that they signal any broader campaign to control the Internet.

Of course, LiveJournal is still operating on US soil, so Americans still have quite a bit of protection from US laws. However, those users living in areas once under Soviet rule seem to have every right to be paranoid of censorship and/or harrassment, but as one Wired article points out, Sup stands lose quite a bit of money if they do anything that could tarnish LiveJournal's reputation as a haven of free speech. (Yes, lately they've been on the censorship bandwagon, but if Sup targets Russian users critical of their government, they will lose the trust of users worldwide. That includes American users, which I believe make up the majority of LJ accounts. It's simply bad business to make your customers paranoid and willing to take their money elsewhere.)

If you want to continue on the borderline-conspiracy theorist route, check out the Sup tags for the no_lj_ads community. There's a few tidbits there.

Oh, and someone needs to tell this poor chap that America is still better at the whole free speech thing than anyone, including Russia.

Some people have suggested deleting any entry containing Emergency Contact information and/or the like in the wake of this news. I'm not quite that paranoid, but it's also not a terrible idea.

LiveJournal has also announced the formation of a "LiveJournal Advisory Board." Now, on the surface this seems like a good idea, like so many other things LiveJournal has done lately.

The LiveJournal Advisory Board will publish and update on a regular basis a clear a set of aims and values.

So far, so good. I have no real issue with this and see this part as a good thing.

This will address such vital community issues as privacy, security, taste and decency.

Privacy and security I'm on board with, but what is "taste and decency"? Those are two subjective terms. You will never have a user base this broad agree on the meaning of those two words.

It will also provide a forum to consider any relevant legal, political or religious concerns.

Legal concerns, yes. Political and religious, no. Whose politics? What religions? In a place that is supposedly a proponent of free speech (again, I am aware of the recent controversies), I'm wary of any group having say over political and religious concerns. It's far too easy to show favoritism or (inadvertently) slight members minority groups be it ethnic, political, sexual, and/or religious.

What I'm saying is, think of the people who will still be voting for Nader next year. They deserve representation, too! -- Okay, okay, in all seriousness, this is a bad idea. If this were a site geared toward one political group or religious group, then yes, they would have every right to be concerned with the politics and religion of its users, but this is LiveJournal and it is simply a blogging service.

So there you have it. I report, you decide...or ignore...or point and laugh...or something.

I'm here from livejournal (known over there as jaded_journeys) and I thought I'd make an account here since I see a good number of people migrating. Plus, this place (so far) looks pretty cool. I might go ahead and get a paid account within the next week or so, we'll see.

Um, something of substance when I get around to it. :P