It’s OK Not to Be Offended But Not OK to Be Offended That Others Are Offended, Jill Pantozzi, The Mary Sue, December 17, 2014

Let’s stick to the less violent responses. You’re personally offended by someone being offended by a thing. Offended enough to comment on an article. What are you actually saying about yourself? You’re saying you don’t care enough to want a change for the better in the society you live in but you care enough to tell other people you don’t care?

I mean, really?

Here’s the thing: It’s totally fine if you don’t want to change the world for the better. I, and others, may judge you for it, but that’s totally your prerogative. You can also think the world doesn’t need changing. You’d be wrong, but you can certainly believe that. You don’t have to take up a cause or join ours. That’s ok. You also don’t have to consider issues we take with media on the same level as world issues. We write about these things because they mean something to us, and we believe what’s portrayed in the media has real-world implications. And we’d like others to know it.

GOP’s new fracking hypocrisy: What a Texas battle reveals about Republican dogma, Kyle Schmidlin, Salon, December 15, 2014

Residents of Denton made it clear, by a stern 59-41 percent vote, that they do not want fracking in their town. Texas Republicans are telling them they have no right to such a declaration because the state – that perennial foe of every right-wing principle – is the only entity with a say-so in the matter.

Meanwhile, Texas is in perpetual conflict with the federal government over voting laws, healthcare and, particularly, environmental regulations. In 2013, former Texas attorney general and current Gov.-elect Greg Abbott boasted that he sued the Obama administration 25 times for perceived overreaches. Now, that cadre of state-hating Republicans is using Big Government to step on the little people of Denton. The hypocrisy might make you fall over backward, but the right-wing position all along has never been about “individual freedom” – not unless that individual is trying to make a buck, anyway. Far from eroding the state, the Republican agenda is to build a very strong state that can be used to intervene in public policy on behalf of corporate interests.

Porn-surfing corporate bosses infect networks, then keep data breaches a secret, Ms. Smith, Network World, November 10, 2013

The boss may know better — the dreaded do as I say, not as I do — but 40% of malware infections on corporate senior executives’ PCs came from visiting infected porn sites. According to a blind survey of 200 security professionals, more than half, or 57%, have investigated data breaches that were kept a secret from customers, partners or stakeholders.

As if IT pros don’t have enough to do, it’s often the boss that is causing the problems. The survey [pdf], commissioned by ThreatTrack, found that bosses, or senior leadership, end up with malware on their PC or mobile device by:

• 56% clicked on a malicious link in a phishing email.
• 47% attached an infected device to a corporate PC.
• 45% let a familiy member uses a company computer.
• 40% surfed to a malware-infected porn site.
• 33% installed a malicious app.