Tag: Facebook

Is Texting Dangerous to Your Divorce?

On By southwerkIn Opinion

It’s apparent from recent studies that texting and facebook entries are figuring in legal disputes particularly divorces. If you are having troubles in your relationship, and you use this kind of media to blow off steam, you might want to reconsider that choice. What you find funny may not be that amusing in open court. What you thought as a private communication can be publicized for all to see.

James Pilant

Ken Altshuler: Getting Divorced? Stop Texting and Get Off Facebook

Our most recent survey released this month shows an overwhelming 92 percent of respondents saying that they have seen an increase in the number of cases using evidence taken from iPhones, Droids, and other smart phones during the past three years. In addition, an even larger number of 94 percent have cited an overall rise in the use of text messages as evidence during the same time period.

So what do matrimonial lawyers know that many others are just beginning to recognize? Basically, having evidence in writing is always the most effective proof in demonstrating that someone is being dishonest, contradictory, and lacks credibility. Credibility is the coin of the realm in the world of family law. Once you can effectively question someone’s credibility with their own written statements, then everything else can be doubted about them.

This is why I also strongly caution my clients that any time you put something in writing, automatically assume that a judge will eventually read it. If it’s something that you don’t want a judge to read, then by all means don’t write it. Words are power; they can be used for good or for evil. Think and be careful before you write anything, because it can go beyond the intended audiences and undermine you in ways you never even imagined.

Ken Altshuler: Getting Divorced? Stop Texting and Get Off Facebook

Girl falls texting on live news

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A Song For Occupy Wall Street

On By southwerkIn Politics

Nathan Shaffer – Come Back America – YouTube

(Something I found on You Tube – You can buy the music and other works by the artist online.)

Sometimes the music has a message.
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Arizona Humane Society Kills Scruffy

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics

Humane Society; Sparks Outrage By Euthanizing Man’s Kitten Over Money

I was more than a little surprised by this. The Arizona Humane Society was unable to find the money to help Scruffy or take a credit card over the phone but was able to hire a publicist and scrub its Facebook site of all those nasty comments made by people who were obviously unaware of the souless minions running its operations. I went to the Facebook site for the organization and if you want to see professional damage control in action, I recommend it as a model. If it weren’t for their own carefully written remarks suggesting alternate places to write your complaints, you wouldn’t have know known that some poor cat had been wacked.

From the article –

Animal lovers threatened to pull donations to an animal rescue group and the public flooded the agency with scathing comments and calls after a man’s cat was euthanized when he couldn’t afford its medical care, prompting the Arizona Humane Society to go into damage-control mode Wednesday.

The group has hired a publicist, removed dozens of comments on its Facebook page and directed a team of five volunteers to respond to the overwhelming calls and emails it has received since The Arizona Republic published a weekend story about Daniel Dockery and his 9-month-old cat, Scruffy.

Humane Society‎ Sparks Outrage By Euthanizing Man’s Kitten Over Money

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Rush Limbaugh Refuted

On By southwerkIn Economic Justice

 

I found this on Facebook and I am delighted to put it on my blog for you to see. Rush Limbaugh is not alone in this kind of talk. I have seen a great deal of criticism aimed at the protestors alleging everything from rats and drugs to public sex. This defamation is an attempt to discredit the movement while avoiding talking about the very serious issues that these protestors are raising. I don’t like it. It’s not fair. Although, it is exactly the response I expected from much of our beltway media.

We need change and we need it badly – not just on Wall Street but in the media as well.

James Pilant

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Andi comments on the previous post – The 99 Percenters – Why is New York the Center of their Protests?

On By southwerkIn Comments

This is a comment on a previous post –  The 99 Percenters – Why is New York the Center of their Protests?

(The article was actually motivated by one of my reader’s comments on Facebook and while I hope there are elements of a call for economic justice implied in it, I didn’t have any ethical argument except for inequality itself – James Pilant)

Here’s Andi’s response to the post –

While reading this article, I wondered about the ethics and what the author wanted us to tell. Is it the question whether it is morally right that people do the protests in NY or is it the question if it’s ethically that 1 percent of the population in NY owns about 44 percent of all income?! Or is it the more general question whether it is ethically to do protests in the street?

To answer this question it is necessary to know the definition of an ethical decision. A decision is ethically if it affects others, has alternative courses of action and is perceived as ethically relevant by one or more parties.
By comparing the questions with the definition, it becomes clear that the second question cannot be discussed under ethical terms. Only the questions whether it is ethically to to protests or to do them in NY, has alternative courses of actions.
Therefore I focus on protests and try to state my opinion about it.

To answer the question with the postmodern ethical theory (= decision is morally right if the person follows his emotions in a situation), I would say that doing protests to point to abuses is morally okay because it is a good medium to raise high attention in the press and in tv newscasts. But that’s only half of the story. To answer this question in a more rational view, the combination of postmodern ethical theories and ethics of rights and justice is needed. Here the question of fair procedures or fair outcomes comes up.

Whether protests are morally right or wrong, is difficult. What do you think about the following questions?:

Can a protest really influence decisions that there are fair outcomes for everybody? Or is it only a way to highlight unfair procedures?

My great thanks to Andi for taking the time to comment and not just to comment but to comment with intelligence and insight. I want Andi to know that author identification is up to the contributor. If you want to be clearly identified with e-mail, blog links, etc.., you have only to ask and I will modify the posting.

Thanks!!!

James Pilant

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Facebook, Twitter Push Hazare’s Lokpal Bill Fight Facebook, Twitter Push Hazare’s Lokpal Bill Fight (via Pratyush K. Pattnaik)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

By all means, let’s join the struggle. Hazare’s battle is our battle, wherever we live, whatever we do, our lives are diminished by corruption – but also enriched by the efforts of the wise and heroic.

Go to Facebook – Join up.

James Pilant

Facebook, Twitter Push Hazares Lokpal Bill Fight Facebook, Twitter Push Hazares Lokpal Bill Fight Over 1,00,000 followers on Facebook; over 7 lakh people express their solidarity through phone lines Satyagraha finds its way onto new media, after Facebook, Twitter and SMS added teeth to social activist Anna Hazares crusade against corruption. Hazares protest involves him fasting until death till the government agrees to table the Lokpal Bill, which puts corrupt politicians to accountability and scrutiny by an independent body. In practically … Read More

via Pratyush K. Pattnaik

Twitter and Facebook Dangerous for Your Pocketbook

On By southwerkIn business ethics

$430k Love settlement shows tweets can be costly (via Yahoo News)

From Yahoo News –

Courtney Love’s settlement of a case sparked by online attacks on a fashion designer show that while Twitter posts may be short, they can also be costly.

The singer has agreed to pay Dawn Simorangkir $430,000, plus interest, to settle a lawsuit the designer filed in March 2009 over comments Love made on Twitter and her MySpace blog.

Many users assume that because the comments or brief or similar to casual conversation, that a lawsuit for libel is unlikely. No, it’s just as likely as for any other media. It’s hard to think of defamation in terms of a newspaper with a 20,000 circulation being similar to a twitter post, but that twitter post could go viral and be seen by 20,000,000 people.

Here’s more from the article.

“People are getting in trouble for Twitter postings on an almost daily basis,” said First Amendment Attorney Doug Mirell, a partner at Loeb and Loeb who did not handle the case.

“The laws controlling what is and isn’t libelous are the same regardless of the medium in which the statements appear,” he said.

From further down in the article –

“The fact is that this case shows that the forum upon which you communicate makes no difference in terms of potential legal exposure,” Freedman said. “Disparaging someone on Twitter does not excuse one from liability.”

When you communicate with Twitter or Facebook, pretend you are editorializing in a newspaper because legally, it’s very similar.

James Pilant

To Celebrate The #Jan25 Revolution, Egyptian Names His Firstborn “Facebook” (via TechCrunch)

On By southwerkIn ethics

The power of an open internet was felt in Egypt and has caused waves of change throughout the Middle East.

Naming a little girl Facebook is a meeting of the new media with old traditions of honor. The old and new combine changing forms until they are indistinguishable one from another, technology and custom.

James Pilant

To Celebrate The #Jan25 Revolution, Egyptian Names His Firstborn "Facebook" Cultural relativity is an amazing thing. While American parents worry about their kids being on Facebook, Egyptian parents are naming their kids “Facebook” to commemorate the events surrounding the #Jan25 revolution. According to Al-Ahram (one of the most popular newspapers in Egypt) a twenty-something Egyptian man has named his first born daughter “Facebook” in tribute to the role the social media service played in organizing the protests in Tah … Read More

via TechCrunch

Ethical Spying…Google Me Baby! (via Shanti-Janae)

On By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

She’s absolutely right. Using Facebook to judge job applicants is wrong. And it is a foolish practice. The web is where we can be anything. A shy girl can be flamboyant. An unpopular guy can talk to dozens of people on the web and feel a confidence he doesn’t feel at school. Those images, those roles we play are just scenes in our lives. The significance is pretty variable.

I’m foolish enough to believe that good interviewing skills will pick up most problems in job applicants. I believe that these background checks: criminal, medical, credit and now social networking sites have gotten totally out of control. It is time for legal limits on these kinds of background checks.

And I believe that we should have some form of personal lives outside our work where our employer’s inquiring eye should not go.

I like what this web site had to say. I recommend you read it.

James Pilant

Topic of the Week #3 Social networking & the “ethical” spies!  I know my title and first sentence is off the meter, but I just hate this topic! Lately, college students have been warned that their Facebook and any other social media site profiles are being used as reason for them to not get hired. For one, I think that is very petty and unreliable. Not to mention shallow and a very easy way to cover-up discrimination. You might overlook the n … Read More

via Shanti-Janae

Is Access to Social Networking a Measure of a Society’s Freedom? (via The Philosopher’s Eye)

On By southwerkIn Government Failure

Access to social networking is becoming a measure of freedom, certainly not the main or the only one, but a measure of freedom. And it will become more critical as time goes by.

Everywhere and particularly in the United States, the Internet and social networking are the only remaining avenues of citizen democracy as the rest of the media and the government settle into a single pointless monolith.

My heart goes out to people everywhere on this earth – who suffer the terrible pain to live in countries with the kind of leadership we have now.

James Pilant

Is Access to Social Networking a Measure of a Society's Freedom? In responding to the political demonstrations, the Egyptian government has disrupted internet service and mobile phone services, in the obvious hopes of (a) reducing the volume of testimonies and videos being communicated outside of the country and (b) to disrupt the capacity of the protesters to remain organised and to communicate their progress to the greater population. The BBC reports that both Facebook and Twitter— relied upon by protest org … Read More

via The Philosopher’s Eye