Boing Boing » abuse

US military continues to abuse and abandon wounded soldiers

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:33:11 +0000

In 2010, The New York Times uncovered systemic abuse within units meant to help wounded Army soldiers transition through months-and-years-long treatment and rehabilitation. Today, The Colorado Springs Gazette has a profile about one of the soldiers who stood up for Warrior Transition Units back then. The abuses exposed by the Times weren't fixed and Jerrald Jensen ended up becoming a victim himself. After questioning the mistreatment in the system, he was nearly given a less-than-honorable discharge, which would have cost him long-term Veteran's benefits — a pattern that the Gazette has found happening over and over among the most-vulnerable wounded Army men and women who need the most care in order to rehabilitate from their service injuries. The treatment described here is disgusting, all the more so when you compare it to Jensen's service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Exposing this kind of crap is why journalism exists.

FunnyJunk threatens to sue Oatmeal creator

Rob Beschizza — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 02:19:30 +0000

FunnyJunk is threatening to sue Matthew Inman, creator of The Oatmeal, for $20,000 in federal court. His offense? Criticizing FunnyJunk, and making fun of it for its relentless, unauthorized monetization of his and others' work.

Inman first lampooned FunnyJunk last year, after discovering its users had scraped most of his own website; in return, he received a sneering response that exhorted FunnyJunk's fans to "contact" Inman. But the boot was soon on the other foot: The Oatmeal's comic retort was so widely linked—because it was funny—that it is now among the highest-ranking results when you search for FunnyJunk itself.

You want ME to pay YOU $20,000 for hosting MY unlicensed comics on YOUR shitty website for the past three years? No, I've got a better idea.
1. I'm going to try and raise $20,000 in donations. 2. I'm going to take a photo of the raised money. 3. I'm going to mail you that photo, along with this picture of your mom seducing a Kodiak bear. 4. I'm going to take that money and donate half of it to the National Wildlife Federation and half of it to the American Cancer Society.

To this day, Inman points out, FunnyJunk maintains a substantially complete scraping of his site. But the funniest thing about FunnyJunk is, of course, that nothing there is funnier than the Streisand Effect.

The fine gent pictured to the top right is FunnyJunk's lawyer.

The Oatmeal responds to Funnyjunk [Reddit]

Update: The Oatmeal's pretty much dead from the traffic! Here's a mirror of Inman's response [NYUD]

Video: "Judge" beats disabled daughter for using the Internet

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:04:50 +0000

A YouTube video posted by a person who claims to be Hillary Adams, daughter of Aransas County Court-At-Law Judge William Adams shows a video of a man said to be Judge Williams viciously beating her as a teenager in 2004 (in the video, her age is given as 16). The accompanying text states:

Aransas County Court-At-Law Judge William Adams took a belt to his own teenage daughter as punishment for using the internet to acquire music and games that were unavailable for legal purchase at the time. She has had ataxic cerebral palsy from birth that led her to a passion for technology, which was strictly forbidden by her father's backwards views. The judge's wife was emotionally abused herself and was severely manipulated into assisting the beating and should not be blamed for any content in this video. The judge's wife has since left the marriage due to the abuse, which continues to this day, and has sincerely apologized and repented for her part and for allowing such a thing, long before this video was even revealed to exist. Judge William Adams is not fit to be anywhere near the law system if he can't even exercise fit judgement as a parent himself. Do not allow this man to ever be re-elected again. His "judgement" is a giant farce. Signed, Hillary Adams, his daughter.

Someone claiming to be the judge has posted this response: "I found this easily after being told of it. I am aware of your posts. Unfortunately I can not respond much to this libel, except in court. Just be advised, I am aware of it and action is being taken. Judge Adams."

(UPDATE: The above quote was copied to YouTube from an old thread at Scam.com. The person there claiming to be Adams was responding to accusations regarding a different matter.)

Meanwhile, Reddit's human flesh search engine has posted the Judge's office numbers and address, as well as contact info for other organizations with which he is affiliated.

The video is unbearable at points, and if the facts are as presented in the accompanying text, I imagine this will be a tough reelection season for the judge. It's also amazing to think that the brave young woman in the video had the good instincts and courage to record her abuse, a neat parable about the innate advantages that smart, technologically literate young people enjoy over their technophobic, vicious, thuggish elders.

Subsequent to this video's posting, a Reddit thread appeared claiming that the Reddit and YouTube accounts for the woman identified as the abuse victim from the video have been hacked. The thread claims that the video is in danger of being deleted as a result, and urges Redditors to make mirrors in case that happens. Here is one such mirror.

Family law judge beats own daughter for using the internet, please spread (youtu.be) (Thanks, Ian, and all the many others who suggested this video!)