Friedrich Frowns Upon Facebook Frakker

Its Wednesday, April 26, 2012, I won't be getting my comic today, and this is The Side.  the single dad thing continues and that means taking the kids to gymnastics on Wednesday as opposed to hitting the comic shop like a proper nerd.  Not enough time to do both.    Ah well.  So, no reviews until Sunday again.  Thanks for the patience.

BATTLEGROUND:  FACEBOOK!!!

Oh, I am loving this one.


If you've been online for more than five minutes, you've probably heard the horror stories of women getting pictures sent to them that nobody wants to see.  There's been a few cases of well-known guys getting busted for it, like Brett Farve and Anthony Wiener (the name along selling the joke).  Kidding aside, its one of those things that I do worry about having daughters who know about computers and a little about the internet.  Its one of the reasons I don't want them to ever have a Facebook account.  Some pervs start fixating on a girl and then the messages and inappropriate stuff start getting sent to the girl.  Its flat out harassment and its one of the reasons we've got the Government trying to regulate the internet.


The problem is that the people in the government barely have a clue as to how things work on the internet.

People that are online, and don't take shit, know how to handle these sorts of things.  This brings us to Ariane Friedrich.  She's an athlete from Germany who will most likely be competing in the high jump at the Olympics this year.  She's an attractive woman, and I'm certain she has quite a few admirers.  However, one of them got all stalkery on her.  Used to be a proper stalker would follow you around and leave notes and dead roses on your doorstep.  Nowadays, they send pictures of their junk.


Now, there's legislation in this country giving women options for dealing with stuff like this.  It varies from State to State.  Some places have fines.  Other places even have jail time.  This this involves pressing charges and having to go through a whole bunch of paperwork.  Got to make sure the paper trail is sound and that you've got evidence and all that.


Friedrich is a busy woman.  She doesn't have time for that crap!  So, she outed the dude!  She posted the guy's name and e-mail address right on her Facebook page.  Now, there's a big old tizzy about her not handling this in the "proper" fashion, and due process.


Screw that.  This moron was dumb enough to send dick pix to woman who didn't want them, and she knew his name.  No need for the courts to get involved here.  This guy has been thrown directly into the court of public perception, and that's one harsh jury.  I do love how she handled it.


While there are a lot of good intentions about internet safety, a lot of what's being proposed is overkill.  Its people with a particular paradigm that can't be applied nice and neat to communications and interpersonal relationships of the 21st century.  Really, with a lot of these cases, it can be handled fairly simply: don't take any shit, and if the pervos can't keep it to themselves, then share it with everybody.

MUSIC!!

Girls that jump are awesome and so are girls that run.





Alright, I'm off to the ratrace.  See y'all Friday.