Today, Kathy has an appalling post on why she was forced to cancel her appearance at ETech – her life has been threatened by some cretin cyber-bullies.

I am shocked and angry that Kathy is in danger. While I don’t personally know her, I’ve been a regular reader since the blog launched; she generously shares her knowledge and time, and seeing her re-paid this way is horrific.

How someone could make her a target for their vitriol and hatred is unimaginable, yet the proof is undeniable. I don’t blame her for repudiating a culture that allows and in fact celebrates this type of behavior. It is unacceptable under any circumstances and I agree that a strong stand must be taken to prevent it from continuing to spread.

While I selfishly hate to see her go, even for a short while, I wish her all of the safety and peace she can muster.

In an unrelated matter, I caught this article over at the NYT site while waiting for results:

Do the Rights of the Disabled Extend to the Blind on the Web?

ACCORDING to an advocacy group, Target declined last year to make its Web site fully accessible to blind people with specialized screen-reading technology last year. If true — and Target has denied the accusation in court — it was a public relations blunder, and it may have been illegal as well.

On Sept. 6, a federal judge in California held, in a preliminary ruling on the suit, that in some instances, Web sites must cater to disabled people.

Since 508C compliance isn’t all that difficult or expensive, you have to wonder why Target doesn’t do the right thing and implement a JAWS compatible site as Amazon does.

I find it ironic that Radio Shack would fire 400 workers via email on the eve of the U.S. Labor Day Holiday. For me, there was no clearer sign that the traditional covenant between company and worker is in rough shape. That leaves me torn regarding my past, present and future.

I continue to work with companies and corporations that employ workers in jobs, and I know they’re committed to growing and expanding that business as well as maintaining a great work environment. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be clients, since, as an independent, I determine with whom I work.

At the same time, I can’t shake off what I know to be my truth – you couldn’t pay me to get a job. I’d rather go to jail.

I’ve had jobs I loved, don’t get me wrong. Kinko’s was awesome, and I had an wonderful team, but when it came right down to it, I was shackled to my job by the golden handcuffs of a regular paycheck. It took a kick in the posterior from the universe to unlock me; my MS flared, leaving me temporarily unable to see.

Blindness has a way of forcing you to re-examine what you’re doing. I realized that as long as I continued to trade my time for their money, I was in a prison of my own design.

What I needed was a way to capitalize on the value I could bring to the table, not the number of hours I could stand up. After all, for each hour I was working for the company, I was earning them far more than they paid me.

I knew the value I delivered for Kinko’s. What I lacked was a mechanism to cut out the middleman and go direct to customers I could deliver something of value to.

So, despite knowing nothing about servers, html or programming, I decided I was going to teach myself how to use the Internet to deliver value to the folks who could really benefit from my expertise. After all, it offered an always-on solution, relatively low start-up costs and nearly instant feedback.

That rather rash decision has worked out really well for me.

I now have the flexibility to do what I love – help others accomplish their goals, without being beholden to them. My clients engage me because together we agree that I can add significant value to their bottom line, and my earnings reflect that. I am once again able to write my own paycheck.

Now that I am back in control, I am a free agent. It’s a great alternative to a job, and I recommend it without reservation to those people who recognize they’re stuck trading their time for money but don’t know how to escape.

If that’s you, and you’d like to break free, contact me. I can help.

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
Robert A. Heinlein

1. Have it at a high-priced hotel you haven’t bothered to visit to determine its suitability and accessibility for your guests.
2. Turn all of the work over to the paying attendees and volunteers in the name of inclusion and hope that it might look professional.
3. Make a relentless point of telling everyone about the lack of structure, the absence of centralized leadership, and accountability for the conference.
4. Be sure to announce to attendees that you’re broke as a result of hosting the conference. They’re sure to help out, right?
5. Ensure that you’ve selected panelists and presenters on the basis of how much of your butt they kissed, not their professional credentials, and make sure they spew the party line.
6. Don’t tell anyone you’re having a conference, and above all else, don’t advertise it – after all, people you don’t know may show up.
7. Distribute the materials late and without organization.
8. Provide attendee services only when you “feel up to it”.
9. Make sure you forbid vendors and don’t let any authors or participants have commercial transactions – after all, you wouldn’t want to make money, would you?
10. Show up the hour before you’re supposed to open the seminar. Nobody will notice you’re feeling rushed.

Do you have more bad behavior to add to my list? Leave it in the comments and I’ll edit as they come in.

I know that is going to surprise some of you, one because I seldom discuss my personal politics, and two, when I do they tend to align more with the Republican party. So, why am I now doing both of these eccentric things?

For one, as I stated above, I vote on issues, not parties, and Jerry Kilgore is simply not acceptable to me as leader. I believe that he would perpetuate and further encourage divisive issues instead of fairly representing all Virginia residents – and after Katrina, leadership is more important to me than ever in assessing candidates.

The second reason I can’t vote for Kilgore is his stance on people with disabilities. His interference in the Hanson case was inappropriate and undermined the American with Disabilities act, which I strongly support. Given his track record, he could potentially disenfranchise the nearly one million disabled Virginians by repealing their hard-won rights. We can not afford to roll the clock back 20 years, and I feel strongly that a vote for Kilgore will do so. Virginians were progressive enough to beat the federal government by 5 years on the ADA – let’s not take a step backwards.

For far too long, the moderate elements of Islam have been silent on the shameful misappropriation of the Koran by conservatives, who have allowed women’s rights to be replaced by manmade rules and tribal traditions masquerading as divine law. It’s shameful because Islam has a long history of being progressive on women’s rights – it’s only in the last two centuries that Islam has been distorted by sharia rulings made by conservative fundamentalists.

The rise of the Islamic feminist movement is in its earliest stages, and deserving of our recognition, support and encouragement. They are speaking out and confronting gender inequalities that spread intolerance and foster hatred, while facing strong opposition from the Saudi-funded men’s club that is modern Islam.

In my mind, that is a jihad worth supporting.

“We do what is necessary to defend the country against terrorist attacks and win the war on terror in ways that is consistent with our values.”

“The fact that [the alleged prisons] are secret, assuming there are such sites . . . some people say the test of your principles is what you do when no-one is looking. The president has insisted that whether in public or private, the same principles will apply.”

Mr. Hadley, torture is not an American value. Perhaps you are in need of a refresher course; clearly you have confused America for pre-regime change Iraq.

Can you please stop slandering us now?

The Pyramid Parent Training Center serves over 300 families who have children with disabilities. Some of the Pyramid families escaped from New Orleans. But not all. Those who could not leave have no services now. Nor will they have services for a long time to come, wherever they are or will be. They desperately need Pyramid’s help. Their offices and records are flooded; their staff is dispersed; the families they serve are in despair.

They need our help. The Beach Center on Disabilites has set up a relief fund for Pyramid Parent Training Program, and they’re asking for your donation.

Please join us by making a tax-deductible contribution to Pyramid by doing the following:

1. Write a check out to “Pyramid Parents Trust Fund.”

2. Send the check to the trustees of this fund at the following address:

Rud and Ann Turnbull, Trustees
Beach Center on Disability
3111 Haworth Hall, The University of Kansas
1200 Sunnyside Drive, Lawrence, KS 66045-7534

Katrina impacted the lives of many, but especially people with disabilities. These are people who are so marginalized that their stories aren’t being heard by the mainstream media – and it is up to us to help change that. Please give generously.

Tags: Hurricane Aid | Katrina | People with Disabilities

To me, this isn’t a political issue, it’s a matter of essential human rights. Free access to information is one of the greatest benefits of the internet, and to have American companies profiting from refusing that basic human right is wrong. Harnessing the power of technology to benefit developing countries is in everyone’s benefit, in the long run, even if it hurts profits in the short term. Filtering only benefits the dictator du jour, and we’ve seen how well that is working in the middle east.

What do you think? Weigh in under comments.

Some more of my fledgling blogs are ready to leave the nest; Darlene Greene is taking the helm over at Simply The Best Loans and has already started posting up a storm; rumor has it that some in-depth details on how independent/creative professionals can smoothly navigate the mortgage waters are forthcoming, along with more of Darlene’s no nonsense advice on financial management.

Michol Little is taking the reins over at A Better Custom Home, where she’s going to demystify the construction and renovation process for residential and commercial construction. As someone who has done more than my fair share of both, I’m delighted to help her share her wealth of knowledge with others.

Maria has really caught the blog bug; she’s launched Not That You Asked, But… as a news and commentary blog with her own unique blend of caustic wit. DDOQ is also starting to see steady improvement in traffic numbers; the site is now averaging 150+ new visitors a day and already has over 4000 page views for May. We’re going to start adding in some select advertisers in addition to Amazon – both she and Jen are getting the click throughs but not sales.

Jen has also seen consistent traffic growth; she is up over 200 uniques a day and her latest blog, Practical Plastic Surgery has gotten off to a really strong start.

Wil’s site is getting ready to go under the knife; his traffic remains simply insane and we’re adding an ecommerce element and a whole new UI, complete with thumbnails and a whole slew of new WP plugins to monetize the site. He’ll essentially have the equivalent of a full content management site, which will help tremendously when he hits the road on the Everyday Queer book tour – he’ll be able to post from anywhere, and from what I’ve seen of the itinerary, that’s going to be pretty important.

Bruce and Kim got a wonderful write up in the Metro Business section of the Times Dispatch a couple of weeks ago. Bruce did a great job with his first Site Build It site; it ranks well in the search engines and is chock full of really useful information. The interest in LED light therapy is only going to continue to grow, especially in light of growing concerns over long term use of celebrex, vioxx and other pain medications – the funny thing is that they’re selling way more human than horse units; clearly, here is a collision between intended and unintended markets.

See? Told you I’ve been busy – it must be all that spring energy.

I will be posting more regularly now – I wanted to bring everyone up to speed, first. I think we’re just about there, so I’ve allocated daily writing time into my new schedule. I’m also going to add a buying/selling page to this site, since I want to extend my freelance network and I haven’t gotten around to revamping Networking Domain for it.

Toots for now.