Ken Padgett

I used to ignore "Friend Requests" on Facebook from strangers .  As an experiment, I started accepting nearly all of them . That app arently moved my profile a bit higher in the algorithm that determines Facebook's " People you may know" offering shown to others, and that triggered a lot more "Friend Requests." That seemed like a good thing until these people started hitti ng me up via Messenger. I t soon became apparent that many people are trolling Facebook for lonely old fol ks to "make friends" and then take advantage of their generosity , and sometimes gullibility.  What follows are screen s hots of the actu al conversations, so you can see what they were as king for and how long it took them to get from "Hello" to " Send Mon ey!" or "Help Me" etc. " Johnson Vic" wants a sugar daddy: Mohily Soliman Soliman wants a visa: Kabugho Ellen Dora wants hel...

All "heroic" public statues are a form of idolatry that America can definitely do without. We should view our founding fathers and all other heroes honestly, by recognizing that they were complex people, with strengths and weaknesses. We can't do that when we put them up on a pedestal and worship them like gods, instead of learning the truth about them. Washington DC is full of magnificent monuments to presidents and other notables, drawing on the royal and religious imagery of the ancient world.   Statue of George Washington modeled after the Greek god Zeus originally placed in the Rotunda of the Capitol in 1841 Americans constantly proclaim their disdain for politicians, yet the American landscape is littered with monuments to them. We live amid an endless inventory of political idolatry, all reinforcing the idea that the public sector is the ultimate expression of American glory. M emorial statues are potent symbols. Public memorials are ric...

Mandatory a rbitration clauses are undermining consumer protections, civil rights, and employment laws that level the playing field between big businesses and individuals. http://jensorensen.com/   It's time to end mandatory binding arbitration. Companies force consumers to give up their right to use the legal system to resolve disputes by embedding language in contracts that say in the event of any dispute, both parties have to go to an arbitration firm.  Here’s an example of a standard arbitration clause in use at Amazon: any dispute or claim relating in any way to your use of any Amazon Service, or to any products or services sold or distributed by Amazon or through Amazon.com will be resolved by binding arbitration, rather than in court. Arbitration clauses are usually outlined in tiny print, buried in lengthy documents and written in legalese that is incomprehensible to most people. Moreover, these clauses are mandatory, meaning that people ar...