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Tag: Change.org

  • Facebook’s ‘Feeling Fat’ Status Draws Ire, Petition

    Last year, Facebook added the ability to supplement your normal status updates with emojis linked to certain feelings and activities. There are now hundreds of options.

    But a couple of the “feeling” emoji options are rubbing some activists the wrong way – and they want Facebook to remove them.

    A Change.org petition demanding Facebook remove the “feeling fat” emoji is more than two-thirds the way to its goal.

    “Scrolling through Facebook the other day, I saw a friend’s status set to ‘feeling fat,’ accompanied by an emoji with chubby cheeks and a double chin. I think it was supposed to be funny, but seeing this status made me feel angry,” says petition creator Catherine Weingarten. “When Facebook users set their status to ‘feeling fat,’ they are making fun of people who consider themselves to be overweight, which can include many people with eating disorders. That is not ok. Join me in asking Facebook to remove the ‘fat’ emoji from their status options.

    Her co-petitioner is the group Endangered Bodies, whose stated goal is to “challenge all those merchants of body hatred who turn girls and women against their own bodies.”

    “Fat is a substance that every body has and needs. Fat is also an adjective – a descriptive word about a physical attribute. Just like tall, short, black or white, it should not be misused to shame oneself or others. However, the fashion, beauty and diet industries have an interest in making us feel insecure about our own bodies and over time “fat” has become a negative word, not a simple statement of size. There is nothing neutral about it. The stigma and criticism of fat and the elevation of thin make them stand-ins for other kinds of words, feelings and moods,” says Endangered Bodies in a blog post about the petition.

    “Endangered Bodies sees this fear of fat and idealisation of thinness throughout society as a form of weight stigma, which can have a serious impact on the millions of people dealing with negative body image. Body-shaming and weight stigma are associated with lower self-esteem and disordered eating, an issue that Facebook – being a social platform – needs to take seriously.”

    They’ve started a social media campaign with the hashtag #fatisnotafeeling.

    The group also wants Facebook to ditch the “feeling ugly” option.

    Though the emoji might seem harmless to some, Weingarten says it is far from it.

    “Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world right now. With 890 million users each day, it has the power to influence how we talk to each other about our bodies. I dream that one day the platform will actively encourage body positivity and self-esteem among its users, but for now, all I ask is that it stop endorsing self-destructive thoughts through seemingly harmless emojis,” she writes in her petition.

    [h/t Daily Dot, Image via Change.org]

  • Michelle Duggar Is Not Going Down Without A Fight

    Michelle Duggar is not going down without a fight!

    The matriarch of TLC’s series 19 Kids and Counting is countering a petition that was created to get the show pulled off the air.

    Recently, Michelle and her husband Jim Bob Duggar issued a kissing photo challenge on Facebook where couples posted pictures of themselves sharing a kiss. The only rule was that the couples had to be married. However, when a gay married couple posted a picture of them kissing, Michelle and Jim Bob immediately deleted the photos.

    Many were outraged that the photos were deleted and said that the Duggars were anti-gay. They formed a petition on Change.org to have the show removed from TLC’s lineup.

    “End LGBTQ fear mongering by the Duggars,” the petition reads. “The Duggars have been using their fame to promote discrimination, hate, and fear-mongering against gays and transgendered people. You need to take a stand on the side of justice and cancel their show.”

    So far, the petition has garnered 170,291 signatures, well surpassing their original goal of 100,000.

    In a counter act, 19 Kids and Counting fans created their own petition to save the show. The petition, created on LifePetitions website, urges those to keep the beloved family show on the air.

    Jim Bob and Michelle Duggarwon't ever back down from their values. See the passage they posted on Facebook earlier: http://t.co/ihJsz4A40F

    — Us Weekly (@usweekly) November 14, 2014

    “Rather than being extreme, the Duggars represent the majority of people in state after state who have stood up for the traditional family,” the counter petition reads. “The real extremists are those who are demanding that a TV network penalize America’s beloved family because they support the truth about family, which they have always expressed in a loving, compassionate fashion.”

    Currently, the LifePetition only needs 50,398 signatures to reach their goal of 250,000.

    Michelle reportedly has her own petition as well that is trying to keep TLC from removing their show.

    Do you think TLC will remove cancel 19 Kids and Counting? Leave your comments below.

  • Michelle Duggar Aims to Save ’19 Kids and Counting’

    Michelle Duggar and hubby Jim Bob have made news lately by issuing a ‘kissing photo challenge’ on Facebook. They issued a rule about their challenge, saying it must feature married couples kissing. When a gay married couples posted their photos, the 19 Kids and Counting matriarch and patriarch took them down. Some people were outraged by that move and have petitioned for TLC to remove their show from the network–calling them anti-gay. Michelle Duggar is countering their petition, however, in her effort to save 19 Kids and Counting.

    A Change.org petition asks TLC to cancel the show because of anti-LGBT activism and statements made by Michelle Duggar. It has already surpassed the intended goal of 100,000 signatures. A new petition, created by fans of 19 Kids and Counting, has since surpassed 180,000 signatures and was said to be ‘growing fast.’

    Michelle Duggar reportedly has her own petition–separate from the one started by fans–to counter those in favor of canceling the show. Hers is said to have only about 6000 signatures thus far.

    Do you think TLC will really consider canceling 19 Kids and Counting? They let Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame off the hook pretty easily and never canceled that show. What Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar said via their Facebook post wasn’t nearly as volatile as Phil Robertson’s anti-gay comment.

    Will Michelle Duggar’s counter-petition and that of the many 19 Kids and Counting fans who want to save the show, be enough to prevent TLC from considering drastic actions against the Duggar family?

  • Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales Calls Bullsh*t on Alt-Medicine Petitioners

    If you look up “Emotional Freedom Techniques” on Wikipedia, you’ll see that it is “is generally characterized as pseudoscience and has not garnered significant support in clinical psychology.”

    If you look up “Thought Field Therapy on Wikipedia, you’ll find that “there is no scientific evidence that [it] is effective, and the American Psychological Association has stated that it ‘lacks a scientific basis.’”

    One alternative medicine group is upset with Wikipedia and its founder Jimmy Wales over what they call “inhibition to open discussion,” and has petitioned the online, crowd-sourced encyclopedia to change its policies. The only thing is that Jimmy Wales has absolutely no time for “lunatic charlatans.”

    The petition from the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology, on the popular change.org, asks Jimmy Wales to “create and enforce new policies that allow for true scientific discourse about holistic approaches to healing.”

    “Wikipedia is widely used and trusted. Unfortunately, much of the information related to holistic approaches to healing is biased, misleading, out-of-date, or just plain wrong. For five years, repeated efforts to correct this misinformation have been blocked and the Wikipedia organization has not addressed these issues,” says the petition.

    The group outlines a handful of examples of practices which are current receiving the wrong end of the Wikipedia stick–things like Energy Medicine, Energy Psychology, Emotional Freedom Techniques, Thought Field Therapy, and Tapas Acupressure Technique.

    Here’s the beef:

    Energy Psychology, Energy Medicine, acupuncture, and other forms of complementary/alternative medicine (CAM), are currently skewed to a negative, unscientific view of these approaches despite numerous rigorous studies in recent years demonstrating their effectiveness. These pages are controlled by a few self-appointed “skeptics” who serve as de facto censors for Wikipedia. They clothe their objections in the language of the narrowest possible understanding of science in order to inhibit open discussion of innovation in health care. As gatekeepers for the status quo, they refuse discourse with leading edge research scientists and clinicians or, for that matter, anyone with a different point of view. Fair-minded referees should be given the responsibility of monitoring these important areas.

    Jimmy Wales, never shy to speak his mind, has responded in truly incredible fashion. In essence, his response is put up or shut up.

    “No, you have to be kidding me. Every single person who signed this petition needs to go back to check their premises and think harder about what it means to be honest, factual, truthful,” said Wales in a response to the petition.

    “Wikipedia’s policies around this kind of thing are exactly spot-on and correct. If you can get your work published in respectable scientific journals – that is to say, if you can produce evidence through replicable scientific experiments, then Wikipedia will cover it appropriately. What we won’t do is pretend that the work of lunatic charlatans is the equivalent of ‘true scientific discourse’. It isn’t.”

    Well, there you go. Science or GTFO, says Jimmy Wales.

    As of now, the petition has yet to reach its 10,000 signature goal. It’s about 3/4 the way there.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Nicki Minaj Apologizes For Associating Malcolm X With Controversial Cover Art

    Nicki Minaj is definitely in hot water over the release of her latest single “Looking A** N****z”. While the title of the song was offensive enough for some, the video has also stirred lots of chatter as Minaj is seen firing a pair of M4s. However, the artwork used to promote the song is what sparked the immediate controversy.

    On Wednesday, Feb. 12, the Pink Friday rapper released the cover art for the new single on her website MyPinkFriday.com. Minaj also posted the artwork via Instagram, but the image has since been removed from her timeline.

    The grainy, sepia-toned, artwork features an embellished image of civil rights leader Malcolm X holding a large firearm while looking out of a window, apparently concerned for his safety. Considering her nominal use of weaponry in the video along with the song’s title, its safe to say people are quite upset with the “Moment For Life” rapper.

    The outrage has even inspired two petitions that have been established on Change.org. One petition was created by former Green Party vice presidential candidate Rosa Clemente, and the other by community activist and poet Kevin Powell.

    Clemente’s petition message to Minaj says:

     You come from a rich legacy. Without the work and life of Malcolm X, you would not be able to do what you do. Unfortunately you have chosen to disrespect and dishonor the legacy that he left us. Why you choose to do this, we do not know, but we will not allow this disrespect to go unnoticed, unchecked or unchallenged. We demand that you remove the picture of Malcolm X on both ‘Rise of an Empire’ and ‘The Pink Print’ now!

    Powell’s message, however, went a step further, delving into the history of the assassinated Muslim minister’s reason for carrying a concealed weapon. Malcolm X carried a gun as he feared for the safety of his family and himself, and was aware he would some day be killed by political opponents. The image of Malcolm X looking out the window highlighted that fear. Nicki Minaj’s use of guns in her new music video speaks to the gun culture in our society today where gun violence is an acceptable norm.

    The chatter definitely got Minaj’s attention. She issued a brief statement of apology via Instagram, along with a still from the video holding where she was captured holding an AK-47.

    The caption for the picture read:

    What seems to be the issue now? Do you have a problem with me referring to the people Malcolm X was ready to pull his gun out on as Lookin A** N****z? Well, I apologize. That was never the official artwork nor is this an official single. This is a conversation. Not a single. I am in the video shooting at Lookin A** N****z and there happened to be an iconic photo of Malcolm X ready to do the same thing for what he believed in!!!! It is in no way to undermine his efforts and legacy. I apologize to the Malcolm X estate if the meaning of the photo was misconstrued. The word “n***a” causes so much debate in our community while the “n***a” behavior gets praised and worship. Let’s not. Apologies again to his family. I have nothing but respect an adoration for u. The photo was removed hours ago. Thank you.

    http://youtu.be/vEZ-e6tBigY

    The statement is actually more of a defensive explanation for the reference instead of an apology. However, she did remove the image from Instagram, but it still remains on her website.

    Image via Nicki Minaj, Facebook

  • Martina McBride Cancels SeaWorld Performance

    Martina McBride is the latest musician to back out of a scheduled performance at SeaWorld. Since the release of the documentary film Blackfish, performers have been petitioned by animal rights groups, and encouraged to back out because of SeaWorld’s poor record of treatment for their animals. The film depicts the treatment of an orca that killed its SeaWorld trainer back in 2010.

    McBride joins Trisha Yearwood, Cheap Trick, .38 Special and REO Speedwagon in dropping out of the Brews, Bands and BBQ concert series for 2014. Only Scotty McCreery and Justin Moore remain on the roster.

    Martina McBride announced her decision to her Facebook fans on Saturday.

    “I’ve decided that given all the issues that have been aired recently, the time isn’t right for me to play at Seaworld. I have cancelled my scheduled performance at the Bands, Blues & BBQ event in March 2014,” she wrote.

    More than 20,000 signatures were collected by fans on a Change.org petition, urging Martina to cancel her concert at SeaWorld.

    Celebrities–both those scheduled to play at SeaWorld and those simply concerned about the information Blackfish brings to light, have expressed their feelings via Twitter.

    SeaWorld, of course, dismisses all of the allegations in Blackfish. They claim inaccuracy prevails throughout the documentary. It will certainly be interesting to see if Scotty McCreery and Justin Moore follow Martina McBride and the rest of the performers who have backed out of the SeaWorld concerts because of the film and the animal rights groups that support it.

    Image via Facebook

  • Kraft Macaroni Undergoing Some Changes

    Kraft macaroni and cheese is pretty popular with adults and kids alike, but the company that makes it says they are looking at making some changes to it nonetheless.

    Kraft Food Group Inc. announced this week that they will be removing the yellow dye they use to give the cheese it’s famous bright hue, although the change will only come to certain kinds: SpongeBob SquarePants, Halloween, and winter shapes Mac & Cheese dinners, which obviously appeal to children. The original flavors won’t be affected. The company says they plan on adding paprika and spices to the boxed dinners to make up for the change, and will also use whole grains and reduce the salt and fat content.

    The move comes after a Change.org petition called for the company to remove the additives from their foods, although Kraft says the petition wasn’t the reason for their decision.

    “We’ll continue to make improvement where we can,” Triona Schmelter, Kraft Food Group Inc.’s Vice President of Marketing Meals said.

    “Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in the US contains the artificial food dyes Yellow 5 and Yellow 6,” the petition states. “These unnecessary – yet potentially harmful – dyes are not in Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in other countries, including the UK, because they were removed due to consumer outcry. Kraft reformulated their product for the UK, but not for their fellow American citizens. It’s time we demand the same here in the US!”

    Vani Hari, who started the petition, says that she expects to see Kraft announcing more good changes in the future.

    “I knew all along that it wasn’t going to be an overnight change,” said Hari. “This is a big corporation, and this is one of their biggest products.”

    Image: Kraft Food Group, Inc.

  • Randy Neugebauer, New Lightning Rod in USG Outage

    On a Tuesday local news program (shown here), Representative Randy Neugebauer (R-Tex.) shared his frustrations over the government shutdown that became official Monday at midnight. By Wednesday, the representative found himself the source of frustrations over a Washington, D.C.-based NBC affiliate video of him reprimanding a Park Service ranger who was following orders to prevent visitors from entering the World War II Memorial in our nation’s capital.

    As of today, the congressman had become a lightning rod for activists and the Vice President, whose office Tweeted that the VP had told the ranger via phone, “I’m proud of you.”

    Additionally, a Change.org petition calls for Neugebauer to, “correct himself and publicly apologize,” and the organization, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) believes an ethics investigation of the congressman is in order. One presumes that requires our elected representatives in the Executive and Legislative branches of government to get to work and stop the shutdown first.

    The filmed encounter prompting all of this hype happened while Neugebauer was at the Memorial, witnessing WWII Veterans being allowed to enter as other visitors were turned away. In addressing the ranger, the Texan wonders how she can stand rebuffing the visitors and follows with, “the Park Service should be ashamed of themselves.” The female ranger expresses that she finds difficult it to turn visitors away but not to the extent of being ashamed for it, to which the congressman replies, “You should be,” (ashamed, that is). The exchange continues for mere moments more, in a back and forth with input from both sides of the political spectrum.

    For his part, in the encounter at the Memorial and his earlier news interview, Neugebauer points the finger at Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. In a Thursday interview with a home-state news service, Neugebauer said, “My beef wasn’t with the park ranger, my beef is with the Park Service and with the administration.” The congressman says the encounter, which was videotaped out of context, comes at the end of an inquiry by Neugebauer and fellow members of Congress into why the National Park Service had erected barricades and prevented entry into the Memorial, which is in the open and does not normally restrict access.

    The Memorial has found itself at the center of the government shutdown battle, which entered Day 4 on Friday. On Tuesday, a group of deserving WWII vets refused to be barred from their objective of visiting their Memorial, prompting the Park Service to permit entry by those and other WWII servicemen and women under consideration of their First Amendment rights.

    Thank you Veterans, for all that you have done and continue to do! Please permit me to reference a different Memorial in service of a WWII-era message that may carry some gravitas…

    Iwo Jima

    [Images via World War II Museum official Facebook and YouTube.]

  • Over 94,000 Consumers Want Verizon To Drop Contracts

    Wireless carrier contracts are just a way of life. Well, they used to be until T-Mobile rebranded itself as the unCarrier by getting rid of two-year contracts entirely. This led to some consumers demanding that Verizon do the same, and those consumers now number in the thousands.

    A petition on Change.org asking Verizon to drop contracts has reached over 94,000 signatures. Its next milestone will be to reach 150,000 signatures, but just reaching 100,000 signatures should send a strong signal to the higher ups at Verizon that its consumer base wants a system where they’re not tied down to expensive contracts for two years, but are rather allowed to come and go as they please.

    The movement definitely has support, but the hard part is convincing Verizon to do away with its expensive, and highly lucrative, contracts. Thankfully, the company at least seems willing to do so as its CEO, Lowell McAdam, said earlier this month that he would be ok with following T-Mobile’s lead into canceling contracts if there was enough consumer demand.

    If Verizon did follow T-Mobile’s lead, it’s not like contracts would just magically disappear. They would replaced with what T-Mobile calls the “Simple Choice” plan which essentially replaces the contract with small monthly payments. The smartphone is still subsidized and you will still pay the same for data as you did before. The only difference is that you can leave the carrier at any time. Granted, you will have to pay the balance left on the phone if it’s not completely paid off.

    Still, supporters say Verizon adopting a T-Mobile-like contract-less plan would be good for consumers on all carriers, not just Verizon and T-Mobile. With the backing of a major carrier like Verizon, other carriers like AT&T and Sprint would have no choice but to adopt a no contract policy as well. It could also possibly lead to all the wireless carriers agreeing on phone unlocking, an issue that the government hasn’t had much luck in regulating.

    [h/t: Wireless Week]

  • Change.org: It’s Not Just Bloggers And Techies Who Will Miss Google Reader

    It didn’t take long after Google announced that it is killing off Google Reader to realize how much the product will be missed by quite a few people. Even the alternatives are having trouble keeping up with the demand from users.

    Various petitions were immediately started, including some at Change.org. One of them is already nearing 130,000 supporters. There seems to be a common misconception that only journalists, bloggers, and techies are really using RSS anyway, but as signatures on the petitions indicate, that’s not necessarily the case.

    “Looks like there’s a dark side to the Google Reader story,” a spokesperson from Change.org tells WebProNews. “People living under repressive regimes use the service to access information untouched by government censors. If Google Reader goes, they say, so will uncensored news and views from around the world.”

    We saw some reports to this effect last week, specifically about Iran, but, Change.org is sharing some interesting stats about its signatures. For example, 75% of Google Reader petition signatures on Change.org came from outside the U.S. 12% of signatures came from people living within countries that Reporters Without Borders and/or the OpenNet Initiative report have active internet censorship by government forces, the spokesperson says.

    “At least 2% of signatures came from people living in countries that Reporters Without Borders calls ‘Enemies of the Internet’ – a moniker earned ‘not just for their capacity to censor news and information online but also for their almost systematic repression of Internet users.’” she says.

    Here are a few sample comments from the biggest petition:

    “Google Reader is important as dinner to me. Since Great Fire Wall blocks infomations between China and others, Reader is the best way to get uncensored news.” – petition signer in China

    “I can’t read some livejournal without googlereader, because it’s forbbiden in my country.” – petition signer in Kazakhstan

    “Thats all I have in web world. through that I can use a lot of internet, I can have a little free internet, our government has banned a lot of sites, reader is our last chance…” – petition signer in Iran

    “I’m a chinese, I can get news which is not censored without google reader .So please don’t close it!” – petition signer in China

    “That’s the only possible way to read posts from blocked sites” – petition signer in Kazakhstan

    “Google reader is my only Internet, guys.” – petition signer in Belarus

    “Google Reader is essential for many Chinese Web users like me to circumvent Internet censorship here. Love the product. Please don’t let it go.” – petition signer in China

    “There was a time that reader was my only way to keep my self update with the censored internet of Iran.” – petition signer in Iran

    Feedly revealed on Friday that it had already signed up over 500,000 Google Reader users since Google made the announcement. And that was three days ago.

  • Google Reader Shutdown Prompts Plethora of Petitions

    As you may have heard, Google has just announced that they are closing the doors on their 8-year-old RSS aggregator Google Reader. The company cites declining usage and a need to focus on other products as reasons for the shutdown. Google Reader will officially go dark on July 1st, giving users over 3 months to migrate to another service for their RSS needs.

    Although Reader isn’t the only Google product getting the axe in this round of Spring Cleaning, it’s the product with the most impact. And people aren’t happy. Sure, Google can cite declining usage and we believe them. The hard truth about RSS is that it’s a useful technology that definitely has a strong following, but never permeated the culture in the way that social media has over the past few years.

    But that doesn’t mean that loyal Google Reader users don’t have a gripe here. And they are taking their gripes and turning them into online petitions.

    Probably the fastest-growing petition to save Google Reader is this one, hosted on change.org. As of the writing of this article, it’s gaining a few hundred signatures every few minutes. Right now it’s fast approaching the 50,000 signatures it needs to hit its threshold.

    The petition, titled “Google: Keep Google Reader Running,” makes this argument:

    So, please don’t destroy that trust. You’re a huge corporation, with a market cap which rivals the GDP of nations. You’re able to dedicate 20% of your time to products which may never seen the light of day. You experiment in self-driving cars and really cool eyewear which we trust (trust!) you’ll use in a manner respectful to our needs, interests, etc.

    Show us you care.

    Don’t kill Google Reader.

    That’s not the only petition housed on change.org. There are others, including this one with a few thousand signatures that plainly asks Google “please do not shut down Reader.”

    “Many of us use Google Reader on a daily basis to keep track of our favorite blogs, archive tweets, keep updated on specific craigslist searches, and for many other uses. Its simplicity is its strength,” says the petition.

    Moving away from petition-hosting sites, we have this new single-serving site dedicated to keeping Google Reader alive. It’s called keepgooglereader.com and the entire site serves as a petition platform that allows users to sign and comment. As of right now, it’s up to around 19,000 signatures.

    Up until just recently, a petition existed on the White House’s We The People petition site that asked the Obama Administration to ask Google to consider keeping Reader alive. Of course, the Federal Government is not going to intervene in the decisions of a company like Google with regards to which products they shutter.

    That petition was removed for violation of the site’s terms. Most likely, due to this clause:

    “You agree not to create petitions that fall outside this limited purpose – for example, petitions that advertise or call for the endorsement or purchase of commercial goods or services.”

    This outpouring of support for the doomed Google product isn’t surprising. Google knows that Reader has a loyal following and they said that this was a hard decision. Petitions or not, it’s hard to see Google reversing course on this one. Since 2011, Google has canned 70 different products of services during various “spring cleaning” exercises.

    [Image via byrion, Flickr]

  • Gatorade Contains Flame Retardant No More: PepsiCo To Remove Controversial Ingredient

    You may not know this, but certain citrus flavors of Gatorade contains an ingredient called brominated vegetable oil. The bromine chemical in the ingredient is somewhat controversial as it’s used in flame retardants. As such, it’s illegal to use as a food additive in most countries except for the United States and Canada. Some companies, however, are beginning to voluntarily remove the ingredient from their products.

    Reuters reports that PepsiCo will be removing BVO from its citrus flavored Gatorade drinks in the coming months. Many people are attributing the change to a petition started by a 15-year-old girl named Sarah Kavanagh from Mississippi. Kavanagh’s petition on Change.org had received more than 200,000 signatures before PepsiCo announced the change.

    Speaking to Reuters, a spokesperson for Gatorade said that the change wasn’t the direct result from any one petition. The company says that it had planned to remove the ingredient for some time now, but the public announcement just happened to come as soon as Kavanagh’s petition went viral.

    That being said, Kavanagh is still celebrating the victory that she shares with numerous food safety watchdog groups around the nation. One in particular, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told Reuters that it applauds “PepsiCo for doing the responsible thing and voluntary getting [BVO] out of Gatorade.”

    Gatorade may be ridding itself of BVO, but numerous other citrus soft drinks include the controversial ingredient. The removal from Gatorade may convince soft-drink manufacturers to remove it from their other products though.

  • Betty White Going Up Against Eastwood At DNC?

    Betty White is one of the most beloved actors people of our generation; she’s funny, she’s brash, she’s graced our televisions since before most of us were born, and, at 90-years old, she’s a part of our history, yet she manages to never take anything too seriously. Also, she has friends in high places.

    White hasn’t made it a secret that she favors President Obama, and now Change.org is hosting an online petition to get her to introduce him at the Democratic National Convention. After Clint Eastwood’s speech at the RNC–which didn’t go over so well–the Dems are looking for someone unassuming yet whip-smart, funny yet kind, with a good reputation in the celebrity world. Betty White fits that bill perfectly.

    The petition states:

    Clint Eastwood, the Republican’s “mystery guest” at the RNC, gave a bad name to older Americans everywhere with his absurd and awkward-to-watch introduction of Governor Romney.

    You know what?

    Governor Romney can have Clint Eastwood and his improvisational skills because President Obama has the one and only Betty White!

    Take action today if you want to see a real [old] Hollywood icon get a political introduction right!

    With almost 6,000 signatures, the site just needs about 1,500 more. And as some of you may remember, White was drafted to host “Saturday Night Live” in 2010 because of a petition very similar to this one. The power of the web.

  • The Avengers Apparently Waged A War On Adopted Kids

    The Avengers Apparently Waged A War On Adopted Kids

    Has everyone had the chance to see The Avengers yet? I sure hope so – it’s pure escapism at its finest. Critics and fans agree that it’s a must-see for the summer, so I won’t take any more time participating in the crowded online circlejerk.

    We all know that the film shattered box office records in its opening weekend, and its second weekend in theaters wasn’t that bad either. If the ending scenes didn’t give enough of a hint that a sequel is in the works, Disney has already confirmed it. Tony Stark is awesome, Scarlett Johansson tight suit, HULK SMASH – ok all of this is awesome. But there’s a small chink in Captain America’s shield, if you will, and it comes from a group of adoption advocates upset with a particular joke from the film.

    I’m sure you remember what joke I’m referring to. I mean, you must have been so overwhelmigly offended that you’ve spent the last few days steaming about it. Ok, just in case you let a harmless joke go by and lose itself in the perpetual intensity of the film as a whole, I’ll remind you [possible spoilers, but not really].

    During one of the rare but brilliant comic interludes in the action, Black Widow makes a point to say that the film’s villain, Loki, had “killed 80 people in two days.” Avenger Thor (and Loki’s brother) quickly replies that “he’s adopted.” You know, to separate himself from the bad actions of his brother in a lighthearted, harmless way…oh wait controversy.

    An official petition on change.org has been created by Jamie Burke, longtime About.com “Deafness guide.” That petition demands that Marvel apologize to the adoption community for the joke. Here are some snippets from the petition:

    Marvel Comics – with one line that you carelessly failed to edit out of the script for the Avengers movie, you have insulted adopted children, adult adoptees, and adoptive parents!

    Sooo..according to your scriptwriter, the fact he was adopted is the reason he is a bad guy!

    Being adopted is NOT something to use for the butt of jokes! Marvel, immediately cease using adoption as the butt of jokes AND issue a public apology to the adoption community!

    Furthermore, you have to consider how children think. A child doesn’t know the history of Thor and Loki. Plus, a child does not understand context the same way adults do. A child who is adopted only hears those lines above. So the child thinks to themselves, “I’m adopted. The bad guy was adopted too. Does that mean I am bad too?” One parent actually posted a comment along these lines on a certain forum, stating that their adopted child had actually made a very similar statement after seeing the movie. This statement is now posted under petition updates.

    The petition also directs you to some bloggers who are incensed about the joke as well. One blogger writes:

    Thor’s flippant “He’s adopted” comment could easily be better. Most likely a better line would have been “He’s my brother, though he was adopted and his background was from those who are worse than us.” Shows his love, but also his distaste for Loki’s actions. Probably would have taken all of a minute to deliver that line. For those who have or haven’t seen the Thor movie, that’s still a good and neutral line.

    When describing their reaction to the scene, another blogger writes:

    I missed the next 15 minutes of the movie because I was seething. Joking about adoption isn’t funny. Joking about being adopted isn’t funny. Making fun of a late discovery adoptee is especially not funny.

    There’s also a thread on the Disney forums if you’re interested.

    One parent says that his daughter didn’t get the joke. Here’s her line of thinking, according to him:

    Are people laughing because they think adopted kids are bad? Am I bad?

    I’ve prepared myself for the accusations of insensitivity, so here goes:

    Really, guys? Really?

    So, in writing The Avengers, Joss Whedon took the time to make a sweeping statement: Being adopted means you’re a bad guy. You’re sure that this insignificant line couldn’t have simply been Thor trying to differentiate himself from the appallingly terrible decisions of his brother.

    Or, you know, a joke.

    I’ll save everyone the broad, sweeping generalizations like “we’re all giant crybabies,” because some things really are offensive and it’s true that some people can be insensitive to certain groups – even if they aren’t actively trying.

    But all this kind of shallow demand does is lessen the impact of the truly insensitive stuff that people say everyday. If people keep crying wolf when it comes to taking offense, it will just continue to dilute our collective response when someone is genuinely hurt by something in our media or pop culture.

    Apparently, some in the adoption community tend to agree:

    “As an adoptee (now an adult) I would like to add my voice to this and say that you do not speak for me. You do not represent me, and I find this kind of evocation of nameless children for your own petty and bitter purposes to be vile exploitation,” writes Shannon Cuttle on the petition page. “I find this humorless attitude, which serves no purpose but to calm the egos of insecure people who have no concept of context, greatly offensive.”

    This isn’t the first time in recent memory that an adoption joke has caused controversy. Last year, a North Carolina dad publicly criticized the game Portal 2 for a few choice in-game quips. So this isn’t an isolated event. Hell, who am I kidding. People are going to get offended about anything and everything. But this outrage is so magnificently misguided that it stands out. I mean, it makes going full retard seem like a prosecutable hate crime.

    Maybe I just fail to see the harm where there is some. If you found this joke offensive and truly believe that the filmmakers owe the adoption community an apology, please sound off below.

  • Rally Against Village Voice ‘Child Sex Trafficking’ Scheduled For Tomorrow Morning

    A change.org petition is scheduled to be presented at a rally outside the New York offices of The Village Voice tomorrow. The rally will start at 11:00 am on March 29 at the north end of Cooper Square in New York City, near The Village Voice offices. The petition requests the closure of the adult section on the classified ad site backpage.com. The Village Voice owns and operates Backpage.

    The text of the petition, which currently has over 219,000 signatures, reads:

    Stop Providing a Platform for Child Sex Trafficking on Backpage.com

    Dear Mr. Larkin and the Village Voice Media Board of Directors,

    Please shut down the Adult section on Backpage.com and stop providing a means for others to sell girls and boys for sex.

    By Village Voice Media’s own admission, additional safeguards are unlikely to entirely end the practice of minors being sold on the site. For us, one child sold for sex is one too many.

    Please get out of the Adult services business immediately.

    Classified ad site Craigslist had to contend with similar opposition to its erotic services section. It eventually gave in, removing the section from its site.

    Backpage is now coming under the same scrutiny. The Village Voice is fighting back against the tide of protesters and negative media coverage. The company has downplayed the role that Backpage plays in human trafficking, stating that:

    “…no amount of vigilance on our part — or cooperation with law enforcement — is perfect.
    This is something every responsible parent whose child confronts the temptations of the street
    and drugs understands. With tens of millions of classified ads under review in hundreds of cities, there is going to be a small percentage that involve human trafficking and that are difficult to detect and eliminate. But improving technologies for monitoring and moderating classified sites, not taking them down, is the effective solution.”

    What do you think? Should The Village Voice take down the section permanently or does their right to publish supersede the fact that their site makes sex slavery easier? Leave your comments below.

  • MPAA Won’t Change “Bully” Rating

    MPAA Won’t Change “Bully” Rating

    Shortly after Katy Butler hand delivered a petition with more than 200,000 signatures to the MPAA, asking them to give “Bully” a PG-13 rating, chairman of the Classification and Rating Administration said the MPAA “shares Katy’s goals of shining a light on the problem of bullying.”

    Sure, that sounds good… but does the MPAA plan on changing the rating of the film? Nope.

    “Katy Butler’s efforts in bringing the issue of bullying to the forefront of a national discussion in the context of this film are commendable and we welcome the feedback about this movie’s rating. We hope that her efforts will fuel more discussion among educators, parents and children“, Joan Graves said in the statement.

    “The R rating is not a judgment on the value of any movie,” Graves wrote. “The rating simply conveys to parents that a film has elements strong enough to require careful consideration before allowing their children to view it.”

    Currently there is nothing in place to change the rating once the Classification and Rating Appeals Board makes a decision, which they did on February 23. It should be noted that numerous members of the board wanted the movie rated PG-13, so it could be shown in schools, but it takes two-thirds vote, rather than majority to change the rating.

    As it stands, the filmmaker can submit a new version of his film with some modified elements and the MPAA will rule if a rating change is in order. It’s unclear at this time if the Weinstein Company will have this done, but we highly doubt that, as they’ve considered leaving the MPAA over the rating of Bully.

    Butler started her petition on change.org, and quickly saw the number of signatures shoot up to more than 200,000. The site paid for her, and her mother, to hand deliver the signatures to the MPAA headquarters in Los Angeles.

    Just today the Weinstein Company released the official trailer for the movie, you can check it out below:

  • Online Petition Tackles Apple Factory Worker Conditions

    Online Petition Tackles Apple Factory Worker Conditions

    A petition on popular online petition site Change.org is gaining a lot of attention. Washington D.C.’s Mark Shields is petitioning Apple (and specifically CEO Tim Cook) to “Protect Workers Making iPhones in Chinese Factories.”

    In just a few days, the petition has amassed 146,000+ signatures as of the writing of this article, and it’s progressing at an astonishing rate.

    Dear Apple,

    You know what’s awesome? Listening to NPR podcasts through an Apple Airport, playing through a Mac laptop, while puttering about the kitchen. Do you know the fastest way to replace awesome with a terrible knot in your stomach? Learning that your beloved Apple products are made in factories where conditions are so bad, it’s not uncommon for workers to permanently lose the use of their hands.

    For awhile now, Apple has been plagued by a pretty disturbing PR crisis. Conditions inside some of their foreign manufacturing plants have been called into question – especially factories like Foxconn in China. In the past year, we’ve heard reports of mass suicides of workers at Foxconn, and just this month we reported on a mass suicide threat that was just barely avoided.

    Just a couple of weeks ago, the chairman of Hon Hai, parent company to Foxconn, raised some eyebrows when he referred to the workers under his management as “animals.”

    These foreign factories have been accused of numerous abuses, including refusal of pay, a lack of breaks, and improper instruction regarding toxic chemicals. A former Foxconn manager recently spoke out, saying that “Apple never cared about anything other than increasing product quality and decreasing production cost.”

    For his part, Apple CEO Tim Cook has publicly refuted these claims, saying that he takes offense to the notion that he doesn’t care about all the workers under the Apple umbrella:

    As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It’s not who we are.

    Nevertheless, here’s what is demanded by the petition:

    Here are two simple asks (basically taken from the end of the TAL report) that could make a profound difference in the lives of the men and women in your factories and others like them:

    First, in regards to the worker traumas described in the story, ranging from suicide attempts to the people losing the use of their hands from repetitive motion injuries, we ask that Apple release a worker protection strategy for new product releases, which are the instances when injuries and suicides typically spike because of the incredible pressure to meet quotas timed to releases.

    Second, since the TAL story aired, Apple has announced that the Fair Labor Association will be monitoring its suppliers. Awesome step. Please publish the results of FLA’s monitoring, including the NAMES of the suppliers found to have violations and WHAT those violations are, so that there is transparency around the monitoring effort.

    Please make these changes immediately, so that each of us can once again hold our heads high and say, “I’m a Mac person.”

    150,000 signatures in a few days is a highly successful petition. It seems that the issue isn’t just going to go away. It’s hard for people to look at their devices that they rely on and love so much and think about the possible suffering that went into their construction.

    But the real question when it comes to this issue: would people really change their purchasing habits? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

    [Image Courtesy cultofmac]