A friend pointed this law out to me recently, having to do with schools, libraries, and filtering the internet for our kids. Naturally, that sort of thing is right up my alley, so I started doing some research, finding out some of the details.

The law is called the Children's Online Protection Act, or CIPA (pronounces sip'-uh) and is designed to protect our kids from online predators. But this one actually gives the local libraries and school boards the power to determine what else may be considered "harmful to children." This means responsible parents can actually have an impact on what their children can access at school and the library.

Of course, there are religious fanatics and ultra-conservative that have already tried to use the law to censor constitutionally protected freedom of speech from making it to their kids' computer desktops, but there is still a strong patriotic element throughout the country that is interested in a healthy balance between the extremist right, and protecting our kids from online predators.

I have to say, this law is primarily focused on protecting kids from pornography, which is really designed for adults anyway. But anything that is intended to help protect our kids has to be seen as a good thing in general - which may have something to do with why the government is using that as a mask for some of the ultra-restrictive legislation running through the house and senate.

These are, indeed, difficult times, and it will take discernment and community involvement to bring an appropriate balance of liberty and protection to the table.

Is our president an identity thief?

Oh, c'mon. You had to know I wasn't going to let his whole term go by without doing a piece on this, right? I've kept an eye on developments and done my research. Here's what I can tell you for certain:

I dunno.

There's a lot of disinformation on both sides of the fence, and conspiracy theories by nature are hard to disprove - that's part of what makes them so popular with the fringe groups. But it's a mistake to judge a theory by the person who tells you about it - just read Hogg's Instructor to get an example of the problem that can cause you.

The long and the short of it is this: there's a judge in Georgia right now who is waiting for the President to come respond to the complaint - but so far, he hasn't held the President in contempt for failing to do so. In fact, the Presidential response has been "that's too silly to even waste my time with."

I'm thinking I'll use that with the court the next time I get a parking or speeding ticket.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Tax time is rolling around, again. Yeah, I'm just as disgusted as you are, but what can we do? Despite the fact that there are arguments against it, we pay, or we get free room and board, courtesy of the taxpayers. (hey, wait a second.... *grins*)

Seriously, though, with taxes rolling around, we always see a fresh spate of phishing scams in our email. Everything from notes purported to be from the IRS telling us our filings are inaccurate, and we have a refund coming, to threats of prosecution if we don't call (*insert number here*) within the next 72 hours to "correct the problem."

Don't fall for it. Seriously. Last year I talked with a gal at the IRS who refused to be quoted, but told me "Oh, my God, you don't even know how bad it is." (Well, with a quote like that, you can understand why she didn't want to be on the record... this lady WORKS at the IRS.)

You'll be hearing more from me concerning this as the year wears on, but keep your taxes safe, and keep in mind that the IRS never notifies you of problems by email.

The Supreme Court has slapped the Obama administration over the idea that Americans have no privacy in their public movement. At issue is the use of GPS data to track suspects. The presidential argument was that GPS data is used thousands of times a year to help locate suspects and track their movements. But the high-court has now told the government this constitutes a "search" and requires a warrant.

This is one area that Kroll Fraud Solutions has been watching for the past few years. We're starting to see the mainstream media carry more stories about our GPS tracking information in regards to how it relates to our personal privacy.

Maybe it's a good idea to keep in mind that when you use a GPS enabled device, by nature the information it contains is maintained by a database that is not currently covered by privacy regulations. Even though odds are it probably should be...