2012: The Year in Review

Another year is over, and this year really had a lot going on. So many advances or discoveries in science were reported, the Girl Scouts tried to prevent transgender people from joining, Obama was reelected for another term, marijuana was legalized in two states, human rights made a huge win when three states legalized gay marriage, and we all survived the Mayan apocalypse.

So I thought for my last blog of the year I would review all the shit that’s happened, good and bad, so that we may reflect and remember how great (or not) the past 365 days have been.

This year has seen some great discoveries and achievements in science. The first photographs of DNA were taken, showing the double helix that resides in our bodies. It was an interesting process that required scientists to make some type of crazy looking microscopic landscape which looked like it was made up of tiny little mesas that were water resistant. When scientists had this landscape made they took DNA strands in water and dropped them into the “landscape” they made. The DNA strands stuck to the tiny mesas creating a “tightrope” if you will, of DNA that stretched from one mesa to another. They were able to take a picture of that strand. Simple, right? Uh, maybe not. Let’s leave science to the professionals.

The first man to ever sky dive from the edge of space happened this year, and it was all made possible by the energy drink company that brings us Red Bull. I still find it funny that in this day and age an energy drink company can help a man break a world record yet religion is still setting us back with nonsense. The jump reminded me of the 2009 Star Trek movie, where Kirk, Sulu, and a poor guy in a red shirt made a freefall jump from space to disable Nero’s mining device.

Water was found all over our solar system it would seem, as scientists discovered that water was in fact on Mars and even Mercury, which surprised the shit out of us all because Mercury is much closer to the sun than Mars. And while we’re on the subject or Mars, in August of this year the Curiosity rover landed on Mars. Also, another bit of interesting news is that Curiosity made it’s first Foursquare check in back in October. Wow, even unmanned planetary rovers get to check into the Foursquare. I bet Curosity will be Mayor of Mars soon.

Genome sequencing for fetuses was discovered as well. And unlike earlier techniques used to complete the sequencing this technique was completely noninvasive. The scans can pick up possibly fatal conditions earlier on in your child’s life as well as possible predispositions to diseases.

The SpaceX space shit named Dragon is pretty well known for those who keep themselves savvy on the latest space technology. One of my good friends actually worked on this project some years ago and is always excited when he hears news about it. Well in May of this year Dragon was delivered to the International Space Station. Score one for the private space exploration sector.

Remember walking around during 2012 and seeing all of those signs for Kony 2012? It was a documentary that was meant to show the brutality of Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. The movie, albeit went viral very quickly, backfired as critics said it had a very narrow view, lack of info, and was deemed to have a “white savior” mentality.

Let us not forget the horrible tragedy that occurred in Connecticut. On December 14^th Adam Lanza, armed with guns he stole from his mother not only killed his mother but twenty-six people at the Sandy Hook Elementary school. This shooting has reinvigorated the gun control debate with politicians, making us wonder what type of crazy world we will be entering in 2013 with the introduction of new, and useless gun control laws.

The Westboro Baptist Church was at it again, and this time they made a new friend in the hacker group Anonymous. WBC said they would travel to Connecticut to protest the funerals of the victims of Adam Lanza. Their reasoning is that God doesn’t like gay people and is punishing America for allowing tolerance of gays. They said they would be holding up signs which read “God Sent the Shooter” and “God Hates Fags”. The group Anonymous was tired of this shit so they decided to wage an all out war against the WBC by attempting to keep them off the internet. To this day the www.godhatesfags.com website is still experiencing issues which the site being reduced to just one page that is entitled “God Still Hates Fags”.

The people of America have spoken! Four more years of Obama have been decided, and let’s just say that the American people actually picked the right guy this time. The election was a scary time of course as we could have voted into office an extremely hateful man named Mitt Romney. A man who is against all types of civil rights, especially gay and women’s rights, who also believes we should be at war with Iran and things that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were going great. He is also a Mormon who believes that his undergarments are magical and protect him against car accidents and fires.

At the same time the people of Washington and Colorado voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Washington was also one of three states that legalized gay marriage, extending human rights to men and women whose love was deemed evil or unnatural by the religious right-wingers. It was a huge victory for human and civil rights and it just goes to show how overwhelmingly good the American people are.

China launched its first jet off of its first and only aircraft carrier. The aircraft carrier was an old soviet ship that was gutted and sold to the Chinese after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Chinese were able to install what they needed in it and made it operational at the end of 2011. Their first successful launch and landing of a jet fighter on the deck of the carrier took place on November 25^th.

So many other things happened this year, there’s just too many to talk about so I just listen the ones off the top of my head. I think 2012 was a great year, albeit I lost my job, and I think 2013 will turn up being a great year as well. We just need to start thinking more rationally about the issues at hand that we face as a species, instead of jumping on the wagon of nationalist fervor and religion.

I hope you had a great year, and I hope you have a good New Year celebration. Don’t get too drunk….or do I don’t care. Just bare careful folks!

This is Reno, signing out for the year 2012. See you all on the other side!  

From the Front Lines: #OPWBC

It’s been a very crazy couple of days now here, and the all out offensive from the group known as Anonymous against the Westboro Baptist Church is still in full swing. The continuing DSOSing of their site www.godhatesfags.com as well as an all out full frontal attack against the church by ‘rallying’ at each place the WBC twits are lodging. People have been making calls to Motel 6’s all across Fairfield County in Connecticut right now to not only find out where the members are staying but to verbally express their distaste for Motel 6 to allow them to lodge in their establishments.

I’m currently reporting from the front lines…I guess you could say. The truth is I’m safely at home in Washington, but I have been following Anonymous and the others who are against the WBC. They formed an IRC chat which I joined to watch the war unfold and report what was happening as I got it.

All day and night there were people working hard to find out exactly where the WBC folks were hiding, and of course, what they were tweeting. The group also had a firm grip on the website godhatesfags.com, but have let up on their attack recently to prepare for something bigger.

Fred Phelps JR himself was retweeting everything on Twitter.com that had a #WBC tag. When hackers and activists alike found out where they were staying they posted it on Twitter.com. Fred Phelps himself retweeted the same tweet which gave away his location. Either a ploy to lead people in the wrong direction or seeking attention, I don’t know but it’s still pretty dumb.

Anonymous’ main goal here in this first part of the war seems to be to get the WBC people banned from every hotel and motel in Fairfield County, Connecticut. This way they will be forced to spend the night in their van(s) before they protest victims of the Sandy Hook shooting tomorrow.

On top of calling every hotel and motel in the area (including Motel 6) they also were successful in issuing Shirley Phelps a death certificate, changing the background to her desk top to gay porn, and locating the motels they are staying at and ordering a ton of pizza to known WBC members homes.

Anonymous would like to see people rally to the motels WBC members stay at and peacefully ask them to leave. And rumor had it that a biker club would be attending the funerals to protect the victims’ family members, most likely by creating a hybrid wall of humans and motorcycles. However, when I looked online to see if there was any truth to this I could not find any. I did find the website to the Patriot Guard Riders, and they had this message on their website regarding the shooting in Newtown:

*** Connecticut Elementary Shootings ***

The recent, tragic shootings in Connecticut weigh heavy on us all. The Patriot Guard understands the anguish caused by such a calamity as this and our hearts go out to the family and friends of those affected by this horrific event. 

We (PGR) receive hundreds of emails a day requesting the PGR to stand in honor at the planned services. However, the PGR is not a counter protest group. Our mission statement is clear and regrettably the circumstances surrounding this tragic event do not fall within our mission statement. For more details on our missions statement, please go to www.PatriotGuard.org and review the information located in the “About Us” section in the Site Navigation section. 

Again, our hearts go out to all of the families of the affected families, and to the community as a whole, for this tremendous loss.

Patriot Guard Riders, Inc.

  

That is understandable and all, but it does kind of suck to know that a biker club won’t be there.

The big news was when we all found out that WBC was lodging at a Motel 6 in Southington, Connecticut. People had taken photos of a van in the parking lot with Kansas plates, Kansas being where these asshats originate. There were also photos taken of police cruisers in the parking lot of a Motel 6 that hit the web as well.

But it was very possible that after Motel 6 tweeted about not allowing the WBC members to stay at their motel that they stayed anyway. But it is still very possible that they left the motel after the corporate office made that statement via Twitter. Either way, there is an article that I discovered while in the IRC chat. The link was placed into the chat feed so I clicked on it and found this:

FROM THE ARTICLE:

“I can't put you through to those rooms,” a desk clerk at a Motel 6, who refused to give their name, said over the phone. “I wish those people weren't staying here. I hate them and what they stand for.”

If in fact Motel 6 did not turn down the members of WBC it wouldn’t matter too much because they’ll still protest tomorrow. But even after the protests Anonymous will still wage the war on this sick group of fucks.

While I was inside the IRC room I noticed some text on the top of the chat room:

[Welcome to #OpWestboro] Targets [Godhatesfags.com – 199.59.163.38 -] No DDoS for now. Strike time is 6pm EST 12/21

As well as that text I also found a link which guided to the Anonymous war plan. For now it would seem they are going to halt most DDoS attacks until the time of strike. It said that phone and fax attacks would also cease for a short time but that prank calls would be conducted and that the ordering of pizza to known addresses of WBC members would continue.

The time of strike will include such attacks as listed above; mail spam, twitter attacks, prank calls and deliveries, and DDoS.

The war is not over. Anonymous vowed to destroy the WBC completely and they are working around the clock to do so. The WBC believes that no one can silence their message of hate and that the internet was created by God for them to be able to spread their message. Anonymous and others want to show them that they can be silenced, and that if there is a God he would truly find them deplorable. 

Follow me on Twitter for Updates. @Turk_Reno

SOURCES:

Examiner Article

Patriot Guard

IRC 

Twitter Tags: #WBC, #OpWBC, #OpWestboro, #Anonymous 


UPDATE!

12/19/2012 12:30PM PST

Back on the front lines here, @YourAnonNews posted a link directing me to a streaming video of a person at the Sandy Hook victim's funeral, where firemen and women formed a human wall to protect the mourners from the WBC. 

During the video, which was presented by Jake Esker, you can see hundreds of people lined up to show support for the victims families and to block the WBC's protest from being seen.

Unfortunately, Jake's IPhone was about to die and he couldn't give us a full streaming account of what was happening. He returned to his car to charge up the battery when he noticed a camera man walking by. He stopped him to ask him what was happening. 

It was there that Jake learned that the WBC members would not be coming out to protest today because there would be no burial today. Still unsure if the burial was just postponed or if was even suppose to happen today. Camera man said, "They never came out. They say they're going to show up at everything, but they almost never do."

But what happens when the funeral plans are back on track? Will WBC stay to protest? Did the amount of people that showed up today, including the firefighters, deter the WBC from wanting to protest? 

Most likely not, but it doesn't matter. The war is still raging on as the Twitter account of @WBCFredJr was hacked just moments ago by Anonymous members. 

Anonymous Takes Down Westboro Baptist Church Website

Today the group known as Anonymous hacked the website of the Westboro Baptist Church in response to the church’s intentions to protest the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting that occurred in Connecticut on Friday. The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC for short) is well known for protesting funerals of soldiers who died while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming that they were killed in action by God because he was upset with our country for allowing gay rights to pass legislation. They’re plan to protest this upcoming funeral, which consists of twenty children ages 6 and 7, and six adults, who were killed when a mad man named Adam Lanza, age 20, forced his way into the school armed with two hand guns and a semiautomatic rifle and started shooting, saying that this was an act of God and that those who died were killed because God is upset with our country allowing gay marriage and other such civil rights.

WBC took a poke at the group (which I’ll just call ANON) a while back when they claimed that ANON sent them a message telling them they were going to be hacked for their hate messages. WBC responded to ANON in a message saying “bring it” and in a video where a member of ANON speaks with Shirley Phelps the member says that the message sent to WBC was a hoax and was never sent to them with any knowledge of the ANON group. Shirley Phelps continued to disagree with the ANON member, calling the group names and saying that no one will ever silence them and that the internet was created specifically for them to send out their hateful messages and that it is God’s will. After ten minutes of silliness ANON became impatient and shut down the WBC websites, replacing them with this message:

This domain has been seized by Anonymous under section #14 of the rules of the Internet.
Greetings Westboro Baptist Church,

If you're reading this, it means that Anonymous has lost its patience with you, likely because you've threatened us again after we denied you a war.

Your recent antics to gain media attention for yourself were found to be laughable. In response to your rather poorly-written "bring it" letter, wherein you tried to goad Anonymous into giving you yet more attention by calling us "crybaby hackers", we wrote, sincerely, a press release explaining clearly the hoax behind the initial declaration of war against your church.

We had thought this latest release would be enough to make you realize that we have no interest in going to war with you. Anonymous is hard at work with ongoing operations such as those involving Bahrain, Libya, and Iran, not to mention we are working tirelessly to maintain coverage of all our HBGary leaks for the public to enjoy.

Your continued biting of the Anonymous hand, however, has earned you a swift and emotionless bitchslap, in the form of this very message. Despite having had the capability to hack your sites previously, we chose not to and instead responded maturely to your threats, but you have not respected this.

For this unremitting display of overzealousness, we award you no points. Take this defacement as a simple warning: go away. The world (including Anonymous) disagrees with your hateful messages, but you have the right to voice them. This does not mean you can jump onto Anonymous for attention.
God hates fags: assumption. Anonymous hates leeches: fact.

Now after the tragic events that occurred in Connecticut WBC wants to picket the funerals, a truly unfathomable action, but hey they’ve done shit like this before. They’re crazy, and nothing is going to stop them from this craziness. Unless…maybe ANON could?

I asked a few for their opinions and the most conversation I got was from Bree Still, who believed that this is a case of media mongering and that both WBC and ANON are just going for the flavor of the month and that ANON is silly for doing this saying that WBC has already lost and it’s like kicking a dying rabid dog before it stops breathing. I happen to disagree, only because I dislike WBC so much and I think it’s great that ANON is willing to step in and disrupt their hate machine.

When WBC said they were planning on picketing the funerals ANON shut down their sites and sent them this nice little message:

"We will not allow you to corrupt the minds of America with your seeds of hatred. We will not allow you to inspire aggression to the social factions which you deem inferior. We will render you obsolete. We will destroy you. We are coming."

I think that WBC members should be ashamed of the things they say, do and feel about everything. I’m glad to see that members of ANON are willing to shut down the hate machine and disrupt their evil ways. What I would like to know is how much more will they do? I can’t wait to see this unfold.

I will agree with Bree on this one though. WBC has lost, it lost a long time again and the majority of America disregards their message. Hell even Fox News pundits don’t like the messages that WBC spreads, now that is saying something. But I don’t really mind watching this dying, rabid, evil wolf get kicked a few more times before it takes it’s last breath, and then maybe a good shock from a cattle prod.

(What do you think about Anonymous attacking the Westboro Baptist Church’s website because of their plan to picket the funerals of those who died at the Sandy Hook school shooting? Feel free to post a comment.)

SOURCES:

YOUTUBE VIDEO: 

ARTICLE: Westboro Baptist ChurchHacked by Anonymous as Group Plans Protest at Sandy Hook Elementary School