A Warning For Authors About A New Scam, As I Submitted To the BBB

NY Literay Magazine has a new scam as follows: once you click the link in the following email, you have to pay $14.95 to enter a contest; and no entry for which you were apparently nominated shows up:

Merry Christmas and Congratulations!!!
Dear [Whomever],
You were nominated for the NY Literary Magazine "Best Story Award".
Click here to submit your entry:
https://NYLiteraryMagazine.com/Best-Story-Award
Submission period ENDS on December 31st, 2017.


Merry Christmas!
Best wishes,
The NY Literary Magazine
PS: You can now add to your bio and credentials
that you are a 2017 Best Story Award Nominee.

"The prestige of such literary awards is immense for an author…awards drive up sales" - The NY Times
"Can do wonders for your writing career... one of the best ways to get your writing noticed!" - Writer's Digest
The link takes you to the following page:
The NYLM Best Story Award Contest
The NY Literary Magazine strives to honor, recognize, and bring to light the finest, original stories by outstanding writers.
We help authors distinguish their work with a seal of approval from a trusted source, and help readers discover brilliant stories.
Our prestigious Best Story Award is a limited entry contest with monthly award winners.
We only accept 200 entries per category each month.
NY Literary Magazine Best Story Award - Yearly Winner Trophy
The NY Literary Magazine Best Story Award Contest
"certainly gets writers noticed and can help pave the way to publication." - Julie Pickering, literary agent at Blake Friedman Agency.
NY Literary Magazine Best Story Award Winner - Seal on book example 3
NY Literary Magazine Best Story Award Winner - Seal on book example 2
NY Literary Magazine Best Story Award Winner - Seal on book example 1
What makes our contest special?
The NY Literary Magazine is a distinguished print and digital magazine.
Winning an award from our magazine gives you great credentials which will impress readers, agents, and publishers.
We have monthly winners in each category...

If Anyone's Having Trouble Reading This Blog...

Know that I didn't mean to block anybody. I was trying to block an Amazon-AWS bot from IP Address 52.201.129.205 (which I know has prevented certain statistics from showing on Blogger stats, Feedjit, Clustrmaps, and Revolver Maps; and which multiple sites state misrepresents Blogger and other statistics) and used FreeHostedScripts via MBGadget.

If I blocked you by mistake when I blocked the Amazon bot, please let me know by e-mailing me if you can still somehow read this blog (e.g., from a different IP Address, through a friend's device, or through pages that Google caches on Google search). Besides, I want you to be able to read about, for example, Reilly and Camille. 

Did Facebook Really Have To Wait Until The Murder Of Heather Heyer To Enforce Their Own TOS?

"Facebook does not allow hate speech or praise of terrorist acts or hate crimes, and we are actively removing any posts that glorify the horrendous act committed in Charlottesville."

Facebook surely has allowed other violations of their TOS for a long time, though:

"The company initially had allowed the page but decided as the event neared that it no longer met Facebook’s community standards because it was associated with “hate organizations.”

"The company said that it wants people to use Facebook to challenge ideas and organize peacefully, but draws the line when actions could put people in harm's way or involve hate groups."

How Facebook fails to enforce its own TOS and "draws the line when actions could put people in harm's way or involve hate groups" is beyond me. A mutual exclusivity exists between allowing "when actions could put people in harm's way or involve hate groups" and "draw[ing] the line when actions could put people in harm's way or involve hate groups.

Facebook has to either enforce its TOS to protect everybody against all hateful individuals and groups or not have a TOS at all. After all, Facebook shouldn't even have "allowed the page".

When I First Got the Fox News Alert Re the Email Chain....

I did not feel like reading about it, since I thought that Donald Trump, Jr. would release a Wikileaks-style (i.e., decontextualized) email chain. Then I saw the "New York Times" article as I was browsing. I read the Fox News article afterwards, and I realize that even newly-hired Tr**pite Cody Derespina can't spin this one. (By the way, I've noticed that the Tr**pite reporters like Cody Derespina put their names on their "hard news" articles, in contrast the objective Fox News reporters whom often—if not usually—just put "Fox News".)

Methinks that Donald Trump, Jr. passed up his opportunity to plea the Fifth on this one. He might as well testify against his father during both the Senate hearings and "United States v. Donald J. Trump"—and he'll have to take a plea deal in "United States v. Donald J. Trump, Jr." if he wants even partial prosecutorial immunity.

As The Old Jewish Saying Goes, And As I've Lived Especially Of Late...

What's keeping calm when you're Jewish? What's not worrying when you're Jewish?

As for me and being a Jewish Christian, I get the whole "Do not worry", "Come to Me, you whom are weary...", "Cast your cares...", etc.. Notwithstanding that (and here goes the "Oh, you of little faith"):

1. Having Cerebral Palsy and IBS affects worry for good reason.
2. Having OCD/Anxiety and ADD affects worry for good reason. By the way, I'm actually not the first one to have made an observation regarding whether OCD/Anxiety is inherently Jewish, and I was joking about that more to cope with my own OCD and wondering (so much for Jewish humor, as I got a hard time for making that observation)—the schtick about (I kid you not) OCD being a "Jewish disease" (as Dr. Avigdor Bonchek phrased the schtick whether OCD is Jewish) has been around for a long time. To be fair, look at, e.g., B'midbar 7 alone—having to be perfectly scrupulous about the right number of the right offerings like that could cause anyone to worry—then look at Vaiykra 11 and B'midbar 19—I myself (assuming that I'd survived birth and even had some part in Jewish life) would be washing and extra washing all day. Then try the fences around Torah. Overtime, that has to get embedded into one's genetic code and/or brain chemistry—thus, I think, part of why God desires mercy over sacrifice and obedience over burnt offerings, as His point seemed to be that ritualism as opposed to simply living by faith (e.g., "walk[ing] humbly with your God").
3. Getting the amount of hate that I get (as I probably will over the observation above, for example), whether rightly or wrongly, affects me to always worry for good reason—even, e.g., who's going to unfriend me on Facebook or unfollow me on Twitter, thus reflecting online how what they think of me both online and offline? After all (as Curt Schilling of all people stated), people online are who they are offline and what they would be offline "if they could get away with it" (which he stated after two of his daughter's high-school classmates used Twitter to send her rape threats.

I could give more examples, though I think that three examples suffice—especially as I brace myself and bide to see how many more instances of Example Three will happen even over the next couple of minutes, especially in regard to Example Two. 

Re Paid Access To Read "The Nicole Factor" Or Any Other Blogger Blog

A fellow tweeter alerted me to that, and that should not be happening. I don't know whether Blogger was hacked recently, at least two suspicious visits from Russia that registered on Feedjit and not Clustrmaps or Revolver, or anything else had to do with it. Nonetheless, Blogger never makes anyone pay for access to any blog whatsoever.

Meanwhile, I would not be surprised if the suspicious Russian visits had anything to do with it—I have been one of the more vocal laywomen against Trump (not to mention a more-exhausted one for various reasons, including the effects of cyberbullying by Trumpites).  BTW, keep an eye out if you suspect suspicious Russian or any other visits on your blog—given that, for example, I lost a cousin in the Sho'ah around this time 43 years ago (since he was kidnapped on March 31, 1944; in Suwałki as a hostage, and murdered by hanging in June 1944), I myself would be remiss to not speak up, especially since the Russians treated other cousins on that side no better afterwards (and even in being Anusim and b'nei-Anusim, my family did not escape the effects of either the Holocaust in Germany or the Holocaust in Russia—since the Holocaust actually began in Anti-Semitic Stalin in 1922 and did not end until the gulags closed in 1960, 12 years after Stalin implemented a "Final Solution" plan). 

Pro Tip: Don't Post Bigotry On Which You Don't Want To Be Called Out

Two examples of Anti-Semitic bigotry this week include those from Bill Roper—whose WriterBeat post was shared on LinkedIn in the name of freedom of speech—and Felicity Jane Lowde—whom had the complete chutzpah to confront me on my Facebook page over my RT of @ElderofZiyon's response to her tweet. 

By the way, another pro tip: never use your full name on Facebook. Giving your full name like that could be extremely dangerous—after all, even Jessica Leeds, who gave out only her first and last names, received horrid attacks and threats because of Lou Dobbs' criminal tweeting of her personal information—even if you're a horrid Anti Semite or another kind of horrid bigot, you don't need to give the extremists any fodder. For instance, saying that "Israel was bombing little children"—as foolish as you are for accusing the IDF of infantocide and paedocide—will incur the dangerous wrath of Kahanists whom don't know to leave well enough alone—Meir Kahane was a violent extremist, and quite a few of his followers continue to incite and/or attempt violence against those with whom they disagree.

Bigotry on all sides—whether Kahanist or Anti Semitic, or other kinds of bigotry—is dangerous; posting bigotry on which you don't want to be called out is not a good idea, and bigots and other hateful people on all sides can and will use any information that they find on others—including other bigots—to harm them—as aforementioned, Lou Dobbs harmed Jessica Leeds by using only her name to find and share information on her.

My Basic Twitter Philosophy

Update (November 14, 2024 or 12 Cheshvan 5784):

1. If you unfollow me and I am following you, I will unfollow you in turn if I become aware that you have unfollowed me². Since I hold the philosophy that people online are a reflection of whom they are offline (including, as Curt Schilling pointed out, whom they would be offline if they could be that way offline), I have no time for you if you have no time for me, I have, as far as I recall, broken my unfollow-for-unfollow rule only twice, and that includes that I refollowed one person whom'd unfollowed me only because his work in his field is influential enough to merit for him a follow. I will also unfollow you if I recall that you followed me and then unfollowed me after I followed you, whether or not my recollection is correct.
2. If you abuse me in any way on Twitter—for example, if you twist my words (or similarly libel me) and/or engage in Anti-Semitic attacks—I will report and/or block you. ³
3. If you abuse others on Twitter, I will report and/or block you. ³
4. RTs are not endorsements unless the original tweet is favorited and/or the RTs are noted as endorsements of the original tweets. What RTs often are is FOIP (for only informational purposes).
5. While I do "unfollow for unfollow", I do not do "follow for follow"—I follow whom I want to follow, and I will follow those whom follow me if I find them worth following.
6. While and since I won't, and I really even can't, report every abusive instance and/or block every person whom's engaging in abuse, I will call out someone whom's being abusive if I feel (or at least hope) that I can reason with them. ³
7. I get Twitter notifications via text messages—and I don't have a smartphone¹, unlike some of these rich kids and others whom can afford smartphones. As soon as I get a chance to respond to and/or RT tweets, I'll respond to them; and be aware that I can see on my phone what abusive tweets you deleted and/or thought that you blocked from my view—and I will report and/or block you, and/or call you out. ³

Addendum [April 9, 2019/Aviv 3, 5779 (Before sunset)]: 

1. The Democrats & others who want to think that the Modern Right & the Alt Right are the same as well as try to demonize the Modern Right, ignore the #NeverTrump movement are only going to make the #NeverTrump movement fight harder against Trump's trying to destroy the GOP. In other words, their attempts to throw out revisionist tropes and thus give Trump what he wants haven't worked in the way that they wanted it to do so. If you're one of those revisionists and you're thinking about parroting out your revisionism as a response to my tweets, then, please keep away from me. On the flip side, if you're a Trumpite or one who dreads Clinton more than fears Yehovah, also please keep away from me if you're thinking about troping out your own revisionism in response to my tweets. 
2. On that note and a general note, common sense holds that one doesn't have to unnecessarily respond to something that he or she doesn't like. So, please, just don't respond to my tweets if you don't like them and have no reason to respond to them.

Addendum [November 4, 2019/Cheshvan 6, 5779 (Before sunset)]:

If you need a template to write to your Representative about indicting Trump instead of impeaching him:

"Rep. [Whomever]:

"By impeaching Trump, Congress would be handing him 25th Amendment rights and presidential legitimacy. The law (based on the law-from-the-bench principle regarding sitting presidents and indictment) says that one cannot indict a sitting president, but it doesn't say that one can't indict an illegitimate president. The assumption was always that and is that the sitting president had and has to be a legitimate one, since there is the principle behind the law as well as the law itself. Thus, please push for Speaker Pelosi and the rest of the House to acknowledge that Trump is not a legitimate president and thus should not be given impeachment rights, let alone 25th Amendment rights or presidential legitimacy.

"Thank you for your time and consideration of my request."

¹ Addendum: July 2, 2020/10 Tammuz 5780: I do have a smartphone now. It was a gift for Hanukkah, Christmas, and my 30th birthday; and I honestly resisted letting one anyone get me one and using one for a long time. What's not changed: I still block and/or report abusive tweeters.

²Addendum, same date: I realize that part of my problem is that I don't enforce my own unfollow-for-unfollow rule enough (sometimes because I'm unsure right away if someone followed me in the first place). To me, how one interacts with me online tells me how he or she would interact with me offline. In other words, I need to start meaning that I don't have time for anyone whom doesn't have time for me or wants me to have time for him or her. I will thus be enforcing my own rule more.

³ All of that fits my motto, "If you don't stand up to evil, evil will stand you down—and that is evil."

Originally On LinkedIn: Will Microsoft Clean Up LinkedIn? Let's Hope—I Myself've Had Enough Of LinkedIn Being A Facebook | Nicole V. Czarnecki | Pulse | LinkedIn

When I read that LinkedIn will come under the umbrella of Microsoft at a price of $26.2B, I thought, "I just hope that their investment's worth it." Since Bill Gates is a technological pioneer, job creator, and philanthropist, though, it probably is. "Probably", of course, concerns whether Bill Gates has Microsoft and LinkedIn create jobs and retain employees within the United States—and even allied countries, especially where American expats live.

If Bill Gates and LinkedIn under Microsoft outsource (at least to tenuous allies, and somehow even to enemies—which they could scarily do), then LinkedIn'd've been better off remaining under its own umbrella. If, on the other hand, Bill Gates and Microsoft employ within and keep employees from the United States—and allied countries such as Israel, where many America-born olim and their sabra descendants live—then LinkedIn may reform and thrive under the Microsoft umbrella.

Besides, for LinkedIn to hire in, e.g., Tel Aviv and Jerusalem would take ko'ach after they stood in solidarity with Orlando—as opposed to the chutzpah that taking the usual path of least resistance would take. After all, by the way, plenty of out-of-work Sodastream alumni would consider a job at LinkedIn—perhaps especially if they're already using LinkedIn to try to find a jobs in lieu of their jobs at Sodastream, and perhaps if they want to work at LinkedIn to help others find jobs through the company through and at which they find jobs.

As I stated, let's hope that Bill Gates and Microsoft wisely invested $26.2B into bringing LinkedIn under their umbrella—since those who want to use LinkedIn as a professional network, the American out-of-work-for-now workforce, and out-of-work Sodastream almuni are among those whom count on Bill Gates and Microsoft to help put them to work by putting $26.2B to work. 

Why LinkedIn Either Needs To Return To Its Original Purpose Or Restart With A New Platform

Professionals such as Ted Bauer have posted about it, and aspiring professionals like me have posted about it. Of course, "it" is "how LinkedIn is becoming another Facebook or Twitter". As I've stated, I didn't come onto LinkedIn to use another Facebook or Twitter—I came onto LinkedIn to look for a job and volunteer opportunities, and be discovered as an aspiring author, etc..

Others have also come onto LinkedIn to look for and be found for jobs, volunteer opportunities, and desired careers. I am sure that my fellow job, volunteer-opportunity, and career seekers feel frustrated with LinkedIn becoming something like "LinkUp".

Thus, LinkedIn either needs to return to its original purpose or restart with another professional-network platform and leave LinkedIn/"LinkUp" to those whom (with all due respect) want to turn LinkedIn/"LinkUp" into a break-from-work or party-at-the-office website. My own suggestion is that LinkedIn could build and brand their new digital platform as "WorkBook" (Notice: "WorkBook"), and have the professionals and aspiring professionals migrate from LinkedIn/"LinkUp" to WorkBook.

On WorkBook, LinkedIn would forbid any content that is not related to one's work and/or that is not related to professional life to be shared. Meanwhile, I should note that even though I've been imperfect in my use of LinkedIn, my own imperfections don't justify or excuse the imperfections of others—and (the obvious converse is that) the imperfections of others don't justify or excuse my imperfections—and I hope that I'll be the first to admit when I'm imperfect in my utilization of LinkedIn. 

Update (Not in the original post, although shared on LinkedIn; via GoComics.com):

On LinkedIn, I shared this with "An example of why waiters may lose their jobs (and really, why any employee might): i.e., badmouthing the employer's product to a customer of the employer". This is the kind of item that one can share on LinkedIn if he or she can explain why it relates to one's professional life.

This Is A "No Duh!" Action To Take

Taxing the American Internet user would be absolutely detrimental.

Pass the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act!

Send Letters to Congress : 19,198 Letters Sent So Far

States and local governments are poised to extend telephone taxes to your home and mobile Internet bills if the current federal ban on such taxes expires as scheduled on December 16, 2015 (Congress passed a five day extension from the previous expiration date of December 11). The average expected tax would be 12% and could be even higher.  The federal ban MUST be extended.  Permanently. The House has already passed it but the Senate must act.

Tell the Senate: Pass the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act!

I Told You Who Are Lewd Web Users, Get My Content Off Your Website

You do realize that the FBI and other organizations, e.g., can track you all down as well, correct? As I said, I don't condone lewdness; and I will call the lewd web users—including ones who have sex-trafficking websites—out.

Referring URLs

Entry	Pageviews
https://www.google.com/	14
http://chelnytruck.ru/	9
http://diyportal.ru/	9
http://novosti-hi-tech.ru/	9
http://pozdravleniya-c.ru/	8
http://alfa-pechati.ru/	6
http://aviva-limoux.com/	6
http://boleznikogi.com/	6
http://cssrf.ru/	6
http://escort-russian.com/	6

Referring Sites

Entry	Pageviews
www.google.com	33
chelnytruck.ru	9
diyportal.ru	9
novosti-hi-tech.ru	9
pozdravleniya-c.ru	8
alfa-pechati.ru	6
aviva-limoux.com	6
boleznikogi.com	6
cssrf.ru	6
escort-russian.com	6