Let #Zuckerberg and #Effbook see my credit card?

I'd rot in hell before I'd let Marky Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook minions, with their constant changing of terms of use, privacy protection and more, keep my credit card info on their website for the "convenience" of Facebook auto-fill when buying something via Effbook, which I'd never do anyway.

Not a chance!

With a quick riff on Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways ..."

How could he screw me? Let me count the ways.
Z'berg could screw me to depth, breadth and height 
My wallet be screwed, feeling rather light 
Privacy sadly lost in Facebook haste. 
He’d screw me, Zuckerberg, every day

He’d screw me, by sun and candlelight. 
He’d screw me freely, e’en in dark of night; 
He’d screw me purely, in many new way. 
Screw me with a passion he’d freely choose 
Give my money, unprotected, on faith? 
My magic card’s sixteen digits to lose 
With my lost info — I hate thee to death, 
Broke, hounded, hassled — as my pain accrues, 
I shall but loathe thee with my daily breath.

I mean, seriously, besides the possibility of Marky Mark losing my information (which I don't store for autofill ANYWHERE), I'm sure this is just a step to spamming me with Facebook Store come-ons.

Also, per the end of the blog piece, why would PayPal partner with Facebook on this? A few years from now, I can see a massive attack of regret.

Dear HuffPuff: I agree with the Greek Goddess

"Go on strike," indeed, HuffPuffers.

Now, I do agree that Arianna Huffington is a pseudoliberal, but I'll say it again -- you can always start your own blog if you want to keep vanity blogging, HuffPuffers. Or, if you want to be part of a "network," go apply to one of the Examiner ads on Monster and CareerBuilder. You might make a few pennies a month.

First, note that many of you have been writing promotional content, not editorial content. In other words, SEO spam.

Second, take a look in the mirror at your vanity quotient. If you really believe in it that much, start your own blog and put a PayPal tip jar on it.

PayPal, the U.S. government and Assange

For those like Greg Laden at ScienceBlogs who claim those of us who think the U.S. government is being much of Julian Assange's troubles are just conspiracy theorists, PayPal officially admits it was ... err ... leaned on by the State Department.

Worse ... and why, if hackers want to fire back at PayPal, it brought this on itself, PayPal took State at face value (not that I am condoning illegal activity, of course, just citing some "secular karma"):

"State Dept told us these were illegal activities. It was straightforward," he told the LeWeb conference in Paris, adding: "We ... comply with regulations around the world, making sure that we protect our brand."

PayPal may become the next target of Operation Payback, which already went after MasterCard:

"We cannot let this happen," it said. "This is why our intention is to find out who is responsible for this failed attempt at censorship. This is why we intend to utilise our resources to raise awareness, attack those against and support those who are helping lead our world to freedom and democracy."

That said, the group claims Twitter is censoring WikiLeaks Tweeting. Is that true or not?

And, the U.S. is reportedly still fishing for legal grounds on which to try Assange.

Meanwhile, as Assange sits in British custody (more here), WikiLeaks' "succession plan," at least right now, doesn't look too organized.

Jimmy Wales gives Jay Rosen types a media smackdown

Jay Rosen needs to talk to Jimmy Wales. Wikipedia's founder is bullish on news media, even old-fashioned print. AND, contra Mr. Jay, he says micropayments CAN work, especially with modern mobile apps. (Oh, BTW, there was a story about 2 weeks ago on how PayPal has regeared itself for easier acceptance of micropayments.

PayPal and bloggers

I don’t claim this blog is anywhere close to major league. I’ve never tested myself on the website that lets bloggers rate themselves by position in the animal kingdom.

Instead, I’ll use a baseball reference.

I’d consider my blog lower-level AA ball. Not AAA, let alone the majors; and not even, to be honest, a high AA team. But, it’s not Class A and it’s certainly not rookie league.

And, it is high enough that blog advertising sales company Newstex approached me, not the other way around.

Anyway, between low and high AA, there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of politically-focused blogs out there.

So, why do so many assume that they’ve so much to offer, or they’re so great, that they schlep for PayPal donations? I dunno. A blog version of an extended version of Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame?

Speaking for myself, I would consider it greedy and condescending if I solicited PayPal money. If I were more techie, and really thought people would pay, I would firewall at least parts of some posts, and other posts in their entirety, behind a subscription paywall.

Well, many of those other blogs I just mentioned are probably more techie than I am. So, why don’t they go this route instead?