If you live in the US, own a website or blog, this article (by a lawyer) suggests that liability insurance may not be a bad thing.
The article looks at laws inside and outside the county.

As a Canadian who had a blog takedown etc. by a US server owner, I’ve had to think this through. If someone from the US, Canada or the rest of the world wants to threaten or sue me because they think they can and want to, there isn’t much I can or will do about it.
There is little they can take from me. If they are litigious, and hell bent to attack and take, I figure they can contact the appropriate people in my area with the appropriate paperwork; save themselves a pile of legal fees; back a half ton pick-up to my door and help themselves. All I own might yield a couple of hundred dollars in a garage sale. And, if they want my income, they can fight the Canadian government for it.
I choose to act ethically and responsibly as a blogger, aware we live in an angry world. If I err in ignorance, then it is my responsibility to do all I can to make it right.
I’ve never seen an armoured car follow a hearse. Sometimes if someone wants your coat, you give it to them. Sometimes we help a person learn how to get their own coat. I believe there are far more precious things in life at stake than material goods. Each situation needs to be evaluated on it’s own merits.

Most people don’t live as simply as I do, and have assets that may need to be protected. Having had a reader threatened by the US server owner, and having seen at least one god-blogger sent a ‘cease and desist,’ I believe that sometimes the best thing to do is capitulate to the person that feels or believes their sense of power or ownership is being threatened.
If it is a company with legitimate copyright or ownership complaints, and you as a blogger have stepped on their toes, it’s wise, ethical and appropriate to make it right.

Who decides if a correction or retraction will run?
When an individual believes they’ve been defamed, they often demand that a retraction or correction be run. In many states, there are statutes that limit damages for publishers that run timely corrections or retractions. As a result, some media policies provide the insurer with a say in how an insured will respond to such a demand. Again, a publisher’s interests may sharply diverge from the insurer’s interests in this situation. While the publisher may be unwilling to run a correction or retraction because he or she feels there is nothing to correct or retract, an insurer may wish to appease the complaining party in the hope of avoiding costly litigation or at least reducing liability.

I’ve learned some hard lessons in my blogging, and may well have more ahead of me.
Christians really are as screwed up as everyone else.
They just use their faith and bible as justification for abusive behaviour.
As more god-blogs come on-line, I think we’ll see more problems.

As a believer, offering alternatives to another such as mediation; requires the sad understanding that the person who is angry and acting out has to reach very deep inside for the courage to come to the mediation table. And they may not want to, and may never find that internal strength.
There will always be others that thrive on conflict and self-protection without any understanding of the harm they cause.
If someone decides to dictate peace on their terms without genuine awareness of consequences, all one can do is learn to deal wisely with your own grief and loss and reset the boundaries.
The balance between understanding the reality of broken people and the hope we are called to in Jesus Christ has been a key lesson I’ve been learning in my life, with a lot of stumbling and falling on the way.

The Maritimes
What a mess.
The Atlantic provinces and it’s people are extremely pragmatic and resilient.
So, when they have to declare a state of emergency, it’s a really bad storm. They are called ‘weather bombs’ for good reason.
Having worked with EMO there, I’d never seen a Code Black.
Some of my friends have lost power and will have to hunker down for a few days. Stay safe, eh?

Why is there air? Why am I here? Why do I blog?
I enjoyed this ‘why do I blog’ dialogue by The Coffee Sutras. It covered all the bases. The comment section became a good extension of the post. Angst can be fun.

Lost in Application
This post by Mute Troubador hit me hard. (February 18th, 2004).

The other day I was looking at the “Welcome” page of a Christian college. They noted — correctly — that their denominational affiliation is not what makes them a Christian school. However, the statement went on to say that what does make them a Christian school is their conviction that they “serve society as part of the church’s mission.”

This thinking, that the Church and its constituent parts — universities, local congregations, even hospitals and counseling centers — are there to serve society, to be, in a sense, at its beck and call, its sole reason of being to leaven the whole of culture with pleasantness or, at the very least, some way of coping with life, is very deeply engrained in collective Christian thought and popular culture.

To be sure, it is true that the Church exists to serve, but it serves Jesus Christ, not the world or the cultures and social orders of the world. It is a grave mistake to think of the Church as a social institution, even though it is the main thread in institutionalized church thinking.

There is a sentence above that leaps out at me and stops me in my tracks.
I’ve been thinking about it a great deal since I read it yesterday.

I titled this post “Lost in Application” because the institutionalized church has lost the meaning of service by forgetting whom it serves. And it is a whom, not a what, that the Church serves: Jesus Christ. And the Church’s “mission” is being used by Christ as he wills, where he wills, and how he wills. Just as Jesus did not come to serve the world, neither do his people serve it, but serve him as agents of his redemption and transformation wherever they are in the world.

Old Kid on the Blog
Thinking Out Loud has started blogging again.
Craig started The Leaderboard waaaay back when Martin Roth had a big blogroll. As a technically gifted person, he was always courteous, prompt, helpful and kind. A lot of growth has happened since, on the net and in our lives.
Welcome back Craig. Blog on!
via Connexions