Caught this over at The Independent. Frankly, I didn't realize how un-American America is becoming, despite my gloom and doom forebodings.

So apparently the First Amendment is just an antiquated idea and we've had free speech for long enough. This is very much in the same vein as people calling Tom Cruise a traitor for saying that there was anything that sucked about the US.

I don't know, I'm just flabbergasted and shocked beyond words that this is happening. Are people here in the "good old" US of A really becoming so jaded to reality that their newfound pop-patriotism is really clouding their vision even more than it was before? I mean, sure, we Americans have always had a propensity for being utterly unable to see beyond our noses, with this, it almost seems like we're fucking blind.

It's one thing to disagree. Some of the cartoons may have even been in "bad taste" simply for the fact that they're sensitive subjects with a lot of people. That's perfectly understandable. What is not understandable is why it's gotten to the point of people being afraid to publish any anti-Bush sentiment.

People need to take a step back and look at what they're doing. They're trying to kill free speech as we know it.

Orwell had it right all along.

If there was a god, this is where I'd kindly ask him to save us all. But there's not:

We're doomed.

So the government is pushing a new idea called Operation Tips. This is just plain terrifying: the idea is to recruit a million "ordinary" citizens, truck drivers, cable repair people, mail delivery people, etc., to spy on everyone else. This isn't going to accomplish anything. All it's going to do is promote terror within our country, infringe upon our rights, give the government more prying eyes, and overall just accelerate our already breakneck pace towards an Orwellian society. As far as I'm concerned, the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack have wholly succeeded.

Earlier, I posted a note about some UNC students who were suing the school because they were required to read a religious text. Well, it turns out that funding is going to be cut to any public educational institution that includes any religion unless all religions are pressented equally. I don't know what to think about this. On one hand, this does keep religious bias out of the equation, but at the same time, if you're attending an institution of higher learning, it should be because you want to learn new things, not because you want someone to remind you about yourself. On top of which UNC wasn't promoting Islam over other religions just because they had a political agenda to promote. Islam is very heavily in the news these days, and the ignorance and misinformation that is propagated through the mass media and through such ignorant organisations asthe Christian Church prevents most people from really understanding what Islam is all about. For this reason, UNC was trying to educate their students so that they would be more informed about the underlying significance of Islam in the news.

Because of the proliferation of unnecessary and ineffective violence on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, I am for all intents and purposes neutral. But I have a comment to make to those who claim that the "Palestinians are animals" because of celebrations in the streets after a successful bombing. This really isn't a battle between the Palestinians and the Israelis, it's a battle between the Palestinians and the Israeli Government, specifically the Israeli military.

The Palestinians have few recourses to fight back against the Israelis: Arafat's a fool, and Sharon isn't willing to be political, only miltary. The only way the Palestinians can make any statement that will be heard is by violence, and, while I condemn it as ineffective, brutal, and primitive, I also understand that it is borne of desperation. When they make a statement that is heard around the world, how can they help but be happy? Beyond just fighting the Israelis, it also brings them together: it's a moralizing event for them.

While the Palestinians are indeed destroying many, many lives unnecesssarily, they don't have many other choices, and they don't have the same resources and the same level of organization that a military like Israel's does. It is a far more pathetic thing when a government knowingly kills innocents than when an extremist suicide bomber does.

The Israelis aren't dancing in the streets--or are they? never can trust news coverage--because it's not their war to the same degree as it is the Palestinians. They have a military that is willing to fight for them: the Palestinians have only themselves.

Generally, I write this blog for myself and the anonymous masses. Well, tonight, someone I know, who had been looking for it, knowing that I kept a blog, found it. She read most of the posts--simultaneously grossly inflating my hit counter--and then asked if I minded if she read it. Now, that is perfectly in accordance with my policy of "better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission." But her reasoning, which I do, on some level, appreciate, was that it might alter what I post if I realized that someone I knew was reading. That'd really go against a lot of my beliefs if I censored myself, so I told her to just do whatever she wanted.

I hate the idea of having to express myself differently depending on the audience, but there are so many conservatives in the world that that's exactly what I would have to do if some certain people found my blog. That scares me shitless. I'm such a coward. Something else to devote some time to, in addition to my fear of hair gel and chapstick. :-D

The CBDTPA (Consumer Broadband Digital Television Promotion Act). Sounds like a good thing, doesn't it? Well, it is if you're a big media company and want to have total control over how people use media. But if you like listening to CD's on multiple devices, such as your computer or your portable MP3 player or in your car, if you like making mix CDs, if you like being able to make a backup copy, if you like having all your music accessible from your computer in MP3 or a similar format, if you like haivng any fair use rights to your music at all, well, this act wants you to just fuck off. If you like being able to take a bathroom break or change channels during commercials or if you like being able to record your favorite television show while you're away, and then fast forward through commercials, this act wants you to fuck off. Even if you don't want to do all these things, if you have friends who do, then they will become criminals.

Support the EFF's fight against the CBDTPA. Go here and voice your opinion to your state's congressmen.

Found this on /. Definitely worth a read. Very sobering.


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It is 3Q 2030.

You're arguing with your wife again. It seems she's missed her spending quota again this quarter. A proud patriot, you have no problem spending 85% and sometimes 90% of your income on consumer goods, yet she can't manage to spend even close to the 75% required by law. It's that foreign mentality, you suppose--that's what happens when you are educated overseas and without the benefit of a corporate sponsor. You have to remind her that if the Internal Consumer's Service (ICS) catches her, she'll be doing time in Philip Morris(TM) Prison like her uncle.

Oh well, hopefully a night at the town's AOL-Time-Warner-Clear-Channel-Blockbuster(TM) Authorized Media Distribution Center will smooth things over with her. That reminds you--you need to have your eye- and ear-implants inspected for this quarter again, otherwise you won't even be allowed in tonight.

You haven't attended church services for a while. Although your wife is a devout follower of God's Customers(TM) and shops in the Church Store at LEAST five tiems a quarter, you're not yet convinced that converting from Consumers For Jesus(TM) was that sound an investment.

Your son Rick has just graduated from the local McDonalds(TM) High School. You want him to go to Pepsi(TM) University like his sister, but he wants to go to Coke(TM) College. Not that it matters--the permits you get at either school are the same. Although he really wanted to attend Stanford(TM), his corporate sponsors rejected that proposal, based on what it might do to his credit rating.

Your youngest daughter just graduated Pepsi(TM) U. It was expensive, but she is all set now, having received a Creative Thought Permit and a Entrepreneurship License. On top of that she's accepted a job at Fortune 10 corporation. Of course almost everyone works for a Fortune 10 nowadays, there being only thirty-some corporations left. It's too bad she had to sign all those NDA's though--you'd really like to be allowed to know where she would be living and how to get in touch with her. Ahh well, it's the price you pay for our corporate security.

Your older daughter, after twenty quarters of employment, was finally permitted to tell you that she is working in middle-management at AT&T. Of course, every job in the United Corporations of America is middle-management. The cheaper--skilled--labor is all outsourced to Those Other Countries, whatever they are called. In ten more quarters, assuming her credit rating remains good and she has attained Shareholder status, she'll be allowed to talk face-to-face (no encrypted channel) with us again!

Apparently, her five year old daughter has been grounded again, this time for racking up a $6000 fine--singing "Happy Birthday(TM)" at a party without a Media Distribution License. She really needs to be taught a lesson--that as a patriotic Consumer of the UCA, she needs to respect the rights of Shareholders and property owners. What a dangerous thoughts she has! She thinks she should be allowed to say whatever she pleases, no matter what it does to someone else's portfolio! No one can get it through to her that terrorist ideas like that will land her in one of those "special" schools--and she'd be subjected to a lower quarterly limit on all her credit cards.

Fax from your wife--she'll be late tonight. Corporate HQ has re-instated fourteen-hour work days until the end of this quarter. It's too bad she's not allowed to quit her job--you could get her a pretty sweet management position any time in your department at Microsoft.

This document is hereby released to the public domain. You may (and are encouraged to) reproduce, republish, read, modify, and/or archive it without limitation.
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