🚀 go-pugleaf

In milw.general (<4fghjk$lfc@news.inc.net>),Don Coyote (doncoyote@wi.net) wrote:
| Personally, I'm tired of the countless colored ribbons that serve as
| a delicate and silent protest for the suffering.  If I go to the
| trouble of rewriting my HTML for some 48 hour protest, will any of my
| elected representatives somehow stop by my site and pick up a hint?  I

Who the hell cares if they do?  These countless colored ribbons aren't
for the senate or house, just like the AIDS ribbons aren't for the
doctors or scientists.

Awareness.  There are a lot of people who aren't aware of the issues
in debate, of the cost of this tradeoff both morally and financially.
This is about making people aware of who this affects, why, and how.

It's a protest, not a lobby.

| (http://thomas.loc.gov/r104/r104h01fe6.html), I got the distinct
| impression that most members had almost zero personal exposure to the
| Internet, but significant exposure to telecom lobbyists.

Most of us had that all along.  But if they had so much telecom
exposure, how could they pass this, which *clearly* puts the telecom
companies into the situation where they're liable for content, for the
first time in history?  Never before has Ma Bell been forced to
regulate the use of the telephone system based on content; never has
it had to censor particular types of language in calls, across the
board, just because "you can't tell the age of the person on the other
end".  Nobody will arrest me if I talk dirty to a boyfriend.  (At
least, I don't appear to be in prison yet.  One never really knows, in
this society, though.)

So there's definitely another agenda involved here.  It's time people
became aware of the *real* issues; if you're so worried about
protecting your kids, use one of the "safe" browsers.  Run *real*
software that locks your kids out of things you don't want them
seeing, provide protected environments to work in.

And then go over all of their friends with a fine-toothed comb.  Bug
their bookbags so you know what they're saying.  Become the little
Gestapo you want to be, because you're trying to monitor far too much,
and give your child far too little credit.  Giving your child a
runaway internet account and saying "have fun" isn't like sitting them
in front of a TV with a remote.  It's a lot more like throwing them
into a bar with a bunch of strangers.

| First.  "It'll create fantastic new jobs in a wonderful futuristic
| industry," they say -- even though telecom workers already lead the

Oh, it'll create jobs allright.  Just like Prodigy hires people to
wander through indecent content.  Question is, who the hell wants to
work them?

| Next, write them a letter or fax demanding that they find a way to repeal
| the outrageous "indecency" provisions of the Telecommunications Act.

Fortunately, the only person from Wisconsin currently on the hill I'm
proud of in the least is Feingold.

| If not, we're going to get exactly what we deserve.

Absolutely.  Laugh at activism all you like, but without the
activists, there wouldn't *be* issues, just sheep.

Greg

-- 
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