Mao Ze Rudd is going to make R rated games legal, a good thing, and yet they want to censor the interwebs from sex and anything else that might be offensive on the given day they pass the legislation, and the giveaways they’ll give to Fielding to get it through the Senate.

Don’t get me wrong, I support the gaming move, but you’d think the Government was being run by American Republicans: violence is OK, sex is bad. All that stuff about Ruddy being a bible basher was true, wasn’t it… I can sense the mythical hand of God in Government policy, after all there could be no other rational explanation for their dyslexic censorship regime. Conroy’s probably tacking tips from Huckabee 🙂

The Melbourne God-botherer has a post on his blog about swearing. Here’s some choice quotes

Blogging using cuss words has become a trend for some new bloggers hitting the scene, but I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m wondering is it really to any avail? I want to take this time on Problogger to analyze the pros and cons of putting the S-word, B-word, or any other X-word that might be whispered into your eat by that devil on your shoulder…..Your blog will have a friendlier, less hostile look. Saying a swear word creates a more hostile atmosphere to the sentence you have just said. This applies to blogging, as well. Keeping your blog friendly encourages people to enter and comment….I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t particularly enjoy swearing on my blog, Blogosis. I might throw in an ?¢‚ǨÀúa$$?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ or a ?¢‚ǨÀúI3!tch?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ every once and a while, but I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t overdo it.

What, ass and bitch are swear words? What the Fuck?

Ass (or more correctly arse) is something I sit on, bitch is a female dog 🙂

The fact an entire post can written about swearing without actually swearing is a fucking miracle in itself I guess.

Surely there’s more important things to worry about in the world than this…well, probably for some involved there isn’t.

Clever.

If it’s not enough that the Government may well end up censoring my blog, Australia’s favourite censorship loon Deborah Robinson is now threatening to sue me for libel (here).

As I said in the last post: she is publishing press releases from a group that has a message of hate. At the time of writing she has chosen not to detail exactly which parts of the Australian Family Association’s beliefs she does or doesn’t believe in. It is not for I to suggest that by association she herself is a homophobic bigot, but certainly if I was to start say posting press releases from far-right groups people may come to the conclusion that I might be, by association, a hater as well. It is a natural presumption to make, but again it is not for I to make that presumption nor would I print such an accusation. I’d note: I said she is supporting haters by running their press releases, and as a fact this cannot be regarded a libel.

Funnily enough one of Deborah Robinson’s favourite phrases against those who disagree with her is that they have no credibility. My dear: you wouldn’t know the meaning of the word, and certainly by quoting nutters like the AFA what any credibility you once had was just flushed down the shitter.

BTW: Mom’s Blogging Carnival folks, how do you guys feel about providing links to a site that runs media releases from the AFA, particularly given the AFA is anti womens choice, anti feminism and just full of hate?

Update: she now claims she only supports the AFA on the one issue. So be it, but she’s still got the press release up. Oh, and she threatened to sue again.

Update2: Deborah has now removed the post and has asked privately for a truce. As long as there’s no further volleys back from her side I’ve agree to it. My energy is better directed at the Government anyway. My many, many thanks to those who have offered support with this. It shows that channeled together we might still have a chance of saving free speech in Australia

I’ve been discussing on Twitter and elsewhere this week exactly what may be blocked by the Great Firewall of Australia once our nanny-state Government decides to implement it (we’re not sure exactly how yet either, could by via Regulation/ Declaration via ACMA, of by Act of Parliament).

The key is that the Australian Government wants to block anything that is pornography, inappropriate material, illegal and violent, at least those are the words used in the various press reports. The censorship loons and the do-gooders are naturally focused on porn, so lets just take a brief look in that direction.

Naturally we’d be talking about porn sites, because X rated porn is illegal in Australia…except ironically in Canberra. But “porn sites aren’t the only places you can find porn.

Second Life

I’d think Second Life would be high up the ban list of the Australian Government because simply Second Life contains seedier areas that include virtual hard core porn, and perhaps worst beastiality and “age play” as well (mind you, SL would be better off with out the last one…that my friends is beyond sick, and likely illegal as well). The thing is though you cant simply block one part of Second Life and not the other “clean” parts, these aren’t web sites we are talking about, this is an all encompassing virtual world.

There was some talk a while back on SLOZ (now Metaverse Journal) about Telstra hosting its own Second Life servers, and perhaps this is where we might all end up, in our own small version of Second Life that it cut off from the rest of the world.

Skype

Skype can be used as a conduit for porn, at least the over 400k references to Skype Porn on Google would suggest that it might be. The Government cant stop people using Skype for “clean” purposes over porn so it may well get blocked.

Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, Usenet

Definitely a good chance of getting blocked. Usenet in particular is full of porn, from pictures through the videos. Google Groups is part Usenet, and Yahoo Groups have been dirty from the mid 90s onwards.

BitTorrent

There’s porn there, lots of porn. The fact that a lot of file sharing is illegal as well may well push the Government towards banning BitTorrent.

Email?

OK, this is a long shot, but I can still get porn delivered to my inbox, and indeed if I check my spam folder in Gmail now it’s full of porn.

Twitter

Talk dirty to me, face getting blocked

Blogs

Lots of porn on blogs, lots of other blogs that use words such as fuck and cunt that would given them an R rating that would result in them being blocked as well

Google

Google cache offers snapshots of sites, including porn sites, then there’s Google Images for thumbnails as well.

Internet Archive

See Google. The have snapshots of porn sites.

The last few examples may be a long stretch but you’d get the idea. The Government cannot fully block porn and other things it deems we should not be looking at or reading, and yet if it attempts to do so our rights to partake in non-porn activities will be impeded, and that’s even before you consider that our internet speeds could be up to 78% slower due to the firewall itself.

This video needs no explanation. Did someone say brain damage? 🙂

This is pretty close to being one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen 🙂

Read this.

WTF? Instead of the issue being focused on yet another couple of AFL players being on the Persian rugs, I say yet another couple because if you look at the Weagles alone more than one are on them, the problem is Channel 7 publishing the truth. Yes folks: AFL players may boycott the Brownlow because Channel 7 said that they had evidence that AFL players were on the Persian rugs. I know now why my son will play the game from Heaven (Rugby Union) and not AFL. Want your next AFL team, head down to your nearest dark corner. As long as the AFL continues to condone drug use with absurd media bans and other behavior, Australians should unite and boycott the AFL, or perhaps just take drugs, after all that is what they are condoning.

Golden: from the same party that delivered a Prime Minister that held the world record for beer drinking comes Kevin Rudd, potentially (likely) the next Prime Minister of Australia who whilst representing Australia at the UN in 2003 allegedly got so maggoted he visited a strip club and “was warned against touching the dancers” by the management of Scores “Gentleman’s Club”. 

Even more hysterical is Rudd’s denial:

“After dinner, Mr Allan suggested to Mr Snowdon and I that we all go on for a drink. Mr Snowdon and I agreed,” he said.

“By that stage, I had had too much to drink.

“With the benefit of hindsight, I should not have gone on for a further drink.

“Not withstanding the fact that I had had too much to drink, I have no recollection (nor does Mr Snowdon) of any incident occurring at the nightclub – or of being asked to leave.

“It is our recollection that we left within about an hour.”

Short story: he was too pissed to remember. In some ways it actually makes me more likely to vote for him, but I get the feeling some Australian’s wont see it this way. I wonder if this was the big secret story Crikey was alluding to a couple of months back.

Spot reference: Rudds New York trip cost taxpayers $18k. I wonder if he claimed for the money he placed in the strippers g-strings? 🙂

Makes sense, at least at the same level that religion as a whole does.

Spot question courtesy of Richard Dawkins: if there is a supernatural creator, who created the creator? 🙂