[LINK] THE Federal Government had rejected mandatory filtering of the Internet to stop child pornography

[Jan Whitaker]

At 08:54 PM 6/12/2004, David Goldstein wrote:
>America aint no bastion of freedom of expression ­ far from it,
>it heavily censors those whose views don’t fit. It doesn’t need
>a filtering system ­ it has the courts and religious right.

I would add two words to change the impression David gives here.  Those 
words are "any more".  Prior to Bush's takeover of the country in October 
2001 [he was on vacation most of the time before then, even though he took 
office in January], the US wasn't like this.  I do hope people remember 
that and don't try to revise history, at least the time in my memory, to 
suggest otherwise.  It is disgusting to me as an American the way things 
have gone. I used to be proud of my heritage and still am, of the 
heritage.  It's the current state of affairs that makes me sick.  Pity 
what's happening to Australia, too, under the current government.  The 
sheep aren't only in the paddocks.  Present company mostly excepted.

It's funny what gets allowed and what gets stopped when comparing various 
countries [I won't call them cultures].  In Australia, brothels and 
gambling are legal nearly everywhere.  In the US, it was that Nevada had 
the only legal brothels and legal gambling.  The gambling bit has changed a 
lot recently.  Not sure about brothels.  The amount of sex and nudity shown 
open broadcast TV is/was? much higher in Australia than in the US.  Cable 
was different, breaking ground with the subscription only Playboy channel 
in the 70s [don't quote me on the year].

What was that saying about let them eat cake and bread and circuses?

Jan [come on guys, where are the silly season jokes?  This is much too 
serious. :-) ]



JLWhitaker Associates
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at melbpc.org.au  --  http://member.melbpc.org.au/~jwhit/whitentr.htm
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