Terry’s Tidbits
Remarkable Stupidity
August 8. 2005
Ms. Call and Ms. Ward-Pugh tell us that people do not have the right to do whatever they please regardless of the consequences to other people. Following this logic, one can question the wisdom of the city council doing whatever it pleases regardless of the consequences to other people.
Read: http://www.forces-kentucky.us/
Fun With Nazis – Serious Business
Here’s exactly what we are talking about when we use the term Nazi when speaking of antismoking groups and all other “anti-groups” that concern themselves with the removal of our citizens’ rights by screaming about the children and “the greater good.”
http://www.terrystidbits.com/new_page_123.htm
Brain Dead Activists
I recently got briefly involved with an internet forum opposing the smoking ban in Lexington Kentucky. This is good, I thought, the more the merrier in this fight against Nazi tactics and oppression.
I posted a couple of web addresses to the forum; quite sure that these links could provide important information about what is going on around the country, tactics that the tobacco Nazis use, and how to respond to them. Any help at all in this stupid war is most always welcome and needed.
I was informed that Lexington has enough on its plate with the smoking ban to worry about what is going on it the rest of the country. Okay, they don’t understand, I thought. The information that these sites can provide is like a large road map to how this battle is progressing, the enemy’s tactics, the size of their armies, and what battle tactics have been used against them and which ones were successful and which ones failed. Using the information on these sites is like capturing an enemy courier carrying battle plans from headquarters to the field commanders.
I posted to the forum again that this war against the Nazis isn’t about just Lexington and it isn’t about just smoking. It is about the propaganda, loss of individual freedoms, and the general mentality behind any legislation that takes the same tones as smoking bans – oppression for “the common good” without regard to the individual.
My post was immediately placed on the forum board and I read what I had written. My use of the term Nazi was replaced with “control freaks”. I wondered if I had indeed written “control freaks” as that is not an uncommon term for me. So I added a post explaining that where it said “control freaks”, though appropriate, it was supposed to say Nazis. Again, my post was immediately placed on the forum and it read, “Where it says ‘control freaks’ in my post, it is supposed to say ‘control freaks'”.
Obviously someone had programmed the forum to replace certain unacceptable or offensive words and Nazi had been programmed to say “control freaks”. I went through the roof. This forum of girly men, afraid to offend, had refused to accept assistance to help them in the fight, was too gutless to use the appropriate term, and too mired in political correctness to refer those who would remove our basic individual freedoms and their agendas, NAZIS!
With Thomas Paine right behind me, I high-tailed it out of there, baffled. But Tommy followed and whispered a brief explanation of their actions with a bitter encouragement, summed up in one statement: “They are a house divided against itself and though the expressions be pleasantly arranged, they will be words of sound only, and though they may amuse the ear, they cannot inform the mind.”
June 13, 2005
http://www.terrystidbits.com/current_week.htm
June 13 – The word is getting out – As time marches on and the ban proponents keep peddling their poison, there has been a positive shift in public perception. No longer is the tobacco control industry able to spout its lies about secondhand smoke in a vacuum. Too many in the public are becoming educated to the fact that the “evidence” and “proof” that secondhand smoke is harmful has been constructed out of a tissue of deception.
As Louisville Kentucky debates whether to install prohibition, a resident observes that, according to the facts, secondhand smoke is a nuisance, not a health hazard. As a counterpoint to this common sense message another Louisville resident extols smoking bans as a way to cut down on liquor sales in restaurants and bars! In this case, at least, this prohibitionist is speaking the truth.
Microsoft under fire for censoring China blogs
By Reed Stevenson
Jun 14, 2005
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp.”s new MSN China Internet venture is censoring words such as “freedom,” “democracy” and “human rights” on its free online journals, Microsoft said on Tuesday, putting itself in the middle of a major Web controversy.
The world”s largest software maker said that its “MSN Spaces” service operated out of China, which allows users to set up their own blogs, or online journals, was acting in accordance with local laws.
“MSN abides by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates,” said Brooke Richardson, MSN lead product manager.
The move comes as the Chinese government attempts to tighten control over the Internet. Last week, a media watchdog group said China would close unregistered China-based domestic web sites and blogs. About three-quarters of domestic Web sites had complied with the registration orders, the group, Reporters without Borders said, citing Chinese figures.
Microsoft rivals such as Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO – news), eBay Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and InterActiveCorp., which have made a string of acquisitions to expand their operations in China, have also been known to censor content in the country.
Words and phrases banned in the subject line of entries for Microsoft”s MSN Spaces on Tuesday also included “Taiwan independence” and “demonstration,” which returned an error message saying “prohibited language, please remove.”
Not even former and current leaders” names such as “Mao Zedong” or “Hu Jintao” were allowed.
Most of the phrases, however, were allowed in the body of the entries.
Other blog sites lashed out at Microsoft. Online tech forum Slashdot had user comments calling the censorship a “really really awful thing” and accusing the software giant of trying to appease China”s government in the interest of conducting business.
Matt Rosoff, analyst at Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm in Kirkland, Washington, pointed out that any censorship by Microsoft”s online service was relatively minor compared to the broader censorship by the Chinese government over all Internet activity.
“If Microsoft wants to do business in China they have to obey the laws set by the Chinese government,” Rosoff said, adding that “they”ve done the calculations and decided this was worth it.”
Microsoft”s censorship was first reported by bloggers and news outlets in Asia after MSN Spaces was launched in China on May 26. So far, five million blogs have been created with the service, Microsoft said.
The company has long seen China as a key growth market, but also as a headache because of widespread software piracy and copyright issues. China represents the world”s second-largest Internet market with 94 million users at the end of 2004, a number expected to rise to 134 million by the end of this year, according to official data.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft launched MSN China last month by establishing a joint venture with government-operated Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd. (SAIL) to develop more communication, information and content tied to China.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/microsoft_china_dc
