475

“After standing on the stage, after the debates, I made it very plain, we will not have an all-volunteer army. And yet, this week—we will have an all-volunteer army. Let me restate that.” – GW Bush

474

“Politicians don’t get logic or sarcasm; they only understand two very different things: money and votes.” – Josh Mehlan

473

“And so during these holiday seasons, we thank our blessings.” – GW Bush

472

“When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” – Buckminster Fuller

The Labor Party tentacles reach far and fast. This is almost real time censorship.

On Fri 18-12-2009 auDA issued a notice giving us 3 hours to provide evidence of our eligibility to hold stephenconroy.com.au and related domain names. We asked for reasonable time to prepare and make representations on our eligibility but auDA refused to grant this, insisting we reply within the 3 hour window.

Read the full story at Stephen-Conroy.com

471

“When I was in school, I cheated on my metaphysics exam: I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.” – Woody Allen

470

“The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois.” – Gustave Flaubert

469

“The message Kevin Rudd is giving to his people, his citizens, is a fabrication, it’s fiction.” – Lumumba Di-Aping, Copenhagen negotiator

468

“Dissent is the mark of freedom.” – Jacob Bronowski

Censored Newsnight story: PDF

Don’t get fooled again.

Black Tuesday For Freedom Of Speech In Australia

Internet censorship plan gets the green light

The Federal Government has announced it will proceed with controversial plans to censor the internet after Government-commissioned trials found filtering a blacklist of banned sites was accurate and would not slow down the internet.

Government ignores Enex warning on over-blocking

ISP filter technology tested in the Government’s controversial pilot could not block “inappropriate” content without an unacceptable amount of over-blocking, a report by Enex Testlabs has found.

The long-awaited report, released by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy today, described how ISPs participating in the trial filtered content according to three lists – the ACMA blacklist, and two lists prepared by Enex Testlabs.

At least one ISP is being honest.

Internode said only that it had its hands tied. “They’re the government. They regulate the industry. Internode will do what it’s told,” John Lindsay, Internode Carrier Relations Manager told ZDNet.com.au.

Speaking personally, not in his capacity for the company, Lindsay said he thought the government’s move was the equivalent of sending an apprentice to find a left handed hammer.

“It’s taken an entire year to come up with a way to say we ran a trial and it didn’t suck too much,” he said. “The concept of the internet changes faster than bureaucrats can keep up.”

467

“The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever.” – Anatole France

466

“Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet.” – Dave Barry

465

“Contraceptives should be used on every conceivable occasion” – Spike Milligan

464

“The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use – of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.” – Robert F Kennedy

463

“Selling customers what they desire is fundamental to any successful business. If Big Content can’t figure out how to do that, then we can only pray for their hasty demise, before they can do too much more damage to humanity’s most amazing and wonderful invention: the internet.” - Cory Doctorow

462

“Still, however well intentioned and structured, [Australia's Internet censorship plan] won’t work. Dumbest. Idea. Ever.” – Michael Malone, CEO iiNet

461

“What we want to do is check people’s intent, but we can’t because that’s hard, so we check their identity instead and pretend it’s the same thing.” – Bruce Schneier

460

“The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, it’s just sort of a tired feeling.” – Paula Poundstone

459

“America’s one of the finest countries anyone ever stole.” – Bobcat Goldthwaite