Israeli soldiers are pouring into Gaza, laying waste to all they see. Diggers threw themselves upon the Turkish coast and brought death and plague to the Turkish soldiers.

Both are defending their nation and their family. They become soldiers to defend. Soldiers die so that we don’t have to. Whether the war is just or not, a true soldier is unimpeachable despite his actions. He sacrifices his humanity so that we can keep ours. Politicians ask them to attack.

Politicians from most nations have at one point or another asked the young men and women of their country to die for it. Two great weights press on the politician, one the weight of sending their sons and daughters to the slaughter, the other the weight of protecting the lives of the populace that demands protection. Question the politician’s motives. Do they come from wisdom or the pressure of the fearful? The public howl at the politician, the flames of their demands fanned by the tongue of the scaremonger.

The Scaremonger could be anyone: soldier, politician, civilian, media. Their fear runs unchecked and spills out as anger. Their anger takes form as persuasion. They will lie, cheat and coerce to make everyone else as scared as they are. They will mobilise everything they can to crush that which scares them. They are malicious; they prey on the weak minded.

They will point out threats where there are none – people will believe them.

They will threaten the weak with promises of pain – people will join the scaremonger.

They will make scaremongers of the weak – people become sheep.

Hate the scaremonger.

You can’t kill the instant the technology produces, we can only criminalize it. – Lessig #nocleanfeed

We can’t stop our kids from using it, we can only drive it underground – Lessig #nocleanfeed

We can’t make our kids passive again, we can only make them “pirates” … and is that good? – Lessig #nocleanfeed

This was worth blogging as some food for thought. Thanks to Gavin Heaton for tweeting these.

Take this under the broad topic of censoring the internet, it’s more than pornography.

The last point interests me. If discipline is used to stop unruly behaviour, but doesn’t, what are we telling our children about the nature of parenting? That punishment doesn’t require rationale? That we aren’t serious about that which we shun? That we expect our children to turn away from us and that we will villify them for it?

I want this to be a big thing. I want to start a shave for a cure team to represent the Australian online community.

A bit of background.

My fiance Naomi received a phone call mid way through last year from her foster mother. Her brother James, just 21 years old, had been diagnosed with Leukaemia and had to undergo emergency chemotherapy within days if he wanted any chance of living. It was a shock to the whole family. James was one of the healthiest young men you would meet. Healthy diet, played sports, didn’t smoke, didn’t binge drink.

Leukaemia is an indiscriminate assailant. Though a quick google can tell you all you need to know about how horrible and deadly it is.

I’ve started a team for this year’s Shave for a cure fundraiser and I intend on raising at least $500 for the cause. I desire, however, to build a team from the Australian blogosphere and raise $5000 for the cause.

So please, whether you’re colouring or shaving, head to the site and join in with the websinthe team. It’s a good cause.

Current Members (order joined)

• Kieran Salsone (c) – Shave and paint (silver)
• Naomi Bicheno – Shave
• Jasmine Marosvary – colour (purple)
• Andrew Glancey
• Tiara Shafiq – colour (purple)
• Andrea Schaul
• Alannah Pye
• Brendan Halliday

Still awaiting packs in the mail, will update when recieved.

Despite the nominations for this list basically just confirming what I already thought, ordering these people was tough. There is so little difference between places 10 through 3 that I agonised over the ranking for at least half an hour. That’s a long time for me to care about something.

That being said, I am aware of people that deserve a mention for consistant and unrelenting dedication to the cause. After writing the descriptions of each person on the list, I became aware of just how honoured I am to know these people. They are all good, intelligent and socially-minded people.

10: Dale Clapperton

Dale may no longer be at the helm of the EFA, but he was when the storm broke. Apart from numerous submissions to parliament about the filtering issues and other EFA concerns, Dale was the public face of the voice of reason when he appeared on Sunrise to stir up mainstream support for the cause.

9: Jon Seymour

“Fighting the philterphiles that be”. Jon has established himself as a mainstay in the debate with his site BroadBannedRevolution, his numerous reliable tweets and healthy contribution to the behind the scenes mailing lists.

8: Jim Stewart

Jim represents the business arguement against blocking the internet. His letter to Bernadette McMenamin stole one of Conroy’s biggest supporters and showed that the core opposition to the filter was more than just angry geeks wanting more porn.

7: Colin Jacobs

Colin’s position as the vice-chair of the EFA gives him a front-row seat in the debate. Colin is described as the ‘reasoned and reasonable one’. His ability to calm hysteria and get straight to the issues is much appreciated where the internet is concerned.

6: Michael Meloni

Michael is truly passionate about putting a stop to censorship and the government’s wanton use of hysteria in promoting its agenda. He’s also a top bloke.

5: Geordie Guy

Geordie is the very vocal, very pointy end of the EFA stick. His discussion online and offline has been one of the forces keeping the movement ticking.

4: Irene Graham

Irene sits so high in the list because of her long standing opposition to censorship and also because of the incredible body of material she has built surrounding the topic. Her contribution to the stop-censorship list has been phenominal and helped keep everyone else on track. Her coherent and compelling discussion of the topic is second to none. She’s won more arguements about censorship than most people have gotten themselves into.

3: Stilgherrian

Stil has written quite a lot of very public facing work against the government filter and is often the point of reference when discussing the topic. There were very few nominations that didn’t mention his name. While there isn’t anything extraordinary about him compared to the already extraordinary people on this list, Stil, Geordie, Irene and Colin represent the forefront of the internet’s defence mechanism.

2: Mark Newton

While the filter was promised in Rudd’s election platform, it took Mark to throw a light on it. Especially active in the whirlpool community, Mark has been the heavy hitter of the issue. His few rounds in the ring have been explosive. Senator Conroy originally tried to have Mark’s employers reprimand him for his public comments about the filter and the fallout from such obviously underhanded government tactics quickly roused the online denizens of Australia.

1: Scott Ludlum

If you look at the opening shot of Scott Ludlum questioning Stephen Conroy in the Senate, he appears to be bathed in some kind of divine light. This seems symbolic of the tactics used by the two politicians. On one hand Senator Ludlum is a concerned, honest and pointed check and balance. On the other hand, Stephen Conroy manages to fulfill every stereotype about politicians being never answering questions and feeding nothing but shit to the public. Scott tops the list because he’s the one talking to the politicians that will block this in the senate.

Without Scott’s contribution in the Senate, our discussion here in the blogosphere is little more than ranting and railing. We need to mobilise political assets as much as we need to mobilise ourselves. This is why there has been a recent push to rebrand the debate for lay people.

Honourable Mentions

HM: Jasmine Marosvary – DLC member ran the Brisbane rally.

HM: Sam Clifford – Excellent speaker at the Brisbane Rally and promising activist.

HM: Mike Fitzsimon – Consistant and valuable contribution to the debate.

HM: Nic Suzor – Current chair of the EFA.

HM: Mark Pesce – No discussion about the filter would be complete without him.

HM: Donna Ashelford – Quite neatly destroyed any recourse Conroy may have had to denying technical limitations.

HM: Nathaniel Boehm – Always contributing. Main way by which we kept track of Senate goings on through openaustralia.org

I’m sorry if I missed anyone and I understand that the HM list is a little Brisbane-centric.

N.B. I haven’t forgotten Michael Malone – his awesomeness deserves his own post.

N.B. THIS POST IS A SPOOF

It had to happen eventually. The sycophantic upstarts of my generation have made a pro-filtering facebook group.

This is what I posted to that group.

***
If you were all so worried about porn then why are you still looking at it?

Why didn’t you get a free filter and figure out how to use it before your beloved Conroy shut them down?

Why don’t you want to learn how to parent properly?

Why do you feel the need to allow this oppressive infrastructure to be built?

Thank you for advocating a world where our governments fear nothing and we allow them to pull the blinkers over our eyes.

I appreciate your right to have this group, it is, after all free speech. I find it ironic then that you would ’speak out’ against free speech.

And no, free speech is not another word for porn, as much as Conroy and your priests would like you to believe it is. If this was about porn then Conroy would be giving the money to the police, you know, the guys that actually DO something about this stuff.
***

I forgot to mention that many of these people are probably unaware that they brought most of their ‘accidental’ porn viewing on themselves by downloading viruses and trojans, something that can’t be solved by a filter, only brains.

The anti-censorship lobby is accused of supporting all kinds of nasty things by viciously ignorant rednecks all the time. So given that this is my site and I can still voice my opinion unmolested by the government, I’d like to take this opportunity to tell the pro-filtering group what they are really supporting.

1. The defunding of Police: The Pro-censorship lobby supports taking money away from law enforcement agencies charged with protecting your children from peadophiles and con artists. The pro-filtering lobby, including this facebook group are anti-police and are frequently engaged in violence against police.
2. The degredation of the family unit: Those that support the internet filter are also against families. They feel that parenting should play no part in a child’s upbringing and that this should be handled by the state. They also supported the stolen generation.
3. Despotic regimes: The pro-censorship group supports despotic regimes such as those run by Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler. Nazis supported censorship.
4. The adult shopping industry: The pro-censorship lobby, by blocking internet porn, the pro-censorship lobby hopes to increase demand for bricks and mortar porn shops which can then be built next to your child’s school or church.

I’d like to point out at this stage that the above list is pretty much just a rewording of the kind of crap that those supporting the filter say about the anti-censorship lobby all the time.

Yes, I understand that that is all over the top. That was intended. I figure that there is no more appropriate way of welcoming Mr Bloor to the debate. I won’t be so imaginative in the future though, I look forward to hearing his point of view and perhaps even changing mine slightly if he is indeed right.

N.B. THIS BIT IS NOT A SPOOF

Freedom of speech is not about being able to see porn, it’s about knowing that you can call for help and won’t have the government’s hand over your mouth.

Israel is throwing a tantrum. I’m not going to justify these children by giving them attention.

Photo Courtesy of Ben Grubb.

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