Get Up Stand Up, GetUp! for your Lefts ...

Just when I thought I could put the circle-jerking Fanatical Religious Zealots over at Whirlpool's "ILCF" (ISP Level Content Filtering) forum thread in a blog thread all but itself (see the "derblatz" link) and leave it out of this one, they go and bring a whole new level of scary and disturbed comedy to the stage ... stuff so internutty that I can deem it worthy of a rant in here.

Hang on to your noses coz this is gonna get a little more offensive than usual. :)

As you may have realised, I've found the "waa, waa, waa"ing going on among the aforementioned quite fascinating. I mean, who couldn't help but be amused by a whole bunch of folk going "Teh Governet is out to enslave the nation and take away free speech, it is Hitler and Stalin and Mao all over again" (always funny to hear Gen-XYZers say that !) when at best the unlikely reality is that all of a sudden they may have to start paying instead of saying "Thank you for the music, the songs I'm stealing" or the movies they are "pirating", as well as face the prospect of having to get through a few more layers of conscience in order to click one handed through the kind of online material that their Grandmas, Mothers, Wives, Girlfriends, Sisters and Daughters would probably most wish did not even exist in the first place, let alone that their grandkids, dads, husbands, boyfriends and brothers were encouraging its continued development and proliferation along with all the heartache, degradation, disrespect and even slavery it brings !

Ok, I exaggerated. I realise the Gen-XYZers aren't necessarily big on "thank you"s ...

Anyway, these forever plugged in lifeless worshippers of "The Internut" who deem it to be the sacred cow of our age as well as unimaginatively consider it "the last bastion of free speech" want the likes of you and I to think that they have our best interests at heart by trying to PREVENT suitable and justifiable national rating and control of internut/online content as it is done in The Real World where all the Real Living is done.

Yeah right ... get your sticky hands off it - we all know who you really are thinking of; you're not fooling anyone other than yourselves if you really believe that.

So what are these fanatical virtual anarchists up to now ? Well it seems that there is no loathsome low to go to when it comes to the situation of maintaining the link between The Addict and The Supply/Poison. They've now reached the stage where they are haplessly handing over cash to an Oz organization that is so Radically-Extreme-Yet-Carefully-Camouflaged-Left that they make the Evil Lefty Greens look like die Hitler-Jugend !

But Of Course I am referring to "GetUp!". If you've not heard of them before, the "GetUp!" stands for "Greenie Environmentalist Terrorists Undermining Peace!" though they would never tell you it stands for that ... but Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Baum, ja?

This gaily painted sinister lobbying group casts the combined shadow of every Lefty political party you could imagine, including those yet to be spawned from whatever Bog of Eternal Stench it is that continually manages to foist such wrongness upon common humanity.

Think of every issue and controversy that divides Oz and you will find the GetUp! crowd busy lobbying in favour of those on the WRONG side of the division and working towards making things even WORSE for Oz than it already is.

This unsavoury mob not only worked hard spending conned, uh, donated coin to put Kevin747 into Government at the last Federal Election, but also had the favour gratefully returned by being allocated no less than an alleged ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN SEATS in KRudds own little circle-jerk involving the ridiculous and highly unrepresentative "Summit of 1000 Best And Brightest Brains".

HA and BAH !

With so much "Left" on the collection of 1000 chattering useless clueless noses in the publicly funded trough, nongs, it is no wonder our nation is rapidly being reduced to going around in circles ... having one leg shorter than the other tends to do that, but I digress.

So what are the ingredients of this cake half baked ?

On one hand we have a bunch of internut worshipping freeloaders worried about having to pay for supply and Do The Right Thing for a change, and on the other we have a shady organization with the typical Loony Lefty Left agendas always pragmatically happy to relieve the naive of their coin and raise their lobbying profile at the same time by associating themselves with popular faddish causes likely to get media attention.

Real "Cake and Eat it too" stuff ... and history tells us what usually happens to THOSE types.

Oh, I should mention that because they are a political lobbying group, thankfully the coin fleeced from the seduced desperate special interest groups that sustain and sponsor their true evil causes, is not tax deductible - so it isn't ALL bad.

So what is going to be the likely outcome of all this ILCF hoohaa ?

What is going to be the likely result of the GetUp! marriage to the ugly useless bride once the dowry runs out ? A dowry that could be much better spent in so many other ways and places ?

(ah, but this ain't about charity or taking care of the needy - this is about maintaining a mainline connection to The Drug !)

Oh, who cares ... fools and their money are always soon parted and there are a million and one more interesting things to be involved in out there.

Some even via the Internut here and there ...

Anyway, to paraphrase one Captain Oates, a truly noble and brave soul (as opposed to moi), "I am just going offline and may be some time".

All this online madness is prompting me for some overdue DownTime along with a Reality Check, so I'm out to explore life offline for a while.

Oh yeah, just in case I don't pop back in here before next year, deem a Merry Bah Humbug and Happy Saturnalia to you too. :)

Keep it Real and if not, don't be too internutty ...

regarDS

Blog Clog and Circumventing Filterers

I've decided to head off the blog clog that has been beginning to form in here as a result of my recent fascination with the funny fanatical folk at whirlpool forums busy worrying about their sacred cow; the internut.

How am I addressing the blog clog ? By creating a secondary blog, that's how.

Just like this one, there is no "sitemeter" nor any kind of tracking to let me know who has been visiting, and just like this one, there is no comment roll nor private messaging enabled.

What you will find at http://derblatz.blogspot.com/ are all the messages I've written at the whirlpool forums, including the ones that various questionable and amusing forms of moderating have tried to remove from public record with lazy/unrelated/slack/and even corrupt excuses such as "trolling", etc.

Click on the labels up at the right on the "derblatz" blog and see exactly what I mean.

Ah, but it is a tough and thankless job being a Mod so it isn't surprising when they favour the majority points of view over the contrary minority view ... tis much easier to keep the peace that way after all. As a pragmatist I can well understand and appreciate that, so no hard feelings, kids ...

As for this blog ... it's back to normal programming should I have anything particularly interesting or particularly banal or particularly offensive to share.

Maybe next week ...

regarDS

The "internut" by any other name ...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=internut
internut - an individual who spends at least 15 hours/day online in a leaky sub-basement. "when we severed the wifi conection, strange sounds emitted from the sub-basement which we thought was uninhabited; upon investigation, we learned that it was the domain of the internut."

**** Selah ****

Recently I happened upon a serious and snarly little collective of apparently long-regular web forum inhabitants and was quite shocked that not only were many of them somewhat ignorant of the titled ancient noun/adjective/verb (how far do you think it could reasonably be stretched without totally murdering common understanding of what constitutes the English Language ?) that soon became the more applicable word to use instead of "internet", but also seemed to be somewhat offended by both its existance and use ... well, at least in their sheltered little web world.

It was very surprising to discover a collective of vocal McWeb consumers who took things "internet" so seriously that they could barely abide the thought, let alone the presence, of anyone who didn't take it as seriously as they. Especially anyone who might happen to observe and remark that their level of interest/support/defence of it was bordering on ridiculous and somewhat unhealthy ... and even (dare I say ?) "idolatrous".

Now, anyone who has bothered to wade through my more opinionated blog pages of cynical and arrogant self-righteous waffle (interspaced with tales of motor-cycle Rattery and stuff less likely to offend too many too much in one go), would quickly recognise that I just luurv to find and expose and sometimes even ridicule examples of Fanatical Religious Zealotry that don't involve the Usual Suspects related to more traditional religions and religious behaviour.

Thus far, I've drawn attention to the likes of "Environtologists and the Church of Environtology" in relation to the FRZeds (Fanatical Religious Zealots) getting all hot and bothered about Yet Another period of ice-melts in our solar-system, and then there is the "Cult of Darwin and Dawkins" and their nonsense "evolution of species" flim-flam show that continues to fail every test of evidence possible let alone make it out of base-camp on the way to falling off the cliff-face when trying to climb "Mount Improbable."

Oh, and don't get me going on so called "Sports" and "Sports Teams" and their "Fans", nor the "Cult of Celebrity" ... yup, I'm seeing religions and religious behaviour all over the place; everyone seems to have a favorite "Sacred Cow" or two, and usually at least one they just luurv to get all Fanatically Religiously Zealous about at that.

I feel that it is now time to add the very "internet" to that list of Sacred Cows folk can get FRZ about. Warning, don't mention in a favorable manner things like "filtering" or "clean stream" or ILCF (ISP Level Content Filtering) or "Senator Conroy" in the midst of the kinds of FRZeds who hold the internut to be sacred ... not unless you've got some of the following to hand over !

They won't turn you into an "internewt"; they'll help you get better. :)

**** Selah ****

[Overly Offensive Mode]

"There is nothing more offensive than the brutal truth delivered brutally to those who don't want to hear it ... except for willfully ignorant brutes who prefer and promote a lie.". - derspatz

Yeah, I don't even mind quoting myself. :)

Continuing on the topic of "content filtering" and "clean stream" etc, you've now arrived at the reason I don't bother to have "comments" turned on for his blog. I'm not interested in providing Yet Another online space for the cowardly anonymous to try and advertise their crass banalities in and nor do I have either the energy or time to filter through all the usually resulting dross and abuse in the hope of spotting a gem worth keeping. I'm already disillusioned enough with much of the more recent generations of so called "humanity" as it is thank you and thus far from keen to have it try and crap in my little Web-Nest.

I've already got THAT angle covered, cheers.

I'm so disinterested in what folk might have to say about my twitterings here that I don't even run any kind "who has visited" type auto-magic metering/logging software ... and if I don't care about who may be visiting then how much less do you think I might care about giving a voice to any who should visit ?

Got something to say ? Go join a forum or publish your own blog and maybe I'll accidentally happen upon it one day. Or better still, DON'T ! :)

So, that's a big "No" to "comment enabling" from me. Deem yourselves pro-actively filtered and think of all the time and energy we've saved each other ... and children we have protected from yet more repetitions of the more foul and offensive forms of internuttery that can be demonstrated by internuts on this here our internut. :)

[/Overly Offensive Mode]

regarDS

More on bringing the internut into the 21st century and reducing the gap betweem offline law and order and online virtual anarchy. :)

This time, here is a politician's view on it, in the form of a letter response to one of the hysterical "waa, waa, waa" crowd populating the whirlpool forums on this subject.

Dear ["not thinking of the children" (name substituted to protect the guilty)]

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding the Government’s clean feed internet filtering system. I am aware that the proposal for ISP filtering has attracted some criticism from those, like yourself, who are concerned that it will lead to censorship of the internet and to a slowing of internet speed. However, the Australian Government has no plans to stop adults from viewing material that is currently legal, if they wish to view such material.

I believe that freedom of speech is very important and the Government’s cyber-safety policy is in no way designed to curtail this. The Government wants to ensure that Australian parents can access a ‘clean feed’ internet service. This will be informed by the technology adopted in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Canada where ISP filtering, predominantly of child pornography, has been successfully introduced without affecting internet performance to a noticeable level.

The proposed ISP filtering policy is being developed through an informed and considered approach, including through industry consultation and close examination of overseas models to assess their suitability for Australia. We are committed to working closely with internet industries to address any concerns, including costs and internet speeds. These concerns will be carefully considered during the pilot and will further inform the Government’s cyber‑safety policy.

The internet is an essential tool for all Australian children through which they can exchange information, be entertained, socialise and do school work and research. The ability to use online tools effectively provides both a skill for life and the means to acquire new skills. However, while the internet has created substantial benefits for children it has also exposed them to a number of dangers, including exposure to offensive content. As such, parents rightly expect the Government to play its part in the protection of children online.

The Government has committed $125.8 million over the next four years to a comprehensive range of cyber-safety measures, including education, law enforcement and filtering. These measures include:· Education activities – funding to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to implement a comprehensive range of education activities;· Australian Federal Police (AFP) Child Protection Operations Team – funding to detect and investigate online child sex exploitation;· ISP level filtering – funding to develop and implement ISP filtering, including undertaking a real world ‘live’ pilot;· Websites / Online helpline – funding to ACMA to improve current Government cyber-safety website resources and to make them easier for parents to use, and to provide up‑to‑date information.

ACMA will also develop a children’s cyber-safety website to provide information specifically for children, and improve the online helpline to provide a quick and easy way for children to report online incidents that cause them concern;· Research – funding for ongoing research into the changing digital environment to identify issues and target future policy and funding.These initiatives will tackle the issue of cyber-safety from a number of directions to help clean up the online environment and to protect Australian children from the dangers of the internet now and into the future.

This approach acknowledges the key role parents have in the online safety of children, and provides them with the necessary information to assist with this task. This initiative also recognises that there is no single solution to ensure children can access the internet safely.Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention. I hope this information is of assistance, and please don’t hesitate me with any further concerns.

Kind regards,
Melissa Parke MP
Federal Member for Fremantle

regarDS

"Waa, Waa, Waa, teh govamin R breakn teh interweb"

No, that's not me crying and pouting because the menu at McNet is being changed in order to match the healthier diet found in the offline world. I am But Of Course talking about all those unimaginative users who are getting hysterical at the thought of one way or another having to act more or less as responsibly when plugged into the internut as they do when they are busy obeying the laws of the land in the offline world.

In case you haven't heard or don't remember, our elected government (who I didn't vote for - well, other than a vote for Family First first, and the Evil Greens last) made a promise to all who elected them (all those "working families" busy wage slaving for double incomes to pay off their negative equity and too busy to have a parent at home being, well, A Parent, and so in dire need of KRudd and Co to be defacto parents to their children instead) that something would be done to make teh McWeb a safer place for the kiddies to be ... as well as bringing it more into line with the laws of the land in relation to illegal stuff and activities as the offline world.

Enter the ISP-Level Filtering System (a bit like what the likes of Blue Coat Systems do but on a national level. Here is a link about BlueCoat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Coat_Systems )

The idea of it is to try and stop illegal material coming in, going around, or going out of the country via the internut. Sure, it is going to be difficult (actually, impossible) to get it working with 100% accuracy and without a degree of system overhead and impact, but does that mean it shouldn't be attempted ? Does that mean we should continue to persue, prevent, and prosecute illegal material and activity in the offline world of law and order only to make no attempt to tame virtual anarchy and lawlessness ?

It seems somewhat incongruous and hypocritical to me that most of us in Oz want to live in a safe country with law and order and are generally willing to act responsibly enough to make it work to a reasonable degree yet at the same time want "anything goes and damn the torpedoes" when plugged into the McNet.

Anyway, I am in principal, in support of attempts to bring into line online material and activities in Oz with the laws of the land which we have a responsibility and obligation to support if we really are interested in being worthwhile citizens.

Over at whirlpool's forums on the topic (see http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1075390 ) I'm reading a lot of "they r taking away my freeeedom" type stuff, along with a whole load of frothy hysteria, but sadly, from this alleged typical representation of internut users, I'm not seeing much in the way of anyone willing to support the prevention of illegal material, nor even begin to think of ways to take our global communications systems to new levels that benefit the whole globe (such as those locked away behind the Great Firewall of China).

It really has become the McWeb/McNet for them ... and Baby Wants It Now !

Anyway, I must get back over to whirlpool and continue to try and reason the hysterical and fanatical back down to some sort of useful ground, so I'll close off this entry with a message posted to the yahoogroups ozltuae list last night.

SOQ

>>> richary: Not quite sure if he (derspatz) is just playing devil's advocate or not
>> derspatz: Not even in the slightest.
> richary: Yes you are proposing a Gibsonesque world where everyone can jack in wherever and whenever they want. Now let's look at the real agenda you are pushing as you always have.

Breaking down the Great Firewall of China ? Getting people to see a bigger picture ?

> Which I obviously can't bring up in WP (whirlpool).

Tis certainly pretty trigger happy on the "filtering" side at WP ! Thank goodness we can let our hair down a bit here. So, let's party ! :)

Somewhat ironic considering the topic ...

> The End Times are coming

Don't worry, Obama the Messiah will save you ... well, at least appear to for a while. :)

> in the meantime lets create as much destruction and chaos as possible

Ah, so THAT's why I'm continually giving what has amounted to many thousands of dollars to Israel so that their kids can be fed and clothed and their aged can be properly housed and have hot water and their soldiers can have warm clothing and care packages and Jewish believers in Yeshua Ha Mashaiach can be compensated for things being denied to them bytheir fellow Jews in their own country merely because they dare to say "hey, we got it wrong about our brother Jesus - He is our messiah after all and silly us went and got him killed ...".

You've gone and exposed my true motivation for my giving of my not so hard earned - I'm busy sowing the seeds of chaos and destruction so Jesus will come and rescue me sooner ! (rolls eyes)

If what you are suggesting is the case, then I must have one weird interpretation of Luke chapter 12 going ... especially verse 43..

> those are the fore runners of those times. Of course, you can't do that by being nasty to anyone or hurting them as that would be a sin.

Isn't living with/sleeping in the same bed as someone who isn't one's wife a sin too ? Whatever happened to in for a penny, in for a pound ?

> let's just do it by stirring the pot for a reaction. Or as it was put on WP, trolling. Subtle trolling of course, given your skills learnt here over many years. But I recognise it for what it is, as does Mark (Newton).

(sigh) and yet if I shared the same opinions as you or Mark and the wailing mostly selfish and ignorant masses expressing their irrational fears of having their daily poisons intake reduced, there would be no mention of stirring or trolling. Kinda sad (and telling) that a well reasoned, coherent, and consistent opinion that also happens to be at odds with the majority of participants in that thread, is chosen to be viewed as trolling or stirring, mind you.

Hmmm, who are the Fanatical Religious Zealots, now, Richary ?

What I am finding even more disturbing about what I am seeing at WP, is a spoilt, selfish, "it is mine by right", and "how dare I be required to do/sacrifice/lift a finger", "what do you mean by 'responsibilities'" attitude, along with utter apathy in relation to do anything other than complain.

The spirit in there isn't about pioneering the internut into something new and better that benefits us all ... it is instead all about having what basically boils down to having a McNet to go along with every other Mcthis'n'that the Gen-likewhatevers are all about these days.

Things that make me go "Bah."

Things that also inspire me to calmly address with a basic logical yet visionary approach that exposes the fanaticisms being expressed for what they are and instead attempts to bring things back to a useful middle ground.

> But you are pushing the wrong barrow. As I recall from many years ago of bible studies it is the destruction of Israel that will bring about the rapture.

You're not trying to teach your grandma how to suck gravel there are you richary ?

> And think about the possibilities. Hypothetically a Muslim based party gains control of the Senate and deems Christian sites unacceptable. Well damn, you guys have already let the technology in so all of a sudden every Christian webpage is on the blacklist. Bad luck, you have made your own grave so lie in it. Yes it's an unlikely scenario but once the technology is in place then anything is possible.

And this is supposed to bother me because ? You do remember that you are talking to someone who finds very little (if anything) to be sacred in this world, and someone who not only isn't an idolatrous book worshipper, but rather is a self confessed book burner as circumstances dictate, along with someone who wrote message filtering and processing software for FIDOnet ?

"Empire" - Echo Mail Packet Incisive Record Extractor and all that. :)

Considering that and remembering the kinds of things I was vocally against back in FIDO days of LTUAE and the other echos, it should be of no surprise to you that I would in principal be in support of Government control of illegal material online (and more besides), so there really is no need to be making silly appeals to a notion of "I'm trying to bring about amageddon" ...

Besides, I've nearly ALWAYS been about working towards the return of Yeshua Ha Mashaiach for Him to do His "rule with a rod of iron" thing (ie, more filters), but these days I've settled upon helping Israel with my finances as being the most effective way of achieving it.

> Of course until your dream of a free from any interference "cyberspace" is possible. So instead of criticising the freedoms we have now, why don't you get off you backside and try to help design it?

You missed the suggestions I've already made about using short-hop wireless devices independent of ISPs and telcos (etc) to constantly packet forward distributed net style ? On the amateurish pirate/stealing side of things, maybe something could be made to piggyback on the mobile network in the short term by way of behind the scenes development.

Oh, and that's the other problem I'm having with most of the "waa, waa, waa" brigade on WP.

The scary lack of imagination.

Ah, that's better. I've been feeling so stifled for free and unfettered expression over the last few days at WP.

Cheers richary, for flipping the cap on that one. :)

regarDS