"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
Because we can’t be trusted to run our own lives
I don’t like to simply link to another blogger’s post, but damn, Photodude couldn’t be more spot on than he is in this entry. Then again, if it weren’t for institutional absurdity, where would we get all the good jokes? For sure, Joseph Heller would never have been able to write Catch-22. . . .
Paul Begala, co-host of CNN’s Crossfire, back in February 2004: Well, Howie Kurtz is the man, of course, who keeps a[n] eye on the media for CNN’s “RELIABLE SOURCES” and “The Washington Post.” He reports that the Bush administration is engaged in a rather novel new form of censorship. Articles that are critical of the […]
You can’t make stuff like this up . . . Here’s a link to a story about Homeland Security agents combatting copyright terrorism in a St. Helens, Oregon toy store. Thanks to Boing Boing for keeping me in touch with Ashcroft World.
My, what will they block next? Go here to find out how to get around the Pentagon’s block on the website that helps overseas US military voters cast absentee ballots. Thanks to Boing Boing for the tip!
Doing my wee bit to expose military censorship – specifically the military’s efforts to prevent its personnel from viewing certain internet sites – is becoming a hobbyhorse of mine. I’ve blogged about such censorship before, here, here, and here. And now, thanks to Eric Umansky, I learn of another category of web sites being blocked or filtered […]
My friend Baldrick, an English expat working in Saudi Arabia, informs me that my other sites, the Half-Mind Weblog and Half-Mind Catalog, are officially blocked by the Ministry of Information. He and I wondered why. Then, tonight, he told me about another blocked link, this one to the CD cover you see above. Now that […]
The answer: you’ll never be told . . . Read this: Despite 2 Terror Tapes, No Alert Issued on Vegas, Memos Show. Remember the mayor in Jaws? The one who didn’t want tourists to hear about nasty old sharks? The unfortunate thing about stereotypes is that they’re so often true. The United States is just […]
We support freedom of speech . . . as long as you don’t listen! On the job I access the internet through a military network (I’m a civilian contractor on a U.S. Air Force base). The military has always used filters to deny access to web sites containing pornography, hate speech, or games, but lately […]