Journalistic Attempt
Mythology for Modern Times
“Finnish wizards used to sell wind to storm-stayed mariners. The wind was enclosed in three knots; if they undid the first knot , a moderate wind would sprang up; if the second, it blew half a gale; if the third, a hurricane. “ - from The Golden Bough by Sir James G. Frazer
KNOT FREE
There is a worldwide furor blowing about internet privacy rights, and how much online content providers have to conform to government regulations. At what point does bending over and taking it stop being good business and start being a human rights violation? For the first knot in our rope of wind, we go to …China!
Earlier this year, MSN Spaces shut down the blog of a Chinese national (Zhao Jing) whose blogs rubbed Chinese government censors the wrong way. He wrote about a high profile newspaper strike in Beijing, prompted by the firing of the independent minded editor of the Beijing News. 100 journalists struck to protest, which is very odd in a country that has almost no professional journalistic organizations, and even fewer protections for those who stray outside of reporting the State’s version of The News. But it gets better. Microsoft’s own blogging software is designed to filter out those dirty words like “democracy” and “human rights” from blog titles to aid the government in deleting posts and tracking down and arresting “dissidents”. Thanks MSN! And Yahoo is no better, after providing the Chinese government with information from a personal email account that led to the arrest of a Chinese journalist who was writing about Chinese returning to China for the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. Google censors websites for Falun Gong, an “illegal” organization in China. Google “Taiwan independence” and see what you get. The servers for these companies are maintained here in the good old U.S.A., but spokespersons for these companies insist they are obligated to “follow local custom and law”. Really?
Do you want to know more?
Radio-Free Asia
So, fellow news-becalmed sailors, let’s untie the second knot and see what half a gale feels like. Why, it looks like porn! That’s right, the Guvmint is trying to revive the Child Online Protection Act, which will keep The Children safe from…wait. Hang on. The Supreme Court declared that act unconstitutional! Not because the Supreme Court likes pornographic material (well, not as far as we know. Paging Clarence Thomas?). It was because the Act would violate the right to privacy and the rights of free expression that we all expect from the Internet, our ISP’s, and our online content providers. You know, like MSN, Yahoo, and Google. But now the DOJ (That’s Department of Justice to canny Beltway-savvy bloggers) has requested…nay, demanded that these companies turn over the search results of you and me over. The idea being to illustrate how easy it is to find porn on the internet, and thus to justify censoring websites and tracking what Americans are surfing for. Of course, this is basically data strip-mining with a truck of ammonium nitrate…but Microsoft and Yahoo have already complied. Thanks guys! I’ll be sure to quit searching for Natalie Portman Nude on MSN Search. Thank God for Google, who is challenging this in court. Since most of these companies have bent over and dropped their pants for the Chinese government, it’s no surprise they are getting out the K-Y for our own. And it’s you and me, fellow Americans, who are going to wake up sore and wonder where our rights went.
Do you want to know more?
Reuters Story
And now it’s time to make a hurricane. Take 2 ounces of rum, ½ a teaspoon of grenadine…wait. No, I mean a REAL hurricane. How about domestic wiretapping? The former head of the NSA, General Hayden, had this to say today:
“The tools and techniques and tactics and procedures we use to determine ‘Is this an al Qaeda communications?’ are the same tools, techniques, tactics and procedures we use to tell America’s armed forces that ‘you can go ahead and put a 500-pound bomb on that target,’ ” Hayden said. “It’s the same art and science. So this is not done … idly.”
Oh man, that’s a relief. I mean…
Oops, Sorry Kurds
Oops, Sorry Afghans
Oops, Sorry Iraqis
I’m glad to know that we’re being careful.
“Finnish wizards used to sell wind to storm-stayed mariners. The wind was enclosed in three knots; if they undid the first knot , a moderate wind would sprang up; if the second, it blew half a gale; if the third, a hurricane. “ - from The Golden Bough by Sir James G. Frazer
KNOT FREE
There is a worldwide furor blowing about internet privacy rights, and how much online content providers have to conform to government regulations. At what point does bending over and taking it stop being good business and start being a human rights violation? For the first knot in our rope of wind, we go to …China!
Earlier this year, MSN Spaces shut down the blog of a Chinese national (Zhao Jing) whose blogs rubbed Chinese government censors the wrong way. He wrote about a high profile newspaper strike in Beijing, prompted by the firing of the independent minded editor of the Beijing News. 100 journalists struck to protest, which is very odd in a country that has almost no professional journalistic organizations, and even fewer protections for those who stray outside of reporting the State’s version of The News. But it gets better. Microsoft’s own blogging software is designed to filter out those dirty words like “democracy” and “human rights” from blog titles to aid the government in deleting posts and tracking down and arresting “dissidents”. Thanks MSN! And Yahoo is no better, after providing the Chinese government with information from a personal email account that led to the arrest of a Chinese journalist who was writing about Chinese returning to China for the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. Google censors websites for Falun Gong, an “illegal” organization in China. Google “Taiwan independence” and see what you get. The servers for these companies are maintained here in the good old U.S.A., but spokespersons for these companies insist they are obligated to “follow local custom and law”. Really?
Do you want to know more?
Radio-Free Asia
So, fellow news-becalmed sailors, let’s untie the second knot and see what half a gale feels like. Why, it looks like porn!
Do you want to know more?
Reuters Story
And now it’s time to make a hurricane. Take 2 ounces of rum, ½ a teaspoon of grenadine…wait. No, I mean a REAL hurricane. How about domestic wiretapping? The former head of the NSA, General Hayden, had this to say today:
“The tools and techniques and tactics and procedures we use to determine ‘Is this an al Qaeda communications?’ are the same tools, techniques, tactics and procedures we use to tell America’s armed forces that ‘you can go ahead and put a 500-pound bomb on that target,’ ” Hayden said. “It’s the same art and science. So this is not done … idly.”
Oh man, that’s a relief. I mean…
Oops, Sorry Kurds
Oops, Sorry Afghans
Oops, Sorry Iraqis
I’m glad to know that we’re being careful.
Damn the editor in me. I'll limit my comment to one point.
I object to the use of pedophilic implications with discussion of COPA. It's a logical fallacy or three. I'm guessing it was tongue in cheek, but it weakens the arugment and confuses the issue.
Not your writing, but in a link it seems to me that Reuters story may be confusing COPA and COPPA.
Posted by
annie |
3:31 PM
Edited to reflect what you mentioned...the original article I read about COPA made it sound as if it was designed to crack down on kiddie porn. This is both the strength and weakness of internet reporting...I felt I had researched something enough to blog about it, but I was wrong. However, it was easily corrected, unlike in print media. For anyone who is interested, here is a link to the original court challenge of the ACLU vs Janet Reno regarding COPA: http://www.epic.org/free_speech/copa/complaint.html
Posted by
Aaron |
3:40 PM
eek, that sounds harsh.
Things I really like:
the three-fold structure mimicking the winds myth.
the overall colloqial style
synthesis of several issues in the news that look different when standing together.
Posted by
annie |
3:59 PM
E-mail me with constructive criticism...I want to keep doing this, and it took about an hour to throw this thing together. I want to get faster, and more accurate.
Posted by
Aaron |
4:23 PM