CENSORSHIP DOWN UNDER

The Australian Government is about to introduce Internet censorship

Censorship.

And you may well think-”So What”, but, this, could be setting a dangerous precedent.

They want to introduce a so-called “filter” to servers, the excuse is to “protect children from harmful sites”, which is a worthy cause.

But, this could be the “start of something big”, because if it catches on we are all at risk.

Digital Liberty Coalition (DLC)

The idea is that the Government will decide which web sites will be accesssible, the filter could include sites that the Gov doesn’t think are suitable, such as perhaps, anti Gov campaigning sites or BLOGS that do not conform to their idea of “suitable”.

And yes we are talking Free Speech, the “war” on our rights to say what we want, to whom me want, is yet again under threat.

The insidious erosion of our rights is, it seems worldwide, Governments tend to do this a lot-piggyback contentious acts on the rump of seemingly “sensible” laws, and then use the “Law” to decimate our rights. The “Anti-Terror Laws in the UK is a prime example.

Apparently only a few hundred people turned out to protest, the Australian Peoples lethargy could cost us all dearly.



Another contentious issue is ID Cards, personally I am sort of in favour if:

a) They are free.
b) They replace the Passport
c) They replace the driving license.
d) They are not used for “tracking” people (GPS Chip)

ID Cards

The publics support has decreased from 60 to 55 percent, the main reason for disagreeing with the introduction was-interference with public freedom, the second was that the Government couldn’t be trusted to keep our details secure.

After the report that the Gov was going to sell off our medical records, I am not surprised.


BBC SPORT

I knew I shouldn’t have commented of the Cricket, they blew it, but Kevin Peterson is confident the team will “bouce back” and as it is Christmas I suppose miracles can happen!


And finally from Auntie- Investors reel from Madoff shock

Yet another balls up in the financial sector, $50 Billion down the drain because of De-regulation, this time by the American Government, but of course British banks have been hit as well-that sounds familiar.

Angus

THE NEW WORLD

Still feel as though I’ve been run over by a truck, but here goes.



From the BBC:

IBM is about to start research on a new computer. The circuits will mimic the brain, it’s called “cognitive computing” and they are hoping to produce something with the level of a cats’ brain.

Two things I don’t like about this:

The word “cognitive” gives me the willies : To be, to be CBT, or to be CCBT or even to watch CBBC.

And:

What firkin use is a computer with the “brain” of a cat, the bloody thing will spend all day chasing the mouse (I love my pussy).






From Auntie Financial giant A Darling is about to “expose” his pre-budget report, and the nice kind man is probably going to give us tax cuts and more public spending.

All very nice, the “chancellor” thinks that this will stimulate the economy, and everything will be hunky dory again.

What a load of bollocks, what got us in this firkin mess in the first place was “Ali and Gord” playing monopoly with our money, the downside of these “nice bits” is, that in a year or so Ali will hit us with tax rises and cuts in public spending, to make back the £100 BILLION that he has borrowed.

Tax cuts don’t help the millions of pensioners because they don’t pay tax, tax cuts don’t help the sick or the unemployed because THEY don’t pay tax.

So whom will it help? It is aimed at those “on lowest incomes, partly because they have the highest propensity to spend - for the good of the economy - and also for reasons of social justice."

So, Ali and Gord think that giving a few quid a week to people on the minimum wage who are struggling with paying the bills now will enable them to rush out and spend it “all” and kick-start the economy.

What firkin world are they living in, it’s OK if you are getting £150,000 a year, you can probably ride it out but, please, Ali you have as much chance of that working as you have of being Chancellor after the next election.



1984 is here (nearly), from the BEEB -£1,000 fine for wrong ID details. One of the Govs’ other brainwaves the ID card is about to crawl out from under its rock.

“Identity cards for foreign nationals will be issued from next week, with the first cards being issued to British citizens at the end of next year in a pilot project for airside workers at Manchester and London City airports.”


“The document reveals that most people will have to pay more for ID cards than the £30 fixed fee previously discussed when large scale issuing of cards begins in 2011 or 2012.
Fines will also apply if cardholders fail to report their cards lost or stolen, and will be enforceable by the civil courts.”

“Homeless people wanting ID cards may be able to give their home address as a bench, bus stop or park where they are often found.”

What?

But this is the best bit-“ But providing false information, tampering with the register, giving out people's data without authorisation and holding false ID documents will be a criminal offence.

Anyone found guilty of unauthorised disclosure of information on the national identity register or an ID card application, would face up to two years in prison, while anyone found guilty of hacking into the ID database could be jailed for up to 10 years.”

They don’t need to hack into the system you stupid plonkers; the bloody Government is losing our data faster than it can make up excuses.

Mind you if they put the Gov in nick for ten years at least we will have some peace for a while.


That’s all for today, part two of “our first cars” will be up tomorrow, I hope.

Angus