CHINASPEECH.com

impoverishedNOOBS of the world…

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 12:24 GMT

WE HAVE NO MORE TIME TO COAST

The Adult Internet is strangling in its own greed and short-sightedness – >

The enemies of free Sexual Expression on the Web have new allies – O

Media Monopolists from the Mainstream are encroaching on our borders – #

The power of the First Amendment to shelter us from Censorship grows weaker every day – @

This is a War of Definitions & MEANING

Tue, 12 Jul 2005 06:20 GMT

I recently heard someone suggest that the commonality of “arousal�? situates [new term TBD] within the spectrum of “pornography�

It does NOT.

Some folks are fond of eating shit, that doesn’t make it food.

Well enough said to require no paraphrase here:

Quote:

Originally Posted by SexyScribe
It seems to me, the simplest, clearest, easiest way to erase EVERY point that pornography is associated with cp.. is simply to STOP CALLING IT PORNOGRAPHY. There’s your active correction! Why would you want to make it more complicated and convoluted than that?

The Law enlarges with the passage of time. This means that, as a society gets older and more “advanced�?, it becomes more experienced and discovers new areas where it decides the Law should be.

Besides exhibiting a generally expansive trend, the Law, in basic opinion and in applied detail, will also generally follow the Will of the People. As we know to be the case in this country, and elsewhere, both at present and throughout history, the Law and morality may not always agree. But, since providing a moral imperative is an effective way to influence Law Makers, those who would, for their own reasons, want to bring about the criminalization of an activity that is not innately immoral will produce a moral argument in support of their position. This is why the argument for keeping marijuana illegal relates not to any direct attributes of marijuana, but to the idea that marijuana use pre-disposes those who use it to acts which are innately immoral (like robbing convenience stores) and to acts that are not innately immoral, but which have been well enough classified as immoral (like pre-marital sex)—usually by the same people.

Let us not forget that both the Law and the “Will of the People�? have, in the past, lead us down some tragic and regrettable paths. Slavery. Let us remember, also that—even against such entrenched dogma and cultural habituation as supported slavery for hundreds of years—the persistence, eloquence and timeliness of the Abolitionist Outcry did prevail, and that — even in an America steeped in immorality — a moral law was ratified. Of course it helped that the Abolitionist effort included a number of legal scholars and a number of exceptionally talented PR people. In the end, you might say the Abolitionist victory owed to equal parts being right and being smart.

To know what is important for us at this moment in our battle for continuing legality, and to discern the correct strategy at this time, all you have to do is think like a general—back away from the immediacies at hand (2257, .XXX etc.) and take perspective of the totality of the conflict.

If you do that, you will see that what is at stake right now are a number of critical DEFINITIONS and CLASSIFICATIONS, both legally and morally. It is currently a war of meaning, and if we fail to assert the right SELF-DESCRIPTIONS we will see ourselves described by others in ways that suit their agenda.

The “front line�? is anywhere there is a lack of clarity as regards what we do and how we do it. If you go there, you will very likely discover that the Enemy is there or has been there recently. There will be some reversal work to do. Some of the anti-porn bias we’ll encounter is not new, merely long-un-addressed by us, and in some cases, even contributed to by us. If it is our desire to remain a legitimate industry, we should do all we can to appear that way now. Though it is a part of our lore, the trappings of illegality or even the style of illegality which a number of us still cling to, don’t help the cause. It might just be marketing to you, but it’s a subtle, tacit “I am a criminal�? to many who can only form their impressions of us and of our business from what they see.

The perception of any connection between our lawful business and an atrocious criminal depravity must be fought aggressively and vocally hereforward. We can suffer no equivocations or technicalities on this point—no gray.

I am concerned that in our desire to be of assistance to law enforcement, we have permitted a misunderstanding to take root. Law enforcement concerned with [new term TBD] should have been working shoulder-to-shoulder with this industry, availing themselves of our expertise. We should be standing with Law Enforcement, helping to point out the bad guys. Instead, we have gone down a path of murky distinctions and undefended defintions, and now find ourselves the target of legal efforts to eliminate [new term TBD], when there is NO [new term TBD] here! Does no one find that outrageous? I do.

I am also concerned about the role of the ASACP in all this. An advocacy group that, for its very raison d’etre, begins every sentence it offers on our behalf with an implicit apology for something we didn’t do, is no advocate. For having accepted the responsibility of removing [new term TBD] from our midst, we have (not in so many words) admitted that it’s here, when it’s not.

We have allowed ourselves to be manipulated into culpability by those who rightly and righteously seek justice against criminals. It seems, now, that this has happened because we were not properly guarding our definitions. I stronly suggest we start.

I am a proud pornographer.

Quote du jour:

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 04:23 GMT

“Real faith is never aware of itself.

It feels just like… doubt.”

“La fe que es fe de verdad, parece duda a los que la sienten.”

2HP

Current events | philosophy | filosofia religion | think

Dell Computer in League with Homeland Security?

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 12:15 GMT

We may have no choice (for the time being) but to accept the existence and effects of the New Secrecy in American Government.

But we sure as HELL don't have to take it from publicly traded companies.

I'm prepared to make Dell Computer choose between allegiance to its customers and Washington.

Is Dell Computer collaborating with Homeland Security, scrubbing customer data against Government Watch Lists, and reporting “suspicious activity” to the Department of Homeland Security?

Furong Jiejie

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 07:41 GMT

furong | furongjiejie | china | women

The Feminist and the Pornographer

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 15:41 GMT

The Feminist and the Pornographer

Some feminists feel porn is very bad for women….

The pro-porn rebuttal to that opinion has already been made very competently by Nina Hartley and others.

To summarize it, pornography is good because it gives outlet
to things — to fantasies it would be inconvenient for us to pursue in our real lives, and also to impulses which might, if indulged, jeopardize our standing in the community. Both factors apply to both genders.

As an ideological supporter of porn, it gave me personal pause to find myself in disagreement with intelligent women on so important a question. It also forced me to visit the commitment I have made to pornography, which would have to be nullified if I became convinced porn was actually bad for women. Suffice it to say, I don't believe it is harmful.

This is a critical time for pornography. Significant censorship is quite possible. And I'm afraid the business-as-usual defenses of long historical success are going to cave next time they are tested.

I'm convinced that when push comes to shove, to win, to really WIN — not merely to scrape by with a technical legal victory — we have to make a case on merits, not just Free Speech.

So, I get concerned whenever I encounter an anti-porn argument that is both passionate and articulate.

Women who condemn porn do so because they feel it perpetuates violence towards women in the culture. Women who support porn do so because they believe it relieves a pressure that would otherwise escalate into violence — and not just towards women.

Who is right?

They both are.

I should say that, as a man, I don't feel I have a right to argue my points directly with a woman who has decided to condemn pornography. Our perspectives on the issue are too different, and there are ways in which my lack of perfect empathy would make it ridiculous. Basically, women feel about this issue in ways I can't — I respect that, though I may disagree.

So, I'm not planning to become a strenuous advocate for these ideas in the company of women who have the opposite views. If there's any convincing to be done, it's gotta be woman-to-woman.

The following observations and conclusions are not intended as an “argument”, per se, one way or the other — only to provoke thought.

As I said to my wife just a few minutes ago, "You can't put a man on the moon without the word for 'screwdriver'."

What I mean by that is we could not have gotten as far as we have — as a Civilization, as a species — but for our capacity to create Complex Systems of Cross-Cooperation, both person-to-person and person-to-community.

For example, I will come sit here and sort microchips for seven hours every day, if you will pay me $30 per hour. Then, forward from there, on the strength of that agreement, we can each enter into other agreements with other parties, and so on. I will make my car payment. You will deliver 10,000 chips on time to your customer.

Complex Systems of Cross-Cooperation allow us to separate ourselves and the work we do from our direct necessities — food, shelter, etc. You can have a nice dinner in your house, though you never laid a brick or fired a shot.

CSCC's are also what make wealth possible. When a person doesn't have to hunt or gather, they are free to invest time more "productively". Sometimes, much more productively

It is a great gift human beings have, and we have taken it far.

But, to be a participant in today's hypertrophied society
— to vie for the spoils — has a cost we seldom consider in its proper
light.

The word "cooperation"…

co·op·er·a·tion n.

1. The act or practice of cooperating.
2. The association of persons or businesses for common, usually economic, benefit.

That boils down to — having to shave, having to ride the bus, having to be at a certain place at a certain time, and having to do a thousand other things we do each day, not because we want to, but because we are bound up in a Complex Web of Cross-Cooperation.

Apologies if there are any residual Socialist connotations in the word for you, but we are living in a collective. And I think I can safely say, there has never been a more elaborate civilization on Earth than this. We spend half our lives cooperating and the other half learning to cooperate.

For all we get back, it's not a bad deal, I agree. But we're paying for it in three other ways we seldom consider, at least not consciously.

1. For a CSCC to function, the individual is required to perform duties not of his choosing. Most jobs are not gratifying, and most people would rather not go if they don't have to. This is not because we are naturally lazy, but because the labor is genetically meaningless to us.

What I mean by that is a few decades is hardly long enough for us to have optimized the Organism in any way to the strange and myriad occupational choices we have today. Early humans certainly had far fewer choices, but they all related very directly (very gratifyingly) to survival.

It would go far towards explaining our modern discontent if aspects of both body and mind are very confused from all these dazzling innovations, which appeared essentially overnight. Existentialist Philosophy could simply be the mass depression of a species out of touch with its design.

2. There is also the necessary suppression of impulses. I'm sure you can fully dimensionalize that in your own imagination.

And…

3. We're losing instinct and forgetting some very useful skills.

Sex runs through the heart of all those things.

1. If we don't use our bodies as they were designed, don't exercise them, feed them strange and unfamiliar things, what would our bodies do in reaction, our hormones? Look at the scientifically proven connection between hormone-injected beef consumption and the premature onset of breast development in pre-pubescent girls, to pick just one from a long list.

2. The connection between sex and suppressed impulse should need no explanation.

3. The loss of instinct arguably is the worst of the consequences, since it is probably irreversible. But I understand it would have been impossible to create CSCCs with instinct intact. In CSCC's the rules are always changing, even reversing. What was bad yesterday may be good today and bad again tomorrow. This means we can't deeply invest in "truth" anymore. Instinct, which by definition bypasses the cognitive mind would have to go. Now we are ambivalent and uncertain all the time.

Instinct provided many answers, but alas, not consciously, which is where we would need them to build a great civilization. “Pass me the screwdriver, please” or, better yet “ICQ me.” These are marvels of our awesome modernity. They show what's possible when the “shelves are cleared” and we create a personal inventory from scratch. We traded unconscious certainty for Fellini.

The relationship of cause and effect I am trying to sketch for you, using woefully few examples I'm afraid, is that we had to give up sex in order to advance Civilization – sex, in it's Wild and Natural state. let's say, in its full Freudian scope.

As we suppressed sex more and more, we learned to gratify ourselves spiritually — via art, religion and ideology. We learned to attach symbolic meaning to our experiences and emotions, and we discovered that we could (with a little diligence) attach any meaning to anything.

And lacking any common truths based in irrefutable* instinct, human beings saw themselves becoming (well, feeling, really) very different from each other. One man's gold could be another man's poison. *(You can't refute what you're not aware you know.)

Basically, between the 16th and 18th centuries, all the ideas were thrown into one big bucket — good and bad, rational and absurd, moral and perverse. And they're all a bit tainted now, from having been in such rough contact. And here we are today trying to fish out the ones we want to clean up and re-invigorate, and leave the nightmares behind.

It's not hard to imagine that respect for women was one of the first things we had to learn when we started to civilize. But the men didn't do it altruistically. They just wanted to keep their own women safe from the other men. And since we had rockets to build, it made sense to button things up as best we could as quickly as we could with the law, chivalry and a thin rubric of Romance.

The women, seeing that the men were now struggling with ideas and no longer with each other, produced feminism, both to empower as a community and to raise the value of sexual intercourse. Which is not to say that the arguments of feminism aren't valid, only that they arose as much from cultural opportunism as moral imperative.

Is all sex really rape? I dunno. Is a penis a weapon? Could be. But those mantras may have already accomplished their intended effect.

The feminist repudiation of sexual violence may have been running on auto-pilot while we transitioned from "happening in the real world" to "happening on the screen". And I think it's absurd to worry that pornography will inspire violence in anyone.

Porn is never anything other than a perfect reflection of us.

If you see a movie you don't like, or one that offends you, it means you're not the intended customer.

Some people are also fond of freaking out when they DO like something they think they should not. That is a matter for the individual to resolve for himself. It's true that these are the kinds of people who sometimes become so tortured by guilt, shame and self-loathing that they unleash terrible violences. But the cause of that violence is not pornography, but rather the feeling that one's natural desires are unfit.

Sometimes one's "natural desires" are not to be indulged, sometimes they are criminal and hideous. Again, it could not be porn's fault. People seek out the porn that reflects them. I have never heard of such a thing as Propaganda Porn, the aim of which would be to "recruit" initiates who were not interested in the first place.

We choose what moves us.

Anti-Porn Feminists: "Thank you. Great job! We could not have achieved as much as we have for women without you. Welcome home. You've been away a long time. It's a different ‘war' now… Oh, by the way, see that guy there waving the ‘NUKE PORN' banner — he is not on ‘your side' of the porn issue cuz he likes women."

Pro-Porn Feminists (my wife Lauren among you): "THANK YOU for understanding that taboo and righteous condemnation only keep things current that would otherwise be forgotten. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for the amazing work you're doing on the Instinct Recovery front. Oooh, baby"

Violence begets violence.

Suppression is violence.

Expression has the opposite effect.

The chart above is a conception of what today might actually look like if you agree with most of my premises.

We have put our Sexuality into this sorry state to get here.

And here happens to contain technology and a Medium that permits us to recover some of the “sexual dimensions” we gave up along the way. Have we been persecuting “unlawful” sex so long and so blindly that we can't tell the difference between an Old Enemy and a New Friend?

Jews | Java | Pornography

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 11:38 GMT

e Ver Y

thin G

metaphor

It's hard to imagine it, but once, there were no metaphors. Metaphor hadn't happened to us, yet. I wonder whether it was because we were chasing meaning or if it was because we were chasing God, that metaphor happened to us.

*
One thing is like another thing — perhaps exactly like another thing —
*

Ah, difference. It will be our undoing!

The differences between Porn and every other type of business are many and significant. No one but pornographers suffer the pornographer's lot.

Only morticians come close to having the kind of relationship we enjoy with customer demand. And, in our times, only alcohol and tobacco, like porn, have had to endure organized moral attacks. Those industries survived their respective moral attacks by demonstrating a capacity for compromise, and for knowing how to invite complicit partnerships with little more than a nudge and a wink.

But Porn has stood aloof, arrogant, self-righteous and increasingly ignorant of the Language of Business as it is spoken everywhere but here.

That these differences should make our business different does not surprise me. What does surprise me is that so many talented and ideologically feisty people in our industry should fail to recognize, before now, the great vulnerability our differences have created, and failed to embrace, before now, the wisdom of “going along to get along”.

Instead, we have alienated ourselves within a bunker called the First Amendment, thinking it as firm a rock as civilization has ever set in place. I hope you're right. Les jeux sont fait.

Because of 911, the Tsunami, now Katrina, and a growing lack of concern with events outside the United States, Americans have not paid enough attention to an important event.

A long conflict between Irreconcilable Positions, many believed unsolvable, has taken a remarkable turn towards reconciliation in the last 3 months. I encourage you to study this current example of the Politics of Necessity hard at work. Gotcha!

The function of language is to reconcile misunderstanding between parties. In a community, this is done by establishing common symbols and terms, and by propagating those symbols and terms through a System of Education.

Language is imparted at the “gates” of the community. Language Education is a filter through which pass only children and immigrants — but not all, and only once, those who do.

Though language is life, language is not always given. And there splits the whole world, on the question: Is it the duty of the community to give, or is it the responsibility of the “applicant” to obtain?

Jews, it seems, have always been on the run. Whichever letter of the encyclopedia you pull from the shelf, odds are, there's a story in there with Jews and difficult travel.

Sometimes we* want to go, sometimes we dont.

Throughout recorded** Jewish History, there has been so consistent and unmistakable an Environmental Sentiment towards Jews, that it fully deserves its single, unifying name — antisemitism. Whether antisemitism is unique among history's examples of persecution remains a question, as does the question: Is Judaism different from other differences? But, if Judaism is different among differences, this could account for the uniqueness of antisemitism among the list of bigotries.

It is difficult to hold-up for special scrutiny any “story” from history without arousing the question “who cares?”

I am interested in the Jewish Story because I think it may help my friends in the porn business to grasp my point.

The Master Translator: Java vs. PHP

“Platform Agnostic” has such a nice ring to it. Function, heightened to Essence, Captured in Mantra. It is encouraging, to say the least, to see so much cooperative activity. So many companies have lately gotten on board the let's-play-together-SLASH-opensource choo-choo train.

I, for one, am delighted.

I think it's an amazing message arriving at a pivotal moment…

This is a Savior Idea, if ever I saw one.

The galley boys may yet have time to storm the bridge and divert Captain Smith's attention to an object in the water dead ahead.

(The Master Translator: Java vs. PHP — contd.)

It really says something about the human tendency to separate into competitive camps that even a lofty Techno-Ideology whose defining attribute is AGREE | FREE will spawn discord within its ranks.

But, how else could it all work, really – without the energy that conflict brings into the mix.

Ideas arise, accrue popularity/support. One aspect of their service to progress is that they polarize, compel a vote. The incumbent or the challenger? There follows change.

@ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - @

So strong is the impulse to differ and defeat, so great are the effects — the benefits – of conflict (as an ever-present Force) that even the Highest of Societies retain murder and barbarity, in some acceptable form.

It is in the Methods of Violence that they tolerate and claim, and in their Basic Posture towards that which is Different that Ideologies are best judged. Where and how does rhetoric encounter flesh, we should ask, but — more importantly — with what effect?

And why are Jews so good at business?

Let's see what theories we can find…

This guy represents what I call the Dense Academic — bright, learned people (ironically, often scientists who are supposed to have lifted objective perception to the level of religion) are amazingly struck blind by the tiniest threats to Big Dogma.

Why is it soooooooo hard for some people to accept that things can coincide without there being any cause and effect relationship between them? Like Astrology, for example.

It's understandably difficult for people to accept that babies (and later adults) will have important things in common just because their birthdays are close together. We observe that Jupiter was there and Orion was over here – which is a useful exercise of curiosity and intelligence. But then, we have to go and look for the damned mechanism of action between Jupiter and the Womb.

Maybe Jupiter's position is merely a sign of something else, something we're not detecting yet. And maybe it's that Unseen Something that has the effects we observe. We would rather struggle with the implausbility of Jupiter's gravity (absurd!) impinging on an embryo than conclude “It must be something else.”

UNKNOWNS ARE INSUFFERABLE, IT SEEMS

Now this guy has it figured out — Mads Kvalsvik

But I'm not so much concerned with the causes of Jewish Difference, as I am interested in taking a look at what lessons Jews may teach pornographers in the art of Difference Management.

“What is the unfulfilled promise of Java in the Enterprise?” I asked Jim during his interview with me at AltaVista in 1999. It was the only question I asked him. He got it right and he was hired. That was a tough question back in 1999. It's still hard to answer.

Java made lots of people excited in companies of all sizes. Java felt right because it was consistent with all that was being explained about the Web and how it should work for businesses. And, Java did something very important fairly well — it performed in many different environments. Sure, sometimes it had heavy baggage in tow, but you were always impressed by Java's willingness to go wherever you sent it — and try.

PHP is something new. I don't want to divert this Essai Leger into a dark technical alleyway. But, suffice it to mark the following differences between Java and PHP.

In spite of efforts to make it otherwise, Java is still very much a creature of the client. It comes from elsewhere, from the outside. It is sometimes received with suspicion, more often with annoyance, if we notice it.

Java is a jack of all trades, with an astounding assortment of tricks and capabilities to its credit.

Even at its most impressive, however, Java can't help but remind us that it's not really a ____________, but a “__________ Solution”.

By contrast, PHP…

Jews sure have a knack for sales…

I think it's salesmanship, which is different from business sense, that accounts for their success. Perhaps once, it was enough to observe simply that Jews did succeed. The difficulties of emigration, of coming from Somewhere Else with only a dream, provided a commonality with the majority of Americans. But, the astounding disparity between Jewish presence and Jewish Effect has been observed long enough now, and has proven so unique, we must look to answer “HOW” Jews do what they do, wherever they settle in the world.

Language can provide a bridge between people, a way across, salvation, the very happiest of human experiences — but it can also form a barrier to entry.

Because it is so vital to life and survival, language attracts the attention of both business and government. Government is attentive to language because it touches the entire populace. Language is itself a medium, independent of the mediums it may employ. It is both plasma and matrix. Language exerts influence on the messages it carries. Government is attentive to language for being concerned what influence it has on messages, and for having a stake in certain messages. All of these concerns increase and intensify with rising industrialization and with the deeper penetration of the telecommunications infrastructure.

In the example of the modern Web, we may observe that Technology (platforms, standards, protocols, software), for having reached a height of influence on messages, is now inseparabale from Language. The questions “Which OS?”, “What browser?”, “Ported-out for use with which DB?” — for having now the power to determine the “yes or no” of basic access, are the equivalent of “Is that available in English?”, “Parle Francais?”, “您讲中文�?�?”

“…the FBI was concerned that many of the applicants were ‘'too close to Israel,'' and might lack the objectivity to accurately translate the Arabic recordings and writings of Muslim terrorist suspects under investigation…”

My wife is fond of reminding me that, in a couple, the submissive partner, or the “Sub” as they are often called, is the stronger of the two.

For submitting, she explains, the submissive assumes all responsibility for what occurs. How could that be?

should

Language (and an exceptional ability therein) could explain the Jewish pattern of success.

The systems and the institutions that sustain society cannot but rely on differences…

How else to operate on this or that, without first knowing what This is and what That is not?

Whatever blurs a line or interferes with mechanisms that confirm the presence of a line is Anarchy.

The Systems, The Institutions will protest.

Leonard Alfred Schneider (aka: Lenny Bruce)

“I've been thinking about what the ad companies are going to do. Well, they're not going to stop selling cigarettes. I can't knock them for that, 'cause everything is profit-motivation, so what are you gonna do, man? What they'll probably do, the ad companies, is make it hip to have cancer. They'll make cancer a status symbol in the community. They'll start with soft-sell advertisements, guys talking in two-minute spots, you know: Say, Bill, haven't seen you in a couple of years. You really look great!” “Why shouldn't I? I've got cancer!” “Are you kidding me, Bill? Well, that's terrible.” “Terrible the way you see it, not the way I see it. I was making about twenty-five hundred dollars a year selling shoes at home. Now since I got cancer - you never see any schulb - with cancer! Who has it? Doctors, lawyers, and judges! So I started thinking at home, the rich people are keeping it away from us with those charity drives they have.” “And it's really good for you?” “Certainly is” ‘Well, that's wonderful! How do you get it? “Chesterfields!”

Time Magazine, August 12, 1966.
Died. Lenny Bruce, 40, nightclub performer, leading outpatient of the sick-comic school; of suspected narcotics poisoning; in Hollywood. Son of an “exotic dancer,” trained as a burlesque comedian, Bruce was never in tune with this world, and he soured totally in the 1950s after his beautiful blonde wife became a drug addict, leaving him with an infant daughter. From Manhatten to Hollywood, he viewed life as a four-letter word and, with gestures, commented blackly on it, never lacking for listeners and finding some curious champions (among them: Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, Poet Robert Lowell). His path led ever lower after a Manhatten criminal court, in 1964, convicted him of being “obscene, indecent, immoral and impure.”

A foreign thing,
the body can’t digest,
can only die or kill.

How to Live Forever

As strategies go, it should take you about 15 seconds of consideration to reject Conquest. It cannot be sustained. The internal systems and principles Conquest requires breed an assortment of undesirable manifestations. It has no plan for what to do when “All the eye surveys is yours!” Though we may admire Rome, et al, Conquest has never once succeeded in the past. The Empire is, alas, where all the roads have led.

Oh, what to do?

Let's take a look around. What other ways have organisms found to stick around?

On the day his company was purchased by Microsoft in 1999, a forty-something entrpreneur said the following:

“Lose?
Lose?!
Lose!
We didn't lose. We're going to live forever inside the OS.”

Thanksgiving Proclamation of George Washington
City of New York, October 3, 1789

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanks-giving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many single favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks, for His kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of His Providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge and in general for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

* * * * *

The possibility that the pornographic material could be accidentally released to the public outweighs any benefits to the defense team of having copies of the material

The tapes, which likely include footage of Shasta Groene, the 8-year-old sole survivor of the mid-May attack, and her brother, Dylan, who vanished the night three relatives were slain at the family home. The body of 9-year-old Dylan was found in Montana after Shasta was rescued and Duncan arrested at a Coeur d'Alene restaurant July 2.

In state court, Duncan faces three counts of first-degree murder in the bludgeoning deaths of the abducted children's mother, Brenda Groene; their 13-year-old brother, Slade; and their mother's boyfriend, Mark McKenzie.

Court documents allege the slayings were committed so Duncan could abduct the children for sex. More of the Joseph Edward Duncan story

Joseph Edward Duncan's Blog

joseph edward duncan | shasta groene | child porn | censorship

Critical Mass

Mon, 05 Sep 2005 22:17 GMT

I have a great feeling of expectation and excitment lately.

I'm not sure why. But, I feel optimistic, all of a sudden…

I really do have the highest hopes for this Incredible Medium.

I think if we can overcome our fear of “open doors” — if we permit ourselves simply to “go through” — we will come out the other side much more than we were going in, much more than we are now.

We have come again to a Frontier. And, as many times before in our human history, when faced with an Uknown Territory, the world is divided. Those who want to go / Those who want to stay. Those who want things to change / Those who want them to stay the same.

For over a year, I have been working with all my energy to keep the Internet as open and free as possible. I work in an industry that owes its existence to the First Amendment — to Free Speech. All the research I have done, but more importantly, my instinct tells me the Web is going to transform our species in a very positive way. If we have the courage.

To my eyes, the signs are everywhere. I see us (as groups and as individuals) finding Identity and Voice online, for there being online a kind of Freedom we wouldn't otherwise have in our lives.

I have never been to China, nor am I in any way a student of China.

But I feel something happening there. I feel their anxious excitment, their eagerness to rush through the door. It has had a powerful effect on me, for which I am very grateful. This blog is my way of expressing that gratitude, of extending a friendly hand

Welcome.

I also want as much as possible to make this site an “Outpost of Free Speech“. Think of it as a little shack I am building far away from what is familiar to me. I'm going to spend some time here everyday, and simply be present here — with many of my favorite ideas in tow, but with a readiness to acquire new ideas as well. Please visit me.

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Real Bloggers Don't Dissent

Tue, 06 Sep 2005 00:41 GMT

From a recent Businessweek interview with Hu Zhiguang, founder of Blogcn, one of the leading blog services in China.

Q: What do you think is the biggest difference between the blogosphere in the U.S. and in China?

A: The difference between China and the U.S. is quite large. The U.S. has many famous bloggers, and they have a big influence. In China, because of the political environment problem, it's not possible to have that sort of thing.

So [Chinese blogs are] more lifestyle- and entertainment-oriented. But Chinese bloggers are more willing to express themselves than American bloggers. Because elsewhere in America there's more freedom, so the methods of expression are more [varied].

Q: But, as you say, the political environment in China means thereâ€™s a lot that people canâ€™t express in their blogs.

A: Sometimes there are people who write about Taiwanese independence and the Falun Gong.

Q: And what happens when they try to do that?

A: We set up keywords for our programs, like â€œFalun Gong,â€? and when you type in those keywords, you cannot post them. It just shows up as stars. Everybody has that.

Q: People can avoid using those words, though.

A: The problem exists, but itâ€™s not a big one. We can immediately fix it, and itâ€™s not a problem. Maybe there are some words that arenâ€™t in the keywords, but if theyâ€™re published, they donâ€™t fit the content. Then the Internet police will call us, and we will delete it within 24 hours. If it lasts on the site too long, then maybe it will make some trouble. Maybe I will have to go to the police station.

Q: How often have you had to do that?

A: That has never happened. The phone calls seldom happen -â€“ only four or five times in two years. We have a specialist who takes care of this. These people [who post the forbidden things] are not real bloggers. They know it will be deleted.

Q: There has been a lot of talk in the past few months about the Chinese government requiring bloggers who donâ€™t use sites like yours to register their real names and contacts if they want to keep on blogging. How difficult is it for Blogcn users to set up their blogs?

A: To set up a blog you have to give your password, e-mail address, blogger name, and choose a template. Itâ€™s very easy. We donâ€™t need their phone number, their address, their ID number. [The environment] is much better than before. Step by step, itâ€™s getting more open.

Suuuuuure.

Well, this may shed some light on the Sister Furong Jiejie Story.

And it helps me (an American wholly unacquainted with censorship — lol) understand what it might be like to be at ideological odds with the State.

Furong Jiejie Picture Gallery

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