There is much to say today. I've been reading more of Bertrand Russell at work, the news, and blogs here at home before work. Now I sit here needing to comment about everything, eating Cheez-its, and battling the hiccups. I swear anything with dairy products has that potential, to give me the hiccups.

Anyway, first the easy stuff. There is a news story here about The Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies and an effort to compile a report of troubling websites. There right away is a red flag, when someone talks about things that are 'troubling'. They don't advocate, yet, any kind of censorship, but this is what they do say...

The Wiesenthal project is intended to raise awareness and bring about global action.

"The key goal, and one of the things we want to accomplish eventually is an international understanding or convention about usage of the Internet,

My point here is not that there aren't 'troubling' websites, but the fact that these people have elected themselves... no, conveyed upon themselves the ability to decide for me what is objectionable. They call it the dark side of the Internet. Well, no fucking shit! With ANYTHING people involve themselves in there is going to be a dark side. It is the 'nature of the beast', so to speak. This is the very thinking that led to the very event in history they are supposed to be 'studying' and making us aware of.

Adler said that although the Internet is on one hand an incredible tool for education, it has also become a hotbed of hatred and terrorism that threatens to cancel out the web's positive attributes.

And this is a surprise to who?! Ok, so they feel the need to inform the public. We all know there is plenty of that that needs to go around. But the next sentiment is disturbing...

Adler said there is no international body regulating what is on the Internet, and no way of verifying the authenticity of claims that are being made online.

And, to borrow an idea from Hitchens, just who are we going to let decide for us WHO should be regulating, and WHAT should be regulated?

...the ultimate goal of the project is a universal set of regulations that will be embraced by countries around the world.

We don't believe in censorship, we believe in responsibility and the only way we can be responsible is if we know the difference between what is wrong and what is right.

The problem as I see it, is they think they can decide what is right and wrong for me and everyone else. A 'universal set of regulations' is censorship, plain and simple. They are just trying to sugar coat it. Thinkers since the beginning of written history have been trying to decide how we 'know' what the difference is between right and wrong, and all of a sudden they infer that they know, and are going to bestow their 'knowledge' on the rest of us. No fucking thanks. I'm perfectly capable to disregarding shit I see on the Internet if it's necessary.

A friend of mine was telling me about this guy from the 1800s called Karl Popper. I know very little about him, but the person that turned my friend onto this guy apparently follows him religiously. It was suggested that those in power would wake up if everyone in the country would refuse to participate in government, meaning not vote. They say the system doesn't work, so nobody should participate. I told him that we don't know it doesn't work, and won't know until we get a majority of voters participating first. I also made the point that those in power really don't care who participates, the objective is to gain power legitimately, or at least the appearance of legitimacy. I think this Popper guy is about no government, he holds the views that people can govern things within their own sphere of awareness just fine without a formal governing body. The problem with this line of thinking, and with all forms of government for that matter, is that it assumes everyone will have the best interests of others running a close second to their own interests. On the contrary, there will always be those willing to disregard completely the interests of others. Of course, one could argue that it is these very people that insist on a formal government in the first place, and the present Administration would be a very good example for that argument.

I was doing some surfing and came across a blog written by a young engineer from Iran that was actually current. They are sparse because of the problems that can arise for these people that insist on putting shit on the Internet. He said something interesting in one of his posts, I made a small comment, and he responded with a comment here. I was thinking about using a post here for a longer response, they guy sounds desperate for some acknowledgment that originates outside his country. Maybe, if I have time, there are so many other things I have been putting off that I really shouldn't.

One thing I can't put off is this computer here. Yep, I brought the computer home. It wasn't working the way she described, it seemed normal to me, and all her files were accessible from her login. I almost didn't get in the house, because she told her daughter that I would be there and to let me in, but she wouldn't get out of bed to answer the doorbell. I finally got obnoxious about it because it took so long to get there, and she heard it that time. She was annoyed at being dragged from bed at 9AM! She was happy that I got the wireless router working though, which enabled her to access the Internet with her new laptop. She asked me a few things about that, but it's a Mac, and I don't know shit about em.

Anyway, I talked to the mother on the phone about the computer that didn't seem to want to be disruptive for me, and I told her that from her complaints I could only guarantee her no problems if I started from scratch. She asked me to take it home because she wouldn't need it for at least a week, so here it sits. I am copying all the document folders, then will wipe it and start over. This time I will insist that she use passwords to keep the kids off it if she wants my help with it again. Granted, I can't say for sure they are messing it up because I don't deal with the computer on a daily basis, but from what I see the computer is fine hardware wise, and it is the only other thing I can think of would cause the problems she says she's having. Granted also that I'm no expert, and it could be something simple. But she doesn't want to pay lots of money to get things right.