Websinthe

CHANGE YOUR LINKS AND FEEDS!!!!!

2009-01-18T18:46:00.002+10:00

The comic is now being hosted by GravitySpike over at NoCharacter.net!

I'm stoked to finally be hosting the comic off its own site and kind of glad to put this blogger page out to pasture. I'm not going to offline it though, Iit's served far too well for that. If I can figure out a way to auto-aggregate my other site's posts on this site then maybe I will. Any suggestions as to how to do that would be greatly appreciated.

So, in terms of forwarding addresses:

Websinthe.org for my freelance writing services.

Blog.Websinthe.org for my personal blog.

NoCharacter.net for the comic.

Be sure to update your RSS feeds and/or bookmarks, things will only get better from here.

NoCharCom: Shine

2009-01-16T11:46:00.002+10:00

You see, if you knew how to find it, you'd know that this was posted on the comic's new website nearly 12 hours ago.

I'll announce the new site once it's been fully populated et cetera.

I'll be discontinuing this site a few days later.

NoCharCom: Wedding proposals I didn't try...

2009-01-15T14:11:00.000+10:00

NoCharCom: Best Hunter S Thompson stick figure ever.

2009-01-14T19:17:00.003+10:00

NoCharCom: Ye of little faith

2009-01-13T18:56:00.001+10:00

Top 10 people Conroy would hate if he was listening. | Link

2009-01-13T18:54:00.001+10:00

Top 10 people Conroy would hate if he was listening. At Websinthe.org

Beginning the transfer to wordpress.

2009-01-12T19:48:00.003+10:00

The simplicity of blogger was handy at first. I'd gotten used to the simplistic customisation and the, so I thought, slick themes that were available.

It is, alas, time to move on to more sophisticated blog hosts.

I'm slowly moving my blog to blog.websinthe.org. I'll only be posting articles and blog posts over there, NoCharCom will stay here until I get around to setting up nocharacter.net. I'll still post links to blog articles here in the meantime.

If you have any blog roll links please update them to http://websinthe.wordpress.com or websinthe.org if referring to my professional writing services.

NoCharCom: I hate that word

2009-01-12T14:28:00.002+10:00

Collectors Piece: Elements Part 4 [Air]

2009-01-12T01:01:00.000+10:00

Websinthe versus Pro-filter Facebook group

2009-01-11T21:18:00.004+10:00

It had to happen eventually. The sycophantic upstarts of my generation have made a pro-filtering facebook group.

This is what I posted to that group.

***
If you were all so worried about porn then why are you still looking at it?

Why didn't you get a free filter and figure out how to use it before your beloved Conroy shut them down?

Why don't you want to learn how to parent properly?

Why do you feel the need to allow this oppressive infrastructure to be built?

Thank you for advocating a world where our governments fear nothing and we allow them to pull the blinkers over our eyes.

I appreciate your right to have this group, it is, after all free speech. I find it ironic then that you would 'speak out' against free speech.

And no, free speech is not another word for porn, as much as Conroy and your priests would like you to believe it is. If this was about porn then Conroy would be giving the money to the police, you know, the guys that actually DO something about this stuff.
***

I forgot to mention that many of these people are probably unaware that they brought most of their 'accidental' porn viewing on themselves by downloading viruses and trojans, something that can't be solved by a filter, only brains.

The anti-censorship lobby is accused of supporting all kinds of nasty things by viciously ignorant rednecks all the time. So given that this is my site and I can still voice my opinion unmolested by the government, I'd like to take this opportunity to tell the pro-filtering group what they are really supporting.

The defunding of Police: The Pro-censorship lobby supports taking money away from law enforcement agencies charged with protecting your children from peadophiles and con artists. The pro-filtering lobby, including this facebook group are anti-police and are frequently engaged in violence against police.
The degredation of the family unit: Those that support the internet filter are also against families. They feel that parenting should play no part in a child's upbringing and that this should be handled by the state. They also supported the stolen generation.
Despotic regimes: The pro-censorship group supports despotic regimes such as those run by Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler. Nazis supported censorship.
The adult shopping industry: The pro-censorship lobby, by blocking internet porn, the pro-censorship lobby hopes to increase demand for bricks and mortar porn shops which can then be built next to your child's school or church.

I'd like to point out at this stage that the above list is pretty much just a rewording of the kind of crap that those supporting the filter say about the anti-censorship lobby all the time.

Yes, I understand that that is all over the top. That was intended. I figure that there is no more appropriate way of welcoming Mr Bloor to the debate. I won't be so imaginative in the future though, I look forward to hearing his point of view and perhaps even changing mine slightly if he is indeed right.

Freedom of speech is not about being able to see porn, it's about knowing that you can call for help and won't have the government's hand over your mouth.

Collectors Piece: Elements Part 3 [Earth]

2009-01-11T00:56:00.000+10:00

Collectors Piece: Elements Part 2 [Fire]

2009-01-10T00:52:00.000+10:00

Collectors Piece: Elements Part 1 [Water]

2009-01-09T00:50:00.000+10:00

Collectors Piece: Desert Princess Part 3

2009-01-08T00:48:00.000+10:00

Collectors Piece: Desert Princess Part 2

2009-01-07T00:46:00.000+10:00

Collectors Piece: Desert Princess Part 1

2009-01-06T00:23:00.000+10:00

While I'm away down in Tasmania enjoying the, well, everything, the wonders of the Internet will be posting a series of collectable images. The first three entitled 'desert princess' and the second four entitled 'elements'.

These are not attempts by me to seem artsy, they are images I had lying around that will quite nicely make up for the fact that I didn't do any comics for this week.

I hope you enjoy them. They're all done from scratch and released under CC so go ahead and shoop da whoop!

NoCharCom: PSA Websinthe Apology

2009-01-05T08:15:00.000+10:00

NoCharCom: Best, song, ever.

2009-01-04T08:11:00.000+10:00

Unexpected apology baffles internet hate machine

2009-01-03T11:03:00.004+10:00

This morning's comic caused a bit of a stir. I'm not particularly sorry for the strip, it is, after all, just a comic.

The main issue is that the strip was seen as an attack on African American Vernacular English (or NAMBLA). Where did this arguement take place? Twitter. Here's how it unfolded:

Websinthe: #NoCharCom Just posted a new comic - dedicated to Beyonce and the multitude like her. http://is.gd/erlT

Divabat then replied with a link to the wiki article on AAVE.

divabat: @websinthe http://tinyurl.com/rnxse

Thinking that the issue wasn't really all that serious, I replied with...

Websinthe: @divabat I used to be an english teacher. Just because it's on Wikipedia doesn't stop it being a blight on the world. http://is.gd/erlT

Websinthe: @divabat Oh and by the way, I consider Cockney British or Ocker Slang to be just as bad. It's not a racial thing, it's a posterity thing.

What's a posterity thing? In this context I meant that being able to be understood after the fact is important. That's why we have grammer.

Her reply:

divabat: @websinthe Some linguists argue that AAVE is more complex than Std English and to dismiss it is ultimately racist & colonial

Second post and already I'm being labelled as a racist and a colonialist. Obviously Divabat doesn't know a thing about me.

Websinthe: @divabat And the scores of linguists that created AAVE must be very proud of how useful and efficient their language is.

Disregarding the mud slinging, complexity is never an inherent positive. I tweeted this in no uncertain terms.

Websinthe: @divabat The herpes virus is more complex than Std English too. Saying something is racist doesn't make it racist. Colonial I'll accept.

I'm not sure about my own post here, Formal English is pretty complex as it is and I haven't checked to see if Herpes is indeed more complex. I expect to be flamed about it later.

I'd also like to repeat the point that saying something is racist doesn't make it so. It's also ironic given that 'some linguists' also argue that the 'urban slang' used in Rap and R&B was born out of anti-white sentiment.

Why do I accept colonialist? Truely it's only because it's the first time anyone has called me that. I give points for originality.

Divabat then vomited all over me for a while...

divabat: @websinthe http://is.gd/erqL http://is.gd/erqS http://is.gd/erqS http://is.gd/err6 http://is.gd/err9 http://is.gd/errd http://is.gd/errl (links to sources defending AAVE)

divabat: @websinthe not just on wikipedia!

divabat @websinthe read the links from academics before casting judgement on what is ultimately a dialect with set rules.

I'm going to look through the links provided to find the dictionary/syntactical reference used by the song in question (thought it might end up being urban dictionary).

divabat: @websinthe Who decides what is "standard English" anyway? My version is different than yours but it doesn't mean I'm a "blight".

"Who decides what is Standard English?" The English dictionary. Don't even try to get into a 'perscriptive' vs 'descriptive' debate over that one. I know our descriptive dictionary is the reason English is so prominant these days, but either we have an all encompassing descriptive dictionary or we have dialects.

I regret using the word 'blight'. Naomi warns me that I'm too strong in my descriptions and labels. Perhaps instead of blight I should have referred to the song's lyrics as a "bastardisation with all the aural ugliness of German and the grammar of an online flame war". Also, taking the 'blight' comment personally shows that Divabat needs to spend more time in the fires of internet debate. Or less.

For the record, I love German (germans make awesome sausages, yum).

divabat: @websinthe "posterity"? what do you mean?

Explained.

divabat: @websinthe they are "speaking English" (re your comic), just a different kind of English

I agree entirely, but the punchline "Stop speaking another type of English! Bitch!" really lacks the punchiness of the original.

divabat: @websinthe Obviously you have not actually read anything I've sent you, or you'll see where your fallacy lies

Actually, I did, and it made me realise that we were speaking about entirely different things. The AAVE to which she refers is a beautifully timbered and endearing dialect of the English language. The crap to which I referred was trash born out of ghetto hatred for whites. Using AAVE to defend this song is like using Chaucer to defend Rodney Rude.

divabat: @websinthe never mind all the tenuous history associated with calling a culture's dialect "a blight"

If my opinion carried such cultural gravitas, this might be a problem. Fortunately, I write a second-rate web comic that looks like about 3000 other identical web comics. I'll discuss my public record in a post tomorrow.

Mefiers then retweeted with a link to mefites. No idea what that means.

samclifford: @websinthe : @divabat is probably in a better position to argue about discriminatory linguistics. Besides, it's a song.

When Sam Clifford speaks, I back the heck down. I might respect Divabat but I respect Sam a hell of a lot more. This is where I forced a rethink.

divabat: @websinthe You're an [ex-]English teacher; I'd hope that you'd understand the cultural diversity of the English language instead of pushing one

I fully accept that English is a diversely spoken language. I don't spend my entire time working on Freedom of Speech projects just for people that speak BBC english. I also understand just how difficult is to learn English, and any sort of confusion about dialects is only a stumbling block. This is also an issue with learning chinese.

I like to think that there is a 'template' form of the English language and that there are valid dialects and vernaculars. I enjoy listening to some and not others. For the most part I prefer BBC/British English. This is a personal taste. Calling me a racist is wrong - there are plenty of English dialects that I don't like that are from typically Anglo-Saxon people.

It's like calling me anti-simetic because I oppose Israel's war. The urban slang seen on MTV is an affront to the articulate and welcoming tones of true AAVE speakers.

In the end, I capitulated.

@mefiers @samclifford @divabat AAVE is a perfectly valid informal dialect and yes, English is quite diverse. See, I can be reasonable.

Why did I retract my position. Purely: respect. Respect for Divabat and her willingness to put so much effort into the debate so quickly, Sam for his ongoing contribution to public opinion and activism and those that speak true AAVE.

This apology caused everyone to lose interest very quickly, the tweets just dried up and nobody said anything after that. It seems that conversations are not worth having unless there's an immovable idiot involved. Sorry Internet, I'm not playing that game anymore.

It's also everyone's right to say close to anything they want so long as there is either truth or opinion behind it.

P.S. Naomi just reminded me that I remarked positively about Beyonce's articulation not 2 weeks ago after seeing her on the news at Mum's place. I'll pick another song to take the piss out of, though I'm not removing the original.

NoCharCom: Appropriate response...

2009-01-03T08:04:00.005+10:00

NoCharCom: Stuck in my head

2009-01-02T12:20:00.003+10:00

You're all just lucky that I didn't post that which I was going to post.

The war room: The Gaza strip.

2009-01-02T09:37:00.007+10:00

Israel is throwing a tantrum. I'm not going to justify these children by giving them attention.

NoCharCom: Happy Hangover

2009-01-01T19:04:00.003+10:00

God it's good to be doing 4 panel ones again. I expect that posting every day will be far less of a problem now. Going from 4 to 8 panels didn't dounle the work per strip, it quadrupled it.

I'm also glad to be able to poke fun at things OTHER than the filter. That can remain a serious interest, not a comedic one.

Typical Internet User: As Seen By Christians

2009-01-01T16:03:00.003+10:00

Photo Courtesy of Ben Grubb.

PLease hit the Digg! Button or thumbs up if you're a stumbler.

Inside World: Here in the future (25)

2009-01-01T14:43:00.001+10:00

Inside World: The True Nature of Rork (9001)

2008-12-31T09:44:00.002+10:00

Thanks to everybody that has been reading the comic this month. Sorry for the delays. I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to send suggestions for future comics. I'll be returning to the usual 4 panel format in a few days. I still have one strip left to go in this series to round things up.

Email me if you want to know what the blue text says.

Inside World: Calling the shots (23)

2008-12-31T08:21:00.001+10:00

Inside World: A long way (22)

2008-12-30T22:35:00.002+10:00

This really is little more than a teaser for tomorrow. I might post another one in a few hours.

The moral distraction

2008-12-30T12:50:00.004+10:00

I loathe to bring this up in a blog post, it's probably more worthy of a 100 page collaborative effort amongst bloggers.

Rev Fred Nile, the NSW Christian Democrat best known for his lifelong crusade against anything that could be crusaded against, has once again fixed his sites on another great threat to society.

Is it the collapsing env-ronment? No.

Is it the collapsing ec-nomy? No.

Is it the collapsing ed-cation system? Nope, not that either.

It's bre-sts.

That's right, this upper-house member of the NSW parliament is fighting the good fight against topless women on public beaches. Thank God, the idea of my daughter seeing an exposed pair of bre-sts on a public beach worries me awake at night.

I'm particularly fond of his following statement.

"I think it's just a matter of having community standards, If we observe those then we can all live together in in harmony."

What a waste of parliament's time. I find it ironic, this same man that talks of living in harmony introduced a bill into NSW parliament repealing the act protecting homos-xuals from open villification and tried to ban Muslims from entering the country.

Obviously I'm not the only person that thinks Nile is distracted by pithy morality to the detriment of real issues, apparently the whole idea has already capsized under the waves of common sense.

This kind of distraction is not limited to wowsers such as Nile though. Every time I hear about 'issues for the christian vote' both here in Australia and in the US elections, subjects such as ab-rtion, g-y marriage and cens-rship rise to the top. How on earth are these important when we're facing env-ronmental and economic collapse of the highest order?

I can see where it comes from though, people want to know that their le-ders care about the community and have a relatively predictable moral blueprint. Surprises are not welcome in politics.

The issue with this, however, is that there is only so much room available on any given agenda, and if they are taken up with trivialities designed purely to prove a moral viewpoint then real issues lose out.

I can see why there's so much to complain about these days, everyone's been too busy working on the trivial little projects of the religious right to work on the real issues that might improve things. Dear Nile, if you want harmony, try practising some tolerance first. You can bring this kind of trivia up once we've solved the real issues. Let's focus on creating an economic environment where every ch-ld or potential ch-ld would be comepletely free from pov-rty instead of spending $44 million on ensuring they don't see bre-sts on the internet.

I think that if anyone is to blame for our world not being everything it can be, we need to look at the people who are distracting politicians from real issues such as h-man r-ghts, the env-ronment, ec-nomics and ed-cation.

##Update: Mildly censored any word that the Labor government is likely to want filtered.

The opposite of expression.

2008-12-29T10:59:00.005+10:00

I knew something was wrong when I took a step and missed the planet. The feeling was pretty much confirmed when the woolies basket I was holding collided with the aisle wall. I couldn't break in time; I ran straight into the back of it.

I was having an off morning. My first order of business was taking my anti-depressants. I'd run out a few days ago so I popped a couple of Ibuprofen to head off the impending back tension.

It only took half an hour for my back to be in knots. The cocktail of budget computer chair and restless nights of wrestling old demons had been getting the better of me lately. I took a couple of Ibuprofen to fix it.

Naomi rolled out of bed and asked if I could head down to wollies for some supplies. She place a $20 note on the desk. No problem, I took a couple of Ibuprofen just in case. She reminded me to get some more of my anti-depressants.

The walk to the chemist was a bit of a blur. I'm sure I spent most of it thinking of something deep, or was I just concentrating on that niggling tension in my back? Either way, I stressed about looking like a junkie in front of the chemist, I was tired, slightly incoherent and wearing crocs and a blue bonds singlet. She looked at me like I was a junkie. I'm pretty sure I was wearing pants.

I fumbled the medication into my bag and headed for woolies where I picked up 3 litres of Aloe Vera drink. I also bought some scones that Naomi had wanted. I completely forgot to go to Harvey Norman to check up on when our fridge was supposed to be delivered today.

The walk home was filled with thoughts of getting back onto my anti-depressants. The last week had been fairly painful without them. I don't drink, I don't smoke and I don't look at porn, there was very little but sheer luck keeping me sane over the christmas period. Sheer luck and roughly a dozen Ibuprofen every day for the headaches.

The stairs to my apartment winded me slightly. This was only really a problem when I opened my bag and couldn't find my medication. I looked in every possible pocket in my bag, in my pockets, even elsewhere in the apartment. I remembered fumbling it into my bag. It must have fallen out at some point.

Naomi had to watch as I collapsed on the bed and rode the fence between sleep and weeping.

It's all okay now. Naomi took me up to the chemist to get some more anti-depressants, not that they should have kicked in yet. I think it's just the idea that things would be going uphill over the next few days that turned me around.

The shocking lack of coordination that I experience with too much Ibuprofen will fade soon. The fridge will arrive eventually. My back will hold out.

So tell me, what is the opposite of expression?

The Role of Religion

2008-12-27T14:06:00.003+10:00

This was posted by Tonedef, presented here unedited and uncut before my IntenseDebate system decided to sh!t itself.

I would like to see people walk away from religions on a voluntary basis, not by force. More like a child choosing not to suck its thumb for comfort anymore as it grows up and progresses onto the next stage. Religion has not been a particularly useful tool for humanity; it has had much effect, yes, but hasn't done enough good to outweigh the bad. Sighting the stupidity of many humans is not really justification for the acceptance of religions as a legitimate form of social control. People should be encouraged to be the best they can be rather than "Controlled" and if they are too stupid to participate, the laws of nature dictate that they will perish outside the group’s cooperative protection. Thus eliminating the weakest of the species to let it move forward. These artificial structures we create within society are not doing the human race much good in the long run. Humanity needs to either accept that it just doesn't care what happens to it and continues to blunder along as it does or wake up to itself, and make moves toward sorting itself out. Unfortunately nobody wants to draw a line in the sand when they think they might not be on the good side of the line.

While that would be nice in theory, as I'm sure that any being powerful enough to create the universe isn't so small as to require our petty servitude for sustenance, I think it is invalid to make any judgement on the good aspects of religion being outweighed by the negative as there has been no point in history where some form of spirituality or mysticism has not been practiced.

So the question here is, does Religion have a place where humanity is headed? That question makes a few very foolish assumptions, first of all that Humanity is headed somewhere, secondly that our heading is not being determined by spirituality and mysticism due to the lack of state-church seperation and thirdly that the religious attitudes of today's churches and sects are at all indicative of their potential use to society.

I think that the first assumption is valid only in as much as we cannot hit the brakes either way.

The second assumption is scary. To think that the mobs of God-terrified christians and oppressed Muslims don't have every fibre of their being tuned to taking over our government is ignorant. It's not hard to see, once you step back from bias, that Christianity poses a bigger threat to society than Islam. That being said, nobody should begrudge them their desire to live a certain way, it is only their need to cover up their failings through mass conversion that is a problem.

The third assumption, that Churches are operating at their potetial, is pessimistic and a shame. I think that religion could be playing a far more beneficial role in society instead of the superficial, narrow-minded and myopic role it takes now.

Tonedef's position on natural selection is, unfortunately, short-sighted. As much as I joke about natural selection being sorely missed by anyone in a customer-facing job, I think that humanity as a species is at a stage where we can seriously look at avoiding natural selection and survival of the fittest altogether. Arrogance aside, it is something we can work towards, a situation where our medicine and our technology means that nobody has to been born into a position of net loss. That is, every birth strengthens the species.

Religion, along with abstract financial markets, are in fact aiding natural selection by diverting resources from technological improvement and understanding of our species. Keep in mind that this topic originated from my comments towards a blog advocating Creationism. Creationism is a theory that serves no useful purpose as it does not encourage further questioning or understanding. It does not provide a useful path on which we can travel. It is an aspect of cultural stagnation.

Religion could also be taken as a distraction from more meaningful answers to the questions of life. As long as people stay stuck in the metaphors, there is no way that their real meaning can shine through to progress us towards a more enlightened or pragmatically peaceful society. Religion, even the radical sects, are by nature conservative. Conservativism is the forethought of stagnation.

All that being said, advocating that anybody should change their beliefs system is hypocritical in the extreme. Presenting an idea and allowing someone to follow it is acceptable, actively pursuing them to do so or condmening them for not is unacceptable. Religion having any say in government is anethema to peace.

My position is a 'hands off' approach. We keep out of their beliefs and they stay the hell out of government. I for one will never again vote for somebody who brags about having a religious connection. I will not support their devisive and anachronistic agenda.

I will, however, attend my church occasionally and most probably baptise my daughter. Why? Because I bloody well can, and that's the whole point.

Happy Holiday Wallpaper

2008-12-26T01:10:00.002+10:00

Inside World: Freefall (21)

2008-12-26T00:32:00.001+10:00

Strap in, the remaining comics in this series won't be nearly this budget.

Sh!t stirring the Anglicans: my christmas well spent.

2008-12-25T23:33:00.004+10:00

A fellow tweeter pointed me to a blog run by, as my friend describes, a 'disgruntled sect of literalist (creationist) Anglicans'. This post is criticising Mike Paget, a minister who accepts science. Given the relative progressiveness of Australian Anglicans, I think that this blog might be considered 'fringe' amongst the Anglicans.

Keep in mind here that I'm a Catholic for militant purposes. Here was my response to the post criticising Paget.

It's a little presumptuous to label yourself a 'wake up call', especially when you advocate something as anachronistic and unhelpful as creationism.

Criticising a brother member of your Diocese alone is bad enough, criticising him for adhering to the teachings of said Diocese is downright unfaithful.

God did not give you a brain to throw it away on the 'God just went click' theory of the universe and he certainly didn't give it to you to be devisive in his church.

Surely there are more constructive things to be concerned about.

Now, it should be obvious by now that I am not even remotely concerned about a couple of protestant factions beating up on each other; the Catholic part of me thinks they should burn in hell for their seperatist ways and the other 99.99% of me couldn't care less and is happy for anyone to think anything about anyone. Hell, I'm seriously considering Pastafarianism.

I actually think Anglicans are pretty cool, Naomi informs me that they recently ordained a lesbian. I can't think of anything more progressive.

That doesn't, however, stop me treating myself to a bit of shit-stirring for christmas. Creationists, after I'm finished with Conroy, you're next. Let fly the dog's of war!

Inside World: The Vendors (20)

2008-12-24T07:55:00.002+10:00

A comment to the mainstream

2008-12-22T17:39:00.003+10:00

I just posted this on the Herald Sun article quoting Conroy on the P2P filter.

Although Senator conroy claims to be following the arguements presented on those sites, he has yet to make any rebuttal with intellectual merit.

His claims that the technology to flter p2p and torrent traffic exists are also untrue and show the broad disconnect between his advisors and technica reality. He is being fed rubbish by those selling ISP filter solutions and I feel sorry that he is wasting money that would be better used if given to the police instead of greedy software salespeople.

I highly doubt it will be published.

Update: Apparently the technology does, to an extent, exist.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080327-deep-packet-inspection-for-p2p-traffic-put-to-the-test.html

It has already, however, been made obsolete just as quickly.

https://www.dpacket.org/articles/digging-deeper-deep-packet-inspection-dpi

The technology that Conroy is most likely talking about was used by comcast in the US to throttle down the speeds of p2p users. This didn't last long as p2p vendors quickly rewrote the playbook and left ComCast, and any similiar approach, dead in the water.

http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-devs-introduce-comcast-busting-encryption-080215/

if you have a look at the following article, you'll notice that the technology can only work if it busts open encrypted packets and tricks them into thinking they're encrypted when they are not. This means that facilities such as Online Banking will become questionable in their security.

http://www.dailytech.com/Australian+Tech+Could+Turn+US+ISPs+into+Kiddie+Porn+Cops/article13224.htm

So when somebody steals your banking details and cleans out your account, don't go crying to Conroy. He'll just tell you that it was 'for the good of the children'.

Thanks to Russell for the links.

Parents against the cleanfeed: a moment.

2008-12-22T10:33:00.000+10:00

They didn't stand out from the crowd, their silhouettes gave no indication as to the nature of their association. They were laughing, chatting and having a few well deserved Friday night drinks. It was only once one of them turned and recognised me that I was able to pick them out from the other patrons of the Ship Inn.

There are no obvious demographic indications that these people would otherwise get along. The Male/Female split is roughly half, the ages range from 18 to 49 with an average around 30 and there are few professional links outside of their online exploits.

You wouldn't pick it, but these dozen people lead a strange and exciting double life. They all have jobs, mortgages and families but they are also bloggers, tweeters, techies, podcasters, citizen journalists and for the most part, opponents of the government's ISP filtering scheme. According to Bernadette McMenamin, these people are all supporters of child pornography. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I have never met a group of people that spend so much time thinking of effective methods of making the internet a better place for everyone. The Australian blogosphere, heavily inclusive of this group as it is, has been rife with public and not so public discussion on how to best keep our children safe while keeping the internet as a state-free-zone. I don't say 'our children' metaphorically, some of us are parents too.

The difference between these parents and the parents targeted by the scare tactics used by the Government, Clive Hamilton and especially Bernadette McMenamin is that these parents are heavily involved in the internet community, not as technogibberish speaking engineers, but as people who treat the internet as their workplace.

The children of these tech savvy people don't 'accidentally' become exposed to internet porn. Their children aren't targeted by chat-room stalkers. Their children aren't threatened by the internet. This is not because of the wizz-bang filtering gadgets that these folks employ, it is because of the way these parents have taken the time to learn how to practically keep their children safe on the internet.

One of the fathers at the table is asked about his daughter. His face swells with pride as he taps away on his iPhone. He turns it around and shows us a striking image of his 17 year old daughter in her formal dress. A princess if ever I had seen one, and you could tell her dad felt the same way. I looked over at one of the other fathers at the table as he shared a story about his own children growing up. That one look reminded me of the intensely protective nature of parenting.

I wouldn't blame a single one of these guys for doing anything, no matter how stupid, in the name of protecting their children. I could even understand them wanting to censor the internet. I would almost shut up about it if they managed to do it.

Yet these fathers and mothers are amongst thousands of other parents that have shown their disgust at the idea of an ISP filtered internet. These parents have looked at the task of protecting their children and, with the full force of both logical thought and parental urges, told the government that they are not going to accept this policy.

Long gone are the days where geeks were 20-something males that sat in dark rooms feeding on pizza and coke whilst coding arcane technologies. The geeks that the government are now up against are mums, dads, teachers, lawyers, tradesmen, children, elderly. Labelling us a 'small group of internet libertarians' is anachronistic and wrong. The situation is now one where politicians are gradually losing touch with the make-up of society.

Rudd and Conroy are perfect examples of the party-room disconnect. Both Rudd and especially Conroy are young by the standards of the offices they have achieved. Both were able to achieve such political success through intense devotion to the political machine, in this case the flashpoint factionalism of the Labor Party. Rudd hails from a background in the beauracracy, an effective petrie dish for the kind of 'us and them' mindset that leads to 'policies for people's own good'.

Have a look at Conroy's Biography and you see a man that was born into the Labor Party, took it deliberately with both hands, and has never left its sheltering arms. The man's only exposure to the communications industry, as far as the DBCDE website can tell, is his work as a minister, shadow minister or an advisor to a shadow minister.

It is unlikely that Conroy's exposure to the internet and similiar technologies has ever been out of a passionate drive to innovate and create. This is why the IT community is in uproar at Conroy's proposed solution to protecting Children. Conroy's solution not only shows a complete lack of inginuity, creativity or true problem solving but also relies on an ideology that is naturally opposed to innovation, Censorship.

It's little wonder then that the parents I spent time with last night are so vehemently against the filter. To them it represents a typically political grab at popularity and only a recycled and misdirected attempt at real protection for their children.

Now with Senator Conroy announcing that the live trial will attempt to filter p2p and torrent traffic as well as mainstream web traffic, the disconnect between the DBCDE and reality has never been more obvious. The technical difficulties are not even the issue, they are insurmountable with the budget Conroy has proposed and even if the entire industry did get together to make the system work properly, the cost would be enough to fund an all out war on child abuse by the AFP.

The arguements made by the pro-filter lobby, mainly comprising of filter vendors and the religious groups after the government was abandoned by the child protection lobby, completely disregard the true problem with this filter. Even if ISP filtering worked exactly as Conroy intends it to, the money and effort used to do so would have achieved results an order of magnitude greater if it had been given to the police.

Child porn and its distribution on the internet are real and dangerous problems. They will not, however, be solved by centralised filtering that is not fully transparent to the populace it is designed to protect.

The real heroes of this war are the police, only they can achieve the wholistic approach to stopping child abuse in Australia. Combined with an effective education program for the use of PC based filtering, we could actually have a real solution on our hands.

Inside World: Irony of Ironies (19)

2008-12-21T21:56:00.000+10:00

Dear God,

Sorry.

Love Kieran.

Inside World: Scare Tactics (18)

2008-12-21T20:18:00.004+10:00

Okay, so I've also read the articles about Bernadette being misquoted about protestors. I've also formed the opinion that she is not as big a douche as some of us make her out to be.

That being said, her organisation and her very role in society make her the posterchild for scare mongering panic vendors. This kind of crap needs to stop. At least I admit when I'm speaking crap. I call it NoCharCom.

Bernadette, if you read this, hang around because there might be a slightly more pleasant surprise for you in the next week of comics.

Inside World: Not much fun is it Clive? (17)

2008-12-21T13:07:00.002+10:00

Websinthe versus Mike the Participant (part 2)

2008-12-20T19:51:00.000+10:00

This is the comment policy on Mike the Participant's blog.

A condition of posting comments on this blog is that everyone who does so must do so with their full name and provide an e-mail address that can be used to verify their identity.

It is also a condition of publication that you must declare any vested interests you have in the debate, financial or otherwise.

If you are closet supporter of child pornography, I am afraid you will have to declare this. If you work for an ISP or a filter-vendor, you will have to declare that.

If your only interest is freedom of speech, I am sorry, but you will have to declare that.

My response, as much as I hate to admit some of it.

By the way, I have those things that I need to declare:

I support free speech
I support Task Force Argos
I support the AFP
I support the fight against child porn
I support PC based filtering

I have no financial interest in any ISP, filter or government.

Websinthe versus Mike the Participant (part 1)

2008-12-20T19:44:00.003+10:00

I'm going to duplicate my comments on 'Mike the Participant's' blog here just in case he moderates them in any way. I also don't expect a debate/war/shitmatch to be clean or gentlemanly from his end.

Link to his original article: here

My response

It’s good to see that you’ve completely missed the point about why the ACMA and the internet won’t mix.

If the ACMA blacklist is complaint based, somebody has to find the site first and then report it. If child pornographers are still out there, it means they’ve managed to avoid the police, let alone somebody actually stumbling upon them by accident.

So now they go behind closed doors and the ACMA plays catchup with a better resourced and more determined group of criminals.

The ACMA link isn’t just about future political censorship, it’s also about it being a completely pointless misdirection of funds that could be spent on better enforcement.

Government ISP Filter is dangerous for children.

2008-12-19T10:44:00.005+10:00

The Rudd Government's filter threatens to hamper the education and opportunities our children can look forward to in the future.

#NoCleanFeed is being overshadowed by Rudd's 5% environmental backdown. While this is a shame on one hand it does remind me that there are things more important to the evolution of man then free speech. I mean, we can hardly criticise the government for trying to create a generation of children who won't know what speech without government oversight is like when they are also trying to create a generation of children who won't know what clean air smells like.

Jon Seymour from BroadBanned put it most aptly when he says:

If the opt-out filter is pervasive, the next generation of school kids
only experience of the Internet is going to be of one that has been
interfered with by Government. They will grow up expecting Government
interference.

This is utterly true and a Labor Government should know better. Government interference in communication is already pervasive amongst mainstream delivery channels, and they argue that it should apply to all areas of life. Government interference is not desirable in all aspects of life. Even if the Government wishes to have a hand in social direction, it must do so in a way that law abiding citizens can avoid.

Let me get this straight for any layman that might read this. Even if The ISP filter didn't slow it down, imagine what will happen when the filter malfunctions while you're sending your credit card details over the net. The privacy and security issues in case of a filter collapse are mind boggling, even if performance is taken out of the picture.

If this filter was about protecting children from Child Porn, it would have been stopped after the Tasmanian trials proved that it wouldn't work. This so called 'raft of policies' that the government keep harping on about are poorly funded and little more than token gestures. Their lack of commitment shows in their defunding of the Net Alert program.

If Rudd is so keen on protecting children, why has he pulled support for the PC based filters, taking them out of reach of many low income families? They claim that the lack of uptake of the software indicated the project's failure. This couldn't be more set up if they tried. Not only did they not advertise the program, they allowed poorly configured and poor quality software to represent the government's commitment to child protection.

I've been using Intergard for months now. While it is the best the Government offered, it is complete crap and requires a lot of maintainence to work with. The only reason Rudd has abandoned PC filtering for families at home is because they want to score points by looking different to Howard. Net Alert didn't have the commitment it needed. With some effort and proper advertisement, Net Alert would have had a much greater impact on internet safety.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Conroy's policies have nothing to do with internet safety. They are designed to please the right wing academics that would ordinarily have been against labor and to placate the public into thinking that something was being done.

-------------

I appreciate everyone that commented on my comic, it means a lot to me that NoCharCom is actually read occasionally. I'm going to stretch myself in the next few days and bring out a three part post.

By the way, I have a BIG project in the works for myself that should amount to a slightly more serious effort on my part to have fun wuth this blog.

Inside World: Where Two Or Three (16)

2008-12-18T01:18:00.004+10:00

Yes, the title is significant.

Scarred face photomanipulation

2008-12-17T19:33:00.003+10:00

Okay, be honest, does this look even remotely realistic? 1-10 where 10 is utterly realistic. You might need to click for the full view to get the full effect.

Inside World: Those That Fight (15)

2008-12-17T01:06:00.001+10:00

Special Edition NoCharCom: NBNarrenschiff

2008-12-15T12:43:00.002+10:00

Seriously, google it or don't even bother.

Inside World: Epic Single Panel Fight Scene (14)

2008-12-15T11:17:00.002+10:00

Inside World: What Use Memes? (13)

2008-12-14T18:03:00.001+10:00

Inside World: Bloggers Unite! (12)

2008-12-12T12:23:00.002+10:00

Yes, I'm taking the piss out of myself there.

Inside World: Into The Wound (11)

2008-12-11T04:51:00.000+10:00

Inside World: Like My Windows? (10)

2008-12-10T16:30:00.001+10:00

Inside World: Great Scott (9)

2008-12-09T16:23:00.001+10:00

I know, I know, yesterday was the first post I've missed since this comic started. I honestly thought I'd booked up till the tenth. I was wrong.

Inside World: Coma (8)

2008-12-08T04:34:00.001+10:00

Inside World: A Man Behind (7)

2008-12-07T04:32:00.001+10:00

Inside World: CRM-114 (6)

2008-12-06T04:31:00.000+10:00

Inside World: Social Implications (5)

2008-12-05T04:24:00.000+10:00

Opening of Brisbane Aboriginal Fine Arts Gallery

2008-12-05T02:51:00.000+10:00

This from the horses mouth, I'll be attending. #btub interested?

Dear Madam or Sir,

Aboriginal Fine Art cordially invites you to our grand opening celebration. This event will take place on Friday December 18th, 2008 between 7pm and 11pm.

The grand opening marks our enthusiasm to be part of the Brisbane community. Our organization has more than 25 years of experience in the Aboriginal Art Industry, and we are excited to now be in Queensland and provide the local community with a space where they can both purchase and appreciate high quality Aboriginal Art. Our organization encompasses all facets of the Aboriginal Art Industry, with established galleries in Melbourne and Sydney and a state of the art studio facility located in Alice Springs. Aboriginal Fine Art here in Brisbane is the newest installment in our list of quality art establishments, providing only the highest level of artwork and service.

To mark this special event, Queensland Aboriginal Artist Kurun Warun will attend the celebration and prepare a special collection. Kurun Warun is also a troop leader of the Aboriginal Dance Troop Toolumby Waddama and will perform at the event. Kurun’s current work as well as a biography can be viewed on our website at the following link: http://www.aboriginal-fineart.com.au/artists/view/kurun_warun/

We kindly ask that you RSVP for this event as spaces are limited. To RSVP, simply respond by email to the gallery or phone us directly at (07) 3012 7550. If you have any questions regarding the opening celebration or general enquiries about our art, please feel free to contact our gallery.

Thank you for your interest in Aboriginal Art and I hope to see you at the opening festivities.

Kind Regards,

Badi T. Sheidaee

Director

logo.jpg

Shop 4/79 Adelaide Street (located on Albert Street Mall)

Brisbane QLD 4000

P: (07) 3012 7550

F: (07) 3012 7549

E: mail@aboriginal-fineart.com

Website: www.aboriginal-fineart.com.au

Inside World: Being Prompt (4)

2008-12-04T04:22:00.000+10:00

Inside World: Decisions made (3)

2008-12-03T04:21:00.000+10:00

How to snow yourself under...

2008-12-03T01:53:00.002+10:00

Remove all doubt that you can do something and you will remove all the self control that was required to not go overboard.

At least that's the way I'm tempted to think sometimes. My newfound resolve to focus on my artistic pursuits, specifically writing and cartooning, has resulted in a great deal of opportunity and not a whole lot of decisiveness on my own part. I think I need to get out of 'searching' mode and into 'doing' mode.

I've done this before; the temptation to forge ahead in a brave new direction faster than you're able to cope with is a common mistake and one I fall into a lot. Luckily, I think I've pulled myself up in time, if I sit on the projects I'm already involved with, I should be fine for another few months. At the very least, I should be in a good position to stop worrying so much.

Things are looking up at the moment. The household financial situation is looking good, we're both busy but sufficiently entertained and all of this comes at a time when we should both be broke, stressed and in a raving panic. Thank God for anti-depressants I suppose.

In terms of actual news, Naomi and I now have internet at home courtesy of a little black vodafone USB dongle. Yay, more telephony crap. At least it's better than having to walk to uni every time I want to blog.

I got FarCry 2 today. Still haven't had a chance to play it though. Naomi is quite stuck to this $15 game called Horsez that she picked up today. It's giving her a temper and it reminds me that one day we're going to have to sit down and have a talk my dad gave to me and my brothers about keeping calm whilst playing games.

And yes, I use the word 'whilst' on this blog because I can. I wouldn't use it anywhere else.

I've started sketching for a new comic project. Can't and won't say anything more but it will be the most ambitious cartooning project I've seen in a long time let alone actually been involved with (let alone been artside on).

As much as the SEO nuts on twitter bore me to tears occasionally, I wonder if there will come a time when I need their advice. My refusal to monetise websinthe means nothing about any other projects on which I may be working.

Myself, @a_lil_spaz, @michealmeloni and @ben_grubb will be meeting on Friday for a few drinks and to discuss the possibility of a group podcast. No promises than anything will come from that but I'm extremely keen to work with 3 very talented people. I've also been keen to do a podcast for years and have never had the guts nor the content. That should change.

I posted an article over at Public Polity this evening that, despite the information being available since last year's budget, covered something that appears to have gone under the radar. More on that here. The other surprise was the increased amount of retweets that the article had from people who, in my estimation, are a lot better than me.

I'm prone to hero worship, there's no hiding it.

It feels good to be involved in online debate at a fundamental level. I do feel as though I've broken my fair share of stories on the topic of #nocleanfeed. I don't presume to be an expert, there are better articles than mine, but for the first time in a long time I feel confident that the things I have written may have significantly contributed to the debate.

As you can see, the NoCharCom December special has begun. It's going to be a doozy, especially given how much bloody time I put into it. NoCharCom isn't the only comic that I write and draw. It is, however, my favourite.

I should save something for tomorrow, expect a post on FC2 at some point. Expect Conroy's resignation as well. He might take me with him, but he's a sinking ship.

Inside World: Not Every Day (2)

2008-12-02T04:16:00.000+10:00

Inside World: It's getting late (1)

2008-12-01T04:14:00.000+10:00

nocharcom: Our Economic Saviour

2008-11-30T04:13:00.001+10:00

An open letter to Sen. Ludlum #nocleanfeed

2008-11-29T20:28:00.002+10:00

Sub: You are my hero

Dear Scott,

I'd just like to add my own thanks and gratitude on behalf of the Australian Blogosphere, your fight against irrational fear-mongering and irresponsible governmental controls has given hope to a generation of Australians who aren't nearly as stupid as the Labor Party obviously thinks we are.

Our curriculum in high school includes reading 1984, we're on to Conroy, we've read about this kind of thing.

I'd just like to ask you about how exactly the live pilot is going to be run. Are participating ISPs expected to make their own filter in the rediculously short amount of time the government has given them or will the original 6 be made available?

Secondly, I'd like to ask if you'd be so kind as to give my readers a sneak preview of any upcoming questions you'll be asking Steven Conroy during question time.

Thirdly, I'm writing a book on the clean feed issue and will be including some humor. I was wondering, what kind of in-jokes are whispered around the senate about Conroy or even anyone to do with the filter?

Unlike with most politicians, I won't be upset if you don't answer the last question.

Yours with pride and hilarity,

Kieran Salsone
websinthe.blogspot.com

******

I know I'm a little embarrassing to be around but I'm hoping this has a happy ending.

To see the email the other Senators for my state recieved, check out Public Polity.

nocharcom: His motivations are?

2008-11-29T04:07:00.000+10:00

nocharcom: The Bush Legacy

2008-11-28T04:06:00.000+10:00

#Thanksgeeking

2008-11-28T03:47:00.003+10:00

This is new to me.

The sheer number of tweets from our Yankee cousins regarding Thanksgiving may have been the catalyst for my uptake of this concept. I was beginning to consider ignoring twitter for the next 24 hours as the constant stream of thanksgiving spam posts and cheery hubris started draining the blood directly from my eyes.

Behold, the next concept I will take too seriously! #Thanksgeeking.

The concept is simple,

For what is your inner geek truly grateful?

My #thanksgeeking list

Photoshop

Penny-Arcade

Twitter

WordPress/Blogspot

IBM Symphony

Okay, so this is where I rant.

2008-11-28T03:19:00.000+10:00

But that doesn't mean I can't hate on the QUT rent-a-cops a little.

Last night Naomi and I came in to uni to use the 24 hour computer labs in the library. Now, I'm a student here but Naomi is an ex-student. This caused a problem when an insecurity guard came around asking for our student IDs. Of course, she umm'd and ahhh'd and I tried to distract him.

Long story short, we lied about her being a student and he called our bullshit. Fair cop.

When we admitted that we had lied, he took my ID details and threatened to call the police. This is where I realised that my best bet was to just shut up and leave. If this guy had such a small penis that he needed to call the police on a girl half his height and a quarter of his weight then it stood to reason he was not born of rational stock.

As we were escorted off campus, he proceeded to tell us that if we had told the truth there would not have been any problem. Bullshit. This may have been one of four lies I have told this month (3 of which I've confessed to), but I can still tell when someone is crapping on.

I had the same situation with Jon and James. They said something similar at our parting conversation. I know, they know and you know, it's bullshit. Honesty has never resulted in fair treatment.

A person's propensity to lie is indirectly proportionate to the maturity level of the people around them. The lower the maturity, the more they lie. This is mianly because liars have learned that no matter what they do, someone will take offense at it enough to hurt them and the only way to avoid this is lying.

Parents, your children lie to you because you aren't reasonable in your treatment of their stuff ups. If your child is lying to you, it's your fault. If your friend is lying to you, it's your fault. If your partner is lying to you, it's your fault.

If you lie and something bad happens. It's your fault.

If someone lied to you and you hit the roof, don't tell them that honesty would have been rewarded, we can smell bullshit from a mile away and you are a smaller person for saying it. If you really would have prefered honesty, you would have said something up front.

For example, I've told Naomi that if she cheats and tells me about it, I won't be upset or angry or leave her. Same goes if she lies about it. My point is that if I then go and get angry at her for being honest, I'm the bad guy. Say it up front for God's sake and stop being so immature.

nocharcom: Excessive Persuasion

2008-11-27T11:04:00.001+10:00

I know, I know, wait, wtf?

2008-11-26T16:59:00.001+10:00

There was a post here, and then I took it down because it didn't post in its entirety. I have the full copy at home and will publish it tonight.

It's a goody too.

nocharcom: Rork Snaps

2008-11-26T15:04:00.001+10:00

nocharcom: Dealing with Translink V3

2008-11-25T15:02:00.001+10:00

Conroy responds to Ludlum, finally. #nocleanfeed

2008-11-25T14:58:00.002+10:00

Ideally this should have been posted on Public Polity, and it will be, but I think Sam's gone quiet for a few days and I would prefer this came out sooner rather than later.

In what was possibly the most watched Senate Question time in memory, Greens Senator Ludlum posed the following question to Labor Senator Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy.

Will the minister be providing a retraction to the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts, as the answer he gave then was substantially different to the answer that was provided to that committee? Will the minister provide us with a definition of what he meant by ‘unwanted content’ and inform us as to where we might find a definition of ‘unwanted’? Will the minister acknowledge the legitimate concerns that have been raised by commentators and many members of the public that such a system will degrade internet performance, prove costly and inefficient and do very little to achieve the government’s policy objectives?

At the time, Conroy was only allowed 1 minute to respond, a minute that he used to arrogantly treat Senator Ludlum like a child. It's par for the course that parliamentarians treat each other with contempt during question time, but even those standards were abused by Conroy.

We now have Conroy's full response. Apart from artfully dodging the very real concerns that everybody but the Labor Party seems to have with this scheme, Conroy says very little, if anything, substantive. His response follows.

Given that there was only one minute to answer those questions, I undertook to provide the senator with further answers to the questions at a later time. Regarding the first answer, I draw the senator’s attention to the Hansard of the hearing by the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts on 20 October. At that hearing I indicated that we are implementing ISP filtering, taking into account arrangements in countries such as Sweden, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. The point I made was that these countries have introduced technologies that demonstrate that filtering is technically possible. I did not claim that arrangements in those countries are mandatory. This advice was confirmed by officials at the meeting, who stated quite explicitly that the arrangements in these countries are voluntary. At no time did I mislead the committee, as alleged by Senator Ludlam.

In answer to a further question, the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s black list of sites is determined using processes set out in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. These processes involve classification of content by the national Classification Board and include classifications which are determined prohibited. Prohibited content hosted outside of Australia is added to the black list, which is provided to ISPs and filter providers. The government will also ensure that the ACMA black list includes international content of this nature identified by such agencies as Interpol, Europol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

Senator Ludlam also raised issues around the impact and performance of filters. I acknowledge, as I have continually acknowledged, the concerns raised by some members of the public about the possible impact of filtering on internet performance and costs. This is one of the reasons we are undertaking the live pilot—that is, to test these issues in a real-world environment. The government intends to take an evidence based approach to this issue. The results of the live pilot will inform the government’s policy in this area.

The senator also had a question about dynamic filtering and the opening of private mail. The government have made no commitment to require ISPs to implement dynamic internet filtering. This is, however, one of the different approaches to internet filtering that we intend to test in the upcoming live pilot. The government have absolutely no intention of requiring ISPs to open private electronic communications such as email.

Finally, I go to issues raised in subsequent motions to take note of answers. Yesterday, Senator Ludlam asked further questions about the precise approach to filtering that the government will adopt. The government does not intend to make firm decisions about specific issues before it knows the outcome of the upcoming live pilot of filtering technologies and has consulted the industry. The government, as I have said, intends to take an evidence based approach to internet filtering, and the sensible thing to do is to wait for the outcome of the live pilot before dealing with detailed questions.

This response poses an interesting 'chicken and the egg' dilemma. If the government is waiting on results of the live test to determine the type of filtering to use, what exactly is the live pilot testing? If all ISPs that participate are required to put forward their own filtering solution, as was stipulated in the RSOI documentation, how can anyone expect for statistically viable results to emerge?

While this task isn't impossible to do properly, it looks like Conroy has repeated his borking of the NBN. The NBN has been delayed time and time again and saved only by Conroy's snake-oil slipperiness. This 4.3 Billion dollar plan was little more than a hastily hacked together command to Telstra and SingTel after which the government just sat back and waited for the private sector to do all the hard work.

Conroy's ministry is beginning to follow a predictable formula: Promise big, bully the private sector into delivering, talk fast when it turns out to be impossible.

nocharcom: Dealing with Translink V2

2008-11-24T15:00:00.002+10:00

Debating with a loved one: infinitely bad idea.

2008-11-23T21:06:00.004+10:00

I'm just going to dive into this post and see where it leads, the #nocleanfeed issue is a tough one at best, a reputational death trap at worst.

Firstly, Naomi and I just had a massive argument over the issue, her espousing that politicians would be perfect if they kept the protection of children as their universally top priority and me espousing that they already think that they do and have done a pretty effective job of fucking things up under the banner of "think of the children".

In the end we were arguing for the same things but my experience with the political process has taught me that there's no room for absolutes. Tell two people to make sure nobody hurts a child and one will wrap it in cotton wool while the other tries to teach it boxing. Unfortunately the last child that someone tried to 'protect' has had such a hard time with reality that turned into a paedophile and is taking pictures of the whole process for later use.

A good point that Naomi makes, however, is that medical and psychological professionals are generally in consensus about what is healthy and unhealthy for children. We should listen to them more than parents. However, she does go on to say, they should be asked the desired end state, not consulted on the method by which it is achieved. Effectiveness on a macro scale is not in their training.

Who should be asked? (I reckoned the illegitimate love child of John Keynes and Alfred Kinsey). Someone with a better grasp of causality and economics than 99% of today's political representatives. For fuck's sake don't ask Conroy, he's borked his chance already.

God I wish Firefox would learn that a pedophile is a lover of feet. A Paedophile is a lover of children and is a perfectly valid word.

I'm reading articles about parents and their positive reactions to the idea of a filter. Leaving aside the fact that the idea to which they subscribe is a fantasy, it's interesting to see just how little of a qualification parenthood is in the opinion stakes. In fact, I would go so far as to say that having children seriously impairs your ability to comment on public policy. Parents can't escape the focus and reality distortion that having a child forces on them. That they vote is enough, I'm not sure we should ask them anything more in depth than that.

Naomi's reading 'Ask Bossy' and her last comment was about how stupid and psychologically damaging comments made by people with children can be.

I'd like to remind parents that it's current parenting techniques that are causing the vicious rise in child porn and paedophilia. Your credibility is evaporating quickly. The 'ped under the bed' that you're so scared of is your brother, you had the same parents, maybe we should censor your comments too.

I'm sick of people taking the moral high ground. I'm in here fighting the good fight against a filter that will not reduce the threat of child abuse but will put serious strain on globally valid liberties of adults in this country and I run a net filter on my own computer.

What possible reason could I have for wanting a virgin feed? I'm filtering it anyway.

It's because it's fucking wrong. If those parents that want to sheepishly follow every scare monger in parliament then they can install their own filters that they can then tweak for maximum effectiveness. Don't be so lazy about your parenting, your laziness makes your children easy targets for the first arsehole to crack through the paper thin filter that Conroy will put up.

It's a slippery slope, so here's a question. Why would any decent human being support a filter that could be used for political oppression?

There's just so many ways that this filter could be abused. I'm sure that everyone's got at least one religion that they don't want to have forced on them. It's the same thing here with the filter, every interest group will be obliged to petition that their own blacklist be added. The slippery slope will come back to bite everyone involved. Who are you to say that your values can be legislated but another person's can't?

There is a dangerous trend towards a conservative renaissance. Keep in mind people, you're only well educated because of liberalist ideals, conservativism is about distrusting the populace's ability to make their own decisions. I don't know how there can be so many well paid people in this society when they don't even understand the ideologies that got them there in the first place.

Wake up to yourselves people. Grow up Conroy, learn to admit you're wrong. Consultative my arse.

nocharcom: Dealing with Translink V1

2008-11-23T14:58:00.001+10:00

nocharcom: Credit where credit's due

2008-11-22T14:57:00.000+10:00

nocharcom: ABCs of Disease

2008-11-21T14:53:00.001+10:00

nocharcom: How StumbleUpon works

2008-11-20T15:01:00.000+10:00

Anything goes.

2008-11-19T23:00:00.004+10:00

At least I can rest assured that this blog will be blocked by Senator Conroy. Unfortunately, because I'm trying to stay reasonable about the situation and not make the argument personal, I can't vent my rage that the Government I voted in will be backstabbing me quite so badly.

I'm also a little upset that I've given my uncle Terry another reason to think I'm an idiot. I emailed him and asked him if he'd be willing to tell Kevin Rudd that Steven Conroy is making him look bad. I may be overselling Terry's access to the guy but then again, he is Godfather to the PM's son...

Either way, I've been giving Terry reasons to not take me seriously for years by:

Repeatedly quitting jobs at the company he owns,
Repeatedly failing at Uni,
Trying to sell him on Amway,
Smoking,
Drinking, and most recently
Hating on Senator Conroy.

Terry's a good guy, he's just so much larger than life that I can't help but feel intimidated by him. He's one of those people that is so sensible and so often correct that any foolishness on your own part is magnified a million times. All credit to him for amassing such formidable presence without being nasty, but I forgive myself for not spending more time staying in contact with him.

I finished Fallout 3 today. It turns out that while the game itself is remarkably lengthy, the main storyline finished a little quicker than I expected. I'll be playing it again and trying to do more side quests and exploring more areas. I'd like to have a bit more of a large scale challenge. I'd have more to say about it if I wasn't so keen on putting all my thoughts into NoCharCom form.

I just read the list of reasons why Terry might think I'm an idiot. Turns out it's a list of why I think I was an idiot. I'd say I was projecting if my childhood wasn't full of "Be like Terry, be like Terry" repeated ad nueseum by my mother. By the way, I no longer smoke, drink, Amway or quit jobs at Terry's company.

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything Goes.

nocharcom: Misuse of weapons

2008-11-19T15:00:00.000+10:00

nocharcom: Further attempts at recognition

2008-11-18T14:59:00.000+10:00

nocharcom: An issue with blogging

2008-11-17T14:58:00.000+10:00

Results of observation.

2008-11-17T11:07:00.002+10:00

This post is really just a summary of my comments in defense of a previous post. I hope it clarifies my position somewhat. I also encourage you click on the above link and see the questions that generated these responses.

It took me a lot of years and a lot of therapy to stop scapegoating women and blame myself for letting my male energy be diluted.

To deny the social influence in that dilution would be akin to denying the social influence in girls becoming anorexic or the social forces involved in the long standing oppression of women.

Sexism is a social construct and it goes both ways. Women are oppressed and Men are confused. Sexism is not the same as misogyny. It's also Misandry, intentional or not.

1) Men are being diluted through the changing course of society no longer having a place for what are predominantly male modes of expression. It's all well and good that we can indulge in our feminine side more, but we can indulge in our masculine side even less. Not only are the possibilities shrinking, but the prevailing societal attitude is that male dominated pursuits are either bad or in need of feminine input.

2) My ‘metro hate’ comes from the attitude that spawns it. Firstly, feminine aesthetic is feminine for a reason, fine if a man wants to indulge in it but to hate on the traditionally male aesthetic is limiting and part of denying your gender. Secondly, the metro look is a predominantly commercial one, it is not something born out of love, responsibility or real qualities. It is inherently and purposefully superficial.

3) Feminists are doing what feminists need to do and I think there is still a great need for feminists. Demonising men is not a function of feminism but a function of rage. The reason why misandrists haven't picked on all core male abilities is because they were lost to men well and truly before the rise of feminism.

Men do porn because it's easy and they've lost hope in meaningful relationships. This is everyone's fault.

"Is there really something wrong with making fun of communication problems and social ineptitude?"

4) There is definitely something wrong with making fun of communication problems and social ineptitude. Making fun of people's shortcomings is never okay. People defend their own bullying because they have been bullied and not enough was done to stop it.

5) We’re all getting fatter because of the reduction of physical roles in society. I find it disturbing that people then go and defend this and say that men need to adapt. Why? Society isn't inherently better for being more technologically advanced. We have more stress, more developmental problems, more hate, more bigotry, more relationship collapse and weaker family units. On top of this we've put a time limit on the use of our planet.

Society needs to adapt to a situation where both men and women can sustainably live in peace ad infinitum. Social stagnation is to be avoided at all costs but not to the point of inherent social instability. To say that moving forward technologically and making men obsolete is for the benefit of our species is wrong-headed and doomed to fail. It's not even a case of 'making allowances for us', it's about understanding what it takes for a species to use society as a method of mutual support.

The only way we'll beat extinction with our current social problems is to colonise other planets, and even then we're just talking about delaying the inevitable backlash from our unsustainable way of life.

People mistake the word 'role' for 'restriction'. Just because a person has a 'role' doesn't mean it becomes them. People are free to operate outside their 'roles' just so long as they remain capable of performing it. A baker can get drunk so long as he can go to work the next day. There are actions, functions, words and ways from both genders that are vital to the family unit and to society as a whole.

Creativity and the ability to work outside those roles is a wonderful thing that I certainly practice in my own life, but when those masculine roles are called for I am still able to perform them because I am in touch with my masculine energy - something that men are increasingly unable to do because of the lack of direction and frustration they have.

Labeling women as being superficial and commercialist because they wear make up or dress beautifully is getting cause and effect around the wrong way. Women don't buy fashion because it is being sold, fashion is sold because of a deep seated and ancient part of a woman's psyche that wants to be beautiful. The male psyche works in a similar but different way, and it is increasingly valid to label metrosexuals as being superficial and commercialist as they pander to the echoes of militant feminism from the 60s and 70s.

Read Captivating by Stasi Eldridge, it explains it marvelously.

My take on it is that children growing up, before socialisation has complete determination of what they are doing, are different. A young boy wrestles his brothers while a young girl plays dress up with her sisters. Telling a child that they should act more gender neutral is a shame and horribly destructive.

Men competing with Big screen TVs and the like is superficial and a consequence of the twisting of masculinity. We fight with possessions because our society and men in particular have forgotten the genuine battlegrounds on which we were meant to fight.

I can understand the perception that I want to return to ancient battlegrounds, you're certainly not the first person to read that in my words.

Battlegrounds were a product of the fierce world of survival or death in which our ancestors lived. I'm glad that we have for all intents and purposes beaten that reality. What I'm not happy about is that the essence of fighting for genuine measures of a human's greatness has been lost. We're pathological fakers, showing off with Sony and Louis Vuitton. We heap expectations on ourselves to be something that we're not. Women and men do it to the same extent and they do it on an individual level.

The comment has been made that breaking down gender roles would be healthy. That men and women should be free to traverse the spectrum of roles freely without the constraints of gender stereotyping. That's not how it works. Break down the walls and there's no spectrum left. The spectrum is a framework of roles, roles that aren't binding individually but are still vital to society having a chance at peace and health on all levels.

nocharcom: Rockin' Robin

2008-11-16T14:56:00.000+10:00

nocharcom: The Dog did it

2008-11-15T14:55:00.000+10:00

nocharcom: Fork in the road - take it.

2008-11-14T21:20:00.000+10:00

nocharcom: When hormones strike

2008-11-13T21:19:00.000+10:00

nocharcom: PSA Puberty

2008-11-12T21:17:00.000+10:00

The Stanleys - Cartoonist awards.

2008-11-12T14:03:00.000+10:00

From the Australian Cartoonist's Association:

The Australian Cartoonists’ Association is proud to announce the six finalists for the Gold Stanley Cartoonist Of The Year, sponsored by The Herald Sun, at the 24th Stanley Awards to be held on November 22 in Coffs Harbour, NSW.

The six finalists are:

Jason Chatfield
Editorial cartoonist, caricaturist, stand-up comedian AND Ginger Meggs cartoonist.

Mark Knight
The Herald Sun editorial cartoonist has won several Stanley Awards and Walkley Awards.

Jon Kudelka
The Hobart-based editorial cartoonist contributes regularly to The Australian and The Mercury.

Bill Leak
The popular editorial cartoonist continues his remarkable recovery from serious injury to be nominated by his peers for his work in The Australian.

Bruce Petty
Cartooning legend and ACA Life Member Bruce Petty contributes to The Age and is renowned for his animation.

David Rowe
His editorial and caricature work is seen in the Australian Financial Review. David is the reigning Cartoonist Of The Year.

Smores galores 2.0

2008-11-11T21:56:00.003+10:00

I've been heavily involved in Twitter over the last two weeks, and this might explain why my contributions to this blog have been thinning. At the moment I'm watching Mel Brooks fight a black guy to the death in The History of the World Part 1 - it can't be helping.

One thing I've noticed with Twitter is the predominance of what has come to be known as smores or, social media whores. These tend to be male marketing types with a massive following based entirely on people's desire to be famous on the internet.

A cynical view but one that is probably warrented given the obviousness of the situation.

I'll admit to being networked for a few of them, there's one in particular, Jim Connolly, that is quite a nice fellow and I enjoy having him a part of my feed. I wonder though, whether this points to an inherent and ultimately destructive flaw in the community.

Another thing that I dislike about twitter, and would certianly like to see prohibited, is the use of autoresponders and tweet bots. Setting up an account must be a human activity but I've been messaged by bots before. Anyone who's been invloved with an online community knows that bots are death: anethema to the user experience.

I'm not sure if I want to pursue this any further but I'm currently enjoying twitter a lot and only time can tell if it stays that way.

nocharcom: Not shampoo

2008-11-11T21:16:00.000+10:00

nocharcom: Alex Normalday guest strip

2008-11-10T21:12:00.000+10:00

This is a guest strip I wrote for The Adventures of Alex Normalday.

Dr Wakefield -or- How I learned to stop editing and love the blogpost

2008-11-10T09:53:00.002+10:00

So Naomi is one of those writers that spends a million years editing her stuff. This is great but it's also one of the reasons for which NaNo was created. It's also the reason she hasn't published anything. This is great for me though because she edits most of my work when I let her see it.

You can imagine my glee when I woke up this morning to find that my lovely princess hadn't actually gone to bed yet. She was still going strong at the keyboard. I take a glance and, shock horror, not only had she written a Sweet Valley High recap, but she'd actually posted it as well!

Sweet-valley-whatsitnow?

For all of you that grew up as girls and for some of you that now like to pretend you are one on a sunday night at The Beat, there's this series of girl's books known as Sweet Valley High (and the million or so spin-offs that go with them). There's actually quite a strong LiveJournal community based around writing recaps of these books. Given the sheer number of books, however, Naomi was able to find a book that hadn't yet been recapped. The recaps are generally just an opportunity for SVH lovers to take the piss out of the ghostwriters that wrote the series and poke fun at the characters that, whether they admit it or not, these recappers love.

As you can imagine, there is a unique style that these recaps trend towards, one that is rife with smarmy comments, snide quips and rampant in-jokes (Zombie-Olivia wants to eat your brains). I was pleasantly surprised to see Naomi fell right into this style to great and humorous effect on her first attempt.

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised, 'reading recaps' is roughly transferable with 'sleep' for Naomi, I'm amazed at just how many of them there are.

Mainly I'm just chuffed to watch her in her creative state. It's a great thing to see for anyone but especially when it's the one you love. She managed to nail the html markup for the post and write quite a hefty amount - and then post it without editing! For anyone that knows Naomi, this is anathema to her.

In other news I'll be attending Sean Leahy's (political cartoonist for C-M and Beyond the Black Stump) Cartooning without drawing workshop tonight over at the Relaxation Centre at Alderly. I'm looking forward to it more than I probably should, not only is it great to chat with Sean but I'm looking forward to what insights he can give me into NoCharCom, which he's asked me to send him.

I'm using Naomi's laptop to do this so Ima logoffski and head over to uni.

nocharcom: Father

2008-11-09T21:11:00.000+10:00

Grunting harshly

2008-11-09T18:04:00.004+10:00

I'm not really, it's just an apt physical description of how I feel when I forget to post here at least once a day.

It's been a few days and I swear it's only because I haven't had the net at home, and that I've been putting a lot of effort into December's NoCharCom special, and I've been having a social life, and I've been listening to too much John Coulton.

God he's good.

Here's a link to his better stuff (all of it youtube, none of it Rick Astley)

I'd better warn you all now, I'm going to be moving NoCharCom over to a wordpress blog. As much as I have a softspot for blogger, it really isn't the right place for a comic. It needs more space to run around and play and lick itself.

Now all I need to do is figure out this god-damned comic theme for wordpress.

nocharcom: Not a Dinosaur comic

2008-11-08T20:59:00.000+10:00

nocharcom: Dilbert's horrid influence

2008-11-07T20:58:00.000+10:00

nocharcom: Not entirely unrealistic

2008-11-06T20:57:00.001+10:00