Sex Hysteria!

Australia is panning to launch a mandatory internet filtering scheme this year earning it some recent bad press when Reporters Without Borders criticized the plan, announcing it now has Australia “under surveillance”.

“The government does not support Refused Classification (RC) content being available on the Internet,” a spokeswoman for the minister told AFP.

“This content includes child sexual abuse imagery, bestiality, sexual violence, detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use and/or material that advocates the doing of a terrorist act.”

And how does Australia justify this censorship?  Basically by saying it’s just expading what they’ve already been doing:

Under Australia’s existing classification rules, this material is not available in news publications or libraries, and cannot be viewed at the cinema or on television and is not available on Australian-hosted websites.

“The government’s proposal will bring the treatment of overseas-hosted content into line by requiring ISPs to block overseas content that has been identified as being RC-rated,” she said.

Opponents to the plan object because it could be misused later:

But Geordie Guy, spokesman for the online rights group Electronic Frontiers Australia, said the filter was still a bad idea.

“In the construction of a censorship system like this, Australia will be building the framework for a broader censorship system if this government, or any future government, sees that that is what they wish to do,” he told AFP.

If there is any disease that government is susceptible to, it’s mission creep.  Once the infrastructure is in place to censor internet content, you can be sure the censorship will expand as more and more content is declared to be a threat to national security or is declared harmful to children.  The Australian Board of Classification already bans material that is readily available in the U.S.

So much for being the “Show Me” state.

According to The Pitch, if it becomes law, it would:

• outlaw nudity in strip clubs

• require a six-foot buffer between strippers and customers

• shut down adult entertainment businesses between midnight and 6 a.m.

• outlaw liquor sales at strip clubs

• create a 1,000-foot buffer zone between adult businesses and schools, churches, day cares, libraries, parks, homes and other adult businesses.

The South just can’t help being The South.

The link for this item was gratuitously stolen from theagitator.com.

Don’t you just hate it when you’re doing everything you can to make people miserable and then some do-gooder comes along and throws a wrench in the works?  He says he’s doing God’s work, but everyone knows that god hates sex offenders.

The guy claims he’s merely trying to provide, otherwise homeless, sex offenders with a  place to live.  And if that weren’t enough, there’s a winery   only a mile away where girl scouts go to camp in the summer.  A winery?

Looks like they’re going to close him down, though.   The law says if he’s going to try and help sex offenders, he has to provide counseling.    Since he’s not providing counseling, the city will be a much safer place if he just throws their asses out in the street.  Hell, maybe there’s a nice comfy highway bridge nearby.

A man is suing British Airways over their policy that bans men from sitting next to children they don’t know.