Atomictumor

So, lets say you have a job.

Its in front of a computer, doing, oh, lets say, local government work. For a county. And your employer, well, they’re dicks about what websites you go to. Sure, you don’t need to be going to jigglygirls.com, or poopchute.net, but lets say you, in the interests of fair discourse, want to go to a local forum, or the website of a local government official.

But man, damned if those rat bastards, those pig fornicating administrative assistants and IT goons aren’t trying to keep you down. Sure, they want you to go to some websites, like the personal ‘news’ website of one of the head honchos, where the news is conveniently pre-filtered and pre-slanted, or maybe to a forum on a local newspaper, where, well, there are other issues, but they’re keeping you down, and not letting you get to where the ACTION is.

Lets just assume that they’re using a content filtering system. Like, say, Sonicwall. Yes, they’re used for filtering bad out of the school websites, so its just natural that you, the grown up working for the .gov, is going to end up being on the business end of the filter stick. Why? Because dammit, these local people just KNOW that they know better than you, they’re doing you a favor and keeping you from going places where you’ll see DISSIDENT opinions.

Hell, if we’re lucky, we might even get into seeing some of these Beijing internet cops that have been in the media lately, looking all cute and cuddly, but all set to handcuff you to a pipe and beat you in the kidneys with FAH Q sticks if you wander down the wrong internet corridor.

Well, don’t say I never did you no favors.

Because circumventing dumbassery is a hobby of mine, and IT is a profession, and dammit freedom is a GOD GIVEN RIGHT, particuarly freedom from political bullshit, I offer you the linked suggestion for a fix.

Now, I preface this by saying there are two fixes here. This is essentially a proxy, and the use of it will surely be viewed as a transgression on IT policy, so they might strap you to the table for it if they catch you, but truth is, they probably won’t. Because the IT guys think the administrative assistant and the political stuff, as we do, is a load of crap, they’re probably not going to bend over backwards to bust you.

Still, don’t say I didn’t tell you so.

Now, if they block that first little linky thing, theres another link with instructions on creating your own proxy on your home (non-work) computer. I neither suggest nor, uh, don’t suggest that you follow instructions and modify computers around, and will under no circumstances fix problems caused by this or comfort you when your computer explodes.

However, I will say “Welcome, pilgrim, to the promised land. The land where the geeks rule, and the good old boys with their power craving weird goat sucking fetishes don’t even realize it”.

Or, I might just say “give me a beer.”

Now, with my kids starting soccer (which is another story alltogether), I’m starting to see the dollar signs popping up in my eyes.

Hells yes, people, ol’ AT isn’t one to shy away from exploiting hitherto unknown talents in the children for personal financial gain. Not that I’m planning to sell them to a circus or something (how profitable is that, anyway?) but that I won’t say no to big soccer money. So, in that vein, I’ve started trying to pay attention to soccer, to find out who I’m going to need to network, or off, or whatever.

So it is with dismay that I find out that David Beckham, whom I last saw crying like a baby during the final match of the 2006 World Cup, has managed to injure himself, AGAIN.

In researching his problems, from that little crying incident during the World Cup, to his marrage to one of England’s skankiest washups, to a broken ankle in 2002, to a flying monkey attack in 2005, its easy to see that Becks just isn’t doing too well. Maybe that kind of weenie behavior works out in England, where they say “oi” instead of “hay”, but dammit, the boy lives in the US, and he needs to straighten up and fly right, dammit.

Which leads me to my point.

Uh.

Anyway, Beckham sucks.  I mean, seriously.

So, as Netmom has pointed out, apparently the embargo placed on this fine website, Atomic City Talk, Netmom’s place, and Bull Moose’s page by the powers that run the Anderson County government internet filtering system has now been lifted.

Now, I’m not sure who’s in charge over there regarding this, and I really don’t care. I’m sure, knowing IT, the order was placed by some administrative assistant, somebody in a sad little job, always a bridesmaid, never a bride, trying as hard as possible to please those amazingly charismatic and powerful individuals who’ve been vested power over a WHOLE COUNTY.

I’m sure they popped it in there to block websites that don’t necessarily follow the party line, critical of the good old boy system, or maybe just critical of goverment and government figures in general. People who expect, however unreasonably, a county government that is transparent, benevolent, and respondent to the needs of its constituency. People who, with this expectation, have found electronic avenues to speak this belief, and, for whatever reason, trouble the brows of certain people in this government, whom this lowly, desperate, sad little administrative assistant wishes so desperately to please.

Heres a message for you:

Ready?

You suck.

Thank you,

Atomictumor

Because copyright laws are continously being changed to provide copyright owners with ever broadening and restricting definitions of what exactly you can do with the movies, music, and electronics that you plunked your money down, today we all celebrate Fair Use Day!

Its easy to sit back and say that these laws are helping artists, engineers, and creators be safe from the evil pirates (arr), but the truth is that you should be able to exercise the same priviledges with modern technology that you did with your old Betamax, which means that if a damn good episode of Golden Girls is coming on, man, you should be able to fire up that DVR recorder and save it without restrictions.  You should be able to pop that episode into any TV set (even at your friend Lenny’s house), and watch it.

Can’t do that with Tivo.  Can’t do that with your cable DVR.  But the thing is, they fool you into thinking that because its digital, or because its the latest and greatest, that giving up these things is the price of having the cutting edge.

Bollocks.

So, the options are suck it up and let Big Media have their way with you, put on your eyepatch and risk getting a call from Blondie at the lawyer’s office, or to make some noise and let those losers you elected know that you’re tired of taking it from Big Media.

So, Katie Allison Granju’s site has apparently been targeted by a bunch of redneck white supremacist forum trolls, on account of she works for the TV station and, evidently, was responsible for covering up racial crime and making the south lose the civil war.

She sent me a link to the forums where they’re doing their thing, and its an ugly sight.  I’m not going to post it here and give more pageviews to these weiners, but they quoted from her site (including her post about The Rapture, calling them a Finnish band, and complaing about all the Jews that went there in WWII, or something like that).

They insult her, they have a picture of her and her kid that they picked up off her website, and are just generally being asses.

Thing is, they’re all whiny little internet geeks, blaming whatever trailer trash life they live on some great imaginary conspiracy, and able to anonymously get on the internet to spread their dumbassery, hiding behind the violent past that their whisky crazed forefathers in hatred and assholery in order to try to squeeze fear out of good people.

Hell with that.  I would like to offer them the finger.

And then suggest they crawl back into whatever whiney little hole they came out of.

Freakin dumbass Nazis.