Our economy is taking a major hit due to the home mortgage crisis, rising credit card interest rates, rising fuel prices, rising food prices, and the shrinking value of our dollar. All of this combined is forcing lifestyle changes.
Daily commuters are moving closer to their jobs or giving up higher paying jobs to find one closer to home as a result of higher gasoline prices.
People are finally getting rid of their hulking, low-mileage SUV’s and trucks for more fuel efficient smaller cars, because of higher fuel prices. (Who is buying these gas-guzzlers from them and why?). Obviously, not everyone is doing their part to bring fuel prices back down or to slow down the usage of our dwindling oil supply.
Independent business people who rely on driving as part of their business are scaling back and therefore are struggling to keep employees, because of fuel prices.
Every business that depends on trucking is beginning to suffer from increasing fuel costs. Independent truckers are loosing their livelihood as well as their homes because of severe increases in the cost of diesel fuel. They are forced to park or sell their rigs, leaving fewer trucks to get products to market, allowing public trucking companies free to raise their shipping rates in order to help defray fuel prices, which in turn increases the retail price of the products they haul. Repossession of these big-rigs have doubled over last year.
Food prices are increasing because of transportation costs and the added burden of biofuel manufacture from the same corn crop that was previously used exclusively for food manufacturing.
Vacations have been put off or scaled way back. Discretionary spending has been cut. Necessities such as health insurance, weekly trips to see family and friends, eating out more than once a week, are now being referred to as luxuries and are all being cut back.
Families whose incomes were once considered comfortable are now just barely getting by. The effect is devastating for egos as well as wallets, creating strained relations within the family. What do you do when a $50,000 annual salary can no longer buy a prom dress for your daughter, or your kids don’t get everything they want for Christmas and birthdays?
All of these changes in our lifestyles are a direct result of increasing fuel prices which in turn is a result to our refusal to change our driving habits and our federal governments refusal to take a leadership role in forcing big oil to stop bleeding us dry.
Are We Green Yet posted about how by working together we can counteract these increasing fuel prices simply by changing our driving habits. Americans, with their affinity for bigger, more powerful vehicles, carry the biggest share of the guilt. Our driving habits are atrocious compared to foreign countries.
We all have to do our part.
A common misconception is that biofuel production will save us from having to drive more conservatively or to embrace mass transit. But the increased demand for corn as a biofuel is driving food prices up. The increased production of biofuels has not slowed down the price of oil and OPEC is continuing to squeeze us all.
Cocooning has become the latest buzz word in suburbs everywhere. People are staying at home more because they can’t afford to go out for entertainment. They have to save fuel to get to and from work and the grocery store.
Soon, only the wealthy will inhabit movie theaters, restaurants, concert halls, and amusement parks.
I come from a family of six children. We were born from 1951 to 1961 and were raised under very modest financial conditions. We were forced to share everything. Not because of an idealistic unselfishness, we had to do it to make ends meet. Today, I see kids with everything I only dreamed about having when I was their age. I see super-sized homes with enough space inside that every child gets their own bedroom. They get their own iPods, their own cell phones, their own computers. These Americans have become truly spoiled, others not so much. I don’t begrudge anyone who has the financial ability to give their kids everything they want, but when those spending habits begin consuming more than their ‘fair share’ of gasoline and food, and all of this gluttony leads to shortages for the rest of us, that’s when I have a real problem with hearing them complain about how their $50,000+ income no longer meets their demands. No, I find it very difficult to empathize with them.
Changing our lifestyles is the best answer to the financial situation in which we find ourselves. It is a sad commentary that we are forced to do this as a result of our own habits. No one wants to give up an opulent lifestyle. No one wants to scale down our luxuries. Everyone wants to be able to take the family to a restaurant and/or movie. We all enjoy our day at the amusement park. But we cannot continue to over spend, to waste fuel, to live beyond our means.
There is a law of nature at play here. Nature will tend to slough off wastefulness when it becomes too great a burden to carry and becomes detrimental to the safety and continued operation of the system. We have over-spent and over-extended our use of what nature has made available to us and we expect to not have to change our ways when nature is showing signs of crashing. This trend cannot continue.
We must change our attitude toward what we can expect from nature. We cannot continue to take and not give.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
America has fallen, can she get back up?
The U.S. has rendered ourselves so reliant on foreign countries that we are in dire danger of becoming a second-class financial and industrial power. Thanks to the Bush Administrations policies and the mishandling of economic conditions, we are about to be passed by China in both rankings.
The U.S. is a bankrupt nation. Medicare and Social Security are under-funded, our state and local governments are under-funded, private-sector pension plans are under-funded. How did we get into this mess? Inept politicians, apathetic voters, and rampant greed and cynicism on all levels.
We are becoming increasingly indebted to China and they are buying Wall Street. The very financial cornerstone of our economy is failing and they are taking advantage of it by buying an ever increasingly larger stake in our financial future. Capitalism is taking a hit and its hurting us all. George Bush’s response is as long as money is changing hands and his cronies are getting their share it is all good. Never mind that the rest of us are loosing our shirts, homes, and jobs.
Our dependence on foreign oil has allowed Saudi Arabia to wield a much larger controlling stake over our economy than any foreign entity should ever have. The very greedy and selfish nature of capitalism has brought us to this point. And Americans refuse to curb our driving habits to ease this dependence.
Our greatest chance to reverse these trends is to replace George W. Bush’s policies with something that will return America’s future as top priority ahead of personal gain. We have fallen victim to greedy political power hounds who have distanced themselves from any accountability and in doing so has left this country to flounder due to a lack of direction. The needs and concerns of the citizens of this once great nation have fallen to the wayside while political hacks like Karl Rove, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have decimated and dismantled the constitution. They have, in less than eight years of political circus-acts, the likes of which this country has never before seen, have turned this once thriving, self-reliant nation from an industrial and financial power into a groveling street beggar for foreign oil and money. They need to be booted out immediately. At this point, anyone is a better choice.
Our Congress, the very people who are charged with keeping this country focused on our future, spends countless millions of dollars and expends countless hours pursuing such secondary and tertiary issues as steroids in sports and pointing the finger at each other over who did or said what to whom instead of tackling one of the greatest threats to our sovereignty: illegal immigration.
We have been coerced into funding an illegal war, we have been spied upon under the thinly-veiled disguise of terrorist threats, our dollar is shrinking at an alarming rate, and Congress spends its time on preserving the purity of baseball! The irresponsibility and incompetence is outrageous!
There was a time when citizens would stand up to our government at all levels and demand to be heard and listened to. There was a time when the future seemed promising. There was a time when citizens actually believed that if they did stand up and speak their minds, if they did protest, they would be heard and the future actually had promise. These political dark ages that have befallen us are the direct result of politicians who are more concerned with their own re-election and therefore place more importance on their financial backers than on what the everyday blue-collar taxpayer has on his mind. Public outcry for the common good has been drowned out by special interests so often that we no longer see the point of voicing our opinion. Apathy has finally won out. The ‘Silent Majority’ has grown larger and as a result wealthy special interests now run this country. And look at where it has gotten us.
Lawyers get rich defending insurance companies who back out on their obligations, ad agencies get rich peddling products they try to convince consumers we can’t live without, corporations get rich selling products that help ruin our environment, and our federal government passes legislation to protect them all. What do taxpayers get? We get to foot the bill and the occasional joke of a handout in the form of a $300 tax refund designed to ‘stimulate’ the economy.
Our political system has become a game where the expectations of the voters are acknowledged and then step by step, debate by debate, through name-calling, character assassination, and generally dirty politics, the candidates are whittled down to the smoothest talkers with the thickest skins. And in the end, what do we have? A changeling who is able to bend, twist and re-invent themselves at a moments notice to whoever can get them re-elected. We have given up on using our moral compass as a guide. Political integrity and courage, along with personal pride have taken a backseat to money. Capitalism, perfected.
That ‘Going to Hell in a Hand basket’ phrase I grew up hearing about seems more relevant today than ever before.
The U.S. is a bankrupt nation. Medicare and Social Security are under-funded, our state and local governments are under-funded, private-sector pension plans are under-funded. How did we get into this mess? Inept politicians, apathetic voters, and rampant greed and cynicism on all levels.
We are becoming increasingly indebted to China and they are buying Wall Street. The very financial cornerstone of our economy is failing and they are taking advantage of it by buying an ever increasingly larger stake in our financial future. Capitalism is taking a hit and its hurting us all. George Bush’s response is as long as money is changing hands and his cronies are getting their share it is all good. Never mind that the rest of us are loosing our shirts, homes, and jobs.
Our dependence on foreign oil has allowed Saudi Arabia to wield a much larger controlling stake over our economy than any foreign entity should ever have. The very greedy and selfish nature of capitalism has brought us to this point. And Americans refuse to curb our driving habits to ease this dependence.
Our greatest chance to reverse these trends is to replace George W. Bush’s policies with something that will return America’s future as top priority ahead of personal gain. We have fallen victim to greedy political power hounds who have distanced themselves from any accountability and in doing so has left this country to flounder due to a lack of direction. The needs and concerns of the citizens of this once great nation have fallen to the wayside while political hacks like Karl Rove, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have decimated and dismantled the constitution. They have, in less than eight years of political circus-acts, the likes of which this country has never before seen, have turned this once thriving, self-reliant nation from an industrial and financial power into a groveling street beggar for foreign oil and money. They need to be booted out immediately. At this point, anyone is a better choice.
Our Congress, the very people who are charged with keeping this country focused on our future, spends countless millions of dollars and expends countless hours pursuing such secondary and tertiary issues as steroids in sports and pointing the finger at each other over who did or said what to whom instead of tackling one of the greatest threats to our sovereignty: illegal immigration.
We have been coerced into funding an illegal war, we have been spied upon under the thinly-veiled disguise of terrorist threats, our dollar is shrinking at an alarming rate, and Congress spends its time on preserving the purity of baseball! The irresponsibility and incompetence is outrageous!
There was a time when citizens would stand up to our government at all levels and demand to be heard and listened to. There was a time when the future seemed promising. There was a time when citizens actually believed that if they did stand up and speak their minds, if they did protest, they would be heard and the future actually had promise. These political dark ages that have befallen us are the direct result of politicians who are more concerned with their own re-election and therefore place more importance on their financial backers than on what the everyday blue-collar taxpayer has on his mind. Public outcry for the common good has been drowned out by special interests so often that we no longer see the point of voicing our opinion. Apathy has finally won out. The ‘Silent Majority’ has grown larger and as a result wealthy special interests now run this country. And look at where it has gotten us.
Lawyers get rich defending insurance companies who back out on their obligations, ad agencies get rich peddling products they try to convince consumers we can’t live without, corporations get rich selling products that help ruin our environment, and our federal government passes legislation to protect them all. What do taxpayers get? We get to foot the bill and the occasional joke of a handout in the form of a $300 tax refund designed to ‘stimulate’ the economy.
Our political system has become a game where the expectations of the voters are acknowledged and then step by step, debate by debate, through name-calling, character assassination, and generally dirty politics, the candidates are whittled down to the smoothest talkers with the thickest skins. And in the end, what do we have? A changeling who is able to bend, twist and re-invent themselves at a moments notice to whoever can get them re-elected. We have given up on using our moral compass as a guide. Political integrity and courage, along with personal pride have taken a backseat to money. Capitalism, perfected.
That ‘Going to Hell in a Hand basket’ phrase I grew up hearing about seems more relevant today than ever before.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Buyer Beware: HD DVD players are obsolete!
With the recent news that Toshiba has abandoned the High Definition DVD format technology for Blu-ray, several retailers are taking the despicable move to rename the HD DVD player in hopes of fooling the consumer into thinking they are getting something else.
Play.com has renamed Toshiba’s "HD-EP30 HD DVD Player" (as it was known on February 15th) is now listed as the "HD-EP30 HDMI Upscaling Player with HD DVD High Definition Playback."
Circuit City renamed Toshiba’s HD-A3 as an “Upconversion DVD/HD-DVD Player."
How many others have followed suit, I don't know, but beware.
In all fairness, the players do ‘upscale’ the HD DVD, but it depends on your TV as to whether or not an upscaling DVD player is worth the price. Your set may already be able to perform ths function. If you have an older CRT-based set you will most likely not see any improvement. Your DVD will probably not display any improvement over current HD television broadcasts.
Toshiba’s explanation for dropping the format: "We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."
Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
This decision will not impact Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/top-ten-things-to-do-with-your-now-defunct-hd-dvd-player/ offers a humorous list of suggestions on how to get the now defunct HD DVD players out of your life.
Just make sure you research what you are getting before plunking down your money, even if it is at a sale price it could be outdated.
Play.com has renamed Toshiba’s "HD-EP30 HD DVD Player" (as it was known on February 15th) is now listed as the "HD-EP30 HDMI Upscaling Player with HD DVD High Definition Playback."
Circuit City renamed Toshiba’s HD-A3 as an “Upconversion DVD/HD-DVD Player."
How many others have followed suit, I don't know, but beware.
In all fairness, the players do ‘upscale’ the HD DVD, but it depends on your TV as to whether or not an upscaling DVD player is worth the price. Your set may already be able to perform ths function. If you have an older CRT-based set you will most likely not see any improvement. Your DVD will probably not display any improvement over current HD television broadcasts.
Toshiba’s explanation for dropping the format: "We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."
Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
This decision will not impact Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/top-ten-things-to-do-with-your-now-defunct-hd-dvd-player/ offers a humorous list of suggestions on how to get the now defunct HD DVD players out of your life.
Just make sure you research what you are getting before plunking down your money, even if it is at a sale price it could be outdated.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Another beef recall?
The largest beef recall in U.S. history! 143 million pounds of beef recalled!
Aren’t we getting tired of suspecting our food supply? Aren’t we getting tired of the irresponsible manner in which some employee or employees abuse the rules or completely ignore rules resulting in unsafe food for the rest of us?
Once again an employee (whether on his/her own or under the direction of a supervisor) bypassed regulations, and once again there is a severe penalty. This time to the company who employed the individual(s) responsible.
Work ethic, or lack thereof, is once again the root cause.
When are we going to learn? There is a reason for rules and regulations. It doesn’t matter if you understand them or if you think they are a waste of time.
People who put these rules in place are not doing so as a means of making your job more difficult. These rules are put into place to protect everyone, including you.
At the outset, this particular recall looks to be for punitive reasons. The USDA spokesman admitted there have been no cases of illness related to the recalled meat. So why the recall if not because the company simply did not follow regulations? Because not following regulations leaves the door open to the possibility that people could get sick or die from possibly tainted meat. This is why inspectors have to witness your job performance. Very simple, yes?
The undersecretary of agriculture said there was a ‘remote probability’ that the meat could cause illness in humans. Why did he make this determination? Because, since a decision was made by an employee or employees of the Westland/Hallmark Meat Packing Company in Chino, California to bypass safety regulations then quality control was lost. This loss of quality control means people could get sick. He has a responsibility to the general public and cannot afford to just over-look this blatant disregard for safety policy. He is doing his job.
This is all very basic stuff people. Rules and regulations were bypassed because someone did not want to take the time or trouble to do their job properly.
The employee or employees who participated in this clear violation of safety policy could possibly bring down this meat packing business (the very people who signed their paychecks) and put a lot of people out of jobs! This is serious!
Was it worth it to Westland/Hallmark to have people on their payroll who have so little regard for the safety of the general public and themselves and were more concerned with saving a little time and trouble for themselves? I think not.
Poor job performance, lack of responsibility, and a general lack of work ethics costs this nations employers millions and possibility billions of dollars every year. And these loses are passed on to the buying public. Which includes the very people responsible for poor job performance and lack of work ethics. We are costing ourselves money for bad job performance and ignoring the very rules we are paying someone to enforce. It just doesn’t make sense to me to continue this madness.
Why is it that some people think they don’t have to follow these rules? It seems as soon as they are left on their own and are trusted to continue to do the quality work they performed while being closely monitored, they go for the shortcut and think it is okay as long as they don’t get caught? This attitude is killing our economy. OUR economy. It is everyone’s responsibility to make it work!
Doesn’t anyone see the big picture? Doesn’t anyone care that in this particular case hundreds of people could have been sicken due to these individuals carelessness and lack of work ethic? Apparently not, because it just keeps happening. Do companies need to spend more money for inspectors to make sure their employees do their job properly?
Does our government need to spend more of our tax dollars for inspectors to make sure that companies follow safety rules?
Do we have to teach ethics and morals in our schools to educate our children to the importance of looking out for one another?
Have we become so unethical that we have to be policed every minute we are on the job just to make sure we do what we signed up for, what we agreed to do in exchange for a paycheck?
Our responsibility goes beyond just bringing home our pay. Each one of us is responsible for the whole nation. If you don’t believe me then take a second look at what happened with this meat packing company and the many before them that went out of business, putting people out of work, and the people who were sickened because someone did not follow guidelines put in place by people who we pay to regulate the quality of our work.
Every working person knows the rules and expectations of their employer and yet we continue to hear about the results of some employee who takes it upon themselves to take short-cuts. Sometimes at a devastating cost to others.
The notion of ethics is being lost on us. We need to reverse this trend quickly.
Why can’t we police ourselves to ensure a good, safe product or service is produced? Why can’t we take it upon ourselves to perform to our best ability on the job without being watched over every minute? It would save us all so much money by not having to pay for the inspectors, the supervisors, the police.
This whole problem with lack of work ethic can be applied to the general lack of morals our society displays. We have ever increasing police forces in every large city and small town across America because of scum-bags and low-lifes who prey on others. If we all had higher moral standards we wouldn’t have such a large police force, we wouldn’t have a backlog in the court system, we wouldn’t have overcrowded jails, we wouldn’t have so many lawyers, we wouldn’t be paying such high tax rates to cover all of this.
This world would be a much more pleasant place to live if we all had higher morals and a greater work ethic. It is not out of our reach.
Aren’t we getting tired of suspecting our food supply? Aren’t we getting tired of the irresponsible manner in which some employee or employees abuse the rules or completely ignore rules resulting in unsafe food for the rest of us?
Once again an employee (whether on his/her own or under the direction of a supervisor) bypassed regulations, and once again there is a severe penalty. This time to the company who employed the individual(s) responsible.
Work ethic, or lack thereof, is once again the root cause.
When are we going to learn? There is a reason for rules and regulations. It doesn’t matter if you understand them or if you think they are a waste of time.
People who put these rules in place are not doing so as a means of making your job more difficult. These rules are put into place to protect everyone, including you.
At the outset, this particular recall looks to be for punitive reasons. The USDA spokesman admitted there have been no cases of illness related to the recalled meat. So why the recall if not because the company simply did not follow regulations? Because not following regulations leaves the door open to the possibility that people could get sick or die from possibly tainted meat. This is why inspectors have to witness your job performance. Very simple, yes?
The undersecretary of agriculture said there was a ‘remote probability’ that the meat could cause illness in humans. Why did he make this determination? Because, since a decision was made by an employee or employees of the Westland/Hallmark Meat Packing Company in Chino, California to bypass safety regulations then quality control was lost. This loss of quality control means people could get sick. He has a responsibility to the general public and cannot afford to just over-look this blatant disregard for safety policy. He is doing his job.
This is all very basic stuff people. Rules and regulations were bypassed because someone did not want to take the time or trouble to do their job properly.
The employee or employees who participated in this clear violation of safety policy could possibly bring down this meat packing business (the very people who signed their paychecks) and put a lot of people out of jobs! This is serious!
Was it worth it to Westland/Hallmark to have people on their payroll who have so little regard for the safety of the general public and themselves and were more concerned with saving a little time and trouble for themselves? I think not.
Poor job performance, lack of responsibility, and a general lack of work ethics costs this nations employers millions and possibility billions of dollars every year. And these loses are passed on to the buying public. Which includes the very people responsible for poor job performance and lack of work ethics. We are costing ourselves money for bad job performance and ignoring the very rules we are paying someone to enforce. It just doesn’t make sense to me to continue this madness.
Why is it that some people think they don’t have to follow these rules? It seems as soon as they are left on their own and are trusted to continue to do the quality work they performed while being closely monitored, they go for the shortcut and think it is okay as long as they don’t get caught? This attitude is killing our economy. OUR economy. It is everyone’s responsibility to make it work!
Doesn’t anyone see the big picture? Doesn’t anyone care that in this particular case hundreds of people could have been sicken due to these individuals carelessness and lack of work ethic? Apparently not, because it just keeps happening. Do companies need to spend more money for inspectors to make sure their employees do their job properly?
Does our government need to spend more of our tax dollars for inspectors to make sure that companies follow safety rules?
Do we have to teach ethics and morals in our schools to educate our children to the importance of looking out for one another?
Have we become so unethical that we have to be policed every minute we are on the job just to make sure we do what we signed up for, what we agreed to do in exchange for a paycheck?
Our responsibility goes beyond just bringing home our pay. Each one of us is responsible for the whole nation. If you don’t believe me then take a second look at what happened with this meat packing company and the many before them that went out of business, putting people out of work, and the people who were sickened because someone did not follow guidelines put in place by people who we pay to regulate the quality of our work.
Every working person knows the rules and expectations of their employer and yet we continue to hear about the results of some employee who takes it upon themselves to take short-cuts. Sometimes at a devastating cost to others.
The notion of ethics is being lost on us. We need to reverse this trend quickly.
Why can’t we police ourselves to ensure a good, safe product or service is produced? Why can’t we take it upon ourselves to perform to our best ability on the job without being watched over every minute? It would save us all so much money by not having to pay for the inspectors, the supervisors, the police.
This whole problem with lack of work ethic can be applied to the general lack of morals our society displays. We have ever increasing police forces in every large city and small town across America because of scum-bags and low-lifes who prey on others. If we all had higher moral standards we wouldn’t have such a large police force, we wouldn’t have a backlog in the court system, we wouldn’t have overcrowded jails, we wouldn’t have so many lawyers, we wouldn’t be paying such high tax rates to cover all of this.
This world would be a much more pleasant place to live if we all had higher morals and a greater work ethic. It is not out of our reach.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Censorships new arena
Banning books is nothing new, banning ideas from reaching the masses is nothing new. The American education system has been the focal point of freedom of expression and new ideas since the time we began passing on ideas to our younger generations.
Censorship is a permeable fine line between what passes for well written or displayed good taste and gratuitous crudeness. It is a matter of style. Vulgarity can be accepted if it is written well, vulgarity will be banned if it is not.
Who decides what is well written? Every individual, but they need access in order to determine for themselves what they don’t want or do want in their lives.
Lets get a few terms out in the open:
Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons—individuals, groups or government officials—find objectionable or dangerous. It is no more complicated than someone saying, “Don’t let anyone read this book, or buy that magazine, or view that film, because I object to it! ” Censors try to use the power of the state to impose their view of what is truthful and appropriate, or offensive and objectionable, on everyone else. Censors pressure public institutions, like libraries, internet service providers, and schools to suppress and remove from public access information they judge inappropriate or dangerous, so that no one else has the chance to read or view the material and make up their own minds about it. The censor wants to prejudge materials for everyone.
Censorship occurs when expressive materials, like books, magazines, films and videos, websites, or works of art, are removed or kept from public access. Individuals and pressure groups identify materials to which they object. Sometimes they succeed in pressuring schools not to use them, libraries not to shelve them, book and video stores not to carry them, publishers not to publish them, art galleries not to display them, or internet service providers not to allow them. Censorship also occurs when materials are restricted to particular audiences, based on their age or other characteristics.
Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.
Intellectual freedom is the basis for our democratic system. We expect our people to be self-governors. But to do so responsibly, our citizenry must be well-informed.
Libraries provide the ideas and information, in a variety of formats, to allow people to inform themselves.
Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas.
When someone takes it upon themselves to determine when censorship is to be enforced they immediately step on the intellectual freedom that is basic to every persons right to choose.
Book banning is a familiar foe of American education and peaks during cycles of political and cultural conservatism. "Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself," United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart remarked. "It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime."
Free people everywhere intuitively hold a deeply felt disdain for authoritarianism in all of its various forms. Censorship has crept into our ability to freely receive opposing views via the internet. The supposed ‘superhighway’ of information.
Newspaper editors practice censorship daily by restricting what news stories reach the public. They all have dead files where stories considered outside the scope of their newspapers charter are filed.
Internet service providers, by the very nature of their identity as ‘service providers’, have no business censoring anything that passes through their servers.
The owners of these services have the mistaken notion that if they allow objectionable material to pass through their servers then they are somehow associated with the person or persons creating the ‘objectionable’ material.
There are many cases in which censorship is the core reason for a riff between students and teachers, teachers and school boards, school boards and the public, the public and governments.
Charleston, West Virginia high school students recently mounted a protest against parents and the Kanawha County Board of Education for restricting their reading of two Pat Conroy books depicting graphic violence, suicide and sexual assault.
Webb City, Missouri students learned first hand the relationship between banning books and how it increases the popularity of those books. The books in question are from a series referred to as the Alice books. They deal with issues of an adolescent girl's development.
Arlington, Texas school board members have banned cleavage for this upcoming school year because they “think their daughters are growing up a little bit too fast these days” and “our young males are looking at more than their English book, their speech book, their science book.” The new dress code reads, in part, “The display of cleavage is unacceptable. Low cut blouses, tops, sweaters, etc. with plunging necklines are not allowed."
Texas school officials rejected a widely used environmental textbook, claiming it was filled with errors. The author says they're censoring him because they didn't like his green views.
Miami-Dade Florida school board sued by ACLU for removing a childrens book on life in Cuba from its library.
And who can forget the famous 1925 Scopes Trial, in which two of America's most famous attorneys debated whether evolution should be taught in the public schools.
These examples involve what we try to and try not to pass on to our children. They are all in the form of books. But the internet is another story.
Total censorship of the internet is impossible, for now. Given the nature of the internet’s ability to ignore national borders, those seeking knowledge from within, say North Korea and China, can access information hosted by computers outside of their control very easily.
Since governments cannot own the internet, government attempts at censoring content will fail. The human mind’s need to expand will not be cloistered by those who wish to maintain control over them. The current design of the internet dictates that you cannot keep this genie in its bottle.
While there is no universally agreed upon definition of what constitutes "pervasive censorship", organization Reporters without Borders (RSF) maintains an internet enemy list while the OpenNet Initiative categorizes some nations as practicing extreme levels of Internet censorship. Such nations often censor political content and may retaliate against citizens who violate the censorship with measures such as imprisonment.
You can imagine who is on Reporters Without Borders enemy list, but let’s identify them anyway: Cuba, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, North Korea, People’s Republic of China, Syria, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
These nations are identified by OpenNet Initiative as having filtered the internet for various reasons, ranging from sex videos to criticism of a military’s regime: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, European Union, Fiji, Finland, France, India, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Can censorship be surgically applied? Not yet. And until it can be this basic tenant of our free society should not be allowed to be exercised by a handful of overly zealous prudes.
Submitted to you for further exploration of censorship and to educate yourself to its ugly pervasiveness, checkout these websites and books:
American Library Association celebrates banned book week every year at the end of September.
Forbidden Library posts a list of books that some people consider “dangerous”.
Banned Books and Censorship identifies some sites that deal with who bans books and why.
Censorship or Education? Feminist views on pornography
Censoring controvery undermines education
Pornography, Obscenity and the Case for Censorship
Book Censorship bibliography
As always, you are encouraged to submit comments.
Censorship is a permeable fine line between what passes for well written or displayed good taste and gratuitous crudeness. It is a matter of style. Vulgarity can be accepted if it is written well, vulgarity will be banned if it is not.
Who decides what is well written? Every individual, but they need access in order to determine for themselves what they don’t want or do want in their lives.
Lets get a few terms out in the open:
Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons—individuals, groups or government officials—find objectionable or dangerous. It is no more complicated than someone saying, “Don’t let anyone read this book, or buy that magazine, or view that film, because I object to it! ” Censors try to use the power of the state to impose their view of what is truthful and appropriate, or offensive and objectionable, on everyone else. Censors pressure public institutions, like libraries, internet service providers, and schools to suppress and remove from public access information they judge inappropriate or dangerous, so that no one else has the chance to read or view the material and make up their own minds about it. The censor wants to prejudge materials for everyone.
Censorship occurs when expressive materials, like books, magazines, films and videos, websites, or works of art, are removed or kept from public access. Individuals and pressure groups identify materials to which they object. Sometimes they succeed in pressuring schools not to use them, libraries not to shelve them, book and video stores not to carry them, publishers not to publish them, art galleries not to display them, or internet service providers not to allow them. Censorship also occurs when materials are restricted to particular audiences, based on their age or other characteristics.
Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.
Intellectual freedom is the basis for our democratic system. We expect our people to be self-governors. But to do so responsibly, our citizenry must be well-informed.
Libraries provide the ideas and information, in a variety of formats, to allow people to inform themselves.
Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas.
When someone takes it upon themselves to determine when censorship is to be enforced they immediately step on the intellectual freedom that is basic to every persons right to choose.
Book banning is a familiar foe of American education and peaks during cycles of political and cultural conservatism. "Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself," United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart remarked. "It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime."
Free people everywhere intuitively hold a deeply felt disdain for authoritarianism in all of its various forms. Censorship has crept into our ability to freely receive opposing views via the internet. The supposed ‘superhighway’ of information.
Newspaper editors practice censorship daily by restricting what news stories reach the public. They all have dead files where stories considered outside the scope of their newspapers charter are filed.
Internet service providers, by the very nature of their identity as ‘service providers’, have no business censoring anything that passes through their servers.
The owners of these services have the mistaken notion that if they allow objectionable material to pass through their servers then they are somehow associated with the person or persons creating the ‘objectionable’ material.
There are many cases in which censorship is the core reason for a riff between students and teachers, teachers and school boards, school boards and the public, the public and governments.
Charleston, West Virginia high school students recently mounted a protest against parents and the Kanawha County Board of Education for restricting their reading of two Pat Conroy books depicting graphic violence, suicide and sexual assault.
Webb City, Missouri students learned first hand the relationship between banning books and how it increases the popularity of those books. The books in question are from a series referred to as the Alice books. They deal with issues of an adolescent girl's development.
Arlington, Texas school board members have banned cleavage for this upcoming school year because they “think their daughters are growing up a little bit too fast these days” and “our young males are looking at more than their English book, their speech book, their science book.” The new dress code reads, in part, “The display of cleavage is unacceptable. Low cut blouses, tops, sweaters, etc. with plunging necklines are not allowed."
Texas school officials rejected a widely used environmental textbook, claiming it was filled with errors. The author says they're censoring him because they didn't like his green views.
Miami-Dade Florida school board sued by ACLU for removing a childrens book on life in Cuba from its library.
And who can forget the famous 1925 Scopes Trial, in which two of America's most famous attorneys debated whether evolution should be taught in the public schools.
These examples involve what we try to and try not to pass on to our children. They are all in the form of books. But the internet is another story.
Total censorship of the internet is impossible, for now. Given the nature of the internet’s ability to ignore national borders, those seeking knowledge from within, say North Korea and China, can access information hosted by computers outside of their control very easily.
Since governments cannot own the internet, government attempts at censoring content will fail. The human mind’s need to expand will not be cloistered by those who wish to maintain control over them. The current design of the internet dictates that you cannot keep this genie in its bottle.
While there is no universally agreed upon definition of what constitutes "pervasive censorship", organization Reporters without Borders (RSF) maintains an internet enemy list while the OpenNet Initiative categorizes some nations as practicing extreme levels of Internet censorship. Such nations often censor political content and may retaliate against citizens who violate the censorship with measures such as imprisonment.
You can imagine who is on Reporters Without Borders enemy list, but let’s identify them anyway: Cuba, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, North Korea, People’s Republic of China, Syria, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
These nations are identified by OpenNet Initiative as having filtered the internet for various reasons, ranging from sex videos to criticism of a military’s regime: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, European Union, Fiji, Finland, France, India, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Can censorship be surgically applied? Not yet. And until it can be this basic tenant of our free society should not be allowed to be exercised by a handful of overly zealous prudes.
Submitted to you for further exploration of censorship and to educate yourself to its ugly pervasiveness, checkout these websites and books:
American Library Association celebrates banned book week every year at the end of September.
Forbidden Library posts a list of books that some people consider “dangerous”.
Banned Books and Censorship identifies some sites that deal with who bans books and why.
Censorship or Education? Feminist views on pornography
Censoring controvery undermines education
Pornography, Obscenity and the Case for Censorship
Book Censorship bibliography
As always, you are encouraged to submit comments.
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