MikeFitz with overflow bit set…

Excellent image manipulation by Indonesian digital imaging artist Heru Suryoko.  (Via Looks Like Good Design.)

I haven’t been so well lately, but last Monday I did manage to crawl to the screen to watch Q&A on ABC1.  I didn’t want to miss WA Green Senator Scott Ludlam.

The arrival of asylum-seekers by boat has dominated the electorate lately and Q&A reflected this.  More than half the program was dedicated to the topic.

At one point, I tweeted something I once saw on an Aboriginal mate’s Facebook page.  It struck a chord with the #qanda audience.  I see that now, at the end of the week, it is still the top tweet (with 70+ retweets) with the #qanda hashtag.

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I like the idea of tweet text being searchable, so here it is …

To my aboriginal mate, the definition of “irony” is one wave of boat people complaining about another. #qanda
10:06 PM Jul 12th via TweetDeck
MikeFitzAU
Mike Fitzsimon

Last month, we celebrated Mother’s Day. We were reminded of what all mothers (and fathers) wish for their children; to be happy, to be healthy, to live in peace and equal opportunity.

This is Hassan, the son of a good friend.  Isn’t he gorgeous?  With his mother’s love and protection, he is certainly happy and healthy.

Unfortunately for Hassan, however, he and his family live in Gaza.  No matter how much his parents may wish for it, they do not have peace and equal opportunity for Hassan.

On the same day as my friend posted Hassan’s photo to her Facebook, Israeli navy warships were firing on Gazan fishermen to keep them away from productive deep-sea fishing grounds.  This is not a naval blockade to keep weapons out; it is just another part of Israel’s slow genocide in Gaza; applying pressure to the civilian population at every point.

Three weeks ago Australia expelled an Israeli diplomat over Israel’s use of forged Australian passports in the assassination of a Hamas leader.  Recently, an Australian citizen was treated appallingly after being left to bleed during Israel’s attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.  Israel’s actions are not those of a nation which respects others.  Decades ago, I was a supporter of Israel, but no more.

I have come to realise the United States’ unthinking and unconditional support for Israel since 1967 is the root cause of most of the conflict in the Middle East.  Israel believes that it can carry out any action and, so long as there is no response from its most powerful ally, the US, there will not be any adverse consequences; there will be no need to pursue peace.

This not a Democrat or Republican problem.  This situation has persisted under many Presidents: Carter, Reagan, Bush Snr, Clinton, Bush Jnr and now Obama.

When Israel intercepts a humanitarian convoy and the result is 9 dead, it is not good enough for the United States to merely express “regret for the loss of life”.  The rest of the world can condemn Israel, but unless the response from the United States is stronger, nothing will ever change, conflict will continue, mothers will continue to lose their children.

What does this mean for Hassan?

None of us are born with hatred in our hearts.  Hatred will only come after we experience fear.

Hassan has been born into a family where he is surrounded by the love of his parents.  He has nothing to fear; no reason to hate.  Please help Hassan not know fear.

A plea to all my US friends

Now, I am fortunate to have many friends from around our planet.  Many of them are US citizens, many are mothers and some are grandmothers.

To all of my US friends, especially those who are mothers and grandmothers, I make this plea: I urge you to write to your Congressman and the Senators for your state.  Tell them that you do not support the Unites States’ unconditional support for Israel; you do not support the Unites States’ tacit support for the genocide of Palestinians.

Do not remain silent.  Do not let your government breed fear and hate in your name.

Let us pray that by next Mother’s Day and next Memorial Day, fewer Mothers are missing their sons and daughters. Let us pray that Hassan grows up in peace and never knows hatred.

I’m saddened to see that, despite criticism from within Australia and internationally, Senator Conroy continues on his Quixotic charge to use ineffective technology to combat child pornography.  Even sadder to see some Labor MHRs happy to see money wasted.

You cannot tell me the filter won’t do *ANY* good.
– Arch Bevis, Labor MHR for Brisbane, toeing the party line, January 2010

Quixotic Conroy.  Click to enlarge.

Sancho Panza: Don Quixote, Use the Lance!
Don Quixote: No, this toothpick is much better.
Don Quixote: You cannot tell me I can’t lodge it in my opponent’s eye.
Citizen: But Senator Conroy, paedophiles don’t use HTTP. They use HTTPS, VPN, P2P, IRC, chat rooms, myspace, facebook…
Sen. Conroy: No, we paid $44m for this HTTP filter.
Sen. Conroy: You cannot tell me the filter won’t do *ANY* good.

Arguments against the Mandatory ISP Filter

Mind Map presenting arguments against the filter. (click to enlarge)

You may recall my earlier post where I presented a Mind Map of the arguments against Senator Conroy’s Mandatory ISP Filter and offering a better solution for Child Cyber-Safety.

It was prepared for a meeting between Arch Bevis, Labor MHR for Brisbane, and a number of individuals who had met at a meeting of Stop Internet Censorship Brisbane, including myself.

Meeting with Arch Bevis

From my notes after the meeting between Stop Internet Censorship members (SIC) and Arch Bevis (AB)…

SIC: The filter won’t work at all.
AB: You cannot tell me the filter won’t do ANY good.

He’s right.  We couldn’t tell him.  Any discussion of the technologies actually used by paedophiles just bounced off the stonewall.

SIC: The blacklist is secret.
AB: Yes, I’m uncomfortable with that. There should be enough information published about each blocked URL to explain why the decision was made, without, of course, publishing the URL.

Hmmm…

SIC: It’s censorship.
AB: Of course, some censorship is necessary. However I can think of some past Attorneys-General who, if armed with a scheme like this, would have made blacklisting decisions that I would not agree with.

… thereby proving our point that future governments cannot be trusted with scope-creep-ready censorware in every Australian ISP.

SIC: In-home filtering and parent supervision is better.
AB: That won’t happen.

AB went on to point out clearly that no education or training is necessary to become a parent.  He stopped just short of actually calling Aussie parents “dills”.

SIC: Senator Conroy’s communication presents the ISP Filter as a magic bullet.
AB: I’ll meet with Senator Conroy and ask him to tone down the PR language.

Two months later, I note Conroy now says occasionally, “We never said it was a magic bullet.“  Unfortunately, nothing else has changed.

SIC: It’s a huge waste of money.
AB: $44m? Pfft! You should see what the other side wasted on a cancelled naval helicopter contract.

I gather from this that both major parties have even bigger waste/skeletons in their closets and that wasting money comes easily to politicians.  Clearly the “waste of money” argument won’t get much traction with the major parties.

I have to say, I came away from the meeting disheartened.

So Who Will I be Voting For?

Andrew Bartlett

Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown and Senate Candidate Larissa Waters

A Federal election will be called later this year.  The Greens (particularly WA Senator Scott Ludlam) are the only major party who have spoken out consistently against the filter.  They also have a published policy to “ensure that regulation of the internet is transparent, accountable and protects freedom of speech, expression and access to information“.

If I were an elector in the seat of Brisbane, I’d be voting for Arch Bevis’ rival, former senator Andrew Bartlett.  As a Queenslander, I’m certainly voting for Larissa Waters in the Senate with the flow of preferences to be determined very much by the other parties’ policies.  I’ll be looking for policies that won’t place the yoke of censorship on the Australia I leave for my children.

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Related “Conroy Cartoons”

Pervert Conroy?

Future Filter

Phone Senator Conroy

87 Percent

Some things are funny; Some things are racism; Some things fall in that middle zone.  That zone where one person with one experience might say it’s funny while another person with another experience might say it’s racism.

It’s that grey area in the centre where it’s hard to find the line.

You know how I tell if something is racism or not?  I say
“It’s racism if there is malice in the heart of the perpetrator.”

Sometimes the word “Pom” can be funny; sometimes it can be racist.  Sometimes (not nearly as often) the word “Boong” can be funny; sometimes it can be racist.  You must look inside the heart of the person using the word in order to tell.

Is this image Racist?  (click to enlarge)

In a discussion on Saturday night, someone brought this photo to my attention.  I’ve added the yellow comments.  See if I have drawn the line correctly; the line where the photo crosses from funny to racism.

Some people have yet to learn that the comments they leave online in public places reveals so much about them.

In early January, I experimented with Facebook Ads.

Facebook Ad for Conroy Cartoon T-Shirts Facebook Page

Facebook Ad for Conroy Cartoon T-Shirts Shop website

 
The Ad on the left was targeted at All Australians and produced one click-through in 24 hours.  The Ad on the right was targeted at Australians aged 18 to 40.  It burnt through my daily advertising budget in about 40 minutes.

UPDATE:
Thanks to those who provided feedback on this, particularly Jeff Waugh and others via Twitter and Whirlpool.  It would appear that requests from overseas to Australian-hosted websites will not be filtered.  This means that the problem described below will not eventuate until Google sets up and starts issuing crawl requests from an Australian node. — MikeFitz
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A Deloitte analyst, Damien Tampling, has been reported by ARNnet as predicting the Government’s controversial ISP filter will have minimal long-term effect on Australian businesses.

I think there’s an important factor that Mr Tampling has missed altogether.

It has become clear over the past few months that Google is now placing a higher importance on “Page Load Speed” when calculating Page Rank – the all-important score that gets my business near the top of page 1 of Google search results.

My Australian website, hosted in Australia, will be crawled by the googlebot through an Australian ISP.  Senator Conroy says it will load “a blink of an eye” slower, but this is an eternity to the googlebot.  My page rank will then be lower than that of a competing US, UK or NZ company.  I and other Australian companies will forever be at a commercial disadvantage because of the filter.

As I see it, ISP Filter -> Slower Page Loads -> Lower Google Page Rank -> Commercial disadvantage for Australian companies.  What do others think?

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See also…

• Mandatory ISP Filter Mind Map to see where this fits in with all the other arguments against Senator Conroy’s censorship scheme.
• www.stopinternetcensorship.org, particularly the Action Page where there are 5 things you can do right now to help stop internet censorship,
• Whirlpool’s knowledge base article on the “Cleanfeed”,
• Sign EFAs Petition now.
• Wear a Conroy Cartoon T-Shirt.
• See my earlier Conroy Cartoon posts.

I have prepared this mind map to help guide the discussion in an upcoming meeting with a Labor MHR.  As best I can, I have presented the basic arguments against Senator Conroy’s current Mandatory ISP Filter policy with a minimum of technical jargon.

Mind Map presenting arguments against Senator Conroy’s Mandatory ISP Filter and offering a better solution for Child Cyber-Safety (click to enlarge)

The aim is to enlist this Member’s support for changing Labor’s Child Cyber-Safety policy away from the expensive and ineffective ISP filter and towards in-home filtering and education for parents about their role in ensuring their child’s safety.

Critically Urgent

The need to get this policy changed is now critically urgent as Senator Conroy has announced that legislation will be presented to Parliament in the next few months.

If you think it is helpful, please use the Mind Map to guide your own discussions with friends, relatives, workmates, etc.  Download a copy as

• Hi res png, 144kb, or
• PDF, 50kb

Of course, many technical arguments have been omitted but if you spot any errors, serious omissions or room for improvement, please let me know.

Thanks to Kath (@sleepydumpling) for suggesting that I use the word “PROHIBITION” instead of “CENSORSHIP” when talking to a politician.  Of course some politicians will think Censorship is perfectly reasonable in certain circumstances and the word doesn’t create a negative image for them at all.  On the other hand, Prohibition reminds us all of the bootlegging and other unintended outcomes of banning alcohol in the 1920s.

For further information:

• www.stopinternetcensorship.org, particularly the Action Page where there are 5 things you can do right now to help stop internet censorship,
• Whirlpool’s knowledge base article on the “Cleanfeed”,
• Sign EFAs Petition now.
• Wear a Conroy Cartoon T-Shirt.
• See my earlier Conroy Cartoon posts.

My basic argument against the government’s mandatory internet filter is
It won’t work; it’s a waste of our taxes; parents will let their guard down; children will be harmed.

However, there’s also this other niggling question…
Do I trust ALL future governments to NOT misuse the national internet filter infrastructure?

2009: The ACMA is blacklisting an ANTI-abortion website because its images are offensive to children.
2011 (as the filter goes live): We now have the national infrastructure to filter all RC material, including euthanasia and PRO-abortion websites.
2016 (after the revolution): The People’s Republic of Australia will now ‘harmonize’ all references to the Federation Square riot and massacre which, of course, DID NOT HAPPEN.
2021 (after the Jihad): The Islamic Caliphate of Australia will now filter all pro-Christian websites.

Who knows what the future holds?  If a national internet filtering infrastructure is in place, will it be mis-used?  It’s only a matter of time.

What sort of Australia do you want to leave for your children?

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Update
You can now purchase this cartoon on a t-shirt.

Related “Conroy Cartoons”

Phone Senator Conroy

87 Percent

Pervert Conroy?

Quixotic Conroy

One of the most despicable things Senator Stephen Conroy has done was in the early days of the mandatory ISP filter policy.  He asserted, on the floor of the Senate, that opposition to this bad policy equates to support for paedophilia^[1][2].

Yeah, well two can play that game…
Now that his ISP filter clearly won’t protect children, what’s his real motivation for pushing on regardless?

Citizen: Senator Conroy, you know your ineffective ISP filter won’t protect children from internet nasties?
Sen. Conroy: You must be a pervert.
Citizen: You know parents will let their guard down, thinking “The government is doing my job for me.”
Sen. Conroy: You must be a pervert.
Citizen: You know children will be harmed as a result of your ISP filter?
Sen. Conroy: I KNEW you were a pervert.
Citizen: You know it will be a huge waste of our taxes and won’t get one paedophile one meter closer to a courtroom.
Sen. Conroy: Isn’t it GREAT? (Welcome to the pervert club, by the way.)

Of course I don’t really believe that Senator Conroy is a pervert.  But I sure don’t like his “bully boy” tactics.

His real motivation for pushing on regardless is to establish the Western world’s most efficient censorship scheme.  Don’t fall for Conroy’s Con.

The mandatory ISP filter will never be 100% effective.  Our nation will never be able to afford the army of bureaucrats necessary to keep an ACMA “BlackList” up to date enough to protect children, while avoiding the unintended consequences of censorship experienced in other countries.

A better solution is parental supervision, aided if necessary by in-home filtering software targeted at the age-group of the children.

I call upon Prime Minister Rudd to cancel Senator Conroy’s white-elephant censorship scheme once and for all.  Spend the money on the Australian Federal Police and parent education.

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Update
You can now purchase this cartoon on a t-shirt.

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[1]  Senate Estimates Hansard, October 20, 2008 (PDF 1.21Mb)
Senator Conroy (in response to a question from Senator Ludlam about whether other countries have mandatory or opt-in systems):
I trust you are not suggesting that people should have access to child pornography.
Senator Ludlam: I am just wondering if I can put these questions to you without being accused of being pro child pornography.

[2] “If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree.” ABC News: Conroy announces mandatory internet filters to protect children

Related “Conroy Cartoons”

Phone Senator Conroy

87 Percent

Future Filter

Quixotic Conroy