Australia Day

To me Australia Day is a day to think a little more about the people who made Australia what it is. A decreasingly semi free country.

The Australian states started as English prisons. We still don't have any guaranteed ' rights ' and any that were part of English law can be legislated away by state or feral governments. We may have signed UN treaties, but they depend on feral law for there application here.

It has been more than fifty years since the feral government has acted in accordance with our constitution's written word. eg taxation.

Consider these events and people:

Reverend Samuel Marsden ( the flogging Parson ), assistant to the chaplain of the colony, then the chief Anglican clergyman in New South Wales, he recognized no other religion or denomination. Unsuccessfully tortured Irish prisoners for information at Toongabbie.

Vinegar Hill 5-3-1804 Irish political prisoners tried to escape from English imprisonment. Philip Cunningham was hung without trial by the New South Wales Corps ( Botany Bay Rangers).

The Currency Lads, born free in the colonies. They had no ' Ticket of Leave ' because they were not convicts and no identification because they were free. However under the ' Bushranging Act ' anyone could be arrested on suspicion of being an absconder. Since there weren't many police most arrests were made by ' farm constables ', ' trusty ' convicts. So it was common for free men to be arrested and chained and shackled by convicts. They then had to travel to somewhere with records, often Sydney. So it was not uncommon for a fee man to march in handcuffs 250 miles or more to prove they were not convicts.

The Eureka Stockade 3-12-1854 A clash protesting the denial of civic rights and excessive taxation.

Rottnest Island 19-4-1876 An English ship fires in an attempt to stop an Irish political prisoner escaping on a US whaler.

Rothbury 16-12-1929 Several men were shot, one died, by police during a union protest.


So for the benefit of all the people who say ' It can't happen here. ', it already has.

Here in Australia there are Australian's that have been in solitary confinement for more than two years now, on remand. That's right, they have not been proven guilty, yet they are in solitary confinement here!

Australians are much better off than most of the people in the world. However we cannot be ' free ' till we have rights. Rights that are simple to understand. Rights that can not be misinterpreted by lawyers. Rights that can not be changed by governments.

"Effectively, Australia is now the only modern Western country that must face the challenges of the present age and the changes in the institutions of government without a constitutional, or even statutory, charter of rights to temper political autarchy with occasional judicial reminders of fundamental freedoms that must be respected," Justice Kirby.
http://smh.com.au/news/National/Call-for-human-rights-to-be-protected/2006/02/21/1140284066164.html

"Human rights have taken a battering by two forces - terrorism and terrorism laws," NSW Attorney-General, Bob Debus. "In some sections of the community, human rights are viewed with as much suspicion as a van with blacked-out windows parked near an embassy."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/human-rights-now-a-dirty-idea-says-angry-debus/2006/05/19/1147545529286.html

The New South Wales Police Minister wants to search every ones' SMS messages without a warrant.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1831129.htm

And you may not be able to board a Qantas aircraft if you are wearing clothing that they object to.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1831156.htm

Powers handed to Australian intelligence agencies to combat terrorism have been misused. Powers brought in because of the ' War Against Terrorism '. This simply looks like the feral government playing follow the leader with Bush. In fact in 2003 the Australian Government won the Most Egregiously Stupid Award for ' a litany of pointless, irritating and self-serving security measures '.


Stephen

Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
Freedom is a well armed sheep.

................

http://www.ebearweb.net

Bujinkan: Martial Arts of the Samurai and Ninja
http://www.ebearweb.net/bujinkan/

Stephen's Snaps
http://photo.ebearweb.net/

This week Guam photos.

Simply nice photos, Landscape, Seascape, Underwater, The Northern Beaches Sydney.

Happy Christmas

Fujikawa Maru, Truk

Chaweng Beach, Koh Samui, Thailand

The Seven Sisters, Katoomba

Careel Bay

Net censorship plan backlash

Asher Moses
November 11, 2008 - 4:59PM


As opposition grows against the Government's controversial plan to censor the internet, the head of one of Australia's largest ISPs has labelled the Communications Minister the worst we've had in the past 15 years.

Separately, in Senate question time today, Greens senator Scott Ludlam accused the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, of misleading the public by falsely claiming his mandatory censorship plan was similar to that already in place in Sweden, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.

Despite significant opposition from internet providers, consumers, engineers, network administrators and online rights activists, the Government is pressing ahead with its election promise of protecting people from unwanted material, this week calling for expressions of interests from ISPs keen to participate in live trials of the proposed internet filtering system.

Michael Malone, managing director iiNet, said he would sign up to be involved in the "ridiculous" trials, which are scheduled to commence by December 24 this year.

Optus and Telstra both said they were reviewing the Government's documentation and would then decide whether to take part.

But Malone's main purpose was to provide the Government with "hard numbers" demonstrating "how stupid it is" - specifically that the filtering system would not work, would be patently simple to bypass, would not filter peer-to-peer traffic and would significantly degrade network speeds.

"They're not listening to the experts, they're not listening to the industry, they're not listening to consumers, so perhaps some hard numbers will actually help," he said.

"Every time a kid manages to get through this filter, we'll be publicising it and every time it blocks legitimate content, we'll be publicising it."

Malone concluded: "This is the worst Communications Minister we've had in the 15 years since the [internet] industry has existed."

The Government intends to introduce mandatory filtering of all "illegal material" and a second optional filter to block content deemed inappropriate for children, such as pornography.

Internet providers and the Government's own lab tests have found that presently available filters are not capable of adequately distinguishing between legal and illegal content and can degrade internet speeds by up to 86 per cent.

Many ISPs already offer customers the option of switching on content filtering and the previous government provided free software filters for anyone to download from NetAlert.gov.au.

Much of the opposition to Senator Conroy's plan revolves around the fact that, unlike his earlier promises, he now wants to make the filtering mandatory for all Australians - spurred on by support from vocal minorities such as the Australian Family Association and the Australian Christian Lobby.

Senator Nick Xenophon and Family First Senator Steve Fielding, both of whom the Government needs to pass legislation, have already said they want the mandatory filters broadened to include the blocking of hard-core pornography and online gambling sites.

Grilled by a Senate Estimates committee in October, Senator Conroy said Britain, Sweden, Canada and New Zealand had all implemented similar filtering systems. However, in all cases, participation by ISPs was optional and the filtering was limited in scope to predominantly child pornography.

"It is happening in two other countries - China and Saudi Arabia, that's who he's lined himself up with," said Malone.

In Senate question time today, Senator Ludlam asked the minister to explain those claims, but Senator Conroy dodged the question.

"We are aware of technical concerns with filtering technology, and that is why we are conducting a pilot, to put these claims to the test," he said.

Senator Ludlam then asked Senator Conroy to retract the claims, as well as to explain what he meant by "unwanted content" and to "acknowledge the legitimate concerns 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".

Senator Conroy said he could not answer all of those questions in the time provided and would be "happy to come back and provide the Senator with further information".

SMH 12-11-8

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/net-censorship-plan-backlash/2008/11/11/1226318639085.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1


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If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out.


http://www.ebearweb.net

Bujinkan: Martial Arts of the Samurai and Ninja
http://www.ebearweb.net/bujinkan/

Stephen's Snaps
http://photo.ebearweb.net/

This week Bouganvillia.

Simply nice photos, Landscape, Seascape, Underwater, The Northern Beaches Sydney.