Metalpeter's Journal
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06/13/2008 18:10 #44642
Bleach & SquareCategory: entertainment
06/11/2008 19:03 #44621
Censoring the next loss of freedomCategory: issues
So today reading the Buffalo News I found and interesting story about the internet.

What happens often is that people think that because something is bad or evil that they have a right to do things that are wrong to that person or do things that they normally wouldn't do. For example someone rapes a girl and then they think that, that guy should be raped every day in jail. But see what they don't understand is that rape is wrong so him being raped is just as wrong. So in theory everyone who rapes the rapest is just as bad as him, so then someone should rape them, sorry that is conflictory and makes no sense.
Since Child Porn is wrong people think that it is ok to sensor web sites that help pass it to other people. But what if that site has other stuff other then porn why hurt the entire site. But see what these companies don't get is that once you do it once when asked to you are now an internet cop. Once you do this once you will continue to do this with other things. What if Some powerful senator thinks Marriage is between a man and women and so he gets websites that fight for gay rights or marraige to be taken down. Some would say that would never happen. But see internet companies are now the cops so if they think it is wrong goodbye. Or maybe what about underage drinking. What if they go after sites that tell how to make drinks with out making sure people are 21. Hey underage drinking when you mix driving kills a lot of people I can see how now the internet cops could close down those sites. hey why not take that another step and go after pictures of people drinking on the net who might not be legal age. Why not just go after any site that does that and stop access. Once you let the government tell you what can and can't be on the internet you have let your rights be taken away and then can lead to not being able to keep the government honest. If you think this can't happen go look at China's Internet.
I'm sure I could come up with a bunch of different examples to show what I mean. The thing is that morality is different for different people. I'm sure there are some people who have sex with kids (not teens who fuck around and are underage) and think it is fine. Things that are illegal should be fought by the police and undercover people on line and there should be over sight so that they follow the law. If you break the law to capture someone you are just another criminal your self and are no better then they are. But see that is the job of the law officals not the people who allow you access to the internet.
Other then the fact that we are giving away our rights again to feel safe. There is another issue. If the internet companies are given the keys to the cuffs and made cops then what happens next and how far will they go and how many more rights will the violate. So lets say Time Warner knows making bombs is illegal and the mis one site and someone blows something up and people die. Well now that timewarner is the cops they could be sued, hey they should have pulled down that site. So because of that it could make the internet even more restricted.
Yes internet child porn is bad and should be fought but this is not the way to do it. When ever anyone sees their rights being given up or the possiblity of that happening maybe it should be fought. At the very least you should understand what is going on and think about it. Not sure if there is anyway to fight it as an indivual. I think if the internet companies are supbenied by a judge for a case then yes they should give up the information but none of the witch hunt stuff.
In any event it is an interesting article. I will end like this. People will not stand up for the rights of people they think are different then them selves but when the powers that be attack what you believe in or you then it will be so different now that it is you. Don't give up your rights to feel safer, all it does any ways is make you less safe. I would love to know how our founding fathers would think about things like this and the Patriot act.
Internet providers to cut off child porn
Three companies settle after probe by Cuomo
By Susan Schulman
Updated: 06/11/08 6:50 AM
Associated Press
Andrew M. Cuomo announces agreement with three service providers.
Under pressure from the state attorney general, Internet providers Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Sprint are taking steps to block computer access to news groups that disseminate child pornography and to knock down Web sites hosting the illegal material.
The moves, long sought by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, are considered a significant effort to deal with the child pornography explosion on the Internet around the world.
"This is a major step forward. We hope this will become a model for the rest of the industry," said Ernie Allen, head of the center based in Alexandria, Va.
State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced the settlement Tuesday after an eight-month investigation by his office into the proliferation of online child pornography.
Under the settlement, the three major Internet providers, which did not admit any wrongdoing, not only will take steps to rid their own networks of child pornography but also will contribute $1.12 million to fund additional efforts by the attorney general's office and the national center to remove child pornography from the Internet.
In "The Child Porn Pipeline," a series published last June, The Buffalo News revealed that most of the commercial child pornography disseminated worldwide - one study put the figure at 62 percent - is posted through Internet service providers in the United States.
The series described the national center's efforts to persuade service providers to shut down and block access to child pornography sites.
But many providers resisted, saying that policing the Internet was not their job.
A decade ago, service providers in Great Britain began closing sites and cutting off access to Internet child pornography.
British computer servers and Web sites, which once provided 18 percent of commercial child pornography produced in the world, now account for 1 percent.
While U. S. law enforcement focused much of its attention on arresting the people viewing, and to a lesser extent making and distributing, child pornography, Cuomo's investigation went after the Internet companies whose servers and networks host and disseminate the material.
Allen has supported that approach, saying so many people view child pornography that "unless you turn off the spigot, you are not really going to address the enormity of the problem."
The undercover probe by the attorney general's office found 88 different news groups - online bulletin boards where users can upload and download files - with a total of 11,390 lewd photos of young children, including some being raped.
Posing as subscribers, investigators then complained to the Internet providers about the availability of child pornography.
But the material remained available, and the service providers contended they were not responsible for the material that others share on news groups or post on Web sites, Cuomo said.
But he rejected that argument and threatened to bring charges against the companies, which led to the settlement announced Tuesday.
Two of the three service providers agreed to block access to news groups linked to child pornography, while Time Warner said it will eliminate news groups from its services.
"It's a small percentage of our users," said Alex Dudley, Time Warner spokesman.
"We are not comfortable with them," he continued. "Our best recourse is to take them down. Time Warner is discontinuing news groups."
The three Internet companies also agreed to work with the national center to remove Web sites hosting child pornography.
The center maintains a list of 39,000 Web addresses that contained child pornography, Allen said.
A few of the larger Internet companies use the list to identify and remove child pornography, but thousands of smaller Internet companies do not, the center has said.
Time Warner said that, upon learning that no action had been taken on a child pornography report, the company, under its established policy, immediately submitted the report to the national center.
Once it received confirmation of child pornography, the company took down the news groups, Dudley said.
At Verizon, any child pornography news group reported to the company was taken down promptly, said Eric Rabe, vice president for communications.
Verizon and Time Warner also are working with the national center to take down any confirmed child pornography sites, their spokesmen said.
Sprint spokesman Matthew Sullivan said getting child pornography off the Internet is one of the company's priorities.
"Battling this scourge requires close collaboration of many parties," he said at Tuesday's news conference in Cuomo's New York City office.
Verizon, with 8.2 million subscribers, and Time Warner's Road Runner, with 7.9 million, are two of the five largest Internet service providers in the world, while Sprint is one of the three largest wireless companies in the United States.
While the five largest companies control a major share of the Internet market, thousands of smaller servers are also involved in Internet operations.
Cuomo said his investigation is continuing.
sschulman@buffnews.com
06/09/2008 20:03 #44597
Racism causes High Gas price (2nd)Category: issues
The reason that gas prices are so high is simple supply (well maybe not really simple) iand demand. People need their cars and trucks. Most people who drive are used to driving and can't just stop driving. So as long as that stays true then people have to pay what the stations charge for gas. The reason they can't give up there cars is because the suburbs are all stretched out and spaced out on (yes I do believe this) Purpose so you have to drive to shop. Often because of this sometimes there isn't any bus service since everyone drives. I think this is done on purpose to keep the poor and blacks out (like in the Cynthia Wiggins case where the Mall didn't want the Bus on its grounds).
The second reason people can't just stop driving there cars is because most people don't work where they live. As an example I have all ways taken a bus I've gone to Orchard Park, Grand Island, and now Cheap-to-vegas (if I worked Sunday I would be screwed). Often people in the burbs work in another one or in the city and people who live in the city work out in the burbs. Yes I will admit there are some towns that have shops and stuff but I don't mean those places. What I'm talking about is sprawl. I'm not sure what caused all the sprawl but I can guess that Womens Liberation, Blacks trying to get rights, School iintergration, Anti-war movements and new minorites trying to move in is what sent most people out of the city. Yes there are some generaly bad people who do cause trouble. But my assertion is that most of the sprawl was because of racism. So if you assume that is true then Racism-->Sprawl-->Not being able to stop using your car-->High demand-->Power to charge what ever they want for gas.
Granted I know that their are other factors that go into the gas prices. But the thing that would cut prices the most is if people just stopped driving. There are other ways to cut gas consumption and one of them may be places of work making work days less and hours longer. People who don't need to drive somewhere walking or neigh boors going shopping together to cut down on the amount of trips they make. When you need food and stuff for the house get it all in one trip so you don't have to drive to buy stuff everyday, maybe come up with creative solutons. But back to my point if it wasn't for racism people could just stop driving because they would work where they live and shop the same way. The ironic thing is that in the old days when all the Germans and Irish all lived together by nationality that living situation would make this gas problem go away, not saying we should go back to those times just kinda ironic
As a side note I have heard Con. St near the college is getting very nice. When I was growing up it was kinda rough, but not really, just part of it might have been. I knew someone who was Italian who remembers when "the hood" aka blacks and hispanics moved in went bad and and all the Italian owned places burned down, he remembers the fires. He was Italian and still lived on the west side.
06/09/2008 19:30 #44595
Buffalo Gay Pride parade (1st post)Category: photos

After the parade I decided to not go to the the festival stuff. I had been in the sun long enough plus I wanted to download and upload pictures and some other stuff. It would have been nice to go but I didn't. So here is the Parade the pictures will be kinda in reverse order so you can start at the bottom and come up, or watch it in reverse.

































































































Well my plan didn't work really I was hoping doing it backwards would line them up in perfect order but it didn't. I also by mistake put up a few repeats. I hope everyone likes the pictures and for those that went hope to see your pictures and hope you had a good time. I wish I knew how to explain to non gays why pride parades are important but even if I could I don't know as they would get it. I admit I don't know what it is like to be gay and then to let family know and they dis own you or you lose friends, that doesn't happen with everyone but I would imagine it would be pretty tough. Before I forget pictures can be nice but I wish I got some that showed the people and viewers and the social aspects of the Parade. There are things that can't really be caught like the atmosphere and things like that. A lot of that is location, like that giant flag you would have to be high up to really get that, oh yeah and that dragon was pretty cool to and would look better looking down on it, hope everyone there had a good time.
06/08/2008 15:35 #44589
E strip PartyCategory: photos






Oh if there is anyone new who haven't seen my pictures before it is important to know that I put them up in groups in order. But when you upload multiple pictures they don't go up in the order they where taken, I'm not sure if it has something to do with how they are named or what that is, but just so you know. Ok on to the party.







































































all right you if you are still looking at pictures are about 10% through my post, Kidding. If you don't like your picture sorry I'm more of the candid shots. That does remind me even though I don't do the sea food thing those crab claws wrapped in bacon did look pretty tasty (e:Paul) has some pretty good pictures on his journal.

































All in all the party was pretty nice. I have to thank (e:pmt) for having it. It was a calm party from what I saw but I don't know if anything went on upstairs when I wasn't there, but there where no BJ's in the hall or spanking with spoons or belts, and no depanting of mike that I know of, or any wrestling matches. Hey sometimes that stuff can be fun and who knows maybe the next party will be super crazy or maybe it will be mellow. I did wake up tired this morning and that was one of the reasons I didn't go to the post parade stuff, but if I did I couldn't be posting this now. I did enjoy talking with the people I talked with. Back to the parade hopefully that will be a post for Monday.
Yikes. I look like a crazy deranged person holding a Yucca. Hahahaa... :)
Thanks for posting the pictures. I had a really great time. It was really cool to talk to everyone again. Esp. (e:mike) and Paul. Thanks Paul!
Well hopefully next time I do a better job, brightness wise. I do like that first picture of (e:Libertad) and Mike it is pretty nice.
Thanks for taking pics.
Nice pics peter. I was happy with the way I looked in most of mine. Really like the first one of me and mike in front of my house.
First of all you do Have a lot of good points. I do think that sprawl (the more recent stuff of people leaving cities mostly) to the burbs is why people can't stop driving their cars. Racism isn't the only reason people moved out of the city. That being said I think it is a much bigger factor then people think it is. I include the people who moved out. You hear oh the nighboorhood was getting bad, sometimes that means poor, but what it means most of the time is people where speaking in a way (could be ebonics, ghetto slang, or even Spanish) they don't understand or they blast their music (of course if it was our music that we like that would be fine). People often also leave because of crime and there isn't that much in the burbs. That is poor and not all ways racial but I think it is racial more then people know or would admit to. They say stuff like oh I wanted a better school, that means they don't want there kids around trouble making niggers and spics really. I'm not saying that everyone in the burbs hates minorities I'm just saying that a lot of them do. I didn't even say they where wrong for hating them. It can be hard to embrace things that are different, if they are things you like then that makes it easier. Wait I take that back I shouldn't say Hate that isn't completely true. Just because you don't like how people live there lives or think their culture is fucked up doesn't mean you hate them.
I think that in some cases protests did get people to move out of the city. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I heard that UB and universities and Colleges like them when they bulit new buildings they where made in ways to make protests harder. Most people would agree that building the new UB out in Amherst was a horrible mistake.
I like the city and all the buildings and places to go and homes. But if I drove I might move out to the burbs so that driving to work would take 5 minutes. But on the other hand then concerts, plays, sports, and festivals would take so much longer I would have to way it out. I'm sorry but suburbs kill cities if they grow to much. Yes there are poor and rich people in every city. But when the rich (or middle class even) decide to move out then what happens is the city (the place with the poor people) lose home owners and taxes and all kinds of money so the city gets poorer.
The problem with talking about race (even different countries of white people) is that it is the "600 pound Gorilla in the room". What I mean about that is that it is often a factor in things and is right there but no one wants to address it. Most people think they are racist or prejudiced and claim they aren't. People don't want to be called racist and I don't blame them. I can't imagine fighting in a war and I do think that all veterans should be treated well. But if you come back from war you want to be with your buddies who are like you. It is kinda natural it is true of blacks also. Take a look at Buffalo why when you cross main st everyone (mostly) is black. What I mean is why do a lot of blacks want to live with blacks? Or does it just happen (De-facto Segregation). That is how every place used to be. I'm not saying there aren't minorites in the burbs cause that isn't right but it is mostly white. So maybe it is just de-facto segregation but I doubt that it is.
My post kinda came off like that I was saying that racism was the only reason people went to the burbs and also the only reason people can't stop driving there cars. I was mainly coming at it from the racial side of things. But that being if gas is so costly at what point will whites try and sell there house in the burbs and move to someplace close to work or leave there job and work someplace close to home? How high does gas have to get, to get to that point? I think racism is one of the factors that stops people from saying enough is enough and moving close to where they work.
Wow I'm sorry for really going on and on sometimes I get real worked up, and thanks to you for leaving a comment. If anyone has read this and you don't hate me yet, check out my pride parade pictures on my previous post.
Hmmm... there's so much to comment on in this post...
I want to make a distinction about suburbs ('cuz I'm geeky like that). Those built after WWII, such as Levittown near Philadelphia, are designed with the assumption that each household has an automobile, and are highly problematic from a lack of public/mass transit or environmental or gas-price perspective. There are other kinds of suburbs that (according to this wikipedia article :::link::: ) were designed around trolley and rail lines. I'm guessing that Elmwood is one of those kinds of neighborhoods vis a vis Buffalo downtown, but I've only been there once, so I'd love to know more of its history if you know...
Anyway, it wasn't because of the movements for liberation that suburban sprawl happened, although racism was certainly a contributing factor; zoning laws, insurance & mortgage company policies about redlining, federal mortgage assistance for GIs returning from WWII, real estate agents intentionally flipping neighborhoods, the US interstate highway system, the advent of consumerism and planned obsolescence as the driving force in the US economy (see (e:vincent) 's excellent post on that...) all contributed.
The movements for liberation occurred after the idealization of and growth of suburban, car-dependent culture in the US.
I support urban or population center community building efforts because those environments are able to be more sustainable and diverse than suburban sprawl.
Where I live in Pennsylvania, there are villages that are dense enough that they need public sewers but not dense or rich enough to be able to pay for that kind of service. (Sewage treatment plants are incredibly expensive, as is installing sewer lines.) Population centers have already established utility and service systems and it's cheaper to maintain those than it is to build new.