JREF website banned

[Elind]

Thank you Upchurch, for bringing this to my attention. We'll see if we can contact them and correct it.

It seems, from reading comments here, that if the website is being blocked, probably by automated criteria, then it is due to the forum rather than the rest of the site; either because of a blanket ban on forums, or because of the occasional (censored) comment.

A simple solution might be to direct to the forum from the randi.org site in plain text, instead of via a link that can be automatically followed by a robot.

 

[epepke]

I've been trying to tell you all about this problem for a long time.

http://www.randi.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&action=showpost&postid=1870445431

All your efforts to clean up the language here for the sake of schools and libraries is a total waste of time. That is not how filters work.

To paraphrase the old joke, what do you mean "your," white man?

Most of the plebes like me, who have even less influence on the moderators than you do, pretty much have figured out that the idea that omitting Saxon words will make it all better is a pointless fantasy.

 

[Mycroft]

The reason given was alt/newage, that is, pusing homeopathy or similar.

You are right, I don't feel proud of myself at all for my dealings with Mycroft and ZN, but then I would hate to see this site turn into a clone of little green footballs, which would be even worse. If left unchallenged, I would fear we would be inundated with that sort of tripe.

I'm here because of you. When I first came to this site, I found you waging a one-man media campaing to smear Israel, and I opted to stick around to give the other side.

In real life I don't spend much time thinking about the Israeli/Palestinian-Arab conflict. If you, Fool and Demon would cease your campaign, I'd move on to other issues.

 

[H3LL]

However, the People's Republic of China blocks their citizens from accessing us apparently.

No it doesn't.

(Which probably has more to do with us bashing their national sports of WuShu

It's not their national sport.

and state-sponsored WooWoo, than the "naughty" language of us alpha-male martial arts folks).

Randi and his ideas are very well respected in China by both ordinary people and government. His books are translated into Chinese and very popular and easier to find than woo-woo titles.

 

[RussDill]

Would you prefer people were apologists for thier bigotry?

I now Ignore Mycroft. I'm uneasy about that because I believe that people who post here with links to sites like little green footballs in thier sig should be stood up to at every opportunity. If I'm ashamed of anything it is becoming tired of beating down this poison....But what do you care eh?

Eh? Bigoted? poison? I find that pretty offensive and rather close minded, but, you're free to block anyone you like.

 

[crimresearch]

...Randi and his ideas are very well respected in China by both ordinary people and government. His books are translated into Chinese and very popular and easier to find than woo-woo titles.

I took it that Phrost is saying that *his* website (bullshido.org) is being blocked, not Randi's.

And it may be merely due to the fact that there just aren't enough people in all of China to read through all of the threads over there and keep up with the commentary.

 

[Cleopatra]

Would you prefer people were apologists for thier bigotry?

I now Ignore Mycroft. I'm uneasy about that because I believe that people who post here with links to sites like little green footballs in thier sig should be stood up to at every opportunity. If I'm ashamed of anything it is becoming tired of beating down this poison....But what do you care eh?

I was joking and I think that unique understood that I was joking.

 

[The Fool]

Eh? Bigoted? poison? I find that pretty offensive and rather close minded, but, you're free to block anyone you like.

Have a cruise around little green footballs...you will see what I mean.

 

[Mycroft]

Have a cruise around little green footballs...you will see what I mean.

Yeah, just in case you need help finding it, let me help.

Little Green Footballs Weblog

 

[The Fool]

Have a cruise around little green footballs...you will see what I mean.

seems I'm not the only one that has a problem with Mycrofts little home on the web...

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/09/277935.html

UK supporters of racist website Little Green Footballs to meet at London venue.
It may be significant that the venue of choice for high-minded political discussion among the supporters of the racist website litte green footballs is an Oxford Street comic book store, but that shouldn't put people off going along.
LGF, for those who don't know it, is a website for rabidly anti-Arab, anti-Muslim right-wingers who stir up hate and spread distortions at every opportunity. Highly versed in coordinating their attacks on media outlets that dare to question, say, the legitimacy of the war in Iraq, LGF supporters have also proven themselves a major pest on Indymedia websites all over the world.
By posting racist comments, hurling abuse and generally clogging up servers with rubbish these people have blackened the atmosphere of free discussion and grassroots information exchange. All those who can should try to attend some of these meetings and talk to the people who support such a rabidly racist website in order to find out more about them, what drives them and who they are supported by.


http://seeingeye.blogs.com/news/2004/10/kristof_sinks_t.html

In a column this week he does a little of the former but goes overboard on the latter. The story, about an unfortunate rape victim in Pakistan, ends up literally raping the reader by essentially mimicking a hate site, Little Green Footballs, which racistly reports bad things about Arabs and other "lesser breeds."

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/001679.html

LGF is a Los Angeles-based warblog by Charles Johnson that generates 3,000 comments a day and invites strong opinions about the war, Islam and questioners of Administration policy. Critics consider LGF one of the blogosphere's more virulent Arab-bashing hate sites, and think that decent advertisers should shun it and intelligent bloggers should delink it.

http://jogin.com/weblog/archives/2002/08/31/little_green_racists

LGF has become a propaganda machine of hatred towards Muslims and Arabs. Like a KKK discussion board or Neo-Nazi site it tars a group with the same brush - always attacking, always negative, always making general accusations and encouraging hatred; but because it is anti-Islam, LGF is growing in support. Will the weblog community treat LGF the same way it treated Clearguidance.com? Is it brave enough?

http://lgfwatch.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_lgfwatch_archive.html

Every once in a while we get emails from LGF readers asking: "Why do you say LGF is racist? Even if some people make racist comments on the LGF message board, that's not Charles' fault. Charles simply tells it like it is."

That this is not the case is easy enough to demonstrate: yesterday, Charles posted an item about a murder that took place thousands of miles away from where most of his readers live, a murder that has nothing to do with Macs, webdesign, cycling, anti-Semitism, Iraq or the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The murder took place in New Zealand: a young man killed a young woman by dousing her with fuel and setting her alight, after she broke off their relationship. Tragic as this case is, such things happen all over the world, and would go unnoticed by Charles were it not for the fact that the perpetrator and the victim have Muslim-sounding names (whether they are Muslim or not is not clear). This alone is the cue for Charles to pick up a story, post it where hundreds of thousands of people will read it, and headline the item: "Honor Killing in New Zealand" (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12316).



Oh well...as I have said before, everyone needs a place where they feel at home.

 

[Elind]

seems I'm not the only one that has a problem with Mycrofts little home on the web...

http://seeingeye.blogs.com/news/2004/10/kristof_sinks_t.html

In a column this week he does a little of the former but goes overboard on the latter. The story, about an unfortunate rape victim in Pakistan, ends up literally raping the reader by essentially mimicking a hate site, Little Green Footballs, which racistly reports bad things about Arabs and other "lesser breeds."


Oh well...as I have said before, everyone needs a place where they feel at home.

Forgive me for not addressing everything, but I picked this one at random (No. 2).

It should be obvious that the issue concerns a socially condoned practice of demeaning women and treating them as chattel, at least if they are seen as misbehaving in any way. That is not the "socially accepted norm" in Utah or most of the Christian world, although it has it's similarities in the "Macho Latin Man" syndrome where men can be excused for harming women because their "honor" was besmirched. It is however the norm in many parts of the Muslim world, and something to work against, yet you use it as just a cheap example of a cheap attack against someone you perceive as a critic of Arabs and Muslims.

Cheap shot Fool. You can do better, and you obviously feel at home here.

.

 

[The Fool]

Forgive me for not addressing everything, but I picked this one at random (No. 2).

It should be obvious that the issue concerns a socially condoned practice of demeaning women and treating them as chattel, at least if they are seen as misbehaving in any way. That is not the "socially accepted norm" in Utah or most of the Christian world, although it has it's similarities in the "Macho Latin Man" syndrome where men can be excused for harming women because their "honor" was besmirched. It is however the norm in many parts of the Muslim world, and something to work against, yet you use it as just a cheap example of a cheap attack against someone you perceive as a critic of Arabs and Muslims.

Cheap shot Fool. You can do better, and you obviously feel at home here.

.

Can we chalk you up as another LGF supporter? I'd hate Mycroft to feel lonely.

Have you spent any time at LGF or are you basing your support simply on my condemnation?

 

[a_unique_person]

Forgive me for not addressing everything, but I picked this one at random (No. 2).

It should be obvious that the issue concerns a socially condoned practice of demeaning women and treating them as chattel, at least if they are seen as misbehaving in any way. That is not the "socially accepted norm" in Utah or most of the Christian world, although it has it's similarities in the "Macho Latin Man" syndrome where men can be excused for harming women because their "honor" was besmirched. It is however the norm in many parts of the Muslim world, and something to work against, yet you use it as just a cheap example of a cheap attack against someone you perceive as a critic of Arabs and Muslims.

Cheap shot Fool. You can do better, and you obviously feel at home here.

.

Actually ex 2 is someone being attacked for being linke LGF, I think, but the point still holds. That is all LGF seems to carry, reasons to hate Muslims, Lefties, etc, and reasons why Dubya is someone who makes you feel damn proud to be an American, with everyone patting each other on the back at what geniuses they are.

At least here, if you say something stupid, you'll be pulled up for it, the range of topics is wide and varied.

 

[Elind]

Can we chalk you up as another LGF supporter? I'd hate Mycroft to feel lonely.

Have you spent any time at LGF or are you basing your support simply on my condemnation?

I'll simply repeat my earlier post which was based, as stated, on the text provided and your comments. I haven't a clue about LGF and have no doubt that there are all levels of critics out there; perhaps like Van Gogh for example?

We all have our chalk marks don't we? You included.

 

[Elind]

Actually ex 2 is someone being attacked for being linke LGF, I think, but the point still holds. That is all LGF seems to carry, reasons to hate Muslims, Lefties, etc, and reasons why Dubya is someone who makes you feel damn proud to be an American, with everyone patting each other on the back at what geniuses they are.

At least here, if you say something stupid, you'll be pulled up for it, the range of topics is wide and varied.

I'll have a look at it for future reference, or posts from Fool. My comment to him however, I think, stands regardless of my opinion of LGF.

 

[The Fool]

I'll simply repeat my earlier post which was based, as stated, on the text provided and your comments. I haven't a clue about LGF and have no doubt that there are all levels of critics out there; perhaps like Van Gogh for example?

We all have our chalk marks don't we? You included.

yep...hate sites like stormfront, lgf, jewwatch etc. They are the types of sites that are most definitely on the other side of my chalk line. It will be a sad day when thier promotion on this site goes unchallenged.

 

[Roadtoad]

Since others have already mentioned this, I'll chime in with my own two cents:

Odd that Randi.org is blocked on numerous computers for schools and the like, (it discusses RELIGION! and people might be offended), but you can log into Stormfront on damn near any computer anywhere, and it's permitted because we must protect "Free Speech."

It's damn funny to me the number of people who wrap themselves in the Constitution when it comes to filth like Stormfront, but when people want to have intelligent discussions about religions, drugs, sex, science, art, or what have you, suddenly, the Constitution goes right out the window.

Sorry, not enough coffee. I like it strong enough to crawl out of the pot and attack my leg.

 

[MetalLibrarian]

I am happy to see so many people writing about the importance of non-filtered internet access in libraries and schools!

I think it would be great if those of you who are living in places where there is filtering called/wrote your elected officals and expressed your displeasure.

Or if there are not internet filters in your local library/school call the library director or school priciple or elected officals, tell them how glad you are! Public opinion really matters, especially concerning libraries and filtering.

 

[The Fool]

I am happy to see so many people writing about the importance of non-filtered internet access in libraries and schools!

I think it would be great if those of you who are living in places where there is filtering called/wrote your elected officals and expressed your displeasure.

Or if there are not internet filters in your local library/school call the library director or school priciple or elected officals, tell them how glad you are! Public opinion really matters, especially concerning libraries and filtering.

Hi Metal, welcome to the forum...
can I assume from your name you are a librarian?
If so, do you have any obligations regarding what you allow people to access in your library. For example, you don't stock porno magazines. Do you have any obligations or duty of care with people using libraries to attempt to prevent them coming into contact with certain things? What I'm really getting at is if this filtering is a voluntary decision taken by library management or is thier some regulatory requirement in your area.?

 

[peptoabysmal]

hmmmm...

I question the validity of being in a library and searching the internet for accurate information. I use internet sources in the forum out of convenience, but IRL; no way. I'd get laughed at like what's-his-name did when he said his "plan" was posted on his website.

If you don't like your school's filtering, buy your own service from another provider. How hard is that?