AOL Censoring RKBA News

From Dan Gifford:

AOL's refusal to deliver the August 5th Second Amendment Group email because it contained a link to an AOL banned news source which AOL cannot or will not name has elicited a number of comments like this:

"Dan this is really scary. You absolutely MUST tell those on your email group who are on AOL to get OFF that service right now, and to tell AOL why they are leaving. There is simply NO reason to subscribe to AOL any more. There are plenty of alternatives. This is the beginning of a slippery slope. Unless subscribers nip this in the bud right now, every single internet service is going to start censoring based on frivolous complaints from other subscribers. We must insist on NO censorship at all, complaints or no complaints. And I mean NO CENSORSHIP, even against Nazis, Jew-haters, etc." (the writer is Jewish)

A few others have written that they just cannot believe that AOL effectively censors the content of their email. Well, it does. If that bothers you and you would like to complain and perhaps switch from AOL,the AOL reference number for this censorship incident is 174241379.

NOTE:

AOL customers have not received the last Second Amendment Group mailing because AOL won't allow you to have it. AOL won't allow you to have it because it contains links to stories or news organizations that offend some AOL subscribers. That means AOL's censoring screener rejects any email containing them, including ones onto which my email was pasted.

Which links among the various major news and academic sites could possibly be so offensive and unsettling? "Jevon," the AOL representative I spoke with this morning could not say or would not say. He just said the email requires further investigation. However, he did say that AOL screens all emails for appropriate content and that ANY site link in an email that "enough" AOL customers have complained about will trigger a rejection. "Enough" in this context, he said, could mean as few as 50 or as many as 100.

So I asked, does that mean if 100 AOL customers say that they are offended by stories at The New York Times' site, that site link would be listed as one containing offensive or inappropriate content and cause a rejection of email containing it? "Yes," Jevon said.

Now, I'm often offended by what I see on The New York Times site and I'm glad to learn how easy it would be to mess with Frank Rich fans. Even so, if I were an AOL customer, I'd be switching to an ISP with more common sense.

This isn't a new story so much as a continuation and first-person confirmation of an old one from a credible source.

We're the Only...Sa-ay...Are Those Fruit-Filled...?

The Chicago Sun-Times says a cop in the Windy City was suspended for 15 months after the Police Board heard evidence that she "us[ed] her gun and badge to demand free coffee and pastries from six Starbucks stores on the North Side between 2001 and 2004."

I was telling people who sent me this that it was an old story and I'd already covered it--but that other shakedown took place in Florida.

And I must admit I laughed out loud when I read the last sentence in this story:

Elsewhere in Chicago, another police officer was fired after he admitted having a sex with a rookie's wife inside a local precinct.

Remember: They're not just "Only Ones," they're Chicago "Only Ones." Better than me 'n you in every way.

[Via Zachary G and DJK]

A Balancing Act

U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger agreed that the protesters would suffer some infringement on their freedom of expression but said those interests had to be balanced with security concerns.

I think the theory ultimately goes something like you can't yell "fire" in a crowded crematorium.

[Via Cigar Rollers]

We're the Only Ones "Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery" Enough

A city of Miami police officer shot himself in the foot on Thursday afternoon, a Miami Police Department spokesman said.

Every once in a while, the "Only Ones" come full circle and return to the original source of inspiration.

[Via John G]

Black and Light

Blackwater has their newsletters online. Page 6 of the March 2008 issue shows they really aren't expecting any sea changes in their operations when The Lightworker ascends to his exalted place among the kings of the earth.

[Via Whose Paranoid]

In This Paper's Opinion

Offering the first significant gun legislation since the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling on the District of Columbia v. Heller, (the landmark case outlining the legality of gun laws) Representative Carolyn McCarthy (NY-4) has introduced a commonsense bill that tightens the criminal background check system by requiring background checks for all gun store employees and dealers.

Hey...wait a minute...that sounds word-for word like McCarthy's own statement...so much for hard-hitting independent watchdogging over at the Three Village Times.

I guess what this bill is about is--because there's a federal law against prohibited persons having guns--there needs to be another federal law prohibiting prohibited persons from having guns. And I suppose if that doesn't work, we can just keep adding layers of prohibition. Hey, when you're in public/private partnership with the "news" media, it doesn't have to make sense--they'll run interference for you and make it look like you know what you're doing.

Oh, and there's also a "fire sale loophole," just in case a dealer exterminated by BATFU for "willful violations"--you know, stuff like paperwork errors--wants to avoid complete financial ruin. This will make sure the boot continues crushing until the last bit of ooze is ground into the dirt. Because, you know, governments are instituted among men to secure the blessings of liberty...

I almost missed this part:

Thanks to Representatives McCarthy and Kirk, there are now bills introduced in Congress to fix these problems...

That would be Mark Kirk.

You'll recall I pointed out how Kirk was vulnerable, and how gun owners could deny him that critical few percentage points to unseat him--as an object lesson to other turncoat republicans. Well, it looks like the one principled alternative is no more.

It's telling when non-"extremists" spread the meme that we "radicals" have given up on working within the system, when in fact, political options are introduced and they ignore them. So now 10th District voters can justify to themselves how pulling the lever for Gungrabber R is a lesser of two evils choice than Gungrabber D, and anything else will be a wasted vote.

The one question I've never seen answered: How far down this path of failure are we supposed to allow ourselves to be led?

[Via Buzz]

A Man of Letters

...if A were to say all this to B, B would naturally conclude that A himself was the most impudent and dangerous burglar that he (B) had to fear; and that if he (B) wished to secure his property against burglars, his best way would be to kill A in the first place, and then take his chances against all such other burglars as might come afterwards.

Ah, Lysander Spooner, that irascible but loveable old curmudgeon. I guess when recognized historical figures talk about killing government agents, it's no longer threatening and actually becomes admirable and wise.

So how long does Mike Vanderboegh have to be dead before the non-"extreme" stop telling him to shut up?

[Via Jay H]

What a Difference a Percentage Point Makes

But being 99% honest is no longer enough.

This is "being 99% honest"?

"The story is false," he told reporters then. "It's completely untrue, ridiculous." He professed his love for his wife, who had an incurable form of cancer, saying, "I've been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years and as anybody who's been around us knows, she's an extraordinary human being, warm, loving, beautiful, sexy and as good a person as I have ever known. So the story's just false."

Dig yourself deeper, weakling.

The punk can't control himself but wants to control us. The liar's own family can't trust him but he wants us to.

What a hollow fraud.

This Day in History: August 9

Off Cape Ann, August 9, 1775, the British sloop of war Falcon, Captain Linzee, fell in with two schooners from the West Indies, bound to Salem...He anchored and sent two barges with fifteen men in each, armed with muskets and swivels; these were attended with a whale boat in which was the Lieutenant and six privates. Their orders were to seize the loaded schooner and bring her under the Falcon's bow. The Militia and other inhabitants were alarmed at this daring attempt and prepared for a vigorous opposition...(Pennsylvania Packet, August 28, 1775; N. E. Chronicle, August 25, 1775.)