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China Closes 1,129 Web Sites
"The related departments have closed 1,278 illegal web sites and 114 sites promoting gambling, superstitious activities and cult propaganda according to the information provided by the informers. ... China's Ministry of Public Security rewarded a number of informers since China launched a nationwide campaign to crack downon the illegal on-line operations."
You kill the INTERNET
stuff
Something similiar is happening in Thailand: http://2bangkok.com/blocked.shtml
help to control porn and illegal circulation? they still can do it.
You can barely understand this post, is this some undercover Chinese agent working for Slashdot posting propaganda?
Get what?
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'.
So how long until I can remove the block on a pair of CNLink's /20 networks from my firewall?
/20's.
My web server was getting massively log spammed from them (even though I don't publish my web stats). The first time round I actually bothered to report the attacks to their abuse address but naturally got no response at all. So the second time I got attacked I had no choice but to just drop all traffic from both their
When will these ISPs realise they're shooting themselves in the foot by forcing everyone to just outright block their networks?
http://blog.nexusuk.org
Maybe, that communism in any form is not acceptable. Just a guess.
Sig. under reconstruction.
So far it seems as though they've cracked down on:
1) Freedom of Religion.
2) Freedom of Expression.
Now, I know that we're not talking about the US here, so the Chinese don't have these rights. It's so blatant that the Chinese are never going to change their stance on human rights.
Gotta love the Chinese.
GJC
Gregory Casamento
## Chief Maintainer for GNUstep
the internet kills you.
These people don't survive long in those prisons.
China oh China when will you give up, and be democratic.. so that you can kick our American financial butts?
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
Sounds like now is the perfect time to use Tor which was previously covered today :)
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/22/20 31229&tid=95&tid=158&tid=153&tid=17
Have you metaroderated recently?
China Closes 1,129 Web Sites The related departments have closed 1,278 illegal web sites and 114 sites ...
how many sites were closed? Is it 1,129 as the headline reads, or 1,392 as the body states (1,278 + 114)
"...China's Ministry of Public Security..."
Sounds suspiciously like the "Ministry of Truth" from to me....
http://www.reeb.freeserve.co.uk
...blocking websites is always positive.
... if they aren't careful with their draconian rules then they will end up like Australia.
I can say that because I live here, and I am extremely embarrased when yet another stupid law gets passed, which doesn't do anything at all - except make the lawmakers (and its citizens) look dumb.
You can't expect to wield supreme executive power, just because some watery tart threw a sword at you
Until they start lining up spammers I really don't care what they do with their section of the Internet.
I'm still for giving the e-chinese the silent treatment.
Downloading/Hosting US movies and music isn't illegal ! Host BT trackers there !
>> Techflock-flock onto the best bits of technology
Take a look at this. It's probably one of the most spectacular displays of art I have ever seen -- a whole snow/ice village filled with sculptures.
I thought it was the neatest thing I had ever seen, but what struck me later was the sad fact that this treasure could never happen in the United States because no insurance company would cover it. People would sue left and right, and whomever put on that show would go bankrupt. Take a look at the people climbing the wall of ice. I don't know about you, but that looks like a hell of a lot of fun. I'll never know because that kind of "ride" can't ever happen in America because of the litigious assholes that sue people for a living.
I'm currently wrestling with the idea that China may actually be more free than the US. Not because of this single example, but for many reasons... no-knock warrants and other "anti-terrorism" measures that, to date, do not appear to have stopped any terrorists; RIAA/MPAA lawsuits against "john doe" defendants; software patent claims; anti-smoking laws; a whole bunch of shit. What can't you do in China? You can't speak out against the government (the more I hear angry, uninformed EU and US Bush protesters, the more I think I might actually enjoy that), you can't openly practice religion (what?? no Catholic priest child molesters, no Christian wackos and their 10 commandments plaques, no Muslim fundamentalists to kill me?), and you can't have websites that spread superstition. And this is bad... how?
-Jem
Western goverments and corporations force websites to close all the time... Is China not allowed to do the same?
The article implies that concerned citizens can report websites that they consider to be illegal somewhere on the www.china.cn website. Might be worth flooding it with reports of all the spam sites operating in China, I just need to find the page to report it on.
If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done?
It was a joke.
However, communism is a decent idea on paper. Equal rights and such for everyone. Everyone working towards the greater good. The problem is, the current incarnations of communism never gave the power back to the people after siezing it.
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'.
Monty Python said the Chinese were nice, and I quote
"I like Chinese,
I like Chinese,
They only come up to your knees"
So that made it official. We like Chinese.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
> The related departments have closed 1,278 illegal web sites and 114 sites promoting gambling, superstitious activities and cult propaganda
Was Slashdot listed under "superstitious activities", or "cult propaganda"?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
"It was a joke." :)
Sorry I should improve my English
Btw: "Communism on paper" actually prescribes an initial period of "dictatorship of the proletariat" over the other classes of society. Well 20th century witnessed that period in many countries - that was "communism on paper", the first stage that is.
Sig. under reconstruction.
China just opened up it's religious freedoms, actually.
As for censorship... even we censor certain things we find unpalatable: child porn, for instance. Perhaps the only difference is that other countries have more foresight to see the harm some publications do to society (after all, we're still recovering from the stupidity of tobacco advertising, images promoting eating disorders, etc.).
Just because it's different, doesn't mean it's wrong. At the very least, when another culture chooses to manage its society differently, we should give the other approach serious consideration, and choose the best, or a compromise between the advantages of both.
the problem isn't that they're closing websites for their own 'legitimate' resaons (although what is wrong w/ a good cult every now and then?) but i'd like to know what qualifies as illegal. what do they consider cult-like and superstitious..... that's what scares me. do really intelligent sites get blocked off? evolution was a nasty cult superstition, remember....
"if only i had known i would have been a locksmith." -albert einstein
Just try to be a true radical online ( or in real life ) now, advocating for the next revolution.. Outlining details techniques and equipment manufacture..
See how long before you are whisked away for 'questioning' under the patriot act.
True, we are not totally screwed, yet.. But its coming. There no 'if'.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Any system that claims to provide people with equal rights is inherently flawed because it must decide where exactly those "equal" rights lay. Too much restrictions and the more enlightened part of the society will suffer; too much freedom and the least enlightened part of the society will rebel.
Under equal rights, no one can be perfectly happy with what they get - some will always feel they deserve more or that the other group does not deserves as much as this one.
In order to enforce equality, people must be made equal: not only in rights, but also in obligations, opportunities, abilities, skills and possibilities. I don't think I need to explain -what- kind of society exactly I'm describing here, as I am sure we've all read Orwell.
"With the closures, the on-line reports on the illegal web sites have declined to 17.4 percent from 67 percent when the crackdown began." ... 17.4 percent of what? Most of the reports are now on non-illegal sites?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Yes and in Constitution Repubic USA.
The USA relives its teenage years?
Everyone working towards the greater good.
That's the problem with communism in practice. It is based on a mistaken view of human nature. Human's aren't naturally good/caring/giving people, they're mostly selfish bastards that couldn't care less what happens outside their white picket fence so long as it doesn't affect them or their family/friends. The whole concept of a "greater good" quickly goes down the drain when there's mortgages/car payments/diapers that need getting paid for one way or another.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
The difference between Americans and Chinese is they realise they are being screwed, where as Americans dont seem to have a fucking clue...
Funny how you linked to Slashdot, an American site full of Americans who actually agree with you as proof that Americans are stupid.
All that self congratulatory American hating fueled wanking must really bruise your penis.
This would be the perfect job. Searching for porn on the internet and when I went threw all the free stuff I report it to the Chinese officials get $240 for it and continue on. The trick is use an American internet connection and when you find a site check to see if it runs in china then report it. Sure I may be a sell out but that is the American Way right?
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The Chinese people have the same rights as Americans or anyone else. We all have the same rights. The Chinese government simply represses the rights of its citizens.
It is both wrong an very dangerous to think our rights come to us as gifts from our governments.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
many spamming websites are hosted in china.
while they are turning off the spigot to squelch dissent, can we please get them to turn off the spam too?
Is it 5:30 yet?
I had to chuckle when the article mentioned cracking down on gambling and superstitious activities - at least at Mohegan Sun Casino (gambling = gambling, superstition = believing you're going to win at gambling) they have special staff and services and casino floor areas just for Asian gamblers, several dedicated bus lines that run from BOS and NYC Chinatowns whose scheduled stops are a series of Chinese groceries, restaurants and temples in Boston and NYC...
Also, you can get non-.cn sites if you're surfing inside China, right?
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
I learned a great deal from this book. (Note: By saying this, I'm not pronouncing this book as the bible on China. Don't box me in. Slashdot is good for that.)
An excellent review can be found here.
3cx.org - A truly bad website.
Communism works in some smaller systems - like communes, for example. Or most families. I know my family never practiced a democracy. They key to communism working, it seems, is that those that give up their personal possessions for the greater good do so voluntarily - parents, people working together in a commune, etc. Trying to enforce communism on a group of people that don't want to live communally is what leads to trouble.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
A large portion of slashdot users use firefox too but most internet users don't. What the americans on slashdot agree with what americans in general do.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/metricmusic
- these are CHICOMS... RED china... Commies... bullet-in-the-back-of-the-head, police-in-the-dark-of-the-night, and so on...
- is this so unexpected?
You are quite correct and I wish more people today would realise it, especially those living in Western style cultures who can't seem to grasp this basic insight.
Visceral Psyche Films
Good Job China! Only 7.9 billion more URLs to block and whatever you don't want to confront, whether it's about sex or racism or anything else, you show that internet who's boss.
Why did the FBI agents raid that Dallas host?
Agents of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations have raided the offices of internet service provider Infocom in Dallas, Texas. The raid came as a result of information that the company was cooperating with the Holy Land Fund for Relief and Development, suspected of being a Hamas fundraising front. The FBI agents confiscated servers, computers and financial records of Infocom. Several websites came down as a result of the raid, including that of the Holy Land Fund.
Foreign Terrorist Organizations
Maybe this was why that Dallas web host was raided?
China: 1,129
USA : 2
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
Americans are being screwed? Are you living in some region of the country where you're not allowed to practice what religion you choose?
well said...
They leave open the 40,000 spam purveyors with servers in China.
"Technology.....the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it." Max Firsch
if the local highschool can't block indecent website. what makes China think it can? filtering tec. isn't perfect you get good website ban for trival thing and the indecent ones still slip through. for example you ban the word bikini. you also ban several site on nuke bomb just becasue the island name bikini. The indecent site still get through because they didn't you the word bikini like swimwear. what basicly happen is it break down to a group of people looking a websites which is next to impossible for over 40 millions websites.
I know I'm supposed to be lighting my torch and grabbing my pitchfork over the curtailing of basic freedoms. But honestly, while it certainly doesn't make me happy, my outrage is tempered by the fact that they're cracking down on annoying bullshit, and assholes who are probably spamming.
I mean, it's not good that these sites are getting shut down the way they're getting shut down, but they won't be missed.
Even if I could read chinese (well, enough to be able to rightfully claim I can), they wouldn't be missed.
Democracy is a system where the will of the majority should prevail.
The population of China is 10 times that of the USA. Does America really want a democracy in China? Imagine 2 billion people voting on the future of the USA(and the rest of us)...
Should the world stop pretending we like the idea of China guiding us? Or do most of us really want China a democracy?
Broken Hearts are for Assholes. - Frank Zappa
I really, really hate pedantic assholes who claim that ``democracy'' refers only to direct democracy.
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
Hey I run a site about tourism in Cuba. I'm not politically driven. Just wanted to make that clear before I say what I have to say.
I've been to Cuba, the dictatorship sucks. But what sucks the most is the US trade embargo.
You know why the US can't open the embargo? Because communism worked in Cuba. They're 100% literate, full college level education for 100% of the adult population, people speak 5 languages in most places, no crime, no drug or organized crime.
The worst part is not being able to use USA plastic money, no american products, nothing american on the streets except 1950's cars.
If the US opened the embargo they'd have a communist paradise right under Florida. But the US doesn't seem to be greateous enough to admit that communism works in small communities.
In small numbers of people it is possible to share and live in community without social darwinism.
If you hate communism as it was in Soviet Union please know that I do too. But that's not the kind of communism I'm talking about because that's not communisn at all.
Broken Hearts are for Assholes. - Frank Zappa
Besides, in the U.S. we allow pornographic and superstitious websites to operate. Broadcasting is also permitted, although the porn ones are restricted to subscriber-only satellite and cable access.
You may argue that the superstitious website I referred to above backs the policies of the current administration, but remember also that it rabidly, vocally, and openly opposed the preceding administration, with no interference from the government whatever. Try that in China. Or, for that matter, in Iran, Malaysia, or Korea.
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
closed 1,278 illegal 'blog' web sites and 114 sites promoting 'gambling about free speech', 'superstitious political activities' and 'democratic propaganda'.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Doesn't matter what the government likes or dislikes, in this country in particular, we have the RIGHT to speak out like that. No, we have the obligation to do so when its appropriate.
Not only that, its 'speech' like this that helped made us who we are, independent of the empire.. Even under severe oppression, the flow of information helped us win the war.
Be amused all you wish, but be glad some of us still wish to protect and exercise this right you seem to take with a caviler attitude. The right our forefathers fought and died for.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Well, 8.058.044.651 Websites (source: Google) to go...
I guess this would also be a good time to remind people that the US also managed to shut down 22 IndyMedia sites, administered by groups around the world and physically located in the UK. More from the EFF here.
Actually it's you who has no fucking clue. If you can't see and understand the difference between the two countries, then there's no hope for you.
It kind of sounds like nazis style to me, the goverment supressing any sort of opposition or critisism and then announcing like shutting down these websites was like some sort of positive effect to the nation.
You never hear the US goverment critising China eh... but they attack counties with no fire power in the middle east.
They must be using Chinese Google which I dub Choogle and search on keywords like democracy and "freedom of expression" to find these evil web site perpetrators.
News Reporters Make Tasty Polar Bear Treats!
I wouldn't worry about China if I were you.
HAHAHAahaha. Yeah. I'm sure 100% of the population is literate and has a full college-level education, in exactly the same way as 100% of the vote in Iraq was for Saddam. Fidel isn't really a dictator, he's a benevolent leader. Keep repeating it, maybe it'll make itself true. However, I agree with you that the US embargo on Cuba is wrong. I'd love to be able to smoke Cuban cigars without resorting to cloak-and-dagger crap that most often nets me Dominican cigars anyhow. Sigh.
http://xkcd.com/386/
This would be interesting. A large percentage of the sites running from china that would have promoted things like gambling etc are or would have been spam sites. It will be good to see if there is a drop over the next few weeks in spam on the internet.
hmm.. wonder what you can catch with that net. Chinese government certainly has some domestic enemies.
There's no shortage of porn sites around.. so, if you want to take down a political site, simply close down a 2k porn sites at the same time.. smart move by the Chinese Government.
Since when did a website hurt anyone?
I just don't understand the Nazis in China, India, U.S., and other countries violating peoples right to free speech.
I wish a country existed that allowed all forms of speech. Do you know of one? If it does I would happily move to it.
for the zealots here at /. to figure out a way to blame this on Bush, Christians, and the religious right in America. After all, they're the only ones capable of infringing on civil rights aren't they?
"Fight the real power"
BC
It seems that china has been wanting to restrict the entire way people think. At first, there was the great china firewall. This firewall blocked sites such as google, blogs, and forums. In China, it is illegal to do any bloging. Now, china is closing of access to "illegal" sites. People in china have no access to any valuable information. However, some people are using WINSOCKS to use a proxy outside of china. For the rest of them, no information
I'm glad godless China is finally being influenced by our faithful leader, pResident AC Bush. All that sinful gambling, superstition and paganism, no longer preying on the people. When will we in the US finally recognize their moral superiority and give up our liberal, worldly "democratic" ways, and bow our heads in submission to the mystery of the Chinese priests of government?
--
make install -not war
There are a lot of people who confuse "No, just because you call it religion doesn't mean you can do anything you want" with religious oppression. I suppose from a certain point of view it's valid.
You may wish to read up on the Cuban Missile Crisis.
What's the point of being 100% literate if what you read is censored?
A nice quote on Cuba: David Carr: "Who, in their right minds, would want to risk being eaten by sharks in order to get away from first-class health-care and education?"
Great healthcare? A myth really.
Do us all a favor and list all the states where polygami is legal...
Any state not on that list is guilty of religous oppression.
FRA: STFU GTFO
While chinese religious sites are classified as illegal along with porn sites... commercial spammers using chinese computers enjoy all the commodities.
:-/ what can anybody do about it?
The whole chinese internet is upside down.
Having read the article thoroughly, this startling news shows the flaws in the brewing Open Source Zeitgeist that is gripping the software community. Have you considered that providing software for free to countries such as China is essentially tacit support for oppressive regimes?
no good reason why they need to follow the copyrights on commercial software is there?
Far-fetched? Think about it: With MySQL, the People's Army will now be able to do multiple queries on their tables of democratic activists in Olog(n) time instead of lengthy searches in card catalogs. The bureaucratic overhead previously allowed activists enough time to flee the country. How about building cheap firewalls so the people can't get the unbiased reporting that CNN provides? Or using Apache to publish lists of Falun Gong people to their police forces instantly? I doubt that never crossed your minds when you were coding away in your parents' basements. Consider putting that little thought in your mental resolv.conf file.
they could do just the same with commercially availible software or warez. Whenever someone makes a tool it can be used for good or bad deal with it.
If that does not concern you ( which it probably doesn't, since the slashdot.org paradigm is publishing articles about how not to pay for things ), consider something else. When China eventually goes to war with Taiwan, we want to be able turn their command and control facilities into the computing equivalent of a train-wreck. One of the advantages of Windows never mentioned in the article is the ability of Microsoft to remotely deactivate Windows XP in the case of a national emergency. Thanks to GNU/Lunix, Taiwan will be on a collision course with the mainland in the near future.
If this is true (which i doubt) then it would be another good reason not to use ms software (im a brit btw). Furthermore if this was ever activated (assuming it exists) it would practically destory ms (at least outside of the US) overnight. The US would loose a huge amount of influence and tax revenue by this move alone.
Which throws into question Mr. Stallman's motives. A known proponent of socialism, the Chinese government and RMS are natural allies. Could it be a back door to Stallman's dream of an über-Socialist United States? We may never know for sure. Next time you consider contributing to an open source project, ask yourself this question: don't you want to make sure your work isn't used for nefarious purposes? Will you risk having blood on your hands?
stallman wants to see an end to the tyranny that is present day copyright (which is as good as perpetual ie nothing made now will be released to the public domain in my lifetime unless major changes happen). In the meantime he has used clever licenseing to keep the software he and his supporters create away from the tyranny of propietry systems.
There are over 1.2 Billion people in China. They have to do these things not to oppress the people (maybe in some aspects) but they need to control their population. The US has almost 300 million people, only a 4th of China's population. If China were to give their citizens complete freedom or the many freedoms we have in this great country, do you understand how much more corruption there will be? not only corrupt government officials, but widespread corruption and crime among its citizens. Being from a chinese background, I have visited China a few times and there is already great western influence happening over there. Slowly and slowly, China will give their citizens more freedoms, but if they were to give them too many freedoms, they wouldn't know what to do with them. Shutting down websites IMO is not fair, but not neccesarily wrong. So what if they shut down religious websites, why can't shiites, sunnis, jews, christians get along with each other. What if someone in Israel put up a website promoting islamic thought? would it get shut down? or flamed? I'm not sure, maybe this isn't a good analogy, but what i am trying to say is that, its happening everywhere, not just china.
China is a different land with a different culture, you must understand how people over there look out from inside the bottle while we are looking at it from outside the bottle.
I think it balances out in the end.
The No Religion Nation!
Blar.
"The related departments have closed 1,278 web sites and 114 sites promoting gambling, superstitious activities and cult propaganda according to the information provided by the informers. ... China's Ministry of Public Security rewarded a number of informers since China launched a nationwide campaign to crack downon the on-line operations."
If you remove the word "illegal" the article becomes more
accurate. Note the East German like "rewarded a number of informers".
It is time for their Berlin^h^h^h^h^h^h Firewall to come down!
wtf? This is exactly what happens on mass scale in the US. Everyone is screwing the innocent investors and making buckets of money off it...
My Linux Command of the Day site : LCOD
whew, now i can sleep!
"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." - George HW Bush
I would never claim to know this outright, although in a logical discussion with other logical adults I would assume others to have come to the same conclusion.
Experience, once again, has led me to believe that when people believe in any of these things they are limiting the scope of their consideration for best guessing, such as ignoring simple things like lack of evidence FOR the existence of any of these things. If I had to go on evidence alone, ranking these things in order from most evidence in favor of, I think they would go Santa, Easter Bunny, Aliens, and then god.
My Linux Command of the Day site : LCOD
Maybe China is at odds with the "faith" aspect of Christianity and other Western religions. But their culture does have certain similarities with conservative, evangelical Christianity; namely, the emphasis on "family values." They're really big on the "respect your elders" thing, to the point where ancestor worship is a tradition.
I don't think the pornography ban has a bit to do with Communism or anti-Christianity or what have you. It has everything to do with the sort of traditionalist, patriarchal value system shared by Christians and Chinese.
So, yes, I think there is most likely life all over the galaxy and universe, and likely more advanced life, but very unlikely we have been secretly visited or are visited by them.
Also, it doesn't bother me if people think they were abducted, and I generally listen with interested to their stories about it. Same goes for people who believe in god. If I get the sense a person has faith and doesn't want to hear about why I think it's unlikely there is a god, I won't tell them.
I think it's called respect for the opinions of others. Too many people don't respect other peoples opinions. Atheists are often as guilty as religious missionaries at this.
My Linux Command of the Day site : LCOD
Damn, this might have been the best post I have ever read on slashdot. No sarcasim here.
We Americans are swimming in so much corporate and government abuse that we don't even know it.
The slashdot article's title is: "China Closes 1,129 Web Sites". The link's real title is "China closes 1,129 porn web sites". So, to my understanding, 1129 web sites are all porn sites. The body also says "1,278 illegal web sites and 114 sites". Therefore, total web sites closed: 1278 + 114 illegal: 1278 (including 1129 porn sites) pro-gambling/superstition: 114
[Formatted]
The slashdot article's title is: "China Closes 1,129 Web Sites".
The link's real title is "China closes 1,129 porn web sites".
So, to my understanding, 1129 web sites are all porn sites.
The body also says "1,278 illegal web sites and 114 sites".
Therefore,
total web sites closed: 1278 + 114
illegal: 1278 (including 1129 porn sites)
pro-gambling/superstition: 114
1,442 Porn Sites Offline
There are two rules about ignoring the names of things:
1. Any academic subject with the word "science" in it, isn't. Examples: Social Science, Political Science, Computer Science...
2. Any country with the words "Democracy" or "Democratic" in their names isn't. Examples: German Demcratic Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea),
My amazing wife - Artist, Author, Philosopher - Laurie M
Linux worship?
Mac zealots?
GPL fanatics?
I think the choice is obviously "cult propaganda."
The difference is that in China, leaders who do not represent the people make these sort of decisions. In the USA, it is our elected leaders who represent us who do so.
I'm more than happy to see useless sites such as the ones you mentioned be shut down. If you disagree, vote for someone else.
Don't know that they have that option in China.
> polygami
Is that like origami, but with two hands?
Or like folding your wife in to the form of
a crane?
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
I, for one, welcome our Chinese internet overlords...
I think you need to examine the "informal" control mechanisms a bit more closely. The last estimate that I saw was that 5 companies own over 90% of the mass media (including newspapers). This was made possible by certain changes of FCC regulations which were made with the deliberate intention that the control of the media be consolidates.
Now companies are really more in the business of making money than in control, so they will naturally allow more freedom if it causes people to buy more of their products. But the degree of freedom of political information is closely related to the divergence of interests among those five companies. (Not completely because 1: they don't own all the mass media, and 2: they don't bother to control things at a fine level of detail, so things sometimes slip.) Unfortunately, five is a small enough number that the amount of divergence is occasionally quite small. At which point the mass media speaks with a united skewed voice.
Has anyone NOT seen that happening?
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I'll have freedom from religion and superstition before freedom of religion anyday. Freedom and oppression goes hand in hand. You can't have one without the other. All you can do is chose what kind of freedom you would like and try to influence society in that direction.
You know why the US can't open the embargo? Because communism worked in Cuba. They're 100% literate, full college level education for 100% of the adult population, people speak 5 languages in most places, no crime, no drug or organized crime.
That's the great thing about having total authority over a country as a dictator. YOU CAN MAKE IT AN ILLEGAL AND JAILABLE OFFENSE TO SAY ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHAT YOU SAID IN THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH. Dissenters can and do get jailed for doing just that. And contact with people from outside Cube is especially watched with care.
What you described is actually impossible in any society. To have 100% education (they have no mentally handicapped, or is college in Cuba the equivilant of a primary school?), no crime (their government does not forbid them to do or possess anything because the government provide their members with EVERYTHING they could ever want, and thus their is no need for a blackmarket or a desire to take by force that which you don't have access too?) and no drugs (their is no access to drugs at all?) is patently impossible.
I'm amused you were willing to buy this line from your Cuban governmental minders so readily.
-- No matter how great your triumphs or how tragic your defeats, approximately one billion Chinese couldn't care less.
Oh sure, I'll just use Slashdot members as an example of how stupid Americans won't use FireFox then. We're just so cool an anti-American d00d.
One more reason we'd be better off without religion entirely.