Whoa there, Silver. I disagree completely. Goverment intrusion does not equate to the legal tolerance of animal abuse or child abuse. Now I know you are addressing the strict rhetoric, but ultimately, that rhetoric translates into action and what we tolerate as humane conduct within a society. . . .
Australian customs searches for porn.
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Whoa there, Silver. I disagree completely. Goverment intrusion does not equate to the legal tolerance of animal abuse or child abuse. Now I know you are addressing the strict rhetoric, but ultimately, that rhetoric translates into action and what we tolerate as humane conduct within a society. . . .
Actually, I wasn't the one making the blanket statements about "the privacy and convenience of everyone else be[ing] damned", so I'm not sure I have anything to answer for.
Quick question for you, though, since you DID make the point: would you be okay if the police searched every house on your block because someone was making meth in the neighbourhood? No warrant, no reasonable cause, just for the protection of the children?
Uh...
The fact that we need to explain this to you strikes me as worrying.
How will tramping on people's liberties in ANY WAY protect the innocent in question? This shit is illegal, which means that its going to be underground! Underground and illegal things tend to hide, and they are very GOOD at hiding.
Confiscating INNOCENT PEOPLE'S computers just because they MIGHT have illegal porn on it breaks up civil liberties and won't do any good because anyone who HAS this porn has it hidden away in a way that won't be found.
And...frankly, last time I checked, people were innocent until proven guilty. This flies in the face of that.
I hate real child porn as much as the next sane person, and would love to have it go away. But this is not the answer!
What you see is advertising pure and simple. Oz has an enormous advertising budget and how we depict ourselves in overseas markets becomes obsessional at times. It's important to remember that we're like any other country. A prosperous, developed liberal democracy that nevertheless has problems. Increasing disadvantage, crumbling infrastructure, expanding government power at the price of civil liberties, unaffordable housing, an economy totally reliant on primary production, and a generally disengaged, disaffected populace obsessed with reality television. Like anywhere else.
But the weather's pretty great. Particularly if you're a skin cancer surgeon, all these pasty Celts coming over here are a gold mine.
In porn? No. Sorry, I should have been clearer. Fetishes are illegal to depict in media. Not to indulge in.
The trouble is that what wouldn't result in a raised eyebrow overseas is often banned in Australia. Small breasts, female ejaculation, visible labia: all illegal to depict. This country is far out of step with most of the West. So anyone coming from a more relaxed jurisdiction might happily declare their porn, not realising the drama it will cause them.
This won't do any more to stop child porn than will Chairman Rudd's glorious internet filter. It just doesn't move through those channels, either through the public web or physically. Who the hell would traffic in illegal child pornography through an airport? It's not like drugs where there's no alternate route of distribution.
Albedo said
I'm thinking someone should confiscate his computer....
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It's all this talk of sucking and holes, isn't it? Clearly, we must penetrate this issue further, to get to the root of your Freudian obsessions.
By the way:
You are aware that the law prohibiting possession of crush porn was struck down by the US Supreme Court a couple of months ago, right?
Ruv Draba
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Really? You mean media depictions in general? Does that mean, for example, that piercings are illegal to depict in mainstream cinema?
For a moment, that phrase reminded me of watching The Lone Ranger when I was a kid.
I probably didn't express myself earlier the way I fully intended, but the point I was trying to make is that we have to be careful, as a society, not to give up our civil liberties lightly, even when it means creating more protections for children and animals or whatever.
It always starts as a noble cause (think Patriot Act), and before you know it, we've traded away far more than we will ever recoup as an investment in protection against what amounts to smoke and mirrors.
Hehehe I just repped Albedo that I'd fry to a crisp in seconds over there. Look up "pasty Celt" and there's a picture of me. It was 25C here today and by the end of my 20-minute walk to the shop and back I was hot, sweaty and crabbit*. I'm definitely a cold-climate kinda person.
*Crabbit is Scottish for grumpy. There's also a picture of me next to that one if you look it up.
See what happens? The whole thread is becoming pornograpy!! It's a slippery slope, people, and that's why we need some protection.
Oh - when I say slippery I mean in the steep sense, not in the, you know, moist sense... and when I said protection I wasn't thinking about, you know - oh damn, Albedo!! now you've got me doing it!!!
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Ruv Draba
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I suspect that the word crabby ("irritable") used here, might derive from that. A country that will import "crabby" but not not deep-fried Mars Bars clearly thinks it knows what's good for its citizens.
that sounds like profiling....I hope it wouldn't be hot, sweaty, crabbit, frizzy-haired Scot.
maybe you have to submit your NetFlix queue prior to your trip so that they can determine if your drawn to something they find questionable, lol....
Why not? Wouldn't bother me. I'd give the police some coffee, answer their questions, and thank them for keeping the neighborhood safe. Hell, with the way my neighborhood has been lately, I'd welcome it!
However, searching your laptop while you are in transit and already going through security isn't nearly as imposing to people as having their houses searched while they're in their pajamas, and it's actually a great time to catch some baddies without disturbing the general population. Personally, if I did have legal porn, or honeymoon pics, or whatever on my computer, I wouldn't be bothered by a security person in the other room taking a look. Not in the least.
So you don't mind officers of the federal government invading your personal belongings, seeking to enforce laws that don't exist, so long as it protects the beasts and children?
All right, then.
Good to know.
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Well, that's fine if you are part of a voluntary panopticon, but I'm part of the real world and in the real world, there is this thing called privacy.
Lol!! Sometimes I just can't help it, but see, it paid off. You were right there with the right antenna. . . .
I don't disagree that we have to be prudent, but the Patriot Act is still a far cry from blatant abuse of animals and children or for that matter, the elderly and those inbetween in this country. . . . .
Not always. And certainly not everywhere. The airport, where you are entering someone else's country is one of the places you can expect to be inspected. If certain porn is illegal in Australia, than it makes sense they search you for it, just like they search you for drugs, fruits, and animals.
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Having several good friends there, knowing the town, and having flown in and out of there, I can't imagine how this is relevant. . . .
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What I really loved was when the previous Government here enacted a law making ISP's responsible for any content that was transmitted over their networks -- effectively forcing them to block websites themselves. That law made Australia one of four countries in the world at the time to have that sort of censorship. Two of the others were, I believe, China and Iran; I can't remember the third.
Plus it rained on Sunday. It's the Apocalypse!
Plus it rained on Sunday. It's the Apocalypse!
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