AzureMusique

Take a good look at Singapore. People have their freedom...HOWEVER, you cannot litter, burglarize others, vandalize people's property or otherwise you'd receive a hefty fine and be given a couple of swats with a cane on the behind in public right on the spot. It doesn't matter if you a politician, a wealthy investor, or even a tourist, you cannot get away with it. You cannot bribe or sue to make them go your way. Some American lawyer or tourist tried to do sue against the Singaporean government a few years back on the actions that his teen's son got caught upon doing a few years back. He failed. You'd be amazed at how strict they are with their rules and laws. I half wish that our country would have done that. There'd be less corruption, less thievery that way. No Columbine. No VT. Unfortunately, given the vastness of our country, it's almost impossible. Corrupted people won't like that. As my college French teacher once told us, "The US DIDN'T LISTEN to our warnings of a possible terrorist attack. And now, the planes went 'KAPOOSH'. THEY WOULD HAVE AVOIDED THAT!!!" Ok, so it's a little dramatic on my part, but when she first told us about that, I didn't know if she was joking or if she was serious. If she was, what the hell happened to our intelligence agency?! They were SUPPOSED to protect us from harm. Looks to me that they either didn't do their job, turned a blind eye, or was bribed by the evil corporations. I know its a bit straying from my original topic. Don't you think it's a tad bit fishy that a corporate leader of a big company just suddenly decided run for governor, make "too good to be true" promises, and blow millions/billions of dollars of their own pocket money? That happened during our recent gubernatorial race. Luckily, she didn't win. The reason for the introduction of this bill is, call me paranoid, because the big businesses want control of the internet, hence the "blacklist". Most of our society's elected politicians, many of whom who aren't mentally sound, are slowly bowing down to the will of the corporates and their business lobbyists. They're likely the reason why our education are recently down in the dumps, especially in my state of California. They try to avoid taxes by "creating jobs", and some of the bigger offenders refuse to pay any taxes at all, which is beneficial to many of our free public services, many more that actually need "welfare money" than the abusers, keeping national and state parks low cost and sometimes free. Good quality education in k-12 and 2-year colleges free and state university systems low cost, as well as rehabilitation for juveniles, former inmates, and those who suffered a tragic or an abusive past. Instead, many of these are cut, which is what my boyfriend is paranoid about. Our current president is under the pressure of business lobbyists to give up his "Internet freedom for All" stance. One of my other friends and his father is also paranoid about monopolies, corporations, and such. Moi, quality education for all at little to no cost, as previously stated. At the same time, I also want see that all familes and individuals that aren't suffering from the hands of others, particularly our right to speak our honest truths on the internet and the right to read and learn and protest and rebel against the tyranny of others. Of course, the internet still *needs* some protection from the harmful acts of others whether it would be computer-related or people-related, but the blacklist bill just doesn't cut it. It just speaks tyranny of big businesses. That's more of my vent. A little bit disorganized though.

I don't know about all of you, but I for one, would hate to see all the freedom that we have with the internet would just...disappear. China forcing Google to make China "the happiest place on Earth" when everyone else knew that China isn't all that innocent. Then they control people how much they get to spend on the internet? It's bad enough already. I'm glad that I don't live there, but now, I face the threat of not being able to browse sites in the way I please (not the unmentionables, of course), nor blog in the way I please, nor even be able to post on content in the way I please without the fear of being blacklisted just because some big business feels threatened by my (completely innocent) content. It even threatens my life as a hobby side-scripter and web designer, including my life as a student Education for All rights activist. Free hosting sites like this might not even get a chance to exist because other companies are demanding that every web-designer wannabe to pay up if their site are to be hosted. If that happens, what if they suddenly decide that we aren't allowed to view websites outside of the US? Chat with our families and friends who live in another country? If you all are also worried about net neutrality and would like to petition like I am: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ http://act.demandprogress.org/act/wyden/?referring_akid=60.283049.hnyl26&source=typ-fb

I am just seriously too shocked to say how I liked the way you've been supportive of me when I started out two-three months ago. I had every intention of posting as much as I can, on top of school and all. But because there aren't as much topics as I wanted to post from, so it just makes it difficult for me even post a lot more without spamming. So therefore, I intermittently appear every now and then. Erza, who signed up about the same time as I did, did a very good job in posting, much better than I did. Like you, Anwii, I'm someone who mainly reply to already-started topics. Unique to myself and probably a few others, I will read topics that catch my eye. I won't normally post unless I have something to say. I won't normally start topics unless I have something I really wanted to post. When I do, however, it's just very difficult to rouse interest on something not related to asking for help and other technical questions.However, I must say that my days on the forums aren't what it used to be. It could be very difficult for me start posting stuff like crazy. Like others, I would very much like you to stay, but because you're your own person, we can plead all we want but we can't force you to stay.I too, wish for the revival of Trap 17/KS. What on earth happened to Opaque? I'd very much like to meet him one day. On the forums, that is.Who knows, maybe someone will come by and help us truly revive KS and make it like what it used to be.