Entries from March 2008 ↓

Stopping Israel’s Academic Fifth Column

From:stoptheism@att.net
To: smoothstoneblog@yahoo.com
Sent: Sunday, March 2, 2008 12:27:42 PM
Subject: Please announce on your blog and send to lists

From Steve Plaut:

Call to Arms! Please assist ISRACAMPUS.org.il !!

I would like to ask your assistance in getting the word out about ISRACAMPUS.org.il, which replaces Israel Academia Monitor (now defunct) as an improved, cleaner and meaner, watchdog web site that exposes and monitors Israel’s Academic Fifth Column.

ISRACAMPUS is an improved, professionally-edited web site that replaces the older web site (which suffered from amateurish and inept editing). It starts afresh in a new cyber-home, and contains a number of new features. These include “ALEF Watch,” a segment of the web site that follows the anti-Israel shenanigans disseminated via the University of Haifa on the ALEF chat list, a list that includes open anti-Semites, jihadists, and even some Neo-Nazis. The new ISRACAMPUS also features “Van Leer Watch,” which follows and exposes the anti-Israel radicalism at the supposedly academic “think tank,” Van Leer Institute. And don’t miss the new “Shmootz Corner,” which will feature unusually candid anti-Semitic and venomously anti-Israel remarks by Israeli academics. Take a look for yourself, at http://www.isracampus.org.il

I would like to ask your help in passing the word getting the news out! Can you tell members of chat lists in which you are a member about the new web address? Can you print out the statement below and hang it on bulletin boards, cyber and otherwise, at your place of work, in your synagogue or school, etc.? Can you tell your local Jewish weekly about us and pass on the message below? Better yet, can you send US all information you have on the seditious activities of Israeli academic radicals and extremists?

ISRACAMPUS can be contacted at:
IsraCampus.org
POB 6652
Haifa
Israel

By email: isracampus@gmail.com
From: http://isracampus.org.il/about%20IsraCampus%20page.htm

Who are we?

A specter is haunting the Israeli Academic “Post-Zionist” extremists in Israel, and it is ISRACAMPUS (www.isracampus.co.il). Modeled in part on “Campus Watch” in North America, ISRACAMPUS monitors and exposes the anti-Israel (and sometimes anti-Semitic) political activities, writings, and pronouncements of Israel’s far-leftist academic extremists. Israeli universities contain hundreds of faculty members who are active in promoting boycotts of Israel, in organizing army soldiers for mutiny and refusal to serve, in promoting law breaking, and in collaborating with anti-Israel groups attempting to delegitimize Israel as a fascist, terrorist, racist, apartheid entity. Students, professors, donors, alumni, journalists and others participate in ISRACAMPUS and help it gather materials.

Until ISRACAMPUS came upon the scene, few in Israel and fewer still outside Israel were aware of the anti-Israel activities of these Israeli academic radicals. That is now changing. The past two years, when there were numerous attempts to adopt boycott of Israel resolutions in the UK, Canada, in the US, and elsewhere, it was ISRACAMPUS that exposed the fact that most of these resolutions have Israeli academic initiators and sponsors, faculty members who draw salaries paid for by the Israeli taxpayer, calling on anti-Semites all over the wor ld to boycott Israel. The Israeli media and the Jewish press around the world are increasingly discussing and reporting about the shenanigans of “Israel’s Academic Fifth Column.”

Israeli academic institutions have been misused in recent years as platforms for radical anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic propagandizing, often by tenured radicals with embarrassing academic records and dubious research credentials. These include Israeli faculty denouncing their own country in the foreign press as "genocidal" and supposedly perpetrating Nazi-like war crimes, professors who publish articles proclaiming Israel a fascist apartheid state engaged in "state terrorism," lecturers who endorse Arab terrorism against Jews, applaud the Hizbollah, and call for Israel to be dismantled entirely.

While its web site has been in operation for only a relatively short period, the impact of ISRACAMPUS is already being widely felt. A growing number of reports are appearing in the mainstream media about Israel’s academic extremists, “New Historians,” and “Post-Zionists.” Israel’s Channel One television channel recently devoted a full hour to Israeli academic extremists and their role in promoting boycotts of Israel. Israel’s Maariv daily has been particularly courageous in condemning these things. Countless blogs cite and link to our web site. Israeli university officials are being faced with growing calls to enforce academic standards and put a stop to the political biases operating in campus hiring and promotion. Classroom indoctrination and one-sided anti-Israel courses taught by extremists are increasingly being exposed and triggering public outrage.

And the extremists are themselves growing wary. While no one is calling for restricting academic freedom and freedom of expression, even for the worst anti-Israel academic radicals , nevertheless these folks are feeling pressure as their activities are exposed to the sunshine. They know someone is looking over their shoulders. Over the past two years there has been a dramatic drop in the number of Israeli radical academics turning out anti-Israel propaganda for Bash-Israel organizations and web sites. While anti-Israel petitions, containing the names of hundreds of Israel academics, appeared in the past every few weeks on the internet, almost nothing of this sort has been initiated more recently. And in radical political “chat rooms” Israeli academic extremists are increasingly complaining about the fact that ISRACAMPUS is exposing what they write and do.

It is getting harder for Israeli university administrations to turn a blind eye to on-campus politicization, classroom indoctrination, and subordination of hiring and promotion to politically biased decision making. People a re asking campus officers tough questions about how it is that so many Israel haters with insipid, sometimes downright embarrassing, academic records are being hired and promoted as faculty members and using their podium to demonize their own country. Voices expressing outrage against one-sided indoctrination, such as in courses purportedly about “the occupation,” are growing.

ISRACAMPUS is the best way to “keep Israeli universities honest,” and to ensure that their faculty engage in research and educating, rather than in Israel-bashing, sedition, and anti-Zionist political propagandizing.

And ISRACAMPUS needs your help to stay in operation!

Fitna, The Movie Is Here - Where to See It?

Dutch PM Geert Wilders’ movie, Fitna, is finally out!

However, actually being able to see the video is another matter. We will be tracking availability of the video, and censorship issues regarding the video, in this article.

Pulled from main and backup hosting sites…

Fitna has been pulled from the main site, http://www.fitnathemovie.com, on account of complaints. It has also been pulled from LiveLeak on account of threats against the staff.

We are hosting it at 1389 Blog

You’ll find it here: Geert Wilders Floods 1389 Blog - Fitna Movie HERE. Download the file, make copies, and send it around. But please be patient - 1389 Blog is NOT a high-bandwidth site!

The video is also currently available at:

An anonymous commenter says:

fitna is available as bittorrent quite easily from various providers. I downloaded it in about 10 minutes. Try searching on “fitna bittorrent”

From EuropeNews:

Gates of Vienna keeps a list of alternative sites, torrent sites and translations. It is available at Google Video and many other places. The LiveLeak link will remain here, as the takedown message is instructive. This is what happens if our politicians do not stand up against intimidation. They’ve been rather frail this time, not least at the EU level.

Press Coverage, Issues, and Complaints


Geert Wilders Floods 1389 Blog - Fitna Movie HERE

By Czech Rebel

Geert Wilders

So far, March 28, 2008 has been our best day ever for traffic on 1389 Blog. Is one of our stories “cutting-edge”? Heck no! Do we have some great piece of analytical work that our readers have been waiting for? Sorry, not that either. In fact, we must apologize about having been so slow at getting out some articles that our readership has been expecting.

No, people have been flocking to 1389 Blog to read two articles that are both over a month old. In fact, one of them is over two months old. But these old articles have suddenly become timely. How could that be?

Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Set You Free

1389 Blog exists for two purposes, to provide information to combat the current Islamic jihad against not only the US, but of all respectable civilization; and to provide technical help, tips, and assistance to the online counterjihad community. This does make us a bit unpopular in some circles.

We Are Not Politically Correct

There is a current fad of relativism and egalitarianism. Men and women must be equal, to the extent of being the same except for outward appearance. (But, for some strange reason, we are still using separate public restrooms!) All cultures are of equal value. (Of course, some cultures, like Southerners, Slavs and “Rednecks” of any kind, just are not quite as equal as the rest!) And all religions are more or less the same.

That last claim is the most puzzling. Contrary to what you might hear on the History Channel, the Mayan culture of Central America is still alive and well. True, they may no longer be in the pyramid building business, but take a trip to Guatemala and you should have little trouble finding someone who knows a priest in the Mayan religion. Now, it is a lucky thing for us that the Mayans are not demanding their religious rights to conduct human sacrifices. But that was once part of their religion.

I wonder what those who preach the modern gospel of political correctness would say if the Mayans were to return to their practices of human sacrifice. Would they scream that such a practice was “murder” and condemn the Mayan religious leaders for wanting to revert to it? Would they say that they personally opposed to human sacrifice, but consider human sacrifice to be a private matter within the Mayan community and oppose any government interference? Or would they finally realize that their own philosophy of political correctness is both illogical and morally bankrupt?

(Disclaimer! Present-day Mayan Indians do NOT want to return to this practice! This is merely a hypothetical example.)

We at 1389 Blog have consistently opposed the equally disgusting practices of jihadism to which many modern Muslims adhere. Yes, we get a lot of flack. However, these practices of jihad are every bit as disgusting as a rebirth of Mayan human sacrifice would be.

Geert Wilders Has the Platform

1389 Blog is just a small blog with about ten authors. Several of us have other works published. Most of those works are under names other than those used here. At present, we have no substantial platform that we can use to drive our point home.

The Price Paid by Theo Van Gogh

But then, having such a platform can be deadly proposition. Consider the fate of Theo Van Gogh. This is the movie, Submission, for which he gave his life:

Note: The above video was pulled from YouTube and is being hosted directly at 1389Blog.com. Clicking on the thumbnail will cause the video to load and play in a separate window.

Geert Wilders Refuses to be Silenced

The anti-jihad community has a new hero in the intrepid Dutch MP Geert Wilders. He has made a film, Fitna, that exposes modern-day Islam for the savage, cruel and barbaric death cult that it really is.

For obvious reasons, the crime against Theo Van Gogh figures prominently in Fitna.

Geert Wilders is so prominent that old articles bearing his name are drawing new readers out of the woodwork. We must selfishly thank Geert Wilders for the collateral benefit he has brought to 1389 Blog. However, we must wholeheartedly give him an altruistic thank you for helping to do more to spread the truth about radical Islam to the world than, in my opinion, 1389 Blog will ever be capable of doing.

The Jihadists’ Allies

Speaking hypothetically once again, if the Mayan Indians ever wanted to return to human sacrifice, or even to demand their right to do so, the would get little traction. I have been to Central America several times and have met a number of Mayan Indians. Yet, I know few people from the US, Canada, Europe, or even Israel who can say the same. Most of the people whom I encounter in the US do not even know that Mayan Indians still exist and still have solid communities.

So, the Mayan Indians would have few allies in their “struggles” to return to human sacrifice. Very few people would know of some wonderful Mayan Indians who they felt the need to stick up for in that regard.

(Disclaimer! The Mayan Indians in real life do NOT want to return to this practice! This is merely a hypothetical example.)

However, it is different with Muslims. Everyone knows and likes some Muslims. We all seemed to learn in school that Islam was one of those acceptable “Western” or “Abrahamic” religions, almost like Christianity and Judaism. We have all heard someone tell us that Allah must be the same God whom the Jews worship, or that Allah is equivalent to God the Father of the Christian Trinity.

What is at the root of this? We all want cheaper oil, and it seems logical to many that appeasing Muslims worldwide, and especially in the Middle East, would be a good way of guaranteeing our supply. We all have heard misguided people tell us that if Israel were not our “ally,” that the Muslims would all love us.

But the truth is far different. Islamic doctrine requires never-ending expansion so as to put the entire world under Sharia law. There is no room in Islam for anything other than itself. That’s what mainstream Islam is all about.

Thank You and Thank You

First of all, I would like to thank the Mayan Indians for helping me to make my point. I will be buying some of your shirts (a/k/a camisas tipicas) as soon as I see them for sale. Those shirts are a pleasant reminder of how the people of your culture do so well co-existing with the peoples of other cultures around you. True, there have been some failures in that regard, as we are all only human. However, I fully respect your culture, as I know you respect mine.

And thanks again to Geert Wilders for taking such a bold stand.

“So where can I see this Fitna movie?”

Note: Fitna has been pulled from the main site, http://www.fitnathemovie.com. It has also been pulled from LiveLeak on account of threats against the staff. This is frustrating, big time.

For this reason, we are hosting the video ourselves at 1389 Blog:

We will be tracking issues related to the video’s availability in this article: Fitna, The Movie Is Here - Where to See It?

See:


…from Alec at errortheory.blogspot.com

…from Alec:

A petition to stop the crescent memorial is now being circulated on the ground in western Pennsylvania. As a complement to this old fashioned canvassing effort, an electronic petition has also been created at ipetitions.com. Please circulate far and wide!

The petitions highlight four cases of apparent Islamic symbolism in the memorial design. Here is the text (electronic):

Call for Congressional investigation of Islamic symbolism in the Flight 93 memorial

Many features of the chosen Flight 93 Memorial design are intolerable:

1. THE GIANT CRESCENT. The centerpiece of the original “Crescent of Embrace” design was a giant red Islamic shaped crescent. Every particle of this original crescent design remains completely intact in the so-called redesign, which only added a few irrelevant trees. The giant crescent is still there.

2. IT POINTS TO MECCA. The giant crescent points to Mecca. A crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca is called a “mihrab,” and is the central feature around which every mosque is built. The Flight 93 Memorial is on track to become the world’s largest mosque.

3. THE ISLAMIC SUNDIAL. The minaret-like Tower of Voices is a year-round accurate Islamic prayer-time sundial (one of many typical mosque features that are realized in the crescent design, all on the same epic scale as the half mile wide central crescent).

4. THE 44 BLOCKS. There are 44 glass blocks on the flight path, equaling the number of passengers, crew, AND terrorists.

Intentional or not, these features are entirely unacceptable. This travesty must stop and investigations must begin.

  1. We the undersigned call on our state and federal legislators to undertake their own thorough and independent investigations of the Flight 93 Memorial design. The truth must come out.
  2. We ask that the crescent design be scraped entirely and that it be replaced with a new design that is not tainted by Islamic or terrorist memorializing symbolism.
  3. We demand a fitting and proper memorial that HONORS the brave men and women of Flight 93.

Please take a minute to electronically sign this petition. All signatures collected by the end of April will be printed out and delivered to the May 3rd public meeting of the Memorial Project, along with Xeroxes of the hand-signed petitions.

That is just the start. There will be another public meeting in August, where we hope to present a much larger pile of petitions, and all signatures will eventually be delivered to the Pennsylvania state legislature and to Congress. Keep sending until the crescent design is stopped!

In the short term, we have a number of supporters in the Pennsylvania legislature at this point who are working to gain backing for an investigation. A demonstration of public demand should help that effort.

The paper petition

In order to make the paper petition self-sufficient, there is a second page, to be printed on the back of the petition, that provides explanations and graphical documentation of the four highlighted cases of Islamic symbolism. The idea is to have a petition that can circulate virally. Anyone can print it out and have enough information right on the petition itself to know that the objections are legitimate. (Mailing instructions are also included.)

Here are the back-side explanations of the four intolerable features:

1. THE GIANT CRESCENT

The original Crescent of Embrace design was a giant Islamic shaped crescent with the crash site placed between the crescent tips, in the position of the star on an Islamic crescent and star flag:

The redesign was supposed to eliminate these Islamic symbol shapes, but as Congressman Tom Tancredo wrote to the Park Service in November 2007, these features remain completely intact in the so-called redesign, which only disguised the crescent with a few additional trees. Architect Paul Murdoch’s refusal to eliminate the Islamic symbol shapes suggests intent, but intentional or not, these symbol shapes are unacceptable. Congressman Tancredo is now calling for the crescent design to be scrapped in its entirety, and we join in that request.

2. IT POINTS TO MECCA

Several credible analysts have found that a person facing directly into the giant crescent (still present in the redesign) will be facing almost exactly at Mecca:

The green “qibla” circle in the graphic above is from the prayer-direction calculator at Islam.com. It shows the direction to Mecca from Somerset PA (ten miles from the crash site). The red arrow shows that a person standing between the crescent tips and facing into the center of the crescent will be facing almost exactly at Mecca.

This Mecca orientation claim must be authoritatively investigated and answered. If it is true that the crescent points to Mecca, and hence can serve as an Islamic prayer direction indicator (the central feature around which every mosque is built), then whether this construct was intentional or not, it indelibly taints the design.

3. THE ISLAMIC SUNDIAL

Anyone can see the overt similarity between a traditional Islamic sundial (left-hand image) and Tower of Voices part of the Flight 93 Memorial (right-hand image):

When the shadow of the traditional sundial reaches the outer curved vertical in this photo, it will be time for Islamic afternoon prayers. Shadow calculations confirm that, on any day of the year, when the shadow of the 93 foot tall crescent shaped Tower of Voices reaches the inner arc of trees, it will also be time for Islamic afternoon prayers.

4. THE FORTY-FOUR BLOCKS

Tom Burnett Sr. does not want Tom Junior’s name inscribed on one of the 44 translucent blocks that are to be emplaced along the flight path. Forty-four is the number of passengers, crew, AND terrorists:

The left side of this graphic shows the Memorial Wall, which follows the path of Flight 93 down to the point of impact. At eye level are 43 glass blocks. Forty are inscribed with the names of the 40 heroes. Three are inscribed with the 9/11 date.

Right-hand image: the 44th glass block sits at the end of the Entry Portal Walkway, where the flight path crosses the upper crescent tip. It marks the spot where, in architect Paul Murdoch’s description, the terrorists broke our humanitarian circle, turning it into a giant (Islamic shaped) crescent. This circle-breaking, crescent-creating feat is memorialized by the inscription: “A field of honor forever.”

The Park Service dismisses the suspicious block count on the grounds that the 44th glass block is much larger than the others. Mr. Burnett is not comforted by the magnificence of the 44th block, and neither are we. This design must be stopped, and investigations must be launched!

Other petition formats

The same four intolerable features are described in the annotated “Map of Betrayal” that was the subject of one of last month’s blogbursts. Thus the map makes a perfectly serviceable back side for the petition, providing an alternative petition/flyer combination.

The information on the map is denser than the explanations above, but has its own intrigue, showing how the different terrorist memorializing parts fit together like an elaborate puzzle.

The petition being circulated on the ground now in Pennsylvania is still another variation. It has slightly different wording than the electronic petition, and slightly different explanations of the four points than presented above. All the different formats are interchangeable. They all highlight the same four objectionable features, and they will all be delivered together to state and federal legislators.

Until we get a Congressional investigation, the petition will be an ongoing tool for raising awareness and registering opposition. If you participate in any activist fora or email lists, please forward the text and links along. (The electronic and paper-petition links are collected together on this petition Page at CrescentOfBetrayal.com.)

Blogburst blogroll

To join, email Cao (caoilfhionn1 at gmail dot com) with your blog’s url.

QiblaLocator confirms Mecca orientation of Flight 93 crescent

…from Alec:

Reader Max K. found another Islamic website with a Mecca-direction calculator. It can be used to construct yet another graphical demonstration that the Flight 93 memorial points to Mecca.

Muslims face Mecca for prayer, with the direction to Mecca calculated by the great circle method. Enter your street address into the search field at QiblaLocator.com and it brings up a Google map with a red line showing the Muslim prayer-direction (or “qibla”) from your home.

At the Flight 93 crash site, Skyline Road passes through the center of what is to become the giant central crescent of the planned memorial. Enter “Skyline Rd, Shanksville PA” into the QiblaLocator search box and it generates this map:

QiblaLocator, Skyline Rd, PA

Red line points to Mecca. (Azimuth, also in red: 55.19° clockwise from north.)

To see how this direction to Mecca compares with the orientation of the planned memorial, first impose some orientation lines on the Crescent of Embrace design:

SitePlanOrientation70%

The short black line connects the two most protruding tips of the half-mile wide central crescent. The long black arrow shows the orientation of a person standing between the crescent tips and facing into the center of the crescent. (Every particle of this original design remains completely intact in the so-called redesign, which only disguises the giant crescent with a few additional trees.)

Next just lay the site-plan graphic on top of QiblaLocator’s Google map:

QiblaLocatorOverlay50%

The red and black lines are almost parallel.

To be precise, the upper crescent tip is the end of the thousand foot long, fifty foot tall, Entry Portal Wall. The bottom crescent tip is the last pair of red maple trees at the bottom end of the crescent walkway. Connect these tips, and the perpendicular bisector (black arrow) points 53.5° clockwise from north (within two degrees of the exact direction to Mecca).

A crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca is called a mihrab, and is the central feature around which every mosque is built. The Flight 93 Memorial will be the world’s largest mosque.

Earlier Mecca direction graphics

In 2005, Sarah Wells constructed a somewhat similar graphic. She used the Mecca direction calculator at Islam.com to get a qibla line that she superimposed onto the memorial site plan:

SaraW's2005graphic60%

Green “qibla” circle shows direction to Mecca from nearby Pittsburgh. Again you can see that a person standing between the tips of the crescent and facing into the center of the crescent will be facing almost exactly at Mecca.

Sarah’s graphic and the QiblaLocator graphic both demonstrate that the giant crescent points to Mecca in the way that Muslims define the direction to Mecca (by the “great circle” or “shortest distance” method).

The first graphic to show the Mecca orientation of the crescent memorial was posted by the pseudonymous Eaotin Shrdlu on September 10, 2005, two days after the crescent design was unveiled:

Etaoin Shrdlu's graphic 60%

The large map projection and the small site-plan inset both have north at the top. Etaoin’s graphic shows that direction to Mecca from crash site (green line) and direction of person facing into crescent (red line) are the same.

University of Pennsylvania Professor Tim Baird, a member of the Flight 93 Advisory Commission, says that everyone involved in the Memorial Project is fully aware of the factual accuracy of the Mecca direction claim. Nevertheless, they all stand by as Project spokesmen keep denying the Mecca orientation in the newspapers. The Project even found an academic fraud to tell the press that there is no such thing as the direction to Mecca:

Daniel Griffith, a geospatial information sciences professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, said anything can point toward Mecca, because the earth is round. (Pittsburgh Post Gazette, August 18, 2007.)

Any Muslim would have denied this absurdity, but the Post Gazette does not want Griffith’s fraud exposed, because the Gazette itself has been fully complicit in covering up the Mecca orientation of the memorial since 2005. Post Gazette reporter Paula Ward told Alec Rawls in 2006 (download 3, p. 108) that editors and reporters at the Post Gazette saw all of the demonstrations of the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent back in 2005 and made a top level editorial decision not to publish this explosive information. Editor Tom Birdsong thinks it would hurt the Democrats, so he is not going to publish it, and neither are other newspapers.

This shouldn’t be a right-left issue, but try telling our newspaper editors that. Which leaves it up to the rest of us to get the word out about Islamic and terrorist memorializing symbolism in the Flight 93 Memorial. This is going to have to be passed person to person.

You can help. To join our blogbursts, email Cao (caoilfhionn1 at gmail dot com) with your blog’s url.

Digg.com Buried by Panera Bread?! (Updated: The Problem’s Been Corrected) Update: No, it hasn’t, and what does Drupal have to do with this?

Updated 3/14/08: Nope…the problem’s back. Further research shows that this screen is a common 403 error screen on Drupal, an open source developer famous for creating Digg clones. Hmmm…. :roll:


Updated 3/13/08: Looks like the problem’s been corrected.


Previously on FHK and on the 1389blog, we have discussed at length that companies that allow public internet access use filterware, which has, at times, exercised odd behavior in choosing which sites to block. At that time, we knew Panera Bread was using SonicWALL.

Today, I’m on the road, however, and stopped at Panera to catch up on my blogging I tried to Digg a story for a friend and got a screen I hadn’t seen before. It didn’t look like the old familiar SonicWALL censhorship page, and a check of SonicWALL shows that it has Digg.com rated as “News and Media [and] Information Technology/Computers“. Instead. Instead, the screen looked like this: Continue reading →

Flight 93 Memorial Blogburst: Joementum!

Blogburst logo, no accident

Alec Rawls did a 45 minute interview with Washington D.C talk-radio host Joe Ardinger Saturday night (3-8-08, Segment 3).

“It rips,” says Alec. “We exposed a lot of the terrorist memorializing parts of the Flight 93 Memorial, and went over the clear proofs of intent that architect Paul Murdoch included in the design.”

Joe’s interests: “Ghosts, UFO’s, The Lizard People from The Hollow Earth, Politics, True Crime, Conspiracies, you get the idea…” If he wants outlandish, the truth about the Flight 93 Memorial is tops, which could just make Joe the man for the Job.

Alec knows nothing about the Lizard People, or Joe’s politics, but this issue ought to transcend all domestic divides, and for Joe it certainly does. “Very fun interview,” says Alec: “Joe is a great host, and he says he wants to keep after this.”

That’s excellent. Thank you Joemericans!

(If Joe’s 3-8-08 Segment 3 link ever disappears, there is a backup copy here.)

To join our blogbursts, email Cao (caoilfhionn1 at gmail dot com) with your blog’s url.

Digg.com Buried by Panera Bread?!

Previously on FHK and on the 1389blog, we have discussed at length that companies that allow public internet access use filterware, which has, at times, exercised odd behavior in choosing which sites to block. At that time, we knew Panera Bread was using SonicWALL.

Today, I’m on the road, however, and stopped at Panera to catch up on my blogging I tried to Digg a story for a friend and got a screen I hadn’t seen before. It didn’t look like the old familiar SonicWALL censhorship page, and a check of SonicWALL shows that it has Digg.com rated as “News and Media [and] Information Technology/Computers“. Instead. Instead, the screen looked like this:



Has anyone else had that experience? Is it possible that Digg.com has actually become too politically-correct for public viewing?