Only in America: From the Bizarre to the Absurd

[icymist]

White House-led efforts to muzzle the press, stifle artistic expression and subvert free thought while stepping up its own deceitful propaganda is being daily turned up a notch with a series of seemingly isolated but intimately linked initiatives that reflect the Bush administration's obsession with controlling information - and the minds of Americans. To wit:

During the 25th annual Banned Books Week, a Houston-area parent challenged "Fahrenheit 451," Ray Bradbury's incendiary work about reading and freedom of thought. "It's just all kinds of filth," the parent claimed - admitting that he had not read the book. Never let fact interfere with opinion.

At a Manchester, N.H., awards dinner honoring defenders of the First Amendment, featured speaker Newt Gingrich argued for "a different set of rules" to govern free speech in light of the war on terror. The terrorist threat, he argued, will "lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country (and) lead us to learn how to close down every Web site that is dangerous." Including the ones that chronicle his own dubious ethics?

In a bid to increase its revenues, Google is developing "ambient-audio identification technology" that would use personal computers' internal microphones to monitor what TV channels Americans watch. The U.S. government must be salivating.

<snip>

In Portland, Ore., Douglas County commissioners asked the museum to remove a display of the pagan goddess Hebe, which was part of a historical exhibit. Some viewers who considered paganism offensive rallied in church and engaged in idolatrous prayer before a statue of St. Anthony, beseeching the patron of lost objects to help museum administrators recover their souls.

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[Why Syzygy]

1. I hope it isn't the one they use for their chat.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft has submitted a patent application for a "censoring filter," which would alter digital speech recordings "so that undesired words or phrases are either unintelligible or inaudible."
... ...

It is very picky.

[crikkett]

2. Every speaker is a microphone

so even if you don't have a microphone on your computer, your speakers can be rigged to pick up sound. (it's all connected to the same sound card...)