Honestly Australia, what the heck?? {Mature}

[TorachiKatashi]

She was probably at the hospital because she's severely obese. Those people tend to have medical problems (other than their severe obesity) up the wazoo.

What I want to know is, why is there a "gastric bypass waiting list"? It's not like you're waiting for an organ donor, do you damn jobs.

[Master Gunner]

I'm guessing too many people need them, and there's too few surgeons, nurses and operating rooms to do them, especially since they all have to be shared with all the other procedures that a hospital has to do on a daily basis, so there's a waiting list for pretty much anything where you weren't just hauled in by the paramedics (and even then....).

[Metcarfre]

Especially for a procedure that's extremely low on the list in terms of importance.

[iwashere33]

haha, they try and make them wait so long they don't need it any more...

[Theremin]

next thing you know, New Zealand tries to ban the use of the word 'diet' due to the insensivity to the overweight. the new ads for gyms could say "come on in and get a new lifestyle"

I really hate the substituting of 'diet' for 'lifestyle'. Fat people seem to use it because a diet requires a high degree of self-control, and many just don't want to put in the effort.

'Lifestyle' on the other hand, is so vague that it allows for complacency.

[TorachiKatashi]

I don't know why people care so much. People who are 300lbs overweight, didn't get that way overnight. If they don't care about themselves, then I don't care about them either. If I ever get that big, I'm hoping someone takes me out back and shoots me.

Fun fact: An obese lady here last year went into the hospital thinking she had a kidney stone, and came out with a baby. Why they let her keep the poor thing is beyond me. She probably ate it on the way home.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/s ... e=&no_ads=

[iwashere33]

you know what's really odd though? - kathleen kindof inspired me to starting walking (can't jog yet, the implant hurts when i do that).

i say it's odd because all of these sorts of stories (really fat mole gets caught in a hospital, or a really fat person get stuck in their apartment). never really seem to have any impact on awareness about being unhealthy like that.

maybe kathleen should do some PSA's.

[Matt]

next thing you know, New Zealand tries to ban the use of the word 'diet' due to the insensivity to the overweight. the new ads for gyms could say "come on in and get a new lifestyle"

I really hate the substituting of 'diet' for 'lifestyle'. Fat people seem to use it because a diet requires a high degree of self-control, and many just don't want to put in the effort.

'Lifestyle' on the other hand, is so vague that it allows for complacency.

Diet implies a temporary change. A lifestyle is permanent.

-m

[Master Gunner]

Until the next craze comes along. Although, I suppose that applies to both.

[iwashere33]

just back on the thread topic (the australian censorship idea from senator stephen conroy).

i have found a few you tube videos about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9YmikNA ... r_embedded

and also

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7LOFJNF ... re=related

i think i might need to have a proper look into ACMA, firstly, all the take-down notices they have been threatening people with and the fines involved. exactly how can the ACMA ever threaten someone with this when the filter isn't even in place, and there is no law regarding it?

if someone else knows, let me know because i don't understand that kind of gestapo crap. it is already starting to feel like china with stories like this floating around.

[empath]

Okay, okay. I apologize now, but I gotta go all Kanye on you, iwashere33; before we get back to vaguely-defined restriction of freedoms that are somehow supposed to prevent illegalities (see below), I have to jump in on the crap about the word 'diet'.

food and drink regularly provided or consumed; habitual nourishment

the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.

Essentially, 'diet' is a synonym for 'food lifestyle', so that Maori woman should quit her complaining because HE WAS SAYING THE SAME DAMN THING. (funny how she forces me to resort to expletives, too?)

A common connotation of the word implies weight loss, but THAT'S STILL NOT THE DENOTATIVE MEANING OF THE WORD.¹

The whole 'restricted regimen of food eaten with the intent of losing weight' thing is a "Reducing Diet" or "Regulated Diet" or even 'Low-Fat/Low-Salt/etc.etc. Diet".

Had to get that off my chest; George Carlin's dead and someone's gotta take up the Grammar Nazi™ torch for him.

---

ANYWAYS, back to the 'if we ban viewing flat-chested pornstars, child porn will magically become unmade' bullshit.

The intent of this just about admirable, but the way Mr. Conroy (and those burro-crats carrying on from his proposal) appear to go about it is dubious at best.

They believe that by preventing Australians from seeing images/videos/discussion about women who look young will prevent (or even REDUCE) the encouragement of child abuse.

That's what it all boils down to; they apparently think if a pedophile sees an 26-year-old woman with A-cup boobs perform in a porno, the pedophile will then want to act out that in real life with him and a young girl as the participants.

In all honesty, I can't agree or disagree with this; even after all the time we've been scientifically studying human behaviour, we've got a LONG way to go before we can reliably (not infallibly either, but just to the '+/-5%, 99 times out of 100' accuracy) predict an individual's actions based on generalities and not specific observation of the individual in question. So saying this WILL happen is a fallacy.

...of course, saying it WON'T happen is equally fallacious.

So we're stuck with basing a major restriction to freedom of speech on a 'maybe'.

And it's getting pretty clear that the ACMA and the rest are going to be using a REALLY WIDE brush when they decide 'what is allowed and what is not'; don't be surprised to see breast cancer support groups and feminist blogs get banned simply because they mention small boobs ("flat women are just as beautiful as silicone bimbos! >KA-BAN!<" "After the mastectomy, I looked like a pre-pubescent girl-" >KA-BAN!<")

The baby is gonna get chucked out with the bath water, mark my words.


Mind you, this is all based on the sources I'm seeing, which have been invariably anti-filter; I don't recall seeing ANYTHING directly from Stephen Conroy or the ACMA or whatnot. I don't know if this is simply because they don't see the point in trying to get their side across to someone on the opposite side of the planet or because they haven't been making much of an effort to 'market their plan' to the public at all; if the latter, that either signifies incompetence in not understanding the need to get public support for the proposal, or contempt that they don't need public support...

Footnote:
1. See, this is why I hate human communication; nobody can agree on standard rules - everyone's gotta wedge some additional but inconsistently-applied meaning.

[iwashere33]

thanks, empath. all points there are quite valid and well put.

the stephen conroy side of the debate that i have been able to most get some of the info from-the-horses-mouth is actually youtube of all places, people have uploaded a few clips from question time in parliament and from other shows like "QandA" and whatnot. quite informative how over time his standard repsonse has been refined.

it started off in the last election as "an offer to australian ISPs to help them with cyber safety" and pretty much from the election it was "oh no, we are not doing anything but trials" and the term at that time was "unwanted material" and now that the reports from the 'trials' are saying that it may be possible to do what he wants (i am stil yet to get a hold of the full report, so far i can only find clips or individual pages). he wants to go ahead with the full system - stephen conroy was asked what the speed figures were and data through put numbers in a parliament session and his reply was - "we WILL bring in this level of protection for all australians so that we can help stop crime, the cost is currently listed as 128 million and could be in place by 3rd quarter of 2010" -

so, it's gone from "unwanted material" to "just the pro-rape, pro-child pron, beastilaity, rape sites" and then it got expanded to "refused classification material" which apparently includes all the other things that might be harmful or not acceptable on a billboard (abortions, euthinasia, and YES political sites that might be asking for protests as yelling and whatnot is a breach of the peace).

somehow i thought the whole thing was going to be shot down as soon as the "secret" list was let out and it proved how bad it was going to be. i mean just the idea that it is meant to be secret is sticking with me quite badly.

Vote liberal might be the only way to stop this now, the problems comes if the system is in place before the election which is not a fixed date. Unlike in USA and other places, the term of office is not set in australia.

...and i thought the whole "no 18+ games" was a problem.

[iwashere33]

well, at least the 18+ games issue might be fixed up soon, the governor-general for South Australia has stepped down or quit (read: given up). and it may now be possible to get some proper dialouge on the subject rather than one single guy just saying "no" before he walks in the door.

if only stephen conroy would do the same... *crosses fingers*...

[MC Cookie]

yea this sort of thing is becoming a real problem, if they WANT to sink that sort of cash into our Internets then upgrade our network so it doesn't suck so much compared to the rest of the world.

The sad thing is that it isn't getting the sort of public debate that it should be getting, the segment on Q&A was the last major splash in the political pool that I got wind of.


Though I'm of the opinion its all a plan by Kevin Rudd to be able to filter out all the hardcore porn from Australia and place it in his personal fap file stored in a secure bunker 500m under ASIO HQ and linked to kirribilli house by a personal fiber optic phat pipe.

[iwashere33]

AHH, so that's what the Fibre-To-the-Node is for...

[wartjr2373]

B-B-B-BUMP!

[Metcarfre]

I'm guessing this was another time-travelling post.

[empath]

[iwashere33]

i was just wondering if anyone knows what the latest news of this was.

[empath]

Um, I live on the EXACT opposite side of the planet from you and where the issue at hand is actually happening - shouldn't *I* be asking *you* this question?

Based on my previous suspicion about Conroy et al., I'm thinking he forced it through and enacted it into law without even informing the public, let alone allowing public input or discourse...


Oh, and by the way - welcome back!

[The_Doctor]

Nyet, the internet censorship bill is on indefinate hold and as for the Op i've never even heard of that law, let alone seen it passed as an act. So honestly it's pretty dead yeah.

In related news Steven Conroy can go take a long walk off a short pier, tosser.

[the_lone_bard]

Heh, Necro thread reminded me of an Angry Aussie vid from a long way back.

[iwashere33]

Oh, and by the way - welcome back!

thank you for the warm welcome, i have been other places but avoiding this forum. i was drunk in an airport last time i remembered my login details and i ended up sounding like an ass - something i am trying to a lot less of nowadays.