It’s hard to believe that it’s been 18 years since the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the legendary “tank man”. But this month marks the anniversary, and given that enough time as passed that a new generation has been born and without hearing about it I thought I’d give a little reminder surrounding events of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

Although it is believed that Chinese troops under orders from the communist leadership massacred thousands of people, the event was immortalized in Western media by the famous video footage and photographs of a lone man in a white shirt standing in front of a column of tanks. This man has come to be known as “Tank Man” around the world.

He reportedly said, “Why are you here? You have caused nothing but misery.” As the tank driver attempted to go around him, the “tank man” moved into the tank’s path. He continued to stand defiantly in front of the tanks for some time, then climbed up onto the turret of the lead tank to speak to the soldiers inside. After returning to his position blocking the tanks, the man was pulled aside by onlookers who perhaps feared he would be shot or run over.
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First of all, NO… my blog is not digressing into another porn site! Actually it’s sad, but I really debated about reporting this because nudity is involved. But I decided that it was for the common good and that the vast majority of my readers would probably appreciate the link…

The popular women’s magazine Jane has launched a Breast Health Guide, and a related Boob Blog called Show Us Yours!

The blog encourages regular women to send in a photo of their own breasts and a description about what they like about them. A LOT of women have taken up the challenge and they range from small to very, very large, and also including brave women with mastectomys, the site proves that boobs come in all shapes and sizes and that the most important thing is not what they look like, but that you are loved for who you are.
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This is one of the most brilliant and courageous things I’ve ever seen. Thanks to Ruby on Rails Guy for sharing this in the comments of another post.

In 2006 Wafa Sultan was named to Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people “whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world.” They had this to say:

“Sultan’s influence flows from her willingness to express openly critical views on Islamic extremism that are widely shared but rarely aired by other Muslims.”

Sultan believes:

“The trouble with Islam is deeply rooted in its teachings. Islam is not only a religion. Islam (is) also a political ideology that preaches violence and applies its agenda by force.”

Personally, I would go so far as to say that Dr. Wafa Sultan is one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever seen in my life. I would have no problem comparing her to Dr. Martin Luther King.
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Freedom. It’s nice, right? It ought to be… the freedom we enjoy was paid for with the blood of our forefathers, and is maintained by the blood of our siblings. And no freedom is more precious than that of speech. From it all other freedom flows.

Unfortunately there are still many oppressive regimes that do not offer the luxury of free speech, and people are being tortured and killed for speaking out against injustice. (As I’ve often noted.) This is why I have decided to put my money where my mouth is and provide financial support for the Freenet Project.
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I recently found myself reading David Cowan’s personal blog as a result of researching my previous post on Dr. Dawkin’s letter to his daughter. As I perused his interesting site I found a post entitled “Net Neutrality is Politically Correct“.

If my interpretation is correct, David argues that the concept of Net Neutrality is misguided and will actually cause more harm than good. So, I thought I would take a few moments to issue a friendly, yet opposing view.
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This is not meant to be offensive to anyone, but I found it educational to understand the depths of the Islamic religious basis for the status of women in society. So far as I am aware there is no similar religious teaching in Christianity, Buddhism, or other major religions - although I’m sure someone will correct me if that is not true.

Muslims in general may not bat an eye towards this philosophy, as it may be so ingrained into the culture so as not to be noticed, but I have to wonder how this edict works in the United States where spousal abuse is a crime and can land a man in jail.
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Hi kids. Today’s art lesson comes in the form of England’s most popular and well known graffiti artist. How popular is he? Well, two men were actually convicted in a UK court for defacing one of his works. That’s right. He tagged a building, they covered it up, and they went to jail!

Banksy is no street thug. He is a serious artist that happens to have an addiction to spray painting his art in public places. His art features striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist, anti-establishment or pro-freedom.
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Just a few days ago I read about yet another bit of unbelievable Internet censorship coming out of China. It seems they have decided to eliminate access to the popular blogging site LiveJournal - effectively shutting down access to 1.8 million blogs!

This got me thinking. Given that I routinely report on Chinese abuses I wondered how many - if any - of my readers were coming from China.

For those of you who are not aware, Web servers collect various generic statistics such as the IP address of visitors. These IPs can be traced back to the country of origin and I can view a report of where visitors are coming from.

As you can see in the attached image I haven’t had a single visitor from China. This simply cannot be a coincidence.

The next time you take your freedom of speech for granted just think about the alternative. A young man in Egypt has been sentenced to 4 years in jail for “criticizing the President and Islam”.

Half of all Americans would be in jail if it were illegal here…

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters)

An Alexandria court convicted an Egyptian blogger Thursday for insulting both Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced him to four years in jail over his writings on the Internet.
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Religion is one of those topics I normally don’t want to touch with a 10 foot pole. I’ve found that no one ever agrees when it comes to this topic. Heck, I’ve seen Christians arguing with one another over the meaning of a particular passage of scripture, so you know no good can come of a debate with an Atheist.

Having said that, I was very disturbed to learn that some YouTube staffer decided to ban a member on religious grounds. Nick Gisburne, an outspoken member of the YouTube community recently posted a video comprised solely of a slide show of quotes taken from the Qur’an. All of the quotes deal with the negative aspects of being a non-believer - such as going to hell, being killed and burning for eternity.

Clearly this video illustrates just one side of the discussion, and I would imagine an appropriate Islamic response would have been a video depicting passages of love and peace from the same book. But no one had the chance to issue such a response.
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Regardless of political affiliation, Ted Kennedy issued a nice little speech in support of freedom on the Internet a few months ago. It’s worth taking a look at to make sure that you understand what’s at stake.

Also, if you’re unfamiliar with Net Neutrality please see my previous article, The Importance of Net Neutrality.
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“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”