The Fetish of the Firewall

TellUsWhy
AlbertVille(definitelynotfrance)

Linguini linguist Jim Bobby recently got into a tussle with a group of folks that live just east of the Rockies who want to set up their very own Republic of the Marvellous Marv Alberts.

And apparently it all begins with firewalls, both metaphorical and literal.

Even big business is getting into the act.

Exhibit A: In an effort to prevent their docile workers on the Alberts side of the continental divide from running amok and uniting with those radicals from the left coast, the boys with the fabulous hairpieces running Telus decided to build their own firewall around a union website with - gasp! - pinkopicketline photos.

Too bad that in doing so Telus also blocked out hundreds of other sites as well which, at least on the face of it, is the kind of free speech suppression you wouldn't normally expect from a union-busting, freeper loving operation to undertake. Rob Cottingham and his trusty side kick Thomas Dirks have the been riding the story into the sunset.

On the other hand this could be viewed as one of those examples of the ideological spectrum's extremes coming together on the darkside of the moon.

Because while he likely never sported a rug as nice as the Marvellous One's , big Joe Stalin was never averse to throwing his workers from the tops of flaming walls into the red hot lava moats below when he decided it was time to crank up yet another slave labour-assisted five year plan.

Update: Tom Barrett, over at the Tyee has a nice piece on the broader implications of Telus' actions for ISP regulation (the discussion thread is pretty good too).

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