Hmmm.. France to ban Scientology?

I wonder how this would work with one of those "real" religions. Gee- imagine what feeling "pressure"* and "blackmail"* from a "real" religion.

"The Church of Scientology faces trial on deletion fraud charges in Paris, with the possibility that the organization, which claims around 5,000 active members in France in addition to a bevy of Hollywood celebrities such as Tom Cruise, could be banned in France if it loses.

While it enjoys an active presence in the U.S. -- it has been recognized as a religious organization by the I.R.S. since 1993 -- Scientology has faced strong opposition from French authorities.

France has refused to acknowledge Scientology as a religion, and Miviludes, the French government agency in charge of protecting its citizens from sectarian manipulations, has warned French citizens against participating.
"Scientology is a dangerous movement," Milivudes president Jean-Michel Roulet told ABCNews.com. "It puts pressure on its victims, it tries to intimidate them and blackmails them." LINK

*hell, etc.

Equal access to information? Not in U.S. public schools, no sir!

Wow- this is a scary one.
Schools around the country are using "acceptable use policies" to block student access to the open internet. If kids who might not have computers at home aren't able to use the internet at school, they are being denied education. A child without internet skills in America is a child who does not know how to fish.

"School administrators in the Houston-area school district were prohibiting the use of search engines in classrooms. Kids were only allowed to visit specific sites that were approved by the technology department. Techies—not media specialists—were calling the shots when it came to sanctioning sites for students. If teachers or librarians wanted kids to visit an unapproved site, they had to submit a request to the tech specialist. Call me old-fashioned, but when did techies become information specialists with the credentials to choose appropriate sites for students?

As unsettling as it sounds, some districts ban Internet use altogether—and they’re getting away with it. It’s not just happening in repressive countries like China and Iran—it’s happening right here in places like New York, Texas, and Minnesota. Let’s not lose sight that this extreme “solution” to prevent students from accessing undesirable sites violates their First Amendment rights. I know of several elementary schools in a nearby Texas district in which the principal prohibits any Web use—even for teachers. One teacher said she was saddened by the fact that she could no longer visit Literacy Center, a wonderful site for kids learning to speak English as a second language."
LINK to article- an interesting and thought provoking read!

Thanks to the fabulous Kristin for the tip! And hmmmm...
(From the article) "One librarian on the East Coast says that her students aren’t allowed to check the Web for weather reports even though many of them travel to and from school each day by ferry."

Scientists pressured, censored by Bush White House.

"The Bush administration has been accused of routinely misleading the public over the threat of global warming and of orchestrating efforts to try to suppress scientific findings that highlight the reality of climate change.
Meanwhile, two pressure groups provided survey findings to the committee that suggested almost half of federal climate scientists who responded said they had experienced pressure to eliminate the words "climate change" or "global warming" from their writings. One third said they had experienced officials at their agencies making public statements that misrepresented their findings." LINK

Man is shocked- SHOCKED, I tell you, about non-censored internet at the library.

I do kind of feel for this guy, because I'm not a huge fan of the porn, but still, censorship is not cool.

"The rules and regulations when using a computer inside an El Paso library is simply showing a picture ID and signing in at the information desk. Librarians said there are no restrictions on what information you access on the Internet.

"In fact, there are privacy laws in this state that protect people's use to library resources to a certain extent. In that regard, we do not monitor what people are looking at on the computer," said Carol Brey-Casiano, director of El Paso Public Libraries.

"That's not acceptable. Opening all of these brand-new libraries with our taxes and everything, there has to be some kind of software that blocks that," Leyva said."
LINK