China Blocks 'Egypt' On Twitter-Like Site 140
Suki I writes with this excerpt from news.com.au: "China has blocked the word 'Egypt' from the country's wildly popular Twitter-like service, while coverage of the political turmoil has been tightly restricted in state media. China's ruling Communist Party is sensitive to any potential source of social unrest. A search for 'Egypt'' on the Sina microblogging service brings up a message saying, 'According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, the search results are not shown.' The service has more than 50 million users. News on the Egypt protests has been limited to a few paragraphs and photos buried inside major news websites, but China Central Television had a report on its midday broadcast. China's Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the events in Egypt."
Re:These are our generation's defining moments (Score:5, Insightful)
None of these are equatable! They are all different events in different situations.
TianAnMen (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Get over it (Score:5, Insightful)
Get over it? As in, forget it, ignore it, accept it as fact of life? Sorry, no can do. At least some of the rest of us have a thing for this "freedom" fad. A world power restricting freedom in any particular way is and should be newsworthy.
Re:These are our generation's defining moments (Score:5, Insightful)
Pearl Harbor was a real threat. A nation that had already taken out a handful of allies and were on their way to occupying a large portion of the world attacked. It shocked us into standing up and helping our allies beat the snot out of the Axis powers which were a true existential threat to US and certainly its allies.
9/11 was when a handful of sheep herders armed with box cutters killed fewer people than we lose to accidental drowning each year and did property damage that is pittance next to one of the many minor hurricanes that hit the US each year. This shocked us into the most cowardly display Americans have ever managed. We ratcheting back liberties we had defended for a few hundred years in the face of much scarier opponents, and then precoded to spend money as fast as humanly possibly, build new worthless bureaucracies, and implement countless asinine 'security' measures against a threat that ranks right up there with being struck by lightening. We did this, all the while ignoring real threats that actually kill millions of Americans... like cancer, heart disease, and eating too much fucking food.
Pearl Harbor was a tragic catalyst that moved the US to action that it should have taken earlier. 9/11 was when we pissed ourself in the face of sheep herders armed with box cutters and ratcheted back our civil liberties and threw money in the air in terror of something that IS NOT GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU. If you are an American, you are going to die a very boring death due to eating too much. If you are very lucky, you might die in a car accident. The fucking terrorist are not going to get you. Pearl Harbor was tragic a moment that brought us to action. 9/11 was the day we pissed ourselves and surrendered to sheep herders. Please don't try and draw parallels between the two.
Re:Get over it (Score:5, Insightful)
Getting over it is exactly the wrong thing to do. Where's your pride? You're going to let a bunch of bureacrats decide what you can and can't read?
Not a thousand, just oneied Than They Let On (Score:2, Insightful)
Yesterday Iran executed a dutch woman, supposedly for smuggling drugs and selling it. Her arrest however came during Iran's own riots and some people believe the charges were fabricated. Curious she would be executed in such a hurry at this moment. Sending a message perhaps?
But don't worry, the dutch government froze, not cut, all ties with the Iran government an. That will teach them.
China has little to worry about, these revolts have been about high unemployment levels. China is not suffering from that. The people got their bread and circusseses. It is the Islamic nations that are worried. They are corrupt, inept and overflowing with ever larger generations of yoing people with no future. China escaped that with the one child policy.
Re:These are our generation's defining moments (Score:2, Insightful)
Vietnam was an actual war against an organised if irregular military, fighting for control of territory and having proper battles. The North Vietnamese had an air force, for god's sake. Iraq was comparable to Vietnam for about a month. After that it was just an occupation.