And to hell with the tech guy who services that network. I know that he is just doing his job, but you used to be able to count on techies to be subversive and have all sort of little backdoors and things that you could be used to get around. Now they are just slaves, or more appropriately, mouth-breathing, sycophantic, attention-seeking wankers who want nothing more than to please the boss so that they can get a pat on the head, the likes of which pat they nary saw as children or pimply, overweight teenagers. Bastards.

There is no solution, though. I am afraid that we are fucked. Done. Over and out. Once you go down this path, you don’t go back. The only solution is to wait until the system collapses (i.e. – the States legal system eats itself alive and there is a massive civil war in which the “bad” guys win). Until then, we’re likely to see more and more of this shit as we enforce the status quo (read: backslide into paranoid conservatism cum religious dogma).

Buckle up!

And then the busies discovered blocking software.

I was putting together pictures of Boss Tweed and found one entertaining picture– a “Boss Tweed” brand of cigars– but the kids couldn’t see the picture because it involved the word “tobacco”. Just one of a hundred examples. I could have asked the “tech guy” who controls the blocking software for the teachers’ password but I will be goddamned if I ask or explain anything to that supercilious mealymouth. So I hum a tune and point in the opposite direction while some trusted student hacks it for me, or I access the forbidden image at home and email it to work. Are we sure we “won” the cold war? Because this kind of blocking– turning thought and curiosity over to a machine!– is more and more reminiscent of accounts I’ve read of life in eastern Europe.