Posted on 01/09/2009 7:49:34 AM PST by NYer
Just added it to my favorites.
I’m going to get hammered here but I’m going to write this anyway.
When I started reading this article, I thought it was a joke but realized that it isn’t. I don’t think that Catholics need a Catholic search engine or software to filter objectionable material on the net. Adults should have enough self-discipline to ignore and/or avoid such content and children should be supervised anyway while using the internet.
Google and Yahoo are good search engines. I’m not going to use a search engine that has glitches in it or is more cumbersome to use because it’s trying to filter the content.
Hmmm, the search engine still needs some work. I did a search for “Benedict XVI” and on the first page of results was a link to an extremely anti-catholic Web site. I guess one can’t teach an old dog new tricks after all.
For a few months I’ve been using the “Prolife Internet” you specify, and it has worked nicely, essentially the same as Google, except it does not have images (which ironically I’m usually using to find pictures for the church bulletin!).
Wickipedia is getting on my nerves (do they have any accurate articles?) so I shall try this other site you recommend as well. THANKS.
Generally I agree with you about “just ignoring” content we don’t like, but let’s face it, it’s becoming almost impossible to do in all media. On YouTube, I watched a Mozart Cello Concerto, and afterward when it recommends similar things, up popped a few other Mozart videos and one with a half-naked women called something like “Men, how to please your woman.”
Even TV, during prime time when children can see, on a normal show, will have ads that in my opinion promote violence and promiscuity. The “sidebars” on seemingly unobjectionable websites like news or politics will suddenly pop up an ad for sexual enhancement products or who knows what. Even if I try to disregard these things, they images are annoying and it starts to feel negative to be constantly reminded of filth and violence.
You cannot ignore it, the marketing folks are more clever than that, they design these things to grab our attention. Yes, I am self-disciplined enough, actually disgusted enough, not to pay attention, but I feel somewhat intellectually violated, it is an affront and an intrusion to push this garbage on me unsuspectingly on websites that should be clean.
wiki gets on my nerves too. It is so leftist and false in some articles. I don’t go there anymore.
I do like the Catholic/Pro-Life Digg.com clone, PickAFig. Its categorization and moderation add value to a proven system. Needs more users though. It's only a few months old.
I am more concerned about the content on TV, both programs and commercials, than I am about the internet. It’s very difficult for parents to monitor what their children see on TV since inappropriate commercials and programs are aired at all hours of the day. I find that it’s actually easier to monitor where children go online especially since the computer is in a public area of the house.
What is worse, though, is that network executives and advertisers have completely washed their hands of any responsibility for the content of their increasingly raunchy programs, claiming that 1. this is what the public wants and 2. parents have the sole responsibility of monitoring what their children see on TV. Well, I don’t know if the public actually wants sexually suggestive and/or violent programming on at all hours of the day but, unfortunately, people are becoming increasingly desensitized to it because it has become so common. This, in turn, feeds the perception that the public wants this kind of programming. As for their second claim, it is true that parents are responsible for monitoring what their kids watch on TV but network execs and advertisers make our job much harder than it has to be by airing programs with “adult” themes or humor as well as commercials with inappropriate content, include ones for Viagra and birth control, around the clock. Thirty years ago parents could expect institutions such as schools and churches and even corporations and Hollywood to help protect if not promote family values. Now we’re on our own. It’s sad.
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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
> Try Ixquick.
bump
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