I can even accept some of the 'violent/sexual content' labels being placed on tv shows, games, movies, etc. However, preventing access to these things for anyone, especially someone who is old enough to make their own decisions (12+, as I mentioned before), is BULLSHIT! If someone wants to go rent a bunch of horror and slasher movies and buy Soldier of Fortune, let him. In order for someone to go out and kill someone, they have to be messed up in the first place - or angry from all the oppression they have recieved from school and all this censorship. It's illegal for minors to view porn in New York, and I've seen FTP sites with directories full of it. I'm not allowed to watch R rated movies without an adult, but I've seen a few on HBO. My dad has a shop with various tools such as a crowbar and an acetylene torch, BUT I'M NOT KILLING PEOPLE AND DESTROYING PROPERTY!

Interestingly, now that we have all this censorship and labels and bleeps over swear words, murder rates have gone UP. In previous periods in history, there were massive wars, but individual people didn't just go out and kill someone. They were explosed to war and death and violence and raw human nature - they didn't have censorship, and they saw how bad things could be, and they were nice enough to not blow up a building. Now, everything is wrapped up in nice foam packaging with childproof seals so the little children don't experience violence. But as they get older and begin to understand things in the world, they rebel against the opression. The government and parents misinterpret this rebellion, censor things even more, and the kid goes crazy from not being able to do anything.

I have a truly stupid example of all of this oppression from right in my local area, Western new York. Our school has off-duty police as security guards, a very low population of 'marylin-manson-listening black-wearing body-piercing spiked-bracelet-wearing' people, very few fights, and I have never heard of an instance of anyone bringing so much as a knife into school. They want people to stop using backpacks. TRY USING LOGIC, DICKHEADS!! If they force people to stop using backpacks, it inconveniences them even more, and accomplishes nothing. Some kid gets fed up with the school controlling everything, and brings in a knife/gun and tries to go after one of the administrators. The guards try to stop him, shots are fired, people die. Admittedly, that's an unlikely scenario - more likely, people will wind up being suspended and getting in arguments for continuing to use backpacks.

As usual, there is a much simpler solution. The school could actually use some of the taxes we pay them for the school and install x-ray scanners for bookbags or metal detectors or something. Apparently, systems used by airports are unsafe, judging by the massive number of people bringing guns and knives on planes and randomly killing people. >:-| To my school, the idiots coming up with these rules, and government in general, I say: STOP TAKING AWAY OUR RIGHTS!!

I leave you with this final link: http://slashdot.org/yro/99/09/08/1353218.shtml

I've gotten tired of the current system of advertising... when we try to access webpages, banners slow us down, take up room, and often open hordes of other windows to piss us off. When you sit down to eat dinner, strangers you've never met interrupt you trying to sell you things you don't even want! Commercials interrupt the shows we watch, filling them up with garbage... I believe it's time for a change.

Now, I know abolishing advertising altogether probably won't work. Our society needs advertising to pay for all the things we like, such as TV and the websites we visit. However, I believe we can cut down on the advertising a bit. Don't host yourself on sites that pop up banners or force you to use tons of ads (xoom is a good alternative; the little frame they stick at the top isn't that bad). Don't put three or four banners or lots of little buttons on your page (to the gamespy network: HINT HINT).

I also believe we must abolish one thing: invasive advertising. Telemarketing should be illegal, and people shouldn't be able to dileberately bother you to try to steal your money. Television and website ads do not fall under this category, as everyone sees them; they are not targeting you specifically. If changes like these aren't made soon, we must stand up to business and government... we must demand our freedom from this invasion of our lives that is advertising.

If there's a show you really like to watch, find other people who like to watch it too and get all of them to make a single tape of it - take turns - so that you can fast-forward through the ads. Get interMute and filter out ads and popup windows from your websites. And when telemarketers call, get their name and the company's name - if they ever call back, you can LEGALLY SUE THEM.