Our Incredibly Stupid and Fucked-Up Society

[filkertom]

It's not that I do not have the words for this latest outrage. Ohhh, I've got the words. I'm just blind with anger, and don't feel like peeling all of y'all's paint at a distance over the internet.
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Get a load of this:

Have you ever faced a pop-up that wouldn't go away? You try clicking it closed and another pops up in less than a nanosecond. You reboot the system, annoyed that your anti-spyware program let something slip through.

That's a hassle, sure--but chances are, your experience won't land you in jail.

Julie Amero, a substitute teacher in Norwich, Connecticut, has been convicted of impairing the morals of a child and risking injury to a minor by exposing as many as ten seventh-grade students to porn sites.

It's a short story: On October, 19, 2004, Amero was a substitute teacher for a seventh-grade language class at Kelly Middle School. A few students were crowded around a PC; some were giggling. She investigated and saw the kids looking at a barrage of graphic, hard-core pornographic pop-ups.

The prosecution contended that she had used the computer to visit porn sites.

The defense said that wasn't true and argued that the machine was infested with spyware and malware, and that opening the browser caused the computer to go into an endless loop of pop-ups leading to porn sites.

Amero maintains her innocence. She refused offers of a plea bargain and now faces an astounding 40 years in prison (her sentencing is on March 2).

Trust me, I do have the words. But I'm not sure I have the self-restraint to keep from doing damage to myself or the vicinity if I let loose.

Update: randwolf has a few more links:

• http://www.alternet.org/story/46925/
• http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/julie_amero/index.html
• http://julieamer.blogspot.com/2007/02/contribute-to-julie.html (this is a link to the Legal Defense Fund)

Comments

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that pretty much covers it, along with two other aspects: the only thing you have to do to get onto many adult sites is to lie about your age; and Google is one of the biggest potential smut distributors out there -- all you have to do is turn SafeSearch off.