If I was in the Navy today, I would be glad that I had any type of internet access even if it was limited because when I was in (a few years ago), if you weren’t khaki, you didn’t have internet at sea.

As for the taxpayers, well if they haven’t served, they don’t know what members of the Armed Forces have to go thru and how the smallest thing like reading a blog would make someone’s day a just a little brighter.

If you really really want the Blue Ridge sailors to read & heed your website, print off the posts & mail ‘em to your buds. Let them mail responses back to you which you can then type in. Et voila! Free speech restored…only I’m still not buying that it was lost.

I don’t agree with blocking it though.

Really, I’m being serious here.

Just because us enlisted pukes “Support & defend the Contitution of the United States of America”, doesn’t mean that it applies to us.

Is this surprising? Not in the least, my friend…not in the least.

If it can be justified that my site was blocked because visiting it from a DoN computer might not sit well with the taxpayers, then every non-mil or non-gov site should be blocked as well as we can never predict what will piss off the almighty taxpayers. Seeing as how I’m a tax payer myself, I don’t mind.

Blocking it may not completely prevent me from exercising my free speech rights, but it greatly impedes it. What’s the point of speaking when there’s no one who can hear you? It can also be argued that free speech isn’t supported by the ship, because they’re preventing Sailors from posting comments, which honestly are the best part about this site. It would be a shitty site if I could just sit here and bitch without no one being able to counter anything I say…as you so nicely do!

That aside, I understand where you’re coming from…and they’re still tools.

First let me say that if in fact your site was blocked, I don’t agree with it. It would be interesting to know the reasoning why. Spider just says that it was forwarded so much that the attachment name was removed - he doesn’t say that some tool hated it so much they blocked it. It could be the case, who knows…get somebody when they’re having a bad day, and the next thing you know, websites blocked.
And let’s make it clear that I am totally unfamiliar these days with shipboard networks.

BUT - as far as I can see, Jim, your right to free speech has not been abridged. You’re still out there posting away.
Spider Matheson has free speech, and he’s on the Blue Ridge! Good heavens.

How I interpret the situation is, either everyone on the Blue Ridge downed tools to read your blog all at once and somebody had to take action; or,
everybody rushed to check out the website all at once, totally using up all bandwidth, and somebody had to take action; or,
somebody on the Blue Ridge didn’t like the content or tone of your blog and blocked it. Beats the hell out of me.

And here’s why while I don’t agree with the action, I support the principle, and I know nobody in the universe agrees with me so whatever:
I am assuming that people are accessing whatever they are accessing on the internet via Navy-supplied computers, or via a Navy-supplied network. Correct me if I’m wrong - if there is a commercial network available shipboard.
So I think the Navy supplied the means to check out your website…and any website.
The unfortunate thing about this is that the Navy is actually beholden to the civilian taxpayer for all this equipment and use thereof. When military or DoD employees use taxpayer-supplied equipment for accessing sites that may not support the goals of the military, it makes the military look bad. When civilians who pay the bills find this stuff out, the civilians who are paying the bills tend to wonder what’s up with that (some of them do, many don’t, but the ones that do get their Congressmen all involved). That’s why, for example, it’s not legal to look at porn sites on your DoD computer while you can peruse at will at home.
I am not trying to compare your blog with a porn site.
But here is where free access for everybody on any computer/network bumps up against, ‘hey, what happened to FEWL.net?’ Most stuff is under the radar and nobody’s the wiser, but it happens - people find out what is being accessed via DoD computers. So what do we do? Allow free access to everything and tell the public to fuck off? Good luck with that. So what next? Somebody decided we could block sites….it doesn’t mean there’s no free speech (hello, Jim? Spider? mmmmppphhh? I can’t understand you with that gag in your mouth… seriously, you’re still posting) it just means that people out on ships with no alternatives have to adjust to having tools decide what they can and can’t access. Sometimes the tools get it right, sometimes they get it wrong.