Johanna Faust, a mixed race Jew, prefers to publish pseudonymously. She is committed: first, to preventing war, ecological disaster, and nuclear apocalypse; last to not only fighting for personal privacy & the freedom of information, but, by representing herself as a soldier in that fight, to exhorting others to do the same. She is a poet, always. All these efforts find representation here: "ah, Mephistophelis" is so named after the last line of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, whose heretical success flouted the censor for a time.

My Letter To Whoever Authorizes DNS Redirects (Sinkholes)


The Internet is dangerous.


Countermeasures are assumed to be the responsibility of the end-user. If offered, these are considered a value-added service by the ISP, and availability is driven by market forces; they are traditionally offered on a volunteer, or "opt-in," basis, and ISPs are under no legal obligation, as far as I know, to provide such services.


The Internet will be dangerous, or it isn't the internet. 


If one is really skydiving one must pack one's own parachute; if one is really surfing there may be a freak wave, or shark; a certain percentage of individuals crossing the street will meet with their demise at the wheels of an oncoming vehicle; a certain number of patients undergoing routine surgical procedures will never regain consciousness; healthy individuals in the prime of their lives, described with terms like 'optimistic' 'enthusiastic' or cheerful' by those few last known to encounter them, have nonetheless been found suddenly, inexplicably, incomprehensibly dead; and not every jetliner forced to attempt an emergency water landing will be lucky enough to have the legendary Chesley Sullenberger for a pilot.


The web-page I requested contains neither spoofed pages (phishing) nor code that seeks to infect or control my computer or my files (malware); this may, however, not be as easily able to be said of "you," whoever "you" are, since a) you appear to have created a page which is being given to me in lieu of the page in which, it seems, we both share a rather keen interest; and b) not only have you, at least for now, succeeded in preventing me from surfing according to my own will, but also c) it appears that the button enabling me to "opt out" of this 'protective' service is missing entirely, having been replaced by a cryptic, rather ominous assertion -- more warning, or threat, really, than helpful pointer -- concerning the close interconnectedness between my desire for un-'filtered' content and my relationship to my sweet, honest, forthright ISP, a tone which my many positive experiences to date would leave me hoping is uncharacteristic and unwarranted.


The internet has to be dangerous -- if it is really the Internet, the real Internet, and not just a walled garden, infomercial, shopping network, reality tv, photo album, fancy telephone, ankle-bracelet, or screen-saver.


‘Free' and 'open' are not fungible, nor negotiable.


Please contact me below, if you would, to confirm receipt of this communication; you are welcome to comment or reply.



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