I'm probably setting myself up for some problems here, but hey - I have this self-destructive tendency to speak my mind.

A little while ago, a friend of mine had her homepage hacked. Some guy (we think) decided that he'd be all macho and whatever and go do this thing over a difference of opinion. I suppose this is just another case of the strong minded talking out differences and the weak minded resorting to terrorism. Go figure.

The person [my friend] in question is the quiet sort - shy and whatnot. Mostly timid and completely harmless. And of course, we all know that people like that may as well paint large targets on their heads screaming 'FUCK WITH ME!!'. No one can be generally decent these days.

Because of this action, my friend took down their page - which was probably the desired result of the attack. So basically, what we have here is just another form of censorship - its funny how the people who want to be heard so badly can't stand to listen to what anyone else has to say. Complete and utter hypocrisy. And the sad thing is that they're probably so busy patting themselves on the back that they don't even realize it.

No, that's probably wrong - they probably realize exactly what they've done (or tried to do), and don't care. How absolutely typical.

So what do I really hope to accomplish here?

I don't really know. In the most perfect of all possible worlds, the hacker responsible will red this, think about what they'd done, and turn over a new leaf.

But I'm not quite that stupid - of naive. If the person in question ever read this, they'd probably wind up hacking my site too. Maybe I'd get lucky, and they'd fix all the damn spelling and grammatical errors here while they're at it. Sure, that'd be nice.

What will happen though, is that the person will never read this - and why should they? They don't know who I am, really - as far as they're concerned, I don't even exist. Either that or every hacker that runs through here will assume I'm talking about them and take what they feel are appropriate measures. Or they'll just peg me as a whining looser and leave me alone - I'm obviously beneath their notice. Either way, I'm not saying what they want to hear, so whatever they do, it'll be with both fingers in their ears screaming 'LALALALALA I AM NOT LISTENING TO JEFFERY!!'.

How very mature.

I was reading a bit back about some hackers desecrating some government page - I think it was either the US Congress or FBI. At the time, I thought it was kinda amusing. You know, the whole 'We have a message we want heard, and we'll use whatever means to get it through!' kind of thing.

I don't know how I really feel about it now.

Do these people deserve to be heard? Of course - EVERYONE deserves to be heard.

But do they have the right to come into someone's virtual backyard to say it? Well, no. Do we put up with the Ku Klux Klan burning crosses on the properties of the people they hate? No. Is there a difference? No. No matter what the statement, or the reasons behind them, terrorism is still terrorism - there's no sugarcoating it.

In this way, hacking is really no better than any other terrorist group. Who gives anyone the right to play God with other people's lives and property? Protest is one thing, but iconoclastic reactions aren't much more than a temper tantrum - it's irresponsible and unintelligent.

I guess what I'm preaching here is respect.

Most people don't even have a clue what that means. Sure, its a word in the dictionary, and we think its something we want for ourselves, but we fail to recognize that its a proverbial two way street. To be respected, one has to respect others.

Of course, its also been said that fear is a better reaction to invoke than love or respect. And anyone who really thinks this is true is a moron.

Consider - most people in a situation that finds them in direct confrontation with a thing or person or group of persons they fear is to lash out blindly. Therefore destroying the source of their anxiety before it can hurt them.

The other end of this is the condemning of people who feel they have to destroy to get their point across. In my honest opinion, I can't tell the difference between this sort of behavior and that of a three-year-old.

Oh well, I suppose it does serve the purpose of weeding out those of us with intelligence and those of us without.

End of speech.