Teh Fluffy Kittez - 1 Forces Of Authoritarian Darkness - 0

These are dark days for those who love the Enlightenment. If you, like me, consider that objectivity, empiricism, individual freedom and scepticism towards superstition and the emotive justification of power have created a much better world than that which went before, it is disheartening to see so much credence and trust being ceded to those who feel otherwise.

Now and again, there is a spark of joy. I felt just such a spark when reading the definitive account of what happened when the Pakistani government managed to disconnect YouTube from the Web last Sunday. Take a moment to click on that link, and if you've got the bandwidth download the high resolution MP4 that's mentioned. This shows graphically how the attack happened, and how quickly and firmly it was put right.

There are some solid lessons here. I don't believe the official reason given by the Pakistani authorities for banning YouTube - that it contained material offensive to Islam. Like the Motoons, Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction and the War of Jenkins' Ear, the balance of probabilities suggests opportunistic amplification of otherwise insignificant events by people with other agendas.

YouTube has many, many offensive things on it - and the item that was the cause c