Workplace Nannyism

The firewall where I work is a shriveled old school marm.

I'm sure of it.

A local sporting goods retailer was advertising a drawing to give away a Ruger Hawkeye rifle. Having never heard of that particular model, I thought I'd look it up on the internet.

I typed "Ruger Hawkeye" into Google and a whole bunch of sites came up with the manufacturer leading the list. So I clicked on Ruger's website and this was the result:

SonicWALL Network Security Appliance

Alert

This site has been blocked by the network administrator.

URL: http://www.ruger.com/products/m77Hawkeye/index.htm...

Block reason: Forbidden Category "Weapons"

Trying other sites yielded the same result.

I understand blocking sites that encourage illicit and pornographic activities - people shouldn't be perusing those at work. But last time I checked, owning weapons is not illegal.

However, the firewall has deemed them as "forbidden."

I can imagine a prim school marm sitting in front of me shaking her head, saying, "You can't go to that site."

Then with a smug look on her face, she would lean forward and whisper in a conspiratorial tone, "They sell weapons."

I've talked with our network administrator about sites getting blocked. He's a friend of mine. He told me that he hasn't added any filters to the firewall, that what it's blocking is by factory default.

That school marm doesn't much care for games either, apparently.

It will block game sites, and I'm not referring to gaming/gambling sites. I mean sites that have online crossword puzzles, sudoku or the like.

I think she needs to get out of the closet and go find a life.