So I'm staying at the Austin Arboretum Embassy Suites and when I tried to access collegehumor.com on my in-room internet access (daily charge $9.95) I get a message that says:

"Access Denied: The requested page is currently unavailable. Due to the nature of the content on this website your request has been blocked by the Embassy Suites Austin Arboretum."

Lo and behold, after speaking to the manager of the hotel today, I found out that the brother of one of the franchise owners is a strongly right-wing christian, apparently of the fascist Jerry Falwell/Pat Robertson ilk, and thus the franchisee has banned sites that have "content of a sexual nature." If they had disclosed this before I checked in (i.e. when I asked if they have in-room net access) I would have gone elsewhere. Now I'm here and basically stuck.

So, sites like collegehumor.com and uselessjunk.com - which I would argue are more R-rated than obscene, but that's besides the point - are disallowed. But fortunately (warning: sarcasm) I can still use the hotel's internet to access all of my favorite muslim sites encouraging terrorism, sites that allow illegal downloading of copy-righted music and movies, and even (gasp!) Pat Robertson's video endorsing assassination of the president of Venezuela. Those sorts of sites are apparently approved of by the hotel censor. But heaven forbid that I should look at a picture of a woman's breast!

I started a thread on this under the Hilton forum (cause I am at an embassy suites). The cross-ref for that thread is http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=467019

This hotel (AUS arboretum emb suites) is run by Remington Hotels. Patrickatx was kind enough to find a list of the group's other hotels and they include many non-Hilton properties as well (Marriott and SPG). http://www.remingtonhotels.com/locations.html

I am boycotting all of their hotel sites and I encourage you to do the same! This hotel chain is one small step away from prohibiting all kinds of private behavior in their hotel rooms. What's to stop them from interdicting guests on the way to a room to make sure they're not about to engage in adultery, or asking to search your luggage so they can make sure you're not carry any sexual devices?