Net Neutrality:
The boom years in the economy were the 1990s. No surprise there. Those were also the years that might be described as the wild west years of the Internet and computer usage. Since the Clinton years, the focus has been on how to concentrate the wealth generated in those years into as few hands as possible.
Look at where this has taken us: more than 400,000 people are now unemployed, 80,000 added to the roles in just the past month alone. A 9 trillion dollar debt. A war that sucks 20 billion dollars a month out of the economy. Failing banks that have to be bailed out by governments. And food riots around the world.
Oh, yeah, there's the price of gasoline and heating fuel that's doubled as well, not to mention the fact that global warming and all the other environmental issues have failed to be addressed.
So what's the big deal about "net neutrality"? (Geeky terms are always so off putting.) For an explanation that's understandable by the average reader, see Damian Kulash's op-ed in today's New York Times. The Internet may not be the engine behind the economy, but it is the highway down which that engine runs. A handful of Internet providers not only want that highway to be a toll road, they want to determine what can travel down it and when as well.
Being an X Prez ain't such a bad thing:
Jimmie Carter became the leader the world always hoped he would be after suffering a humiliating loss in his second bid for the Oval Office to the wooden headed former second tier movie actor, Reagan, best known for mouthing empty platitudes (although you've got to give Ron credit on moving the world away from nuclear confrontation).
In the meantime, while most of the rest of America has seen the economy hurtle toward the 1930s, the Clintons have managed to rake in $109 million. That's not quite equal to the top tier of pro sports athletes, but it ain't bad for a guy who got caught with his pants down, so to speak. Naturally, some of that coin was hauled in by Bill's very significant other, but still, for a poor boy from Arkansas, it ain't exactly hay. (See The Washington Post story.)
The boom years in the economy were the 1990s. No surprise there. Those were also the years that might be described as the wild west years of the Internet and computer usage. Since the Clinton years, the focus has been on how to concentrate the wealth generated in those years into as few hands as possible.
Look at where this has taken us: more than 400,000 people are now unemployed, 80,000 added to the roles in just the past month alone. A 9 trillion dollar debt. A war that sucks 20 billion dollars a month out of the economy. Failing banks that have to be bailed out by governments. And food riots around the world.
Oh, yeah, there's the price of gasoline and heating fuel that's doubled as well, not to mention the fact that global warming and all the other environmental issues have failed to be addressed.
So what's the big deal about "net neutrality"? (Geeky terms are always so off putting.) For an explanation that's understandable by the average reader, see Damian Kulash's op-ed in today's New York Times. The Internet may not be the engine behind the economy, but it is the highway down which that engine runs. A handful of Internet providers not only want that highway to be a toll road, they want to determine what can travel down it and when as well.
Being an X Prez ain't such a bad thing:
Jimmie Carter became the leader the world always hoped he would be after suffering a humiliating loss in his second bid for the Oval Office to the wooden headed former second tier movie actor, Reagan, best known for mouthing empty platitudes (although you've got to give Ron credit on moving the world away from nuclear confrontation).
In the meantime, while most of the rest of America has seen the economy hurtle toward the 1930s, the Clintons have managed to rake in $109 million. That's not quite equal to the top tier of pro sports athletes, but it ain't bad for a guy who got caught with his pants down, so to speak. Naturally, some of that coin was hauled in by Bill's very significant other, but still, for a poor boy from Arkansas, it ain't exactly hay. (See The Washington Post story.)
Labels: International Politics, The Economy, The Internet
posted by Jim | 12:27 PM
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