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Rights...grumble...grumble...

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aequalsa

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Every day I feel more and more guilt over every dollar I make, when I realize that there are some children in the world who still have to use dial-up. While one child has to use dial-up...no one is truly free. can we start an organization to stop this atrocity from continuing?

“It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption,” Mr. Obama said. “Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/us/polit...&ei=5087%0A

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More children online = more excuses for censoring the internet.

I didn't have any experience with internet access until I was in college and I fail to see how it was a problem. It just meant I couldn't download and print out my reports on penguins and Uruguay ready-made, I had to go to the library and copy them out of the encyclopedia by hand. ^_^

I was so freakin' deprived.

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“Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online.”

I actually agree with this statement. Every child should have the opportunity to get online, just not a government backed assurance. Every child in the US DOES have an opportunity to go online without the government getting into the picture. I dont think Obama really understand what opportunity means.

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Everyone has a right to the internet?

What luxury should we gain a right to next? Everyone has the right to a 16oz. Porterhouse w/ a good micro-brew IPA every Thursday night?

This is more ridiculous than most of the things I've heard in the last week, and I've even been reading the news.

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Everyone has a right to the internet?

What luxury should we gain a right to next? Everyone has the right to a 16oz. Porterhouse w/ a good micro-brew IPA every Thursday night?

No, of course not.

Everyone will gain the right to the content of the various websites? I mean, what's the good of giving lil' Johny broadband access if all he can do is look at the goodies locked in there, which he can't have because he can't afford them?

So next all iTunes, NFL.com and amazon.com content, among others, will have to be free for all the poor little boys and girls we've given internet access to.

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No, of course not.

Everyone will gain the right to the content of the various websites? I mean, what's the good of giving lil' Johny broadband access if all he can do is look at the goodies locked in there, which he can't have because he can't afford them?

So next all iTunes, NFL.com and amazon.com content, among others, will have to be free for all the poor little boys and girls we've given internet access to.

You have a good point, but as lil' Johnny broadband grows up, I'm sure he would appreciate Steve's legislation a little more...

But in all honesty, someone needs to help the politicians in this country a little. I'm not sure if their thesauruses are faulty or if their mothers never bought them dictionaries, but rights and luxuries aren't the same thing. Maybe we could make ownership of a dictionary and a copy of the constitution a prerequisite for political office?

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But in all honesty, someone needs to help the politicians in this country a little. I'm not sure if their thesauruses are faulty or if their mothers never bought them dictionaries, but rights and luxuries aren't the same thing.

There's a joke about why a prominent astrophycisist can't figure out his taxes while his accountant can do so. "Because," the scientist explains,"my accountant owns a book called 'The Compleat Dictionary of Paradox, Confusion and Incoherence'.'"

Politicians have their own dictionaries. In politics a right is something the government can give you in order to gather more votes. If they try to give you what you already have, you won't appreciate it as much and may vote for someone else. So anything you don't have is a "right" to which you're entitled.

But no cheating! Don't offer people something they'd really like to ahve, like lower taxes and a simlpe tax code. That will amke them that much more independent of the government.

Maybe we could make ownership of a dictionary and a copy of the constitution a prerequisite for political office?

I'd settle for a true/false test with one question:

1) There is a "General Welfare" clause in the US Constitution:

True____ False____

That would be plenty.

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The logical conclusion of this sort of thinking is, everyone has a right to get laid.

One of Miss Rand's essays (I don't have my stuff at hand so I can't check which) noted that you've been pre-empted by 40+ years. She wrote (in a disgusted tone) about how someone waxed poetic about in the future people will have legally recognised rights to good orgasms and the like, which was a conclusion of a certain line of thought regarding the proliferation of bogus rights.

JJM

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That sounds like a call for volunteers to assist!

Ladies, please line up and wait your turn. I'm sure the staff shortage problem will be resolved soon. We apologise for the delay, and thank you for your cooperation.

JJM

And on the flipside, gentlemen, start your engines and form a shoulder-to-shoulder row against the back wall... LOL

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“Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online.”

"The only thing we have to fear, is accessing our porn at rates slower than 3 gigabytes per second."

Hmm, we invented cars, but we don't give every child a free car now do we? Oh, wait that's what you're trying to get passed right now isn't it.

That sounds like a call for volunteers to assist!

Ladies, please line up and wait your turn. I'm sure the staff shortage problem will be resolved soon. We apologise for the delay, and thank you for your cooperation.

JJM

Really guys, really?

sigh

Well, if you can't beat'em, join'em.

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The FCC’s Plan to Censor the Internet

December 12, 2008

Washington, D.C.--The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to auction off a portion of the airwaves for Internet use. Under the terms of the auction, the winning bidder would be forced to use a quarter of the auctioned spectrum to provide free wireless Internet service to all Americans.

“If you think free Internet access under this plan would be a good thing, think again,” said Don Watkins, a writer for the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. “This ‘free’ access comes at the price of giving government unprecedented control over the Internet.

“Since no ISP can compete with free, omnipresent Internet access, this plan means that virtually all online users will be herded into the government-controlled Internet. And as the history of radio and television has shown, once the government guarantees ‘free’ access to a communications medium, it will inevitably exercise control over its content--i.e., censorship.

“In fact, this plan already comes with censorship strings attached; the FCC has declared that this ‘free’ Internet must filter out pornography and other material deemed unsuitable for children. Not only will this prevent vast numbers of Americans from accessing content the government regards as inappropriate, but it will unavoidably lead to massive self-censorship by websites struggling to avoid government sanitization.

“The FCC should auction off these airwaves without preconditions--not use the prospect of ‘free’ wireless access to lure us into accepting an online censorship regime.”

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The FCC’s Plan to Censor the Internet

December 12, 2008

Washington, D.C.--The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to auction off a portion of the airwaves for Internet use. Under the terms of the auction, the winning bidder would be forced to use a quarter of the auctioned spectrum to provide free wireless Internet service to all Americans.

How many people are going to loose their jobs because someone in government decided that there should be free broadband?

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How many people are going to loose their jobs because someone in government decided that there should be free broadband?

Not as many as realize that "free government broadband" won't ever be free or remain very broad for long.

And if there's going to be free broadband, then why not free telephone service and satellite TV? What is the difference in principle?

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Rotflmao... Can I use that sometime?

I don't know exactly where I heard it, but it stuck with me thereafter.

It's definitely in the public domain, so feel free to use it where appropriate or not.

If you like that one, you might like Ice-T's cheery little ditty:

Ok, the Youtube video titled Shut Up, Be Happy. (url is being altered by OO.net droid)

Stay Focused,

<*>aj

Edited by aristotlejones
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And if there's going to be free broadband, then why not free telephone service and satellite TV? What is the difference in principle?

Because of the existence of Skype, and whatever competing equivalents may arise, none - not only in principle but in concrete fact, too.

JJM

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