Net Neutrality as Family Values

I’ve been advocating for Network Neutrality for a long time on this blog. In past posts I’ve gushed about how the issue has brought completely disparate groups of people and organizations together to fight for a common cause. One example of two groups that find themselves in the odd position of working together for a common cause for once is über-liberal MoveOn Org and the ultra conservative Christian Coalition.

These two groups normally find themselves butting heads politically, but the need for the Network Neutrality legislation to keep the Internet the neutral territory that it currently is has become one that touches both sides of the fence in equal measure. Both groups (and many others like them that find themselves working together for once) are deeply involved in the fight to keep the big telecom companies from being able to restrict the Internet’s flow of information, speed and access to the public.

From this article in InformationWeek, the Christian coalition speaks out this week on how they hope to help in the fight for Network Neutrality. They are hoping to draw attention to how Network Neutrality helps their supporters and people like them, and have included such talking points as equating Network Neutrality with other issues important to the traditional family. It’s an unusual stance, and it serves to clearly outline that Network Neutrality is a universal issue – liberal or conservative, religious or apathetic, old or young, big business or small start up. Everyone needs to fight for Network Neutrality.

Combs’ traditionally conservative group weighed in on the same side of the issue as MoveOn.org Civic Action, a liberal grassroots group.

“We believe that net neutrality is a true family issue,” she said. “We believe that it will affect millions of families around the country. Most of our state chairmen have Web sites, and most of our churches have Web sites. Most churches rely on the Internet — some even have sermons on the Internet now.”

To read more of my past articles on Network Neutrality click here.

To see the full list of organizations and power players that are finding it possible to get along for a common cause, click here.

Tags: Network Neutrality

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10 Easy Steps

A friend of mine forwarded this article to me, and it blew my mind. I can’t even think what to write about it, so I’ll make do with a quote or two from the article itself, and urge you to read it on your own. Really. Go. Read it. It’s frightening, and it rings true. Read it here.

Because Americans like me were born in freedom, we have a hard time even considering that it is possible for us to become as unfree – domestically – as many other nations. Because we no longer learn much about our rights or our system of government – the task of being aware of the constitution has been outsourced from citizens’ ownership to being the domain of professionals such as lawyers and professors – we scarcely recognise the checks and balances that the founders put in place, even as they are being systematically dismantled. Because we don’t learn much about European history, the setting up of a department of “homeland” security – remember who else was keen on the word “homeland” – didn’t raise the alarm bells it might have.

Further down in the article, we read:

Even as Americans were focused on Britney Spears’s meltdown and the question of who fathered Anna Nicole’s baby, the New York Times editorialised about this shift: “A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night … Beyond actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or any ‘other condition’.”

Again, I urge you to read this article. Print it out. Above all else we need to pay attention now more than ever.

Tags: when does democracy become dictatorship homeland security patriot act bush

Dynamic Duo Down To One

Well, it’s been a sad week since Sugar died, only made more difficult by the fact that honey is gone all week and my allergies and a cold from last week turned into a raging sinus infection, complete with antibiotics – fun, fun, fun. I don’t get sick as a rule, but karma must have decided the last four months were my time for accidents and illness. Bah Humbug. Hopefully I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled iron constitution soon.

Anyway, since I’ve been under the weather, Harley and I have basically been smushing on the couch together like a couple of lazy-heads. He makes an excellent footrest. He still misses his sister (as do the cats), but he isn’t wandering the house looking for her any more. He is also discovering that he is now the sole recipient of treats and attention, which I get the feeling he may come to like – he’s always been a sponge.

I’m off to write for my clients today since I am no longer seeing double from a 102 degree fever. I’ll leave you with a picture of Harley the love sponge:

RIP Sugar 1996 – 2007

Today honey took Sugar, one of our Rottweilers, in for what we thought was a regular visit for vaccinations and to check for Lyme disease because she’d been limping a little. It turns out she was riddled with cancer, and honey just called to tell me they have to put her down. Apparently, my little trooper has been in incredible pain for quite a while, and has been happy to see us and play with us anyway.

I can’t believe it, I just can’t. I am so incredibly sad right now. It’s going to be a very long, hard week next week. Honey will be out of town, and it will just be me and Sugar’s brother, Harley, who has been circling the house trying to find his sister all morning.

Wheeeee!

The sun is out! The birds are chirping! The rain and weird April snow has stopped!

Wheeeeee!

That is all. You may now resume your regularly scheduled Saturday.

General Malaise

Due to a general feeling of malaise (and some actual health issues I had to deal with) I have been slacking. I just realized I haven’t posted here all week. I’ve had just about enough time and energy to write for my clients, with not much left over for the blog. How could I have been so remiss? I’ll try and catch up with work and get some rest so I can post here regularly again. Meanwhile, have a great weekend!

In Like a Lion, In Again Like A Wet Blanket

Last weekend was a lovely Spring weekend. Birds were singing, the sun was out, it was creeping up in temperature, all but the smallest bits of snow and ice had melted… I was so happy.

Then came yesterday. I went to bed to snow in April, thinking “It can’t stick. It’s weird enough it is snowing now, but it is baseball season, and Spring, dammit, and it can’t stick… can it?”

As it turns out, yes it can. I woke up this morning to power outages everywhere caused by the incredibly heavy mush-like wet snow (including my house – hence my mysterious absence online until now) and this view:

All of those trees were formerly upright, people. Most of the trees in our yard were bent in half like that from the weight of the snow. It was spooky. We were in a house surrounded by formerly majestic trees caved in around us like bars in a cell. Trees that once towered over the house were now somehow bent double, touching the ground as if in supplication to the capriciousness that is New England. Only a few broke, surprisingly enough – the ones not able to bend because of several seasons of flood times and drought times and other weird weather. Is this the prelude to global warming?

Now Listening: The Cure Standing On A Beach

Tags: spring snow

The Joys Of Rediscovery

I belong to many web sites, but one of my perennial favorites is EA – there is always a good discussion going on about something. When you can get a group of people together to talk about everything from spam to medical issues to politics and religion with no verbal bloodshed, it’s nice. Not a lot of flame wars there.

Anyway, I posted a bunch of Monty Python skit clips from YouTube there today in response to thread (“Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition”, “Spam” and the one below), and then proceeded to drown myself in Monty Python clips for a while longer on You Tube – a little walk down memory lane. That made me go looking for more videos from my youth that I’d forgotten about. It’s amazing how far you can travel from what you enjoyed in the past, often just because you are too busy to seek it out. Without further ado, I bring you a few selections from my wayward youth:

Episode 27 Monty Python Flying Circus (Mrs Premise and Mrs Conclusion Bury a Cat and visit Sartre)

Episode 4, Season 2 The Young Ones (Time Intro/Vyvyan Has A Hangover)

The rest of the Young Ones episode: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

We Wanted Our MTV

We All Cut School To Watch This, The first Video Shown On MTV

I watched MacGuyver religiously, though my parents were into Dallas, Falcon Crest and the rest of the evening soaps that were so popular then.

MacGuyver’s Coffin Escape Scene

What else was on in my 80s teen years?

The Dukes of Hazard, The A Team, Scarecrow and Mrs King, Simon and Simon, KnightRider, Magnum PI, Cheers, Growing Pains, The Cosby Show, a bunch of cartoons like Josie and the Pussycats, Thundercats, and more (yes, I did watch too much TV, as a matter of fact). The list is so long I can’t even take the time to find all of the clips online, much less list all of the shows here. It’s a wonder I ever left the house!

How about you? What did you watch? Did you have a favorite, couldn’t-miss-an-episode show? What was it? Tell me in the comments below!

Now Listening: 80s Mix in Honor of Original MTV, before the days of craptastic “game shows” and “pseudo-reality shows” took over and kicked off videos.

Tags: 80s American television music videos mtv British comedy monty python young ones

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