I invite you to relax.
Anyone who believes the federal government can "take control" of the worldwide web is at least a decade out of touch with how the WWW operates.
There was a day when such a takeover might be possible. But it passed at least a dozen years ago in North America and it's since become virtually impossible in most all of the Western world.
Anyone who believes the federal government can "take control" of the worldwide web is at least a decade out of touch with how the WWW operates.
There was a day when such a takeover might be possible. But it passed at least a dozen years ago in North America and it's since become virtually impossible in most all of the Western world.
Now mind you, there are likely any number of federally elected officials and related staff who might honestly think such a takeover is possible. And therefore they might well promote such a notion as a viable response to (fill in the blank).
And for those folks, it's not the first time nor likely the last that they will demonstrate their ignorance of how the WWW operates in the year 2009 and onward.
And for those folks, it's not the first time nor likely the last that they will demonstrate their ignorance of how the WWW operates in the year 2009 and onward.
Look man. We as a nation can not function properly unless the government controls all aspects of our lives. Why can't you understand that?
The government runs Medicare, the Post Office, Amtrak. Now they want to run some form of Health Care System and General Motors. Perhaps they will sprinkle in a few banks a long the way. Why can't you see this as a good thing?
Medicare is fucking broke. The Post Office is fucking broke. Amtrak is fucking broke. What's a few more trillion? Get in line and get on board. Maybe they will lower my monthly fee for high speed internets. I'm cool with that.
barmod if you think the gov cant turn off internet access, think again. unless you have a dsl line that runs from your backyard to cuba, how are you going to get on the net when the gov shuts down the cable and phone companies access? damn, south park coming true.
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Of course I don't like it.
What I'm insisting is that "they" can order whatever they wish. However, what they can actually do - ie, "Take control of the internet" - is a fiction and no one need get unduly concerned about fictions.
The WWW is not controlled by governments.
It is controlled by the Users.
The smarter ones just wisely don't make too big an issue about it.....heh
Perhaps it would be more precisely worded if I said, "Won't" instead of "can't"
The government won't shut down cable and phone company access because then they are shutting themselves down. And in such a case they're also shutting down virtually the entire commercial infrastructure of North America.
This thread is hardly the first time I, or any of you have raised this here boogeyman theme.
I can recall seeing this Topic at least as far back as early 2002.
But then it wasn't "Obama". It was "Bush" or "Cheney".
"First they will shut down the internet and the phone systems! Then They will declare martial law and anyone on the streets will be shot and killed on sight! Then They will send through the trucks and buses and being relocating right-thinking Americans to FEMA camps where They will then begin the extermination programs!"
oy vey
We all have numerous valid concerns and interests regarding what the federal government might do in coming months and years.
Worrying that They will shut down the communications infrastructure of North America is not just absurd. It's preposterous and utterly self-defeating that the feds might even consider it.
War mongering Republicans invented the internet at the Pentagon...True Dat.
And you libs think you don't get anything for your defense spending.
:cripwalk:
barbanman's defense of mama obama is pretty consistent, gotta give him credit for that one.
Now he doesn't usually defend the dipshit's policies or words, he usually says something like "don't worry, the retard in chief can't do that, he's just talking without thinking again"
I kinda concur with this type of argument most of the time.
Well, not to reset what I already wrote, but hey - why not?
There's no doubt that both the current administration and the former GW Bush admin both had lots of people who conceptually imagined the government being able to "take control" of the worldwide web.
So they would (and maybe still will) try and craft legislation that responds to the arm of their constituency who is saying, "We need more security! We need to have CONTROL!"
We'll note that in last term of Clinton and into Bush admin that the most visible proponents of such legislation were the FBI and CIA.
And now in 2009 it would seem that perhaps they're still a part of that, along with various arms of DHS.
No one likes to deliver disappointing news. So when challenged by non-tech minded elected officials to devise a plan to "take control of the WWW in case of severe national emergency", I've no doubt that many of the tech brains inside the Beltway play along and present various scenarios where it could be done.
What they don't include is that such a "takeover" could only be correlated with a complete shutdown of the domestic phone system and the internet communication abilities of most local governments and the bulk of most state governments.
As to that specific observation from Willie above, it's not an unfair assessment of how I personally respond to most of what comes out of Washington DC - especially in the past decade or more.
Americans of most all political stripes spend a whole lot of time, money and emotion calling, writing, faxing and otherwise browbeating their federally elected reps to "FIX THIS or FIX THAT" supposed problem within their communities.
And the last thing those federal reps can do is honestly respond and tell the plaintiffs, "Well, we'd like to help you. But frankly, there's really not much we can do from Washington DC that's going to change what you're seeing on the ground in Hartford/Clearwater/Dallas/Colorado etc"
So they huff and they puff and they promise and they reassure.....
Leading us back to what I maintain is one of the smartest life strategies we can all employ - that of building our lives and our business plans for the future with an eye on Washington not being a part of either. At least any more than they can forcibly do to the point of causing us real inconvenience. Things like the IRS being able to jack us up if we were to try and totally avoid income taxes, for example. But also realizing that there are a variety of creative and fairly easy to implement ways to build a life and business without the IRS being involved.
