Who will control your internet access? - important
Sep.26, 2007 in
America
Here’s something every internet user needs to be aware of.
Please take this seriously, and get involved by visiting this site, signup for updates, let other people know, and most importantly, tell your congressional representatives (and other congressional leaders) exactly how you feel and how you expect them to vote on this issue.
Get involved, thanks.
Mark Hendricks
September 27th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Mark, thank you for keeping us informed and encouraging our action.
Keep up the excellent work.
Paul
September 30th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Sounds like it’s time to pack your bags, turn out the lights, shut the door and move to Australia, leaving Amerika to the fascists currently running it into the ground.
Or shake off your lethargy, wake up and see what’s being done in the name of democracy (really “government of the people, by the lobbyists, for the vested interests”) and start fighting for freedom, at last.
October 1st, 2007 at 1:17 am
Are you sure this isn’t a hoax or a joke? I have been using Verizon’s DSL service for years with zero problems and no censorship of any kind. This sounds to me like a bunch of alarmists jumping to a false conclusion. “The sky is falling!”
To John…
Don’t believe all of the anti-American propaganda that is being spread by the enemies of the USA. Unfortunately, even some liberal moronic Americans fall for all of the b.s. too. The USA is the greatest country in the world and I can’t imagine living anywhere else. Yes, I have traveled around the world. Some of my work has even been published in Australia and I have clients there. Nice place to visit, but I’ll stay right here; thanks anyway.
October 1st, 2007 at 3:18 am
Thanks for the viral marketing messages wrapped around controversial topics, Mark. It fuels my passion about other things more important than merely focusing on making money.
I’m all for free speech; but I also believe this:
“more government = less freedom”
With the government’s help we have allowed these telecom companies to assume monopoly property rights in exchange for them investing in the physical infrastructure which makes such widespread internet use possible.
So, right from the start, we’ve allowed our government to bed down with the devil known as the big ISP service providers.
Now we see that this devil and another devil, the big content providers, want to rob us of even more freedom - they want our representatives in government to interfere again in the free market… in order to settle a property rights dispute in favor of one devil or the other.
These competing interests slugging it out in the public square are both part of the same corporatist (Fascist dictatorship) government we need to overthrow, people!
All corporations naturally have monopolistic tendencies. Such is their design. As their power and reach extends into the hallways and back rooms of our representative/check-and- balance system on Capitol Hill, and then effectively breech the sanctity of an illusory free market capitalistic system, we begin the stampede towards socialism and totalitarianism - what many of us derisively call the New World Order.
[Fascism begets socialism when the dictatorship must appease the sheeple… to graze peacefully… under their shepherding… of the socio-political economy… which perpetuates the system’s very existence. When multi-nationalist corporatist states form alliances with other similar nation-states, the rights of the lone individual are relegated to meaninglessness – thus creating a supra-state… once called one-world totalitarianism… but today, in classic examples of Orwellian double-speak (“death tax”, “no child left behind”, “Federal Reserve”), is called by such names as GATT, WTO, UN, CFR, IMF, NAFTA, CAFTA… do we HAFTA?... FED… OIL… I mean “Liberation”… IRS… and all the rest… until these same freedom-robbing traitors to our Constitutional Republic stop using the term “New World Order” altogether.]
So how can this be? We only want what we want… and we want it now… right?
Well, not so fast.
Corporatism is what has all but replaced our Constitutional Republic. It represents the perfect storm of the big shots in finance and private industry bedded down with the big shots in government - all claiming to represent our best interests in a free society.
So tell me who actually represents YOU… and your supposed right… to your own personal liberty?
“I take my marching orders from the Constitution.” – Ron Paul
You say you want choice and freedom too?
What choices do you have by using a PC as compared to using a Mac?
What choice of service providers do you have from where you sit right now?
For that matter, what choices do you have to represent your views in government?
The choices we’ve been given… in all honesty… are only choices which extended the “invisible hand” of corporatist big government into our private lives - once again, this unholy alliance has interfered in the free market… of choices and ideas… unfettered by healthy competition.
So our so-called choices – and our access to those choices – have been severely lessened before we ever begin this discussion.
Therefore, I say let the free market decide what it wants to decide - then let’s, you and I, decide what to do based on that.
History has shown that monopolies have usually arisen BECAUSE of coercive government intervention…
… Which is why we must not let this fraud continue… and feed the beast of corporatism any longer.
Your choice is simple… and stark. Don’t be fooled into letting more government regulation rob you of what has already been proven to be a great equalizer in the world of commerce - your equal access to the same pipelines as all the other big shots.
And don’t worry. If you want more and better choices for how you currently use the internet, and you ally yourself with a particular thirsty target market audience, some enterprising soul - even if it has all the soul of a corporate entity - will come along and offer you a new flavor of Kool-Aid to quench your thirst.
Of this you can be certain.
Ron Paul’s comments related to this matter are instructive:
“Capitalism should not be condemned, since we haven’t had capitalism. A system of capitalism presumes sound money, not fiat money manipulated by a central bank. Capitalism cherishes voluntary contracts and interest rates that are determined by savings, not credit creation by a central bank. It’s not capitalism when the system is plagued with incomprehensible rules regarding mergers, acquisitions, and stock sales, along with wage controls, price controls, protectionism, corporate subsidies, international management of trade, complex and punishing corporate taxes, privileged government contracts to the military-industrial complex, and a foreign policy controlled by corporate interests and overseas investments. Add to this centralized federal mismanagement of farming, education, medicine, insurance, banking and welfare. This is not capitalism!”
“America was founded by men who understood that the threat of domestic tyranny is as great as any threat from abroad. If we want to be worthy of their legacy, we must resist the rush toward ever-increasing state control of our society. Otherwise, our own government will become a greater threat to our freedoms than any foreign terrorist.”
“Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.”
I, for one, refuse to cede my freedom of choice to a corrupt institution that simply does NOT have my best interests in mind.
Of course, you have a right to your own schemes and dreams.
You have a right to your own brand and your own flavor of what we unthinkingly just call Kool-Aid nowadays.
But I’m sticking to the foul-tasting tap water until such time as I can buy my own clear mountain stream.
Just because someone’s been handed a megaphone doesn’t mean you have to listen. Without the internet in the form we currently have it… some important viewpoints might be excluded… even as you would permit yourself to be forced to sign on to new pricing schemes by monopolistic corporations enabled by more intrusive government.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFjM1ZzZSE8&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c76yeqQY2ms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFFqANVvTV4
http://www.mises.org/story/2139
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/que1.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=126573135247238127&q=hardfire+garrin&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFurcOLYAjk
October 1st, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Although I have not experienced any obvious censorship yet… the fact that I cannot mail from my own hosting service indicates that the privilege of censorship is still held by the Telecom service providing the link to my host.
Think… if every communication I send out has to pass through their avenues BEFORE it is forwarded to its ultimate destination what purpose does that restriction serve?
Layard
October 6th, 2007 at 12:59 am
I actually hadn’t heard about this before and it’s quite upsetting. Isn’t that the sort of thing they do in Communist countries? I believe I heard they do that in China, at least on some of the bigger search engines, like Google. I mean, if they’re attempting to “legislate morality”, well that can’t be done, it’s been tried before.