Tango and Cash

Earmuffs will change your world! They did mine!
Those are my new earmuffs! Aren't they cute?  Or do they look like I have grey mutton chops like Martin Van Buren? Those muffs are a life changer!  But is life going to change on the information superhighway?  I already had one life change today, don't need another.

Today, only one day after Wikipedia and Reddit went dark in protest of the proposed PIPA (Protect IP Act) and SOPA (Stop Piracy Act) legislation, the DOJ took down the MegaUpload site (on grounds of copyright infringement) and then Anonymous took responsibility for taking down RIAA, Universal Music, Justice.org, and MPAA sites. Today was also the first day that I had ever heard the term "Tango down" in terms of taking down a website for a temporary time period. I had only heard of MegaUpload last week. What the hell is happening?  Although the SOPA and PIPA legislation was supposedly introduced as a protection for copywritten material, there is a sense that these bills will open the door to internet censorship and jeopardize the freedom we enjoy on the internet today.  

It has been easy for us to take this little thing called the internet for granted for a long while now.  Although I am not one that has an undying fear of tying ourselves to our gadgets (wait perhaps that's not true),  I would be a fool to not notice how every second of our existence is usually tied to the web- be it through our phones or computers.  Look at me now.  After a day at work in front of a screen, I am sitting here in front of a screen eager to communicate with you.  

Our finances, maps, movies, restaurants, emails, music, and friends all come to us straight through little boxes and screens.  It's a struggle right?  In one sense the need to attach ourselves cannot be good for our physical or mental health while we sit hunched over a keyboard looking at a screen.  At the other end,  we are conflicted because the ease and freedom with which we have to gain such entertaining, amusing, necessary, and complex information gives us our greatest ability to communicate and learn on a daily basis. With the world wide web, we have our most popular and useful venue for us to openly and abundantly communicate/gab.

So who knows where the web will go in the next decade?  For now, we can help to keep this communication open and free between us all.  Here is a letter from Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon suggesting we all get involved in this next phase of the fight.  I am a big fan of Senator Wyden's for many reasons.  One of which is my sister worked for him for years in the Senate, and consistently told me of his intelligence, wit, and courage.  
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-ron-wyden/my-letter-to-the-internet_b_1214553.html

I hope not to be bumming you out with all this, just checking in and hoping you too are making your voice be heard.  Here is a video to keep you laughing through all of this.
My friend John Roberts just posted it and he makes me laugh so there.

Shit Jodi Says After Her High School Reunion




Leave a comment