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Internet must remain uncensored

March 25, 2014 4:44 am / Leave a comment

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Earlier this month U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced  that it was giving up oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN  as it is known. ICANN is a US non-profit created in 1998 with the purpose of managing the internet’s Domain Name System or DNS. The company also has been responsible for managing top tier domain names like .com, .org and .gov.  The US government responsible for the creation of the internet beginning in the 1960’s has maintained some oversight of its functions but has faced criticism from more than a few nations who do not like the idea of a free and uncensored internet.

According to the Washington Post “Pressure to let go of the final vestiges of U.S. authority over the system of Web addresses and domain names that organize the Internet has been building for more than a decade and was supercharged by the backlash last year to revelations about National Security Agency surveillance.”

The Obama administration’s announcement that it would not be renewing ICANN’s contract in 2015 and doing so without a firm plan in place to transition oversight has caused a stir among many here in the US and from unlikely bedfellows. Former President Bill Clinton speaking at a panel discussion Friday night  regarding internet governance stated “A lot of people … have been trying to take this authority from the U.S. for the sole purpose of cracking down on Internet freedom and limiting it and having governments protect their backsides instead of empowering their people..

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 Heritage Foundation fellows Brett D. Schaefer, James L. Gattuso, Paul Rosenzweig and David Inserra weighed in essentially agreeing with Clinton stating  “The U.S. has a strong interest in maintaining an open and free Internet. If Internet functions were harmed, not only would there be economic damage, but a vital forum for freedom of speech and political dissent would be compromised. While the transition of Internet stewardship from the U.S. may have been inevitable, it is unclear why the U.S. surrendered its greatest point of leverage prematurely. Surrendering U.S. oversight of ICANN was a key objective of many nations that wish to curtail freedom on the Internet.”

The danger lies giving a governing body like the UN which is made up of countries like  China, Russia or Iran, not known for their support of free speech or any type of dissent,  to weigh in and regulate the internet and its functioning.  The consequences that would have are not small. The internet has been a bulwark for freedom and communication across the globe. It has been our government’s ambassador at large for freedom and democracy.  Anyone including the oppressed with a connection has a voice that can be heard around the globe by millions. The disenfranchised can see for themselves what it looks like to live in a free country as a opposed to one that is “secure”.  A good example of the effectiveness of the net was when world wide attention was brought on Syria and their use of poison gas during their civil war, something  that would not have been readily known otherwise had it not been for the internet.

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One thing is clear; the US should not surrender oversight quickly regardless of how bad some in the international community want that to happen. A clear plan must first be in place that guarantees a smooth transition to a new governing body that is completely on board with the principles of freedom and uncensored speech. The US has provided the ordinary citizens of the world a voice that must not be silenced by authoritarian governments or well-meaning but dim-witted bureaucrats in the United Nations assembly.

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Choices

March 9, 2014 9:46 pm / 2 Comments on Choices

I have always been a big fan of NASA space research and exploration. I can remember as a kid watching Walter Cronkite telecasting the latest Apollo missions to the moon and being just fascinated.  It always made me wonder what life would look like if it was actually discovered elsewhere. All sorts of images of aliens from literature and movies and television come to mind but I am doubtful that’s what life will look like from other worlds. 
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More likely life on nearby planets say like Mars will resemble one of Earth’s extremophiles .  These organisms because of some fluke in nature or by intelligent design, you pick, survive and thrive. Simply put because of the lack of atmosphere, water, and extreme cold conditions beyond Earth, life resembling humans or even the family dog is near impossible.
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That is why in some not too distant future if NASA scientists should stumble across some single celled organism or giant tube worms  “out there” that discovery would immediately capture the world’s attention. The headlines across the web and every printed page would say something like “Life found on Mars”.  The atheists would say, see there is no God, it was just all a cosmic accident. The religious would refute their claims saying why of course God created the alien life as he created everything else. The point however is no one would doubt that what the scientists discovered was life. It might be a simple life but in the context of science it would be treated as life. I would go so far as to say that if NASA decided to bring this “life form” back to Earth they would keep it alive as best they could to study it and it would be treasured.
This brings me to my topic, choice. There are those, the same that would openly accept a single celled organism discovered on another planet as life but openly reject the idea that a viable human embryo inside a mother’s womb is not life. This seems hypocritical to me and just an excuse to justify terminating human life that for whatever reason is not wanted.
I’m sorry but I am not prepared to accept the idea that a human baby inside its mother’s womb is not alive. We would readily accept a Martian single celled organism as being alive and worthy of study but not a human baby? Come on.. This embryo might just grow up to be the next Einstein and help us achieve our goals of exploring new worlds, seeking out new civilizations and boldly going where no one has gone before. Who knows? I doubt a tube worm or some other simple life form would be so interesting or beneficial.
Nowhere in our society is murder acceptable yet if a woman cries that she must have the choice whether to kill a baby or not, it’s suddenly acceptable? Rubbish..What about the baby’s choice to be born and live?  And please don’t argue that the Supreme Court said its okay so I should just live with that. That’s rubbish too. The high court has gotten it wrong in many cases, ie Slavery, Prohibition, Obamacare, to name just a few examples. The law should be changed. It we were an ethical, moral and just society we would overturn Roe vs Wade.  To use the bumper slogan which I think has merit: “Choose life, your mother did”.
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It seems to me that a woman has lots of choices when it comes to the moments before conception. Afterwards the only legal and moral choice she should have is to protect the life of that baby until term. There are a few exceptions that I think should be addressed and discussed fully in the public arena like cases of incest, severe mental retardation or serious health risks to the mother but I am talking about the majority of cases where young healthy women become pregnant and then want to abort their baby.
There are many choices a woman has that don’t involve taking another human being’s life. A woman can choose the company she keeps which will directly impact the chances of sexual contact.  She can also choose where she physically is, which again can influence directly whether unwanted conception occurs. Is she walking home alone or in a dark alley? Does she know how to protect herself physically or does she carry a concealed weapon or means to protect herself?  Is she distracted and oblivious to her surroundings which might have some nefarious cretins hanging around? Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that only women are responsible for the bad things that can happen to them. I am just saying that she bears some responsiblity for the choices she makes. For example, Is she out with friends at a movie or pizza parlor or did she choose to be at a party where males are intoxicated and/or high?  Is she choosing to leave a bar where she just met a guy and agrees to go to his place for the night or somewhere else without really getting to know the man first or setting up a second or third date? Choices, choices..
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She can choose to be sober instead of intoxicated, high, or otherwise greatly distracted like on pain meds.  She can practice abstinence instead of promiscuity. What a concept, it’s been around for thousands of years and still works.  Am I being a prude? No, practical.   Agreeing to have sex is agreeing to take the risk of having to be responsible for another human being until they are mature enough to survive on their own, which could be somewhere in their mid 20’s these days if my own daughter is any example.
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Teenagers with no job prospects, no education and no means to support themselves should choose to be abstinent and if not they should choose to be protected. Similarly an out of work adult women with limited education, and/or low income should choose to be protected. Abortion is not a birth control method. Society needs to do a better job educating people on this.
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 A woman can choose to wear clothes more suitable for girls her age and maturity. Too often I see young teenagers wearing clothes that could best be described as “come have sex with me tonight” or “I’m easy” or “slutty”. This is a cultural issue.  I have seen girls that look not more than 14 years old like this.  Hello Mom & Dad this is where you’re supposed to speak up and just say “NO, you’re definitely not wearing that”. Be firm. It’s been said that males have only one thing on their mind most of the time. Why tempt fate?  I never understood those people who let their children dress “sexy”. For what purpose are they doing this, to procreate? To just have sex, really a child? A child dress sexy, why on earth would you tolerate that? If it’s to get attention, that is really sad. There are better ways to get attention. You can be attractive without being sexual suggestive. I understand that humans need to have sex. I understand it’s basic however a human being has to be mature enough to accept the responsibilities that go with having sex.

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A woman has lots of choices leading up to conception of a child but perhaps none more important than the personal choice of being responsible for their own actions and accepting the consequences of those choices they have made. Regardless of how difficult or distasteful those consequences might be they have to be responsible. This is a failure in our society as we abhor personal responsibility these days.  Human society thousands of years ago decided that murder is not ethical or legal.  Abortion is not a birth control method it is murder. By the way, paying for birth control is a woman’s personal choice too, not society’s responsibility regardless what Sandra Fluke and her supporters might think.
I can just hear some of you now, well people don’t always make good choices especially young people and if you don’t allow them to legally abort their babies then they will go to back rooms or alleys and have unsafe abortions. I would argue society needs to be a little less “tolerant” and a little more old-fashioned. Parents need to be parents and encourage or admonish their young when it comes to being responsible, and society too needs to check its prurient interests. I haven’t even discussed the choices available to a mother once a baby that is unwanted is born that do not involve the selfish killing of their child. Choice isn’t the problem.
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 Just as today’s politically correct agenda specifies that we should live in a green world and that if we don’t recycle or use sustainable resources we should be chastised.  So too could society choose to criticize behavior that leads to bad personal choices which lead to unwanted pregnancies. Sadly it doesn’t do enough. If it takes a village to raise a child does it take a village to abort them too?  We have a choice.