Saturday, August 7, 2010

Net Neutrality and The Sex Pistols

Net Neutrality reminds me that the Bell System used to have a monopoly on telephone service. Maybe I'm suspicious since my father used to work for Southwestern Bell ("We May Be the Only Phone Company in Town but we Try Not to Act Like It"), but I have a feeling these bastards are trying to make up some lost ground now that half the world relies on cell phones. The Bell System was slow to recognize that trend even after divestiture. My father told the fat cats at SWB about cell phones back around 1980 after he went to a Futurist's convention in Montreaux. The fat cats wouldn't believe people might give up their land lines.

Many companies besides Verizon are looking to make some dough by stacking the deck. The issue doesn't seem so complicated when Jon Stewart explains it:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Net Neutrality Act
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorTea Party


My mother thinks that the Berlin wall came down not because of anything economic, exactly - it was the invention of the fax machine which enabled people on both sides of the wall to see that their governments were full of shit. That wall was a real, solid, concrete wall - but if Ronald Reagan can take credit for bringing it down, then Reaganomics and Republicans can take credit for erecting a gigantic invisible wall dividing the wealthy from the Rest of Us in this country. It may not come down in our lifetimes, but free access to information - especially the alternate media - prevents us from remaining isolated and ignorant. Without freedom of access to information, we could all turn into the kind of Teabaggers who think a few days on some cheesy resort like Atlantis in the Bahamas gives them expanded insight into foreign policy.

That reminds me of a song . . .



A Cheap holiday in other peoples misery!
I don't wanna holiday in the sun
I wanna go to new Belsen
I wanna see some history
'Cause now I got a reasonable economy

Now I got a reason, now I got a reason
Now I got a reason and I'm still waiting
Now I got a reason
Now I got reason to be waiting
The Berlin Wall

6 Comments:

Blogger Gail said...

HI TRISH-

great stuff - "happy Saturday"

Love you girl
Gail
peace and hope.....

August 7, 2010 at 10:47 AM  
Blogger jadedj said...

Basically this country is just out of fucking control with greed.

August 7, 2010 at 10:52 AM  
Blogger Lemmy Caution said...

Damn I love that song and video. Haven't seen that in many years. Good stuff.

August 7, 2010 at 10:20 PM  
Blogger PENolan said...

Back at Cha, Gail
Yep, Jaded. Old News
Lemmy, someone recently reminded me that I was not an actual hippie because I was a Punk. Dig it.

August 8, 2010 at 7:27 AM  
Anonymous Tengrain said...

Excellent - not just the Sex Pistols, but the thought behind the post.

What I love is that SWB decided that they had so screwed the pooch that they might as well rename themselves AT&T because people had a better feeling for AT&T than they did for SWB.

Now THAT's punk!

Regards,

Tengrain

August 8, 2010 at 6:39 PM  
Blogger PENolan said...

Thanks, Tengrain. I've fallen in with so many old hippies on the internet that I forget my Punk Roots sometimes, although I was really more of a new waver.

AT&T polls better than SWB? Sheesh.

August 9, 2010 at 6:27 AM  

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