CRISISBOOM

networkworld

By Ms. Smith

What happens when stupid non-geeks write bills like SOPA and HR 1981? Rep. Lamar Smith says it’s for the children, of course, and if you object to being spied upon online then you are some kind of guilty pro-child-porn lowlife pond scum sucker. Where does the stupidity stop?

It’s for the children, of course, and if you object to online spying then you are some kind of guilty lowlife pond scum sucker. No wonder so many of us hate stupid people. Rep. Lamar Smith, infamous to geeks as the author of SOPA, is sponsoring the bill H.R. 1981 which is better known as “Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act.” H.R. 1981 isn’t exactly as easy to spit out as SOPA and is closer to something out of Orwell’s 1984. The EFF summed it up like this, “This sweeping new ‘mandatory data retention’ proposal treats every Internet user like a potential criminal and represents a clear and present danger to the online free speech and privacy rights of millions of innocent Americans.”

More or less, much like the just-in-case your data trail eventually reveals you are a terrorist, this bill presumes you are guilty until proven innocent of being a child porn dog as it would require ISPs to store your data for

a year (at least 18 months). No big deal cause you aren’t gobbling up child porn? Big buzzer eeennk! Wrong, cause with your entire web browsing history saved for a year, dumped into yet another massive database, it would be waiting to be used against you. Demand Progress added that it’s collecting “what sites you’ve visited, and even your bank and credit card info.” Hey, if this bill passes then what’s next? A requirement to wear a flashing neon necklace out in public, broadcasting your IP address, your browsing history, or your thoughts for the thought police?

Online and offline, based on fear of terrorists, we gave up freedom, civil liberties and privacy rights after 9/11. Online, if you value privacy or anonymity then you are potentially a terrorist. Where does the stupidity stop?

Offline, if you buy one too many cold pills with pseudoephedrine then you are cooking meth in the devil’s kitchen? If you have a family and one child catches a cold, then in caring for your child you can pretty much count on everyone in the household eventually catching that cold. You may choose not to go to the doctor and instead opt to buy cold pills “for the children.” However, to get something that actually may help the cold symptoms, you usually have to purchase pseudoephedrine which is kept behind the pharmacy counter. If you buy one too many cold pills with pseudoephedrine, then it’s as if you are guilty of being a meth head addict. Some pharmacies won’t even sell you such cold pills without a prescription. At one such drugstore, the pharmacist said, you “never know if the car next to you is going to have a meth lab in it and blow up, you know it’s pretty scary.” Yeah, brilliant, break out the non-logical weapon of fear. Even if you can still purchase it, the database of buyers “helps fight crime.” What a crock of crap.

The point in mentioning this is Full article here