Welcome to 1984!

Thomas L. Friedman, in “The World is Flat” makes this statement: “My trip to Beijing described earlier fell right after the fifteenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, which happened on June 4, 1898, that is, 6/4/89. My colleagues at the Times bureau informed me that on the day the Chinese government censors were blocking SMS messages on cell phones that contained any reference to Tiananmen Square or even the numbers 6 and 4. So if you happened to be dialing the phone number 664-6464, or sending a message in which you told someone you would meet at 6 p.m. on the 4th floor, the Chinese censors blocked it using their jamming technology.”

This caught my attention and I filed it away in the back of my mind, yesterday. So imagine my surprise when I checked my email today and found today’s column by Chuck Baldwin entitled, “A Culture of Surveillance” in which he describes the attempts underway by the Obama Administration to seize the political and technological power to shut down the Internet in the event of an actual or perceived “cyber-security emergency” . He quotes the Ecommerce Journal’s report on The Cyber Security Act of 2009: "If the President so chooses, he can call a 'cyber-security emergency' and shut down or limit any 'net traffic or a 'critical' network 'in the name of national security,' though the bill fails to provide concrete definitions on what is 'critical' or what constitutes an 'emergency.'"

If any one doubts that it is possible, I refer you again to my opening paragraph. It is worthwhile to read Chuck Baldwin’s entire column, found at this link: http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2009/cbarchive_20090428.html. Welcome to 1984.