heard much about is that this month, NASA intends to launch 72 pounds of Plutonium 238 into an orbit 300 miles high. An accident during takeoff potentially rain radiation poisoning down on 5 billion people. That's not something the bean want to see above the fold of their newspapers, or chirping from the mouths of their Stepford TV newsreaders.How does this affect the consumer? "Shareholder economics" typically drives up costs to advertisers and ultimately to those they are trying to reach with their clever jingles. Not even Nostradamus could have predicted the wide range of social, political, financial and other points of view being filtered by this new business model. Don't like gays? Use your media clout to block alternative lifestyle programs that feature information about employment discrimination, HIV and other important issues. Political enemies? It takes a lot of determination for a very few voters to understand that they usually only hear one side of the story. The rest of us haven't quite figured it out yet.The Internet has come along at the very moment in history when freedom remains the goal of people all over the world, even those who have been repressed and controlled for hundreds of years. Most of these people live in countries unaffected by common laws and disinterested in any particular culture's social mores. Any Government that tries to monitor even a fragment of the computer traffic that exists will create a tremendous financial white elephant-funded by voters. It's as if the costly "war on drugs" hasn't taught our nation's leaders a thing about the power of individual choice and the futility of trying to control individual behavior.It is impossible to put a childproof cap on the hazards of the world, actual or virtual. The Internet makes people cranky because it requires more diligent supervision of minors, and too many parents just don't want to spend that much time with their kids. The crime of those who would all...
