Integrity

Something remarkable happened this morning in the political scene. Erick Erickson talked about sponsorship of the SOPA and Protect IP (PIPA) internet bills before both houses of Congress, and publicly called on the sponsors to withdraw their support.

Now if you weren't aware, these are two bills that threaten the freedom of the internet to the max. They are touted as "anti-piracy" bills, and are supposed to prevent copyright infringements by certain websites. Unfortunately, they give an disproportionate power to the Attorney General and/or the President to censor websites and prevent search engines from linking to them. Basically, it gives the kill switch to people who have already demonstrated their lack of wisdom.

Up until this morning, Marco Rubio of Florida had been a sponsor of those bills. Within a short few minutes of Erick's post this morning, Marco Rubio had withdrawn his support. He had not realized the danger of giving that kind of power to a few. Kudos, Marco, for recognizing the problem and removing your name from the sponsors! You have great integrity! (I see that at least 3 members of Congress have withdrawn their support so far).

Censorship is evil, period. It allows the influences of that evil to destroy freedom. Personally I would rather have an internet that has problems, than one which tells me I can't express my opinion or demands that I follow someone else's bandwagon. Long live the First Amendment!