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Welcome to www.TheReminder.com archive for past articles!/Opinion/G. Michael Dobbs/Conservatives, liberals should support net neutrality
Conservatives, liberals should support net neutralityDate: 11/14/2014 It’s a new world, now isn’t it? We have a Republican governor-elect who isn’t seen as Republican enough by some people, even before he takes the oath of office and we have Republican members of Congress suddenly interested in working with President Obama in a bipartisan way.
As they say in the song, “What a difference a day makes.”
I managed to pay attention on Election Night, even though my thoughts were dominated by anything other than politics. I was on vacation after all. Once I saw the national results I realized that history had repeated itself concerning a switch in power during midterm elections and we were about to enter an odd honeymoon period.
The members of Congress who were extending an olive branch to the president were among those who are involved in a current lawsuit against him.
Crazy, isn’t it?
Anyone who believes that these folks who had sworn to block everything they could in terms of legislation and appointments now suddenly want to work with the administration shouldn’t answer those emails we get involving a bank account in Nigeria.
Consider the following: Obama wants to preserve Net Neutrality as part of the webs “basic principles of openness and fairness.”
Obama added, “Net neutrality has been built into the fabric of the Internet since its creation – but it is also a principle that we cannot take for granted. We cannot allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas.”
He would like the Federal Communications Commission to ditch the ideas that ISPs could allow companies to charge more for “fast lanes” of the Internet and slow down or restrict access for others users.
This is bad policy for both consumers and entrepreneurs.
Sen. Ted Cruz, though, posted on Twitter, ‘“Net Neutrality’ is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.”
This makes no sense, but I’m sure folks who hate Obama won’t think about what the president is saying and will blindly latch onto Cruz’s nonsensical tweet.
Republicans talk a lot about being fair to business. Placing these restrictions on the Internet is not good for business. Republicans talk about freedom of speech. This isn’t good for that either.
People such as Cruz like to talk about eliminating regulations and make government smaller. Why support these new regulations and conditions?
This should be an issue that links all of us who support business development and free speech and that include conservative and liberal alike.
He’s no hypocrite
I have to give credit where credit is due. Dr. Scott Lively isn’t about to indulge in any cooperation with his opponents. Nope, he’s not any common politician.
He wrote in his recent newsletter, “In the times we live in, it has become commonplace for believers to substitute their own reasoning for the wisdom of God. But there is nothing new under the sun. This was the same in Elijah's time. So in this election we have seen Christian and pro-family voters across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, both Protestant and Catholic, deliberately cast their votes for Charlie Baker, a man whose hands drip with the blood of the innocent unborn babies and whose tongue rationalizes the promotion of sexual perversion to school children. They have chosen to support what they believe is the ‘lesser evil’ rather than trust God and stand on His truth.
“But 19,192 voters (the official count as of Nov. 5) did not bow their knee to evil. And in that remnant there is great hope.”
Wow.
And now the commercial
In the next few weeks I will use this bully pulpit for my own promotion. I offer no apology for shameless self-promotion. I have a book to sell and bills to pay. My next local signing for my new book “Fifteen Minutes With: Forty Years of Interviews” will be Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley. I’ll be giving a talk about adventures in speaking with famous people and then hopefully signing books for people.
The Odyssey staff asks, “We request that attendees purchase a copy from the Odyssey Bookshop in order to join the book signing line. To reserve a seat for this event, please email RSVP@odysseybks.com, for specific queries, call the store at 534-7307.”
Thanks for your consideration.
Agree? Disagree? Drop me a line at news@thereminder.com or at 280 N. Main St., East Longmeadow, MA 01028. As always, this column represents the opinion of its author and not the publishers or advertisers of this newspaper.
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