So I see this on my RSS feed today, and well, I’m not surprised. It seems that the head of the European Union‘s IT department wants ICANN to break away from the Department of Commerce when its contract ends in September. At present, because of said contract with Commerce, disputes are decided in California courts. And that should be fine for the EU, I would think, since California is about as pinko of a state as you can get here. But no, that’s not enough for her. She’d rather it be handled in a truly European (read: Socialist) fashion.

Now let me stop you right and say that I agree with her sentiment that ICANN should be wholly privatized. While it’s nice to say that we do in fact control the exit signs on the information highway, I don’t think that sort of responsibility should be entrusted to the government. But her suggestion is absurd on its face. She suggests that there be a commission formed of 15 members: 3 each from Asia and Australia, 2 from the remaining continents, and a non-voting member from ICANN. She suggests a “G12 for Internet governance” and even went so far as to say that the UN is a good candidate, but won’t be able to respond quickly. Well, at least she realizes that the UN is ineffectual as a governing body, but anyway….

First, what’s with the “non-voting member” from ICANN? Why do we need a member that doesn’t have a vote? If there’s no vote, call it an “advisor” from ICANN. If it’s a member of the board, give it a vote. Simple. Now on to the really absurd part. I get 3 members from Asia, because they’re blowing up over there (and there’s the whole Chinese threat to fracture DNS), but Australia? Don’t get me wrong I love our awkward cousins from Down Under, but why do they rate 3 votes? And further, why does North America get lumped in with the rest (especially Africa)??

According to this there are about 105 MILLION domain names actively registered at any given time. According to this, North America holds the title on about 72 million of them. So, you know, more than two-thirds of all the domain names in the world are registered over here. That just MIGHT hold a little weight. And while Europe is being kind and all that to the rest of the world, even though European countries hold half of the top 10 spots, do either of us (or South America) deserve to be on par with freaking AFRICA?? Last I heard, there were more Somali pirates than ISPs in that stinking hole of a continent (been there, can speak to it from experience, shut up).

And lest I forget this one other little smidgen – WE GAVE YOU THE FREAKING INTERNET TO BEGIN WITH!!! Frankly, I think you guys are being a little ungrateful. Think, if not for our beautiful gift of ARPANET, millions of Eastern European girls wouldn’t be able to charge $9.95 to showcase their talents fellating livestock. So here’s an idea, Ms. EU-IT-Director: You suggested a “G12 of Internet Governance,” how ’bout we just let the G12 pick members and run it that way?? As far as international working groups go, that one hasn’t been a total cluster. Failing that, get out of this whole Socialist mindset and realize where your target market is. Trust me, what China tried was amateurish. You want a fractured DNS? Imagine if you couldn’t get to google.com because your DNS servers weren’t on OUR list? Uh huh.

Of course, I have to explain my headline and the last quote in the article does it for me succinctly: “I trust that President Obama will have the courage, the wisdom, and the respect for the global nature of the Internet to pave the way in September for a new, more accountable, more transparent, more democratic, and more multilateral form of Internet governance.” Seriously, that is just TRANSPARENT pandering to him, what with his behavior on his first trip across the pond. I mean damn, why not just drop the dude an email? You wouldn’t exactly be pushing him to a decision that way, not using the media and all, but still.

But in the end, I imagine that this small accommodation will be made. And in 10 years we’ll realize what a mistake it was. And it’ll take the next 20 years to regain control and get it straightened out again. Seriously, ICANN being “run” by a group that’ll be drug around by Europeans?? Well, unless the Germans set the standards. Yeah, that might actually work.

So, the savior of all mankind – the $700B federal bailout of the financial markets – was finally passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law over the weekend. Hoorah. Pardon my lack of enthusiasm, but I’m on the side of (depending on which poll you look at) the 70 – 85% of American taxpayers who think this was a BAD idea. But I understand the rationale and I can see how it works. I just don’t like the direction that it points the country. And before you get into this lengthy diatribe, let me say that I will not be discussing the effects it had on Wall Street after one whole day.

First, let’s examine how we got in the mess. I think we can all rationally agree that the root cause was greed. Now, Gordon Gekko (one of my personal fictional heroes) and his mantra notwithstanding, greed wasn’t good and certainly didn’t work here. I’m not very religious, but it’s one of the 7 Deadly Sins for a reason, folks. Anyway, all of these bankers and lenders that jumped, without much forethought or reservation, into the “subprime mortgage” lending business are reaping their whirlwind now.

I’m certainly not an economist but I understand more than just the basics, so let me put this in a nutshell: They gave people, who have either proven themselves unworthy of borrowing or NOT proven themselves worthy, loans for more than what most of the property was worth (mostly houses, but some cars and even credit cards), that in the standard market said people would not be able to afford. Or phrased a la an analogy, the lenders gave them $250,000 for a $150,000 house when they could only afford a $100,000 house. And both parties thought everything would be okay with this.

Well, that thought process, while without the backing of logic, wasn’t without precedent. The stock markets, thus the economy, was at an all-time high and growth rate. Everybody was doing great financially. It was like the good old dot-com days all over again. Ummm, yeah. That turned out well, didn’t it. See, if you remember the dot-com bust from days past you’ll remember what happens when an economy grows faster than it can sustain itself. See the Federal Reserve looks at things like this and, in a effort to curb this nasty thing call inflation, takes steps to try to keep growth steady and solid. Rather than watch the economy get so gluttonous (another of those Deadly Sins) and eat its own head. But, if you listen to some of those pie-in-the-sky “economists” and lenders, the whole dot-com economy bust was based almost solely on 9/11.

So, what’s happened more or less is that Newton’s Third Law has hit the financial sector. See, because we were having such a tremendous upswing we were simply due for a tremendous downswing. Well, because that downswing started causing some of the oldest and most respected names on Wall Street (e.g., Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Wachovia) to outright fail it shook confidence on Wall Street. Say what you want about the motives for saving corporate America from itself, but this action was prompted by saving the failing mortgages of voters, who probably are too stupid to be voting anyway – and it’s an election year. And because 95% of Americans’ only view of the economy comes from what the Dow did today (and another 4% add mostly biased media coverage that doesn’t like the current administration), they all freaked out. Which means that the government HAS to do SOMETHING, right? Here’s where I start to get concerned. read this entry »

This is a current event type thing, so I’ll post it before I back fill the historical posts. My God, I may actually have to vote Republican this year. I’m a right-leaning registered Libertarian, but I’m a little disconcerted with that candidate this year (I’ll get to him later). Basically, I’m a two issue voter: Military and Second Amendment, but only in so much as the candidate can actually AFFECT these things. As I’ve got older I’ve started to vote with my wallet a little more and I’m getting a little too tired of big government and feeling a little too much like Winston Smith (which is funny if you know my background and what I do for a living now). I’m not a member of the brainwashed masses, in other words – I’m not for or against something just because a Republican or Democrat takes the other side.

So why would I pick the elephants over the asses? This is why. These are pics of the Republican Vice Presidential Candidate, Sarah Palin. Mrs. Palin is the governor of Alaska. She’s married, has 5 kids, and while this will certainly merit attention from the Secret Service – she’s smoking hot!

Oh, she’s also going to decide this election believe it or not. A lot of the talking heads and keyboards in the mainstream media are calling this a Hail Mary by McCain, and I tend to agree. With the elections about 2 months away and a lot of these “polls” showing the race as a dead heat, McCain had to do something dynamic. And this is either brilliant or colossally stupid, but he DID something. And I think it’s going to work. read this entry »