A long time ago (by some reckonings) or not so long ago (by others), I decided that I wanted two twin beds that could be linked together somehow to make a king-sized bed. Because? Because I knew that I would be moving at least several more times in my life, and it’s easier to move smaller beds and mattresses. And sometimes I am in a relationship and want a big bed available, and sometimes I’m not and prefer sleeping alone in a single bed and using the other bed to pile my clothes on until I get around to hanging them up. When I’m not in a relationship, I tend to let my housekeeping skills (meager at best) to really slide.
O.K. Now, cut to another scene, happening simultaneously, wherein I decide to take a re-birthing workshop, since I’m always looking for ways to help me understand who the hell I am and why, for example, I want two beds that have the choice of either being together or apart.

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Don’t know much about the complexities of the politics (big picture) of the Internet, but I imagine that the freedoms we hope to continue enjoying and exploring here are preserved and protected in the same way all freedom is preserved and protected.
So I quote here from a post by Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig as part of a blog conversation the purpose of which is irrelevant to me. What is relevant is what he said, some of which is quoted by b!X (which is how I found Lessig’s entire post), and some of which (the part that I think is most important) I quote here:
My point is that if this community does not begin to spend at least as much time as it spends watching Hollywood movies fighting Hollywood, or to spend at least as much money as it gives DSL providers on those who fight broad based control , then this extraordinary space that you….. built will be taken away. Not by superior blogs, and not by witty /. postings. But in the old-fashioned way: through regulators who have been bent by the forces of those who can and do buy Washington…..
You say I should stop complaining, and open up a blog….. I say that in addition to blogging, and coding and whatever, we’ve got to do something that matters to these people who think a blog is a typo. You, or we, or someone has got to get this community to deliver a different kind of message. One that east coast coders can read; one that says: we won’t let the freedom we ….. built be regulated away.
And it’s not just a matter of getting to the point where everyone in Congress has his/her own blog, although that certainly wouldn’t hurt the cause — if, of course, their blogs all had a Comments feature and if we all used it. Heh.