U Can Haz Work Nao

With Wikipedia and the Cheezburger Network down today, I predict global productivity will be up 83%

 So, being a creator of internetz content, such as it is, you should be in favor of SOPA, right?

Actually, no.  I'm a supporter of a lack of government censorship of my internets, and oppose the SOPA and PIPA bills currently in congress.  While the intent of the bills is perfectly reasonable, the way they're constructed and written makes them completely unrealistic and would basically eliminate a remarkable amount of content on the internet based on the whim of maybe a dozen faceless, automatonic entities.  (Half a dozen major movie studios, a handful of international record labels, and a few publishers)  

The best explanation for why this is a very slippery slope to tread down can be found on the whimsical webcomic The Oatmeal.  He asked me to pirate his custom animated gif, but I'd rather just link to his site.  Click that link for the kittens!!!  (It'll make sense once you see the picture)

So, my primary gripe isn't the fact that this sort of legislation exists, or has received millions of dollars worth of lobbying by the aforementioned entities in support, or the fact that few people from the overriding technical community were consulted in the writing of the bill, or even the fact that up until a mass internet blackout protest was staged by the likes of Wikipedia, the entire Cheezburger network (No LOLCats for you today...go ahead and look), Google, Dinsaur Comics, xkcd, Reddit, and Mozilla, (See the list HERE) that the majority of congress thought this was a good idea.  No, my rage is directed at the fact that this is what congress is talking about right now. 

How many times in the last year has congress played out the stupidity of party politics, and brinksmanship, bringing the global economy to the edge of collapse in the quest for political power?  At least 3, and there's another one coming, because the last one was merely a 2-month extension on something that they still haven't figured out.  So what are they doing instead of figuring out how to pay for the payroll tax cut?  Catering to the whims of a dozen uber-rich corporations whose profits might be a bit lower than they should be because of internet piracy.  And they're catering to them with a poory-written bill that is unsound from a technical point of view without getting the proper inputs.  

As of the latest poll, a record low 11% of Americans approve of how congress is doing its job.  I'm starting to wonder who those 11% are.  I don't approve of how congress made me hijack my own blag to rant about what idiots they are again.  They'll probably even shut down this whole site now because I used the word hijack.  Oh well....sorry, internets.