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(or, The Diary of a Confessed Caffeine Abuser)
Nuts From All Over
...and the hits just keep on coming
By David "Spam Me and Die" Fiedler
Nuts.
Not as in "aw, nuts!". But the nuts are bothering me.
The worst, of course, are the "mainstream" nuts trying to protect us from ourselves. For instance, the heavily armed, powerful minions of evil who want us to do their bidding.
You know: the Federal government.
It's always the "reasonable" approach, said out loud, that gets the headlines, and the details of their proposals and laws that do the damage. Or as has been said more concisely and poetically (and quoted most recently by Cliff Stoll), "The big print giveth and the small print taketh away".
So what's my problem this time? The big print says that the government wants to protect us all from unlicensed Internet pharmacies illegally selling drugs. The small print says that the government will really be protecting drug stores from cheaper online competition, as well as arrogating itself the power to issue warrantless subpoenas in order to shut down any Web site it doesn't like. We've seen in the past that the FDA is eager to use this power against health food and vitamin stores as much as against the "intended" real specter of "illegal Internet drug sellers".
Really Now: Ace of Spies?
Then there's the "spy who never was". It seems the U.S. Customs Service (I'm not sure why, since I was under the impression they covered illegal goods coming into the country and not in interstate commerce) raided Ramsey Electronics, a small educational kit manufacturer in New York. The alleged crime they committed was selling $6 wireless microphone kits that the government apparently felt were being used by top international spies.
Apart from the fact that these types of items are widely sold by mainstream companies such as Radio Shack, there's perhaps a deeper reason why Ramsey Electronics was targeted. They also happen to be the suppliers for another perfectly legal item, a stereo transmitter kit, that is very popular among hobbyists for setting up their own radio stations. The FCC has been trying to close down many of these so-called "unlicensed broadcasters", even though low-power kits of this nature don't require an FCC license (and you couldn't get one even if you applied, though see this page if you're interested).
Reader Revolt
The tons of email I received after a previous column about Congress was split down the middle. One reader thought I was nuts for spreading such misinformation around (heck, I did say it wasn't verifiable) and the other one seemed to think I was being charitable :-).-- D. Fiedler
David Fiedler is Editor-in-Chief of WebDeveloper.com®, and his opinions are definitely his own.
Last modified: Thu Jun 15 06:18:32 EDT 2000
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