Highway Patrol

By Tom Roberson

The federal government is seizing control of the Internet while the interstate highway system falls apart.

The Federal Communications Commission recently approved new regulations in an attempt to engineer its version of Internet utopia known as net neutrality. Government regulators have sought to extend their tentacles of control over the Internet with various tax and regulatory schemes since it exploded as an engine of commerce and creativity in the ‘90s. Congress passed the Internet Tax Freedom Act in 1998 to prevent the imposition of internet taxes that would stymie Internet development.

Meanwhile, as the FCC extends control over the digital highway, we continue to watch as our analog transportation network crumbles around us. The year 2007 saw the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, which touched off a scramble to assess the health of America's aging transportation infrastructure. Unfortunately, as the memory of that bridge collapse fades, America's transportation infrastructure continues to crumble as an overextended federal government continues to search for new targets of regulatory opportunity. Recently it was reported that a young wife and mother was killed by a chunk of debris thrown up from a pothole on Interstate 20 in Alabama near the Georgia line.

The federal government salivates over the possibility of expanding its control over the Internet while allowing its transportation infrastructure to dangerously disintegrate because it has neither the resources nor will to fulfill the obligations it has previously assumed. We can rest assured that the federal government in charge of the Interstate highway system will soon be patrolling the Internet to keep us safe from entrepreneurs seeking to bring us more services at lower costs over networks they own.

Tom Roberson is an independent conservative blogging at www.tomroberson.wordpress.com and doing his small part to save his country. He'd love to hear from you.