Not when we give them monopoly control. Not when they abuse their monopoly. Not when they swindle us out of $200 billion. (“Built on their own dime” my ass.) That’s plenty to get the libertarian side of me to glow incandescent, nevermind the geek side. (“NET NEUTRALITY! Slooowly I turn…”)

Net Neutrality really should be a natural fit for libertarians/conservatives of all stripes. I am shocked and dismayed at the kind of pushback I’ve been seeing lately.

Unfortunately infrastructure remains a relatively scarce commodity for now. The question is, how is that to change if the industry in question is regulated around the status quo of scarcity? Regulation has the effect of decreasing the risks of operating within an uncomfortable status quo, and increasing the risks of trying to break it.

When was the last time anyone had to do business with a particular phone company for long-distance service? Hell, I don’t even have to do business with my local phone company anymore. A lot of that is because of new technology such as cellular and VOIP, but it’s also because phone service has been liberated from the local monopoly system our grandparents lived with.

The opposite take includes references to geeks as ‘digital barbarians’ and is similarly stupid.

IN the end, I trust corporations to err on the side of their own profit, which means you can usually guess where they’ll go. I prefer that over some federal agency having the power to determine what a ‘proper’ news web site is.

You’ve just described the reason I’ve left this whole issue alone for years now — and it seems like we’re in the same boat. Our instincts go one way, but our political sense goes the other. So it wasn’t until a bill came up that looked like it might possibly passed that I forced myself to write something. Anything. To effing decide something. Anything.

And I’m still not happy with the results. My results, I mean.

I miss the good old days when, each morning, I’d receive an envelope from Mr. Rove filled with a stack of hundreds the size of a brick and my talking points for the day.

Really? You expect someone would bother sending a nuke at Cleveland when there are so many more useful targets?

That being said, I largely agree with you. What we seem to have here are two entirely separate corporate entities doing a little rent seeking, each for their own benefit. Unfortunately, the only thing I have less faith in than rent seeking corporations is politicians.