on december 12, you ran a story about "hate pages" on the world wide web, one which seemed to view them as a serious threat which should somehow be controlled. the same article mentioned recent efforts by congress to pass internet-censorship bills.
coincidentally, december 12 was the day of the internet protest against censorship laws, as announced in the electronic frontier foundation's effector online digest. thousands of netizens planned to write, email, fax, and call congress to express concern over the proposals now being considered.
the net is a haven of free speech. sometimes that includes obnoxious, distasteful speech. as adults choosing to live in a free society, and as people who claim to cherish freedom of speech, we cannot censor the internet. those who dislike what they see online have the responsibility to refute it, to provide counterexamples and alternatives to it, and to avoid it. the protection of children from ideas their parents don't want them exposed to is the responsibility of the parents. none of this falls within the jurisdiction of the federal government.
does no one outside of the net community realize the fruitlessness of one government trying to regulate and censor an international network of information, one as solid as millions of individual voices and as ephemeral as a modem link? it won't work, and trying to do it is a waste of our time and money. there are more important things for the congress to concern itself with.