Top Level .xxx Domain Concept Under Scrutiny

An anonymous reader writes "The Bush administration is objecting to the creation of a .xxx domain, saying it has concerns about a virtual red-light district reserved exclusively for Internet pornography. This is despite the the .xxx domain being approved in June and New.net selling domain names using the .xxx suffix for many months before the approval." From the ZDNet article: " The sudden high-level interest in what has historically been an obscure process has placed the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in an uncomfortable position. ICANN approved the concept of an .xxx domain in June and approval of ICM Registry's contract to run the suffix was expected this week Other governments also have been applying pressure to ICANN in a last-minute bid to head off .xxx. A letter from ICANN's government advisory group sent Friday asks for a halt to 'allow time for additional governmental and public policy concerns to be expressed before reaching a final decision.'"

Comments

America is messed in ways

[Isldeur]

I think America is messed up in some serious ways. This weekend I saw (the rather excellent, IMO) Merchant of Venice with Pacino. It had an "R Rating" because a bunch of ladies run around with their breasts hanging out.

Ok, so some natural breast exposure is not to be seen by anyone under 18. But then you turn on your TV and it is riddled with so many cop shows, including that Special Victims Unit show which seems dedicated to stories about aggravated sexual assault/rape on minors.

Can someone explain to me how natural things such as breasts are so bad but death, destruction, explosions, guns, and rape/sexual assault are so normal????

Re:Who's surprised?

[lgw]

Its hard to be happy when you see everything you cherish being damaged so badly that many generations will likely pass before any of it returns to its former glory.

Get a sense of history man. And I don't mean that as an insult. Seriously, if things seem that bad now, you need a better understanding of how much worse things have been before - even quite recently. You're projecting changes over less than 10 years indefintely into the future, and that's just nuts!

To take a random example: is the USA-PATRIOT act the beginnnnig of the end for civil liberties? Not to judge by every previous war. This is the least reduction in civil liberties we've ever had during a war, and civil liberties have been on an upward trend since the founding of this country, despite far worse swings in all prior wars. Did we round up all the Muslims and stick em in concentration camps? Did we use the war as an excuse to murder nearly 10,000 unionists? If you're emotionally upset over two or three Americans being imprisoned without trial (as opposed to objecting on principle, but without emotional attachment) then you need a sense of proportion.

Are you comparing real life to imaginary perfection, and becoming dismayed, emotionally hurt, that it has come up short? My power-point is better than your shipping product? Get over it, and appreciate how good real life is today compared to real life at any other time.