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Italy Wants to Restrict Blogs
nx writes "Italy wants to restrict bloggers' rights by forcing everyone to register their blogs, pay a tax and have a journalist as a "responsible director". This law is clearly designed to curb critical voices and free speech, although it has yet to be approved by parliament."
This does not need to be censorship. It could be that the proposed law simply needs to be tweaked to define which sort of blogs need oversight. As the lines between online magazines/newspapers and blogs blurs it becomes important to define the new criteria of what is and is not a "trusted" new source. Although the proposed law seems to attack all blogs, I think it could be tweaked to define a certain type of blog that fits the definition of a news source rather than an opinion source.
The simplest solution is usually short-sightedness or fuzzy thinking rather than an evil plot.
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
Such as, oh I don't know, license to practice neurosurgery ....
Let Invisible Hand of the Free Market figure this out! I mean after a few dead, disfigured and crippled patients, the customers will get it and vote with their wallets! Then of course the "surgeon" moves to the next city/state and ... lather, rinse, repeat! But no pain, no gain! Sure there is this wee problem with the fact that the "customers" could be unconscious and thus rather unable to make an "informed consumer choice", based on all available information, who should do their emergency heart bypass surgery, but we simply Cannot Have the Evil Government being involved in this! The same applies to food processing, city water supply (with 25 companies running pipes competetively under your pay-per-use toll-booth equipped driveway)! Etc and so on. But what is a few tens of millions dead and crippled (a lot of children included) against the Freedom of Free Markets To Bloom in Your Pocket! What do you care about this society thing!? Its for the Socialist Commies to do! All you have to worry about is glorious, shiny coins!
On a serious note, everything in life is some form of compromise between two or more choices, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Governments are, in any modern society, thanks to centuries of history full of countless sociopathic asshats bent on becoming warlords and kings, pretty much unavoidable as a protection (sometimes feeble) against the said assholes. And business regulation is, thanks to countless avarice blinded sociopathic asshats, pretty much a necessary evil. The trick is not to abolish them or to get them to stop regulating and controlling things, but to ensure that they regulate and control things which make sense and that the power of the government is kept in check by the citizenry. Libertarians are radical utopists in the same class as such government abolishionists as anarcho-communists, whose proposed system of society is so laughably ripe for abuse, with pretty much similar outcomes as that of the commies, that it makes me wonder if their cognitive abilities are being surpressed by their hatred of all things that interfere with their greed.
"Note that the house is the closest thing I could find in style and apparent size without actually tracking down what the actual house in the picture is. You'll also note that that price is far above what you claim, and even what I claimed."
Which has absolutely NOTHING to do with ANYTHING, you claimed THAT HOUSE could not be 550k. Support that statement or admit what you already know, YOU CAN'T.
For all you know he house pictured is behind a treatment plant or something which decreases it's value significantly. Hell houses as close as one block in my area differ by 150k. So save that link, it only proves you can't support your claim.
"Now sit down, boy."
As soon as you fuck off.
You're a troll who made a bullshit claim that you can't support, and now you're contorting yourself in order to avoid admitting it.
Save it, you've had plenty of tries, you're full of shit and it's plain for everyone to see. We're done.
I only go to buffets for the unlimited soft serve.