all your internets are belong to us

Some British asshat has determined that the internet contains some of teh bad stuff and it is high time that Something Must Be Done. Unfortunately, this British asshat happens to be the UK "Culture Secretary", which appears to be somewhat akin to the American FCC.

He proposes that the British government, along with the Obama administration, take steps to... er, do something or other to, well, uh... I'll just let the asshat speak for himself:

There is content that should just not be available to be viewed. That is my view. Absolutely categorical. This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people. We have got to get better at defining where the public interest lies and being clear about it.

Got that? This asshat says some things "should just not be available to be viewed." Which things? Well, don't worry your heads, he'll decide that using his own exceedingly wise personal sense of taste and discrimination.

Why is this so important to the asshat? Well: "Leaving your child for two hours completely unregulated on the internet is not something you can do." So... since neither the asshat nor his wife can be bothered to spend time monitoring their own children, the rest of us are just going to have to bite the bullet and put up with a universal system of heavy-handed censorship implemented by him and others of his ilk (who also can't stand their own children).

He also thinks the Obama folks will be on board: "[The asshat] also believes that the inauguration of Barack Obama, the President-Elect, presents an opportunity to implement the major changes necessary for the web. "

Let's hope not. Let's also hope that the nebulous and unspecific proposals he mentions are technically impossible. And, sure, we could further hope that this asshat is hit by a bus on his way to the office one day soon. But that would be uncouth of us, wouldn't it? Not quite up to our normal standards of decency, you might say.