SOPA: An Open Letter to Spencer Bachus

Saturday, December 17th, 2011 @ 9:13pm

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been making rounds during the past couple of weeks, and as a result I feel a need to express my staunch opposition to this bill and am including my letter to my state representative below. SOPA works by giving power to intellectual property holders to force isps, search engines, and other sites to block access to infringing content or faced being shutdown entirely. This is clearly an overstepping of bounds by the US government, and I feel that it breaks the very “openness” of the internet.

Dear Congressman Bachus,

I am writing to you to express my strong opposition of H.R. 3261: Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The internet has grown to massive use over the past two decades, and has proved to be a useful resource for knowledge, ideas and speech. This very growth has provided a wealth of jobs and tools used to enhance the lives of many people.

While I understand that protecting one’s intellectual property is important, there are already various measures to protect those copyrights. SOPA sets a dangerous precedence by giving too much power to one entity.

The passing of this legislation stands to have a serious impact on the very structure of the internet. Many architects and engineers of this very system have already expressed grave concerns on the details of this bill (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/12/internet-inventors-warn-against-sopa-and-pipa).

Even if SOPA passes, there is little that would actually prevent or stop piracy. DNS works by mapping a human friendly name (i.e. google.com) to one a computer can understand (i.e. 74.125.74.103). Blocking a DNS entry does nothing to prevent access from a “infringing” site and is simple to bypass by entering the IP address directly.

I strongly urge you to do the right thing and vote against the passage of this bill and hope that you encourage your fellow representatives to do so as well. I will closely be watching the outcome of this legislation.

Sincerely,
Jason Wilson

Corruption

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 @ 11:05am

What if...?

The politics of Alabama are a messy business, especially in Birmingham. Over the past couple of years we’ve had to deal with antics of Larry Langford and the corruption of the two-year college system. And of course that’s not even really considering beyond that including Siegelman and Scrushy. It’s a really scary thought to think what could have happened had these people not been caught and unsupervised.

It’s additionally frustrating as often times the costs of these scandals and corruption are passed on to the taxpayers. For example, when we first moved in to our Townhome here in Birmingham four years ago, our water bill was often in the $20 range. Now four years later, it’s spiked up to nearly $80 a month due to the increased sewer bond rate with no real end in sight.

It’s a frightening world we live in today with this economy and the ongoing scandals, but I think it also goes to show where your foundations are in by how you react in these times. Luke 6:43-49 is the perfect parable describing the above situation, and is almost laughable in how well it matches the outcome of everything. 43-45 talks about how you will know a man by his fruit, and a bad tree will not produce good fruit, and neither will a good tree produce bad fruit.

46-49 goes on to talk about having a firm foundation, and how going through times of trouble really begins to tear at you and show what kind of foundation you are really standing on. Just something to think about and ponder on as the rest of the world attempts to instill fear and panic.

I know I’m not a perfect person, and I do worry from time to time. But I also know that having that firm foundation will allow me to weather the storms of life and it’s encouraging to know that there is something for me to stand on, even if everything else around me collapses.

Loss of Freedom

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 @ 12:14am

It’s time for me to stand on my soapbox again. How much Freedom and Liberty are we willing to sacrifice for a little security? How many rights must we be willing to give up before we lose the very freedom that our forefathers fought for? If the founders of this country saw where we stand today, what do you think they would say? The following quote I think sums it up best:

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~ Benjamin Franklin

When I see articles like this, or this it infuriates me. How long will we as citizens be complacent and allow our freedoms to be “lost” and not do anything about them?

I really feel the government (as a whole) has lost contact with the people. Even a few good men with good intentions have a hard time going against the majority. Politics is all about doing what’s good for them, or what’s good for the party. Sadly, it seems that unless you are well known and have lots a money you stand no chance at getting elected. The 2004 presidential campaign had over $1.2 BILLION in spending. Quite frankly, I’m ashamed with both parties, democrats and republicans alike.

Your freedom, our freedom, how much are you willing to sacrifice before its too late? Over 300 years ago, a group of people decided that enough was enough. And they believed in something, and fought for that belief. I believe in something, and I’m willing to fight for it. It has been said that you really do not know what you have, until its gone. Are you willing to fight for your beliefs before its too late? Think about it… don’t be complacent. Be active, don’t just be a bystander, but act upon it.

Alabama Governor Election

Friday, October 14th, 2005 @ 6:23pm

I think the image below accurately describes the current situation with the election for governor in 2006:

Governor Candidates

We have Lucy Baxley… who hasn’t really done anything so no one really knows who she is. Then there’s Don Siegelman who attempted a failed lottery proposal and who is suspected to be indicted by a federal grand jury in the upcoming future. However, on the republican side of the election Roy Moore recently announced plans to run for governor as well. Finally we have Bob Riley who failed an education proposal early on in his first term as governor announcing his plans for re-election as well. All I have to say, is this will prove to be a rather interesting election this next year.