Rayne Today

Bring up the topic of Net Neutrality and it's not unlikely that an audience will roll their eyes and sigh. It's a complicated topic, in part because it's technical, in part because it's untrod legal turf. It's also because FUD is being applied in heavy measure by many parties with a vested interest in the outcome. For those folks who don't know what FUD is, it's fear, uncertainty and doubt , now used as a term of art in the software and hardware industry. It is this FUD that makes it very difficult for us to get to the bottom of this situation readily. If consumers and internet users feel frustrated and begin carping at each other, the FUD has done its work. This overview is written for folks who are not working in technology (including communications, internet, software, hardware industries), in order to get past the FUD. If there's something erroneous or omitted, please point it out constructively, collaboratively and as simply as possible i...

The 109th Congress sails off into the sunset, leaving behind all its cares as it becomes history. I'd like to say it enters history as a bastion of ethics, but that would be a complete and utter joke, beyond sarcasm's broad reach. As its parting gift, the 109th indulged its last Republican Document Dump Friday. They jettisoned a particularly nasty bit of work, the Foley Report , flopping a complete piece of crap onto the public like a rotting fish as they filled their shredders, cleared their offices, and fled the District. This mother of two struggles to find swear words adequate to voice the rage and frustration felt over this last bit of trash foisted on us, knowing now with certainty that Republican representatives have failed abjectly to protect young people from a known predator in their midst. Disgusting, revolting, immoral. I hope they did not let the door hit them in their pompous, overfed, pampered and excessively soft backsides.