MORE ON GOOGLE vs. GOVERNMENT

OUR PRIVACY/ RIGHTS vs. GOVERNMENT INTRUSION/SPYING

More on government's battle with the government . See post of 1/25/2006 "Profits Over Decency" and the immediate post below on Google.

"Keeping Secrets"; http://slate.com/id/2134670

A tip of the hat to our English cousins for this laugh-out-loud contribution:" Miserable Failure; George W. Bush has been google bombed".
"web users entering the words 'miserable failure' into the popular search engine are directed to the biography of the president on the White House website."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3298443.stm Some of our internet subscribers have been naughty boys. :-)

The first time I read a news item about the google/government battle, a split second knee jerk response was a maternal protect-our-children-from- filth. Another split second was "Whoa! Bad precedent. Too much intrusion, potential for abuse staggering." Our government tries to sneak power grabs past the public with innocuous protestations of "protecting us", and what moral person does not want children protected from porn?

I don't do porn; I dislike it. But I concede the right of mature adults to do porn if they so desire. And I believe that porn sites should be blocked from children, which is primarily the responsibility of parents. Children can, however, access porn from other sources than the family computer.
So some sort of protection needs to be implemented. But absolutely NOT allow the government to access user records. If books are now placed on a "watch list", our government can follow China's example and put websites on a "watch list". .. and through a server's records back track the user. And as our regime becomes more and more oppressive, citizens can find themselves on a criminal court docket for checking out forbidden sites . Like info on fascism and totalitarian regimes?