I have absolutely no problem with TxDOT doing a survey of drivers to find out information they may need to help traffic problems but I think they crossed the line. They hired a company who hid cameras in orange traffic barrels that discreetly took random pictures of people's license plates. These were then used to send a survey to the driver to ask things like where were they going, how many people lived with them... I'm not one to get paranoid but how far are we going to take this surveillance society? I'm still annoyed that my picture gets taken at every toll plaza even though my TxTag has enough money in it. Why do they need that?
At least it looks like most of the drivers didn't find it amusing. only a handful of 150,000 surveys were returned.
In the infinite wisdom of our DOJ, they have decided for us that the
FCC does not need to regulate the internet in order stop ISP's(ATT,
Verizon, Comcast, et al) from charging customers more to allow them
faster access to certain sites or access at all. After all nothing says
Justice like having to pay more to Google a word instead of Ask it. Tpo
quote a filing from the DOJ, the net neutrality laws would
"prevent, rather than promote, optimal investment and innovation in the
Internet, with significant negative effects for the economy and
consumers." They should have just left off the word "consumer" since
that's what they were really going for.
Reminds me of my
brief stint as a Home Depot employee(my old company got bought out by
them). One thing that was written on every piece of official paper was
"To increase shareholder value." I should point out it didn't also say "To increase employee living standards."
Can you imagine a world where that becomes the standard? You wouldn't
be able to buy your brand of beer at various events, your favorite soda
at a restaurant, your... oh wait a minute....lost there I guess.
Screw it, let's get it over with
since everyone will make a stink about it but still pay the extra $10 a
month to get faster access to YouTube. After all, people didn't have
any problems forking out $600 for their Iphone which iss about 3 steps
down on the technology scale from the PDA phone I've had for 6 months.
