Democrats Letting Net Neutrality Die

Here was what was supposed to happen: With telco-friendly Republican Congress members swept out of the way, Democrats would usher in legislation enshrining Network Neutrality principles and give the FCC the power to enforce them.

Here's what happened (is happening) instead: The most powerful Net Neutrality supporters (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton) are kicked upstairs while cable-and-Hollywood-friendly Democrats are killing Network Neutrality legislation in committees.

Meanwhile, both telecom and cable companies are emboldened by the legislation's quiet death, the deafening sound of non-action covered up nicely by the economic crisis, and both industries are soothed by interim FCC commissioner Michael Copps' toothless proposal for a fifth unenforceable principle regarding network discrimination.




Joe Barton
The Democrat rope-a-dope strategy of the last few years is coming back around to kill Net Neutrality. The initial plan was simply to let Republicans have enough rope to hang themselves. Congressional Democrats ignored calls for investigations and impeachment of members of the Bush Administration because doing so allowed them to drop all blame square on their opponents' shoulders for everything without putting themselves under undue scrutiny. A few years of doing absolutely nothing was tantamount to lying low while Republicans destroyed themselves so Democrats could take over…and continue to do nothing.

Teaching Your Kids to Cook

First, well, it speaks for itself: Teaching Your Kids to Cook.

Next: Supercool that this person only has 5 lenses, and has already learned the art of making a great lens. I don't know about you, but I feel a special kind of giddy when I see a newer lensmaster creating something this good.

Third: Cooler still is the interplay between lens and blog and newsletter readership. (Not mine, Reluctant Gourmet's!) Talk about creating a recommendation economy that works.

As Reluctant Gourmet introduces in the lens bio:

"Hi Food Friends. Over 12 years ago I decided "You have to eat, so why not learn to cook and eat well" so I started teaching myself how to cook. Frustrated by cookbooks and magazines that presumed I was a gourmet-cooking expert just because I wanted to eat like one, I created the Reluctant Gourmet website as a "cooking guide for the novice from a novice". Now I help other home cooks become more skilled and confident in their own kitchens."

And, lo and behold, now there's a lens to help Reluctant Gourmet drill down and focus on interesting subsets of the website. Like how to teach your kids to cook.

From the lens intro:

"Every week I receive emails from parents interested in finding cooking and baking classes for their kids. Some are interested in a one time cooking lesson, some want to hold a birthday party, some are looking for a summer cooking camp.

Then there is a group with teenagers who are interested in attending big name culinary arts schools when they graduate from high school and want to see if there are schools offering short programs for young adults to prepare them for getting into these schools.

My first response to all these parents is start by teaching your children to cook at home in your own kitchens. Not only can you teach them many of the basic techniques involved in preparing a meal, you spend some quality time with your child and create memories of a lifetime.

This Squidoo lens looks at the benefits of teaching you kids to cook including understanding foods, self confidence, time management, understanding basic science, creativity and a whole lot more. There are also resources for cookbooks for kids, cookwares and cooking outfits as well a list of schools from around the country offer cooking classes for you children."

Jackie Robinson: An American Hero

I highly recommend you check out Jackie Robinson: An American Hero. A lens rich in history and context, told from a smart, writerly point of view.

But there's nothing I can say to top the dozens of emails I got about this lens over the last few days. Most compelling, perhaps, was the author's own (humble) note about it:

"I wouldn't normally nominate my own lens... But this is special. There's something to celebrate instead of dread on April 15: the breaking of the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947.

It's not just a milestone for sports fans; it paved the way for the civil rights movement and, as MLK later said, "made his job easier". Jackie Robinson didn't just get the chance to play because he was lucky. He was an amazing athlete with a comfortable job in the Negro Leagues, who signed with the Dodgers knowing he would become the central target for white outrage against "uppity blacks" (not the word then used). He handled himself with grace and restraint on and off the field despite death threats, physical and verbal attacks, and unimaginable strain that probably led to his premature death in 1972.

Especially with the election of Barack Obama--an event that probably would've made this strong man cry--I would like to draw more people to this lens to learn a brave man's story.

It's one of my oldest lenses and one of my few charity lenses, donating its earnings to The Jackie Robinson Foundation, which funds education scholarships, professional internships, and leadership training programs for underprivileged youth--needed more than ever in this economy..."