(I agree with nearly everything in Strata's "Refutation" essay. In particular, I find his comments on the net.pundits' hypocrisy about net.bias and prejudice to be extremely accurate.) James Donald writes: [...various points about "cohesion"...]

In an all out knock down battle between a particular government and the internet, in a state where a substantial proportion of the middle class was on the internet, the government would be in serious danger of evaporating like a jellyfish in the sunshine.

I'm afraid I'm not willing to take this on faith. Strata made some good observations about the tangible vulnerability of the net-as-we-know-it to government intervention. If you'd like to try to rebut some of his arguments a bit more specifically, I'd be very interested in reading about it. -Lewis "You're always disappointed, nothing seems to keep you high -- drive your bargains, push your papers, win your medals, fuck your strangers; don't it leave you on the empty side ?" (Joni Mitchell, 1972)