We had a new user register for the site yesterday who described her views as “Generally a fiscal conservative and a social moderate, closer to Libertarian, although firmly believes that the government does serve a purpose and that the US should be involved in the rest of the world, at least a little.” That’s pretty much how I feel. That last part is what keeps me from really being a gung ho Ron Paul supporter.

However, there are times when a vote for Dr. Paul seems like it really would be a vote to “save America”. Yesterday the House passed the SAFE-Act, which says that:

anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000.

That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user's account be retained for subsequent police inspection.

By most accounts this bill is both redundant and unworkable. It also reinforces my opinion that a President or politician is better off understanding the internet than understanding Einstein’s general and special theory of relativity.

So what does this have to do with Ron Paul? Well, the bill passed by a vote of 409-2. Do you even need to look to know that Paul was one of the 2? Throughout his career Paul has been the lone voice crying out in the wilderness. Maybe the NY Times will write another hit piece on him and use this vote to claim that Paul is “soft on pedophiles”, but when I’m standing in the voting booth I’ll remember that Ron Paul consistently votes against legislation that’s meaningless, unworkable and violates our rights in the guise of security. That may be enough to sway me – and I’m not alone.