China smacks down blogs

In a stunningly open example of public oppression, the Chinese government is requiring all websites hosted in China to register the full identity of the person responsible for their site so that authorities know who to go after if the site starts speaking out against the regime. The official statement of the ministry claims that while the internet has "profited many people" it has also introduced "many problems, such as sex, violence and feudal superstitions and other harmful information that has seriously poisoned people's spirits". Harmful informatio? Like, "there are other places in the world where you're allowed to have more than one child if you wish, where you won't have to work 10 months of the year 200 miles away from your family just to pay for food and medicine, and where you don't have to undergo painful chairopractic procedures to get work."

It boggles my Western mind that a country full of so many people with so much technology isn't a step closer to free democracy than it was 60 years ago under Mao.

We complain a lot about the complacency of western civilization, particularly in America, and not without good cause. But instances like this should help us to remember that while our country is far from perfect, it's still amazing.