Finland, whose high school students consistently rank smartest in the world, has just become the first country to make broadband Internet access a legal right:
Starting in July, telecommunication companies in the northern European nation will be required to provide all 5.2 million citizens with Internet connection that runs at speeds of at least 1 megabit per second.
In contrast, the United States is the only industrialized country without a national policy to promote high-speed broadband. In fact, 46% of rural American households do not subscribe to broadband Internet access.
On the other hand, most of those 46% of rural households do have access to Rupert Murdoch’s right-wing megaphone, the Faux News Channel, where they incur daily brain bathings in irrational conservative spin and lies — a bonafide danger to our national security (in 2003, 67% of Fox viewers believed that the “U.S. has found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the al Qaeda terrorist organization” compared with 16% for NPR/PBS.)
While Red State Americans continue to nourish themselves on daily spoon-feedings from the high-pitched hissy fits of Glenn Beck, Hannity, and O’Reilly, the rest of the industrialized world tunes in to thought-provoking documentaries that connect the dots, like this Massimo Mazzucco masterpiece: The New American Century.
Tip of the hat to Indigobusiness for the documentary link.
