The left-wing bloggers are having good time this afternoon making fun of Senator Toomey over his comment that proposed legislation might "break the internet." http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/toomey-privacy-rules-might-break-the-internet-1.php?ref=fpblg

Toomey is a knucklehead and probably deserves all the ribbing he is receiving, but his comment makes me wonder what would need to happen in order to break the internet. According to Wikipedia, the internet "is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies." Really? And we are allowed to just jump right in and use these networks? Who is paying for all that? (Don't make fun of me on this. I really have no idea how this all works)

The other thing that caught my eye on the Wikipedia page is that the Internet Corporation for Names and Numbers (ICANN) "is the authority that coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers for use on the Internet, including domain names, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, application port numbers in the transport protocols, and many other parameters." Well, who the heck is ICANN? They sound like they must be the most powerful people in the world.

This is all so confusing, but the late Senator Ted Stevens had it figured out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE