The title of this post is from a late-1960s song by the Buffalo Springfield:

Paranoia runs deep.

Into your life it will creep.

It starts when you’re always afraid.

Step out of line, the Man comes,

And takes you away.

You better Stop. Children,

What’s that sound?

Everybody looks.

What’s going on?

For those of you who weren’t there, “the Man” is the police.

____________________


Early yesterday morning, CNET posted an article that began this way:

    Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.[Emphasis in the original]

    It’s no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

    In other words, it’s OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name.

Predicatably, this caused widespread outrage on the part of some members of the left:

    Daily Kos: “Anonymous trolls are now criminalized. Specifically, merely “annoying” someone online without revealing your identity is now illegal.”

    Shakespeare’s Sister: “What’s to stop the RNC from going after every liberal blogger who prefers to remain anonymous, claiming annoyance?”

    blinq (The Philadelphia Inquirer): “On Thursday, President Bush signed into the books a prohibition on sending annoying Web messages or emails without disclosing your identity.”

I could continue, but you get the picture.

There’s only one problem. The bill that was signed into law has nothing to do with emails or blogs. It pertains only to telephone calls! I guess these folks aren’t members of the “reality-based community.” More like the “paranoia-based community.”

    § 223. Obscene or harassing telephone calls in the District of Columbia or in interstate or foreign communications [emphasis added]

    Whoever in interstate or foreign communications . . . makes a telephone call or utilizes a telecommunications device, whether or not conversation or communication ensues, without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person at the called number or who receives the communications . . . shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

UPDATE: See this and this.