Congressional Assault on Free Speech

Today, I was going to make a regular post, but if you live in the English speaking world you may have noticed that a number of sites (e.g., Wikipedia, Google, etc.) have subtle or not so subtle protest pages.  In fact, Wikipedia blackouts all searches and redirects them to a page that looks like the following:

Some of you may have read about the Congressional SOPA or PIPA bills.  I personally believe that this is a direct assault on small-time creators of print or media content (including bloggers like myself).  If you haven't heard how a bill supposedly created to stop online piracy may create some dramatic unintended consequences, I'd encourage you to take a few minutes and watch the following TED presentation by Clay Shirky (professor at New York University) and then take action and contact your Congresspersons (if you live in the US).  Thanks for your consideration in protecting freedom of speech.