Most FR readers will remember that as a freshman Republican Assemblyman, longtime FR friend Joel Anderson successfully passed substantive legislation and had it signed into law (that alone is an accomplishment for a GOPer in California) that caused the massive investment portfolios of California’s public pension systems to divest from investments in Iran, which i a country that is a known sponsor of terrorist organizations.

Well, in addition to making sure that public funds of Californians are not being used to create a healthy economy for terrorists to prosper at home, Assemblyman Anderson is now looking at pioneering legislation to take away a potential tool that terrorists, international or domestic, may use here at home.

I encourage you to take a couple of minutes and watch this network television interview with Assemblyman Anderson, as he talks legislation to require that online applications such as Google Earth that allow people to "zoom in" on buildings very closely, allowing you to see details such as locations of doors, windows, air ducts, and more, to have to "fuzzy out" those details — only in the cases of schools, places of worship and government buildings.  You would still be able to use the software for driving instructions and such.

This is such a common-sense idea that I woud look to see companies like Google rushing to voluntarily adopt these standards before the government forces it upon them.  As a libertarian-oriented fellow, regulations on private businesses are not something I like and I almost always oppose them.  The "almost" qualifier rears its head on matters of public safety.

It is sobering to hear Assemblyman Anderson talk about how terrorists have already used this technology in their activities.  Chilling, actually.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.