the Scott Stein

Some Americans like to throw around the word censorship, when in an effort to please its listeners, a privately owned radio station doesn't give the Dixie Chicks airtime, for example (please don't bother me with talk of public airwaves, as if any station has an obligation to play the music of every band out there). The Dixie Chicks are hardly oppressed, appearing on the cover of national magazines and making the rounds on television talk shows seen by millions of people.

In case anyone has forgotten what censorship actually is, here's a reminder from our friends in China, just in time for Independence Day. The good news:

The government tries to block Internet users from foreign Web sites of human rights groups and political activists, but many have found ways to evade the controls.