On the internet, that is.  Congress and Bush recently enacted new federal legislation that essentially says that annoying someone via e-mail or on a web site is illegal and carries the threat of fines and jail time if you do not fully disclose who you are.  Essentially, unless you clearly identify yourself, it’s illegal to annoy someone.  Who gets to define what that means?  Declan provides some excellent examples in his article:

There are perfectly legitimate reasons to set up a Web site or write something incendiary without telling everyone exactly who you are.

Think about it: A woman fired by a manager who demanded sexual favors wants to blog about it without divulging her full name. An aspiring pundit hopes to set up the next Suck.com. A frustrated citizen wants to send e-mail describing corruption in local government without worrying about reprisals.

In each of those three cases, someone’s probably going to be annoyed. That’s enough to make the action a crime. (The Justice Department won’t file charges in every case, of course, but trusting prosecutorial discretion is hardly reassuring.)

How much of our freedom of speech has to be taken away (along with the many other rights we’ve lost or are losing) before Americans recognize the direction we’re heading in?

This is yet more progress toward a police state.