Cold Turkey

One of the big items for the week in Internet news services, which is being forwarded by e-mail and text messages and rapidly ranked upwards by various link-ratings systems of the digirati, is an item called "Lose the BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe" that describes how President Elect Obama is facing being weaned from ubiquitous computing technologies as he decides not to become the first president who actually uses e-mail. Of course, there are a number of logical security reasons to make this choice, given the fallibility of authentication systems that could make sensitive communications insecure. But the dismal record of his predecessor's administration in generating and then attempting to expunge thousands -- if not tens of thousands -- of e-mails that indicate conspiracy, cover-up, collusion, influence peddling, hubris, and cynical calculation from the executive branch is also likely a factor in Obama's reluctance to continue to use this instantaneous and efficient means for information sharing.