The Internet is a wonderful thing. The fact that one can type a few letters on a keyboard and then whoosh off to a website that contains all sorts of interesting
information is remarkable. It gives the power of knowledge to anyone with access to it. It also gives a few surprises now and then.
Recently I wanted to write Bill Clinton a nasty note. I typed in www.whitehouse.com and off I went.
The first picture alone told me I was in the wrong place.
A beautiful girl, wearing- well, a beautiful smile.
I checked the address. It was correct. The United States government had a porno site.
Cool!
Yesterday I learned that there is a lawsuit concerning this little bump on the information superhighway.
Seems Dan Parisi, the owner of the .com site refuses to relinquish ownership of the website name. So far it has gotten to federal court.
And here's the funny part.
The government doesn't care. It's a fruit company called The National Fruit Product Company suing him. They have a drink called White House apple juice
and they want Parisi to stop using the website so they advertise their product. He said no and the rest is history.
You know, its events like this that make me love America. The mere fact that Clinton himself isn't involved in this porn/fruit juice fiasco is great. I bet he even
surfs the site. As I said, I checked it out and there are a couple of Monica lookalikes in there.
And besides, he'd probably be angrier at www.whitehouse.com selling apple juice. I know I would be if I were President.
It occurs to me that this is just a representation of the overall greed of our country. Clearly Parisi is using the name to evoke a response and maybe play a
practical joke on the world. If so then it worked. The thing is it is perfectly legal.
Internet website names are a first come first serve. These naming companies offer the chance to buy every derision of any name you want. The means,
www.whitehouse.com, www.whitehouse.gov, www.whitehouse.org, www.whitehouse.edu, are all up for grabs to the first bidder. Clinton knows this, the
whole government knows this, the fruits- I mean, the fruit company is clueless.
That's because it's a business. And businesses only see the money.
I think the NFPC should drop the lawsuit and just buy the website www.wereagreedyfruitcompany.com. But they're not going to do that. They're going to do
the American thing. Waste thousands of dollars pushing this silly issue all the way to the Supreme Court just to learn what we already know. Parisi beat them to
the name and life sucks. Deal with it.
I actually want to email Clinton and ask if he has checked out the .com site. He's at www.whitehouse.GOV if you want to ask him too. I think it’s a good idea.
He only has another year in his contract and if we don't ask now we're never going to know.
Tell him I said, hello.