ups and downs
07/May/10 07:54
With dear old Mercury retrograde, it is very hard to get a handle on what’s going on. That’s not unusual, as the news is often wrong at such times.
But with Uranus moving into Aries later in the month and the tension of the last quarter moon, we are getting the sense that something ought to be done. There’s been quite a bit of action over the last few days... although exactly where it is directed seems unclear.
A lot of what has been happening is clearly (well... maybe not clearly) related to last week’s Saturn-Uranus opposition, which blended the flavors of Virgo/Pisces (service, sacrifice, martyrdom) with Aries/Libra (individual, partner) into the revolutionary/conservative tussle between these two giants.
In Britain, Labor is taking a beating by the Conservatives... But of course, since Labor has been in power since the 1990s, it is hard to say who is the revolutionary and who the ‘conservative’ there.
In the U.S., two developments seemed particularly in sync with the prevailing energy.
On the one hand, the Senate prevented a Republican attack on consumer protections in a bill aimed at overhauling Wall Street (which has been turning itself inside-out all week without anyone’s help!). Click here for a story on that.
Then, in one of the most confusing “Who’s-the-Good-Guy?” moments of the week, the FCC said it would ask Congress to let it regulate broadband internet communication. Now, usually FCC regulation means restriction in content, but here, they will be in a role of protecting Net Neutrality (but what will happen to porn?). This was threatened by a Supreme Court ruling last month (check the Astroblog for the week of April 11th for details).
Broadband carriers like Verizon and cable companies would like to control the speed at which broadband works for specific sites. Site owners like Google, YouTube, and Amazon are fighting them and arguing for Net Neutrality, since they would otherwise have to pay fees in order to have their sites as high-speed access. And of course, little guys like Integral Astrology would load at the speed of dial-up.
So, the FCC and Google are in the odd role of good guy... sorta.
Anyway, we will have to wait and see. The only thing that’s clear is that nothing is too clear right now...
But with Uranus moving into Aries later in the month and the tension of the last quarter moon, we are getting the sense that something ought to be done. There’s been quite a bit of action over the last few days... although exactly where it is directed seems unclear.
A lot of what has been happening is clearly (well... maybe not clearly) related to last week’s Saturn-Uranus opposition, which blended the flavors of Virgo/Pisces (service, sacrifice, martyrdom) with Aries/Libra (individual, partner) into the revolutionary/conservative tussle between these two giants.
In Britain, Labor is taking a beating by the Conservatives... But of course, since Labor has been in power since the 1990s, it is hard to say who is the revolutionary and who the ‘conservative’ there.
In the U.S., two developments seemed particularly in sync with the prevailing energy.
On the one hand, the Senate prevented a Republican attack on consumer protections in a bill aimed at overhauling Wall Street (which has been turning itself inside-out all week without anyone’s help!). Click here for a story on that.
Then, in one of the most confusing “Who’s-the-Good-Guy?” moments of the week, the FCC said it would ask Congress to let it regulate broadband internet communication. Now, usually FCC regulation means restriction in content, but here, they will be in a role of protecting Net Neutrality (but what will happen to porn?). This was threatened by a Supreme Court ruling last month (check the Astroblog for the week of April 11th for details).
Broadband carriers like Verizon and cable companies would like to control the speed at which broadband works for specific sites. Site owners like Google, YouTube, and Amazon are fighting them and arguing for Net Neutrality, since they would otherwise have to pay fees in order to have their sites as high-speed access. And of course, little guys like Integral Astrology would load at the speed of dial-up.
So, the FCC and Google are in the odd role of good guy... sorta.
Anyway, we will have to wait and see. The only thing that’s clear is that nothing is too clear right now...