the internet is a series of tubes

Senator Ted Stevens (who is lobbying for legislation that would allow phone companies in the US to charge Google etc. for their delivery of VOIP) shares with us the most terrible (and hilarious) definition of the internet of all time:

"They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Now we have a separate Department of Defense internet now, did you know that? Do you know why? Because they have to have theirs delivered immediately. They can't afford getting delayed by other people."

How much do I love the fact that he tried to incorporate Homeland Security into his asinine ramblings! I can't WAIT for his explanations of, say, gravity, or maybe something really arcane like...electricity.

Link to Wired.com article.

The cool kids at boingboing have just posted an appropriate t-shirt design in response.